IAM1174- Entrepreneur Manufactures and Prints Waterproof Paper
Podcast Interview with Kyle Ewing
Kyle Ewing became a full-time entrepreneur in 2014 when he left the corporate world to build his first company, Guerrilla Tags ID Systems. After a successful exit in 2015, Kyle is now focused on the growth and development of his company, TerraSlate Paper, which manufactures and prints waterproof paper for the U.S. military, restaurants, and biotech firms around the world. The success of his businesses can be best attributed to a creative marketing approach that nimbly tracks customer needs to fulfillment and leverages just-in-time inventory management. His most recent high-profile advertising campaign in partnership with BMW USA is the “Road to Sustainability” in which he seeks to make redundant laminated documents in all applications. Kyle enjoys collaborating with fellow entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to develop new systems, metrics, and growth strategies for emerging companies in the tech and renewable resources industries.
The experience Kyle gained in corporate positions provided the underpinnings for his entrepreneurship in a position as Supply Chain Manager at Brightstar Corporation on supply chain optimization and demand signal forecasting in which, at an operator-wide level, he successfully carried out multiple initiatives in supply chain management, data-driven analytics, and inventory management using triple exponential smoothing models that he built for the wireless phone industry. Kyle also held roles as a Business Operations & Management Consultant, Procurement Manager, and Marketing Analyst where he gained much of the valuable experience upon which he relies.
Kyle received his BSBA in 2008 and his MBA in 2009 with a Chancellor's Scholarship from the Daniel's College of Business at the University of Denver. During his time at DU, he developed a passion for philanthropic work and founded the Seven Ribbons Foundation supporting cancer research.
In his personal life, Kyle is an avid triathlete, runner, and mountaineer, and is active in philanthropic work in the community. He won the Mt. Kilimanjaro Marathon in 2009, completed the Ironman Triathlon in Western Australia in 2010, and summited the mountains of the Swiss Holy Trinity: Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and the Eiger in 2011. Kyle is an accomplished skydiver and musician winning the state flute championships 3 years in a row. Recent accolades include “Entrepreneur of the Year” awarded by the Worldwide Who's Who organization and has become an avid Ukulele and Guitar player.
- CEO Hack: Google docs and Google spreadsheets
- CEO Nugget: Get on your phone, ask people what they think about your product, and also do business development
- CEO Defined: Chief Executive Officer, President and Founder
Website: http://www.terraslate.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terraslatepaper
Twitter: https://twitter.com/terraslatepaper
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terraslatepaper/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/9260188/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/terraslate/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2NjPfmnOXiTQ84puuvKjfw
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Transcription
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00:00 – Intro
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:34 – Kyle Ewing
Here's my thought on CEO. I call myself the president and founder of Tara Slate Barclay Paper. And I don't call myself a CEO. And the reason is that in my mind, a CEO is a chief executive officer. If you don't have any other officers, it's hard to be the chief of the officers. So my thought is to be the president. It doesn't get you any less credibility. And if you're a one-man show, it seems a lot more reasonable to somebody that's going to do business with you than if you overstate CEO.
01:01 – Gresham Harkless
Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Kyle Ewing of Terrace Late Paper. Kyle, it's great to have you on the show. Good morning, Gresh. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to have you on as well too. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Kyle so I can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing.
Kyle Ewing became a full-time entrepreneur in 2014 when he left the corporate world to build his first company, Gorilla Tags ID Systems. After a successful exit in 2015, Kyle is now focused on the growth and development of his company, Tera Slate Paper, which manufactures and prints waterproof paper for the US military, restaurants, and biotech firms across the world. The success of his business can best be attributed to a creative marketing approach that nimbly tracks customers to fulfillment and leverages just-in-time inventory management.
His recent His most recent high-profile advertising campaign and partnership with BMW USA is the road to sustainability, which he seeks to make redundant, laminated documents in all applications. And he enjoys collaborating with fellow entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, to develop new systems and metrics. The experience overall gained for Kyle in corporate positions provided the underpinnings for his entrepreneurship position as a supply chain manager at Bright Star Corporation, his BSBA in 2008, and his MBA in 2009 with a Chancellor's Scholarship from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.
During his time, he developed a passion for philanthropic work and founded the 7 Robins Foundation supporting cancer research. In his personal time, he's an avid triathlete, runner, and mountaineer, and is active in the philanthropic work in the community. In addition to that, he's also an accomplished skydiver and musician, winning the state flute champion 3 years in a row, and recent accolades also include Entrepreneur of the Year awarded by the worldwide Who's Who organization. He's become an avid ukulele and guitar player. Kyle, you're doing so many awesome things. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
[restrict paid=”true”]
02:58 – Kyle Ewing
Absolutely.
02:59 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on it a little bit, but I want to rewind the clock a little bit here a little bit more on how you got started. What I call your CEO story.
03:07 – Kyle Ewing
Yeah, I, this is actually my third company. I had one success, and one failure. I feel like every entrepreneur worth their salt needs a failure in their resume. Otherwise, people like investors and buyers don't take you as seriously. They want to know that you've seen both sides. So my current company, Terrasly, makes waterproof and rip-proof paper. Basically, the need that I identified was for a waterproof and waterproof substrate that would replace the need for lamination. So, laminating takes a lot of resources, it takes a lot of time.
As soon as you laminate a sheet of paper, you've effectively ensured that it's garbage because you can't recycle something that's been laminated as you've combined both paper and plastic. Now with TerraSlate, you put it in any laser printer or copy machine, and you click print. The print itself comes out waterproof and rip-proof And the best part is when you're done with it, you put it in any mixed recycling bin and it can get recycled, unlike lamination.
04:08 – Gresham Harkless
Nice, absolutely love that. It kind of sounds like for lack of a better term, you build a better mousetrap in the sense, in many ways it sounds like, of course, you have that, you know, that document, but then you also have the sustainability piece for the world and being able to kind of at the end of the day, make sure you have something that can be recyclable and used and so many other benefits that you mentioned as well.
04:26 – Kyle Ewing
That's absolutely right. We've worked really hard to develop a supply chain that has a minimal impact on the world and its resources. And we literally keep millions of sheets of lamination out of landfills every year. So on a very small level, that feels good.
04:43 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, that's small things become big things. So that sheet of paper when you're able to kind of expound upon that and in millions of millions of ways that you're able to do definitely makes the world an absolutely better place. And so I know you touched on a little bit about how it works. Could you take us through a little bit more on what kind of industries and people that serve and who can benefit the most from this?
05:02 – Kyle Ewing
Certainly, one of the things we print a lot of every day is restaurant menus. Now, I can almost guarantee that every one of your listeners has already held a sheet of Terra Slate without knowing it. And so next time, if you're out to eat at a restaurant and the menu doesn't rip, that means it's likely printed on the terrace late and the benefit to the restaurant is they can use the same menu over and over and over again. The benefit to the customer is that the menu is easy to clean, they can literally dishwasher menus in between each customer if they want to, or use a typical type of spray or even soap and water.
So we do tens of thousands of restaurant menus basically every day, hundreds of thousands each week and month. The other applications we do a lot of work with are biotech. Translate is great in that it is fiber-free, meaning that it works really well in a clean room because if you were to tear a sheet of regular paper you can get fibers in the air. Regular paper will also absorb chemicals, whereas the prostate is non-fibrous, and if you spill on it, you can wipe it clean. So lots of work in that industry.
Education is a big one. Hospitality overall, construction, we do a lot of work with signage and engineering plans, things like that. And then some of our most fun customers are the branches of the US military. So we've printed things for the US Air Force that go into combat jets. And we recently printed the flight manuals for the Apache attack helicopters for the army. So that was a pretty cool project to get to work on.
06:38 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. I love the kind of application of that in so many different industries in so many different ways. Sometimes, you know, when you do something on a regular basis, like you said, sitting down at a restaurant or potentially passing some signage, sometimes you don't realize how I guess, evident it is everywhere and how you how it's used in so many different aspects and in so many different industries. So I love that you've been able to kind of create, you know, something that has created such a big man pack in so many different ways.
07:04 – Kyle Ewing
Definitely, and thank you.
07:06 – Gresham Harkless
Absolutely. So you might have already touched on this a little bit, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?
07:17 – Kyle Ewing
Our secret sauce is that as much as a manufacturing and print company, we're a marketing company. So we've been able to develop new markets for waterproof paper that didn't exist. We've also brought the best waterproof paper to the market. Some competing products are water resistant. The difference is that with TerraSlate, instead of just having a hydrophobic coating on the top and the bottom of the sheet, the entire sheet through and through is waterproof.
And what that means is you can hole punch it, you can crease it, fold it, score it, cut it, and it's still 100% waterproof, and that gives us access to a much wider array of applications. For instance, the next time you watch an NFL game and you see the coaches cover their mouth with a plate chart, sometimes they're laminated, but oftentimes they're printed on TerraSlate now because it's cheaper and it's faster for the coaches to print those before the game because they don't have to use the extra step of laminating.
So keep your eye on the NFL games and some college too. Awesome, so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient? One thing we use a lot of and sounds incredibly basic, but we use it all the time at our company is Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets.
What I like about them is that you can edit them in real-time across as many people as you want. So for instance, We built our own order tracking system in-house through Google Sheets. What's great about it is we can have 20 different people looking at the same sheet and updating that in real-time, and we never have a version control issue. We've also done that for new projects that involve a lot of people, business development, product development, that kind of thing.
And it's just such an underrated tool that you can see changes in real-time. We can collaborate, we don't have to be in the same room. So use Google Sheets and Google Docs. It's also free compared to Microsoft Word, where you have to pay a monthly subscription now. So yeah, Google Docs, man, they do a great job. Yes, absolutely. Every industry needs to transform for the energy transition, but we have to balance keeping equipment running with progress on decarbonizing.
GE Digital's asset performance management software uses AI and predictive analytics to boost operations efficiency, prevent breakdowns, and keep employees and sites safer. All are built on a secure and scalable platform and instilled with a century of GE expertise. Search GE APM to learn more.
09:58 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I love that as a hack. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. You might've already touched on this, but this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice or something I like to say if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.
10:11 – Kyle Ewing
Yeah. So here's my nugget. And this isn't going to be everybody's favorite piece of advice, but it's going to be the one that makes the most money. And that's what we're in the CEO position to do make money for our company and our shareholders. And that nugget is getting on your phone, like get on your phone and call people, Ask them what they think of the product, call your customers, hey, I just saw it got delivered, what do you think? What input do you have? How can we make it better?
You won't believe how happy customers are when the founder of the company calls them to ask their opinion. They almost don't know what to say at first. And then you can make them comfortable by letting them know, like, you know, I just want to make a great product. And if we're going to make a second version of this, what would that look like in your mind? And not only do you get great input from those folks, but you get a certain level of buying from that customer that makes them really sticky.
So they feel like, hey, I helped create version 2, I'm definitely going to buy version 2, and I'm going to go tell everybody about version 2 because I was literally a part of that. That feature right there, I suggested it. So that's a really cool thing you can do. The second one that kind of works on that with your cell phone is do business development. Like, don't outsource it to somebody else. You don't need to hire somebody. I don't care if you're an introvert or an extrovert or if you're super afraid.
For my company, When we first got into restaurant menus, I got on the phone and called every restaurant in Denver, and I was like, hey, we're making these waterproof, reproofed menus. I'd love to make a set for you. What can I do to earn your business? And a decent portion of them would say, all right, we'll give you a shot. Some would say, don't ever call this number again. And those are the ones that don't feel great, but that's fine.
The way I deal with it is I just hang up and dial the new number right away. To create discipline around this, when I was first starting the company, I did an hour every single day of cold calling, just hanging up and dialing, hanging up and dialing. And if you get a huge order, great, but you know what you get to do next? Hang up and dial until that hour's over. And it doesn't matter if you have a good day or a bad day in sales because you're doing something literally that will affect it.
You will maybe not get that sale today, but you're going to call them back next week and say, Hey, I know you're thinking about it. Let me do a set of happy hour menus for you, or let me just give you a shot at your kid's menus. You probably need 25 of those. If They're not the greatest kid's menus you've ever had. Let me know. You know, you never have to order from us again, but I think you're gonna really like the product and you will make more money doing that than Google ads, or Facebook. I mean, and it's free. The best part is you use your current cell phone plan that we already have and dial for one hour. You'll do great.
12:49 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Kyle, what does being a CEO mean to you? I have a very strict definition of a CEO. And if you guys agree or disagree, put it in the comments. Let Gresh know, he'll get that to me. I'd love to have a dialogue with you. Here's my thought on CEO. I call myself the president and founder of TerraSlate Orchard Paper, And I don't call myself a CEO.
And the reason is that in my mind, a CEO is a chief executive officer. If you don't have any other officers, it's hard to be the chief of the officers. So My thought is to be the president. It doesn't get you any less credibility. And if you're a one-man show, it seems a lot more reasonable to somebody that's going to do business with you than if you overstate CEO.
Now, if it works for you, you've got a big company, maybe don't change it because going from CEO or president might sound like you have a new role. But if you're just starting out, don't be afraid of the title president, president, and founder. It goes a long way and people can really respect that. The CEO often sounds like a hired gun, which is a good thing.
14:05 – Kyle Ewing
But if I'm talking to Gresh and he started the podcast, that's different than if I'm talking to somebody who's managing his business. I want to talk to the guy, the guy that started this. He was there on day one. He filed paperwork with the secretary of state to incorporate the business. Like that's who I wanna talk to. So I wouldn't be afraid to use president and founder. You know, if you like CEO, by all means, get it. That's just my opinion, but I'd also love to hear your feedback or give it to Gresh.
14:32 – Gresham Harkless
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Kyle, truly appreciate that. And of course, appreciate your time as well. What I wanted to do was just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're in the team.
14:47 – Kyle Ewing
Absolutely. And I just love the audience that this podcast has. You guys are learning from one of the best, you know, Gresh is such a down-to-earth guy, you know, I'm, I'm sure he loves to hear from you. So ask him a question, and use him as a resource. You're also welcome to get in touch with me. My email is kyle.unkyle.ewing.terraslate.com. That's T-E-R-R-A-S like Sam L-A-T-E. Happy to chit-chat, and give you my input, and thoughts. I love talking shop. Keep listening to the podcast.
These are some of the best resources out there for getting knowledge. I'm such a consumer of podcasts. I just like when I'm in the shower, when I'm driving when I'm running, when I'm walking the dog, I mean, it's like, I just consume podcasts. And what's great is like, that the level of knowledge you can get is as good as or better as going to graduate school. I mean, it's such practical advice, things that are tangible. I love hearing about this, that, and the other in case studies from folks and stuff.
But the difference is when you sit down at your computer on Monday morning, what are you going to do? And that's the stuff that's in a podcast. And if you want it for me, it's get on that phone and call somebody and make a sale. So you guys are always inspirational. I love to hear from people. I love to learn more about your business. And, yeah, just another plug for for Gresh and the I am CEO podcast. He does such a good job. He works so hard for you guys. So send him a thank you if you get a good chance.
16:19 – Gresham Harkless
Yes, absolutely love that. Truly appreciate you Kyle for being one of those resources as well. We definitely have to have you back on. I have to give you a full hour now. You did all those awesomeness that you've been kind of talking about, but no, I appreciate you so much for the wisdom and information that you provide. Of course, we're going to have your information that's shown us that everybody can get in touch with you and talk shop and just connect on the different things you're working on.
But I think so many times we're always looking across the street or down the block to try to find how we can be successful. And a lot of times just, you know, listening to podcasts, Googling, YouTube, there's just so many resources that we have at our fingertips. So I appreciate you, of course, for reminding us of that and being one for us today. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
17:00 – Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
00:00 - Intro
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:34 - Kyle Ewing
Here's my thought on CEO. I call myself the president and founder of Tara Slate Barclay Paper. And I don't call myself a CEO. And the reason is that in my mind, a CEO is a chief executive officer. If you don't have any other officers, it's hard to be the chief of the officers. So my thought is to be the president. It doesn't get you any less credibility. And if you're a one-man show, it seems a lot more reasonable to somebody that's going to do business with you than if you overstate CEO.
01:01 - Gresham Harkless
Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Kyle Ewing of Terrace Late Paper. Kyle, it's great to have you on the show. Good morning, Gresh. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to have you on as well too. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Kyle so I can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing.
Kyle Ewing became a full-time entrepreneur in 2014 when he left the corporate world to build his first company, Gorilla Tags ID Systems. After a successful exit in 2015, Kyle is now focused on the growth and development of his company, Tera Slate Paper, which manufactures and prints waterproof paper for the US military, restaurants, and biotech firms across the world. The success of his business can best be attributed to a creative marketing approach that nimbly tracks customers to fulfillment and leverages just-in-time inventory management.
His recent His most recent high-profile advertising campaign and partnership with BMW USA is the road to sustainability, which he seeks to make redundant, laminated documents in all applications. And he enjoys collaborating with fellow entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, to develop new systems and metrics. The experience overall gained for Kyle in corporate positions provided the underpinnings for his entrepreneurship position as a supply chain manager at Bright Star Corporation, his BSBA in 2008, and his MBA in 2009 with a Chancellor's Scholarship from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.
During his time, he developed a passion for philanthropic work and founded the 7 Robins Foundation supporting cancer research. In his personal time, he's an avid triathlete, runner, and mountaineer, and is active in the philanthropic work in the community. In addition to that, he's also an accomplished skydiver and musician, winning the state flute champion 3 years in a row, and recent accolades also include Entrepreneur of the Year awarded by the worldwide Who's Who organization. He's become an avid ukulele and guitar player. Kyle, you're doing so many awesome things. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
02:58 - Kyle Ewing
Absolutely.
02:59 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on it a little bit, but I want to rewind the clock a little bit here a little bit more on how you got started. What I call your CEO story.
03:07 - Kyle Ewing
Yeah, I, this is actually my third company. I had one success, and one failure. I feel like every entrepreneur worth their salt needs a failure in their resume. Otherwise, people like investors and buyers don't take you as seriously. They want to know that you've seen both sides. So my current company, Terrasly, makes waterproof and rip-proof paper. Basically, the need that I identified was for a waterproof and waterproof substrate that would replace the need for lamination. So, laminating takes a lot of resources, it takes a lot of time.
As soon as you laminate a sheet of paper, you've effectively ensured that it's garbage because you can't recycle something that's been laminated as you've combined both paper and plastic. Now with TerraSlate, you put it in any laser printer or copy machine, and you click print. The print itself comes out waterproof and rip-proof And the best part is when you're done with it, you put it in any mixed recycling bin and it can get recycled, unlike lamination.
04:08 - Gresham Harkless
Nice, absolutely love that. It kind of sounds like for lack of a better term, you build a better mousetrap in the sense, in many ways it sounds like, of course, you have that, you know, that document, but then you also have the sustainability piece for the world and being able to kind of at the end of the day, make sure you have something that can be recyclable and used and so many other benefits that you mentioned as well.
04:26 - Kyle Ewing
That's absolutely right. We've worked really hard to develop a supply chain that has a minimal impact on the world and its resources. And we literally keep millions of sheets of lamination out of landfills every year. So on a very small level, that feels good.
04:43 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, that's small things become big things. So that sheet of paper when you're able to kind of expound upon that and in millions of millions of ways that you're able to do definitely makes the world an absolutely better place. And so I know you touched on a little bit about how it works. Could you take us through a little bit more on what kind of industries and people that serve and who can benefit the most from this?
05:02 - Kyle Ewing
Certainly, one of the things we print a lot of every day is restaurant menus. Now, I can almost guarantee that every one of your listeners has already held a sheet of Terra Slate without knowing it. And so next time, if you're out to eat at a restaurant and the menu doesn't rip, that means it's likely printed on the terrace late and the benefit to the restaurant is they can use the same menu over and over and over again. The benefit to the customer is that the menu is easy to clean, they can literally dishwasher menus in between each customer if they want to, or use a typical type of spray or even soap and water.
So we do tens of thousands of restaurant menus basically every day, hundreds of thousands each week and month. The other applications we do a lot of work with are biotech. Translate is great in that it is fiber-free, meaning that it works really well in a clean room because if you were to tear a sheet of regular paper you can get fibers in the air. Regular paper will also absorb chemicals, whereas the prostate is non-fibrous, and if you spill on it, you can wipe it clean. So lots of work in that industry.
Education is a big one. Hospitality overall, construction, we do a lot of work with signage and engineering plans, things like that. And then some of our most fun customers are the branches of the US military. So we've printed things for the US Air Force that go into combat jets. And we recently printed the flight manuals for the Apache attack helicopters for the army. So that was a pretty cool project to get to work on.
06:38 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. I love the kind of application of that in so many different industries in so many different ways. Sometimes, you know, when you do something on a regular basis, like you said, sitting down at a restaurant or potentially passing some signage, sometimes you don't realize how I guess, evident it is everywhere and how you how it's used in so many different aspects and in so many different industries. So I love that you've been able to kind of create, you know, something that has created such a big man pack in so many different ways.
07:04 - Kyle Ewing
Definitely, and thank you.
07:06 - Gresham Harkless
Absolutely. So you might have already touched on this a little bit, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?
07:17 - Kyle Ewing
Our secret sauce is that as much as a manufacturing and print company, we're a marketing company. So we've been able to develop new markets for waterproof paper that didn't exist. We've also brought the best waterproof paper to the market. Some competing products are water resistant. The difference is that with TerraSlate, instead of just having a hydrophobic coating on the top and the bottom of the sheet, the entire sheet through and through is waterproof.
And what that means is you can hole punch it, you can crease it, fold it, score it, cut it, and it's still 100% waterproof, and that gives us access to a much wider array of applications. For instance, the next time you watch an NFL game and you see the coaches cover their mouth with a plate chart, sometimes they're laminated, but oftentimes they're printed on TerraSlate now because it's cheaper and it's faster for the coaches to print those before the game because they don't have to use the extra step of laminating.
So keep your eye on the NFL games and some college too. Awesome, so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient? One thing we use a lot of and sounds incredibly basic, but we use it all the time at our company is Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets.
What I like about them is that you can edit them in real-time across as many people as you want. So for instance, We built our own order tracking system in-house through Google Sheets. What's great about it is we can have 20 different people looking at the same sheet and updating that in real-time, and we never have a version control issue. We've also done that for new projects that involve a lot of people, business development, product development, that kind of thing.
And it's just such an underrated tool that you can see changes in real-time. We can collaborate, we don't have to be in the same room. So use Google Sheets and Google Docs. It's also free compared to Microsoft Word, where you have to pay a monthly subscription now. So yeah, Google Docs, man, they do a great job. Yes, absolutely. Every industry needs to transform for the energy transition, but we have to balance keeping equipment running with progress on decarbonizing.
GE Digital's asset performance management software uses AI and predictive analytics to boost operations efficiency, prevent breakdowns, and keep employees and sites safer. All are built on a secure and scalable platform and instilled with a century of GE expertise. Search GE APM to learn more.
09:58 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I love that as a hack. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. You might've already touched on this, but this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice or something I like to say if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.
10:11 - Kyle Ewing
Yeah. So here's my nugget. And this isn't going to be everybody's favorite piece of advice, but it's going to be the one that makes the most money. And that's what we're in the CEO position to do make money for our company and our shareholders. And that nugget is getting on your phone, like get on your phone and call people, Ask them what they think of the product, call your customers, hey, I just saw it got delivered, what do you think? What input do you have? How can we make it better?
You won't believe how happy customers are when the founder of the company calls them to ask their opinion. They almost don't know what to say at first. And then you can make them comfortable by letting them know, like, you know, I just want to make a great product. And if we're going to make a second version of this, what would that look like in your mind? And not only do you get great input from those folks, but you get a certain level of buying from that customer that makes them really sticky.
So they feel like, hey, I helped create version 2, I'm definitely going to buy version 2, and I'm going to go tell everybody about version 2 because I was literally a part of that. That feature right there, I suggested it. So that's a really cool thing you can do. The second one that kind of works on that with your cell phone is do business development. Like, don't outsource it to somebody else. You don't need to hire somebody. I don't care if you're an introvert or an extrovert or if you're super afraid.
For my company, When we first got into restaurant menus, I got on the phone and called every restaurant in Denver, and I was like, hey, we're making these waterproof, reproofed menus. I'd love to make a set for you. What can I do to earn your business? And a decent portion of them would say, all right, we'll give you a shot. Some would say, don't ever call this number again. And those are the ones that don't feel great, but that's fine.
The way I deal with it is I just hang up and dial the new number right away. To create discipline around this, when I was first starting the company, I did an hour every single day of cold calling, just hanging up and dialing, hanging up and dialing. And if you get a huge order, great, but you know what you get to do next? Hang up and dial until that hour's over. And it doesn't matter if you have a good day or a bad day in sales because you're doing something literally that will affect it.
You will maybe not get that sale today, but you're going to call them back next week and say, Hey, I know you're thinking about it. Let me do a set of happy hour menus for you, or let me just give you a shot at your kid's menus. You probably need 25 of those. If They're not the greatest kid's menus you've ever had. Let me know. You know, you never have to order from us again, but I think you're gonna really like the product and you will make more money doing that than Google ads, or Facebook. I mean, and it's free. The best part is you use your current cell phone plan that we already have and dial for one hour. You'll do great.
12:49 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Kyle, what does being a CEO mean to you? I have a very strict definition of a CEO. And if you guys agree or disagree, put it in the comments. Let Gresh know, he'll get that to me. I'd love to have a dialogue with you. Here's my thought on CEO. I call myself the president and founder of TerraSlate Orchard Paper, And I don't call myself a CEO.
And the reason is that in my mind, a CEO is a chief executive officer. If you don't have any other officers, it's hard to be the chief of the officers. So My thought is to be the president. It doesn't get you any less credibility. And if you're a one-man show, it seems a lot more reasonable to somebody that's going to do business with you than if you overstate CEO.
Now, if it works for you, you've got a big company, maybe don't change it because going from CEO or president might sound like you have a new role. But if you're just starting out, don't be afraid of the title president, president, and founder. It goes a long way and people can really respect that. The CEO often sounds like a hired gun, which is a good thing.
14:05 - Kyle Ewing
But if I'm talking to Gresh and he started the podcast, that's different than if I'm talking to somebody who's managing his business. I want to talk to the guy, the guy that started this. He was there on day one. He filed paperwork with the secretary of state to incorporate the business. Like that's who I wanna talk to. So I wouldn't be afraid to use president and founder. You know, if you like CEO, by all means, get it. That's just my opinion, but I'd also love to hear your feedback or give it to Gresh.
14:32 - Gresham Harkless
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Kyle, truly appreciate that. And of course, appreciate your time as well. What I wanted to do was just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're in the team.
14:47 - Kyle Ewing
Absolutely. And I just love the audience that this podcast has. You guys are learning from one of the best, you know, Gresh is such a down-to-earth guy, you know, I'm, I'm sure he loves to hear from you. So ask him a question, and use him as a resource. You're also welcome to get in touch with me. My email is kyle.unkyle.ewing.terraslate.com. That's T-E-R-R-A-S like Sam L-A-T-E. Happy to chit-chat, and give you my input, and thoughts. I love talking shop. Keep listening to the podcast.
These are some of the best resources out there for getting knowledge. I'm such a consumer of podcasts. I just like when I'm in the shower, when I'm driving when I'm running, when I'm walking the dog, I mean, it's like, I just consume podcasts. And what's great is like, that the level of knowledge you can get is as good as or better as going to graduate school. I mean, it's such practical advice, things that are tangible. I love hearing about this, that, and the other in case studies from folks and stuff.
But the difference is when you sit down at your computer on Monday morning, what are you going to do? And that's the stuff that's in a podcast. And if you want it for me, it's get on that phone and call somebody and make a sale. So you guys are always inspirational. I love to hear from people. I love to learn more about your business. And, yeah, just another plug for for Gresh and the I am CEO podcast. He does such a good job. He works so hard for you guys. So send him a thank you if you get a good chance.
16:19 - Gresham Harkless
Yes, absolutely love that. Truly appreciate you Kyle for being one of those resources as well. We definitely have to have you back on. I have to give you a full hour now. You did all those awesomeness that you've been kind of talking about, but no, I appreciate you so much for the wisdom and information that you provide. Of course, we're going to have your information that's shown us that everybody can get in touch with you and talk shop and just connect on the different things you're working on.
But I think so many times we're always looking across the street or down the block to try to find how we can be successful. And a lot of times just, you know, listening to podcasts, Googling, YouTube, there's just so many resources that we have at our fingertips. So I appreciate you, of course, for reminding us of that and being one for us today. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
17:00 - Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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