[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:04] DC: It takes the right skills and the right innovation to design and manage meaningful print marketing solutions. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse, where we explore all facets of print and marketing that create stellar communications and sales opportunities for business success. I’m your host, Deborah Corn, the Intergalactic Ambassador to the Printerverse. Thanks for tuning in. Listen long and prosper.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:33] DC: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse. This is Deborah Corn, your Intergalactic Ambassador. Today, we are speaking with one of my favorite people in the printing industry. With four decades of experience in entrepreneurship and mentorship, Mr. Larry Vaughn has built a career grounded in people, integrity, and long-term relationships. Known for his honesty, humor, small-town leadership values, and Texas accent, Larry believes collaboration consistently outperforms competition and that strong businesses are built by focusing on people first.
In his debut memoir, Business Cards and Shoe Leather, Larry shares his journey of overcoming dyslexia, learning to read later in life, and building a successful career in the print industry. In addition to his work as a mentor and a speaker, Larry also hosts his podcast, The Larry Vaughn Show. Welcome back, Big Tex.
[0:01:42] LV: Good morning. How are you? That’s quite an introduction. I don’t know if I’m worth all that, but it was very nice, and thank you.
[0:01:51] DC: I had to shorten it, Larry, because we only have so much time. I mean, I don’t even know you focus on long-term relationships. I’m one of those examples. I have known you forever. Because I don’t know what I was doing, I was doing something, and you were like, “Okay, who are you? What is going on here?” You became my confidant, my secret weapon. You were on so many of the boards of companies and organizations that I was working with. When they were like, “Oh, Deborah Corn has another crazy idea and whatever,” you were like, “No. We need to listen to this crazy idea.” We were always aligned with the importance of nurturing the younger people who come into the industry, so they stay in the industry. Larry, share a little bit more about your journey for anyone who might not know you.
[0:02:51] LV: Well, it’s just crazy how I got into the printing industry. In the high school, of all places, I was in the graphic arts program, and they had no – this is a while ago, okay? This is 1968. They had no letter press that we were able to run, and they were teaching us how to set type, lead type, and it was a lot of fun. I just thought it was so interesting to do that. Then later on, I decided to go to work for a sales company. What I did best was sales. I knew that. I call myself a professional BS’er, you know? I worked myself into that. Just stayed after it and then decided to not work for anybody else, and then started my own business, because I saw how they treated employees. Some good, some not so good.
I said, man, if you’re going to have a business and you’re going to get that business to survive and succeed is your people, because they are what’s going to make your business run. As you know, Deborah, the business I had for a number of years, which was Ideal Printers, and then I merged with another gentleman that had a mail house. The actual merger itself was good, the partnership. It was a little bit of a struggle. Two independent guys. At any time I could walk back by the shop, which I did, I walked twice a day, first thing in the morning, everything in the afternoon before I left. Always checked with the shop, check with the people, see how they’re doing. If they need any help. Did I need to get anything fixed, or that I need to get on to anybody, which I never did need to get on to anybody, because they’re adults and they just handled the business.
Here’s where I always get tickled, and as a matter of fact, a company that I just worked for for a while, they would come back, and my bindery girls are my favorite of all people. I hate to say that, but they are, of the shop. I could go back and talk to them and ask them, how are things running? Do you need to make any changes? Well, they would always give me feedback of how it needs to be done. I always say, there’s certain leaders, they know theory. They go back and say, “This is what you need to do. This is the way you need to do it.” Well, they need to ask the employee, how do you do that? How can you make it more efficient? I see that time and time again. It just wears me out. If more and more people would listen to employees, you’d have a happier bunch, a more dedicated bunch, and a very successful company, regardless if it’s print or whatever it is.
[0:05:40] DC: Yeah, because they feel like they have ownership, not only in what they do, but in the process. Who knows better than the bindery people, more than likely one of the last steps of the job of where the bottlenecks might be before it gets to them.
[0:05:59] LV: Oh, absolutely. We would always say, well, we got to have this job do within a week. Well, then order entry takes an extra day to get it entered, and then they discovered they have a bad file. Well, then they got to get back with the customer, where that file should have been the very first thing that’s checked.
[0:06:21] DC: You didn’t even mention estimation. Where?
[0:06:25] LV: Don’t’ get me started on that, Deborah.
[0:06:28] DC: I mean, that’s my pet peeve of the printing process. But go ahead. Sorry to interrupt.
[0:06:34] LV: Why do estimates have to take so long? They don’t. It’s an estimate. You don’t need to micro it down, ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta, to make sure you’ve got every single thing covered. There’s a lot of jobs, and you need to look at it as a whole and not each individual job. Some jobs, you’re going to make 10 bucks, some jobs, you’re going to make a 100 bucks. Some job’s not going to make any bucks, but you’ll have a happy customer because you got the job out on time, to get it to the customer. Yeah, that’s a whole number story. I know I see several estimating softwares that are out. I’m sure some of them are real good, and some of them are not too good, but the ones that I’ve always seen are the ones that take so long to input all the data, to get it all in there.
Of course, when they put it in, it’s really entered to process through the shop. Well, you don’t even know if you got that job yet, so you wasted all that time to get that done. You get the job, well, then you enter all that stuff. Sorry to get on a tangent, but that’s how –
[0:07:45] DC: No, you’re not. I mean, we could probably have an entire podcast just on the estimation process. It is definitely something that needs to be optimized. Let’s just say it like that. Human estimators is a dying position, too, which is the other thing. But yes, we’ve got on a tangent about estimation. If you’re an estimator out there, we want to hear from you. Maybe we’ll do another episode with someone in the estimation world. Let’s talk about your podcast. It’s called The Larry Vaughn Show. When did it launch, and what topics and conversations did you want to focus on through the podcast?
[0:08:28] LV: Well, let me back up just a little bit further. I always said that I would love to have a reach out to people. Then, really, the podcast world, the videocast world started getting out there on YouTube. I said, I can do a podcast. But I’m very dyslexic, which was a little bit of a hamper for me. Then, I’m not the most techy person in the world. And so, I was constantly reaching out to see who I could possibly get to make this happen. Deborah knows this young lady, Aubrey Warren, sharp as a tack. I’m telling you, she is just sharp, and she’s been basically the person that’s really put me on the board. We finally worked on it and got it together.
Last September was really when we first launched it. I was very, very surprised and very pleased that I had a lot of people just call me and say, “Hey, I want to be on your show. I want to be on your podcast.” I said, well, I talk a lot about leadership, mentoring, collaboration. I’m big on collaboration. That’s a lot of the subjects that I really talk about. Well, most of the people that I talked to that wanted to be on there, they pretty much could cover all of that also. Matter of fact, Deborah, of course, I was tickled to death that you were on the show.
[0:09:57] DC: I’ve done it.
[0:09:58] LV: We had a lot of fun, too. That’s what I want to do is have fun on it and make it informative, where people can take something away, and they can learn something and share what they learn with somebody else out there.
[0:10:13] DC: I checked this morning, and there were nine episodes already out in the world. I’m assuming you have some coming out soon. What is your cadence? Do you release one a month, two a month? How are you doing it?
[0:10:27] LV: Twice a month.
[0:10:28] DC: Twice a month. Okay.
[0:10:30] LV: We release one. Matter of fact, we just released one yesterday, a gentleman by the name of Mike Philly.
[0:10:35] DC: Oh, okay. Last one I saw was Joe Manos.
[0:10:37] LV: Yeah. Oh, and Joe was a great guy. I got a lot of response from that one, because he was with MindFire for a number of years and very, very heavily involved with the print industry. Then Mike Philly, he’s a consultant and a very, very, very good consultant for leadership and the business. Now, I’ve got the nine episodes, but I think at last count, I think I have seven in the queue.
[0:11:01] DC: Excellent.
[0:11:02] LV: Because I don’t want to get caught just saying, “Hey, I got to have this. I got to have this. I got to have this out.” At least I got a little leeway for some reason. Just like last week, I went to Disney World and had fun, me and the wife. I rode a lot of rides and ain’t just –
[0:11:17] DC: Wait. No grandbabies? Just you and Jodi?
[0:11:19] LV: Oh, I didn’t take the grandbabies this time. No. No. I don’t tell them until I’m there.
[0:11:25] DC: Oh, my God.
[0:11:27] LV: They’ll say, “Paul, where are you?” “I’m at Disney World.” “Oh, boy. You didn’t take us.”
[0:11:31] DC: Oh, my God.
[0:11:32] LV: Oh, my God. No, it’s –
[0:11:33] DC: I love that.
[0:11:35] LV: It’s heaven taking those little grandbabies, because we have – Well, you know the twins.
[0:11:39] DC: I don’t know if I’ve ever met them, though. I just know of them.
[0:11:41] LV: Of them. Okay. Well, I got to get you to meet them. I mean, they are so much fun and just good girls, study hard, involved in a lot of activities with school and sports, and of course, boyfriends. But they ran their boyfriends off not too long.
[0:12:00] DC: You’re saying, Texas, that must be a dangerous business to be a boyfriend of a girl with a Texan as a father. I don’t know.
[0:12:09] LV: Oh, so they’re a little –
[0:12:09] DC: It was like, you’ll walk in the edge on that one.
[0:12:11] LV: No. I went over a date with them last night. It was a lot of fun.
[SPONSOR MESSAGE]
[0:12:16] DC: Are you looking to elevate your game, take your bottom-line customer relationships, and events to the next level? Then, I want to work with you. I’m Deborah Corn, the Intergalactic Ambassador to the Printerverse. I engage with a vast, global audience of print and marketing professionals across all stages of their careers. They are seeking topical information and resources, new ways to serve their customers and connect with them, optimize processes for their communications and operations, and they need the products and services and partnership you offer to get to their next level. Print Media Centr offers an array of unique opportunities that amplify your message and support your mission across the Printerverse. Let’s work together, bring the right people together, and move the industry forward together. Link in the show notes. Engage long and prosper.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:13:17] DC: You mentioned that a lot of people reached out to you to be a guest. For anyone who hasn’t reached out to you, what are you looking for, as far as the stories and experiences that you want to share with your audience?
[0:13:31] LV: Well, I really like people that sell ideas, because I’ve been a salesperson for years and I’ve loved talking about sales programs, sales ideas, struggle, and then also, your best-case scenarios and your worst-case scenarios. Then also, people that understand collaboration and not necessarily competition. I tell them all the time, I mean, you need to build your collaboration group. You should have locally two or three printers, and then you should have one statewide, two or three printers, and then nationally, and then globally. I mean, I print a lot of stuff overseas; London, Spain, Australia, Austria, because these are people that I know very well through the organization that I helped start. I was a co-founder of Dscoop. I can pick up the phone and I say, “Dave Bailey, I need this job printed, and this when I got to have it.”
Being able to do that and not have to worry about shipping, not having to worry about customs, not having to worry about that tax, I mean, it’s unbelievable. Now that I classify myself, or I did as a global printer, and I was. I was always paid back, because they needed jobs, too, right in the US.
[0:15:02] DC: Of course.
[0:15:04] LV: They knew that I’d be able to take care of it. But the printing has changed so, so much. I’m an old school, big press, big iron, hang it and bang it and print it out, because never forget, I had an eight-color, 40-inch Heidelberg press, and we perfected everything we ran through there, and I mean, we just smoked it and ran it through. I always said that I grew up in an analog world, and I ran a business in an analog world. Well, late 1990s, early 2000s, all the way up and probably until 2010, all these changes kept coming to be. Now, I’m trying to survive in a digital world and coming out of an analog world.
When they started coming out with the digital presses, such as HP Indigo, and such as the Canon digital presses, I’ll never forget, I called Jack Glacken in myself. We called HP and said, “Hey, guys. You’ve got this great press, but we need to start building a group that can talk about it, can collaborate about it, what works well with them. I mean, all it is is just a big printer with softwares, that we need to learn about substrates, we need to learn about.” Basically, that’s how Dscoop was formed, off the spin of the Indigo, and everybody trying to run it on that.
[0:16:45] DC: It stood for Digital Solutions Cooperative, right?
[0:16:47] LV: Yes.
[0:16:49] DC: A lot of people don’t know that, and also don’t realize that in the beginning, it wasn’t just for HP users. It was for anybody who had digital equipment.
[0:17:00] LV: Yes.
[0:17:01] DC: But HP became the executive sponsor of it. It became their user group after that.
[0:17:06] LV: Oh, that’s exactly right. We had several different sponsors that a lot of substrate sponsors, that came in. We’d learn about more press and more paper that would run through a digital press. Well, and then Inkjet came about. Well, then, Canon, they asked me if I’d help participate and start them a user group, with Francis McMahon. You know Francis.
[0:17:30] DC: Of course. And thINK is one of the best ones out there. I mean, you’ve been at the heart of all of this, Larry. I don’t think you’re underrecognized, but I don’t think that people really understand the impact that you have had. Look, I love Jack Glacken, but he gets credit for this and as well, he should. There was other people in that room where it happened, as they say. I always make sure to say, and Larry Vaughn was there, too. Don’t forget him.
[0:18:06] LV: Well, I want to tell you real quick, I went to Dscoop last year. They called me and wanted to make sure that I attended last year in Long Beach, California. I said, “Yeah.” I said, “Well, the problem is I’ve got a new great-grandbaby coming right during that time, and I want to make sure I don’t miss that.” I did go, and they asked me to speak to the board, to the partners, to everybody. It was a large room, very full of people, that when I stood up, I just looked around and I looked at all these people and where Dscoop came from of just six guys sitting in a room and deciding, how are we going to do this? What are we going to call it? Where are we going to get funding? What kind of sponsors are we going to have? Then we decide, where we’re going to have to have a conference. Well, then we have a conference down at Sanibel Island. I think we had 175 people. Very first one. Well –
[0:19:11] DC: Yeah. But just still a lot of people for then.
[0:19:15] LV: Still a lot of people. But 20 years go by, which is the 20th reunion, they asked me to come and speak about it. Now, there’s 2,500 people that come.
[0:19:27] DC: Yeah. More than that. Yeah.
[0:19:29] LV: Now, we’re global, because HP flew me – this is, I think, 2010, I think. They flew me over to Singapore to start setting up a global group. That’s how we picked it up and then that’s how John Bailey came around and some of the other guys. It’s just nuts.
[SPONSOR MESSAGE]
[0:19:51] DC: Supporting professional growth is good for people, and it’s great for business. When you sponsor Girls Who Print, you’re helping to deliver mentorship, leadership development, and career advancement tools to women across the print industry. Our annual sponsorship packages are designed to fit companies of all sizes with benefits that align with your goals, support equitable workforce development in your company and the industry, and elevate your brand. If you’re ready to stand out and step up to support Girls Who Print, visit girlswhoprint.org and download our sponsorship packages today. Empower long and prosper.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:20:35] DC: It’s an incredible organization. You mentioned before about, you work with some of the printers in the network. I always tap into the Dscoop network. When someone contacts me and says, “I need to print in Malta and Romania next week.” I’m like, “Do you have any contacts?” I’m like, “Actually, I can probably get you in those countries, or very close. Let me reach out.” I reach out to Peter van Teeseling, and he looks up, and something happens. The other thing I want to say is that I have a built-in trust factor with this network as well, because I’ve been to the Dscoop events. I see the printers that are there. I hear them speaking. I hear them cooperating with other people. I hear them sharing information, good, bad and ugly, as you’ve mentioned before.
I know that if they can’t do the job, they’re going to say, “I can’t do it.” Or, they’re going to find a partner that can help them. I have never had one person come back to me and say, “Thanks so much for the information about the printer. They did a horrible job and never recommend these people again.” It has never been that. It has always been, “Thank you so much. Everything ran perfectly.” It’s a group that you can trust with work like that. It took a long time, a lot of education, and a lot of trial and error to get things to where it can just run like that. Congratulations to everybody at Dscoop, who continues the work and the mission that you all started in that room so many years ago.
I want to talk about Business Cards and Shoe Leather, which is a book that you wrote several years ago. I remember speaking to you about this, but of course, it’s always relevant. It’s about sales. What lessons from the book do you feel most relevant for people navigating sales careers today, especially in the printing industry, which is relationship-driven in many cases?
[0:22:57] LV: Yeah. I actually published the book in 2017. I started writing the book in 2015, which a dyslexic person, it’s hard to write a book. Just, I kept thinking, I have just got so much in that head that I needed to spill it out, because I just feel when I’m going, it’s going to be like a library burned down. I got to make sure that I share some of these things with other individuals. Here, again, technology came out, and you had voice to text, you had spell check. I could sit on the back porch and then putting down all of my thoughts and my ideas and what’s taking place and stories about me and everything. Deborah, I don’t know if I even told you that. I told no one that I was writing this book.
[0:23:54] DC: I didn’t know until it was out.
[0:23:56] LV: Okay. I had you as a person that really helped me in the book. I think you probably saw that when I mentioned you in the back. It was just something that I wanted to do, and for people that have struggles, people that can’t spell, such as me, and a lot of people are scared to death to talk, to get up in front of people and just be yourself and present. I mean, some of them, they just shut down and basically, just walk off stage. I was somewhat there at one point. It was hard for me to really get up and talk to people, being dyslexic on there. In the book, I try to tell people that you just stay on top of it. You stay in touch with people, regardless if they do business with you or not, and just if it’s birthdays or if there’s a special event. You just need to follow up and check on them. I call you, Deborah, and check on you ever once. Just out of the blue.
[0:25:03] DC: You do. You always do. You checked on me in the pandemic. You checked on me. I mean, you’re the best, Larry. You’re the best.
[0:25:09] LV: It’s necessary that just the human connection continues, and that’s a lot what sales is. I mean, I love sales. I love talking to people, I love selling things naturally. I think it’s just good that people just, they need to interact more, instead of just looking down at their phone.
[0:25:29] DC: It’s interesting, because we might be on a cusp here. Human time is at odds with automation and optimization, right? Because they say, the more human touches, the less money a printer can make on a job. Now, I’ve always thought that that was based specifically on the production process. What about the time for salespeople who are nurturing prospects, and I mean, does that get factored in? And how does this human approach fit when most printers, and I will say, if they really want to last, have to make a situation where that nobody has to talk to anybody at their printing company, if somebody wants to order something from them, because that’s just the way that the world works now.
[0:26:29] LV: Well, there are companies out there, they have automated print, unbelievably, such as Canva.
[0:26:37] DC: Yeah.
[0:26:37] LV: Not only just print, but the graphics.
[0:26:40] DC: I went on a visit to District Photo. The only time a human touches anything is when they put the box full of photo books into the mail truck. That’s the only time somebody touches anything in that place. It was amazing.
[0:26:57] LV: It is. And Shutterfly.
[0:26:58] DC: Yeah.
[0:26:59] LV: That’s another one. There’s two or three others that have started up there. One thing that I have found at Canva and Shutterfly, they have so many partners to help them handle the business that comes in in different regions. I know Jack Glacken; he is one of their partners on that. Shutterfly in Canada they are very good about helping their partners and training their partners of how their system works. Because in a regular conventional printer, like you said, they’re never going to make money. They can’t.
[0:27:39] DC: Not if they’re on the phone for 20 hours about a business card.
[0:27:42] LV: And trying to estimate.
[0:27:44] DC: Yes. That’s funny. Yeah.
[0:27:51] LV: Yeah. It ain’t happening. But they have things that are pre-priced, they’re set up, they’re automated, they know what you can order and what bucket. These companies are billions in sales. The young girl that started Canva, I think her name is Melanie. I can’t think of her last name right now. She had this idea. Australia. Perkins is her last name. She went to so many, I don’t know how many, but it was a hundred plus VC groups. I got this idea, and this is what I’m going to do, and everyone, turned her down, turned her down, turned her down. Then finally, she got this one. I mean, she’s a little persistent. She’s a good salesperson. Then that guy says, “You got a good idea. Let’s go for it.” Boy, they laid it out and look at them today.
[SPONSOR MESSAGE]
[0:28:42] DC: Get ready to turn up the volume on print. PrintFM is a global internet radio station dedicated exclusively to print and graphic communications, accessible around the clock in every time zone. No more searching across channels and apps. PrintFM brings relevant topical programming from Print Media Centr, Girls Who Print, and an array of industry contributors who bring their own perspectives, guests, and conversations to the mix. PrintFM also broadcasts from industry events, with live shows being scheduled throughout the year. Visit printfm.com to explore our daily programming, event schedules, and opportunities to share your content or sponsor our shows. Expert discussions, real-world insight, and industry voices are just a click away. Listen long and prosper.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:29:41] DC: I think Guy Kawasaki had something to do with it. I remember when Canva first came out, he was promoting it. It was like one of those situations. It’s like, well, just because you can design online, doesn’t make you a designer. Everybody gets so territorial about things. Guess what? Yes, if a trained designer makes you a business card, I would almost guarantee you it’s going to look better than something you do from a templated thing. Pick the font that you want here. Fine. We agree on that. The thing is that everybody doesn’t need what a designer can bring to the table. You can’t poo-poo that system.
With Shutterfly and the examples you gave, you can’t talk to people. I mean, well, let me say, maybe there’s an enterprise version of it where if I am a Coca-Cola and I need print for all of my – I need something. I want to create a photo, a gift, or something, a personalized gift for my entire company. You probably can’t do that on the website. You probably need to talk to somebody about that. I’m really talking about the print shops on the corner, the local businesses who maybe they don’t have as many people coming in the store anymore, because they can just order things online. How does sales compete with something like that? Human sales?
[0:31:13] LV: Well, service for one. Your customer will not always pay your price, but they will pay for good service.
[0:31:23] DC: Totally true.
[0:31:25] LV: I see that time and time again. I’ll never forget. Real quick story. Good customer mine. I did a tremendous amount of work for a hospital system here in Houston. I did these flow sheets is what they were called, where they write down all the patient’s information and everything. They have it in several different languages. Normally, a scheduled delivery was usually about two weeks to get it done, get it in the warehouse, get it packed, and get it shipped. Well, the customer had called me, and he said, Larry, “I got to have these ones that are in Farsi, and I’ve got to have these in three days.” Because they have a group coming in that they were treating. I said, “Okay, I’ll get it for you.” That’s one thing I always learn. You never say, no. You say, yup, let me see what I can do and I’ll get it for you.
Well, so anyway, well, it was a prize. Instead of being 37 cents each, they were 250 each. He said, “I can buy these others over here for 37 cents.” He said, “How come you’re charging me 250?” I said, “Let me tell you something. When I go to the regular scheduled doctor’s visits, it’s about 20 bucks. If I go to the emergency room, it’s going to be 200 bucks-plus, but I get treated faster.” He said, “Okay, I agree.” He didn’t question.
I want to mention one other thing that you had said a while ago about trying to get a hold of somebody, who just goes back to my book, trying to get a hold of somebody. Well, you’re trying to call Canva, you’re trying to call Shutterfly. You just don’t get a hold of somebody. That goes for other companies also. When I wrote the book, I was trying to give it to my family for Christmas and trying to get everything all put together, put together. Well, time was running by too fast. The ghostwriter that I was working with, she was able to get it set up to Amazon, where you could order a book at a time, whatever you wanted to do. Amazon, they send you, because I needed four books. They send you a little notice and said, “Well, your ship date will be X.” I think it was 12-27, I think it was. I was, “No, I got to have these Christmas morning. I got to deliver it, so they can open it up.”
I mean, tenacious. I finally got a hold. The good Lord did this for me. How in the world I did, I don’t know. I got a hold of the lady that ran the print shop that they’re printing the books. Of course, I could talk printing to her. I told her how important it was. I said, “I got to have these books. Whatever you got to do.” She said, “Okay. Well, let me look.” Let’s see. Look. Then it came out and it was like, 12-25. I said, “I got to have these on the 24th, okay?” Anyway, I was hoping that lady would take care of me. But anyway, you don’t try to get a hold of somebody on the phone and I did. I was crazy.
I was sitting in church, Christmas Eve, and I thought, “Oh, my goodness.” This was 8.00pm at night. This still didn’t have my books. I’m telling you, my phone vibrated, and I looked down, and there was a photo of the package of my books on the front porch. Now, you don’t think the power of prayer works. I was able to go home and I gave my book, my wife, my kids and gave my book, and of course, my kids, it was absolutely just tore them up. Of course, you know Jodi, my wife, of course, her comment was, “The man that can’t read or spell wrote a book?” It was a hoot.
There’s always a way to get a hold of someone. You just have to be tenacious about it and not fatigue and, just like when you call the airlines. You’re just getting on hold, on hold, on hold. They just start transferring you here and transferring you there. It is frustrating. A lot of people talk – I’m sorry, we’re getting off on a tangent, but a lot of people talking about AI, and AI is going to take all these jobs and everything else. It’s going to create new jobs. Let me tell you where I see it’s going to create new jobs. Well, designers are still going to be designing, just like you said. Not everybody’s going to have that, be a fit on that. Then people think, well, what kind of job can I possibly get? Well, there’s still going to be doctors. There’s still going to be HVAC people. There’s still going to be plowers. There’s still going to be electricians. The work will still be out there. You just need to find where the work’s going to be.
[0:36:40] DC: Yeah. I want to end by asking you, what is your advice for someone out there who feels limited by something, or feels that they’re at a disadvantage to believe in themselves and follow their passion?
[0:36:58] LV: Man, of course you’d never, ever, ever, ever, ever give up. I mean, my mom taught me that. She did. With the struggles I had through school and spelling. I mean, I barely made it out of high school. I went through the DE program, distributed education, worked half a day and went school half a day, and, of course, I wasn’t college material. But I was sales material. I think you just need to find your niche. Where do you fit? Because a lot of people, oh, they’ll say, “Well, golly, I want to be a doctor. I want to be a lawyer.” Well, it’s a good possibility you’re not doctor or lawyer material, which is fine. You just need to see what you’re good at, where you need to spend your time and effort in school, and people. Talk to people and your friends and say, “What do you think I ought to do?” You need to find the ones that are true friends, and they’re not going to just tell you what you want to hear.
[0:38:00] DC: Mm. Yeah.
[0:38:01] LV: That makes a big difference, too. Just, you don’t give up. You just keep plowing. It’s like my granddad said, you keep plowing and planting.
[0:38:08] DC: I love it. You can learn more about how to become a guest on Larry’s show, see the episodes, listen to them, watch them on YouTube at larryvaughn.com. Links will be in the show notes. Larry, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks to everybody who listened. Until next time, print long and prosper.
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[0:38:34] DC: Thanks for listening to Podcasts From the Printerverse. Please subscribe, click some stars, and leave us a review. Connect with us through printmediacentr.com, we’d love to hear your feedback on our shows and topics that are of interest for future broadcasts. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Print long and prosper.
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