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Jeff Peterson is the co-founder and CEO of Geneva Supply, one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., recognized by Entrepreneur magazine. Geneva Supply offers 360 degrees solution to building a brand strategy and powerful supply chain for Amazon and other e-commerce platforms. Thanks to his work in the company, Jeff was named the Wisconsin 2020 Small Business Person of the Year by the US Small Business administration.
Jeff is also interested in music, and he’s the CEO of Interstate Music, a company that he founded after the acquisition of Cascio Interstate Music. He’s also committed to inspiring the leaders of tomorrow, that’s why he created the nonprofit BizTank, which provides high school students exposure to the business world through an interactive career exploration program.
The Importance of Surrounding Yourself With the Right People
Jeff Peterson attributes his success to the mindset he’s developed from his childhood, together with the experiences and people he was surrounded by. Jeff, in fact, understood from a very young age that the greatest strength for a person is knowing his weaknesses, and together with the teaching of his father, he realized early in life the importance of surrounding himself with people that could take care of those weaknesses.
His dad was the president of three liquor distributorships and was in business with Seagram and Jim Beam. The presidents of such companies were family friends, and Jeff’s father always invited him to join the same dinner table with them. Jeff was 8 years of age, and he not only used to sit at the same table with these presidents, but he was also actively involved in the conversations. That’s surely not typical for a young kid, and those dinners ended up laying the foundations for his future.
And now here’s Jeff Peterson.
Full transcript below
Video on Helping Entrepreneurs Through Strategic Marketing
Video From Jeff Peterson Introducing the Future of Geneva Supply
GenevaSupply.com Helps Grow Your Business to Amazon and Other E-commerce Platforms
Book Jeff Peterson for a Speech at Your Event
Learn More About Jeff’s Nonprofit, BizTank
Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn
Get Motivation, Inspiration, and Ideas to Level Up Your Life.
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Podcast with Jeff Peterson. I Don’t Call Myself an Entrepreneur.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, amazon, business, company, geneva, jeff, jason, podcast, entrepreneur, grow, manufacturers, talking, pfeiffer, supply, story, called, dad, buy, entrepreneur magazine, opportunity
SPEAKERS
Jeff Peterson, Mike Malatesta
00:05
This meeting is being recorded.
00:09
Okay
Mike Malatesta 00:11
Hey everybody welcome back to the HOW TO HAPPEN podcast, I’m very grateful that you are here today, and I’m glad that you listen, subscribe and share these episodes. It’s with your support and putting these out to your friends and saying nice things about me and people like my guest Jeff Peterson, that grow the show and that’s really important. You’re definitely going to want to listen today, and you’re gonna want to share today because today I have Jeff Peterson with me Jeff Welcome to the show. Thanks so much. Great to be here. So if you haven’t heard of Jeff, you will, and here’s why. I first met Jeff he probably doesn’t even remember this but it was a few years ago, and we, he’s company Geneva supply one future 50 award from the Waukee metropolitan association of Congress and I was a host at one of the tables for the winners because I was on the board of the, the small business executive Small Business Council at the time, and Jeff was at my table with his partner, and it’s one of Jeff’s one of these guys walks into the room or sitting on the table there’s like all that energy that he brings in that’s very infectious and so I took note of that this was before I even was doing the podcast I just took note, can I say thank you for that right out of the, yeah, sir. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, that’s pretty cool. Well, yeah and it gets better from there so I took note of it and then when I actually did start my, my podcast, I reached out to Jeff and we sort of said Yeah, well, we’ll do it and, well, two years later we’re finally doing it so that’s the cool part, but this is even this is even cooler. I was listening to the James Altucher podcast. A couple of weeks ago, maybe a month. Yeah. And, and on it is Jason Pfeiffer who I really like Jason, among other things is the editor in chief of Entrepreneur Magazine. So he’s talking to James after this. Shout out Jason Pfeiffer Yeah. So for those of you who don’t know James Altucher, he’s got a very successful podcast like hundreds of 1000s of listeners right and so he’s talking to Jason Pfeiffer about all this stuff. And all of a sudden Jason starts talking about this guy from Wisconsin, who came up to him at an event in New York City I believe it was, and he’s talking about how he Phil, he did a live Facebook, I think it was, is that right, Jeff, a live Facebook live
Jeff Peterson 02:49
out in California, California. Back in 2016. We got named by Entrepreneur Magazine is one is one of the top 360 Up and Coming companies, you know, in the country, and so we were at that awards event hosted by Entrepreneur Magazine and Jason Pfeiffer being the editor in chief was actually the emcee. So that whole episode of the Facebook Live happened at their cocktail get together for all of the all of the winners that were there for that 360 events so it’s kind of setting the stage a little bit for you
Mike Malatesta 03:26
got it so so Jason’s talking about this guy from Wisconsin who is basically does a Facebook Live of him, deciding he’s going to introduce himself to Jason. And then, you know, he’d so he does, and Jason’s like oh that’s really cool and then all of a sudden, obviously it’s on Facebook, right. So, even before he said, who you were, because he went on to talk about Jeff Peterson, what a great, you know, Geneva supply big tank all that stuff. I knew I wish you, I knew was you even though I didn’t know was you, because the way he described it, and all it maybe there was a little context around it but he didn’t mention names or anything I was like, he’s gonna say Jeff Peterson and Damn it, he said Jeff Peterson,
Jeff Peterson 04:09
I can’t believe that. That’s amazing. That’s amazing, because what’s crazy is I had multiple people reach out to me, that I don’t you know you’re, you connect on LinkedIn with a lot of people, but you don’t necessarily know everybody that you connect to, there’s, there’s a business sense there’s a networking aspect of LinkedIn, and I had probably five or six individuals, four out of the six, I know personally that said, Hey, I heard your story on that podcast and they kind of said, really cool story, really fun way to meet Jason Pfeiffer love the podcast, and I’m at that point I’m like, I don’t know what these people are talking about right so it triggered me to actually go find the podcast, and listen to that segment. That, that, I was mentioned in by Jason which, honestly, I’m, I’m constantly in awe of the variety of people that I’ve met, and I’ve been able to not work with, and I’ve gotten to know through my career in different ways, and Jason Pfeiffer has literally become a friend of mine in the in the craziest of ways and it all started with that one crazy Facebook Live. That was just a hit him as something that was unique and different, that he’s experienced, and it was completely unique and different from anything I had ever done because our Senior Marketing Manager at Geneva supply always tells me what to do when I travel. People want to see what you’re doing. People want to hear from you people want to know what, what that whole journey is and what you’re out there experiencing, so share it and it was just one Facebook Live was actually becoming kind of a thing, like it was just kind of launching yeah and she said, So do this. So it’s funny because, like I really wanted to Jason talking my business partner, Mike, do me a favor, let’s do a Facebook Live, let’s make Melissa happy. And let’s do this and we didn’t, it wasn’t rehearsed it wasn’t anything, we just went for it and had fun with it because honestly, we pretty much laugh and have fun every single day, it’s part of how we’ve stayed, you know great business partners, and as well as just kind of grown as a company and the people that we surround ourselves with to work with every day. But it was a lot of fun and I look back at that moment, and I hear this podcast and you start to realize how important it is to care about and pay attention and stay connected in an authentic way to the people that we do get to meet and going back to kind of like how we met and I do remember you I do remember the conversation. And I do remember that table and what that event was and kind of the conversations we’re having in all of those things do end up coming into play, somehow, if you put yourself out there that’s right but yourself in it, and networking events can come off so like, Oh, I’ve been there done that got nothing out of it. Um, and yes that’s true, you can go into them, and have that attitude and think that I’m just going to go because I should keep being seen and putting myself out there, but if you go out there and you actually take the time to get to know people. I think there’s so much value in keeping connections with people that are real and not just about you growing your business. Yeah,
Mike Malatesta 07:37
I totally agree, and finding the people that are there for the right reasons that you, yes you know, there’s, there’s a difference between people who are there and, at least in my experience and people who are there for the right reasons. So So anyway, he, he goes on to say who you are and stuff and then he’s like, I think he said I never even been to Wisconsin, now I’m in Wisconsin, every year because Jeff Pearson has me doing things, you know for big tank and for other parts of the company, it was, it was just an amazing endorsement of who you are. So I just wanted to make sure that everyone heard that. And here’s what Jason has to say about Jeff. Jeff is one of the most passionate entrepreneurs I know he’s a force with an exclamation point, that’s really high praise from editor in chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, so I told all of you, that if you hadn’t heard of Jeff he will, and here’s why. I’m going to tell you a little bit more about Jeff. So Jeff Peterson is the co founder and CEO of Geneva supply, one of the fastest growing companies recognized, as we’ve already said by entrepreneurs magazine, Geneva supply is your 360 degrees solution to building a brand strategy and powerful supply chain for Amazon and other e commerce platforms. Jeff was named a 2020 Small Business Person of the Year by the US Small Business Administration. So that’s enough. Right, but that’s not where he’s done right so Jeff is also the CEO at interested in music and the creator of big tank, which is a nonprofit organization that builds career experiences for students. He’s a thought leader, mentor, and keynote speaker, and a former bar owner, and you can find out more about Jeff at Geneva supply.com and fueling the tank, fue li N G, the tank, calm, which is Jeff’s personal brand website. So, Jeff, with all of that. I started every podcast, the same way, and it’s with a simple question. How did it happen for you.
Jeff Peterson 09:40
You know and I, listening to your podcasts and knowing that that question is going to be asked of me. That is such a powerful question but important, you know what I mean it’s it’s one of those things that makes you think about where you’ve been and and your own personal journey and it’s one of those things I I kind of pride myself in I make a big deal about self assessment, even after this podcast is complete, I’m going to go back and I’m going to say, say to myself, How did I handle that. Did I, did I present myself. Well, the answer the question. And so when it, when it comes down to this question How did it happen I, I started thinking about, well, how did what happened and what is going to be something that I think is important to share so somebody else can benefit from it. And then I’ve got all these segments that I you know I’m like okay well what do I hit on how do I get on it. And I want to thank you for just the fact that this podcast exists because you asked that question because, in going back and thinking about it, It brings so many people to the surface that have been part of my personal journey in what’s going on because it does, it does bring to light the good the bad the awesome the, oh my gosh, that was not great. In part of who I am. And I often say to people who I am is a person is, is the How’d it happen for Jeff Peterson goes all the way back, and I’m not going to like drag everybody back into the journey of Jeff Peterson right now. But I do want. I do want to say how it happened is because of who I am as a person and who I am as a person is because of all of the people that I’ve been surrounded by and exposed to and the experiences I’ve been given and opportunities I’ve been given by all the people around me and it did start back with my parents, literally, when we were kids, me and my brother, you know were younger, we were invited out to the dinners that my parents would go out and do with people that my dad was in business with the presidents of Seagrams and Jim Beam and those were family friends of ours, but they’re also business associates and when they went out to dinner they brought me and my brother, and we were at the table and it wasn’t that they just couldn’t get a babysitter. It was one of those things where we were included in that conversation so my dad would say, Hey Jeff, you know, tell, tell rich about this or you know, rich, what do you think about that, you know, and he would bring us into the real reality conversations as if our opinions and our thoughts and our answers mattered. And that is really, kind of, if you talk about how it can happen, it does start that early for me because I really enjoyed being included in kind of those conversations and those thoughts, and it did put me in that way of kind of, as I’ve grown. I’ve always been intrigued by other people’s jobs, careers, positions journeys and I’d ask a lot of questions because I was brought into that kind of circle and way of thinking. And given that chance. And I think so many times, you know as you sit there and talk to different people and they’re like, oh I you know I didn’t have that same experience I didn’t have those same opportunities I didn’t have this, and I do think as we kind of grow as adults into business and as families as we become parents or uncles or aunts or anything to look at how we were kind of exposed to things, exposed to opportunities and topics and everything, and how we weren’t possibly how we weren’t exposed to those opportunities and those conversations and how we were kind of shunned off or put off to the side, you’re not ready to listen. I think we need to kind of look back and do a self assessment of what we really truly benefited from through our through our years and what we wish we had, and start being kind of the catalyst and the conduit for us, and exposing patients differently than maybe we work, because that is such a huge part of who I am. And I also, this is this is odd, I don’t I don’t read a lot of business books, and, like, like the, I would say like kind of those hype books and you know that people are like, oh, did you read this book I got so much out of it. I’ve always personally said to myself, I know the people that are around me, and the mentors around me that kind of were that came upon me through connections, or through me reaching out to others, and I’ve always circled myself with people with a whole lot of different talents and skills and things that, you know, you know, kind of elevated me to a point that I, I felt comfortable around it, and I’ve always used those groups now that group has changed depending on what I’ve done in my journey, but I’ve kind of always looked at it as I read a book of somebody that I’ve never heard of before, just because they’re really mean that that interview successful right. There’s always those nuggets, there’s those nuggets in there, but I’ve never been one to want to read 350 pages, and try to find that one nugget, you know, you go to these big conferences and, and you try to get those same nuggets when you walk out of it. So I’ve always been one that has really leaned on the mentorship and surrounding myself with people that know me, that I can confide in that I can trust. And that’s kind of, as we’ve grown as I’ve grown as a business person, that’s become the core of who I am and where I’ve gotten my confidence, where I’ve gotten my experience, and the ability to know what I know and what I don’t know, and having the. I would say the knowledge to know. I need to go ask somebody and bring somebody in to help me with this does if that kind of makes sense. Yeah,
Mike Malatesta 16:18
it makes sense so I have two follow ups on, on that first of all, how old were you when your parents started inviting you to these dinners.
Jeff Peterson 16:27
Oh. Eight 910 Eight 910 Yeah, okay. Yeah, and it was, and that was when I was, I would say, I was being bright like real questions, you know they weren’t just saying, How was school today. You know it was you know, I and then I’d ask questions in, in, in kind of in on in, you know, back to them. But I remember, You know, sitting at Mary’s wayside in, you know, and literally having like real conversations and really enjoying it not part of that is my personality. You know I you know I really like that type of a thing as a person and obviously as a kid, but I think part of my personality was built because I was given that
17:10
chance.
Mike Malatesta 17:10
I think that’s as or more interesting than the fact that your parents brought you was that you were interested in it because a lot of kids are naturally sort of not interested in. Back engagement you know that maybe they’re a little quiet when it comes to having other adults around or they feel like maybe. Well, you probably didn’t have an iPad at that time so that kind of helped, but it goes back playing Space Invaders and Pong. Yes, right. Yeah. It was your dad in the in the liquor distribution business or what
Jeff Peterson 17:45
was my dad was the president three liquor distributor ships in Illinois. So that was kind of, so he was at a high level in his career. Throughout and ended up being a vice president Jim Beam, where I ended up getting my first job when I was, when I finished up in college, I went to go work for Jim Beam, because of that and that’s funny because I always tell people, you know, don’t be ashamed to use your connections to get a job right, it’s okay. I kept the job because of myself, I probably got the job because of my dad, and no shame in that game in my world, I’m fine with it. But I proved myself and I grew and I put additional pressures on myself to, to make sure that my name and my dad’s name, you know were synonymous with, You know, being somebody that gave a shit about what they did every day and and worked hard to, to better themselves as well as the people around them so it’s all it was all part of it for me.
Mike Malatesta 18:48
Yeah, well, the big difference between using connections to get a job, and using connections to keep a job is a big essence there
Jeff Peterson 18:55
so there is a big, huge point that our chiefs. And I would say, you know, my dad always, my dad would always say, kind of, probably a little bit of a cliche thing is your greatest strength is knowing your weakness. You know that’s very cliche, but it’s one of those things where he would add on to that and say, so always go out and make sure you surround yourself with people that can step in and take care of those weaknesses for you, and always surround yourself with people in business that someday could take your job from you that literally could replace you, that have the ability and drive and motivation. Otherwise, you’re never going to push yourself to be better. Because yes, it’s fine if they come and take your job, as long as you’ve taken that next job for yourself. So always having that drive and that inner purpose to it and not being afraid, there’s, there is a, there’s a reality of high level managers and people in business that hire people that are good enough for that job are never going to make them feel as though they’re going to make them feel like they don’t know what they’re doing or other people can say oh you know what that person knows a lot more than you know Jeff and he owns the company type of thing. So, I’ve never been afraid of having a lot of people around me that can do a lot of things that I can’t do, right, my job has never been to be able to do everything. My job has been always putting the right people in the right position so that they can see can succeed and elevate themselves, which means they’re going to elevate the company. And that’s part of how I’ve kind of focused on my journey as I’ve taken every kind of job you can imagine through it and learn something from every industry and every job that I’ve had to get myself to where I am today. Right.
Mike Malatesta 21:02
So to two things I want to ask you about there too was the, the, what you describe as a cliche, may not be maybe a cliche to you because you got the mindset to that where you’ve heard that a lot of times and you’ve actually done something with it but it seems like it’s not like you got a weakness. And that weakness that weakness has to get better, right, not okay you have a weakness so let’s focus on what your strengths are, and let’s, let’s round out your weaknesses, like you did with other people. But then I wanted to ask about how you came to that realization that sounds like early Jeff where, you know a lot of. And I’m speaking, anecdotally here but a lot of entrepreneurs go into. There are high performers in anything they go into it thinking one. I just can grind it through my weaknesses, I know that I can do it, I know that I can do it, I know that I can do it and I’m just going to keep working on it. And the other thing was about the, the, inviting competition into your world, you know, quote unquote competition where you said managers sometimes don’t want to hire people who, who could take their job that I consider that to be competition I don’t want to bring competition into my own arena but you how, when, seems like you got that at an early age, where did it come from, and, and, because, because it’s something that I think should come to people way earlier than it does if it ever does so, your, your lesson is instructive here,
Jeff Peterson 22:34
I think, on the competition side let me touch on that. I’ve said this, and I felt this for a long long time because, number one, I don’t like to lose. Okay so I’m internally competitive. And what is the, what’s the definition of losing into me growing up and competing in sports losing was our score was lower than the other teams so we lost that lost the game, you know, or, you know the match or whatever it was, and I didn’t like losing, however when ever it was over. You know the game itself was over, I didn’t feel as though I didn’t compete at a high level, and give myself the opportunity and I was always aware of, kind of, where should we have made that team or were we just outmatched. At a skill level that we played as good as we could have and they were just, they’re just better than us. So, in through sports I mean I’ve kind of learned how to think about, I would say real life in the sense that I stopped looking at anything as a competitor. There are companies out there that do aspects of what we do at Geneva supply and interstate music. People always come, you know, regularly come to us and say, So who’s your biggest competitor who else does what you do. And you know in your arena, and I always say, I always lead by saying, I know this is gonna come off like a massive ego and I’m not gonna lie I have an ego, but it’s not as big as the statement is going to be, but I literally say, we don’t have any competition. And people look at me funny and like everybody’s got competition. And I go, because I don’t care what they’re doing. I don’t focus on them, I focus on what we’re doing. I focus on where our company’s going where our skill sets are where our capabilities are, and where our gap in niche and opportunity is in a marketplace that and where the pain points of potential partners are for us to solve. If I’m doing that, we’re going to be successful as a company based on the way we’ve defined what our company is going to be. So, who’s our competition. Well, we don’t have any because I don’t know what their internal strategy is of who they’re trying to be as a company, what they’re trying to do. Do they do some similar things. Sure. How do they do, I don’t know, right so how am I supposed to compete with another company when I don’t know what their internal strategy goals and message and mission and in that, so I don’t compete with other companies that might be in the same arena, so I don’t really pay attention to who they are, because that, that pulls us off track of what we’re trying to be. So, I truly do feel the pressure of being this company or that company or at this level or that level because of competition I do it internally based on where I think we should be, where we can grow and what levels we can achieve as our own company, based on our own infrastructure based on our own capabilities financially or through the teams that we’ve built together, the facility the infrastructure, the systems, that’s where what I base our opportunities and our success and the internal competitiveness of myself and the people that you know are around me, That’s where it comes from, you know, so I do feel strongly that a lot of people waste a lot of time chasing others versus being themselves. I’ve said this out there so it’s probably out in print somewhere in a quote, the word entrepreneur, even though I’ve got a very, very good friend that’s the editor in chief magazine. I call them I’ve never called myself an entrepreneur. I am not a fan, for whatever reason of other people calling themselves entrepreneurs, when I go to a networking event we mentioned networking events, earlier when I go to a networking event somebody walks up to me and says, and I say oh so what do you do oh I’m an entrepreneur. I kind of sit back and I’m like, that’s not a thing that you don’t, you didn’t entrepreneur today. Like, what are you doing that you’re working on, what is the business, what is the product, what is the service. What is it, don’t tell me you’re an entrepreneur. Tell me what you do.
27:32
Entrepreneur room
Jeff Peterson 27:34
is full of those entrepreneurial journeys and stories Entrepreneur Magazine is calling other people, entrepreneurs, finally somebody’s labeling me as an entrepreneur, but I think we should all be, you’re going to get further in what you’re trying to be and do if you just focus on telling people what you’re actually doing what you’re struggling with what you’re excited about versus trying to put this really trendy word out there, and tag ourselves as entrepreneurs, so there’s my, there’s my jumping on the pedophile,
Mike Malatesta 28:10
that’s fine, I’ll do some of that terminology so do you feel like it’s like it’s a phony. I mean, you pretty much said it’s a phony description which I get that part of it I guess I’m
Jeff Peterson 28:22
not saying it’s I’m not saying it’s a phony description you could definitely be an entrepreneur, okay, but I think there’s the hype of using that to explain who you are, versus saying, oh, you know, I guess I’m kind of an inventor I’ve got three products that I’ve launched I’ve got one that I’m working with one that I’m really proud of is this, and it you know I, I just launched it a year ago it’s doing really well for me it’s actually helping me find this new project that I launched that I didn’t think I was going to be able to launch as soon as I did. That is way more impactful way more meaningful than to use this like quick little word, you know, to say who they are, by saying entrepreneur because I will say, most of the people that say they’re an entrepreneur, haven’t done the things yet. And that’s why they use this kind of, it’s kind of exciting people, You know, nowadays with Shark Tank and everything else, are saying, that’s what I want to do I want to start my own company, I want to be my own boss, I want to be a millionaire, and they, they want to call themselves that and be that already, when really what they are is they’re, they’re just struggling to be in business, they’re just trying to find the way to capitalize and get to that first opportunity that next step. So I basically kind of insane to everybody. Just take the name off and tell people what you’re doing, who you are, because that’s going to get you way further way faster and get people to engage with you to try to help you get to where you’re trying to be.
Mike Malatesta 30:07
Okay so now that you’re on that pedestal I’m gonna ask you one more question, how do you do it, how do you how do you feel about the term CEO, particularly when it’s attached to. I’m the entrepreneur and CEO of this thing I just created, you know, yesterday, that yeah, how do you similar like you got to earn a CEO thing right type
Jeff Peterson 30:31
titles nowadays, the only reason why titles matter is because of who you might be doing business with, so they know at some point what level of responsibility you have, what level of accountability, you have, what your decision making, you know, level is, what your financial commitment level could be can you sign documents, can you be the face of the company. And, or, you know, if you’re dealing with your mid management, what is your specific role within the organization on what you handle and do so that people can find you in a LinkedIn search. If they’re trying to you know, it is that one person company that says I’m the CEO, so you know sole proprietor, says, all of it, it’s like I, I own this thing by myself. Yeah I’m 100% responsible yo I’m the janitor, on the, on the painter vacuum or, you know, vacuum cleaner. There’s, I just think we live that we’re trying to create these fun little titles, and to describe us versus just literally telling people what we do.
Mike Malatesta 31:42
Okay. You get a lot of. We could have a whole separate discussion about that but I, there’s a lot of Chief storyteller titles now too and I think it’s a cool title but I I’m I don’t, I, like I always wonder what the qualification is,
Jeff Peterson 31:58
aren’t they so clever, are they so clever. Yeah, whenever whenever I see him like how clever.
Mike Malatesta 32:04
Yeah, it’s like a futurist I’m kind of, I’m kind of impressed but then I’m thinking to myself, well, I don’t know what I have to, what do I actually have to accomplish in order to be as chief storyteller or, or a futurist for that matter.
Jeff Peterson 32:20
I just, I like to go about doing what I do and have people decide what I am. Yeah, in their head in their, in their situation in their moment time in their need of understanding who I am in their world. They can title me or think of me in whatever it is that fits for what they’re doing. I, with my nonprofit biz tank for exploration program for high school juniors and seniors. They need differently as juniors, seniors, school that I’m, like, taking my time to kind of almost like my parents did bring them to the dinner table. Let them have a platform that they feel as though they’re being treated as a person not just some kid. Yeah, and being given the opportunity to platform to ask questions and put themselves out there and see what’s going on and have those experience through following the journeys of others in teaching them how to network and giving them a self worth of
33:28
is their response. What they figured out and to realize they don’t have to have it all figured out.
Jeff Peterson 33:35
They look at me differently, they look at me, probably, some have called me a mentor, some have called me a father figure, some have called me this really cool business guy that’s done a whole bunch of cool stuff, some of them call me guy that doesn’t stop talking. Some of them, but it’s it’s what they’re seeing in me, that matters. Anyways, they don’t. In the end, when they walk away. They don’t remember or care what my title is, they don’t care what I called myself, they’ve got their idea of what I am and what I’m doing. So, in the world of putting yourself out there, put it out there in a way that people actually know who you are actually know what you’re doing, because that’s where that authenticity and that connectivity is going to happen, and that’s where you’re going to start to grow your network, where you need to grow your network where you should grow your network, and it’s going to help you get to where you need to be, or get you in front of somebody that says, you got a problem. And let me tell you what I think it is, and this could help you. So that’s, that’s why I say get rid of what you are trying to have people think you are, because they’re gonna think of you any way they want to think of you anyways. So just be who you are, and let them figure it out.
Mike Malatesta 34:58
Well I’m glad we had this conversation, I don’t think I’ve ever talked to anyone on the podcast about that that specific thing and you put a really nice package around it, I appreciate that. Want to talk about the competition thing Jeff, you were mentioning you know no competition. And you said you know what everybody, everybody wants to sort of define you by other people who do the kind of work you are that’s how we’re built right like we got to. We got to make a match, we have to match who you are to someone else, we’ve seen so that we can say oh yeah okay I get it. But behind that it sounded to me like you were saying, Hey, I’m not a believer in benchmarking, meaning that I don’t think that I can and I’m putting words in your mouth here so feel free to tell me I’m way up, but I don’t think. Thank you. I don’t think it’s helpful for me to create a culture where I’m measuring our capabilities against what other companies have already demonstrated they’re able to do or not to do a lot of corporations do what they call benchmarking right they look at the competitive landscape and they say well here’s what these folks are doing. If we can do a little bit better, where we’re headed the benchmarks, right, and it sounds like what you’re saying is, look at, they’re doing what they do because of, like you said the money they have the talent they have the leadership they have the market the customers, whatever that may or may not have actually accomplished focus they’re here and saying, we’re capable of and then that becomes our benchmark for this period of time and as we grow our capabilities, our benchmarks get here,
Jeff Peterson 36:47
where it is, I don’t want, because people listen to this and say, Come on me paying attention to what other people do and I do, yeah, I pay attention to what the industry is where the industry is going, where the trends are, what the important software’s are like the tools necessary to be in the category in the industry that we are, so I’m very aware of what’s out there as far as, like, I’m not acting like I’ve never paid attention to other third party logistics, I know third party logistics I know what other companies do, and what, what manufacturers need in a third party logistics partner, right, but I don’t pay attention to how all of those third logistics look like, oh, they price everything this way. So we have to price everything this way. I basically would like, As a team, we’ve sat down and said, Okay, how, how do we think we would want to get information and have these services and how would we think we’re being treated. Most fairly for us to pay for these services and have it make sense when we look at our cable bill. You know if anybody ever even actually looks at their cable bill and sees all these billing lines and fees and all this kind of stuff. And it, it basically numbs you and you just look at how much it is at the end, and you’re like this is how much I pay a month so what does it matter about all these other little things. And then you start to be in a situation where people are just looking at that number at the bottom, and judging you based on your number being this versus this number, being that. And so we’ve intentionally said, How would we want to be given information charge for our services, how would we get as a value add, how would we want to be sold or treated or partnered with. And that’s the way we want to do it, and that’s how we’ve grown into everything that we’ve done. And so it really is. We know our industry, we know what’s out there. We know what other people do. But we don’t compete with it. We’re not like, oh, they do this, so we have to do it this much better and how do we do that, we just know everything that’s going on and we internally, determine what we think the way we want to do it ourselves, we’re not comparing it to others, not once have I sat in a conference room with my teams and said, Okay, you know, who’s doing this, we have to do that. And just isn’t part of us.
Mike Malatesta 39:39
Okay, so let’s get into. If you don’t mind, let’s get into how that being part of not being part of you actually came about so you, you, as I understand it, you were in sales and you were doing very well and where did Geneva supply come from I mean, where did, how, how that happened.
Jeff Peterson 40:01
Yeah, so I was, I was a sales manager at a local Wisconsin tool distributor ship. And I, there was a wholesale operation that was within Waukesha County, and it was up for sale, or they were going to shut the doors down and we had used that wholesale operation for our own purchasing needs to take care of contractors that we sold to. And they, you know, I knew these the people that owned it and I had conversations and basically it came down to it, is I. The company I worked for was a family business, not my family, but it was a family business. So I went to the family and I said hey listen, I think it would make sense for us to diversify our portfolio and take a look at acquiring that company, and being a tool distributor ship, as well as a tool wholesaler that sold b2b, where the distributor ship was selling B to C. So it kind of expanded our market from just being Southeast Wisconsin to the entire country, basically. And I saw that as an opportunity, and we work through it. And as I, you know, it was going to oversee both companies now, I hired my current business partner Mark Becker, to handle the day to day operations of that wholesale operation. And I hired him going back to my dad’s story about your greatest strength is knowing your weakness and my weakness has always been computer’s operations systems. And I, I literally talked to him because he was a rep that was contacting calling on me regularly for a brand that he sold, and I love that love just drive up the way he did it. And, quite honestly, I’m 53 and he’s 42 or something like that. So, age wise, he was more going through school where he was learning Excel and computers, and I wasn’t right. So I knew I needed that. So, at offered the job he took it, he handled the day to day operations and I was both. We grew that thing into something really really strong and one of those opportunities was because of manufacturer. Stop selling to amazon.com, and we took it. An opportunity from somebody that we knew that reached out to us and said, Hey, aren’t you a wholesaler for dwell Porter Cable and delta power, and we’re like yeah, well Amazon just lost their direct relationship to dwell Porter Cable and delta, because they’re up for sale and they wanted to end the relationship with Amazon because back then, selling to Amazon was still really taboo. And so we had a wholesale agreement with him with dances we bought at a lesser price, so we were able to sell it to Amazon, at the same place they were buying direct from. So we were able to fill that gap so Amazon flew us out to Seattle. We sat down with Amazon and talked through how it would look and feel for us to handle that and we ordered from Amazon for $550,000, the week after that was 720,000 that we get to that is 4000 There was 800,000, and it just kept going and going. And as we kind of developed our skill sets of around, learning how to do business with Amazon, managing manufacturers and for content and the infrastructure of the logistics of getting into Amazon packaged shipped everything correct. Amazon Kindle and said, Can you get us this product can you get us this brand can you, can you help us with this company, and we just turned into that go to the pain points of the tools and home improvement department at Amazon and growing their selection to become The Everything Store that they want it to be. As far as the different brands because back when we started doing business with Amazon was about a year, year and a half outside of Amazon just being books. So we got in really, really early with it. And that’s, that’s kind of how that journey started, how we ended up being Geneva’s supply because we got it to in about 12 months, we went from doing zero business, we were doing about 300,000 $14,000 in sales to in that 12 1314 months. Got it to about $16 million. So, it was real fast. It was real stressful. It was a lot of hours but we learned that business, And we went to that family and said hey, kind of built way we could be considered partners some percentage ownership, something like that. And their response to us was, you know, our dad always told us never go into business with anybody that’s not family. And we’re like, oh, okay, great. So, the writing was on the wall. And so me and Becker went to lunch every single day with each other to Fridays, all kinds of business conversations. So it ended up and we talked to each other and we’re like, you know what our future on this than necessarily doing what we’re doing because eventually we’re going to get squeezed out. So why don’t we try to buy the company. So, we found four investors through some friends and connections, and ended up literally going to the, the owners that have that family and saying hey, we’d like to buy it, negotiated for about six months, and came to an agreement on price. We were supposed to close on a Tuesday morning at 8am Monday, the Monday night before we had fun, they change the deal financially, when we paid our investors said no we’re not going to do it that way, we already had an agreement. And they said, well, then we’re not selling you the business. So, from going thinking we’re going to own the business at 8am Tuesday morning, we went walking into that that company at ADM, with our old jobs, thinking that, Oh well, I guess we’re going back to what we were doing, walked in and got fired. So that’s when we talk about how to how to Geneva’s supply at Tuesday morning, called our investors and said hey, we just got fired, you’re like, You’re kidding, like no, not kidding. So they’re like well what are you going to do I’m like, we’re going to start this thing from scratch. And one of our coaches at the time was a private jet broker and a 10,000 square foot, Empty airplane hangar at the Burlington airport, and we literally started our company in that 10,000 square foot airplane hangar, all of the employees except in one minute met us at a Perkins and Walker shop, to say what happened I thought you’re going to buy the business they said meet us. We’ll tell you the whole story I’ll buy you guys lunch, they came out, boom, away you go. And they’re like, well, we want to come work for you. We didn’t have a company name. We didn’t have any business, and all seven of those people wanted to come work for us. So if you’ve ever seen. Jerry Maguire where he grabs that goldfish out of the tank. he holds up the gophers and says, who was coming with a little bit, reverse Jerry Maguire where they’re like, they were basically saying,
Mike Malatesta 47:34
Yeah, okay.
Jeff Peterson 47:36
And there was this part of me that was just like that’s the coolest thing in the world. And I’m like, Absolutely. Let’s do this. And then I realized we don’t have any business, I just hired seven people. And I talked to her for investors to find out how are we going to fund and pay, he’s seven employees, but I knew we needed them if we were going to be a company. So, we then came up with the name Geneva supply that next day we went to Best Buy about laptops we went to sprint and got cell phones. And we went into that airplane hangar and about a 14 by 14 foot square room where we all sat and stared at each other and I started calling everybody I knew, and it goes back to the authenticity of relationships and partnerships and being there for people that probably got us going and get the company started, so we had cash flow, and we’ve grown today. Okay, so,
Mike Malatesta 48:36
That’s amazing. So it appears sounds amazingly short on the part of this family, which I’m sure they are thinking that now. Well, but initially for your readership they had at the other company or how were you able to, you said you start up by
Jeff Peterson 48:59
factors that we were. So just wholesale agreements with at the other company, see if there’s an economist saying hey, yeah. We were guys. How about giving us a shot, you know, we have relationships we have, We’ve got the knowledge we’ve got the vision, we’ve got the drive, we’ve got the energy, give us give us give us those opportunities allow us to be in the mix, please set us up with that pricing and everything, and we started having people leaving us. They believed that we were the reason why we’re able to build those relationships with Amazon, we’re the reason why the business was flowing and functioning, and the growth and the trust manufacturers started up. And as the thing on how we became everything Geneva suppliers, to the tune of, of opening our minds to the acquisition of interesting music. Last year, is an AMA vendor manager, only stays in their job for about 18 months, and then they get moved to a different job back then because it was so early in Amazon’s history. They most of the buyers slash vendor managers were getting moved into brand new categories that they were growing selection and that didn’t even exist on amazon before,
Mike Malatesta 50:27
so it’s like, find us new stuff as well. In other words, so
Jeff Peterson 50:30
all of a sudden I’d get an email, Hey Jeff, it’s, it’s Mike, I’m in packs, responsible for building the selection in the pets category, send you a list of all the brands that I’m trying to onboard that they’re wanting me to get, and can you reach out to them and and help me, I’ll work from the bottom you work from the top on this list, and let’s build selection. So the next thing you know I’m going to the global Pet Expo, talking to manufacturers about Amazon and what we do as a company and how we can manage their business to Amazon and optimize their content in them into that strategy of E commerce and manufacturers were like yeah we, you know, we want to be on Amazon, we don’t want to do it, we don’t have the infrastructure, we don’t have the logistics capabilities. We don’t have the team. We’d love to do this and then they’d set us up and then we’d start handling pack brands to Amazon, then manager and send me an email, Hey Jeff, I’m in sporting goods, can you help me out. Next thing I know about the show. I mean I, You know, all of these different shows and meeting with manufacturers is going to start helping rows selection for different categories that Amazon, and by doing that I was helping them out with their responsibilities and their accountability, goals, and how they would look good inside their own organization. But by doing so, clearly I’m growing our business, we’re adding selection we’re getting sales we’re getting orders. We’re cash flowing this young company, so that we can hire more people get more space and grow our, our own internal capabilities, and starting to see that insight of, of who we are and what we could be.
Mike Malatesta 52:21
Okay, so for people who don’t, maybe have an understanding of how this works I’m going to try to say it and then you tell me where I got it wrong, so you’re you’re basically connecting Amazon with manufacturers of products, and there’s a dual benefit there one Amazon needs the selection as you were saying to a lot of the manufacturers are set up to Amazon directly and or supply them when they need to be suppliers, create intermediary inputs have that any works wants to write
Jeff Peterson 52:56
100% Everything you said is right. There’s a lot of other aspects that are thrown into and become, and every main reason why they use or need Geneva’s supply. So we’re, you know, I always say that we kind of take the square pegs and fit them into the round holes manufacturers are the square pegs Amazon’s the round hole, we find a way to kind of fall off the edges to make it fit because manufacturers, so often they want to ship in case quantities and pallet quantities of product that they made. Amazon wants to buy three of these for their Pennsylvania fulfillment center 27 of these for Indianapolis, 17 of them for Phoenix, because if you look at what Amazon is and you think about it, they, their prime services today’s free freight to your doorstep. Well, they need to create that efficiency in the world and shorten that distance of shipment, so they’re lessening their cost of business, so they don’t want all of their products shipped to one fulfillment center. They want it spread out based on the way the consumer shopping and where they’re buying it. So as we’ve done this so we’re buying in case quantities, and we’re breaking it down so that Amazon can buy to to to send their three to send their seventh ship there, and we’re managing other content we’re optimizing their content, building they’re loading their images building their A plus content. Loading videos. Now we’re very, very strong in the digital marketing game, where we’re running digital marketing campaigns on the Amazon platform as well as off the Amazon platform. We are building websites for companies, optimizing their websites and creating those shopping cart experiences, and really kind of creating that E commerce strategy and being go to because we’ve got so many years of experience so much vast industry knowledge of how each different category of business, different industries have grown and be able to share those successes from a completely different industry that can completely tie in else’s business, and they can benefit from it, and they never would have known that had it not been us living through it. And we’ve gone through all the, the challenges the mistakes the costly errors and and figuring this out as Amazon is constantly changing and evolving and changing even Amazon obviously through this pandemic, they struggled because they had never been, had such a surge in business, and a surge in inventory challenges and everything else. So even when you’re really good at something. You’re one situation away from feeling like you don’t have a clue.
Mike Malatesta 55:50
Right right right I
Jeff Peterson 55:53
think that’s important where, you know my dad always, you know, keep it honest. Because, honestly. As soon as you start feeling comfortable, that’s when you start, you know you making those golf tee times and sitting at those, hour and a half long lunches, because you feel so confident in everything that you’re doing. And that’s, and that’s when the, the caribou jumps out of the tall grass and thing up and, you know, I sat there, I looked at them, I’m like, it took years for me to understand what my dad meant number one, just bent down hit some more grass, it should have been like a girl saw you and they ran away. Yeah, but he said caribou.
Mike Malatesta 56:39
Right. Alligator Yes, make some
Jeff Peterson 56:40
more entertaining story, But what it does is it makes you you’re not on heightened alert when things are going by right. And when things go bad, you’re kind of like, oh my gosh, you’re learning in that moment. And you can’t react as fast so my dad always is saying, Keep your head on the swivel and pay more attention when things are going great, and make you know why they’re going great, and, and keep it going, versus sitting back and relaxing because you think you’ve, you’ve nailed it. That’s when that’s when things get challenging, that is, I mean, you can look at, you know, professional sports was just watching the game last night you know you’re up by 17. If you think you’ve got the BIGGEST COMEBACK EVER Bobo Bowman, you know you’re down in the playoffs and staring at your, your next losses in booting you out of the out of the playoffs so I there’s this weird complacency that is human nature, and you start to find these comfort levels. And I, you know, I try to make myself feel uncomfortable a little uncomfortable all the time, because you don’t know what’s coming, because you’re not in control everything that you do, if you’re doing business that involves people, and other strategies and other goals and other you know scenarios, you’re doing business while you’re doing business, always having to prove yourself.
Mike Malatesta 58:07
So that’s great advice, by the way, thank you for sharing that and your dad. Thank you for sharing the caribou, that’s sort of an interview right, that’s kind of an intro, like oh I never would have thought of a caribou jumping out at me and scary. And I’m just speaking to keep in my head on a swivel I am noticing that we’re, you know, kind of up against time here and I didn’t do enough you don’t mind. The. You mentioned the interstate music thing a couple of times you connected it to Amazon you connected it to Geneva supply. What what what happened there what and how does that benefit the country that that company and and Geneva spy on Amazon.
Jeff Peterson 58:47
It goes, it leads perfectly and from that keeping your head on a swing, you know, kind of looking at those opportunities as they come to you and figure out where you might fit in and how, how you can bring value to an industry or a category or a company, because when the pandemic was going on, Cascio interstate music, they were in bankruptcy, they saw that myself and my business partner Mark Becker, were awarded small business persons of the year for the state of Wisconsin and up for that national award we, we got some press off of that, so they saw our story in the news right about who we were did some research. Dogs us and said hey you should buy us. We do some business with Amazon and we’re that we ever cite, we might be a great fit. So we took advantage of that, that, you know them reaching out and said, Yeah, let’s sit down and we researched it, and we looked into the category, what it was where it was going and we looked at the challenges of why are they going out of business. If this industry is great to get into Guitar Center was in bankruptcy at the exact same time. So is this a challenging time for the entire industry and why the heck want this challenge. But if there’s one thing that we’ve always done as a company, is we’ve looked at those categories in business for E commerce and on Amazon, and different marketplaces, to figure out what. Where is it now, and where could it be in the future. And so we got down to the point where we acquired the intellectual property, we, we know were ecommerce so we didn’t open up a brick and mortar retail store, and it gave me the chance to talk to all the presidents boners CEOs, all these major humans, medium size. Hundreds of music manufacturers during the pandemic, I was doing due diligence to find out if our concept and our skill sets would fit with what they look at as a future of changing the way they do business, and creating a focus in E commerce, whether it’s a direct to site like interstate comm that we built, or it’s representing them in managing their e commerce business on Amazon, on the bay reverb walmart.com Target tech Comm, all of the marketplaces and how that fits into a strategy for them. And that’s where the interest really kind of peaked for us and said we think we can help those manufacturers, their industry that they’ve been doing for so long, and look at it a little bit differently through our eyes, through the years of experience we’ve had that they were just starting to kind of get into that world, and it really worked out. So that’s why we made the decision back in July, we closed on it at ACC on July, 2020, and it had been growing like crazy and it’s such a fun industry obviously there’s a lot of intrigue to it. It’s fun to talk about the people that are involved, the musicians and the people that run those companies and manage their business from those manufacturers. There’s such great people. So it’s really fun to do business with them, and they’re really open to what we’ve accomplished and where we’re going. And we’ve had some great early successes that have already made it worth the acquisition so that’s already like we kind of covered ourselves already, which is amazing, we just acquired them in July. In less than a year already. What I would say in a positive situation for that acquisition, so a lot of fun, it is, again, it’s an, you know, to the confidence of our team, knowing that we could take a different category that we weren’t in before with it and enjoy it and reverse. It’s been fun. Congratulations, you appreciate it.
Mike Malatesta 1:02:55
Jeff, great to have you on today and have a chance to explore a sliver of your story, because I know there’s a ton more and we could keep. I know I could keep going for a long time, maybe, maybe there’ll be another opportunity to do more because I think people, I would want to know more, I think people would want to know more as well but I’m really great, really grateful for having you on today and sharing,
1:03:17
fun, thanks so much for sharing with people that those questions are very open about it very honest about it. But if anybody’s willing to tell the stories. It’s, I really enjoyed the time we spent together.
1:03:38
The recording has stopped.
Mike Malatesta 1:03:41
Okay, well thank you Jeff. I hope that was okay when all right
Jeff Peterson 1:03:46
i i love it, you know, part of me. As I was I listen to your podcasts and stuff like that and I’m like, I’m like, How much do I want to, you know, be really specific things about Geneva supply and the tactical that this and that. And I just, I hope you’re okay with where I went and how it went. Because I, I just wanted to, I felt more about bringing a little bit of passion that I think everybody can connect to their own journeys instead of again so many people will listen to things about how people run their business and they will try to run their business like that person because they’re successful, and sometimes I just want to have people realize. Just be who you are and you’re going to be able to be successful. As long as you just kind of pay attention to what’s going on and surround yourself. Don’t think you can do it on your own and stuff like that so
Mike Malatesta 1:04:43
oh well I think, I think I thought it was perfect Jeff because those kinds of conversations are the least, the least interesting to me because I think people are more interested in who the person is behind this, whatever the business is how they think about things not how they do this or that in the business because we don’t have enough time to get to go into that where someone could really get something out of it but this, they can get a ton out of, out of what you shared so I these are, this is perfect for me. Perfect.
Jeff Peterson 1:05:21
I enjoyed it and, you know, it’s weird because I can talk about what I’m saying, you know, as I’m saying it, and I don’t recall. And I want your podcast, and me being a guest on your podcast to be to have a lot of uniqueness to it so that it’s not on somebody else’s. I wanted to create some twists and, you know, different stories that I kind of elevated, you know on your podcast so that it’s not, it’s not a me to me being a guest and stuff so I really enjoyed it as well because again when I get a chance to talk about the journey and the people on the stuff that it really kind of makes me. You know again realize what it’s not for me to even be sitting here where you give a shit to have me on your show. And there’s so much to it. And it’s kind of fun to realize how much too it there really is and how many lucky breaks and how many. Gosh, I’m really glad I said yes to that, no and that kind of, because, you know, If Jason Pfeiffer would have like, what he did say I was in New York to go up into his office. I wouldn’t be friends with Jason Pfeiffer and I, you know, he just, he’s, he’s a big part of like my daily thinking now just because I, if I could be Jason Pfeiffer for a day, that’s like, who I want to be cuz I love finding out. Now Jason because Rowley gets to be it’s amazing, you know, give him shell a time. I’ll send a messages on Twitter, because that’s, for some reason that ended up being the way that we communicate. Okay. From the beginning, and I’ll send them I’ll send them a message and like, you know chip Gaines hook me up.
1:07:32
I love that.
Jeff Peterson 1:07:33
You know that kind of stuff and he’s friends with like Sarah Michelle Gellar and I’m like, oh my god I had a crush on her forever, you know, like you gotta frickin tell her I said hey, you know, we just joke around back. And then sometimes I sit back and maybe shouldn’t be an off somebody I’m friends with, but, like,
Mike Malatesta 1:07:50
Yeah, right. That’s
Jeff Peterson 1:07:50
a good point. But, but i i It’s fun to be. It’s fun to be connected with somebody that doesn’t look at it as being a big deal. You know and I love that part of it. So, in so many ways, have made me look at other people differently, or the same, and kind of respected, you know Yeah. You know he’s, he didn’t call anybody and get interviewed. But, like, it’s funny because I look at Gary Vee. and I’m like I’m over it. Yeah, I came over his height. Because I feel like it’s just hype. You know, so
Mike Malatesta 1:08:34
I said that because so many people are like Gary Vee this Gary Vee that I listened to him a couple of times and it was just so much coming at me that I was like he doesn’t even know what the fuck he’s even talking about he’s just talking and just fill in space just video recording as he’s telling.
1:08:53
Listen to him.
Mike Malatesta 1:08:54
He’s talking very fast, of course, like he always does. But he’s saying, how important it is to listen to people, and as the other person’s talking he’s like I get it, get it.
1:09:03
Yeah, yep 100% 100%
1:09:05
You’re not listening to what we’re saying,
Jeff Peterson 1:09:08
Oh, how could you, it just irritates me and grinds me but, you know, and I look at it and I’m like, man, what makes, What makes him so like, like so followed right by millions, and, dollars and that as the guiding force. And it’s not, there’s way more to the people that are everyday, making it happen and the rest of it then some guy that’s, you know, there’s so much more of those stories so part of what you’re doing is you’re bringing those stories, you know, out and about to people. And it’s, it’s been a blast. I mean I’m sitting here drinking in water. I’m loving the opportunity with that’s given me. It’s given me an opportunity to meet some really really cool people and have some really cool national guests like karat gold own skin, water, and she started, she was a guest I reached out to her on LinkedIn, and she responds and next thing you know she’s a guest on the visiting show that I’m getting a chance to interview her and talk to her and I’m like how the hell did that happen, right. You know it’s funny because then I just recently saw tomorrow. She’s being interviewed by Gary V’s. And this whole Gary Vee thing I’m like, and I thought to myself hot already interviewed her, my sloppy seconds.
1:10:51
Nice.
Jeff Peterson 1:10:53
Buildings Academy laugh the other day when I sound like, Ah, sweet, nice. That was fun. Like, how are things for you how they been good. Yeah,
Mike Malatesta 1:11:01
I’m doing all right, doing. I do a lot of podcasts now so that’s super fun you know getting to meet really great people and about their stories and explore it. Oh, I found a way to monetize that still like, I haven’t. I haven’t found nor have I, I have to say, Yeah, I think they’re, you know, I kept. So I kept saying to myself again, where it goes and then, you know, when I want to do it or not, whether people care or whatever and I go, Well, I’m gonna do 200 and basically say the same thing. I’ll do 100 and then figure it out. And that’s where I am right now, just your, your maybe 202 or something like that and and stop at 200 Yeah. So I think if you stop at 202 Yeah. Oh shit, yeah, yeah that’s that did it, that’s the final nail in the coffin. So I think I think something’s going to develop a guy, I’ve been working on. I’ve got that, where it’s going to be coming out soon and I think I’m going to connect the book to this and then maybe write more books about the podcasts and
Jeff Peterson 1:12:31
what what’s what’s nice about doing that is the book basically written. Yeah, you know, because of all your podcasts and taking and taking you know you’re gonna be able to piece together a pretty journey about human beings. Business stories, insights, all that kind of stuff. So you just got to, you know, go back and listen and find those like key little blurbs and snippets and, you know that one little story that kind of pops out so logical to write a book because it’s, it’s 80% written.
Mike Malatesta 1:13:08
Right, right. So yeah, I’ll figure it out at some point but for now I just do it because I like doing it and fortunately I can do it, and you know, so.
Jeff Peterson 1:13:19
Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, you’ve got to come out and, in fact, if you want to see our space falls in what we kind of have for a setup check it out, go to, and this will make sense to you know go to kerabu room, calm, okay. And you’ll see our event space. We’ve got a 1600 square. Bull audio production full lights, you know stage for bands and and men’s big video wall big 85 inch TVs on each side, capacity for about 100 seated, okay, and that kind of thing so you can do, speaking events you can do, and we can we have pan tilt zoom cameras one roaming close up camera in the back for different interests in the production, and we can stream live, the whole thing, or record the whole scenario. So it’s really cool capabilities that we have here. And we built that out, mainly because of interstate music, and what we were going to need to do to build content, but also, it’s now where I’m going to host this tank for Sean Milwaukee County High School students when we go back to being live. It gives me the opportunity to post bands coming through and have a vast amount, and be able to invite people to it not academic. So, but I’m looking forward to, turning it into like speaking events, panel discussions, workshops, event with, you know, a skirt. After high production, production space. And then I also have a really cool studio that you’ll be able to see when you kind of go through it. Okay, you could possibly want. And yeah, you’re pumping out podcasts that are, you know, left and right and I got none. You know, it’s just I put all this time and everything else. I walked down the hall. jump in and please. Have this.
Mike Malatesta 1:15:42
Well, you’ll, you’ll, you’ll do it when the time is right.
Jeff Peterson 1:15:47
Yeah, eventually. So, good stuff. Yeah, check out Kevin Rose, and then next event. I’ll get you on our email list. You can get out here and make sure that you know when they’re coming. You can swing out and enjoy yourself and see what it’s all about. Okay.
