Transcript
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Hey guys, thanks for joining us today on another episode of Automation Ladies.
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I'm Courtney Fernandez with United Robotics Group and today we've got our usual Nikki Gonzalez.
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Hey everyone Nikki from Clicking here.
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I told Courtney, since she's here and she knows Eric, that she should run the show today, so let's see how it goes.
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Not that it's her first time or that I should expect anything less than excellent.
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Yeah well, we're really excited to entertain Eric Collins, a longtime friend of mine.
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Eric, I'll let you introduce yourself.
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Yeah, my name is Eric Collins and my business is Rockport Integration and Automation, and we focus primarily on robotics and machine vision, and I myself have I think I'm coming up on 24 years of experience here with the latter, but also controls, and I could basically build a machine myself from the ground up.
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That's my experience.
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All right, custom machine builder.
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And where are you, eric?
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Well, rockport is located in Marietta and I live in Temecula, the little area at the very edge of Riverside County and San Diego County.
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All right, you have nice weather.
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It looks sunny where you are.
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So right now, for those of you because you're listening on the audio podcast, eric is pulled over in his car after a meeting customer meeting, I, I think it was, but he's got his lights shades on and the sun is shining and, yeah, I guess san diego fashion, I can imagine it being around between 70 and 80 degrees, right 73 yeah southern california.
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So we usually start the episodes with the same question most of the time, which is how did you get into automation in the first place?
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Did you wake up one day, and just you know?
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I kind of figured this question would come up.
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This is this is my second podcast, I think, and I always struggle on what to say because it's such a long story, uh, but I'll try to keep it brief essentially what happened?
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we're good it kind of is like a blend of of a bunch of happenings.
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When I was young I was a bit of a troublemaker.
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I was a big troublemaker and my mom had a boyfriend who was a bit of a troublemaker.
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I was a big troublemaker and my mom had a boyfriend who was a computer science major and he saw potential in me and at 14, he bought me my first computer.
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Obviously I didn't know I was a bit of a nerd back then, I just figured I was having fun with this computer so I learned computers.
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That was that.
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In high school I studied auto mechanics.
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I was top of my class, was supposed to go to auto mechanics school.
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I had a deal with BMW, was supposed to get a shop.
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All these promises were made and about a week or two before I started school for auto mechanics, bmw kind of backed off on their deal a little bit and at that moment one of my good friends, tim, was like hey, man, you're good with computers, you should be doing computer stuff, not auto mechanics.
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He's like you'll make way more money.
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And I was like okay, good point, sure.
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So I dropped out of school, canceled my contract and started going to school for computer science, and not even like two semesters.
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One semester in my car blew up on me and I had no ride to school, no ride to work, so I spent my time.
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My friend worked at Best Buy at the time in Rancho Cucamonga and I would just ride to work with him and go next door to Barnes and Noble and I would just read books on computers and study for certifications like INET plus, network plus, ccna, mcse, inet plus all of those things Studied.
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Those spent a lot of time at Barnes and Noble.
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I had no money, so I was just there all day reading books About the time I was about to go take the tests.
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I just didn't have the money because I had no job.
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So I was just there all day reading books About the time I was about to go take the tests.
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I just didn't have the money because I had no job.
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So things just weren't panning out for me and I was getting frustrated and my friend called me.
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He worked at Circuit City.
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You guys probably don't even know what that is anymore.
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Me too.
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I'm not stuck at Circuit City.
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My husband worked at Best Buy when we met, I think, or no shortly after, but anyway, that was the time that was a big electronics store.
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So my friend at the time was a manager at Circuit City.
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You know really big deal.
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And this guy came in and Courtney actually probably knows who this guy is, but I won't say his name for a lot of reasons he came in to Circuit City and he purposely messed up his electronics in his truck to find somebody who could fix it so he could offer them a job.
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So he did that.
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He purposely messed up his alarm.
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My friend fixed it.
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He's like hey, you're smart, you should come work for me.
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We do robots and stuff.
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My friend was like shit, dude, I'm a manager at Circuit City, so I'm going gonna have to pass.
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It's kind of a big deal.
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And he's like well, damn man.
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He's like do you know anybody?
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He's like you know, this is my friend, eric, he's super smart.
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And by do I?
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At this time I didn't know I was smart, right.
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I had no idea.
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I just wanted to be a snowboarder and cause trouble.
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That was my plans in life and so he calls me.
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He's like hey, this guy's offered me a job.
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I told him about you.
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He's like I know you need to get a job.
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I was like what is it?
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He's like I don't know.
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It's like manufacturing and robots and stuff.
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I was like, okay, well, what does it pay?
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He's like it's 12 bucks an hour.
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I was like I'm in 12 bucks an hour back.
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Then.
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You know this is 2000, yeah.
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So I was like, oh my gosh, so I clean myself up.
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You know, put on nice clothes.
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I drive down the yorba linda maybe courtney's doing the math here, who this person is or not, I don't know but drive down the yorba linda.
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Hand this guy my application and he looks at he's like listen, man, I don't really care about your resume or even how you're dressed, I don't care about any of that.
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He's like there's a robot downstairs, here's the manual.
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If you can make that robot, how you're dressed, I don't care about any of that.
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He's like there's a robot downstairs, here's the manual.
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If you can make that robot move, you're hired.
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I was like okay.
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So I grabbed the manual, run downstairs and I'm reading it.
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And I'm not going to use the term that we used to define how the language was written in this manual.
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That was a Japanese robot, but it was very bad English.
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Anyways, I spent about he's like you got till five o'clock, so take your time.
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About three hours later I had already read the manual, I had wrote a program and I had the robot moving and executing the movements and doing you know stuff.
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And he came downstairs.
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He's like you already, you already wrote a program.
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I was like, yeah, he's like okay, you're hired.
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So the rest is history.
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I'm self-taught with everything and that was, kind of by design, the person I worked for.
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I thought he was testing me at the time, but it turns out he just didn't know and he was hoping I would figure it out and I did.
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I'm in.
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PLC programming I learned how to use SOLIDWORKS no-transcript other choice so moved with my friend's grandmother, worked there for about seven years and I was riding dirt bikes with my friend.
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He's like hey, this guy, because I was, I showed him a denso robot.
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This is a long time ago.
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Hey, this guy, he works for this company I can't say the company name, but they use robots and they're looking to hire a programmer and they pay like $90,000 a year and keep in mind, this is like 2005.
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And I was like what People get paid $90,000 a year to program robots?
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I'm making $15 an hour.
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So he's like I'll set you up an interview.
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So he sets up the interview and this company that I went interviewed with, courtney knows, knows 100%.
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She knows because she's worked with this company and this company is, was the biggest or is the biggest automation house in Southern California by far.
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So I went interviewed with this guy with when the business was not that big and he's like you missed the robot programming job.
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I've already filled that, he's like, but I need a controls guy and that's $50,000 a year.
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I was like that's more than $15 an hour.
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So he tried to get me to sign a contract right there on the spot and I was really nervous because I was living in San Dimas, working in Yerba Linda, and this guy is out in Simi Valley, thousand Oaks.
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You know way out there and I'm sure Courtney knows exactly what I'm talking about.
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I know exactly what you're talking about now.
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I made that drive a few times.
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Yeah so, and this guy that was offering the job is a great guy, I mean obviously a successful guy.
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But I was like I can't sign this right now, man.
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He's like I don't want you to go back and take my offer to your boss and, just you know, have him match my offer.
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I was like that's a good idea.
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Yeah.
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I should do this.
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So I declined the offer.
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I said I'm sorry I can't make that kind of commitment and I'm glad I did.
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You know, it's one of those things in life where that was a major fork in the road for me and maybe it would have worked out better, maybe not, I don't know.
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Went back to my boss, told him he offered me, he matched the offer and reduced it a little bit because he's like you don't have to drive, you know, to freaking thousand oaks.
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I was like okay, so I worked there for a couple more years.
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The relationship between this person and I was not going very well and, um, one of the Cognizant guys, matt Remnick, who's a really dear friend of mine and a huge mentor in my life, and you know I've been working with Matt Remnick since before Matt Remnick.
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I mean before I would be working with Cognizant since before Matt Remnick even worked at Cognizant.
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But when Matt got hired we worked together.
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Anyways, strong bond with this guy.
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Matt's a great guy.
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Matt was like dude, you could be doing better.
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I'm like what do you mean?
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He's like I can't say anything.
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He's like because I'm not going to violate this trust I have with your boss, but you could be doing better.
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One day I got into a dispute with my boss and I walked out and had no plans.
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I'm just, you know, I had a short temper, I was young and dumb, but it worked out.
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So I called Matt, I was like you said, I can do better, what's better and he's like.
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I got this company in Temecula.
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I won't say their name either.
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You can go work for them.
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And what's the pay?
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The pay was great, so left, you know.
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After I quit that job, left Great, so left, you know.
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After I quit that job, left, started working in Temecula, ended up moving to Temecula, which is where I am now, because I absolutely love the place.
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It's beautiful, it's small, it's quiet, it was affordable and I worked at this company for a few years but anyways, so continued to build my skill, build my craft, and I started to realize that you know I should be running a business.
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And I offered these people to run their business.
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I was like, hey, if you guys want to go hang out in Cabo for the rest of your life and let me run this business, do it.
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Just pay me.
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Well, and you know, whatever they declined.
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So I do love them on a personal level, but maybe on business level we don't see eye to eye.
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But, um, I had, my wife was pregnant and there were some promises made that weren't fulfilled.
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I fulfilled my end of the bargain.
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Um, I learned how to do sql databases, I learned how to program plc, alan bradley, and so they gave me a one percent raise and cut my car allowance.
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And this was about two weeks before I had my baby, two weeks, yeah.
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So we weren't doing just okay to we're in the red and this is a problem.
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So I told my wife I was like you're going to think I'm crazy or you already know I'm crazy, but I'm going to quit my job and start my own business.
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She's like okay, I was like so after my daughter Evie's born, I'm going to go quit.
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So once the word got around the family and friends, they are like you're fucking crazy.
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Sorry, I don't know if I can cuss in that you won't be the last mark as explicit, although not all of our episodes are, so it's okay we're all.
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We already earned our advisory.
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Yeah, we've already got our little explicit e on it, yeah so everyone in the world thought I was crazy and they're probably right.
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But I believed in myself.
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I always have.
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And I told my wife.
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I was like hey, we may lose my house, we may lose these cars, we may have to live with your mom and dad, but I promise you I'll make it.
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I will make it.
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I promise you, and this is why I love my wife.
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Um, she never doubted me.
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She's's like OK, let's do this.
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And so I did, and through the help of my friends Matt Remnick and Greg Wolf at Sobel, they helped me get my first business off the ground.
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And you know there's a lot more stories to that too, but I don't, you know, we can always move past it.
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But I just wanted to mention their names because they were really helpful in my career and I always like to give them credit where I can and shout them out, because Greg Wolf and Matt Remnick are just really good people.
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Especially in the machine vision community.
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You know, I feel like, at least in Southern California, all of us that do integrations with machine vision know those two names, you know especially if you've done Cognix integrations, like you definitely know Matt Remnick and you definitely know Greg Wolf.
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Yeah, yeah, and you know the goal is it's already happening.
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But my name should be synonymous with those names, because I've been working with Cogniz longer than they have.
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I've been programming Cogniz cameras before they were even around.
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Now that's not to say they're not talented, because Greg Wolf is extremely talented, but yeah, so that's what I'm known for is machine vision and robotics, specifically machine vision, but that's all I got in the automation.
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It was just kind of like a lot of things happen in my life and it's you know.
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I don't know if people believe in destiny, but I think at this point I do, after dealing with that, going through what I've gone through and succeeding.
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So what does that success look like for you today?
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Because I know you mentioned before we started recording that you're really busy.
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You have a lot of projects and that's a good problem to have.
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Yeah, you know, growth can be hard just as much as it is rewarding.
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Can you talk a little bit about that story of growth between when you started and now?
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Yeah, so it's a great question, because this is my second business.
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Yeah, I was hoping you would talk about the first one a little bit.
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Yeah, my first business is my first business.
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I was young, my ego was way bigger than it is already and I was out there running and gunning.
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I thought I was unstoppable and I was, for the most, unstoppable.
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I believe in my technical expertise and growth is the perfect word for this conversation because I grew too fast, I did too much, I went too fast and I didn't learn hard, valuable lessons.
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I just relied on my ability to adapt and overcome and it ended up costing me my business.
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I didn't ever despite what the rumors may be or may have been passed around by crappy people I never banked up to that business and I don't know.
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I don't owe anybody money and every employee that walked in for my business loves me and always says good things about me.
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In fact, I rehired one of them.
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But it's a lesson in owning a business is growth and learning how to manage that and not being blinded by success and the perceived success that you're having, and keep staying grounded, staying focused and having a plan is like the most important thing.
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To be successful and successful.
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Being successful doesn't mean growth.
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It means sustainability, right, it means being able to weather storms, and I think the most important lesson that I learned is that I need to be Eric and Rockport needs to be Rockport, and they're not the same thing.
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They're separate entities and they're not tied together, other than I own the business and my name's on all the checks.
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I try to treat my business as a business and not as my personal toy that I can do whatever I want with, and that's if there's anybody out there starting a business or growing a business.
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I hope you hear those words because they're so important.
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I think that we know people out there too that have had that same other people that you know had a really good year.
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They grew really, really, really fast.
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And then you know something happens.
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Employees didn't you know is right.
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It's a lot of things, the main things, that once you start to scale, if you haven't done it in a very deliberate process way, that can crumble at any different time, right.
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So deliberate.
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Deliberate, that's a great word.
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It needs to be deliberate.
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You need to have contracts, you need to have things in writing, you need to have a scope, you need to have milestones, you need to have everything on paper.
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I tell my employees that you can.
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They'll tell you this right now.
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No meeting is off the record.
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No conversation is off the record.
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No email is off the record.
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It's all on the record.
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Everything is documented, everything is archived, everything is written down and it's just for our protection and for our own ability to keep track of our projects, stay on top of them and be effective and not just kind of dangling with the wind like I was.
00:17:35.413 --> 00:17:37.394
You know like I'll figure it out and I do figure it out.
00:17:37.394 --> 00:17:37.875
But you know what?
00:17:37.875 --> 00:17:39.045
Figuring it out is not enough.
00:17:39.045 --> 00:17:40.440
It needs to be deliberate.
00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:48.386
Like you said, it needs to be planned and it needs to be executed without fail, and sometimes people don't get that.
00:17:49.421 --> 00:17:51.746
Well, I was going to say it's easy to ride the waves of like.
00:17:51.746 --> 00:17:57.950
You know, you have this network in California that all talks to each other.
00:17:57.950 --> 00:18:13.651
So you do good work for somebody and they all talk to each other, and this influx of work comes in and it's really easy to kind of start feeling like, hey, I'm just going to ride this wave, as opposed to I'm going to build a pyramid with a big solid base and actually build this pyramid.
00:18:13.740 --> 00:18:16.805
I'm just like, oh, the pieces are falling and they happen to be building a shape.
00:18:16.805 --> 00:18:18.210
Yay, you know.
00:18:19.501 --> 00:18:21.983
It's like you're running around with a basket trying to catch all the apples.
00:18:21.983 --> 00:18:23.690
You know You've got to say no.
00:18:23.690 --> 00:18:26.067
It's like playing Tetris on purpose.
00:18:27.131 --> 00:18:44.250
I'm liking it to playing Tetris on purpose and you start clearing rows and stuff and you have a purpose to it, versus now you have all this shape that's just fallen out of control and you've got these holes that you can't clear out now, and now you're just kind of stuck with having let gravity do all the work.
00:18:45.340 --> 00:18:53.865
And it's so important in integration and machine building, because we don't have widgets, we're not selling widgets, we can't project, we can't make plans.
00:18:53.865 --> 00:18:58.867
All we can do is budget, budget, budget and charge the right amount.
00:18:58.867 --> 00:19:00.324
And that's another thing too.
00:19:00.324 --> 00:19:12.935
Is important for business is knowing your value and knowing your worth in your business and not letting people, and specifically customers, talk out of your worth because those business, and not letting people, and specifically customers, talk out of your worth because those aren't people that you want to work with anyways, you know.
00:19:13.280 --> 00:19:13.560
Right?
00:19:13.560 --> 00:19:25.222
When did you, when and how did you learn that lesson, and do you have any suggestions or resources for other people that may be trying to figure out how the heck do they actually properly know their worth?
00:19:26.165 --> 00:19:29.613
Well, this is going to sound horribly egotistical.
00:19:29.613 --> 00:19:34.648
I don't read books, I don't watch YouTube videos.
00:19:34.648 --> 00:19:36.512
I don't like motivational quotes.
00:19:36.512 --> 00:19:38.061
I don't like any of that.