Ask the Expert: Mark McKenzie with Docqmax Digital Printing

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Excel Radio’s Ask the Expert. Brought to you by back shot photography and video. It’s your story. Make it awesome. For more information, go to buckshot.com. Now here’s your host Stone.

Randell Beck: [00:00:31] How are you doing? I am doing well, man. It’s been a while since we’ve been in, but we’re back on track now. But we’re missing a couple of things here. What are we missing? It didn’t say anything about Robert. Our co-host, Robert Mason from NXP. Hi, Robert.

Robert Mason: [00:00:46] Y’all left me out that time.

Randell Beck: [00:00:48] First I heard it. We did some edits and something went missing. And the other is it ain’t buckshot anymore.

Stone Payton: [00:00:56] Well, now that’s true that I knew the.

Randell Beck: [00:00:57] Rebrand is well underway. So we’ll be breaking out new new logos and new intros and everything pretty soon for studio Linza. The orange headed stepchild of buckshot.

Stone Payton: [00:01:08] All right. Fantastic.

Randell Beck: [00:01:10] And how was the hunt? You were just on.

Stone Payton: [00:01:11] It was marvelous. Harvested at eight point and set to processor now.

Randell Beck: [00:01:17] I like that term harvested.

Robert Mason: [00:01:18] And there are some out there for both of us. Mister Beck.

Randell Beck: [00:01:20] He asked if I wanted him to bring some. Yeah. And I was like, do you know me yet? You think you’re going to hurt my feelings, offering me fresh kill? Yeah. I mean, come on.

Robert Mason: [00:01:29] No, you’re not a vegetarian.

Randell Beck: [00:01:31] Not even close.

Robert Mason: [00:01:31] Not even close.

Randell Beck: [00:01:33] Today. Interesting show. Today we have brought in Mister Mark McKenzie, the unofficial mayor of Atlanta. Today, Mark is a printer in Atlanta. He’s going to tell us more about that. He’s also the king of the networking circuit. Hi, Mark. How are you?

Mark McKenzie: [00:01:47] Yeah, Randall, I’m doing well. Thank you for inviting me, stone. It’s always a pleasure to see you and recapture some of the connections we’ve missed over the past, what, 15 years? But it’s always a pleasure. And I get to meet Robert. So life is good.

Randell Beck: [00:02:01] Well, let’s jump right in. Let’s start off. Tell us about your business and know where you’re coming from. You’ve been around Atlanta a while. At least 10 or 15 minutes.

Mark McKenzie: [00:02:10] Yeah, about about probably 48 years.

Randell Beck: [00:02:14] Tell us the story.

Mark McKenzie: [00:02:14] So we’re a second generation, family owned business. I work with three brothers in the business. It’s a family owned business and it is a printing business. We started out as traditional quick printer, a franchise, and about 28, 22 years into it, we got out of the franchise and changed our name to doc Max Digital Printing.

Randell Beck: [00:02:39] What franchise was it?

Mark McKenzie: [00:02:39] We were a quick print, quick print franchise. Quick.

Randell Beck: [00:02:43] Seen them around.

Mark McKenzie: [00:02:44] Yeah, it’s it’s been a long time since they’ve been around. They they’re still few franchisees that are still in business, but the franchise is nonexistent anymore. So but so we basically were traditional printers doing everything from letterhead, envelopes, business cards, marketing and branding material, as well as functional forms and documents, documents that you use every day, invoices to bill your clients statements, things like that. But a lot of that has become digital printing or digital in the aspect that it’s actually not printed anymore. It’s actually done digitally.

Robert Mason: [00:03:24] Are you using the old Docutech machines?

Mark McKenzie: [00:03:26] You know? No, they’re they’re old dinosaurs. It can’t even use them for paperweights anymore. So but they have the one.

Randell Beck: [00:03:35] With the crank that makes the purple, purple page where the.

Robert Mason: [00:03:39] Stone comes down and goes, yeah, yeah, no, doc techs were big in the 90s. I used them quite a bit.

Mark McKenzie: [00:03:43] Yeah. And that is. So Xerox basically had the market on digital printing early on and they basically let it kind of slide away. But we are a digital printer. We use digital printing devices. Basically high end copy equipment is really the best way to describe it. They put toner on paper as well as ink on paper. So we use wide format printers as well to print posters, banners and labels, you name it. So being a printer for, you know, I went to college and took graphic arts to learn printing and everything I learned in college basically is the way of the dinosaur. So it’s basically evolved over the years. It’s changed dramatically, and it’s all about providing value and service to your customers that need brand and image products.

Randell Beck: [00:04:41] We were just having a conversation the other day with somebody. We were talking about our both of us have MBAs. We were talking about having the MBA. Of course, his was not newer than mine. Mine was 92. And I made the point. I said, you know, practically everything I studied is obsolete at this point. I mean, we were still we were doing big financial analysis with those IBM mainframes with punch cards, right, in the 90s. Right. And not that there weren’t other kind of computers, but that was still the large company standard. Well, we all know that’s gone by the wayside, too. And so, I mean, it was good to get a. Bunch of marketable skills and be able to educate yourself now, which I do a lot, but but probably should actually go back and do some refresher courses, you know, just to get up on the new techniques and the new terminology. It’s just gone.

Robert Mason: [00:05:30] Well, don’t you think that goes for just about every.

Randell Beck: [00:05:32] I imagine so I imagine there’s a shelf life to an education. Yeah. No matter what you do.

Robert Mason: [00:05:36] I mean, that was a.

Randell Beck: [00:05:37] Real estate you’re doing. I’m still using.

Robert Mason: [00:05:38] That. But really, does it matter?

Randell Beck: [00:05:40] I mean, unless you’re you studied left handed basket weaving, there’s probably a shelf life to everything, you know?

Robert Mason: [00:05:46] English. Yeah. Stuff like that. Right. Yeah.

Mark McKenzie: [00:05:49] Well, and I think that entrepreneurship is one thing that’s lacking in education, and it’s basically teaching people how to be entrepreneurs, how to sell their product and their their services. That really is probably more important than learning how to do. Your financial financials are very important, but learning how to add and subtract is basically how to communicate with others. And the best way to communicate with others and the way to communicate with others is to deliver where they want to be. And that means if they want printing, then deliver printing. If they want a web page, deliver the web page. But you can also use printing to direct them to that web page. So it’s all about being where your customer wants to buy or purchase. And that’s the important part of anything in communications, whether it’s video, print, real estate, all those things. And it takes a while. And my MBA was on the job training and losing thousands and thousands of dollars by making mistakes. But when you realize that the value you provide is being able to communicate with your customers and provide them with opportunities to increase revenue, whether it be through video or print or real estate, those are that’s how you succeed in life. And that’s not necessarily taught. And. Primary high school, College, your MBA programs.

Randell Beck: [00:07:26] So now we know what MBA stands for in your case marks better than anybody. Yeah, I always like to go to philosophy. And you kind of started talking philosophy there just for a minute. But the thing here’s something that really interested me. Robert, you don’t know this. I have a friend named David Lopez, another guy I know from the from the networking circuit, and he was working for a company, and he had a couple of opportunities come his way. He was trying to assess. One of them was to get involved in the printing business. And he’s like, I was like, I can’t help you make that decision, but I know somebody who can. So I connected David and Mark, and Mark gave him a lot of good advice. So David now he owns Buck Blue Printing over in Roswell, about ten minutes from your house, I think.

Robert Mason: [00:08:07] And not to be confused with Buck blue, right. Right. Okay.

Randell Beck: [00:08:13] Tell me about this. Why are you enabling your competitors?

Mark McKenzie: [00:08:17] Uh, first of all, I don’t know when that competitor might want to sell me their company or buy my company. But the other thing is, is I don’t have every piece of printing equipment out there to provide services to all my clients needs. So. Understanding what they do and do well. If my customer has a project that I cannot produce in-house, I have a vast array of friendly competitors. That can help me produce those projects. And today’s an example. I went to another competitor and picked up a small project for one of my clients that I couldn’t turn around in time to meet their deadline, but my friendly competitor could. And so I utilized their services to service my client the best I can. And that’s why it’s so important that, you know, Atlanta is a big city. There’s plenty of work. For everybody but learning how to create quality relationships, whether it’s with your clients, your competitors, your vendors, your children, your wife. That’s what’s important in life, and that’s what provides value to the people you serve.

Robert Mason: [00:09:34] Mark, there’s an old saying that I use, and it’s if you come from a place of giving, first and foremost, you’re going to be that much further down the road. And so in the end, the more people that you help get to where you want to go or where they want to go, you’re going to get further to where you want to go. Because if you look at it, that’s not your competition in real estate. We do that too, because I train a lot of real estate agents and have given a lot of good advice over the years because we’re all in the same industry. And when a buyer or a seller comes to me and they have a question, I will tell them a the truth and I’ll give them the whole truth. And if I can’t service that client, then I’m going to look to somebody else. I gave away a $1.8 million listing in Blue Ridge because it didn’t fit my profile, but I had another competitor, so say, and she did it, and she handled it very well, and everybody was happy. And we all got it on the road. We a lot of.

Randell Beck: [00:10:31] Video there before you gave it away.

Robert Mason: [00:10:32] We did. We did.

Randell Beck: [00:10:34] Yeah. You got to make use of your assets too. Yeah. That was a great house.

Mark McKenzie: [00:10:38] Well, and that is I mean that’s a I’m a firm believer in givers gain. That’s Ivan Meissner’s little. Ivan Meissner found be and I and I think that it’s true I kind of Adam grant does give and take. It’s about givers and takers. And it’s how you give with an open heart without intent, you know. So if you give without intent, basically it all, it all works full circle. And that’s what makes a difference in our world. Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:11:10] Now let’s recommend that book on the air here. It’s a good one. You’re one of your networking groups Atlanta Business Growth Team uses that as a model. It’s by Adam Grant. It’s called give and take right. Chapter one is the difference between being a giver and being a chump. And the rest of the book is about how to accomplish that. Right? Right. But that’s that’s the model for a lot of people out there.

Mark McKenzie: [00:11:32] Right? Well, and it’s it’s a very valuable and it’s, you know, we’ve been in business for 48 years. Next year, I swear we’re going to make a profit. But right now, you know, it’s all about giving. And that’s how you build your business is you have to give. It’s give to your customers. Give to your employees, give to your team. Basically don’t ask for much in return other than you want to run a successful business, have opportunities to make a profit, and not not every year you make one. Some years it’s pretty lean, but it’s basically having the opportunities. And that’s what’s so great about America, is that no other country, you can have the opportunities like you have here, but you have to give.

Robert Mason: [00:12:20] And you have to create those opportunities to buy. It’s just like doing this radio program. I mean, we stepped into this and we didn’t know where it was going to go. And, you know, you just got to take some chances in life.

Randell Beck: [00:12:31] Still might not. Yeah. It still might not know where it’s going. We’re still.

Robert Mason: [00:12:34] Waiting.

Mark McKenzie: [00:12:35] It’s going straight to the top. Like I said to you before, you know I’m here to help raise that bar. You know me, me.

Randell Beck: [00:12:41] And Joe Rogan. We like this.

Robert Mason: [00:12:42] Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:12:44] Well, I know that, David, from other conversations, I know he got a tremendous amount of value. And from the conversations he’s had with you and and that he really appreciates what you helped him do and he’s going, like hair on fire over there.

Mark McKenzie: [00:12:58] He is.

Randell Beck: [00:12:58] He’s he’s doing a little grand tour and they’ve got like a 12 foot by 12 foot inkjet printer or something like that. It’s crazy.

Mark McKenzie: [00:13:04] Oh, it’s a beautiful piece of equipment. And there’s not a lot of those pieces of equipment, that particular piece of equipment in the United States. And it can do things that are amazing. And by having a relationship with David and his company, I now have the opportunity to sell that product or service to my clients because David can produce it for me. And that’s the value of helping others. And, you know, that’s not why I helped David. But David is a great individual and but he is a friendly competitor and he has equipment that I don’t have and I have equipment that he doesn’t have.

Randell Beck: [00:13:42] And so this approach that you’re talking about, you know, it’s been a theme for you. I mean, you’re kind of all over the town. You’re in a million networking groups and you’re interested jagriti the peer groups and a few things like that. So tell me a little bit about why you do that.

Mark McKenzie: [00:13:57] Well, first of all, it’s better than having to pick up the phone and smile and dial is because it’s about creating relationships before I have an ask and before I, you know, I kind of relate it to The Godfather. You know, people come in and say, Godfather, I have a request, can you help me? And he helps them. And then they say, well, what can I do for you? Well. Right now. Nothing. There might come a day where I have something.

Robert Mason: [00:14:23] There’s going to come a time when I ask a favor of you. I’m going to make you an offer that you can’t refuse.

Mark McKenzie: [00:14:30] That’s right. And that’s part of it is. Is that you give without the intent. And if you ever end up having the intent of where you need help, you have friends there to help you. And it’s all about creating quality relationships with those you serve. And that’s what I know.

Randell Beck: [00:14:50] You live this because I’ve walked into the Buckhead Club for meetings that I was supposed to have, and I’ve seen you there for meetings that you were supposed to have, and sometimes they didn’t happen. And so we just sat down and did our own meeting, which is fine. So you kind of operate this way, right? This is a daily thing for you.

Mark McKenzie: [00:15:05] It is every day. And, you know, it’s being flexible, learning how to pivot. I mean, we all had to pivot during Covid, had to learn business a different way. And that’s how you survive in business is learn how to pivot and to pivot quickly. And but building relationships, I mean, that’s part of it is, is when we’re when you and I are out and we’re networking and I run into you in an event, if I know somebody that you should meet, I’m going to make sure that you connect with that individual. And I’m just going to just tell you is that Stone has done that for me over the years. It’s, you know, he used to put on events all the time, and he made sure I connected with the right people. And I did.

Randell Beck: [00:15:49] Not know that you guys knew each other when we booked this.

Mark McKenzie: [00:15:51] That’s right, that’s right. So. And but that’s where the value.

Randell Beck: [00:15:56] I was making a useful connection for you guys.

Mark McKenzie: [00:15:58] You are? Yeah. You still are because we we haven’t connected since pre-COVID.

Randell Beck: [00:16:02] So we’ll call it renewing then.

Mark McKenzie: [00:16:04] Yeah. Renewing. Yeah. But it’s all about. Being there. Being present. Understanding the needs of others and be willing to help others with their needs. And that’s, you know, that’s why I do golf for the kids, which is the charity golf tournament that we’re in our 17th year with. Tell us a.

Randell Beck: [00:16:22] Little about that.

Mark McKenzie: [00:16:22] So we have a mutual friend, Angie Raika, and she basically started this on a whim 17 years ago, and her second year of having the tournament. I met her at a horse farm up near Dalton, and we were in another group and we got to know each other, and I just mentioned that this barn smells like Kansas was where I grew up. And she said, well, what part of Kansas? And I said, you’d never heard of it. It’s a little town called Neosho, Kansas. And she says, well, my great great aunt is Neosho. And it’s amazing that we link together. Well, she had this tournament. It was her second year. I said, well, let me do your signage, let me sponsor it. I’ll play golf. I’ll play in your tournament. I’m a terrible golfer, but I’ll play in the tournament. And then after that tournament she raised, I don’t know, about 7 or $8000 that year. And I just said, what are you plans on growing this? And she says, well, I’d like to, but I need an advisory board. And I said, well, you know, maybe we can find some people to help you. And she says, good, you’re on the advisory board. And, you know, so 17 years later, we basically raised money for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Aflac Cancer Center. And first $15,000 goes towards their canine for kids program. And we have a service dog walking the halls at cholla. His name is Olaf, the first dog we purchased or helped to purchase. I don’t think we purchased all of him, but we helped to purchase him. And it’s all about giving back to the community that gives to us. So, you know, I’m blessed. I’m blessed with a quality life, a quality wife, quality children, and a community that really cares about what’s happening around it. So. So if I can give back a little bit, that’s part of my core existence and my passion.

Randell Beck: [00:18:22] Now, Robert’s a real estate guy. I know he wants to hear about your real estate deal. Yeah, you’ve got an interesting real estate deal going.

Mark McKenzie: [00:18:29] Well, so it’s basically it’s under contract and it is with a nice company. Hopefully it’ll it’ll close. It’s about a year out. It’s basically next July is when the closing is. But it’s we purchased a piece of property in West Midtown 20 some years ago. And so we could service all of our clients. We had three locations we were paying. Rent at all three locations, and we realized that we could basically invest in ourselves and consolidate our print shop our three locations into one. And. It was a point where equipment cost so much that to put equipment and employees in each one of those locations, it was quite expensive. But if we put equipment and employees in one location, it was a little bit easier on us. Plus, the internet was really starting to shift and change in the printing industry. So it was a smart move on our part. We’re over in West Midtown. We’re about two blocks away from the Georgia Tech campus. We realized that when we purchased the the piece of property, but we really didn’t think that that piece of I mean, at the end of the day, we thought, well, there’ll be some money when when we sell it and and maybe enough to help us retire.

Mark McKenzie: [00:20:02] The opportunity is that. My neighbors and I, we basically we put our three properties on the market, and we had a significant company come in and made an offer. And right now we’re we’re under contract. All the due diligence, the zoning and all those things have to be taken care of. But. We bought it. When we bought the property, it was 12,000 square foot building. And we have a tenant in half that building. So that tenant helps us pay the bills and produce income. And that’s the great thing about real estate and. Participating in a peer group of. Industry specific peer group of other printers from across the country. We would look at their financials and their goals and what they were doing, and all the really successful printers own their own real estate, so they were paying themselves. And over the years I’ve seen many of them retire well, their real estate was usually worth more than their printing company. And. A lot of them would say, you know, stop paying rent to somebody else, go buy your own real estate. And we after 28 years, we decided to do that.

Robert Mason: [00:21:22] So better late than never. Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:21:25] That theme keeps coming up all the time, doesn’t it?

Robert Mason: [00:21:28] We talk about that often, do we?

Randell Beck: [00:21:29] Not often.

Robert Mason: [00:21:29] Yes. Creating wealth.

Randell Beck: [00:21:31] And they’re putting student housing there.

Mark McKenzie: [00:21:33] You said. Well, that’s what it looks like. It will be student housing. And because we’re, you know, two blocks away from the corner of Georgia Tech campus, it makes a lot of sense. It’s near the Hal mill corridor. I mean, we’re a block away from Hal Mill.

Randell Beck: [00:21:49] Right behind Star Metals office building.

Mark McKenzie: [00:21:51] Right behind the Star Metals office building. And so it is a prime piece of property. There’s I don’t know, I want to say there’s probably at least $1 billion worth of development going on within a two block radius of us. So it’s a it’s a time where the opportunity arose. So we needed to move on it. What will we do? We will probably find another building, invest in some more real estate, move our print shop and continue to do business. Find a few more tenants and and but real estate is is really the value of. Us being in business. The real estate was a side gig, so to speak, but it was. We created a separate company, a separate LLC, and it is basically it’s it been a long haul. I’m not going to lie. It was a struggle early on to to have that piece of property. And then we had 2007, eight and nine come along and and it was, you know, we bought the property in 2003. So we had about five years under our belt. But but having a tenant, a quality tenant always helps. And we found one and and it’s worked out well for us.

Robert Mason: [00:23:03] If you look at some of the financials and some of the guys in commercial real estate bankers and whatnot are talking about a lot of opportunity in the commercial real estate world next year in particular. Um, I think there’s going to and Randy and I talk about it, Randy was looking for a property, you know, to maybe put his business in as well. And in 2024, all of the major commercial real estate companies are talking about, well, office and shopping center space are in trouble, right? For obvious reasons. There’s going to be some fantastic deals to be had on the commercial side of our business next year.

Mark McKenzie: [00:23:41] Well, and that’s that’s also, you know, the theory is, is buy low, sell high. And, you know, 2008, there were a lot of opportunities. And, you know, a lot of the national REITs came in and purchased single family housing from the banks that were unloading it for pennies on the dollar. And now there are some of the largest corporations in our country right now, and they have thousands and thousands and thousands of pieces of real estate that they rent. And there’s a lot of money to be made. But it’s also timing. And, you know, it’s having cash when you need the cash stateside.

Robert Mason: [00:24:19] Blackrock there’s you know, Vanguard. These are the three big ones right there.

Mark McKenzie: [00:24:23] Right. And they are. And I just read something about Blackrock you know and student housing. You know that’s that’s where their industrial and student housing is where they’re putting their investments. Yeah.

Robert Mason: [00:24:35] They took over the pension funds in California years back. And that started just a wave. Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:24:41] They’re so big. They’re in everything I mean I worked with Blackrock back when I was at Starrett in New York and and they were buying Remington back then. Yeah. You know what I mean. Right. If they can make a dollar on it, they’ve got experts and they know how to do it and they’ll go in and they’ll pretty much pick up anything, I think.

Mark McKenzie: [00:24:56] Yeah, I think so too. And but you have to be available for the opportunity and you have to take it. And it’s like anything else. Any other investments you make, it’s it’s a risk. It’s a gamble. And you know, being an entrepreneur is a gamble and.

Robert Mason: [00:25:12] You have to have the temperament for it too. That’s right. My wife is she’s she’s a diva. She’s in technology and I’m in real estate. So I’m a risk taker. Yeah. And so in 2008 I had 15 properties, you know, and we all know what happened there. And I’m wanting to push in my chips and I’ve got that steady on in my wife. She’s like, I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s the right time. Right.

Mark McKenzie: [00:25:36] And I have a wife like that. That always questions where where the money is invested and and it’s important. You know, it’s a great feedback for me. And it’s also a reality check. Sometimes because I am an entrepreneur, I do take risks on myself and our business, but I don’t like to take risks on other people as much.

Randell Beck: [00:26:02] I imagine that in the early days, you know, printing machinery and things were good for a long time, they’re probably real durable and so forth. But in today’s world, I imagine there are probably rapidly obsolete, have to be upgraded a lot and all that sort of thing. So how do you manage that now?

Mark McKenzie: [00:26:19] So automation is really the key is you don’t purchase or lease a piece of equipment that’s not fully automated. And if it’s not helping you eliminate and I hate to say this, but a person or help that person improve their skills and their job performance through automation and. You have to have that automation, whether it be your website, your point of sales, the actual. Software you utilize in order to print the pieces that your clients need. And so I do a lot of variable data personalization, and you need those tools in order to produce it and produce it correctly and efficiently. Automation is the only way if you’re going to make an investment, if it’s not fully automated and current automation. So 3 to 5 years that software or that piece of equipment becomes obsolete. And whereas I used to be able to buy a Heidelberg printing press, you know, and they were very expensive, you know, three, 300, $500 million printing presses. And I could basically run that press for 20 plus years. So my depreciation, the investment on those dollars. Well. Unless if you have the work flow to capture your return on your investment in a three year period, it’s almost a no go. Basically, you do not want to invest in something that you can’t get your return on your investment. And the only way to do that is through automation and finding the right equipment.

Robert Mason: [00:28:05] And you said three years. Is that a is that a critical.

Mark McKenzie: [00:28:08] Well, it’s three years is really for for me in my industry. And there’s others that might say, well, 18 months I look at three years as, as being that, that kind of key, because three years is when the software and the basically the automation starts to become extinct. And if you haven’t got your return on your investment within those three years, that piece of equipment will not. Get you the money that you need to get to the next level. If you haven’t taken that and made that wise investment. So that’s really kind of what I look at as a 3 to 5 year plan whenever I purchase equipment.

Robert Mason: [00:28:55] Well, so let me break this down because I’m a numbers guy. So you buy real estate or you have your rent, right. So that’s a big number, right? Then you have employee numbers and then you’re going to bring in a piece of equipment that’s $500,000. Right. So your monthly outlay is extraordinarily high right. Yes. So you’ve really got to sharpen those pencils. You’ve got to know what to expect and it be correct.

Mark McKenzie: [00:29:21] Well and and like I said earlier is I’ve made a lot of mistakes and learned from them. And it’s cost me a fair amount of money over the years. But I’ve also made some. Wise decisions. Listen to my wife a little bit. And it’s a situation where I’ve profited from it, and it’s a little bit of it is luck. A lot of it is hard work and. Yes. You have to look at those. You have to have your finances. And I would tell any business owner, you have to have a great attorney, you have to have a great banker, and you have to have a great accountant, and they all have to work together. And on top of that is having someone help you with your financials, your wealth management and manage that and help you control those urges to go out and spend $1 million on a piece of equipment that may just look really nice and shiny, but really doesn’t have the work to justify purchasing it.

Randell Beck: [00:30:24] And I’m betting you know those guys.

Mark McKenzie: [00:30:26] I do, I have a I have a few, and I have a few in the stable waiting for the opportunities to serve me. But it is.

Randell Beck: [00:30:33] So this rapid life cycle of these machines. Right. Is that why people are leasing these machines more than buying them now?

Mark McKenzie: [00:30:40] It is. It’s it’s almost the number one reason is because they can at the end of their lease, they can either have the option to to purchase that piece of equipment if it’s still productive, or they can upgrade to the next newest improved automated piece of equipment to move forward. And most leases are 3 to 5 years.

Randell Beck: [00:31:01] What happens to the old ones then?

Mark McKenzie: [00:31:03] They’re recycled. You know, basically the computer boards are basically deleted and scrapped. And a long time in my industry when we talk about the Xerox Docutech is they were around for a long time. And, you know, I had a friend in, in that business and he would buy 20 of them and then he would Frankenstein them. And sell three of them, and it was using parts from the other other 18 or 17 other pieces of equipment. And they would still be viable pieces of equipment to run. It’s just that they weren’t as automated, they weren’t as current, and it’s hard to compete. Basically, imprinting is very hard to compete if all you’re still doing is taking your chisel and stone and hammering out your your printing tablets.

Robert Mason: [00:32:01] Gutenberg’s no longer around. Gutenberg’s gone. But, you.

Randell Beck: [00:32:04] Know, his product is. Yeah. When I was in grad school, my degree program was a joint program with the business school and the School of Architecture. So I would have to go over to the School of Architecture for a bunch of the classes. And in their lobby they have a case, a display case that back in the 70s when they built it, the case cost $2.5 million. Climate control thing. And they have one of the remaining intact Gutenberg Bibles in there on display. Wow.

Mark McKenzie: [00:32:29] Yeah.

Randell Beck: [00:32:30] It’s pretty amazing thing to look at.

Mark McKenzie: [00:32:32] Well it’s amazing. It’s it’s what gave me a career. So, you know, several hundred years ago it was developed and I still have a career in it.

Randell Beck: [00:32:43] All right. Here’s an interesting question. I think Jordan Peterson was the one he claimed that. Youtube in particular, but that that method of using the internet to deliver information. But YouTube in particular was his was his. His case is as important a development as the Gutenberg Bible was. And his his thesis was because for the first time in history, you could do two things at once, like listen to or listen to something, or watch it while you’re doing something else and multiply your learning time and your skill developing time. What do you think?

Mark McKenzie: [00:33:20] It’s a valuable tool. No, no doubt about it. It’s like using Google. It’s like I coming on board. I think AI is going to shift. Our world and the way we do business dramatically, and it already has proven itself. But having these tools are very important, but knowing how to utilize those tools. Is where it’s more important. So having a professional like you. Producing a quality video as opposed to something. I’m just holding my phone and trying a video that’s not so. People aren’t going to listen to it. People aren’t going to view it because I’m moving it around. I’m an audio is not any good. It’s not produced at quality. Now some people that’s okay for some. But the masses it really isn’t. You know, there’s.

Randell Beck: [00:34:13] A market for everything, right? There’s a market for casual video, just like there’s a market for cheap hamburgers. Right. But.

Robert Mason: [00:34:20] Good point.

Randell Beck: [00:34:20] Professionalism shows that you care enough to get it right. And what happens if you start using your. This is something I talked to people about all the time. If you start using that cell phone, what happens is you very quickly reach the limits of what it can do and what you know how to do.

Mark McKenzie: [00:34:36] Right. Correct.

Randell Beck: [00:34:37] And so it’s it’s like if I tried to run, if I tried to go out and do some printing, commercial printing with my little inkjet printer in my office, I could get away with a little bit for a while, but I’m very quickly going to hit limits. Right? Right. Same deal.

Mark McKenzie: [00:34:50] Well, and it’s what I tell my wife. I tell her this all the time, you know, the the toilet needs to be fixed. And she says, well, can you fix it? And I said, yeah, I probably could. I’ll go to Home Depot. I’ll probably go in and and buy something and then have to go back to Home Depot and buy a tool to do to utilize it. Let the plumbers plumb let the attorneys litigate and let the printers print, you know, provide the value and the services that you do. And you know well. And make it happen that way.

Robert Mason: [00:35:21] It’s hard to get that through to so many people, though. You know, people wrestle with that. But you’re so right. That’s so true.

Mark McKenzie: [00:35:28] It is. And it’s basically, if you need a professional product, let the professionals do the do the service.

Randell Beck: [00:35:36] Diy is when you need to save money. Right. Professionals are for when you need to make your impact.

Mark McKenzie: [00:35:40] That’s right.

Randell Beck: [00:35:41] So you’ve got this networking thing going on. You’re all over town all the time. And we talked a minute ago about it being valuable to David and valuable to people. How valuable has it been to you?

Mark McKenzie: [00:35:53] Well, I’ve been in business for 48 years. Is that why? That’s probably one of the major reasons. And I had this discussion this morning, is that my brothers don’t want me to print. They don’t want me to go into the print shop, even though I took graphic arts in college and I know how to run presses, I’ve taught people how to run presses, how to do design, and my brothers want me to go out and create opportunities. And when I’m in the print shop, they say, stay away from the equipment, pick up the phone and make those phone calls. You know, do what you do and do well, and it’ll serve all of us. And that’s what you have to look at, is you have to where is that? Networking allowed me to to grow. I’m able to. Raise a family. I have two adult children that have children. I have, you know. Well, I no longer have a dog, but he was a great dog. You know, it’s what I’m passionate about. I’m passionate about networking. I’m passionate about serving others. I really am passionate about connecting others to opportunities and whether that be revenue or just friendships. And that, I think, is what gets me up every morning.

Randell Beck: [00:37:12] I’ve seen it to be true. The unofficial mayor of Atlanta. Everybody, Mark McKenzie, thank you for coming in.

Mark McKenzie: [00:37:18] Thank you. Thank you both for having me. Yes, sir. And, Stone, it’s always a pleasure seeing you. My pleasure.