Episodes
460
Latest episode
Aug 2026
Language
EN
Discover amazing stories & lessons from fellow shop owners and industry leaders. Hosted by Bruce Ackerman and Steven Farag
Bruce breaks down 401(k)s, the Rule of 72, and how to actually build wealth outside the shop — then Steven flips it to what makes a business last 100 years, using Panda Express, Costco, Buc-ee's, and Patagonia as case studies. Plus: a first look at Campus Ink's new ESPN licensing partnership.*** NOT financial advice — Bruce is not an accountant or financial advisor. Talk to a professional before making any moves.
Bruce and Steven sit down with Jared from AKT — a 130-person custom merch and entertainment printing company — to talk about what it actually costs to vibe-code your way out of a software bottleneck, how music merch deals really work (advances, recoupment, the $40 tote bag math), and what it's like fulfilling 100,000 shirts in 5 days.
Bruce sits down with Ron Augelli from We Talk Shirty, who built his shop from a college dorm room to a 40-employee operation running almost entirely on contract work. After stepping back from day-to-day operations for over a year to recover from a health setback, Ron returns with a sharper view on what growth actually means, how he vets customers before they ever fill out a contact form, and why he'd pay for outside advice years earlier if he could do it again.
Bruce and Steven sit down for a hosts-only episode to reflect on the first half of the year and build a real plan for Q4 — the quarter that makes or breaks the year for most shops. They break down the "one more order a day" math behind hitting growth targets, why AI-generated graphics are starting to make every shop's marketing look the same, when it's actually worth hiring a brand agency, and the "clone yourself" hire that could be the highest-leverage role in your business.
Lee Stuart (Rogue Lab / Rogue Transfers) joins Bruce and Steven for an update on scaling a 6-person screen print shop into a 60,000+ sq ft, multi-business operation — plus his systemization playbook, his AI tech stack, and the moment being "the best printer in the world" almost broke his business.
SanMar just pulled Bella+Canvas exclusively in-house — 37 days after telling the market nothing would change. Bruce and Steven break down the timeline, why S&S Activewear's private-equity playbook just got disrupted, and whether Gildan is circling S&S next.
Matt Marcotte (Free Gang Sheet Maker, ScreenPrintGPT.com) joins Steven Farag solo (Bruce is out — he just welcomed a baby girl 👶) to talk about what's actually stopping print shop employees from adopting AI — and it's not laziness. They get into the psychology of resistance, how to find and empower an "AI champion" in your shop, and real numbers from tools Matt's built that are being used by thousands of shops.
Most print shops have untapped revenue sitting in their current customer list — and the person to unlock it is already on your payroll. Steven sits down with Kevin Baumgart (Sales Ink, fractional VP of Sales at Campus Ink) to break down exactly how to
Dan Frank of Silver Screen Printing is back — and a LOT has changed since his last appearance on the show. Dan went from a $2.7M print shop to projecting $23M this year with 110 employees, 60,000 sq ft, and facilities that essentially never close. Along the way: a full company restructure, two managers who had to move on, 15% raises across the leadership team, and a deliberate shift from being an operator to being a coach.
Running 210 people, 12 automatic presses, three shifts, and 30,000+ units per day isn't a hustle story — it's a manufacturing story. Rodney McDonald of US ColorWorks built one of the most operationally sophisticated contract decorating shops in the country by bringing private equity turnaround discipline to the apparel industry.
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