We were lucky to catch up with Gabby & Eric Trujillo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gabby & Eric, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?
It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be successful. It’s not an easy task nor is it easy for anyone to achieve. You have to struggle first to see success. We as a team have struggled before actually reaching success; but it doesn’t mean you won’t come across days where you’re not successful. It’s overcoming those days that makes you successful. To be successful you have to do right by your business, right by you, and by your team. You have to think about what is best for everyone involved. There’s a lot of networking involved, marketing, customer service, designing, coding, and being involved in your company. Building a network for your business is the same as building a family; it is to help your business succeed and thrive. Marketing is always key to success because you have to let people know what’s new to your business, when, and where they can purchase your items or meet you. Customer service isn’t an easy job because you want to make sure that the people who are buying from you are happy with their purchase. You also want to have a connection with your customer; to be able to hold a conversation with them; because that’s when they’ll know that you actually do care about them and you’re not in business just to make money. Designing and coding fall under the same category because this set of skills, at times takes months or years to perfect. You’re constantly working on perfecting your skill and trying to make your work distinctive from others. Stay true to who you are and to your brand. If at the moment you aren’t succeeding don’t give up. Running a business needs a lot of dedication and hardwork but it also needs their owner to not only oversee the work that is being done but also helping with that work too. When a business owner is involved with their business you can see a difference on how everything is being ran compared to someone who isn’t present or physically involved with their business. You can always tell the difference when the owner is just as excited as their customer when they speak about a favorite item or talk about how an item was made. But for us success is when people requests for us to be a part of their conventions, their markets, to do an interview, to guide them through their business ventures, and when customers enjoy the items they purchased.
Gabby & Eric, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
GETs Prop Shop & More didn’t start until I married my wife. I use to build props until I hit a roadblock, but she brought back that creative side of me that I had once lost. My wife guided me in creating props I had in mind and she helped me execute the work. She also managed the commissions, so that I can solely focus on creating and designing new props for people. Two individuals suggested we apply for conventions. They encouraged us to do more artwork than just props and we slowly but surely stepped away from only making props. We now have expanded our skills to designing and creating coasters, pop sockets, buttons, and wood art pieces. Occassionally, we do sell consignment items for friends and family but our shop mainly focuses on our designs. We sometimes get commission requests and when we do it’s always fun to work on because at times some of the commissions take us away from our comfort zones and pushes us to perfect what we are creating.
We’re trying to create a family environment and encourage parents and children to find a balance with one another and spend time together through anime, like how I (Gabby) grew up. I watched anime with my family growing up and it broguht us closer together because we were able to talk and discuss episodes and characters. Sometimes social media and the internet takes family time away from us and before we know it, it’s too late to get back the time that we once had. Creating connections with people and helping people create those connections is what sets us apart from everyone else because we want everyone to feel included. We’re not in business just to make money but to see everyone happy.
We’re proud of our business because we’re very different. We like to standout and not follow in line with others. We enjoy the fact that people either scream, can’t catch their breath, or just amazed by the items at our booth. That makes us really happy because we know that we’re doing something right. We’ve had people of all ages come up to us and talk to us about their favorite shows or characters. We always enjoy hearing their stories and experiences they have. We’ve had parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles come up to us and say that they have no idea what anything on our table is but they know for a fact that its anime. They always say how embarrassed they are because they want to buy an item for someone but they don’t know what the show is called or their favorite character’s name. So, in order to make them feel comfortable we always say, “Describe the character or show as best as you can and we’ll go from there.” Which eases their anxiety and helps them relax and not feel embarrassed. Occassionally, we’ll get the, “Sometimes I just don’t know what I’m doing or getting.” The best and easiest response is, “At least you’re trying and that’s what counts the most.” Which always puts a smile on their face and gives them a nudge of confidence. We want to make sure everyone feels welcomed when they stop by our booth and leave happy regardless if they purchased an item from us or not.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Eric and I first met in 2014 working retail at the mall. After a few months working Eric decided to leave the company. We never kept in touch after he left because we weren’t really close and I also didn’t like him. It wasn’t until 2 years later I was eating at the food court and was watching a music video from Hot Topic’s tv and he noticed me but I didn’t see him. It wasn’t until these two girls were walking past him and in front of me that I noticed a guy checking out these two females and I just thought, “wow dude, can you be anymore obvious.” The two females started giggling and fixing themselves as he walked towards them, but to mine and their surprise he walked past them and headed straight to me. I didn’t understand why he was walking towards me and that’s when it hit me. I realized who it was and I thought, “great, this guy again.” He walked me back to work and said he would see me around. A few days later a mutual friend of ours asked me if I wanted to go and see the midnight premiere of Deadpool. I said, “yes!” He told me it would be us and another friend of his and I said, “okay, cool.” What I didn’t anticipate was for our mutual friend to “callout sick” and basically have me on a blind date with Eric. After the movie, we headed to Dragon’s Lair since I had never been there before. We talked about our favorite Marvel and DC characters. We both came to a better understanding of each other and I realized he wasn’t such a terrible person as he portrayed himself to be. But if you were to ask Eric to tell the story he would say, “Gabby was so in love with me that she had to fire me from the company just to go out with me. And I also predicted each of the events that happened. That we would start dating on Valentine’s Day and she would marry me.” I didn’t fire him from the company since I was just an employee and not in a manager position. However, he did predict the outcomes. We started dating Valentine’s Day; in 2019 we got engaged; in 2020 we got married; and lastly within the same year of our marriage we built our business together.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
When we first started joining Conventions and Markets within the Texas area we didn’t really know what to expect. But we were lucky enough to have been placed next to some amazing vendors who were veterans at Conventions and Markets. They were nice enough to give us advice, critiques, and guide us through future endeavors. We also realized that being ourselves can also set us apart from other people too. Having the opportunity to network yourself and your company helps build that reputation. Once you’re able to do that, people will talk, and discuss you and your business. When that happens at times other people who own Markets or Conventions will reach out to you and request for you to be a part of their showcase. There are times when owners of Conventions or Markets are scouting for vendors and if you’re being genuine they’ll defintiely reach out to you. That’s when you know you’ve done an amazing job. Anytime, you’re networking or just being true to who you are you’re able to make so many connections. We never dreamed that a lot of our customers would only recognize us as the coaster people or the couple that matches. It does make us happy when we have returning customers and we hear, “it’s the coaster people or the matching couple.” Our reputation is built around our products and ourselves.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @getspropshop
- Facebook: GET’s Prop Shop & More
- Other: TikTok: @getspropshop
Image Credits
Logo Credit: Travis Burkett Mascot Credit from Fivrr: @mikedrawart; @shadow_slayer; @fruxeyot; @yoru_plus