We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Monty Patterson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Monty below.
Alright, Monty thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job
As a young person, just a few years out of college, I was promoted from the manager of the produce buying department for a division of a large retail grocer to the position of assistant produce merchandising director. In the new position, my primary responsibilities were related to the pricing, advertising, and merchandising of products in the produce departments for our division of approximately 125 stores. Also, I was responsible for communicating with our stores, store operations, distribution centers, and other key segments of the business. This meant that I would be doing a lot of public speaking of which I had done very little in the past. At the time, I was very uncomfortable standing in front of a group of people and speaking – and it showed. My earliest presentations were dreadful even though I put a lot of time in preparing for them. I quickly recognized that the most successful associates in our company were all good to very good speakers. I made a commitment to myself that I was going to become one of those very good speakers. I was willing to work hard – I just needed a plan, and I began asking others who I felt were good speakers for suggestions on how to improve my public speaking skills. Eventually my supervisor suggested that I look into joining a Toastmasters Club.
For those of you who are not familiar with Toastmasters, it is a nonprofit U.S. based organization that specializes in helping people improve their communications, public speaking, and leadership skills. There are Toastmasters clubs all over the world, and the cost of membership is very nominal when you consider the improved skillset you can obtain with a dedicated effort. Don’t get me wrong, it does take work to maximize your benefits, but if you join a club that’s a good fit for you, not only will you improve the above mentioned skills, but you will meet many interesting people, have a lot of fun, learn all kinds of things from the other club members, and gain a tremendous amount of satisfaction in seeing yourself grow as a professional.
Well, as it turns out, I joined a local Toastmasters club that had a huge impact on me. The program I joined had approximately 15-20 members that attended weekly meetings. The meetings are (or at least were, in my case) structured in a way where one member would lead the group for that particular week’s meeting. This was done on a voluntary basis. The session would begin with a welcoming speech delivered by that week’s volunteer leader. He or she would also welcome guests and new members at this time. Following this, the leader would suggest a topic that he would like for someone to do a short impromptu speech on, and he would randomly call out a member’s name to stand and deliver the speech. This would be repeated 3-4 times during each session, and I soon found that I would look him directly in the eye when it was a topic that I felt I could do a relatively good job with. If it was a subject I was uncomfortable with, I would sometimes try to avoid eye contact in hopes that he would not call on me. Guess what? Neither of these tactics seemed to work, at least not for me! I was rarely asked to speak when it was obvious to the leader I was eager to do so. I was almost always asked to speak when I avoided making eye contact with the class leader. At times, it was frightening, tough, difficult, and maybe even embarrassing for me, but in the end I was very grateful to be challenged in this manner. Being pushed outside of my comfort zone really helped me grow as a professional. The last portion of each week’s meeting was saved for members to deliver prepared speeches. We would usually have 2-3 speakers delivering a prepared speech each week. It was this portion of the sessions that I found to be the most beneficial for me. I would strive to present a prepared speech about once every 4-5 weeks. I worked hard to find topics that I felt the audience would be interested in learning about. I would then write an outline for the speech and practice it as much as possible. In total I would generally spend anywhere between 5 and ten hours on a presentation. I soon realized the more time I spent practicing the speech the better it went. The sense of accomplishment I felt after each successful speech was energizing – this sensation would push me to work even harder to continue to improve. Also, the feedback from the other club members was extremely valuable and further improved my performance. It was obvious we were all there to support one another, encourage each other to keep striving for improvement, and assist them in any way possible.
I believe the most important lesson I have ever learned in a career that spans quite a few decades is this. Focus – really focus on growing your leadership skills. Make sacrifices and put whatever amount of time necessary into growing these skills. Seriously consider joining a Toastmasters club. If the first club you visit doesn’t seem like a good fit, visit another – I know in my heart there’s a club near you that will help you to become a more effective leader. I’m confident you will be so very happy that you did these things as you move further along your career path. Opportunities will present themselves that you would have never been considered for without obtaining these skills, so please make the commitment to become an effective leader now. Establish goals, work hard, and take no shortcuts in developing theses skills. The rewards will be in direct correlation with the level of dedication you put into striving to become the best leader you can become.
In summary, I would like to say that I know from my own experiences that my participation in our local Toastmasters Club all those years ago played a huge roll in the successes I’ve achieved, both as a member of corporate America, and as a business owner. Also, these experiences have enriched my life immensely in numerous ways, and they have made it possible for me to have a positive impact on the lives of so many people – and for this I’m very grateful!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Up until recently, Virtual Packaging’s main products were packaging prototypes and 3 dimensional renderings produced for consumer goods companies. Our expertise, technology, and proprietary processes permit us to produce most any type of packaging found in retail stores – including a wide assortment of folding cartons, bags of all types, shrinks sleeves, labels, boxes, and any other custom packaging a client can dream of. Our technology enables us to produce an order of just one package up to several thousand prototype packages.
These prototype packages are indistinguishable from the packages you have in your cupboard or pantry. They are used in boardrooms, in brand management meetings, distributed for focus group testing, presented to retail buyers, and are considered essential for many other marketing initiatives. We’ve even had some of our products featured in highly viewed advertisements – including Super Bowl ads!
In 2019, Virtual Packaging launched what I, and many others in the folding carton industry, believe was the most technologically advanced folding carton business in the world. By partnering with two Israeli organizations, Landa Digital Printing, and Highcon Systems, we entered the folding carton industry and immediately made an impact that our clients had only dreamed of. Both devices, the Landa S10 Press, and the Highcon Beam cutting and creasing system, use digital technology. This means that traditional plates and dies are no longer required to print, cut, and crease packages. The technologies provide us with the abilities to shorten lead times, dramatically reduce our carbon footprint, and produce shorter packaging runs at prices much lower than traditional technologies can achieve. By incorporating these revolutionary technologies into our processes we are able to help our clients improve cash flow and reduce both inventories and the need for warehousing space because of our just-in-time manufacturing capabilities. In addition to these most desirable benefits, we are now capable of providing superior quality folding carton packaging when compared to those produced via traditional technologies. The Landa S10 press uses Nano technology which permits it to print 96% of Pantone colors and images with a quality that has never before been achieved with digital technology. It achieves this amazing feat while using dramatically less ink to produce folding carton packaging that is sure to catch the eye of shoppers in any retail environment.
Even with the successes and achievements we have attained over the years, I’m still most proud of our staff. I enjoy spending time with them and cherish the memories we’ve made. Unfortunately, I don’t get to spend as much time with them as I have in the past, but I have to say being with them is something I’m very grateful for. They are a dedicated and talented group of high achievers who strongly believe in delivering the highest quality products in the market. In addition to this, they provide a level of customer service that goes way beyond what is expected by our clients. We oftentimes hear comments from clients who didn’t think a project was possible to complete in time to meet their needs, but much to their surprise, not only was it completed, but it was achieved without reducing the product quality and service level they have come to expect from the Virtual Packaging team.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
One of my favorite stories to share about the Virtual Packaging team showcases just how much the group enjoys accepting what many of our clients perceive to be impossible challenges and to overcome these challenges in a way that pleases – really pleases our clients! This particular story occurred on the day that we launched our folding carton division. It was in the mid-afternoon, around 3pm when we received a call from Mary’s Gone Crackers. Their team was finishing up an order for a large retailer when they suddenly realized they were 4,000 folding cartons short of completing the order. In this case, the retailer needed the entire order completed and shipped on time or the order would be cancelled. It appeared there were no alternatives for the Mary’s Gone Crackers team and that they were going to lose the order. Then someone on their team found us on the Internet and decided to give us a call to see if we could help. I’m not certain, but I believe they thought there was little hope of turning a folding carton job around in time to meet their client’s needs. As you may or may not know, lead times for folding carton orders can be as long as 4-6 weeks. So, as you can see, the picture was one that was very bleak.
Well, to sum up the story in as few words as possible, our new technology – the Landa S10 Press and the Highcon Beam – along with our tremendously talented team members were able to get the job printed, cut, creased, assembled, and packaged for shipping by 8pm that evening (this was after receiving the art files for the folding cartons at approximately 4pm that afternoon). We overnighted the folding cartons to The Mary’s Gone Crackers team, and they received them the next morning. The entire Mary’s Gone Crackers order shipped to the retailer on time. Their client, the retailer, was happy! The Mary’s Gone Crackers team was thrilled!! And the Virtual Packaging team was basking in the glory of accomplishing something that, until that moment, had never been accomplished before. What makes me the most proud of this accomplishment was that this particular folding carton production run was the first job to ever be completed and shipped in our new division! Talk about setting the bar high! The Virtual Packaging team sure did so on this one!! And they continue to increase the bar’s height on a daily basis!!! I’m so proud of them!!!!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I believe our focus on providing outstanding customer service at all times is the single largest reason for Virtual Packaging’s success. We do whatever is necessary to keep our clients happy. For instance, we have a large west coast consumer packaged goods company (Nestle) and a Canadian protein supplement manufacturer that are clients of ours. Both sometimes have a need for our services that come up late in the day. They will often call and say something like “I need six prototypes of 18 different designs on my desk in the morning. Can you do it?” Our response is almost always, “yes.” We only say, “no” in cases where we know there’s a considerable chance we could fail to meet the client’s needs. In cases like these, we will always strive to come up with solutions that will provide them with options that will satisfy their needs. And you know what? It’s extremely rare that we don’t get a phone call the next morning saying how grateful they are for our support.
As with all teams, the Virtual Packaging team is human, and we do occasionally make mistakes, and when we do, we readily admit them, then we go right to work to resolve the issue. In this case, our goal is to perform at such a high level that the client is quick to realize how much they mean to us, and that when they think of Virtual Packaging in the future, they recall our exceptional performance in correcting the issue, not the fact that we made a mistake to begin with.
Virtual Packaging has a reputation for accepting responsibility for resolving issues created by others outside of our organization such as: designers, engineers, as well as freight and shipping companies that occasionally fail to deliver orders on time. We don’t believe in making excuses and work to minimize the negative effects of elements outside of our realm of control – even severe weather! By acting in this manner we take control of our ability to properly service our clients’ needs and minimize any pain caused by others outside of the Virtual Packaging organization. We believe in performing at this level even if it means that we lose money on a job – that’s how important providing outstanding customer service is to us!
Contact Info:
- Website: Virtualpackaging.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/virtualpkg
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/virtual-packaging/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/virtualpacktx