A Couple of Hard to Swallow Observations

This weekend I was trying to think of a tip to share, but instead I checked my Instagram messages. I came across a couple of questions from a shop called Tinta Negra in Chihuahua, Mexico, and I think they’re worth sharing. Erick Mullen from Tinta Negra asked me two great questions.

1. “What is a skill you wish you had developed earlier in your career?”

This one really made me stop and think. There isn’t just one answer—but early on, one of my biggest struggles was learning how to communicate with my employees and being mindful of how I was impacting them, both professionally and psychologically.

At my skateboard shop and indoor skate park, employees would have worked for free just to be there. They were young, easy to manage, and the culture made sense. But when it came to running a screen-printing business, I didn’t realize for a long time that I was the one making things miserable for my team.

I’ll never forget when one of my employees—a big, tattooed, intimidating-looking guy—told me he cried his way home most days because of the stress I put on him. That hit me hard. For years I operated under the excuse that I grew up working for WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam vets who drilled into me to “just deal with it” and “toughen up, buttercup.” I did benefit from learning how to work under bikers and vets, but that approach made me inconsiderate.

When my wife finally told me that multiple employees were coming to her with complaints about my lack of empathy, it was a wake-up call. Around that time, I heard a piece on NPR about a consultant who coached older business owners on how to employ millennials. One line stuck with me:

“You have to make the work environment pleasant enough for your employees to spend most of their waking hours in.”

When someone in the audience pushed back, saying his millennial employees were useless and needy, the consultant cut him off:

“Fred, I’ve been to your factory. It’s hot, wet, and dark. It’s miserable. No wonder you can’t keep people. Buy some lighting.”

That was a gut check for me. My building was bright and cheerful—but I was the dark cloud.

Takeaway: If you want the best out of your team, you have to make your workplace a positive environment. Build a culture that encourages pride, celebrates strengths, and makes people want to get better. Recognize and celebrate more than you criticize. It’s not weakness—it’s leadership.

2. “Since you’ve seen screen printing in both Mexico and the U.S., what could we gain from each other?”

This is a fascinating one, and I’ve thought about it a lot.

In Mexico, I see incredible printing being done with very basic tools and equipment. Most printers are working manually, honing classic skills that are quickly disappearing in the U.S. and being replaced by automation. In contrast, printers in the U.S. often rely on advanced tools—hot heads, roller squeegees, micro-registration, automated presses—to hit consistent results faster.

The reality is that in the U.S., costs keep rising—property taxes, wages, rent—so efficiency and output per hour have become critical to survival. In Mexico, I see shops pouring more time into each garment, often using small-scale table printing, carousel tables, or curing with flash units or heat presses. These methods produce beautiful results but can eat up production time.

In short:

• Mexican printers could benefit from more efficient registration systems, automation, and presses with fixed heads to increase per-hour profitability. However, the cost is very high for some of these tools.

• U.S. printers could benefit from exercising more humility and remembering the craft. Too many rely on “training wheels” technology. Without their tools, a lot of self-proclaimed “master printers” would be lost.

I know this is a blanket statement that may offend people. But keep this in mind—it’s a general observation I’ve made from the few thousand shops I’ve visited domestically. There are a lot of elite-level printers in the U.S., but most of these printers are people no one has heard of because they guard what they know so fiercely or are about to retire.

So, my advice to printers from my home country is simply this: Exercise humility. I have witnessed world-class printing with the bare minimum of resources from people no one will ever hear about. Don’t believe that the reason the shop down the street from you turns out better prints is because they have the newest, expensive machines. I’ve said it several times—modern-day screen printing in the U.S. is “screen printing with training wheels.”

Master the equipment you have before going further into debt.

At the end of the day, screen printing is a balance of skill, culture, and tools. Whether you’re in Mexico, the U.S., or anywhere else, the real challenge—and opportunity—is building a shop where people love the craft, respect each other, and take pride in the work.

After all—this is a skill-based industry.