Crafting Success: Vox Pop Uli’s Impact on Local Business

Andrew and Daniel Hajduk, father and son of VOX-POP-ULI, discuss their family business specializing in custom printing, embroidery, and laser engraving with host Rico Figliolini. The Hajduks share their journey through the evolution of printing technology and their approach to creating impactful branding for businesses. Discover how this family-owned business adapts and thrives in a rapidly changing industry. Don’t miss their insights into the power of branding and the joy of bringing client visions to life. Join us to learn how a commitment to quality and community shapes the future of a business.

Resources:
Vox Pop Uli Website: https://vox-pop-uli.com/
Facebook: / voxpopuli.inc
LinkedIn: / vox-pop-uli
Instagram: / vox_pop_uli

Timestamp:
00:00:00 – Vox-Pop-Uli: Adapting to Changing Technology
00:03:52 – Customizing Solutions for Clients
00:06:05 – Branding Importance for Clients
00:08:56 – Providing Seamless Solutions for Businesses
00:11:38 – Delivering Quality and Value in Business Relationships
00:14:37 – Diversifying Marketing Strategies for Business Growth
00:18:11 – Commitment and Adaptation in Challenging Times
00:22:00 – Hiring for Attitude and Growth Mindset
00:23:59 – Fostering a Growth-Oriented Workplace Culture
00:26:49 – Navigating Deadlines and Expectations in the Promotional Products Industry
00:28:45 – The Evolving Landscape of Business and Community Growth
00:30:55 – The Rise of Retail Density in Peachtree Corners
00:33:45 – Navigating Family Dynamics in the Workplace

Podcast Transcript

00:00:00 – Rico Figliolini

Hey, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. Appreciate you being here with us, listening to this either on a podcast through Apple or iHeartRadio or Spotify or on Facebook on our live stream or YouTube as well. So I have some great guests today, father, son, Andrew, and Daniel Hajduk from Vox Pop Uli. It’s a business that I’m highly familiar with, the space and the industry. I have done some work in it a little bit early on when I was younger. God, when I was younger. But, you know, you do need experience in this business, and it doesn’t change. So, you know, putting things on objects, creating marketing collateral, this is what you all guys do, right? I mean, so tell us a little bit, Andrew, where this all goes.

00:00:46 – Andrew Hajduk

So, hi, my name’s Andrew Hajduk, and I’m the president of Vox Pop Uli. I started the company in 1996. At that time, I had a partner. We worked for a company that was kind of similar to this. Although the technology’s changed, but we thought we were smarter, we thought we were better and decided to go out on our own. We had a couple of clients that followed us and since then have always just worked to be super responsive to our clients and go where the technology is going. You know, when we started the company, digital printing didn’t exist. And we’ve gotten big into digital printing. We’ve gone into embroidery, into laser engraving. and all the different things that help companies communicate their brand.

00:01:29 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, it’s interesting. I think it was Curiosity Lab. Someone from there that told me, listen, I think they tried to do Louisville Sluggers, the bat. And they needed something printed on it. And they were like, you guys can’t do this, can you? I forget what the quantity was ridiculously small considering, you know, it could have been a thousand or 500, but it was a small number. You guys were able to do that too, I think. Just knock it out.

00:01:51 – Andrew Hajduk

We’re actually on the next generation of that, and I don’t want to spoil anybody’s surprise until that one gets unveiled. But, yeah, we did the first generation that the city used in some travel and some promotions, and it was a pretty cool combination because it was a little mini bat that was engraved and printed with city branding with the logos for Curiosity Labs and some of the city stuff.

00:02:13 – Rico Figliolini

It’s cool. I saw that on my little tour that you guys gave me, so I appreciate seeing that because that sort of got my mind moving along about what else can he imprint? Like if I give him something, can he do it?

00:02:22 – Andrew Hajduk

That’s, that’s, you know, one of the things that we love to do. And one of the things that we love about this location and where we’re at and serving the people that we do is we love getting people in here because you get to see what we do. But once you walk around, you see that and you’re like, okay, well, could we do this? Or could I do that? It’s always a lot of fun to walk people through here because they see what we do. Then they start to kind of make it their own and see their logo on things.

00:02:52 – Rico Figliolini

And Daniel, you’re in marketing and you’ve been here about two and a half years with your dad, I think, right?

00:02:57 – Daniel Hajduk

Yeah, about two and a half years. The summer of 2022, after I completed four years in the Navy, I wanted to… I realized I wanted to get back to something like this, something that doesn’t feel like work most of the time, something that you’re growing something constantly and doing something different every single day, like the bats. I mean, that morning, no idea we’d print on bats, but that came up the next day, and we have bats going, and we’re even in the back right now working on the new edition, and it’s really fun.

00:03:26 – Rico Figliolini

You can’t share what that is?

00:03:30 – Andrew Hajduk

Not yet. I don’t want to get in trouble with the city. First dibs.

00:03:34 – Rico Figliolini

I’m just kidding. Did the military background help you a little bit?

00:03:39 – Daniel Hajduk

Yes. One thing I like to, I always ask them and question them on why we do things a certain way. Why do we do it like this? How did you learn how to do this? Now, why is it like this? So it gave me an experience of… One thing the military is really good at is structure with things. And I love mixing that, the strengths of that with our kind of complete customization on everything we can do. And so really just maximizing what we can do for clients, what we can do for ourselves at the best potential.

00:04:10 – Rico Figliolini

A bit of problem solving sometimes when a client comes to you and you’re not sure, they’re not sure maybe, and you have to guide them a little bit.

00:04:18 – Andrew Hajduk

It’s trying to figure out, and we ask a lot of questions, and there’s folks that we work phenomenally well with, and we’ve got some really good long -term relationships. And sometimes it’s tough because in that initial period, we do ask a lot of questions because I’m going to try to help you get to what you’re trying to do. And I’ve got another customer who says, hey, one of the things I like about you guys is you give me what I need, not what I always ask for. But that’s what we’re trying to figure out is, okay, how are you going to use this? Who’s going to be putting it together? How’s it going to be distributed? All of those things to try to maybe get to a better idea. Maybe not. And maybe what we originally started with is the best way, but we try to get there.

00:05:02 – Rico Figliolini

Is there a philosophy that you want to share? I mean, I sense a philosophy in here.

00:05:07 – Andrew Hajduk

We do whatever it takes to make a customer look successful. And that is the greatest reward for us. I mean, I love the project business. We love doing things. We’re not coming in here. Daniel mentioned the bats, different things. We don’t come in here and do the same thing every single day. But there’s no greater reward than when we see our stuff on TV at the Army-Navy game, when we did a bunch of stuff for the Sun Bowl, when we saw that come back and clients are sending us pictures or showing us how things work out. And which ultimately leads to the greatest reward of all is somebody saying, hey, here’s somebody else in my company that you should be working with.

00:05:52 – Rico Figliolini

It’s interesting. I mean, obviously, you’re based here in Peachtree Corners, state of Georgia, but your stuff goes all over the place. Trade shows in Vegas, I’m sure, West Coast and all over the place. What type of clients? I know in sales, you always ask, I guess, what’s your preferred prospect, your lead? Like, who is your client? Who would you say, even if it’s a variety of clients, how would you describe that?

00:06:17 – Andrew Hajduk

So I think, and it sounds kind of funny to say this sometimes, but the best client is first and one that has a similar mindset that we do, that believes that it’s important to brand. It’s important to get your name, your logo, your look out there. There’s a lot of guys out there, and a big portion of our business is we work with a lot of retailers. And we have retail customers that don’t market a ton. They don’t worry about what the appearance of the store is and things like that. And, you know, that ultimately gets reflected. But if you want to convey a certain image, right, and it doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money, but if your branding is important, if consistent branding is important, if getting the word out there, right, and even for our B2B clients, we’ve got some great B2B clients here in Peachtree Corners right behind us as well. And they care. They want their employees to feel special. They want their associates to look good. It’s important that their people look good in the marketplace. And that’s the best kind of client.

00:07:21 – Rico Figliolini

I’ve been following you a bit on LinkedIn and commenting and engaging a little bit on some of your posts. I saw one that had a deal, I think it was with truck wraps, which really hit home for me because I totally don’t understand why people can’t get it into their head there. After three years of something, you really do want to refresh it. It’s almost like a restaurant that opens up in another restaurant space and keeps their awnings in sort of the three -year -old, four -year -old decorations outside rather than replacing it all. This way you look like a new place. How do you do that? How do you work with people that, you know, I’m sure you’re doing other things with them, but you may say to them, you know, that awning needs to be replaced or something.

00:08:08 – Andrew Hajduk

I try to bring it up. We probably wrap an average of 600 vehicles a year for our clients. And one of the questions that we often get asked is, how long is it going to last? And my response is, it’s going to last far longer than its useful life, meaning that it’s going to stop disrupting the environment. We have a phrase that I like to use around here. I said, you’ve got to be tastefully obnoxious. Right? You’ve got to get people’s attention because over time, everything starts to blend into the environment. And so, you know, if it’s we don’t think of our vehicles in terms of marketing budget. And quite honestly, it’s the lowest cost per impression that you can get out there. And we should be looking at it and not just rewrapping a vehicle either when we get a new one or when we wreck it.

00:08:56 – Rico Figliolini

I mean, that makes sense. I mean, they drive their vehicles around, they park. Maybe in front of their retail place of their restaurant and catering. I mean, there’s a value for it to look a certain way. You don’t want it to look dingy if you’re providing food. Like, there’s just a real value, I think, in how you present yourself. So when it comes to marketing then, how do you approach companies? How are you getting your business leads?

00:09:24 – Daniel Hajduk

So a lot of our business has come from other clients of ours. So one person works at X company. They either move to that company or have a friend at this company. They use us there. So it’s kind of just a domino effect of people just notice what we can do for them. And it just keeps growing and keeps growing and keeps growing. Beginning of last year, we took a different approach and we really got aggressive, I would say, with trying to really focus here in the Atlanta area to service everyone around us and just really grow with everyone. Like our neighbors next door or someone two miles down the road or anyone here in the city, we know that there’s opportunity because there’s so many great businesses in the area and everyone needs what we’re doing. And we know so many people struggle with something that shouldn’t be a hassle on their end. It should be something they send to us and we take care of and we deliver beyond their expectations.

00:10:18 – Rico Figliolini

I was reading some of your branding in the foyer, in the entrance. And one of the lines was to, something that’s used quite a bit, but it’s interesting, not everyone follows through, turnkey operation. Make it silly stupid for people. Make it so easy for them that when you deliver the job, it’s done, they don’t have to worry about anything.

00:10:43 – Daniel Hajduk

We had a, this is why we see that there’s all this opportunity here and just Peachtree Corners alone. We had a lady come in from a company that’s on the other side of that intersection down there, and she called in and mentioned that she needed help with hats because the hat order she had got canceled on someone online right before the event, and they weren’t going to be able to get it to her in time. She called in and said, hey, come in, let’s take a look, and we’ll figure this out. She came in about 10 minutes later, and within five minutes, we had a hat picked out. We gave her pricing. We had proofs to her that evening. And we had the job two or two days later. So when I tell someone, getting a bucket of hats shouldn’t be difficult for your event. Getting employee apparel shouldn’t be difficult. Having a trade show backdrop shouldn’t be difficult to get. Whatever you need, it should not be hard. You should not have to be worrying about checking every step for approval. We’ll tell you what we’re going to deliver, tell you when. We’re going to ask you questions. We’re going to need answers. That’s just to guide us to the right product and the right timing.

00:11:47 – Rico Figliolini

Cool. When you’re doing this and there’s value to what you do, right, Andrew? I know pricing is always an issue. Well, not always an issue. I mean, the way I work is that I don’t go for the cheapest. I don’t go for the most expensive. I go for the quality, the delivery, somewhere where I trust that. I can be waiting like all of a sudden I have a job and then that stuff doesn’t show up. But some people worry about pricing. And, you know, how do you make sure you hold your value? You know, because there is a value to what you do.

00:12:25 – Andrew Hajduk

So, you know, I always tell people we should always be in line. You know, are there times we’re going to be more expensive? And if you shop hard enough, you’re going to find something cheaper. We like to tell people we give them back the greatest thing that we can, which is time. You were talking earlier about managing things and going through it and stuff like that. And you shouldn’t have to. It should be straightforward. It should be easy. You shouldn’t have to worry if your colors are correct or is there an instruction sheet with putting the hardware together or am I violating any brand guidelines? We work with a lot of national companies where brand guidelines are important. So we try to do that and we try to be very fair. Quite honestly, you asked about philosophies and things like that and call any of my long-term clients and they’ll tell you that they’ve heard me say this line a thousand times. Here’s the way I look at it. In every relationship, you have a bucket of money. The more I can give you for that, the better we all are. You grow your business, that bucket continues to grow. There’s more opportunity for us to win and we try to have very long-term relationships based on that.

00:13:33 – Rico Figliolini

Going back to what you said, Daniel, referral business because that’s what you were talking about before, right? You’re doing a good job. People refer you. They go to another place. They know the experience with you. You’re going to be the person in that door, in that new company. When you’re dealing with a new business that’s coming in, whether it’s a retail place, restaurant, let’s say that type of business, storefront, let’s say. They’re brand new. They’re not a franchise even because you know, they want to do their own thing. How do you approach a business like that when they come to you? Are there certain staples that you think they should be doing? How does that work?

00:14:15 – Andrew Hajduk

100%. Over the, I had to figure this out for something a couple years ago. And with all the rebrands that we’ve done, all the acquisitions and all the stores we’ve opened over the years, from Wolf Cameras to Aaron’s to Mattress Firms and so forth. We’ve opened over 7,000 stores. And all the way from guys that they’re opening their first unit to their 2,000th, whatever it is. Especially in retail, and I think it’s more important than ever, there’s two things that you have to do. One, you have to create omnipresence, right? So whether that’s being on Facebook, on social media platforms, but also in print and out in the community. We see all the time, right? You’re driving down the road and you drive past a shopping center and you’re like, huh, when did they get there, right? How long have they been there? And maybe they just opened, but they didn’t do a good job of disrupting the environment. I believe big time in guerrilla marketing, getting out there with the businesses. If I was a local restaurant here, I would be going and knocking on doors, especially as people are returning to work, giving them lunch specials, trying to get people out of the office just to drive that traffic. Too many times, and I tell all of my clients this, is we can’t just sit back and wait for people to come. We’ve got to get out there and let the community know we’re there.

00:15:38 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah. I can see what you mean by that. I mean, they’ll be doing the magazine business, for example, right? Which is print, digital, and everything else that comes in there. So we talk to a lot of people, and everyone has their philosophy. And certain businesses work a certain way. Maybe social media works better for them than print. There’s a variety of different things, right? So we tried to produce content as well. But the interesting part to me is this. There’ll be a business in business for six to seven months. They’re all in on social media. And then all of a sudden, six, seven months, eight months later, they’re realizing that’s not working. And they’re not doing anything else but social media. Maybe they’re not going to the festivals. Maybe they’re not going out into the community, which they would need branding to be able to do that. You can’t just show up naked, right? You need that stuff to be able to be out there. I mean, when I participated in Peachtree Corners Festival, you all did my table drape and attire and stuff. I can’t tell you how many people stopped at the booth or passed the booth to say, wow, look, yeah, we get that magazine or we get the sister publication or we listen to their podcast or something. So it was a good, visible place to be.

00:16:56 – Andrew Hajduk

But think about the, you know, you’re older like me. So think about when we used to go to the mall when we were kids and stuff like that. How did the restaurants, how did the Chinese restaurant or the pretzel place or any of those places drum up business? They had people come out from behind the counter and go up and hand people samples and things like that. And that’s the kind of stuff that businesses have lost. Social media has to be a part of it. It absolutely does. But you have to have other things as well. I mean, I see so many businesses that just rely on a single channel of marketing and don’t worry about getting the word out. And we’re all super busy. We drive the same route every single day, stuff like that. And you don’t notice stuff. It’s our job as marketers to disrupt the environment so that when you’re driving by the shopping center, you’re sitting there in the light, you’re going, holy cow, I didn’t realize that that was there. They must be new. I’m going to stop in and try them.

00:17:54 – Rico Figliolini

Yeah, no, perfect. I love that. You’re right. I remember reading, I think it was some ones, the franchise manual for people that started the franchise, right? And this was some years back. I don’t even know if they do it now. But one of the things they did say in there was go check out all the commercial businesses within a two-mile radius. and then within one mile, and go bring them free lunch. Every one of them, free lunch. And, you know, someone may look at that and say, well, that costs money. And it’s just like, think about it. When you’re home and you cook for your guests, and they say, this is wonderful. Don’t you want the same thing? So, yeah, people are afraid, I think, sometimes to spend the money in, but they’ll spend the money in ridiculous ways, but not in other ways.

00:18:41 – Andrew Hajduk

To me, it’s a commitment thing, right? If we want people to make a commitment to us, we have to make a commitment to them. Somebody’s going to have to go first.

00:18:50 – Rico Figliolini

And you started this in 96, you said? 96. So that was, I moved here in 95, actually. That was the year of the Olympics. Olympics is kind of funny that way. I remember back then I used to sell commercial sheet-fed printing. You could be a lousy salesperson and still make good money. And after things stopped around, I forget what year it was now. Things just got a little bad. And salespeople, you could see the tree shake and all the bad ones fell out. Did you feel that way sometimes?

00:19:25 – Andrew Hajduk

We’ve gone through a couple different challenges, right? So we didn’t start because of the Olympics. We had some Olympic work and things like that. But because of when we started, we were a little bit behind the curve there. So a lot of that stuff was already going on. We were fortunate and we had two clients that pushed us to really get the company going and get it off the ground that, you know, so we weren’t kind of in that survival mode from day one. But then you had the dot-com crash, right? In 99, 2000. And there were so many people that were printing just a bunch of stupid stuff. And, you know, you had to get through that. So that was kind of, I always say it’s a flush that we need, but it’s painful to go through.

00:20:09 – Rico Figliolini

Did you see the same thing in 2008?

00:20:11 – Andrew Hajduk

Absolutely. That’s the next one I was going to go to. You know, we were, my two biggest clients in 2008 were Aaron’s Sales and Lease and Mattress Firm. And both Ken Butler and Steve Stagner that ran those companies respectively, they were very much forward thinking. And I remember Steve saying, we’ve got to dial up the advertising. We have to work harder today to get the customer’s dollar than when it was easy. And so, you know, for us, it was good there. But we saw a lot of guys, and especially as digital printing’s gone on, we’ve been on the cutting edge of that since day one. And you’ll see different people jump in, right? Every sign shop comes in and they’re going to buy this. Every T-shirt shop comes in and they’re going to buy this. And it goes on and on. And those are the things that, you know, create some price pressure because everybody wants to give it away. But then during those times, it becomes real tough and you see people start to fall out.

00:21:03 – Rico Figliolini

Printing was that way too. Yeah. And I remember I used to tell the owner of the print shop I was at, commercial printer, $3 million in sales and stuff. Business cards are loss leaders. I’d give them away to be able to walk into a company with 600 employees. Because the minute you got into that hallway, you’re like, everyone’s coming out and saying, do you do this? Do you do that? You don’t even, you’re not bidding anymore at that point. You’re just getting the work.

00:21:29 – Andrew Hajduk

Yeah It was, it’s a, you know, again, when we used to go out more and more, but it was, you could just walk around and pick up back in the day before email and stuff like that. You just walk around and pick up jobs.

00:21:44 – Rico Figliolini

Yes. It’s not like that anymore. So I think, you know, 2008 was a bad one, but I think things have gotten progressively better. Maybe we’re heading into something. Who knows? You know, I mean, people talk about like another real estate, except commercial real estate this time versus residential bubble or something. But when you’re hiring salespeople, what do you look for in them?

00:22:11 – Andrew Hajduk

The number one thing we look for in anybody we hire is attitude. I want to hire people that want to grow. I’ve never had anybody not come to work here because of the money, and I’ve never had anyone leave here because of the money. Does that mean we’re the highest paying people out there? No, I think we’re fair. But we’re also tough on the front end with trying to find people. But I really want people that want to grow. It’s one of our, you had mentioned our boards, our vision boards out in the lobby. That’s one of the things that we look for, right? One of the things that we tell people, we’re into personal development because I think it’s important that for the company to achieve its goals, for the company to go to where it needs to go, you need to achieve your goals concurrently with that. You need to be on that right path. It can’t just be about working harder, working harder, and working harder. You’ve got a vision of where you want to get to. Daniel’s got a vision of where he wants to get to. Everybody here has got a vision of where they want to get to. And they’ve got one, three, and five-year goals. When we can marry those together, that’s when the magic happens.

00:23:20 – Rico Figliolini

So when you’re doing that, and there’s a cross-section of people that you’re dealing with, right? Age groups, diverse people and such. And hiring not just salespeople, but employees, right? You want to be able to hire an employee and know that they’re going to do the right job, even if it’s a part-time job, even if it’s a summer job. Do you put the same type of philosophy into that?

00:23:42 – Andrew Hajduk

100% for every single person here.

00:23:45 – Rico Figliolini

You expect them to show up on time, hopefully, and do the work that they’re supposed to do?

00:23:50 – Andrew Hajduk

We do. And so the back one of that happens first, right? And look, nobody’s sitting here watching door swipes and things like that to sit there and go, oh, Daniel got here at 8:05 today. I better go talk to him or, you know, whatever. I want to hire people that understand we have a job to do. Some days we have to stay late. We had a client that was in a jam the other night. A lot of us were here till about eight o’clock trying to help them out, right? Am I looking? No. We just, we want that mindset of people that want to grow, that want to be better and continue on. And I think, you know, are we a hundred percent at the hiring on that? No, absolutely not. But we continue to get better and better in that, and especially making sure that we’re good on that on the front end. And it’s worked pretty well for us.

00:24:38 – Rico Figliolini

We were talking a little bit about social media before. I’m assuming that’s your ball of wax, if you will.

00:24:44 – Daniel Hajduk

Somewhat. Megan, my sister as well, she’s the main one who manages all that, but we’re trying to come up with some plans to, because ourselves, we have to put ourselves out on social media because there’s nothing you can’t get out there. You have to have social. So you can’t just do print. You can’t just do social, you have to do both because you’re missing one audience. You can’t just do a direct mailer because not everyone’s going to react to a mailer. You can’t just do a TikTok. Not everyone’s going to be on TikTok. No one’s going to be on TikTok soon.

00:25:07 – Rico Figliolini

If that goes through.

00:25:11 – Daniel Hajduk

But the impact of what you can do with the mix of both. So if you start seeing those trucks around and your vehicles around and the signage and the sponsorships around, but you also see their TikTok that’s funny or their Instagram reel or whatever, their Facebook posts. It gets your attention. They’re in your mind. So we’re really trying to dial that in with ourselves because we do a lot of cool stuff here. And like we said, when we bring people in to show them something, no one usually leaves here underwhelmed. Everyone’s like, wow. I had a guy that I saw again for the first time a couple nights ago for the first time since he was here. He was telling people, you guys have to go there and check it out. It’s impressive. People think, I got people who give it nicknames and everything because they think it’s just some amazing place where all the things come to life. And they say, hey, I’m looking for this. Like you said, the bats. Even if it’s just a banner, it’s just so cool to see it in action. And that’s what we’re trying to put out there.

00:26:10 – Rico Figliolini

It’s funny because when I walked in the back, I’m thinking, this is big, but it’s not huge. But you have so much packed in there that you’re doing. Every square foot has a usable, there’s a reason for something to be there. And yeah, I felt the same way. I felt like my mind was going, what can I use this for? What can I, what can I bring here? Who do I know that I want to market to that I could do their marketing and then, and use what you’re doing here.

00:26:39 – Daniel Hajduk

That’s the fun thing is literally you said, how do we, when we start working with someone, how do, what do we start with? Usually we don’t have to dig too deep. Someone needs something, whether it is just some signage, whether it is apparel, whether it is a marketing piece to use at an event or a promotional item. We start somewhere, then we can grow into the rest. So you don’t have to be able to, let’s do everything in a box. No, just come in and do one thing, and with time naturally, it’ll take over.

00:27:07 – Rico Figliolini

You do design work in-house also, I think, right? And you’re setting expectations for people because a lot of businesses are busy themselves and all of a sudden their deadlines become your rush deadlines. And, you know, they’re waiting until the last minute and then like, we need it tomorrow. And you guys are stuck like delivering. Setting expectations the right way, I guess.

00:27:32 – Andrew Hajduk

That’s one of the biggest challenges. Like we always joke around here, you know, I mean, the CFP is here on Monday night. I am sure that, you know, tomorrow we’re going to hear something about, well, we just about got it ready. Right? And it’s like, they’re not going to move the day to the football game, but we still have to get the stuff done.

00:27:49 – Rico Figliolini

Right, right. You mentioned, we talked a little bit about community involvement. So I just want to go back there for a little bit. You’re on the, I think it was the Development Authority?

00:27:59 – Andrew Hajduk

Yeah, the DDA, the Downtown Development Authority.

00:28:01 – Rico Figliolini

In the city of Peachtree Corners.

00:28:02 – Andrew Hajduk

Yes, sir.

00:28:04 – Rico Figliolini

You’re seeing a lot of things. You know, obviously, some of it is, it’s all development work, not redevelopment per se. Although some things could be considered redevelopment. So do you look at that and does that give you a different perspective when you come walking into your business?

00:28:21 – Andrew Hajduk

Yeah, it does. It all kind of plays together because you see one of the things that we’ve been going through and I think that you’re going to see a ton of this. We’re seeing it with our customers in and outside of Peachtree Corners, but you see it in Tech Park and different things, is the return to work mandate, which is huge.

00:28:40 – Rico Figliolini

Are you seeing that?

00:28:41 – Andrew Hajduk

We have several Fortune 50 clients that have gone five days in office beginning January 6th. So I think you’re going to continue to see that trickle down, right? As the new administration takes hold, you know, in the next week or so, that’s one of their big things and stuff. And personally, look, I believe that there needs to be way more return to work, right? There are some jobs that can be done, but not every job. You see what we do here. I can’t put printers in people’s house. So we have to come in. But I think that that’s important. So as you see those trends involved in the city, right, and the kind of businesses that are coming in, then we start thinking, okay, how does that impact our business? How does that impact our marketing efforts? Right? What opportunities does that give us and things like that? But I also like seeing from a community perspective, having the right mix. This city has done a really good job of balanced growth with the kind of retail they have, the kind of business that they’re bringing in. And it’s just a really nice balance to drive around and see. I’ve seen other cities where every single shopping center has a vape store, a nail salon, and a massage parlor. And there’s seven of them within a mile, but they don’t have any of the big national retailers. They don’t have the tech companies and all of that other stuff to come in and you’ve got to have that balance in a community for it to survive.

00:30:15 – Rico Figliolini

And it’s a bit different. We were talking just before we started about Johns Creek, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Chamblee, Brookhaven. I mean, all very different from each other. I mean, when you look at it and compare it to here, different types of stores, even different people.

00:30:32 – Andrew Hajduk

Absolutely. And so, you know, not to pick on them, but, you know, Johns Creek was home for us. It’s where all three of my kids grew up and where my wife and I lived for 28 years. And they were super strict on the signs. And a lot of national retailers didn’t want to come to Johns Creek. It was tougher for them. And the way then every shopping center got developed. Literally within our house, you know, when we moved, because I would go out and run, I could run past seven vape shops and not even be at a mile. Not that there’s that, you know, again, you’ve got to have that right balance and stuff like that, but it can’t all be that because we are going to see a lot of empty retail if that’s the only places that we can go in.

00:31:16 – Rico Figliolini

I mean, eventually, I mean, so if we talk about the Forum, for example, they had 17 stores empty, storefronts empty. I would drive through and I would literally count how many stores were empty. Now, I don’t think there’s, I think there’s maybe one or two that still doesn’t have a sign lease to that I’m aware of. Not that they share their information with me, but it’s almost completely filled. And there’s more density coming, right? So the apartment Solus, I think, is going to be opening as soon as they finish. Broadstone down the block is like 95% at least. And they were leasing really fast. I mean, faster than they thought, ahead of schedule. So that just tells you that people do want to be here because it’s a straight shot down to into Atlanta from Peachtree Parkway. So if you’re going to go into work, this would be a good place.

00:32:09 – Andrew Hajduk

And you have a Town Center. I mean, let’s not, you know, and as we moved, the business moved here in 2005, and that was before Peachtree Corners existed, we were still in Norcross. And then in 2012, when the city became a city, so that’s why I say we’ve been here since that time. But we were just down the road in Northwoods. I didn’t see it when they developed Town Center. I was over there maybe a year or so ago for a Peachtree Corners Business Association breakfast. Eight o’clock in the morning, I was amazed. There was people out there doing yoga on the grass and things like that. And if you go by there on a Friday night when they’re doing something and you’re trying to pick up pizza or something like that, it is absolutely jam-packed. So they have that center that everybody comes in and these things to help gather around, which is just really a part of the smart development of it.

00:33:10 – Rico Figliolini

I can’t wait until Paulitan Row opens. That’s going to be great. And I think it’s Millie’s Pizza, a new pizza place in the jewel box right up front there. Alright, just to sort of wrap up a little bit. I mean, father, son, sister. How many other members of the family?

00:33:18 – Daniel Hajduk

And my wife works here, too

00:33:22 – Rico Figliolini

Family affair. You all work. This is cool. How many employees does Vox Pop Uli have?

00:33:33 – Daniel Hajduk

27.

00:33:34 – Rico Figliolini

Wow.

00:33:35 – Daniel Hajduk

A good chunk of those employees are family members of each other, too.

00:33:38 – Rico Figliolini

Really?

00:33:39 – Andrew Hajduk

Yeah. We have another husband and wife working here. We have a father and a stepson. So, yes.

00:33:41 – Rico Figliolini

That’s cool. Everyone’s committed. There’s a reason to be committed also to it. Life balance because of that? Is there a good life balance that you guys try to keep? Work-life balance is what I mean.

00:33:58 – Andrew Hajduk

Yes, there is. So I had the great joy of working with my dad. He came to work here about four years after I started the company, which was a really tough dynamic with the father coming to work for the son’s company. And that created some interesting family dynamics. But in the end, I knew that I wanted my family to be part of my business. When the kids got older and Cindy had been a stay-at-home mom while the kids were all growing up. My youngest went into eighth grade. She came to work here. And then my daughter graduated college, went to work for another agency, and then after a year wanted to come to work here. Kind of Daniel. So it’s been, and again, I’m going to be the, I will never tell you that it’s been 100% easy. The dynamic between all of us sometimes gets tough and things like that. At least from my perspective, it’s been a great joy for me, and it’s also helped address part of what happens to this when I’m done. I’m at the age where I start talking to people and everybody’s starting to think what their exit strategy is and things like that, and they don’t know. I feel truly blessed to know that my kids will be here to take this to the next level and stuff like that. But, you know, we have to work at it.

00:35:32 – Rico Figliolini

It’s cool that you have that, that you have a succession plan and stuff. Because lots of families don’t. And they end up closing shop for one reason or another. So it’s kind of cool. The legacy lives on, right? So we’ve been talking to Andrew and Daniel, Vox Pop Uli. Great business here in Peachtree Corners. And, to be transparent, a sponsor of ours as well. So we appreciate you guys sponsoring our journalism, the podcasts, and the magazines that we do. I appreciate that. And the podcast, actually, that we do as well. So thank you.

00:36:05 – Daniel Hajduk

Thank you for having us.

00:36:07 – Andrew Hajduk

 Yeah, thank you for having us. We love doing stuff like this. And we are really committed to this community. And selfishly, I want to become the place for everybody to come put their logo on something in Peachtree Corners. And if I can help your business, we all win, I believe.

00:36:28 – Daniel Hajduk

Just send us an email. Come by, whatever it is. We can help you out.

00:36:30 – Rico Figliolini

In the show notes, we’ll have the website address, social media and stuff. So pick up on it, ask them questions. They’re always open. So just for any new ideas. Thank you guys.

00:36:40 – Andrew Hajduk

Thank you.

00:36:41 – Rico Figliolini

Thank you all. And leave a comment if you have questions and check the show notes for all the other information you need.