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Agility in Entrepreneurship · AccessCo Leaders Career Conversations

• Vinessa Gingrass: Welcome Cameron Brown to AccessCo Leaders. Thanks so much for being on to speak into our exceptional young adult externs. So we'll go ahead and jump in in one to two sentences. Tell us what the Speed Cube shop does and what your role is as founder and CEO. ⁓ Cameron: the job. We specialize in professional speed pubes and twisty puzzles and have been doing so since 2009. And as CEO of the company, I find myself making a lot of the higher level decisions for things like marketing, purchasing, overall strategizing, ⁓ organization, workflows, and really just kind of making sure that I'm trying to be the best leader for my team that I can be to keep everything moving smoothly. Vinessa Gingrass: Excellent. And was this always your plan? Did you always know this was what you wanted to do? Cameron: I didn't really have much of a chance to think about that 'cause I started this when I was fourteen years old and just sort of fell into it. So I never really yeah, had a chance to think about what something else would really look like, I guess. Vinessa Gingrass: Okay. And YouTube was a big part of kind of your upcoming and growth as well, huh? Cameron: Yes and no. the cubing niche. So I I started making YouTube content for speed cubes like Rubik's Cube pipe puzzles back in I think two thousand and six. So that was when YouTube was very different and new. And that niche was incredibly small back then. And so I became known for you know, s I used to be a professional speed cuber and compete in competitions, mostly throughout the US, but I was top hundred in the world before I retired. That in 2014 to focus full time on the business side of things. But people got to know me and that did help give a little bit more of a trust boost when I did launch the store in 2009 because people had a face to the name versus just being some random seller, which is one of the major things that I was looking to combat in the marketplace, which is I think kind of how I found my niche in doing this. Cause we were the first store in America. When we did launch is back in two thousand and nine. Vinessa Gingrass: Okay. And so yeah, that added credibility is really ⁓ monumental in being a founder of a business. Would you say? Cameron: Yeah, especially back then when online shopping was far less popular and normalized than it is today. Entering your credit card online, I feel like people between Apple Pay and Tap to Pay, they're so quick to just give out their card information. When back in ⁓ nine, I remember when I was ordering as a young teenager, my mom would be kind of like, What website are we entering in? My credit card number two again, and who are these people? And it was a lot more Taboo and also websites didn't look nearly as polished as they do today. So it was a little bit more of a crapshoot of where you were purchasing from. Vinessa Gingrass: Yeah, I saw your original website you were sharing in one of your videos and it's ⁓ quite the development from then till now. Cameron: Yes, thank you. That that that yeah. I mean, hey, it it worked but I definitely look back and I still question how and why people even purchased from it. But Vinessa Gingrass: But it's we are. ⁓ so tell us where you're ⁓ where you grew up and where you're based now. Cameron: Yeah. I was raised in a mixture of Bakersfield, California and the San Fernando Valley. And I am currently in Las Vegas and have been since two thousand and twenty two. Vinessa Gingrass: Okay. And so middle school and high school, the cubing and those competitions, that's what was keeping you busy as well as this business that you had already started or? Cameron: Yeah, I was going to competitions ⁓ pretty much as often as they were happening in the California region mostly. Fortunately, both of my parents were incredibly supportive in taking me to those because I grew up with a split ⁓ parent household. So for me, sports and those different kinds of activities were a bit more difficult because I would be missing practice in one city when the game was happening in another one, and it was hard to kind of balance that. So when I got into speed cubing competitions, my parents were thinking it was like a slam dunk because there aren't any practices and it's just you can practice anywhere and it's just the one thing to go to. So they were both very supportive in doing that and it certainly kept me busy and then my friends got into it and it was a really fun thing that we all shared together. Vinessa Gingrass: That's incredible. Well, I'll let our student externs jump in now. I'm sure they're burning with questions and they did have some time to look into you ahead of time. So Djoser, what what's your first question for Cameron? Djoser Burruss: Yeah, first of all, ⁓ thank you so much for being here. ⁓ I have a question that's pulled up. I can pull them up real quick. ⁓ question was have you ever felt ⁓ discouraged pursuing a career that I guess might have been seen as like unconventional? 'Cause I feel like I guess as young people were kind of forced into into thinking that certain careers are like the only careers that can have. And I was wondering, you know, maybe ⁓ working Cameron: Yeah, of course. Djoser Burruss: ⁓ a speed cube business and kind of being interested in that from a very young age. Were you ever ⁓ discouraged from pursuing that at all? Cameron: Good question and thank you for asking. So yes and no. In the earlier years it was a lot more pressure on me when I was going into college because it sort of became a question of what are you doing here with your life? Are you gonna keep running this business, which at the time had never left a bedroom or a closet at in my parents' house and was a way smaller scale than what it is today. So There was a bit of I wouldn't say that I was ever discouraged. It was more of just really thinking on what I want to do. And I ultimately did go to college and follow that conventional path and ended up choosing to stop going after earning my associate's degree. And that's when I decided to focus on the business full time, which is when the growth quite literally skyrocketed within the first year. And it gave me the confidence of, okay, if I'm able to really put 110% of my focus into this, I think that there's something here. And so to really answer your question, I was able to back up what I was doing with results for the people that I cared to prove myself to, being friends and family. Even today, I get all the time when people find out what I do, they just make their assumptions that it's not like a real business or it's like a hobby. And it can be pretty dismissive in some cases. And I really just couldn't care less. ⁓ as a thirty one year old at this point, I just focus on what I'm doing and what I feel like works and what I enjoy. So I hope that answered your question. Vinessa Gingrass: Great question, Jo Djoser. ⁓ and yeah, that tunnel vision, you know exactly which direction you're going and ⁓ it sounds like your parents were pretty foundational in supporting you ⁓ in your pursuits as well. Cameron: Yeah, I definitely give them a lot of credit for the support and allowing me to I mean, my mom my dad was too, but my mom especially would be I mean, it was tough when I was in high school trying to get to the post office when you're not driving and she really did a lot to help, you know, help out where where she could as far as going to the post office or helping me with ⁓ you know, legal matters like getting a business license and all those types of things that you're trying to figure out as a very young person. Vinessa Gingrass: Yeah, fourteen. That's incredible. All right, Ariana. Ariana M.: You're at a really good point where you're a CEO of a company. What keeps you motivated being in that position? Cameron: Not gonna lie, Ariana, motivation can be really tough because I love a lot of what I do, which is building, creating. And ironically, we we touched on my website being kind of rough around the edges when I was a a kid at fourteen. But I take a lot of pride in our website today and I'm always like tweaking it, optimizing it. I love doing that kind of stuff. ⁓ but Part of being a CEO of a company, there's some not so fun tasks that come along with that, such as just professional matters, legal matters they have to deal with, logistical problems. And so it can be a bit tough and a little overwhelming, especially as a small business, to kind of have to wear a lot of different hats and shoulder those different things. So to answer your question, ⁓ I do find myself often just stopping for a moment and thinking back to. how far I've come and that where I am today is somewhere that I never believed was even possible to reach when I was first starting this. And that is always something that makes me find a lot of gratitude and motivation to keep pushing forward. ⁓ also just my family and a sense of responsibility for my staff, knowing that other people are depending on me to make payroll and I'm the last person to see a paycheck ⁓ whenever that happens. So It's just mostly a little bit of sometimes it can be overwhelming, but really just sort of grounding yourself and thinking that, well, things can be tough, but there are other alternatives and what are those alternatives and am I okay with that? And the answer is often no. So I just keep pushing forward and am very grateful for what I every day. Vinessa Gingrass: That's beautiful. Yeah. Speaking to your foundation again. ⁓ and that gratitude. ⁓ yeah, your spirit is so alive. So we're so happy to have you on speaking in to our students. Eileen, what's your next question? Cameron: Thank you. Ilyne Deliquina: Cameron. So because I've been to the shop, I'm you know familiar with, as we say, the vibes. as a leader of the company, what are the things that you're looking for as you build a team, right? So when you're interviewing people, ⁓ or how did you build the team? Are these are are you know, are the people on your staff just other, I know they're other cubers, but like did you meet them on the circuit? Like, how how did you start begin to build that team? And part two, I know you're more than just ⁓ the Speed Cube shop. Like there's a whole logistics background. Can you tell us how you made that transition in the business decision ⁓ to grow even further? Cameron: Sure. So to answer the first part of your question, initially I learned a lot of lessons through hiring too. I first thought, man, hiring employees is going to be the best. It'll make things easier for me. I can focus on other things. It'll just be a gravy train. And I am so grateful for my team, but there have been a lot of lessons learned and a lot of struggles through hiring and trusting people with your business, with your vision, and to execute. And it's also a fine line of we are a very small business, so we're not able to be paying everybody like a six figure wage, for example. So have to be very selective with the hiring process. So what that looks like for us is mostly just making job listings on your typical like your indeed or other, you know, ⁓ job websites. We do get some referrals because we are in that Cuban community of people that are looking for jobs. But mostly when I'm hiring, I just look for people that I think will align with the brand, have some sort of interest in what it is that we actually do. And my goal for every ⁓ team member that we have is that when they open up that that door in the morning, like yes, it's going to work, but I want them to be as happy about opening that door and going to work as one could be going to work. So I'm looking for people that are willing to be patient with our younger customer base and also with our, you know, the older parents that are Trying to get into this and figure out this whole crazy world of cubing that that their kids are into. And we have a very diverse customer base. So it's like catering to very young kids, to young adults, to adults, to elderly also. So I just look for people that I think will align with the spirit of the company, which is to give our customers a VIP service. And pretty much I look at things as customers shouldn't have to care about what we have going on in our personal lives or how busy we are as a company. They have their expectations of us and it's important that we deliver on those, whether it be Black Friday, Christmas, or a random day in June. So that's kind of what I look for and I'm really happy that even though my hiring process can take a lot longer than I would like sometimes, I'm very selective and go through a lot of interviews and ask somewhat detailed questions to try to really drill down deep and understanding who these people are and who I'm sort of handing over the reins to for that department because it's a lot of trust and I've learn the hard way that if you can be true like in the in the growth stages it was higher, higher, higher, higher. And it can be tough because sometimes you you make a an incorrect judgment call, you put somebody into a position that they even believe that they are ⁓ able to execute. And then you find out sometimes that isn't always the case and they might need to be put into a different area of the business. So that's I think the the most challenging part of it and that's kind of what I have learned. And then To answer the second part of your question, w we are and always have been like at the core of the speech cubing community as a pillar of, you know, like we've been doing this for a long time. People, you can pick up the phone, you can talk to me, you can email live chat. Our team is ran by cubers. So any of those complex questions, like the big stores like Amazon and those are not gonna be helping you when your cube pops. They're gonna tell you just to return it and it's gonna probably be a relatively poor experience. So I decided that as far as expanding into we do some like B2B type business as far as like custom printed logos for ⁓ larger companies and events, which being in Las Vegas is something that is pretty accessible for us and people think is really great because so many companies are coming here to Las Vegas for trade shows and other types of things. And so we can have the Cube serve just waiting here for them whenever they arrive, which is one less logistical thing for them to deal with. And in general, ⁓ we host competitions and also workshops in Las Vegas and are doing that in some other parts of the US as well. And mostly it all stems back to just looking for ways to give back to the speed keeping community and further give people reasons to want to support us over going to stores like Amazon or your TMU's and Alibabas because there are a lot of options now. When I first started this, we were the only one in the US and now a lot of other people, both in the US and just worldwide have taken the same model and ran with it. So it's a lot more it's a very competitive industry now. And there's pretty much the way I look at it is there's every reason I want to give people every reason why they should and want to shop with us versus when there's so many arguable reasons that people can just be like, ⁓ well, let me just go to Amazon because that's where everyone buys everything nowadays. So that's mostly what it is is me trying just to give people more, more reasons to, in my opinion, rightfully so. trust us with their business, which is something I value very greatly. Ilyne Deliquina: Thank you. Vinessa Gingrass: All right. The word I keep thinking about is agility. Like you need agility as a founder of a small business and you need all your employees to be agile 'cause every day is gonna be different. They need to wear many, many hats. Cameron: Definitely. Yeah. Especially now. ⁓ we're we're sort of leaning out. I mean, the tariff situation last year impacted us very heavily because all these products come from China with no other alternative. So to have your cost of goods increase by one hundred and forty five percent overnight is an interesting thing to find yourself navigating because there's no alternative, there's no way around it, it just becomes your reality. And some people increase prices, some don't. And so as a result of that, we have organically scaled down the operation. And I just pretty much gave my team the the option, like, hey, we can keep hiring and have a a big team. And the the harder days can be easier. But I think we can all pull this off. And it's really in our collective best interest to have a smaller, more agile team. So that way it's less people to focus on, give each of you my full attention. And if you guys can learn a little bit more and be more cross trained, obviously if we're paying less people, it's more beneficial for those core. So we've done a really good job at scaling down for that. And I'm really proud that I mean, at one point we had twenty five employees and right now we're down to three and we're doing more output. So Vinessa Gingrass: That's incredible. And how did you know from so early on to keep customer service at the forefront? Cameron: I think it was actually subconscious because the whole reason I started my business was because of a poor customer service experience with a Chinese seller. I my friends and I would always place group orders from Chinese sellers, which was at the time the only place you could get professional speed cubes. Like there was no nowhere to get them other than China. And as I mentioned, this was two thousand and like seven and eight. So pretty sketchy buying online. Like you would you would pretty much pay for it and just hope that something showed up in two or three months. So my friends and I had pulled together four hundred dollars of our our money to place a bulk order which was more favorable for shipping. Two hundred of that was my money. To make a long story short, it never showed up. Customer service just straight up like ignored us, ⁓ sent us back a sad face, and that was really like the most we got. So I kind of realized a at a young age that the world isn't fair and Things can happen and it just was a terrible experience that obviously kind of soured me enough to where I wanted to go and start my own, thinking that this there has to be a better option for people because this is just insane. That this is like this was like the the place to go to. It was like the only one in China. So I think experiences like that and me just I think I've always had a sensor of paying attention to customer exer ⁓ customer service interactions. Like there were some companies that on the flip side I've looked up to. ⁓ like for example, one company that we purchase our vinyl material from that we do the custom stickers for the cubes. Like we have over 75 different colors. So if you're colorblind or have some sort of like visual impairment, or you just want it to look unique, you can have a completely customized cube. That all being said, like they would always take care of me, but then their service kind of dropped off as they grew. So I it's my goal is to always let people have the same level of experience, whether we're like they shouldn't know. They should think I'm the only person in a room answering the phones all day. Or if we're like a Fortune five hundred company, either something done, but I want I want to have the same level of experience because it frustrates me to no end that you could go to McDonald's drive-thru this afternoon and they'll forget your sauce and you sort of kinda like, ⁓ you expect it 'cause it's McDonald's and it's a huge company and you won't even think twice about it. But if we mess up an order, you're gonna be just most most parents and and people just will be so upset and brew on that for the whole week and On this this day and age of the internet, people can just go after you in so many different ways and just take out their frustrations. And we actually see that people will just kind of be really quick to jump the gun and go after us for things like, hey, I placed an order and it was delayed by a day, which that's a FedEx problem, not an us problem. We'll do what we can to help, but I can't like put my hands into FedEx's operation and change ⁓ So my whole point of telling you this all is that. I just do my best to really make sure that like, okay, de-escalate, make sure people are happy and take every step to just avoid the problem in the beginning and make sure people are informed every step of the way, ⁓ while operating knowing that there are other options and just being proud that if I shopped with my own company, would I be happy with the service that I provide? And I'm happy to say that I am I have been. Vinessa Gingrass: All right, I love that. And I definitely remember those early internet shopping days and th those sad faces that you would get back. ⁓ but Miguel, let's give you an opportunity to jump in. Miguel Cardona: Yeah, so ⁓ as you briefly mentioned, you kind of were bouncing back and forth between ⁓ you know, places and ⁓ you have made mention that like, you know, your parents were really supportive ⁓ in your endeavor within your company. But I was w wondering, you know, throughout that entire process, ⁓ who else was there to really support you, you know, not only ⁓ you know, mentally but also, you know, financially and, you know, just someone that you really look back and you think that like without them you wouldn't be here, ⁓ where you are right now. Cameron: Good question, Miguel. ⁓ I never have had any financial backing. So this all started with five hundred dollars of my own money. And I think just due to my upbringing, I've been always pretty adverse to debt. So sometimes it's it's unavoidable depending on what you're doing. But I've just always reinvested with what I've made and never just jumped to go buy the more expensive car or whatever it is that I wanted. But ⁓ I pretty much I'm always reinvesting back into the business. So there's been no financial backing, but I've had a lot of support through friends. ⁓ I mean, it may sound funny, but like before like I I'm very into cars and like to go out to car shows and a lot of my friends would be like, Cameron, like, especially during the years when I was really building, like twenty sixteen. So I'm like more than full time working, they would like show up to my mom's house all the time and be like, Come with us. I'm like, No, I'm working. And they would sit down and like help me like wrap up like what I'm doing just so I could go with them and ⁓ and have some fun. So I had some really great friends that supported me along the way. ⁓ I've met just some interesting people through friends and family that not really been mentors, but just kind of given little tidbits of advice here and there that are more so like reassurances. Like for example, a large warehousing company Had an expo in Las Vegas and I met one of the founders, and they were quite literally three minutes away from my warehouse where it was being held. And I've also learned if you don't ask questions, the answer is always no. So I said, Would you mind coming and auditing my warehouse? And they said yes. And it was very interesting to kind of be told in one way, like I was hoping they'd have like a laundry list of things. I'm like, ⁓ this is gonna be great. I can action on this. But they were like, No, you're like as optimized As you could be for this space. I'm like, ⁓ well, I guess I'm happy to hear that. But also I was hoping for a little bit more. So I guess to answer your question, Miguel, ⁓ friends and family have been very supportive. I guess one thing I wanted to expand on in that context is like I don't have holidays in a traditional sense. ⁓ Thanksgiving Day, I'm working all day long. Black Friday night, I'm working all night. Christmas, I'm dealing with the last minute emails and like, ⁓ my gosh, like Santa's not gonna show up. For my child, like what are we gonna do? So even though it can be frustrating for families sometimes because I do my best to sort of be Cameron as a part of the family and not just be completely removed in my office, ⁓ it can be hard to juggle. And fortunately they've been supportive of understanding that like this is just the trade off of what it is that I do, and they don't make me feel bad about it, and kind of just understand it and help like. you like my mom, for example, I'll like working on Thanksgiving. She'll always like bring a little plate of food in, like every once in a while to make sure I'm still like alive or something in there. And ⁓ so I guess yeah, I just have had a really great support system, which I do think is important because it I can only imagine how difficult it would be to build something alone, but let alone build something when you're being discouraged by the people that you look up to and love. Vinessa Gingrass: Great great question, Miguel. ⁓ got all the feels over here. ⁓ but Cameron, your your natural business acumen is really distinct and ⁓ thanks for that reminder. Like closed mouths don't get fed as these externs are just starting into the careers. You know, ask for that mentorship, ask for that pr promotion. ⁓ so that's a good reminder as they step into that. Djoser, we're coming back to you. Djoser Burruss: Yeah, my other question was, ⁓ you were talking about how you were kind of prompted to start the business after a negative experience with another seller. And I was wondering like if that had never happened, would you still have ended up like kind of creating this business or like have you ever found that you had like a natural aptitude to customer service or helping other people through that? Cameron: Yeah, good question, Dozier. So I was always the kid with the lemonade stand selling stuff. And looking back on it, whether it was like selling old toys and games of mine to friends or people around school, like I've I've always just been sort of like I don't want to say flipping things, but always in like selling things or like when I was done with like let's say like I was into Yu-Gi-Oh cards a lot as a kid and I decided one day I didn't want them anymore. So I listed them on eBay to sell them. Like just that kind of stuff that isn't really normal for like a twelve or thirteen year old to be doing, I guess. ⁓ so I've always sort of had that, I think, just natural tendency to do those types of things. I had been already kicking over kicking around the thought of starting my own cubing store before I had the negative experience. To be completely honest, I thought it just would be cool, like, ⁓ wow. Whenever I want a new cube for myself, I can just go grab it off the warehouse shelf and have it like right there. ⁓ and then when the negative when the negative experience happened, it just kind of gave me that push of like, well, it just it was genuinely just a leap of faith. Like I remember clearly when that decision was made. I was sitting on the curve in front of a movie theater, ⁓ when I got the email with my friends. And that was when I was just thinking about it. And remember we had just gotten out of the movie and like Yeah, I just decided, Okay, well, I guess I'm just gonna do this. So I started selling some things, like I always would on ebay or whatever and freed up five hundred bucks and placed my first order and the rest is history. Vinessa Gingrass: Yes it is. Hard work and hustle. Djoser, what's your follow up question? Djoser Burruss: Yeah, ⁓ thanks for your story. I think my follow-up question would be, ⁓ just like financially, I think obviously it's kind of like a big financial risk as well. So how did you I guess kind of not sort of cope with that, but kind of realize that it might not work out and you know, how did that add into like kind of that leap of faith aspect of you like pursuing ⁓ the business? Cameron: Two components to that. Starting in a very a really early age, I had little to no risk. I, if it failed, I was 14, 15, 16, 17. Like you just go get a job, go to college, and just write it off as a loss. ⁓ as I started getting into like I remember when I turned 20 for some reason, that was a defining age of like you're watching your friends. start to, you know, like they're full in the college swing and they're getting like their part-time jobs. And I was still doing the cubing stuff. So that was always a little bit of like, ooh, like, am I making the right decision? Should that be me? I think that the risk was mostly time of the fear of investing more than a full-time schedule into something and putting all your eggs into one basket, which everybody tells you not to do. And I'm still trying to figure out how to not do that and have not been successful. But It's mostly just I would always stop and look at okay, what are my alternatives? I could go work at Taco Bell or McDonald's or whatever. I mean, I don't know, like I have other skills, but like I tend to always be more on the pessimistic side in that regard when it comes to myself of like, okay, I look at I try to look at things as like the worst case scenario and then im if I'm okay with that, it could only be better. is how I tend to rationalize things. But I s even to this day I I still just weigh all what weigh other alternatives. Like, okay, what would I be making somewhere else? And what would that schedule be like? And is it still worth it? And am I still happy doing this? And what do I think the growth potential is? So now it's not really so much of a financial ⁓ risk. It's more of a time risk of just I'm thirty one years old now and like family and things like that are a part of my life and It's yeah, responsibility is other people that are better than just myself now. So it's mostly just stopping and continuing to check in, like, okay, like am I still on a good path? And like, you know, ⁓ like like like those diversifications that we talked about earlier of like expanding into the B to B and other things, not just staying stagnant in what it is that you do. So, yes, I have not gotten all my eggs out of one basket as far as cubing stuff goes, but I'm trying to place some eggs in different areas of the same industry. Vinessa Gingrass: It sounds like you do a great job of reminding yourself like you are exactly where you are in your capabilities and your value. And I think that's really important in a in a long standing career 'cause there's constantly opportunity to be knocked down but and you kinda have to be your your own self motivator. So Ariana? ⁓ Did you want to add something? Cameron: Yeah. Ariana M.: Sorry when I asked ⁓ no, I said I said yeah. No, no, you're good. I did have a question. Obviously, you know, you're a small business. It is somewhat of a competitive market because people tend to go on Amazon to buy everything. How do you market? What channels do you use to market your small business and kind of get your name out there? Cameron: ⁓ no, I said y I said yeah. No, no, you're good. Vinessa Gingrass: Okay. Okay. Cameron: A lot of us a lot of it is organic marketing, so a lot of word of mouth, and that's also largely why I invest so heavily into giving people that VIP experience is it's not about being right, in my opinion. It's about making someone happy and even if that means we take a loss on a transaction and they're completely in the wrong, it is what it is. And we have things called one time courtesies where essentially it's like okay, everything can go wrong with this order that like let's say it's a parent who places an order for the wrong cube the day before Christmas and they're freaking out looking for everybody to blame and they just need someone to put the blame on to. Like we'll take that blame and just put all right, like we'll get you the new cube, make sure it arrives on time, and we'll sort out if we even want the original one back and Is that going to inconvenience them during the holiday season? So oftentimes I just will take a loss as a future investment of giving someone reasons to want to come back in the future. And I will say that there's one specific instance of a Christmas order, actually, funny enough, where I did go above and beyond to make sure that everything went well for a Christmas transaction for a parent. And that parent has since gotten into the cubing community. as far as like competition hosting and things like that. And has been a huge opportunity for me as far as like being able to sing my praises and know that she can refer to me and tell people like, yeah, we should work with Speed Keep Shop or Cameron on this project because I know that they'll deliver on what they say they're going to deliver and get it done. So that's one tangible example I can I can give of where I took a loss and it had a huge payoff ⁓ ten years later. ⁓ for the for ten years into the future, I mean, and still has. Vinessa Gingrass: Ari Ani Ariana, what's your follow up question? Ariana M.: How do you stay connected with your customers and take their feedback to create, I guess, future innovations within your company? Cameron: For better or for worse, I read every single email. ⁓ I send thank you emails still. So people think that they're not from me. They are. So whenever people respond, like I'll get people like that reply to it and send something like I don't know, like a joke or kind of like dumb and ⁓ and think that no one's gonna read it. And I respond like, ⁓ like he's actually here. So I read every single email. I you can get in touch with me, whether it be like you know, live chat on the store, things can be escalated to me. it's tough to balance that sometimes because at a certain growth I do have a lot of responsibility. So I can't take every single phone call and, you know, just chop it up on the phone for two hours with every customer as much as I would love to. But my point being that if you need to get a hold of me, you can. And I review our satisfaction surveys every single week. I'm r reading every single review that comes in. ⁓ for our company and addressing those directly if it needs to be addressed. So I'm very in touch with what customers are saying about us and what the community as a whole is ⁓ saying about my company. Vinessa Gingrass: Right, all in. Miguel, what did you have? Miguel Cardona: Yeah, so to piggyback off of ⁓ Ariana's question about, you know, marketing, ⁓ have you ever thought about expanding towards ⁓ I don't know, let's say like international markets? I know obviously, you know, we're all based in the United States, but has there ever been a moment where you've seen such a big market such as the one in the United States and other places, such as South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, you know? Cameron: Good question. I've been shipping internationally since the beginning. So we've been serving the entire world since two thousand nine and similar situation where as time has gone on, there's more stores that are popping up in other countries like South America. So there's a little bit less of a reason for customers to order from the US. But we do have the selection, that service, that trust, the pricing. People just know when they shop with us that if something goes wrong, like it's going to be taken care of. And sometimes even if we do everything right, there could be faulty products or things that we can't control that we still need to take care of. So yes, we do serve the international markets and I think that it's always very flattering when people purchase from us when they have a a a store in their country, ⁓ which is always kind of cool for us to see. Vinessa Gingrass: Wow, and under that last information that you read every email and all the the worldwide emails, that that's incredible. ⁓ Miguel, your follow up question? Miguel Cardona: Yeah, so this question is a bit more off moving from the marketing side, but more into your personal life. ⁓ would you ever ⁓ you know, when you first started the company, do you ever have or at the very least when you look back at the moment when you first started the company, do you ever think that maybe you could have done something differently now that you've obviously grown with the company, now you've had so many years to reflect and, you know, think about it? ⁓ and if so, what would it be and why? Cameron: The list is too long for me to go over ⁓ in the time that we have today. But I think that the biggest singular lesson that I've learned and would go back and tell my past self is to not try to do it all yourself because at one point I had I had this system going to where if staff fell short or someone called out sick. I was able just to always every single day pick up the slack and everything would always get done. And then one day it was sort of like a light switch. I just sort of it just wasn't possible anymore. And there just wasn't enough of me in the day to get everything done and pick up that slack. So I think the the the lesson was to build a really good foundation that's scalable from the beginning. Cause I sort of had to like work backwards a little bit re and then rebuild that foundation. based on like scale and then redo that. ⁓ so that'd be the main lesson. I think the second lesson would just be the really sometimes comparison is the thief of joy, which is another thing that I'm sure you guys have all heard. And it believe me when I tell you this, like you're gonna hear me tell you this and probably not think about it again for the rest of the day. And it's kind of a joke 'cause I've been told these same things when I was like your guys' agent growing up and you never pay attention to it 'cause you're young, but Please listen when I tell you that comparison is the thief of joy. Social media is a blessing and a curse. And being in Las Vegas and meeting people who I would watch casually or knew of that I thought were at X level of success based on what they showed online, then you meet them in person and find out I'm doing better than they are. And it's just really stopping to be grateful and just realize that, yeah, comparison is the thief of joy. And just being happy with what you have and what you're doing and not being so concerned with what other people are doing. And if you want to make more money and you can't do that with what you're doing currently, look for other opportunities or learn more skills. And yeah. So those would be the two singular biggest things that ⁓ I would go back and tell my past self. Vinessa Gingrass: I was just having this conversation with my seven year old this morning about comparison. So already instilling that from a early age 'cause it can be a a lifelong battle, self battle. So Cameron: Huh. Yeah. It definitely is. Vinessa Gingrass: All right, we're gonna switch gears a little bit and get to know our young adults here. So Djoser is really impassioned by social justice and he's starting in Morehouse in the fall and ⁓ is thinking about a law a career in law to kinda execute some of his passions. Djoser, do you wanna tell Cameron a little bit more and then he can hop in? Djoser Burruss: Yeah, so as you were saying ⁓ I'm attending Morehouse to study political science in the fall. ⁓ kind of with like the goal of attending law school. But you know, I think my like my career, like early my career aspirations are pretty fluid right now. I could probably see myself in a position to influence like public policy, not just law, but something kind of in that like realm where I can still help people or influence policy to help people, ⁓ either through law or being in some kind of form of government, would probably be best beneficial to me. ⁓ I think I kind of developed this passion, like probably like the pet last. six years just witnessing a lot of civil unrest, you know, whether it be like on news, ⁓ hearing about it like on social media, stuff like that. It's also been like supplemented by my own reading. So I've taken some classes throughout high school and beyond, ⁓ you know, like through dual enrollment courses, just kind of about that interest and it's exposed me to like some literature that kind of deepened my worldview. Vinessa Gingrass: S Yeah, jump in, Cameron, if you Cameron: No, it's just it's interesting 'cause it's such a just different path than the one that I took and I admire it so much because there's a lot of, you know, schooling and things that go along with that and definitely just a lot of different discipline. So yeah, it's super interesting. And I have some friends and family that are sort of in like the legal space. And I think that's a really cool path that you're working on. And yeah, I wish you all the best with it. And definitely the fact that you're even here this morning with us, I think that you already leaps and bounce ahead of of others. So wishing the best of luck with that. Vinessa Gingrass: And we know you've been through a lot of hurdles and pursuing political sci or politics in general, there'll likely be a lot of hurdles there. Do you have any advice for Djoser as he steps into this path and prepares for those things? Cameron: Yeah, I would say just continuing to check in with yourself and I think having integrity is also really important, especially in that legal space. It's ⁓ one other thing that kind of goes in with my customer service beliefs would be doing the right thing when no one's looking. And it can be hard to always do the right thing knowing that you're seeing an immediate loss or a struggle. And, you know, again, we're all human, but I'm happy to say that, you know, we do a good job of always just doing the right thing when no one's looking, as if someone's always looking and just what feels right to us and not doing things that we aren't proud of. And, you know, it'll always come back to bite you if you are dishonest or do things sort of sort of sketchy. So I think that just having integrity is is really important, especially in that field. Vinessa Gingrass: Djoser, how does that advice sit with you? Djoser Burruss: Yeah, I think I r that really resonates with me and I feel like that's a pretty valuable piece of advice because I feel like in a pretty ⁓ I think the profession can get like really lucrative, but I think sometimes it can come out of costs. So I think, you know, just like ⁓ having integrity and you know keeping ⁓ the passion of like helping people at the center of what I do is important. Vinessa Gingrass: Beautiful. Like minded. All right, Ariana, we're coming to you. Ariana just actually graduated her or finished her undergraduate degree. ⁓ she's been working the whole time. She's had a same job for four years. ⁓ and is so is just, you know, stepping into her career. Ariana, jump in and share a little bit more. Ariana M.: Yeah, so I've been working at ⁓ Ulta Beauty for the past four years since I graduated high school. It was supposed to be just a part-time until I found something else, but I I did fall in love with like the beauty space and everything. And then I did graduate with entertainment management. So it it's a variety of things. It's marketing, it's ⁓ promotional events and stuff like that. And so my dream is to hopefully be within the sports industry, but honestly, any industry that has marketing involved, I love To promote ⁓ any of the little events that we have at our Ulta store. I was actually the one that started our social media because they asked, ⁓ does anybody want to do social media to kind of get more people in the door? And so I did that. and I'm still currently doing that. But I really want to break into the sports industry ⁓ space because I do believe that sports is a great part of having like a great guest experience. Kind of like what you touched on, making sure everybody has a good quality service, whether it's just them ⁓ getting a product from you or in this case for sports servicing a product to them of here's an event that you paid for but this is all the benefits you're getting. So that's kind of what I wanna do. Cameron: super cool. I never have heard of that specific like sports or or entertainment marketing. But that's super cool. And it's funny, my wife worked at Ulta and had nothing but good things to say about her her time there. And ⁓ yeah it's always cool whenever we walk into an Ulta together, she kind of gives me like the little if you know like rundown of how things work. And it's it's cool. I like how they run their store and I think it's super cool that you hopped on and took on that social media role. It's sort of funny how I feel like that's what some bigger companies do. They're just kinda like, all right, who wants to do social media? Like is anyone anyone interested? And and it works because this current generation knows how to market to, you know, people of their own age. And I think that sometimes the older marketing can kind of not not resonate as well. So then that's super cool. And ⁓ yeah, I'm I'm really excited for you, Ariana. And I think that again, I just about that you're here and the way you're speaking, I think that you have a lot of potential in that field and already have the right mindset. Vinessa Gingrass: Beautiful. So as as she begins focusing on marketing, what's one top ⁓ piece of advice you can share with her on the mindset going into that? Cameron: I think again, marketing with integrity. ⁓ there's a lot of easy marketing levers to pull that can be a little bit more ambiguous or kind of a little bit more like like for example, the marking something up just to mark it down, or giving like free promotions that aren't really free and just there's a lot of like shady marketing tactics that I think that in some cases like you know, the kind of more gray area sleepstakes and things that will kind of leave people feeling more disappointed in the end if they aren't in that small subset that win or whatever. So I think that when marketing, just looking for what that end emotion's gonna be for your customers and, you know, marketing honestly, so again if you're not misleading to where someone thinks they're getting X and then they end up getting Y and then like yeah, you you have gotten the sale, but now you have an unhappy customer. And I've seen both sides of the coin where funny enough a good friend of mine introduced me to one of his friends who quite literally just does drop shipping and he will create a new company, a new corporation, and run it until PayPal shuts him down for having too many complaints. He never ever will respond to emails or complaints and just runs it. And then when I shut him down, he starts a new one and does it all over again. And he's just someone who I think there's only so many different things you can do. And at one point it's gonna catch up with you because PayPal's not you know, foolish. Like at some point they're gonna not let him keep making these new accounts. So that's where it comes back down to doing the right thing when no one's looking. And yeah, it might not he might not see the repercussions of that today, but in a year or two years, who knows? Vinessa Gingrass: Ariana, how does that sit with you? Ariana M.: That's definitely a good piece of advice, especially when creating obviously when I do hopefully end up on a marketing team, just knowing when to say, Hey, maybe this isn't what we we should be doing, or making sure that we also put ourselves in the customer perspective. So thank you for that. Cameron: Yeah, and you will end up on a marketing team. Try to Yeah, you will. So Vinessa Gingrass: All right, put that in the universe. Miguel, we're coming over to you. Miguel just finished high school, I think yesterday. ⁓ and he is ⁓ got accepted to college and he's gonna be pursuing a biomedical engineering career. Miguel, you wanna jump in? Miguel Cardona: Yeah, thank you. So as you previously mentioned, I just graduated yesterday. ⁓ so I guess the way I view it is I've closed that chapter in life, you know, high school and I'm gonna pursue as ⁓ you mentioned, biomedical engineering. ⁓ definitely more ⁓ the c ⁓ cellular biology route. ⁓ I really like to work with cells. ⁓ I know some people like to work with prosthetics and I've also taken interest in that, but I did an internship last summer. ⁓ with a cancer institute around me and just working with cells and seeing how they work and how different enzymes and you know can affect the whole ⁓ cell biology is really interesting to me and I feel like that's something that you know I'm gonna pursue. I'm also taking into consideration a minor ⁓ within Spanish. So there's also that. But yeah, that's kind of, you know, where my path is heading so far. Cameron: Wow. Yeah, you guys are some high performers in this in this call. So that's a very ambitious ⁓ career path and yeah, wishing you all the best on that Miguel. I mean, truly like I I don't know what I would do in that field. So it's I'm glad there's people like yourself that have interest in those things 'cause we need you as a society. So thank you for having an interest and ⁓ yeah, congrats on graduating and again the fact that you've already done internships and taking those steps to you know, improve your skills and and learn and get some hands on experience I think is really, really important and will definitely set you aside ⁓ from other people. So I think that's really, really wise of you to to give it time investment. Vinessa Gingrass: All right. And what's one or two lessons from running your business that he could take with him ⁓ into college? He could or should. Cameron: Yeah, I think that just organization would be one. Is part of having that good foundation is keeping organized. 'Cause I remember from my time as being in college that if you're not organized, you're losing track of classes and assignments and due dates and dub and just all that stuff. So I would highly recommend that you build a good foundation of organization tactics, whatever works for you, whether that be, you know, like a a task keeping software or a note on your phone, whatever. That looks like for you. I think that staying really organized and also making time for yourself because burnout is a very real thing that I don't think enough people talk about in detail. I think everyone just tosses around the term and they think that if you go take a vacation for a weekend, you know, that that you're just cured, and that is not always the case. So I think that just working really hard, staying focused, but also trying to give yourself at least you know, one one weekend a month or something, whatever that looks like for you that that kind of keeps you happy is just some time to unplug and really just focus on what it is that you like doing. And ⁓ I think that'll that'll help you build a really strong long term foundation. ⁓ whereas I kind of went opposite end and just worked where it worked where it worked. And I kind of paid the price for it for a number of years and still kind of do even to this day, where it's just like trying to find that work life balance is the thing that people always talk about and they can be really difficult. So I highly recommend you figure that out earlier on in life versus ol later in life. Vinessa Gingrass: Definitely. Miguel, what resonated with you from this conversation? Miguel? Miguel Cardona: sorry. My internet was acting up. can you repeat that again, ⁓ Vanessa? Your part was the part that kinda I don't Vinessa Gingrass: What stood out today from our conversation today? Miguel Cardona: ⁓ thank you. What stood out today definitely was you know, the I think the wh I think everything stood out to me. I think seeing, you know, a small business ⁓ grow into something so big, especially with ⁓ such like, you know, as ⁓ Cameron mentioned, like a niche thing ⁓ that not many people, you know, know about and seeing, you know, the struggles, obstacles and obviously, you know, the fruits of the labor 'cause, you know, here you are right now. ⁓ I think it it it's an amazing thing overall, you know. Not many ⁓ small businesses make it into, you know, such a renowned position, you know. So that I think is what ⁓ stood out to me. Vinessa Gingrass: Okay. What what do you think was made that possible with Cameron? Miguel Cardona: ⁓ I think his determination, I think his motivation, you know, I think the fact that, you know, as he previously asked for mentioned, you know, the customer service issues kind of would spark this and now it's kind of is, you know, full on passion. And, you know, I commend him and applaud him for that 'cause that is, you know, an amazing thing. ⁓ especially with what he mentioned, you know, burnouts and, you know, the struggles he had, ⁓ you know, kind of sometimes having to be the one man job, ⁓ in certain ⁓ situation and aspects, you know. So Kudos to you in that ⁓ regard. Cameron: Is it just me, or is everybody else muted? Ilyne Deliquina: No, I can ⁓ Vanessa, ⁓ you're you were talking but I didn't hear you. We lost Miguel. I think he is having internet issues. Maybe we need to move on. Let's do Jose or ⁓ Vinessa Gingrass: Djoser, what resonated Djoser Burruss: Yeah, I think what resonated with me most was like the value on customer service, especially owning a small business, because I feel like as was mentioned earlier, unlike large businesses, you can always depend on like being a name brand. And no matter you know how poor your customer service may be, you're always gonna have customers because again, you're a name brand. But I feel like for small businesses, you kinda that's like a challenge a lot of people talk about is you have to really value customer service. And I think the conversation of like taking losses at the expense of keeping your ⁓ customers happy is really important, especially in when trying to have a small business succeed. Vinessa Gingrass: Excellent. Ariana? Ariana M.: I think what resonated with me the most is no matter what difficulties you faced, or even starting your small business from such a young age, you never faltered from your values and you stuck to your values even to this day. So I think that's very important, especially as somebody who is the CEO of a company. Usually people that get into that position kind of stall start faltering in their like values, or they kind of lose focus on why they built something in the first place. And it's it's nice to see that you have. Cameron: Thanks, Ariana. Vinessa Gingrass: All right, Cameron, when the students watch this interview five years from now, what's one idea or lesson you hope ⁓ has stuck with them? Cameron: I'm gonna really harp on the burnout and comparison as theif from joy aspect. Those are two things that I think have cost me in my career and my life and I don't have any regrets, but I do think that those are two areas that I wish I had a little bit more guidance on growing up, versus beyond just ⁓ you're doing you're doing great. Just focus on yourself. Like you should be happy with where you are as 20, 25. I think a little bit more ⁓ you know, mental health is talked about a lot. And I think that a little bit more focus on really checking in with yourself and yeah, just taking that time. Like like I told Miguel, yeah, like take that weekend or whatever it looks like for you. So those are those are the two things that I hope that ⁓ the next kind of generation really can focus on, especially in this day and age of social media only becoming more prevalent and you know if you're not 20 driving a Lamborghini, you're not successful mindset. I think it's really dangerous and I think there's a lot of bad information out there. And just remember that someone's always there's always someone with more money or more success or whatever that even looks like. And you just really have to be happy with what it is that you're doing. And I'm not saying that you don't reach for higher goals and you settle, but just Easier said than done, but is try to focus on what's good for you and your life. Vinessa Gingrass: Yeah, success can look a lot of different ways. And I think you mentioned success is about happiness, right? Cameron: That's a great point and to add on to that, Vinessa. One of my close friends that was a customer has ⁓ a company that he fell into that was a family business. And the living that he makes is about as much as he would make working like a very traditional like fast food job. But he said that in his mind he likes being able to be his own boss, and even though he's not making the kind of money that people assume that you make, 'cause people think that when they hear business owner, that it's six figures all the time. And that's certainly not the case. But for him, the fact that he doesn't have to answer anybody and he can just clock in and clock out kinda whenever he wants, that's that's what makes him happy. So I think it's all about, like you said, what makes you happy. ⁓ it's not always just a money thing. Vinessa Gingrass: Totally. ⁓ what's that website for your company, Cameron? Cameron: Speed Cube Shop dot com. Vinessa Gingrass: All right. Well, thanks so much for listening to AccessCo Leaders and thank you to you, Cameron Brown, CEO and founder of the Speed Cube Shop. We'll see you next time.