Your Iconic Image : Manufacturing Success

Jason Azevedo

MRCA

Jason created his first manufacturing company with just $600 when he was only 15 years old. At this young age he was able to establish business with some of the greatest companies in the world such as Starbucks, Nike, Disney, Marvel, Volkswagen, Audi, Lucas films, dodgers, NBA teams. By the time he was 20 he was already making millions in revenue. 

 

Jason is one of the most dynamic people you will meet.  He owns and operates the last standing MADE IN AMERICA factories (IN CALIFORNIA NO LESS!) and has hatched a plan to give back the factories and some of his wealth to the American workers.

 

In 2009, Jason co-founded Mosaic, taking on the role of CEO — his talents are far beyond running the company, with duties touching conceptual development, engineering, and deployment. Since 2009, Jason’s been at the helm of growing the company year-over-year, acquiring several entities, and creating several others to round out manufacturing efforts. His emphasis on Made In America is a driving force for how the various companies he’s co-founded operate. He also assists with business development and client strategy and is an integral part of how we operate.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GOMRCA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/202657382027478

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/manufacturingrevitalizationcorporationofamerica/?viewAsMember=true

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gomrca/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/JAzevedoMRCA

Facebook: facebook.com/jasonazevedoMRCA

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-azevedo/

Instagram: @jasonazevedomrca

https://mrca.net/

https://advoque.com/

https://mosaic-sf.com/

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Transcription : Vision In Word

Marlana

Jason Azevedo created his first manufacturing company with just $600 when he was only 15 years old. At this young age, he was able to establish business with some of the greatest companies in the world like Nike, Disney, Marvel, Volkswagen and Lucasfilm. By the time he was twenty, he was already making millions in revenue. Among other things, he has gone on to Co found mosaic growing with company year over year. Welcome Jason.

 Jason

Awesome, thanks for having me. I'm excited to talk to them.

 Marlana

So, I'm intrigued by this because at 15 years old, what at that point did you know about business?

 Jason

That it was a thing that people do. It was wonderful moment in time because you don't know what you don't know, so you go try it and we had this harebrained idea to go print T shirts and that grew and grew and grew and it let's see where we're at today. We started in February of 2000. Here comes the late 2007, early 2008 crash. We lost everything before we had anything. It was so you learn business in a way that no one else did and it wasn't reading a ton of books. You were living one of the hardest markets in history, and it taught you just how to kind of deal with the emotional side of stuff, the business side of it, the finance and we just kind of learn and put our heads down and kept on working.

 Marlana

You know, it's interesting that you bring that up because I thought people with the pandemic that we're starting businesses in the early pandemic. That in some ways they had a little bit of an advantage because you were already seeing where the holes were, so you know what? To plug up so. It seems the same kind of. Thing for you is that.

 Jason

Yeah, it was actually really interesting because what ended up happening was, we were able to buy equipment cheaper than any other company could because there's fire sales going on left and right. All of the big competitors they were. It wasn't a huge margin business, so if they lost one or two major clients, it really hurt them. So, we were able to pick up clients that were dropping off of them. So, what everyone was telling us was so horrible time to start a business. You don't lose everything or like we don't have anything to begin with $600 Think so. We kind of just shut out all the noise and when you are really peel the back, it was such a great time to do it because everything was on sale and clients existed and now it wasn't the easiest time. No, of course not, but it really did give your insight to 1st off what not to do because you could see what didn't work in the business. The other cool part was everyone was willing to help you because everyone was kind of in a bad spot. So, when we're saying, hey, we're just starting a lot of the elders in the industry are like oh, you stupid kids. OK, try looking at it this way. In this way, so we use it to our advantage. And I think you're right. So, one thing with the pandemic. It gave people an opportunity where it's like hey I can't work anyways, so you might as well just do something else.

 Marlana

Yeah, so you're 15 and you're making T shirts. How do you get on the radar of these major come?

 Jason

So, there's a couple ways. First off, at 15 we started making like high school T shirts and like family picnics and it was not the crazy stuff we got into by 16-17 realized there really wasn't a business model in that, at least not for us and my brother and I are super. Creative developmental we are manufacturers at our core. And we started thinking about it like hey, we want to do crazier and bigger and not more, not stuff and you got to remember. Right? The markets at this time nobody is spending extra money on a family reunion or an extra T shirt for their school. The only people are spending money are these high-end things. So, we start developing the most complex crazy what's talking people like. Don't do that. You'll never make money. Printing like that like, well, we're not gonna. Make money printing the other way, either. So, we started developing crazy stuff. Well, what happens is. The markets pulling back. Nobody wants to do this development to work at the time. We are the only ones crazy enough to do it because we don't have business anyways, so everyone else is doing this, kind of retreating mode. And we're just you. Have this crazy idea. I'll try that. You have a crazy idea. I'll try it you. Have a great idea I'll try it and you become that person is trying everything, and the other side is. We shared everything you wanted to know what we were doing. I was on every form until this day. I try, we try to keep our doors open with everything where it's hey. I'm not protecting my getting my information. I mean of course. There's certain business things you have to, but. Through the greater majority of it were like no check out this where we're doing people jump on the phone how did you guys do that? How did. It work and we'd share that information well. What ends up happening is even when you share the information and like you know what? You're the expert in this space? Don't you just take these three accounts for me, and we just became the experts in our space and that's what we've done with all of our manufacturing companies. Hey, we share information all day long. Nothing we're doing is all that cutting edge is the reality. We're not building an iPhone here. It's like this is it's manufacturing like do you. This isn't the. Greatest thing on it, and if you even. Look at it. Look at what Elon's done with. With Tesla, where he released all the patterns. And it's like. Hey guys, if we share information, we. Grow faster and that's what we. Did and that's how we. Got into these big names. Accounts and then there was a. There was some lock in there. Of course. I mean we met the editor of one of the largest publications in our industry. It happened to be her birthday and she was alone. In a restaurant and. Kind of look sad and my brother and me. Just didn't know that she was there. She was part of the. Industry and we're. Just like hey you wanna just join us for dinner? Like you, you seem bored. And we had a bunch of. Other people, that's what comes. Out, this happens to be. The editor of one of the largest industry magazines. So, it like, but it was all it and it's. Always been for. Us just go out, be nice, help people and it. Pays you back in in triplicate every time.

 Marlana

 But you know, and that's such an interesting and key point, because I'm a firm believer too, that you don't come from a place of sales, you come from a place of service and I agree with you 180% about sharing your information, because even without what I do, nothing I do is proprietary. I create images for people, and you know the more we can share with what we do and pull back the curtain, the bigger we grow, the better we get.

 Jason

Well, it's on my thumb every morning at 9:00 AM. No matter what time zone I'm in, I move time zones a lot at 9:00 AM. My phone says fix clients problem cause that's what we pushed. We're not doing anything insanely complex. It is the true reality of it. And if you can do that every single day, you will continue to be at very least seen as the person who fixes bombs, and everybody likes the person who fixes the problem. So, regardless of anything else, you've got one up there because it's, hey, you're coming in. How do we take on this issue? You wouldn't bring me the issue if it wasn't causing you a problem, so let's figure it out. I see it, especially in our manufacturing industry. People are very stuck in their ways. And go Oh no, that's not going to work. Guys it's gonna work like somehow now might not work today, might not work tomorrow, but it is going to work if we're putting rockets up in space, landing them back. On moving boats, and I think we could figure out how to make it.

 Marlana

Boy yeah, how much do you think we all need to be open to the quote. UN quote crazy ideas.

 Jason

I think we have to be very open to and then went through, so I tell everybody in my company things happen for a reason. Sometimes the reason is you're stupid and made. A bad decision. It's like, hey so yes. Listen to the crazy ideas, but also realize crazy ideas are crazy. Sometimes, I've heard a lot of people that come up with a crazy solution to a problem that doesn't exist and it's like no, no, no, that's a crazy idea like it's just that that's rude, Goldberg device. If that brings you joy and you want to do it, go ahead, and do. But understanding the crazy ideas need to be solving a crazy problem, and if SpaceX didn't have the problem, that it was too expensive to get rockets to Earth and our to outer space and back. It is a completely ridiculous idea to land on a moving platform, but that changes the game. So, it's understanding the crazy ideas. Is crazy, but if they're solving an issue, then they're worthwhile.

 Marlana

Yeah, and you know that's the other thing, it's core, that's all business is. It's super solving a problem for money. That's it.

 Jason

Exactly, there's a famous quote, “the bigger the problem that you solve, the more money you will make.” It's just that simple. If you're willing to go on to bigger and crazier problems, you will get better and better results. But understanding that the harder that problem is, the more failure that you're going to have to learn to adapt with on the process of learning. And I watched this a lot. Like I can't take on this crazy problem, I'm gonna fail 20 times like you're lucky it was only 20 perfects so it's truly understanding that and building up that tolerance to failure is incredibly important. And there's really no way to do about tolerance up rather than just failing a lot. There's a lot of studies that show that were very successful their whole lives, really good at sports, really good in school. Because they haven't learned to fail all time where you get the guys who fail all the time, they end up becoming these great leaders because like I don't even know what it's like to not fail, so why not keep on trying?

 Marlana

Yeah, So what would you say that your brand became known for?

 Jason

We build, I was doing a talk the other day, I explained something I think I was that kid when I was growing up that was pigpen from Charlie Brown, right there. Like, it was just a mess around me at all times. I could like go missing for 30 seconds. Come back with grease all over me. Uh, I was also the kid with Legos in my entire life and we're building up these crazy things. Well, what we learn or what I learned is, we can actually make it clear. We build everything, and the way we do is, we do manufacture, and we've done everything from children toys to the control panels for nuclear reactors to beauty lighting products. I mean, you name it. And everyone and. Add to that company. Just building companies so that are my personal brand new. The brand around us as we build things and then we build solutions. It’s hey, what is that process to get a result in an item and that is what we're known for and it's exciting and the one with our with mercy. Now we're building local communities and that is really the fun one. Where it's like I get to build a product that builds a company, that builds a local community. It's starting to get really cool cause you're starting to compound that growth.

 Marlana

So, talk to us a little bit about that, what's that all looking like?

 Jason

OK, so for functionally, we own a private equity group. But really, we're manufacturers. We use private equities. It's cool. We're going out with buying legacy US manufacturing companies usually second third generation. I did this privately before me, my brothers and other partners, both links, and then we truly realized that these legacy manufacturing companies are oftentimes the cornerstone of their local community, and they are good paying jobs, they're safe. This isn't the factories people are used to seeing. These are good jobs with low barriers to entry that really give everyone an opportunity to succeed. So, we buy these companies; we're bolting them together over a process of about 5 to 7 years. We're expecting, leaving them in the local communities that they serve and bringing business to them through the network of companies. Are investors realize return as we're pulling the profits and we sell it. But then we added in a little caveat. At the end we are actually going to transfer 100% of the ownership to the employees through an ESOP, so that the ownership of those legacy companies remains in that look. We see it as our way to truly make a change. We are and make returns because it is a business and that is the reality. But those two do not have to be against each other and we really want to see these local communities strength in American manufacturing is it's about to go through the most meteoric rise, it's seen in 100 years. It's a really special time in history. So, what we're doing is we're making sure that that's preserved at the local level with a national presence so that you get the best of both worlds.

 Marlana

Love that. So, let me kind of pull all this together for a minute and ask you, how do you go out and do create these opportunities for yourself? Or are they a product of networking and finding out what needs to be done and information? Do you leverage other relationships that you've had?

 Jason

Oh God! I wish there was an easy answer to that, of course, because of our track record opportunities are brought. I will say between my brother and I; we probably look at anywhere from 25 to 100 opportunities. This week we're looking at company. I have my entire team as a firm belief, there's no way to find an opportunity unless you go to it. So, last week we drove from Austin, TX to Dallas, TX, Dallas, TX, Little Rock, Little Rock to Northern Arkansas, Northern Arkansas, Memphis, Memphis is Cocoa Beach FL because most of the companies we look at and work with our in rural areas. So, getting an airplane to each one of them is virtually impossible. So, we just drive, and people think we're nuts, and we are, but you gotta get yourself out there and go see what you're working on and meet the people, meet the community, understand what makes it tick and you can't do that once you put the work in. It's kind of funny almost to me cause they're doing it from it. If they're doing it from very much a financial standpoint and there the opportunities, will it have to check 15 boxes. That's just not the way we do it. Our skill sets different, so we were on the road a lot more. And I'm sure all of ours, families wish we did it from the desk, but it's not in our DNA to do it that way.

 Marlana

So, you're at that point now. However, lets pull it back a little bit. Let's say somebody has their T shirt idea, whatever that happens to be, what would you say to them? But as far as advice goes, to develop higher level partnerships and