Man’ what an operation they have going on down at Adept Imaging off of Green Street in the center of downtown Augusta. Who Knew? Not Me. As I entered their offices. . . I couldn’t help but notice the hustle and bustle going on; conversations, telephones ringing, stacks of boxes and lots of energy-global movement. Collin and his colleagues immediately welcomed me into this busy space. As Collin and I proceeded thru the maze into an open warehouse type of space. . . there, the magic was being stirred up with gigantic circular machinery and tons of staffers in what appeared to be a concert of activities. These machines looked like oversized windmills turned on their sides. . . with arms protruding with silkscreening activities occurring. We finally reached a destination to sit and chat; Collin was very inviting and soft-spoken as he began to ponder my questions and addressing them with his full attention. We kind of chuckled when I was amazed by his resemblance to Ben Affleck…who should have never played Batman (but, that’s for another later conversation).
QUESTIONS:
Q. What inspired you or led you to your current career?
A. I graduated from college and my wife and I was newly married with a small child. I was in a business where I wore a suit and tie and we were already in the same line of business; I believe, that is what drove us to start our company (Adept Imaging). We saw a need and space for a good reliable wholesale decorator. There is a lot of room in this industry for accountable people that are going to do just what they say they are going to do.
Q. What is a Wholesale Decorator?
A. Well, a large portion of our business is doing fulfillment for other shops; overflow production that they can’t handle or fulfillment for ad specialty companies. Companies that sell screen burning products. To produce the range of products that are out there like, the number of colors and the imprint and the number of pieces, it takes a fair amount of investment and equipment and production capacity as well as working knowledge of the industry. So even very good shops don’t necessarily have space or the knowledge base or the equipment to handle every possible job that could come up. So we have good partnerships with folks that maybe do their own production, but then still jobs come up that are a little bit difficult to tackle. In addition, we also do directly to the public as well, but it’s hasn’t been a huge part of our business for the last 10 or 15 years.
Q. What is your favorite restaurant in Augusta, and what do you love there?
A. There’s a lot of good ones. But off the top of my head, if I had to pick one, I would say The Taj of India. I tend to like a spicy curry dish. I eat a lot of vegetarian food.
Q. How long have you lived or worked in Augusta?
A. 39 years.
Q. Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in Augusta? Who would you like to see nominated as a Face of Augusta?
A. William “Bill” Easterlin. The Ceo of Queensborough National Bank & Trust Company. I would nominate Rudy Volkmann. He is the founder of Augusta’s Fencers Club. Both are quite interesting people.
Q. If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be? And why?
A. India or Korea possibly, and anywhere in Central America. I like to travel a lot, those are places I haven’t been yet and I just happened to be speaking with someone who said Korea was amazing.
Q. What is your favorite movie OR what is the first movie you remember seeing in a theatre?
A. I think that tends to be harder. I probably would have to pick one of the Star Wars movies and maybe, it was one of the first ones I remember seeing in a theater. Wow, it’s hard to pick; that makes me feel old. There’s a lot of good movies to choose from.
Q. What advice would you give a crowd of people?
A. It’s really important to question your premise. To investigate the things that we might take for granted before you just blindly accept them. And I think that’s an important thing to revisit continually throughout your life. I think it’s really easy to fall into a pattern of just reinforcing the framework that you have for living and not rethinking everything. I think that’s why I like to travel to places that are completely different than what I’ve experienced, only because so many things we have taken for granted.
Q. What is something on your bucket list?
A. I’ve gotten to see the northern lights. I kind of want to go back to school at some point in the future. I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit that in, but I’d like to do some more studies-Psychology. I like being in a classroom setting and having discussions and so, returning to school is on my bucket list. There are so many things that I would love to study that I just don’t really have the time in my life. I really enjoy philosophy discussions. That’s so fun. It’s awesome, but again, it would depend on my goals.
Q. What is your favorite music/ 3 bands you would like to see (dead or alive)?
A. I’ve gotten luckily to see a lot of the bands that I truly enjoy. I listen to a large range of music, like early punk rock and everything from that to electronic dance music. So I have a pretty wide musical palate. I can’t think of anybody specifically that I just really want to see that I haven’t seen already. Maybe, Faith No More. I’d like to see them.
Q. What current / former local business makes you the most nostalgic about Augusta?
A. Things come and go and change and I remember my art shopping at Daniel village, I remember periods in my life where things would close and I would feel like it was a great loss. But at this point in my life, I think I try really hard to look at things as just, evolution and movement because every time something closes that you miss–a new opportunity kind of surfaces. I always tell my kids not to spend too much time looking at what you’re losing and try to look at what is coming as things pass out of your lives and I’m not claiming to have that mastered as yet. You know, again, there’s always something new coming to replace the loss and that is the bittersweet part of life, but it’s a good thing overall.
Q. Choosing anyone alive and a non-relative: with whom would you love to have lunch? Why? Where in Augusta would you have lunch?
A. Maybe it’s a little cliche, but I think Elon Musk is pretty interesting; I would really love to have a conversation with him. It’s so fascinating to me how he entered so many different industries; just to question the assumptions that are so completely different sparks my interest. Another interesting individual would be Warren Buffet; he is amazing. Just the way he’s weathered ages of changes in markets and held true and a consistent path and being so successful. I think that’s really impressive. Oh, there was another, I’m not really a sports fan, but, I think Lebron James would probably be pretty interesting to talk to as well. I think he hasn’t sat in one place despite his accomplishments and several of his activities benefit so many people.
Where would you take them to lunch? We would enjoy a meal at an amazing little vegan restaurant.
Q. What is your favorite thing or something unique about Augusta?
A. Augusta to me, it’s a good middle ground. It’s a decent size city. It’s not overwhelming or overbearing. You can get anywhere you want in a reasonable amount of time. There’s not a lot of traffic. People generally treat you pretty well here in Augusta. I would say it’s not a tiny little nowhere town. If anything, I like the whole experience of it, its a really good place to call home. I mean for me, I have had to put travel on hold a little bit with children and business growth, but even before that, you know, you go somewhere and then when you return home it’s just good feeling. It’s a good home base for me and my family.
Q. Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
A. In 10 years I’ll be on the cusp of a big transition. All of my kids will be getting into college at that point, hopefully. We have three. So the youngest one is eight and in 10 years she’ll be 18. That’ll be a big transition point for us. We will have been in business for almost 25 years. A lot of my real estate and, loans will finally be paid off. I will need to reassess a lot of things and make some big decisions like what to do with the next portion of my life; I will need to take a step back and figure out a new path. So yeah, that’s an interesting question cause 10 years really for me is that kind of combination of a lot of the stuff that I’m locked into.
Off the top of my head, I think my wife and I will probably have some travel time at that point. We’ve talked about maybe doing an RV around the United States or you know, maybe backpack throughout somewhere exotic. You know, I hesitate to say 10 years, because so much can happen it’s hard to make predictions. Who knows?
Q. (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
A. Family and friends know me pretty well I feel. In the beginning, I am quiet and as people get to know me I think I’m pretty much an open book.
Q. Can you describe the neighborhood you grew up in?
A. I grew up, right near Pollock office supplies on Central Avenue where I spent the bulk of my childhood. A fair amount of kids were in my neighborhood; I mean we did the riding your bike around the neighborhood thing. During this period, we kids, we did not have cell phones and we were very free to roam. We were out of the house and venturing off in the neighboring areas and we would meet some random kid and you know, 40 minutes later you’re playing Nintendo in their house and then you came home and ate dinner. It was just a different time in comparison today; I don’t have a very doomsday vision of the world but I don’t know that I would be comfortable with my children going off like that without a phone as I did when I was a kid.
My neighborhood was fine. It wasn’t really crime-ridden, but it wasn’t a wealthy area either; we knew not to go too far away from home. The neighborhood I live in now is not bad, but I just don’t know that I would be comfortable with my kids having that type of freedom that was experienced by me and my friends when we were kids.
Q. What 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
A. (1.) Safety (2.) Stability (3.) Comfort
Q. If you were cast into a major motion picture and had your choice of anyone to be your co-star, who would you choose?
A. Robert Downey jr would be cool or Steve Hashemi. Scarlet Johannson. There are just so many good actors.
Q. If you had a full-time staff member that was fully paid for, who would you choose? {Chef, Housekeeper, Driver, Coach, Physical Fitness Trainer, or Nanny} WHY?
A. My first impulse would be to say. . . a chef; but, yet a housekeeper might save me the most time. Either one would be great; it would just save a lot of time for other things that were important.
Q. If you could hold on to one memory from your life forever, what would that be?
A. That’s kind of a heavy question. Any of the small moments with my kids are pretty valuable memories to hold onto forever. Then there is a flip side: the memories that have yet to be created; I’m looking forward to those moments as well.
Q. Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you?
A. Oh man, another heavy question. Okay. I’ve had the benefit of a lot of good people in my life. One quote, my friend’s dad used to say to us in the summers when we were complaining about being bored, “our entertainment was not his responsibility”. I guess if I had to pick one person, the head coach here at the fencing school has had an unmeasurable impact on my life; just with learning responsibility and accountability. He’s like my mentor and some of the lessons came through the sport of fencing itself too. It’s hard to kind of separate some of those life lessons, but in that environment, I’ve learned more than anything about how to push through difficult things that didn’t come easily and then to break those skills apart and try to refine them.
OUR FINAL QUESTION
Q. IF YOU COULD SHARE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
A. Don’t take yourself too seriously. I mean, take yourself seriously, but not too seriously, if that makes any sense. I’ve reached a paradoxical viewpoint about a lot of things; it’s like everything and nothing at the same time; like super important and also not important at all. So, you know, it’s like putting your whole self into something but also not being bound by that. I guess. I don’t know if this ties into it for me, but like I like to see more of the world communicating rather than arguing and trying to exchange ideas and rather than prove someone is right or wrong or that to outsmart everybody, it’s not about winning points, it’s about sharing and working together. I guess I’d like to see more of that. Working together.
Thank you Collin. You made my experience easy and comfortable. To new beginnings. Friends for Life.
