Episode 86: Empowering Tomorrow’s Student Entrepreneurs

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (00:29)
Hey friends, welcome back to Under the Hat Podcast. Today's episode is 86. I'm Steve Martinez, a former high school social science teacher, ed tech practitioner, and forever student of how we make classrooms work. As always, I'm joined by the lovely Sophie Youngs, a former middle school math and science teacher, instructional coach, and relentless advocate for universal design for learning. It is fantastic to be here today, Steve.

It's great to be here, Sophie. I'm really looking forward to where we're going today.

Me too, Steve. And you know, before we bring in our guests and put them under the hat, I have to ask you a question that's been spinning around my head.

What are you looking forward to this month? Yeah, so I'm looking forward to a couple of events that we're both involved in. So the first one is the Shadow Quest.

Okay, so yes, so the Shadow Quest. And this is a good opportunity to point out that our website looks different. Yes. We're still working it out. Sophie has to go in and fix anything that I did. But you'll notice if you go to our website, one thing we noticed a few weeks ago, it was like, how do we get to the Shadow Quest website? So now when you go into our website, and again, this is at underhatpod.com, you have a button at the top right here.

That's called Shadow Quest. this is the website. Look how good of a graphic designer we have on this team. because the website looks phenomenal. it gives you the format and what it'll look like. we have to update the sponsor because we have another sponsor which we'll talk about in a bit. down here is learning more about the sponsorship piece, but at the very top you'll look at the presenters.

Got a fantastic crew of presenters, and there are actually two more that we need to showcase on the website. We have sessions. We're going to have 14 sessions, which two more need to be added to the website. but you will get a good overview of what we have to offer in the Shadow Quest. You will then make need to make sure that you register to attend because.

While you can get all the information about the Shadow Quest on the Shadow Quest website that you're looking at or listening about right now, you will not be able to gain access to the actual sessions unless you register. Because the Shadow Quest is a Halloween October vibe theme, and the archive is hidden in PAXWord protected for those only.

Registered. Yes. So please register. we are seeing those come in on the daily. but the other thing that I'm super excited about is that we are also going to be attending another conference this month. October is wild. vibe shift. October's my favorite.

It's my favorite too. so Vibe Shift is a conference that is put on by our friends over at Edu Protocols. and so this is October 17th. This is the teaching and learning can be fun kind of premise. and this is their second one. This is their second one. This year it's gonna be online, right, Steve? Yes, it is virtual.

And so last year it was housed in Sacramento. This year it's online. with what I'm to assume is because of just trying to get a broader reach and making it more accessible. so you can look on their website, look at the speakers, and so kind of see the lineup there, what they have scheduled out under schedules, and then various different pieces on like how much it costs, registration,

It is live. They kind of have that all housed FAQ kind of kind of build. And then again you want to hit the register button to be able to register for the conference. we're gonna be there. we'll we're gonna be you know helping them making them more visible out into all the channels. but if you you know if you're keen to it definitely register for Vibe Shift. it should be a good time.

Sophie, what about you? What are you excited about? I'm excited about Halloween. Yes. Yes. I love decorating. I love the month of October in general. I love costumes and spider not real spiders, but spiders and spider webs and skeletons and pumpkins and pumpkin patches. October is my favorite month. good month. and and it might be your birthday. My birthday. Yes, your birthday. I have a birthday.

I just assumed that was assembled somewhere. yes, October is my birthday. and spoiler alert, we'll be talking about that a little bit later in the conversation with our guests. but we could have an entire episode talking about my birthday. But today's conversation is really gonna lean into student entrepreneurship. Sophie, who is going under the hat today? Today we are talking about what student entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship looks like when students build, produce, and sell their own work. Joining us to connect production technology to classroom practice are two guests, Peter Volinsky, VP of Sales and Business Development at Solidgrass Technologies, leading strategy to expand digital decoration tools into schools and turn project time into practical career readiness, and Vic Patel.

CEO of Craft Express, a premier sawgrass dealer focused on making commercial grade heat presses and crafting hardware accessible to educators and student creators. Together, they're showing how to take student ideas off the screen, put them into

tangible production, and turn classroom projects into a working business. Peter, Vic, welcome to Under the Hat.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (07:31)
Peter, why don't you start off with telling us a little bit about your educational journey?

Peter Valinski (07:36)
Absolutely. so 20 plus years in the digital printing industry. and with respect fun factoid, yeah, with respect to education, when

Vik (07:48)
Thank you.

Peter Valinski (07:52)
I first graduated from college, I taught high school chemistry for almost seven years. So education has always been kind of near and dear to me, and unfortunately I I kind of

struggled as an educator to make ends meet and and raising a young family. So I left and moved on to the business world and and here I am. And I just I I kind of find it interesting that things can kind of come full circle as they say. So so here I am back again trying to support the educational system under the umbrella of Sawgrass technologies.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (08:29)
That's fantastic. And Vic, what about your educational journey?

Vik (08:33)
So mine, I was born and raised in the UK, so I went through the whole UK education system all the way through high school and university, graduated with a chemistry and a business admin degree, had a Kingston University in London, and then came came stateside in 1996, just when the Olympics were going on here in Atlanta, and started working.

working as many hours as I possibly could and then decided to figure out how I got into getting my masters in business admin because I was a glutton for punishment. I went to Emory University to get my executive MBA in 2013. And as far as from a work perspective, with Craft Express, we started really digging into the educational piece about a year and a half ago.

and then leaning into what we do as a company and leaning into the education space. So funnily enough, we're back in education in a big way as you saw us in Orlando a few months ago. So, but that's kind of my journey.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (09:48)
Yeah, so I let's start with Sawgrass, because we're we're we're talking about two different companies. I do know that there's there's a partnership here at play. but for those that are listening that are like maybe unfamiliar with on both sides, right? maybe Peter starting with the sawgrass technologies piece, what do y'all do and how do y'all support education?

Peter Valinski (10:14)
Absolutely,

Steve. So great question. So Sawgrass really we were the pioneers of die sublimation, desktop dye sublimation printing, almost 35 years now in the industry. so we really carved out a very, very unique niche. It was one of the the few kind of self-contained decorating solutions that was on the market literally for for a number of of decades.

And now the company is evolving. competition has certainly entered that the market space. So now we've created a a new technology that we're calling VersaFlex. And it's using unique ink chemistry, media chemistry, software, and printer, and and us kind of delivering this this this whole integrated solution. Now you can decorate a plethora of products beyond just

products that could be sublimated. So it's it's really a a turnkey desktop digital printing solution that we're we're we're we're delivering to the market. And and now we're finding its need in the educational space. And some of it's just quite frankly because

Vik (11:28)
you

Peter Valinski (11:29)
of its its user friendliness, right? As long as you keep the the printer plugged in, powered up, whenever a student or teacher goes to use the the the printer, it's it's basically primed, ready.

to start making product and again very very seamless very very intuitive very very user friendly through and through

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (11:51)
the Sophie and I went to to your booth at at ISTE and you all made us this phenomenal thing.

Vik (11:52)
I'm going to take a break.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (12:01)
we absolutely loved that. So it was made, I felt like it was like it felt like minutes. And minutes, yes. That

Vik (12:10)
Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (12:10)
was even the me giving you our logo, you guys tweaking it hot for a little bit and then like printing it and then

applying it. Right? That was like a practice, right? Yeah.

Vik (12:23)
Yeah,

that's it. And I think that where people really get hung up is this word sublimation, right? It almost takes you back to that high school chemistry class again, and gives you nightmares.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (12:36)
Actually, that is a

seventh grade standard. It's a seventh grade science standard, sublimation, yes. because you remember I know this, I'm an instructional coach at a middle school

Vik (12:40)
Is it a self-grade? Well, there you go. Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (12:48)
right now, and we're getting ready to go into melting, freezing, sublimation. And

Vik (12:54)
Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (12:55)
so I was just like, wow, that's what I'm gonna talk about this weekend. But we're gonna but

Vik (13:00)
I'm sorry.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (13:02)
for people who don't know that.

that or don't remember seventh grade science standards. please, Vic, explain sublimation.

Vik (13:11)
Yeah, so it's really easy. So the way I explain it, I try to use the analogy of ice, right? So you put a cube of ice out on the road, it melts and it turns into water. And that water eventually in the heat will evaporate and the evaporation is a gas, the water is a liquid and the ice is a solid. So that's gone from a solid to a liquid.

to a gas and disappears in the clouds and then eventually comes down somewhere in South Carolina when it rains. Now sublimation

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (13:44)
Ha ha ha.

Vik (13:45)
is like taking a block of dry ice, know, that fun stuff that we get during Halloween and we pour a little bit of water on it and it just, smoke starts coming out. Well, that's a block of carbon dioxide that you're putting outside. And if you pay real close attention, you'll notice that there's no puddle of water there.

That's because it's going directly from that solid to the gas and that carbon dioxide is going back up in the air to populate the world, right? And feed the trees. Which is really important, right? Because trees need carbon dioxide and we need oxygen, etc, etc. So that's sublimation. It is taking something that's a solid to... Yeah, there you go. Thank you.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (14:23)
Also a seventh grade standard.

Peter Valinski (14:26)
Yeah, yeah.

Vik (14:29)
It's taking something from a solid directly into a gas.

Now, when you relate it to our world, it's really cool because those little ink cartridges that we have in our printers, they're not liquid. They have liquid, but they also have these tiny, tiny particles of dye in there. So the cyan ink cartridge, for example, had these tiny microscopic particles, solid particles of dye. That's what we want to put onto your tote bag to make your logo. So in order to get it into the right position,

We have to mill it down to microns so it can get spat out of the print head into the right position onto the paper. Once it's on the paper, how do we turn it into a gas? Well, we've got to put some heat under it or on top of it, right? You've to heat that little pallet up. And when it's heated up, it does not turn into a liquid. It turns into a gas. And that gas, and I think we're going to edge into high school chemistry here a little bit.

What happens at that temperature is the layers of polyester open up. Literally, the polymer opens up and that gas goes into the molecular level, into the polyester and that tote bag was made in a minute. So in a minute you open it up and when you open up that heat press, the molecules close back up again, almost like a Venus flytrap. And true sublimation is

It turns from a solid to a gas back to a solid. So what's sitting inside that molecule? It's a tiny particle of dye. That's what's sitting in there. And that's why it looks so bright and vibrant. Because it's getting... It's inside the molecule. There's a little bit of light being refracted out of the molecule and making that ink dye pop.

And that ends the science and chemistry lesson for today. I hope. But it's in there, right? You

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (16:36)
And

Peter Valinski (16:37)
I I I I think

Vik (16:38)
don't feel the print, right? On there? Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (16:40)
You don't feel the print. So I think you guys

actually did one side, we feel the print, so we could feel the difference. And then this

Vik (16:45)
Yeah, that's right.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (16:47)
side, you don't. It feels like the tote because it's inside the polyester. It's not laying on top of the polyester.

Vik (16:54)
Yeah.

So the challenges over the last 38 years, when Sawgrass has been around for 38 years, has always been the fact that we can only go onto something that has a polyester coating or a polyester fabric. It's polyester that's been that limitation. And of course, everyone loves cotton t-shirts. Everyone loves cotton t-shirts.

And so that's always been the challenge. so Versifec Sawgrass and Infinite Wisdom came up with this really cool technology where they could actually get rid of the black ink cartridge and replace it with this special magic solution and another piece of media that when they combine together will bind to cotton using sublimation inks. So now you can sublimate on cotton.

You sublimate into polyester and you sublimate on cotton. And that's why you have those two different feels. You got brusiflex on one side of that toe and you have sublimation on the other.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (18:01)
And

so that's what Vic was saying, that he d you that's what you were or not Vic, Peter was saying, you were saying about the new

Vik (18:09)
Versiflex system. Yep.

Peter Valinski (18:09)
Versailles. Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (18:09)
In versuche.

I keep on thinking about how before I came across this type of technology in my brain, is like for years we've we we've been doing things like hey, we want students to be more creative. We want kids to be able to use and explore things like a Canva or Adobe Express, right? But I there's

There's something to be said about allowing students to be creative in that way. And then see it actually be applied. See it actually come to life in a more tangible way, other than some assignment they have to upload into their LMS. Right. Like, cause to me, you know, because we saw it in your booth. We're like, cool. It's up in a Canva. Now you have it. And now we get to have our our logo, our brand.

printed on something that could be used, sold, something that's used to to solve something, right? Like depending on what it is. And I just appreciate the application of this for students other than it just living on a screen. Because I've I've worked in high schools and CTE programs and it was usually this giant what is it?

Vik (19:32)
Thank

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (19:37)
Screen press.

Peter Valinski (19:38)
Yep. Screen screen printing press. Yep. Yeah.

Vik (19:38)
A screw print.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (19:38)
That takes up half of the classroom

to do like the screen press. And it was like no it would just sit there because the person who ended up getting it, trained getting trained on it, and knowing how to use it eventually left, and then no one else knows how to use it, and it just sits there, taking

Vik (19:55)
Yes.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (19:56)
up immense amount of space in the classroom. but you guys had it was like two little printer sizes, like two printers. The printer that actually prints

the paper with the ink on it and then the sublimation

Vik (20:11)
the heat press.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (20:12)
press, right?

Vik (20:13)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Peter Valinski (20:15)
Correct. Yeah.

Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (20:17)
So from a from a space perspective, right? Yeah. Like it it's not it's not like you're you're taking up a whole lot of space. And it was way faster. Yeah. Yeah.

Peter Valinski (20:31)
Now, Steve, that's absolutely one of the advantages is just the overall footprint of the solution itself, right? It between the heat press and the printer, it does not require a a a lot of tabletop space. So again, it it it can be, you know, strategically placed in the classroom, where again, students andor teachers can take advantage of it. the other thing that you you you mentioned, Steve, you know, you're talking about the screen.

Right. I think one of the cool things, and I think you witnessed it right there with the tote bag yourselves, is is kind of like the the wow factor, right? as as as as I like to call it. When you look at a cool image on a screen, it still can be a cool image on a screen, but somehow when that same image is transposed onto a finished product, be it a mug, tote bag, t shirt, keychain, whatever.

It it just takes on a whole other meaning, right? And and and some of that's just wow, I it it's it's kind of cool how the molecules and everything, as Vic went into fantastic A plus details describing, right, how they get onto that final substrate, right? But but again, it's it's the end results where it the the colors are so vibrant and crisp, and the products like, wow, people would pay money for this. And then that's where the whole revenue entrepreneurial side comes in.

Because people do want to buy these products, right? They like them. they're they're customized, right? If you bought a tote bag and it just had something, you know, blasé on it, no one gets excited about it. But if it's your artwork, if it's your family picture, if it's something that's meaningful and personal to you, that's where it really starts to spring to life. And I think this that's that's this whole mass customization, you know.

a wave that we're we're still riding throughout the globe.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (22:32)
Yeah.

Yeah, I I I just appreciate right now and we've Sophie and I've been talking about this for the last couple episodes just because it's so top of mind for everyone right now. This is a good example of having technology in the classroom doesn't mean that you're they're staring at a screen for 50 minutes. Cause so much of what's being done here is technology, but it's so also like hands on.

And it it actually more real world than I don't know, them jumping on a platform and getting quizzed on math for like twenty, thirty minutes.

they're dis they're able to design their own thinking. and I'm currently one of my one of the classes in at my school that I'm coaching at, instructional coaching at, that we have digital arts class. And the kids in there have designed their own logo. They've researched and created their own product that they would sell and created like social media posts and things about it. But if we had something like this in the classroom, we could take it one step further.

We also have like a student a student store with our PBIS system where they use the their grizz their their grizzly bucks, because we're grizzly bears, to buy things. And what if students were making stuff in-house for other students to be purchasing? that would just add a layer of customization, as Peter said, that we don't just get when it's like we're just buying masks.

fidget toys or something like that. Mm-hmm.

So the so the entrepreneur piece, right? And because that so Peter, like what's what's interesting is out of the gate, you all started talking science, the hard sciences, which I taught history and civics, so I'm like, cool, out of my out of my element a little bit. but like this is straight up like this is full on cross curricular. and because like now you

So

you got into like how it's made, but then like more on my side of it, the entrepreneur side of it, and then it's like, well, what do you do with it afterwards?

Peter Valinski (24:56)
E exactly, exactly. And I think the the entrepreneurship side is is one of the the the the greatest strengths of the solution. Because if you really yeah, it it's not a lemonade stand, right? That that's that's the the the most basic, simplistic, you know, small business. But but this is more than that, right? You you have the creative side, you have the raw material side, you have okay, what's gonna be my my my retail price.

What's gonna be my margins? How many, what's my my productivity? How many of these can I make? you know, an hour, a day, a week, how many am I selling? am I getting customer complaints? Am I, you know, what what's my defect rate? It in in a way you're really teaching students how to run a small business. And and I think personally think that's a fantastic skill that all of us should use.

I mean, how many times have we heard the classic tale about a doctor? Unbelievable doctor, right? Just a a gift to medicine, but they can't run a business to save their life, right? And in terms of their business practice, you know, learning how to run a business is very, very important. Learning how to look at a a profit and loss statement and and figure out, right, what do I need to do to make

the the company quote unquote profitable, right? There there's a lot of good learnings that that students should be understanding and taking away. And these are lifelong lessons, right? At some point you're, I'm not saying everyone's going to be running a small business, but right, there there's there's definitely these these takeaways that can be very, very applicable to the real world.

Vik (27:08)
I I I think one one of the things that's really important here is what we're doing is is a life skill. So if we take the B word business out of it.

And we look at this from a life skill perspective. And we take a look at, you know, sm smart or CET, we've got the science which we've already gone through on sublimation, we've got the technology piece, which is the heat presses and the printers and why they work. And by the way, the printers are built specifically to take these inks. I mean, down to the software that actually runs these printers. So, so

That's the technology aspects of it. The engineering aspects are obvious from the printers and the heat the the heat presses, et cetera, again. But then the math side of it is that profit and loss side. That's your life skills. How do you how do you balance your your monthly budget at home? Right? How do you how do you manage your day-to-day pocket money? And do do I spend my ten dollars on Starbucks bougie coffee today? Or do I just, you know, take my water bottle from home? Right? So

Think of this as if we could if we can have a program where we're teaching our our our kids or our classes to create these micro entrepreneurial sort of classes, then they're tak we don't want everyone to we know that everyone is not gonna turn out to be a t-shirt factory. And if we did that, we'll be a robotic society, right? However, if they can take some of these skills that they're learning and adapt it to what they're going to do in their lives post school.

post university, then that's a huge step up. Huge. And and Sophia, you you're absolutely correct. I mean, in schools, there's an opportunity to sell the school branded material within the schools themselves. you know, and and I know Peter mentioned lemonade stand, but this is your new lemonade stand, right? This is this is the evolution of lemonade stand. to the point where I was I I

I I've been on this massive plane journey for two months, going from country to country and town to town, and it ended right today. for for a little while. But what wanna

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (29:28)
Thanks for anything with us. Yeah, we appreciate it.

Vik (29:31)
but but Halloween's coming up, right? And and you know, my

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (29:34)
Yes? Yeah.

Vik (29:35)
my son's thirteen, he's kind of you know, past the phase of dressing up, he's just into knocking on doors and collecting candy. But our neighborhood's full of these young kids. I'm gonna set up a table at the end of our driveway.

With a heat press and a printer, and we're gonna make t-shirts and we're gonna make coasters for the kids, and we'll have candy. And maybe we'll make these little bags that they can produce and we'll throw candy in there. But we're gonna introduce them to this, right? And and it won't be it'll be it'll be a memorable activity, right? For the for the young kids. We'll have sublimation markers, we'll have a printer out there, they'll be able to do activities, but we'll make it fun and we'll make it Halloween y.

Maybe have a photo booth, I don't know. And take pictures and put that picture onto a t-shirt.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (30:22)
'Cause

you did that at ISTI in the booth. You had like a little photo booth and you took a picture and then immediately turned it around and like printed it onto a T shirt for peop for teachers, right? That's what you was doing?

Vik (30:33)
Yeah.

And there was there was there was a a massive emotional sort of feeling when people saw their pictures of them and their friends on a t-shirt. within five minutes they were they they had a t-shirt. And the following day there were people walking around in those t-shirts. so so it it it's it's it's really fun to do. And at Sti we produced three hundred t-shirts.

It was two hundred and ninety eight to be exact. I exaggerated a little bit. Two hundred and ninety eight t shirts in two and a half days.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (31:10)
That each of them were custom.

Vik (31:13)
I each of them were customized. Each of them had a photograph on there and a template. Each of them were printed right there and there. It got so busy that we had to stack up and call people to come pick up.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (31:26)
I wish I would have known about this before I went on the prices, right? I

Vik (31:30)
Ha ha.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (31:31)
totally would have printed my own shirt. I had to pay probably too much for custom shirts.

Vik (31:36)
Did you go into prices right?

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (31:38)
He did. I did.

Vik (31:40)
Okay.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (31:40)
They went and he was up at the front. He didn't go up on the stage, but he was up in the front doing the guessing.

Vik (31:46)
Yeah, yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (31:47)
I got to the bidding part, which I failed miserably, but that's another conversation.

But he had like a custom shirt. Yes. So we had went my brother and I are we're four years apart. born on the exact same day though. So

Vik (32:05)
Wow.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (32:05)
we went like we had birthday shirts. I use a picture of us as kids and it was a whole thing.

Vik (32:12)
Love it.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (32:12)
but like now I know where to go. Next time I need custom shirts.

Vik (32:18)
Yeah, schools will take care of you.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (32:20)
I Well actually I'm thinking about the pod already, 'cause we need to

revamp our we have a swag store. So maybe this is like an offline conversation. But we have a swag store. So I'm like, yeah. instead of like a third party doing all the printing. I need to know the numbers. So

Peter Valinski (32:39)
Yeah, yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (32:41)
so so something so something that I'm curious about though is let's say we we we we have these printers. They're they're in a classroom or in a series of classrooms at a school.

how do you all support once those technologies are in the classrooms? And I'm I'm I'm asking on like maybe professional development, on like you're speaking on a lot of different things on a cross curricular level, on a deeper level, a more hands-on level, but like I I don't know if every teacher would be able to like pull it out of the box.

and be able to have the knowledge set that you two have to be able to implement this at a very high level at first, right? And some teachers can. Some I like some can, but I'm just curious what kind of support is given once these machines are in classrooms?

Vik (33:43)
So so so that's a loaded question, right? So I think that if we step back a little bit, the first the the the first topic should be why are schools and library networks, etc., are getting these to do a variety of things. One, we just we we we just installed a system into a South Carolina Title I school who has actually

set aside space to create an entrepreneurial class for their for their kids, right? And there are three teachers who have come together and said, We are going to do this because we don't we we you know, it's a Title I school, it's got, you know, it's it's serving a a a certain population that you know, if they don't have sort of these honed in skills, could end up on the wrong side of the tracks, right?

in in life and they're trying to head that off at the past. So the st the teachers have come together, the whether it's the art teacher, the math teacher, or a curriculum teacher, the vocational teacher, I think it is, or the career teacher, has come together and said, We're dedicated, we're gonna build this class out. And I was talking to the principal about four weeks ago and I said, This is brilliant. Right? It's in South Carolina, it's down the road, I wanna play, I wanna come down, I wanna make a presentation, etc, etc. Right.

If you need help setting it up, I'm down there. I'm ready. Right? And because I'll it for me it's a selfish reason too, because I think it's a worthy cause. And number two, if I can learn and I can replicate it in other schools and other areas around the country, now we're building this model. as far as the whole support and the setup side of it, no, we're building curriculums, right? We're we're working on actively building good strong STEM and CET curriculums where

working and having conversations on partnering with CET organizations who actually are experts in taking these equip the this equipment and setting it in schools, literally installing it and teaching the teachers and training the teachers on how to use it and build it into their s in into their curriculums. so all of these schools are buying this for different reasons. There are maker spaces that are just happening where kids just come in.

and make things because there's maybe the holiday fair is happening next weekend and they're making some t-shirts or some swag. it's an entrepreneurial class. It's, you know, I I it's a school project that I need to make, right? Member the the volcano projects that kids make and they take school. Maybe it's something that's made with with the sublimation or the 3D printers or the lasers that they have in this makerspace lab. And they're doing it right there.

it's it's taking it from that screen to life as as you Steve you you mentioned earlier. So we're here to support. I'm happy to go to a school. In fact, I I encourage people to say, Vic, come on down, because I actually want to be in it and I want to see the reactions on the kids' faces and the teachers. And you know, you think you have a lot of questions, you can imagine the teachers, right? And their minds are just gonna be going in a hundred different directions. and my job would be say.

Focus, right? Let's get the basics done first. Let's get the kids doing this and then we'll expand the versatility of this because the products are endless. The opportunities are endless with this solution.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (37:12)
Yeah,

yeah. No, and and that's and that's part of the reason why I asked the question too is like I can see how it could be overwhelming for a teacher. But I I do love Vic like you talking about curriculum and like building especially around CTE, and where like this is not this solution I don't think just belongs in like a business or entrepreneurship type of pathways.

my former district has both of those pathways and while they're phenomenal, anything across CTE could really lean into this type of solution and and you know and for an entire school, like kind of like Sophie mentioned, like PBIS store. we have a leadership class at my school and they do a lot of things for the PBIS school. There's art classes, they can make their art come to life and wear

Vik (38:10)
Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (38:11)
it.

Vik (38:12)
Well i i i imagine

imagine a a mini business class where you know when when i went to high school in the UK we were doing business plans and that was it. And they get critiqued. But now you can not only do your business plan,

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (38:26)
You could try it out.

Vik (38:28)
you can you can try it out, you could prototype

Peter Valinski (38:28)
You can execute. Yep. Yeah.

Vik (38:30)
your business plan, right? And you literally

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (38:31)
Execute. Yeah.

Vik (38:33)
execute on the plan and your your your

You you you your your peers can be your your your employees they can go out selling you can have a little group that's a little finance group that does all the calculations, you can have the little group that does the production and they're working about learning how to do production workflow, right? You start learning about production workflow and now you're learning about project management, you're learning about you know what to do first, what to do next, the safety aspects, OSHA comes into all of this play. There's so much involved.

At a micro level in in this, it's incredible of what you can learn. And now with sublimation and then with Versaflex, there's two different workflows. Now, how do you manage two different workflows? Let's add something else in here. So there's you can go in so many different directions and talk about a life skill. It it this is literally a life learning opportunity for the kids.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (39:29)
So you mentioned the two sublimation and burst of flex. Do you need two different printers or can you do them both in the same printer?

Vik (39:38)
Both in the same printer. Peter's gonna take this one.

Peter Valinski (39:39)
Yeah. Yeah,

yeah. No, this same same printer, same inks. The only thing you're doing is obviously in the software, you're you're choosing differently in terms of your output profiles, but it's it's the media that changes. That's the only thing that changes. And that's again the uniqueness of our of our solution. Is you're not buying another system, you're not using different inks, you back to that really, really, you know.

Small footprint, that's the the beauty of the solution.

Vik (40:11)
Yeah, you're right. I mean yeah, I can make a coffee mug and then my next print can be a cotton t shirt. That's it. I don't I I I I can have two paper trays and one of them's got the Versaflex paper in there and one of them's got the sublimation. All I'm doing is just flicking the switch on the software and saying it's gonna go into a mug or it's gonna go into cotton. That's it.

It's really simple.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (40:35)
And that's something that's

like on the printer or is that something like when you go into like your printer settings and you go like print and I'm gonna do is it like there on your screen? Okay.

Vik (40:43)
Yep, printer settings. Printer

Peter Valinski (40:45)
Yeah,

so Sawgrass

Vik (40:45)
settings.

Peter Valinski (40:47)
has it it's it's called the Sawgrass print utility, SPU for for short. And it's it's basically and and we're really doing some some again adding a lot of let's say design content to spew. We used to have it where if you wanted stock images, things like that, you'd have to be connected to the web. Now now we're we're we're integrating them both together.

So it's much, much faster, it's much easier, it's much quicker. and then the the software itself is really no different from the functionality of your iPhone, right? You're you're turning toggles on, off, what functionality you want, don't want, but but again, very, very user-friendly. It's it it's basically click and go. but but but if you want to get into you know real color management.

you know, it's it's it's kind of dumbed down and and it's made simple. But the beauty is if someone really wants to go deep on on the color science side, you you could go there if you wanted to, right? And you could start playing around with half-toning and and different things like that. So so that flexibility is also built into the solution. It could be very, very high level, easy to use, but if you have some

you know, some interested parties that obviously want to go deeper and and and kind of peel back that onion, they have the ability to do so.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (42:18)
That's interesting.

Vik (42:19)
the

there's a whole science of science of color involved in this too, right? So sawgrass

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (42:25)
Mm-hmm.

Vik (42:25)
has s sawgrass plays a significant role in ensuring that color profiles are created based on the product that you want to make. So a coffee mug, it it's not very porous, right? It's pretty rigid sub sub substrate, ceramic, takes very little ink, but you still need a vibrant image to pop.

Well, this there's a science involved on how much ink needs to go down on a coffee mug compared to a t-shirt which absorbs ink. and and you need more ink to go on. So so they have these professionals that actually create specific profiles for the printer to drop the right amount of ink in the right spot to create a nice crisp image from whatever product you need.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (43:15)
It's doing all the work for you, which is fantastic. So it makes it super easy to like from teacher to teacher. If that teacher that was using it decides to leave or retire for whatever whatever and the next teacher can just pick it up and start using it.

Vik (43:30)
yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (43:32)
But something that I remember and Steve touched on it earlier was that it didn't matter what design tool I was using.

Vik (43:42)
No, it

Peter Valinski (43:42)
Correct.

Vik (43:43)
doesn't. Yeah. I I I was at a show this I was at a show this weekend. Sorgrass has their own design tool. it it it's called MySoregrass. I was using Canva, as you quite rightly noticed at the show. Canva also has another offline software called Affinity that works, Photoshop, all the Adobe products work. and I was at a show this weekend.

And I thought to now I was telling people, you can print out of anything you want to. You can print out of a PowerPoint document or a Word document. And I said to myself, you know what? What the heck? I'm just gonna do something in Word and print it out and put it onto a t-shirt or a cotton swatch. I did just that. I I I wrote a paragraph out about what is Versaflex and printed it from a Word document through the printer and put it onto a cotton swatch.

Right there and there. It was pretty amazing. And and you can it's nice, crisp, font that you can actually read the whole paragraph. And I'll I'll send you the picture of it after so that you can have it to take a look at. But it it's amazing what you can do with it and where it can print from.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (44:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, you can certainly go down a whole rabbit hole, right? Of like of all the things

Vik (45:04)
Yeah. Y y you could.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (45:08)
that you could do with this. Vic, I did want to take a little bit of time to talk about like, you know, the craft express side of this, more of like what you all are working on. you give us a little bit of context there.

Vik (45:27)
Yeah, so a little bit about Craft Express Craft Express started about six years ago. It'll be six years in January. and full disclosure, I was the head of marketing and global business development for Solgras for ten years, prior to that. and hence we have a pretty tight relationship because we're both in Charleston. but Kraft Express complements what Solgrass does. Yeah, Solgras produces a printer and the inks and the software to work to work together.

we produce all the substrates and the blank products. that we provide all the t shirts, the coffee mugs, the heat presses, and we also we we're we're we're an exclusive dealer, so we're exclusively a storegrass dealer. and so we we bundle all this together and we ship it off to our customers. So we complement each other in what we do. in fact we just came back from a joint trade show again over this over this past week.

where we both showed our you know, b both the brands were in one booth and we were doing our thing at a show. and and we both come in with some pretty, you know, specific insights about each other's products. I'm unique in the fact that, you know, I I I spent a long time at Soregrass and I know the products really well too. and I believe in and and I believe passionately in how how well they operate and how they w what how well they've worked too.

So so that that that's what we do at Craft Express. So you can see a lot of our products at CraftexpressUS dot com. and then you see a lot of our social posts where we're we're having a little bit of fun in in the market, making products for for our customers, yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (47:10)
Yeah, love that. well, Vic and Peter, we really appreciate you, you know, taking the time. we've learned a lot in terms of both sides of this, with Saugrass and Craft Express. it is coming up on that time where we are gonna ask both of you. Peter, if you and Mai will have you go first on what's top of mind for you in education, what is under the hat and something that we need to be talking more about.

Peter Valinski (47:40)
I

think what's under the hat for me, Steve, is you know, I've been seeing on the news as of as of late how right the four-year college, right? It it's now being called into question. And if you in terms of like the the return on investment for students, right? And and now students are giving pause and thought and saying, Hmm, are there better technical alternatives, right? Are there other

Other better ways for me to get the skill level that I need to be successful in the marketplace. And I think where kind of the the the well, this is certainly just looking into finite in terms of the United States. I I think

Vik (48:27)
you find a thing.

Peter Valinski (48:30)
this this whole conversation is is all part of that same question, right? Where, hey, just because

You go off and get a four-year degree, doesn't guarantee this or doesn't guarantee that because the world is changing. It's becoming, you know, with the advancement of AI and digital, right? It's it's it's moving at it at such a rapid pace that again, how do we K through 12, how do we arm our students to be successful? It it and again, across the board, give everyone some basic level.

of this this this you know this educational at least you know kind of platform to to build from wherever you go career wise right that that that's kind of where where my head is going that boy the the the I think the timing of this whole conversation and and and where this this you know where everything is is kind of trending it it all kind of goes hand in hand so that that to me is

What's under the hat?

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (49:37)
Love that. Yeah, love that.

Peter Valinski (49:39)
Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (49:39)
Vic, what about you?

Vik (49:40)
I'm leaning heavily into the education space. Heavily. After ISTE, you know, it was an ISTI was an idea for us. It was a an advent it was let's do this and see what we can get out of this. since then, I have been spending a great deal of my time, almost sixty percent of my time, leaning into the education space, learning about makerspaces. We just a few weeks ago we were in

Southwest Florida Library Network event where didn't you know we're we're finding things that we didn't even know existed. a nonprofit that purchases equipment to loan out to rural libraries who don't have the necessary budgets to buy equipment. we met libraries, we met universities, we went to Central Florida University to look at their makerspace. So for me, I want I'm leaning

Deeper and deeper into the education space. How can we get this into schools? even if we start off with markers and teaching young kids how to take their drawings and put it onto a coffee mug to give to their grandparents on grandparents' day, bring them into Canva, teach them how to do digital design, then teach them how to then monetize that and and work it into STEM and CTE and and and

Build these micropreneurs. And I keep using this phrase micropreneurs because that's what they are, right? They're little tiny little little cells that we actually produce as human beings. We want to build them into these little micropreneurs who could take these life skills and just do what the heck they want once they're out of school. Stay out of trouble. And you know, whether you want to change oil for the rest of your life or you're gonna be a neurosurgeon, all of these skills we teach them early on in life.

will will put them on the right path a lot sooner and we know how fast tech is moving, right? Embrace AI for the good parts of AI and integrate it into what we can what you know, supporting the this program instead of taking AI into a whole different in into a different a a tangent, right? So I I'm I'm excited. I'm excited that every single conversation I have with schools

And I I will tell you, l three weeks ago, we sold five systems into five schools, all coming out of ISTE. Right? So we know we know the cycle is long, we know the decision making process is long, but the way we're doing this is by consulting with them. We're talking to the schools. We're not just saying here's a bundle, go forth and figure it out. We're talking to them and saying, What do you want to do?

you know, how do you want to work this? And then we're saying this is what you need. Don't buy too much. Get enough to get started. And then we can always come back and add. And I'm learning I think more than they probably are in this whole process. But for a reason we can then take it and teach other schools too. So yeah, we'll be I'm I'm passionate about this. So I can keep going all day.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (53:03)
No, that no, that's apparent. Like that that shines with with with both of you. I I I just love that what you're selling is because you are selling something, but like what

Vik (53:15)
Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (53:15)
you're selling is so customizable and so like from a sales cycle standpoint, backwards design like what do you need out of this? Said school. And then you

Vik (53:28)
Yeah, it it is it it's totally what deep

what do you want to get out of it.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (53:31)
And then you

tailor whatever offering that you have around that, right? And so I I just appreciate that that part of it.

Vik (53:40)
We don't wanna be that screen printing machine that's sitting in the corner. Right? We want this to be a machine that's constantly printing and making things and making people happy. Period. There's there's a reason that the Yeah, there's a reason the back

Peter Valinski (53:53)
And teaching students. Teaching students. Yep.

Vik (53:57)
back of my shirt says prepare for the wow, a massive wow in the back. Because every time we take that paper off a tote bag, at twenty years I've been doing this, even I'm

Totally amazed at what we can actually do. You know, when that paper comes off, it's pretty cool. And we do mess up. There's no doubt. If we're not messing up, we're not, we're not moving forward. But but the beauty of it is it just looks amazing. And you think, wow, I drew that, I made that, I created that, I sold that. He's wearing that because I made it. And that's what we want to get out of this, right? And and

You should see the kids' faces when they make something and they see it come off of the heat press. It's amazing. Yeah, it's cool. It's

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (54:41)
I bet. yeah. Yeah. I yeah.

Vik (54:45)
really cool.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (54:45)
I

love that. I mean I get really super excited when I see people using a slide deck that I made and they thought it was cool and they're like, I'm gonna use this or just even taking one of my ideas and implementing it in the classroom. I get excited, but have something

Vik (54:59)
Yeah.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (55:00)
more tangible than that, walking around.

Vik (55:04)
Yeah, there's

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (55:04)
Yeah.

Vik (55:05)
a massive emotional play here, right? Massive

Peter Valinski (55:06)
Yeah.

Vik (55:07)
emotional investment here. So yeah. And it makes the parents feel bit.

Peter Valinski (55:10)
Think about think about the pride, the

pride that a student would have walking down the hallway seeing product that they designed, right, and someone else is wearing, right? It's it's just fantastic. It's really, really fantastic.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (55:27)
Awesome. Vic, Peter, we appreciate both of you. and I'll be following up. I'm I'm really curious on where this goes and how we can work together in the future.

Vik (55:38)
Please do. We are gonna be at F F E T C in January. So yeah,

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (55:43)
Us two. Yeah.

Vik (55:45)
let's let let's let's make a point to to meet there and at the very least and we'll make you another tote bag or maybe something even different. Who knows?

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (55:54)
We'd appreciate that. All right. Thanks again.

Vik (55:56)
Yeah.

Peter Valinski (55:57)
Thanks again. Appreciate it.

Hosts: Steve & Sophie (55:59)
Well, friends, that is all the time we have for today's episode. A massive thank you to Peter and Vic for going under the hat with us and putting pedagogy, purpose, and student entrepreneurship right at the forefront of the conversation.

Absolutely, Steve. It was fantastic having Peter and Vic on the show. If you want to dive deeper into Solgress Technologies or Craft Express, find the resources we talked about in the show notes.

And as we wrap up episode 86, Sophie, what's your quick 30-second or longer takeaway from our chat today?

I this is just another example for me of what how important seventh grade is. Cause all of the I disagree. I didn't learn anything in seventh grade. Well, that's that's on you and your teachers. But I'm saying is everything

that they talked about and the technology and the chemistry. Yes, it's high school chemistry, but the foundation, what you start learning, sublimation. and then we even went into the water cycle. And like it's just seventh grade standards. Seventh grade standards. And

This is an this is just one of many situations where I've come across seventh grade, this case it was science standards, but then there are math standards and English standards that are applicable throughout the rest of your life. And I'm sure there are a million other examples out there. But as a middle school teacher, proportional relationships start in seventh grade, proportional relationships, unit rate, the things they were talking about in this entrepreneurial ship, starting your own business.

Are all things that are initially taught in seventh grade. So I'm that's just that's the thing that came to mind while we were talking. Yeah. What about you, Steve? So the one thing that really stuck with me and that I just I was thinking about, I did not mention this in the conversation. Okay. with them. But with all this like

innovative thinking, outside of the box thinking, this entrepreneurship, the science of it, the cross curricular themes across the conversation. Not once, like it was mentioned in passing towards the end, not once was there solution. With AI. I was thinking about that too. I was like like wait, like this is not like 'cause what we hear often is like, AI is everywhere.

Which there's some truth to that. And there could be AI engraved ingrained in like the design that they create. But like their their but their messaging was is so not that not that. It is it's kind of I don't want to say that like it's pulling back to like archaic things because it definitely is not that. It's definitely not. But it's to me it was like innovation can exist.

High achievement can exist, s giving kids the right tools to build capacity for this era of life without AI. and I to me that was something that really hit home for me, 'cause it doesn't have to be there in order for it to be innovative. Yes.

Speaking of AI though, Sophie, what was your most frivolous AI use case this week? I saw it on social media. It was like a little prompt challenge to tell your AI.

To design an image of you.

Sitting in a space that is like your happy place doing your favorite things and activities or something like that. Like so I did it and I use Gemini, Gemini's My Girl, and it has me in a purple shirt with stars and moons. It showcases my tattoo on my arm and I'm building a Star Wars Lego set with the podcast mic in front of me.

and a le Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild Switch game going on b like next to me with romanticy books behind me and the bookshelf and there's like more Star Wars and Harry Potter Lego kits behind me and I'm just like, yep, that's pretty much it. That's my happy place. That's where I want to be. I said the only thing that would be different that instead of like a subdivision being outside the window, it would be the ocean.

And that would be my happy place. Mm-hmm 'cause it's like in an office space for those watching. That's the picture.

Nice. I don't think I have one. You didn't use AI frivolously this week? It was a lot of work solving fires that needed water. It was a lot of AI watering. Yes. yes, I've been so but I I I I will say though, all these companies are trying to like build

AI into the platforms and some are doing it more successfully than others. Yes. I have been just blown away by notion. Notion, yes, and what it does from like a a database standpoint, like building databases and then using its AI to like mold it.

And customize it to your needs. I've never seen like you can't really do I I guess you can sort of do that with Gemini and Google Sheets, but not in the same way. Like there seems to be like a lot of limitations, a lot of pullback, which also another kind of off topic thing. Gemini Gems is going to skills. And then it's gonna be behind like a paywall or like it, but it's in like it's like a s phased out.

Kind of thing. so I am I don't know. Can I say that I'm a little concerned about like is it we use gems a lot. We use gems a lot. I I use gyms a lot. I don't know. Yeah, and I don't know if it's clear to us, like 'cause I know that you're on a paid Google account. We are with the pod. I don't know what my college is on. Like I it just like Am I still gonna have access? 'Cause they're gonna automatically be I got like a notification this morning when I was using it to write our intro.

our guests because yes I use AI to simplify and streamline our introduction to our guests and it there's a little notification there letting me know that gyms are going to be it automatically transferred from gyms to skills but it didn't let me know if like I'll still have access to them. So yeah like things that I have built in gyms

could be behind a paywall that I won't have access to. But I also pay. So maybe I'll just still have access to it. I don't know. Yeah. Sorry, that that was a side quest. That was a little side quest. Yeah. Side quest D. Yeah. Something I had my principal do this week though was I introduced him to Snorkel. So I had him explain whether he likes to use a spoon or a fork with macaroni and cheese.

'Cause that's one of the examples. That is one of the examples, yeah. And he was like, look at all the feedback and he got zero points. Like good. The first time he did it. It's like good. and I was like, See, you got zero points because all you said was spoon. You didn't explain why, you didn't give examples. You didn't like Did he like it? He was like, Interesting. And he saw all of the feedback that it gave him and that it could be read aloud and it we've got a a larger

EL student population. So there are even some translation options in there too. He's like, this is cool. And I said, and then you can try it again. Like as a student, you can try again. And as a teacher, you get to see how many times the student tried, or you can just look at their highest scoring one or their last one that they did. Are you about to your school and start using snorkel? Well, it is blocked.

Like we had to use it through my private account to show it to him. It's common. it is blocked. The teachers can't even get access to it. So first things first is get it unblocked. Yes. So that they could at least start trying it to see if they even like it. because it could be used in any grade level in any subject area. Because it could just be a kid talking. Or it could be a drawing, or it could be an image, or it could be typing and

What it provides everybody, the teacher specifically with is data, so much data. But the students get a personalized feedback quickly that is impossible for a teacher to be able to do.

We're looking at you, Snorpal, also because, and I thank you for bringing this up because this is a good segue. we you know that we are in partnership with Learning Genie, and Learning Genie is is a sponsor for this semester of Under the Hat. we're also pleased to announce that Snorkel is an official sponsor of Shadow Quest. And so we're looking looking forward to highlighting Snorkel and Learning Genie both in our Shadow Quest.

event and so we're we're looking forward to working with snorkel in that way. So a little bit more on Shadow Quest. We did not talk about the dates of Shadow Quest. Shadow Quest, there are levels of your engagement that you can participate in. So in Shadow Quest, you can

Participate by not registering whatsoever. Totally fine. We are going to scroll down so I can see dates. October tenth, twenty-fourth, and thirty-first on Halloween. Dress up. we are going Wait, you want me to dress up for all? Yeah. Because I will. I know. Okay. That means I need a pack a costume. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. so Shadow Quest is

Technically going to be showcased on the show three Saturdays in October: the 10th, the 24th, and the 31st. Not the 17th, because we're gonna be at Vibe Shift. and but what we're gonna do, because there's levels of participation, you can just watch and/or listen to the show, and you are participating in Shadow Quest on the most basic level. If you register, then you get access to all of the things. But if you don't register,

you can we're gonna showcase two or three of the sessions each podcast so that you can listen in or watch to learn. But it's going to be it's gonna be our learning genie, it's gonna be our snorkel and it's gonna be our favorites that we have watched and listened to. so that we can share and talk about those specific sessions.

If you register, you gain access to all of them. You can pick and choose which session you want to watch and listen to, which ones that you want to explore and dive into, and that is could be where you stop. Now, when scroll a little bit further on this one. Further, further, further. There you go. The Curse Breakers offering. There is a next level of participation that you can do, and this is the audience competition.

Yes, presenters can compete too, but they have to be registered first. So the competition is open to all registered educators who decide to register, gain access to the secret code to gain access to the Shadow Quest archive, and then all of the sessions and materials with each presentation. What you're going to do is submit a demonstration of the practical application of your learning from the Shadow Quest. So you can turn in your submission.

between October 14th and October twenty seventh. It's a super quick Google form that could be text based one hundred percent or you can even submit images or video of your like explanation of it. We've got a rubric that we're going to be grading things off of and for the competition and then you could win.

Under the hat swag pack, definitely. And since we did get another sponsorship, there's probably gonna be a fifty dollar Amazon gift card for the audience competition winner. We will announce the winner on the October thirty first special Halloween episode in which yes, we will be dressed up.

Nice. Also, whoever built this website deserves a raise. I would agree.

Okay, friends. thank you so much for listening. and as always, keep your hats on. But your minds open. Stay curious.