Phil Zamloot Has Perfected The Art of Juggling Two Successful Businesses with Tridelix and Metro Exhibits!

CEO Phil Zamloot found a way to make his two businesses work hand and hand!

Phil Zamloot took no shortcuts on his way to the top. After quickly realizes corporate America just wasn’t his niche, he ventured out, took a chance and since have created two very successful businesses through hard work. Metro Exhibits design, build, ship, store, install and dismantle Trade Show booths nationwide. Their work is unbelievable. Be sure to check out the website at www.metroexhibits.com. Phil is also involved in the 5-D printing world with, Tridelix. The motto for Tridelix is, “Turn any flat surface into a 5-D art show.” Their custom prints are something you just must see with your own eyes to believe. Find out more about Tridelix at www.tridelix.com. Phil created a platform for both businesses to coexist with one another, so his attention is never away from one business or the other. In fact, the exhibits business and the printing side of things are a perfect combination.

During our recent conversation, the New Jersey native explains how he got his start in both businesses, recalls his craziest exhibit request and how he landed Giants legend, Lawrence Taylor as the face of Tridelix.

How’s everything going?

Phil Zamloot: It’s all good. I got a wife and two boys that I live for. As long as they’re healthy, I’m good.

You run two very successful businesses. Let’s start with, Metro Exhibits. Talk to me about that one.

Phil Zamloot: So, Metro Exhibits is a full-service exhibit company. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to one of these big conventions or trade shows. You walk in a convention hall and there’s all these big exhibits of companies trying to promote their product. We build those exhibits. Not only do we build them, we ship them to the show, we set them up at the show. We provide everything a client needs for their exhibits, including printing their graphics. I started the business in 2008. We’ve grown every year by an average of 26%. We have two facilities in New Jersey, one in Orlando, one in Atlanta and one in Vegas. Instead of shipping all over the country, we have strategically placed venues, so that we can cut back on the shipping cost.

What made you get into this line of work?

Phil Zamloot: You know what, I was in the pharmaceuticals industry for a long time and corporate America wasn’t my thing. I couldn’t be fake; I didn’t like all the backstabbing going on. So, I had a buddy that owned an exhibit company. He said, “Listen man, you’re a good sales guy, you have a big network of people you know, come work for me.” So, I go work for him for about 2 ½ years. He moved on to another industry. I basically left that company, started my own business in 2008 and haven’t looked back since. You know why the trade show industry is a great industry, you could sell to anyone. I always used the analogy… when I’m hiring a new sales guy when I’m interviewing them, I always tell them, “You could sell the anyone.” I could be at a party with my wife and I’m talking to someone and I tell them what I do, the first thing they say is, “My company exhibit at shows.” Every company in every industry exhibits at trade shows. The market is huge.

You had a degree in business and marketing. Does that actually help you with what you are doing now for a living?

Phil Zamloot: You want the truth?

Always!

Phil Zamloot: I’m gonna be honest with you, man. I ain’t learn shit in college. With my kids… my kids are 13 and 9 and I live in a town where it’s a little… everyone talks about their kids and what college they go to. I don’t stress, it may sound weird and I don’t want to say that I don’t stress education, but I explain to my kids, “Listen, it’s nice if you can go to one of the prestigious schools like Cornell or Penn. All these academically prestigious schools, but listen, it’s not about college and what you learned in college. To me it’s more important to know how to talk to people, to know how to network and a little bit of street smarts.”

That doesn’t sound weird to me at all. I agree with that 100%.

Phil Zamloot: I know a lot of kids that went to Ivy League schools and man I talk to them and it’s like talking to a doorknob. They don’t look you in the eye. They are so used to things being structured for them. They are just different. So, to answer your question, my marketing degree hasn’t helped me a bit to be honest with you.

Do you think your personality and ability to talk to people holds more weight than a piece of paper you earn over the course of 4-years?

Phil Zamloot: Yep! I think if you could network and you know how to talk to people, take an interest in people, don’t talk about yourself, don’t brag, it’s always about the other person, you could do very well with or without a college degree. If you could build relationships and know how to network with people, you’re going to go a long way.

You’re putting together some pretty detailed and extravagant exhibits. Do you have a large team or select few that just really knows their job and gets after it?

Phil Zamloot: When I started the business in 2008, we had 5 employees. And now, we have about 90 employees. We have salespeople, we have project managers and then we have our guys who actually build our exhibits, carpenters. We have on site supervisors who go to all the shows to make sure the booth is set up properly. We obviously have an accounting department. We also have about 11-sales guys. The sales guys goal is to go out and get business every day. That’s how we’ve grown over the last 12-years.

Do you remember the craziest exhibit request or most elaborate job you had to pull off?

Phil Zamloot: Yes! About 6-years ago, this big pharmaceutical company called, AstraZeneca had a big event going on in Scottsdale, Arizona. The show was 2-weeks out and they needed eight 20×20 exhibits custom built. It’s almost impossible to do, but because we had the facility in Vegas… at the time, we just had the facility in Jersey and Vegas. So basically, we built the booth out of both facilities. We got it done. The reason why I did it, obviously it was a huge pharma company and the potential later down the road to get more business. And that’s what happened. That’s really what catapulted the company. We did a big job for them and the next two or three years, we got a lot of business from them. It was crazy. You’re not in the industry so you wouldn’t really understand, but to build eight 20-foot by 20-foot exhibits in a 2-week timeframe is insane. But we got it done and they were very impressed. It led to a lot more business.

Your other blooming business is, Tridelix. Tell us more about this 5D printing company.

Phil Zamloot: So, Tridelix… in the exhibit industry we print a lot of graphics. So, these exhibits have very heavy graphics. We print on substrates like PVC, plexiglass, gator boards. I’m going to call it typical graphics that you see at a trade show. But I recently bought this other exhibit company in New Jersey about 9-months ago, and with that, I was introduced to one of their print vendors. They showed me this print technology and I was floored when I saw it. I’d never seen anything like it. To explain it, it’s basically 1 inch by 1/8 of an inch piece of plexiglass. But when you hold it and look at it, it looks like it’s in a box 4 to 6 inches deep. It’s crazy! For me to talk about it doesn’t do it justice. When you see it in person is crazy. We’re the only company in the world that can do it. We launched it about 2-months ago and it’s taken off like you wouldn’t believe. Lawrence Taylor is the face of the company.

How I really got interested, I loved it when I saw it, but I had a golf outing with a bunch of sports celebrities including, “LT,” Eric Dickerson, John Starks, Charles Oakley and all those guys. I did a custom piece for, “LT,” and when he saw it, he said, “Listen man, I’ve seen a lot of pieces in my day. Nothing like this, I want to get involved.” So, “LT” invested in the company and now he’s the face of the company. I can tell you; we’re already granted the NFL license. That’s like the holy grail licensing for sports. We got the license for the NFL, and now the MLB, NBA, Nascar, NHL… the thing is, we’re so new, we’re starting with the NFL and we’re going to build it from there. There’s a lot of good things going on with the company, Tridelix.

What’s the ultimate goal for the company?

Phil Zamloot: The goal is to get all the sports leagues which I think won’t be a problem and then the next thing is retail. I had a call with Nike on Monday. They want to put it in 25,000 retail stores: Footlocker, Dick’s Sporting Goods. The brands for retail, all the sports leagues which is separate from sports memorabilia. So, to give you an example, I did a piece for Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow today. I’m bringing it down there to show them. If Lamar Jackson loves it, I can strike a deal with him. I’ll do a run with whatever… 250, have him autograph them, give him a piece of the profit. So, sports memorabilia is another huge market. And then of course, with my business with trade show exhibits, I’m going to incorporate them into a lot of my exhibits. And for the client, it will guarantee them that they’re going to stand out in the show. It grabs people’s attention. It’s more of a conversation piece than anything.

I was going to ask you if you had to create a balance between the two business or was there a way to make them work hand and hand.

Phil Zamloot: Honestly, you said it right, they go hand and hand. With these trade show exhibits, a clients first question is, “What do you guys do?” Listen, there are a lot of exhibit companies. They have good designs and the salespeople are good. Customer service is good. But they are always looking for that differentiator. It goes hand and hand and it differentiates us from the competition because nobody else can do it. Speaking of differentiation, I hire former… in this case we’ve only hired NFL athletes to help us promote our business. Jamal Lewis was our first guy about 6-years ago. He’s in our Atlanta office. We have “LT,” Otis Anderson, Eric Dickerson, Mark Bavaro. We have guys that help us promote our business. Listen, it’s all about being different and separating yourself. Tridelix Print does that with our partnership with all these former athletes.

Some NY Giants greats on that staff and Hall of Famers as well.

Phil Zamloot: Especially when we’re in New York and we have a big client come to the office, one of them is there with their Super Bowl ring and it goes a long way.

I bet. Mr. Phil, keep in touch, I appreciate your time and it sounds like you are off to an amazing year. Any closing thoughts?

Phil Zamloot: Thank you, Percy!

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