Interview with Business Owner

1. IN PERSON INTERVIEW WITH
CHRIS PIEDRA OWNER OF
GOAT CARD SHOP
BY: Luis Marciaga

2. Company Background
Goat Card Shop
Goat Card Shop was started back in late 2017 by Chris Piedra in response to the increase of online sales in the
Trading/Collectible card game industry and its continuous distancing from the traditional brick-and-mortar approach
to the business.
Chris originally had a brick and mortar by the name of Rock Game Shop which he originally founded back in 2012. Rock
Game Shop’s primary purpose was to serve as a destination for the south Florida Trading/Collectible card game
community to sell all of its rare or valuable cards, to then later sell them himself at a higher price. After Chris began to
exhaust the south Florida community of its rescores, he began to travel to trade shows around the country with the
moniker of GOAT to buy peoples’ rare or valuable collections with the same intention as in his brick and mortar. This
combined with the fact that the majority of all sales were made online, led Chris to decide to close up shop, cut out
the overhead of a physical location, rebrand to GOAT card shop and move soley to the realm of online sales and
traveling to acquire his inventory.

3. Chris Piedra’s
Background
Chris Piedra is the son of 2 Cuban immigrants who began to work as soon
as he finished high school, while also attending college for accounting at
Florida International University. He says that all of his jobs and experiences
have led him to the point that he is at now. From his first few jobs in the
restaurant industry to his first time in management at Game Stop that led
to him managing and running 2 game stores and ultimately led to him to
open The Rock Game Shop, which has now became the GOAT Card Shop.
Chris Piedra’s Main Responsibilities as the owner of the GOAT Card shop
according to him are the Accounting of the store, along with inventory
management and the day to day management and overseeing of his
employees. On top of all that he says that he also takes care of customer
relations if necessary.
Chris Piedra says that the main Prerequisites to get to the position he is in
are to have experience in a team management position and an
undergraduate degree in business or accounting, along with the desire to
work hard and follow your dreams.

4. Q1- What are
the most
important
things in your
opinion
needed to
manage your
team?
Chris said that from several years of his own
experience he can say that it depends on the
team but that ultimately, having guidelines and
deadlines while still maintaining a friendly
environment is key. He also went on to mention
that being an oppressor that makes employees
follow rules and regulations to a point is the
quickest way to have a team that will not produce
results up to par with what one desires them to
accomplish.

5. Q2- How do
you motivate
your team to
give their
maximum
effort?
Chris said that his team generally enjoys what
they’re working on and that it’s one of the perks
of his industry. He also went on to say that
bonuses and other rewards when they over-
perform along with making them feel pride and a
sense of comfort in what they do also helped a lot
to keep a motivated team.

6. Q3- How do
you go about
evaluating
your
employees
performance?
Chris says that since employees are working with
inventory that has a value in volume that it’s
pretty easy to evaluate what the employee’s
output is. Chris then went to say that thanks to
his kind of business, this part of the job is pretty
straightforward, giving him time to focus on other
parts of the business that might need extra care.

7. Q4- What part
of managing
your
employees do
you find the
most
rewarding?
Chris said that the most rewarding part of
managing his team is simply getting to talk to
them about their lives and were they’re headed
in it, while giving them advice that will help them
live a better life and be a better person.

8. Q5- How do
you deal with
employees
gossiping
about work or
each-other?
Chris began by saying that he has no shame admitting
that in the past he was ignorant that this was a
problem or even happening, telling me that he used to
not get involved in the situation but that as he gained
experience in people management he began to realize
that the actual problem was that people were scared
to bring the problem up in fear that they would be
perceived as petty or childish for paying attention to
gossip. Chris says that with time and a bit of trial and
error, he learned to take charge of the situation and
implement sessions where everyone would bring their
problems to the open in front of everyone and as a
team, they would come up with a solution. He says
that while this method is not perfect, it was an
improvement from what he thinks was his weakest
skill when it came to people management.

9. Q6- How do
you deal with
a disgruntled
employee?
Chris says that if he has an employee that is so
disgruntled he is unable to perform his
mandatory work in a reasonable time, he has a
forgiveness policy and that if the same employee
begins to affect other employees with their
attitude he simply will not schedule the employee
until they get better. Making sure to continue to
keep in touch with the employee outside of the
work place so as to not abandoned the person,
but he would not burn money on an unfixable
situation and that if the problem is with the
employee’s current work, he will help them find
work outside of the company so that they can
find happiness and grow as a person.

10. What I Learned
About People
Management
• Chris taught me that each member of your team is
a person and individual and that you need to adapt
to the situations that you are placed in as a people
manager, especially when it comes to your
employees having human moments.
• Another lesson I learned was to learn where you
are lacking in your leadership and admit it to
yourself and come up with new and innovative
ideas to tackle the problems that can come up from
your weakness so as to almost make it a source of
strength.
• And the last and most important lesson I learned
form him was to not abandon an employee
because of a bad streak they are having. You have
to be forgiving and follow up on their well-being so
that the hope of retaining a valuable asset always
remains a possibility, but always be reedy to let go
so you do not burn too many resources on an
employee that is too far gone.

11. Lessons I learned
about my ability
to mange a card
shop
• I am not really interested in managing a card
shop because I already have for 5 years before
deciding to return and finish school here at Full
Sail University, which is a choice I made so that
I could reach a height I had not reached before
in my career, such as ownership.
• Some of the strengths that I have to make me a
great card shop manager are my focus on
communication and my experience having
already done the job for 5 years.
• I need to improve on my ability to forgive and
forget mistakes employees make since I have
always been a bit harsher than I need to be
when it comes to this part of people
management.

12. Refrences
www.goatcardsshop.com
Refrences
www.goatcardsshop.com