Meet Chris Larcinese | Small Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris Larcinese and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, what’s the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?

I have spent most of my post-college working life in a corporate career, working for small employers as well as industry leading Fortune 100 industry leaders. I’ve worked within small entrepreneurial businesses as well as large bureaucracies. I’ve been an individual contributor, a department manager and an executive. Through all of these experiences, I’ve had the benefit of witnessing and experiencing the pros and cons of each environment and corporate structures.

Through all of the business types and experiences I was involved in, there have been some commonality across them all that create important take-aways for me as I build my business. As cliche as it sounds, I have to say that being an effective leader is one of most difficult challenges facing any business.

Some leaders demand respect because of their title. To me, leadership is earned, not assigned! It’s earned with how you interact with others, whether it be your team, your peers or others that you have no direct organizational role with. A good manager empowers their team, gives them the tools and information they need to act on their own. They encourage initiative, decision making? They don’t berate their team when things go poorly.

As I build my small business and interact with my team, it’s important that I remind myself of these learnings. I want diversity of ideas! Just because I am the “owner”, I don’t want my team to simply defer to everything I say as the final word! I want them to feel able to push back on my, offer and execute their own ideas. I want my team to feel empowered to make decisions. Maybe these wouldn’t be decisions that I would make, but that’s the point! We grow as a business when we look at new product ideas, new ways of marketing, and so on by looking at them through other lenses!

I need to be mindful of my corporate experiences with good and bad leaders and make sure I end up on the side of the “good leader” experience for my team.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I am quite excited about the business I am in the process of building. The business name is Roccia Roba, which is roughly translated from the Italian for “Rock Stuff”. When my daughter and I started the business, we knew that we wanted to sell rocks, minerals, fossils, crystals, to bring the rock collections out of the basement or even storage and into the home and office as an active piece of decor.

We have experimented with a lot of different product ideas and rock material to use, and currently have a wide range of products that can be added to your home and office. For example, as I sit here in my office writing this, I see my ceiling fan pull made from fluorite crystal, the desk drawer knobs made from ammonite fossils, the air plant holder made from a geode, the business card holder made from amethyst, and the rock candle made from petrified wood.

While the business is still new, and still only a part-time gig for me, I am proud of how we were able to navigate 2020. In 2019, our revenue was primarily based on face-to-face pop-up markets. In 2020, we converted nearly all of our revenue to on-line sales. In 2021, we are able to leverage both channels!

The next step of our evolution is to evolve our online presence beyond the Etsy marketplace and onto our own website. This is in process, but far more difficult than I had ever imagined; there’s a lot to learn about how to inexpensively drive traffic to our webstore!

I am optimistic that our current sales trajectory continues and that I can one day leave my corporate job and focus on Roccia Roba 100% of my time.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Sites to see: Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak/Cog Railroad, Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park, Coors Field, Pearl Street Mall – Boulder, Downtown Golden, RiNo.

We’d likely drink at any of the many microbreweries around the Front Range. I don’t have a go to spot (other than the Pour Tap House down the road from me in Commerce City), but I’ve never been disappointed in the breweries I have had in person. I typically try to find those with a good food truck like La Baha Tacos & Nachos!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family! Debbie Larcinese, Michelle Watts, Monica Brewster! My brother and his wife, Eric and Ann Larcinese

Website: Roccia-Roba.com

Instagram: instagram.com/Roccia.Roba

Facebook: facebook.com/RocciaRoba

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBF9nSJbf9ibIP6ovnyeojA