Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Jessica Wilber

Curt Anderson 0:04
Oh, hey, Damon. Happy Monday, my friend. How are you doing her live? We are. I know every every live. It looks like Chuck, can you check?

Unknown Speaker 0:15
All right? No, no, it’s awesome man. It’s a great day Friday started a week.

Curt Anderson 0:21
It was an amazing weekend. We won’t talk about football but man was it a great weekend or what? So

Unknown Speaker 0:30
that’s on both days. It was in Northwest that’s a big

Curt Anderson 0:33
deal. That’s a rarity, huh? So how about those Washington Huskies? So hey birdie Breton mid November I don’t like what’s happening here right November 14. It’s manufacturing Monday motivation. And man I talk about when you talk about motivation. Do we have the right guest today? Or were like what’s your opinion? I think we do. I you know, I think we do so why don’t we bring our Oh wait, there she is. She’s already on stage. Jessica Wilbur Happy Monday. How are you?

Jessica Wilber 1:00
I’m doing wonderful thank you guys for having me on.

Curt Anderson 1:03
Oh my goodness gracious. Damon. Are you are you sitting down for this one because they gonna be here. Fire Matt your thesis go packers man. I think they had a big one yesterday guy that’s a Cowboys if I’m not mistaken. Go packers. You are out in Colorado. You are a fierce advocate for manufacturing. You are the co founder of tech manufacturing solutions. And we’re gonna dig dig deep into like your superpowers. Before we go there as a young girl growing up on the coast of Florida Did you was a Florida driver. As a little girl growing up in Florida. Who was your hero? Your hero growing up as a little girl

Jessica Wilber 1:49
in Florida. Yeah. So my my father has always been my hero owns an auto service, entrepreneur, best salesperson on the history of ever. So I learned a lot from him growing up and that’s where my mechanical aptitude comes from.

Curt Anderson 2:07
Some dad’s name please. Howard. Howard. I sent a big shout out to Howard for just creating this absolute Rockstar. So again, we’ve we’ve got Matt Goose Bay here today go packers. We’ve got n bigger. Hey Dan, hope you had a great weekend. Dan winter the Clemson game with his boys. So big football weekend. Dan, thank you for joining us. You are going to love this a we’ve got Whitney’s and Whitney, happy Monday to our friend Whitney’s here today. So guys, if you’re out there, drop us a note, give us a low. You absolutely want to do yourself a favor, connect with Jessica Wilbur. She is absolutely incredible. So just grew up in Florida. Howard’s a big hero and just kind of you know, put you in this direction. So you know you’re young entrepreneur, we’re going to take a deep dive into like your entrepreneurial journey that just started this year. However, before we go there, what attracted you as this bright shining star? What What attracted you to manufacturing while you’re in the manufacturing?

Jessica Wilber 3:08
Yeah, so in high school, shop class really wasn’t for girls. And I was really interested in going to shop class, but but society pressured me otherwise. So I ended up in the sewing class, which I loved because we got to make things from scratch. And yeah, I really love this. And then I spent, you know, when my father helped me with through college, and we spent, you know, 60 grand on an undergrad in fashion design and merchandising, because that’s what I thought my passion was. I graduated college and I moved, I made a geographical move to Cambridge, Maryland. And really the only two things two that were available for employment were the chicken farms, or the middle conveyor belt manufacturing plant, and I needed a job. So I started working for the metal belt plant. And I sold metal conveyor belts all over the United States, I got to travel I got to see how things were made. And I just fell straight in love. And then I you know, followed my journey and I’ve worked at a couple of different places, but predominantly, my background has been power transmission industrial automation, and then some pneumatics and then now I’m like creeping up on 5050 Now I’m like CNC machining has been my background the last eight years but I’ve been in manufacturing for 14. So slowly I like overcame and I was like, what what do i Why am I in manufacturing? What do I love? Well, I realized that I loved the fashion industry because I was taking a raw material and turning it into a finished product. I had to draft my own patterns, I had tolerances, every piece had to fit together perfectly. So that’s where like that love of fashion came from but since then I’ve gotten my MBA and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and all those other things but yeah, that’s kind of how I entered it. I just needed a job. I just needed

Curt Anderson 4:58
a man alright, your belt statement, you know a little bit about conveyor belts, right? You have a little bit in that. So just, you know, let’s take it further. So you needed a job. So you started there, but you know, you could have gone you could have gone in multiple different directions, you could have gone into fashion or what have you, what kept you in manufacturing? What like, Where was that passion, just, you know, the excitement, the energy, talk about that a little bit?

Jessica Wilber 5:21
Sure. I liked hitting big numbers, and getting big deals, that filled me up a lot. And then also the constant change every day, and there’s no monotony in it. I’m sure like some guy who stands at a Swiss feels monotony, monotony, but I didn’t feel any in the sales sector. And I really enjoyed things just being new and exciting. And being able to quote and get an order and getting orders daily, filled me up, fueled my fire. And I felt like I was really helping people. Also the competitive advantage of, I mean, I feel like being a female is an advantage. I don’t know if some females feel like that’s a disadvantage, but I totally harnessed the advantage of that energy. Channel that and go. So that was really cool to me. I’ve never had too many girlfriends, I’ve always had male friends versus girlfriends. So I really enjoyed that part of it. But yeah, I think having the constant change and getting orders every day was was what drove me to continue that. And then just how things are made, just blows my mind.

Curt Anderson 6:26
So let’s go there. So you’re fresh out of college, I’m assuming, you know, 20 something, you know, new, new geographical area that you’ve moved to new industry. And you know, manufacturing is traditionally a lot of dudes talking about, you know, what was? Were there barriers that you had to break? What were those conversations like, you know, what were the relationships? Like, what was the reception to this young? Again, shining star out of college? Like, what is this? What’s this young girl doing in manufacturing, like talk about, like some of those relationships that you kick things off?

Jessica Wilber 6:55
Sure, there were a couple of instances, the predominant the most amount that I’ve had to overcome, in my entire career thus far, has always been associated with other women has always been associated with other women, women need to support other women period, we all we have to start with like right now we’re past due, we should start yesterday. But it’s always been associated around that. And I there was one instance of where I had to go to a plant and had to wear steel toed boots. And like I didn’t have any. So I went to the store. I went to the store and I was like Redwing hook me up, I need to go I need to look like I’m doing things because these guys are going to test me about the climb real high. Wear hard hat, do the things find this motor, because there’s a bearing up there that I need to get fixed. And I bought these steel toes. And I was like, Man, these things are shiny. Oh, yeah, no, I drugged them on the asphalt. Yeah, so hardcore. Put them on. And as soon as I walked into that building, those guys looked right at my shoes. Yep. And then looked at me.

Unknown Speaker 8:02
never said a word after that. Hey,

Jessica Wilber 8:05
I’ve been placed in places, but mostly, you know, my career has just been testing. There’s been more support than there has been testing. I would say there’s a lot of people who I mean, you have to be able to admit that you don’t know certain things right? You have to say hey, yeah, I’m not really familiar with that. Because the first thing to get you kicked out is to admit something that you don’t really know but you you say you do now that’s the wrong play.

Curt Anderson 8:33
Well, that’s alright so

Unknown Speaker 8:35
All right, Damon, Watson cover here.

Curt Anderson 8:38
I try so listen Alright guys, so let me get my act together here because I’m I knew this was gonna be good I just wasn’t sure was gonna be this good. So I let’s get a few hellos going so Hey, Dan was at the Clemson game. He he. So we got Gary almond, Gary Dunn in West Virginia. And Happy Monday to you my friend, Dan bigger says hey, the Clemson game was awesome. Hey, Florence is here. Florence Have a great weekend. A women supporting women. Yes, it needs to happen yesterday. We’ve got our dear friend Diane is in the house. Diane. Hope you had an amazing, wonderful, beautiful weekend. And so hey, if you’re just joining us, we’re here with Jessica Wilbur. She’s a founder CEO of tack manufacturing solutions. And just you talked about on your website, your core values, patient resourcefulness, ambition, transparency, innovation and integrity. Now we’re gonna dig into your entrepreneurial journey. I’m still going to talk about your manufacturing career, how we kicked it off. How did these these core values? How did you did you have a mentor? You mentioned again, if you guys are missing us or missed it earlier, she shared her hero is her father Howard, who like who kind of helped pave that path in your early stages of your career.

Jessica Wilber 9:52
Sure, sure. As far as coming up with my core values for my company. Yep. I selected those Personally, I didn’t bounce them off of anybody. I, I found the lack thereof for most of them. And most of the companies that I’ve worked with worked for in the history of where we’re, as we want urgency and our employees. However, if we don’t build anticipation for the Oh, crap moments in our employees, we’re setting them up for failure, because we work in manufacturing, right? Yeah, we have oh, crap moments, daily, weekly, monthly. So I think anticipation is one of my favorite ones. I think integrity comes with, with the bulk of companies, right? Innovation comes with the bulk of companies. But anticipation is one thing that if you could teach anybody, especially your children, I mean, people that you live with your family to anticipate the worst, because then you’re implementing critical thinking skills. If I do this, this or this could happen, instead of I’m going to do this. Right, right. I think that being able to say, oh, man, if I say it this way, she may interpret it this way. So like, even down to like sending an email having anticipation for what could happen after I hit send, after I make this choice, when I pick up that phone call, what’s that customer going to ask me, I probably should already know. It will, it will transcend your business because you’re not wasting any time. You’ve already thought out all the possibilities in your brain. So you’re good, you’re set up. So that’s that’s just the bulk of where I’ve found that not very many people have anticipation, right? All right. absolute love

Curt Anderson 11:35
this in everybody out there. As you can tell, wise beyond her years, Jessica is just an absolute Rockstar. So Jess, I want to talk again, I want to continue on your early manufacturing career. What were some of the factors drivers that were like when you were starting getting when you’re starting to realize enjoy the success? We’re like, talk about like, boy, this went really well. This you know, I felt these relationships, this expertise. You know, like you speak deep dive manage manufacturing, right? You could geek out with our friend Dan bigger, and everybody on the call you speak manufacturing talk about some of those early successes they that kept you drive kept you driving

Jessica Wilber 12:11
short and my career or since I started tact since

Curt Anderson 12:15
early in your career, and then will lead up and then kind of leading up to crescendo. Yeah, then we’re gonna get into your entrepreneurial journey, okay.

Jessica Wilber 12:22
So early in my career, where this is where resourcefulness is one of my core values, being resourceful is like a huge deal. And also like wanting to better yourself and learn more is also a huge deal. If you’re not reading books, or watching pot, you know, watching podcasts or listening to podcasts you’re behind. So hurry up and get that done. And continue to do that, like you should never stop doing that. Early in my career. I found that being being somebody who knows nothing was an advantage. And I used it as an advantage like hey, man, like I’m, I really want to learn from you. So a lot of my customers taught me way more than my internal team, or managerial staff. me because I was willing to ask questions that some people would be like, I don’t really That’s embarrassing. I don’t want to ask that question. But it was for the betterment of me to support that customer. That’s how I always played of, hey, if you will, I’m here to support you. And like I would love for you to buy from me. But I’m really interested in this this topic. Can we talk about this real quick? Because in order for me to support you fully, I would love to learn all the things. Can I come there? Can I see? Can I work with you let me sit with you and see what your daily life is to see what else I can navigate so I can add value. That was a huge ploy at the beginning because I knew nothing. I mean, I knew like rotary means okay probably moves. You know, but I didn’t really know all the like catenary sag, like all that conveying stuff I didn’t really know too much about. So I use my customers a lot. And then I was like, Okay, this works. And when you ask the right questions, you tend to get answers that, you know, you wouldn’t really know otherwise, which helps you mold into now we’re a partnership. Now you’re subconsciously going to feel bad if you don’t give me this order. So we went with that a lot. And it still works to where, you know, we talk about we are when we since you’ve asked me I’m going to do this, lots of different lingo that we use just to ensure that the customer knows that we have their back. And we talk as though we’ve already gotten the order, which helps them feel more comfortable with giving us orders currently, but that’s that’s kind of a lot of it. And it’s just been relationship building. I don’t think anybody needs to know what people know. They just need to know that you have their back.

Curt Anderson 14:55
Man, were you when I was in my 20s Because we’re gaming I don’t know about you when I came out. like college like I was mister Hey, I know everything. Amen, Jess and just I absolutely love your approach. Now I understand ran a little glitchy. I don’t know what’s going on on LinkedIn Daymond. So we’re having some glitching here. It just started over started over for me to Whitney, thank you, she dropped into LinkedIn. If you guys need to hop over on LinkedIn, or you can catch us on Twitter, if you go to b2b tail.com and you jump on my YouTube page, we are live on YouTube. We are live on Twitter. My apologies for any challenges here on LinkedIn. Whitney dropped the YouTube link right on LinkedIn. So Whitney, gosh, I love wisdom. Thank you Whitney appreciate. So guys, again, we’re here with Dr. Wilbur. So just so you’ve done taking a deep dive and just so impressed with your your, your wisdom, your maturity at a young age as an early have caring that entrepreneurial spirit. Now you just created a little a little venture little business that you launched in August. And I want to talk about what sparked that leap of faith. What triggered for you, you’re crushing it, you’re doing an amazing job, you’re building a great career. And you decide, You know what, enough’s enough. I want to do this for myself on my own, you create this COVID Baby, if you will tech manufacturing solutions in August, just of this year. Take us through your Leap of Faith, please.

Jessica Wilber 16:25
Sure, sure. And I’ve alluded to you guys on a personal level a couple of different times. But there’s some other things that helped kind of transcend my jump. But my MBA is area of study entrepreneurship, both my parents are entrepreneurs. So entrepreneurial mindset has been ingrained in me since I was little. But as of recently, I just was I, I just felt the urge to be able to take my kids to school and drop them off and work from wherever. And really kind of employ that remote mindset. And I haven’t read ever really been able to do that. And then I also knew that my value was so great, that it was hard to put out everything that I could offer without other people within a company feeling some type of way about what I was willing to offer. So I I just got fed up and it was summertime. And it was right before my five year old decided she wanted to go to kindergarten in August. And I was like, end of May. I said you know what? I’m done. My husband is 22 year veteran. He was special forces in the army for 22 years.

Curt Anderson 17:39
St. Patrick’s Day to your husband. So nervous. Yeah.

Jessica Wilber 17:43
So I would tell you that being a single mom for six months, every six months, and then three months in between? Yeah, raising two children and running manufacturing facilities was quite the task. Yeah, I was a bit tired of, of dealing with the monotony of having to get up at a certain hour and be there at a certain hour and then miss my kids first day of school or whatever graduation they were going through or what field trips not being able to volunteer for those things. And I said, my husband’s retired now but I’m willing to take this all on and I, I just said I’m gonna do it. What’s the worst that happens? I have to get a job. You know, like, Okay, who’s next? Who wants to hire me? Like that didn’t scare me. It just didn’t scare me anymore. What was scarier is missing critical parts of my children’s lives. That was scarier to me than failing at my own company.

Curt Anderson 18:42
Yeah. All right. Let’s dig into that. Let’s go a little bit further there. Okay. So what’s the worst that can happen? Damon, we had the honor privilege we interviewed Kara golden. Kara golden is the founder of hint water. It’s a nine figure business doing phenomenal. And she’s our age ish. And so you know, what’s great to hear. Jessica is a young entrepreneur, when you think about a Kara golden and her father was her hero. You know what he used to tell her? What’s the worst that can happen? And when she launched her business, exact same story. So we wish you the same monster success that Kerrigan has enjoyed. But let’s, let’s go there. So you’re going through that you have support, you have family support, you have family, family, inspiration and motivation, right? And so you’re like entrepreneurship, what’s the worst that can happen is I this doesn’t work out, this whole entrepreneur thing doesn’t work out and I go find a job. So you’ve been just absolutely on fire. Talk about what does it done for you? What’s it done for you personally? What’s it done for your customers? And then I want to dig into like, I want to I want to get behind the scenes of like, how you know how you came up with the name and the branding and everything. But talk about that leap one more time?

Jessica Wilber 19:54
Yeah, yeah. So once, once I decided I was done with employment. I was done being an employee III, I took a month off. And that’s where I like deep dive down, I didn’t really know what I was going to do. To be honest, I didn’t really have a full grasp on. I didn’t know if I was putting machines on a shop floor. Or if I was just going to do consulting for Lean, I really just had no, no real general idea. So I took a month off, I flew me and my kids to Florida, and we just hung out, right. And then in July, we came home. And that’s when I really started deep diving down, like what I was gonna do, what I was going to name it, well, how it’s gonna look, I have I have my notebook, still the notebook I started with. And it has like a list of all the things that I was like business plan, logo, you know, domain.com, like all these things. Like this was like, let’s just make a list. And then we’ll know what we need to get done. So I did all of that. But I will tell you, the employee mindset is really hard to shake. Yes, I was wait, I was waking up in the morning in July, like with the, with the meat sweats. Like I was late for work. It was it was weird. And I was like, No, I’m not I’m not late for I don’t have anywhere to go like. So that was a real adjustment for my mindset, because I was a solid employee, like I liked being on time. I like to get everything ready in the morning. So that was really hard adjustment for me. So yeah, so I think it was just getting everything set. And I really just took that time. I think it takes time to create something great, right? You can’t just like, you can have an idea. But you really need to deep dive and say, you know, how is this going to work out for the customers that I have? What’s going to bring them to me what’s going to keep me an advantage over my competition. So I really like hashed all of that out in July and then we went live in August.

Unknown Speaker 21:51
Nice. Nice.

Curt Anderson 21:53
Okay. All right. So good. So good. And of course Jessica, you I would love encourage you to connect with Whitney Whitney. Jessica, lot in common Whitney, I know your husband served our country proudly. So Happy Veterans weekend to Whitney and her family. Now Whitney did switch over to YouTube. So again, guys, if you’re having some challenges here on LinkedIn, you’re catching this live, jump over on LinkedIn. If you’re catching on replay, hopefully you’re not having any problems whatsoever. But we are here with Jessica Wilbur, the founder and CEO of tack manufacturing solutions. Jessica tact tea, in tea, I see it right over your shoulder. Now on your website, you have a couple of things. Tax stands for a pulse and beat also has it so talk about the name, I love the name, the creativity talked about a little bit, let’s go into the process of like how the branding behind the name of your store.

Jessica Wilber 22:45
I mean, I wanted it to be associated with lean methodologies, because that’s the way of the world. And there’s a lot of different verbiage and words you can use. Some of them were already taken, but they were taken by companies that don’t even exist. So it was just like the domain was purchased, to be secured for whatever timeframe or they were so past tense that it didn’t work out. And I really enjoyed the meaning of tack time, right. And it has a formal definition. But to me it’s it’s the measure of how much capacity you have open versus what the customer is willing to pay for. And that’s essentially what we do at tact. We we bridge that gap. So and I really liked tact manufacturing, tact sounded cool. Greens, my favorite color. Yes, color of money. And I was like this, this looks nice. So I put it out on fiverr.com. Because helped me I’m poor. I’m starting a company $5 and fiverr.com came back with this logo. And I was like, Yes, I love it. It’s great. It speaks to what we do. It also is you can’t find it anywhere else. And I just went with it because it was the only thing available. But I did love it. So I was glad that it was available.

Curt Anderson 24:10
Well, I think it’s absolutely awesome day and I’m sorry to bring up another guest we had the founder of Reebok on the call on show man would have Joe Foster, he’s in his 80s and what a what an amazing man, he is a story that he had. But when he founded Reebok, he had a different name. And I remember he was getting sued by somebody. And he changed it and he found at Reebok and the reason he wanted that strong k and then you know probably not the best example and just you might be too young, you know, but Damon Idema and you remember a little company called Kodak? Yeah. Right. So Kodak was you know they like that k sound. And when the woman that founded Spanx, she tells her story same things one like that straw strong case on so man you’re in great company, Jessica. So, the name love the direction love how you found this. Now you are You’ve started this early Now, a couple of things that you talked about, like for years, I’m gonna get into your superpowers who you help. Why should somebody out there contact tech manufacturing? And what’s awesome is you guys can tell we just have this relentless entrepreneur, woman in manufacturing. Man, just going at it strong. Turn Key client first excellent results. You really, you know, you Daymond and I had a privilege for chatting before we went live. I mean, you really speak manufacturing you and your customers. Talk a little bit about like, what, when you decide to like, Okay, I’m not sure what I’m going to do in July, when you want with this business model to dig deep into like those solutions that you provide for your customers? Yeah,

Jessica Wilber 25:41
certainly. So historically, I’ve I’ve been the only I’ve been the only salesperson in CNC machining that I’ve ever known besides a tooling machine salesman or machine tool salesmen or coolant salesmen, but there’s no other like, I didn’t compete against anybody. It was weird to me. So like, deep dive down that I was like, Well, really, it’s the owners, the owners of machine shops are typically salespeople. They’re the sales they they bring. They’re the ones with a vision, and they bring the customers in, and they have people to quote it. And I was like, Okay, what if they had salespeople, right? You can’t find them, you have to build them, like I was built. I wasn’t just found. machine shops poured into me. I also poured into myself, I learned everything that I possibly could. I worked for one shop for five years. And then I said, Hey, what do I not know about this industry. And I was like more about the machines. So I sold machines for a year, because I wanted to learn more about that. And then I went to another shop and then decided, you know, entrepreneurships, for me, that’s what I’m going to go do. But I think the gap between the buyers and not having customer service people or salespeople at a machine shop, and how they retain that business. And the difference. And the difference between that relationship being successful and not successful was somebody who speaks the lingo, who can also read GD and T, who can also tell you this part is not a fit for us, or this part is a fit for us and why that right there was so critical to why I was able to retain business and get people to give me RFQs out the gate, because I was able to say, Hey, I know that you’re not getting good lead times, or I know you’re not getting very many people responding back to you, or they tell you your parts late 15 days after it was due. So I don’t do that. So let me know if I can get a request for quote from you. Because I would love to machine your parts. So I was really like, well, what can I do for machine shops because they there’s clearly a need there. And to hire somebody like me would be way expensive. It also would be I don’t know if I’m gonna get a return on my investment relationships take years to build. So you wouldn’t see a return on your investment in hiring a salesperson, you know, well after their second year, which can you do that? You know, can you afford a six figure person and wait that long to get a return on your investment? Or should you pour it into sales and marketing SEO things like that? And I was like, Well, clearly there’s a need. And people some for some reason they like buying from me I’m super transparent. I talked to them like they’re my homie and this is just the way it’s gonna be. And I also present bad news immediately. I don’t wait tell them those things. And that’s just always worked for me on my end. But I think that bridging that gap between machine shops not having salespeople, and then having somebody who tangibly sells to get that data like what’s your budget? When do you need these parts? Ask the questions so important to you winning because they’re gonna divulging information they’re not sending to your competition when you do that. Right? You have a one up on them? Well,

Curt Anderson 28:45
I absolutely love this because what I’m hearing is it sounds like you’re basically got fractional you use a word term earlier like VP of sales, but you’re like You’re like a fractional VP of sales where you’re a variable expense, you’re not a fixed expense to that manufacturer. And you know Damon unite, you know, encounter tons of manufacturers like Man, they are the widget expert and they are lunch, they’re working on HR issues one day, you know, one not one day one one minute you know, labor shortage and next minute supply chain the next minute you know, oh by the way, I should do some sales and marketing. Oh, by the way, I’ve got to talk to my accountant about finances. You know, they’re thrown around different heads all day. And so just what you do is you come in you pull that off their plate, what are leaf now you have a line and power you and power custom part buyers with one stop sourcing solutions, right so

Jessica Wilber 29:34
buyers can come to us for their sheet metal needs or fab needs. machine part needs five axis milling, Swiss turning all of those things and we can just be a one stop shop for you guys completely transparent. So we just support the buyers on what price and lead time they need. But really, and this is a secret really buyers. Their end game is not a price early time No, it’s and this is why it’s so important for vendors to know. Their endgame is to not lie to their teammates. Yeah, if you tell them you’re getting apart Friday, and the buyer says, Hey, John, we’re getting this part Friday. John is not being set up for success. If he’s not getting that part Friday, and you are internally causing turmoil and culture problems by being late and not being transparent with that buyer, the end game is for the buyer to be set up for success, because their professional valuation is based off of your performance. Yeah, screw them, tell them when it’s wrong. Tell them when we have problems, tell them immediately, because then they can convey that to their team. And they’re being a good teammate. So that’s that is like, that’s the end game for a buyer. Yes, price. Yes, lead time. Fine. Sure, great. But it’s really about keeping production running. And if they have 16 guys that are relying on them to get one bolt in house, that’s a huge deal. It’s a huge deal for them. So that’s the end game of the buyer. And then we have machine shops, machine shops don’t have salespeople, or customer service people they have the lady who works in HR, she’s also the controller, because she’s going to tell you your bill is late. And your part is late at the same time. That’s probably a bad idea. You should have somebody who’s separate from accounting be a customer service person. Yep. So figure it out. Super important. And then thirdly, machine shops typically grow their sales revenue by offloading their smaller work or their easier work to smaller shops, so they can keep the capacity they want for larger projects, projects that they’re not willing to offload. And they can grow that sales revenue by new machine, grow that sales revenue by new machine, oop, we ran out of room probably need a new building, offload more work. And that’s how they grow. So tact is here to help machine shops grow their business without spending any money with us. We don’t charge you it’s not you can just tell me if you want the the quote or not you bid it or you don’t get it. And we’re here to help buyers reach their goals and protect their teams internally.

Curt Anderson 32:20
That’s yeah, that was a me. So all right. What was your go back? I need to hit rewind about about 200 seconds or so. What was the not make liars? What was that?

Jessica Wilber 32:35
Yeah. So it’s it’s 100% What you said, Nobody thinks they think, Oh, I got a request for quote, okay, let’s work on it. Well, that buyer is giving you their job and saying, hey, hold my job for five minutes. And then give it back to me really nice and gentle and then keep communicating to me. And we just don’t do it because we get caught in the hustle and bustle of UPS came early today. So we have to offload all these boxes off the dock. Or our Plater didn’t show up with the parts we were expecting to ship or all of that. All of that stuff that we have to go through, you know, tooling didn’t show up or we next day aired it. And now we’re bickering about paying next day or charges. Instead of answering customer questions, or telling Hey, Mr. Customer, we did get the tooling it came in next year. I think that people just forget the importance of that buyers role. Now do I think that the the buyers professional valuation should be solely based off of underperformance? Probably not but it’s a huge chunk of their professional valuation like you depict whether that buyer gets a raise or not. Yep. Now if you can save them money, you can show them where they’re dropping dollars to the bottom line. Sure. But really, if you’re late all the time, who cares? Yeah. Or if you don’t talk to them you don’t you don’t tell them like you’re an extension of their business. You should be acting accordingly.

Unknown Speaker 33:57
And if you can make it so easy that they’d never think about you and it just happens. It just you they just you are you just put yourself in there for as long as you want as long as you stay that way.

Jessica Wilber 34:10
Yes, yes. So that’s what I do. I just I interject myself and I don’t have that hustle and bustle I don’t have distractions. So I’m solely looking down at the light at the end of the tunnel and I’m like we’re chipping away at this here’s some progress photos just want to let you know where we’re at. We’re still on track it’s still 45 days out but I need you to know that we got this there’s no updates other than that and I’m just constantly feeding that information to buyers so they just feel more secure and they feel like they’re right next to me on the shop floor watching the party made Yeah

Unknown Speaker 34:43
well I’m we’re so used to that now. You know, Kurt, how many how many times do we order now from like an Amazon right? I just did it this morning. I ordered something from Amazon. And it didn’t tell me right away when it was going to be well, yeah, and now I got I will look this morning. Oh, it’s been shipped, you know, in thinking About how many machine shops and how many contract manufacturers across United States gets hundreds of 1000s of dollars in POS every single day. And never say a word until it shows up on the dock. Right on time or not. Right.

Curt Anderson 35:17
So let’s add. So let’s take that’s so good. So I, you know, I’m bringing this back up, I left it up here. So Diane just said, you know, just Yeah. So you know, Dan bigger says, you know, excellent answer, transparency with a customer. You know, Craig Craig, happy Monday to join us today. So love having you here. And Diane drops a great comment. I always say it’s a relationship first, when you respect and build relationships, you can have difficult discussions like delays and other problems always brings the team. You know, this always brings the team to authenticity. So I love that. So great. Dan confirms Amen, Diane. So guys, thank you for the comments. Keep them coming. If we crossed the top of the hour, if you’re just coming in, we’re here with Jessica Wilbur, Founder, CEO of tack manufacturing solutions. So oh my goodness, Jessica, this is just so good. I love what you did, you know the not make buyer not make buyers a liar, right? Don’t make buyers liars, liars. Let’s get them and we need to know make buyers is manufacturers if we could do that, but I want to unpack demon, you just I’d say you just dropped something very important there. We’ve been so spoiled from E commerce and consumers with the expectation of like, I hit submit, I get a notification, I get the notification of hey, I can track it, when’s it at my door since a pitcher that it was at my door, right. And then like, as consumers, that’s what we’re used to, as you guys are targeting, you know, buyer, Bob, or buyer Betty or whoever your buyer persona is. And that’s how they are used to purchasing as consumers. These are now new expectations that they have on the b2b side, Jeff says that that’s exactly what you’re describing.

Jessica Wilber 37:01
Totally, totally, like, I’m a millennial. So I’m handling my business millennial ask this invoice notes. I’ll text my customers, I work on a MacBook. So like I can text on my computer very easily. I just I over communicate a lot. But also to think about your buyer. You’re supporting engineering, you’re supporting production, a lot of the times you don’t get to see why or what the part means. Yep, you look at the print and you’re like, oh, I don’t really know what that would look like in a 3d image. Right. So giving them feeding them more information towards the part they’re buying is so helpful to them. And it professionally develops them on a personal level, which everybody’s after in their career, right? It pours into them. And then to when you’re when you’re working with a buyer, and you have an engineering question, I always ask the buyer, even though I know who the engineer is on the project, I’ll ask the buyer, because that’s who my customer is, really. And it empowers them to go talk to engineering and learn a little bit more internally about what’s going on. That way they can build that engineering and buyer relationship, which is really cool. Because you think at the end of the day, that buyer that you’ve been working with, you feed them good data, they get a new job. They leave. Yeah. And all you have is you know, your reputation as a company within that company. So you hope to get new business, right and continue to get business from that company. But then you also want to chase that buyer because they’re gonna be buying somewhere else. Which is really important.

Curt Anderson 38:35
Right, absolutely. So, Damon, a couple of comments here about Jessica, just and so I pulled a couple of those up. I find some nice comments about you, Jessica. was a wonderful one here. Sarah Lewis, you know, Sarah Lewis. So Jessica is a dynamic is dynamic and a blessing to our family. That’s from Lewis family. Just because a superstar justice, professionalism, drive, innovative ideas, enthusiasm and ability to communicate is a true inspiration. And boy, you just completely hit that home. Boy, Jessica, depending on where you go with tech manufacturing, I would encourage you invite you welcome you to think about, you need a career and speaking training, customer service sale, you could be a keynote speaker, I’d say you are truly a blessing and a gift. On your website, you have a couple of things you have the buyers guide to machine parts. And like what I love what you’re dedicated to is like helping educating being that you’re you know, your servant leadership is just off the charts. Talk a little bit about your online acumen or like you know how you’re helping people with this guide. Just talking about like when people engage with you when they’re going to work with a Jessica, how you help them be that that professional guide?

Jessica Wilber 39:48
Yeah, sure. For Well, I like to build relationships based off of like, how long have you been doing what you’re doing? What do you not know about your industry? What do you not know about what you do there that you would like to learn more about me? You’re like, I asked the right questions like, tell me more about this part and how critical it is. Is this structural? Is this something that is r&d? Let’s talk about those types of things. It’s really about asking the right questions. Because you may I know, and this is me as a mom, right, like, I know, 99% of the, the answers to the questions I’m gonna ask, like, Did you clean your room? I was like, gonna be a no. But when you ask questions, you are driving that individual person to be more subconscious about what they’re actually doing. So if you ask the right questions, despite you knowing the answer, that buyer is subconsciously programming their brain to think a certain way to understand the part better to prep them, this part is going to be expensive, it will take 26 hours on a five axis machine. So yes, we’re going to be more expensive, but the time it takes, how we’re going to hold it, how many operations, all of that stuff, it’s all questions that I just peppered him with questions. And it’s not all at one time. Like, we don’t play 52 Card pickup, we, we just, you know, bits and pieces, hey, just let you know, especially when you get an RFQ immediately, don’t just say I’m on it. So I’m going to have this back to you tomorrow by 3pm. And commit, because then they don’t bug you. And then they also know Hey, I’m Mr. Buyer, I have five other shops that I’m working with, and I’m waiting for prices on. But I still haven’t gotten tax yet, because she said she’s gonna get to me by three, and it’s only noon. So I’m gonna wait a little bit longer before I worry about that kind of stuff. It’s just really important to over communicate and ask questions, even if you already know the answer, because you need to ensure that that buyer knows what she’s doing or he’s doing because you want to win, you’re trying to win. So the more data that you can input to them and collect on the other end, the greater the chance of winning my win rate 65%. So, I, I work hard to get orders.

Curt Anderson 42:03
Yep. Man. I’ll tell you.

Unknown Speaker 42:06
That is good.

Curt Anderson 42:07
Where were you? In my man? I didn’t figure out the question thing until I was in my mid 40s. And so you figure it out, man. What a powerful solution. That is. Boy, if you’re taking notes at home, man, Jessica just dropped a lot of bombs right there. I absolutely love that. Tell them time. You know, I’m going to bet you that you know at this time. That is absolutely brilliant. asking all the right questions. I you know, whether with your kids significant other, particularly, we’re talking here with clients, working with manufacturers asking those right questions. Just I know, we’re coming in time you are super busy. As an entrepreneur, you have this business that you need to be that you’re running anything exciting and new going on with your business right now that you want to talk.

Jessica Wilber 42:51
Yeah, so we we’ve, we’ve been doing things man, we will be awarded a really large aerospace contract, early December, that will trickle into pushing seven figures next year just for that one contract. And then I’ve also been invited to watch the launch in October at Kennedy Space Center. So I’m super pumped about that. So it’s pretty epic. And we’re really excited

Curt Anderson 43:18
to blast it if you did not take that leap into entrepreneurship with that opportunity of have taken place or No, no, there’s just I just wonder and I don’t know, it probably would not have probably would not have so what did you have to lose and recover aborting, this is from the mom front from the home front, on the business front? And now you have an opportunity to go to NASA back home, right where you were in? You grew up during the campaign, right?

Jessica Wilber 43:44
I know just base camp like a total nerd but no regrets.

Curt Anderson 43:48
Right? I’d say like goes and full circle. Just we’re gonna wind down. I have one more question for you. Is there so we’ve talked about your superpowers? What tech does for manufacturing? You know, for manufacturers out there? How do you build those relationships? Anything else that we want to cover before we wind out?

Jessica Wilber 44:05
Um, I think you know, I just think for for people who want to chase their dreams, if they dream of being an entrepreneur out there, and especially in manufacturing, we talk about next generation, right? And we’re so about like pushing next generation, but we really, really just pushing next generation employment. But where are all our new businesses coming from? Because small businesses in America is what keeps us Americans? In my opinion, it’s keeps us going right? Yes, we need employees. Yes, it’s a huge deal. We need to create that next generation, but people who are out there who are working with their MEPs or their associations within manufacturing, don’t let them forget about creating new entrepreneurs. So create lists of of resources for those people, because I didn’t have any I had a green notebook, and it took me a little bit longer than I wanted it to, to figure out how to go to sam.gov and get a cage code and what CPA is best for me. And should I use QuickBooks Online or desktop version? I don’t know. So just create those resources, because entrepreneurship is going to be also a part of next generation. And we want to make sure that those people not only work in the field that they want to work, but they’re also employed to instead of chasing six figures, we’re chasing seven. So I think that that’s a huge difference. But that’s what we need to be cognizant of.

Curt Anderson 45:31
Absolutely. So hey, anybody out there, boy, your manufacturer in this run this resonate with you, you want to reach out to Jessica for you know, take advantage of her superpowers, her services. If you are, boy, if you have that entrepreneurial bug inside of you, and you just want to, you know, take that leap of faith, connect with Jess and so you know, there’s lots of geek out about there. Jessica, last question for you before we wrap up. So are you shared that Howard was your hero, little girl growing up? You just been fierce, you know, relentless woman in manufacturing. Now you’re just as relentless entrepreneur? Could you please share? Who or what is your inspiration moving forward? As we look into 2023? You have a lot of exciting things going on with your new business. Who are what is your inspiration today moving forward? Sure.

Jessica Wilber 46:19
My children 100% I have a little girl who’s five. She needs to know that any industry is for her no matter what she does. I have her back. And then my son is 11. He has autism. So STEM is really appealing to him. So creating somewhere where he can work and not have to feel so stressed out about going to through the interviewing process or anything like that, that he is secure. When he graduates high school. Those are my two big big pushes. That’s your and what are their names, please. Arizona rose and Dallas, Christopher, Arizona and

Curt Anderson 46:51
Dallas will hate that what they are so blessed to have an incredible wonderful mom as yourself, Howard. Hey, we’re giving a shout out to Howard for doing Damon and I are girl dads. And so when we come across like you, and it’s just such an inspiration. So guys, let’s wind down we’re going to wrap up. So first off, Jessica, thank you. Thank you. This was incredible. I Daymond I didn’t know it was gonna be this good, but I know it’s gonna be good. Just go back. I’ll come back. Any time. So hey, we wish you wonderful holiday season number one, number two, Monster Monster success. When you hit those eight, nine figure marks man, we’re gonna be Daymond agrimony celebrating with you. We’ll be watching you on TV as you’re at the national launch. And so really an honor and privilege for us having a front row seat, watching some a woman in manufacturing a woman entrepreneur, who’s just absolutely just taking it to a new level. So thank you for joining us today. Damon, what do you what’s? What’s what’s exciting this week, man, you got faces a business Tuesday and Thursday. We’ve got another great episode of manufacturing ecommerce success on Friday. Anything anything exciting on your end?

Unknown Speaker 48:03
We got a lot of stuff going on this you know that’s that’s it? That’s it. And I’m probably missing something because I mean for all in this conversation today are so much fun talking with Jessica. Yeah, we got a lot of stuff going on. Man.

Curt Anderson 48:15
That was a good one. So guys follow Damon’s profile for LinkedIn lives. He’s got faces a business. Tuesdays and Thursdays six o’clock Eastern three o’clock Pacific. We are back here at 1230. We have a great guests on Friday. We’re back here next Monday. Just because you talked about the MEPs we have Carlo from the Vermont MEP is going to be our depth next Monday. So guys, we wish you an absolute incredible week, boy, be someone’s inspiration, man. Just go out and be an inspiration. If you need some inspiration. Just connect with Jessica and we’ve got it all right here. Last note here right here. Great job Jessica was so proud of you are such an inspiration. I wish you continued greatness Florence God bless you. Thank you for joining us today guys. We’re gonna close out have an amazing incredible rest of your week. Keep crushing it, go USA manufacturing and we will talk to you soon. Good stuff