Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Sue Nordman

Curt Anderson  0:00

Alright guys, here we are live. Thank God it’s Monday, Damon. Good morning, not your way in Seattle. Happy Monday to you my friend. How are you? Thank you, Kurt.

Damon Pistulka  0:10

I’m great, great today.

Curt Anderson  0:11

Awesome. Big Weekend. Connor You’re amazing son graduated from college. big congratulations to you your wife Renee and we are so proud of Connor. So hats off to you guys. I know you’re excited. Yes. Thank you. Awesome. So guys, I am just absolutely thrilled to introduce our dear friend Sue Nordman out in Rockford Illinois. Sue, good morning to you. How are you today? We’re good. Awesome.

Sue Nordman  0:35

Well, happy to see your son Damon.

Damon Pistulka  0:38

Thanks. So yeah,

Curt Anderson  0:39

big, big day. And so just just getting rid of those tuition bills, Damon, you know, we’re just so excited for you. So anyway, let’s take let’s take a deep dive. So Sue, every Monday, we have the honor and privilege of talking we geek out on manufacturing. We call our our show manufacturing Monday motivation and so no better suited than yourself. So the president of obsidian manufacturing industries. Yeah, so we want to so we have a ton done uncover unpack where I’d like to start with. So I want to take a deep dive into like your processes, I know you have a nice mix of products that you cover. However, first, I’d like to go back in time a little bit you do a great job posting on LinkedIn. And Damon and I are are also we’re proud girl dads, and you post frequently about your amazing father. Can you share a little bit about like the inspiration that that brought you to where you are today how you gotten into manufacturing? And just talk a little bit about dad if you would?

Sue Nordman  1:35

Well, my dad always had an engineering like mind. He wasn’t actually an engineer. He served in the Army and then he was a machinist after he left the armed forces and he just when he worked at NASA machine works and Rockford in

Curt Anderson  1:59

what did you freeze? Mm hmm. Hey, Sue, are you? Oh, no, we froze. So Dana have a little song and dance real quick.

Damon Pistulka  2:06

Yeah, I don’t know. It’s not good. It’s like we gotta go come back. If she actually we can drop her off and bring it back into the thing. But yeah, I’m just looking at the their product. And

Sue Nordman  2:24

I don’t know what happened.

Damon Pistulka  2:26

Yeah, just died from it. No worries, Damon, I

Curt Anderson  2:28

did. We did a quick song and dance a cover for you. So let’s okay. So anyway, we’ll do it take two. So dad was on services, God bless them and then pick it up from

Sue Nordman  2:39

there. Okay. And then he, when he got out of the armed services, he was a machinist, or study to be done. And he worked at Manson machine works in Rockford. In the 60s and 70s. And he would take me to work with him. Yeah, there was a lot of fun, but it was a huge, huge building. It wouldn’t be all the time it would be you know, if he had to run over this Saturday morning or something? Yeah, yeah. But I can remember walking down the aisle of the huge factory. And, um, you know, it just was just an awesome experience. And I’ve always been intrigued about what makes things work, hands on type of person. So then my high school years, he had switched jobs, and I helped him in the summer sometimes at his work there, so I ended up starting out in bookkeeping. But I still, you know, help my dad out when he needed it and that type of thing. So I ended up here. That is a great inspiration.

Curt Anderson  3:44

That is awesome. I had so obviously loved hearing that story. And it just I’m picturing just a little girl. You know, it’s funny how like, when your little things are so big and then when you get you know,

Sue Nordman  3:52

you don’t I mean it was just like overwhelming. They’re like

Curt Anderson  3:55

overwhelming and just like it was it was almost like magical. Like you’re you’re traveling through Wizard of Oz and just seeing this machinery and just making things and the creativity and innovation. And just so inspiring. So hey, and we have a bunch of hellos coming at you sue so Nigel from England jobs. Hello from our Twitter, Nigel. Nigel Happy Monday, my friend. We have James we have Katie’s dropping some notes. Majid in my seat. I know if I hope I didn’t butcher that. So Happy Monday to everybody that’s with us today. So Sue, let’s take let’s take it from there. So um, you know what David and I are huge history buffs. And again, God bless your father for serving our country proudly in I know you’re as a great advocate for manufacturing, you frequently will post interesting pictures and products that are legacy products that you’ve shown that you’ve produced, or your company or your machinery has produced for wars and what have you talked a little bit about some of those, those aspects for US history buffs out there.

Sue Nordman  4:55

Well, our brands were all established when we bought them so We’re not really we have developed a few new products, but we’re working with brands that served our country during World War Two. Yeah, the machines are our brand goes back to 1916 and Magna lock and Magna lifts go back to 1948. And then our power grip lift magnets were actually a spin off of some strands. So they’re, they’re all very well established products that have been used for years and many of our products, especially our electromagnetic chucks, can, they can last 40 years. Wow. They need to be rebuilt, but they’re still there structure and everything is is able to withstand many, many, many years of use.

Damon Pistulka  5:49

Yeah, that we use them in the molding industry like crazy on the grass grinders.

Sue Nordman  5:54

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, milling machines. Surface grinders. Yeah. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  5:59

that is awesome. And I have I’m stood corrected. I’m gonna apologize Nigel Nigel’s in Wales. And he corrected me. Great rugby team in Wales, by the way, Nigel. So again, happy Monday, my friend. So Sue, let’s that’s a perfect segue. Let’s tie it in there. So obsidian so it’s your little bit about your story. So you started out in accounting, I know you’re wonderful. You decided to take on an amazing career choice, being full time mom, and then came back into manufacturing, share a little bit about your path, your journey, what took you back into manufacturing, then I’m going to take a deep deep dive into like, folks are like, hey, I want to know more about these products that you’re talking about. So let’s share a little bit about your story counting to stay at home mom, and then how you ended up back into manufacturing here.

Sue Nordman  6:43

Well, I was one of those people that was anxious to get out of high school. Didn’t have a set plan. But I just couldn’t wait to get out of there. And I graduated early. And I did well in my accounting classes. So my teacher recommended me to a local CPA firm that was looking for help during tax season. So I started, as soon as I graduated, I started working at a accounting firm. And I worked there for about seven years. And then I decided to take a different avenue and I did some bookkeeping services at home. And then we had a family of three kids. And we stayed home for right down to the last one. Nice. Yeah, in 2007, my husband started his own business. And I told him, I would help him part time. So I carried around a laptop and, you know, worked on the weekends when he was around and that type of thing. And we got it done. It was a little tedious at times. And as the business grew, it was a little tough. But when our last one graduated high school, we I said, you know, I think it’s time that I come back to work. And he was my husband was kind of getting tired of all of the administrative part of running a business. It was a little tedious, tedious, he wasn’t built for that. Really, he liked to be he was a machinist. So he likes to be on the shop floor and everything. So um, we traded roles. And I said, Well, the only way I’ll do that is if I can get some snack. So we said if we’re gonna issues some snack, why don’t we make you, you know, majority owner and I was like, that’s fine. And my dad was all for that. So because the brands, the the brand that my husband started the company with, was came through my dad. Okay, yeah, onto that one time. So he was happy to see me take the home and see what we could do with it. So it worked out. Well. My husband enjoys more of what he’s doing now than what he was doing 10 years ago or whatever. So good. So that’s where we’re at.

Curt Anderson  8:57

That’s awesome. So So what begs curiosity on my part, and I love the story, if you could share a little bit about you know, combination things. husband takes a leap of faith to 2007 obviously, economy was kind of bubbling at the time. The Great Recession sure a little bit what was what inspired your husband to take that leap of faith and what was it like launching that business? Right smack coming into a tough economic time?

Sue Nordman  9:22

Well, he had been working with the brand since my dad bought it just my husband worked for my dad. Um, so he was very familiar with the products and everything and it was just time for him to separate my dad was slowing down. And it was just, he was in business with my brother in law. And it was just time for him to part ways and the Amazon so ready to grow.

Curt Anderson  9:49

So he takes the leap and goes, goes into business. How was like How was 2008 2010? Like, were you? Were you in a good place? Was it pretty cheap? Like what was that like, you know, as a family

Sue Nordman  10:00

We have some. Yeah, we had some bad months there. You know, 2009 was a little rough. Yeah. Um, but we’ve we’ve managed to hang in there in 2010. We bought the lift magnet line, which the lift magnets were originally with the magnet lock chucks when it was founded by Hanchett, Michigan. Okay, so I’m adding that back. We got a lot of customers back from that purchase. Okay, awesome. So um, that was a good strategic move on my husband’s part of adding the lift magnets back and the permanent shocks, the permanent Chuck’s are a little difficult for us to compete with the foreign markets. Okay. This is their labor intense, and there’s not any real abundance of permanent magnets in the United States. So it all needs to be imported. Okay, I don’t know how familiar you are with a permanent Chuck, but it’s just a lever that turns it on and off, there’s no current going to energize any coils. It’s just permanent magnets in there. So, um, those that product line came with the lift magnets, but it’s a little bit like I said, hard for us to compete with the foreign market,

Curt Anderson  11:17

those foreign markets. Okay. So again, another perfect segue. So let’s take a deep dive into the company today. So again, if you’re just joining us guys wear the suit Nordman. She’s an Illinois president of obsidian manufacturing industries. And so let’s take a deep dive and you’ve been touching on the different products product line you guys carry. So against you carry the Magna lock, USA Magna lift, magnetic power grip, lifting magnet, magnet brands. And, sure, a little bit. So like so some of that’s brand new to you. Whether, you know if you’re at a trade show, let’s give us a little bit of a sales pitch, but just kind of explain, you know, the products and solutions, types of customers that you’re targeting?

Sue Nordman  12:00

Um, well, we have a wide range of industries that we service with all of our products as a whole. So my husband started out with Magna lock. And then he had in 2010, he added the lift magnets. And then in 2018, when I took over, and we did the stock chain exchange and everything. We added Arter precision grinders, which I don’t think you mentioned that your original Yeah,

Curt Anderson  12:28

you know what, that’s okay. It Up. So and those have 100 year, like think you just mentioned 1916, they go back to Yes,

Sue Nordman  12:36

yep. And they were invented by William Arthur, he was an immigrant from Europe. Okay. And he came over here and worked for heel, which is a competitor of ardor, really old brand of grinder, and he developed a grinder. And in the World War Two, they were pumping out several grinders a week, for many years. So they big, big huge support of our country, during, you know, as the Industrial Revolution took off, and, you know, all of that develops through the 40s 50s. So we added that in 2018, which a lot of order grinders have Magna lock checks on them. So that was a good fit, because, again, sharing the customers. And then we, in 2019, we were told that our building that we were leasing, was being sold. Oh, and we were in a couple of different real estate deals and say, sell through each of them for their own reasons. So we were in a hurry to move. And this the place that we’re at now had just went out of business. And it was a grind shop. And the guy that originally started it, he had passed away already, but he was a good friend of my dad. So they both worked at Mansons together, and we bought the assets of that company, and then started renting this building from home and we’re in the process of purchasing it. So we’re good. Yeah, so we have a grind shop, which are our grinders have our magnets on them as well. So if you handle steel, we can lift it with our lift magnets, we can hold it with our workholding and we make grinders to and service. So we’re we’re big anywhere there’s steel, but I don’t want to take away from our vacuum Chuck’s as well. Magna lock has vacuum workholding. Right, that’s pretty well rounded.

Damon Pistulka  14:48

Yeah, yeah, we’re in that in that we’re calling in the metal industry. I mean, that’s one of the long term names, that’s for sure.

Sue Nordman  14:56

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I just Magna lock is on biggest draw our biggest brands. And I just

Curt Anderson  15:03

I love how you break this down. Because, you know, when you look, you know, a husband takes a leap of faith, you know, that plunge into entrepreneurship, which is is always a little, you know, can be scary, then you combine it with, you know, starting off in a tough economy, you know, strategic plays across the board of tech, you know, adding on new lines, taking a risk and purchasing a new line. You know, you’re kind of like, forced into an awkward situation of like, hey, sorry, guys, by the way the building was sold can you know, do you mind leaving? And so, you know, that turns into a positive for you. So, you know, your husband is the the workhorse loves being on the floor. You know, he’s the, you know, the widget expert, if you will, yeah. And he’s like, Man, I really don’t like doing that stuff. And that fits your wheelhouse. So I mean, what a great, phenomenal story. Yeah. You and your husband. Now, I believe. Now, I believe you raise three children. I understand. Is that correct? Yes. In Are any of the boys involved in the business at all?

Sue Nordman  15:58

Actually, not to not to leave anything aside from my daughter, because she did work here. All three of them have worked here at one time or another. Currently, we have two of them working here and our two sons, but our daughters off at college trying to get her degree so well, in the middle of pandemics. Yeah, she spent many summers here. She’s She’s did her time.

Curt Anderson  16:19

She served her time. Well, I wish her the very best and yeah, and hopefully she’ll be safe at college. Yeah, sure. So so sure. So again, from that, you know, so for entrepreneurs out there that are hearing this story, you know, leap of faith, tough economy, diversities, you know, strategizing, taking on taking a risk with adding new product lines, now, your women business owned, so it’s been a little bit for me, there’s a woman out there that’s aspiring entrepreneur wants to take her plunge into entrepreneurship. Sure, what is that women business own enterprise? Like? What are the benefits for for women, business owned businesses?

Sue Nordman  16:56

Um, well, I, you know, you got to go through all the hoops and everything. But it’s a benefit. I don’t like to really say that, that’s why I’m sitting where I’m sitting. Right. And it’s, it’s not, it’s not, I’m not here to take advantage of all those perks of being woman owns, it just was a better fit for us. And so that’s why I’m here. I don’t like to look at my gender is giving me an insight to anything, I’m going to work just as hard as a man. So yep.

Curt Anderson  17:31

Yeah. In that and more so. And I apologize more so than, like, so today, my we’ve worked with a number of women business owners, I’ve actually I’ve helped with here in New York, I’ve helped, you know, several women go through the process. Just it is a it’s a great competitive advantage. It’s a great opportunity to, to, you know, especially in manufacturing, it’s a great opportunity for for folks to to take a dip their toe into it.

Sue Nordman  17:54

Well, I will say on the other side, there are still we still have customers or vendors that well. Avoid working directly with me thinking I don’t know, my products. I don’t know what.

Damon Pistulka  18:11

So I just find that ridiculous anymore. And I’m just like, What the heck, right? Except to take my head I’m sorry, I just had to shake my head.

Sue Nordman  18:19

I step aside and I let myself seem takeover. But I wish it to just be I could be seen as an equal.

Curt Anderson  18:31

Well, hopefully, that’s that’s a vast minority

Sue Nordman  18:36

in everyone’s eyes, because there is a lot of people that I am. Right, I’m fine with, you know, the business relationship is great. Right?

Curt Anderson  18:45

See, and you know what, and for most dudes they should do just to be dealing with women anyway, because you guys are just you’re much more calm, you’re more collective, you’re much more you’re much smarter anyway. So what’s wrong with these people? So anyway, so let’s, let’s keep keep the ball rolling. So again, you know, as girl dads for myself, and Damon, we just view you as an incredible source of inspiration, you know, just leading the charge. So let’s let’s, I wanted to, really, we interviewed, we primarily interview women in manufacturing in some capacity. And again, you know, love exposing young folks, our daughters, the next generation of incredible opportunities, not just in again, not just for daughters, and sons know the incredible opportunities for the millennials to tip their take a career plunge into manufacturing. Just share a little bit about what do you seen for future generations, men and women coming into manufacturing?

Sue Nordman  19:40

I think there’s a lot of potential out there. I think it’s going to take many years to turn this whole skilled trades gap around this whole issue that we’re having right now of filling the gap. I think some of the retirees probably need to think for those that retired early May you Just think about coming back if they’re able, that would be a great, great thing, even if it was a job sharing part time things. Yeah, um, just to help the younger generation, I think there’s like I said, there’s a lot of potential out there for young people that want to use their hands, get them dirty, build things, machine things, put things together, assembly, all that. And it’s not just on the shop floor, I mean, having a marketing job in manufacturing, you still like to see how things are put together or how they’re used. It’s sometimes it’s really interesting to hear how our customers use our products and what what how our customers our parts are being or their parts are being held on our products and that type of thing. I mean, that’s, that’s kind of a, a perk of us is that we use our own products. I mean, I’m not saying that we build a check for a customer and we use it before we sell it. I’m talking our our products are on our grinders, our truck controls are running our chucks here. And our mag lift magnets are lifting our steel we like I said have a grain shop so people will drop off their pieces to be ground and our list magnets are are out there working. So we stand behind our products, literally because they’re we’re out there using them, like our customer.

Curt Anderson  21:25

That’s awesome. Yeah, putting your products right to use that is absolutely fantastic. And I love you. You dropped the word marketing. So I’d love to segue right into that. Perfect time. It’s like we planned it. So you and I connected through our dear friend, dear friends. Paul Keshava. Dan bigger Jennifer bagman, Ruby the whole team at USA manufacturing Twitter chat every every Thursday. Now what’s fascinating is like it’s a group of amazing incredible folks passionately dedicated to manufacturing. Nigel Kato Katie, I know they’re in the group. Guan and I and Sam Gupta. Gail, a whole crowd Aaron up and

Damon Pistulka  22:06

there’s just a bunch

Sue Nordman  22:08

seems to be growing to see. It’s great. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  22:12

So talk a little bit, you know, here you are your manufacturer delivering these awesome products and you are on Twitter. So many manufacturers are just you know, as soon as they hear the word social media, they’re resistant. They’re like, you know, and that’s what we posted about for dessert last night, or there’s somebody arguing about something? You are very

Sue Nordman  22:32

exactly what I post about.

Curt Anderson  22:34

Yeah, a

Damon Pistulka  22:36

little different is

Curt Anderson  22:37

that answer? That’s the perception that folks have with many manufacturers. Yeah, they hear the word social media. You’re very intentional with your marketing, you’re doing an incredible job. You actually your son’s your team, you know aggressively on Twitter, networking, building, trust, collaborating, you’re active on LinkedIn, talk about what was Was there a tipping point or a turning point when you were like, Hey, let’s intentionally get on social media. Let’s follow this Twitter chat group. Let’s like how what shared with folks that story?

Sue Nordman  23:07

Well, I just was, you know, I, I had my own personal Facebook and I it started with Facebook. And it just grew from there. I had my own personal Facebook, and I would see ads for businesses and that type of thing. And I know we could do that for Magna lock. That was back when it was just Magnum luck. And then it just kind of grew from there. And then when I really got into it, I was seeing how having those accounts established making those posts, having all that information out there and access to people. It was really cementing and the roots of of where it’s growing from there. So you know, adding Twitter and Instagram accounts. I think it’s a good way to just get our products in front of not necessarily the people that are buying it. Maybe LinkedIn, maybe Twitter, but like Instagram, I know there’s a lot of people that just use our products that are on there, the users and that’s a little different than the people that are actually buying

Curt Anderson  24:11

Okay, fantastic. Do you do you recall like how to Twitter How did the Twitter chat even come on your radar? Do you do recall like how you stumbled on to that or the boys are like right

Sue Nordman  24:20

do that I was the one that started it. But I do not remember how I stumbled upon it. I probably dig in for customers somewhere. You know, yeah, my word out there. But I probably USA made. I mean, that was Yeah, yeah. What’s the draw?

Curt Anderson  24:37

Yep. So yeah. And again, guys, we’re here with Sue Nordman today and we have a bunch of comments dropping in. Nigel says what I find fascinating by all the press and every business consultancy, push technology is the only way for their business. And Damon you talk about that all the time. In here we have a company that makes some repairs a product that was invented in the early 1900s. It is still needed by the US On a manual grinding machine, or a CNC machine, Gail’s job, some wonderful notes here. Hello, Sue. Love to see a Twitter shout out social media of any platform is what you make of it. And who you connect with Gail, my friend. That’s great. So I know you did, uh, I don’t know if I, some it might have been you. You hosted the Twitter chat a while back. I remember I was on that on that day, and you had a fantastic conversation going? You remember, we’ve done it a few times, you’ve done a few times. Sure. Can you share? Like, what what were some of the topics that you’ve covered on these you hosted?

Sue Nordman  25:35

Well, I’m usually when we host the Twitter chat, it’s a subject that either we’re just learning about, or we want to know more about, we want to hear what other manufacturers are doing with it. Or we want to show what we did with it. Right? It’s not so much about selling our product, or anything. It’s it’s more just about what other businesses in the United States are doing. We’ve gone about multi generational workforce, we’ve posted one about the skilled trades gap. I’m drawing a blank here. I didn’t do my homework. I know that’s already on my website, I could look because there are all this links on my, on our website for a while the last one we just did was corporate social responsibility. Okay. And that’s something we’re trying to work on here establishing, you know, some concrete rules and, you know, policies, and we just wanted to hear what other people were doing. So yeah,

Curt Anderson  26:33

and what’s fascinating is, you know, you have I don’t know how many 40 or 50 people so like, you know, on a topic, I love what you’re saying, because you’re coming in, in collaborating with other folks that are passionate, dedicated, and I’m tending that Twitter chat group there, I’ve never know if I’ve met have a virtual group of people that are so dedicated to just have each other’s back, helping each other collaborating, playing quarterback, where like, you know, if I have a problem, so you’re coming in, like, hey, Kirk, check this out, or you need to talk to this,

Sue Nordman  27:03

right? Like that. I mean, it is a really good group of people. Just go

Curt Anderson  27:07

inspiring just how votes come in and collaborate. And I love what you’re saying that you’re going to hit topics that you want to learn more on how you want to do better. And so you have a great community of folks that you know, like and trust, right, you can put that subject out there, and then you can get a wealth of information. And people like, again, for those folks that are a little bit resistant, you know, or maybe, you know, Twitter, why are you doing on Twitter? In here? You’re getting a an abundance, like a tidal wave of information. Yeah. Help you on these topics.

Sue Nordman  27:38

It’s a great community to have. I mean, 10 years ago, somebody would have said, I was on Twitter every day. I wouldn’t send you’re not. But yeah, and yeah, it’s true.

Curt Anderson  27:48

And it’s not in in again, like again. So folks that are like, you know, Twitter, I’m not gonna go on Twitter. Look how efficient it is, like, work out in one hours period of time. I know, I hosted one time. I’m gonna say it was like, the fastest hour of my life. You know? Yeah.

Sue Nordman  28:02

We hosted how we’re like, yeah, it was like such a rush. And then we’re like, we need to lay down. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  28:12

I did. I did Jen. Wagman. Like, I’m like, I’m gonna do it. I’m like, Jen, I think I might need your help. It starts she goes, Well, we’re on the phone to go shoot. Kurt started, you better get going. And so like her and I are like, you know, my 13 By the end? Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  28:25

Yeah. I mean, I was lucky enough. Somebody told me when I did it to us, whatever that TweetDeck and schedule your tweets at the right time. So you can just respond? Yes, man. It is. It is. It’s fast. It’s fast paced, and you got a lot of stuff to to answer. And it’s great time, though. Yeah,

Sue Nordman  28:42

we’re getting. We usually bring a team when we do it. When we have two or three people and it. It helps cover everything. We make sure everybody’s greeted and taken care of. Oh,

Damon Pistulka  28:54

awesome. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  28:55

that’s what I was. I was on zoom with Jen. I think you’re either either on the phone or on Zoom. And like we’re both well, you get this one, you get this one with a bigger disaster question. And somebody else has a question. So and there’s a great chat going on Katie, Chris Young, who was our guest last week, this morning, love for you and Chris to connect. Katie’s dropping comments, Gail’s dropping great comments.

Sue Nordman  29:15

I see them all scrolling there. But I’m like, I can’t. Yeah, I know, my attention over there. But I want to read them. So I

Curt Anderson  29:22

know. I’m not a good multitasker either. So. So anyway, so I know we’re coming into time. So I know you are super busy running your manufacturing operation. So a couple last questions for you real quick. So what you know, we’re coming into the end of the, my goodness, we’ve survived, you know, what are we 21 months, whatever in this little COVID thing? How, how is 2020 21 round down for you? And what are you looking forward to coming into 22?

Sue Nordman  29:49

Well, I mean, we spent a lot of time during the pandemic. We were we never shut down or anything but we spent a lot of time growing ourselves internally. Learning new things behind the scenes type thing. Yeah. So now we’re ready to put all that to use and get going here and manufacturer. And we have been for the last few months. Very busy. So, yeah, I haven’t been to the Twitter chat as often as I’d like, because I need to be here, there and everywhere out on the shop floor wherever I needed, because, you know, the lack of workers and just trying to get our customers taken care of.

Curt Anderson  30:29

Yeah, and again, I’m, you know, I’m glad you scratch that surface, Sue, because, you know, for folks like say, for, you know, solopreneurs, or folks in different aspects of different industries, it’s hard to relate where, you know, you have X number of employees, you know, you’re worried about their safety, or they’re showing up what’s going on in their homes, what’s going on with their kids at school. So I mean, it’s not just, you’re worried about, you know, you have a pipeline of folks that you have to worry about keeping you up at night supply chain issue. You know, I mean, like, when you’re a business owner, it’s I don’t have any hair left, you know, it’s like your business owner, putting out fires all day, every day. And so again, you are just such an incredible inspiration to us. So, before we wrap, so again, I just I love kind of just really hammering this, the girl dad conversation. What’s your message to teenagers, if you were talking to high school girls, you’re talking to high school students, women that are like, I’m not going to get into manufacturing, open the door for them, Tom, just what would be your message on the incredible opportunities in manufacturing for young women moving forward to this next next generation.

Sue Nordman  31:36

It’s not all hands on dirty work. I mean, if they don’t, if that’s their big issue, they don’t want to be in noise or dirt or all that. There’s plenty of job in a manufacturing business that that don’t require them working on the shop floor. But if there’s girls out there that want to be on the shop floor that want to drive the forklift and the machinist and brand or operator or whatever welder i More power to them, I completely support that idea. I think that they are just as capable as a man would be. And I think they add a different element to the whole role that they’re in. And I think it takes all of that to make it work.

Damon Pistulka  32:23

Well, it’s such a, you bring up such a great point, because the diversity factor, right, and I’m not talking about, you know, a lot of people use it in diversity as as, you know, hiring everybody, I really think of it as diversity of thought. Because exactly, you get this diversity of thought that helps so much in manufacturing operations, when you have men and women all different ethnic groups that are working together, because we all have those different backgrounds that come together. And when you I just get excited about working in teams, because you just don’t know where the best ideas gonna come from. And it’s certainly not where you expect it from. And it’s so good. In the end, it’s so great.

Sue Nordman  33:03

I love to see our team come together, and we all are pitching off of each other and things just our problem was solved. And it took all of us all the input from everybody. So yeah, man, women are certainly part of that. So yeah, to answer your or comment on your question, Kurt, it’s, it doesn’t it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, it’s what you’ve got to contribute to the business. And I think that women are perfectly capable of doing that in the manufacturing industry.

Curt Anderson  33:35

Absolutely. Man, you guys are giving me chills. This is just awesome. And when you think about, you know, so again here in the US what you know, again, you know, we’ve had challenges you know, as far as you know, diversity, these are different opinions. And the thing is our diversity is such a competitive advantage. Yes. When we added together we are so much stronger when we come together and embrace each other and accept you know, a we we come from different walks of life, different creeds, what have you, like you just said Damon, and this is such a competitive advantage that no other nation can bring to the table that we can bring. When we man when we come together in a court when we come together in one corner. Nobody can match us. So guys, thank you. Look at this chat man, Nigel all nighters this job to your your Twitter chat and Chris, Katie, we should connect some time we’d love to interview you sometime. So guys, let’s find out on this. First off, Sue, we salute you. We appreciate you. Thank you for what you do for the Russian

Sue Nordman  34:34

economy.

Curt Anderson  34:36

Oh my goodness, our honor. Thank you for what you do for the manufacturing community. Thank you for what you do with women in manufacturing your family what a great inspiration. We extend warmists holiday greetings to you your your family. Hope you have a couple days you guys. Yeah, hope you can shut down for a couple days and Jerry actually closed

Sue Nordman  34:55

in the last week of December. We haven’t done that in years. Yeah, but we saw All the holidays into one week and yeah, you know, what were Christmas Eve as well, Friday before but that last awesome. We really need that. Especially my husband and I and our son. We’ve been pretty dedicated to this place for for a while now.

Damon Pistulka  35:19

It’s nice to be able to do that right? Yeah. And that’s one thing I always enjoyed about manufacturing is if you can if you can arrange it right when it comes to the holiday season that week around Christmas and Thanksgiving, you know, those are times that if you if you really plan well you can get a little extra time off that really does help you. Yeah, yeah, you do cuz it’s

Sue Nordman  35:39

paired. We’ll be back here coming out is strong. So yep,

Curt Anderson  35:43

stronger job stronger than so much for having me. So Happy Holidays. We wish you an amazing new year and we’ll see you on Twitter and can’t wait for everything. Hang out with us for one second, guys. We’re gonna we’re gonna close out. So Damon, we have an awesome, awesome guest. We have. So we do another program on Friday. We have Val Weber. Yeah, he’s active on a Thursday Twitter group as well. And the title of the program is how to be a fierce networker and manufacturing. As an extreme. Introvert boy, Val is a great, wonderful introvert. She’s a fierce networker, so we’re gonna have her on Friday.

Sue Nordman  36:21

She’s a little bit of an introvert too. So

Curt Anderson  36:24

yeah, you Dave and I are to Kate Utah. So yeah, guys, we’ll wrap up. Hey, everybody, go out there. Motivate yourselves for manufacturing. The rest of this week. Guys have a killer week. We’ll see you Friday. Sue, thank you. Hang on and have a great week, guys. Thanks wrapping