Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with MNI University

Curt Anderson  00:00

One minute. Hey, hey, there’s Dan right there here early. I do not want a gaming. We’re live dude. Happy Monday, man. How are

Damon Pistulka  00:10

you? Hey, man. There we go. It’s gone. Good. Hey.

Curt Anderson  00:13

Sorry about the Seahawks. We won’t go there today. All right, we won’t.

Damon Pistulka  00:17

Oh, it’s close. It was good.

Curt Anderson  00:18

It was alright it was they missed by that much. All right so Hey, happy Monday, man What an honor what a privilege dude like I am. I didn’t even sleep a wink last night. I’m so juiced for today. So like, I’m like, okay, Damon, we’ve got a really exciting demo. What month is it? I know. I think it’s October, right?

Damon Pistulka  00:38

Yes.

Curt Anderson  00:39

Is there something going on this month in? Is there something we should know about her that

Damon Pistulka  00:43

there is? What is her that there is and I think it’s manufacturing month?

Curt Anderson  00:49

I think it is manufacturing month and so Hey, my friend Chris Stewart in the house. We got to get Trish back on the show. She’s been way too long. We got to get you back on. So. All right. It’s manufacturing month. Happy Monday to everybody. Hope you had a magnificent, amazing, incredible, wonderful weekend. Man. Do we have some juicy things to talk about? So we’re gonna kick things off? Hey, let’s go around the horns we’ve got. I’ve got Adam. Kirsten. Dave Chrysler, we’ve got Kati, McDermith. Denise in the house here. Kati. Let’s start with you.

Kati McDermith  01:23

Well, hi, everybody. Good morning. Happy Monday. Happy manufacturing month. Hey.

Curt Anderson  01:30

Hey, you know what? You know, let’s get a little shout out to everybody. Let’s go. Kirsten, Happy Monday to you. How are you? How’s your world? How’s everything going?

Kirsten Austin  01:40

Everything’s going good. In my world. There’s a little bit construction. So if you all of a sudden here like that’s it. That’s kind of my world for the last week or two. But other than that, I’m good. I went to the country this weekend. I’m chilling. Got a lot of stuff in the works this week.

Curt Anderson  01:59

Oh, this is awesome. Hey, Dan says hey, Kirsten. He says, holy catch. Now, Dan. Good thing you didn’t say Holy cow. So cursing me. We’ll save that for later because you had you had a not good experience with a cow this weekend. But we won’t go there. Adam Baker, my friend. How are you buddy? Happy Monday, dude.

Adam Baker  02:16

Hey, I’m doing good. How are you guys?

Curt Anderson  02:18

So much better now? I can’t stand it. So we’ve got Adam, butcher Baker, the candlestick makers and Alistair. So let’s tie it over to David Chrysler calls himself Lee Iacocca for anybody old enough to remember that guy. So deep racer, happy Monday.

Dave Crysler  02:36

Happy Monday. Thanks for the throwback.

Curt Anderson  02:39

I don’t think anybody Damon I don’t think anybody on stage here is old enough to remember Lee Iacocca. But we know the we asked when we do our hero question. Somebody said Lee Iacocca. One time number that one. Wow.

Dave Crysler  02:52

That’s incredible. Yeah, that’s

Curt Anderson  02:54

a throwback for us. Oh, you got to be over 50 to really know that one. So I Kati, McDermith Happy Monday. First off, you have brought together a bunch of incredible passionate, wonderful people for m and I University we might do a little mi champ have before we go there. What you do this weekend, Katie McDermott.

Kati McDermith  03:18

I just got back from San Diego. I was in San Diego. I was there because my son just graduated from Marine Corps boot camp. I love my Yeah, this is my second boy who is a marine. So I’m super proud.

Curt Anderson  03:39

God bless you. And hey, big shout out for you being a Marine Mom, just you know, our, our warmest thanks and deepest gratitude to your son for serving our country proudly. So thank you, God bless you. We appreciate you. And I know and I believe you have a couple of Marines if I’m not mistaken, is that correct?

Kati McDermith  03:57

Yes, my oldest is um, he’s done. Now. He’s still a marine because once a marine always a Marine. So Shiloh is my oldest and so he’s, he’s done with his term. And my youngest son is Trevor. And that is who just graduated this weekend. And then I have my stepson is 16 and he went along with and he started off saying, No way Jose, but then he saw all the pomp and circumstance you know, the Marine Corps does it right. Yeah. So all the pomp and circumstance and now I think maybe he might be thinking about it. So we’ll see.

Curt Anderson  04:34

Awesome well, hey, isn’t proud mom big proud my moment. Hey, we got some people dropping notes. So guys, thank you. Let us know that you got the high. You absolutely. Hey, we got our friend Richard from Ghana. So thank you guys. Hey, Gwen is in the house today. We got going we’ve got to get you on the program. She hasn’t been on the show. Right. So guys, let us know that you’re out there. So we’ve got another note here from bright so Hey guys, happy Monday. You Definitely want to connect with our esteemed panel. Just these guys are just amazing. Trust me on that one. So Kati, let’s go here. And and I university I guys you ready we practice before we went live let’s uh Kati we’re gonna do it. Let’s just do it we’re gonna get ready. We’re gonna do

Kati McDermith  05:19

I don’t know. And then I and then I that’s

Curt Anderson  05:26

what in who is mi University? Can you please just share with the folks out there? What is what’s going on with this MNI University.

Kati McDermith  05:35

Sure. So MNI University is an extension of m&a, which is otherwise known as manufacturers news. m&a is a compiler of industrial data. And m&a University is just on an opportunity for us to help and add more value to our customers, and then just manufactures and those dealing with the manufacturing industry. So it runs all the month of October. It’s free learning. And the lessons are taught by amazing people, some of which are right here. And yeah, it’s free, and it’ll be around forever. So go check out the site, the links are in are going to be dropped in there. So check out the site, register for classes. Have a good time. Let me know if you want to lead a class next year.

Curt Anderson  06:23

Absolutely. Hey, we’ve got some more highs coming here. So we got miracle speaking a miracle. Hey, Kirsten, how are you today?

Kirsten Austin  06:31

I’m doing good. How are you doing? So miracle. Oh, my gosh, I knew there was a reason to come to work today.

Curt Anderson  06:39

That’s right. Now, did you you don’t want to share what your dog did over the weekend? Do you? You don’t you don’t want to put that out there do

Kirsten Austin  06:46

or let’s just say we were out in the country. And he didn’t do it just once. He did it twice. And he rolled in nature out there. So yeah, yeah, he’s clean. And he’s in the office with me. But he’s so more now from swimming in the river. So yeah, he did his stuff.

Curt Anderson  07:09

Well, good thing. Good thing. We love our pets as much as we do. Right. So that that was not a miracle in itself. But speaking of miracle, let’s go here. So first off, Dan bigger. It’s a miracle that we got Kirsten, on screen and on on live today. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  07:22

Yeah.

Curt Anderson  07:23

I’m still in shock. So Kirsten, I would love for you to just share with folks how do you make the world a better place? What’s going on in your world? Your office? What do you do? What’s going on there?

Kirsten Austin  07:35

So um, I have been in business for myself, believe it or not for 30 years.

Curt Anderson  07:43

Start when you’re when you start when you’re 10? You know that that? Yeah, right.

Kirsten Austin  07:47

Thank you. Thank you. No, I actually dye my hair. But no, I start started in my early 20s. But I have a software company. And we do a lot of different things. We’re a software developer. So we wrote a warehouse management and shipping solution. Everything’s in real time. So scanning inventory and picking packing shipping. And then we work with a lot of manufacturers and offer automation is as simple as data collection on the shop floor tracking material to work orders tracking material to work centers. And then we also just give a lot of advice we have a consulting division. So we’ve just been doing this for so long and I love the love distribution distribution pick it package ship it you know, it’s it’s exciting that manufacturing has always been my love. I just I I I’m a dork. I’m a manufacturing dork.

Curt Anderson  08:53

Well, hey, God bless you. And you are fierce leader behind our little Thursday Twitter chat group. And so guys, if you’re on Twitter X, whatever it’s called these days, there’s a great vibrant crew of manufacturing advocates that get together every Monday, two o’clock Eastern love o’clock Pacific, and just have all sorts of fun chat. So Kirsten, thank you. We’re gonna dig deep. I’m going to come back to you in a second. I’m going to slide over to my neighbor, my dear buddy, Mr. Baker, and speaking of Katie, you know, hey, how about a round of applause for Adam served our country proudly he was an officer in the Air Force and did amazing work. So Adam, God bless you, brother. Adam. Dude is great to have you here man. Last time you and I were sitting on the shores of Chautauqua Lake together. We had lunch and man did we have a good time?

Adam Baker  09:42

Now though, that feels like it was decades ago. It’s

Curt Anderson  09:46

a little little not quite what is what it was like at our last one. But let’s let’s go here. Mr. Baker, how do we how do you make the world a better place? You’re doing all sorts of great work, guys. You want to connect with Adam on LinkedIn? Dude, you’re constantly posting, you’re vibrant in the community helping manufacturers helping entrepreneurs. Dude, what’s going on with you? How are you making the world a better place?

Adam Baker  10:12

Yeah, so we we work with manufacturers that want to be very intentional, intentional about making sure they’re getting every ounce of profit they can. And so what we do is we look at those spots that are typically often forgotten. And you know, like a favorite one is garbage. Right? There’s all we say there’s money and stink and typically there’s opportunities that that a lot of manufacturers just don’t think of where there’s opportunities to save money. And so that’s one of the things that we’ll talk about during manufacturing money.

Curt Anderson  10:42

I absolutely love it so hey, we’ve got some more friends coming in here we’ve got India we’ve got friends from the goose man we’ve got hate and Dan. I don’t know where is John but glean Oh, eight Hey, David. I met so Nicole and I were with John in person. I’ve got pictures on my phone I’ve got I was with John on Thursday. So John, great getting together with you man. We checked out and his office is insane. You should see where he gets a work man. I’m talking about nice. It let’s slide over to a there’s a Chrysler club that was a handsome devil i There he is right there.

Dave Crysler  11:23

He is He would have just ran

Curt Anderson  11:25

you over the weekend. I was at like a little coaching jam session. And I was with a group of like high powered people. And I said, you guys got to connect with my buddy Dave Chrysler. Dave, how do you make the world a better place?

Dave Crysler  11:37

Yeah, all the work that that I do is in and around process efficiency, looking for opportunities to streamline operational processes through systemization. So it’s a ton of fun. To Kerstin’s point, every day is different. And there’s always a new opportunity to optimize and increase not just profitability, but the happiness that comes along with that for the folks that are out on the floor or doing the thing so well absolutely

Curt Anderson  12:13

love it. So we’re gonna dig into you know, dude, you’ve changed my life and three things that I love whenever Dave Chrysler it is synonymous with these three things Damon,

Dave Crysler  12:23

what’s that?

Curt Anderson  12:24

Automate delegate? Eliminate, dude, like it’s completely changed my life. Hey, speaking. You’re gonna see this. Here’s the code. Here’s the code on John McLean. Oh, right there man. We got the guy. Hey, there’s a there’s a crazy bald guy. So they’re got together with John you see that? So John? Oh, cool. Yeah, I love you brother. Man. We gotta go party. I can’t tell you guys what amazing has offices. So all right. And I University Katie who? Who thought this thing up?

Kati McDermith  12:56

Well, you can point the finger at me. I guess.

Curt Anderson  12:59

Everybody pointed Katie. It’s Katie.

Kati McDermith  13:03

Yeah, it was my brainchild. Definitely. I don’t think that. So last year was the first year we did it. And it was you know, I just kind of wing it. And that’s kind of like what I do sometimes. So this year, I actually am so grateful that we have Angela Thurmond doing project management for us with Thurman Cole. And it has kept it has kept it clean and kept it going. And she’s a machine. So I’d like to thank Angela Simon Westerman CO for that. So maybe next year, somebody else might want to do project management. I don’t know. Maybe Maybe Angela will do it again. Maybe she’s tired of me.

Curt Anderson  13:43

Katie, how could anybody get tired of you? Come on. So all right, Damon, let’s go here. Dude, I understand. Like Didn’t you do a little jam session for Katie recently?

Damon Pistulka  13:52

Yeah, we did. We did one.

Curt Anderson  13:54

What was it called?

Damon Pistulka  13:57

Now you’re gonna put me on the spot.

Curt Anderson  13:58

I gotta i Dude, I got your back.

Damon Pistulka  14:01

I think Go ahead. He’s

Curt Anderson  14:02

building a business. Somebody will want to buy keys to building a business someone will want to buy. Dude, what did people learn at your little jam session?

Damon Pistulka  14:14

A probably learned that you can make a lot of money in your business. And you can be very happy, but you might not be able to sell it. Unless you do the right things. I mean, that’s the big that’s really the big thing that I see a lot of people they go Oh, my money’s me tons of pain. You know, I made tons of money in my business. Look, I’ve got two houses, doesn’t mean you’re gonna be able to sell it. It’s just there. There are specific things that you need to do around things like customer concentration, and you know how much the owners are involved in the business, you know, and those kinds of things. And they are they are things they’re not easy to change usually. So you got to start early and get them done. Yeah. All right. So

Curt Anderson  14:54

and now it

Damon Pistulka  14:57

was that I’m recording or you said it’s not a recording Right. No, because I forgot to record it. Sorry.

Curt Anderson  15:04

We might get a separate recording, then we’ll drop it on there for Kati. But so, Kirsten, let’s go to you, my friend. So you have a jam session coming up if I’m not mistaken. Right? Do you have something fun coming up on maybe I’m just guessing that’s gonna grab a date, I guess?

Kirsten Austin  15:19

Gemini out on October 18 at two central standard time.

Curt Anderson  15:23

So I’m pretty sure.

Kirsten Austin  15:26

So, um, I, as mentioned, all I do is work with manufacturers, distribution companies. A lot of times, I’m the one that actually does an analysis. So I do a lot of tours where I walk through very similar and Dave, look at people’s processes, look at their layout, lots of different things. And there are so many little tiny things that people forget, they think big stuff, they think, you know, automation, they think, you know, fancy MRP, and DRP, and all this other stuff, which is all really good. But there’s some really basic things. And sometimes you can’t see the forest through the trees that you need to clean up that you need to look at, that you need to take care of. And sometimes you might even just be surprised and go, Oh, I totally didn’t even think of that. That makes sense now. So I tried to take all this information, I know, make it exciting, but make it really, really useful. And I think manufacturers could take a look at it. Anybody in business could take a look at it because you’d get some really good advice about data. Just about personnel some other things. So I’m pretty stoked.

Curt Anderson  16:48

So so Hey, Dan, bigger, we get to see Kherson again on camera on October 18. And that is coming up this week. Speaking of October 18. Mr. Baker, I believe are you What do you what’s going on? What are you doing on the 18th? This week? Are you doing anything special on October 18. Any any chancer?

Adam Baker  17:05

We are huge shout out to my wife, it’s her birthday. But I think

Curt Anderson  17:12

we sing to her happy birthday. So

Adam Baker  17:15

she would love it. But but she’s got her own thing going on. Happy birthday, Mrs. Baker, on the 18th we are, we’re gonna throw out some fun ideas, 30 of them 30 minutes that manufacturers can implement in 30 days to improve their bottom line. And so the goal is we want to go mile wide, six inches deep and just throw out ideas that manufacturers can do. They don’t need us to do it, they can do it on their own. I’ve partnered with two other two other groups, one that works on government subsidies, the other that’s on health care. And really, it’s just to get them thinking about opportunities that exist that they may not think about in person. I mean, you’re right, like these are opportunities that they may walk past and not think about, but we’ll really want to do is just plant the seeds of there’s opportunities exist that you can go after we just we just want to introduce them one after the other.

Curt Anderson  18:10

Well, that’s fantastic. And I want to do like You’ve piqued my curiosity, right? The silver tsunami of success. Like your Dude, where’d you get it? I’m like, Damon, I’m just that one. Where’d you get that name? I

Adam Baker  18:25

would love. You know, some of them are known as silver tsunami, you may hear silver tsunami or the grey wave. But it is a term that they’re throwing out. That refers to all of the baby boomer business owners that are going to be retiring in the next five to 10 years. And they’re projecting about three and a half million businesses are going to change hands over the next 10 years. Which if you’re a new business owner, and you take over a business, we want to give you these ideas because you could immediately take advantage of them that if the previous owner had and right off the bat, you can make your business more profitable.

Curt Anderson  19:02

That is so good. Damon, I don’t know when you do it. Do you have any business tip or two?

Damon Pistulka  19:07

Yeah, you know, and as looking I’m just pulling up. I actually just got somebody sent me an email about this. They had written an article it’s gonna be like $93 trillion worth of business transfers over that time. Wow. 99 $90 trillion. Yeah, 90

Curt Anderson  19:24

trillion. Yeah, that’s I exaggerate the 93 It’s only 90 Right

Damon Pistulka  19:30

90 This a lot of

Curt Anderson  19:31

90 trillion. Okay. All right. So I so great programs coming up. We’ve got two juicy ones coming up on the 18th you want to catch Kirsten, you want to catch our friend Mr. Baker. Big birthday greetings to his wife. Hey, we’ve got what’s the say I can’t read that. Can you guys read that technology King Damon who do you know somebody hashtag king of process who? That’s Kati I agree. To the almighty king of process, right? We’re gonna have

Dave Crysler  19:59

too much Do

Damon Pistulka  20:00

you always have to ask yourself when you’re doing something at work? What would David do?

Dave Crysler  20:07

And that’s exactly what I think we need to get some new bracelets made up or something. I don’t

Curt Anderson  20:12

know what David W W DD. I was still dreaming I was I met this thing over the weekend, right? And I guess it’s like think tank like coaching thing. Yeah. And so I get this. Alright, so I pulled it off stage. And so I’m like, I’m like, so what people are doing what they’re recommending. And I think Dave, you actually recommended this to me, is you do like 15 minute blocks of like, like track your day, track your time track your day. And what Dave coached me to do. And I think my Ben on the show, or maybe Dave, you and I talked on a one on one, if you take a spreadsheet, and you track your day, and then again, I want to lead into those three things I get. I mean, like, I think about it all the time. Thanks to you. How do you automate? How do you delegate and I made Damon? For the record? And if somebody’s out there, that’s worse than me. I’d like to meet them. I may be the world’s worst delegator on the planet. So Mr. Chrysler wins your program, I think you might do you have to do you have two programs, you have one

Dave Crysler  21:11

passed already, we have one coming up on the 25th. The second is the second class. So and we’re taking things back to the basics, in terms of process, process, documentation, standard operating procedures. For me, it’s where everything starts. You know, a lot of folks like to talk about technology, I love technology have solved many a problem through technology. But if we don’t have our processes in place, if we don’t have a clear understanding of what we do, technology is really been developed to execute process flawlessly, and to eliminate errors within those process flows. So too often we start backwards and talk about what technology can we bring in to solve this particular problem, but what we’re really talking about is what are the features and benefits? Versus understanding what is the process execution? What is the process flow need to be and then looking for a technology that can help us automate that execution and eliminate error within kind of inherently within those process flows? Okay,

Curt Anderson  22:18

that’s fantastic. Hey, I want to give a shout out. We’ve got a few more friends here. Hey, we got somebody coming in from Italy. So hey, happy Monday. Wait, we’re down in Indianapolis coming in? And so Dave, I don’t know if you’re ready for questions or like, you know, so they’re always ready. There’s a curveball coming at you. Are you ready? Like this? My Oh, wait. I’ve never seen the price or stumped this might this Damon? This might be this might be the stuff that’s not coming from me. It’s not coming from me. It’s a friend of mine. Dave, can I delegate my cats? I have five. I’m just wondering, David Chrysler? Can you help them figure out by any chance? Or what do you thoughts,

Dave Crysler  22:57

you know, with the right process in place, you can delegate effectively to anyone, it comes down to a few different things, understanding what you do, looking for opportunities to first eliminate, second to delegate third to automate. And the delegation part from my perspective, and experience really comes down to a couple of key factors. One, really, it’s three, I’ll give you all three of them. So the first one is that we tend to as leaders, and I can speak from firsthand experience, because I was a terrible leader for many years. But you know, we fail, often to explain and train, right. So we want to delegate, and we know what we want to delegate, but we’re awful at explaining and training. Okay, so that’s, that’s kind of first and foremost, we’re awful at explaining and training. Second is we don’t really have a system in place or process in place to track the tasks and things that we are delegating, right, so what ends up happening, we need in that system to create a feedback loop. Because otherwise, we always feel like, well, I can’t delegate because I have to go out and follow up on this. If we build out a delegation system that that pulls in that delegation and feedback loop, all of a sudden, everybody’s on the same page. Everybody knows what can be expected, in terms of the outcome of that. So those are the couple of really big things. The third and final one, we don’t practice enough, right? So when we make a mistake, or when we when we don’t have that system in place, when we fail to explain and train effectively, instead of addressing it and kind of owning that. What do we do we just stop, right? Because delegation doesn’t work. You know, we these people out here, they don’t want to do anything. It’s like no, we need to take a look at ourselves own the mistake that we had. And it’s all in the process. So I’ll pause there. No pun intended, Dan beggar.

Damon Pistulka  24:57

Yeah, it’s, it is Amen. There. That is that is it

Dave Crysler  25:01

did you get? I think Katie finally got it. Right we’re talking about delegating to cats. I love cats,

Curt Anderson  25:09

man there were some key eight and how about this one right don’t keep it going brother just keep it going. And so Hey, real quick we got Inger Inger you’re supposed to be on stage with us dude like what’s going on here? So hey, there’s somebody coming in here she is a

Kati McDermith  25:31

since i Laughs I’m so excited.

Curt Anderson  25:33

Hey, we’ve got I met. Alright guys, is everybody sitting down? We’ve got a big huge introduction here. So we’ve got Ingar rah rah in your van rah rah. How’s that? We’re doing like cheers today. Hey, should guys should we do the m&a chant again? Should we do that? Let’s do anything I remember time ready on three ready 123 Hey, is Dan bigger says hey the party Gherardi grossinger You’ve got a call coming up is that what you’re saying? You’ve got a call coming up.

Ingor van Rooi  26:07

I had a call so i That’s why I’m only yeah now apologies.

Curt Anderson  26:12

We get to stay with us Ingor is in the house anger let’s let’s come to you my friend. How do you make the world a better place?

Ingor van Rooi  26:22

I like to spread a lot of kindness and helping people see that impact is very important. And community of course.

Curt Anderson  26:36

Man you know damage it’s so simple, so concise and just soap like she just comes in and just like blows everybody away. Right? Just like like 15 seconds of like, alright, anger talk. Why is community so you are the queen of community? Why is community so important?

Ingor van Rooi  26:52

You know, I think I can tie it back into just looking at my life growing up. I’ve always loved people it’s very important to me to make sure that I strive for impact really. And Kati I heard that that’s cool. And you know, because the real the real reason behind everything that I do is the principle of Ubuntu. And it means I am because we are

Curt Anderson  27:31

a little little mic drop there Damon so yeah, Damon or Dan bigger. I might have a tough time catching my breath with all these mazing folks on stage here isn’t as great we may wish everybody right now in your I might did I butcher say your last name for me please?

Ingor van Rooi  27:46

The proper way or the Americanized way? Which one did you

Curt Anderson  27:50

receive the let’s say the proper way first and then we’ll say wait a second.

Ingor van Rooi  27:56

Okay, so it is fun Roy

Curt Anderson  27:59

fun Roy. Okay, fun ROI and then how how’s the American butchered version

Ingor van Rooi  28:08

there’s one that’s halfway butchered and the other one that’s completely so the first one is then ROI then Rui,

Curt Anderson  28:18

Van Rooy Okay, now

Damon Pistulka  28:19

the second one is completely butchered Correct. Okay. So I know I booked your

Curt Anderson  28:28

dancy so Damon. If I started, just call just just tell my wife I love her. Alright, so if I hyperventilate, like nobody, like there’s somebody here to help me. So just you know. So Kati, let’s come back to you. How did you collectively How did you select your speakers? How like the response like what’s going on with mi m? And I, let’s take a little bit deeper here. How’d you get how’d you get this amazing group of people that are speaking for you?

Kati McDermith  28:53

Ah, well, someone taught me all about community on LinkedIn. And I really just dove in headfirst about it with it. And I have brought together my own community of amazing people that I love. All of you are like, you know, my favorite people. And I would rather hang out with you all day long, then. Then work for sure. So I figure why don’t I just have fun with all my friends and do work at the same time. So that’s kind of how I found my, my people. I just asked people and they say yes or no, I don’t know. I’m an old lead gen girl I don’t I have kind of a tough skin. So I can you know, ask somebody if they’ll do something. And if they say no, I’ll say thanks for your time. I’ll ask you again in a few weeks. That’s right. And that’s just how that goes. So I had no problem asking people I guess I could probably ask more. But I was really hoping that people would just see what we have going on and kind of want to be a part of it and come to me about it. But so see, even an old lead gen needs some direction. Time

Curt Anderson  29:59

Wow, I love it and being the manufacturing hype girl, I was still going by that title. Are we still the manufacturing hype? Girls that story and

Kati McDermith  30:06

the manufacturing hype girl for sure. Awesome.

Curt Anderson  30:09

All right, so let’s go around the horn. How about this? Give everybody like a little prep on this one. So, Kati McDermith, why, and why is manufacturing so amazing? So awesome? why should other cool kids be considering a career in manufacturing?

Kati McDermith  30:25

Because there is opportunity upon opportunity upon opportunity. I mean, it just it just, it’s just so much opportunity. And there’s also when there is a tremendous need for people to be in the manufacturing industry in any way, shape, or form. So maybe you just teach a class on m&a You, we can use that maybe you’re going to work on the floor, maybe you’re going to sweep floors, but maybe you’re going to do accounting or social media, like there’s just like there’s nothing that you can’t do in the manufacturing industry. It’s everywhere. And it is the driving force in a healthy strong economy. I don’t get me started. Damon can take take it from here.

Curt Anderson  31:10

Well, that’s awesome. All right. How about that was a big mic drop right there. Katie McDermott. I got all that I have to cut. Damon Right. Right. So hey, let’s keep the passion rolling. So hey, let me move up this. Let’s go upstream to my dear friend, Kirsten Austin Powers. So Kirsten, why is manufacturing so amazing? And why should all the cool kids should be why should they be considering a career in manufacturing, please?

Kirsten Austin  31:38

Manufacturing is just amazing. I’ve been in it for 30 years. But I think that people do not understand they think of manufacturing is I don’t know they’re no offense against the grandmas and grandpas that did manufacturing. Many of those guys started something that’s still here. But there’s just there’s so many opportunities. If you’re a software developer, you got a job in manufacturing, if you’re a supply chain manager, if your plant manager, if you’re good at fixing things, if you’re a mechanic, if you’re in marketing manufacturers are learning that they need to market themselves better. There’s positions galore and eventually we’re going to have to pass this torch. I mean eventually I want to retire I don’t know when but we need some kids to step in the shoes and and you know, keep this torch going. I’ve got customers now right now looking to have positions build. I don’t know parents when you talk to your kids to want to grow up with some money or no money. There’s money in manufacturing as well. So plus, I love the good you owe us obey no offense to anybody else. Let’s build up our own community. Let’s build up our own. You know, workforce again, let’s let’s be strong, strong link bull. Let’s do it again. We’ve got so much talent here.

Curt Anderson  33:12

I absolutely love it. And so for anybody just join us. So first off, man, do yourself a favor, connect with these awesome people on LinkedIn. We would love Damon, I would love to connect with you as well. But connect with these folks. You’ll thank us later. They’re absolutely amazing. They’re incredible. They post on a regular basis. Tons of value. Speaking of value Kristen Austin Powers. Can you please share? I mentioned it earlier, but if anybody just joined us what happens on Thursdays at two o’clock Eastern one o’clock Central. Could you please share?

Kirsten Austin  33:41

So I am so proud of this initiative. We took a month off because a whole bunch of us are actually like here so but we took a month off but for over three years. We have had a Twitter chat. That is absolutely amazing. The exposure for anyone that comes out there is amazing. bright young brand awareness, etc. But every Thursday at one o’clock Central Standard Time, we have a chat when someone leaves the chat. They ask for five questions of areas that they have expertise on. Everyone gets to put in their two cents worth. We learn a lot from the community. We actually have people from all over the world. Even our UK peeps come and join us most Thursdays. But we talk about everything from inventory control shipping logistics. We talked about Adam did something great on just how to save money. Have a look at the bottom line. You know we’ve talked about advertising Damon’s been on there he’s talked about you know selling businesses what you need to do to make your business attractive process King Dave is gonna come on there talked about how important it is that you can have the fanciest computer systems and automation in there. But if you don’t have some basic processes underway to do that, Katie has been there several times. She just talked about, what was it? Cold marketing, warm marketing, hot marketing, hot, hot. We also have fun. Katie had a really fun session when we said, she said, What is this? And there’s machinery that we were like, What in? Hey, I have no clue what that is. Then we need a host. And I need to talk about this right now. Okay, this thing has been going on for three years. It is a beautiful community. But we’re having some trouble lining up go up ghosts. Everybody’s ghosting us. We’re trying to line up posts in November, and December. So if you posted before, think about hosting. Again, if you have a friend that could add value to this, you know, we just have such a great time. And the community is so beautiful in this month. I’m sorry to keep talking about it. But I’m excited about what we’ve started here. And we’ll be kept going. But you know, sometimes we just like to show up on Thursdays. And, you know, we always end up talking about food. I mean, that can’t help but have a little bit of fun. So if anybody you know knows of anybody We’re looking for hosts. I also want to send a shout out to some of the people that have helped us. Dan bigger in the community helped us, you know, really get this thing started. Julie pacella, Holt with Radwell International, they do these amazing recaps. I mean, like within the day, Susan, my marketing sales assistant, every once in a while I like to go hiking and so I couldn’t do this without her. And then Ruby Racine with social systems success marketing. If Ruby wasn’t here, a lot of us would not be connected. And y’all know that it’s true. Right? Okay,

Kati McDermith  37:14

I just gotta tell you that I have made lifelong friends on that Twitter chat person, like I just Yeah, it’s great.

Curt Anderson  37:21

Love it. You know, it really sinks in your song building that community, you know, and it doesn’t cost a penny. It’s just amazing people amazing friendships. And so you know, it just Yeah. So any experts out there? Are you friends of friends, anybody that you guys have a topic that you think that manufacturers would want to know, by connect with Kherson connect with Dan bigger, connect with Julia cielo and make it happen. It’s just it’s a wonderful community. Tons of value there. So alright, let’s get down to speaking of community, Mr. Baker, question for you, my friend. Kind of going to the same theme. Why do you think that all the cool kids should be going into manufacturing?

Adam Baker  38:04

I think you said it if it’s community in and I’ll take it, take it a few ways. So one, look at us. Right? We are all so out there, right? We all do things that are very, very different. But here we are because of manufacturing. So that’s cool. So manufacturing has its own little community. But on the grand scale, when you saw what happened during COVID, a manufacturing shut down the communities around them shut down to because those manufacturing plants, they really are the hubs of economic development for the communities around them. Right. And if you’re in manufacturing, you boosted manufacturing, all those mom and pop stores, all those little small stores around them. They all get supported as well, because that manufacturer to if you love your community, I wholeheartedly say get involved in manufacturing, because that’s only going to boost your community. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  38:52

I tell you, the manufacturers are truly the heroes, you know, not to discount anybody else. But they are truly the heroes of our economy and you’re hitting it right on the head, Adam, you know, you can have like a small rural community where like that one manufacturer or a couple manufacturers are like supporting that whole town, or that whole area. And the thing is like, it’s not just jobs is like these are families. These are soccer, you know, kids playing soccer, dance lessons, kids going off to graduation. There’s just enormous enormous amounts of opportunity. Now, I have I, Damon, I need to pull up a comment here. I want to dispel a myth. Okay. So Chrysler club. Is this true? Is this true that your

Dave Crysler  39:42

dad and his sister Dan is just on fire today. I think

Curt Anderson  39:50

the Steelers went over the weekend because Dan seems like he’s in a really good mood. I’m pleased this weekend, right? Yeah. All right. Dave Crysler Are you out there? Are you?

Damon Pistulka  40:05

Let’s see what happened?

Curt Anderson  40:06

What? Dave? What? So I will skip the Excel question right when you’re on fire. And I think there was a couple of comments on how you were on fire. So first off, I’m going to come at you Why should all the cool kids be going into manufacturing, please?

Dave Crysler  40:21

Well, I think everybody did a great job of highlighting this already. But you know, there’s, there’s just a bunch of opportunity in and around manufacturing. And, you know, whether you want to take it from the approach of all of the different opportunities within it a particular manufacturing organization, and there’s not a lot of conversation around the different areas that, you know, that people can come in and utilize their skill set and what interests them to support manufacturers, I think, you know, for for many years, there’s been conversations that don’t highlight manufacturing in a in a very positive way. So I think we need to rekindle all of that, because whether you’re interested in you know, acquiring a business, you know, and you’ve got some interest around there, manufacturing is a great spot for that, whether you’re interested in, you know, something more mechanical, because, you know, you love to build things, you know, you there’s just so many different opportunities within the spectrum of manufacturing. And I think, because we’ve missed out on that conversation for so long, you know, for really, decades now, I believe, and you know, what the big push to traditional education, and, you know, I love that path for the right person for the right, you know, kind of career choice, but there are so many other opportunities, manufacturing, skilled trades, you know, there’s just so many different opportunities dependent on what you’re interested in. You know, for me, I’ve been around this my entire life. Literally, I think I was destined to be six foot two, but you know, because my parents owned print manufacturing company, I was around a lot of chemicals when I was younger, I’ve only managed to hit five foot eight. But you know, I think there I think there that there’s a real thing out there. And, you know, manufacturing is amazing. There’s tremendous people in and around it at all levels, you can learn a tremendous amount, you know, by engaging with with the folks that are in these communities. Well,

Kati McDermith  42:31

I think I just learned why Dave’s shorts are so long.

Dave Crysler  42:35

How about around everybody learns something new.

Curt Anderson  42:38

I want to run applause for Dave Chrysler dropping the mic right there. Dude, that was phenomenal. That was that that really summed it up. And so Adam, I saw you jump to a comment about Alan’s comment. One thing gets overlooked property tax relief and workforce economic incentives. There’s money being left on the table. Alan is man, that is pure gold right there. There’s so many Dave, you just you hit on so many things, right? There’s an even if you do go get that four year degree, there are so many opportunities to go to engineering, you can go into accounting, you can go to HR, you can go into marketing, you can go into you know, logistics, or money to r&d, innovation, engineering, there are so many degrees that you can pursue, in manufacture in college in university and bring that into the world of manufacturing. I love that we’re talking about community in Gore, how about for our friends out there, our friends, family, pets, any old high school friends out there? Why on earth is manufacturing so awesome, so amazing. Why should people be building communities around manufacturing?

Ingor van Rooi  43:41

If you think about the nature of people, right, when something is happening, everybody’s curious and want to be part of it. Right? Well, manufacturing is awesome. Why shouldn’t we be part of it? If you look at history, manufacturing has improved the quality of life. For many people, it’s enabled growth in society. Hello, why do we need to actually justify why you should be part of it? Just come on over this space and there’s room for everyone.

Kati McDermith  44:17

And fun

Curt Anderson  44:23

we’re gonna take a moment of silence right there. Yeah, that was just so darn good. So I what do we got for? Hey, Dave Crysler. I don’t know if you agree with us, right. Excel is the band aid for holding manufacturing together. That’s 100% True, right, everybody? Dan is

Dave Crysler  44:43

just to speak to that for a second. So there’s obviously nothing wrong with Excel. But what Dan is referencing is that many of organizations big and small. This isn’t something that is exclusive to small manufacturers this this isn’t In, you know, global businesses, I’ve seen, you know, global businesses that rely on Excel to manage data to execute process flows. And, you know, it’s kind of our joke because again, it gets back to the things that we talked about, or at least I talked about, which is, you know, bringing together the planning people process and technology. And while there’s nothing wrong with a tool, like Excel, often, often the root of that issue is the fact that we’ve not had well developed process flows. And then taking a look at those process. Process flows through the lens of technology to find a better suited tool to execute those process flows. Again, increasing efficiency, eliminating errors within those. So it’s, it’s a band aid tool that is out there, because it’s, it’s widely available, it’s easily accessible. And people oftentimes in these organizations, people fill the gap so where we could, we could eliminate, you know, some efficiencies or increase efficiency through that process flow, we often fill the gap with people, people then need to find the tool to be able to get the data, you know, manipulate that data and and so we’re filling the gaps, where, you know, with people where process and technology really should be to free up those people to then go do other things within the organization. Right? That’s the other big miss when we start looking at kind of behind the scenes of you know, somebody that is relying on on a tool like Excel to execute a good chunk of their business.

Curt Anderson  46:40

Now, apparently Dan with a check GPT and got a stat for us. Maybe 99%. So that was today. Love that. So hey, in the ads get Adam, when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like now right? They’ve so in we’ve got, hey, there was another indoor rate here. Inger dropping the mic and connecting it all Whitney, why are you not on stage with us right now? So Damon, what do you think, brother? What do you we’re gonna start winding down. Damon, what do you take aways? What are your thought here?

Damon Pistulka  47:14

Well, I just, you know, manufacturing, when I’ve had so many conversations, you and I have had great conversations about this with the guests on our shows during October already. But just look around. Everything that is around us is made from the wood in our homes, to the pencils we use to the chairs we’re setting on to the clothes were wearing, it’s all manufactured. And we overlook it, just like we go to the grocery store and pick up that, that Apple, we have no idea what the journey that that came from whatever you got in your hand to what it got there. And all the people that touched it. And we’re involved in every piece of making that available to us. And there are so many opportunities. You know, I’m just amazed every day, to be able to think about it and see the people doing things and making more incredible new things that we get to see and get to experience. So yeah, it’s it’s deep for me, man.

Curt Anderson  48:23

Man who wants to follow that. All right. How about David grappling, and Mike and his own show? So hey, Julie Pacelle, generally. Happy Monday. coming on the show in a few weeks. Yeah. Great. All right, guys. I know you guys are super busy saving the world making it a better place. I want to start winding down. So I will plant the seed. We’ll go around the horn one last time. Damon, should we go there?

Damon Pistulka  48:49

We should. We definitely should,

Curt Anderson  48:53

man. You know, I guess we’ll go there. David. We’re going to it is baseball season right isn’t playing the playoffs going on? Right and Texas is the

Damon Pistulka  49:03

best time of year. It’s

Curt Anderson  49:08

alright, so I’m gonna I’ll start with Katie. Everybody’s gonna get the same Adam. I think you did this answer already. Right. So let’s all right, let’s look we’re gonna go there. Katie or Katie, Katie. Or maybe Kirsten, because Kirsten is in first timer. Right? Well. Who’s the biggest baseball fan on stage here? Who’s a big baseball fan? Anybody? Katie? Are you a baseball fan?

Kati McDermith  49:28

i Okay, I’m gonna say no, just to be careful.

Curt Anderson  49:35

First thing, are you you’re St. Louis Right? You Cardinals fan?

Kirsten Austin  49:38

I love St. Louis Cardinals. We’re not having as good as the years we’ve had in the past but I still love them you love your children no matter what they do. You love your

Curt Anderson  49:49

children. I you know what, let’s go to Kirsten. And I don’t know

Kirsten Austin  49:53

any stands anything? No, no don’t.

Curt Anderson  49:57

Well, what does we’ll just run We’re the first second we’ll see what happens right. We’re just ready. We’re gonna close out. We’re gonna close out on this. So Kirsten is gonna do it. Kirsten, let’s I know that St. Louis. Isn’t there season’s over, but just hypothetically, just pretend that the Cardinals are in the playoffs. Okay, the plane the Cubs, and it’s the bottom of the ninth. Okay, it’s bottom of the ninth inning, and your St. Louis Cardinals are playing the Cubs. There’s a PERT it’s high score. There was a person on second base, high score bottom and ninth person on second base. Two outs. The manager of the Cardinals looks down the bench and says Hey, Austin Powers. We need somebody to hit in the winning run. Can you please get up to the plate and hit in that winning run? So I can make my dinner reservations tonight? Right? You really

Kirsten Austin  50:48

walk up song?

Curt Anderson  50:50

Thank you. What’s your walk up song?

Kirsten Austin  50:52

You know what? I’ve actually gone you know, and I’m gonna age myself. But has anybody heard Tom Sawyer

Curt Anderson  51:04

didn’t? Oh, yeah. She went old school right. Me All right, first time for Tom Sawyer. Adam Baker. I think you shared with us before what would you ever walk up Oh, that would be awesome. That would be awesome. Kirsten, that was not only did you come up with it immediately you finished you finish the question before I finished you put in the answer. Right. But it’s a question that was absolutely brilliant. I want to round out applause for Kirsten Austin Powers for you. They want to I thought I saw a funny one from Dan bigger in here somewhere. He says come by Yeah, it says right. So. Adam, what is your walkups on my friend?

Adam Baker  52:04

You guys. So you guys stumped me on this one and I really had to come up with something off the bat. And I said Bob what a Bob I Kid Rock last time. I listened to that about six times. I’ll be damned if that wouldn’t be it. That was a terrific pump me out song. We’re going we

Curt Anderson  52:23

got time. So your kid right, Katie? Mickey D What do we got for a walk up song my friend?

Kati McDermith  52:29

I guess I do. This girl is on fire.

Curt Anderson  52:33

This girl’s on fire.

Damon Pistulka  52:35

That is a good one.

Kirsten Austin  52:36

That’s a good one. Katie

Curt Anderson  52:38

Chrysler club. What do you got?

Dave Crysler  52:41

This is a tough one. You know, I think so. I was on. What was I was doing an interview the other day and I got the question of What Would somebody not know about me? And it didn’t have to be work related. So I threw everybody for a loop. Um, I think I’m going to do the same thing here. So I’ll share the The fun fact was was that I love 50s and 60s music. Okay, so that’s something that people wouldn’t generally think about me, right. I also love classical music. So I would probably pick something very classical and go with like, like, something from Carmina Burana, if you’re familiar with that. You can you can look you can look something I’ll send it to you after the show. There’s a really good one that that I’m thinking about so and that’s something that nobody would nobody else would pick. I think

Curt Anderson  53:41

that first time on the program Dave Christ or so and why would we expect anything different from this guy? Man? I tell you he’s a masterclass every time he’s on the show, and you’re my friend. What do we have for a walk? Do you have a walk up song that just really gets you on fire?

Ingor van Rooi  53:56

Yes. I was gonna say girl is I’m fine with Katie took that one, but together No, no. I have another one which is Superwoman by the same singer which is awesome. That is an awesome song. So boom, and if you haven’t heard of it yet, please look it up. It’s finally is

Curt Anderson  54:19

Leisha keys All right, well, hey, Awesome Answers by everybody. So guys, let’s do this. First off, if you’ve been hanging out with us for however long it’s been How about a great time to stand up and just give a huge standing ovation round of applause for our esteemed panel for everybody that’s on the stage here today. So thank you, Katie. Thank you Kirsten. Thank you Adam. David winger this this was man was that like the fastest hour of all time Damon or what man? Yes, it was man that was a good time. So guys, we encourage you we welcome you We invite you go to n n i am and i university you want to check out everything that’s going on Katie is put together just a dynamically With some of topics coming up this month, I think Nicole Donnelly is going to be hitting the stage at the end of the month on October 27. And so check it out there’s this great programs as we mentioned, we got Kirsten and Adam are coming up on Wednesday the 18th. Dave Chrysler’s on the 25th. And just all sorts of good juicy stuff here. So guys, big round of applause, go Pat and give. Give your manufacturer a high five, fist bomba hug whatever it takes, just encourage them, thank them, encourage them and just keep celebrating manufacturing month. guys hang out with us for half a second Damon any takeaways on your end? Dude, what do you got any thoughts?

Damon Pistulka  55:37

No, just just like you said, just think about it. Help people get into it. Keep spreading the word.

Curt Anderson  55:43

Hey, and hey, Glenn says hey, that was very fun night Glenn. Thank you for joining us, Amon this Friday. We’re doing a Made in USA guys. You will love that. So three clients. We have a dog treat manufacture out of Indianapolis. We have a covert antenna manufacturer out of Buffalo, New York. And when you think of like covert antennas, like on state troopers, first responders, some really cool dynamic products and then we have a company a manufacturer of Chicago. They do heavy duty metal fabricated units that we’re going to power pedestals and we’re going to be talking about so we’re interviewing three manufacturers on Friday, and we’re gonna be talking about why Made in USA is just so awesome. And hey, how about this? I knew Dan I knew you had a birthday coming up here. So hey, happy birthday to Dan bigger I’m taking the day off Dan join us was well I’ll make a big little cake for you. For our manufacturing friends. It’s Allison to Ford’s birthday chopper and note on your happy birthday. So guys, we’re gonna close out God bless you and hey, just be someone’s inspiration just like these guys are and so just keep crushing it so we’ll see you guys soon.

Kirsten Austin  56:47

Bye. Happiness