Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Beatriz Gutierrez

Damon Pistulka  00:01

All right everyone, it is Monday and you know what time that means it is it is time for the manufacturing ecommerce success and I can’t talk because I’m so excited for our guest today. I’m so excited that the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl yesterday, but we’re gonna have an awesome time. Today we’re going to talk about driving massive manufacturing success at con step. The Connecticut MEP. I’m Damon Pistulka one of your co hosts today that pretty man right over there as Curt Anderson take it away my friend Damon,

Curt Anderson  00:35

happy Monday dude, what a game last night was that that was a little bit of a nail biter right?

Damon Pistulka  00:40

Right to the end right to that well

Curt Anderson  00:42

hey, you think that Super Bowl was exciting man the that was nothing that the preachers nothing in our conversation here so Hey, I wonder just my dear friend, President CEO of construct the Connecticut MEP Beatriz Gutierrez features Happy Monday. How are you my friend? On day two? Both of you. Well, we’re gonna dive in. So Damon, I’m gonna do a little intro. Beatrice like you like this background is kind of like insane. You ready? Are you guys sitting down for this? Beatriz. Are you sitting down? Are you ready? Okay. All right. I had I had I have a list. Okay. Engineering degree from Marquette University. Beatriz. Is that is that use that correct? Do I have that right? Yeah. Okay. All right. MBA from the University of Chicago. Do I have that correct? That’s correct. Like top bit like Damon it gets you know, like, you know, like, sometimes we feel like underachievers like, this is this is this is one of those shows ready. So she Wisconsin Energy Rockwell Automation, G Gerber signing scientific. She was a professor at a university in Connecticut. She served as if I’ve got this correct, Executive Director of the Connecticut Department of Economic Community Development. But that was a mouthful, and now serves as the President CEO of the MEP in the great state of Connecticut. Beatriz How on earth did you do it? What is

Beatriz Gutierrez  02:07

in that? 30?

Curt Anderson  02:11

Where you started John? Right? You start right. So no,

Beatriz Gutierrez  02:14

one of those you know, I think my career has been almost the result of not knowing what I want to do. Yeah. Jumping out opportunities, I was thinking about what brought me to all these things. And one of the questions you seem to ask your guests which has to do with who do you admire? Correct? Who’s the person?

Curt Anderson  02:38

That’s what we’re gonna kick off with? Who when you were a little girl? So you have a question that’s coming at you. When you were a little girl, Beatriz, who was your hero, how’s that?

Beatriz Gutierrez  02:48

So I think it’s a mixed relationship, because the person that I will get more upset with still today is the person that I most admire, which is my mother. My mother was this woman grown, you know, first person to go to college in her family, even if she had two male brothers, and we come from Columbia, South America, which tends to be in particularly at that time, a very male dominated country. She went away to study because she got a scholarship for boarding school, and left her city and didn’t come home when she was like 11, and then come home for like six years, or so I think only once, then chose to get another scholarship to go to Nebraska University, Lincoln, Nebraska, to study mathematics. And that was the time where you won in a, you know, an airplane that kept stopping so she said she had to go to Chicago and Mexico. So she comes back. She got married. You know, I was born in the States, but didn’t stay long. I was born in California only for three months. And she goes back, she got divorce. And she never figure that she couldn’t do a lot of things and always did. She translated for my name. She always made me think I could do anything. So I that’s what I when I was thinking about this. She always used to say to me, you don’t look back, even to take to make an effort, you know, to try to get yourself together. So I think I just took from her, which was very hard. It wasn’t her mother to have it still today.

Curt Anderson  04:28

Well,Beatriz  that’s at what a wonderful story. What’s mom’s name? Please, Nora? Nora? All right. Well, hey, we’re Nora, my daughter was a big fan of Northern Explorer. So how about a big shout out lots of love to mom, Nora for just giving that that tough love and just what an inspiration to leave her country go to university Nebraska Ford mathematics of No, right? Yep.

Beatriz Gutierrez  04:51

Two years she did that. And then she went home to take care of her family because she needed to, but always had that idea. Yeah, that you could do anything in very. T was very forward thinking for her time. Yeah, so one in 1935. So definitely very, very interesting woman, particularly in South America. Yeah. Well,

Curt Anderson  05:12

all right. Well, that helps answer how this career that we just rounded off and what an inspiration that mom is Damon, what do you got?

Damon Pistulka  05:21

So she was going to school in Lincoln, Nebraska in like, 19 5050 something

Beatriz Gutierrez  05:28

sticks around that. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  05:29

That I’m just thinking about air travel. I’m thinking about that. The culture shock,

05:35

right. And, you

Damon Pistulka  05:36

know, the small town feel of Lincoln, Nebraska and 1950s songs, right? Yeah, it’s

Beatriz Gutierrez  05:41

like five feet tall. And then to be very tall. She always told us these stories that she couldn’t find clothes, she always had to go to

Curt Anderson  05:52

that kind of thing, right, you know, new new country, new language. And you know, and again, it’s not like, you know, maybe went to, you know, Miami or some other cities where maybe there was, you know, easier assimilation. So, what, just, yeah, your list relentless spirit that your mom has, and to pick mathematics of all things, right? I mean, it’s not like, I’m gonna go, you know, you know, I’m gonna be a gym teacher or something. And my buddy’s a gym teacher, no disrespect to my friends that are gym teachers. But yeah, so she picked, picked a really tough field and hate features about this. Your friend Anna Jackson. No, my favorite.

Damon Pistulka  06:27

All right, and it is in the house today. And

Curt Anderson  06:29

Happy Monday to you, my friend, and we love Anna Anna, back on the show. But guys, drop us a note. Let us know that you’re out there bring the questions, but you’re just getting a little taste of like what an inspiration this story is going to be. So Beatrice, let’s go here. So that that helped. And thank you for doing your homework. You were all prepared for my first question. We asked who was Beatrice Harold. She said her mom, Nora. So let’s dive in you you take off and you go to Marquette University for engineering. Why engineering was mom was Nora that inspiration like what let’s let’s go there. And I’ll

Beatriz Gutierrez  07:04

do a little bit of that when I started in January in Colombia. In meta gene, I’m familiar gene, which kind of thing people may know for good and for bad. But I’m in Colombia. And I grew up there. And I was going to school there. I went to school there for two years. But prior to that, when I was in high school, I will go to my mother and say, I want to be an anthropologist. And she will look at me and said Hmm, do you have any like fellowship or something we don’t know about because nothing Colombia. So then I will say, Well, I want to be an archaeologist. And this went on for a while a historian. So one day, she came and said, You’re good at math. You’re good at physics, that the neighbor went to something called engineering. Here’s a school I can pay for. There’s four pick one. That’s that was a that was my whole, like, here’s four, pick one, because this is the only school I’m going to pay for. So I said, Okay, so I started chemical engineering. I did that for a year. But I am very allergic to a lot of dust and stuff. So my guidance counselor said, no, no, that’s not gonna work. So there were three left. So then I pick solid state define electronics, which is what I came to market to finish. Yep. Nice, said my career is being a whole bunch of just go for it without much planning, put it that way.

Curt Anderson  08:29

So go back in time. And so what we want to do, we’re going to dive in guys, we’ve got Chris here from the Connecticut MEP, we’re gonna dive into MEP, how they help manufacturers, all the wonderful things, but I want to get a little background on Beatrice just to kind of like this inspiration. And just like this is not a normal, simple story. And this is going to be really good here. So features when you go to market describe like culture shock, the weather is just a little bit different in Wisconsin than a club.

Beatriz Gutierrez  08:57

So I think there’s a little I need to bring up. I got a boyfriend at the time in Colombia. And he started to come to the States. And we, again, have very little planning. So he called me and say, Hey, do you want to come? And I said, Oh, sure. So some people actually people are worrying have called him the best salesperson in the world. Because he called me on night, no ring or anything I said sounds like a plan. So I moved to the States because I knew solid state design and engineering was more developed here. So came originally to Rhode Island. And I worked in a factory there for three months. And he did to while we figure it out, and we came to Ireland because a lot of people from Colombia knew people in real life. So we went for that community was in when I was there. My mother again suggested she had a friend in Milwaukee. So why don’t you write to this person and see if there’s any schools there? And I did and we ended up I said, Okay, let’s go and so we took a Greyhound bus and went to with 300 bucks to Ah, yeah, to me walk it and show up there. It’s kind of funny because they had orientation in it started like on Friday during the weekend. But I wanted to make the last buck. So I didn’t go to orientation for the whole semester. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was like, where am I going with this? But we went there and I went part time, because I, you know, I had to support myself. So we work. I work as a paraprofessional, in bilingual program for children with learning disabilities, because you just needed 60 credits of education and Spanish. And I had those. And then I was doing that for two years. And someone called me on my apartment, and said, Oh, you know, we got your name from Marquette. And I’m liquid. So we’re inroads. And this is an organization that helps minority students develop from careers in engineering and so forth. And they have made you want to come for an interview. And I remember telling my husband remember, I came from a GE and I said, well, they want to interview me, why don’t you come with me? Because who knows who these people are. And he sat on the hallway while I was being interviewed. And they offered me an internship at that time was with Allen Bradley Rockwell. And then on the Monday, I’m supposed to go, they said, Oh, by the way, Rockwell doesn’t want an electrical anymore. They rival with a mechanical will you go to ensconced in electric, the power company? And I said, Sure. So I went, they offered me an internship. And honestly, it wasn’t my career field, any paid in dollars. So I said, Sure. And that was how I ended up in a utility. I was there for four years and a half. And

Curt Anderson  11:47

then the irony is, you eventually ended up at Rockwell, right? Yes,

Beatriz Gutierrez  11:50

yes, I wasn’t the utility first. And I did substation automation and standards. In somewhere in between, I kind of figure that this was not going to be for me, I will go to all this conference with the other engineers, and we will be talking about a restaurant standards or cable in they seem so excited. And I was like, This is so hard and so boring. For me, because I’m pretend to be very social. I will go home and say like, oh, no, I think I made a mistake with this one. So that was the time of reengineering the corporation, if you remember that book. And I was on maternity leave, because I had my older daughter at that time. And I got this newsletter that said, renewing the corporation and all that. And a friend of mine that were there this, she said, they’re gonna cut these jobs. And we’re the youngest one. So we got to look for something. So we did. And he happened to be that that’s not the way it works. We’re actually pretty low costs engineering. So I got an offer to go to Rockwell as an application engineer. And, you know, I kind of never looked back, I was in the marketing department. And I loved it. I had to answer the phone at that time, 46 times a day. And I loved it was just so fun. People call in all the time, and help a lot you help with my accent, you know, not necessary. He helped it improve that. But it took away the fear of presentations. And that was the title of NAFTA. So if you spoke Spanish, you want to do business development in Latin America. So that’s how I started my business development career.

Curt Anderson  13:37

I love this in work, Damon we’re going to talk about she doesn’t know this. I did a little stalking. I mean, I did a little research about Beto. So conquering fear is a common theme that we’re going to see with Beatrice in a minute. But Damon, what do you got? Well,

Damon Pistulka  13:51

I mean, I think that you know, being relatively new out of college like you were the the myriad of things that the rockwell automation solutions. Conquer had to be just a wide range of challenges every single day, every single week that just kept you on your toes.

Beatriz Gutierrez  14:10

Well, the first thing I remembered that was really meaningful to me is to learn that knowledge is not only academic, I will be there. I was taking the job. The person that had done it before actually had high school degree but had done it for three years. Yeah, so I her name, was there a way for kids and I remember I do get these phone calls. And it was like Well, someone needs a push button with this type of lock and this type of contacts and this call and I will be like, Oh my God, and I will go and say Debbie, someone needs says oh yeah, that’s 100 T bla bla bla bla.

Damon Pistulka  14:49

Genius do right what it was, yeah. And

Beatriz Gutierrez  14:51

there was another woman called Penny gems, which was my assistant and she turned on my assistant like Maya says department incenses Yeah. And she was such a mentor to me. She told me a lot about the product, but she told me a lot about life. And I remember the first salary negotiation, she was the one that sent me for that. She’s like, Okay, you tell them what you do make a list and talk to them and blah, blah. So it really taught me about how everyone in our in an organization contributes. The greys are a confirmation that you learn a particular topic, but not a confirmation that you know, more than anything. Yeah, in approach life that way is worked very well for me. Well,

Curt Anderson  15:37

it sounds like a lot of that mentorship and what you never is going to that actually, ironically, leads into my next question, really what you saw, regardless of like, high school degree or like your colleagues, and it sounds like great mentorship is like that, how it really instilled in you leadership. And I feel you know, you’ve really grown blossom like through your career as a leader. Can you talk a little bit about Okay, going from the energy company, then you go to Rockwell, what made you decide to go to ge?

Beatriz Gutierrez  16:06

So, at that time, when I was at Rockwell, one of my first aha was, was that marketing is a science. You know, I told he was basically cold calling or something like that. So I will go to his meetings. And they will talk about pricing. And I’m like, there’s actually strategy behind that. So I decided to pursue my MBA. And I did and when I finish G approached me because they were looking for someone with a substation automation experience, or utility experience in marketing experience, which is not come for me this position in Connecticut, and my husband, which God bless him has always been very supportive. I said, we’ll go into Connecticut, you want to go on? And he said, Yeah, let’s go. And here, we ended up by then we had two children already. So we ended up in Connecticut, so I can pursue this job. And that’s what I tell people when people you know, young people say, Well, you know, that particular skill, I don’t want to lose job because that’s not what I went to school, I’d say, you never know when those things are gonna work for you. Because the product that I came to manage was abroad for commercial and industrial. It was a software platform and HMI. But they wanted to position that for substations in, they found that those customers wanted someone that spoke to them in terminology in schemes that had to do with utilities. So basically, my only contribution to the product there was translating for utilities. Wow. Okay,

Curt Anderson  17:42

this is and what I love her. So guys, drop us a note. And if you’re just joining us, we’re here with Beatriz from constant that’s a Connecticut MEP. And boy, this is going to be super inspiring. drop us a note, let us know you’re out there, hey, somebody dropped the note. inroads is a great program. So we’ve got folks that are familiar with your program there. So features Let’s go here. You are currently we’re gonna we’re gonna fast forward. But then I’m going to backtrack. Again. You are currently with constant, the Connecticut MEP for curious minds that would love to know, can you please share who and what is concept? What is this MEP network that your that your car.

Beatriz Gutierrez  18:18

So it is the best way to think about it from my perspective is we are a single source of help for small and medium manufacturers for anything they need to grow their business, maintain their business, keep themselves safe. So let me give you some of them were part of a network and that they may be part so there is an understanding in public policy, both federal and state, that manufacturing is at the core of growth in each of our states and in our country. And that it is a smart investment, for the public funding to really invest on that. So this program was created back in the late 80s, early 90s. To put the Department of Commerce, NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and it creates a center in each state plus Puerto Rico. So if they want, and each of them tries to provide services to manufacturers in a way that serves that market. So in Connecticut, for example, we are extremely focused on defense, because that is at the core of who we are. We have 4000 manufacturers out of that around 900 Something are involved somehow in aerospace or in shipbuilding. In also we try to really help them gain strength as it serves the supply chains for the country critical pieces. That said, Connecticut is a very, very diverse environment ecosystem. We have medical devices we have bio we have people making great cleaners, for fabric Do we have like commodities, we have other people that make parts hinges for for cabinets. So and we happen to be a great place for fuel cells, which a lot of people don’t know, we have a lot of because of the investments that UTC had in the state prior Reagan. We do have both from a policy and from an ecosystem perspective, like waiting lists in fuel cell stationary fields as well.

Curt Anderson  20:28

I love that. And so what we want to do is I just want you know, for folks manufacturers out there that might not be you know, maybe they’re like, hey, what does this MVP thing Yeah, what’s great is you’ve got someone with leadership and just the vast experience here someone like Beatrice, we’re not only did she have Nora as a wonderful mentor, she’s been at GE, she’s been at Rockwell. And so the great thing is, if you’re a 510 20 person manufacturer, you get this vast experience this expertise, high level engineering, an MBA from the University of Chicago, there’s 1300 MEP individuals strong fighting relentlessly helping manufacturers day in day out, and Beatrice is just one of them. In features. How about this, our friend Anna Jobson note, Beatrice and concept team are creating amazing value for Connecticut manufacturers. I’m honored to sit on the board and work with Beatrice, he’s driving incredible value for Connecticut. And thank you for that comments.

Damon Pistulka  21:23

That’s awesome features.

Curt Anderson  21:25

So let’s go here talk a little bit about how you guys are making the world a better place. Just you know, again, for folks that aren’t familiar with Cannstatt. I know like you have vast experience with lean, and Six Sigma, just Sure. And you have a really, you’ve put together a Hall of Fame team here in Connecticut. Sure. Some of the things that you guys are doing on a daily basis, that kind of stuff. So

Beatriz Gutierrez  21:46

what’s most amazing about the role that we play in the state is a lot of people know us as the Lean people. So if you’re familiar with Lean Manufacturing, continuous improvement, that’s where we made our, our name, our history, we’ve been there for customers at times where they have needed those resources. And we have people that are excellent, excellent at that work. And we’ve been able to grow with that. We also provide a lot of help, traditionally in quality, quality management, systems, auditing, etc. So if you need ice or anything like that, here we are. But time has changed for all of us. But with the pandemic, but even before that, our manufacturers are embarking in moving into iPhone or the next generation when factoring, which is all about connected, connectivity, digital solutions, etc. So part of our role is to really help manufacturers in different areas that are critical for them. Through the work we’re doing with this, those big areas are workforce development. And I’ll talk a little about that later. Technology and Innovation and supply chain results. So why these pieces because we know as part of this ecosystem, that for many years, we for you know, for some policy or market persons, some of our companies did not invest in the United States and our policy, we incentivize them to do so. So we all went through the 80s and 90s, for a lot of our jobs were moved, I had the opportunity during the early 90s, to my time at Rockwell to travel a lot to small towns, or small cities, you know, Alberni or Syracuse or Pittsburgh. And then you saw those styles disappear in the sense of economic growth, because there were very strong manufacturers, Detroit being one of them. Well, things go in a circle, per se. And with the pandemic, that became evident that we really needed to catch up. And we really needed to make goods manufacturing at the forefront of our interests as a country because of economic growth, but also for defense reasons. So with that, we all truly from either economic data, talking to our manufacturers policy, have recognized that we need to invest in the sector. And we need to help not only the large companies, but if they’re going to be successful, they’re going to depend on the strength at every facet of this supply chain. So let’s take for example worth maybe you think about workforce, the common person out there thinks about the manufacturing plant has been dirty, hot, a place and I’ll be non politically correct here, mostly for men. That is for you, you know, you don’t want to really spend your time we also spend at least one generation of parents telling kids Yes, go to college. You don’t want to have a job. And you can understand that if you have been in Detroit, and your grandfather went to work in The three car manufacturers in your father worked there, and there was no job for you. Why would you want to promote that for your kid? So it just makes sense. But the problem with that is our workforce got old, very old, got smart at tapping at other areas. So it didn’t go for under served populations. For women. I didn’t tap into veterans. And now we’re at a place where the pandemic accelerated that, you know, people retire. We know, in Connecticut, for example, I rotate this is the 57. Around. So that’s a problem. That’s so as we get those jobs here, we as the MEP, are working with our partners, both federal and state in also some private on trying to educate the new generation on opportunities in manufacturing or trying to locate women in opportunities in manufacturing, working with other agencies, which are, for example, state agencies, like social services, identifying wraparound services, and also doing a lot of inside the businesses training. supervisory training has been a very popular product that we have incoming worker training, capstones, internships, so that will be you know, that’s how we contribute. So we look at the individual company, how can we help you. And then we also try to engage with the ecosystem. And if not, provide the programs do partner with those that do universities, community colleges, high schools, and then bring that data back to the funders, in our case, federal funds and state funds, which we are very grateful to have. So that’s workforce. So then we can talk about, for example, supply chain, same thing, a lot of it is information, knowing where your suppliers are. But remember, these people move up. So now you may have a requirement to get a particular part. But you don’t know where these people are working, you find them. There’s large suppliers competing for the same parts. And if you ever saw those TV screens during the pandemic, you know that your part could be in that container that was making it out of the port in San Diego or in California, correct. And so because of that, we have embarked on doing two projects, one at a federal level that I’m sure you know, scoring, which has been a big initiative to really focus on supplier Reliance or pay resilient in knowledge that is funded by this, I mean that we have chosen to expect to focus our efforts, first in gap analysis in the state, or suppliers in critical supply chains like shipbuilding, aerospace, and medical instruments. And also on creating a toolkit going back to that individual service, where we can go to manufacturers individually, and help them strengthen their supply. Also, to partnership with the Department of Economic Development in the chief Manufacturing Office, we have put together connects, which allows us then it’s like a marketplace where suppliers can engage in find opportunities for funding. And we are very lucky in Connecticut because unlike other states, and I just came from a meeting with my equivalents in California, Connecticut is very, very focused on investing in manufacturing. We have an office of the Chief Manufacturing Office today, bipolar void, which is very unique. The state has the Manufacturing Innovation Fund, where we have private companies being advisors into series to investments of the fund, which at this point, continues to invest in incumbent worker training or on projects or or leading long initiatives like connects. So in that sense, we have very good partners, very strong ecosystem. The last part is automation and technology. And as I said, I’ll give you an example. I was in Singapore last year, around September for vacation. So I went to this hotel, and they were the little robots, two little ones. One was blue, and that one was pink. And you came in and they said hello I am let’s say she’s so so see every day. I saw her in the morning and I’m gonna say her because it almost is not an entity anymore. She will go and walk to the rule service. So they put the stuff on her and she will go and somehow connected to the elevator layer open and she went on her way. So it’s not a matter if automation is here. It is here. And it’s not a matter if we are going to embrace it or not. Other countries that are our core competitors are all our mission. To my work, I had the opportunity to go to automation fair every year in Germany in the past, and you go there and it’s like, what are we talking about this year? So we need to help our manufacturers understand the challenges, the benefits, and also it will pay them to not fear automation, because it gives a you know, a competitive edge where it matters where it can help doesn’t mean every single job can be able to make jobs require the human but when the human to focus on the high level activities. Okay.

Curt Anderson  30:44

That was just a masterclass right there Beatriz and that was, you know what, you know, who’s proud right. Now, how about Nora? Nora was really proud of her little girls just absolutely crushing it. And how about a couple of segues that I want to I want to pull in here. So how about this note from Cindy, Beatrice is always spreading her inspiration around the office. She’s a great leader and mentor. Thanks be. So now Beatrice, can I embarrass you? Can I embarrass you real quick? Do you mind if I might, if I did, Damon, you sit down, you’re ready to do this. So here’s a little comment about our our friend Beatrice ready? So I hired Beatrice, a re engineer to re energize and re engineer my company using six sigma and lean methodologies. For over a year, Beatrice immersed herself in my company and our business and help to dramatically improve the way we function. What makes Beatrice stand out is her ability to work with my staff and have them embrace now get this, have them embrace, not fear, change. I recommend Beatriz wholeheartedly. She has great intuition. Another person says, her skills and guidance have greatly assisted in furthering my career. Another person here I’ve got I’m gonna read this one real quick. Beatriz is a high energy manager with a rare combination of strategic skills and drive for execution.Beatriz  is not afraid to make tough decisions, and push all areas of organizations to make value creating change. I absolutely love how you you, you kind of teed it up, you didn’t know I was gonna go there. So Beatriz, let’s talk about that. How in your career, have you had you know, again, I know you’re a woman of humility. And I’m probably embarrassing you a little bit.

Beatriz Gutierrez  32:23

But thank you for that very generous comments. Those

Curt Anderson  32:26

and those were about you and those were about you the rate on LinkedIn, guys, hey, we’re here with Beatrice guitars, I strongly encourage you, I invite you, I welcome you connect with Beatriz on LinkedIn, you will thank us for doing so. If you’re a manufacturer, connect with your MEP. If you’re in a Connecticut man, connect with Beatriz, for sure. We just share a little bit about, you know, we talked about mentorship, we talked about that leadership. Where did you get that inside of you? Was it from Nora? Like, how did you get that not, you know, kind of that no fear attitude, and to help companies change?

Beatriz Gutierrez  32:59

I think in part from that, and also, I will say is also a little bit cultural. I’m from a place that many of you know, and many of you know, not for good reasons. Jim went through a very, very hard time in the 80s. I grew up there, and we were under siege. And when you grow up like that, I think it gives you perspective of what is really risk. And to me, you know, when you you walk out your house, and you know, if there’s gonna be a bomb or anything like that, then you come home. That is real risk. Yeah, anything after that is like, that’s just life. You can live. We get

Curt Anderson  33:42

I did get shot today. So today

Beatriz Gutierrez  33:46

told me and some people know her Barbara Fernandez, she wants told me, we’re talking about things that have changed in her life. And I said, Oh, I’m so sorry. That she loves her husband at some point. And she said, Well, you know, life is what happened when you have other plans. And I always think about Wow. And that’s true. I mean, in the big scheme of things. Right? There’s risk we take it so many. Yeah, the worst. You know, the worst. What’s the worst that can happen? Let’s say you lose your job. As long as there’s a job in a bathroom, you can clean you can eat, right? If you’re willing to do that. Yeah, right.

Curt Anderson  34:25

Well, hey, cup I’m gonna grab a cup of says perspective. Is everything dropped the mic there, right. automation can be so helpful, and Beatrice has pointed out, it doesn’t mean human touch is eliminated. And Happy Monday. Thank you for dropping your comments, Ella and I’m going to pull up dean here, Dean, Happy Monday to you, my friend. You won’t find a better ambassador for constant and the advocate for manufacturing in the manufacturing community community in Connecticut than with Beatrice. So features let’s dive in a little bit further. So let’s take another step. If there’s a manufacturer out there, that’s like man I didn’t know about this MEP thing. Beatrice has got me super inspired, very fired up, I could live, I wouldn’t mind some help here. Walk us through like, what? What does that engagement look like? Let’s start from like 101, MEP 101? What does that look like?

Beatriz Gutierrez  35:13

Yeah, so our MEP is 25 People in Dallas with two that are coming this week. So we’re very small. But the first person you will see, let’s say, you know, assuming you’re not at an event when you made us because we’re trying to be at events or that but if you just go and someone comes to your door, or you go in a web input, hey, I want to learn more. The first person you’ll see is the Business Development advisor, which is, basically is your single point of contact for everything you need. So we look at ourselves as a trusted advisor, this person is regional. So we have right now three, and we’re hiring. So if you’re in the business to help benefactors give us a call, because there’s an opportunity with us. But these are people that come from experience in manufacturing, of some sort, that had, in most cases had either operation work, you know, working operator in sales, or in manufacturing, or our own company, sometimes one of them, he owned a manufacturing company. So they come in, and they do what we call the story. So they they sit with you, and begin talking about what are your needs, in case you have not identified a specific one, because there are some times that people say, I just want you to find me, someone, or I found you to help me with this technology. But most cases, we want to get to know you want to get to know where the pain points are, and understand your processes. So then with that piece, and trying to really driving with Voice of the Customer per unit, we may come out to identify two or three things that we could. So then, you know, we talk more about it, we understand what we’re doing, we put together a proposal. And the cool thing about these centers is that we’re we depend on a lot of internal resources. Some are totally, you know, they’re very strong internally, we also try to build very strong third party providers and partners, to make sure that we can cover all the needs in a way that that is comprehensive enough. So the business development person comes in and says, Okay, I’m gonna put a proposal to help this company, for example, we change management, they really are doing a lot of neat things there. But they really need this, this help understanding how to do it, and how to align the resources and their strategy with what they’re doing. So if we have the resource internally, we assigned someone from our team to look at that and put together a scope of work. If not, we work as I said, with a third party provider, it could be a myth. We have, for example, right now, our supervisory training program that is very, very well received. It’s a hybrid, where we have a very strong third party provider, and very strong continuous improvement person working together delivering. So now we have put together the scope, we coat, we do put the code, and a lot of people ask, What do you charge, you have a collaborative agreement with the federal government is not a grant, it’s a collaborative agreement, I’ll explain the difference in a second, then you also get funding from the state, why do I have to pay part of it has to do with the ability to get skin in the game. Because you as a client, if you are not willing to pay for change for needs, you may not be that valuable to and that there is a psychology into that was part of it. The other part is we are able to bring very quite high quality resources at affordable price. But we still have to pay for that. And we use taxpayer money. So we want to make sure that as we use taxpayer money, we are good field theory of the taxpayer, because we’re taxpayers too. So given things for free, in general is not our way. Now there have been cases where we have had programs where there is a need to incentivize a particular interaction or during the pandemic, there was a recognition that our companies were stress via their will. So in those cases, we may be given a grant that we can execute to the lawyers themselves. So now you have we agree on the scope, you agree on the payment, we put together a contract, telling you when we’re gonna be there, what we’re gonna do, and we do it, here’s the key. The key is one of the only programs that actually gets measured on your tax by you, the client, not by us. So we go there, there is a scorecard that is used to measure our work formance, a third party provider comes in close the customer or give them a survey, they have to fill it out online. In every quarter, we collect that information that is reported to NIS telling them and telling us, how do we do? What is the return of investment for the taxpayer. And those metrics could be job creators that retain investment in one until now very important was net promoter score, which says would you recommend? That’s what it means? Would you recommend that we have to have a nine or a 10. We’ve been very, very privileged, then that’s testimony to the people that work at CONNSTEP. We have had very high performance, historically, very high. We have three one hundreds in one year. But that’s the maximum. But that is because every day, these 24 people not me, because they made my life so easy. It’s not even funny. They’re they’re talking to us customers. I have clients that said oh Mateen is my sensei, to say something about of that caliber about a person speaks about the mission and how these professionals engage with the mission.

Curt Anderson  41:16

Right, I absolutely love that. And maybe we’ve got a we’ve got a comment here from our friend, Beatriz here, and Bernice, my bed. Bernice Beecher says,  Beatriz cares about manufacturers on both the individual and eco system level the concept team works to solve problems big and small. I dropped your team into the I dropped a link in the chat box there for folks on YouTube, I strongly encourage you welcome us to stop by concept. Again, if you’re a Connecticut manufacturer, by yourself self a favor. I’ve met a couple of your your teammates as I’ve met Beatrice in person, Damon. So we got together we read the annual MEP conference, and we struck up a conversation and I was just so smitten I immediately I go features I go, I have this little live show, I need to have you come on and she graciously. Now thank you very much. You’re not You’re not a good judge of character. Are you Beach, I’m just teasing. So you need to find new, find new friends. But hey, and Eric dropped a note here.  Beatriz is an inspiring leader concept is driven by our mission and Beatrice inspires that mission every day. So I’m gonna go here. Again, like I know, you’re man, You’re so modest. And I love what you’re saying that hey, maybe it was my girl, you know, growing up, you guys caught it early in the beginning, mom, Nora is a super inspiration in your life. I want to dig into that leadership a little bit. Okay, on to so you I my respect and admiration for what you’ve done on your team. And I think I’ve met Katherine and you know, looking at your Meet the Team, Jeff, and all sorts of other folks on your 24 strong. Any tips or advice that you have, that you feel that you feel strongly about your leadership? I mean, all the love that you’re getting here in the chatbox. Today, you as a leader, and then I’m going to I’m going to stop on that one. Because then I’m going to ask your next question about your leadership ability working with manufacturers. So let’s talk about you as a leader with your team at constant any tips or advice for other young aspiring leaders out there? Yeah.

Beatriz Gutierrez  43:07

Well, what I would say, though, is, has worked for me is I am quiet. You gotta be very genuine. Because, you know, leadership is about I think helping others find themselves to find who they are. So to me when I was very young, I will read all these books about leadership and how to add them in there’s a point where you decide, or I decided, this is what you got, you know, this is me, I’m gonna be honest, I care for people. I cry sometimes in public. And I just don’t take myself that serious. In that sense, you know, to me, if I make a mistake, okay, well, I gotta pick myself up. So to me, that’s one thing that you just shouldn’t look at you to look at yourself as put in a role where you’re helping a team, but not higher than a team. And I try my best to do that. That said, you do have to have an edge. And that’s, you know, be able to make tough decisions. Even if in for me, the hardest one are about people. But you do have to be able to make those decisions and come you people down when things are tough. If you show fear that everybody will feel that way. It’s like a family. So when things get tough, is your job to really say we’re gonna be okay. And try to look for ways to be okay. The other thing is be willing to do any job. If if it’s coffee time and they need someone to bring the coffee, bring the coffee, move the chairs, and that’s not because you want to choose something but that’s about Being a team player, and being part of a group of people. The best example I have is when I was at the OECD, Department of Economic Development, I came there as the Director of International Business Development. And I was doing that role and doing Lean. Because I had that training. And they my boss at the time, the executive director left, and they call me downstairs and say, well, guess what, you know, you’re gonna be the intern. And I was like, what is the I know nothing about lending or tax credits or anything like that? And they’re like, Yeah, but you can do this. So anyway, I go upstairs, in I have three union, which I had never managed to Union personnel, there were 26 of them. And these people have a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge. So when we started the meeting, I call a meeting and I said, okay, here are my credentials. This is the things I’ve done. But I have never done what do you do, because never done that. So let’s be clear here. I don’t know anything about that. But you do. But the job here is to make sure I don’t end up in orange, because I don’t look good in orange. And from there on, I gotta say is was the best experience of my life, five years of learning. Or, I will say in the first place where I really make a lot of friends. Because I have a lot of respect for their experience. Their title is meaningless, is the experience that helps you learn, and they take care of you too, because they know, you know, you’re not making it making it up. That says, I always tell my students I said, Never be afraid. And I tell my kids, I said, if an opportunity comes, he may not come again. So go for it. And you’ll figure it out. You’ll figure out some you’ll learn something anyway.

46:47

Yeah. Incredible. Okay, features,

Curt Anderson  46:52

I don’t know what you said, you caught some episodes, we have like these little drop the mic moments that we can say, you know that and then like when it when it gets us off the charts, and we have a moment of silence. So like right there, that was like a little moment of silence. So a couple of things, I just want to recap. So again, I don’t care what age you’re at, you know, you’re, you know, we’re all leaders in one way or another by their own your home, friends, family, you know, even like, you know, lead times, I’m like, I don’t want to be a leader, we’re leading in some capacity, and things that I just want to recap that you just said, Beatrice, you know, the, the, the experience, having fun, building those friendships, in a couple of things, I jotted down helping others to achieve their goals. What a great thing as a leader do, and being a team player, and just a willingness to learn. So just wonderful, wonderful tips, whether you’re just starting out your career, or you’re an old guy like me, just trying to figure things out. He just I know you’re super busy. I don’t want to keep you all day have one. One last question. Again, we saw theme with your testimonials that people dropped on your LinkedIn profile, people are dropping tons of love for you in the fact that you have in the chat box here in a consistent theme is again, like your inspiration, kind of that fearlessness, maybe fat, you know, for entrepreneurs as a whole lot of you know, unfortunately, we don’t like to change, right? Like, hey, that’s how we’ve always done it. Or maybe just, you know, it’s like I you know, the unknown. And I think the big thing is Damon, we talk a lot about you know, is people don’t want to people don’t want to be responsible for the mistake. Yeah, well, for like, Oh, we’re gonna implement this new software that’s on me, you know, or, Hey, we we made we made this new hire and it backfired. That’s like, people are reluctant to, like you said, taking that chance or take that risk features for manufacturers out there when you’re working with them one on one, or just you know, your groups, you know, events or what have you a constant? How do you help entrepreneurs? How do you help those manufacturers overcome that fear? Any tips? Yes.

Beatriz Gutierrez  48:40

So I will say, from constants perspective is you may have never seen this one, but these are constant or the network has, in a way that so there is institutional knowledge in these centers, there is either each center has that experience, or through our network. We have seen that problem before. So what I will say to other as a manufacturer that is not sure about trying something, come to us, if we don’t know, we’ll find someone that went through that. And then you can connect with them. Because don’t take it from us. We’re consultants, but take it from other manufacturers that went through the same problem. They may have had the same challenge and have figure ways to help out. So one thing to think about that I really worry when people say well, you know, I don’t have money to call you or I don’t have the resources. This is your taxes at work. We’re here to help. We’re creating. I’m working every day on creating a culture that says we are here to help and I’m going to use Bernie’s, which was very kind in her comment earlier as an example, there needs work for the Department of Labor for more than 30 more than 35 years. She graciously accepted to spend parently early retirement with us. Nice well when you’re gonna factor in you’re trying to fit You’re How do I work with Labor Department? Call us. We have Bernie’s right. And there’s many people like that if you hear the careers of people that come to work here, in Carroll says, we’re not, you know, it’s not the money. Because we are public servants to a certain extent, you know, we are, we are a non for profit organization, I’m in 501, c three. But still, we have limitations of that type of work. But we’re here for a reason. I personally, I’m gonna tell you what I’m here. I work for the big companies. And I love Michael. And there was a moment in my life. And I’ll chair I had counsel, in that change the way I thought about my career, in my life. And my priority, as it should be for anyone or my children. I have two daughters. And our children are 28 and 30, Christina and Natalia, which I hope are watching. That are the center of my life. So then I went and taught, I consulted, I had the ability to do those things. And at some point, I work for economic development. I do not know how to solve hunger problems, or location problems or children that are abused. I know about manufacturing. I’m here because I believe in that mission, I love to remanufacturing companies, if you like had dirty or anything, this is not for you, because some of them are still behind. And they need us. And they need us because to me, manufacturing, anchors community. That’s the difference. We many industries, you open a McDonald’s and you go there’s a Burger King. But if you open a manufacturer, and you have 15 families, depending on you, I think people risking the retirement for those funds. When the owner could retire, they’re like No, but I want to make sure that the person about because it’s no longer one person, it’s a whole community. Communities grow around technology, they create better paths, for the community, in education and for for different people in the different backgrounds. Let’s take for example, one company in Connecticut has been very successful at working with people that are incarcerated. What do we want from people that have gone to prison, that they pay their time, and they come back in return to society, and we want for that to give them jobs for taking control. And the beauty about manufacturers you make stuff. At the end of the day, there’s something concrete, I have tunity, and I’ll cut with that I have an opportunity to work when I was a GE in insurance. And I love my insurance people. Hartford is the insurance capital. Yep. I’m telling you what, when I went and worked there as a master black belt, I could not engage with something that doesn’t have form, fit and function. We address like school things. So I had a heart problem going to meetings where they talk about price, I couldn’t see that we’re just models. So for some of us, making stuff is fun. We are proud of it. I love Connecticut. I’ve been here 25 years, I’ve been in the states to 36 This is my home, I raise my kids and I want to contribute in some way. Cash.

Curt Anderson  53:20

Bam, drop them off and be true.

53:23

Thank you, man.

Beatriz Gutierrez  53:25

It’s been a pleasure. Thank you very much. And for anyone who factors They’ll call us go on the web. If we don’t know. We’ll try to figure it out. Yeah. All right,

Curt Anderson  53:37

Damien. I’m gonna do a little recap. What are what are some highlights for you today? Well, I

Damon Pistulka  53:41

mean, Beatrice, you just you just summarize why manufacturers should be reaching out to MEPs. I mean, we hear this we talked to a lot of MEPs. This was incredible talking with you today, the one consistent thing that we hear across all of the MEPs tremendously experienced people come to work for them. They are truly truly truly trying to help these manufacturers. It’s not because they’re in it for the money they’re in it because they want to help and listening to you today with your, with your heartfelt you can just feel how much you want to help these manufacturers in Connecticut. It just makes me want to even help them EPS that much more. It’s so awesome.

Beatriz Gutierrez  54:25

And one last thing I will say we’re very lucky to have a wonderful board. The board. Our requirement with MEP is that we have a number of small companies in the board and our board, which Anna is a member of. But our boards are people that really care and have been customers. Many of them are our customers. So they know what it takes to do this. They know and they have committed to helping others because several volunteer jobs nobody gets paid for that. So it is a process of learning for us. learning for me to really position us. But it’s been a pleasure and an honor to serve on this position.

Curt Anderson  55:08

And I just a couple recaps there, you know, and you know what, Beatriz, we need to have you back sometime, because I have, like, so many more questions that I didn’t get to, but one of them was going to be, why are you so passionate about manufacturing, and you certainly just you hit the ball out of the park. And thank you for answering that. Guys. Just to recap, you know, features talked about workforce, she talked about supply chain, she talked about automation, she has a marketing background, 24 strong at her her center alone, there’s 1300 Mbps individuals working for MEPs throughout the whole network. So even if one of the 25 don’t have that every area of expertise that Beatrice is looking for, or that you’re looking for, she has third party consultants that you can reach out to and a vast network to pull in some features.

55:51

Thank you.

Curt Anderson  55:52

Thank you. We applaud you.

55:54

We salute you, we

Curt Anderson  55:54

commend you. And I want to thank everybody in the chat and we’ve got Brian Fleming so true. Corporate people don’t like to take risks. But I want to thank Eric and Bernice and Ella and Dean and Anna and everybody else in the chat box, everybody that didn’t drop a note. Thank you for joining us today. I strongly encourage you welcome you invite you connect with Beatrice and her team on concept on LinkedIn. And you know what, Damon, what I’d love to say is just be someone’s inspiration, just like Beatrice was here for us today. So it’s great time. How about let’s give a big round of applause to Beatrice for just smashing the ball out of the park for us today. Beatrice Awesome. Thank you. Big shout out to your your daughters. I know they’re there. And I know you’ve shared we’ve talked about your daughter. One of your daughters is doing great work. I’m sure they both are. So thank you for all the

Beatriz Gutierrez  56:43

years by the way that Nora Jean continues

56:47

with Nora Jean continues, man. All right.

Curt Anderson  56:50

We’re gonna close out on that. So hey, we are back here. We have you know what, we’re in Connecticut at the Connecticut MEP today. David, do you know where we’re at on Friday? We have the Alaska MEPs features you’re gonna love it. We have one of the we have a client from the MEP Diem and I have been with her we’ve taken a tour of her facility. She’s a great manufacturer, wonderful inspiration. We’re interviewing her this Friday with one of your teammates from the Alaska MEP. Guys, we’ll be back here on Friday. Beatrice hang out with us for one second before we wrap up. Guys have a great week. God bless you and just keep crushing it man and out

57:25

there. The best kept secret right? Yeah, get out there and do it. Okay. Peace.