Grow Your Business with Ray Ziganto and the VIA Growth Accelerator
Most manufacturers hit a ceiling long before they reach their full potential. It is time to shift gears and grow your business. We have an expert who can show you how on this episode of Stop Being the Best Kept Secret with Ray Ziganto!
Ray is the Director of Innovation & Resources at the Valley Industrial Association and former President of Linara International. Known as the “Manufacturing Unicorn,” Ray has led global operations, doubled revenues, and helped companies generate millions using the resources they already had. He is a growth strategist dedicated to helping manufacturers scale without burnout or overwhelming.
With decades of real-world manufacturing leadership, Ray knows what it takes to create high-performing cultures, align teams, and grow revenue, without making your business more dependent on you.
In this episode, we are exploring how the VIA Growth Accelerator helps manufacturers:
-Take control of their operations
-Grow sustainably
-Build businesses that run without the owner doing it all
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how you can grow smarter and build the business you’ve always wanted.
Key Highlights
• Ray Ziganto’s Journey into Manufacturing 0:00
• Ray’s International Career and Involvement in Manufacturing Associations 3:59
• Ray’s Transition to the Valley Industrial Association of Illinois 6:36
• Ray’s Vision for the Valley Industrial Association’s Growth Accelerator Program 27:57
• Challenges and Opportunities for Small Manufacturers 33:32
• Ray’s Advice for Manufacturers and Entrepreneurs 33:51
Resources
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How Manufacturers Can Use Subject Matter Interviews to Dominate SEO
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Transcription
Curt Anderson 00:00
Hey guys, happy Monday. Welcome to stop being the best kept secret. Damon pasoko, how are you, dude?
Damon Pistulka 00:05
I’m doing great. Curt, it was a incredible, incredible sports weekend, man. It’s just that’s all I can say.
Curt Anderson 00:15
It was a great weekend to have a great weekend, and so you know, and what a way to keep the momentum going, right? You had Halloween, you had World Series, you had football, yeah, everything going on, right?
Damon Pistulka 00:27
Well, yeah, we had, we Okay, so look at the Seahawks won. The bills won, and I believe the bears won.
Ray Ziganto 00:35
They did. They did. Yes, snuck it out. Snuck it out at the end. Yeah,
Curt Anderson 00:39
we got the trifecta going. That’s great. Alright, let’s give a big, warm welcome to dear friend of ours, man, we go way back with this guy, like, Man in covid years. Like, it’s like, dog years. Ray, like, we’ve been friends for like, 50 years, or something like that way, yeah, but we got Ray’s a guy, know, in the house. Ray, how are you dude? I’m doing great,
Ray Ziganto 00:58
man. It’s great to be back with with you guys. This is, like, old home week. We should, be sitting in a garage, in in old office chairs, drinking beer or something. You know,
Curt Anderson 01:06
it’s like homecoming weekend right now. So this is awesome. So, Ray, you’ve long time friend. Man, you’ve, you’ve done so much. Man, president of a major manufacturer, you’ve been, like, knee deep, working involved with an MEP, yeah, you’re part of an association. You had a great podcast just, I mean, like you are you are Mr. Manufacturing. Do us a favor. Just take us back in time a little bit. What inspired you to pursue a career in manufacturing? We’re going to dive into where you’re at today, but what inspired you to pursue a career manufacturing? Way back when you know
Ray Ziganto 01:41
the story still holds true. When I grew up, my dad had a he had a shop. He didn’t have a man cave, you know. So I was the youngest. The four boys and my older brothers were a lot older, so I spent a lot of time following my old man around. And I just, you know, I just dug watching stuff getting made. And, you know, when something broke, he fixed it. You went downstairs. He had a lathe, he had the drill press. And you know, you just, you’d run at a hardware store and pick up some pipe fittings, and it’s just kind of how you did stuff. And then got a little older, and I was the, I was the kid under the car helping my brothers change oil and stuff. So, yeah, I just always enjoyed that, that type of thing, and had the good fortune, you know, coming out of college, you know, I was a business major because I thought it was going to be an easy path out which, by and large, it was. But my senior year, I remember, I was at a graduation party with a with a good friend of mine. I ended up striking a conversation around a keg of beer with a guy that just took over an injection molding business. And I was like, you know, we hit it off. And I started second shift flicking bags of material in a molding shop right out of college. And it was, I was hooked. That was, yeah, that was it. I was in man, so
Damon Pistulka 02:57
that’s, that’s something that’s right. My first job in manufacturing was an injection molding company. And, yeah, that that’s an eye opener, man, when you see those things, you know, the pellets coming in now, oh, God.
Ray Ziganto 03:10
Well, prior to that, it was going to Brookfield Zoo, and you put your 50 cents in the moldomatic, and yeah, you get a gorilla or something, you know, wax gorilla drops out the bottom. It was like, Okay, this is kind of a, you know, higher end version, but, yeah, it was just, just a blast. And the people, the creativity that’s involved, I always saw kind of a connection. As curmudgeonly as manufacturing folks can be, it’s, it’s like a big circle. It’s like they’re incredibly technical, and then that circle comes around, and they’re incredibly creative, yeah, and that gap was just fascinating, you know, how you how you navigate that, you know. So it’s been fun, been a great ride, and I ain’t done yet.
Curt Anderson 03:53
So then, so and, dude, I just want to hit this. I want to scratch the service here real quick. You’ve had an international career. I mean, I don’t know how many countries, you know, manufacturing all over, walk us through that a little bit. And then again, I want to dive into where you’re at today, but think us through that, that path.
Ray Ziganto 04:10
You know, it was one of those I knew early on that I wanted to get involved in international stuff, just because that that type of stuff fascinated me. What got me into international my folks sent me on a high school trip. I got the chance to go to Germany, you know, over Easter break, and it was just, I’m telling you, it was a life changing experience for me, because it was so cool, so different, and it was, it felt so comfortable. So from that point on, I was like, I’ve got to find a way to build this into my career, and I actively sought opportunities to get involved with companies that did that type of stuff. Started on the business development side. I was the guy that didn’t mind flying to Singapore or Japan or Korea or whatever. And then as things, you know, evolved, I, you know, I kind of shifted over the operation. Side, you know, wound up starting companies and factories in different parts of the world, and to this day, that’s that still fascinates me. You know, I just think it’s, it’s so cool, especially when you decoding other cultures. Isn’t that tough folks are folks. They want to be treated with respect. They want to share their culture and their food with you, and they want opportunities to grow, right? Yeah, you know, where doesn’t that apply?
Curt Anderson 05:29
You know? Yeah, yeah. Common thread, no matter what country you’re in, people to grow. And how many countries would you say that you’ve been in? Do you have any idea? I’ve
Ray Ziganto 05:39
never really total them up. A whole, a whole bunch in Europe. I’ve been all over Asia, China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore. Who else I’ve been to India, visit the Philippines. So yeah, my last year, working a working for a company, I think I did 66 flights, and I had about 400,000 air miles, yeah, in one one year. So that was that was enough, yeah, yeah, that was enough, yeah, yeah, but
Curt Anderson 06:20
different today, right?
Ray Ziganto 06:21
You know, it’s, I gotta tell you, I’ve, I feel as energized and jacked today as like ever I, you know, I tell people I’ve been working my ass off for 40 years to land this job. Yeah, it’s like, I’m, I’m built for what I’m doing right now. And it’s like, I love it.
Curt Anderson 06:41
It’s phenomenal, dude. And so, you know, just being a brand ambassador, advocate for US manufacturing, what a perfect fit. Now you’ve transitioned this year into a an association, yeah. And I take man, there’s like, there’s an association for, you know, anything that you can think of manufacturing. And you know, whether it’s geography wise, or you know, the actual man, if you know, you know Ben metal circuit boards, whatever it is like, there’s going to be an association, and they play such a vital role in a success of manufacturers. Just share a little bit what attracted you to the association that you’re with. You’re with the valley industrial association of Illinois, right? Just share a little bit like, how you transition and what you’re super excited
Ray Ziganto 07:21
about here? Well, like I mentioned when I, you know, as you’ve shared, I’ve, I had the privilege of working with IMEC, Illinois, which is the MEP here in the in the state, and I left there in April of this year thinking that it was like, well, good run. I’m going to, you know, good time to retire. I’m going to hang it up, much my wife’s chagrin and and I had reached out. I’ve known Kathy Gilmore for, gosh, nine or 10 years now, and she’s the president of Valley industrial Association. And I was kind of celebrating my newfound freedom. And it’s like, hey, let’s meet for drinks. So we get together and have a have a few drinks. And what went from, you know, boy, this is going to be great. I’m retired. She goes, Wait a minute, what if? And 15 days later, I end up Director of Innovation and resources here at Valley industrial and and I’m having a ball. So it’s like these guys were, were local, local to me, familiar to me. I always loved their vibe and and just kind of the the culture, you know, because organizations have a culture too. And, you know, I always enjoyed it before, but once I got here, and now I’m kind of one of the one of the cogs in the machine, it’s like, Man, this is even better, you know, in person. So it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s been cool. Very cool, awesome.
Curt Anderson 08:47
All right, hey, we’ve got a couple friends stopping by here. DiAnn Beyer, our dear friend, DiAnn, Happy Monday to you. You had a phenomenal weekend. Hey Damon, we got Muhammad in the house. Hey
Damon Pistulka 08:57
Mohammed, how are you today? Good. Good. Enjoying the podcast with raising conversation. Awesome. Hey
Curt Anderson 09:05
guys, thanks. Keep the comments coming. And if you have questions, I’ll tell you, this is going to be a masterclass on manufacturing with our dear free raise the guy. And if you haven’t noticed, I’m being captain obvious, hands down, best mustache in manufacturing, right?
Damon Pistulka 09:19
I will, I will put that bet. He does have the best manufacturing I can’t shave it now. Man,
Curt Anderson 09:29
horrible envy. And the thing is, Damon, to make you a little bit jealous, Ray and I been, we actually did the live show, if you recall, in person together. Yeah, and that mustache is online. I on live stream. It is that much better in person. So you’re
Ray Ziganto 09:46
gonna get within three feet. You need safety glasses. You need safety glasses. I don’t put an eye out or something
Curt Anderson 09:51
that that thing is fierce. So, Ray, let’s do this. I’m gonna grab your website and
Damon Pistulka 09:55
search, yeah, let’s take a deep dive into the, you know, Valley. Industrial Association and how you’re making the, you know, manufacturing better, absolutely.
Ray Ziganto 10:05
So I kind of, here’s how I kind of see the world through the the valley lens. You know, we’ve been around 123 years, which is, which is really cool, and some of the founding companies that are still around are still members, wow, of the organization. So we’re, we’re about, you’ll remember this from the old days. We’re about 270 members with a bullet. It’s like, we’re, we’re, we’re gaining a lot of traction in and around the area to get folks involved. We have a, you know, a big part of it is, is, you know, education for our members to get involved in, you know, understanding whatever it happens to be, whether it’s, you know, training for workforce, whether it’s hearing about best practices, leveraging AI workforce culture. You know, there’s some there’s some core things that are important for all organizations to be providing to their memberships. And we, we more than tick the boxes in those areas, the real, the real standout things that we’re involved in as a as an association. One is the benchmarking tool that we put together about six or eight years ago, we worked real closely with with IMEC. Matter of fact, they helped us build this tool that is loosely based on Baldridge. It looks at six different categories. So we’re talking culture, workforce, innovation, safety, OPEX, social responsibility and sustainability, we built a survey tool that companies can use to, you know, either evaluate themselves against best practices and use that data to drive improvement, or if they want to opt in and and have a friendly competition among The other members within Valley industrial we’ll we’ll let it rip. We’ll go in there at the once the survey has closed, we’ll pick out the top performers, we’ll invite them to be interviewed by an expert panel, and then from there we’ll select some some winners and some runners up, and we throw an enormous party in March to celebrate those companies and acknowledge the hard work that they’re doing. The cool thing that I’m bringing, I think it’s cool, because I wish it had been available when I was running factories, is, you know, you got somebody like me that can, I’ll go through the data with the companies, and I can give them that first initial road map and go, Okay, here’s what I’m seeing. You know, if you were, you know, in workforce and kind of struggling in these areas, and if that’s a priority for you, based on my 40 years, here’s what I would do, 123, you know, here’s the lightest lift. Here’s a longer term. If you need to get connected some resources, we’ll do that too. So it’s, it’s a really cool tool. It’s, it’s a really neat, a neat program, and our members get a lot of value out of that, yeah?
Damon Pistulka 13:11
And like you said, you you with your experience, Ray, being able to sit down and talk with them, yeah? I mean, they get Okay, the tool helps them identify. Now you’re helping them go, Okay, what does that mean? What should I do? Yeah, and tying those two pieces together is huge
Ray Ziganto 13:27
that. And that’s, that’s kind of the beauty of the the association model is, you know, if you’re, if you’re building it right, you know you’ve, you kind of get that, okay, now what? Because that’s the perspective I had, you know, with associate no matter who it happened to be, it’s like, you know, the last thing manufacturers need is another time commitment. So if I’m going to invest the time, what am I getting for it? Yeah, you know, what do I really get? So it’s so here in this instance, it’s like, man, we get a we get a lot of cool conversations going. I can come in, you know, stop in somebody’s factory, and, you know, the drill, Damon, it’s like you’ve been at this long enough you can, you can probably come through the door, sniff the air, and pick out two or three things that, yes, you know, you could do a little better. Yeah, yeah. So, so that’s, that’s really cool. We’ve been we’ve done a lot of improvements to the tool. This year, we do peer reviews to make sure it makes sense the questions are still relevant. I’ve started doing deep dives. I got six years worth of data that I can draw on. Earlier this year, I went in and did an analysis between the data we have on culture, and it’s all anonymized, so nobody names getting named, but I looked at culture, I looked at workforce. I had 4000 data points that I was I was able to tear into and interesting stuff came out. You know, we kind of demystified that big companies have all the advantages. That’s not the case. We had small companies that outperformed big companies. You know that we had the myth that nobody gets it all right. We had some some small companies and some large companies performing at a very high level. So there’s and there’s some good, actionable insights too. Both large and small, were weak in surveying employees to get their feedback. Yeah, you know, we’re they were good at the plan do, but they forgot the check act, you know, on the people stuff. So, you know, that’s kind of an eye opener. And so it’s like, Okay, now that we know this, what are you going to do about it? Here’s, here’s three sources you could leverage to do a simple employee survey on your own. If you want to do something a little deeper, Hey, you want to talk to iMac, they can come in. Or we’ve got some other again, it’s making those connections. I don’t, I don’t want it to just be a welcome to the brink. Yeah, it’s like, now that we know something, what are we going to do about it? You know,
Damon Pistulka 16:00
Yeah, cuz I everybody, everybody’s been, been approached by someone that gives them a wonderful report about all the things that that are not right, but that the value comes from. Okay, now, what like,
Ray Ziganto 16:12
exactly, yeah, well, it was that old commercial I think, UPS had years ago. And I should post this one online, couple of consultants in and they, they’re telling the client, it’s like, well, what you knew need to do is, you know, consolidate your logistics, and this, that and the other thing. And the client goes, Great, do it. And they’re like, what I said, No, do it. I’m in. And they go, we don’t actually do anything. Yeah, yeah. We we do something Valley industrial. We do something Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 16:39
Well, and I think that’s, that’s, that’s the to the chagrin of May many companies, if you’re not going to do that part of it, you’re not bringing much value to a manufacturer, because they, they, they have to make stuff every single day, right? And that’s how they stay in business every single day. They don’t have, you know, people sitting around that can, oh, we got this big, great, big project, at least most of them, until they get huge, right? Don’t have those. So the people like you’re in the valley industrial Association you’re talking to, they probably are a lot of smaller companies and mid side and other ones. But those, they’re resource strapped. So if you can’t provide the and now what and help them get through that, you’re missing out.
Ray Ziganto 17:21
That’s really the big thing. And Curt, and I talked about this one offline. You know, I’ve independent consultant time with iMac, and now here to see enough our the demographic of our our membership base, we’re the 20 to 250 employee mostly, the majority our manufacturers or supporting services, that type of thing. The small shops struggle. And you see this David as a guy that’s getting businesses, you know, getting them the right foundation so that when they go to market, they go to sell, their processes are additive to the value of the organization, not the absence of processes, which devalues them. So I started looking at, man, how do you get these companies to, at least get the right foundational pieces in place? And that’s where you know, okay, once you’ve, once you’ve seen the YouTube videos, you know, and and, and followed the influencers and everything else. Man, how do I, how do I get this stuff going? You know, on my own, and I saw that as a gap that Valley in particular was well suited to start filling. So, you know, some of the programs I’m working on shared with Curt, you know, we’ve got this 123, grow and the VA growth accelerator initiative going, because that’s the first place small companies. Small companies struggle with growth. Large companies struggle with productivity. So, you know, they’ve got the money, they don’t have the process. You know that, you know, the small companies are kind of lacking both, but they got a hell of a lot of heart. So the first thing I wanted to do, and I had a guy used to work with, he said, You know, first you get rich, then you get fancy. So, you know, I’m in that. How can I, you know, how can I help? How can we help bring them some tools to at least get that the foundation in place, yeah, so that when that, you know, that independent consultant or resource comes along, they can really take advantage of it, you know. So that’s that was kind of the genesis for a lot of the programs I’ve been working on right now, to get going.
Curt Anderson 19:36
All right, good stuff. I get. I’ve got so many questions for you, Ray, I hope, I hope. I don’t want to keep you all day. So again, if you’re just joining us, we’re here with our dear friend. Long time, long time guest on the show, repeated, repeat offender. We got Ray zagano. Please do yourself a favor. Connect with Ray on LinkedIn. We’re we’re having a great conversation. Ray, what do you again? You’re new to the organization. 123 years, dude, like, what do you feel is one of the biggest facets factors for the longevity, the great success of your association for so long, there’s,
Ray Ziganto 20:11
you know, over that period of time, it have to say, I guess, I don’t know what happened 123 years ago, but a lot of these associations. It was like, like, you know, people in like industries with common challenges get together to try and work it out. Which is which I think is awesome, because it’s, you know, we’ve all talked about how the holy grail of that next step for manufacturers is collaboration, yeah, and I think associations kind of create that safe zone for companies to do that. I can only speak in the last, you know, 10 years or so for Valley industrial and specific is Kathy Gilmore and the team have always been very intentional about closing the loop with the membership. What are, what are your needs, what’s required, and doing something about it. You know, we regularly survey, are we bringing in the you know, what are the topics? Are we bringing in the right speakers? You know? Are we giving you access? You know, one of the new things, you know, we’re starting to do GD and T training and blueprint reading, some of the fundamentals, you know. And how can we collaborate, you know, more closely with our, you know, community college partners, you know, as well. So we’re kind of eating our own dog food too, and we’re going out and collaborating with other organizations in the area, because we’re all on the same mission, but we come at it with a little different perspective. You know, no one organization is going to be the silver bullet for manufacturing, but if we all kind of put our heads together, you know, and sequence things, it’s like we can create a pretty damn good combination, you know, for them. So I think part of it is just the just stay relevant, you know, just be, be, be valuable to your to who supports you, and that’s our members, no different than a regular business. You got to evolve with them, you know, yeah.
Curt Anderson 22:09
And you’ve certainly done that for 123, 23 years. And our dear friend DiAnn Beyer, she has a great saint, she always says, we’re stronger together, yeah. So, you know, and that’s really so I’m on the board of my local association. We just had our annual and we’re same age as you are, believe it or not, Ray, we’re, you know, about 100 and, you know, I think we just had 120/5 so we’re right there with you. Nice, nice. And so, and it’s, we’re constantly saying, like, how do you stay relevant? How do you deliver value? And so, with DiAnn’s comment there, of like, we’re always stronger together, stronger, you know, as a bond for the manufacturer out there that’s maybe kind of like, hey, I want to go on my own. Or just kind of like, what would you say that person? Why is it so much better to be part of an association?
Ray Ziganto 22:53
The when you’re in an association, you find out real quickly that the the challenges you’re facing that you think are yours alone, you find out are not others. Others either are struggling as well, or they’re at a different point in their journey. So what you’re struggling with they overcame some time ago, and now they’re you know, they bumped up against a different ceiling. So everybody’s kind of in a different place on their journey. Your problems feel unique. They’re not the other thing you find out, and what the benchmarking has confirmed there is somebody in the association that is absolutely nailing the thing that you’re that’s a mystery to you. Yes, want to meet them? Go, go have lunch with them. Go buy them a beer. Go see their factory. And there’s enough. We have enough diversity. It’s not like you have to send all the five axis machine guys to the other five axis machine shops. It’s like, why don’t you go talk to the, you know, the guy that’s doing this, because that you’ll find in the processes, it’s like, oh, I never thought of doing that, right? You know? It’s, it’s rarely the technology in the shop that is that is causing you your problems. It’s probably the processes around those things, you know, yeah, that’s how I see it, you know, with the association. So, yeah, don’t suffer alone.
Damon Pistulka 24:22
Go ahead. You make such a great point too, right? You went, you went right by it, because you know it so well. And that’s manufacturers are so good at the processes, right? Because, if I’m a CNC machine, metal fabrication, wood, whatever manufacturer, I know those processes in the factory, and they’ve been refined and worked on and more efficiency and, you know, layout, all this kind of stuff for years. And now what we find a lot in these businesses is that it is the processes outside of that where they need the most work.
Ray Ziganto 24:55
Yeah, well, that’s where the money gets made and lost. I mean, in my independent consulting days, I. I’ve been in plenty of shops that had, like, world class OEE, but they’re losing money. Yeah, how can that be? Well, if you know your spindle up times fantastic. Are you making stuff you’re actually going to ship this month, or is it going inventory, wondering why you’re out of cash? Yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s a, there’s a lot that go and I get it, it’s I, I’m coming at this from a place of, hey, I did plenty of stupid stuff and things wrong, you know, and those were the best lessons learned, you know. Yeah, you get paid for, you know, making the score. But you what you learn is, you know, lessons hurt.
Curt Anderson 25:36
Yeah, I got all those Curt I was just gonna say all the band needs and all the scars, that’s
Ray Ziganto 25:41
right, I used to, scars,
Curt Anderson 25:44
I think. You know, again, this is fresh in my mind, just coming off a meeting last week. You know, it’s just like people I haven’t seen in ages, the handshaking, the how’s it going? Just like that personal interaction, how’s your business, how’s your family? And then there’s taking a pause and saying, like, hey, what’s working for you, what’s new and exciting. Oh, and in your in your hitting right on ahead, like, Oh, you have that challenge. Hey, did you talk to this guy, this woman over you know, like you said, there are no unique problems, though we feel that they’re unique to us. I
Ray Ziganto 26:13
agree. I agree. And one of the mind blowing things about Valley industrial when I got here, because we do a lot of events, Jessica Garcia, our director of, you know, events and programming and stuff. She is this woman is on frickin fire in terms of putting together programming. We probably do, Gosh, 100 plus programs a year. Wow, that we do. And like MEPs, they track engagement and who’s involved? We had, we had over, well over 3000 participates, participants in our events, and over half of those were repeat attendees. You know, we’re very cool. We’re what, seven people, right? I mean, for for the size of our organization. It’s like, the reach and the ability to impact is like, it’s crazy, and it’s like, Man, how do we step on the gas?
Curt Anderson 27:09
That’s been cool. Keep the fire burning, and so And guys, what I have here, do us all a favor. Stop by the valley industrial association of Illinois. Stop by the LinkedIn page. Hit that little Follow button. Even if you’re in a different state. Doesn’t matter. Just hit that little Follow button. Little Follow button. And then when we dive in here, we as Ray was just sharing connect with Ray. Here’s the team, and you mentioned Cathy. You mentioned her, just Jessica’s everybody.
Ray Ziganto 27:36
Kathy’s killing it, Laura on our membership side. So yeah, so proud of the team I’m with. I’m the only guy which is, which is kind of awesome. It’s, I’m glad I’ve been married for 40 years so I know exactly how this goes.
Curt Anderson 27:51
Yeah, that’s right. Well, God bless you, man. This is so exciting. So let’s, I want to dive into you. You have a an exciting program. And are we comfortable? Can we give a little preview? We won’t dive. We don’t have anything to show right now, but you’ve got this great thing called the growth accelerator. Yep, give us like, a little sneak peek of like, what’s your curious minds are dying to know, right?
Ray Ziganto 28:13
I understand, I understand what we we informally rolled out the first part of the VA growth accelerator, and this is a program that is built to help those small businesses, the small manufacturers, get those fundamentals in place and actually start doing something to generate either new business, go deeper in an industry they are do some diversification. You know, just you got to be able to get the plate spinning and having having run factories. It’s like, I’ve been there. It’s like, I know we’ve got a problem here in you know, we need to do something different on our sales side. You bring in a marketing person, and the marketing person brings the marketing hammer, and boom, what you need is a website and SEO and all this type of stuff. It’s like, okay, great. Do that. They do it. Look you’ve got 4000 people just visited your website. Great. Where’s the new business? Oh, you need sales training. Here comes the sales guy. Sales guy comes in and goes, well, we’re ready to train. I don’t have any sales people. Meanwhile, owner of the business still has to grow. What am I going to do? Yeah, so, so what I wanted to do was build something that has a couple of phases. First is we created 123, grow. Just as it’s a it’s a series of workshops. It’s they’re not they’re not expensive. It’s just a token, a pay, help pay for lunch, you know, type thing. But what we’ve what we’ve built them around is, Listen, let’s go back. Let’s start with, you know, your business plan. Do you have a plan and a strategy? Who do you want to be when you grow up? And you really got to start answering some of those questions about, you know, what’s our mission, vision, values, what is our real niche? What is it that we really do? You know. As a business. And it’s surprising how, how many companies are kind of accidental entrepreneurs, or they’ve never really asked that. Well, we always just made parts for these people, and they buy more, and we grew. And, you know, now I got a lake house. So how do I get a bigger lake house? How do I get another boat? You know, whatever it happens to be so, but it’s that it’s starting with that core, you know, bit of strategy. Then there’s, then there’s the portion of, Okay, well then, you know, how do we, how do we get that message out there? What does that look like? Because, again, a lot of companies you run into, well, in theory, everybody is my potential market. Which means nobody, nobody has your market. Curt, I know you’re looking, you’re helping people look for their soul mates, you know. And you’re absolutely right. You’ve got to figure that thing out. And then there’s the sales side of it. It’s like, Well, okay, if you’ve, if you got a strategy and you know what your your message is, then, then what you know, how am I? How am I getting out there? Sometimes it’s like, I’m not sure who to call. Maybe I do know how to who to call. I don’t know what the sequence should be. How should I reach them? What do I say when I get there? You know, some of those types of things. So we try in the 123, grow to inform the participants. As far as, Hey, these are the segments you got to know about setting your strategy. Here’s a template. Let’s walk you through it. Build out these sections, you know. So at least you’ve got something you can point back to with your true north. Here’s, you know, on the marketing side, yeah, you got a website that first, you know, when they come to that website in two seconds, do they know what you’re doing? You know? Do they know what it is? Don’t lead with grandpa started the company after the war, you know. Put that somewhere further down, you know. But you know, are you saying the right thing to the to the right people? And then we’ll have a section on kind of some of the sales operations say, Hey, here’s how you do it, whether you’re on your own, you got to rep, how you look for that rep, how your inside sales people can help. We want to give them that DIY kit and all of the forms for those that say, You know what, I’m going to I know I’m busy, but I want to build this thing. I’m going to do it myself. We’re going to we’re going to get the plates spinning internally. And here’s where you go for those companies that that’s all they need is a refresh in one area or another. Great, we’re done, and off you go the next piece of the puzzle. Because, you know, in the back of my mind, I’m thinking, there’s some people that still need some help, and there’s not a lot of support out there, I would say comprehensive support. Let’s, let’s put it that way, yeah, yeah, kind of what, where I was coming at it, because I’ve lived this before, is, you know, the gap between ambition and capacity is where most grace, most growth plans fail, you know, I mean, because it’s like, we really, you know, we want to be, you know, bigger than General Motors in three years. Well, half your equipment is older than 50 years. You know, your top technical people are going to retire in three you know. And there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t get aligned. So what we did was we built the via growth accelerator. That’s kind of a stacked consulting support model. The first part is, is a growth readiness assessment that I developed this and used it in a past life, helping manufacturers where, you know, I’ve got a survey that I put together that touches on key areas that support growth and and it’s not just, you know, hey, do I have time on a machine? I also dig into, I try to understand the adaptability of their workforce. How much change can they absorb? Because a growth strategy is change. It’s like, it’s it’s gonna get it’s gonna get different. Busy is gonna look different. So I look at some of the processes and procedures that they have. You know, is everything routed manually? Is it an Excel? You know, just steady state? Where are you right now? Not from a standpoint of saying you’re screwed. There’s no way you can grow. There’s, there’s always a path forward. It’s like, listen, it might be Well, while we’re fixing this thing, because this is going to be a priority, why don’t we take a deeper dive and do an analysis of your Curt customer base and see how we can get a bigger share of what you already have? Yeah, I don’t know about you. Damon, I haven’t come across anybody yet that doesn’t have another 20 to 50% of growth with customers they already have. Yes, you know, it’s just they. We all turn into like insurance companies, where it’s like, the new we treat the new customers better than the old ones, you know, and the old ones are growing. And if you’re doing a good job, it’s like, hey, sometimes it’s just ask the question, what else should we be looking at? For you,
Damon Pistulka 35:00
yeah, yeah. And I think that’s, you know, that that that can be so wild, because you can be doing one piece of a process, right? And they really find that on either side of that process, there’s opportunity, yeah, and there’s, there’s so much outside of, maybe what the exact thing you’re doing today, but there may be something adjacent to it that’s really easy for you to do. That adds another 20% to the revenue, and your customers happier,
Ray Ziganto 35:28
exactly. And it’s like, you know, part of that, part of that mindset and taking the bigger share is okay. How do I reduce the part number count for my customer that makes what problem of theirs are you solving? Yes, you know, does your buyer want to track? You know, 10,000 you know different part numbers. Well, if you, if you, you know, machine, something that goes into, you know, a stamped part, then you know what, whatever. Hey, why don’t, why don’t you? Why don’t you route that stamp part through me. I’ll add the I’ll add the rivets. We’ll do the inspection. I’ll have it painted or whatever. Yeah, I’ll send you a kit, you know, let me kid it for you. So there’s a whole lot of ways you can, you can skin that. So that’s, that’s one of those things. I come at it like I’ve been there. I’m the guy that lost sleep at night because the month was looking soft. There’s no guarantee. Hey, I got to make something happen. Now. What can I do? I don’t have time for my integrated marketing plan to get fully deployed in six months. I don’t have time to go out and recruit and hire a sales person with that mythical Rolodex worth of business that’s magically going to come to me. Because, a, it’s not going to happen. B, you don’t have the processes in place to be able to absorb them, and he’s going to end up losing so that’s going to cost you a couple 100,000 bucks, you know, right there, and you still don’t have any new sales. So what’s, what’s that thing we can, we can do right now. So again, it’s that. Let’s find, where are your, you know, strengths, weaknesses, what? What can we leverage right now? Hey, I got capacity over here. Why don’t we go do more of that? Hey, these customers really like us, and we get good margin, and our hit rate is high. Why don’t we dig in there some more, you know, and see what else we’re doing. So part of it is bringing that perspective to the analysis. And here’s what’s going on. The other piece is we’re partnering with a with, with someone we all know that works in a manufacturing data organization. There’s manufacturing and there’s news and anyway, and her name’s Katie, but we’re, we’re working on some stuff there, where what we’re going to provide, once we’ve got things kind of dialed in, we know who the customers are. We know what we’re what we’re going to say to them, and why it matters, and what problem we solve, and then, and then we’re going to come up with 200 guaranteed leads for companies that fit that profile. And then we’re going to come in and say, Here’s where you go. We’ll we’ll come up with the outreach script and the plan and everything else. And it’s like, we’ll either turn you loose, if this is enough, like I say it’s stackable, it’ll be like, here’s what we learned and here’s what we recommend. And this would be the phases I would approach it. If they say, take it a little further. Okay, here’s the 200 leads, here’s the call script, here’s how we would approach it, and all these other things. If they come back and say, Boy, we love it. We would like it to happen faster. I roll up my sleeves. We get in there, and it’s like, Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to launch this campaign. We’re going to, we’re going to make those you’re going to make those calls. I’m going to stay, we’re going to have a coaching session once a week for at least eight weeks, because it takes, it takes, what, 22 to 66 hours to change a behavior. And this is, this is the thing we’re doing. We’re changing, you know, a behavior. So I’ll stay with you while you go through this. Now, I can’t guarantee you’re going to win something, you know, in that in that period of time, but I can guarantee you you’re going to be a lot more visible to a bigger pool of people that genuinely want and need what you do you know, so that you know that type of a thing. And you know, I set an arbitrary target out there where it’s like, you know, what, if you went through it soup to nuts and you wanted us to do everything over this eight week, you know, 90 day sprint, it’s like, let’s, let’s try and knock this thing out for under five grand. You know, I mean, because if you’re, if you’re not, you can put that on a credit card. It all is, thing to get it done. You don’t have to digest it all at once. And it’s like it really gets it gets the plate spinning on the most basic things you need to have in place to grow your manufacturing business, you’ve understood the capacity. Me, your your ability to absorb it, what’s the best fit for it, what’s my messaging need to be, you know? How do we dial that in? And let’s go do something, you know, let’s, let’s, let’s go do it, you know, make something happen here. So that’s, that’s the starting point. If they come back and say, Boy, we’re starting to roll. This is great. Ray, what else you got for me? Have you talked to Curt? Have you talked to you know, that’s where I’m going to plug in the other resources. Because now these Now it makes sense, you know, now it makes sense for these independent folks to come in, whether it’s through the MEP world or whatever else. I mean, this is even a segment of the market that the MEP world kind of goes, it’s tough, you know, it’s, it’s tough to support that with that area and association. Can, you know? Because, yeah, because of the nature of the, you know, the structure, it more than covers my time and effort. So it’s a win everywhere. You know, it’s really what we’re looking at.
Curt Anderson 41:01
This is a master class. Man, I absolutely love this. Hey, our dear friend, if I say this correctly, shahona, her, maybe I’m close. He gives a little heart emoji. And our dear friend, I tell you, DiAnn is like the queen of acronyms. I’ve learned acronyms from her, you know, fc, fc, fully care for customers. Yeah. She says, I love it? Just do something.
Ray Ziganto 41:22
You have to, because that’s what the that’s what the owners are shaking their head. When the, you know, when the marketing firm gets the appointment with the owner, it’s like, I get it, they’re, you know, it’s necessary. But with the 123, growth thing, you know, I partnered with a couple of our members that support, you know, I’ve got, working with Howard Fisher, with huntera, who’s, you know, they’re like a sales acceleration, you know, fractional, you know, sales VP, you know, type person. I’m working with Nancy O’Leary from custom direct, on the marketing side. And both of them, for being experts in their area, appreciated the fact that everybody comes into the room together, yeah, you know, it’s, it’s like, you’ve got to get sales. You got marketing, you got operations. Now you’re having a conversation. It’s not one or the other. If you don’t link them, you’re causing a problem. I’ve been that guy. I’ve run silos. It was a mess, freaking mess. Once we got them aligned, things took off, you know? Yeah,
Curt Anderson 42:21
and hey, Nancy, you know what? She’s Damon’s been way too long. We need to get in a show. She is a marketing powerhouse. Absolutely love Nancy. Good. So one thing, if I I’ve been taking notes as you’ve been channeling so I wrote down ambition plus capacity. Did you say
Ray Ziganto 42:39
between ambition and compat capacity is where growth initiatives fail.
Curt Anderson 42:44
That’s where growth plans go to die. How’s that? That’s where it
Ray Ziganto 42:47
happens. Yeah. Everybody draws a straight line, and it’s not, it’s, you know, yeah. And then a miracle occurs, maybe, maybe not, yeah.
Curt Anderson 42:57
And so what’s fascinating is, like you as kind of like that Sherpa, the guide. You You know you’ve been and again. Like connect with Ray on LinkedIn. Look, go through his profile, president of major manufacturing. You’re as the association. You’re coming in, holding your hand through that process.
Ray Ziganto 43:16
Absolutely, absolutely, yep, I’m, I’m on point. I’m the one that’s doing it. I want to, I want to build something that’s scalable for us. So again, when I mentioned that 123 year old startup, there’s, there’s no reason this only has to stay within, you know, the the Fox River Valley, you know, area. Why wouldn’t this become something that we can, we can share with other, you know, other organizations around the state, you know, and do as well, you know, for them, you know, there’s a big push out there, and there’s a lot of great intentions. And the reality is, the holy grail for all associations and community organizations is to actually know who the manufacturers are and have a relationship with them. Associations are the ones that have the relationships. You know, in my experience, I even worked, I worked with a lot of like economic development people thinking that surely they know they have the relationship with all of these, you know, all of these manufacturers, and are just a phone call away from being able to get in there to talk to them. The reality is, they know where they’re located. They can’t get appointments either. In there. It’s the associations where the manufacturers kind of self select based on, you know what, what’s being offered, the vibe. What kind of culture does the association have? And here, all of a sudden, even for us, and we’re relatively small, here’s 270 of them. It’s like, let’s do something with it and help, you know, help kind of like the match, and get this thing going more broadly, because there’s still a last mile issue with manufacturers. Going back to that, I’m the only one having. This problem, you know. And, and here’s this chorus of experts going, we’re here to help. There might even be money to pay for it, you know. And it’s like, no, I don’t have time for an appointment.
Curt Anderson 45:10
Okay, yeah. And DiAnn says, invite everyone to the table. Love it. Ray, my goodness, I do that. I know we could keep you here all day. I’m gonna start winding down one thing that you, that I you shared, and I’ll use my Allison the Ford line. As a matter of fact, I’m talking to Allison later today. I mean, she always uses that line, brick to the head, right? Yeah. And so, brick to my brick to the head. You talk about that changing behavior, yeah, for the manufacturer out there, you know, gosh, you know, it’s and I’ve been, I’ve been guilty of this. I’m, you know, like ages. We’ve always done it, you know, how do you help embrace change? You know, they’re like, man, we’ve, you know, we’ve been doing it like this. We’ve been successful like this. How do you help people kind of ease into that change mindset? Do you have any tips, any advice that you’d give there? Some of the,
Ray Ziganto 46:00
it’s kind of an oxymoron. The first thing you mentioned that kind of derailed me was, we’ve been pretty successful, have you? You know, which kind of takes me back to the benchmarking thing. You can always dig in, and sometimes that’s where the perspective, you know, can come in. If the pain point is high enough people are willing to change. You know, that’s, that’s the reality. The history of manufacturing in the United States is a function of, hey, if things are chugging along and you’re kind of going fat and happy, that’s great, you know, then, you know, let’s, let’s go back and look at some of the shocks that made change worthwhile. Globalization, all of a sudden, you’re not competing down the street. You’re competing around the world economic crisis. Let’s look at workforce. Let’s throw in a pandemic. So So part of it is the notion of being adaptable is really important. That becomes a muscle you need to be able to grow in your organization. You might be successful because you’ve already done that unintentionally. That’s my caveat. You might already be a remarkably flexible and responsive organization. Okay? If you’re not, it’s usually there’s a symptom. You’re struggling somewhere. My turnover is real high, you know? My maintenance sucks. Our on time. Delivery is terrible. You know, there can be a lot of stuff. You know, we plateaued at $3 million or $5 million and we’ve stayed there forever, and I don’t know how to break out of it, you know? So if the, if the if the pain is great enough, and they’re the senior leadership is committed to, we’re going to break the cycle. That’s the first step. If they don’t, if they don’t want to change, I can’t convince somebody if what you’re doing is working for you and it’s going, Well, God bless you. Yeah, you know, you’re winning, brother. You know, fantastic, you know. But if you wanted some, you know, if there’s, if there’s something more that you want, you’re not sure how to get, let’s talk. Yeah, yeah. That’s, that’s kind of, that’s kind of, that’s a long way around. That’s, that’s kind of, how I, how I see it, you know, there’s, they’ve got to want it. They’ve got to want it. There’s a, there’s a curt state and a desired state they want to get to when they’re ready to go, right?
Curt Anderson 48:18
Yeah, got to be hungry enough. And I like that, you know, with the pain of not doing something exceeds, or I’m saying that backwards, the pain of doing something exceeds the pain of not doing something,
Damon Pistulka 48:29
yeah, yeah. I mean, because that’s inaction is, is, most times that’s the the thing you’re fighting against, yeah? Anything not that’s a choice. Yeah, it’s a choice,
Ray Ziganto 48:41
you know, was it that Peter Drucker said it was a Drucker or, you know, you don’t have to change, go out of business,
Curt Anderson 48:49
yeah, yeah, Peter Drucker. I love Peter Drucker. Yeah, I think, I think it was like, you know, two facts in life. Life changes daily. People hate change, you know, like, what’s got, something’s got there, right?
Ray Ziganto 49:01
There’s and especially in today’s world. I mean, my sense of it is, you know, if you snap a line, you know, I don’t know, whatever it is out there. You know, the rate of change is happening so fast. Manufacturers really need to be, they need to be in that position where the factory is the product, kind of like Tesla, where it’s like, what do you need? We’ll reconfigure and do it better than anybody else, right? You know. And how do you get to that point where it’s like, your people are so flexible, you know, and adaptable, and your and your data sources and your ability to collect and react on it, you know, is so great. How are you able to make that happen? You know, to me, that’s the line you look at. It’s not, how do I keep it like it was 20 years ago? Yeah, you know, how do I how do I do something today? Nobody’s thought of, yeah, gosh, yeah. So that’s why I’m still jacked about manufacturing.
Damon Pistulka 49:51
So, oh yes, yes. I mean, every day there are new opportunities to help, you know, provide more value to your customers. Get better at what? You do and and it’s not, as you said earlier, it’s not necessarily in that, you know, manufacturing piece of it, around the around the edges is, is where the the unique strengths might be, where you really can add more for your customer.
Ray Ziganto 50:17
And it’s and that this kind of goes back to the beginning when I talked about the data analysis I did on culture and workforce, the companies that are actively engaging their workforce are there. They don’t have the hiring retention issues. One of our one of our member companies, has gotten it to the point where they they get so much great feedback from the shop floor. They close out on average, like, something like 60 to 80 continuous improvement activities every month. Wow. They get, they get so much feedback, and they got a process for it, and they’re rewarding people. And it’s like, you know, imagine what your business would be like if you had all 50 people pulling in the same direction.
Damon Pistulka 50:59
Yeah. That’s huge. That’s huge, massive, absolutely.
Curt Anderson 51:04
So eight and Diane says, embrace change to meet the challenges of the day. Damien, we’ll start winding down your thoughts, comments, what your big takeaways today this masterclass with Ray?
Damon Pistulka 51:15
Well, I just think it’s very, very cool how you are really coming back around with this association, the valley industrial association there, and getting out to the members, getting them what they need to actually move from today to, you know, a more successful tomorrow. Yeah, it really with, with ground I mean, just with, like, lack of better terms, but just good ground pounding stuff that says, Okay, we’re taking Step A, then step b, then step c. It’s not like, oh, that’s going to, you know, it’s, it’s, we are taking these steps to go forward. Yeah, I
Ray Ziganto 51:47
don’t talk to anybody about transformation of anything. Let’s, let’s just, let’s just freaking move.
Curt Anderson 51:54
Yeah, yeah. That’s, and that’s a big thing, right? It’s the big the word I have written down is the execution, right? Yeah, it’s like you’re coming in and like, you know, we’re not here to talk, we’re here to, you know, the needle, right? Diane says, Hey, to serve your customers, find your calm and create the success for your company. Yeah? Absolutely love it. So, Ray, let’s go here, my friend, yeah, you’ve, you’ve given us again, a total master class. Cannot express my thanks. Maybe you’ve covered it. I always love to close out with best business advice. What’s the best business advice that you’ve ever been given, or maybe for a new entrepreneur, what’s best business advice that you’d love to pass along to somebody out there?
Ray Ziganto 52:37
Oh, man, that’s a tough one. I’ve had, you know, at different times, in different circumstances, you know different different things resonate with you, depending where you are on your journey, some of the best ones. Gosh, I had one of the first guys I ever worked with. He says, you know, you got to do business with people that understand that understand you and like you because your enemies won’t do business with you. So that’s kind of a, you know, that one always stuck with me. That was, that was a long time ago. My dad always had a good one. He says, you know, they are, you are the some of your experiences. And it wasn’t new, but it’s like, you know, time and time again, I found myself in situations going, I guess this is where I’m, you know, supposed to be. And from a from a business standpoint, just just observationally, you know, the change isn’t going to happen if, if you don’t have buy in from the floor, you know that’s you’re only going to move as fast as your as your least willing person, right? You know, in the business, because otherwise you start out in a hole or somebody that’s fighting against you, right? You know. So if the key is the people, it’s, yeah, it’s overused. But if you’re, if they don’t get where you’re coming from, and you don’t get where they’re coming from, you’re stuck,
Curt Anderson 54:00
yeah, paint the picture. Yeah. I love some great I love your dad’s advice there. That was, oh yeah, one of your experiences. That’s a That’s a brilliant
Ray Ziganto 54:08
one. Yeah, the old man’s always there looking over my shoulder.
Curt Anderson 54:12
Hey, that’s you can always count on dear old dad. So Ray, I want to give a heartfelt thank you. I encourage everybody out there. Stop by Ray on his LinkedIn profile. Just connect with them. Follow his the organization’s LinkedIn page. Check out the website. If you want to talk to Ray about the growth accelerator plan, man, he is your guy. If you have a friend or family in great State of Illinois or around the Chicago area, most importantly, in the valley. Definitely connect with Ray. What do you got?
Ray Ziganto 54:43
Ray, Hey, real quick. I want to put out there if any of the folks listening want to, want to reach out and check with me. Happy to cut you a special deal on access to the benchmarking tool if you, if you want to get in there and just kind of see how you do and what it looks like. And I’m happy to follow up with a call. I don’t. What state you’re in, where you’re coming where you’re where you’re coming from, if you want to, if you want to go through it and sit down and have a 30 minute conversation, man, I’m happy to do it. So awesome,
Curt Anderson 55:10
awesome. Yeah. And again, right here, guys, we’ve got the valley industrial Association, org. Here’s the benchmark tool. And so again, connect with Ray on LinkedIn. I’ve got their LinkedIn. Here’s here’s their LinkedIn company page is right here. So again, stop by check it out if you’re catching this on replay down the road. Ray, that offer is going to stand so just connect with Ray, and he
55:32
would be happy to help out. Oh, hook you up. Nice.
Curt Anderson 55:35
Okay, alright, Ray, thank you, brother. Appreciate you more than you can imagine. Damon, what a phenomenal conversation.
Damon Pistulka 55:42
Yeah, it’s so good. Thanks for coming by today. Got
Ray Ziganto 55:45
it, brother anytime. And the only thing I
Curt Anderson 55:47
have to say, Ray, I do prefer being in person with you when we do this live show. So next time, let’s make sure you and I are are side by side, geeking out over this. And so we wish you, Cathy, your entire team just massive, massive success. So admirable. What you’re doing helping manufacturers in your territory and guys as you go out there and just be an inspiration, just like this handsome devil, and you two are going to make the world a better place. So, Ray, hang out with us for one second. Daniel, back here Friday with another incredible guest, yep, can’t wait. And so we are pushing, promoting the industrial marketing Summit, yup. And while you’re at it, if you want to keep tabs on like guests that we have coming up, we have a wonderful newsletter. It is called the best kept secret sauce. Sign up. Stop by Damon’s LinkedIn profile, step by my profile, or go to beat tail com. Sign up for that newsletter, and you too will be in touch with these wonderful guests that we are blessed with weekend and week out. So guys, have a great rest of your week and we will see you Friday. Dear everyone you.