Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Chris Luecke

Curt Anderson  00:00

Alright guys, man Happy Friday. Welcome to Manufacturing ecommerce success man or somebody missing on stage today Damon Where are you dude? So hey, if you’re out there Damon pop in, say hi or drop us some comments here Damien’s off having an amazing, amazing day today. So, Damon, you can let us know in the chat box what you’ve got going on. But, man, I am honored. I am thrilled to introduce our guests as a longtime friend. You know, I can like, Dude, we go back before COVID. So that’s like dog years, so I wanted to do so everybody who had not he needs no introduction, Chris, looky Mr. Manufacturing, happy hour. How are you, brother?

Chris Luecke  00:39

I’m great. It’s good to be here. I always look forward to our conversations Curt, you bring a level of energy that is easy to feed off of gravitate towards. So we’re gonna be talking about one of my favorite topics, which is marketing in the manufacturing space, as we introduce, or I should say continue to introduce I think probably a lot of people have gotten the word. They’re signed up, they’re ready to fly down to Austin. But next week is the industrial marketing summit in Austin, Texas. And I’m excited to do a little preview around that here. Well, man,

Curt Anderson  01:12

we finally get to meet in person. It’s so long overdue. I am just thrilled, honored. And just you know, I know like, the whole COVID thing. Just be prepared. I’ll cover up but I’m giving you a big hug. Just I’m just warning you. Just when you see some crazy bald guy running at you. It’s me and I’m just going to be giving you a big hug. So I look

Chris Luecke  01:29

forward to set hug. That’ll be an early highlight of the trip. Nice.

Curt Anderson  01:33

Well, thank you, Pete appeasing the old guy. I appreciate it, Chris. So alright, let’s go. Let’s dive in. So guys, if you’re out there, man, hey, Whitney College, Whitney. Houston, I like to say Whitney Houston is here today. Happy Friday. Guys, drop us a note. Let us know you’re out there. Tell us where you’re coming from. If you have any questions, boy, let us know what you’ve got on your mind. We’ve got an internet industrial marketing expert here. We’re going to be talking about the industrial marketing Summit. So hey, when are you going to be at the summit? I get to meet Whitney in person? Are you kidding me? This is gonna be so good. It’s like the who’s who? Man if you’re not going to be the summit? Team. I knew right. Chris is that does that just

Chris Luecke  02:14

Curt, I have been telling people as far as like q1 marketing investments go that this is easily the best marketing investment you can make. Because, you know, agenda aside, like, yes, we’re going to learn a lot of stuff there. But you’re going to be able to talk to the best practitioners in marketing in the manufacturing space in the industrial space. And that’s really where people are going to get their long term return on this event that you know, this is this is it’s not like 1000 person conference, we’re talking a few 100 people. So this is the type of event where you build relationships, you build friendships, I try to avoid the word networking, because I think it you know, it can get overused sometimes and say, Hey, this is an event where you’re probably going to walk away with a couple good, really new friends and a handful of really good new business connections that can help you from marketing strategy, or just bounce ideas off of because it’s not like it’s going to be a bunch of, let’s say, marketing companies in the industrial space, there will be some of them there. And they have some of the best expertise in our space. But it’s going to be people that work for robotics companies, for widget makers, for people that are supplying solutions to these end customers, people are going to be able to meet with their peers that are having the same challenges. The same issues have the same opportunities on their horizon and just will be great people to bounce ideas off of in the hallway between sessions before sessions kick off at the bar afterwards. All of those opportunities are going to be there it’s going to be great. I am stoked to hang out with a lot of my friends down there including you but certainly ready to meet a bunch of new folks that you know I’ve never really connected with before as well. So that was my very long winded intro to say this is where the who’s who of the marketing world in the industrial space is going to be next week. Austin Texas we hope to see you there.

Curt Anderson  04:18

Well guy that you heard it here first for Mr. Manufacturing Happy Hour himself and hey, we’ve got a few friends here the crowd I’m gonna pull up right. Our buddy Brian Fleming in great City of Detroit go lions big weekend. We’ve got miles let’s see. Whitney’s here. She’s we get to see her. She’s gonna see both of us here. We’ve got miles coming over the pond in London. We’ve got Patrick here today. Kelly Kelly’s gonna be at man are you Where’s where’s Kelly here she is. Can’t wait to see our Kelly. I can’t wait to see you in Austin. We’ve got Patrick here. Diane buyer is in the house. And hey, Diane, I just found out we might be doing dinner next week. So Diana, Happy Friday to you. Can we see you we’ve met in person prior so I can’t wait to see Diane Diana, she’s doing a great job marketing. She’s coming from the great city of Chicago. Chris, let’s go here, guys, for anybody that has not familiar with Chris Lukey. I can’t imagine there is anybody on the planet or in this little space, share a little bit about who is Chris Lukey? What is manufacturing? Happy Hour? How do you make the world a better place? Yeah,

Chris Luecke  05:19

so I’m a long time manufacturing industry guy. I’m a mechanical engineer by degree. And I’ve predominantly spent most of my 10 plus year career at this point, it’s weird to think that I’ve been doing this stuff for a decade now in some way, shape, or form. I spent most of it on the sales and marketing side, I started off as an engineer, but then then I became an account person worked with Rockwell Automation for the majority of that time in markets like Houston, Texas, San Francisco, California, here in Milwaukee, where I’m based now. Can’t thank that organization enough for providing a great base and foundation for my career. And, you know, that’s ultimately where the idea for manufacturing happy hour came about in 2016. You know, I, I tell people, I was a sales guy that had just moved from Houston, where I was calling on, let’s say, a more senior market folks that had been at their company for 2030 years. And I moved out to California, where you’ve all got the stereotypes in your heads, it’s like a bunch of 20 and 30 year olds running around making decisions. And, and that was the same same case for the tech industry in the manufacturing industry out there. So I was 2829 at the time, and I knew how I consumed content, videos, podcasts, etc. So I’m like, let me think of something that will gravitate towards that market of decision makers in that area. So manufacturing Happy Hour was formed as more of a initially it was like a product update video series around automation technology, and then it quickly evolved, or I should say, you know, over the two year period, or so evolved into the platform and community that it is today, we’re manufacturing happy hour. It’s really a leadership podcast, disguised as a manufacturing podcast. So we get into the bits and bytes, we talk about the tech. But there’s a lot of timeless information that we glean from our guests on the show. It’s a weekly interview podcast for just to be very specific about it episodes come out every Tuesday. And the executives and the leaders we interview on the show, talk about how they’re navigating challenges in industry, how they’re getting through it, how they’ve led through difficult times how they’re recruiting the next generation into manufacturing all of these issues that are on the minds of manufacturing leaders, we’re trying to understand how other people have solved those challenges in the past, or are currently addressing those opportunities that will allow them to take their careers, their businesses, and the industry as a whole to the next level. So another way to phrase it manufacturing Happy Hour is like TEDx meets how it’s made. So you, you were asking what my mission was what my purpose passion is. All that said, I help manufacturers tell their story to an ideal customer, audience, the people they want to be talking to the people, they want to be hearing their message. So that’s my elevator pitch, assuming we’ve got like 80 stories for me to to add floors for me to tell that story because that was a little long.

Curt Anderson  08:22

It’s no, that was fantastic. And again, I love guys connect with Chris Luecke on LinkedIn. And that is right in your headline. Absolutely love that. I helped manufacturers tell their story to their ideal customer dropped the mic. You just couldn’t make that any simpler. Hey, I’ve got a couple I want hate Nate’s here today, go blue national champions. So our friends in Ann Arbor, we’ve got Whitney saying, Hey, Chris, I didn’t know you were in Milwaukee. I have or you had a connection to Houston, we should meet up some time. And Keystone clique is in Milwaukee, he’ll deal. Let’s go here. You have a fascinating story. So Joe Sullivan, is actually the leader of the pack for the industrial marketing Summit, which we’re gonna be talking about in a minute. Now, you guys kind of reverse roles a little bit. So for folks that don’t know your background, you live in Milwaukee, but let’s tell it to everybody like you’re in, you know, as you’re doing that, I do have a question for you. On your LinkedIn. And I don’t know if you remember, like, last time, we had so much fun, I did a bunch of digging on you. But we’re gonna be we’re gonna be focusing primarily on the industrial marketing some, but you are a process engineer at Anheuser Busch. So that kind of gives away my little my little clue where you’re from. And then you also you were a physics teaching in lab assistant. Can you just share a little bit of your background where you’re from? And like, can you you pique my curiosity on the on the physics teaching and lab assist? Yeah. What was that? How did you end up in that role? Yeah,

Chris Luecke  09:47

so I’ll share a little bit of both. So the first part of the story you were hinting at that that Joe Sullivan, I believe Joe was just on this like very recently. Yeah, I was. Yeah. So Joe, and I basically had Have a mere life in some way because I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, went to De Smet, Jesuit high school there then came up to Milwaukee where I went to Marquette University for college. Joe Sullivan, on the other hand, grew up in Milwaukee went to Marquette high, I believe, which is basically, you know, we basically went to the same high school just in different cities. Yeah. And then he went down to St. Louis for college, I think I’m 99%. Sure. He’s a WashU. Grad. And then he stuck around St. Louis. So we kind of flipped, we both obviously go back to our respective homes fairly frequently, as well. So I have had the privilege of having a beer with Joe back in St. Louis before. Great times there. But yes, so Joe, and I kind of have flipped lives in that regard. And funny enough, now we’re both in like the industrial marketing space for our career. So very funny how that all worked out. The other thing you were asking about was being a physics teaching lab assistant. So, you know, that was that was one of my, I would say college jobs. So I was an engineering major at Marquette University mechanical engineering. And I had picked up a number of extracurriculars over the years, some of those extracurriculars were actually jobs and things like that. I was the promotions director at the radio station, I booked concerts at Marquette at one point, but probably the extracurricular that was most in line with what I was at school to study was being a physics teaching lab assistant. So essentially, what a lab assistant would do is it was our job. All every physics class had a class component and a lab component. And it was my job to help the students execute on the lab component every week. So doing experiments to understand rotational motion, even more basics, like, you know, position of velocity and acceleration, all of those type of activities. So that was a lot of fun grading lab papers, looking at results help. I mean, I think the most fun part of it was actually being in the lab and executing on the lab itself. Right. So that was, that was one of my many hats I wore when I was at Marquette University as a student.

Curt Anderson  12:11

Well, very impressive. I just, I had to bring that up, hey, we’ve got a couple more friends here. Diane buyer, our friend and Philadelphia says, addressing the opportunities, my buddy Alan’s in house, Allen, Happy Friday to you, dude. And Nate has a question here. So Chris, are you pretty much a broker of knowledge, but you provide the knowledge, like you are a broker and a seller of of the offer you’ve created for these companies who need help telling their story? Can you please answer that one?

Chris Luecke  12:39

Yeah. So to I think I understand that question. So you know, my, my current business is really built around helping manufacturers tell their stories in a number of different ways. And a lot of what I do is I demonstrate how to do that on an everyday basis. It’s through being consistent with content, like a podcast, being consistent with social media posting, hosting events, for example, that’s a big part of the manufacturing happy, our mission is to bring together different people within the manufacturing ecosystem, investors, startups, large companies, small companies, you name it. But I always tell people, it’s like a part of telling your story. Again, going back to my main mission, I help manufacturers tell their story. You know, if you’re doing something like recording a podcast or hosting an event, it doesn’t end, at the end of that podcast, it doesn’t end at the end of the event. Heck, it doesn’t even begin at the beginning of the event. It’s all the promotion you do leading up to it are all the promotion to say, Hey, make sure you check out this episode, share those little clips, those little insights from the people you featured on your podcast. And hey, when the event is done, hopefully I hired a professional photographer to capture that event, I literally just shared a bunch of photos from the event we threw in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago this morning on LinkedIn. All that to say is I try to get people in the mode of thinking, consistency, how am I consistently going to get my story out there? And how am I going to do it in a way that breaks through the noise? That’s a big part of it as well. So a lot of what I help customers with whether they’re a partner of the podcast, a sponsor on the podcast, or whether it’s coaching their executive teams on how to leverage personal brands to elevate your overall company brand, I make sure I’m practicing what I preach on a regular basis. So I don’t know if that directly answers Hey, are you a broker seller have the knowledge in this space. But that’s that’s what I try to do to help people understand what they need to be doing from I’m not even going to say a marketing standpoint because I’m really focused on the story and the things that help folks really connect with the people, the customers the prospects They want to be talking to, man, dude, we’ve got so

Curt Anderson  15:03

much to talk about. We’re gonna be here for a little while. So we’ve got a couple of comments. Whitney says, Bless you, man, physics. We’re not my strong suit. And Nate says, Thank you. This is gold. So hey, we appreciate it. And a quick question there any events in Detroit coming up? How about that one? bookmark

Chris Luecke  15:20

your calendar for May 20. It’s still a little tentative, but it looks like we might have a little Midwest manufacturing happy hour tour going on. So nice.

Curt Anderson  15:29

I 20s. Guys, mark your counter a we’ve got a friend from Sweden coming in today. Greetings to you. I am Swedish. So I love our friends from Sweden.

Chris Luecke  15:38

In Sweden, 18 months ago, first time visiting absolutely loved it. I was I was only in Stockholm for that trip. But I spent about five days there. Nice, wonderful time, great food, great vibe, great culture. very safe, very clean. I mean, and summertime is the perfect time to be there.

Curt Anderson  15:57

I got a friend from Bangladesh. And Nate says sweet, Brian says sweet and then we’ve got to see

Chris Luecke  16:02

we’re all around. All around right now. All right, Chris. I

Curt Anderson  16:07

have so many questions. But I do have to go there real quick. You were in Sweden. 18 months ago, pop quiz. Everybody would love to know, how many countries has Chris Lukey? visited? Hmm. I

Chris Luecke  16:18

know the number Do you are you are? Well, let’s take some guesses before I reveal. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  16:24

All right, guys, you know, we’re gonna I’m going to dig into another. If you drop into chat box. How many countries has Chris Lukey visited? And I’ll tell you, it’s more than two. Right? It’s quite a few. You are just an international traveler. Traveler. Just very passionate. I’m gonna go here, Chris. So I’m going to dig into like how you’ve built community and how and what it’s done for you your career. And then we’re going to slide right into everything that you’re working on. Right. And then again, I’m going to keep you guys hanging on for a minute. We’re going to dive deep into the industrial marketing Summit. You and I connected I think it was like literally I think was like five or six years ago, five, whatever it’s been now. And so you manufacturing happy hour. I was on LinkedIn. I was following you from afar. I believe you were in San Francisco at the time. Does that? Is that sound? Right? Were you? Correct? That is correct. Yep. And I was very impressed what you had going on. It just really resonated with me passionate about manufacturing, I joined your group and just what wonderful. As matter of fact, I just got a note from Samuel Michiru, a son of Greg miss you, I mean, that we’re not even getting the next generation coming into your group. And so Jeff Long, and we could go on and on about your friend, the community that you’ve built. But it we’ve got a couple of common we’ve got 1020 countries 26 How many? How many of you? How many of you,

Chris Luecke  17:43

all right, so gotta go a little higher. 26 was the closest so I hit 35 Last year when I went to the Dominican Republic for a wedding. And that was fun. Because I had my birthdays in March and I was 35 last year in February when I hit so I need to go about I’m going to turn 37 This March so I gotta get to two new countries to continue to keep up with my age. So

Curt Anderson  18:11

keep it keep it going brother so I international traveler community builder what you talked a little bit about you know what sparked your inspiration to you know, get manufacturing, happy hour going. But what I love them the point I want to really make for folks, you know, it doesn’t you know, here you’re at Rockwell Automation major corporation, you could be at a small company, nobody inspired No, while people inspired you. Nobody really mandated you like, Hey, Chris, you need to get this going. This was totally initiative on your own. Talk about how you got it started. In what I would love for you to dig in. Just like what is it done for you personally, the friendships and relationships, the business you built? What has manufactured Happy Hour done for you? Yeah,

Chris Luecke  18:51

I mean, I, I’ll be quite frank with people. It’s the best thing I’ve done in my career up to this point. You know, I mentioned I’m turning 37 This March. So the way I look at it, I’ve still got a long fun career ahead of me, but up to this point, I think it was where it you know, I would encourage this for everyone. It was really the first time I was I felt like I was able to double down on all of my strengths because I would say I’m a good sales guy, but I’ve been around the block a few times. And I know what a great sales guy looks like I would say I am a great promoter and know how to throw a great party and things like that. But you know, I had enough sales chops and radio chops and marketing chops that manufacturing happy hour. It was like a great way to mix that together in a bowl. And like have the platform that was going to allow me to play to my strengths and in turn, sell, you know, serve my customers, the people I work with an industry the best where manufacturing happy hour came from. You mentioned I mean, you’re totally right. It wasn’t a mandate. There was never going to be a point in my career or quite frankly, pretty much anyone’s career where someone was going to walk up to them and be like, You know what we think we need, we need you to crack a beer at the end of the day at work and talk about automation, right? No one was ever going to say that. But you know, at the end of the day, the happy hour aspect, the beer aspect is kind of the surface level aspect that makes it cool and approachable and casual and feel like something where you can walk up and have a conversation with someone at a bar about automation, or manufacturing or technology, or really any of the topics that manufacturing Happy Hour hasn’t evolved into. But I think it was really, during the pandemic was where I realized what the true power of manufacturing Happy Hour was, which was the community around it. Because I remember, it was the first week it was that week of St. Patrick’s Day in March 2020, where everyone was told to stay home, everything was locking down. We really didn’t know what was going on. Yeah, and I remember and this episode is still out there. I can’t believe it’s going to be four years old. But on Thursday, March 19, I believe it was we had a little virtual happy hour, we had 12 people jump on Zoom. You know, a handful of folks, I know you Kurt and you know, Kurt, like Dave Griffiths was in that group. Shope was in that group, like kind of the core group of the early manufacturing Happy Hour community we got we all got on board. And we talked about, hey, what are you seeing? What are you hearing right now? What are you feeling in industry? I know, it’s only like, a couple days into this pandemic thing. And we did that for one round of questions and discussions. And then we circled back around. It’s like, hey, what what do you think it’s going to take to thrive during this time, or make it through this time. And by the way, when I say this time, we thought we were only going to be home for like three weeks or a month or something like that, at this point, we didn’t realize it was gonna be like a year plus of our lives where we were moving into a new operating procedure. All this to say is, you know, manufacturing happy hour, the real power of it has evolved into community. And one of the reasons I started it, I mentioned, there was a very kind of a mix of a tactical and strategic reason to start it to reach a younger demographic of manufacturing decision makers out in the bay area. But the other piece was, hey, it allowed me to play to my strengths. And I really hadn’t, I hadn’t seen something like this in industry yet. I really borrowed a lot of my ideas for manufacturing happy hour, you know, recording videos on my iPhone in front of a cool backdrop sharing information on video, posting it to YouTube, all I did was look at other industries that were already doing that I just happened to be one of the first people in the manufacturing industry along with a handful of other early adopters like the making chips podcast there, there are a handful of other people that had kind of caught on to using social media and manufacturing before anyone else was using it. But I just borrowed a bunch of ideas from other industries and like every other industry is making videos, every other industry is doing podcasts. Why isn’t? Why is this not a big thing in manufacturing? So that was another very long answer.

Curt Anderson  23:10

Wait, don’t you, you, that’s what you’re here for a man is to help educate us. And that’s speaking of word educate what I love. You know, I was part of that early manufacturing. And it was we got to we were getting together pre COVID I think we were getting together in 19. Yeah, and you know, we’re getting together and then yeah, when World shut down, you know, I remember, you know, being my backyard my wife, I’m like, I’m gonna jump on his virtual call, because there’s, you know, can’t do anything else. Yeah, I want to let you know, shamelessly, you know, I was writing a book at the time. And you guys were just such a, you guys were just so supportive. And just, you know, man, just you were my accountability guys, and just really helped me move along. And I just, I’m eternally grateful to you all the support and love that you gave to me at that time. And I wasn’t an automation guy. I’m just kind of an oddball. I’m an E commerce guy for manufacturers. You’re trying to target young people in Silicon Valley. I’m in I’m on the East Coast, and I’m an old dude. So I, you welcomed me with open arms, arms, I’ve just really welcomed in, or I’m sorry, I’ve really appreciated your support your friendship. But let’s go here. You’re doing a podcast at a major corporation. And what why I’m going here. If somebody’s out there. They’re a solopreneur solo marketer at a bigger company. And they’re like, you know, Boy, I’ve been thinking about mentioned this to my company. How would you recommend or how do you suggest either to your clients or to somebody that like, Chris, I’m going to be in your seat, like, what are some steps that they could take to kind of kick off their journey? Yeah,

Chris Luecke  24:39

so to kick off, let’s say a storytelling content creation journey, or really getting your personal brand out there to the people you want it to be in front of how to kick that off, I think starts with some very simple things. The first thing I would say is You don’t have to create something like a big podcast or manufacturing Happy Hour platform, your platform can be your name, it can be Curt Anderson Inc, it can be Chris Lukey Inc, not I mean, not literally, of course, right. But the idea is, you are your brand. So, you know, and I tell folks, you don’t have to go in there and create a lot of content right out of the gate, I would get used to, you know, maybe posting on LinkedIn a couple times a week, I always tell people, because I think of this in terms of a sales guy, I block my calendar for sales meetings with customers, that’s what I did during my career, I would block my calendar the same way to say I’m going to spend 30 minutes on LinkedIn this morning, I’m gonna post an insight that’s relevant to the customers I serve in my industry. And that doesn’t mean a product pitch. That means hey, here’s a trend I’m seeing in the automotive space. If you serve automotive customers, for example. That’s what I would say in that capacity. So create a blog time on your calendar to share content. And it doesn’t need to be like a bunch of stuff, like do it once or twice a week, make it easy on yourself to start, the bigger thing I tell folks is if you’re trying to build a platform, trying to build your personal brand, one of the best things you can do is you don’t even necessarily need to be the person creating the content, you can be going in and adding value by commenting on other posts. For example, like a great example, Brian Fleming is on here. He’s been listening to this, he’s been commenting, he is excellent at getting into the comments on people’s posts, you know, add value, add your insights there to figure out you know, look for folks in your network that are sharing content or search for a hashtag the the, you know, the amperage, not the ampersand, the the number symbol, and whatever trend you’re looking for, like in our industry, hashtag smart manufacturing would be a great spot to start. Or if you really want to get into it, hashtag artificial intelligence that might take you down a rat hole and a bunch of other directions. But think about our hashtag automotive, we were using the example of automotive manufacturers earlier, go search for the conversations that are already taking place. And a hashtag is just one way to do it. Think about your industry associations. Think about your peers that are sharing content in your niche as well go in and comment. It doesn’t always need to be you broadcasting your insights in a post that’s important. But I think it’s more important and a better way to differentiate yourself by being the person that gets in there on the comments, and adds value to conversations that are already taking place. So those are some of my thoughts on how to get started. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  27:47

I love that. And a couple of you know, again, is we have friends here, you just call it out Brian Fleming, great guy to connect with on LinkedIn. He’s a wonderful support group with you. We just had a nice chat last week. He’s doing incredible work helping folks with LinkedIn. Whitney’s here today she’s with Keystone click, they’re your neighbors of yours in Milwaukee, Laurie Hi, V dear friend, they do incredible work with content marketing, helping manufacturers. So again, guys in the chatbox great folks here to you know, this is community here, create, you know, network and connect with with each other here on LinkedIn. Now, Chris, what I absolutely love couple of things that you said that I want to strip out there, that consistency piece just kind of get started. You know, we don’t as manufacturers, you know, that have not been in marketing. It’s very, you know, God bless us. Right? It’s, you know, hey, let me tell you about my O ring. Let me tell you about my O ring. Let me tell you about my you know, like we don’t have to talk about the product and features. Let’s be human. I’m going to slide into what you’re going to be talking about next week. So guys, we’re here with Chris Lukey. Manufacturing happy hour. I know, I think we just crossed the top of the hour. So if you’re just joining us, let us know that you’re out there. drop a note in the chat connect with Chris here on LinkedIn. Chris, let’s dive into industrial marketing Summit. One of the parts of your thing is humanizing your brand I just did a gig with with Eddie yesterday, Eddie Saunders Jr. is on site like, Dude, I don’t know if my heart is gonna be able to handle you and Eddie at the same time on stage. But you guys will be talking about humanizing your brand. How do you humanize your brand? Let’s go there.

Chris Luecke  29:16

Yeah, well, I think one of the things I’m most excited to discuss during this panel, and it’s going to be myself, Eddie Saunders, Nikki Gonzalez, and Jordan Yates. We’re all part of a panel on how to humanize your brand. And I think one of the most important conversations that’s going to come out from that is how do corporate brands leverage people with personal brands that are on their team? And how can folks that have a good personal brand, better collaborate with corporate brands, the bigger company brand because I think that’s an area that it’s a two way street. Like, they’re always we need to continue to evolve, because there’s not necessarily a perfect playbook for, hey, you know, I’m the marketing manager at a company. And I’ve got four or five people on my team that have strong voices, they all have their unique voices. They’re pretty in line with the corporate brand, but they also have their own edge to them as well. How do you balance that? On the flip side? You know, let’s say you’re someone that has an established voice in industry, and you’re used to doing things your own way? What are ways that you can understand, okay, this is the voice of the company that I work with? And how can I, you know, combine my voice with the company voice to share things that are relevant to both of us, right, because at the end of the day, you know, personal brands, people that have their personal brands, they’re not going to talk about the company, they work for 100% of the time, I own my own business, I don’t talk about manufacturing, happy hour, 100% of the time I talk about other stuff, as well, that make up who I am as a person. So I’m really excited to have the conversation with Jordan, with Eddie, with Nikki and share some of my own insights as well on how do we create a more collaborative environment between companies and personal brands. Because at the end of the day, the more of those groups that can work together, that’s how you start to humanize your brand more and more the people that work for your organization that have a voice. Those are literally the humans behind the brand, whether we’re talking a multibillion dollar company, or a small startup. So that is one of the areas that I’m really excited to get into. And maybe we give a little preview to what some of that might look like today. But that’s what’s on my mind most for that conversation next week. I

Curt Anderson  31:52

love it. And can you see my screen? Is that can you help me so guys? All right, so right here, we’ve got Nikki Nikki has been on the show, and he’s been a repeat offender. He’s been on multiple times. We just did a little jam session yesterday, in Jordan. She’s gonna be on the show next month. So I absolutely love this. We’re going to talk about some of the other folks here. Now Chris, one thing that I love, respect, admire with you, my friend is, you know, one of the tag lines that we do a bunch of we do like webinars and training, what have you is we call How do you out teach the competition. So as a manufacturer, instead of like, you know, being net salesy, and how do we spend money on advertising? But how can you be the educator, I had the honor and privilege you and I did a fun jam session with our buddy Jay Cole, at Purdue University at the Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership. And you were taught you guys did an amazing, it’s perfect. I have it on my website, it’s on b2b tell I have the recording, guys want to go there, go to b2b tail type. And looky right in the little search box. And you’re gonna see Chris, during a wonderful jam session at Purdue University, talking about digital transformation. Chris, let’s let’s scratch that itch for a little bit. Talk a little bit about that digital transformation. I don’t know if it’s gonna I don’t want to give away the secret sauce. What’s going on here in Austin? But anything there from that? What are gig and Purdue that you want to touch on today?

Chris Luecke  33:07

Yeah, you know, I mean, we were talking about that that conversation was really built around digital transformation, right? Like how to get started with that, how to make it more approachable. We went into a lot of 101 topics for that. And I think a big piece of that is, you know, I tried to one thing I talked to folks about is micro transformations, for example, how to get started with maybe getting your maintenance department to digitally transform. You know, when I when I look at that, that’s like when I was working with fix software, we were often talking about, hey, how do you get one team to move from paper records to, you know, things that are off of that at the end of the day? So that’s like into a more digital platform that’s cloud based. That’s what we were talking about in that capacity.

Curt Anderson  34:05

Yeah. All right. Absolutely. Love it. All right. So that’s I wanted to hit that real quick. Let’s come back to industrial marketing Summit. We’re talking about our buddy Joe Sullivan, Joe Silva. And if you’re not familiar with Joe, boy, I encourage you welcome you connect with Joe on LinkedIn. Here’s the handsome devil right there. He’s the founder of Gorilla 76. We’ve got our dear friend Wendy Covey from true marketing. And of course we’ve got Adam back from cadenas partsolutions All three of these guys, they’ve been on the show multiple times. Anybody that you want to point out other speakers others were excited about every session, any sessions in particular that you want to point out, Chris? Yeah. So

Chris Luecke  34:40

you know, I’m really excited as as you’re scrolling through this. I mean, I’ll say this. I’ll start with something very manufacturing Happy Hour fashion. I mentioned. One of the big aspects of this event is getting to know all the folks that are there. The pre event on Wednesday night I think is going to be a great spot to start I’m recording an EP sodo manufacturing happy hour while I’m there. So we’re going to be doing that live. And that’s a great spot to start connecting with the marketing leaders that are going to be at this event. And one of the things that I tell folks is, hey, if you’re going to an event, like have a game plan, go in and know who you want to meet, also save time for serendipity that Wednesday is going to be a great time to get started on that. So that’s the first thing I’m looking forward to. And I also have the agenda in front of me right now. You know, I’m excited what one thing I’m excited for is the mix of large and small companies that are going to be there. I tell folks, hey, my corporate alma mater, Rockwell Automation, they’re going to be presenting there, then you’re also going to get to hear from folks that work for boutique marketing agencies and do other aspects, as you know, and serve the manufacturing industry in a number of unique ways. Absolutely.

Curt Anderson  35:56

So here’s you just mentioned, Rockwell. So Timothy is going to be speaking from Rockwell. We’ve had Morgan on the show a couple of times, she’s going to be talking, I’ve seen her in person at the last industrial marketing Summit. She’s an incredible speaker and presenter, Mary is a powerhouse. She just picked up a new gig recently, she was just on the show last month. And so just a lot of, you know, I love the diverse conversations that we’re going to have here. We’ve got the team from gorilla 76. They’ve got Chris Hall from Jasper, that was, I know, that was a huge coup in a big home run that the team is really excited about. And like you said, you know, the networking. So I mean, it’s just it’s the whole gamut, Chris, it’s just a hook up. You know, from the networking Wednesday night, the show anything else that you want to point out to folks that you’re excited about at the industrial marketing Summit?

Chris Luecke  36:45

I think bringing up Jasper is a good topic, because when I think of like the AI platform in marketing, Jasper, because I know a couple of the co founders from that company. And I think what they’re that’s an area personally where I need to learn more about and I’m sure most other people at the conference are like I need to learn how to leverage that as part of my marketing strategy, rather than just the storytelling, etc. So that is one thing. I’m very much looking forward to there.

Curt Anderson  37:16

Yeah, I, you know, it really covers a lot because you’ve got content marketers, you mentioned, you know, different sized companies. You got CJ here from global spec. I’m super excited to hear what’s going on there. Dale’s got some really exciting things talking about, as you mentioned right now, AI tools for SEO. That’s going to be a great I mean, every session MJ I had the honor of seeing her speak last year, on two years ago now, at the last industrial marketing Summit. She’s a powerhouse speaker. So again, guys, lots of exciting topics, you’re going to be covered in Austin, I strongly encourage you guys, if you haven’t considered it sign up. You want to check it out. I’m going to come back to you guys, or I’m going to come back to Chris. That’s I’m going to check the comments here real quick. Yep. Kelly, she’s mentioned industrial marketing Summit. And hey, Diane buyer. Hey, Kurt, man, every time every time I tune in something wonderful and inspiring. Hey, how can you not be inspired when the guy Chris Lukey on stage? Chris, let’s go here. So what do you what are you hearing boots in the street? You know, you cover a lot of different topics, talk to a lot of different folks in manufacturing 2024. Any trends? What are you seeing what’s going on? What’s happening coming out?

Chris Luecke  38:24

You know, there’s, there’s folks I talked to, I think there’s a sense that there’s a little softness in this market right now in the manufacturing space, which isn’t a bad thing. You know, I was just listening to Alan bowl you, famous economist at the a three business forum a week ago discussing how, hey, you’re gonna see some softness here in 2024, or likely see some softness, you know, this is economics we’re talking about. But it’ll give folks time to get through their backlog. And you want to make sure you don’t stop selling and marketing during this time. Because this is just a light a light break, if you will, because in 2025, things will pick back up again, and you want to be prepared for that. So in my mind, this is the perfect opportunity to put some of the things we’ve talked about into practice today. How do you ramp up your marketing? How do you make it more human? How do you do a better job of reaching the folks you want to reach? Because that is the investment you need to make during this time. You don’t want to. And I think there’s still two camps of people. There are folks that are in the Hey, I view marketing as an expense. It’s trade show support, it’s flyers, etc. I do think the amount of people in that group is starting to decrease. I think people, especially the folks that are going to the industrial marketing Summit, they know that marketing is an investment and that it’s a revenue generator. So we’re going to see two different camps doing different things. Other folks are really going to double down on marketing efforts, targeted marketing efforts, paid ads, leveraging the voices of the people on their team, and other groups are probably going to lay low, unfortunately, and one thing I’d like to see is is trying to get as many people into the camp of the action takers and the doers versus the folks that err on the side of hey, I’m just gonna wait it out, for example, right? Well,

Curt Anderson  40:10

again, so I want to come back to that theme of like our teaching the competition. You have your podcasts, you’re doing live streams you are doing, you know, you’re speaking at an event, you’re a constant, you’re bringing on all sorts of subject matter experts, and all of your questions are based around what? Education educating your listeners, right? So for manufacturers out there, you know, we’ve talked about the like that consistency, some of that content, what like, you know, say they’ve Steve started, they have they have nothing, right? They’re just starting from scratch. We’ve talked about that digital transformation, but they are, they’re like, You know what, I want to get things going, what can you talk about, I could start on LinkedIn with some posts, but what you know, if they want to get going in some type of like a really steady content strategy. And I love your tagline. I hope industrial companies turn turning marketing expenses, into marketing investments. Yeah, you turn those expenses into investments.

Chris Luecke  41:05

So I’m going to start I actually wrote an article for the industrial marketing summit not too long ago called three common mistakes manufacturers make in marketing. And I’ve got a solution to all of them. So maybe this is an opportunity to kind of start going through that. So how do you get let’s run through? Oh, yeah. So how do you get started? The first thing, the first mistake I mentioned is manufacturers tried to market to everyone, you know, they’re like, We call on all five of these verticals. We call an engineering, purchasing yada, yada, like every department in the company, we need a message that’s going to resonate with all of them. And when you try to reach every, when you try to market to everyone, you end up marketing to no one. What I tell folks is the first thing you got to do, if you’re creating a content strategy is you need to know who you’re talking to who your avatar is. Give your avatar a name. You know, let’s say Sarah is an engineer at a manufacturing company, a widget manufacturer in Los Angeles. She’s 33 years old. You know, she just started her family. But she also she’s been an engineer for most of her career. But she just got promoted. And now she’s leading a team of people for the first time. I’m talking about Sarah because Sarah is one of the key avatars for manufacturing happy hour when I’m creating content on manufacturing happy hour, I’m asking myself, is Sara going to like this content? Because yes, she needs to know about the latest automation technology, but she also needs to know how to recruit a young and diverse workforce as well and how to lead that workforce. So when I’m creating episodes of manufacturing, happy hour, I’m creating it for Sara. And I think manufacturers need to take that first step back to be like, okay, yes, we do sell and market to all these different groups of people. But we really need to be focused on Jack first as an example. So right a couple parent, figure out who that avatar is write a couple paragraphs about them, and start building a content strategy that is appealing to Sarah or to Jack not to Sarah and Jack, pick one, start small and then as you start marketing to Jack and you realize oh, Sara is listening to this quite a bit as well. What is Sara care about? We’ll define that avatar as well. But don’t try to be like I’m talking to Jack and Jill and Jack and Sally and John and you know, Sandra and Bob, start start with a very specific persona, figure out what their challenges are their frequently asked questions, the opportunities they’re trying to capitalize on and build content that appeals to that person. All right,

Curt Anderson  43:43

dude, that was a drop the mic moment right there so I wanted like Whitney I couldn’t agree more Whitney preach it. I hope I’m pronouncing this correctly. Wynonna creating a buyer persona absolutely perfect. And miles says Chris sounds like I’m listening to myself. But Chris, we have so many products, we must talk about them all. But I absolutely love that. Dude, I’m writing my second book right now you know who I’m writing it to? Lynn. I’m like every sentence I’m writing it to Lynn client of mine and so I couldn’t agree more. So guys, that was a big drop the mic right there. Number one. Know your buyer persona. Chris. Luecke please enlighten us what’s number two? So

Chris Luecke  44:26

number two is manufacturers often create the wrong kind of content. And there’s a time and place for highly produced videos, you know, very investment, heavy activities with drone shots of your facility where you talk about how much you care about your customers and that that’s your main differentiator. But there’s a lot of other stuff you need to be doing as well and it doesn’t need to be a $30,000 video project right out of the gate. You know, for example, I What I’d love to see manufacturers do more of is creating more bite sized consistent content, were sure that you know that drone footage of the factory looks great. And like I said, that is a good thing to have on your website, you shouldn’t not invest in that. But if you have a CEO, or an executive or some person on the team that has that type of maybe a camera ready personality, or has a lot of insights that you can pull out as the marketing leader, and you know, post on social media, or have them post on social media, I’m sure as heck let rather see the CEO of a small mid sized machine shop on his iPhone, you know, talking about a challenge that they solve that day, in a very candid way, rather than that fancy video that talks about that facility, because it’s a lot easier to create that iPhone video everyday, I could do that right after this call, I could do it during this call, for example. So I’d like to see easier, more consistent content like that, sure. It’s not going to have the same production value, but throw captions on it, you know, if it’s insightful, and it’s helpful to the ideal buyer. That’s what’s important.

Curt Anderson  46:12

Drop the mic number two right there, Mr. Luecke. absolute love it. So guys, manageable content content that can you that you can put out easily and effectively. And that resonates with that ideal customer refer back to number one. So we’ve got number one, know your ideal customer number two, putting out just great, consistent and efficient content. But am I saying that correctly? Chris was okay,

Chris Luecke  46:34

efficient is a great word for it right stuff that doesn’t require that heavy of a lift to?

Curt Anderson  46:40

If you’re comfortable with this, I’m gonna chime in with it. Before we dive into number three, my bit, my dear friend, Ellen Ellen’s in Indiana, dear friend, what does the landscape of business development and manufacturing look like? Chris Luecke. Any thoughts there?

Chris Luecke  46:53

It’s a big question. I’m going to I could take that question in a number of different directions. But what’s the landscape of business development look like? You know, I do think there’s a lot there’s, there’s still a ton of relationship driven aspects to the manufacturing space. If I’m out there, and I’m doing business development, it’s not just one on one meetings with customers or potential partners. For examples. It’s having a holistic approach of, let’s say those one on one sales calls those one on one meetings, as well as some of the things that you do to broadcast your brand, on social media, on video on podcasts, et cetera. So I think it’s figuring out again, kind of going back to what we’re talking about, like when you’re doing business development, who are you trying to reach? Who’s that avatar, start there? And then do these things that play to your strengths to start reaching out to them, you know, do the one on one meetings, maybe video is not your thing? That’s okay. You can appear on someone’s podcast, that’s audio only you can do written posts or photo posts on LinkedIn, there are a lot of different ways to create content that plays to your strengths. So that’s what I’d say the nature of business development looks like.

Curt Anderson  48:03

Alright, great answer. Great question. Thank you, Alan. Appreciate it. You know my answer to that one is Chris,

Chris Luecke  48:08

what’s that?

Curt Anderson  48:08

Live streams? Man? I think last year, you know, your podcast live streams. I couldn’t I’m anybody that’s wanting to listen, I am preaching. What a great way just before we hit number three, I just real quick, I’m going to divert think of the relationships. I know I mentioned it earlier. But think of the relationships that you’ve built purely because your podcasts that you would have never had these conversations in, right. I mean, can you hit on that for a minute? Oh, yeah.

Chris Luecke  48:35

I mean, there are a lot of people that, quite frankly, I never would have met without the manufacturing Happy Hour platform. And it’s not, I think some people mistake like the idea of influencer with celebrity like it, you know, at the end of the day, it’s just, it gives you a basis to meet people that you otherwise might not have had an excuse to meet. Like when I think about when I was a salesperson, like if I’m calling an executive, like I’m asking for their time to take a meeting, to talk to them about something that could genuinely help their business, but they don’t know me, they don’t really know who I am, I didn’t have a lot of credibility doing that. Now, when I reach out to someone say maybe someone that I’d like to take on as a customer at some point, I don’t even need to approach them about being like, Hey, I think we could partner together in some way I can be like, Hey, would you like to appear on my manufacturing podcast? Because you’re a manufacturing leader, and I know you’d have something to contribute to my audience. So it’s given me an opportunity to build relationships in a way I otherwise wouldn’t have had because I have something I can give to people before I ever have to ask for anything in return.

Curt Anderson  49:44

Couldn’t agree more that was dropped in like number three, even though we haven’t hit point number three. Chris, I want to be respectful of your time because I know you are a busy man. Can you please share we hit number one, number two, what is number three please?

Chris Luecke  49:58

Number three kind of brings out calm realization full circle manufacturers often don’t leverage the personal brands of the people at their company as much as they should. Because back to what we’re talking about, how do you humanize your brand? Well, how about the humans that work for your organization? And I think there’s, there’s sometimes this concern that it’s like, well, if we’re putting all this effort into leveraging Jane, as one of the voices of our company, what happens if Jane leaves? And my answer that it’s like, well, it’s inevitable, like some people are going to leave your company someday, we don’t live in the world where people are going to stay somewhere for 35 years and retire, right. But that’s why having a bunch of people with strong personal brands is great, because then let’s say you have 10 people on your team with strong personal brands, you know, what, inevitably, a couple of those are going to leave at some point. But you’re not dead in the water, because you have a holistic strategy that’s taken advantage of a lot of the folks that are on your team, not just the executive, not just the C suite, pick people that, you know, maybe they don’t have a big audience today, or maybe they don’t have the big title today. But they’ve got the skill set to appeal to a bigger audience, like think about those type of folks. So that’s, that’s, and I think the biggest thing is build a content strategy that leverages the expert expertise of the people on your team. And that humanizes your brand. And here’s the other fun trick, Kurt, because we talked about how you got to pick one ATAR to go after right, you can’t go after everyone at once? Well, if you have a bunch of personal brands on your team, a bunch of people with strong personal brands, maybe one of them has a voice that really appeals to the engineering team. Maybe one of them has a voice that really appeals to the executive team. All of a sudden, you start solving that problem of being like, well, we have multiple personas we need to reach right? Well, here are different people that are going to play really well at meeting those different type of personas. So that’s the last thing I’ll say in that regard. And you know, the nice thing about everything I’ve mentioned, these mistakes folks make is trying to market to everyone. You know, being not not focusing on little bite sized consistent content, or not leveraging personal brands. These are things that don’t take a capital investment to fix. These are things that if you take the time to put a quick plan around it, you can start capitalizing on very, very quickly.

Curt Anderson  52:25

Okay, man, that was my job number four, we’re going to take a moment of silence and just kind of like savor dude. That was a masterclass, you broke that down was such simplicity, yet such high level strategy just I think you’ve done it before. Chris, I think this was not your first rodeo Am I just

Chris Luecke  52:45

write the article, I did just write the article. So it wasn’t it was it was fresh in my mind. But

Curt Anderson  52:48

it was, Hey, guys, let’s recap that know your ideal customer. You know, in our little training, we love to call them your soulmate who’s that soulmate that needs a problem that you’re delivering that you know, the solution that you offer on a daily basis? Who’s out there that needs you? And think about it, Chris, like, you know, when that customer find you, they might even be more excited that they found you then you found that, you know, invite them vice versa. Because maybe like you said, it’s Janie, they’re an engineer at Boeing. And they have somebody at the food chain that’s really grinding them to find a solution. And they just found like this little tiny machine shop that knows how to manufacture this little widget like nobody else does. And now they’re thrilled to find you. So that was dude, people do business with people humanizing your brand. I encourage you guys I welcome you go back, hit the rewind button on this masterclass and just soak in all the brilliance that Chris has laid out, Chris, I know you’re super busy again. We’re gonna close things out industrial marketing Summit, Austin, Texas next Wednesday, Thursday, Friday be there or man you’re gonna have FOMO Jeff Long just sent me a note. He’s unable to make it and he texts me Curt. I have major FOMO So Jeff, we’re gonna miss you next week. Chris, close us out. Please. What are who is inspiring you for 2024? Who are what is really inspiring you as we’re running into 2024

Chris Luecke  54:07

Oh, man, I’m gonna give you just a random one actually. So just kind of a complete 180 from the what rest of our conversation. Jesse Itzler is a guy that I really enjoy following and to put it into context, he’s he’s written some books living with a seal like what was like living with a Navy SEAL living with the monks what it was like living with monks for a while. He trying to think of the best he’s married to. Yeah. Sarah from Sara Blakely. Yeah, so power couple and in his younger years, he was a rapper. So he’s gotten quite quite the quite the life and I think he’s a part owner of the Atlanta Hawks is what

Curt Anderson  54:49

he and he founded. If I’m not mistaken, was it is it NetJets

Chris Luecke  54:53

that Marquis Jet, Marquis Jet right

Curt Anderson  54:55

okay. Yeah, yeah, so I mean, he Alright, great answer, dude. I haven’t heard had Jesse as an answer and I’m on his email list. I’m a very active follower of Jesse Itzler. Boy, check him out, go follow his podcast. I think he has a podcast. He has a community. And he’s a powerhouse. That is Yeah. Yeah,

Chris Luecke  55:14

the reason I bring Jesse up is because one of his met like, he’s definitely a guy that in a general standpoint, he’s like, you know, live your life to the fullest on a regular basis. But we’ve all heard that kind of generic inspirational line before. I think what he’s really good at these like, pick one year defining activity that you want to do. And I don’t necessarily know what my year defining activity is yet, this will be the first year I’m fully dedicated to growing, manufacturing happy hour, full time for the entire year. So that’s definitely something there. But his year defining activity last year was he rode his bike with a bunch of buddies from the West Coast to the East Coast, they rode their bikes across the country. And so it’s about thinking, like, not even this isn’t even just career advice. It’s like what are the things you want to accomplish out of life and like, make sure you’re doing those things. So, you know, I’m excited for, you know, going on tour with manufacturing Happy Hour a bit more than I’ve done in the past a lot of these events that are coming up. And then book writing, there’s some other things that are in my very near future as well.

Curt Anderson  56:14

Well, I’ll tell you what, my friend I’m saying this, bye bye to my heart, your dear friend, I just I it’s been an honor privilege continues to be an honor privilege to be in your circle in your community. I just, I find you inspiring. You’re just a man of ethics. I admire respect and just love the work that you’re doing and how you’re, I don’t know a bigger advocate for US manufacturing. So hey, if you guys have been sitting for the past 50 or whatever minutes, it’s a great time to stand up. And how about let’s give a standing ovation for our dear friend Chris Lukey. Mr. Manufacturing happy hour, you just you as a just an advocate for manufacturing, just doing a wonderful, incredible job, Chris, thank you. I applaud you. I salute you. I commend you for all the work that you’re doing. Appreciate your friendship, I cannot wait to meet you in person next week is going to be highlight in getting to meet a bunch of our friends, Whitney, and I think Diana and Kelly and a few other friends that said that they’re going to be there next week. So guys, thank you for joining us. Thank you for your comments. Always appreciate you being here. Damon, we missed you today. I wish you could have been here with Chris. I know he was dying to be here today. Chris parting any last words of wisdom that you want to share with everybody?

Chris Luecke  57:25

You know, hey, just look for the little things you can do to get more consistent with sharing your story, commenting on posts, bite sized content, photos, short written posts, short videos recorded on your iPhone. You know, I spent the first nine months recording videos on my iPhone, I didn’t have any fancy equipment, fancy equipment is just an excuse. So find ways to start contributing to conversations and sharing your story. A story that resonates with your ideal customer audience, start doing that ASAP. And hopefully you’re going to the industrial marketing summit where you’re going to be around people that are doing that on a regular basis.

Curt Anderson  58:00

Well, hey, God bless you, brother. Just wishing you monster success on your entrepreneurial journey this year. I have tons more to talk to you about. We got to get you back on the show. Can’t wait to see you next week. Guys. Um, we’re gonna close out do me a favor, man. Just if you could be an inspiration to someone just like our dear friend Chris Lukey was today. Go out and just be someone’s inspiration. And world’s gonna be a little better place. Chris, hang out with me for one second. We’ll be back here Monday. We have another awesome guest on Monday. And then Chris, I’m hoping to do my little live show at the industrial marketing summit next week. We’re gonna head out with Wendy and Joe, Joe Sullivan and the team. So hopefully we’ll see you guys in Austin. So thank you very much, and we’ll see you next time.