Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with the NWIRC

Curt Anderson  00:02

Hey Damon, what’s up, dude?

Damon Pistulka  00:04

I’m just hanging with you today, Curt. Let’s get this thing going.

Curt Anderson  00:07

Let’s get it going, Hey, I didn’t know. Did you notice anything different about my like, I’m not my basement today. Do you notice anything different?

Damon Pistulka  00:14

I thought you just invited guests and put a flag up.

Curt Anderson  00:17

I won’t close. Very close, but we’re not my basement today. So I am absolutely thrilled. What an honor what a privilege. We’re hanging out at NWIRC. And if you’re wondering, what on earth does that stand for? You’re gonna have to stick around and we’re gonna get right into that. So I’m going to do a little digging. Hey, before we go there. How was your weekend? Do you have a good weekend?

Damon Pistulka  00:35

No, it was great. It was great. Other than the Seahawks loss, but you know, it’s that’s just the thing. Dude,

Curt Anderson  00:41

you can’t win every game you know? Every game so Alright, so let’s dive in. So guys, happy Monday, everybody. Drop your drop a little. Give us a hello in the chat box. And you guys you’re gonna want to connect with these three lovely ladies that we have here today. So Damon, let’s start off with introductions. Are you ready? I’m gonna go through let’s do this fascinating names that we have here. Are you ready? Are you sitting down for this? Are you ready to go? Ready? Okay, I’m starting to my far right with my dear friend Lisa. Now she has a unique Her last name is de Lisa de And ironically, she has a unique middle name. I don’t know if you guys knew this, but the middle name is happy. So it’s Lisa. Happy day here to my far right, Lisa. Happy Monday. How are you today?

Lisa Dach  01:18

Great to see you Curt. Good to be here. Thanks for coming to Erie. Absolutely. So yeah, if

Curt Anderson  01:23

people are wondering, we are in Northwest Pennsylvania, Erie, Pennsylvania right on the shores of Lake Erie. So this is just a beautiful community. Just legacy of manufacturing man. Like we’re right in the heartbeat of like hardcore manufacturing, going back centuries. And so we’re going to dig in some really exciting things. Now to my right is my dear friend Robin. Robin also has a unique middle name I’m gonna get you know her name by the chance. So it’s her last name is Keller they call her Robin Keller color. I didn’t know if you knew that. But Robin Keller. How are you today?

Robin Keller  01:53

I’m doing great. Thanks for having me.

Curt Anderson  01:55

Absolutely. Happy Monday and just are you excited about I’m

Robin Keller  01:57

so excited the Browns won so I’m happy

Curt Anderson  02:01

to hate big Browns fan right here. So big bronze victory for our Browns fans out there. So okay, so now we’re gonna slide over to my left and so I am super excited to introduce my other new friend now we the three of us over here we go way back like Like, like, years, right centuries. Yeah, decades. It’s been a while. Right. So I just met Tara today. So Tara, now her name was shorten. It used to be really long. It’s been short. It used to be used to be Tara Laurence Olivier. Now they’ve cut it down it just Tara Lawrence Damon. It’s just Tara Lawrence. Now next year when I come it might just be Tara. Larry. She might short it down even more right. But right now today, it’s Tara Lawrence. Tara, happy Monday.

Tara Lawrence  02:41

I’m wonderful. Thank you for coming. Absolutely. So

Curt Anderson  02:44

let’s dive in. We’re here at NWIRC. I’m coming right at you. All right. So we’re at the manufacturing extension partnership in Northwest Pennsylvania. Yeah, MEP is the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Okay. Please explain what is NWIRC if you would please route. So

Robin Keller  03:04

we are the Northwest Industrial Resource Center. And we are one of seven IRCs of Pennsylvania. So we cover 13 counties in this. That’s our footprint. And our sole goal and mission is to help manufacturers grow and become very competitive in this area. And throughout the state of Pennsylvania. They can absolutely

Curt Anderson  03:27

okay, perfect. And so now let’s dig in. I’m gonna come over to you, Lisa, let’s talk. So the MEPs how many MEPs are in the state of Pennsylvania,

Lisa Dach  03:34

there are seven centers in Pennsylvania strategically placed. Were one of as you know, there’s 51 centers nationally. So all 50 states including Puerto Rico, and then each state has their own MEP some states, the way they’re made up have more than one MEP center in the state. But they all have at least one. Alright,

Curt Anderson  03:59

perfect. So now how many counties? Do you guys cover? 1313 counties in Pennsylvania? Yes, that do? Do you have any idea how many manufacturers put you on the spot? Do you know how many manufacturers and it’s a lot right? It’s a lot? Yeah, it’s a lot and so we’re covering so Damon just for like low geography. So we’re in the northwest corner. We’re gonna go down to like if any of our friends on like route 80 Right and I close we’re gonna head down to route 80. We’re gonna head over to the east, we’re gonna start creeping over toward not quite but over towards Penn State. So for any of our Nittany Lion fans out there, so this is a big geography, huge area that they cover, and just tons and tons of legacy manufacturers along this whole corridor going way back to the early 1800s. So very exciting. So let’s go here. I’m gonna come to you. Talk a little bit about what’s on the menu here at NWIRC. What are some of the services solutions that you guys provide to manufacturers in Northwest

Lisa Dach  04:53

Pennsylvania? Sure. So Curt, as you know, the MEP centers we focus on top line growth, improving bottom line on, you know, making sure that they’re able to sustain and continue to grow in some challenging climates. So we’ve had recently, and then we really dig into what workforce development were measured by making sure that we retain jobs, we increase jobs, but we’re also looking at the impact on the culture, the training the workforce development of the folks internally, because that’s what’s going to continue to create that retention. And help manufacturers become a best place to work and, and attract young people there. So that’s really important. But we also spend a lot of time on things like Lean process improvement, operational efficiencies, and really exciting I’ve done quite a bit of work on automation. So working with our robotic process partners, and looking at how manufacturers now can start to implement some of these new processes to help them go faster and further and, and do more. Awesome. Absolutely.

Curt Anderson  06:01

And so let’s Where were you turn now you have a really cool title, share with Damon. share with everybody what is what? What’s your title? Manufacturing

Tara Lawrence  06:10

talent stream coordinator,

Curt Anderson  06:13

talent stream coordinator? How cool is that? Drop the mic. So just explain to folks what is a talent stream coordinator.

Tara Lawrence  06:20

Okay, so the job is actually as cool as the title because I get to connect manufacturers or our partners or clients, I get to connect them to students or the talent stream, you know, the pipeline talent stream. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  06:35

Awesome. Okay, so we’re gonna dive into that. So I wanted to lay the foundation of like, who am I the the elite status of the folks that I’m hanging out with Damon a lot. You know, I love never been the smartest guy in the room. And right this minute, I’m absolutely not the smartest guy in the room. I’m gonna dig into a little bit of background here with everybody, because the talent and the expertise experience is truly off the charts. Man, this is just amazing. And I’m going to start with my dear friend, Lisa, happy day. And so Lisa, let’s go. So I get on a call at least a couple years ago when she just started or I guess you’ve been here for a few months. And just we got on a call just kindred spirits right off the bat. And she just shared just this wealth of information. I caught her story, her career. And what I love is, you know, you and I have interviewed what one or two MEPs or one or two, right comfortable. It’s just the amount of talent and the expertise that comes into the MEP network to pass along to manufacturers is just incredible. All sorts of different walks of life. Lisa has a great career in Fashion and Retail now what on earth does he have to do to help manufacturers? A ton man, it is absolutely awesome. Lisa, please share, just give us a little just scratch the surface a little bit of your background, your walk of life and what you bring to the IEP here.

Lisa Dach  07:48

Sure, so actually was educated here. And here I went to Mercyhurst University, I have a degree a Bachelors of Science in Human Ecology with a concentration in Fashion Merchandising, and I spent 30 years, I had a really awesome career traveled all over the United States ran businesses. And really the things that I did there are so applicable to what I’m doing now. And so I was looking at turning around underperforming businesses, improving their you know, top line growth, making sure they had the right product, the right people in place, and then really mentoring young leaders encouraging them coaching them to continue to move up through the ranks, so retaining the people we had. But what I loved about occurred is I worked for the largest retailer, wholesaler and supplier globally of women’s fashion accessories and footwear. But I had a front row seat at the table to you know, meet with a merchandisers and the planners and the buyers, and really influence the fashion that we were seeing in the stores one or two seasons out based upon customer feedback, you know, wearing the product myself, and I loved both sides of it. So I love seeing the product being made learning about how the product was being made. But I also really loved being able to be that mentor and coach and it gave me so much satisfaction when I would have a part timer. And you know, years later, they were a store manager becoming a DM and watching that whole track of their career. And so what I do now is exactly the same thing. So I help manufacturers do all those things. I help them improve their profits, turn around underperforming businesses, you know, I look at where are the holes, you know, in the business, where are the things that they’re kind of scratching their head on and they don’t know how to, you know, find solutions or fix those things because we work with and you know this from talking to MEPS we work with other outside consultants that are vetted and you know, we develop relationships and what When we introduce someone to our manufacturers, we are confident that they are going to deliver on on what they promise. And then it’s a people piece. So the stuff that Tara gets to do, and Robin gets to do and the rest of our team, we have some really phenomenal trainers internally that Robin gets to work with every day. They impact the people, and then we help companies really look at how do they grow their people internally, which is so vitally important, much easier than going out and recruiting somebody and then convincing them to stay in your business. So I have the ability now, you know, it’s a really curvy career path to see go from retail now to manufacturing. But I have the luxury now of being old enough that, you know, you kind of turn around and be like, Oh, that made so much sense. Because everything that I love doing, it was every day, and the journey that it took to get here. So yeah, I

Curt Anderson  10:59

love it. And I would say a few takeaways from our conversations that we’ve had, I’ve had the pleasure of talking with you is, you know, like, you work at a very elite high fashion industry, you know, industry company, and just, you know, our manufacturers in Pennsylvania expression, you know, they expect that high level of expectation, their customers expect a high level of customer satisfaction, you know, so like, from the customer service standpoint, as you said, like, you know, nurturing and nurturing, that’s completely applicable, you know, high-level quality. So it just, you know, there was just so many takeaways that I had, I’m like, you know, what, would somebody in retail high fashion have to learn to manufacture and like, you really just kind of blew me away of your background, like how much this is applicable, especially for manufacturers that legacy wise, I think they had a handful of customers, and they didn’t deal with a lot of, you know, maybe customer service wasn’t the top priority. Well, now, it’s a totally different world where customer service is your top priority. Having a good web presence is a top priority. And like, you know, what you bring to the table really elevates that. So just I really applaud you for bringing your talents into the world of manufacturing, so well done to you. So thank you. Big round of applause for my friend Lisa. Happy day out there. Right. So let’s start to RobinRobin, you are relatively new ish. So celebrate your one year anniversary here at NWIRC about a year ago. Last month. Yeah. And so you have a great career of nonprofit. And what was fascinating when I first met you, you’re like, you know, you were really attracted to come in taking a huge leap of faith, total pivot and one ad in your career, talk a little bit about your background, what you did, and what the experience, expertise, what you bring to the world of manufacturing.

Robin Keller  12:35

Well, you know, anyone that has worked for nonprofit can tell you that they’re not in it for the money. They definitely want to, but they want to help people. And my background is in. I’ve done some marketing and recruiting and HR work. So it’s been it was very diverse in nonprofit, I wear a lot of hats. But now I can say that I, the LEAP wasn’t so much that I’m still helping people. And I still get that joy and fulfillment that I got in the nonprofit world or world and working for manufacturers. Some manufacturers need help. And that’s what we’re here for. And those things that keep them up at night, they can call us. And we’ll definitely work on getting them an answer and the help that they need. And that sustains their business. And that helps the community that’s employing people and all around. It’s just, it’s just a great feeling to know that I’m a part of growing this community, I’m a part of helping people find jobs, I just love all the aspects of manufacturing. And part of what I do right now, with the training and events is, you know, helping people grow their talents and finding the best people to do that. And as Lisa said, we have so many great trainers internally and that we use externally that have been well vetted, and just just phenomenal people i and as a testament, I’m with these two ladies and you and with Damon it’s just been, you know, obviously we’re doing great work here.

Curt Anderson  14:09

We’ll share a little bit and we talked about this, like that leap of faith that you took, you know, we’re like, again, you had 20 years, you know, and I you know when you start a career 12 You know, you had 20 years 20 years of HR, and then or I’m sorry, nonprofit and then also you took this leap what like how did that was an exciting was it were you nervous? What like what did that look like, you know, before coming into the world of manufacturing? Well,

Robin Keller  14:32

I was absolutely terrified. I had I you know was I making the best decision. I knew my job inside and out and I realized that I’ve got to do this I’ve got to try I don’t know what I’m capable of. And I realized that I have grown so much I have learned so much and I’m but I’m continuing to help people and do I think amazing work as well. All with these manufacturers. So anybody that’s on the fence of trying something new, oh my gosh, I tell them do it, just do it. Because you know, you never want to think, what if I would have never taken that chance. And I wouldn’t be here today sitting down with all you guys. So I’m so it was a wonderful transition. And I had to interview with everybody in this company to get this job. And that was scary. But at the same time, I was in awe of the talent here. It was just it was a great, great experience. Awesome.

Curt Anderson  15:32

Well, thank you for sharing. Thank you for joining in and WRC team. And so you know, and I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with you on numerous things throughout the past year. And we’ve gotten together at a couple of different events. And so just what a privilege for me to kind of watch this team grow. So, Tara, let’s come over here, your background, what attracted you to end up in WRC?

Tara Lawrence  15:51

Yeah, like Robin, I actually have a lot of experience working in nonprofits. But again, very diverse experience. So project management, fundraising, development, event planning, and working in a nonprofit, you do all of the things, and you work with all of the people. My role, one of the biggest parts of my role was gathering a group of volunteers, we call them the Dream Team, the manufacturing Dream Team. And also in my nonprofit, past, I managed a lot of volunteers, which is a very special skill, very special skill, taking a volunteer and not pushing them too hard and making them feel utilized as is, it is a skill that not everyone is comfortable with. And so having to maneuver that is fun. It’s fun, but it’s a challenge sometimes, especially because these are professional volunteers. So we do that. But also working with schools, and just kind of managing a lot of moving parts is something I always have enjoyed working in the nonprofit sector. And that is exactly what I do. I work with schools, I work with manufacturers, and I work with community partners. So I always say, in all the 13 counties, I have to know all of those audiences and all 13 counties. So it can be a little bit overwhelming. Now, it can be a lot overwhelming, sometimes, but thankful for zoom meetings, that’s for sure. For 13 counties. But

Curt Anderson  17:16

yeah, so so let’s go here. So with your backgrounds buying when you are married to an entrepreneur, longtime entrepreneur, and so when you call on manufacturers, you can completely relate to what they’re going through. It’s just a little bit about that entrepreneurial side. Yeah. It’s

Tara Lawrence  17:30

funny you say that, because even as Robin was talking, I started thinking about it wasn’t so long ago that I took this role. And that was one of the reasons that I gave when I went through are interviewing all 12 of us. But yes, my husband is entrepreneur 25 years. He is from a family of entrepreneurs, it would take me forever to describe all their wonderful businesses. And so your heart just comes from a really special place. Robins husbands and entrepreneurs well, you come from a really special place of just want you understand what families go through, when you put yourself out there and take that leap of faith with the families go through what your bank account goes through what your dinner conversation sounds like sometimes. And so I am located in Crawford County is where I live and we’re all over the place actually, because 13 counties remember. So I am in Tooele City USA. So already so many of the friends and family members own or are a part of manufacturers. And so it’s it’s just something that is really close to my heart. And it’s really important that it succeeds. And so I’ve gotten to kind of broaden that outreach to more places than just me fell through this work.

Curt Anderson  18:41

Love it. See, Damon, I heard it’s gonna be a good one tonight.

Damon Pistulka  18:44

Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Okay.

Curt Anderson  18:47

So Lisa, let’s come back over to you. So I want to dig into this. We talked a little bit about the menu here and WRC. Now, recently, I had the honor and privilege I actually went out to dinner with one of your one of your customers, one of your clients. So and I know you’re very modest, very humble, but just to talk about, I want to talk about your superpowers. But let’s talk a little bit about like, your engagement. What does when you start working with the manufacturer, what does that engagement look like? You come in what can they expect? Let’s let’s go there for a little bit and talk about your engagement with manufacturers.

Lisa Dach  19:17

Well, first of all, I am just so excited to work with all of the current clients that we have and you know, excited every time I get to go into new manufacturer announced today I get to visit to New friends and they will become friends. But you truly just go in and you just ask them you know what’s going on? You’re curious. We’d love to do the tour because you get just an AHA there’s so many things that you see as you’re going through the plant floors. And now that you know once you get that experience and you know the processes and the and the equipment that they have, then you have sort of that education of you know, you understand what’s being made How is being made and you quickly start to see how things are being done in other areas, and you identify where the improvements can be. And then you just, you know, you ask questions, you kind of just curious, you ask questions, you find out where the real pain points are there. And then you start to map it together, like where is the low hanging fruit? Where are the things that we can quickly give them some wins so that they can see the turnarounds. And again, a lot of the things come back to making sure that they know about the training set we have, or some of them are virtual, some of them are in person. But a lot of times that helps them get to that pain real fast, and helps the people internally start to make some changes. And then they can help themselves. So the, the improvements so many times, and we know this through Lean, it should be coming from the floor, it should be coming from the people that work the machines, you have to empower those folks to make the changes. Because when they identify that they can fix the changes, you grow their culture, and then that helps everybody all the way up, you quickly are able to improve the profits, you eliminate the waste, you improve communication. So I mean, I know I gave you a lot, but it’s really looking holistically at the whole building, you know, front door to back and you’re really trying to figure out as you’re going through, where are the pain points. And you know, I speak to anyone from the owner, Human Resources operations. You know, we talk to people internally I speak to people when I’m on the floor, I’m asking the folks that are operating the equipment questions. So you’re really trying to get a flavor for the whole business. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  21:51

How and Damon for the record. So I went out to dinner with Emily Wilkins, our dear friend, and she brought a mutual client of Lisa’s and this client things Lisa walks on water, she just rants and raves how amazing she is. And I had no doubt then so she loves you. How exciting how I mean, you’re doing it’s such an it’s for all three of us such admirable work helping these manufacturers, because I think one of you said it. It’s not just, it’s just not this entrepreneur. It’s just not everybody in the facility. Like a lot of times it’s based around the community. Like you said, like you’re working at tool town, like, you know, like, it’s these manufacturers might represent an entire, you know, these are small, yeah, small rural communities were like that one manufacturer might represent like the whole town, you know, like, the family works. They’re different generations work there. So like, it’s a big deal. You know, there’s not a lot of other industries, maybe people in tech or tourism might push back on me on this. But I don’t feel there’s a lot of industries like manufacturing that can represent an entire community, the way that manufacturing does, how exciting is it? When you walk in you just kind of like you have not how you bring in a solution for that manufacturer. And you just walk out like, Oh, that was just so awesome. Like our friend at ptc tree.

Lisa Dach  22:57

I mean, it’s ginormous, I can’t even tell you. And what’s so cool is to share that with so our daughters are both the same age. My daughter is 17. She’s a junior, so I’m constantly, you know, talking to her about what I do. And she thinks I’m overly annoying because she thinks no one loves her job as much as I do. But this is one of the best stories recent we were at TJ Maxx a couple of weeks ago. And we went into the fitting room and we met a young girl there. She was kind of counting, you know, she was the one you have to check in with. She gives you a tag. And my daughter Bridget said to me, Mom, this is Abby, she’s like she’s going to the Career Center for welding. And you would have thought I met a celebrity. Great to meet you. Yeah, so we’re standing in TJ Maxx. Yeah, talking about manufacturing. But that is exactly how it happens. Yeah. And as you said, that impact on the community is is huge. It’s huge. So it’s really fun when you see your neighbors, and the people that become your friends succeeding, you celebrate their successes, you know, and it’s exciting when you drive your car or you pick up your water bottle or you eat something or you peel something open. And all of those things were made by people in these 13 counties. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  24:20

exactly. I absolutely love it. So let’s Robin square with you, you know, very rewarding your nonprofit career. Coming here. Now. It’s super exciting. You do events, you do a lot of marketing. Talk a little about like some of the exciting things are what are some of the programs going on here and WRC are some of the exciting things that you worked on over the past year with manufacturers.

Robin Keller  24:38

Well, one thing that we have done that I just absolutely love doing is our podcast. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  24:44

yes. And tell everybody the name of it.

Robin Keller  24:46

It’s recipes for manufacturing success recipes for manufacturing

Curt Anderson  24:49

success, man. I love that.

Robin Keller  24:53

So what we do is we typically like to get someone in Maine Factoring we, they’re all manufacturers, but a CEO of the manufacturing business. And we asked them questions about what was the keys to their success, and making this company what it is. And we like to throw in some food in there as well. So you know, I love eating. And it’s funny how those two things really do correlate. There’s a there secret ingredients that these people have, that are making their company run very well. And we’re kind of digging into that. My, my CEO, Bob’s Ruta, he’s kind of the head chef, and I get to be the sous chef. So I get to ask the fun questions. And Bob really gets into the heart and soul of what their company is. So recipes for manufacturing success. So

Curt Anderson  25:49

that’s your big. Who wins? How did that come about? Who inspired the podcast like it? Because I’ll tell you for manufac for MEPs that’s pretty new. You know, it is network. Right, Damon? I mean, I don’t think we I, we’re not familiar with too many that are doing that. What inspired you guys to get kicked that off? Well,

Robin Keller  26:05

I think we were you know, we just wanted to find a unique way to help manufacturers, this is their chance to come on, talk about their company, talk about their successes, and tell your audiences is limitless. And you get to tell them how well you’re doing and what you make. So this was just a I think it was a collaborative effort. We all talked about what the name should be, we were thinking about maybe eating wings like that one guy does, or maybe do it hot sauce. Yeah. Anyways. So I mean, it went through a lot of motions. Yeah, before we came up with what it is, and it’s just so much fun. And I, I didn’t realize how Kind and Courteous these people are, they’re so appreciative of their success. They are and they want to give back to so it’s, it’s all around again, there’s it’s that warm, fuzzy feeling, I get to go to these manufacturers and see their work. It’s just, it’s been a wonderful experience.

Curt Anderson  27:06

That’s one I have piqued my curiosity. So I’m thrilled I wasn’t gonna do some some going off script a little bit. I don’t think we really had a script that we’d have a big script. But so you’re the difference from, from nonprofit to manufacturing? What are some, maybe some big parallels and similarities? Or what have been some big differences for you in this past year from your previous life?

Robin Keller  27:24

Well, I definitely think that both areas have their stresses that, you know, nonprofits, you know, they’re always trying to, you know, get money so that they can continue to do the work that they can. And manufacturers need the same thing, they have to support these families that are working for them. They need to find the materials that will help them create what they’re building. So there you know, there is a lot of similarities in that the stress of trying to find those things. But the differences I would say is that manufacturers are maybe they the company I worked for was 24 hours. So this you know, it’s always moving, there’s always moving parts, but I just learned that no matter what in both sectors, everybody is trying to help each other there’s a problem and they are trying to solve it and that’s what both sectors really do. It’s just they’re both different in the ways that they do it Suresh

Curt Anderson  28:33

would say great and just what I love when the interview I’ve always MEPS is just like just the contagious enthusiasm and just this really unapologetic you know dedication and commitment to helping manufacturers win the day you know, and it’s just it’s just so rewarding of how you can come in and just you know, lift everybody up so Alright, so I’m just super excited Daymond I you know, big thing that we love talking about week in week out. You know, we had Nancy on our different Nancy O’Leary recently, she had saw our friend Nancy earlier is this great program called manufacturing Mavericks. Are you familiar with it? So in what she did was for the month of October, they featured a Gen Z or who’s choosing a career in manufacturing and feature then she now has this website and she decided it went so well. And I told her she’s now doing it permanently. So shout out to our dear friend Nancy. So you’re really singing that song big time. So like talent stream coordinator, I love that name. Talk a little bit about how you’re making the world a better place here in western Pennsylvania and how you’re just really kind of light into fire for young folks who get into manufacturing.

Tara Lawrence  29:32

Absolutely. Well, something Lisa, it said, just the way that we as adults get excited when we look at the bottom or the water water bottle or know what our neighbor makes or, or know what’s in every single brand of truck all over the world. I get to tell young people, students kids, I get to tell them about that. And sometimes it’s myself doing that, but in a lot of times it is a manufacturer and we found that a young manufacturer is the person to connect To the best, the easiest with those students. So we send those young manufacturers into schools and they tell their career path, they tell their career story, and get to tell them great things like I finished high school, I didn’t go to vo Tech, I didn’t know what the heck I wanted to do. But there’s a huge manufacturer. In my community, I’ve always known about it, my grandfather worked there, I didn’t know much about it. So my mom said, go give it a try. Now they’re managing the floor five years later. And that’s they got there from hardware, we always say showing up on time, and being really pleasant to be around in manufacturing can get you just that. And there are a lot of fields right now where that is true. But in manufacturing, I just preach it over and over again. I also like for young people to understand that get your four year degree if you want, I have a freshman in college. And if you want to be an accountant like he does, if you want to get a marketing degree, we need those in manufacturing as well. And far too often. College career fairs don’t include manufacturers, they include the banks, health care, but we are encouraging our manufacturing clients and partners to get in into that world to get into those into those career fairs and remind those with college degrees, that there’s a place for them as well. So there truly is a place for every young person in manufacturing and the growth is limitless. I mean that and they won’t have any loans, like some of their friends said I had one young man say am I allowed to tell them they can have a really big truck like mine and a really great house like mine. Any student loan and I said By golly, that is exactly what you should go in and say today. Yeah, that’s what he told the students. That’s what he told the students

Curt Anderson  31:50

talk. Go ahead, do it, please. Well, I

Damon Pistulka  31:53

think the one thing about young people going into manufacturing, right? They they come on high school may not know what you want to do. Right? You can go into that manufacturer. And there’s a lot of manufacturers that have educational programs where if you get into the manufacturer, and you’re there full time for a while, they say, hey, we’ll pay for you to go to school, just tell us what you want to do and get a decent grade and what pay for your schooling. I mean, there are so many places, I finished most of my, the last half of my college tuition like that it’s these these manufacturers want people to to do what’s best for them, their individual situation, because they know if they can develop these people. They have these long term careers in manufacturing.

Tara Lawrence  32:39

You’re spot on. And we’re hearing that from our clients and partners as well as the manufacturers. They’re hiring the individual now, they’re not necessarily hiring the student who only finished the CTC certification, they’re hiring the person. We have manufacturing clients who are they’re starting their own internal full educational facilities. So they’re ready, they are ready. They know what it’s going to take. They know that they’re missing that middle group, that age group. They have a lot of folks retiring with some really specialized skills. And they have a lot of young folks that don’t quite know how to take that over yet. So they’re ready to educate them themselves. There was a lot of work and energy, you probably hear this from some of the other interviews you do surrounding apprenticeship programs is right now as well, pre apprenticeships and apprenticeship programs and we’re getting into that space and trying to support that work as much as we possibly can. I have at least one meeting about it every single week in a different in a different area. So we’re working to help there too. We also have student run manufacturing enterprises. We have the most of any state I hope I’m getting that right. There are six in Pennsylvania now. Yeah, and we have helped all of those find that funding and, and stayed involved in all their work. And so I’ve been working very closely with those groups and we’ll have the spring we’ll have our first student run manufacturing summit and bring them all together and they can share ideas and what’s working what’s not working. Because we’re McDowell manufacturing that the you know, the old pros and this and they are just honestly killing it for lack of a better term. And so we’ve got a brand new one in Titusville Titusville High School, we just made that announcement and so we can share those ideas and help them grow. So a lot of different ways. It’s not just one way. Yeah, absolutely. So yes, that’s been really, really great to be a part of as well.

Curt Anderson  34:38

Yeah, it is matter of fact, when when their director Bob was on last year Damon he was talking about I’m just gonna bring up McDowell because like, man, like remember how exciting that he’s like, he’s like the old football coach, you know, you’re ready to run through a wall with when you talk about, but he was talking about the program for you know, different abled folks and young folks at McDowell. And so now you’re expressing that right there.

Tara Lawrence  34:59

So the uniquely abled Academy is uniquely abled project is where it starts. But we have to now that we have been a part of and stay involved with, and one is in Erie and one is in Crawford County both have active cohorts right now, I was just, we were just down there last week visiting the students and it’s, it’s, it’s just special, it’s special work. If you aren’t, if you don’t feel like you’re doing something by being a part of that, then I don’t know what it takes.

Curt Anderson  35:29

If so, a lot of your manufacturers are probably, you know, 10 a lot of them are, I think 75% of all manufacturers are 75. I’m sorry, 75% of all manufacturers are 20 employees or less. I mean, a lot of them are 10 people, unless if you’ve thrown on a lot of great tips, strategies, see for like our small rules, you know, 510 employees, are there any tips or strategies that you have for those folks that maybe kind of feel left out, or they’re just so small and nose to the grindstone? They’re not thinking about recruiting, but what are some tips that those folks can take advantage of?

Tara Lawrence  36:00

Absolutely. So we and we are in a room with those with those manufacturers. And quite honestly, I sometimes if I’m in a room where I can remind larger manufacturers to remember their friends that own the smaller companies, I’ve done that as well. But what I would tell that young manufacturer is reach out to your local schools, they want to hear from you. They want you to come visit, they want you to open your doors, that’s huge. I talked about sending volunteers in but we in turn, then hope the relationship is formed. And I love for students to tour manufacturing facilities and they love to show it off. I love to tour manufacturing facilities. That is my favorite thing to do. If I’m feeling a little like I’ve been in my office for too many days in a row, I just call someone up new and say I haven’t seen your your space or what you make. And I have not been born yet. I’ve been a lot of facilities in the short amount of time that I’ve been here. And so I recommend they just make a call to the school and say this, you’re welcome to come in and they will bring students someone will come there are stem clubs. I have a Lego club here in Erie going to tour manufacturer in a couple of weeks, there will be in there more and more stem clubs and opportunities. They’re changing some of the educational requirements for the PSSA testing in Pennsylvania that will include technology and stem in a few years. So the schools are going to be looking looking for opportunities to reach out specifically to engineers, and the folks on the floor who can help help see what’s possible manufacturing. Well,

Curt Anderson  37:27

I love it. And again, for anybody out there, you know, reach out to your local MEP, for sure. Because like you guys are just a conduit of this, you know, bringing that together. So at least I’m going to come back over to you let’s there’s a ton of manufacturing that we we’ve talked about that just a little bit on this program here in western Pennsylvania. Sure, with some of the folks like what are some of the company’s products like I know Meadville is, you know, tool town, just talk a little bit about like, give everybody kind of a visual of like, what’s what’s been made and produce in western America or Western Pennsylvania.

Lisa Dach  37:57

so diverse. And I think that, you know, 35 years ago when the MEP network started the original Governor Casey in the state of Pennsylvania set up seven centers, and I really do think that probably is why because we are so diverse. So I live in Mercer County as you now. And still in Mercer County. We are producing a lot of heavy dense equipment, whether it’s stainless, whether it’s steel, aluminum, specialty metals, so some of those areas where that product, is that what you’re asking, Where would that product use? So it’s automobile, it’s defense, it’s aerospace. We have a company that does heat treating for the airlines. So we’re we’re moving some really heavy dense stuff through Mercer County. Part of the reason you already touched on that is we’re right on the Ohio border. We have 79 and 80. That crossed right there. So major access for trucking. When you move up towards where terrorists, you have Crawford County, and so that’s a lot of the tooling tool and die, heart of tool and die. But I will tell you people would be blown away at the automation and Crawford County, ton of automation robots CNC equipment, you move up to Erie, you still have a mix of that heavy, dense, keep in mind that you’re right on the port of URI. So you still have a lot going in and out. You know, still utilizing like Gary, so they’re also getting into automation. There is a ton of food manufacturers up here. People would be amazed at the amount of food that is being made here. For every Walmart across the United States. Some of the brands that you pick up I was in a Golden Dawn and they’re all yesterday getting my jerky and there was food products on the on the bakery show that came from Erie County and then as you Further east, we go into powdered metal. Yeah, you know, Zippos out there you have some great breweries out there. But the powder metal becomes a big, big player out there. And then you also have all of the hardwoods. I mean, I was amazed at the amount of of lumber that comes out of the state of Pennsylvania. 80% of the lumber that’s utilized in the United States comes from Pennsylvania. And so when people are looking to re kind of restore from China, yeah, that business comes from Pennsylvania from within our 13 counties. Yeah, the a number of the diversity of trees that are harvested in the state of Pennsylvania blows your mind, we went to a manufacturer recently, and he had an entire wallchart of all different lumber beautiful, and the whole wall was just these little tile cuts from all different trees, right there within 60 miles of where it was, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And all of that wood is harvested right here in Pennsylvania, I think 60% of the state now is forests, which is why there’s this big push now to get Pennsylvania on the map for recreation to really, again, attract and retain our young people because they need to do something other than just work. They want to be out there hiking, biking, hunting, all of that great stuff. So we really need to promote that much more than what we’re doing. So yeah, anything from you know, dairy processing, food processing, the amount of products that go into automotive, aerospace aeroplanes, space projects, it blows your mind?

Curt Anderson  41:50

Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s just such a great area. There’s so many colleges, so many universities, for the folks that want to go that direction. Like Tara was saying, you know, there’s so much opportunity in manufacturing where it’s not, you know, our grandparents manufacturing anymore. You can do automation, you can do marketing, you can do ecommerce, you can do you know, accounting, you can do you know, technology, there’s so many different things that you can do in manufacturing, you know, with your college degree. So if you do that, I know we’re probably running out of time, I do have one last review. And I don’t remember if I asked you before, when you transition from fashion, what attracted you to me? Like how did end WRC come on your radar? I don’t think I yesterday, we talked

Lisa Dach  42:30

about this with this huge global company. And fashion really went from to fast fashion. And I didn’t think that there would be a home for me in fashion any longer girlfriend of mine worked in manufacturing. And she called me and she said, I need you to bring everything you did in fashion, and bring it to manufacturing. So I started as the director of sales, it was a company with manufacturing facilities across the United States. So I still got to travel. And really help them kind of corporatize their company, they went from a small sort of entrepreneurial space, they wanted to be calm, a much bigger player. So really helped them put together an HR department, you know, supported the marketing. But the other thing I did Kurt was every Monday, I spent three hours in the manufacturing floor. So I would drive from my office to the manufacturer facility, I got really close with the operations manager, and I walked that floor every single Monday. So I looked at the past through business, what was being made, I looked at, you know, what our on time shipping rates were, how the customers were being treated, I looked at the big products we were making, so that I was really educating myself on and it was in the electrical space. So it was like trying to cram a lot of really technical stuff into my brain. But I needed to be authentic, so that when I was leading that team, I knew what was going on. And so I worked at two manufacturing facilities, and I would walk out on the manufacturing floor and my pomson, you know, and then the guys would be like, you know, there’s like shot or whatever from the shop last but I mean, it was really important for me to be you know, knowledgeable, but be transparent so that they could see me. They really knew who I was and they knew I cared. And truly that if you’re going to be a solid leader in manufacturing, you have got to get out of your office and you’ve got to walk the floor. You’ve got to talk to everybody there know who’s having babies know who’s a veteran, and the little improvements that you can make through your facility. One of the greatest things we did for our folks I was working in Warren, Ohio ton of veterans is we had them blast the flagpole. We bought a new flag and let them put it up in the courtyard. They had not had a flag in five years. And so doing that one thing I was thank more for putting a flag in the courtyard than anything else.

Curt Anderson  44:58

God bless you what That mad mic right there, Damon? Ah,

Damon Pistulka  45:04

no, no doubt, no doubt. It’s so cool. And you said it. If manufacturing leaders are stuck in their office or not getting out there and walking around, they’re a, they’re missing out b, they’re not, they’re not engaging with their people. And they, they’re, they’re just going to have more turnover, they’re not going to have a productive workforce are not going to be able to achieve the things they do that when other leaders are out there actually, like you said, it is so important to know. Well, Susan, her daughter is going to graduate from college this year. And Dave, he likes to fish and when in Sousa era of whatever their name is, you know, and just knowing those things about their parents are they’re going through some tough times with their parents, because they’re older, this kind of things really set the stage to be able to develop a cohesive organization that will do things far into the future. And is yeah, getting out there and seeing what’s going on. And asking questions. You know, what do you think? What do you think? Just keep asking the questions because they know what you’re not, you know what you’re not doing? I mean, we don’t have to be as Kurt says, you don’t want to be the smartest person in the room. And you’re not in a manufacturing facility if you ask the questions, because they know they know what we should be doing. So good. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  46:25

so good. All right, we’ll start winding down. Robin, my question to you so marketing events, we’re coming into the end of 23. I feel like we just started like, it’s perfect. I kicked off. I think I was with you guys in January. I felt like that was just like yesterday. And like now here it is 1011 months later, and we’re coming into you’re fired up about what are you excited for and WRC and manufacturing coming into the new year?

Robin Keller  46:46

Well, we’re definitely gonna do some more podcasts, we’re gonna have some more amazing people lined up for that. So I’m super excited for that. I have a whole new spring catalog that will be coming out soon, and it will have tons of trainings that will, that we geared towards what the manufacturers are asking for. So I’m super excited about that. And I we’re

Lisa Dach  47:10

kicking off our great maintenance master class. So excited about it was huge. Yeah, go ahead, Robin.

Robin Keller  47:17

So what we are doing is we have an incredible maintenance trainer is coming to our area to our 13 counties. And we have five companies that will be host companies. And he is going to do two to three day trainings once a month for six months. And manufacturers from our 13 counties can come and participate in this training. It’s all about math, maintenance excellence. So it’s a great need, you know, sometimes the maintenance department is that forgotten money pit that you throw money into, that doesn’t see and you’re like, where’s this going, but this is how to get the maximum amount of money and maintenance performance from your group and your machine. So it’s going to be amazing, I’m super excited, I get to go to all of themselves.

Curt Anderson  48:14

So again, so as we start winding down with you guys absolute want to connect with the three these folks here on LinkedIn, go to NW IRC, check out their website, all sorts of great information going on. They have an incredible team. So I’d be I would I I’d be very disappointed myself. If we don’t give a shout out to everybody on the team. I don’t Molly, Mike. Laurie. Jen, whom I leave it at Lisa.

Robin Keller  48:36

You got to reset. You got Kim, you got Bob, you got end you got Tom. Yeah.

Lisa Dach  48:43

So Andy and Tom do what I do. So we’re the strategic business advisors were the foreign facing folks that go into the manufacturers, Andy covers area and Crawford and he goes out to Warren now. And Tom covers all of that rich powdered metal, all of the lumber. So he covers the other eastern side of of our territory. So there’s three of us that do what we do covering 13 counties. Yes.

Curt Anderson  49:09

Then I’d say they are amazing. Absolutely amazing what they do, you know, 1000s and 1000s of manufacturers. Terrible. My last question for you. Why are all the cool kids going into manufacturing, please? Oh,

Tara Lawrence  49:23

why are all the cool kids going into manufacturing?

Curt Anderson  49:26

Or why should Why should all the cool kids be going into mania?

Tara Lawrence  49:30

Oh, I have used my truck answer again. That’s like my best answer is it is well manufacturing. It’s really the future it’s it’s we make manufacturing makes everything manufacturing makes everything you see everything you use everything you need. And so why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that? And why wouldn’t you want to help grow your own community and stay where you stay where your family worked in stay where people want to know All About you where people want to know your name, and you can help help grow where you’re from. Right. Just

Curt Anderson  50:05

tons of opportunity dropped the mic right Damon? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so let’s, let’s do a recap. We just talked about, you know, incredible innovation, opportunities, manufacturing, just tons of opportunities for young folks, we’ve really just just what a wealth of talent here, expertise and passion helping manufacturers here in western Pennsylvania. And if you’re coming to us from another state, man, there’s, there’s passion at your local MEP, so strongly encourage you, invite you welcome you to reach out to your local MEP. And just this is just a small taste. There’s 1300 of these folks nationwide, helping manufacturers that are just relentlessly working tirelessly to help manufacturers win the day be more competitive on a global scale. It’s just such a blessing that the government supports this incredible agency. And again, they’re not a federal agency. They’re supported by the government. But these guys have to sustain and monetize themselves and they just they work like fiends manager is so inspiring. Even I have I know we’re coming in I could I could chat with these guys all day and they’ve got a lot of manufacturers that they need to be helping here. So I’m, I am gonna go there. Are you ready? There we go. I am gonna go there. Since we programs I’m on football. So now different offseason Are you guys baseball fans? Many chances anybody a baseball fan? That’s Cleveland. novelette. Alright, so your guardians. Baseball, baseball pirates. Yeah. She’s a she’s a Pittsburgher over here. So. Okay, so then I’m just gonna give a hypothetical and you give an answer earlier. So I’m going to skip over to Lisa. Okay.

Lisa Dach  51:42

So softball, and I’m

Curt Anderson  51:43

going to say I’m going to softball. I mean, I should come to Tara,

Tara Lawrence  51:47

you can get it here.

Curt Anderson  51:49

I’ll go to Tara. You ready? Okay. Okay. Pirates are playing a baseball game. Okay, obviously, because it’s the pirates and that’s what they do is they play baseball. Right. Thank you. Captain Obvious. They’re right Damon. Yeah. So okay, Damon, just let me give you just a brand. Um, complete random hypothetical, right. We usually haven’t gotten there before, right. Let’s say the pirates are playing the dreaded Mets right to play in the New York Mets. Oh, my goodness, the Mets and it’s a bottom of the ninth. Bottom on the ninth. There’s a guy on second base two outs. Yep, tie score. The score is tied, that when he runs over on second base, and we’d like we need to get that run in now. Like we have dinner reservations. Like let’s get this game over. Right. I’m with you. So the manager is sitting on the bench. He looks down the bench and says Hey, Lawrence, get up there hidden and winning run. Okay, okay, so now Tara Lawrence grabs her back grabs her helmet she’s walking up to the plate to hitting the winning run on second base. What is your walk up song? Ah.

Tara Lawrence  52:53

Oh, Put me in coach.

Curt Anderson  52:55

Put me in. Oh, yeah. That’s awesome. What’s your what’s your walk up shot? Now you now tell now tell Damon what you played. Yes. So So Robin was at the bronze game yesterday and they beat the Steelers which which doesn’t happen a lot. Right? So what’s on did you play for everybody here at the office?

Robin Keller  53:20

I played We are the champions and especially right in my boss’s window so he could hear it very clearly.

53:27

Because he’s there you go. So I just wanted to make sure he knew

Curt Anderson  53:32

Yeah, brownie points for the bar

Robin Keller  53:35

went over great. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  53:37

she still has her job. She’s still here so so do you have one we are the champion Alright, we’re gonna we’re gonna We are the champions put me in that you know what nobody’s ever dude. That was that was that’s classic. So Damon we’re gonna wind down any parting thoughts words of wisdom you guys want to share with everybody as we close out

Robin Keller  53:57

I did want to say you know to Lisa day you don’t my daughter. We were at the grocery store and she her favorite ice cream cone maker. She grabbed up a one of them and I said you know Chloe, I know somebody who knows them knows all about this company and she was really and I told her it was Lisa day she thinks Lisa days of rock star for knowing that see.

Curt Anderson  54:21

There’s heroes in manufacturing Damon says hey, we got Jason here he says the load on my friends from NWA or sees us grow brownies for we got to the end buyer here today. Hey, Diane, any parting thoughts, words of wisdom you want to share before we close out?

Lisa Dach  54:34

Now I manufacturing has become such a great home for me. Obviously super excited about it just blessed everyday to work with these amazing folks at the end WRC but, again, if someone’s watching this for the first time, you’re a manufacturer, please reach out to your MEP centers because we have met the partners that we have across the United States and everybody is just as willing to help you We’ve got to keep things made in America.

Curt Anderson  55:02

Keep it made in America, man. There we go. Mike tear any parting thoughts where it was and you want to share it? Can you top that one?

Tara Lawrence  55:10

I also just wanted to say one more time and reiterate, you know, why did we come from the career paths that we were at before but this team once we all met this team and were introduced to who we’d be working with it is the best team that I have ever worked with. I’ve worked with some wonderful people but it’s really hard not to want to be a part of what’s happening here and the energy that is here the NWIRC Well,

Curt Anderson  55:33

I absolutely love it. So Damon, words of wisdom any takeaways, feedback you want to share for before we close out?

Damon Pistulka  55:39

No, I just think it’s incredible what you guys are doing there to help Pennsylvania manufacturers, you know, keep it going and involve more people. So much fun.

Curt Anderson  55:50

So good. So I guys, we will hate Damon. I don’t think we have a show on Friday. So Happy Thanksgiving, my friend. I wish you and your wife and your family just an amazing, wonderful Thanksgiving. I am thankful as well you and so appreciate you brother. We’ll be back here next Monday. We have a really hot awesome. Do we got a great guest next week? So you just Yes, we do back and wait for that one. So I wish everybody an amazing Happy Thanksgiving. God bless you. And again, reach out to these guys on LinkedIn stop by their website. If you’re coming to us from another state check out your manufacturing extension partnership. So God bless we’ll see you guys next time.