Monday Manufacturing Motivation with Kirk Davis from CAMPS

Curt Anderson  0:01

Okay, we are live so happy Monday everyone. Welcome. It’s Columbus Day is absolutely gorgeous in my part of the world today. beautiful fall day. I’m with my dear friend, my buddy Kirk Davis. Hello Kirk.

Kirk Davis  0:16

How are you? Hi, Kurt. Oh, everybody.

Curt Anderson  0:19

Happy Monday morning. I know so you’re on not you’re on the left coast. I’m on the right side of the world. And so we’re at different timezone. So I know you’re starting your day off today with us. Yeah, guys. Kirk is the executive director of camps camps is the center of advanced manufacturing in the Puget Sound and Seattle area. And Kirk, I know you do amazing, amazing work. We are super supportive for manufacturers in your realm, a lot of challenges going on in northwest with aerospace and COVID and everything else. What I’d love to do is I want to go back in time a little bit. Okay. So Kurt, what a couple things I want to talk about I you know, you and I’ve developed a nice friendship this past year. And I didn’t use one of the smartest individuals I’ve ever met. And the reason being is share with the folks Where did you go to college?

Kirk Davis  1:08

My claim to fame, which everybody likes is University of Hawaii. So

Curt Anderson  1:14

for for a young person coming out of high school to pick University of high why God bless you, man, I wish I was as smart as new. So

Kirk Davis  1:23

I have to tell you, everybody loves that they don’t care what my degrees were, they’re like us, right University of Hawaii. But that was thanks to Uncle Sam and the US military. So I was the GI Bill. And that was a an incredible life experience spending about six years in Hawaii. And the first part started off with the military and ended up with my degrees.

Curt Anderson  1:43

So nice, awesome. And what an opportunity. What branch military were you in?

Kirk Davis  1:48

Oh, I was in the army, Army, Infantry Division, and I was shooting cannons of all things. So

Curt Anderson  1:54

nice. Well, God bless you. Thank you, you know, you’re a hero, thank you for your service to our country. Appreciate your service and all of our service folks out there. So yeah, did a great job. So you’re in the military, you go off to university, Hawaii. And so now you’ve had a wonderful lustrous career. You went heavy into banking, you’ve been fortune 500? Yeah, you and I share a common we’re alumni of the Small Business Development Center. I like to dig into that. But yeah, so I’d like to share a little bit on your past. That’s when you came out of college. Talk a little bit about how you started your banking career. And we’re like, took you at that time?

Kirk Davis  2:32

Well, you know, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So I fell into banking, it just, I was putting out hundreds of resumes. Banking took me. But what I didn’t realize about banking is that I didn’t, I wasn’t really good at paying attention to detail at that time. But banking forced me to get pay attention to detail. But for some reason, there was something inside of me, that just got it. And I became recognized in a small way, right with our banks, Bank of America and US Bank, as a high producer. And that and that worked well for me, got me into business banking, which was very a great opportunity. But my real interest was business. And so from from a young age, I just felt entrepreneurial, drawn towards Business Banking, because I had actually started a small business and tried it out. And it was really hard. I didn’t, I didn’t think it would be that hard. You sell something, you make some money. And then when I as a business banker, I started to say, oh, there’s another side to this. So yeah, that business banking, then with US Bank and bank of america then led me on to the SBDC that you referenced.

Curt Anderson  3:43

Awesome. So that’s, and I want to uncover that and you don’t want what’s what’s awesome. Pavin meter just dropped a note. Paul’s on your side of the world. Yeah. He’s the founder and CEO, president of proshop. And I know, Paul actually had a great success story with the Small Business Development Center to my Paul, if I recall that correctly, from our conversations on getting his business off the ground. So Paul does amazing works of actors nationwide. I know, his customers, he does great work. So Kurt, what I love to do is so we’re both Small Business Development Center advisors. And for anybody out there, it’s not familiar with the SBDC Small Business Development Center. It is a national program. They’re located in all 50 states. I think there’s over a nearly 1000 centers throughout the country. I believe you were there about 12 ish years. Yeah. 12 years. Yeah. Five years. And to dig into like what you your role there and your passion and helping entrepreneurs at the SBDC?

Kirk Davis  4:44

Well, I was very fortunate because I’m in the Seattle area, and they only gave me one part of a job description, which was make businesses grow. Pretty, pretty simple, right? Yeah. Pretty simple, and I was affiliated with a college green for college that allowed me the opportunity. So I was working with entrepreneurs during the day, but I was teaching classes in the evening teaching business classes, I had a chance to teach a lot of classes and my teaching, sharpened my advising and my advising sharpened my teaching quite a bit. So it was an incredible experience. But I had the rare opportunity. Because our services were at no charge. So that’s one good thing to know about the SBDC. Yeah, I would work with between 100 to 150 businesses a year. And so I yeah, I mean, I just got to see business after business after business. I had these incredible mentors who would talk to me about helping businesses grow my 2x 3x 5x or 10x, you know, just like how do you do that. So my focus became funding of businesses and then growing the businesses. And so with the help of my mentors and the help of programs, I was working with five different chambers of commerce, I was implementing business growth programs with them. And then at the end of that 12 years, I kind of achieved the highest awards I could achieve at the SPC. And I you know, I said, Man, I got to make my next leap. And I was very fortunate to end up as a CFO of a small manufacturing company. Nice and actually the first thing I did in that role was to join camps so camps naturing Yeah, was as a thriving Association and a friend of mine Tom Laughlin had started that and so that’s, you know, again, my first action was just to join camps and become a part of that. And then I had a couple of different CFO jobs and Tom McLaughlin tapped me on the shoulder and said I’m getting ready to retire so in 2019 I had this opportunity again I came from a little bit more of the financial business advising business education side but that’s opportunity to be a CFO and then now executive director of camps

Curt Anderson  6:57

well I want to share so I’m gonna I’m gonna stick on your SBDC or I want to talk about a few things that I have a few quotes about my dear friend Kurt Davis that I know you’re extremely humble Midas man, I want to make you uncomfortable. Why am I here a few things that people that share about you energetic, enthusiastic, a great Ambassador connector. For manufacturers. I love this word I might borrow steal this, I might have to measure the entrepreneur ologists. Japan war ologists is absolutely awesome. You work when you when you meet, when you meet with Kirk, he meets the entrepreneur were that where they’re at, to help them grow beyond their self set limitations. I thought that was so powerful. How many of us as entrepreneurs, we put these, you know, you know, the limitations on ourselves. Yeah. That’s last comment. Somebody wrote, Kirk’s set a burning desire in me to be better. So Dude, you know, just kudos to you on taking No, thank you great banking career, you know, when you could, you know, and you and I talked about that, you know, it’s, you know, banking kind of swallows people up, you could have stayed in it. Yeah, you know, rather than yours, you brought your expertise, your passion to the SBDC. And again, those services are completely completely free, folks. If you’re out there, I don’t care if you’ve been in business for a day, or you’ve been in business for 30 years, contact your local SBDC, their credible resource, and then you then you become a hired gun, hired CFO, for, you know, more self challenges and take things to a level where you could sink your teeth into individual. And then transition into camps. Talk a little bit about when you first started out camps. And I know you’ve had wonderful growth at camp. Sure a little bit about yours. What’s going on at camps? From from 2019 to today?

Kirk Davis  8:52

Yeah, you know, my philosophy is really one of collaboration, you know, inspiration and collaboration. But that’s that I’m accessing the smartest minds in the Seattle area, you will not believe these incredible people. So we have a board of phenomenal manufacturers and also associate members who care and they’re passionate about the manufacturing community. So first of all, I got this incredible board that I collaborate with. And then I have committees. So there’s committees of camps. One of our finest committees is our innovation committee. They are doing some incredible things on the leading edge of manufacturing. And then I’ve got this incredible staff. And so all day long as collaboration with great minds and people who get it and if you know something about manufacturers, they know how to get something done. They don’t just talk about it. They do it right. We are doers.

Curt Anderson  9:48

Absolutely. And as you know, we do a lot of these interviews we interview with a lot of folks from the MEPs, the manufacturing, partnerships, a lot of trade associations, and we’re here And sbdcs and we’re hearing that common theme over over, you know, entrepreneurs in particular manufacturers, especially during COVID. What do we see? tenacity and relentless attitude? Just that can do attitude as Yeah, this is where we are. Let’s get it done. You know, you mentioned your staff. I’ve had the privilege of met Stacy, I know you have a rock star staff. Let’s talk a little bit about your staff and what when folks get engaged with camps, what do they expect with with with your team? I think Jodi’s on your team. Yeah, sure, sure. A little

Kirk Davis  10:31

bit about whistle staff, just the three of us actually. Okay. But I think the collaboration helps us, the collaboration really helps us do more than we normally could, keeps us very busy. However, you know, Stacy has been with the organization for about 10 years, I think, and she’s, she knows the ins and outs, and Jody is our workforce navigator. So Jody is incredible with connecting with people, she works with our we have a very cool program called the military to manufacturing, or M to M program. And so she, she is actually working on helping our manufacturers connect with veterans who are transitioning out of the military, then that could find an opportunity within manufacturing. And I’ll just mention that Tom mcglothlin was the genius who started that program where we actually are invited on based jblm. And through his, you know, relationships and his his foresight, he was able to create this program with jblm. That will, that gives us access to transitioning military members who are interested in a career in manufacturing, and we, we work with them through that process. Some of them want to get education, so we connect them with our education partners, and it’s turned into a really wonderful program.

Curt Anderson  11:51

Oh, that’s just a dynamic program. And I know in it if you look, if you go to camp, so check out camps Kirk’s website, you, I strongly encourage you guys connect with Kurt guy here on LinkedIn, check out their website, you can see their events schedule. And Kirk, I know, you know, some of the main missions going on at camps include like automation, you mentioned innovation. Yeah, continuous improvement. Can you share a little bit about the different component robotics, I think you’re active with the robotics activity. Talk a little bit about some of the different functions and the programs that your champion at camps?

Kirk Davis  12:27

Yeah, the all of the above that you just mentioned. But we have, we are working with some of the best technology leaders, pioneers even Who are we have a team of a company zoom algo, which is just amazing. I’m gonna throw out names I’m sorry. That’s all I forget to mention. But yes, America was an amazing company who, with years of experience at Hitachi have designed software solutions for manufacturers that that really put the the entire manufacturing floor right on your cell phone. They’ve made it so easy, and solve so many problems. So we have another wonderful member scout systems, which the guy who created this as a engineer, but but he also he’s young, he’s a millennial, and he so he wanted to create it to be a lot like a video game. So it has that video game ease. But he actually helps manufacturers identify through through digital technology, opera tunity, for growth, and continuous improvement helps them see things that they couldn’t see with other measures. And he’s helping improve operational efficiency throughout the entire plan. We’ve got another person from the Microsoft, who who left Microsoft just to create a manufacturing solution. That’s retro causal AI, and they’re tearing up the world right now nice, work with fresh consulting over here, if you’ve met them or heard of them, but these guys are on the leading edge of digital visual, you know, the augmented reality the the, they’re on top of robotics. But anyway, we’re, you know, these top people are teaching us I mean, they’re leading us, they’re teaching us and they’re implementing their solutions throughout our campus community, right? And they’ll come up with project. So you and I talked about a common friend Mike Hagen over here, constraints and design. And he just invited our innovation committee over to his shop, which was fantastic. But we had a chance to really go through as innovation leaders and just talk about the future with his vision of the future and where he’s at, but But what is possible with new innovations, and so he’s, you know, he’s opened up those kinds of conversations with our innovation committee.

Curt Anderson  14:43

That’s awesome and how I knew that and again, so for manufacturers out there, maybe, you know, hopefully, we’re here on LinkedIn, we’re live on Twitter today and Facebook. And you know, like manufacturers like add the social media thing. What’s great is like I keep tabs on you, you know, we’ve developed a ship and I’m To keep tabs on you, because you post frequently daily, daily, and which is phenomenal because you keep me in the loop on on your email list. Yeah. So like, what’s great is I I’m learning a ton from you and from camps even, you know, 3000 miles away, and I get to see what’s going on at the cutting edge. You know, Seattle is just such a, you know, ecommerce, Amazon, you know, Microsoft, everything going on in your area, obviously Boeing, a lot of aerospace in your in your world, you know, you’re in the forefront of cutting edge technologies. Yeah. And I wonder so and we have a lot to cover here. You mentioned your board. I know you have a really dynamic board. Was there any? Do you want to touch on that a little bit on some of your board? Well,

Kirk Davis  15:44

that the board is incredible, but it’s led by our board president is Allison bodvarsson. From out of the box manufacturing Hmm. And it was she’s young, she’s a millennial, she’s her and her husband, on out of the box manufacturing, they’re tearing it up in that and they’re growing like crazy. in their field. Of course, they are impacted like a lot of other manufacturers right now are impacted by the circuit board shortage, right? Yeah. So by this by the chip shortage, so they, but but she’s been a very dynamic leader, she’s connected through through all of the community and different organizations seems to know everybody. Yep. And, and we have, you know, rich Rogers from zoom algo. I’m gonna miss somebody. So I feel terrible mentioning names, because I’m going to miss some wonderful people, Elizabeth Harris with results as who these people, the dedication, they show goes, they they’re all in, you know, they’re all in. We’re having conversations, they’re leading committees. So a lot of our manufacturers, Gretchen Reinbold from mid mountain materials is leading our membership committee. And rich Rogers is leading our innovation committee out. Elizabeth is leading our events committee. So we’re a board led community, which is fantastic. They’re very active, they’re very involved. And they’re coming up with innovative, you know, solutions to the manufacturing problems. So we again, almost every day, we’re tuning into what what hurts, and then how can we help. But there’s things you can do in a community that you can’t do on your own so many times and so they’ll they’ll ask the question, you know, is there somebody with the resources or somebody together, we could do something to help these types of companies do these types of things? So yeah, we’ve got some initiatives on the on the whiteboard here. Some things we’re working on for the future, and and some things we’re implementing right now. But it’s a nonstop process of, you know, as you would imagine, continual improvement and innovation.

Curt Anderson  17:50

This is awesome. I absolutely love this and I love you, you scratch on like, kind of like that strength in numbers concept. Yeah. And you know, you and I know plenty of, you know, being at the Small Business Development Center. But I think before we are when you got on the call, you’re saying, What 100 however many entrepreneurs you would deal with in a year was what would you say? 100? Oh, yeah. Yeah. 150 for 12 years, we’ll do the math, you know, you’ve dealt with hundreds and hundreds into you know, over 1000 well over 1000 you know, couple 1000 mate entrepreneurs. And you know, entrepreneurs, man, it’s boy, it’s not easy. It’s not easy nosed, you know, especially manufacturing your your noses to the grindstone and you’re trying to get through the day. Yeah, we’re dealing with labor shortages, chips, you know, supply chain supply chain

Kirk Davis  18:34

issues. Yeah. And even houses on fire,

Curt Anderson  18:37

on fire, you know, keeping employees safe, but even pre count, you know, right lunches. You know, so many entrepreneurs, they’re just they’re trying to get through the day, sometimes it’s hour by hour, day, and they don’t realize that there’s such a wealth of opportunity of support support system, like we mentioned, the Small Business Development Center, MEPs course trade associations. So I love what you’re talking about here, Kirk, we’re like, you know, by belonging to the camps, if there’s a strength and numbers opportunity, where there’s other like minded folks, like you said, out of the box, in some of these other cool cutting edge companies, and you could even be a small tiny manufacturer, but now you have a network and a resource and you’re creating that camaraderie with other folks. Yeah, well, you’ve had you’ve had wonderful success since 2019. You’ve grown the organization quite dramatically. Have you not Yeah,

Kirk Davis  19:29

well, we’re on a Yeah, again, my my whole background and you know, focus is like, how do I 3x camps right? So yes, the membership boot camp. So it’s about really taking advantage of the opportunities but one of the things I want to I want to mention about our local MVP impact Washington. I think you work with them, right?

Curt Anderson  19:48

I work closely with them. Yep. Joseph disarm and well, yep. Great, Carol. Yeah. Oh, boy. is the director line. Yeah. Great

Kirk Davis  19:56

guy.

Curt Anderson  19:56

great people. Yep. Joseph kasar. Great, great people. Impact Washington.

Kirk Davis  20:01

Yeah. So one of the things we hear from our members because we’re a community of manufacturers, they’ll say, one of the things that camps did for me is it introduced me to impact Washington.

Curt Anderson  20:12

Nice.

Kirk Davis  20:14

And they I will say, that was one of the pivotal things for our company, because they work with them on so many, you know, training initiatives, lean initiatives, and there’s grants that become available, but impact Washington does great work with the manufacturers, but we get thanked a lot of times for being that introductory

Curt Anderson  20:30

or making that introduction. And, you know, yeah, you touched on that. So if any, you know, if you’re not familiar with the MEP, we interview a lot of MEP. I think I mean, our next several weeks are all MEP folks. And so the big thing is we want to, you know, for the MEP network, is the manufacturing extension partnership. Again, there’s one in every in all 50 states, you know, doesn’t matter what what state you’re in. And like Kurt just said, you know, you know, Joseph kisara, who I’m really tight with that impact Washington, he has a running joke. He’s like, my goal is I don’t want my manufacturers to pay for these services. I mean, he just works relentlessly in grants and opportunities. And we’re working with SK CAC real closely out your way. And so yeah, you know, so you’re familiar with those guys book, really great people at SK CAC. And so again, the MVP network delivers such powerful results. Yeah, partnering with you. Now, I know you have a great event coming up at the I know you have many events coming up. Can you share a little bit about your event calendar? And I know you have a great program coming up? Yeah,

Kirk Davis  21:33

this is Kurt, thanks for bringing that up. That’s our annual conference that that we’re doing here on the 28th of October. But we’ve tapped on the shoulders of some very smart people to help us with things like we’ve got an economist from from Bank of America coming in cybersecurity, we’re talking about labor tracking, augmented and virtual reality robotics and industry 4.0 solutions. So yeah, there. Plus, you know, you and I were talking about this just before we got on the air, but our manufacturers have asked us not to meet in person because these virtual events are working for them. Right at this time, it prevents that opportunity, you know, for forgetting COVID you know, you want to prevent that. But also with as busy as they are these virtual events have given them an opportunity to go back and watch events they may not have had time to attend. But we’re going to be doing something new in this conference, which is speed networking twice, we’re going to everybody has said to us, we really want connection, we want to meet people. So we’re doing a speed networking at the beginning of the conference and the speed networking at the end of the conference to really allow for that connection. So and you’ve got a great platform set up for us.

Curt Anderson  22:42

I absolutely love that I’ve seen it and I know you’re promoting it on LinkedIn I received an email a couple of times so folks anybody in the Puget Sound Seattle area that is interested jet definitely check out this camps event is a wonderful event. I saw you know speed networking out the morning to start today networking at the end. And like Kurt just said cybersecurity, virtual and augmented reality just you know, robotics, cool cutting edge, innovative things going on. And what I love is again, like we talked about the small manufacturer 75% of all manufacturers are what 20 employees or less yes and so you know what I love what you’re doing is your you know, like one of the quotes that I rattled off on your you know, one testimonial about you Kirk is you know meeting the client meeting the manufacturer where the rat, they are so busy by not having them have to get on the highway and commute through Seattle tracking. I can just as hard Yeah, I can be on my phone, I can be at my computer, I can attend this event, and you save me hours and yet I still have that opportunity to collaborate and network with peers and what have you. So I love the strength and numbers opportunity because you know, the manufacturer, you know, you know, how does a small business person you know, eight o’clock on my on my CFO at nine o’clock? I’m my HR person. Yeah, like I’m operations at 11 o’clock, I’m going to try to do 10 minutes of marketing, right? Yeah. And by belonging to these organizations, we can help help these folks be stronger in numbers and tackle some of these different functions and so on so far. Yes. Talk a little. So fourth quarter, you know, we’re writing we’re picking out fourth quarter. What’s on the horizon for cancer? What are some other programs you have going on as we as we kind of go into the end of 2021?

Kirk Davis  24:27

Well, we have three major objectives of camps. One is to help our members cut their costs. The other is to find talent, and then we want to course help accelerate their growth. So with those things in mind, one of our best programs. Tom mcglothlin. Again, his genius putting this together with some foresight is is that we are able to offer our campus members an opportunity to get a group discount health insurance or not. Because, you know, retaining your talent, finding your talent, you know, attracting talent and retaining, it is about having the kind of benefits that that rival, you know, what their, what their competition is offering. So sell through one of our partners capital benefit services, Tom mcglothlin, set this up with Jonathan Hensley, who is one of our board members. Now, he set up this health trust that allows our members to save its 10s of 1000s of dollars a year on health insurance. And we have a couple of other fun programs that I won’t go into, because they’re just too detailed, but we have several programs to help our members save money like that. So there’s a money saving angle to being a member of camps. And then we have our workforce, our M to M, you know, workforce solution, which is one angle, but we have a workforce committee, right now that is, is looking at building up that pipeline from high school, you know, through, you know, through college, of educating people about a manufacturing career and it’s so different today than it used to be now it’s a lot more high tech, it’s so clean, you know, it’s equipment driven, it’s there, they’re nice careers are nice places to work. And as you know, manufacturing the manufacturing career, you’re probably going to make you know, 15 to 20% more than you would in a similar job in a different industry, right, we have to pay more, we have to have better benefits. And I as I as I visit our manufacturers, I see happy employees plus I hear the things that our manufacturers are doing to create a great work environment so a lot of times you’re in a great work environment you’re working with good people and an employee who actually cares and takes care of you you know, you see the safety but you see the cleanliness and you see the training and the education that goes into this it’s it’s pretty phenomenal the investment they make in their employees

Curt Anderson  26:57

absolute and things when you’re on a shop floor and I know of Paul meter, so a Van Meter so with us, he can attest, you know, you get on that shop floor, and you just feel an energy, you feel a camaraderie. And the cool thing is, you know, the pride that people take where they may watch or something, they can say like, hey, that product went into SpaceX or we’re in the supply chain for Boeing or, you know, some cool cutting edge product ended up summer shelf that either you bought at home as a consumer, or we see this product on, you know, and again, Friday, when we had Roger Atkins from the N T and national machine and tool Association. He was some of you know, he has they have clients, members that have that are contributing to putting products on Mars, you know, oh, yeah, you know, the initiative to put, you know, to land on Mars. And so there’s so many cool cutting things going on. We’ve, you know, Mike Womack from the New Jersey MEP as a millennial, and he’s fighting relentlessly under this, you know, using a tagline manufacturing is cool, you know, how can we engage with our younger people? And, you know, there’s social media opportunities, marketing opportunities, you know, again, Paul Van Meter with his cool cutting edge program that, you know, the earpiece system that he offers. Yeah, Kirk? Sure, a little bit, what’s it, like you’ve mentioned, like, we you’re dedicated at camps to help your clients grow your big three, three, guy? What are some of the initiatives that you’re rolling out to help your clients grow on the sales side of things?

Kirk Davis  28:29

You know, I want one of the opportunities. And this is what they tell me, you know, they’re telling me, it’s who they meet at camps. Right? So, so from one from one angle, in order for them to grow, and I think every manufacturing executive has this idea of growth, and then they know what’s holding them back. And so a lot of times they can find those solutions that are today’s snag, you know, and then that becomes tomorrow’s platform for growth. So I think, you know, there’s, there’s solutions to the HR problems to the manufacturing problems. And when I see you know, companies that they implement some of these augmented reality or some of these digital solutions or industry 4.0 solutions, the friction gets out of the manufacturing process, you just watch hours of time and I’ve actually talked to the employees who have implemented some of these industry 4.0 or digital solutions. And they said, you know, if you want to met me, before we put this in, they said, My hair’s on fire, couldn’t keep up, couldn’t keep track fun, things are falling through the cracks. And you meet them today, and they’re calm, and then the employer said to me, I feel like I got my employee back. Oh, no, no, because there’s a quality of work life that happens when you implement these solutions. And yeah, you know, I think also because of so many trends happening in manufacturing right now. And because of the workforce shortage, you know, we have manufacturers who need to run three shifts a day, but can only run two because they can’t find the people right. So this is is forcing manufacturers to really evaluate automation and robotics and other solutions they’re going to help them get the job done easier and faster. So it’s you know, as you look out vision narrowly they they are looking at solutions that are going to help them grow faster and I haven’t really met anybody that has a lack of opportunity for growth that’s more so a lot more about capacity so impact Washington becomes a great you know, solution for them and then the other people they need to camps. One of our board members I’ve mentioned Elizabeth Harris, she’s on the marketing and promotion revenue side of manufacturing and so so she’s brought a lot to our campus members. You know, I think this opportunity to meet you as an example because I I know you’re bringing e commerce solutions to manufacturing.

Curt Anderson  30:47

That’s right. Yeah, we are and we do a lot of trainings we do a lot of webinars workshops with you know, partnering with MEPs around the country you know, and as you mentioned, do you know love our relationship with impact Washington, you know, very passionate Deloitte in his leadership Peck Washington the entire team they are just you know, just fighting tooth and nail to help manufacturers especially with you know, because aerospace was you know, right in your backyard aerospace was facing a lot of challenges. Yes COVID then all sudden you throw COVID on top of it now and you know, I even have a manufacturer here in New York, that’s part of our training program. They’re an aerospace channel, you know, supply chain, and they’ve been hit, you know, very, you know, very difficult so now it’s taken a step back in trying to diversify where you know a lot of manufacturers you know, the word of mouth for many years trade shows, that’s how they built their businesses. Now listen, you take away the trade shows, word of mouth isn’t what it used to be. Now our buyers are getting much younger and so they have to have that digital footprint Yes. Yeah, I want to be mindful of your time Kirk I know you’re super busy. Another question like you You know, you’ve become very intentional yourself like you said, you’re posting daily on LinkedIn. Yes, amps you’re making You’re doing a great job. From a social footprint. You’re a 3x guy your board members are focused on marketing what’s been How have to share a little bit about how you’ve been intentional with in changes in you or in camps from a marketing initiative and how what results have you seen

Kirk Davis  32:21

Yeah, well you’re just you’re just making this really easy for me you know prior to me coming on board I did have a vision for a lot more digital access to our members because as we grow and as we’re working in places are not local the digital makes all of that possible Yeah, so we created a website called join camps calm okay and it’s it’s it’s really nice it’s the foundation of helping manufacturers understand the value proposition of camps it just it’s very simple it’s just the landing page join camps calm Yeah, but as an example our board and our committee members they were saying I want to tell the camp story is just too complicated and I agree we’re doing too many things there’s so much going on but the join camps calm as an example makes it really easy to tell her story and somebody without me pressuring them to join camps I can just say you know please take a look at this website. Yeah, but we we are achieving record growth of new camps members, you know, because of that website. Good. Isn’t that crazy?

Curt Anderson  33:32

Dude, it warms my heart I love hearing those stories. Yeah, that’s right and so again in listen you know, folks if we listen to what Kurt just said, and what did you do Kirk you simplified it, you made it easier, you know, right. I was blessed I did I actually did a live workshop It was great being in person last week it was just wonderful local university. Bunch of entrepreneurs were on Team it’s a center for entrepreneurial leadership. And I was going we had this awesome fun you know, like digital marketing transformation e commerce workshop. And as we’re going through the program, and like most of them were manufacturers, I asked you know, what’s your key to success? And it was just a consistent theme of like making it as easy as possible for the customer Yeah, yeah. Off to making it easy. So you by by making that process simpler, yeah clear concise message made it easier to understand what is camps about Now also, as I mentioned, you know, you’ve been intentional of getting on the offensive and not just sitting back Let’s wait and hope that people you know, we’re going to right right we’re gonna hope that people come to camps you’re aggressive and you’re getting out there Yeah. work like crazy. You shake hands out your well. Yes. Virtual hands shake for Yes, yes. Yes. Virtual hands. Yeah. But you know, again, like what, what made you to get so aggressive on LinkedIn and just word How did you see the value?

Kirk Davis  34:58

Again, I have to attribute the gene Have Tom McLaughlin. And the board at that time, they actually looked ahead and they said, you know, people really don’t know who we are, and felt that LinkedIn was that opportunity to put camps up on the board. So they actually hired a marvelous person to do our posts. So I don’t do these posts of the ones you’re seeing that have caps on them. Yeah. All right. And by one of our board members, rich Rogers. Oh, nice. So again, this is collaboration, teamwork, but you know, I have to commend him and his team and some algo for whoever he has, maybe he does all of that, or maybe he, he lets his team help him with it. But daily, we’re keeping people on the very leading edge of manufacturing news, insights, improvements, crazy stuff that I’m happy every day, I’m like, Oh, I’m so glad he posted that, you know, and instead of me having to go find it, it’s just right there in front of me on that LinkedIn feed. Right. But again, this is kind of the power of community power of teamwork. And, you know, I, we do have some things on the whiteboard, I don’t want to talk about till we do them ever part two, but I do have some things in mind that we’re working on that will actually really help with finding talent. Because right now, again, we have people who are running short on their, on their shifts, because again, find a people. So we have some solutions on the whiteboard for that. And I do have some solutions on the whiteboard, too. You know, right now we have a statewide mandate Washington State, so but we do need to reach out to our communities and in, in Walla Walla, Yakima and Spokane and Vancouver and Bellingham. So there’s a lot more opportunity for us, we have about 6500 manufacturers in Washington State. And we’re a small, you know, small organization about 250. Members. So, you know, we’ve got a long, long ways to go just here in Washington State.

Curt Anderson  36:51

Well, I’d say that’s fantastic. 6500 manufacturers that is awesome in the great state of Washington. And I know, you know, if I’m not mistaken, when you took over your round, 100 members or so if I might close this. Yeah. And so you’re all round numbers. Yeah, you’re right on track to hit that 3x Kirk. So you know, again, our hats off to you. And it just shows, you know, just You’re such a selfless leader, just you know, such a huge entrepreneur supporter, what was that word? Again, entrepreneur, entrepreneur. And I gotta, we gotta, we gotta trademark that word. So we’ll run with that. Kirk, what I want to do I want to wrap up again, I know you’re busy, busy guy. And so any, any last parting thoughts that you want to share? As far as like, you know, messages to our manufacturers out there?

Kirk Davis  37:37

Yeah, manufacturing is really cool.

Curt Anderson  37:42

Manufacturing is really cool guys.

Kirk Davis  37:44

And you know, Deloitte did a study, and they said, if you’re fortunate enough to find a manufacturing ecosystem, you know, of, you know, similar businesses, you’re twice as likely, you know, to to achieve the goals of the organization. And and that’s the advantage, I think camps is giving everybody you know, in the campus community is that opportunity to reach their objectives more quickly, more easily, because they’re connected to so many good people. And they have examples of people who have done what they’re trying to do. And we’re surrounded by people who have been there, done that there were on the T shirt. And so you can talk to people and not somebody like me, you know, who is more in the finance area, but you could talk to somebody who’s actually done what you’re trying to do. So it’s just, you know, it’s it’s collaboration, it’s talking to others, it’s connections. And it’s it’s really making it happen better. You know, so thank you for this opportunity, Kurt.

Curt Anderson  38:38

Absolutely. And we’ll wrap up on this Kirkwood, I absolutely love guys, you know, your manufacturer out there, and again, in the Seattle region, and specifically for camps. But you know, odds are, you know, you run into a problem, you think like, I’m not, you know, we’re not, you’re never The only person that’s run into this particular problem. And I can contact a person like my dear buddy, Kirk Davis. And so even if Kirk doesn’t have the answer, odds are he has this amazing, wonderful network of 250 other manufacturers, where Kirk can play quarterback and he’ll say, I’m gonna throw a ball to this person, you need to contact this guy, or this woman, or this person who’s probably facing something similar. So guys, no matter where you are in the country, you know, as a manufacturer, No, you are not alone. You’re not an island. You’re not in a silo. There’s amazing network of opportunities to help you. Again, just to recap, manufacturing, extension partnerships, Small Business Development Centers, check out your local trade association goods, our odds are somewhere near you. There’s someone like Kirk Davis from camps, who says eating, drinking, sleeping, breathing, and how to help you achieve your goals. So Kurt, God bless you, my friend. I love our relationship. I’m looking forward to future collaborations. Keep up the great work that you’re doing for your manufacturers and we salute you guys manufacturing Monday motivation, we are added again next week. So we wish you guys in Awesome, awesome we go out and crush it. Reach out to in your local MEP, your local trade association and we’re going to help you hit your goal. So Kirk, hang on one second and I wish everybody an awesome awesome week. Thank you Kurt. You got it, dude.