Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Rhonda Johnson

Curt Anderson 0:00
And bam, there we go. So my goodness, guys happy Presidents Day. Happy Monday. Welcome to Manufacturing Monday motivation here with my partner in crime. The man in Seattle Damon Pistulka. How are you, brother?

Damon Pistulka 0:15
I’m great, Curt. And if I can be here, oh,

Curt Anderson 0:19
gosh, dude, if I was any, like, I don’t my heart’s gonna hold this is gonna hold up today. You know, I’m not a young man anymore. So 37 just I’m 37 but just 37 If I drop just just text my wife. Well, you just say hey, oh, good fire. Damon, let me do a little introduction here. So this is my dear friend. This is Rhonda Johnson, Rhonda, president of lover nap. How are you today?

Rhonda Johnson 0:42
I’m fantastic. Happy to be here. Well, I’m

Curt Anderson 0:45
honored to like you and I we go back a few weeks I or I’m sorry, months. years, is it years? Couple of years. We go back a couple years. Okay. So let’s let’s I’m gonna work. I’ll go back. Go backwards. Okay. Damon, Rhonda is? I don’t think you sue. I was the president of the board of the manufacturers of the Southern Tier here in New York. At the same time I happen to be I was a president of our little tiny Chamber of Commerce and have all sorts of fun events together. And I can tell you firsthand, Rhonda is one of the funniest keynote speakers. She’s the riot. She’s a blessing a gift. Is it Do I have that quote, My close friend, my close on your clothes? Oh, let it go. So now Okay, now I’m going to share one more thing. So now as Damon Knight, our proud girl dads and so famous, this young lady. She starts at a manufacturer shortly out of high school, and in a dude’s world becomes the president of the company. Now, here’s another fat fun fact about Rhonda. And then I’m going to stop right now. Rhonda is probably one of 10 people on LinkedIn that ever knew me with hair. How’s that? How about how about that wall?

Unknown Speaker 1:56
That is that’s true that

Damon Pistulka 1:59
you have pictures. I just want to know do you have pictures? Oh, and you need to send them to me. First your

Rhonda Johnson 2:07
pictures, but I did just cash the cheque that Kurt sent me. So I cannot show you the picture.

Curt Anderson 2:15
I know what so Damon. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to grab my junior high my junior high yearbook. And you’re gonna see me Ryan and I went to junior high together. We’ve known each other since 19 8019 or something like that, right? Yeah. Nice. Oh, wow. That’s cool. So we went to junior high we went to high school together so we have known each other for over 40 years. So Rhonda, you are so special to me dear to my heart. And I’m going to be serious for a minute here just for one minute then I’m going back to not being serious. You are such an inspiration. My God, this Damon This is a great company. We’re going to talk we’re going to take a deep dive in a Weber nap. She starts out this manufacturer she goes out and gets her bachelor’s degree she gets her MBA in an adult’s world she rise right through the top and I know this company intimately. I know a lot of folks that work there. Amazing facility they put out and we’re going to talk about their products use people you guys see their products on a daily basis. Rhonda, how did you do it? Man? How did you how did you crush it for all these years? Tell me your story, please.

Rhonda Johnson 3:17
Well, you’re, you’re making me blush. Well, I’m here for how I did it. I did it like everybody else that is working to be successful. You put your head down, you show up every day you try to grow, you never be satisfied with what you think you know, you always want to know more, you want to do more, and you get there. And I tell all the kids that I talked to never follow the money. Don’t follow the money. Follow the follow the job follow the path that makes you happy because we have to do this every single day for how many years right, money only last until we spend it. So it comes into your checking account. It’s gone few days later, that’s not very satisfying. But if you can come to date to work every single day and you’re happy that in itself is success. I don’t care about the position that is success.

Damon Pistulka 4:18
Yeah. And

Curt Anderson 4:19
what we to start this program so they can you know, who knew back at Jefferson junior high when we were teenagers and just goofballs having a good time. That here you are all these years later and we’d be sharing this moment together. So let’s talk about like why Okay, so you come out of high school, why manufacturing like what what pulled your heart in that direction, even go into manufacturing.

Rhonda Johnson 4:43
Nothing pulled my heart at that. At that point. It truly was about contributing to the household. The paycheck and I think it happens to a lot of people in manufacturing, but it certainly happens to a lot of people at Weber nap so you come in, I planned on being here for a couple of years, you know, helping the the whole family, we just get ahead a little bit and then I would be home to raise my son. And you know, you come in you you drink from the water fountain you you drink the free coffee and get the Kool Aid every Friday. And before you know it, it’s 31 years later. Yeah. I mean, you, you know, in a place like barber nap. It’s such a family. We’re a small company. Now when I started, we had about 200 people. And it in mid 90s, we had over 300 employees and 100 temps. And right now we’re sitting with 120 employees still very successful, always in the black. The company is very, very solid, we take care of our employees. And that’s something you know, the day you come in the door. It’s not about the free coffee. It’s not about doughnuts or pizza. It’s about knowing every single employee on the floor, knowing what’s going on in their life realizing that they’re human. And, yes, you want people with fantastic attendance, but we’re all human, everybody goes through something. And it’s a company that understands that. And so instead of just saying, you know, this is our policy, we consider the human. And that’s what gets you that’s what keeps you here. And then you know, once I was here, once I had the Kool Aid, every two years, I had a different job because I just at that, you know, after two years, I knew that job, and I wanted more. And that’s that’s how I got where I’m at now. I just kept moving.

Curt Anderson 6:53
Well, I tell you are such an inspiration. So Damon, let’s talk let’s talk a little bit about the product. And you’re going to be familiar with some of the product. So they do a lot of work with a company. You know, I talk a lot about Faulkner electronics. So guys, if you walk into any Walmart in all of North America, and you walk into the television department that those televisions in every single Walmart is plugged into a heavy duty metal fabricated powers to power strip, that all that metalwork comes from Weber nap. So again, any day that you walk into Weber net, or in a Walmart, you’re seeing products produced right here made in America, hands out of Americans at Walmart on a daily basis. If you walk into Lowe’s during holiday season, you see their artificial Christmas tree displays. They are plugged into these heavy duty industrial power strips. I have one here my house, I should have one on the show Roundup, and it’s this heavy duty Made in America, a power strip and that metalwork all comes from Weber nap if you walk into Target, talking about China is doing a super exciting project at Target right now. And all that metal metal work comes from our friends here at Weber net. So and you guys do so much more Rhonda. So let’s take a deep dive, introduce everybody, please on some of the superpowers and all the amazing talent engineering talent that you have. Tell everybody what’s going on at rubberneck.

Rhonda Johnson 8:08
Okay. So yes, we are. Our core capability is engineering and everything we make is made with steel. We service the home and commercial appliance industry. So hinges for JennAir for subzero for Viking. We make ergonomic office ergonomic products such as the sliding keyboard underneath your desk. Let’s say we make simple hinges. We make medical furnishings and equipment components for their equipment. Everything we do is really highly engineered. So we can we can command a little bit higher prices not really a commodity, except for the simple hinges and the ergonomic product. Those are commodities, but they’re the smaller portions of our business. So this company has been since 1909. They’ve been all about reinventing themselves. We started out in 1909 with Singer sewing machines. Wow, we’re making the cupholders. We were making hinges way back then. In the 80s we switch to ergonomic products became really the biggest line we had in the 90s that was 80% of our business but we all know in manufacturing that’s dangerous to have all your eggs in one basket. So we continued to reinvent ourselves and to this day. We have five major product lines and they’re pretty much split 20% 2020 20 across the board. And one of the newest industries that we’re in now is the Backyard grilling. So smokers with the heavy lids, 80 pound lids you can left with a finger feels like three to four pounds. Smokers grills. Right now we’re going to the barbecue show next week in Atlanta, the HPV Expo. And we’re going to be launching introducing our new portable chiminea. So do you know what a chiminea is? Yeah,

Damon Pistulka 10:27
I got one in my backyard.

Rhonda Johnson 10:28
So this is portable, takes no fasteners, it’s all tab assembly. You can tailgate with it. You can take being you can have it on your deck on your patio anything. And so we’re really excited about moving into the we call it the outdoor appliance industry. Yeah. Because it’s just another growth area. For us. It was

Damon Pistulka 10:53
such a, it’s such a, it’s the outdoor backyard living is such a, it’s a change that we’ve made as a society in the United States to really go, Hey, how can I live outside my house in my backyard and grow and, and have fires and live and just enjoy that space more. And it’s so cool. And I’ve seen some of these designs, I haven’t looked at yours, I have to look at some of the specific designs, but the things that people are starting to really understand with metal and how you can make these they’re just super cool designs that are coming out for these things in the backyard. It just amazed me. Like you said the grills, the smokers, all this stuff so much cool stuff.

Rhonda Johnson 11:38
It’s become a it’s an event. It’s a lifestyle. You know, yeah, people that are into entertaining in their backyard. They plan for that for at a minimum a week. I mean, if you if you frequent any of the social media sites for Yeah, for grilling, I mean, you have people on there that are saying, Okay, I’m going to have, you know, 12 people over next week, and I need, you know, what size, but should I get? Yep. Right, you know, to smoke. I mean, it’s a it’s planned out forever. And it’s it’s really become a lifestyle for people. So we’re very excited about that industry. Yeah, the really the biggest thing that excites me is, you know, back in 1909, we were making simple hinges, we are still doing that. Yeah, we don’t. I would say we don’t put a lot of stock into that particular portion of our business, but we still support it. We have five portions of the business. That is security for our employees. They don’t have to worry because if people start working at home and they’re not buying office furniture anymore, now it’s very portable furniture. That’s okay. We have the outdoor industry. We have the home and commercial appliance. We have counterbalances we have medical, we’ve got it covered and you still have a job. So blah, blah, buy your car. That’s what’s really important to us.

Curt Anderson 13:10
Very cool. Yeah, this is awesome demon. They have like a little. So your other facility like I’ll call like your little research lab. And it just fascinate because you go over there. And what I absolutely love is, you know, I’m friends with Lila and you know, you have an amazing team. We’ll talk about some of your teammates at Weber nap. But David you know what, you know, listening to the customer, if you remember back in the day to grills are like, man, you needed to be a power lifter to look up. And they were they’d start discovering like, hey, you know what this is, you know, there’s a lot of women out there who are probably stronger than a lot of dudes. But you know, like, why make this extra hard for everybody. And so as the Rhonda said, I just want to emphasize like you literally, these giant grills, you take a finger in you lift the scroll up with a finger. Oh, amazing and so awesome. Some of the engineering breakthroughs that they that they do. And what I want to touch on right here random what’s so fascinating, Damon, we’re just talking about like, there’s a great show on the History Channel. You know, the machines that built America, men have built built America food have built Americans like this whole series, but you look at the solutions that they’re that you’re putting out. Yeah, COVID everybody staying home, like, you know, everybody’s putting in pools and like, Hey, I’m going to redo my home. I’m going to redo my deck. I’m going to redo this. And part of it. Let’s Let’s eat. Let’s entertain, let’s have a good time. So I love how you’re capturing that direction right now. So let’s talk a little bit, share a little bit about what went on at Weber nap through COVID. Like, how did you as you know, and I want to what I want to do next is I want to slide into like your leadership. And again, I know you’re very humble, not as friend of mine. But let’s talk about like your leadership like you really had to step up through some really difficult times are like, Hey, are we essential? We not essential safety, keeping your employees safe? You know, you know keeping sales flowing? How talk a little bit like what went on for you as a leader and president of 100 plus person company over the past two years. What’s it been like for you?

Rhonda Johnson 14:59
Oh, It’s a, it’s been a, it’s been a heavy lift, I’ll tell you, I think COVID fatigue is a real thing. I’ll tell you that I think back to March 20, of 2020. And when everything just kind of shut down, it was nothing that I had ever gone through. And most people in their lifetime had not gone through something similar. And so we all were just, we’re trying to do the best we could. So we actually shut down for the first two weeks. The last week in March in the first week, in April of 2020. We were an essential business, we are an essential business, but the fear among our employees. And that whole week, the third week of March, I spent so much time on the floor walking around talking to employees, and the fear was real, in their voice on their face. Anybody that talked to the senior staff, they had the same questions, what’s going to happen? Are we going to be safe? Are we going to shut down what’s going to happen to us financially, will we be able to open back up and nobody knew what was going on. So we we decided we were going to shut down for two weeks, we paid our employees. We knew we were not going to get reimbursed by the government for that. But it was something very important for us to do. We needed them to feel secure. Go home for two weeks, we will be in contact with you at the end of the first week. And midway through the second week to let you know what’s going to happen the third week. And we brought people back we brought everybody back some of the office staff stayed at home until May they worked from home, just to try to keep the numbers lower inside the plant and be able to social distance. So we did the social distancing. We answered every single employee question whether they called on the phone text on the cell phone, came up to my office or met me on the floor, it was important that they had the information from me. So through this whole thing, we have followed the guidance of the CDC, or the federal government, or New York State, whichever was really the most stringent. We did that because we didn’t want to fail our employees make them think we were taking this lightly. Or not to name any names, but there are some governors there that actually, you know, made their made their own rules. I’m not sure what science they were following. But they were a little bit too strict. So we restrict also but we were following CDC guidelines. So as the CDC change, so did we oh, what else? Let’s see, sales, sales suffered new product in incoming from existing customers. Because of the industries we were in.

incoming orders were pretty solid. Like you said, Kurt, people were cooking outside. They were buying their grills. So that portion of our business went off appliances, Whirlpool. Everything went up until they had supply chain issues. Yeah. And then everything dropped off. We still ended the year 2020 We ended 10% above 2019. Wow. 2021. We ended 18% above 2020. Nice. And we’re doing very well right now. Nice. But new customers and new products that really suffered over two years because we couldn’t get to the trade shows what we offer is not an off the shelf product. Right? So we need our potential customers to see something feel something we need to get out there and show them where their problem is. And where we have a solution. You know, going to a trade show and actually dropping a lid at a potential customers booth is not a bad thing. You know, to show them look how really heavy this is. We can help there. Right. So we’re looking forward to 2022 we did attend our first trade show two weeks ago. Nice campus, the kitchen and bath show. And we will be displaying our wares at the HPE Expo next week in Atlanta. So 2022 is going to be a lot better for us.

Curt Anderson 20:04
Awesome, man. This is so good. So we need your friend, our friend Matt goosey dropping these we could have Katie’s in the house. Katie’s gonna join us in a couple weeks. So Rhonda I just I have to recap and again you know my my respect my admiration, my love for you goes back to 1980 as we’re back in junior high days together, just look at what you’ve done in guys, you know, when you’re when you’re responsible for 100 plus employees like Rhonda, I just I can’t imagine what you went through. I know like, you know, you’re the general like, you’re the top and you had to be strong. You had to be firm, you had to be, you know, just an abundance of confidence through very trying times. And I’ll tell you and we’re at the top I’m sure maybe you want admit it here, it gets a little lonely because you’re trying to appease everybody, but boy, I know you probably had some challenging nights, sleepless nights, what have you and you know, God bless you for what you’ve done to muster through and fight through and just get Weber nap. 18% up Mike,

Damon Pistulka 21:09
I know that’s it both yours as well. That’s really cool.

Curt Anderson 21:13
And I’m so our classmates are so proud of you looking. MRI band director say right now she could listen to this I might have. So that’s another story. So Rhonda, let’s let’s slide into this. You and I had lunch pre COVID years ago, and we sat down you’re like man, I’m not real pleased my digital marketing strategy. Remember that little lunch that we had? Boy? Yes. Thank you for that lunch. We had a great time. And we in you connected with our friends at protocol ad so Josh and Donnie and how he Daymond you know that crew? Yeah, they are rock star marketers for manufacturers in AR? Let’s take Okay, so that So thankfully, pre COVID You and your team Lila Bell, Gabi love Lila, you consciously made a decision as a manufacturer, we can’t rely on trade shows. This is pre COVID Again, right? I mean, COVID. Like was it like, this whole COVID thing was even on our radar when you and I met, right? You decide to take a plunge into like, hey, let’s get our company in the 21st century. Let’s go digital marketing and protocol 80. Guys, if you’re not familiar, check them out protocol at digital marketing firm for manufacturers. Share a little bit about your intention how you went more, you took the company in that direction, what protocol ad has done for you?

Rhonda Johnson 22:29
Well, what Webern app makes is, like I said, it’s not something that comes off the shelf. And if you go to a store, you’re not going to see whatever naps name on anything. So everything we make makes another product better. Sub Zero, refrigerator, JennAir refrigerator, or, or a grill makes it better, but our name is not out there. So wheat for 100 years, we did not advertise. We didn’t do any marketing. That just wasn’t a thing. When we were corporate owned, they there was no money in the market for or in the budget for marketing, because it just wasn’t needed for what we did. Well, it is needed. It’s absolutely needed. And so when we had a change in leadership, and the senior staff at Weber nap, that was one of our goals, we absolutely wanted to market, what we can do. So we’re not marketing a thing. We’re marketing, what we’re capable of how we can make your product better. And we we actually played around with a different marketing company before protocol ad. And then yes, we took Kurt to lunch and wanted to tap his brain, you know, for help in that area. And he hooked us up with protocol ad and I’m telling you, it has been absolutely fantastic. So anybody that believes the money that you spend monthly yearly and marketing right off the bat, you’re going to see results, you know, first quarter, first half, it’s not going to happen. You have to be patient. And you have to I think you really have to put your eggs in their basket and trust them that they know exactly what they’re doing. And we did that. We’re the experts of motion control. They’re the experts in inbound marketing. And we trusted them and they came through because I’ll tell you 10% over and then 18% over we could not have done that without the without going to the trade shows. If it wasn’t for protocol ad because the new customers that we did get during 2020 and 2021. They came through the website or from different marketing with digital marketing with Different companies but with using protocol ad, so it’s absolutely essential. It doesn’t matter if you make a thing if you are a business and you rely on sales coming in to that business, you need to have some marketing and protocol ad is fantastic.

Curt Anderson 25:20
That’s awesome. tourister Trish Stewart, our dear friend Trish, she is an expert on translation expert. So any of your companies that are going global you need to connect with your steward. She says is this a company? Yes, protocol ad they’re in Pennsylvania. They are absolutely phenomenal. And Rhonda so let’s let’s take that another I love what you’re saying. And just to hear you talking about this is just so rewarding. It’s a marathon right? It’s not like you said it’s gonna happen first month first quarter it’s in the you’re in it for the long game you made a conscious collective effort and a commitment to creating that online strategy. And now when somebody in here’s what I love and Ron, I don’t know if you know this, I’m telling you this for a first time here on LinkedIn live. So I do tons of webinars i different universities and stuff. Last week I was at Purdue University. I was at Temple University. I use Weber nap as a case study all the time. So I’m out there pounding the pavement pushing my dear classmate, my dear friend. What I love what you guys do is like you have a persona, you have engineering Chucky, and I show here’s engineering Chucky nine, David, if you remember, I don’t use that creepy Chucky that I use. I use Ernie from Burton Ernie because I find him a little bit more friendly. So I converted Chucky to Ernie. But I walked through the process, Rhonda and I never told you this. So I walked through a process on how like you speak and sing to engineering, Ernie slash Chucky. When you land on your website, guys, check out Weber Weber an app, they have a phenomenal website, all sorts of guides information. As she just said inbound marketing. I talked about your call to action. Ask an engineer, we have a rockstar team. That’s your core strength are your amazing engineers. I know a number of those guys. We had a funnel LinkedIn work training couple years ago. They are amazing. That’s your core strength. And now what you’re doing is stop being the best kept secret in getting that message out there to resonate with Chucky in here’s where I’ll leave. Now I’ll stop on this. In engineering chunkies persona, it says I like going to trade shows, or I do a search on Google. Well guess what Chaki couldn’t search could go to a trade show for the past two years. So when he was going to Google, he was finding your company because you made a commitment to inbound marketing. So kudos to you to have the foresight and the courage to do that years ago, who knew that that was going to come in so handy? It was like you knew COVID was coming, didn’t you?

Rhonda Johnson 27:38
Yeah, it was a premonition. Yeah. I don’t want to have another one.

Curt Anderson 27:42
Yeah, that was just one. Good. I’m gonna come in addition. COVID like overstayed its welcome. You know, I don’t know about you. It’s like, you know, like, if you had one of those junior high parties, and I showed up, I was like, I was like, the guy that overstayed their welcome, Damon, you know what I mean? So that’s what yeah. So yeah, that random, like, Hey, I’m having a party Friday night, but don’t tell her because he doesn’t want to leave, you know. Everyone stays around. So anyway, so we’ll go ahead.

Damon Pistulka 28:07
The one thing is already, I gotta tell you, I really respect your decision there. Because to do that, right, because I can imagine, I think about if I was back and running companies now, that decision to do marketing really is a tough one. Because, you know, it’s not something that’s going to produce results tomorrow. And we’re used to seeing that kind of stuff in business. And I think this is one of the things that drives so many companies away from trying marketing, because you’ll go six months, and you won’t even see anything, or, or you’ll start to see little pieces and flex here and there of hey, the lights coming on or something like that. But once it starts to happen, then you go, Oh, now I feel a lot better because you’ve made that decision. But that initial one is like jumping off the cliff and then hoping the parachute opens.

Rhonda Johnson 28:58
Right? You You really have to, you really have to be able to sit back. Yeah, wait for the first two years to be paid back in the third year. Once that happens. It’s exponential. Yep. But you do have to give it time.

Curt Anderson 29:16
And I would I love Rhonda you trusted the process. You’ve built a wonderful, you have a great the great team that you’re working with, again, like Holly’s just amazing, Josh, the entire protocol ad, but you came in and like, you know, Were there times where you’re like, man, is this working? Or like, Did you were you on waver through the whole process? You’re a little bit like, what was going on in your mind through when you made that commitment to to this?

Rhonda Johnson 29:37
Well, marketing is not my wheelhouse. Business running this company is my wheelhouse. So I had to rely on protocol ad and if I asked the question, is this normal? Is this what you expected? Which by the way, they actually laid it out right from the beginning. They did. They did not try to fool us and make us think yeah, that we would have, you know, huge orders coming in after the first year? Not at all. They were very realistic about it. And I truly appreciated that. Yeah. And when I would ask, is this normal? They, they were very honest about it and, and told you exactly what to expect. So yeah, I had to believe that they were the experts. That is their wheelhouse. So I was actually very calm about it. Because I knew when something wasn’t working, they would admit that and they would say, so this is what we’re gonna do. next quarter. This is how we’re going to change it because we learned this. So yeah, I’m very happy. I’m, I actually believe in that a lot. Don’t try to be the expert in every single area. That’s why you hire people.

Damon Pistulka 30:53
Yeah, exactly.

Curt Anderson 30:54
That’s why you’re so successful. Ron. Yeah. This is fantastic. So let’s talk about your team. What are we gonna say, Dude,

Damon Pistulka 31:01
I was just gonna say it’s just that that same. You’ve heard it a million times. You don’t want to be the smartest person in the room? No,

Rhonda Johnson 31:07
absolutely not. You just

Curt Anderson 31:09
need to accumulate the smart people around you the accumulator of smart people that success. Right, exactly. Amanda is a master and trust. She’s very modest. She is absolutely brilliant. But she’s great at bringing smart people in the room together. Speaking of smart people in the room around it, let’s talk about some of the amazing, incredible talent behind the scenes underneath the hood at Weber nap. So we love Lila you have Mike, Jodi, let’s share a little bit of some of the rock stars that are going on at Weber nap.

Rhonda Johnson 31:37
So we have so you mentioned this the sales staff So Jody is actually just since January, he is a he’s our regional sales rep. So he’s not customer service working the desk anymore. He’s interacting with the customers face to face. Fantastic move. That was Lila. She’s been training him for two years. He’s been in training, we gave him a revenue goal that he had to hit in a year to get that position and he killed it. He did it. So good, I think is a really good decision. And Jody being the newbie. He’s been here. I want to say eight years. We also have Mike Fralick. Who is our we call him our counterbalance superhero. That’s right. And he had he Mike has been here for geez, I’m gonna say I’m gonna say 2728 years.

Curt Anderson 32:40
And my country served my country proudly. Mike did

Rhonda Johnson 32:44
our country in the Marines. Yes, we’re very, very proud of Mike. Yeah. And he started here like I did, he started on the floor and moved throughout the company. And he’s just been a success at every single thing he’s done. And he’s absorbed, you know, all the information from every position. So he really is a superhero guy. And Lila is our sales and marketing manager. She started out at Weber nap 15 years ago in manufacturing engineering. And that’s what her career was. And other manufacturers. She worked for manufacturing engineering. And she actually saw what we were lacking in sales, maybe eight years ago, and that was marketing. And so Lila went to school full time while she was working, and got a marketing degree bachelor’s degree, and moved into sales and moved right up the line. So she’s our she’s our marketing and sales manager. We also have Jeremy red lucky, who is our Director of manual design engineering. Fantastic. He’s been here for over 15 years and worked with projects for every single one of our product lines. Eric Dahlgren is our guru of everything. He’s our director of manufacturing, engineering, and he is just the go to guy for anything you need to know. We have Wayne Rochelle, who’s our CFO. He was in public accounting prior to coming to Weber nap five years ago. So he’s actually the newest person or senior staff.

Curt Anderson 34:32
He’s amazing. Yeah,

Rhonda Johnson 34:33
he’s Yeah, yeah. And then to round out the senior staff we have well, no, we have two more. We have Eric Danielson who is our operations manager. And he started out in the company 25 years ago started on the floor. He was a foreman moved into that position and is fantastic. And then we have Robert delyn, who is is our Director of employee recruitment and employee recruitment and retention budget. And he started out he was in accounting, and collections, in fact, and then went to payroll and now HR, so you can tell we love to promote from within. Yeah, we give everybody the Kool Aid. Right?

Curt Anderson 35:29
Right. That’s amazing. So and I know, I know you and I could talk all day I wanted so let’s shoot, could you I know you’re very humble. I might put you on the spot you might turn right again. So you know, my my love my admiration, respect for you is off the charts around young women out there, okay, that are like when manufacturing really Yes, manufacturing is for women we’re talking to and Monster success. Just a great inspiration for women in manufacturing. Sure, let’s take you touch a little bit on your journey, talk and talk about some of the different you’ve, you know, two years you Hey, I know how to do that given you know, you you were always a person that raised your hand. I want a new challenge. I want a new challenge. Talk a little bit, let’s take take us a little bit through your journey on some of the different departments. I know you’ve done, sales you’ve done, you’ve thrown on all sorts of different hats. Talk a little bit about your journey for someone out there that’s, you know, ambitious, and they’re like, hey, you know what, I want to run 100% manufacturer just like our dear friend, Randy Johnson, just you’re a little bit on your past history here at Weber nap.

Rhonda Johnson 36:31
Okay. So you’re you’re absolutely right, when you said, I’m always the person with my hand up saying, pick me, I’ll do it. And it, it’s really more it started out more of a voluntary thing, right? This wasn’t being done. So listen, I’ll do it, I see where there’s a gap there, I’ll take care of that. I’ll do it. Well, that leads to more responsibility, it also leads to more recognition. And I didn’t know that when I first started doing it. But once I caught on to that I didn’t forget it. So I started out on the floor on the night shift actually as an assembler, wow. And total and total entry level position, right, and then went on today’s I did assembly for two years before I moved into a material handling position, just because I was tired of assembly and moved into material handling from there into a setup or a lead man type position for our ergonomic product line. And then once I had a taste of that, so it was a little bit of a little bit more responsibility. You were able to use the software, you know, the ERP MRP system a little bit more, learn a little bit more, it became an addiction, that thirst for more and knowledge wasn’t more money wasn’t anything like that it was wanting to know everything there is to know about the company. So if I didn’t know, you know why they run that particular color and powder coat Monday, Wednesday and Friday, instead of running it every single morning, I would ask and the more information I gained, the more recognition I gained, and the quicker I moved. But, you know, Webern app also offers 100% tuition reimbursement. And I took advantage of that. Starting with the two year I was taking a class a semester, including summer, and then I had maybe five classes to go and kicked it into full time. So I finished my two year full time, four year full time and then MBA full time. Again, it was addicting. Right, it’s knowledge. Yeah, you know, the more you know, the more you can do, the more you know, the more you can offer other people. So when I talk to people here, and I do have women that work here that come to me and say, you know, I want I want your chair, I want to be sitting in your chair, how do I do it? Yeah. My answer is put your hand up. Don’t follow the money. Do what makes you happy. If if what you’re doing is not making you happy, the more of it is not going to help. Right? Yeah. This is necessarily the chair for everyone. Yeah, for the last two years, I’m not sure it’s the I really wanted to sit in. But versus somebody thinking of the the chair they want or the money they want. They have to think about what makes them happy. And so put your hand up for that so that you can you know, volunteer to take something on because it really is recognition And it may not put $5 in your palm by raising your hand. Right but the money comes Yeah, you know, the the happiness is the first thing and I can honestly say I am always excited on Sunday night. The next day is Monday and sometimes that makes my husband kind of angry but I love to come to work. Absolutely love it.

Damon Pistulka 40:29
Nice,

Curt Anderson 40:31
man. This is so good. So ah Rhonda I am so how do I say this I am so proud for you i just i My an honest to goodness, my respect for you is just immense. My love for you is immense. My inspiration, not just here where we live in our little you know, beautiful community, you are just such an inspiration for the manufacturing industry. You’re an inspiration for women in manufacturing, inspiration for young like, you know, demon I girl dad’s like, Hey, check this out in a great thing. You know, you and I live in this area, just like even in my little neighborhood. You know, like, you know, Anna Dibble Kelly DuBois. Like, there’s like Damon, we have all these amazing women that are like presidents of these companies. And they’re like, they’re all right down the street from me like they’re all in like this neighborhood. And we’re kicking things off with Rhonda at Weber nap. So guys, we’re gonna wind down Rhonda, any parting words, any parting thoughts? You know, again, our goal is all about motivation here on Mondays. And I do like we it was like we planned it. My husband almost gets mad at me because I’m so fired up. You know, thank God, it’s Monday, any parting thoughts for young women young or even just young millennials that were trying to really shine a bright light and like, hey, manufacturing, let’s not be the best kept secret like manufacturing is the place to be? What words of advice and you are a huge advocate for workforce development. I know you’re super active with massed and you know, here in our community, what advice you have for young people that are considering or maybe not considering manufacturing, but should be considering it?

Rhonda Johnson 42:06
Well, I think that anybody that doesn’t want to be a doctor or a lawyer, or a police officer, consider manufacturing. Manufacturing is like walking into a huge Mega Mall. Yeah, stocked full with different stores, different genres, right? That’s what manufacturing is, you come into manufacturing, come in, get your foot in the door come in entry level, if you don’t know what you want to do. We have tuition reimbursement. And it’s not just Weber Knapp, we have wonderful manufacturers around this area. Tuition Reimbursement is a real thing. And you come in, there’s 30 different types of jobs to choose from. So just because you get your foot in the door, and you’re doing one particular job, believe me, I’ve had 15 jobs at Weber now. They mean, there’s all kinds of things to do. So I guess I want everybody out there to know that there’s hope. So I also am on the Boys and Girls Club board. And one of the biggest things to me is making sure that kids understand. If your family doesn’t have the money or you don’t know how you’re going to get to college, your grades aren’t there. The answer does not have to be Tim Hortons or McDonald’s or retail somewhere. You can be a huge success in manufacturing and you can be happy. Yeah, honestly, that’s the ticket, be happy. Find something. You happy. The job has to make you happy. You have to be good to the company and the company has to be good to you. And that’s where happiness is. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 43:52
man. Look, moment of silence. Let’s just you can be a huge success in manufacturing. Quote Ronnie Johnson, president of Weber nap so Rhonda God bless you, man. You are so special to all of us. Guys, we’re gonna close out so Katie, thank you for your comments. He says I’m obsessed with work I have so much fun. I have a hard time stopping because it’s my hobby. So God bless you guys. Run it we wish you just monster success at Weber nap we wish you your family your grandson. Just a wonderful rest of 2020 to you and I will be collaborating more wait till we try our next class reunion. I’m going to be really bragging about how great you are so Oh, thank you. Alright, so guys,

Rhonda Johnson 44:37
this was really great. I will come back anytime. Oh,

Curt Anderson 44:41
man, go Hey, watch what you wish for because now yeah. So anyway, so guys, Monday motivation right here with Ronnie Johnson boy if you aren’t inspired, man, I don’t know what else we knew who else we need to bring on. So yeah, guys, spread the word manufacturers where the cool kids are hanging out. It’s worthy. opportunities are you can start on the shop floor and become president of 120 Plus, in my goodness 100 You guys have been in business for 113 years since 1909. So, Ronnie, you’re carrying on that legacy at such a young age. We are so proud of you guys go out and absolutely crush it the rest of the week. And Damon we’re back here on Friday and we have you have your show on Tuesdays and Thursdays catch Damon on faces of business. Catch us on Friday. And so guys have a killer Monday. So Rhonda, hang out with us one second. We’re going to God bless God bless everybody.