Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with the MEPs – Dr. Alyssa Rodrigues

Curt Anderson  0:01

Hey guys, happy Monday. It’s November already, man. Where did October where did Rocktober go? Daymond Good morning. Happy post Halloween. How are you my friend?

Damon Pistulka  0:12

I’m doing great Kurt. Glad to be here.

Curt Anderson  0:14

Had a great weekend. You You survived your I know you dressed up as Elvis for the Halloween. You survived through it.

Damon Pistulka  0:20

We made it. So yeah,

Curt Anderson  0:22

I got that. Let’s just dig right in. This is my honor. I’m just getting chills name and just even like just going into this introduction. So Dr. Elissa Rodriguez coming to us live from Alaska. Dr. Lissa. Good morning. How are you?

Alyssa Rodrigues  0:35

Good morning. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Curt Anderson  0:38

Oh, this is awesome. You get up super early to be with us today. I really appreciate it. So I know, we have so much to cover today. And this is just such a thrill. So Alyssa is the director of the Alaska MEP. That’s a manufacturing extension partnership. And she is an incredible resource for manufacturers. So Dr. Lissa, what is this MEP thing that we’re talking about? What is the manufacturing extension? Partnership?

Alyssa Rodrigues  1:04

Yeah, so it’s a it’s a federal program. There’s one in all 50 states plus there’s one in Puerto Rico and we exist to help manufacturers. And so we provide services, we provide training, we connect manufacturers to resources that are either in their state or or to the other MEP. So we do really operate as a network. So if we don’t have something in Alaska, or you know, we don’t know where to go for it, we have all the other MEPs that have been really great about letting us reach out and help us out. That’s

Curt Anderson  1:34

awesome. So and we’re gonna dig deep into that, but before we go there, so you are a newly mom, and I know you guys had a wonderful Halloween just what were what were the costumes. You’re just sharing with us. What costumes did you have for Halloween last night?

Alyssa Rodrigues  1:47

Yeah, so our little girl was the original Batman and our little boy was a lightning peanut racing car driver. Oh, yeah.

Curt Anderson  1:55

There you go. That was awesome. So little Lenin. So what does she How does she know?

Alyssa Rodrigues  2:00

She’s five months, five months. Wow.

Curt Anderson  2:02

Congratulations to you what a wonderful way in these holidays, for the first time is just a joy isn’t it? It’s just

Alyssa Rodrigues  2:09

tiny little costumes. And all the little holiday clothes are just adorable. That is

Curt Anderson  2:15

awesome. So as we dig in, so I want to first off I want to dig into your background Alyssa. So you got an extensive, you know, you have your PhD let’s but let’s go back a little bit. So you have your bachelor’s and forest management. You have a master’s degree in forest economics, both from Oregon State. So I am Where are you from originally?

Alyssa Rodrigues  2:33

So I was an Army brat. So I kind of am not really from anywhere specifically, I spent the most time before Alaska in Oregon. I think Alaska now beats out Oregon by a couple years.

Curt Anderson  2:47

Awesome. Okay, so you’re a beaver, you end up at Oregon State. So wonderful time there, your Bachelor’s your master’s degree and you decide to pursue your education further. And you you capture your PhD at University of Alaska in Fairbanks, talk a little bit about you know, going in that direction that that career choice with your education, if you will, and then what led you to your PhD and then we’ll go from there.

Alyssa Rodrigues  3:10

Yeah, so. So I actually had a big break between my masters and my PhD and I loved natural resources. I really, I really like trees, which maybe sounds kind of weird and hippyish. But I really like trees. So I went into forest management, and then took a couple of like Forest economics courses and really loved the economics piece of it. So that’s why I went for my master’s in forest economics. And then I had enough economic. So then I started looking for a job as one does. And found I had enough of an economics background now to get a job in Alaska, the labor economist, which was a total change, of course, but really interesting, much more complicated because trees don’t move and people move and they do all sorts of other stuff. So it was really fun. And spent, I think around a decade doing labor, labor economics. And we’re there kind of missed trees and and natural resources in general. And so that’s kind of what drove me back to get a PhD, was just to have an opportunity to more in natural resources and natural resource economics. While I was getting that degree and wrapping it up, an opportunity came up in economic development, which had been really interesting to me because as a labor economist, people would ask you about their, their location, their community. And they didn’t just want to know the data. They didn’t just want to know, this is kind of the current state of things. They wanted to know how to get from where they were going to the next place. And that’s what really interested me about economic development was that piece that very forward looking you can make an impact going forward kind of piece of it. And so, so even though I got my PhD I went into into economic development, because I thought that that was just such a great cool opportunity to be able to help people make what they wanted out of their community.

Curt Anderson  5:05

Yeah. And I love that. And you know, and again is guys in gaming said, drop the Hello, good morning, Gabe, welcome. Thank you for joining us, my friend appreciate you deeply. So as you can tell Alyssa, you just have such an contagious enthusiasm, just you’re a positive force and just you know that that energy just really translates so well, with your extensive education into, you know, economic development. So I know you’ve done some major projects at an early stage in your career, you know, for Alaska, we will talk talk a little bit about, you know, made in Alaska, what’s going on there in your background from from that standpoint? Yeah. So the,

Alyssa Rodrigues  5:43

my position is economic development manager underneath that was the main Alaska program, and the main Alaska program is is huge for Alaska. So it is, it is our kind of brand recognition program, I think most states have most states I’ve looked into, you know, made in Hawaii, there was a really neat one from Idaho. So there’s, there’s a lot of cool similar programs. And so ours are bust out my little prop. So you’ve got your awesome little at whatever it is that’s made in Alaska. And so and then we’ve got our little made and Alaska logo on there. That’s the mother Baron comm. One recognizes it’s been around for a really long time, and is so highly recognizable. And that was really my first introduction into all things manufacturing in Alaska. And so I looked into a little bit of manufacturing from a labor economic standpoint, you know, we understand the seasonality of it. But when we look at the data, manufacturing, life is just dominated by seafood processing, which is wonderful. But at the same time, we kind of forget about all the other things that we manufacture in Alaska, because when we think of manufacturing, we just think about seafood processing. And so, and I was guilty of the same thing. And so it wasn’t until I was part of the main Alaska program that I really looked into, what is it that we make here? What are all the different things that we make in Alaska, and I, personally was just shocked at the diversity of things that we make it and then just went deeper down the rabbit hole when I came over to the MEP, in terms of like, we make that what we make that too. And yeah, it’s been it’s been fun.

Damon Pistulka  7:20

So what are some of the things because this is this is always and I’ve been in Alaska few times, I’ve actually run companies for Alaska owners, and what are some of the things that would surprise us that are made in Alaska,

Alyssa Rodrigues  7:32

I think aerospace would surprise people in Alaska. So and it’s everything from you know, we we rely very heavily on planes, and I’m very small planes and in some cases on old planes, just because of our geography and so we make things to keep those planes going, you know, we make wheels, we make fiberglass skis, for planes, things like that, that are really, to some degree only made here. We’re one of very few places that make them all over the world because we’re not the only ones that need them. We make rocket fuel couplings for things that are actually going to like be launched into space and so I think that would surprise a girl we make a ton of food that’s that’s not just seafood and we make beer and we make skirts and clothing. clothing was one that surprised me. I think of clothing I think of like these huge factories that we just don’t have here. But but you can manufacture clothes on a on a small scale. We do. So that’s that’s another one that’s really cool is the whole outdoor gear like that. I probably shouldn’t go down that rabbit hole. I don’t think we have enough time. But surface. outdoor clothing is another one that I was like, Oh, wow, that’s cool.

Damon Pistulka  8:41

Yeah. Because if there’s a place and then not just because it cold but the wet and everything else. For outdoor clothing, it is probably one of the best places to test and really develop the right stuff. Because, man, you can’t get wetter, colder, nasty, you know, kind of weather to have to worry, worry about what clothes you wear. Awesome. Awesome.

Alyssa Rodrigues  9:03

All right. I was gonna say our kids had had, um, Baselayers under their Halloween costumes. I don’t know. Whether you were Baselayers under your your costumes. No, no even normal day we’re Yeah, we’re wearing Baselayers just to make sure we’re okay. Wow, that’s awesome.

Damon Pistulka  9:19

And

Curt Anderson  9:20

this is phenomenal. So and what what an eye opener so let’s uh, you know, unite again. This is for folks that are new on LinkedIn. You know, this is a great LinkedIn connection unite made, you know, early COVID days with a wonderful relationship ship together. You’ve opened my eyes is so much going on in the great state of Alaska. And our dear friend, our buddy, you’re not gonna believe we just dropped a comment Alyssa. Don from a sense. Of course he did. So what’s another product manufactured in the great state of Alaska? Fishing Lures? Yep. God bless you, Don, thanks for joining us what a dear friend. We’ve had the honor and privilege of working with This company this year, and Alyssa he’s doing this incredible job. I’m going to go into a rabbit hole for a second. Yeah. He has a great marketing initiative right now. So Don has invented a fishing mower that has a scent and he’s in it’s proven that you know, hate fish smell and smell. Sure. When he captures a fish, he is now asking to fish because the fish is his customers. Customer. Think about that for a second. So the Fisher persons customer is the fish die now has videos of him pulling out the fish asking, Why did you bite my bait?

Damon Pistulka  10:36

It is so good. Absolutely

Curt Anderson  10:39

terrible. It is brilliant and done. You know you are such an you’re such a gift and blessing to work with. And again, that’s thanks to Lissa So listen, you mentioned fuel tanks. So we know like try jet, Heather’s choice. Drill, central watch manufacturers incredible dog treat products. My dog loves her dog treats, right. So you know, just a wonderful mix of products, natural resources, seafood, and like you said, you know, servicing your own customers and products. Any? Are you blown away by the innovation and just the entrepreneurial spirit that goes on Alaska?

Alyssa Rodrigues  11:13

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. There there is. People are constantly adapting up here. And they’re making products that I wouldn’t think I just wouldn’t think that we would make here where you know, we’re relatively high cost place with the end of all these supply chains. I just, it just wouldn’t occur to me. And here people are making single source chocolate bars and all sorts of wonderful products that you know, that just kind of blow you away, and then they ship them across, you know, across the country. You mentioned Heather’s choice. I have a friend on the East Coast. Every time we get on a call, he pops out his bag of Heather’s choice, whatever it is that he happens to be eating. So we are having an impact across baby food is another one. Yeah. You Yeah. Like would you think that we make baby food and shipping all over the world? From Alaska? It’s amazing.

Curt Anderson  12:03

Hey, that’s awesome. And my dear friend right here in my backyard, Jean Carlos love Eugene. She’s an old longtime client of mine, and she works with the Small Business Development Center here in New York. And she dropped a note I love Alaska and Curtin. Daymond. So Damon, our hearts go out to Jean, our dear friend. Nice to meet you Lissa. So she’s an active, she comes to our Friday programs. She’s been in manufacturing, get now consultant advising with entrepreneurs. And again, just that entrepreneurial spirit. You know, we’ve had the honor and privilege of working with a number of your clients. And again, just the, you know, your let’s talk about you and your team for a second. So you have Sammy Joe, you know, Alaska, you have a small team at the MEP network. Like you said, there’s an MVP in all 50 states, some of the largest states have dozens of employees. Talk about your team in Alaska and what you guys are doing.

Alyssa Rodrigues  12:51

Yeah, so So our kind of core team is really myself and Sammy Joe Lewis, she’s our client service manager. We have an amazing student intern Payton Roberts, she’s fantastic. I, she’s everything that you could hope for in a student intern. And yes, we’ve got this really small, but very nimble team. And I think that part of part of what makes us work is that none of us are really attached to a particular idea or anything like that, we’re very willing to try something out and see if it works. And we were a new MVP, we don’t know what’s gonna work for us in Alaska. And so we just have to try it and hope that it works. And if it doesn’t, we still learn something. And the two of them are so willing to just take an idea and run with it until we decide, okay, okay, that didn’t work, we’re gonna flip it around and try something else.

Curt Anderson  13:48

Well, kudos to you for your leadership. And again, you know why I love working with you. And I’ve, you know, I just love our relationship. And I just completely admire how, you know, you just, again, you bring that entrepreneurial spirit to an agency to an organization, and it’s really a unique approach that you have. And, you know, we’re seeing up front, we have a front row seat watching you, you know, how you bring this to your clients. And let’s talk about that for a second. So again, let’s put ourselves in the shoes or if we have a listener out there, that’s a manufacturer and you know, their noses to the grindstone, right, my dear friend, Jean boy when she was at her man, in fact, her and her husband had a wonderful machine shop, boy, they were nose to the grindstone busy, you know, hard, even lift her head up, you know, take a breath in. What’s nice is, is they have a resource like she’s with a small business development center. You of course, at the MEP network, we’re entrepreneurs, they don’t they’re not alone. They’re not in a silo, in when a manufacturer comes to you, you can give them that objective advice. You know, talk about that process a little bit. So manufacturer knocks, you know, they hear about this MEP for the first time they knock on your door, share a little bit about the process and how you create that engagement, how you’re going to help them hit their goals. Yeah, so

Alyssa Rodrigues  14:59

So First of all, I, we are part of the university and we’re part of a very special unit within the university called the Business Enterprise Institute. And so SBDC is, you know, a few doors down for me. And then we’ve got, you know, a Center for Economic Development over here that deals so much with entrepreneurship and, and cultivating entrepreneurs in Alaska. We’ve got our Procurement Technical Assistance Center, that’s also you know, right down the hall. And so we’re surrounded with other organizations that exist for the success of entrepreneurs. And so we, when we get people, we often get it from them. But we get them from our partners, we’ve been lucky enough to have legislators reach out and say, hey, you know, this manufacturer for salt in my, in my community, you know, go check out the MVP, so someone comes to us, and, and there’s kind of two tracks, sometimes they come to us, and they have a very specific need. So we take their need, and we figure out how to solve it. And that’s kind of that’s a nice, easy one, you know, you came with a problem, we’re gonna solve it, and we’re going to move on. And the other one is, Hey, someone told me about you, what do you do? And so then we then we sit down, you know, and figure out what their needs are, like, tell me about your business. So that we can kind of talk through everything and understand where their pain points are, understand? Is it really that you need an inventory management system? Or is it that you are overloaded with with stock in your back room? Or can you not meet your orders? Like what end? Is the problem on and see if, you know, is an inventory management system? Is a piece of software really going to solve problems? Or is it that we really need to figure out, you know, the process on this end or that end? And so that’s when we take that deep dive with a company and really trying to figure out what’s happening at the core of your business? And where do you want to go? And then we figure out what tools are we going to take you, you know, step by step to get you there. And we really tried to make it as unintimidating as possible, I think, you know, as a manufacturer, you took the time out of your day to just spend, you know, 30 minutes or an hour with us walking through this, we want something useful to come out the other end. So we also work really closely with our SBDC to figure out that, you know, if you already talked to them, and you have an advisor over there, we connect on the back end, we asked for, you know, permission and everything, but we connect on the back end so that we can communicate and take one more, one more piece off your plate, you don’t have to repeat everything to us that you said to them, and vice versa. But yeah, that’s we try to break things into these really manageable steps. So that even if you aren’t, you know, you mentioned Daisy, and we’ve got Donald on, you know, if you are someone who’s just one person doing everything, what is it that we can either take off your plate or or break into tiny pieces that that you can do on a daily basis, that’s not adding a whole other job to your plate.

Curt Anderson  17:43

Yeah, this is phenomenal. And of course, our we give our shout out to our dear friend candy, you know, even been involved with candy. Daniela tried jet. Dory, you know, so we’ve been working with a number of wonderful, incredible inspiring entrepreneurs, just, you know, you know, in light of them, you know, coming out of a solution for themselves and decided, hey, there might be other people that want this solution, you know, and bringing things to market, they had corporate careers in their background. And again, what I love what you’re saying, I want to take a deep dive into this, because you’re talking about that collaboration. And so you know, Alaska, you know, huge mammoth state with, you know, a lower population. So like, you know, how do we find these resources. And so you kind of, you know, you can play quarterback, where, like, you come to Alyssa, and the MEP, and she can connect you with SBDC you can connect you there’s a lot of grant funding opportunities that we’ve worked on together the past year or other, you know, you’re going to be you can expose them to a lot, you know, a couple of comments here. Like, you know, I know your tagline is filling growth and advancing Alaska. You know, I absolutely love that. That’s on your website. And I know, like different programming again, if folks are still a little bit, you know, hey, you piqued my curiosity. Let’s go a little bit deeper. What else do you offer? So like operational excellence. I had the honor, I was on a panel with you. It was almost a year ago, if you had Sylia Paulson from NIST a cybersecurity expert. You had a gentleman from the Oregon MEP operational excellence, man, he was phenomenal. So talk a little bit about that. You know, like your events, programming, collaboration, sure. A little bit about what folks can expect when they come into your network or into your programs.

Alyssa Rodrigues  19:18

Yeah, so um, so one of the things that you can expect is you will be more connected, hopefully, than you have ever been with other manufacturers and with resources around manufacturing. So, you know, you mentioned operational excellence. We have we have a cohort, we call it just a cohort, but it’s Cohort Based Learning around operational excellence. How can you improve your process? How can you lower the cost of production and, you know, again, I don’t know if we mentioned how young this MEP is we started in July 2018. So we’re really just starting to get to the point where we have enough experiences under our belt that we can come back and say this for sure works this for sure does not work and and our cohort based training I guess for its in its execution, it’s not just you’re gonna sit in a classroom, you’re gonna learn about lean, and then you know, we send you away, but you are getting instruction and an in between getting instruction you are working with, you know, a lean professional who’s gonna understand your process, who’s going to walk you through how you can make small tweaks, very reasonable, achievable changes to your process, to lower your production cost to be able to add a whole extra run, for example, and not have to hire new staff and those sorts of things. And I’ll stop, no.

Damon Pistulka  20:40

This is so good. Yes. Awesome.

Curt Anderson  20:43

Yeah, we have so much to talk about. I know, like you’re gonna hear. So I know, I think I noticed on your website, you’re having you have a networking event on November 22. Did I see that?

Alyssa Rodrigues  20:52

Yeah. So that is, I think you I wanted to touch on that. So that’s something else that really doesn’t exist in Alaska and does in so many other states. And so just a quick aside, you know, when we look at our data on manufacturing in Alaska, outside of seafood processing, we see that it’s been really flat for a really long time. And something that I try to kind of remind myself of, when I especially when I think of the future of manufacturing Alaska, is many other states have had an MEP for consistent MEP for 2030 years that Sure, so long to have, our manufacturers have helped and support into nowhere to go. So they don’t spend their time spinning their wheels, finding solutions that someone else found. And part of that is having just a community so that if you are looking for a new packaging for your product you’re looking for, you know, hey, where can I get the best rates on shipping, you can you at least know other manufacturers to connect with. So that’s, that’s what sparked the desire to have a quarterly networking event. And right now they’re all virtual, we look forward to the day that some you know, we’ll be able to get it together in person kind of around state. But yeah, we just we have an event where we bring people together, we have a really loose agenda, if an agenda at all, it’s just an opportunity for people to get together and know other manufacturers,

Curt Anderson  22:10

right. And, man, let’s just keep running.

Damon Pistulka  22:13

And go this is this is great, though, because most most people in manufacturing, and that was in pretty much my whole career, you’re working in that business, you’re in that business, and you’re in that business, and that’s all you really get to see. But when you can bring your head up and go to a networking event like this and talk to others that are dealing with similar situations and probably have solved some of them that you’re trying to solve. It’s such a valuable thing. And that’s, that’s cool what you guys are doing in and for Alaska, it makes sense that I mean, virtual might be the way to do it, because of the geographic differences that you’re gonna have the divide, you’re gonna have to cover which, which is awesome. And and we’ve been able to develop very good relationships, using video and some of the other ways that we can do it and, and meet when you get a chance. Yeah, that’s awesome.

Curt Anderson  23:01

Absolutely. Damon, Damon, we’re definitely coming up for her live event. Right. So yeah, we’ll be there first for certain. So let’s, let’s keep running with that. So, you know, again, talking with different manufacturers, you know, that we’ve had the honor of working with you know, there’s they face certain challenges by being a little disconnected, you know, being up in Alaska. Now, they also find some benefits and advantages, you know, any, anything that crosses your mind. So let’s take Daisy for example, you know, like, Daisy has dual Central, it’s amazing. She does dog salmon, check out jewel central.com. And when she ships from Alaska, I ordered from her on a Saturday, the package I’m in New York, the package was at my door on Tuesday, Tuesday. So I mean, you know, here that wasn’t a disadvantage. Do you have talked you know, what are some certain things that you see as disadvantages that you’re trying to help your manufacturers overcome by being in Alaska? Anything that comes to mind immediately?

Alyssa Rodrigues  23:59

Yeah, I think I think shipping kind of the flip side of shipping comes to mind immediately so just getting you know, raw product and inputs and things getting that here immediately and reliably, consistently, all those sorts of things. That’s that’s a challenge. And when we surveyed our manufacturers, they they told us it was a challenge. And I think it’s something that we’ve kind of come to expect in Alaska and we found that a lot of our manufacturers said You know, my my suppliers, mostly reliable but then when we ask them if they’re okay with that, like, I’m okay with it, because we expect it and so I think the more that we push, the more we’ll say okay, well being kind of reliable, that’s not enough you know, we were going to demand more and more in terms of reliability and making sure that that our supply chains are resilient and low risk and those sorts of things. So I think that that tends to be can speed disadvantage also the cost of energy most places in Alaska the cost of energy is really pretty high. We have some hydropower, wind power in here. of the panhandle of Alaska. And, and that’s, that’s wonderful for the people who are able to make use of it doesn’t still doesn’t mean it’s cheap. But but you know, at least it’s not as expensive as if you’re in a rural community who’s running diesel that maybe had to be flown in. Because we have communities that have to fly in diesel and imagine trying to produce a product, when your energy costs are, you know, coming from diesel that was flown in. So

Curt Anderson  25:25

yeah, and so what’s fantastic is, you know, the folks that we’re talking to are, you know, they’re taking advantage of natural resources, Daisy, you know, done taking care of taking advantage of those natural resources in your backyard, put that in your advantage. We’re also talking about, you know, hey, maybe there’s some opportunities to look at the lower 48 Daymond did an amazing job, we were talking with one of your manufacturers, and it’s like, hey, what about Amazon fulfillment, you know, so, you know, manufacture the product in Alaska, get the fulfillment down into the lower 48, attack the lower 48 team, and I thought that was a brilliant suggestion. You know, you had there, we’ve talked with one of your manufacturers about CO packing for food product, you know, he maybe instead of like, building something from new or the machinery, equipment, how can we scale that and go in that direction, I’m going to talk a little bit, you hit on the cohorts. And I love it, you know, and I think, you know, we have the honor and privilege, we enter, we interview a lot of different MEPs each week. And so what’s fantastic is they have such amazing, incredible resources on their team. And what’s great, you bring us high, you know, level of academia into your background. And so you’ve gone heavy with a cohort model. Talk a little bit about, you know, I know, we’ve had a wonderful ecommerce, you know, Dan’s on the program today. And I think we have a question or two that I might have to pop in here. But I wanted to talk about the cohort model, and what inspired you to go that direction? And what results are you seeing there?

Alyssa Rodrigues  26:49

Yeah, so first of all, I think they’re working really well. And we’ve had other MPs reach out and want to talk about them, and try and see if they’re a good fit for their state and their manufacturers as well. But it really came out of necessity, because we were small MEP, we are in terms of manufacturing a relatively small state, we don’t have a ton of manufacturers, so really trying to make the most of the funds that we have. And, you know, for us to provide one on one training for every single manufacturer, one on one assistance for every topic is really costly. But I know from my experience, and most of the people I talked to, if we just create an on demand video that people can go and watch. It’s low on my priority list to go and watch it. And so we wanted something. And in fact, we actually tried that, yes, in terms of like, you know, iterating and learning as you go, we tried on demand videos, and we put them out there, and there really weren’t any takers. And and I understand why I don’t want to engage in in my learning that way, either. And, and so we came up with this cohort model. And I, Kurt, I believe it came up through the conversation between the two of us, when we got down some rabbit hole that ended up being really fruitful, that we could get really small groups so that we we have that networking opportunity amongst the small group. It’s not intimidating, you can ask you feel free to ask your questions. You know, you’re not in a room of 50 people so to speak. And you know, Oh, am I going to be the one person who asks this question. And then we intersperse it with some one on one time, you can talk about things that really matter to your business. And if something comes up during you know, kind of educational session, you think I really don’t feel like that applies to me or I’m, you know, my situation is different in such a way that I just don’t know, if this piece of this piece of advice is going to work for me, well, you’ve got time to talk one on one, especially if it’s something that is of a confidential nature. Yeah. And that it’s really worked for us, we’ve done it with E commerce, we’ve done it with lean or operational excellence. We’ve done it with supply chains. And we’ve got really great feedback about all of them. So we’ve gotten some some, here’s how you can improve feedback as well. And we’ve taken that to heart. But predominantly, we’ve gotten really great feedback that people have not only learned material, they don’t They not only know about e commerce or lean or supply chains, but they’ve made changes in their business over the course of that cohort that have lowered their costs that have increased their sales that have gotten their product up here at a more reliable and maybe cheaper cost. So it’s been a really fantastic experience. And we are, we’re iterating we’re doing it again with all those topics. And we’re gonna see again, can we expand it a little bit and still keep that same feel, you know, does does the size work? And so we’re always kind of tweaking things a little bit to see what is the really best format that we can take to make this as successful as possible for manufacturers will still stretching those those dollars that we get both from the federal government from the university from our partners. We want to make the most of every dollar that we’ve got to advance manufacturers and manufacturing In the state,

Curt Anderson  30:01

right? Nah, man, this guy’s awesome. Go on and on. And so when you listen, when we’re on the phone, man, it’s just like, we’re like high fiving through the phone. Hey, what about this idea? No. What about this? And like, we’re just firing things back. And fourth, and I’d say, Listen, I think was back in, like, you know, March or whenever, and we’re trying to rule out, you know, we, we did some webinars and you know, had good positive feedback. And like you said, you know, the problem with the download is, you know, the lack of commitment, you know, came up with what’s called a do it with you model concept. And that’s this cohort model. And again, I thought that was, you know, bringing your academia background, your PhD, let’s get a little, you know, thinking for the Combine it for the entrepreneur, and man, it’s been just so fruitful. I love what you’re saying. We’re like, you know, so what you can do is you can scale these opportunities, this educate this information for these entrepreneurs, do it as a group. And I those bits and pieces were like, hey, like you said, I want to talk about this intimately. Alright, let’s get on a one on one. So Don, let’s dig into what’s going on with your business, or candy or Danielle or whoever. Let me hit a couple comments here. So my dear friend, Megan, Megan, the manufacturing Maven is with us today. Megan. She is doing amazing work. She jumped to comment. She just joined us a few minutes ago. And she was asking about the event. So Megan, what we’re talking about is Alyssa is with the Alaska MEP. She does I do it once a quarter

Alyssa Rodrigues  31:27

networking event. Yeah, yeah. Working events once a quarter.

Curt Anderson  31:30

So up in Alaska, what they’re doing is bringing together a once a quarter networking event for Alaska manufacturers. And so that was the event Don dropped a comment Lissa? Where can I get a 10 gallon of hairy of herring oil? Can you connect me with any other Alaskan so we might have to hit that up with Don. Don came back of shipping example, a case of two ounce bottles is 250. The shipping quote on that order was 300. I did not buy the bottles. So you know.

Damon Pistulka  31:58

Yeah, that’s it. That’s a That’s a horrible problem that we’re running into. And it’s only exacerbated by being in Alaska where it’s more remote is shipping is killing everybody. Now, whether it’s you’re sending something ground with a UPS or you’re sending something air boat or container doesn’t really matter. And that is one of the things that I think that by getting innovative through through some place like the MEP, you may be able to help the smaller manufacturers band together and even, you know, containerized things that they wouldn’t normally buy a group and just because there’s got to be ways to help. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  32:34

go ahead. Go ahead, Alyssa. Go ahead.

Alyssa Rodrigues  32:36

I was just gonna say yeah, you know, we’ve, we’ve talked about that amongst manufacturers before. And that was a huge topic in our last networking event was, yeah, was the best shipping, you know, this is this is my product that’s you know, approximately the size and weight, sort of who’s got the best rate, um, we have a partnership with a program called by Alaska through our local SBDC. And if you are a member of by Alaska, which is a free membership, FedEx offer some some discounts for shipping. So, so lots of people are trying to attack this overall kind of shipping problem that’s always been here in Alaska. You know, and then networking events are really great place to come and help because you can, you know, you can have bottles, you know, glass bottles, incredibly heavy one to put it on a container with, you know, insulation that someone’s dead and other manufacturers shipping up for their product. And you know, we can maybe have some reduction in so yeah,

Curt Anderson  33:32

in a nice and that’s why we love e commerce so much. Because you can be an entrepreneur in the most remote rural area, you can be in the middle of the biggest urban area doesn’t matter, you know, in what you can do is stretch out those resources. And like we said, maybe you need to partner with a co Packer that’s in another state or another area, or maybe you need to do something in the lower 48. And the thing is, I know like, in the perfect world, we’d like to have all those jobs right in Alaska. However, if that entrepreneur can stay in Alaska and blow up their business and hate maybe physical funk, you know that they’re co packing in Montana or they’re shipping out of LA or you know, whatever it looks like, but they’re quarterbacking everything in Alaska, that’s still a massive victory where you’re you’re keeping that entrepreneur right at home, I just want to share some of the comments and testimonials that you have with this cohort model concept. So the College of Engineering partnered with the Alaska MEP, and this is a comment that I had about you and your team. They were so enthusiastic and a pleasure to work with. Another comment was very appreciative of the Alaska MEP is Samantha Lewis and the Alaska MEP are instrumental to our success. Let’s see. We talked about the Grayland growth and scale cohort. And then, you know, of course, one of the folks we had wonderful testimonials with the commerce cohort. You know, I now have the confidence to hit my goals. And so this is the thing again, like you know, being that trusted resource, bringing the tools You know, strategies and what I like what you’re doing Alyssa is like you’ve really cast a wide web, where you’re networking. I’ve been on a panel with, you know, New Jersey MEP again mentioned, you know, Sylia. Paulson from NIS. So I mean, you’re going out nationally, bringing in these experts and bringing them back to Alaska, you know, you’re digging into like our network of marketing experts, and bring them to Alaska. Talk about like, how do you pick your topic subjects? Like, what do you what are you doing that really help your clients in that aspect?

Alyssa Rodrigues  35:29

Yeah. So I mean, it’s coming from our manufacturer. So I mentioned a survey that we did, we did a survey, it was actually our intern, Peyton, that that really headed it up and did the interviews with our manufacturers. And it was tremendous, it really gave us a lot of insight as to what are the issues that our manufacturers are struggling with. And so a lot of the topics that we you know, that we cover, and experts that we bring to the table are coming from the issues that our manufacturers have actively said, I have an issue with an example, though of the opposite would be cybersecurity. So cybersecurity, you mentioned the amazing Celia Paulson. Yeah, cybersecurity is a topic that not many people are talking about. And this is an area where we recognize the importance of it. And so we’re going to keep bringing it up. And and we partner really closely with the Washington MEP on on the cmmc dod requirements, and they’ve been, they’ve been wonderful to share their resources with us, both their contractors, their, their educational opportunities, they’ve got really great short courses, that you can go in and do really quickly just to say, Do I even have a basic understanding of TSMC, and we have a big DoD presence, you know, relative to the size of our state in Alaska. And if we are going to keep those connections between the DOD and our manufacturers, or the DOD and any of our service providers, we need to be paying attention to cybersecurity, and that the MMC requirements and getting people closer and closer to being able to meet those requirements, or else we’re gonna lose those connections. And that’s going to have a huge impact on our on our economy as a whole. But also, just as a small manufacturer, if you’re not paying attention to cybersecurity, because you think you’re too small for anyone to care about you, you are wrong, you know, stories over and over about, you know, sole proprietorships where, you know, they get hacked, their websites taken over. And it happens so frequently, that they’re put out of business, that that’s avoidable. And so you know, that we’ve got resources to help people to make sure that again, it’s not, it doesn’t have to be this huge, overwhelming, I hear cybersecurity and I kind of freak out but I just have to make sure you know, at a basic level, my passwords aren’t ABC 123, you know, they’re, they’re very, very easy steps were doable steps to make yourself just a little bit harder to hack just a little bit easier to find, you know, thinking of E commerce, you’re just a little bit easier to find a little bit more efficient, and all those things are gonna add up and, you know, turn into manufacturer success.

Curt Anderson  38:09

Yeah, that is awesome. And I’m Reverend David, we had so silly II in our program, and I’ll never forget, and I was on a panel with Celia again a year ago, and I will never forget this, she said is I think exactly what you’re just saying, Oh, this is like the most common risk is that we just don’t change our passwords. Yeah. And you know, I know you’re a huge we’re both huge music buffs. Celia what she does, she takes lyrics of songs, and she changes that I’m like, I’m like, that’s your cybersecurity advice. Absolutely. I mean, it’s that simple. However, you know, it’s you know, it’s really cyber lazy is what we are. I did it, and you just take it for granted. While I don’t want to forget my password. So a great tip from Celia. She uses passwords, which I thought was just that was awesome. Yeah. Let’s dig into 2022. So like, you know, Geez, what’s going on with COVID? Now we coming out of it. We’re going back in you know, it’s we’re kind of like in a weird time right now. We’re coming into the end of the year. You know, we just November 1, what what do you how you, how are you closing out? 2021? And what are you gearing up for your manufacturers for 2020 to listen? Yeah,

Alyssa Rodrigues  39:13

so the biggest thing that we are trying to close the year out with is ecommerce, online sales making sure that our manufacturers make the most of the upcoming season. And so we’ve got the event coming up with you, Kurt on November 4. Yeah, so November 4, we’ve got it. We’ve got an event coming up all about e commerce. So you can come you can get those easy steps that are going to take you just a little bit higher during the holiday sales season. We’re coming out with an online sales holiday checklist. Again, easy steps that you can take as a small manufacturer to increase your your online sales make sure people can find you and that you can deliver when they find you So that’s a big thing that we’re really pushing to end the year with. And then as we start the year, we’re going into, you know, operational excellence is your is your process as efficient as it can be to keep those costs down to keep your production high. The same thing with supply chains, or are you on top of your supply chains, it doesn’t have to just be a cost sync, it can can really support your revenue, if you do the right things with your supply chain. So those are the big things that we’re going to kick off the year with, are are those and making, again, making sure everybody is as connected as we can be when we’re so far apart. And we there’s so much to be gained amongst Alaska manufacturers then. And then manufacturers across the US as well, that we can learn from each other. If we just happen to be in the same same room, same virtual room, right. There’s a lot to be gained there.

Curt Anderson  40:53

A lot to be gained. We’re trying to stop being the best kept secret, right? Yeah. Yeah. That’s our goal. So I know we could go on and on. I know you’re super busy. I want to be mindful of your time, Melissa. So let’s wrap up on a few things here. So again, so we have our big webinar this Thursday Daymond. I are going to guys, if you want to have if you had fun today, and wait till Thursday, we’re gonna have a great time you’re going to add o’clock Alaska time, we’re going to do an E commerce webinar. For manufacturers. You’re talking about different cohorts. So again, go to the Alaska MEP website, if whatever state you’re in, go to your local MEP Arnet, check it out. You know, there they have contact forms column, email on LinkedIn with them, whatever you need to do, contact your local MEP. Of course, if you’re in a great state of Alaska, contact, our dear friend Alyssa, get things started, you have a lot of exciting things going on for 2020. To what your advice for manufacturers right now, I know the great thing you and I’ve talked about it Damon we hear about it constantly, is just that relentless drive of manufacturers, you know, they really got a lot of them are thrown major sucker punches this past year, as all entrepreneurs have in many, you know, restaurants to retail, what have you, you know, manufacturers have challenges with supply chain labor shortage, keeping their employees safe, so on and so forth. What do you you know, when you talk to your manufacturers, what inspires you or what are you hearing from them and boots in the trenches out there?

Alyssa Rodrigues  42:22

I think what inspires me, it’s just that, that that relentless pursuit of, of excellence and getting getting their product out to the people that it’s going to help, you know, it’s not just about like, Oh, I’m selling this so that I can sell something PRR manufacturers believe in their products as well, they should because they’re fantastic. And they want to make sure that what they have connects with the people who need it as as efficiently as seamlessly as possible so much of this works best when you know from a consumer perspective, you don’t even know what happens and and that is where our manufacturers are constantly pushing for is to make sure that their product we’ve got dawn on the line that that product is in front of every you know fisherman who could benefit from it. And and that’s what Alaska manufacturing is about. We’ve got incredible products from from salmon and halibut all the way to you know, dog treats that also you see we’ve got this wonderful array of products and making sure that it gets to the people who need it as seamlessly efficiently as affordably as as possible. They’re an amazing group of people to get to know and to work with.

Curt Anderson  43:41

It’s lunchtime on East Coast, we’re just going to let you savor for a second Alyssa That was so good. So man All right guys, we’re gonna wind down on this so a couple recaps here connect with your local MEP number one number two if you’re in a great state of Alaska, check it just you know, I don’t care what state you’re in. Just go to Alaska MEP. Check it out. Connect with Alyssa on LinkedIn. Tell her how awesome she is. Lissa big big hugs and out to Lenin. You know first Halloween what an awesome awesome you just shared pictures with us so that was just phenomenal. Deer you know we’re friends with Sammy Joe on your team Peyton you’ve put together just such an amazing team just started the MVP just recent you’re in a baby stages you have a long long time ahead of you. You know long career ahead of you your passion your drive is just so inspiring. We appreciate you your manufacturers appreciate you don you everybody needs to checkout up a notch I know I done chopped in a chat box you put your link in there send striker you know there’s exciting products in Alaska. So Alyssa Thank you very much. Hang on one second. We’re gonna wind down. So Damon this week we have we have a we have our program at the Alaska AP on Thursday. We have an awesome awesome webinar on Friday with Jaya uno from attesa. So guys Go out there have just an absolutely amazing week this week keep crushing it manufacturing Monday motivation is wrapping up so thank you guys