Monday Manufacturing Motivation with the NJMEP

Curt Anderson  0:01

All right, so man, I am so fired up for this. This is such an honor such a thrill such a privilege guys happy Monday. hope everybody had an absolutely phenomenal weekend. Hopefully your football team won but not everybody’s football team could win so we’re not sure how we did over the weekend but guys Today I have my dear friend my good buddy Michael Womack from the New Jersey MEP Michael Happy Monday my friend Happy Monday

Mike Womack  0:27

Kurt I like to Happy Monday that’s five days that we have for productivity I

Curt Anderson  0:32

absolutely so man we just have so much unpack and I know you’ve got a super busy schedule so we’re gonna dig we’re not gonna monkey around man we’re digging hydrated, guys. So I’m gonna throw four words at you okay make sure I got it right four words at you. And it’s no collars, just careers. I have that correct no collars rears. What does that mean?

Mike Womack  0:54

It means Let’s end the job shaming. The article you’re referring to is just published on modern metals this for the September edition, it was a really kind of a frustrated piece. I really kind of just went for to explain why we need to put away that collar stigma the general stigma around some specific industrial careers. I say it in the article. Hey Tim, what’s up funny? Join.

Damon Pistulka  1:21

How you guys doing?

Mike Womack  1:24

About my article that I shared with Kurt this morning, just no collars, just careers stop job shaming. And, again, what it really means is to break those stigmas down because we’re stigmatizing critical roles in societies like welders, like metal fabricators machinists and I was just fed up I heard a bunch of people saying you know, you’re not college material and that’s okay and it just sent me off a little bit and I had to speak up it was ridiculous to you

Curt Anderson  1:55

and I put the article in the chat for for this live and so I just I have to share a quote from this that dude, dropped the mic mic. Damon, you have to see this article he wrote no collars, just careers. Forget about collars and focus on the career and stop stigmatizing. I’m going to repeat that stop stigmatizing a critical function in society man and standing ovation. This is so good people that have a passion for creating. So now I’m summarizing people who have a career in a passion I’m sorry, people who have a passion for creating where they see a tangible result result can develop an acquire a career for a lifetime in manufacturing. So dude, like just talk a little bit about that this article, man, like there was no holds barred. You went right after it. Just hear about like your passion, frustration, you started getting into it. Let’s just roll with that. Well, yeah, I

Mike Womack  2:57

mean, again, I was lied to when I was growing up, I said that all manufacturing is gone. I’m a person that likes to create, whether it’s articles content, I love to create, I turned my garage into a blacksmith shop, I like to make things right. So I wanted to explore manufacturing when I was in high school, but my counselor told me that all manufacturing went over to China. And I was disappointed. But you know what? Life goes on, right? So I found a career. And it just took me back to manufacturing. And then I was so confused, because my counselor said all manufacturing was gone. But my clients, I was in advertising, you know, marketing and advertising. But all my clients were industrial companies, and just so happened to be in New Jersey. Yeah, a very service based oriented from what you would think about. But what’s crazy is that New Jersey manufacturing the past 10 years, rose to over $10 billion in our GDP. So that that was that was in 10 years, we increased our GDP by over $10 billion. This is not an industry that’s fading away. And I think we’re just doing a disservice by treating it like it is. Right? So I found a passion for manufacturing, marketing brought me there. But I think we have to speak up as a whole for everyone. So everyone’s on the same page about the value of this industry.

Curt Anderson  4:16

Yeah, this is awesome to speak. You know, brother john, from New Jersey is, is watching us live. Good morning. Happy Monday, john, my friend. Great. And we you and I need to connect by the ways. But anyway, so let’s dig in. Mike, let’s talk a little bit. So you’re talking we’re talking about the New Jersey MEP. So just for anybody out there, it’s not familiar, like, hey, what is MEP? What are you guys talking about? What’s a stand for? Can you just share, like, what is the manufacturing extension partnership? Absolutely. Let’s dig into New Jersey.

Mike Womack  4:42

So actually, I was just in Arizona at our national conference because each MEP center is an independent organization in the state. Our goal remains the same to service and help those manufacturers in that state become more competitive, whether it’s nationally but of course, globally. efficient, reduce waste, and really just help elevate their business. And every MEP center operates a little differently. But here in New Jersey, we are consultants, we are trainers, we are here to be your partner to help you thrive, right. And a part of that is made a new jersey Manufacturing Day, which is coming up. And we have a very critical piece on that to help not just connect the industry, but also connect the industry to our young adults and next generation of manufacturers coming up.

Damon Pistulka  5:31

Yeah, yeah, you know, you know how I like that because we have to, as you Mike, I’m really, really, and I’ve said it a gazillion times, I’m going to say it again, you know, the high schools are doing so many young, young men and women a disservice by not showing them manufacturing and the careers you can have in manufacturing, and just what they can really do because as I talked about, with my own son, seeing his friends, you know, and some of the jobs that they’re doing now, they could be doing much better from a career standpoint, if I would have chosen manufacturing because you know, there’s just some really fun careers that they really are. I mean you just look at it like they’re building some of the craziest coolest stuff in the world you know everything from just the normal stuff we see every day when you look at look at a caterpillar bulldozer going down the road Exactly. Or look at the you know, the stuff in a story just always a

Mike Womack  6:32

vaccine that’s Yeah, no one around the world and that was manufactured and the components and every bit of peace that my favorite thing to do is, is look around the room when i when i i’m talking, you know, my friends are in their 30s, late 20s young, you know, early 20s and I say I worked for in manufacturing, and they say what’s manufactured anymore? I show restraint. And then I look around the room and tell me one thing that isn’t usually like that gives them a little bit of a pause there. Right? They think about it. Right? Right. Oh, so made a new jersey Manufacturing Day. We have student ambassadors, ambassadors, we have schools that are coming to this event. It is New Jersey’s largest manufacturing networking event of the year so we take the opportunity to have manufacturers there connect them with students and young adults make sure that we’re connecting with the schools through our pro option Education Network team that actively works to bridge that skills gap and that divide rescuers chasm now and begin to really show them what manufacturing is about we could have them experience our augmented reality welding training we get to have them experience or learn from a manufacturer themselves and it really helps break down that stigma because they’re just people

Curt Anderson  7:48

dude this man I know you’re getting chills right now like this is so good. You know who’s gonna be so proud of you and you know Damon I were like the proud uncles right now we’re Your parents are proud you know was really proud of you right now. Bruce Springsteen, man Mr. You know, in this article, you guys have to read the article that Mike talks about, he talks about I’m wearing a blue collar right and I’m not trying to ruin the article blue collar right now let’s get rid of the stigma because like in manufacturing like you’re just saying Mike there’s engineers we need operational excellence we need

Mike Womack  8:22

wonderful organizations

Unknown Speaker  8:24

you know, your handlers you just so many different kinds of things that are have to happen

Curt Anderson  8:29

Absolutely. We need social media marketers and so that’s let’s talk about your role quickly about you know at the New Jersey MEP and I’ll tell you this is such a rewarding refreshing Damon you know we’ve we’ve been we’ve connect with Mike you know, I know Mike a year you know, a year now and COVID time is by like 10 years, but it’s been over a year now and like this is a great success for myself in Damon connecting with you. And of course we’ve done it through LinkedIn and we’ve done it of course through our dear friend Dan, bigger that rock star. Thank you, Dan, our Twitter chat on Thursdays and what’s awesome on the Twitter chat not only you know, you’ve been the one MEP for a while now Gina, is matter of fact, we’re interviewing Gina from Cleveland on Wednesday. She was recently hired at the at magnet the Cleveland MVP. We I also noticed that Jen edge the Virginia MVP is now starting to become active with the Twitter group, but talking about your role as a marketing communications manager at New Jersey. And just some of the cool and again like Manufacturing Day is this Friday, big blockbuster week blockbuster month, but talk about some of the things that you do from for your role.

Mike Womack  9:33

So it’s pretty interesting because I’m lucky enough where I get to touch every little aspect of nj MVP. So from its from our service based projects that are actually implementing lean practices, training employees on six sigma, or we’re working with them for taking advantage of the r&d tax credit that’s always available to manufacturers they think lab coats but so much of a an industrial manufacturers. day to day is actually r&d so they can take advantage of some of these programs. And at since we’re so connected with the federal and state government, we’re not government, but we work closely with them. So we can help manufacturers take advantage of different programs, services, grant opportunities, and again, critical training and consulting based work that will truly elevate their business. So I get to watch that experience from start a manufacturer goes in, starting a lean project and follow that journey, and then tell that story all the way throughout. Sometimes that’s video, sometimes it’s an article, sometimes it’s an interview with the manufacturer. So I get to actually see how their operation works and how it improves all the way over to the advocacy side. Like we had the three state and state events this year. So we were getting getting connected with the New Jersey Legislature, getting manufacturers on board and getting them to have a conversation to figure out what the biggest pain points they have with doing business in New Jersey, and actively resolving those through our advocacy team. Yeah, and of course, it’s just awesome getting to walk the floor of manufacturing facility, there are over 11,000 in New Jersey, and the variety is just breathtaking. Truly, and the people are amazing.

Curt Anderson  11:13

You have 11,000 Isn’t that amazing? I mean, think about that, guys, and when you think about you know, like, you know, we deal with, we’re blessed and we’re work with a large number of different MEPs around the country. So we get to Seton and we have a first front row seat to see the work that they do and so Mike you know, we’d like daymond our buddy Joseph kisara impact Washington he kids run like, you know, he’s like my goal is my manufacturers are not going to pay for our services. He’s like my job is relentlessly look for every grant possible to help them move the needle to help them be more competitive. I’m going to share a couple comments Bonnie, good morning, our dear our beloved Bonnie from Manhattan. She’s a manufacturer women business own recycled product and she is crushing it in Manhattan. So Bonnie, Happy Monday to you Denise has a great comment here. I’m going to share thanks for this I work as a training coordinator for an advanced manufacturing company. Our high school training center works to put a spotlight on trade skill careers. frustrated that we lost a whole generation of workers because of the push for college to nice folks like yourself, Mike Womack, you’re out there your leaders your champion this cause this is just such a thrill so exciting. So Mike, let’s talk about Manufacturing Day manufacturing month if you will, what are some of the activities that are going on let’s let’s dig into for the next month what’s happening here.

Mike Womack  12:33

So I’m really excited nj MEP we celebrate all month long but made in New Jersey Manufacturing Day is our kickoff we bring together the entire industry industry professionals, and critical keynote speakers like Paul Hudson, who’s the global CEO for Santa Fe, who’s going to be speaking at manufature Oh yeah, right. New Jersey is known as the medical chest of the world. So I mean that life science focus is a big part of what we do. And we have those keynote the breakout session sponsors are the breakout sessions going over digital marketing and manufacturing cash flow resiliency, supply chain topic cybersecurity, the critical industry topics that we’ve been hearing for the past 18 months, we boil those down to breakout session sessions with industry professionals from New Jersey and also from around the country to discuss and add these critical actual pieces of advice and offer these resources to everyone that’s attendance. And of course we have our manufacturing awards. Every year we provide a chance for manufacturers to be showcased as the manufacturer of the Year in one of six categories. And it’s truly a way to highlight your company for all they do and highlight the manufacturing industry here in New Jersey there’s again enough companies we can give awards out to every single one for a specific reason. But you know we keep it competitive and really make sure that we’re highlighting the most successful and breakthrough manufacturers over the past year.

Curt Anderson  14:05

Right right this is awesome. So Super Bowl is this giant a you know, we thought well someday it’s Super Bowls this Friday, so Manufacturing Day, and it’s in every state i know i mean peace around the country. So whatever part of the country you’re coming from, check out your local MEP manufacturing extension partnership, see what they have going on in your space. See what’s what’s going on regionally, what’s going on locally. I know here where I’m at, they do a lot of tours of major manufacturing facilities. They’re really targeting stem, they target young, young women, young girls, enjoy bring my daughter to to these events. So thank you. It’s a great opportunity, you know for not and again, it’s not just for the guys, it’s not the boys club. It’s guys and girls, enormous opportunities for women in manufacturing and Jean is going to be talking about that on Wednesday, as we talk about women in manufacturing, so heavy duty this month, but of course MEP, it’s not just about October, your 12 month you are ardian right? So again, so let’s get into the marketing piece. What? And so I know I’m not supposed to do this, they will say, hey, as an interview, don’t ask two questions, but I’m gonna do it anyway, talk a little bit of marketing on the side for you for the MEP. And with that I’m going to segue, what are you doing with? What do you seen? Or what are you doing to help manufacturers with their marketing initiatives?

Mike Womack  15:21

So let’s actually come inside so works. We can make this one question things. Wow, I do. Thank you make manufacturers need to do our explain the industry. I always say manufacturers are really good at making stuff just really bad at telling the world why it matters, right? Yeah. So in New Jersey alone, and this, again, parallels with what we do here at nj MEP, because New Jersey is a manufacturing state. So often it’s overlooked. But New Jersey manufacturing contributed $54 billion to New Jersey’s GDP in 2020 $54 billion. It’s not a small industry. Right? Right.

Curt Anderson  16:01

pharma. Right, yeah, totally gets overlooked, right. And that’s if you’re not in the, you know, if you’re not in the northeast, or outside of Jersey, you know, whatever your stigmas for jersey, I mean, it’s a pharmaceutical hotbed, up and down the state, you know, on top of small manufacturers, and in all capacities, exactly many, many industries. So we’re

Mike Womack  16:21

here and jvp, telling that story, right? And highlighting this, getting to engage with individuals like you who are plugged into the global menu, or the national global manufacturing industry, so we can all tell the story together, right. And for manufacturers, they need to get engaged and work that digital presence, that’s truly everything, because right now, they’re having a really hard time cutting through that noise. Yeah, and working and getting engaged and focusing on marketing, right will truly elevate their business. Because if you’re not, if you’re not growing, you’re fading away. So so if you’re not taking advantage of these tools that are available through digital marketing, traditional marketing combined, you’re going to fade away. So it goes on, it works on both levels, we need to tell the story of manufacturing as a whole here with nj MEP. And then manufacturers have to work on the other hand with engaging the world and telling the story about that. So marketing is almost everything.

Curt Anderson  17:20

Sure, sir. So you’re an SEO expert, your first website at six years old, you know, you and I are active on LinkedIn, I know you’re super active on Twitter, what are some of the share some of the tactics that you’re using, specifically at the MVP, where that’s driving leads for your center.

Mike Womack  17:35

So I’ll touch on social first, don’t forget that first part in social media marketing, it’s social for a reason, you have to engage. It’s not just marketing. It’s not it’s not just media, you have to engage, right, you’re gonna fade away, you can have the coolest picture, the coolest tweet, but if you’re not going to engage with the social aspect of it, you’re not going to make it very far. And that’s how you can generate leads true leads through social media

Curt Anderson  18:00

that, you know, that’s let’s talk about that for one second. My guy, what a phenomenal point. So let’s, you know, let’s, you know, Damon and I from from a different generation, right, David, we’re living now, we’re digital immigrants, we’re Gen X. But what’s phenomenal is, you know, what we did in person, I don’t care back 80s 90s 2000s, whatever, what we did in person, we want to translate, we want to transition that online. So when you think about, you know, the networking events, chamber, MEP events, that type of thing, you know, when you see that one person that all they talked about was me, me, me, me, me, you know, like, look how great I am. Look how great our company is, you know, you’re like, man, I hope I don’t run to that person. Again. We don’t want to be that guy. So like, I love what you’re saying. So you know, in socials the same way, hey, I’m gonna post and run, you know, hey, check out what we did check this out, we need to engage and you guys do it. I’ll tell you the Twitter group on Thursday. If you’re not familiar, awesome. It is an awesome awesome group hashtag USA manufacturing our Dan bigger and politische a nother jersey friend of yours, you know, do an amazing job bringing together manufacturers all over the country. You know, we’ve built a really nice network of manufacturer booziest evangelist on LinkedIn here, there’s plenty of places to hang out to resonate and coincide with these folks. Talk about engagement, what’s been what are some of the successful tactics that you use, or that you’ve seen either at the MEP or other manufacturers?

Mike Womack  19:28

So it’s about finding those niches right? I mean, you could blast it out into the world, you could engage with random accounts, but it really matters what we all have a finite amount of time in the day. So picking and choosing your engagement is going to be key. You don’t want to engage with everyone, right? Just cool. You got a lot of followers, but if you engage with the right people, let’s say you only have 1000 followers, but 900 of them are potential clients. That’s a more powerful account than someone that has a million followers with only 50 potential clients. So So It’s really about picking and choosing and not being so overwhelmed by the follower count. Just make sure that those the quality of those people that you’re engaging with talking to or that are following you really matter. And then you can really gauge the effectiveness of this social media campaign because without real potential leads, you’re just spinning your wheels, it’s cool to have a presence. But you need to have those leads and that dollar to calculate, you know, to justify the ROI because it is an investment.

Curt Anderson  20:30

in understanding that persona. Again, our dear friend Bonnie, she is a guy’s you need to follow Bonnie on LinkedIn, she is a rock star, Michael, you would love this, she is crushing it on Tick Tock. She goes around Manhattan, awesome, showing off her product. And she has all sorts of folks in the streets of Manhattan using her product. She does an amazing job. So let’s talk about Okay, so I’m a manufacturer out there somewhere who knows where maybe I’m in New Jersey, and I’m like, well, geez, I’m here in Big Pharma so and so forth. But I have like 20 employees, man, am I a good fit for you share a little bit about who is the ideal client for the MEP? What are the types of manufacturers that you work with? And let’s go through that process of how of them? Yeah,

Mike Womack  21:11

so what’s amazing about the MEP, and especially nj MEP, is how we work with clients. On one of my first days, john kennedy, our CEO said that the console ever comes into you and says, I know exactly your problem. politely ask them to leave because they don’t write, they don’t know your business. Yeah, how could they know the solution to your problems. So the way we handle business is we actually go in to a manufacturer of any size. And that’s the cool part about us being a not for profit is we can help limit our costs. Because it is project based work, there are fees for our work. But we can limit these through the 1000 different means because we actively want to partner with your company. So we’ll go into your business and for no cause, provide a conduct an entire business assessment, walk around the facility will talk to your managers will engage with your leadership and conduct an extensive assessment. And then from there, we put together a proposal on some options that we saw a game plan, maybe three 510 years out, and then present you with a proposal and an executive summary to really showcase how we can engage with your company, learn your challenges over a period of time and continue to provide value in these specific areas. So it’s truly not just a you know, alright, one off project, see you later, we want to transform manufacturing companies within New Jersey, we want to give them the skills, the talent, the resources they need to thrive. And we want to be that partner with you through that experience. So whether you’re a 510 15 person operation all the way through 100 200 300 plots, we can find a way to engage with you because your needs are specific and unique. And that’s how we can conduct it. There is no way I can explain Kurt, the perfect project for manufacturing. Absolutely. Because every man is unique. Right? That and

Curt Anderson  23:05

All right. Let’s Let’s rewind for a second. I know you got a big meeting coming up. So we’re going to wrap up in a couple minutes. Question. What size manufacturer any, any size? How much does it cost to do an audit or assessment? I didn’t hear that,

Mike Womack  23:20

oh cost businesses.

Curt Anderson  23:21

I’m sorry, how much no cost. There’s no cost assessment by partnering with the MEP. So what we love to hammer every Monday Damon is you know for those entrepreneurs those you know the manufacturers man, they there is nobody that is more relentless, more dedicated to their staff, their product, their customers, their noses to the grindstone. The problem is it’s hard for them to kind of like look up above the weeds going on. And so what’s wonderful about partnering with the MEP is like you have fractional services at your disposal, who are objective, you know, they’re not necessarily trying to sell you their particular service. So you can come in and give as an objective an opinion or assessment or evaluation as possible. And say, Mr. Mrs. Mann manufacturer, we would recommend or suggest this, can we help you go in that direction, or we recommend this. It’s not like man, I’m desperately trying to sell you my server.

Mike Womack  24:17

You nailed that. It’s truly to just show what we’ve observed. We have a panel of experts on staff and all from the manufacturing industry. I mean, we understand the challenge. It’s challenging to do business, right? period, right? If it was easy, everyone would do it right. It

Curt Anderson  24:34

was easy and the thing is you guys in New Jersey, I know every MEP the talent around the country that MEP, is is so off the charts and inspiring. daymond we’ve been doing this for a while now and I’m like my mind is blown every Monday when we interview somebody but in New Jersey you guys truly have all star Hall of Fame team. You know leadership with with john kennedy is just phenomenal and all the way down. You guys have a super deep bench and even if something slips outside of your bench, you have 50 other MPs that you can. Exactly right.

Mike Womack  25:07

Exactly. It’s about that collaboration and we’re a part of that collaboration as well. Each of us are working on our own state but we have to lift the industry together

Curt Anderson  25:15

right right so if there’s something unique or something going on you can you know call in other states but again you have deep bench and you guys rely on third party consulting we do that’s demonized. We have the honor and privilege we work with a number of different MEPs around the country as third party, you know, providers. And so it’s just a great network. So Mike, I know man, we dude, we could talk for hours and out this. So and again, I want to be mindful, I know you’ve got a huge meeting coming up. You’ve got a Super Bowl coming up on Friday made a new jersey Manufacturing Day this Friday. Let’s Let’s close out on this. Okay, again, I’m a manufacturer listening to this. I have 10 1520 employees, Mike mandus, you guys really piqued my curiosity. I’ve never heard of this MEP. What? How do you get started? How does that engagement start? How do I contact you? Just your how, what’s that beginning process?

Mike Womack  26:03

I’ll give you every route impossible. email me directly reach out to me on LinkedIn or go to njmp.org. And click that Contact us now button and get right into it. I mean, we are truly here to help. ears are open, hands are out. We’re here. Come on, let’s get engaged.

Damon Pistulka  26:19

And yeah, they need to do it to disk just reach out to the the VPS and your local states because there are resources there for you. You don’t have to go it alone. And these people have been through it before. As Kurt said, there’s just so many experienced resources in these MEPs as we work with them, we just go man, there is no reason that you should be trying this on your own. You exactly have to or have to.

Curt Anderson  26:42

Absolutely, we got a shout out from the Illinois MEP as well. So our brothers and sisters at the MEPs around the country. So Mike, I’m gonna I’m going to wrap up on this, you know, you know, it’s been challenged, you know, COVID has been you know, we’ve been at the front lines and talking with a lot of small business development centers. MEPs, in what we consistently hear, is just the tenacity of the manufacturers on what they’ve done to either pivot is amazing, survive, take care of their employees, keep them safe, keep the products going, you know, we’ve had supply chain issues, we have labor challenges, but you know what, we’re going to come through this stronger than ever. And I think manufacturing is just such I’m so bullish on us manufacturing and that’s why we do this every week. So again, my god bless you, thank you for your passion, your enthusiasm, you are just such a gift a blessing a breath of fresh air. Thank you the NDP is very fortunate to have you on their team. And guys get out there you’re in again if I didn’t I don’t know if I finished my thought. If you are an entrepreneur, Bonnie, all of us out there that are entrepreneurs, you are not alone. You’re not in a silo. There are tons of resources out there to help you crush your goals, move the needle and just you know and have and just celebrate victories those little victories You know, it doesn’t have to be like Mike and I when we started our conversation we were talking about you know, big project eating the elephant. Right? We’re gonna talk about that one a little deeper. We want to take those met those palatable bites and just keep chipping away So guys, Mike, I’m gonna let you go I know you’ve got

Mike Womack  28:15

thank you guys so much for having me. Always a pleasure. Hey, we’re gonna

Curt Anderson  28:19

wrap up so I’m gonna end the broadcast guys. Happy Monday go out and absolutely, this week and we’ll see you next time.

Mike Womack  28:25

Have a good one, everybody.