Jam Session

Curt Anderson  00:00

My name is Curt Anderson, happy Tuesday but an honor privilege. Man. I’m just so excited for our program today. And I’m going to as I’m letting people in, I’m going to give introductions. And so you know what? I’m going to go to the Left Coast first and then we’ll work our way east. And so Alison DeFord dropped the mic. Good morning to you, my friend. How are you Allison?

Allison DeFord  00:21

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

Curt Anderson  00:24

So Allison, president of felt marketing, we’re gonna get What a great name. So felt marketing. She’s got this little thing if you notice behind her manufacturing masters, that’s a big thing that we’re going to talk about today. Allison, love your sister. Thank you for joining us today. Appreciate you more than you know. Hey, I’m going to move up to Madison, Wisconsin, David Mantey. In the house, David. Good morning, my friend. How are you?

David Mantey  00:48

Doing great, Curt. It’s good to see you again.

Curt Anderson  00:50

Awesome. So hey, industrial equipment, news. manufacturing.net whole family of brands. David has a lot that he’s gonna be sharing today. So David, dear longtime friend, we love collaborating with you. It’s been way too long. So thank you for joining us a lot to cover. Let’s move on over to the East Coast. We’re in DC, and capital of our beloved country, Nicole Donnelly’s in house and Nicole, president of DMG Digital. Good morning. How are you?

Nicole Donnelly  01:16

Good morning. I’m happy to be here. This is going to be such a great conversation. It’s awesome. Love it.

Curt Anderson  01:21

Thank you, Nicole. So guys, if you could if you would, if you should drop your LinkedIn profile in the chat box. This is a great opportunity for us to connect hate anger is in the house today. So anger. Good morning. And so thank you guys, for everybody that’s joining I think eighth. Whitney Houston is here today. So Whitney, we might be might be singing our song for Whitney. We’ve got a couple more people, though guys, drop your your LinkedIn, drop your website, whatever. Best way, I think most of us are probably connected through LinkedIn one way or another. So please drop your LinkedIn in the chat. Let’s get connected. And so Allison, I’m going to kick things off with you my friend. Let’s talk we’re talking about thought leadership. And so just what does that mean to you thought leadership, and then we’ll take a deeper dive but just kind of thought leadership and scratched the surface on manufacturing masters if you would,

Allison DeFord  02:11

please. Sure. You know, I was thinking about this. And I put out a post yesterday to invite people to show up for this. And I said, you know, we’ve spent years trying to outsell the competition. And I said I thought of Bob Newhart from that famous SNL skit, and he’s like, stop it. Don’t need to outsell we need to out teach. And I think that’s the importance of thought leadership is that we have such a great opportunity to give and demonstrate right, our expertise and problem solving and fill in the blank before you ever work with us, whoever we the manufacturer are. So I think that’s what shifted. And I think it’s really amazing, because I see it at work. That is what this is today. Right? This is thought leadership. This is, as you and Greg Nishio talk about all the time, like you know you and trust you before I ever say yes. And so to me, that’s what thought leadership is it’s showing up being consistent. It’s putting yourself out there and giving before you ask for anything. And that’s what we do that, you know, manufacturing masters was built by a manufacturer launched a year ago. And in January, and it is the place to go. If you want to access trainings, education, know how from the world’s best manufacturing experts. And the cool thing is, is it’s like Netflix, right? You it’s on demand, so you can consume it. I joke about this, but hey, we all know it’s true. If you’re on the toilet, you can be learning something. If there’s a lunch table, you can be learning something right? Everybody’s laughing we all know. So you have access whenever it’s good for you. Because sometimes that’s the only time a day where you feel like you have five minutes, right? So Mize will make the most of it. And so right now there’s over 130 experts. There’s over 500 videos. And the the neat thing that Darren Mitchell wanted in this platform is that there’s no fluff. So every expert is coached, is vetted, is trusted, and you can rest assured that if you spend five to seven minutes watching a video, you’re gonna walk away with something that will help you grow your business. Perfect okay.

Curt Anderson  04:51

Yeah, a couple of drops of mics right there right off the bat. You’re just like David Manti that was or I’m sorry David Christ or that was like music to your ears like Mr. Efficiency was like yeah, To take advantage of every minute that you have, and so guys, a derrick Davis DD in Chicago’s here, Val, our dear friend, beloved val is here today. So Megan, thank you for joining us. And Alison, Nicole. Bonnie is here today. So like, man, we really did something right. Bonnie is here. So again, guys, if you just joined us drop your LinkedIn in the chatbox. Love the Connect David man T Madison, Wisconsin manufacturing dotnet industrial equipment news, my friend, thought leadership, what does that mean for manufacturers? Boy, you guys are just the driving force behind us. What’s this mean to us? Well,

David Mantey  05:36

business to business platforms, trade journals were built by professionals, for professionals. And so our entire how we operate is we’re trying to figure out how you do your job better. And we can teach everybody else how to do their job better. I think that she made a really good point about being consistent. Consistency is a big part of what we do. That’s why we reach our readers every day with a daily newsletter. That’s very informative, best practices, and a lot of that is finding people from within the industry, that are not necessarily thinking of themselves as thought leaders, but have a tremendous amount of tribal knowledge that they can share with everybody. But they don’t necessarily know how a lot of times people think that you know, they have to write an article in order to be a contributor to a trade publication. Sometimes it can be as simple as just a quick q&a. And I think that getting the message out there as to how manufacturers design engineering firms can be a part of that conversation and get themselves out there as a thought leader, it really puts themselves out in the industry a little bit more than they traditionally would. All right. Excellent. Thank

Curt Anderson  06:44

you, David. I appreciate it. Nicole, let’s slide over to my friend thought leadership manufacturing. We’re as we go through the program, we’re going to talk about subject matter expert interviews, but just when you first heard this, you know, when I said hey, we’re going to have a little thought leadership party, what came to your mind for our friends here today in our esteemed audience.

Nicole Donnelly  07:04

I think this is more important than ever. Right now. I think we’re in a period of incredible disruption with what’s happening with AI. And the incredible efficiencies and opportunities that are in front of us with resources like generative text, AI, and image AI is remarkably huge, but the risks, there’s opportunities, and there’s risks, and the risks are going to just we’re starting to see an influx of just derivative, generic content that’s just going to continue to increase and proliferate over time. It’s already hard for brands and businesses to stand out right now, because of how much content there is. And I think that problem is only gonna get harder. And so thought leadership is more critical and more important for brands than I think it ever has been. And I think the key to that is authenticity. You’ve got to be authentic as the brand. And what does that look like that means that in your content, you’ve got to not be afraid to have a strong point of view, you know, I have a client right now that sells, they sell dust collection, you know, equipment and parts. And they have a very strong point of view that they’re brand agnostic, they’re not going to push an OEM part or product on a customer. They’re there to help their customers figure out whatever the best solution is. So they’re a manufacturer and a distributor. And that’s their very strong point of view, don’t be afraid to have a strong point of view and talk about it. And I think along with that tell stories, it’s so important to leverage those. You know, David talked about tribal knowledge. There are people in these companies that have been with a company for 20 plus years that have deep tribal knowledge. And these are usually engineers who want nothing to do with being in front of a zoom call like this and talking. But how can we leverage that tribal knowledge and get them to share their stories, their experiences, how they’ve done it, how they’ve been successful. And getting that out there and in front is is a really nice, easy way for manufacturers to stand out. So yeah, so I just I’m super excited about this topic, it couldn’t be more important right now, I think it’s going to be huge in the years to come for brands to continue to double down on this. Especially

David Mantey  09:07

think that you make a really good point about authenticity. Just because a lot of times when you’re working as a thought leader within a company, it has to be vetted through like three layers of marketing before it can ever see the light of day and by then it becomes this homogenized. It’s not reads like it’s from an AI bot. So a big part of being having an authentic voice is making sure that you can kind of get it out there without having all the red tape cut all the cool stuff out. You know, I understand that you don’t want to give away anything proprietary. But people are smart when they’re reading something that is just general and basic and not a good story, not authentic. They see through that and then kind of you lose their trust from the beginning. Yeah, that’s absolutely

Curt Anderson  09:53

fantastic point, David, what we’re going to do get and guys if you just joined us, I think Katie just joined us, Katie, happy to was a chapter LinkedIn and the chat next, if you have any questions whatsoever, please, let’s keep the conversation going. We want this be as fruitful beneficial for everybody here possible. What I’m going to do is we’re going to turn it over to our friend Allison Allison, I’m going to take a look, I’m going to pull up manufacturing masters. And I want to hit this for two reasons. I want to just kind of walk through on like, how you guys attracted such amazing, incredible talent as subject matter experts. And just and I also want to like slide in for our folks here in the audience. How is this applicable to them? How could they like anybody could do this, right? And well, not quite what Darren Mitchell did, that might be a little a little excessive. But you get the idea of like, putting this together, then David, I’m going to I’m going to turn things over to you as soon as Allison’s done. And I know you’ve got a few things that you want to share. So let’s go on eight, follow me, we’re gonna go on a little road trip here. So Alison, talk for anybody that’s not familiar with manufacturing masters. But just like how you guys pulled this off is just really phenomenal. Nicole, right. That’s my word. So how did you guys pull this off?

Allison DeFord  11:03

Oh, well, I Darren Mitchell gets all the credit. I am just an expert on the platform. And I’m also a brand ambassador. and felt my company also created the name and helped build the brand. But as a brand ambassador, I get to work with MEPs and associations and help them onboard all of their members. So again, I give all the credit to Darren, this is his brainchild. And the whole point of it was as soon as he sold his business, he was just getting mobbed by manufacturers reaching out asking questions. Hey, man, what should I do with this problem? Or this problem? Hey, could I just hire you to come and run my business? And he said, No, I just sold my business, I don’t want to run another business. And he was like, something was just non atom. And he’s like, I gotta build a resource, like the resource he always wished he had. And that’s what this is. So he just started scouring, literally, the globe started in the US. And then it’s just permeated looking for experts who specialize in manufacturing, and who specialize in a niche. So that’s what you’re looking at now is he’s amassed, I think I was one of the first five. And now we have about 130. carefully vetted and trusted experts. And what that means is that, like, if you want to learn about six sigma, Phil rank, they’re from Alaska, who’s part of the Alaska MVP. He’s brilliant. You listen to five minute video, and it’s like mind blown. So the whole point of this whole platform is that if there’s anything you think you need to know, as a manufacturer, and you probably you don’t know everything, but you need to know a lot of stuff. This is the place where you can go. And the cool thing is Darren just keeps making it easier for people. It used to be, I think, 149 bucks a month for the subscription, which this was worth millions, right? If you hired all these consultants on your own, he changed it. So now it’s 199 bucks a month. But that’s for you and all of your employees. Right. So if you have 50 employees, everybody has access. Hey, who’s this handsome

Curt Anderson  13:20

guy right here on the left, David. Hey, David, give a wave to everybody. Look at that celebrity right there. We’ve got Alison right here. Everybody knows Megan. Everybody knows our friend Kristina Harrington, of course. So again, you know what the point here is, is that, you know, being that collaborator being the connector being the shining the bright light on all these other subject matter experts, you know, like, I’m never the smartest guy in the room, nor do I ever want to be the smartest guy in the room unless I’m playing poker with my buddies, but I quit playing poker, Nicole. So anyway, you never want to be the smartest guy in the room. And what’s going on here is just like being that collaborator and just beat building this community. I think it’s absolutely brilliant. David, I’m coming at you, dude. I’m gonna stop sharing. And there we go. Do you want to share? And do you want to do you have a couple of things that you wanted to point out? You guys have a ton going on at manufacturing? dotnet Can you share?

David Mantey  14:11

Yeah, so I just had a couple. A couple of examples of sort of low entry, q&a stuff that we did to help people with a little bit of thought leadership. Can you pull Kurtz up first? Okay. So the first one that Eric is going to pull up his q&a that we actually did with the content partner. I’ve been working on this thought leadership series with the people at Thomasnet or Thomas now for a while and there’s another new Share. Oh, gotcha. Maybe send those links to him in the chat.

Curt Anderson  14:49

Yeah, gonna chat. I’ll pull it up.

David Mantey  14:51

Okay. The current one first. So this is just I mean, I figured since Kurt was going to be our wonderful how was the day that I would share the one that we did to get that we work together about e commerce strategies that are working for manufacturers. You know, it was pretty painless process, I asked her, you know that I was looking for something on E commerce that I was doing this thought leadership series, kind of just sent over a handful of questions, he responded to them relatively quickly. And we were able to publish this piece all within a week, weeks time. And this went out to their entire list for Thomas Industry Insights, that goes out to you know, 10s of 1000s of people every day. So this was just, and we have another example of a q&a, the lunar one that I did with another friend from the industry, David Luna, who’s the Vice President of Global Distribution and international sales at Orion fans. Basically, you try and figure out what the person is an expert in terms of the subject matter. As a, you know, using our experience in the industry, we kind of try to give, you know, three to five questions that are kind of really in the weeds in terms of helping people out with what’s going on in the industry. This piece with Luna was really good, just because it’s talking about how OEMs are have been leaning on components makers more than ever, just because OEMs are so tight in terms of bandwidth that they need the engineering services at these component makers and how important it is to have those in house. So this was something that I kind of just reached out to David over LinkedIn and said, Hey, I’m looking for a simple q&a about this topic. Here. The questions, fill them off me. And again, it was like a one week turn. Finally, we do a lot of video here. It’s kind of what we’re known for industrial media. So the other example that I have is actually the five minutes with series that we talk about. This one in particular was hosted by my coworker, Andy Zoll. We do a lot with our brand industrial distribution and manufacturing dotnet. This one in particular is with the CFO of Fastenal. We kind of take the same q&a format, and bring it down to just two or three questions, five minutes very concise, the hottest topics that are you know, happening in each particular industry, we recorded via zoom, Eric, our producer does a great job producing a very professional video that goes in then it’s posted on our site goes out to everyone in our readership for ID, which I think is like 30,000. So I just wanted to bring up these examples just because I think when people think thought leadership, they think a lot of time investment. And this is something that not only is pretty simple. It also gets past the eyes have like three or four editors, so we make sure everything sounds clean. And then if the video thing is pretty cool, too, because that also has is also very shareable. I mean, I always like my examples not to work. So it’s good. I promise you this video does play Oh, just hit Play Kurt. Ah, see, yeah, there’s the video. But um, you know,

Curt Anderson  18:06

David, do

David Mantey  18:06

you want to sound on? No, no, no, no, there’s Andy. Man, what a handsome man.

Curt Anderson  18:11

What I think my wife.

David Mantey  18:15

But uh, you know, so just encouraging everybody that’s watching today or watching this on demand that, you know, there are a lot of opportunities, particularly with publishing companies, if you reach out say, Hey, I’m an expert in AI, I’m an expert in automation. I’m looking to do a simple q&a, would you like to work together? You know, it goes both ways. I do that a lot as an editor as well reaching out to people that we have in terms of our industry contacts, making sure that we offer this type of content on a regular basis. And it’s pretty popular, not only the day of in our daily newsletters, but this is the type of content that really helps you in terms of SEO and bringing people to the site, because they’re asking questions like how you can use an OEM for design services, stuff like that.

Curt Anderson  19:00

I absolutely love this. Nicole, are you just, you’re salivating at all this juicy content? Are you not?

Nicole Donnelly  19:07

I love it. Great content, like this just gets me so excited.

Curt Anderson  19:12

So let’s go here. So Nicole, you’ve been working with a number of manufacturers and again, you know, you know, our target market. You know, for those of you that come to my workshops, we call those ICPs. Those avatars, those ideal customers, Val Weber, what do we call them are soulmates? Right, so as you’re targeting those soulmates, so, you know, like, who we’re really targeting, or that 2030 person, manufacturer, or custom manufacturer, or contract manufacturer, or the OEM, where they don’t have a lot of bandwidth, you know, and maybe there’s a person in marketing or maybe it’s the owner or maybe the HR person is slash HR marketing benefits and at other other jobs that they’re that they’re doing. sort of thing is Nikolas, you’re working with folks, you’re trying to help them become that such subject or pull off that subject matter expertise. I’m going to go to a couple of different examples. Here, let’s start with about steak, oh, man, we just did a great, we did a fun interview, they came out for those of you know, my partner co host steamin. We do a little LinkedIn live show, probably half of you been a guest on that program at one point or the other. And what we did is we did a really fun case study on Friday with this company right here on how this is a company was founded in 1967. And they just launched e commerce. So in a coach, walk us through the process of like, how you’re getting great content from this company?

Nicole Donnelly  20:30

Yeah, so we do, you’re absolutely right, these companies, usually they may have a marketing team of one who’s wearing a lot of hats, and they need support. And it may be the first time that they’ve ever even jumped into doing any sort of marketing, content marketing, thought leadership is just, you know, way, like that’s not you know, it’s really far out for them to be thinking about. So what we like to do is try to see if we can leverage their internal subject matter experts. And this process came about through trial and error, as most things do when I was working in house, for a manufacturer was really struggling to create new content until we came up with this approach of interviewing the subject matter expert, the entered engineer on the team who had been in the industry for many, many years. And so basically, what we do is we scheduled these one hour interviews with that subject matter expert, we we have a specific topic, that we interview them on that they know in advance, there’s usually several questions that will ask them, and then we record that conversation with them. And we have them tell stories share experiences, of how they’ve specifically applied whatever this topic is for their customers. And so it’s really like directly from their point of view from their experience. And that’s what we’re doing here with psycho with with this other client of ours airtight, has a lovely client in Australia that we love to work with. And so that’s really what we’re doing, we want them to get on share their point of view, you know, tell stories, and we are able to take create a month’s worth of content from that one hour. And so for these teams that are just like really strapped for time, the last thing they have time to do is spent sit down and write, you know, a 20 page, you know, white paper, they just don’t have the resources to do that. And I think to David’s point earlier, it doesn’t have to be this thought leadership doesn’t need to be this big, complicated process. It’s how can you get scrappy, how you can you get resourceful and use the people that you already have, and make it as simple as possible for them. So they’re just having a conversation, you’re just asking them questions, and they’re literally just sharing what they know, and what they tell their customers all day, every day, you know, every day of the week, and then leveraging that to turn it into video content and blog content and social media content. That is really great for SEO. And I think the really cool thing that psycho that we did last Friday that I think anybody can be thinking about, and especially going forward, that’s going to be even more important that will take your leadership to the next level. How can you partner with, you know, other groups, agencies like David Manti like Alison for, like we’re doing right here, partnering with these other experts, so that you can increase your reach, increase your exposure, and increase your credibility, and just continue to like, you know, increase your reputation in the industry by positioning yourself with these other partners and putting on live events like this live event you did last Friday. And this example, I think, is great, because they’re telling the story of their own experience going through digital transformation. So as a business, you don’t need to be looking for these like big fancy topics or ideas. It’s like, what are you doing right now in your business? That’s important that’s relevant, you know, going through a big digital transformation like this. That’s the story you can tell to talk about what it was like for you and how the experience has been and other people want to hear about those kinds of experiences. So I think this is just a tremendous example of where the future and what the future is going to be for manufacturers that are going to really be successful and getting their brand out there.

Curt Anderson  23:47

Yeah, great, man. Thank you for the plug in. So in Gary, I think I saw a note that I know you were there a Friday and so this was a great example, guys. And so like this gentleman in the bottom right corner, he’s with a e commerce firm out of Portland, Oregon, called above the fray. This gentleman here is, his name is Lance. He’s with a company called Big commerce. So we’ll probably everybody here I would assume is maybe you’ve heard of the word and the company Shopify. Well, big commerce would be I don’t know if we’re gonna say if Shopify is McDonald’s, they’re like five guys or Wendy’s or whatever your other favorite burger joint is. So they’re, they’re striving to be the number one b2b e commerce platform. So the cool thing is we’ve got you know, Nicole from dmg, we’ve got John from above the fray. We’ve got Lance, from big commerce. This is Ryan Ryan’s with Allison, who do we love those MEPs Julie Warner’s here today from the Purdue MEP from your home state of Indiana. And so Ryan is with the it was with insight consulting, which is one of the New York MEPs and so what we did is we aligned a manufacturer with an MEP and they wanted to make this digital transformation and it was just a great collaboration, great win win for everybody. And so what this was was a celebration now let me David Mann, Manti mentioned SEO, let me say On my SEO hat for a second what we’re doing is we’re very intentionally with our for many of you that have popped in or have been guests. Thank you for being guests on our live program. We’re using our titles for our live show now for SEO juice. And so now we’re like strategically trying to use like specific titles to capture those SEO ranking. So, Allison, I’m coming back at you, my friend. You ready? Are you sitting down? Are you ready for this one? All right. You are the brand guru. Okay, I’m gonna stop sharing. Let’s see Allison’s beautiful face. Allison, you are the branding guru from a felt not Thought marketing standpoint, working with your clients manufacturing masters? How do we tie in that thought leadership out teaching the competition? How can we incorporate that just really marry that with our brand? How would you what two cents? Could you contribute to that question there? How do we take it from a branding standpoint?

Allison DeFord  25:51

Well, you’re gonna limit me to two cents. Okay, I’m gonna have to cut down really?

Curt Anderson  25:55

You know what, you just you go for it, man, you just laid on us. We want some, we’re looking for some Ellison brilliance.

Allison DeFord  26:03

I will. I’m a lot like Nicole. And I’m sure David, there’s been a lot of trial and error. So I will say I’m the test dummy. You know, my company is the test dummy. So if we haven’t tried it, or we wouldn’t eat it, or serve it to, you know, Oprah if she came to dinner, I’m certainly not going to serve it to you. So what I have found, and what we help clients do is create a system. And with everything that Nicole said, and with, with David said, it all ties together. And I think what I see happen a lot. And I know you guys do too, is the majority of manufacturers are small. And they don’t feel like they have the bandwidth to do all this all this thought leadership, all this marketing. It’s, it feels overwhelming. And so what I would like to share with manufacturers is you can take these, like, like what Nicole said was brilliant. You spend an hour interviewing somebody on your team, you hire someone like Nicole or myself to interview for one hour. You don’t have to do anything, that person’s having a good time talking about themselves and all the good stuff they know. And then like she just said, you’ve got a month’s worth of content. I want everybody to hear that. She said that. What does that mean? Well, I think old school was we would take the interview. And we would have published it on our website. And that’s it. Now what you can do is you can take the one piece, and then you start breaking it off right into an E newsletter that you send out every it doesn’t have to be every week, right? Like we send ours out every other Sunday. And then you can also turn that into a blog post, which is on your website, you can turn it into social posts, multiple, multiple social posts, that you don’t just post once you post and rehab it scheduled to post again, because I tell clients a lot they go, Oh, weird. Use that image in a post. I said, you have to be kidding me. And they go what and I said, you have to assume nobody saw it. Right? Just because it popped up on their feed one time, just assume they never saw it. So you got to show it again. And again. And again. So that’s the consistency. But see you’ve got you’ve got this one thing, and then think of it like spokes, you’ve just created all this content, or you’ve had it created for you from a one hour interview. So that’s essential. And I think the other important thing I want to share in my more than two cents is speak like a human and not a robot. And I think the most beloved brands, that’s why we talk about they’re not just seen and heard they’re felt well what does that mean? They’re making an emotional connection with you. Right, like Gerber knives is one of I swear to God, I wish I would have come up with this. But a number of years ago, they came up with the campaign. Hello, trouble. Right? And they were talking to you venture, right? The Trailblazer. You may be some nerd who works in a cubicle, no offense, anyone we’ve all worked in cubicles, but go with me. Right? Like you’re just this and you do whatever you do all day, but you really want to be like Indiana Jones. So they’re talking to you as if, right. I think that’s the important thing about using your voice. And you know, it’s I think the more it sounds like there’s a sense of humor. Like she said there’s a point of view. That’s what attracts people because people don’t make decisions based done facts and feet figures and their left brain they make decisions with the right side of their brain. Emotional, so if I can preach one thing, it’s make it human. Make it personal. Don’t be afraid to do that. Okay, my courage Okay,

Curt Anderson  30:18

um, I’m inviting. So in eastern timezone, it’s lunchtime. So I’m just inviting everybody if you come to our Friday show, you know, we have like those savoring moments of silence right there. You know, the call. You ever go to grandma’s house on a Sunday afternoon and like get that home cooked and just like it was just so delicious. Like, it didn’t matter what grandma made, it just had a little extra like, that was like a home cooked meal from grandma right there, Allison, so thank you very much. If, if anything, if you guys don’t do another thing today, I invite you, I encourage you, I welcome you. I am begging you, and you will thank me later I dropped Allison’s website in the chat. Please, please, please sign up for her newsletter. Now there is a warning when you sign up for her newsletter. It comes out every other Sunday. And I you cannot be near your keyboard or don’t have a drink near your keyboard. Because if you’re drinking while you’re reading Allison’s newsletter, your drink is gonna go on your keyboard and might ruin your computer, then you’ll be mad. So no drinks or coffee or keyboard. David Manti, I’m coming at you, my friend. BRING IT leadership. Any other? Take us take us on the next step. And the next step here like I’m, I’m at a loss of words for Alison right now. But take us on the next step. Yeah, you get it, take us on the next step, more strategies, branding, take us to the next level here.

David Mantey  31:35

So the next step for me is when you’re talking about is the company psycho, our interview that you did there, and you get months worth of content. And I understand using that all for your own purposes, but you could also kind of harvest that content for stuff that can be published with trade publications. You know, you don’t necessarily need publishers, there’s a lot of people self publishing content all over the internet right now. But trade publishing really helps with your credibility. Just because, you know, you can publish whatever you want on social media. But if it’s been vetted by a team of editors, and then put out into the industry, there’s a little bit more credibility there. So as you’re interviewing these subject matter experts, and you’re kind of pulling out these gems, just be like, You know what, this would be really good for potential q&a With this publication, this would be best suited for the MRO audience, this would be best suited for a more general manufacturing audience. And then you can approach the editor and just be like, Hey, I interviewed this engineer at this company. And he said this, it’s incredible. And I also, I understand how when you’re talking to these people internally, not only do they not think that, you know, people don’t want to hear their story, but they also don’t want to talk about it. I think about this all the time, we have like a monthly card game that I play with a bunch of old school manufacturers, and all of them are just war stories. It’s just like, yeah, then I crashed the machine, I’m pretty sure I was gonna burn down the place. But I learned a valuable lesson. I’m like, everyone should know this. There’s just like, oh, I don’t want to talk about it. Like, it’s, it’s that kind of stuff, where it’s like, you need to share these stories so that we can all learn from each other. It’s very similar to how all these you know, they’re all owners are different manufacturing shops, plant managers, and they’re all just like, oh, yeah, I’ve done that, too. And they are learning from each other at the table. I’m like, This is why you need to share your war stories, guys, stop crushing these million dollar machines. I’m so and I do like the idea of the trying and failing, because that’s one of the things that we’ve always been great at, is that if you have an idea, run with it, and you’re gonna know whether or not it works before a lot of companies are even out of the gate. Just because, you know, when it comes to putting yourself out there doing something new, you know, a lot of people drag their feet, they feel vulnerable, it’s gonna be scary, but, you know, it’s worth taking a risk. And, you know, you’ll figure out what works. Maybe not the first time but you’ll find your voice.

Curt Anderson  33:57

Okay, David, we got it. We can’t move past that just yet. Okay, trade magazines. I couldn’t love that idea more. I had a small wire harness manufacturer. And so what did they do? They were blogging, blogging, blogging, they knocked on a door for wire harness, manufacturing news, who knew that there was such a thing as wire harness, manufacturing news, or whatever that little publication was? And sure enough, they got a nice little, you know, article, they need content. They need content. And for anybody who’s gone through our little, you know, training, I’m gonna throw my SEO hat. Chris Watson, we just had Lou, I think Chris is here today. Nicole, I think I say just let him in. And so we were just talking about backlinks last week, guys, if you’ve come to our little training sessions, you know how important those backlinks are. Dave, let’s take it one step further. Okay, so there’s a manufacturer out there and they’re like, David, man, you kind of perked me up. So Dave, I’m gonna hit you with a couple of things. I know you’re looking for content. You put that out to me like like, Hey, we’re looking for content. How would somebody approach a periodical trade magazine, an online magazine? How do you how would they go about that? What’s a one on one for them to go through that process,

David Mantey  35:01

no, you’re right, we are content hungry, we have like 26 newsletters, some of them have 14 pieces of content in there every day. So we’re very content hungry. The best, the things that work is two that I like to talk about is to establish a relationship with that editor. You know, Kurt, I like working with you, because you have an established level of quality that I understand and expect from you. Because that’s what you deliver. You know, if you want to reach out to a trade publication, I would suggest reaching out via email to make an introduction at first reach out via LinkedIn, I find that that helps me having like, two points of contact with an individual really helps kind of put them at the top of the stack when it comes to an inbox that’s, you know, kind of flooding in with hundreds of emails, half from fake people. But um, I really, really speaks to creating that relationship with them. And there’s a big potential there at trade shows as well. If you know editors are going to be at trade shows, get them in your booth, invite them to see your products, your services, your tools, like it really helps build that foundation that you can build off of.

Curt Anderson  36:09

I love that so little, let’s slide into the next topic. Next conversation. Nicole, I think all three of our esteemed panelists here when I say the word podcast, you guys have any experience here podcasting? I know, Nicole, you’re a newbie. But not only are you a newbie, you’re doing it yourself. You are also encouraging clients. And I think Chris Watson here, your US air filtration, they started podcasting. Talk about what podcasting has done for you, and why it’s just such a great platform for manufacturers.

Nicole Donnelly  36:39

Yes, great question. I, I started podcasting in January. So I am definitely a newbie. And I absolutely love it for many reasons. Number one, as a company, it’s a great way for you to build relationships with your potential prospects and customers. So you know, as a podcaster, I’m constantly looking for guests for my podcast, right. And so for manufacturers out there, podcast is a great way if you’re trying to build relationships, it’s less, it’s not salesy, it’s not icky, it’s, it’s a great way to just start to have a conversation and learn more about your prospects that you’re trying to do business with, in a way that is just very authentic. And we talked earlier about how important authenticity is right? Going forward, authenticity is huge. So podcasting is just a really authentic way for you to start those conversations in a way that doesn’t feel like pressure to them. And it’s also customer research, by creating a podcast where you’re interviewing your customers, you’re learning a ton of information about what their problems are, what their pain points are, what are the issues they’re having in their, in their manufacturing facility, what is labor, like what supply chain problem is happening. And so as a as a company, it just allows you to really be on the front end of being able to innovate really, really well, because you’re staying so close to what’s happening in the market, and you’re really trying to understand and be curious about it. So I would say for manufacturers. The other thing I you know, someone asked me that day, what has been the biggest benefit to since it started podcasting, I have learned so much. So just it’s I learned a tremendous amount from every person who comes on my show, I can’t tell you, I walk away from every interview, just feeling like Sheesh, like 10 times more, you know, humble, to be honest. Because these people that I interview just have amazing experiences, and it just humbles me in an incredible way. And for me, humility equals growth. So I just love it, it’s just a great way for me to grow as a person. And so as an organization, I think it’s a great thing for any manufacturer we’re thinking about, we started podcasting with one of our clients. And I think for manufacturers who are just kind of like getting started with content, you got to phase this out, right. So if you haven’t started blogging yet, or doing video, you’ve got to start there first, right, start with what’s easiest, you know, don’t bite off the whole elephant first, you know, once you’ve started to, you know, once you have kind of a consistent, you know, content marketing schedule where you’re regularly putting out new fresh blog content or video content, now, it might be time for you to take it to the next level, and really try to invest in some sort of a live event type of platform, like a podcast, and it doesn’t have to be a video podcast, you know, this client of ours is, you know, they’re, they don’t like to be in front of the camera, you know, they’d much rather much more comfortable if you will, just doing audio. And so it doesn’t need to be this, you know, video format, it can be audio and, and that works really, really well. So don’t don’t do you know, don’t get overwhelmed thinking you’ve got to, you know, you know, be like Oprah right. And the other thing I would say that I think is really important is we see this with our clients a lot. And a lot of times when they’re new to something and this is true for myself, when you’re new, it is really hard to push that publish button for the first time is very, it’s scary. You’re putting yourself out there in a new way. And it can be really scary for our clients and for our manufacturers to do that. And my advice is, it’s not going to be perfect. Just hit publish. You’ve got to get it out there speed is more important than having it be perfect. Yeah, I mean, I can tell you like the the podcast episodes that I’ve done, I look back three episodes back and I’m like, Oh my gosh, I’m mortified, like, my lighting is wrong, you know my mic, is it right? But you know what I put it out anyway, and I’m not going to take it down, I’m just going to I just take and I say, You know what, next time, I’m going to make sure my lighting is right, and I’m gonna, you know, the next time I’m going to do it better. So you just have to, like, let go of this need for it to be perfect. And for every word to be perfect. And if it’s not perfect, I can’t publish it. Just publish it, you can, you know, you can always get better later, right. So that’s my advice. And it’s true for any piece of content is manufacturer putting out blog video, don’t be afraid to hit publish, because you can optimize it. And speed is more important than perfection.

David Mantey  40:49

If I could add some please, David, when it comes to podcasting, we do a lot of that here. And I’ve been impressed with the level of engagement. And when you talk about building a relationship, you’re really building like an intimate relationship with people that is stronger than any other kind of content that we’ve produced. And you know, you make a good point about it’s not going to be perfect. I mean, there are videos of me on YouTube from 15 years ago. And don’t get me wrong. I wish they weren’t there. But it shows like, I think that when you have, you know, our today and manufacturing podcast is on episode 115. Right. But what I like is when we get a new, a new viewer or listener, and they joined the podcast at 115. And then they like it so much, they go back and they listen to all the old episodes. And then they email and they’re like, Man, you guys really found yourself around episode 45. It’s like, yeah, you know what we were chatting, we started a podcast and a pandemic. We were figuring it out, man. But I think it’s part of that relationship building because they grow with you as you evolve and the platform.

Curt Anderson  41:52

Right? And look at all these juicy topics and gummy bears. And I was David, you guys come up with the best subjects. I absolutely love this.

David Mantey  42:02

We’ll go ahead and manufacture Oh, sorry. Today manufacturing, like is read legitimately take the five biggest stories in the manufacturing industry every week. And that’s what we kind of give an in depth analysis on the implications they have on the industry going forward. I think that what that’s why that podcast is seeing so much success. And honestly, why we’ve learned so much more about the podcast too, because all summer like. So this machine we’d never heard of was smuggled into Russia to make nuclear weapons. And we need to talk about that for seven minutes. The books like

Curt Anderson  42:39

the books, that is class, I tell you some of these some of these, some of the topics that you guys cover are just phenomenal. I just absolutely love it. And you and you and your team have done a fantastic job. And David, what inspired you to go this direction?

David Mantey  42:54

Um, honestly, we’ve, we have a very talented editorial staff. And we do a lot of individual video, right, where it’s just one person hosting a video that’s very short form. I’ve always wanted to try and figure out a way that we could get our editors doing a roundtable and at first I thought it would be more of like a webinar style format where we would come in be panelists and kind of just talk about it. That idea evolved into more of a podcast format, just because part of it was I was like, Okay, I like this idea. I’m also listening to more podcasts than I am any sort of other radio satellite or over the air. So let’s try doing a podcast. And, you know, we kind of took a flyer in but not only do we have the today manufacturing podcast, which has 115 episodes and is one of the more popular ones in the industry now, subscribe below. But it’s also bread, you know, we’re doing more vertical podcasts, too. So Jeff ranky hosts the security breach, which focuses on the incredible cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the manufacturing industry. It’s kind of like, hey, let’s talk about what nobody in the industry wants to talk about. But we’re kind of all vulnerable, you know, to two attacks. That one is I don’t know what episode they’re on. They’re like in the 40s I think. Um, and then the other one, Nicole, you had mentioned about how you learn so much. So we created the publication, cannabis equipment news. About five years ago, we started a podcast for that. And it has been invaluable in terms in terms of gaining Industry Insights, not just for myself, but all the readers and listeners as well. Just because when you have a regular podcast and you need to be consistent when you’re doing those types of one hour in depth interviews. You learn so much more about the industry. It’s like a crash course every interview. Yeah. Oh, that’s fantastic.

Curt Anderson  44:53

So alright, so guys, I dropped manufacturing dotnet I dropped the podcast you dropped the cannabis equipment and News in the chatbox. Allison, I’m going to come at you now you is perfect. And I’m gonna jump. I don’t know if you already did, I’ll do it as well, manufacturing masters, I want to drop that in the chat box for everybody to check out, you know a thing or two about podcasting. Any advice, suggestions for folks that are considering going that route? Whether manufacturer or what do you? What’s your, what’s your experience on podcasting?

Allison DeFord  45:24

Well, a lot again, it was baptism by fire started in at GE out loud, in I think it was February or March of 2020. And then the pandemic hit and we realize, okay, so I think what I’ve learned is, you worry a lot in the beginning of like, Nicole was saying, What is my lighting? What these things are important, by the way, but what do I sound like? What do I look like? And I think the thing that I quickly learned is that no one gives a shit about you. It’s your guest, right? You’re giving the guest is the person that you’re celebrating, that you’re shedding light on that you’re learning from. So just show up and ask good questions and do your homework, I think that’s the most important thing you can do as a podcast host. And I think the other thing that I’ve learned is, you know, I get asked a lot, okay, if you’re a small manufacturer, and you say, I don’t have anybody here that has time to do a podcast, you’re telling me to do this. So my suggestion is, reach out to be on other people’s podcasts, I think that’s incredibly important. Reach out to someone like David and say, I would like to be on some podcast, but I’m not sure where to start. David, it can lead you, I have no doubt that he will get you on the right track and get us booked with some different, you know, wherever it would be appropriate. So and it doesn’t have to take an hour. Like we’ve turned the MFG out loud podcast, I say it’s getting a glow up, because it’s going to become the manufacturing masters podcast. We’re gonna be launching in the next month. And I think the thing that’s so cool is it’s also like a networking vehicle. In a world where I don’t know about you guys, I don’t like networking. It makes me like cringe. You know, and, and so it said, the marketer who is supposed to be outgoing. But no, I really don’t. And it’s more comfortable for me to just network with these people. And then that’s how I met Darren was inviting him on our podcast. So it’s just these amazing relationships happen. And then you’ve invited me and you invite and then Nicole and I meet, and then I get to meet David. It’s just It’s genius. You know, and so I’d say, you know, Kurt wrote a book, I’m sure everybody has read it. And if you haven’t, you must stop. The best kept secret Veritas. And you know why you’re the best kept secret. If you’re a manufacturer, and you’re small. It’s because you’re hiding. Or you’re whispering, nobody can hear you. Nobody can find you. And, and it’s scary, right? I remember Nicole, the first time I post publish, pushed publish on my blog, Confessions of a professional mom, which I haven’t kept up. But it’s still there, just remembering the first day that I had to push publish, literally was frozen. And as soon as you push publish, it’s like, you know, is anybody going to read it? Is anybody, it doesn’t matter. You know, what matters is the experience of of creating the content. So this is the advice I would give to small manufacturers. If, let’s say you don’t have a marketing person, just experience creating the content, and put it out into the world. And you will be amazed. You’re not trying to talk to everyone. You’re trying to build a relationship with someone. So if one person shows up to your, you know, your webinar, that one person could change your life, you never know. So I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned is it’s not about the numbers. It’s about the quality, and the consistency and the doing it with heart.

Curt Anderson  49:38

Moment of silence, so true.

Nicole Donnelly  49:41

I mean, it’s so true. I think about the first LinkedIn post that I posted. I was terrified. It was probably I think it was two years ago. I was terrified. And I’m so glad that I did it. I would have never met Curt Anderson, who has just been such an incredible mentor and partner for me and I So there’s just there are people out there that you don’t even know, need, you need your help, and they’re missing out on you and what you can offer because you’re, you’re saying, You’re you’re you’re being the best kept secret.

Allison DeFord  50:13

And something really quick, you. I’m sorry. No, please, please, please, you triggered a thought. And I think that that this is something most people don’t know, is and somebody correct me if this is wrong, but this is the last statistic I heard 95% of the content on LinkedIn, for example, is created by 5% of the people that are on the platform. So here’s the real opportunity that you need to be aware of, if you look around and go, Oh, you know, there’s a million podcasts, there’s a million blogs, nobody, nobody needs to hear what I have to say. Yes, I can tell you for a fact that you are you will be in the majority, the tiny majority. And most of your competitors are not active. Most of them are not actively marketing. They are not showing up on podcasts. They don’t have a podcast, they don’t write a blog, they don’t have somebody interview their engineer, and create 30 pieces of content from that. They’re not putting themselves out there, which is why they’re the best kept secret. So I’m glad you said that, Nicole, because it made me think, jump. Trust me the net will appear. Yeah, I want to

David Mantey  51:35

how much time do you recommend manufacturers spend on social media? Just because I understand that to some, it seems like a full time job. I mean, I when you say that when you share that stat that 95% of the content is created by 5% of the people, man do I believe that? But I mean, so what’s the what’s the sort of the sweet spot there where it’s like, you can do a post a week? Or is it a post today? Or is it? I mean, I see people with the multiple posts a day. And I’m just like, I mean, you do other things, right? What’s your day?

Allison DeFord  52:08

Right. How are you getting the rest of your work done?

David Mantey  52:11

Yeah, there’s more work. Right. Yeah, you know,

Curt Anderson  52:14

what out? So I’ll just chime in real quick, David, would I strongly recommend, you know, it’s like going to the gym. It’s like maybe reading a book. It’s like, you know, if you’re, you know, yoga zone, you know, being mindful. Just, you know, Allison, we talked about that, you know, just kind of being with yourself or whatever it is that you know, to capture that peace of mind. And 15 minutes, go to the gym for 15 minutes. Well, you know what, get on LinkedIn, get on social media, do a YouTube video, do 15 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day, it’s an hour and 15 minutes a week. That’s it. 75 minutes out of 168 hours. If you put in 15 minutes a day, you are going to you know, you meet somebody like Allison afford and Alison, you and I could do a whole jam session. Just on when you and I met. You know, I have as a matter of fact, my favorite quote is in this book, and Allison and I had I have a quote in my book we had never met, we had never met. And so you know, so I could go on and on. So I want to be mindful of everybody’s time as we’re coming into time. David, I would love to give you last word. Could you please take us home? This was your brainchild today, this was you know, but before you know what, before we cut out? If you guys have been what are we at? We’re at 554 minutes after the hour. If you’ve been sitting down the entire time, what I encourage you what I invite you, I welcome you if you want to, it’s a great time to stand up and stretch. How about let’s give our wonderful panelists a big round of applause for sharing their passion, their expertise, their truth, man, this was fire purifier. But David, could you take us home and just parting thoughts that for everybody leave with as far as thought leadership for manufacturers.

David Mantey  53:52

Leadership is vital for manufacturers. And it’s very easy to do. The hardest step, as everyone has kind of said on this panel is just getting started. And as Curt alluded to, you could start with 15 minutes a day. There are many great people in this industry that can help you along that journey. Alison, Nicole, myself are all great places to start. And we can all help spread the good word about manufacturing and help particularly small and mid sized manufacturers boost their profile a little bit. Even if you have a small staff under 10 people, you probably have eight in there that have incredible, an incredible wealth of knowledge that should be shared with the rest of the industry. I mean, we’re not talking anything proprietary here. We’re just the things they learn best practices, how they do their job well and how you could do your job better. So you know, we’re here to help. We’re here to be the tools. Users

Curt Anderson  54:51

are here to use it too. So guys will wind down we’re coming in. I want to be mindful of everybody’s time we’re coming to the top of the hour. Number one How about let’s go through our panelists again, big round of applause for Alison to Ford, manufacturing masters felt marketing, please sign up for her newsletter and next Sunday, you will be thanking me for that invite and it is again, warning, no drinks around your your keyboard because it will be problematic. Nicole Donnelly, thank you for joining us today. Nicole appreciate you more than we know you’re sharing your passion, your truth, David, my brother, thank you so much. We’re going to do this again. We’re going to come up with some more fun topics for you guys. We appreciate Hey, now about our panelists. Let’s give it a round of applause for our guests today. So thank you guys. I know how busy you are. We never take this for granted. Man, we just we come in to give 110% You guys we want you know, we’re here for manufacture. We’re just all like geeky, just passionate about making manufacturing. Great. And so we appreciate you share this with friends, I’m going to have the replay, I’m going to put the replay out to everybody. So if you have any questions, if you want to if you have a piece of content you want to put out and you want to get it into David’s hands. David has his LinkedIn in the chat box or connect with him afterwards. He would love to hear from you connect with a call connect with Allison. And of course, I would love to connect with you as well. So guys, we’re gonna wind down if you have any questions, you know where to find us. Thank you, God bless. Appreciate you guys. And we will see you at the next jam session. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Thank you, David. Thank you, Nicola. Thank you, Gwen. Thank you, Megan. Thank you add on. Thank you and Garth. Thank you Gary. Thank you add on. Thank you Valerie. Who else Derek DD. Thank you dude. Who else Diane Byard I know everybody else cut out so guys have a wonderful day. Dave. David, I’m going to connect. I do have a write up for you on that psycho. So I’m going to send it to ya. It’s a great, we have a really juicy write up for you. So

David Mantey  56:48

I’m gonna send that over to perfect I look forward to reading it.

Curt Anderson  56:51

I do. Let’s let’s connect in a week or two and we’re gonna we’ll figure out more jam sessions. Thank you guys. Yep. Bye, guys.