SEO Success for Manufacturers: Pedoc Teams Up with IMEC and B2Btail

Curt Anderson 00:02
Hey, good morning. Damon, how are you? Dude, I’m doing great. Curt, we’re ready to go. Oh, my goodness gracious. Or did you get a good night’s sleep last night for this one? Yes, I did, man, alright, I hope you slept like a baby, because we need it. We’ve got two amazing, wonderful guests. We’re here today on stop being the best kept secret, and we’re going to talk about SEO success strategies for manufacturers, and we’re with our dear friend Melinda Marks in the great city of Chicago, and we’re talking about Power Pedestals. Melinda, good morning to you. Where you’re at. How are you

Melinda Marks 00:33
good morning? I’m doing great, and it’s still morning, buddy. You Curt. It’s not buddy.

Curt Anderson 00:41
I think what it’s, it’s lunch time. You know, it’s like, lunch time for me, like, we’re covering a lot of different meals right now. Breakfast for day, we’re doing breakfast with Damon and lunch with me. You guys are kind of, like, at the brunch level. So yeah, we’re kind of right in the middle. But, yeah, alright, so Melinda, are you excited? You fired up? I am. Oh, it’s this. And, like, you’re a repeat offender, you know that you’ve been on multiple, multiple times on the show, right? I think

Melinda Marks 01:03
this is number four. Is it no for a real three or four,

Curt Anderson 01:08
number four man and like for the for the person that really is, is not, you know, crazy about live streaming. Thank you. I cannot express how much it always means to me when I, you know, get that, I twist that arm a little bit, and she comes on, and she just looks spectacular today. Then I’ve got my dear friend Damon. We have another repeat offender today. We have Melissa Basa. Is charged, guilty as charged. Now she’s a little off put, because like she likes when we do these in person, she’s not like into the whole virtual thing. Melissa Basa, how are you?

Melissa Basa 01:36
I’m great. Curt. How are you today? Oh,

Curt Anderson 01:38
my goodness, I couldn’t be any better? Are you kidding me? So alright, Damon, are you? Are you? Are you fired up? Or what I’m ready to go? Curt, let’s do this. Let’s do this. Alright? Melinda Marks, let’s dive in. First and foremost, let’s start with you a little give folks a little taste of Pedoc Power pedestals. What are these? And how do you and your team make the world a better place. Well, Curt

Melinda Marks 02:03
and Damon, you at this point, after two years, probably really know what a power pistol is, right? I mean, you might even be able to describe it more than I can.

Curt Anderson 02:15
Not possible, not possible. So

Melinda Marks 02:17
first of all, of all, Pedoc Power Solutions is a USA manufacturer of outdoor power pedestals. So Curt, I want to turn it to you. What is a power pedestal? Well, let’s just

Curt Anderson 02:32
say hypothetically, like just, you know, just asking for a friend, right? Let’s just say hypothetically, Damon, you know, you’re with your beautiful, wonderful wife, and you’re all you’re strolling through the Ritz Carlton Hotel, and you look at the landscape, and it just, it’s evening, the sun just set, and just you, and everything is kind of lit up. And, like, it’s lit up because, like, everything is powered by these wonderful, amazing Made in USA, heavy duty American steel power pedestals. How about, how about that? Melinda, how about, oh my gosh,

Melinda Marks 03:01
yeah. I mean, I like, I walked the beach. He paints a

Melissa Basa 03:06
picture, he paints a picture, doesn’t he? Let’s

Curt Anderson 03:10
take it one step. Melissa, are you a golfer? By any chance you golf? You ever get the

Melissa Basa 03:15
I hack, I’ll play, but I’m not really a golfer. All right, let’s

Curt Anderson 03:18
say like you and the kids, you know, you decide, like, Hey, we’re going to go out and, you know, swing for and like, you go to, like, wonderful, wonderful local country club where you are in suburbs of Chicago, and you guys are out. And again, like, it’s, it’s kind of evening time, and like, you’re cruising around the golf course, and you just, you look around, you’re like, how are they getting power out here on the 16th hole? And you see, like, these industrial, heavy duty, industrial metal fabricated power pedestals that are made right at Pedoc. That’s what Pedoc Power Solutions are. How’s that? Melinda, yeah,

03:50
you’re hired. Curt, I’ll

Damon Pistulka 03:52
show you. This is the one that I don’t like to see. It actually is your products are really good, but I don’t want to be the one driving that vehicle. When the temperature is cold enough I need to plug it in, but a power pedestal is awesome. That’s right.

Curt Anderson 04:07
So Damon, like for the winter that we had that was, that was,

Damon Pistulka 04:10
this would be better. This will be better, nice enough to work outside. The power pedestal is keeping my laptop going, keeping the phone rolling. That’s what we want to see. That’s right, that’s right. So

Melinda Marks 04:22
thank you. Thank you for that. So Everyone now knows what power

Curt Anderson 04:27
and we’ve got a bunch of wonderful examples that we’re going to be showing. And so, Linda, give us a little background. I know again, repeat offender, you’ve been on multiple times. For folks that are catching you for the first time, go you have a wonderful story. I’ve asked you know who your hero is. We’ve talked extensively about your dad. When you go to your office, there’s pictures of dad when you got the company started. Give us a little background on the origin story here, tying in with Mark Kress and then tied in with Pedoc

Melinda Marks 04:52
happy too. So Pedoc Power Solutions is a sub Company A. Of Marcres Metalwerks. And Marcres Metalwerks was founded by my father, old marks. He went by Oli in 1976 and since then, so I started working there when I was even before my teens. I mean, there were child labor laws

Speaker 1 05:28
and family business, yeah, 80s, 90s, we don’t, you know, no, we didn’t pay attention that back then, right?

Melinda Marks 05:36
So he is an immigrant from Germany, and in Germany, he had the opportunity to become a copper Smith tradesman. And so he really learned just metal working skills. And when he came here in his 20s, he always had this idea, that he always had the dream that he one day wanted to own his own business, and here he was, in his early 20s, coming over the United States. He had this talent. You know, English wasn’t his first language, but he was. He had such a talent and such just a knack for connecting with humans on a personal level, that he had just the right skill set. He had the smarts, he had the vision, and he had the connection, which I think are super, super important for any company. And so in 1976 he, after working at a couple other sheet metal manufacturers, he started his own business, and over the years, just grew and grew and grew by word of mouth. So the company that he actually started with his first customer, they grew tremendously. A customer was called scale tronics, and they were since, since purchased by hellram, which is a huge manufacturer in the hospital world. And so that continued, the build up continued and continued. And my sister Marlene Palmer, who is the owner and president of Mark metal works, had started there right out of college, pretty much, and she’s been there ever since. So I’m not going to give away her age, but she’s got quite a bit of experience working at the business. And the two of us combined, we were born into this business, and so I, first hand, got to hear the conversations over the dinner table. I got to, you know, and whether it was about employees or customers or not being able to get material, or how to price something, or delivery just, you know, not even realizing it at the time, all these little bits, you know, I’m subconsciously picking up which and Marlene the same thing. So when we did eventually join the company full time, it was Wow. We had this great exposure from a young age. We weren’t coming in, you know, brand new to it, so it was awesome. So, so mark custom metal works is a custom sheet metal fabricator. So essentially, anything you want built out of metal. Send us a print, and we’ll figure out how to make it, and we’ll figure out the best way, the most economical way. Or if you don’t know what you need, but you have an idea of what you need. You know the requirements of what you need, then that’s what people come to us for. So marques manufacturing, or mycrest metal works, purchased pedoc Power Solutions in the early 2000s and so we’ve purchased it from an electrical contractor who, at the time, had very little business. But what he what he saw as an electrical contractor, was the need for a solution of a power pedestal. So maybe you’ve all seen them, if you’re you know, walking down the street, even in the city of Chicago, it actually baffles me, walking down the sidewalk, and you see a tree of the metal grate and then a conduit sticking up with a cover on it, an electrical cover. And 90% of the time those covers have been kicked off, popped off, pried off, conduits bent. And so that’s where Ken shank, who is essentially the inventor of of pedoc, he saw the need for it. He came to our father, Oli, and said, hey, you know, this is my idea. Here’s some designs I have and ideas. And together. Him and my father really honed the product. And you know, my dad on the design a little bit too. He had a real keen eye for design, but in terms of manufacturing, selecting the right material. So our pedestals are stainless steel, which is one of the, if not best material you can have in terms of stability, reliability over time. Of course, there’s different types of stainless different thicknesses, so all that went into consideration when the pedestal line was developed, and so since then, the company has grown. I mean, we have, there’s 1000s and 1000s of pedestals that are ordered every year. We’re specified by, you know, high end architects, landscape designers, Gensler, Office of James Burnett, to name a few of them. And we have, you know, been in some really high profile projects. So you mentioned the Ritz Carlton Curt because you know very well that they’re building a a large luxury condo development in Pompano Beach, Florida, right on the beach, and so they have ordered 300 of our power pedestals. So the business has grown tremendously over the years, and we’re very proud of what we’ve been able to do, not just proud of the product, but we’re we’re proud of the people behind the product, everybody on our team and the shop and and our partners, the three of you have helped along the way, of course, and so, yeah, that was the long version, I guess. Well,

Curt Anderson 11:48
that was absolutely phenomenal. Love every minute. Tons unpack and Melissa Basa, you know, I think our we share a mutual passion for manufacturers, just like when you hear the story and you hear the family legacy, and now, like there’s, you know when I’ve been on site third generation is there when kids come home from college, that type of thing. But Melissa, just give some insight. You’ve been on site here multiple times. Melinda, which what’s your takeaway from the story that she just shared? Are you on mute?

Melissa Basa 12:19
Oh, I wasn’t on mute. There you go. Perfect, perfect. Alright, alright. Well, I think it’s Melinda’s leadership and her willingness to step out of her comfort zone try something new, right, and work with you, that has made this such such a success. It’s been great to watch. There’s a culture there, when you go on site, that you can just tell everybody’s voices are heard. You can feel the family nature of the family business and the commitment to the quality and the product. And it’s fascinating, right? Because you describe the different environments in which the the power pedestals are, the best part of them is when you don’t notice them, when they when they blend into the landscape, when you don’t notice how the power is getting there, right? But then, how do you then, how do you get the word out? How do you market the product when it’s a product that you want to blend in and disappear? So it’s been it’s an interesting opportunity, and it’s been fun to watch Melinda and her team embrace trying new things, incorporating AI in, in putting together new programming, right? And and and really trying new things and helping grow the family business while bringing the team along with them.

Curt Anderson 13:27
Yeah, absolutely love it. Hey, we’ve got a couple comments here. Damon, we got Diane Byer in the house. Happy Monday. Everyone. Happy Monday to Diane. And again, friends out there, drop a note. Let us know as you’re out there. Please connect with Melissa, connect with Melinda on LinkedIn, and Diane says, sheet metal fabricators and powered pedestals, love our manufacturers. Love our MEPs. Diane, thank you for teeing it up. And what a great segue. Melissa, do us a favor. You’re with the agency called IMEC, IMEC, great, wonderful agency in a great state of Illinois. You are the MEP Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Please share with folks that are not familiar with the MEP, who is IMEC, and how are you guys making the great state of Illinois a better place to do manufacturing?

Melissa Basa 14:09
Do it doing our best. Yeah, for sure. IMEC is the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence center, and we are a group of manufacturing specialists working with small and mid sized manufacturers here in the state on all of their operational and strategic initiatives. So anything an Illinois manufacturer might need to be more efficient, more productive, grow revenue, invest things they couldn’t otherwise do. We are here to be a resource for them. We’ve got an awesome team of technical specialists with subject matter expertise in all different areas a manufacturer might need, from leadership and Workforce Strategy, technology, operations, safety, quality, sustainability, kind of anything a manufacturer might need. We’ve also got our MEP partners all around the country and our federal partners. I. Who help us do what we do? So there’s an an MEP Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center in all 50 states, in Puerto Rico, supporting all of the nation’s small and mid sized manufacturers. That’s

Curt Anderson 15:12
right. So any whatever state you’re coming to us from, do yourself a favor. Just do a little Google Search Manufacturing Extension Partnership. And you will, you too. You will have your local MEP pop up, and they just do amazing, magical work. We’re going to pull up your website in a minute. Let’s dive. Let’s, let’s dive deeper into the Pedoc Power Pedestals. And so Melinda, what I’m going to do is I’m going to pull up your website. And so for folks, just join us. We’ve got Melinda marks from Pedoc Power Solutions. We’re going to take a peek at the website. Let’s just talk a little bit about what you guys have been working on here. And here we go. And okay, there they are. What a great picture right there. Here’s your website. Encourage, welcome to everybody to stop by. pedocpower.com just walk us through the website real quick, and let’s talk a little bit about what’s been going on

Melinda Marks 15:58
here. Sure. So over the last couple years, we have fine tuned the website several times. And it’s, we’re always fine tuning it, to highlight my interaction, both with iMac and you Curt and Damon at B to B. Tail, this was, this is an ongoing project, and something that you all have have helped us get to even this point right now. And Melissa from the IMEC side, well, first, let me back up. Curt, it was you that introduced me to IMEC. I happen to sit in on one of your live sessions after googling SEO manufacturers in Illinois and who popped up Curt, and so I sat in on one of Curt sessions, and he told me about IMEC and introduced me to the opportunities that Cook County offers. And so paddock was able to take advantage of some of that resource and work with Curt and Damon and their team through IMEC, and I have to say, hands down the relationship, the work that we’ve all done together is just absolutely top notch. So thank you.

Curt Anderson 17:12
Well, thank you to

Melinda Marks 17:14
your point, to our website, so we have over 1000 different pedestal configurations, and that’s one of the things that makes our product, our company, unique. In that set, there are even some large there’s some large competition out there. Being a smaller company, we are more nimble, and we are able to offer custom solutions. And so we have over 1000 different options off the shelf. And when I say off the shelf, some of them we carry in stock. Some we have available for quick ship, and then others we make per order. So if you go, Yep, perfect. Curt, our newest model is that four by four flush minute mount. It’s been out for about a year and a half now, and it has quickly become a top seller. So we’re very proud of this. This is a power pedestal that can sit flush against a surface that back so that cover is can open freely. So this is a huge one, and we see this being installed a lot on balconies. So yeah, it is code that every balcony and a residential high rise, or just any balcony, has power. And so as we see more and more of these high rise developments move towards glass walls and just complete glass balconies like the Ritz, they the challenge becomes in how to run power out there. And so this is a perfect solution, because you can’t run an outlet through a wall. And so here they’re able to run, run the power up through the bottom and and it blends in. It’s right up against the wall, so it, it’s perfect,

Curt Anderson 19:06
yeah. And what I love is, what we’re looking here is what’s called a configurator. And I just, you know, for other manufacturers that are catching this, you know, what are? What we always love to say is like, how do you make that great first, webpression, and how? And secondly, how can you make that help that ideal buyer make a buying decision on a Friday night, at midnight, without having to wait for wait for you to open up your doors on a Monday and Melinda, I’ll tell you, what you and a team have done is just a spectacular job of just like providing every bit of information to help that person. First, you’re trying to build that trust. Secondly, you’re doing a phenomenal job of, like letting Google or search engines or not with AI, you know, all the changes with AI, hey, this, you know, you raise your hand. This is what we do. This is our expertise, and just providing all this information. And then lastly, for manufacturers out there, here’s a custom manufacturer that converted into proprietary product, and now you have a configurator. Allowing your ideal customer, those soul mates that can now come on the website and they can’t this, the product that they create doesn’t exist anywhere else on the planet. They can customize and create their very own product here. What was talk a little bit about the configurator and what that can do for buyers out there and make their lives a little easier?

Melinda Marks 20:17
Oh, absolutely. Hands down. It’s quick to narrow down what you need from, you know, 5000 different types of pedestals. If you were to go on each one of these pages, you can if you’ll change even the height. Yep, exactly. So you can, you know, it’s basic. You select whether or not you want a pad mount, surface mount pedestal, depending on your project you might want that, or you might want to direct berry version. So maybe you don’t want to court pour a concrete pad, or the the site isn’t suitable for that. So then we have all these with different amperage ratings, different styles, and so you essentially select the mounting type, select the style, and then from there, we have this configurator on every one of the pages. And so if you want to go to, let’s say 42 inch hike, Curt, and then a finish, let’s do a bronze. And then, so right now, everything auto populates, and what you see here on the left is the configurator, and you can actually move that around. Curt, you can blow it up. You can take a screenshot of it. Additionally, you have the description that populated. You have the catalog number. You can download the drawing right there too. So we will have a landscape designer sometimes screenshot that to our to their distributor and say, Hey, we want this, or they’ll download the drawing. Every pedestal has a drawing that’s available for download right there as well. And then from there, you can just simply add the Add To quote button and complete the quote request. Send it on all over, and we just Yep, check your current quote, and there it is. And even from there, if you were to click on the part number, just to make sure you you know you got it right, yep, that will take you right back into that page. So if you scroll down, it’ll take you specifically to that, to that part, yep. So it’s pretty awesome. And then once the Add To quote and submit is sent over, our inside sales team, again, US based is here, we typically respond to quotes within an hour. That’s that’s what we strive for. So sometimes it might be two, you know, three, but we are checking that those quote requests. We know how important it is for customers to have answers right when they need them, and we don’t want to be the hold up by any means. So, so yes, that’s the configurator.

Curt Anderson 22:59
That’s the configurator. Damon, any thoughts, comments that you want to add right here? Well, I think it’s

Damon Pistulka 23:05
this makes it a lot easier for someone to be able to really see what they are going to buy for their unique application. And that’s where the configurators really shine. And this is a like I said, a great example. I can screenshot, I can look at more, I can download a drawing. I can make a decision right here without talking to anyone. If I know I want a power pedestal, I can find the right one here, and I can then and then get the quote request off for it.

Curt Anderson 23:34
Yeah, very powerful solution. And again, you know, I was just at a conference a few weeks ago, and there was a research project. As a matter of fact, we’re doing a webinar about it at the Indiana MEP at Purdue, and it’s a big engineer research project, and it’s 60 to 70% of the engineers buying decision is already done online. I mean, like, just let that sink in, 60 to 70% of the buying decision is already done online. So the thing is, if we choose to ignore our websites, if we don’t treat it like it’s our best salesperson out there, and look what Melinda and the team have done of just, you know, providing every ounce of information, of like, hey, what’s every question that our soulmate, our ideal buyer, would potentially ask, and like, they’re doing a phenomenal job of addressing it. Melissa Bossa, anything that you want to add or chime in here as we go through this process. I

Melissa Basa 24:26
love this configurator from the first time Melinda showed it off when it wasn’t, wasn’t totally ready yet, but she was so excited to show it to us. But I love the horsepower that’s behind this and the simplicity on the front end. I mean, that’s just a beautiful design, right? All the all the power, all the decisions, all the options that you can do, but from a user experience, it’s slick and simple, and you can help that buyer make decisions anytime they’re ready.

Curt Anderson 24:53
Absolutely so Alright, so let’s go here. Let’s all right, you know what? I’m going to listen while you’re chatting. I’m going to come back to. You so at iMac. So again, for our friends that have just joined us, we’ve got Melissa Basa from IMEC. That’s the Illinois MEP. So let’s take a peek at your website real quick, because you guys just launched a brand. So you’re practicing what you preach, which is and we’ve got another friend here from Rhea saying Good day to all from Barbados, thank you for joining. Drop us a note, let us know that you’re out there. Weather’s probably a little better where she is than where I am. Probably

Melissa Basa 25:27
just a little Ditto. Let’s

Curt Anderson 25:29
go to let’s go check out the IMEC website. So here we go. Here we go. Can you see my screen there? Yes, loading. Okay. So you guys just launched a brand new website. So again, you explained before that you are a resource for manufacturers. There’s an IMEC, aka the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico. Talk a little bit about when somebody lands on their website, what can they expect, and what are some of the things that they would reach out to for solutions for their manufacturing operation?

Melissa Basa 26:00
Absolutely. So we’ve got a ton of resources on our website now, easily and readily available, from events to the different solutions we have in our different pillars or different areas of of assistance. But what I think is most powerful is the resource center so our manufacturers, anytime they need it, can go and read white papers and blogs and news and and see recordings of webinars we’ve done in the past. Curt, you’ll find yourself in many of those as well too, right? But it is. It is a self service. Go help find the information that you need when you have questions, right? So in the same way, Melinda’s buyers in the off hours can go and run the configurator and look at prints of products they might want to buy when, when our manufacturers here in Illinois have questions or in the off hours, or thinking about some of their initiatives and the things that they get a little tied up during the day and running day to day operations, but they want to spend some time really doing some thought leadership anytime they can come and access all of our resources here on the website.

Curt Anderson 27:04
Thank you. This is fantastic. And so and take a look here. I think what I see 200 and some, you know, resources, yeah, 259 and like you said, you know, you guys do an amazing, incredible job of just, you know, Damon, we like to use that line. How do you out teach the competition, yeah, how do you just be fierce, unapologetic educators? And what you guys do, Melissa is just, you know, tons of webinars, tons of resources. You do, in person, events, all sorts of things. And what you’re doing is you’re diving into, like, what is the challenge of our soulmate today? Whether it’s aI lean workforce development, you know, whatever the topic might be here, you know what we’re talking about with Melinda, as far as, like, you know, you know, online business development, marketing, online marketing strategies, that type of thing. But just, just, do you have any particular Go ahead, please?

Melissa Basa 27:53
And sorted by topic, right? So we have a ton of resources there, but meant to be sorted by subject matter, so that when you’re going and looking for something, maybe you don’t know exactly what you need or what you want, but you’re thinking about, how do I improve operational efficiency, or I’m thinking about my quality system, or I’ve got some sustainability initiatives, or I’m looking to grow whatever the topic is, right? If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can go by subject matter area and start to look around at what we have and what we’ve done and some of the things we’re discussing, and download some white papers to read. And so it’s meant to be helpful in that way, even when you don’t know exactly what it is you’re looking for.

Curt Anderson 28:31
Yeah, and you take a look and Melinda, you can attest, as a small manufacturer, sometimes you know, Marlene, your team, you guys are throwing on multiple different hats. And when you take a look at some of these different topics, like, hey, if I need to know something about passion, about passing, passing a OSHA audit, you know, we’ve got that information right here. If we want to know something about, you know, what did I see here? You know, the foreign free trade zone, you know, like, what’s going on here? As far as, like, AI is a, certainly a hot, hot topic. There’s all sorts of information here. So again, brand new website for iMac, just incredible resources dedicated to helping manufacturers. And again, if you’re from another state, check out or Google Manufacturing Extension Partnership, or just, you know, put near me and you will find your MEP that is near you, Melinda. Let’s talk a little bit from your perspective on, you know, as you said, you know, partnering with IMEC all the resources that they’ve provided for you, would you recommend IMEC for you, like your friends or family or dog? Like, what does that look like? If

Melinda Marks 29:29
there was, you know, above a 10 star rating that I did on my the survey for iMac, you would have gotten it absolutely hands down from Melissa and the whole team at IMEC just always available, always helpful, insights and resources. I mean, it’s through IMEC, you know, Curt and Damon that that were, we’ve been together now, and Melissa, you’ve Melissa’s been amazing. I mean, I. It just her, her smile all the time when you talk to her, I mean even that, but she’s she’s so attentive and always available to to provide resources or even explain new opportunities for us that we hadn’t even really been thinking about so which is awesome.

Curt Anderson 30:22
Yeah, let’s and Melissa, let’s go there. I’d be remiss if we didn’t give a little love. Big shout out. You have an incredible team. And forgive me or forgive us right now for anybody that we forget, because, like, it’s just top to bottom, just great. The sheer you know, they’re all stars, their passion and dedication to helping manufacturers and the walk of life that everybody brings something a little bit different. But you know, let’s give a shout out to a couple of your teammates, or anybody that you want to like particular areas that you guys are specialized specializing in lately, what? What’s that look like?

Melissa Basa 30:55
Yeah, it’s going to be hard to capture everything. I appreciate the comments. Melinda, and you should know, right? Our team is very mission driven. As an organization, we average 20 years in manufacturing before joining the mission of IMEC to help all of Illinois manufacturers. So you know, the way I work and the passion I have, I mean, you’ll find it across the team. So we are doing some really exciting new things in the areas of apprenticeships and workforce development, because we know that’s been a pain point for manufacturers for a while now, right? So my colleague Amy Murphy and the rest of our leadership team is doing our workforce development team is doing some really awesome things in that space. We have an upcoming frontline leadership supervisory skills training program in the Rockford area. We have two sessions of it now sold out, because we know that’s a need, right? For frontline leaders, supervisory skills, those who’ve come to leadership positions from doing good work in when they were individual contributors, now they’re helping lead a team that’s a different skill set, right? And so we’re helping manufacturers develop those we’ve got a great team in Lean Manufacturing and continuous improvement, waste elimination, efficiency improvement. That’s the bread and butter of the work we’ve done for a very long time. And we’ve got an awesome team. We’ve got we’ve got Salvador and we’ve got Jim Floyd and we’ve got Mark lascuto and Jeremy Smith and too many people that I’m not going to name who are going to give me a hard time later about it, but doing really great work in that area. And so, you know, we’re listening to the manufacturers and understanding what are the challenges, what are the trends, right? What are the technology right? I’m a smaller manufacturer, and I know there’s a place for automation and technology in my business, but I don’t know where to start. And if I call one of the solution providers, they’re going to sell me their solution. But I’d really rather figure out. Here are my business goals. Here’s what the business needs. Now, what are the right solutions where? Where is there a technology that’s going to help me meet my goals with a with a strong ROI, and then how do I approach that? So we do a lot of work in that space as well helping those manufacturers who know that there’s a role there and they don’t know how to get started. We do technology and automation assessments and help them build that from the ground up.

Damon Pistulka 33:15
Yeah, it’s one of the things I really like about the MEP centers, right? Is you go to the MEP center with their various resources that they have in the local center in your state, and also nationally, you can find the solution you need for your manufacturing challenge, because the network is so big and so so experienced, you’re

Melissa Basa 33:34
so right. Damon, I am the first one to say I know a little bit about a lot of things, and I will admit there’s plenty of things I’m going to get asked about, and I won’t have the answers, but the one thing I know for sure is between my team at IMEC and the other MEP centers, I can find the answer, I can find the resource, I can find the partner, I can find the solution, whatever it is, right? I don’t know that much. Great. I’m not going to have all the answers, and I’ll admit that freely, but I know that that the extended network is going to be able to provide

Curt Anderson 34:06
that solution. Mm, hmm. Well, absolutely love that. And just for the record, when you just, you know, you’re getting a sense of Melissa’s passion, you know. And again, Damon, you know, I love never being the smartest guy in the room, and it’s kind of easy, you know, it’s like, I always love being the dumbest guy in the room when I get to travel with Melissa. She’s an ivy Leaguer, by the way. She went to Brown University,

Melissa Basa 34:24
Dartmouth. Dartmouth. Oh,

Curt Anderson 34:27
you’re Dartmouth. I’m thinking you’re Brown. You’re Dartmouth. Okay, Mike,

Melissa Basa 34:29
I think last time you got it wrong too, but you picked something else. Would you like last time? Yeah, I think

Curt Anderson 34:36
every time you picked she went to Yale. I promise. All, did you give a commencement at Dartmouth? Oh,

Melissa Basa 34:45
boy, yes, I did. No, no. Just to clarify, Dartmouth was for graduate school. My undergrad is is in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois in Champaign. So I just want to clarify, right? I’m a big 10 Girl by heart. But yes, Dartmouth for grad school. My master’s is in. This in engineering. And yes, they asked me 10 years later, to go back and give a commencement speech for the graduation of my particular program 10 years out, to talk about what I’d done with the degree and and kind of the My Choices of passion in my career. So, yeah, it was, it was a really unique opportunity. That’s great, yeah, like,

Curt Anderson 35:19
like, I’m so far removed from from Damon, I can’t even get the right one, you know. So she’s Dartmouth, and she’s just absolutely, just a delight, just a high, a person of integrity. She’s just, it’s such a privilege working with, with Melissa. Melissa and I just, I jot down a few so we’ve got to give a shout out by Doctor Dave belay. He’s, he’s a big 10 guy as well. Raise agano. Mary Hallock, we’ve got Tom grant, let’s see. We’ve got Doug. Doug Pennington, he’s coming on the show on Friday. As a matter of fact, we’ve got Mike Flynn was on the show two weeks ago. Of course. Lots of love to our dear friend, Jacqueline. Jeannie Cameron, other team in marketing. I’m probably leaving a ton of people out. Noah Cameron, let’s see tons of people. So anyway, wonderful group, Amanda, and we could go on and on and on. So big shout out to everybody at iMac. Let’s give a shout. We’ve got a few comments here. So yeah, Rhea says, Hey, you’re welcome to visit Barbados and enjoy the weather. Take a video in we’re Yeah, we sign up. Let’s go. He doesn’t have to ask us twice. Joshua gives a big woo hoo. Melissa Diane gives she dropped the link. So again, check out your mep.gov/mep.

Melissa Basa 36:28
And it’s find your local center. Thank you, Diane, and

Curt Anderson 36:31
we’ve got Rochelle saying, Hey everyone, how are you so again, guys, thank you for dropping note. Let us know you’re out there. Melinda, let’s come back to the website. Okay, so great opportunity here for manufacturers. Maybe they’re just starting their digital marketing journey. You’ve done an amazing job. I’m going to show we’re going to show off a little piece of work that we did together. So let’s dive into your website, and then we’re going to give a big we’re going to brag on a little bit for our dear our colleague, Amy, and Paula, the work that they did. But can you see my website? Can you see my screen?

37:03
The screen, Yep, perfect.

Curt Anderson 37:05
Let’s go to blogs. So what we started doing is, as you saw, Melissa and the team at iMac are doing an amazing job, listing out all of their webinars, success stories, white papers, all sorts of information, helping their ideal customers. Melinda, just talk a little bit about the strategy here, on putting out content on pedoc. So

Melinda Marks 37:27
well, this is really over the years just morphed tremendously. And one of the things that I learned from from you, Curt and Damon, is the importance of staying current in terms of how important it is for for SEO, and one of the best ways that we found to do it, to still stay competitive in terms of online recognition, is through putting out these blogs. And so we’ve had the pleasure that we’ve been fortunate enough to be working with you all who we’ve come up with topics. You know, like you had said, how important it is for when somebody comes to the website to get the information that they they’re looking for, and they need to make a decision. Well, that’s the intent here, behind everything we do is we brainstorm topics. It’s not just, Oh, hey, yeah, let’s, let’s do this. It’s really thoughtful. Like, who are we trying to speak to on our website? Just in general, you know, we’re looking to speak with engineers. We’re looking to speak to distributors and to contractors. So when they come to our site, and when we’re when we’re really thinking about putting a blog together, we’re very focused on mine. What’s the intent behind it, and is this, is this the right topic? Is this the right content for those people specifically? And so as we create these blogs, you mentioned Amy. She’s been awesome. You know, we sit in together, we come up with topics, and she comes up with the content. She’s a whiz, and is able to take all of our thoughts, all of our ideas, and just put it into a format that’s easily readable and suitable, whether it’s going into our blog or on a social media post, like LinkedIn and Facebook so and and I don’t know when you were going to get to this, but I think we are that Buyer’s Guide, right? Am I going to jump ahead? Well,

Curt Anderson 39:34
we’ll take a little peek at that right now. So let’s

Melinda Marks 39:37
find out that all of this work on the back end that we’ve been doing for a long time now, with that focused mind of who we’re looking to speak to each one of these blogs, they’re doing those things and so Curt and Damon had the idea to come up with an app. Official outdoor power pedestal guide. And so we were able to take all that content, I mean, there’s a number of different articles on different topics related to power pedestals, and come up with this beautiful guide, thanks to it was really a whole team effort. It was Curt Damon, Theresa, Amy Paula, of course, to the design work of this. I mean, we are so excited and really proud of the work that you all have done to get us to this point. I mean, what a great what a great feat. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 40:41
and Melinda, first off, thank you. And I’m going to take zero credit. So, David, this was your brain child. And then Amy did the, you know, all the work on the content, and then Theresa does all the amazing work behind the scenes. And then, of course, Paula came together and just put it all together. And the nice guy at the end, yeah, she was, like, the artist that just kind of tied it all together. So this was, this was just fantastic. So let’s go here. So for that ideal buyer, again, like, they can go to the configurator, but like, this is a great opportunity to get something in folks hands and, like, kind of walk through for, you know, this is a solution that, like you said, not everybody knows that there’s a high powered, world class solution where they’re just like, hey, just, you know, hey, Joe, get the get an outlet out to the golf course, right? And it just looks terrible. It’s broken. You know, we’ve had different examples here, but just share a little bit of like, you know, what? What are the opportunities that you can do with this guy to help your buyers make a better buying decision?

Melinda Marks 41:38
Well, one it, it. So not only is this buyer’s guide going to be available very soon on our website as a PDF, but we will also have it on its own dedicated web page. And so we will focus on the keywords, and so that right from the start, you know, if people are looking for a power pedestal, and they might not even know what it is, you know, we want to be the the response that comes up at the top of Google say, you know, what is a power pestle? Well, we want to be there be the ones whose voice they hear that hear from paddock. This is what a power pistol is. And so, so this, this guide will take users from the very most basic level to what is a power pedestal? Why do I need one down, to help narrow it down, like, well, what type of power pistol do I need? Which is the right application for it? You know, I have I need, if you need to charge a food truck or bring power to a food truck for, you know, the appliances like a fryer or a refrigerator, you’re going to need a different type of pedestal. You’re going to need one with higher amperage than you would for students at a college campus charging their phone. And so this guy will will walk, will walk folks through this, as well as contractors. How do I install one of these things? You know, power. You know, they might not as the site is being billed. It’s not just the electrical contractor that’s involved. It’s a, you know, the other contractors on site that have to pour the foundation and, you know, make sure that the anchors on their pad, line up with the pedestal, and they need a template, whatever it might be. So there’s information also for specifiers. And what are the capabilities of of PED act? They might be looking for a specific material, like stainless steel, which is very important in terms of being in any outdoor weather condition, but particularly near ocean, or near the ocean, or any salt water, or even here in the Midwest and in the Northeast, where there’s salt trucks. You know, we we got a lot of snow here, and we’re used we see a lot of salt trucks and a lot of power pedestals are out in parking lots or even along roadways. And so if you get all that salt kicked up, spraying up, I mean, it’s going to affect, it’s going to affect the integrity of the pedestal, and it’s also going to, in fact, affect the safety of the electrical components on the inside. So materials, it would this guide will walk users through even the materials and why materials are so important.

Curt Anderson 44:30
Well, I This is phenomenal. And I just I saw coming back here we Melissa, when you and I were on site, we did a little interview with one of their engineers, Mike Foley. And so there’s a nice quote in here from Mike Foley, right there. So Melinda, we we started really attacking, like, the SME interview, subject matter expert interview. So for other manufacturers that are out there, they’re seeing this like, you know, like starting when you’re starting from zero, going all the way to this, that might be a little bit overwhelming, right? Just, I need a new. Expression, but kind of like, eat the elephant, if you will. I unless I need a new expression, that’s not very nice, right? So, but it kept, like, going from zero all the way to this. But just talk a little bit about, like, how valuable Mike and you have a gift for interviewing these folks. Talk a little bit about, like, how important those SME interviews played in this retracted that information from those experts. So

Melinda Marks 45:21
there’s been a couple different formats that we’ve done these interviews in, and one would be this live stream, like, similar to this. And then what Curt as you mentioned, we’ve also done one on one interviews that are recorded where it’s not so much as conversational as it is me posing a question, and like speaking with an engineer and taking the time to answer that question. And so what we’ve been able to do in both cases is get the transcripts from those videos. And here we’re going to go into AI, right? I mean, the amazing tool you do use, utilizing AI take those transcripts, and that was huge in putting together this Buyer’s Guide is helping us identify, you know, what should we focus on? Things like that? So it took, how many different blogs and SME interviews, have we done together? It’s taking all that content and really helping us to focus. Doesn’t do it all, but it really helps us to bring in, to focus, what’s really important and and even potentially, how to how to categorize things. So, yeah, what those eat those SME interviews have been huge and Curt, you know, I was really reluctant to do one. So now, I mean, yeah, this is my fourth time coming on here, and I now lead some of the interviews with the SMEs. We’ve had our engineers, we’ve, I’ve been on site with one of our our vendor, a powder coat vendor, a local commercial finishers that we’ve been partnered with for over 30 years. So it’s great. And you know, I always learn something. You know, even though day in day out, I’m working with these engineers and I’m working with our suppliers, it’s like, wow, I didn’t, I didn’t realize that, or even the specifiers. We’ve also interviewed some specifiers. So getting to this guide, yes, to your point. I mean, this is, this is huge. The final end result is absolutely amazing. And one, it looks stunning. And two, the content is just remarkable. And that was all gathered, not all, but majority of it gathered through those interviews. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 47:44
and I took, you’ve done a phenomenal job. And I think Melissa, you were pointing out earlier, you know, like, you take a look at that picture, there’s a power pedestals right there. Very discreet, very classy. You know, blend right in with the landscaping. Don’t even realize it’s, it’s there until you need it. And like, say, you’re out in public at that cafe, in your group, you need your phone charge, or whatever it is, because we all need to make sure, you know, we’re charged up so they are so, you know, it’s almost not even a nice to have. These are must to have, yeah, certain areas in certain situations, even for public safety situations, right? So there’s a lot of benefits to having that product out there. Melissa, any comments that you want to share. As far as, like, you know, like any manufacturer, regardless of size, can really start tacking getting that content out there. Stop being the best kept secret. What would you want to share? As far as, like, helping small manufacturers getting content out there? Yeah,

Melissa Basa 48:33
I think that’s one area that manufacturers tend not to focus on as much, right? They’re focused on the operations and the things in the plant. And so sometimes it’s an overlooked opportunity to grow the top line right, to create other opportunities to fill equipment, maybe, and fully utilize the plant. But I think the top line is sometimes overlooked, and sometimes it’s not the specialty of small manufacturers who whose leaders are wearing many, many hats. And so it’s a great opportunity to partner with us, our counterpart, MEPs, and get experts like yourself to come help with some of the known best practices and create some of those revenue generating opportunities. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 49:12
absolutely love it. Hey, go ahead. Damon,

Damon Pistulka 49:15
well, and I’m going to, I’m just going to say, you know, the one of the things that we really been seeing, it was awesome seeing it. Melinda and the team there at paddock power embrace is using these interviews in conjunction with AI, you know, a simple chat GPT membership in those, those SME interviews, and the transcripts can can give you such a powerful marketing partner, almost to really help you refine things and everything, from origin story interviews all the way to the technical things. And then when you’re talking to your custom AI, it knows you to a certain point that it can really help to, like, put this guide together utilizing all the info. Information that you’ve got there and really make it meaningful.

Curt Anderson 50:04
Yeah, love that. Hey, look who dropped a comment. Jason’s in the house. So, and Diane says, Love the buyer’s guide. This is fantastic. And Diane talked to your friend with the Mid Atlantic tax. Diane, thank you for your comments again. Thank you everybody for dropping comments today. I know we could keep you guys all day. We’ll start winding down here. Melinda, any one thing I wanted to chime in with the last image I was just showing it looked like, you know, kind of a community or municipality. You did a phenomenal job. We had a couple wonderful SME interviews with landscape engineer, relatively large firm and municipality, or, you know, a couple of different opportunities, you know, for communities that want your product, it’s a great reach out to them. So if you if a manufacturer gets a lead, you know, that’s an opportunity to say, like, hey, you know, I’m not trying to sell to you. I would love to sell with you or sell through you. And as along with that, could we collaborate and create some content together? And I think I really commend and admire how you open up the door to a couple of new relationships. There anything that you want to chime in on that front?

Melinda Marks 51:09
Absolutely, you did. You helped me so much Curt in even thinking of about that, because a lot of times what we do can somewhat be transactional, whether it’s somebody it fills out that RFQ form and it’s just an email, Hey, and they might just need basic pricing, and that’s fine, happy to do it. And, you know, it just might turn into an order and and there’s very little even communication, and certainly not the opportunity to develop a relationship or hear feedback. And so one of the things that that when we were doing one of the interviews, and was with the landscape architect and in Indiana, just he was so open to have to being a part of this, to being a part of the interview process and supporting pedoc, but also being able to highlight his work and what he does best, and so it was a perfect opportunity for for us all to collaborate. Mutually beneficial, of course, but it also built that relationship between him and between pedo and him, between actually myself and him, and we heard feedback, you know, of course, we all love to hear, oh my gosh, your pedestals are the best. We would never consider using anything else and and while he did his fair share of that, he did, he gave us a lot of props, he also gave us a new idea, you know, he said, You know what, I have this situation on an upcoming projects, we need to install pedestals near a tree, and we certainly don’t want to disrupt, disrupt the roots and the other vegetation and planting. And we just, we want an alternative solution of how we can install, what are your thoughts? And so we took it to our engineers. We we sat down, and I’ll talk about like, wow, this is a real world problem. And I’m sure that a lot of architects, designers, public works, you name it, struggle with is how, how to install in tricky situations like that. And so we, we came out with a mounting brackets, which will, you know, can work in that particular area, along with several other applications. But being a small manufacturer, having be were able to be very nimble and very responsive. So we had that interview, and I think within three months we had that mounting bracket up on our website. And, I mean, it was just, it’s really cool. So even just that component of having these subject matter expert interviews was, is huge. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 53:56
I tell you, that was a huge remember, Melinda, you and I had the call, like, I’m like, Linda, that was an epiphany. I mean, Damon, we’ve been doing these for years, yes, and like, the benefits on building that relationship, because, you know, you get on the one on one call, and it’s just like, you’re kind of like, you know, you know, it’s almost human nature and trying to sell each other, whatever. But like, when we did that SME interview, it was more like, we want to learn, we want to understand, we want to know about you, what was your background. He shared about when he went to college, what he did post college, but like, what an eye opening, mind blowing opportunity, like he’s giving us, like we’re getting R D feedback from an expert, not just like someone complaining, yeah, like, Hey, I don’t like your product because, like, he gave, like, high level Damon, what are your thoughts?

Damon Pistulka 54:38
It’s just so cool that you’re able to do this because now you’ve got a new product solves a problem that you wouldn’t have known about, right? Had you not been going down the road and and actually working with these people?

Curt Anderson 54:50
Yeah? Just, just asking, so I know I could keep you guys, yeah, any, anything, let’s tie things up in a bow, anything that you want to add as we start. Down anything, any comments from Melinda just shared, you’ve been on couple of these SME interviews. What are your thoughts? Yeah,

55:06
the SME interviews have been great. And while, while Melissa, Melissa, while Melinda, was a little cautious about the live stream, the SME folks, they jumped right in and were really happy to be asked about their expertise and share their insight and like that’s something I think we don’t think about often enough, is those voices that we don’t often solicit. They want to share and they want to be heard and show off what they know. So that was that was great to watch that evolve. They were not nearly as cautious to jump in and share their expertise as we might have expected. So that was a fun opportunity. It’s been nothing short of an honor to support Pedoc Power and Marcres Metalwerks as they’ve gone through this and just watching the willingness to learn from you and your team, Curt and embrace all of it to nothing but great results. It’s been it’s been really fun to watch. It’s been a

Curt Anderson 55:57
blast. So you we need to get back on site here soon. So Melinda, just a little morning. Melissa and I might be back on the road, and we might pop in for a visit. Yeah,

Melissa Basa 56:06
I tried to tell him today, but you know, it was next

Speaker 2 56:10
time. We’ll wait for the when the weather’s a little nicer. It was weather related.

Curt Anderson 56:18
I know I am so Alright, let’s go here. Let’s start winding down. So Melissa, question that I like to I don’t feel I asked you this last time. One question I love to ask folks best business advice. What’s the best business advice that you feel that you’ve ever received and or that you would love to pass along? What do you have to say there you did ask

Melissa Basa 56:39
me this last time, but it’s worth re sharing, so I will go again. I had, I had a former boss, mentor, friend, who always told me, right, the customer is never going to remember exactly the situation or exactly the problem they had. They’re going to remember how you responded to them and how you made them treat feel in a difficult moment, right? So there’s always going to be challenges in business, but it’s really how you collaborate with work with your partner, to work through your customer as a partner, to work through those problems. That’s what the customer is going to remember, and that’s stuck with me. And I hope Melinda and other manufacturers here in Illinois feel that when they work with me right, that we are partners, and we’ll work through things together. And I’m I’m there to help them get all the resources they need,

Melinda Marks 57:23
100% hands down.

Curt Anderson 57:24
Hey, drop the mic. That was a great response. And so I and it reminds me. Melissa, well, it

Melissa Basa 57:29
was a repeat, though, so it’s good, but it deserved a repeat

Curt Anderson 57:34
other other than our moms. Maybe nobody taught that right, other than your mom and my mom. But I just finished a book. It’s called unreasonable hospitality. It’s a phenomenal, incredible business book. I strongly encourage anybody read it. And it’s all about, it was a restaurant in Manhattan. Went from like, you know, nice, you know, it was a very classy restaurant, to the number one in the world in what it took to get to that. So, like, just delivering that over the top experience. So I just what a great answer, what a great mentor that you had love that answer, Melinda, anything that you want to share for folks out there, as far as like best business advice that you’ve heard or that you would like to pass along

Melinda Marks 58:10
so and I’m going to say it in it’s very basic form, and it’s not that anybody has said these words to me specifically. It’s what I observed, and I observed from my father for sure, and basically just do it right, do it right. And what I mean by that is with your customers, treat them right, with your employees, with your partners, with your product, with your processes. And I know that’s so basic, and it’s sounds a little, you know, doesn’t sound that easy when you break it out. But if you work at it, and some of it shouldn’t even be work, right? The treat your customers. I mean, treat them like your family. Treat your employees like their family. So if you have a product that you’re really proud of and you believe in and, a an environment that you’re really proud of. I mean, it’s it’s easy. Just do it right. Just

Curt Anderson 59:06
do it. You can never go wrong if you’re just doing it right. And Melissa, I man, I could give you guys for another hour. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the brand new, phenomenal automatic welder that you and I got to witness. Just Melinda, just give a, just a, give a little shout out for like this, this piece of machinery that is state of the art, cutting edge. Before we close out. Just just, I want I hit that my list, and I do, I’d be, I’d be mad at myself if we didn’t talk about that just real quick.

Melinda Marks 59:34
No problem. So one of the things that has helped our business all along the way is staying at with technology at the forefront. So we’ve always invested in technology when it’s warranted. And one of the big needs that we saw was with ped acts specifically, is, since we’re we’re selling so many of them that, gosh, how nice it would be. If you know, we could put them through a robotic welder. We’ve seen some of these before. We’re exposed to them, obviously, for several years. And so we did. We purchased a robotic welder, which is really, really cool. Curt, I think you even saw it in action. There’s a table that turns around, and there’s so many benefits to it, one even just the consistency, how dialed in it is, and, of course, the production time. And I think the welders actually appreciate it. I worried a little bit, you know, because there’s this new technology. And, you know, I think the our welding team were a little bit shy about it, thinking, Well, gosh, what is this going to do for me, we have been very fortunate where we continue to grow our other side of the business, which is on the customer manufacturing side, that we are always going to need that human touch and skill and the power pedestals in terms of a specialty welding expert or expertise needed. There’s not a whole lot. It’s very easy, and it can be very monotonous for our welders. And so they were actually relieved that of this robotic welder, because instead of them sitting down and hand welding, you know, straight line over and over and over. And I think it’s a fun and, you know, have fun and be challenged on these other more intricate, yeah,

1:01:23
capability so,

Curt Anderson 1:01:24
and it’s just, it just to see, like a small family operation, invest in themselves, invention, really future proofing your business. You’re making that big investment. Just make yourself more competitive, more efficient, more viable. And, you know, keep costs, so we can keep making wonderful products here. So alright, we need to let you guys go, because I know you’ve got other things to do. You’ve got wonderful Melissa, you’ve got manufacturers to save Melinda, you’ve got products to put out there. So how about Damon? How about a big round of applause, everybody out there, let’s give a round of applause to Melissa and Amanda for absolutely crushing it. We appreciate you. We applaud you. We commend you guys for just doing great work. Melissa, best way to find you, IMEC website, IMEC, Illinois, uh. Melissa Basa on LinkedIn, anywhere else that we can find you. Those two are the best. Melinda, we can find you. You guys are all over social media. I know Theresa’s got you cranking on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, pedoc Power Solutions. Pedo, power, com, anywhere else that we can find you, or anything else you want to share as we close out,

Melinda Marks 1:02:25
I probably shouldn’t give my mom’s phone number, should I? Yeah,

Curt Anderson 1:02:30
listen, I did earlier, but I think

Melinda Marks 1:02:33
we’ve got it covered. You got

Curt Anderson 1:02:35
it all covered? Damon, take away anything that you want to close this out with.

Damon Pistulka 1:02:39
No, I just think it’s, it’s really cool how the work over the years has it led to this Buyer’s Guide, led to the journey down with the SME interviews and then collaborative interviews on the outside. And really, you know, really helped to establish relationships and build, build new products.

Curt Anderson 1:02:56
Mm, hmm. Wow. Absolutely. Okay, guys, thank you for the comments in the chat box. If you got in late. Strongly encourage you, invite you, welcome you. Man, hit the rewind button. Catch the early part of this great origin story. Wonderful work that I make is doing Manufacturing Extension Partnership in Illinois, and, of course, the great work that Melinda and the team at paddock what they’re doing there. So again, from by my heart. Melissa, thank you for everything, Melinda. Thank you for joining us today. Hang out with us for one second, and everybody out there like we’d love to say, just go out and be someone’s inspiration, just like these two, and you will make the world a better place, just like we are IMEC and at PEDOC. So alright, guys, we’ll see you. We have another I met client on Friday. We’ll see you guys. Friday. Nice. You.