Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Melissa Zirbel

Curt Anderson  00:03

Well, good morning. Good afternoon. Happy Monday. Damon, how are you? Dude, what’s going on?

Damon Pistulka  00:09

I’m great. I’m great Curt. Happy to be here today.

Curt Anderson  00:11

Nice weekend. Beautiful week. Yes. Wonderful weekend. Okay, awesome. Well hey, I am I’m like a nervous wreck today. I’m like I’m a little little nervous for this. We have a big time big time guests. You know we have big guests every week. But this is like a big time guests that we have here. So they are you. Big like big really big right now. You’re Big Ed Sullivan. Like really big. Remember that? Okay. Yeah. For us older guys. So Damon, I want to introduce Melissa Zirbel. Melissa, happy Monday. How are you?

Melissa Zirbell  00:44

Oh, I’m wonderful yourself.

Curt Anderson  00:46

I am doing fantastic, guys. So Happy Monday. drop a note in the chat box. Let us know that you’re there. You definitely want to connect with Melissa. Melissa is the resource manager at imec is the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of the great state of Illinois. And we are going to talk manufacturing Damon we are you man. We’re gonna geek out hard today about the manufacturing. Melissa is just doing amazing, wonderful things at IMEC in Illinois. But Damon you know where we go before we really start? Right, you know? Right. And Melissa, now Hey, now wait a minute, Damon, I think we had check this out. Check was here today. You know, Nancy, Nancy Addison tears. You know, I’ve been in a we’ve got Karen’s here today, Karen, happy Monday. How are you? So again, guys, drop a note in the chat box. Let us know that you’re there. You definitely want to connect with Melissa. And so Melissa, my first question for you of the day. Is this. As little girl growing up? Who was your hero? Who was your hero as a little girl growing up?

Melissa Zirbell  01:55

Oh, wow. You know, and I actually had a lot of heroes growing up. And it’s like, when you think about it. I, I think of this one particular statement that comes from I’m gonna say it’s Maya Angelou. I’ve heard Oprah you’ve said, it’s like, I come here as one. But I’m standing here as 10,000. Wow. So then that makes me think about all of the people that helped form and create who I am today. So it’s makes me think of my mom, my aunt, my aunt and uncle. You know, they adopted me later on in life. And it makes me think of my great aunts. And just everybody that helped create who I am today. And I mean, even if you think go even further past, you know, who helped them get to where they’re at. And so it’s like, you think about that in a very spiritual sense. It’s, it’s all made for that, you know, I was meant to be here today. And pretty much it was divine intention. Again,

Curt Anderson  03:06

you’re just gonna taste it. Like that was like our first bite trap, right? You’re just getting a little taste of where this conversation is gonna go. So that was absolutely beautiful. Thank you, Melissa. What a great answer. So, you know when I think of the word, a word for Melissa Damon is resiliency. Let’s say you’ve had just a wonderful career. We’ve talked you know, we’ve become dear friends for past couple years. And we are COVID friends, mind you. And hey, we’ve got a bunch of friends chat. chiming in here. We’ve got Hey, vows in the house today. Happy Monday, Val. Diane Byers deals with Mid Atlantic tack. We’ve got hate. Karen said she missed it. I missed you too. Karen. Dan Biggers in the house right here. Is that working for everyone? I’m getting the spinning wheel of death. Over to happen. You know what if you go to b2b Tell we’re streaming live on b2b tailed. Go to YouTube. You can check that out. And Jared says you know hey drop a little refresh and Nancy says hey, it took a minute but we are going live. So guys, we are here with Melissa durable from the IMEC from IMEC the Illinois MEP. We’re going to take a deep dive into what is the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Melissa’s we go there you brought your superpowers, your talents, your passion into the world of manufacturing. Can you just and you’ve had a great, amazing career. And I want to dig into that. What attracted you to manufacturing?

Melissa Zirbell  04:28

Oh, wow. Well, I was I had a career at at&t for about 20 plus years. And it seemed like the longer and longer that I was there I I did a lot with process improvement. I would go from one end of the organization to the other working on sometimes six sigma projects or they call it like service excellence type projects. And it got to the point where I would work myself even out of a job and I I went into customer service to network, I was a technician and I did end up lifecycle. I even was managing, I was a construction manager for placing crews, splicing crews, emergency outage crews, testing crews. And I did a lot with that. Pretty much engineering like literally engineering on the fly and things like that. So it was, it was a great place to be, it was a great place to learn a lot of leadership skills and things of that nature. But as I was watching the telecommunications industry, it was changing dramatically. The company I worked for was going from more of a telecommunications company to a media company. And so it just didn’t seem where my skill set was fitting, and I wasn’t I was looking for a place where I can actually take all those skills and really serve. So I began to really kind of dabble in and looking into areas. Where can I take all these skill sets, because I’ll be honest, I mean, there were times that, you know, even at&t, we had a I call a love hate relationship. And it was where I would identify all these problems and try to fix them, right? That means massive amounts of change. And then you don’t always bring friends that way. And it wasn’t it was about always doing it, you know, with integrity, doing it with you know, you collaborate across a lot of different organizations. But it was very passionate. And the key thing it was about serving the ultimate customer to make things better, easier, and things of that nature. So when I started looking for another place to apply these skills, I actually came across the iMac and I began reading how they serve manufacturers. And it was very, very interesting, you know, helping companies become globally competitive. I mean, at the same time, you know, it was about improving efficiencies, productivity, bottom line, top line growth, all of these things, and I’m like, wow, I, I, I think I belong here. Right. And, and so I had, I remember reviewing the application and things like that, and it really resignated. And then at the same time, I remember saying to myself, I’m not sure if I qualified because it was like, wow, it was like almost kind of too good to be true. But then it was like, Well, you know what, I’m just gonna submit it anyway. And, and it just seemed like it was one from the time that I interviewed, I mean, and then understanding their values and things like that. It seemed like it was a place for me where I belong. All right,

Curt Anderson  07:57

that was fantastic. And we’ve got some really fun comments in the chat box. Whitney Houston is here today. Whitney, happy Monday. Thank you for joining us, Jared japin comments. Dan Biggers here. So again, guys, thank you for joining us. Shout out to Nancy and Karen and everybody else here today. Happy Monday, you definitely want to connect with our dear friend Melissa from IMEC, the Illinois Manufacturing Extension Partnership. So Melissa 18 are over 20 years of expertise from at&t, in you bring that to the world of MEP. Now, Damon, we’ve interviewed lots of a few people from the MEP network. Just a few. And what I absolutely love is just time and time again, you just see the amount of passion and expertise that comes into the MEP network, bringing that passion and expertise out to our manufacturers. Now, Melissa, for anybody out there that is not familiar with the MEP. We’re gonna be talking about how to shower your customers with love, which you are certainly doing an iMac, but let’s take a step back. Can you please share with everybody? What is the Manufacturing Extension Partnership? Yeah,

Melissa Zirbell  09:04

sure. The manufacturing extension partnership is a national network. It’s a network of approved centers. So IMEC is the approved center for the state of Illinois, their centers in every state, including Puerto Rico. They have a unique private public partnership that delivers a lot of times comprehensive proven solutions to US manufacturers that are really looking to fuel their growth in advanced manufacturing, whether it’s in technology leadership operations. It’s really the full gambit. It’s all things manufacturing and again, it says is where it’s a private public partnership that is here to assist.

Curt Anderson  09:49

Okay, perfect. So recap if you’re coming to us from a different state. We’ve got friends in Texas, we’ve got friends in Pennsylvania, regarding Dan is down in South Carolina, whatever state You are coming from there’s an M E P near you. I met Brett represents a great state of Illinois. Most of what it is I’m excited for by the way.

Melissa Zirbell  10:10

Illinois Manufacturing Excellence center, the

Curt Anderson  10:13

excellence center. So that’s at the excellent center. If I’m not mistaken, like if I’m a manufacturer, just showering folks with love, right, let’s let’s let’s go there. Talk about if a manufacturer knocks on your door now last year 2022. Boy, Dave and I are baseball fans. You didn’t hit homeruns you hit grand slams, you partnered with a friend West lean our friend Nancy’s here today, Perrin, all sorts of just great resource partners, but just talk a little bit about like, what are some of the projects? What are the services that are provided for manufacturers at IMEC?

Melissa Zirbell  10:48

Well, we have, first of all, we have internal experts. So we have improvement specialists that are here to and dedicated to providing manufacturers with the tools and techniques to excel, and to help them compete globally. But we also have an extension of partners, like Kurt and you mentioned, CDI and strap marketing you met, we have a number of different companies or third party resources that are here to also assist us. We work hand in hand with third party resources in particular, as an extension of IMEC. So we try to partner with them. And the goal is really, again, is to help companies provide them with the tools and techniques to compete globally, we help in all areas of manufacturing. And that includes leading a company planning for success growing their business, improving their operations, focusing on the people aren’t really deciding with data. So there’s a it’s a very full gambit. And that’s where I am always like to say it’s all things manufacturing.

Curt Anderson  11:57

Yeah, and you cover things like lean ISIL operational excellence, you mentioned leadership, you know, like in you know, I’ve learned a ton from you. But when Damon when we get on the phone, I don’t know most. So it’s like, it’s usually not a quick conversation, right? I think we, we chat for a little bit, but I’ve learned an enormous amount from you. And hey, I want to pull up one comment here. Damon from this is one of his colleagues, happy Monday, Melissa is a great colleague advocate and inspiration and in a fierce advocate for manufacturing. So now listen, let’s go hear from the operation side lean operations, see, oh, yes, safety, like to hear like some of the opportunities that a manufacturer like, hey, Melissa, I’m kind of diggin what you’re saying, talk, you know, share a little bit like, what does that look like when you help folks with those

Melissa Zirbell  12:43

services? You know, it really depends, you know, this is where you have a regional manager, which they really have a discussion with, with, with the companies and they, you know, you try to what I have always seen is, is from an awful lot of our regional managers have this operations leadership perspective, for a company, and so they try to drill down in each one of those areas. And it’s almost like peeling the layers of the onion, right? You know, a company may say, This is my problem, right. But then as you start peeling away, you’re like, Wait, there’s multiple facets that contribute towards that problem. And that’s where our regional managers come in, and really help identify and provide, you know, some solutions and how they can fix those problems or improve efficiency or whether it’s cash flow and things like that. Because you’d be surprised at how a lot of these different areas, you know, like, especially if we’re thinking about workforce, well, if you’re having as many employees that are coming in the door is going out the door, there are multiple things, you know, is it the skill set? Is it? Is it the culture, you know, there could be a number of different things, is it the benefits, is it leadership, so, there’s a lot of different areas. And so our regional managers will team up with our technical specialists and try to come in and and necessarily hear what the initial problem is, but then peel those layers to get to the actual root cause. And so we’re in all areas you know, we do you know, our goal is to really listen to our manufacturers. But then also our goal is really to help diagnose and problem solve as well and then provide solutions that help them really achieve the goals that they’re looking for.

Curt Anderson  14:34

Well, I love that hey, our dear friend says it has a couple of nice comments here on if you saw this, Melissa is tremendous. She really goes a distance ensure clients get the best possible impacts. And you know what, Nancy, and thanks for teeing up our next question. She is laser focused on success defined by growth initiatives. Melissa, let’s go here man, you guys just absolutely destroyed it for manufacturers and 20 22 great word when you’re working with an MEP, no matter what state is the word impact? I know, Nancy talked about all the impact, she had $3.25 million of impact that she did with 28 manufacturers last year, what is impacted? Like, how does that work when you are engaged with your manufacturers?

Melissa Zirbell  15:21

You know, that’s a great question. So impact to me is really that return on investment. So, a lot of times, you know, companies will invest, you know, money in an expect a certain return, I mean, the, the basic return that we would want to see is that the value outweighs the cost, right. And that includes the cost of the project plus the labor hours associated with it. So you want that as a minimum impact. But I’m actually have been able to demonstrate year over year, some results that I have a 19 to one. So that’s a huge return on investment, that has to do with being able to validate and prove and these are, these are, this return on investment has been made possible, really from the effective partnership with with our regional managers or technical specialists, as well as or third party resources, but ultimately, our clients because they’re the ones that will validate this information from a third party survey.

Curt Anderson  16:23

So let’s So walk us through that night. Did I hear you correctly, Melissa? You know, like, they mean, you know, I don’t hear so well anymore, right? I mean, the one did I hear that number? I found it I hear that right? 19? And one? Yes, the stock market’s not given us 19 One banks are not given us 19 to one, can you please, how does somebody get a 19 to one return? Can you please walk us through that?

Melissa Zirbell  16:44

Sure. So return on investment is calculated in a couple of different areas. So one of the areas is really as did we help create or retain jobs. And the next portion would be sales, new and retained, you’ll also have the average cost savings, but then you also have a cost avoidance. And then usually when we’re also calculating return on investment, it’s the cost of the project plus the labor hours associated with it. So one hand when we see new sales, new sales, usually that new and retain sales is really correlates with new and retain jobs. But then you have the cost of a project is an investment in and usually that correlates with efficiency. It could also correlate with cost savings and product productivity improvements.

Curt Anderson  17:36

Okay, excellent here. So now, I’m going to change gears a little bit and Damon, I’m always I’m a little reluctant do this, because I know I’ll leave somebody out. But I think every month we have somebody related to IMEC on the show. Right? We do. Harun we’ve had all sorts of clients that we’ve had the honor and privilege of working with we’ve had. Here’s some of the list Millis. Let’s talk about your team, your amazing team, what most of what you’re talking about your amazing team that now fill in any gaps. How’s that? Let’s hear about this. I know you’re fearless leader Dave belay, just rocking it. Let’s talk about some of your great teammates that are I met?

Melissa Zirbell  18:13

Oh my gosh, I mean, if you were to kind of go through it, I mean, there was a lot of people that are behind the scenes as well as in front you have. We have a wonderful marketing team, Christie, Christie, John’s and then Cameron, as on that team, as well as Megan, you have a regional manager team that is run by John Zira. And Dean harms and is a regional manager of Jim Hancock. Melissa Vasa, Amy Clary, Steve Sandra, cog Ryan Langdon.

Curt Anderson  18:50

I know I’ll piggyback with you okay, so I know like I’ve got a big give a big shout out to our dear friends Jacqueline and Michelle. Fossett man. Lots of love to those guys. You mentioned, Christy Cameron’s been on our program. We’ve had Cassie on the program raised that guy No, of course. Love, love love Ray’s a guy. No, he’s been on the program. Eric Gray, Stacy curry, Paola has been on our program. So like, we could go on and on and please forgive us for anybody we’re leaving out but you just you guys really have the who’s who? And every person that we interview when you hear like, you know you 20 years of being TNT Ray has global expertise. Dr. David belay, you know, Ph. D, and just a wealth of information so that, you know, I think you guys are 50 people strong. When a manufacturer comes in iMac, like talk about how that ball get started and like how you guys turn that machine on to really turn to move the needle for that manufacturer.

Melissa Zirbell  19:46

So a lot of times, we mean, you know, we have a regional manager that will start that communication with and we also have some marketing outreach, or like you can gain up or organic traffic for manufacturers, but usually what we try to do is is really assess where they’re at what are their needs. So it’s like almost like a needs analysis. And so a lot of times, as they enter, we have the regional managers that will focus on that relationship. They identify areas of opportunity and how we can assist. Sometimes we, what we’ll do is we have what we call value added services. And sometimes we may bring like educational opportunities, like the webinars, or even entire webinar series that will provide to our clients sometimes at little or no cost. And that way, they have access to a lot of our experts, we offer a lot of one on one coaching, as well as you know, different areas, and I call on like, it’s like, almost like a taste and see, right, we, you know, we have a lot of knowledgeable people here within our organization that can deliver phenomenal services. And a lot of there’s a lot of information that’s out here that you know, that our regional manager have regional managers, we have tools and techniques that can assist them in all of these different areas. Once we get through to helping, let’s just say the manufacturer, build that trust and understanding on how I met, this really has that altruistic mission, to be able to help them globally competitive, you build that trust, then we’re here to become more of that trusted advisor for them and be able to assist them in a lot of their operational leadership, digital transformational needs, and then we may come in, and we may offer like some additional project work that may help some of them that that that transformation that needs to occur in all these different areas. And so, from the project work, you know, we always will have an analysis like a project evaluation, and then there’s also a third party where the MEP will analyze the results, and ask the clients to report those impacts as well. And so this is, you know, this is one way that we’re able to serve. Other ways, we may offer things like an ITR report. And this is these are reports that are out there and available to our clients to assist them in the different the changing economy, right, and how do we position our businesses and stuff. So we may have a lot of resources that are here to assist each of these companies in all their different areas of business.

Curt Anderson  22:47

Well, that’s fantastic. And again, guys, we’re here today with Melissa durable love, you know, love the comments coming in the chat box drop any questions, comments, you definitely want to connect with Melissa, and connect with each other. This is a great opportunity for networking. We see hey, looks like you know, I saw in the comments that Whitney might be a free agent. So boy connect with Whitney out there she is. incredible, amazing. doing awesome work for Whitney, thank you for joining us today. Damon, did you have a comment?

Damon Pistulka  23:14

Well, the one thing Yeah, I was just gonna add to what Melissa said and what you’re talking about with the the MEP s and one of the things that I see that manufacturers if you’re not at least talking with them repeat MEP, you miss completely. And that is grant opportunities to help you offset some of these costs. The MVPs are so in tune with the grant and other types of government funding that’s available to offset some of these costs, it really makes a big difference for you know, bringing things within the reach of manufacturers, that you would you would think that Well, I can’t afford cybersecurity. But if there’s a there’s a grant that helps to offset a portion of it. Well, now I can, this is some of the things that I see that that if manufacturers are not talking to their local MEPs they’re missing out on this opportunity.

Melissa Zirbell  24:07

And I think you also bring up another good point is that a lot of times that some of the market rates that may be out there, you know, like like, for example, cybersecurity, this is where the MEP centers have a number of vetted third party resources that are able to provide those costs in some of these third party resources really focus on the small manufacturer, or the medium manufacturing. So we’ve gone through and identified each one of those areas so that we can figure out ways to bring it to you at cost. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  24:39

yeah, that you know, and Damon, so I had the honor and privilege Melissa and I have met in person and so we had a little little, just a little party in Chicago, and we had a great time at the National annual MEP conference. And Damon was like, Dude, you teed up my next question that was absolutely perfect. Melissa, you did a presentation with our new Short, dear friend, Scott Dawson, Scott Damon, you recall, he was just on a program a couple months ago poor guy was having some issues over Senator Scott, hopefully he’s doing much better. But he was kind of like, a little crippled that day. But you know, cybersecurity expert, and he’s doing all sorts of amazing things, helping manufacturers with cyber. Melissa talk a little bit about like, the work that you’ve done with Scott, and just, you know, how he’s helping small manufacturers, you don’t need to be a big manufacturer. And the scary thing is, these crooks and criminals, they are not discriminating by size, they are attacking every size manufacturer, Melissa, why is this cybersecurity such an important topic?

Melissa Zirbell  25:40

Well, I mean, as you can see, as is that cybersecurity is huge, it’s affecting every, every part of our supply chain, as well as even everyday people. I mean, I don’t know how many times I heard from my mom, she’s like, is this real? Or? No, I mean, she’ll call me constantly and even my dad was like, I don’t know, is this is this a real raffle? Or, you know, and you’d be surprised at how simple it can easily be, you know, infiltrated with some, right? God does. And I, I was very impressed with the work that he does at core business solutions is that he puts simplicity to the message, right? At the end of the day, there are some things that you can do to mitigate your risk. And he puts simplicity to the messaging, and it’s focused really on not necessarily the ITP people, right, he’s talking to leadership, and he’s helping them to really make some decisions and drive change. This is the the other key pieces is that, you know, he uses truth, but not scare tactics, right. And then the other side is, is he’s, he’s figured out ways to be a great steward. And, and, and that means is, is like really utilizing your resources to be able to deliver an excellent product, but without inflating costs. So he’s been able to figure this out and create great programs for the small and medium sized manufacturer, he, you know, he, he has created programs that focus on less than 10 employees, but he’s able to serve, you know, these medium and large manufacturers, but to be able to do the small, medium size, manufacture at that, at such a cost effective price point is what’s key, but then also being able to have that language. And that’s publicity, he puts it in English. You know, he talks about it in the risk management, you know, you identify all these other places, you have insurance and everything like that, but what are you doing when it comes into the cybersecurity realm? And how do you identify your risks, and some of the, there were some very simple things that can be easily done by any manufacturer, and he’s able to really articulate that, you know, as far as like passwords, and as well as updating constant updates, and things like that, but then the way he speaks to leaders is phenomenal, because it’s like, you understand what you’re getting, and it’s that cost avoidance, right? Because, you know, we have seen where one, one cybersecurity event has really can cause a lot of issues for a company and even to their demise, right? Yep. And then you also have seen where it’s caused hardship amongst the greater good of society being all their data, the information that’s at that’s available or infiltrated. And so, being a good steward, he’s, you know, a good steward to manufacture but at the end of the day, he’s also a good steward for all. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  28:54

that’s a great point. You guys did a fantastic job. That was excellent. Damon, what do you really

Damon Pistulka  28:59

well, and I’ll tell you over the last five years, I think the number of clients or people that I’ve talked to, that have not been affected by something as some sort of cyber attack in business personally, it’s a whole different thing. And that’s, it’s off the charts too. But in business, it’s so common anymore. It’s so common, it may not be you, but it could be a supplier, that’s the last one to have a huge supplier to one of my customers got knocked down, got knocked down for almost two full weeks. I mean, we’re talking about if you got any sort of just in time supply chain, you’re it’s gonna screw with absolutely everything. It is no, and like you said, Melissa, it puts so many small businesses out of business, because they are not prepared.

Melissa Zirbell  29:50

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the other thing is, is how many small businesses want to admit to, you know, the cyber attacks or the ransom and all this other stuff you Nobody wants to admit to, you know, all of the trials and tribulations that we incur, right. And then at the end of the day, when we don’t, and we don’t acknowledge some of those risks, this is where we become the biggest risk of ourselves.

Curt Anderson  30:15

Right? Exactly. And we, you know, and we can’t keep our heads in the sand on this one. So again, guys, if you’re out there a small business or manufacturer, and you’re like, you know, this is not a scare tactic. We’re here to support you and all the way. But if you have any challenges, boy, reach out to your local MEP. If you’re in Illinois, you know, reach out to Melissa reach out to Jamie and myself will connect you with Scott. And you know, Scott Dawson is just what a what a guy of integrity would have wonderful. And just so thrilled. And again, Melissa, thank you for that, boy, all the connections you’ve made for me, man, I really I appreciate you. But I want to come back to you talked about impact. And I’ve mentioned a couple times now what a great year you guys had for 2022. If I’m not mistaken, Damon, we’ve talked about this with multiple folks from the MVP network, Jacqueline Melissa, Michelle was on 127 companies just with one grant program. So team and as you mentioned, iMac is extremely aggressive. The manufacturers in Illinois are extremely blessed of how aggressive IMEC is going out to find those grant opportunities to help manufacturers, let’s say in last year, that 127 manufacturers that you helped, can you just talk a little bit of that one, one case, one example of how many people you help last year?

Melissa Zirbell  31:32

Well, I think you’re referring to our, for your future. Yes. So grow your future, we were able to service manufacturers in growth services. And we were able to identify, we allocated funds that were able to assist manufacturers with a website, they could also do search engine optimization, SEO portion, they we also had a branding. So a lot of companies were not able to or didn’t have like branding and marketing collateral. So we did a program called Make Your Pitch. And then we also had an E commerce and I believe, fill your pipeline. And so the fill your pipeline was a prospect list and a lead generation campaign. From there, you know, these companies reported an enormous amount of impacts both rip and new and retain sales. But they also we have for impacts in all of the other areas. I mean, it cost savings and investments in seeing companies that were investing in additional services, we saw companies that were expanding the amount that you know, we were able to offer them in the website, because we were just trying to provide them like let’s say with at least a start, right? If it’s a virtual business card, if they didn’t have a website presence, if it was ecommerce, we were just trying to get them at least 10 products to be able to sell online. If it was branding, we were trying to get them alignment in their brand and marketing collateral and, and things of that nature. And you know what, I left out one, which was the social media. So we were teaching companies, again, how to utilize social media, a lot of times it was like Facebook and LinkedIn. But it also may have changed depending on where they’re where their market reach was or where their clients were. But I it seemed like it was an awesome program, we ended up with a number of different companies that were raving about the services and put in producing tremendous impacts here.

Curt Anderson  33:40

Yeah, that was great. We’ve had Wesleyan on the show. She’s talked about it numerous of your regional managers, we just had Nancy was last week, we met her and on the show. And so again, just it’s just a collective effort of helping manufacturers, you know, just move the needle and take things to the next level. Let’s let’s let’s go here. We’re now coming into summer of 2023. Hopefully, hopefully COVID might be I don’t know is it behind us yet? I’m not sure where we’re at. But anyway, moving forward. What do you what you and your team at? iMac? What are you super excited for? Coming into the rest of the year at att?

Melissa Zirbell  34:15

Well, I mean, I’m, I’m really excited about being able to help more manufacturers. I mean, it seems like we’re in a huge growth of serving the number of manufacturers that we have been and it seems like it’s been growing and growing year after year. So it’s, it’s actually to me it’s more of those personal connections and always assisting these companies. Sometimes, you know, when you know when we’re assisting them, we’re really putting the people first and and you know, putting people at the heart of all what we do and how we serve them. So for me, it’s being able to serve more manufacturers getting to know more these manufacturers that are out here and Delivering tremendous services that, you know, a lot of times that they may not have been utilized already been identified as the root cause of what may be occurring in their business.

Curt Anderson  35:13

Well, I love it. Okay, so we’re, as we start winding down here, Melissa, so manufacturer out there, whether they’re in the great state of Illinois or coming to us from another state, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you what’s the best way for them to reach out to the MEPs? Well,

Melissa Zirbell  35:30

you can reach out to IMEC. If you go to imec.org. Feel free, and there’s, I’m gonna say we have, you can always connect with us there. You can also check us out on LinkedIn, and I believe, Facebook. So we have a number of different outlets. There’s also all of our regional managers and all of our information is listed there. Each and every one of us would be more than happy to assist. You can also reach out to me at M serval. So that’s MZIRB eo@imec.org. And if you’re if you’re needing to get in contact with a local MEP Center, you can go to nist.gov for slash MEP. And in there, there’s, there’s a link that would list for local contacts, and it’ll refer you to your local MEP center.

Curt Anderson  36:29

Perfect. And before I came in, I’d be remiss, we saw on a personal note, Melissa, we need to hit a couple of questions here. So I know like entrepreneurship that’s runs through your blood and we seek out Howard about entrepreneurship, I believe now I think your son might be a little bit of an entrepreneur, can you just like what’s like just talking about entrepreneurship? For you? You growing up? What it’s been for your career, you as a mom, and like, as you’re passing on to next generation? What’s entrepreneurship mean to you?

Melissa Zirbell  36:59

Oh, well, I mean, for me, entrepreneurship was really the backbone of my life. I mean, I remember as a young child, I mean, I would my mom decided, do you ever have Avon lady? Yeah. Um, it was like, my mom comes home, and she’s like, I’m gonna be the Avon lady. And I’m like, Oh, my gosh, you gotta be kidding me. I’m like, That lady saw your common mom. And she’s like, What do you mean, I’m like, you’re gonna buy everything. And in so I, she, she was a mom. Like I said, Mom, let me show you how this is done. And so I, I remember, as a child, I think I was like, 10 or 11, I went to this apartment building complex, and it just turned it converted into a singer complex. And I put Avon signs and catalogs and like the community centers and I went to I went all over in my mom, even to this day, she would laugh, because not only did I turn it into Avon sales, next thing, you know, I’m cleaning their houses walking their dogs shortly. Yeah, it was so bad. I had to get kids in the neighborhood to assist and I would like split money with them to do all of these things. And so, as I got older, we ended up, you know, my mom would laugh because she was like, 1112 o’clock at night, I have this little lady is calling and wanting to place an order for AVON or wanting to know if you can come over. And so yeah, it actually turned it into a very successful business for her. And then later, I remember, my mom had always started trucking companies as well. I mean, she was in the trucking industry, she learned how to write tariffs and stuff like that. And so for me, I’m like, her and her husband got very, very sick, it was to the point where I was in Illinois, and my mom would be in Indianapolis. And I think 1112 years old, when I started learning how to run a trucking business. I mean, I’m, I’m writing checks out payroll, and I’m calling you know, and I’ve even taken public transportation to go down to where the trucks are to get a maintenance and all this other stuff. It was it was very interesting. Well, you know, I mean, it was something that was very much a livelihood. And so then, as my children were growing up, I always maintained an entrepreneurial side. You know, for me, I’ve done Property Preservation. I’ve done a lot of real estate investing. I also have, I’ve done a lot of things like when it comes to insurance, sales and things like that, that I believed in, right, that were going to help change the dynamics for me and my family. And, and so my son now has really been kind of picking that side up. And he just recently decided he wanted to be a car salesman, and then he comes back to me, he’s like, I think I’m gonna want one day I’m gonna upon a dealership, I’m like, okay, you know, it sounds great. And, you know, we he’s investing to figure that out. And in between all of that, it’s like, like right now he just created himself with a partnership, he’s got himself a partnership going as well as he’s investing into real estate himself. He just told me this morning, they are closing a deal, I think in the next 60 days on our house, where he’s helping somebody that is having to relocate to a nursing home. And so the house needs a lot of fixing up and things of that nature. So he was able to assist there.

Damon Pistulka  40:41

Yeah. Nice.

Curt Anderson  40:43

Well, I love it, Damon, just to hear you’re Christian, her son is just such an inspiration. Melissa, you are such an inspiration. I deeply appreciate. You know, I’ve learned a ton about leadership, entrepreneurship. And every time that you and I chat, I learned something new. Let’s go here. Before I let you I know, you’re like, come on. I’ve got I got things to do. But I’ve got one more question for you. Before we wind down, listen, manufacturing bend a little bit of a workforce challenge. And like there’s a big renaissance and a lot of excitement of like bringing, you know, getting that energy behind manufacturing. All the cool kids are going into manufacturing. If they’re not, they definitely should be. Why should young people, women in manufacturing, why should all the cool kids be just thinking about a career or a future in manufacturing? Can you go there for us?

Melissa Zirbell  41:34

Yeah, I mean, for me, I’m like, I sit back, and I think about all the different areas of where, where life is taking us. Right. And, and I see that manufacturing is starting to take a really strong hold here in the US. And I see that it has the ability to help families make a living, right. And actually support where, you know, sometimes we were utilizing some of the service industry to deliver that, like median income for families below, but it was falling short, your and so I think manufacturers, they’re actually quite a few of them are, are smaller companies, you’d be surprised they’re not these huge fortune 500 companies. And if you’re looking for somewhere that you can grow, you can develop. And you can actually make a living and take care of your family. I think manufacturing is really where it’s at. The other side of it is is is that as as the economy is continually growing, we’re seeing more and more happening here in the US when it comes to manufacturing, I would affirm I personally would love to be a part of, you know, that innovation, size that automating things and all of these things that have to do with manufacturing, being able to become more globally competitive. You know, when we think of manufacture, sometimes we think of dirty, dingy jobs. But it’s really not it has is grown into a place where you know, you have families and create cultures as well as a place that you can innovate in a place that you can really try. Growth, I’m going to say with with within the manufacturer, its themselves and be a part of something that we have going on today.

Curt Anderson  43:21

Chuck, Mike, and that one, Damon, how about that? Yep.

Damon Pistulka  43:23

You’re part of something bigger,

Curt Anderson  43:26

be a part of something bigger? And how cool, you know, and you just mentioned, Melissa, there’s just so much opportunity. It’s not the you know, it’s not the generation prior dark, you know, dark, dirty dingy. Damon was somebody came on the show, I think was that from the Colorado MEP, they talked about the five DS right. Yeah. And you know, it’s automation. It’s AI, you know, there’s AI, there’s virtual reality, there’s additive manufacturing, the technology, cybersecurity, reality. Eco ecommerce, there’s so much opportunity in manufacturing. So guys out there, you know, encourage that next generation to come in and just what great opportunities for, you know, just futures, you know, ahead of us in manufacturing list that promise. Last question. Let’s take it home, and take it home. Let’s do it. Mike, on the last one, I want to see where you go here. You open up I asked you who your hero was fantastic answer. My last question for you is as we move forward through the rest of the year, who or what is your inspiration? Who or what is inspiring you to be such the dynamic leader that you are? What do you think of that one?

Melissa Zirbell  44:38

Wow. I wouldn’t have to say, I’m gonna get a spiritual idea here. And I’m gonna say God first. I mean, first and foremost. I mean, I feel like God is love and we were talking about this whole particular program was about how we love our plants. And I think that, you know, for me Yeah, that’s, that’s where I stay centered and grounded. And I feel like you know, that’s where I’m able to serve more and be a good steward. And I mean, I like I don’t know what else to say except for, like, the number one business strategy is really that love portion of it because that’s really what’s going to drive your results. It’s going to create you know, people that want to follow you, you know, at the end of the day, and they’re going to want to be around you and center around you because at the end of the day, you know that you have their heart, people at the heart of what you have their hearts because it’s it’s like you’re, you’re not offended when when they don’t choose your service or you’re not. You don’t have any zero expectations, but to serve and to deliver exceptional services and, and things of that nature and I think it with me it’s it’s you know, God is love and for me, it really empowers me to to live in a joyful and very passionate loving state.

Curt Anderson  46:14

Damon Melissa, what we do on our show, we had like the we call it these moments of silence where we just want to savor where that that juicy What about how about Nancy jobs? A comment here? You know, as a conversation, Nancy, thank you. All right, I Daymond I don’t think we can tap that comment. So Melissa, thank you and what you’ve learned here today, I you know, let’s just recap a couple of things. You know that authenticity, how you know, how do you shower your customers will love you know, Melissa talked about that passion, being genuine, kind, relentless, authentic, honest, right? Coming into into things, your relationships, business relationships with integrity. And boy, everything that we just discussed, that is exactly what I met represents, and what an honor what a privilege. So guys, if you’ve been hanging out, maybe you’ve been sitting around for like, I’ve read the 47 minute mark, if you want to great time to stand up and stretch and give Elissa a big standing ovation for this awesome conversation on how to love and shower, shower your customers with love as they do at IMEC. So, Melissa, thank you, we appreciate you. God bless you. What a great answer that was for your inspiration. And you are certainly an inspiration to all of us. Damon would any recap any parting thoughts that you want to enlighten on on us right now?

Damon Pistulka  47:38

No, I’m just other than if you’re a manufacturer, and you’re, if you haven’t talked to an MVP, go out and reach out, set up a time to talk to one of their regional people and just see what they’re doing. Because I am amazed at the different resources and the grant opportunities they can bring to help your company. Yep,

Curt Anderson  47:58

just the sheer amount of talent. There’s 1300 and I believe you guys are 1300 Strong nationwide, just working tirelessly in gaming every time that we introduce somebody from the MEP, or like Nancy or anybody that’s associated with the MEP. It’s just that unconditional passion for helping manufacturers and it is just so contagious. And we’re just there’s a lot of momentum going behind manufacturing moving forward. So Melissa, thank you for your time today. We appreciate you we just we salute you, we applaud you and we just we really value what your you and your team at IMEC are doing for manufacturers in Illinois. guys hang out with us for most please hang out with us for one second. We’re gonna close out the program. Connect with me here on LinkedIn. You can find her at iMac I MPC. Google that or check out your local and E P so guys have an amazing, incredible, wonderful week. As matter of fact, we have somebody on Friday Daymond we’re gonna be talking more about the MVP this Friday, and I can’t wait for that. So guys have a great amazing week and just you know what? Be someone’s inspiration, just like Melissa is for us today. Thanks, guys. We’ll see