The Manufacturing Executive: Recent Episodes
Gorilla 76
On The Manufacturing Executive podcast, we’ll explore the strategies and experiences that are driving midsized manufacturers forward. You’ll hear conversations with passionate manufacturing leaders who have compelling stories to share about their successes and struggles. You’ll also hear interviews with B2B Sales and Marketing experts about what’s working on the business development front and how to make these ideas actionable. Episodes will feature topics related to industrial marketing and lead generation, manufacturing sales strategy, technology, and industrial sector innovation.
Robots rarely break. Vision systems keep getting smarter. In automation, the technology has gotten so good that it's no longer what separates one company from another. Darragh de Stonndún, CEO of Automated Industrial Robotics, will tell you what does: the people and the culture behind it. In this episode, we unpack how he built AIR across six facilities in the US, UK and Ireland by evaluating every acquisition on culture first and walking away from impressive companies when the fit wasn't right. You'll hear what he looks for in a capital partner beyond the capital itself, how he gets a customer the identical experience no matter which facility touches the project and why he assembles the best experts across the whole company rather than handing the work to the nearest plant. We'll also get into where he expects AI to earn its keep in manufacturing, and the line he draws between using a new tool to do better work and using it as a shortcut.
Founder and CEO of Klear, Chris Hale, will tell you that companies rarely fail for lack of demand. They fail when capital falls out of sync with operations. In this episode, we dig into what Chris calls the success trap: the moment a manufacturer finally lands the transformational contract it's been chasing for years and discovers that's where the hard part begins. You'll hear why a career-making order is often the most dangerous moment for a business, what actually has to change inside a company to scale 10x into a massive backlog and how to turn tough payment terms with a much larger customer into a moment of leverage instead of weakness. We'll also get into why traditional bank tools are built to look backward and why the smartest teams build a capital strategy before the big order lands rather than after.
Founder and chief strategy officer of LeanDNA, Richard Lebovitz, will tell you that one of the biggest causes of part shortages isn't what you'd expect. It's failing to tell your suppliers what you don't need. In this episode, we dig into why supply chain teams get stuck firefighting shortages while executives chase working capital, and how those two goals drift out of sync. Richard makes the case for running a supply chain the way a good marketer runs a campaign: short, targeted and measured, then adjusted. You'll hear the difference between predictive and prescriptive AI, why the prescriptive kind is so much harder to get right, and the mistake he sees manufacturers make when they hand AI a decision it isn't ready for. Underneath all of it runs a simple idea he picked up early from the partners who taught him Lean: the point of any technology is to make the work easier for the people doing it.
CEO of Mint Innovation, Matt Bedingfield, will tell you there's a gap in America's reshoring push that almost nobody's talking about. We're rebuilding the muscle to make things again, but we skipped the raw materials those plants run on, and the country now faces a million-ton copper shortfall it fills by exporting scrap and re-importing the same metal refined. In this episode, we explore why a sovereign supply chain matters as much as the factories themselves, how the "urban mine" of electronic waste could become a national asset instead of a landfill problem, and why solving this takes an ecosystem rather than one company at a time.
Most manufacturers are good at planning a product and good at planning a project. Where launches fall apart is everything in between. Founder and principal of True North PMP Consulting, Richard Broo, will tell you that operations, quality, logistics and finance get left out of the room until it's too late. By the time manufacturing hears about a launch, the line's already booked out for months. In this episode, we dig into what Richard calls governance: getting every function aligned from day one, before anybody flips the switch. You'll hear why growth amplifies whatever's already broken, how to spot a project drifting off track while you can still fix it, and what it looks like when a team gets it right. Along the way, Richard shares real turnaround stories from decades in plastics, medical packaging and industrial manufacturing.
Leadership coach Chris Atwell, founder of Mindset Conquest, will tell you that 100 sales calls a month proves your reps are busy. It doesn't prove your business is growing. After two decades selling through and alongside manufacturers rep agencies, he's seen the same trap over and over: activity reports that look productive but never tie back to revenue.In this episode, we dig into how manufacturers and their independent reps can build predictable growth together. You'll hear why tracking calls is the wrong place to start, how a shared revenue target and a real sales pipeline change the relationship, and what it takes to enable reps who already know your market better than you do. We'll also touch on the three pillars behind his new book, Momentum by Design.
Most manufacturers are bracing for the silver tsunami: the wave of retiring veterans taking decades of know-how out the door. Founder of Marzilli Machine and host of the Raw Material podcast, Jamie Marzilli, will tell you that's only part of the problem. In this episode, we explore the bigger piece most shops overlook: the tribal knowledge that slips away every day in what you don't write down. You'll hear how Jamie's shop already puts AI to work on the floor, why he's convinced AI will create manufacturing jobs rather than erase them, and what a machine shop looks like five years out.
Business transformation expert and author of nine books, George C. Murray, will tell you that most manufacturing turnarounds fail before they even start. And often, it's because leaders ignite fear of change with the wrong language and wrong approach. In this episode, we’ll unpack what it really takes to revive a struggling operation, from assessing cash flow and margins to building genuine trust and rallying teams behind new goals. You’ll hear why reframing “change” is critical, how open dialogue accelerates results, and which metrics matter most. We’ll also touch on harnessing AI to drive improvements, and why those willing to learn will rise with their organizations.
What happens when the experts tell you something can't be done? Today's guest built a company by questioning assumptions that had gone largely unchallenged inside a massive legacy industry for decades. Annie Lu, co-founder and CEO of Laminar, joins me to talk about challenging conventional wisdom, earning credibility as an outsider, and why manufacturers who stay open to new ways of solving old problems will be the ones best positioned for the future.
Chief Industry Strategist, Technologist and Evangelist at Software Equity Group, Paul Lachance, believes the AI revolution we're living in belongs in the same conversation as steam power, electricity and robotics. In this episode, we explore the lessons manufacturers can learn from past eras of disruption, why some companies emerge stronger while others get left behind and how leaders can cut through the AI hype to focus on the opportunities that create real business value.
In today’s conversation, we’re exploring a shift in the plastics industry – from the old “make, use, throw away” model to a future focused on circularity. At the heart of this transformation is the rise of advanced, or chemical, recycling technologies. My guest today, President of America’s Plastic Makers, Ross Eisenberg, will tell you why these innovative processes are key to tackling plastics that traditional recycling leaves behind, and why the industry itself is leaning into this change as a path for growth rather than just regulatory compliance. He'll break down what’s driving the move, the hurdles still ahead and what real success might look like in a truly circular plastics economy.
In today’s conversation, we’re tackling a challenge manufacturing leaders know all too well: wearing too many hats. In particular, we'll be talking about the sales hat, and why taking it off is often harder than it sounds. My guest, author and sales advisor Mike Huey, will share a proven framework to help you transition from founder-led sales to a scalable, repeatable system that doesn’t depend on you. Whether your company is gearing up for growth or eyeing a future exit, this conversation offers a road map for making your business both scalable and saleable.
In today’s episode, we’re diving into one of the most critical bottlenecks in the electrification revolution: batteries. With the rapid explosion of AI and the data centers powering it, the strain on our power grid has never been greater. Yet, beneath the surface, few realize just how challenging and intricate battery manufacturing really is – in a world where chemistry is king, precision is everything, and the tiniest defect can derail an entire product line. My guest today, President and COO of Sakuu, unpacks why battery limitations dictate the lifespan of everything from EVs to smartphones, and what true innovation in manufacturing means for reshoring production and overcoming global cost barriers.
In this conversation, Founder and CEO of Vention, Etienne Lacroix, points to two fast-moving trends that are impacting manufacturing: the growth of “physical AI,” which brings autonomy to machines on the factory floor, and the real-world impact of software-defined automation. In this episode, you’ll hear what’s actually working with these technologies, and what still falls short. We’ll get into the specific tasks AI handles well, the practicalities of implementation and ROI and what manufacturing leaders should expect in the near future as AI adoption accelerates across production environments.
In today’s conversation, we dive into what it takes for digital adoption to take root in the manufacturing sector. More specifically, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations and Strategy Officer at Conexus Indiana, Bryce Carpenter, will tell you how state-level organizations like Conexus are stepping up to support manufacturers of all sizes, why simply chasing the latest technology rarely works and how we need to focus first on solving real business problems and aligning workforce for change.
President & CEO of Vista Metals, Kelly Thomas leads her manufacturing organization with a different mindset – thinking in decades rather than quarters. In this episode, she'll tell you how building for the long term impacts company culture, strengthens resilience and prepares teams for industry shocks. She’ll share real-world lessons in leading through uncertainty, from adapting to global market changes to investing in people – even in tough times.
We hear a lot about reshoring these days. But bringing manufacturing operations back to the U.S. isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. In today's conversation, CEO at Parsec Automation, Eddy Azad, will talk about the real-world complexities and strategic decisions manufacturers face when considering reshoring. He'll offer his perspective on where reshoring actually makes sense, why manufacturing leaders need to think beyond cost alone and how innovation and technology can play a crucial role.
In today's conversation, Founder and CEO of Axion, Daniel First, will share his observations about how data-rich manufacturing environments are transforming the roles of quality and innovation. He'll tell you how manufacturing leaders are starting to leverage AI to turn overwhelming streams of customer, device and service data into opportunities for faster product development and smarter collaboration. And he'll explain how quality teams are moving beyond the plant floor to become strategic partners across engineering, marketing and supply chain.
In today's conversation, Co-Founder & CEO at Seurat Technologies, James DeMuth, will share how a different approach metal additive manufacturing can radically increase throughput, disrupt industry economics and reshape supply chains. He’ll offer his perspective on where additive manufacturing stands today, discus applications and share his perspective on what’s needed for U.S. manufacturing to stay competitive.
So many manufacturers find themselves stuck in break-fix mode, constantly reacting to machine maintenance problems instead of staying ahead of them. If this sounds familiar, what's it costing your business, your team and your ability to plan for the future? In this episode, CMO of Limble, Paul Ross, shares insights not only from his own experiences, but also from an extensive survey of manufacturing maintenance teams, revealing eye-opening gaps between data collection and how it influences decision making.We’ll dig into why manufacturers struggle to trust their maintenance data, what that means for capital expenditures and how to break free from reactive habits.Find a link the the survey referenced in this episode, The Data Discipline Gap: Inside Limble’s 2026 Maintenance Benchmark Report, here:https://limble.com/blog/cmms-data-quality-2026-benchmark-report/
Imagine robots moving freely alongside your team, navigating unpredictable spaces and handling tasks once reserved only for people. In this conversation, Shari Brown and Krystal Mattich of Brain Corp pull back the curtain on the role autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs, can play in manufacturing environments. More specifically, they'll talk about safety considerations, data security and earning the trust of your human workforce.
Manufacturers everywhere are doubling down on data centers and AI infrastructure, fueling a surge in investment that has many asking: are we living in a bubble, or is this the start of long-term, transformative growth? In today’s conversation, CFO and Co-Founder of viaPhoton, Wasif Khan, will share his perspective about what's really driving this wave of capital, where the risks (and opportunities) truly lie and how manufacturing leaders can navigate the inevitable swings of the market.
Why do so many manufacturers still rely on paper, spreadsheets and disconnected systems to run complex operations? And what unfolds when they step into fully integrated, data-driven environments? In this episode, President at Applied Control Engineering, Inc, Ian Burns, will answer these questions. He'll also explain how digital twins are impacting everything from operator training to faster, safer process improvements. And he'll share candid insights on the unique cybersecurity challenges facing modern manufacturers as their systems become increasingly interconnected.
Manufacturing automation isn’t what it used to be. Today, robots can be controlled from an iPad, set up with zero training and be up and running almost immediately – even in high-mix, high-variability manufacturing environments that once seemed impossible to automate. In this episode, CEO and Founder of Workr Labs, Kevin Macken, will tell you how they're eliminating traditional automation barriers – shifting the focus from complicated tech to practical workforce transformation. Ken will explain how they're empowering operators – allowing teams to adapt faster, increase capacity and focus on more valuable tasks.
Justin Baucum of Isembard brings a unique perspective shaped both by years of military service and a passion for the resurgence of American manufacturing. In this conversation, he’ll tell you why veterans are uniquely equipped for careers in manufacturing, how teamwork and mission-driven execution are more critical than ever and why our national security depends on revitalizing domestic supply chains. He’ll also give us a look into an unconventional model for systematizing and scaling machine shops in a way that supports defense readiness.
At this point, we've all seen our share of entertaining videos where humanoid robots are doing backflips or taking on opponents in the boxing ring. But what about production-ready humanoid robots operating alongside people, driving measurable results and transforming daily operations inside of real businesses? In this conversation, Founder/CEO of Avatar Robotics, Colin Webb, and CFO of Productiv 3PL, Paul Baker, will tell your how they've left the humanoid robotics pre-party and are putting this technology to use in real-world environments today. We’ll explore what sets humanoid robots apart from traditional automation, how they’re changing roles for people and what their presence means for the future of work in manufacturing.
What does it take for a third-generation manufacturer to thrive for a full century in a market where so many competitors have packed up and left? In today’s conversation, cousins and Co-Presidents of Yula Corporation, Matthew and Michael Feldman, dig into the strategies and mindset shifts that have fueled growth, modernization and resilience for their family manufacturing business. You’ll hear about making the pivot from commodity products to high-spec engineering, the impact of digitizing legacy workflows and how culture, leadership and family values drive employee retention, and ultimately business success.
In today’s episode, CEO of TREW Marketing, Wendy Covey, and host, Joe Sullivan use their upcoming event, The Industrial Marketing Summit, as an example to talk about the benefits of designing a niche event for your specific audience. Specifically, they dive into how hosting an in-person gathering can create a sense of community, spark meaningful conversations and build valuable relationships. Learn more about the event and register the marketer from your organization here: https://industrialmarketingsummit.com/
Author and consultant Dean Svarc rebuilt himself after his multimillion-dollar business collapsed, rising to develop a framework that’s now rescued multiple struggling companies. From overlooked basics to culture missteps, he'll share how hidden threats often lurk within a business – undermining growth from the inside out. And one at a time, he'll take you through his six-step blueprint for turning chaos into clarity.
Natalie Kaddas, CEO of Kaddas Enterprises, believes investing in employees means empowering them with lifelong skills. After discovering financial literacy gaps were holding her team back, she launched a transformative program focused on helping them understand money, set goals, and build financial stability. In this episode, she shares how teaching essentials like budgeting and credit scores led to dramatic improvements in retention, morale, and even business performance. She’ll explain the impact of removing financial anxiety and why supporting employee financial health can be a powerful catalyst for success
Founder and CEO of Poe Wolf Partners, Renita Wolf, will tell you that exit planning isn’t just a final step before selling your business. It’s something smart owners build toward from the very beginning. She’ll explain why building transferable value and reducing owner dependency are crucial from the start, setting the stage for higher valuations and a smoother sale when the time comes. You’ll hear her insights on the most common gaps, deal killers and the practical actions business owners can take now to strengthen their companies. She’ll also discuss why the hardest part of exiting is often personal, and how to prepare yourself for both the financial and emotional sides of what comes next. Free resource:7 Essentials Every Business Owner Must Have Before Exiting (preparing for a high-value, low-regret business transition):https://www.poewolfpartners.com/seller/
With supply chain disruptions, shifting geopolitical risks and increasing pressure for efficiency, today’s manufacturing leaders face operational challenges that go far beyond simply making parts. In today's conversation, President and CFO of Associated Metal Forming Technologies (AMFT), Todd Smith, explores the opportunities and complexities of weaving multiple specialized legacy brands into a unified platform to help address those challenges, without losing the trust and expertise that made those brands successful.
Why do so many continuous improvement and lean initiatives start with excitement, only to stall out or disappear entirely months later? What distinguishes organizations that truly embed these principles into their culture from those that just go through the motions? In today’s episode, COO of Bespoke, Steve Riley, will share his firsthand perspective from decades in manufacturing leadership. Specifically, he'll tell you why visual systems matter, where most lean rollouts go off track and what it really takes to make progress stick.
In this conversation with Gorilla 76 Marketing Director, Peyton Warren, we'll dive deep into five things we believe b2b manufacturers should consider doing to move the needle through marketing in the new year. They are:1. Events and in-person opportunities2. Building an audience you own through community development3. Distribution and reach4. Streamlined content creation (repurposing and AI efficiency)5. Clear vision of what success looks Like
What if every skilled worker in manufacturing suddenly became searchable? In today's episode, Founder and CEO of Laborup, Simba Jonga, shares his perspective on how the manufacturing labor gap might be less about a lack of people, and more about a lack of access to those individuals. He'll talk about why millions of machinists, welders, and technicians remain hidden from traditional job boards, and how his team is working to make them visible and accessible for the first time.
How do you scale a family-owned manufacturing business to $100M in sales without losing the family feel?From building a culture where employees feel seen and valued, to transforming the customer experience, to raising the bar for operational excellence, in this episode, President of Falcon Plastics, Jenn Barlund, shares what it means to focus on both people and profitability. You’ll hear why choosing the right partners and sometimes saying no are critical, how transparency shapes trust and why innovation matters in an otherwise stale industry.
What happens when engineers have the space and freedom to actually solve problems their way?And what does that mean for innovation on the factory floor? In today's conversation, Chairman and Chief Innovator of Bravo Team, Josh Tarbutton, will get into the real challenges and rewards of giving engineering teams more agency, why trust matters and how even small changes can have a big impact on your culture.
Manufacturers often see government as a nuisance. Or, at best, a rescuer in times of trouble. But my guest today, Founder and Principal of TGS Advisory, Terry Szmagala, will argue that we need to instead think about government as a key stakeholder. Specifically, he'll share his perspective on three ways government can play a role in your business: 1) as a regulator 2) as a funder and 3) as a customer. He'll offer actionable tips for making government work for you, not against you, and explain why your voice matters more than you might realize. Let’s jump into it.
COO of Frontline.io, Gilad Tzori, has spent years inside of manufacturing organizations, witnessing firsthand how complexity, workforce shifts and rapid technological change have upended traditional service and training models. In today’s conversation, he’ll explain why step-by-step PDFs and classroom lectures are no longer sufficient, and what a new era of immersive training looks like for the manufacturing sector. He'll also share real-world examples of virtual and extended reality tools in action and discuss how AI and digital twins can transform the way teams learn, collaborate and solve problems on the shop floor.
As the manufacturing sector faces both a generational workforce shift and rapid advancements in AI and automation, today’s conversation reveals the “dirty little secret” behind digital manufacturing, and why human-centered thinking remains the heart of successful change. My guest today, CEO of Fathom Digital Manufacturing, Rush LaSelle, will discuss the realities of labor shortages, explain what digital enablement really means and share what a future with humanoid robots on the factory floor might look like.
The workforce crisis in US manufacturing isn’t just a challenge – it’s a national security risk. This is particularly true in casting and forging, where today's guest Mike Kubacki has spent two decades. In our conversation, he explores the urgent need to rebuild America’s industrial base, the reality behind modern manufacturing environments and how innovative programs are connecting hands-on learning with next-generation careers. We’ll learn why engaging students early, supporting employee growth and linking frontline work to real-world impact are key to the future of US manufacturing.
Any business owner, CEO or President wants to feel confident that the dollars they spend will produce a positive return. But sometimes focusing on ROI too soon forces you to abandon your long-term business strategy in favor of short-term wins. In this conversation, we'll look at how to measure marketing impact in two different business scenarios: 1) for a manufacturer that needs a short-term sales lift 2) for a manufacturer that's trying to build a sustainable plan for growth. We'll not only explain about how to choose the right KPIs in each scenario, but also, how to know whether you've been successful at achieving them.
As artificial intelligence creeps into so many facets of our personal and professional lives, it's easy to lose sight of when it's actually working in our favor. In this conversation, Co-Founder and President of SCOPE Recruiting, Friddy Hoegener, discusses the use of AI specifically in the context of recruiting for supply chain and manufacturing roles. He'll share insights about where and how AI can help, but also where it dangerously dilutes employer-to-candidate touch, and why human judgment is irreplaceable for culture-fit identification and talent selection.
How do you take a boring product in a declining industry and build a powerhouse business around it, all while refusing outside funding? In this conversation, Chairman and CEO of TerraSlate, Kyle Ewing talks through the gritty and sometimes unconventional principles behind his business model – from demanding prepayments, to mastering cold calls, to holding cash reserves. The result? A playbook for profitability and growth when everyone else says it can’t be done.
We've all heard of Injection Molding and Additive Manufacturing, but what about Additive Molding? Our guest today is pioneering a business for high-volume production using molding.
Riley Reese is the Co-Founder and CEO of ARRIS, a technology company enabling the design and manufacture of the highest-performance products. In this episode, Riley talks about Arris's Additive Molding™ technology and how they are discovering new ways to manufacture composite parts at scale in ways that weren't previously possible.
Join us as we discuss:
* What is additive molding, and how it works
* Specific applications that would make sense to use additive molding versus a more traditional process
* What has Riley excited about the future of manufacturing
Rather than our typical interview, in this episode, we syndicated an episode from our second podcast, The Manufacturing Marketer, a show focused on marketing for B2B companies inside the manufacturing ecosystem.
In this episode, our team of strategists at Gorilla answer questions that they have received from our recurring live event, Industrial Marketing Live, from marketing folks working inside manufacturing companies.
Join us as we discuss:* Trade show strategy and how trade shows can be used to build a community * Digital advertising for manufacturers * Using data and interviews to formalize customer personas
Some of the most famous and successful entrepreneurs fall on the autism spectrum. Autism is a highly stigmatized disorder, but our guest today will share his insights on why people on the spectrum can be some of the most brilliant thinkers around.
Peter Mann is the Founder and CEO of Oransi, a leading manufacturer of air filtration and ventilation products. A United States Military Veteran, Peter served 4 years in the Navy, including a tour in the Red Sea during the first gulf war. Peter is late diagnosed autistic and, in this episode, talks about his journey of being an entrepreneur with autism.
Join us as we discuss:* Peter’s background and how he discovered he was autistic * How Peter’s early entrepreneurial experiences shaped the path he is on now * How the pandemic affected the market for air filtration and purification * Peter’s perspective on why autism is so stigmatized * What business leaders can do to make the workplace more inclusive for people on the spectrum
Our guest today has his eyes set on how we can pull together our resources to revitalize American manufacturing and take steps towards creating vibrant opportunities in the next decade.
Doug Berger is the Founder and Team Leader of Industry Reimagined 2030, a non-profit with a mission to bring a generational sea-change in US industry and to transform 50,000 companies into world class over the next 10 years. Listen in as Doug explains how Industry Reimagined is the catalyst for national associations and institutes to collaborate and speak with a unified, compelling voice for this vibrant future.
Join us as we discuss:* The 4 components of the Industry Reimagined mission * Shifting the narrative from inevitable decline to vibrant opportunity in manufacturing * The seven nonlinear emerging categories in manufacturing that are going through exponential growth
We’re at the threshold of an information revolution around cloud-based hardware, and our guest today will explain why moving to the cloud can save your business.
Michael Corr is the Founder and CEO of Duro Labs, a cloud SaaS PLM platform enabling the utilization of hardware development for the next generation of hardware teams. Listen in as Michael explains the need for cloud based hardware in your manufacturing business.
Join us as we discuss:* Some of the biggest problems caused by manual processes around transferring data * The pushback that Michael sees around hesitancy to move things to the cloud * Why security is now a commodity for data * Why the most prudent managers protect themselves from financial ups and downs by investing in processes and technology * The business opportunity of using the cloud to find suppliers
Sometimes it's easier to follow the status quo than switch things up, especially when running a second or third-generation family-owned business.
Listen in as Michelle Acosta, Vice President of Operations and Marketing at Acosta Sheet Metal shares her experiences as well as her vision for leading this family business into the future.
Join us as we discuss:
- Things that commodity-driven businesses can do to make it about more than just price when talking to prospects and customers
- Taking a proactive approach to looking for process efficiencies in the business
- The impact that modernizing Acosta's technology stack has had on the business
What do manufacturing organizations need to consider on the marketing front as we head into the new year?
In this solo episode, I’ll take you through the marketing playbook we use for our manufacturing clients at Gorilla.
Join us as we discuss:
- Becoming the expert resource for your audience
- Capturing existing demand and creating new demand
- The 4 pieces of our marketing framework: the Road Map, the messaging strategy, the content and the campaigns
- How do you quantify the effectiveness of your marketing efforts
During a time when finding labor is challenging, there are some things the manufacturing sector can learn from the “gig economy.” Our guest today provides his insights on sourcing and upskilling the manufacturing workforce.
Jason Raddison is the Founder and CEO of Shift One, a platform that is helping solve the global shortage of skilled front-line workers, with more than 300,000 users, from nurses to solar technicians. Since becoming an entrepreneur, Jason has worked with more than a dozen first-tier VCs, and today, more than 20 venture-backed Founders are alumni of his earlier teams. In this episode, Jason talks about the unique perspectives that Shift One brings to the staffing industry.
Join us as we discuss:
- How the staffing industry has been trying to solve the problem of worker shortages
- The essential learnings Jason has taken from the gig economy that are relevant to the labor market in manufacturing today
- How the labor market will evolve over the coming years
In the business realm, the encompassing term ‘supply chain’ is relatively new, and the roles within it, including procurement, are even more contemporary. Having only been around since the 80s, organizations are still finding ways to streamline their procurement processes and enable teams to elevate organizational success.
According to our latest guest, Rob Pakalski, CEO & Co-Founder of Datum, many organizations make the mistake of treating procurement as an administrative role. In fact, when an organization empowers procurement to get involved across many processes, starting with design, the team can play a vital role in building a competitive edge.
Join us as we discuss:
- Enabling procurement as a strategic role
- Replacing tribal knowledge with data-informed practices
- The shifting paradigm of supplier relationships
- Best practices for OEM interactions as a supplier
What was once a manufacturing process reserved for low-volume prototyping has found its home in various production applications. Our guest today breaks down post-print processes and lets us in on what he refers to as the dirty little secret of additive manufacturing.
Jeff Mize is the CEO of PostProcess Technologies, the international leader in automated post-printing solutions for additive manufacturing. He has a proven track record of scaling startups in new markets and driving growth. In this episode, Jeff talks about pioneering connectivity of the post-print step for industrial 3D printing.
Join us as we discuss:
- How additive manufacturing has evolved and is being used in new ways
- How to integrate additive into manufacturing processes that are already being used
- The barriers to using additive manufacturing at scale
- How automation fits into additive manufacturing
- Additive manufacturing’s role in helping to future-proof businesses from labor and supply chain challenges
Our guest today thinks of himself as a treasure hunter not for gold and silver but for used machinery parts, and in this episode discusses how one man’s trash can be another’s treasure.
Listen in as Noah Graff, Vice President of Graff-Pinkert & Co. talks about:
- New trends and insights coming from the precision machining space
- What is treasure hunting
- How supply chain challenges have affected large equipment manufacturing
- What's going on in the world of machine parts
Noah is also the host of the Swarfcast podcast. Check it out at Swarfcast.com.
Our guest in this episode knows both sides of the US/Mexico border very well and provides insights into a term he calls “ally shoring” – the opportunity for US manufacturers to expand manufacturing operations across the southern border.
Listen in as Founder and Managing Director of Nepanoa, Alberto Villarreal, talks about:
- What ally shoring means and how it compares to offshoring across seas
- The benefits for American manufacturers when they're opening facilities in Mexico or other Latin American countries
- The most significant barriers that manufacturing organizations tend to run into when they're expanding their operations into international territory
In its earliest stages, most technological innovations are reserved for those with the most capital. In manufacturing, when you add the scalability of digital products to this, you end up with what our guest calls “the great equalizer.”
Raj Batra is the President of digital industries for Siemens USA, where he oversees all development, engagement, marketing, sales, r&d, vertical industry, and manufacturing activity for the automation business. With over 25 years of experience, Raj is a thought leader in smart manufacturing, digitalization, and industry 4.0. In this episode, Raj talks about digitalization in manufacturing.
Join us as we discuss:
- The most potent movements happening in digitalization right now
- How the scalability factor of digitalization changes the outlook for smaller and mid-sized manufacturers
- What is happening with additive manufacturing now, and how it can change things in the future
- How digitalization and automation fit into the picture for manufacturing
Sometimes it feels like technology and humans are at odds with each other, but our guest today will tell you that the future of manufacturing will involve technology that supports human beings.
Trond Undheim is a futurist, scholar, venture partner, nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council, co-founder of Yegii, and lead ecosystem evangelist at Tulip. Trond hosts the Augmented Podcast and is the author of Augmented Lean. In this episode, Trond talks about how the best leaders in manufacturing implement industrial technology to empower their workers and achieve efficiencies.
Join us as we discuss:
- Why do the topics of automation, innovation, and technology mean so much in the manufacturing sector
- A synopsis of Trond’s new book Augmented Lean
- What is an augmented workforce, and how does it change the way people work
- Trond’s futuristic approach to manufacturing and the augmented workforce
- Why manufacturers don’t need to put a spin on the industry to make it exciting
More information on Trond’s new book Augmented Lean: https://www.augmentedlean.com/.
Technology has brought us to a place where mobile phones have better cameras than the most advanced manufacturing lines had ten years ago. Vision inspection technology has come so far that the barriers to entry in terms of investment and technological feasibility have made vision automation accessible to all manufacturers.
Austin Appel is the Co-Founder of Overview, an AI deep-learning vision platform for manufacturing. At Overview, Austin is responsible for leading product development and operations. Previously, Austin spent four years at Tesla in battery manufacturing and research and development roles. In this episode, Austin talks about the advancements in vision inspection technology.
Join us as we discuss:
- The underlying problems within manufacturing facilities
- How is technology helping to alleviate labor problems
- What’s different now vs. 20 years ago in vision technology for manufacturing
- How Overview fits into the overall picture of vision technology
For years sustainable business practices have been a plus in manufacturing organizations. But when forced to make a decision between profitability and sustainability, most leaders will choose profitability. Our guest today will tell us why the link between profitability and sustainability is closer than ever.
Lauren Dunford is the CEO and Co-Founder of Guidewheel, a company whose mission is to empower all the world's factories to reach sustainable peak performance. In 2022 Guidewheel was recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of the 100 most promising companies globally poised to significantly impact business and society. In this episode, Lauren talks about how GuideWheel's plug-and-play FactoryOps platform makes the power of the cloud accessible to any factory.
Join us as we discuss:
- Trends that Lauren is seeing across the industrial sector
- Why manufacturing leaders should care about sustainability in their operations
- How sustainability can affect market penetration resulting in revenue growth
- What does sustainability mean to private equity firms or other potential investors in manufacturers
Creating an online community can be challenging and far-fetched for many. When it’s done correctly, it can foster communication in a way that creates a feedback loop between you and your customers.
Joining today are two of Gorilla 76's own strategists, Brendon Forrest and Peyton Warren. In this episode, Brendon and Peyton explain how to apply an online community to a business setting.
Join us as we discuss:
- What an online community is
- Examples of thriving online communities in the manufacturing sector
- Why creating value must take precedence over pushing products in these settings
- What might motivate a manufacturing leader to facilitate an online community
Additional Resources:
- Industrial Marketing Live, an ongoing webinar series designed specifically for marketers in the manufacturing sector
Although the physical labor Boomers can provide in the manufacturing workforce has diminished, we cannot ignore the expertise and knowledge they bring to the table with years of experience in this industry.
Will Healy III is a founding board member of the Advance Manufacturing Industry Partnership (AMIP), whose mission is to connect manufacturers, educators, and workforce partners to evangelize the positive outcomes of manufacturing careers. Will has more than 16 years of experience in various discrete production industries, including assembly, food and beverage packaging, welding and stamping. In this episode, Will talks about how to retain Boomers in the workforce.
Join us as we discuss:
- Why we should invest in people-centric technology
- How can we keep our Boomers around and empower them
- The importance of diversity in the manufacturing workforce
- What actions Will would like to see the manufacturing sector take to shine a light on the great things happening in the space
The narrative around robotics, automation, and industry 4.0 technology are that these technologies are out of reach and require overwhelming investments and change to company infrastructure, but with advancements in technology across the manufacturing sector, this narrative is changing quickly.
Fady Saad and Mark Martin are General Partners at Cybernetix, a venture capital firm leading the way for investment into early-stage robotics, automation, and AI startups. Fady is also the Co-Founder of MassRobotics, the world's first and largest robotics & AI startup escalator. He led the multi-million dollar fundraising for the organization and architected MassRobotics' corporate partnership program and business model.
Mark has 25+ years of executive tech leadership spanning industrial, healthcare, automotive, and consumer industries. A former VP of Analog Devices Industrial Automation, Sensors, and IoT division leading a $1B+ business, Mark led multiple acquisitions, strategic investments, and scaled new business ventures.
In this episode, Fady and Mark break down all of the transformational technology changes that are affecting manufacturing right now.
Join us as we discuss:
- Some of the transformational technologies that are happening in manufacturing right now
- What it takes to get past the fear of change to make or invest in something new
- Mark and Fady's perspective on automation in manufacturing not being an option, but a necessity
- How the current economic climate will affect manufacturing in the near future
It is easy to do the same thing repeatedly, but there is no better time than now to start thinking differently as a manufacturing leader.
Nikki Gonzales is the Head of Partnerships for Quotebeam, a collaborative marketplace and workflow platform for the industrial automation industry. She helps buyers cut their sourcing time from weeks to days by building partner relationships with distributors and manufacturers in the space. Nikki is also the host of the Automation Ladies podcast, where girls talk about industrial automation. In this episode, Nikki offers her perspective on how manufacturing leaders can begin to shift their mindset.
Join us as we discuss:
- How the Automation Ladies Podcast came to be
- Why is manufacturing such a male dominated industry and what needs to happen for that to change
- What is Quotebeam, why it’s important, and what are some of the unique challenges that come with working in a startup
- Nikki’s perspective on the supply chain crisis and where it is headed
When someone says “made in America,” it has always been said with a sense of pride. It is a term that has traditionally been associated with quality and reliability. But what does “made in America” mean, and do the benefits of keeping things stateside outweigh offshoring operations?
In 2013, Brandon Acker purchased Titan Abrasive Systems after spending five years learning the ins and outs of the business. As President of Titan Abrasive, Brandon oversees the design and manufacturing of the company's complete line of blast room and blast Machine Products for industrial applications. In this episode, Brandon talks about what being "made in America" means and the benefits of sourcing components that are made in the USA.
Join us as we discuss:
- The advantages of being fully made in America as a manufacturing operation
- What's happening at the US government level to help manufacturers bring manufacturing back to the US
- What happened to the manufacturing workforce after the pandemic
- Brandon's advice for manufacturers wanting to become a made-in-America business
Innovative organizations have figured out that employee engagement highly depends on the employer-employee experience you provide inside your organization. The changes that covid has brought to the workplace over the last two years have affected the experience businesses can provide to their employees.
Julie Jeannotte is the Employee Engagement Expert & Senior Researcher at OfficeVibe. With over 15 years of experience in the HR industry, Julie is an expert at helping organizations understand the value of placing their people at the heart of their strategy. Julie's background and experience have given her the ability to know what it takes to build high-performing teams with a people-first approach.
Join us as we discuss:
- How Julie began her journey in the HR industry
- The core functions of her company’s employee engagement software, OfficeVibe
- Why employee engagement is essential in creating great work environments
Ongoing learning and professional development are necessary for anyone who wants to stay ahead of the curve. And this episode’s guest has constructed his business around this exact idea.
Tim Wilborne is the owner of TW Controls with his wife, Amber. Tim began working in a machine shop at the age of 12 and eventually found his way into industrial controls. While his wife was eight months pregnant, they started TW Controls with the primary goal of helping you become a better technician. Tim brings us great insights into how he began his journey and why it’s never too late to get started.
Join us as we discuss:
- Tim’s foray into the world of industrial controls
- The common misconception about automation
- Why ongoing learning is so critical
MJ Peters joins us two years after her first appearance on our show to talk about the evolution of workforce collaboration among engineers in manufacturing.
Currently the VP of Marketing at CoLab Software, MJ brings a mix of industrial and SaaS experience to her role. Before CoLab, MJ worked with 50+ venture-backed b2b software companies on their demand generation strategies at Refine Labs. And prior to that, she spent six years working at FTSE 100 Halma PLC, a group of mid-sized manufacturing businesses focused on medical, environmental and safety technology.
Join us as we discuss:
- How the way teams communicate and collaborate (especially engineers) has started to change
- How digital transformations are impacting modern manufacturing and engineering
- Steps that MJ has taken to uniquely position CoLab in its market
Our guest today sheds light on what future warehouses will look like as robots become more intelligent.
Michael Perry is the Vice President of Marketing at Dexterity, Inc. Michael's main objective is to help customers and partners understand how AI-enabled robots can grow their operations. Before Micahel's time with Dexterity, he was Boston Dynamics VP of business development, where he led the go-to-market campaigns for the company's first commercial products. Michael was also the general manager of North America and Director of Strategic Partnerships at DJI, where he built the Enterprise Partnership ecosystem and sales channels for the world's leading drone manufacturer.
Join us as we discuss:
- The evolution of robotic intelligence
- How robots can help solve problems in the supply chain
- A look into the warehouse of the future
In any manufacturing operation, quality matters.
Andrew Steele, the founder of FactoryQA, is an expert in quality management systems. After starting on the manufacturing floor and years of experience auditing, Andrew brings excellent insights into what quality management systems mean inside a manufacturer's operations.
Join us as we discuss:
- What does quality mean in manufacturing?
- How to know if you have a sound quality system in place?
- The future of quality management in an increasingly digital world
Over the years, I’ve talked to a lot of manufacturers as a marketing advisor. When I ask them what their ideal customer looks like, I usually get a response saying that they deal with many types of customers in many different industries.
While there’s nothing wrong with targeting different customers, channeling your marketing energy into lanes where you have the best chances of winning will assure you don’t spread yourself too thin.
Join us as we discuss:
- Making intentional decisions about which audience segments to focus on
- Identifying the buying process influencers and what matters most to them
- Frameworks for crafting a customer-centric brand narrative
Harnessing the power of technology allows you to do more with less. Mobile industrial apps enable manufacturers to get more done with fewer people by streamlining processes, improving the capture and sharing of data.
Greg Bohling, the Vice President of Sales and Customer Success at Alpha Software, brings over 15 years of experience in providing digital transformation leadership to manufacturing companies. Greg coaches organizations on how to digitize manual and paper-intensive processes.
Join us as we discuss:
- What is happening in the manufacturing industry today regarding digital vs. analog data entry.
- Where manual data entry is happening in manufacturing and how to improve using technology.
- The importance of having strong quality data in your manufacturing business.
Fran Brunelle is President of Accelerated Manufacturing Brokers, Inc., a company specializing in the sale of lower middle-market manufacturing companies. Fran was named one of the most influential women in M&A (mergers and acquisitions) in 2020. She is also the host of the Women and Manufacturing Podcast. Fran helps manufacturing business owners prepare their companies for sale and navigate the sale process to ensure positive financial results.
Join us as we discuss:
- Factors that buyers will look for when when evaluating a potential acquisition
- How to plan for your exit, even if it’s many years down the road
- How your brand image will affect your valuation
- Why right now is a better time than ever to sell
In the manufacturing sector, the person who’s writing the check often isn’t the same person whose attention and trust you need to earn. Instead, the most important buying process influencers tend to be the technical professionals who are trying to solve a problem or achieve an outcome. And in many cases, those technical professionals are engineers.
Wendy Covey, CEO, and Co-Founder of TREW Marketing, is an expert in reaching those exact people. As host of the Content Marketing, Engineered podcast, author of Content Marketing, Engineered: Build Trust and Convert Buyers with Technical Content, and publisher of an annual study, State of Marketing to Engineers, Wendy is a wealth of knowledge on the subject.
Join us as we discuss:
- The findings of TREW Marketing’s 2022 study
- How marketing to engineers can increase the chances of closing a sale
- Where engineers go to collect information to make buying decisions
It appears that we’re heading into a recession. So what does that mean for manufacturers? And how can you deploy (or redeploy) your marketing team to make sure you come out in one piece on the other end of it?
Today John McTigue, a Freelance Writer and B2B Marketing Advisor at The Customer Journey Maestro, joins us to talk about how marketing can help you recession-proof your business. John brings a wealth of insight with experience as a product marketer and account executive in enterprise software, and a digital marketing agency owner and customer journey consultant.
Join us as we discuss:
- Focusing not only on a go-to-market strategy, but also a go-to-customer strategy
- The importance of brand marketing for demand creation
- Being a problem solver around what matters most to your audience
The days of posting a job and watching candidates line up around the corner are now in the past. We’ve quickly shifted into a candidate-driven market and many employers are being affected by it, but most don’t know how to handle it. `
Today we talk to Ann Wyatt, founder and agency owner of Ann Wyatt Recruiting. An expert recruiter in the manufacturing sector, Ann shares her insights on what you can do to make your workplace more appealing to prospective candidates.
Join us as we discuss:
- The current state of recruiting in the industrial sector
- How the current unemployment rate impacts recruiting and ways around it
- Why culture fit is so important, and how a recruiter can make the perfect match between candidate and company
The way our customers collect information and look for products has changed, and in order to keep up with demand, manufacturers have to change the way that they approach sales and marketing.
Today’s episode is very unique. This is a conversation that was originally recorded on Chris Grainger’s podcast: EECO Ask’s Why.
Chris Grainger joins us from EECO, an industrial automation and power solutions company. Chris has been running the EECO Ask’s Why podcast for over 2 years and offers valuable insights on manufacturing as well as starting your own B2B podcast. Chris executed a fantastic interview with me on the go-to-market transformation in manufacturing.
Join us as we discuss:
- How sales and marketing have changed in manufacturing
- How VOC plays an important role in GTM strategy and direction
- How to clearly define your audience and figure out what matters to them
Marty Groover, Partner and CTO at C5MI, spent over two decades as a Surface Warfare Officer in the US Navy. He didn’t know it at the time, but this time in the Navy helped him see into the future – of manufacturing.
Marty offers insight into the unmatched benefits of using live data to enhance your processes, product and bottom line, and how pairing people processes with technology will position you to lead the fourth industrial revolution.
Join us as we discuss:
- What the manufacturing sector can learn from the retail industry
- How to build operating systems that are flexible and future-proof
- Why leading with technology has its limitations
People often worry that technology and automation will replace human workers.
But what if the most powerful path forward is empowering workers with technology for better effectiveness and efficiency, instead of replacing them?
In this episode, Dr. Prasad Akella, the Founder and CEO of Drishti, shares his view on the future of manufacturing. A future where video data not only improves the quality of a product, but also empowers workers on the plant floor and strengthens employee retention.
Join us as we discuss:
- How technology empowers humans to be more effective
- What using data can do for your productivity
- Why using technology leads to better employee retention
Are trade shows worth it? That seems to be a divisive question these days. But here's the truth: Like with many forms of marketing or sales activities, it comes down to execution.
Today’s guest, Jake Hall, Keynote Speaker and Content Creator of The Manufacturing Millennial, details how to connect the physical world of a trade show with the digital world that exists before, during and after that event.
Join us as we discuss:
- How to create value and content from trade shows
- How building relationships with other companies strengthens your marketing
- The importance of developing personal brands
Our workforce has changed drastically over the decades. The highly desirable and stable manufacturing industry of the past has struggled to retain workers in our modern times. But there is a way to revitalize the manufacturing industry in the US to keep up with the manufacturing powerhouses around the world.
Today’s guest, Jason Azevedo, Chief Strategy Officer at MRCA, shares his views on the importance of investing in your workforce, how automation keeps workers employed, and what manufacturing companies can do to build stronger communities.
Join us as we discuss:
- What revitalizing manufacturing looks like today
- Why employee health and wellness is most important
- How automation and robotics benefit the worker
- How to empower smaller communities through manufacturing
- How to make your company desirable to buyers
On this milestone 100th episode, the hosting tables are turned. Joe Sullivan is interviewed by Logan Lyles of Sweet Fish Media about his learnings from 100 consecutive weeks of podcasting and six ways it’s impacted his business.
Joe Sullivan, Founder of Gorilla76, opens up about why he originally wanted to start a podcast and how he made the transition from creating mostly written content to fueling an entire content program. Joe reflects on the six most impactful outcomes, and shares his advice for overcoming imposter syndrome, getting started, and building meaningful business relationships.
Join us as we discuss:
- How to create and repurpose content with consistency
- The meaningful path toward thought leadership
- How to thoughtfully humanize your brand
- How to measure the impact of your podcast
The manufacturing industry has been slow to adopt new technology. But with the continued improvements in technology, updating your systems has become more cost effective, faster to implement, and more flexible for your manufacturing needs.
Today’s guest, Barry Johnson, President of Digital Manufacturing at Symphony Industrial AI, talks about how to take advantage of digitization, AI, and emerging technologies to increase productivity.
Join us as we discuss:
- What MES is and the purpose it serves in manufacturing
- How digitization drives continuous improvement
- How AI is changing the future of manufacturing
Are you making the right decisions to optimize productivity?
Most organizations don’t. Most get distracted by efficiency and ultimately fail to meet their goals.
Today’s guest, Pavel Kuviarzin, Business Growth Expert at Future State Engineering, talks about the problem solving steps to make a true impact on productivity, profitability, and the success of your business.
Join us as we discuss:
- The difference between “busy” and productive
- When to utilize the resources you have vs. when to invest
- How cause and effect thinking will make a true impact
- What you can do to avoid supply chain constraints
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Internal marketing employee or marketing agency? Entry level hire or seasoned marketer? Broad range of skill sets or deep specialist in a few core skills?
Today’s guest, Mary Keough, Senior Marketing Strategist, Gorilla76, breaks down the questions that any manufacturing leader will need to answer for themselves before building a marketing team. Or even before making that first marketing hire.
Join us as we discuss:
- When to hire an internal marketer versus an agency
- Budgets for staffing a marketing role
- What skills sets to prioritize
- The difference between the roles of marketing and sales
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Today’s guest, Tony Lopez, Vice President, Manufacturing & Logistics Services, Pride Industries, provides insight about delivering business excellence with a positive social impact.
Join us as we discuss:
- The hiring and employment hurdles that face the disabled population
- How education bridges the gap between employers and the disabled workforce
- What the benefits are to hiring disabled workers
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
It's never been more costly to watch your people walk out the door.
Today’s guest is Dan Johnston, Co-Founder and CEO, WorkStep
WorkStep is a software platform that empowers companies to find and keep frontline employees for the long run. Dan has seen first hand how workforce retention can make or break a company and I’m thrilled to have him on the show.
Join us as we discuss:
- How supply chain disruption and labor shortages are connected
- Why the manufacturing labor force looks different today than it did a decade ago
- The opportunity cost associated with turnover in workforce populations
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
What are the best manufacturing executives doing to combat labor shortages and supply chain issues and thrive in this industry?
Today’s guest is Dan Burgos, President and CEO, Alphanova Consulting, knows the answer.
Dan and his team have over 15 years of experience helping manufacturers in various industries, including aerospace injection molding, construction projects, chemicals, fiberglass, furniture, electronics, consumer goods, oil and gas, and medical devices, among others.
Dan's approach is to partner with leaders to uncover and eliminate the problems hindering business performance, while coaching leaders to create a culture of collaboration.
Join us as we discuss:
- Quantifiable metrics that affect business performance
- Leadership when facing labor and supply chain issues
- Improving on-time delivery and reducing scrap
Take Alphanova's Business Self Assessment to receive recommendations for your manufacturing operation here: https://alphanovaconsulting.com/self-assessment-form-manufacturing/
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
What if your engineering bonuses were tied to blog post writing?
Today’s guest, Chris Grainger, Podcast Host and Engineering and Services Manager, Electrical Equipment Company (EECO) believes that content marketing is so important he gives bonuses based on how many blog posts and how- to videos each employee produces. Chris is passionate about content marketing because he knows that it works.
Join us as we discuss:
How to get your employees involved in content marketing
The benefits of podcasting as a medium in the manufacturing sector
The long game of content marketing and the snowball effect
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
When most people hear “influencer,” it might conjure up images of YouTube icons and Reality TV stars…
Influencers don’t matter in manufacturing, right?
Well, today’s guest, Eddie Saunders, General of Demand Generation at Flex Machine Tools, thinks that statement couldn’t be any more wrong. He joins the show to share the secrets to shoring up your influencer strategies
Join us as we discuss:
- Why influencers still matter in manufacturing
- How to pick an influencer to work with
- Why there is power in empathy and vulnerability
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
How do you convince both reps and execs in manufacturing that the CRM is not a deterrent but a path to next-level improvement?
In this episode, I talked about how to overcome challenges to adopting a CRM with these three standout guests:
- Ron Pretzie, Sr. Enterprise Account Executive at Prolifiq
- Andy Keehn, Director, Demand Generation at Prolifiq
- Dave Sheer, Retired VP/CEO at The Steel Supply Company
Join us as we discuss:
- What a great CRM can really do for a business
- Why reps are reluctant and how to persuade them
- Pitching a CRM to the C-Suite
- Practical tips for getting started
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Underlying supply chain problems, only exacerbated by pandemic disruption, have plagued every industry the past few years.
But our guest today thinks we may be seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel.
And now is the perfect time to shore up weaknesses exposed by the demand spike.
Jim Pratt is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Forsyth Advisors, and an expert at solving sourcing problems and creating operational strategies that work.
Join us as we discuss:
- Lingering supply chain challenges
- Finding opportunities for savings, automation, and streamlining
- Networking to find alternate sourcing
- The new normal
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Additive manufacturing technologies are rapidly disrupting the old practices.
The adoption rate is increasing, leading to exciting advancements in performance, GTM, and repair applications.
Melanie Lang is the Co-Founder and CEO of FormAlloy and the Women in 3D Printing San Diego Ambassador, and she serves on the Executive Committee of America Makes.
Join us as we discuss:
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The flexible tech behind directed energy deposition
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The right and wrong time for additive manufacturing
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Determining the right toolbox for your needs
-
How 3D printing is the fourth transportation modality
-
Her advice for manufacturing leaders
Check out these resources mentioned during the episode:
- Lou Rassey and Fast Radius
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Welcome to a new era of robotics!
Robots of the past were defined by their tasks. They went through pre-planned motions and they weren’t able to adapt to changes in their environment.
Today’s next-gen robots, however, are hyper-intelligent, able to differentiate between people and objects, and adjust to changes in real time.
Nan Li, Managing Director at Obvious Ventures, has spent a lot of his career watching the evolution of robotics, and in this episode, he explains what this new era of robots means for the manufacturing industry.
Join us as we discuss:
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The differences between the robots of yesterday and the robots of today
-
What autonomous vehicles have to do with advances in robotics
-
How robot systems are becoming more financially accessible
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
The biggest obstacle to renewables is a lack of knowledge on the subject.
But once everyone knows the money they can save while helping the environment…
We’ll be living in an all electric-society.
Today’s guest, Jack Nehlig, President at Phoenix Contact USA, joins the show to discuss these benefits and what the all-electric society means for manufacturing.
Join us as we discuss:
-
What people need to know about renewables
-
The trends in autonomous vehicles
-
How anyone can take advantage of the latest advancements in robotics
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
It's never been more costly to watch your people walk out the door.
Today’s guest is Dan Johnston, Co-Founder and CEO, WorkStep
WorkStep is a software platform that empowers companies to find and keep frontline employees for the long run. Dan has seen first hand how workforce retention can make or break a company and I’m thrilled to have him on the show.
Join us as we discuss:
- How supply chain disruption and labor shortages are connected
- Why the manufacturing labor force looks different today than it did a decade ago
- The opportunity cost associated with turnover in workforce populations
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Too often, we’re having the wrong conversation about automation ROI.
In a time when simply finding labor is the biggest challenge many manufacturers face, the ROI conversation around automation is now about much more than replacing labor costs.
So says today’s guest, Scot Lindemann, CEO at Mission Design & Automation, who joins the show to explain how to make the conversation around automation a more fruitful one for everybody.
Join us as we discuss:
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The unseen returns of automation
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Why automation is a journey of continuous improvement, not a destination
-
Scot’s take on labor on the current state of labor in manufacturing
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
It’s no secret why so many companies have sent their manufacturing overseas: It’s to save money.
But are you really saving when the hassle costs you your ability to innovate quickly?
Today’s guest, Martin DeBono, President at GAF Energy, joins the show to share his insights on how colocating R&D domestically can ultimately save you by helping you get innovative products to market faster than your competitors.
Join us as we discuss:
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The difficulties with overseas manufacturing
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Why reshoring (and specifically, colocating R&D domestically) can help address both the supply chain challenges and the labor shortage
-
How Martin is putting his advice into practice
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Manufacturers aren’t typically marketing-driven companies.
But they should be.
Because their existing customer bases and referrals aren’t enough to cut it anymore.
In this solo episode, I’ll be covering 8 guiding principles for marketing manufacturing in 2022
I’ll be covering:
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The power shift from seller to buyer
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Understanding who makes up the buying committee
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Creating value to gain attention and trust
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Turning the knowledge of your industry experts into marketing assets
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Capturing demand where it already exists
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Creating demand in the rest of your audience
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Communicating regularly with your sales teams
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Measuring results
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Tell me a platform where you can post 15 times and have 40,000 followers.
Today’s guest throws out a TikTok in five minutes before breakfast every morning — and has incontrovertible proof that it absolutely drove 100% of the preorders for a new product.
In this episode, I interview Todd Clouser , Senior Brand Marketing Manager at Refine Labs, about the power of TikTok marketing in the trades.
Join us as we discuss:
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The potential for TikTok videos to educate students and new tradespeople
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Stunning stats and anecdotes of Todd’s TikTok success
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How to cultivate relationships with TikTok influencers
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Advice for getting started on TikTok
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
When it comes to improving your company's ethics and compliance…
Any changes you make will only be as good as the culture supporting them.
And today’s guest, Emily Miner, Senior Advisor in LRN ’s Ethics & Compliance Advisory Practice, joins the show to share the best ways to cultivate that culture.
We discuss:
- The evolution of E&C
- Why ethics and compliance and organizational culture are inextricably linked
- The importance of understanding the differences in the experience of culture for various individuals across your company
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Companies that go international are 20% more profitable on average.
For most manufacturers, the only thing stopping them from reaping the rewards of going global is the fear of the unknown.
But with a little guidance, you can make sure your international ambitions don’t get lost in translation.
And there is no better guide than today’s guest, Wendy Pease, Owner of Rapport International, who joins the show to share her tips for going global.
Join us as we discuss:
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How to decide where to do business internationally
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The steps to break into a market in another region
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The value of professional translation — domestically and abroad
Be sure to check out these important resources:
-
Exporting readiness checklist
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Wendy’s Linktree, which features all her important links, including a few free chapters of the books and all her socials.
-
Global Marketing Show podcast
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Manufacturing Case Study
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Consumers adopt technology faster and adapt their behavior more readily than businesses do. How can we bring those positive consumer traits into manufacturing?
In this episode, I interview Todd Leebow, President/CEO at Majestic Steel USA, about consumerizing the industrial supply chain.
Join us as we discuss:
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Traits of consumers that manufacturing should adopt
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Why convention is the antithesis of innovation
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What changes when we recognize that manufacturing is technology
-
Supply chain opportunities exposed by COVID
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Content marketing is key in manufacturing, but video content is king.
Let’s be honest, not everyone will sit down to read in-depth articles on a topic. They just don’t have the time.
But a short video? Everyone has time for that.
Jeff Long, Founder of True Focus Media, joins me to talk about why video content is an ideal way to showcase your expertise, demonstrate your products, increase leads and sales, and boost your SEO.
In this episode, we discuss:
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Why teaching is an underutilized marketing and sales strategy
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A 3-step process for creating “video value bombs”
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When to use professional videography and when to do it yourself
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What tools to use and other pro tips
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Founded in 1985, the Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the exchange of knowledge and advancement through tech.
With over four thousand members across the globe, it’s a uniquely powerful force for the evolution of manufacturing.
Our guests today are manufacturing experts, laser-focused on creating a courageous culture and fierce advocates for transparency:
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Marc Braun: Executive Coach at MDB, Chairman for the AME, former President of Cambridge Air Solutions, author, and volunteer.
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Jonathan Jones: Consortium Facilitator at AME, CEO Peer Advisory Board Leader, executive coach, author, and community leader.
In this episode, we’ll dive into:
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Building relationships between companies and sharing best practices
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How transparency encourages employee pride and engagement
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Creating the right culture to develop leaders
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Growth is not a riskless adventure
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Accelerating the speed of innovation
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Anyone in the industrial sector knows that we need to get the next generation excited about manufacturing. But what about the generation after that?
How about starting with a story?
That’s how Megan Preston Meyer, Writer/Publisher at Meyer Publishing, is doing it with her Supply Jane supply chain children’s stories.
In this episode, we discuss:
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Why you need more than data — you need stories
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How Supply Jane and FIFO are teaching the supply chain
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Why business doesn’t have to be boring (even in B2
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Manufacturing is the backbone of the modern world…
But the manufacturing sector has been lagging severely in the marketing department for a long time.
The good news?
This only creates opportunity for you to get out ahead of your competitors.
Today, I’m joined by Allison DeFord, Founder and Trailblazer at FELT Marketing for Manufacturers, for a discussion of 5 key concepts every manufacturer needs to understand about their marketing — from common missteps to untapped opportunities.
We cover:
- Humanizing your brand
- Finding your unique selling point (or, rather, your “unfair advantage”)
- Aligning your marketing strategy with execution
- Meeting your customer where they are in the buy cycle
- Measuring indicators that actually matter
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
One of the biggest challenges in the industry today?
Upskilling the country’s workforce for careers in advanced manufacturing.
Training centers and technical schools need to step in to fill the skills gap, but many of them are still training for the jobs of yesterday.
It’s time to modernize workforce education.
Kathy Walker, Founder & CEO of eKentucky Advanced Manufacturing Institute (eKAMI), joins the show to discuss eKAMI’s innovative and unconventional training program, which is upskilling eastern Kentucky’s workforce after years of declining employment in the mining industry.
In this episode, we discuss:
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eKAMI’s role in workforce development and training
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Why we need to modernize workforce education
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Potential career paths for eKAMI graduates
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Why soft skills are equally important
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
There’s no shortage of orders for most manufacturers out there —
The problem is finding the talent to help fill them.
How do we finally close the manufacturing skill gap?
Mike Nager, Founding Member of the Solution Center within Festo Didactic, which helps students learn hands-on manufacturing skills through its innovative Learning Factory, believes it all starts with education — and manufacturers need to do a better job educating.
In this episode, we discuss:
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The root of the skills gap
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The 3 paths to a career in manufacturing
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How Festo Didactic is helping to make more students aware of the what manufacturing can offer
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
At the outset of the pandemic, trade shows were one of the many facets of business imperiled by the crisis.
But every crisis presents an opportunity for innovation.
And for today’s guests, Clive White, CEO, and Zach Person, General Manager, at Ensitech, a company that heavily relies on trade shows for garnering business, pushing past the initial pandemic panic ultimately paid off — fast forward to today, and they’ve revolutionized the trade show booth.
They join me to discuss:
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Their digital-analog hybrid trade show booth
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How they stayed well-prepared for the inevitable technological hurdles they knew they’d face
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How their innovative approach can be applied to other facets of business
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
There are a couple of super easy ways to totally flop at a trade show:
Not having a live demo. Not having enough personnel. Not prioritizing relationships. Not being selective with products. Not having strategic marketing on the other 363 days of the year. Not understanding the economics of the entire endeavor.
Okay... more than just a couple.
In this episode, I interview Gorilla76’s Matthew Sciannella, Thinker & Strategy Director, and Jon Franko, Thinker & Founder, about all things trade shows.
In this episode, we discuss:
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The future of trade shows in light of the recent past
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What makes a successful booth
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Why marketers should help their customers network with each other
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Some trade show math about whether it’s worth it
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Smaller footprints, bigger impact
Check out these resources we mentioned:
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Matthew’s article, “The economics of your trade show are broken. Here’s the fix.”
-
The Industrial Market News Show
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
What manufacturers should do is stop moaning about the lack of skilled talent and start partnering with grade schools (yes, as young as eighth grade) to show young people, especially young women, how amazing it is to build a career in manufacturing and engineering.
But how?
In this episode, I’m speaking with Meaghan Ziemba, Owner, Copywriter, and Copyeditor at Z-Ink Solutions and Host at Mavens of Manufacturing, about her calling to create an educational network to inspire youth to pursue manufacturing.
In this episode, we discuss:
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Meaghan’s career journey into marketing for manufacturers
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Strategies for attracting youth to manufacturing and engineering
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Creating a work culture to support women and parents
Check out these resources we mentioned:
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Meaghan’s podcast
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Meet the Makers tour
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National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)
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Technology & Manufacturing Association (TMA)
...
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
You probably don’t need another reminder that the pandemic changed the world — when it comes to manufacturing, the deepening labor shortage and increased supply chain difficulties are obvious.
And there are two ways you can think about these issues:
You can either hope that they’re temporary and wait for them to get better — or you can face the world as it currently is and do something about it.
Today, I’m speaking with Rob Tracy , Consultant at Rob Tracy Consulting and author of How to Fix a Factory, and for him, the c hoice is easy — let’s do something about it.
In this episode, we discuss:
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The root of the supply chain and labor issues
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4 ways to proactively do something to address them
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Why now is a good time to rethink your organization’s operating system
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Traditionally, marketing teams in manufacturing have depended on CRM supply data to get a picture of their customers.
However, there’s an untapped well of customer insights that many overlook: IoT data from manufacturing facilities.
Using this data, marketers can target specific campaigns to specific customer bases and create messaging that truly resonates with customers.
In this episode, I sit down with Jan Pingel , Product Leader of Digital Solutions at Ingersoll Rand , to talk about how IoT is opening up new opportunities to get a deeper view of customers and learn valuable things you don’t normally learn about them.
Join us as we discuss:
-Industry 4.0 Club
-Using IoT data in marketing
-Data privacy and data security concerns
Resources we mentioned during the podcast:
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Industry 4.0 Club
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SME.org
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Arcweb.com
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Isa.org
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IEEE.org
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
If you think ecommerce isn’t for you, you’re wrong.
You need to leverage ecommerce immediately (arguably with pricing, too) to increase your visibility and make it easy for your ideal buyer to make a buying decision on a Friday at midnight online.
In this episode, I interview Curt Anderson , eCommerce Evangelist for Manufacturers at Ecommerce MGMT , about why ecommerce matters so much for manufacturers — today more than ever before.
Join us as we discuss:
-Why manufacturers should quit being “the best kept secret”
-Curt’s 3-prong approach to ecommerce
-SEO and keyword strategies for digital immigrants
-An opinionated view of pricing
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Only a tiny fraction of your total addressable market is ready to buy right today.
Does that mean you ignore everyone else?
Of course not. You need to get their attention, gain their trust and when it’s time to buy, they’ll turn to you…
But only if you make it easy.
There’s no guest today, just me, Joe Sullivan, your dutiful host and Thinker & Founder at Gorilla 76, and in this episode, I’ll be going over the 8 ways you can make it easier for your buyers to buy.
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
There is no reason manufacturing needs to be dominated by men — even if it, historically, always was.
Yet today, as other sectors become more representative, one look around most manufacturing sites and you’ll notice the lack of women immediately.
Why are we lagging behind? And more importantly, what can we do about it?
My guest today, Lesley Ledwell Dukelow , Company President at Ledwell, is a 4th-generation female leader of a family-owned manufacturing business and she has some ideas about how we can tackle the gender gap in manufacturing.
In this episode, we discuss:
-Supply chain issues in the wake of COVID
-Why the labor shortage demands we hire from more underrepresented groups, including women
-Why women are less represented in manufacturing and what we can do about it
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
If you’ve ever been curious how well management takes care of its employees at any given organization, there is one really simple way to find out:
Check out the employee bathroom.
That may seem funny, but… think about it — if management can’t take care of the bathrooms, how well can they really be taking care of its employees?
That simple test is wisdom today’s guest, Mark Whitten , President & CEO at Spartanburg Steel Products , has learned over years of successful leadership in which he has lived by a maxim that seems to have fallen by the wayside: Lead by example.
In this episode, we discuss:
-Why leaders should work alongside their employees (and keep the bathrooms clean)
-How to achieve 2.0 transformation as a leader
-How leaders in manufacturing should respond to Gen Z’s entrance into the workforce
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
You hear people talk a lot about a labor shortage in manufacturing and automation and robotics are a great way to tackle it.
Not just to replace jobs — but to find more workers.
If only we could get over manufacturing’s technology hesitancy problem.
Today’s guest, Erik Nieves, Founder at PlusOne Robotics, can help you do just that. That’s because, in his years of experience in robotics, he’s seen a solution to every excuse for why automation won’t work.
In this episode, we discuss:
-The problem of technology hesitancy (and how it hurts smaller manufacturers more)
-How to build a strategy around automation
-Whether there really is a labor shortage and why, if there is, robots can help
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Without our dealers and distributors, who would sell our products? Without us, what would they sell?
We need each other.
Why then is the relationship so often strained?
Today’s guest, Tom Paul, Founder & CEO at BAM!, says it doesn’t have to be. All it takes is a little work from both parties… and maybe reading at least one 25-year-old article.
In this episode, we discuss:
-Why the manufacturer-dealer relationship is so often fractured (and 3 steps to fixing it)
-The solution BAM! has created that helps address these very issues
-Why you shouldn’t pick your SaaS solutions based on Lord of the Rings
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify..
Tom Paul can be found on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-paul/
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
If your content strategy starts with whether there’s keyword search volume around your SEO terms, you’re starting at step five.
Here’s step one: conduct customer interviews to learn what they value and prioritize.
In this episode, I interview Gorilla 76’s own Grace Wright and Aaron Weekes, both Thinker and Strategist, about creating winning content that starts with customers, not keywords.
In this episode we discuss:
-Making your customer’s success the object of your content
-Getting the right messages to the right people
-Providing one of these three qualities: best, first, or different
-Starting your content strategy with the right questions (lots and lots of them)
-Forecasting the future of SEO tactics
Grace Wright can be reached at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-wright-76940312a/
Aaron Weekes can be reached at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronmichaelweekes/
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Show in your favorite podcast player.
Data collection, automation, robotics — these are things reserved for the budgets of the biggest companies out there, right?
Wrong. Anyone can do it with one simple trick:
Just get started.
That’s the simple advice shared by our latest guest, Aaron Prather, R&D Evangelist for FedEx Express, who is deeply passionate about both topics — and if you don’t believe me, just check out his LinkedIn.
In this episode, we discuss:
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The benefits of data collection, automation and robotics for your business
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Why you don’t need to fear robots stealing your jobs
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Why success in either involves getting started and employee input
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
You’ve probably heard about the infamous skills gap in manufacturing — a problem only made worse by the pandemic.
It has the potential to affect our lives in profound ways; even our national security is at stake.
And if we expect to solve it, we need to get creative — like, say, starting a nationally-televised Skills Draft?
That’s one of the creative solutions today’s guest, Dr. Jason Scales, Business Manager, Education at Lincoln Electric, proposes to avoid the coming skills depression.
In this episode, we discuss:
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Why COVID widened the skills gap
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What a Skills Draft is and why it could change the national culture around high-skilled employment
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What manufacturers should be doing to help today’s youth get excited for —and see a viable future in — the industry
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
At first, his entry into the manufacturing industry was out of a need for survival.
But it quickly grew into a passion to encourage those who want to become a better version of themselves to embrace the hope, pride, and success to be found in manufacturing.
In this episode, I interview Tony Gunn, General Manager at MTDCNC Global and Founder and CEO at Your Tea of Life, about his amazing career trajectory from being kicked out of three colleges to entrepreneurship.
In this episode we discuss:
- How manufacturing equips us to create our own futures
- Tony’s discovery of his passion for learning and creating
- Why manufacturing is such a welcoming and uplifting career
- 3 stories about struggle, success, and advocacy
Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- Tony’s podcast is The Gunn Show
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
The manufacturing sector is desperate for more diversity in gender, generation, race, ability, and other underrepresented populations.
Quite frankly, the situation is dire. Your business won’t survive unless you create a more diverse and inclusive culture, both organization- and industry-wide.
In this episode, I interview Andrew Crowe, Founder of the Elevate Institute of Advanced Manufacturing and Justin Sherman, Founder at Equity Machine Works SPC, about attracting young, diverse talent in manufacturing.
Here’s what Drew, Justin, and I talked about:
- The extreme numbers that show the need for diversity in manufacturing
- The strong connection between culture and diversity
- Strategies to attract young folks to a manufacturing career
- What leaders of diverse teams should and shouldn’t do
- First steps in how to grow a more diverse team
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Video messaging is not just a new technology to learn, it's a way to connect with human beings that aligns better with how people prefer to communicate these days.
It allows you to lead with your very best asset — yourself.
In situations where face-to-face sales meetings are not always possible, recording a video allows others to take in your message when it’s convenient for them, builds a feeling of psychological proximity, and offers more personalized interaction than a wall of text.
On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, we connect with Ethan Beute, Chief Evangelist at BombBomb, author, and host of The Customer Experience Podcast, and discuss all the ways in which using video messaging in your business can increase trust, make complex issues more digestible, and boost customer relations with humanization.
Here's a sneak peek:
- Getting into the routine of utilizing video messaging helps you develop a healthy habit of gratitude.
- A video message is the modern day handwritten note when used as a thank you or encouragement message.
- The Video Adoption Guide is the fastest way for you and your team to get going (and keep going!) with personal video messages.
- Overcoming the initial technology barrier can be challenging, so begin with simple, heartfelt messages like thank you, congratulations, and job well done.
OPTIONAL: Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- Rehumanize Your Business: How Personal Videos Accelerate Sales and Improve Customer Experience, but Ehtan Beute and Stephen Pacinelli
- Joe Sullivan, Gorilla 76 Thinker & Founder
You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to the The Manufacturing Executive Podcast on Apple Podcasts, on our website, or on Spotify.
You know you need clearer insight into your customer to build better products or deliver more valuable services. One way to get that insight is by listening to your sales and customer service teams. What are they hearing firsthand?
But there's another source of insight that you might not have thought about — search data. What can you learn from the words your prospects and customers type into Google or YouTube before they decide what to buy?
In this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, Derek Mabie, former president and partner at Evolve Digital Labs, talks about how real human beings search for and buy products online.
Here's what Derek and I discussed:
- What you can learn from the search confessional
- Tools and tactics you can use to process search information
- How to marry qualitative and quantitative data to get fresh insights
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Manufacturing got left behind as the software industry progressed rapidly over the years. It’s time to catch up, and innovators like Adam Keating make it possible.
As the Co-Founder & CEO at CoLab Software, Adam embraces the engineering approach of problem-solving. His team enables 2D and 3D CAD collaboration which has changed the game for manufacturing businesses, especially in the last 18 months.
What we talked about:
- Adam’s Hyperloop adventures and the emergence of CoLab Software
- Manufacturing is catching up on the 20 year lead held by the software industry
- Examples of businesses that are thriving since embracing collaborative manufacturing technology
- Digitization strategy for the sake of it vs. the intent to solve tangible problems
Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- Adam’s LinkedIn profile
- Adam’s Twitter profile
- CoLab Software’s website
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Would you rather focus on people or profitability in your business?
You can’t have it all.
But maybe you can…
Maybe people and profitability go hand in hand, and each makes the other stronger.
In this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, I talk with John Kramer, Chairman & CEO at Cambridge Air Solutions, and Marc Braun, President at Cambridge Air Solutions, about what it means to restore glory and dignity to manufacturing through both culture and business practices.
We also talked about:
- How to build a culture that celebrates people.
- How profitability fits in with a people-first culture
- How to adapt to crises in a way that cares for people and drives business forward.
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
There’s this perception that manufacturing jobs are dirty and dangerous.
But in the modern era of manufacturing, that perception is changing as jobs are becoming more and more rooted in technology.
In this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, I talk with Dr. John Mitchell, President & CEO at IPC, about the move from “dirty and dangerous” manufacturing to high-tech manufacturing.
We also talked about:
- How IPC is using education to transform the negative manufacturing perception.
- How manufacturers can realize the benefits of AI.
- What manufacturers need to be thinking about when it comes to scaling.
- What's going on with semiconductors right now.
Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- About IPC
- IPC EDGE Training
Subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Remember fax machines? They were going to revolutionize the way we did business. Then came dial-up modems and email. Now, our customer gives us a CAD file. We can create a toolpath in a snap.
Like technology, organizational culture has completed several revolutions in a single lifetime. The speed of those revolutions is increasing, and manufacturing transforms every five years.
What's coming next?
In this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, Jim Carr, President at CARR Machine & Tool, Inc., talks about how manufacturing is evolving in both culture and technology.
Here's what Jim and I discussed:
- Jim's family history in the manufacturing space
- The effects of culture and technology changes on manufacturers
- How to get everybody in your company working toward the same goals
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
If the Wright Brothers lived in the 21st century, they might be the Lonsberry boys. Andy Lonsberry earned his Ph.D. by researching machine learning and artificial intelligence for bipedal walking robots. His brother focused on biologically spiking recurrent neural networks.
Together, they dived deep into allowing nonlinear systems to learn how to improve themselves. Then these two Ohio boys and their autonomous robot traveled to the west coast in search of funding. The trio came home with $15 million.
In this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, Andy Lonsberry, Founder and CEO at Path Robotics, an AI robotics software company, talks about how the midwest houses the future of robotics.
Here's what Andy and I discussed:
- How Path Robotics got its start
- Uncovering automation talent in the midwest
- How machine learning and AI are starting to change the manufacturing game
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
If we want to balance America's $800 billion trade deficit, we need to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. — 5 million manufacturing jobs to be exact.
The ancillary benefits would be enormous. We'd reduce CO2 emissions 40-50%, slash the budget deficit, improve unemployment, and bolster national defense.
What's stopping us?
In this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, Harry Moser, Founder of the Reshoring Initiative, talks about his mission to bring 5 million manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.
Here's what Harry and I discussed:
- Why the U.S. needs its manufacturing jobs back
- What Harry's Total Cost of Ownership calculator can tell executives about the benefits of reshoring
- How reshoring can help eliminate the trade deficit
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Baby Boomers are retiring. Manufacturing is booming in 2021. And emerging generations aren't considering careers in the field.
There just aren't enough people to do the jobs that need to be done.
How will manufacturers fill the skills gap Boomers are leaving behind them?
In today's episode, I talk with Matt Guse, President at MRS Machining Company, about an actual manufacturing operation happening within the walls of a Wisconsin high school.
Here's what Matt and I discussed:
- How Matt launched, funded, and supported his competition
- The benefits of inserting a manufacturing operation into a high school
- Why interest in manufacturing has declined among young people and how to change that trajectory
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
How do you define marketing success?
Many manufacturing organizations are sales-centric. They may not even support a marketing department beyond a content team. Consequently, they don't measure marketing success.
But if you've taken things a step further, you've probably discovered how convoluted a measurement system can be.
In today's episode, I, Joe Sullivan, share my thoughts about how to straighten out your marketing success measurement system.
I dive into topics such as:
Defining your terms
Which KPIs matter most
The danger of growing near-sighted with your marketing
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
A lot of companies are started by people who are experts in their craft, but are not great at building companies.
But how do you learn to let go of the day-to-day? How do you, as a founder, learn to focus on developing repeatable and scalable business processes in order to grow and scale your business successfully?
On this episode of the Manufacturing Executive, I sit down with Paul Van Metre. Paul is the Co-Founder of ProShop ERP, and our conversation on this episode centered all around:
- Why focusing on repeatable and scalable processes is the ONLY thing that’s going to grow your business
- Why you should be working ON the business, not IN the business
- The process of evolving from a machine shop into a software business
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Are you prepared to exit your company?
Many business owners haven't thought about transitioning from their position of leadership. But it's inevitable that you'll hand over the keys to your business one day.
When that day comes, will you know what your options are?
In today's episode, I talk with Chris Redmond, Senior Vice President at Capital For Business, about transitioning ownership or leadership of an industrial enterprise.
Here's what Chris and I discussed:
- Three different approaches to private equity investment
- How to differentiate your company for prospective buyers
- Where owners seeking outside investment should start
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Mass production alone is not enough. We all want customized products.
Twenty years ago, it was easy. Educate your workers about your single unique product. In a world driven to customization, however, no worker can learn 400 different products. No human worker, that is.
But a digital worker might. Could robotic camera vision streams be the solution?
In today's episode, I talk about building custom machine vision and robotics solutions with Jonathan Berte, Founder at Robovision.ai.
Here's what Jonathan and I discussed:
- His personal journey into the vision component of robotics
- How AI's vision is advancing right now
- The most important applications of AI in the manufacturing process
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
If you want to build thought leadership around a product category, you need to create a community. The longer your sales cycle and the more complex your product, the more critical your community.
But how do you build a community around your product and not around yourself?
In today's episode, I talk about the keys to success on social media with Sam Gupta, Host, Community Builder, and Founder at WBSRocks.
Here's what Sam and I discussed
-
What an online community is
-
Different platforms for building community online
-
Focusing on your audience's problems – not your product
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
15 years ago, Mike Weinberg had a bold perspective on sales which was to stick with the fundamentals and don’t fall for the ‘shiny new toys.’
His bold perspective paid off as he now consults some of the largest sales teams across the globe on fundamentals that have stood the test of time.
On today's episode, I talk about sales strategy with Mike Weinberg, Consultant, Speaker and Author of three Amazon #1 Bestsellers.’
Here's what we discussed:
- Sales discovery, learning, strategy and implementation for customers
- Answering ‘What do the people you're trying to reach care about?’
- Timeless principles in sales that remain true and new-age fundamentals
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Robots have been around since Mamie Eisenhower presided over the White House.
But recent advancements in robotics have helped bring automated workers out of big automotive companies and into mainstream manufacturing.
Are the robots coming for your team's jobs? How should manufacturers determine whether or not to add a robot?
In this episode, Ryan Lillibridge, director of business development at Mission Design & Automation, discusses the impact of robotics in the manufacturing sector.
Here's what Ryan and I talked about:
- The biggest changes happening in robotics
- How to evaluate when adding a robot makes sense
- Are robots an opportunity or a threat?
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Don't think. Just make parts.
Ever had a manager tell you that when you offered a suggestion for process improvement?
Leaders' words carry weight and affect people. They can affect how you think about your employer and even change your career forever.
In today's episode, Joe Molesky, vice president of operations at MultiSource Manufacturing LLC, discusses why people feel the way they do about your company and the simple keys to changing it.
Here's what Joe and I talked about:
- Why canned lean tools don't work
- Listening to your customers and to your team
- What people-first leadership really means
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
If you have a defined sales process, you're ahead of 50% of the manufacturing companies out there. But without one, you can't measure efficacy or deliver maximum value to your customers. Your organization will suffer.
Why is it so hard for manufacturers to draft a sales playbook? And what's the right solution to this problem?
In today's episode, I discuss creating a sales playbook for manufacturers with Kevin Roach, President at Harpak-ULMA Packaging. He's the first Gorilla 76 client I've ever hosted on the show, and I loved it!
Here's what Kevin and I talked about:
- Ways to align your sales process with the buyers' journey
- Why OEE and TCO need to be part of the sales conversation
- How to overhaul the way you go to market with your sales team
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
The younger workforce in manufacturing is looking for more out of leadership. In particular, millennials want to know why the organization is doing what it's doing. And they want a voice in their company's continuous improvement.
How can we embrace the energy, curiosity, and brain power that younger members of the workforce are bringing with them?
In today's episode, I talk about the generational transition in leadership with Paul Brauss, CEO Blue Line Technology and author of Dare to Improve Your Legacy.
Here's what Paul and I discussed:
- What the new generation of workers means for manufacturing executives
- How to move from top-down leadership to a team-centered approach
- Why a production plant is one of the single best marketing tools a company has
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Manufacturing Executive in your favorite podcast player.
Audio is huge right now. Podcasts are part of that, of course, but so are webinars. The unique magic of the webinar lies in its interaction. Your viewers can ask questions or offer ideas during the event.
Most companies just use webinars to sell products. But if you create a webinar with no agenda other than helping your audience do their jobs better, you can win big in the long term.
In today's episode, I talk about how to make magic with webinars with Matt Sciannella, thinker and strategy director at Gorilla 76.
Here's what Matt and I discussed:
- How your webinars could be capturing a larger market share
- What to do a webinar about
- Making the most of a digital live-event
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Risk management isn't an accident. If we're going to survive, then we have to plan for unforeseen events. Like 2020… and 2021.
But you can't insure everything, and rate increases seem to be hardening. What can manufacturers do to manage risk more effectively?
In today's episode, I talk with Van Carlson, founder and CEO at Strategic Risk Alternatives. Van brings to the conversation more than 25 years of experience in insurance. He focuses on solving client risks through risk alternatives and management.
Here's what Van and I discussed:
- What manufacturers can do about the increase in traditional insurance premiums
- How to prevent gaps in risk management strategies
- The risk management tools available to manufacturers
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here
Manufacturers love trade shows. But for a year, we've had to do without them. Plus, shows may never come back the way they once were. How can manufacturers create content, build relationships, and generate leads without shows?
In today's episode, I talk with Chris Luecke, podcast host and community builder at Manufacturing Happy Hour. Chris offers a full plate of both strategic advice and down-and-dirty tactics about how sales-focused organizations can think more like marketers.
Here's what we discussed:
- Why videos and podcasts are great ways for manufacturers to build relationships
- How sales professionals can improve results with micro marketing
- Ways manufacturers can leverage LinkedIn in a meaningful and impactful way
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Every company has an operating system that determines how people solve problems, plan, prioritize, communicate, and measure success. Often, an operating system is inconsistent, though, leading to employee frustration and burnout.
In today's episode, I talk with Joel Wittenbraker and Luke Wittenbraker. This father-son duo leads Mactech On-Site, one of the world’s foremost providers of on-site machining services, heat treating services, and stress-relieving equipment.
Here's what we discussed:
- What The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) actually is
- The six pieces of the EOS pizza pie
- The biggest hurdle organizations face in the EOS development process
Resources Mentioned
EOS Worldwide
EOS Tools
The 6 Components of EOS (pizza wheel)
Traction on Amazon
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Does technology have to be all or nothing? Is it possible that in our increasingly data-driven manufacturing environment, we're losing sight of the value provided by human input?
In today's episode, I talk about those questions with Martin Cloake, CEO at Raven.ai. Martin is an experienced executive and award-winning technology entrepreneur with a background in manufacturing, data science, IT, and operations management.
Here's what we discussed:
- How Martin merged his varied background experiences to create Raven.ai
- Creating balance between data and human insight
- Real stories of how Martin's clients blend the best of both worlds
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Video- and- audio-based content humanizes the people behind the information. You can see someone's face in a video or hear their voice in a podcast. They suddenly become a real person to you. Yet, manufacturing marketers are slow to embrace content that moves outside of print.
We're missing out on a lot!
In today's episode, I talk with James Carbary, founder of Sweet Fish Media, about why podcasting creates powerful marketing experiences and tools.
Here's what we discussed:
- How audio content can humanize your company
- Content-based networking, how to reverse engineer the exact relationships you want to develop
- Why podcasting is not all about audience growth (and what it IS all about)
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
The industrial sector's labor market has shifted over the past decade. From the emergence and adoption of recruiting technologies by Indeed and LinkedIn to the widening manufacturing skills gap, most manufacturers face stiff challenges on the recruiting and hiring front.
On today's episode, I talk about solving the problems in hiring with Patrick O'Rahilly, Founder at FactoryFix.com.
Here's what we discussed:
- Recruiting and hiring mistakes manufacturers make today
- What it costs to make a hire
- The future of hiring in the manufacturing sector
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here
Think about the experience of walking into an Apple store. Or the ease and simplicity of making a purchase on Amazon — 30 seconds, one click, and you're done.
More and more, B2B buyers expect B2C buying experiences.
In light of that, what does “customer experience” mean to you?
On today's episode, I talk about customer experience with Sultana Mangal and Annie Dohle, both Account Executives at Gorilla 76.
Here's what we discussed:
- What kind of experience B2B buyers expect
- How to differentiate your B2B brand beyond your physical product
- Tips for creating amazing new customer experiences in the first 100 days
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Executive, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here
In today's podcast, I break down a simple three-step framework for what a mid-sized B2B manufacturer should be doing to fill the sales funnel in 2021. This year, we still can't rely on trade shows or other in-person meetings.
Here's what I recommend you do instead:
- Focus on the right people from the right companies
- Create amazing content specifically for them
- Distribute that content consistently to as many of the right people as possible
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Artificial intelligence...machine learning...blockchain...digital transformation. All buzzwords marking the transition from Industry 4.0 to Industry 4.5.
In this episode of the podcast, I talk with someone who's right in the middle of it all.
Justin Goldston, PhD is a professor of project and supply chain management at Penn State University. He works closely with the Penn State Sustainability Institute to blend technology into organizational sustainability efforts.
Justin and I discussed:
- What we mean by Industry 4.5
- How new technology will impact the workforce in manufacturing
- Should we worry about new tech or embrace it?
...Where to go to learn more
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
What is Voice of Customer? How can Voice of Customer be used to curate tailored content across your industry? Why is this important?
These are a few of the many questions answered on today’s show with industry expert, Dave Loomis.
In this episode, Joe Sullivan of Gorilla 76 speaks with Dave Loomis, President of Loomis Marketing on episode 28 of The Manufacturing Executive podcast. Our dynamic conversation covered...
- How do you facilitate a voice of customer meeting?
- What are the benefits of a voice of customer meeting?
- Understanding the pain customers feel and ideal outcomes
Want more resources and information?
For more ways to serve others as an individual or business, Dave has written a book called Marketing Is Everything We Do. Dave also suggests checking out New Product Blueprinting by Dan Adams and Jobs to Be Done by Tony Ulwick.
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to The Manufacturing Executive podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Somewhere along the way, we all run into that guy...
The customer's procurement guy...
The buyer.
And with supply chain disruption fresh in all our minds, it's time we talked to that guy.
In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Aaron Brimer, a supply chain leader and founder of the Manufacturing Procurement Guy podcast. We talked about mitigating risk through smart procurement practices.
Aaron and I discussed:
- Second sourcing
- Inventory management
- Negotiation
- ...And the role engineers play in the buying decision
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
I asked listeners what topic they wanted to learn more about on the podcast.
You said "expanding into international markets."
So I put the word out among my network and discovered today's guest. He founded a gas company in 2002 that now does business in many foreign countries.
My guest on this episode is Ashley Madray, executive vice president of Gas Innovations, a producer, purifier, and packager of specialty gases.
Ashley and I discussed:
- Who he is, how his company began, and how it expanded internationally
- Common challenges to international expansion
- The impact of doing business globally
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
The workplace is experiencing a massive transformation.
I thought we should start at a high level and talk about that.
So we did.
In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Jon Franko (I just call him "Franko"), my co-founder here at Gorilla76, about how to grow a great team rooted in relationships.
Franko and I discussed:
- What employees value most in an employer right now
- A little thing we do called “Retention Brainstorming” and how it can help you
- How to use Glassdoor to your advantage
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
If we create an environment where people on the production floor can help the company be better, they're more than happy to use their knowledge to do it.
Unfortunately, many supervisors and managers have not been given the training, development, and coaching to do the job on their own or to help the company grow.
On this episode of the podcast, Gayle Noakes, a 20+ year veteran of the manufacturing industry, joined me to talk about building leaders at all levels to achieve business results.
Gayle and I discussed:
- Giving people the right training for their roles
- Creating the right balance among activities in complex manufacturing roles
- Whose voices we should be hearing — but often aren't — on a daily basis
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
It's time to face reality about sales channels, technology, and how people buy.
E-commerce is going to dominate sales. Business was moving in that direction pre-COVID, but the pandemic dramatically accelerated those trends.
You can fight this reality, or you can grow with it.
On this episode of the podcast, I talked with Kevin Haar, chief operating officer at Super Bright LEDs, about the transition to e-commerce.
Kevin and I discussed:
- What e-commerce can offer now that it couldn't in the past
- The impact of online sales in different parts of the organization
- Roadblocks and challenges in e-commerce adoption
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
We'd all love to create content and then sit back and wait for the phones to start ringing. But that doesn't work.
You have to be proactive. Learn how and where your prospects and customers go to consume content online and deliver it to them in those channels.
The only content that works is the content that's actually consumed.
On this episode of the podcast, I invited Matt Sciannella, Senior Strategist at Gorilla76, to talk about content distribution.
Matt and I discussed:
- The reasons we need to be talking about content distribution
- Why the mindset around the downloadable ebook is starting to change
- When you should venture onto a channel other than email, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
You know the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But do you practice that philosophy as a manufacturing leader? Does it influence who you hire? How you manage your team? The way you interact with your stakeholders?
On this episode of the podcast, I invited Dan Erschen, the owner of Wisconsin Metal Parts, a contract manufacturer of metal parts and assemblies, to talk about servant leadership.
Dan and I discussed:
- Dan's personal battle with MS and how it has shaped who he is today
- What servant leadership is and the benefits and challenges it brings to manufacturing companies
- Dan's advice about how to start shifting culture through servant leadership
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
When the mandated industry shut down in Michigan happened, one Millennial sought new ways to engage his current customers and share the benefits of automation while working from home. He turned to LinkedIn.
Seven months later, his content has reached over 1.5 million views, and he's amassed more than 10,000 followers.
On this episode of the podcast, I invited Jacob Hall, the Manufacturing Millennial, to discuss everything from embracing technology and creating video content to engaging young professionals in the workforce and building a personal brand on LinkedIn.
Jake and I talked about:
- The value of video on LinkedIn for personal branding
- Why face-and-voice communication is your differentiator
- How to get past vanity metrics when evaluating your content's performance
Sponsored by Cadenas Partsolutions
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
The term thought leadership has gotten tossed around a lot the last few years. But what exactly does thought leadership mean? Does it simply imply that you write a blog or that you spoke at a local Chamber of Commerce event? Or is thought leadership something more than that? How did you become a thought leader anyway?
On this episode of the podcast, I invited Bill Sherman, COO and thought leadership practice lead at Thought Leadership Leverage. Bill helps clients who want to use thought leadership whether it's to fill a sales pipeline or influence how people think and act.
Bill and I talked about:
- The four elements of thought leadership
- How thought leadership can impact your organizational and personal brands
- Why people struggle with content insecurity
Sponsored by Cadenas Partsolutions
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Twenty years ago, we barely had enough info to measure our impact. Today, manufacturing marketers are overwhelmed with data, and everyone wants to sell us software to find, store, clean, surface, and use that data.
Why is data such a big buzzword in business, especially manufacturing?
On this episode of the podcast, I invited Jon Thompson, co-founder and senior partner at Blue Margin Inc, a company of 38 consultants and engineers who help mid-market companies with an emphasis on industrials use their data to create growth.
Jon and I talked about:
- Why data needs to go from the c-suite all the way to the frontline worker
- The idea of numbers as a motivator
- The biggest challenges manufacturers face when controlling and using their data
Check out this resource we mentioned during the podcast:
The Dashboard Effect
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
What comes to mind when you think of a great business leader?
Someone with all the answers? Someone who grinds away working long hours? Someone with such deep experience and expertise that you don't need to question his or her guidance?
Or is a great leader someone who leads by empowering the people around them?
On this episode of the podcast, I invited Kevin Snook, CEO of both Saxagon and LUCIDi4 and author of the Amazon bestseller Make It Right, to talk about leadership in the manufacturing sector.
Kevin and I discussed:
- Empowering the frontline employees to make decisions
- A 5-step framework for leading a manufacturing organization
- A leader's 2 roles
- Avoiding the slippery slopes of manufacturing leadership
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
From Industry 4.0 to 3D printing to wearable technology, there are so many advancements happening in manufacturing.
But it's easy to get sidetracked by these shiny objects.
We need to focus on the problem or goal at hand first. And then APPLY the right-fit technology accordingly.
On this episode of the podcast, I invited Jonathan Hensley, co-founder and CEO of Emerge Interactive, a digital product consulting firm that works with companies to improve operational agility and customer experience.
Jonathon and I talked about:
- Digital products and services that might be applied in the industrial sector
- Customer experience in the data
- Changing operations, supply chain disruption, and labor retention in the manufacturing space
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
After I go, what happens to my company?
Every successful business owner eventually faces that question. In some cases, the succession plan seems obvious. In others, it's not at all clear.
On this episode of the podcast, I invited Nick Jackson, Principal of the Mendota Group, which acquires small to medium-sized manufacturing, distribution and service businesses.
Nick and I talked about:
- The difference between a financial buyer, a strategic buyer, and an active investor
- A step-by-step process for finding an advisor when selling your company
- What happens after a deal gets closed
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Many manufacturers rely on events to generate pipeline. What do you do when events shut down?
On this episode of the podcast, I share three tangible ideas for reallocating your marketing budget to keep a steady flow of leads coming while trade shows can't help you do it.
- Make the shift from brochure marketing that's all about you to genuinely helpful content marketing that's about your prospect.
- Market to your existing customers. Your email list is gold.
- Learn how to do video based prospecting. It's a lot easier than you might think.
Resources we talked about:
- I Need What’s In Your Brain: Extracting Expert Knowledge for Content Marketing w/ Toby Wall
- Video-based prospecting: An easy, but comprehensive guide
- Loom.com for easy prospecting videos
- 4 ways to build your ultimate list for cold outbound email
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
We hear grumblings about automation taking away job opportunities. But inside the manufacturing sector, companies are struggling to find high quality, consistent human laborers.
The real challenge facing the industry is this: Baby Boomers are exiting the workforce, and there aren't enough people in the skilled trades to replace them.
Gary Konarska, Executive Director & CEO at American Welding Society, joined this episode of the podcast to discuss how to attract and retain high quality labor.
Gary and I talked about:
- The opportunity cost of college and the value of learning a skilled trade
- How to address the shortage of welders
- Ways to attract fresh talent through creating great content
- How to upskill the current welding workforce
Resources we talked about:
- Careers in Welding by AWS
- Leveraged Learning
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
What happens when your competitors are talking about themselves but you are producing resourceful content? You win!
So how can you write helpful technical content for manufacturers? First, it needs to come from the brains of subject matter experts. Second, you need to extract that knowledge from their brains and use their insights to fuel your marketing strategy.
Toby Wall, thinker and senior writer at Gorilla76, joined this episode of the podcast to discuss how to create great content in the manufacturing space.
Toby and I talk about:
- Where should content expertise originate?
- Why should subject matter experts expect to play a role in content creation?
- How do you extract expert knowledge and turn it into credible content?
Resources we talked about:
- They Ask, You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Marketing
- How to extract expert knowledge from your team and turn it into incredible content
- “I need what’s in your brain” – Why we insist on interviewing subject matter experts
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
It's 2010. Apple has just released a new product called the iPad. The Lakers just won their fifth championship under Phil Jackson. And the BP oil spill was all over the news. In the marketing world, a trending movement started to take hold. It was called inbound marketing.
Today, inbound marketing has exploded, and B2B businesses are taking the next logical step to inbound selling. Brian Signorelli, senior director of sales at Hubspot and author of the book Inbound Selling, joined this episode of the podcast to discuss the history and future of inbound.
Brian and I talk about:
-Why inbound marketing's popularity spread so far
-Great resources to learn more about what inbound is and why it works
-Extending inbound marketing principles into the sales side of an organization
Resources we talked about:
-Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs
-StoryBrand
-Inbound Selling: How to Change the Way You Sell to Match How People Buy
-HubSpot
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
You can market your products just about any way you want to. You can pour money into trade shows, pay-per-click campaigns, or print ads. Personally, I'm a big advocate of inbound marketing, but inbound means playing a very long game. Because of that, I advocate supplementing inbound with identifying the right people from the right companies for a special sales-plus-marketing solution.
I'm talking about account based marketing (ABM).
Now if you want to learn about ABM, go see Sangram Vajre, author, co-founder at Terminus, and the man who sired ABM from 50,000 feet in the air. Or you can just listen to this episode of the podcast where Sangram and I talk about:
- A solid definition of ABM
- What intent data is and how to use it
- Why you shouldn't treat all your accounts the same
- How small to mid-sized businesses can apply ABM methodology
Resources we talked about:
- ABM is B2B: Why B2B Marketing and Sales Is Broken and How to Fix It
- Account-Based Marketing for Dummies
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Back in May, I wrote an article entitled Summer Reading 12 lessons from 12 books for 12 weeks. The author of one of those 12 books, Ian Altman, is my guest on this episode of The Manufacturing Executive!
A bestselling author and B2B growth expert, Ian started, sold, and grew his prior companies from zero to over $1 billion in value. He has since spent years researching how executives make decisions. Ian's modern approach has helped many businesses turn marginal growth into explosive growth and thrive where their competitors struggled merely to survive.
Ian and I talk about:
- Why you should flip your sales message
- The three questions you need to ask to make an informed decision
- How to weed out wrong-fit clients
- How to pivot away from in-person meetings during COVID-19
Resources we talked about:
- Same Side Selling on Amazon
- Same Side Selling Academy
- Ian Altman's Website
- Growth In Crisis Course
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
A few years ago, we at Gorilla 76 took a close look at the common components among our most successful manufacturing clients. Then, we boiled these down to seven specific elements. Once we put them together, we built a model we call the seven core elements of an industrial marketing strategy.
On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, we discuss these seven key elements of manufacturing marketing:
- Positioning
- Website Foundation
- Technology Stack
- Content Strategy
- Lead Generation Strategy,
- Pipeline Management Strategy
- Data analysis
Resource discussed on the episode:
Downloadable guide and audit spreadsheet
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Automation cannot replace human labor. Rather, the key is to augment the workforce by equipping humans with the technology they need to be more effective, more efficient, and safer.
Tracy Hansen, president of North America and global CMO for ProGlove, a German maker of wearable digital interfaces and operations analytics for industry, joined this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show. She talked about the ways manufacturers need to pivot with technology as they look at how to emerge from this pandemic in one piece.
Here's what we discussed with Tracy:
- How wearable solutions can augment the human worker
- Examples of the ways wearable technology improves safety, efficiency, and productivity
- The wearable technology solutions executives should know about
- ...And what excessive automation looks like and how to avoid it.
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Something's not going well, and it's your job to fix it. Where do you start?
You can't rely on your charm and good looks to make a change happen. Instead, you have to work through proven processes that alleviate distress at companies.
On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show, Rob Tracy, consultant and author of How to Fix a Factory, talked about specific processes that can solve problems at distressed organizations.
Here's what we discussed with Rob:
- Why Rob wrote How to Fix a Factory and who he wrote it for
- How value-add reporting can give distinct insight into P&L
- The 10 core systems that must be operating with reasonable proficiency for the factory as a whole to have good outcomes
- Rob's new idea called The Business Forward Framework
Additional Resource Mentioned in the Episode:
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
By 2022 online videos will make up more than 82% of consumer internet traffic. That's 15 times more than in 2017, according to a recent study by Cisco.
Video is how your buyers want to consume information, so it's exactly how you need to deliver it to them.
On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show, Danny Gonzales, CEO of both Industrial Sage and Optimum Productions, talked about driving growth through video production in the industrial sector.
Here's what we discussed with Danny:
- How some industrial companies are using video to their advantage already
- Shifting your message from traditional marketing to the way buyers buy now
- How salespeople can make one-to-one messaging videos using their webcams and distribute them via video cards
- The way to get started in video marketing right now (and now's the perfect time!)
Resources Mentioned in the Episode:
Industrialsage.com
Monique Elliot of Schneider Electric
Malika Waller of Landis+Gyr
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
I did something a little different in this episode. As opposed to bringing in an outside guest and interviewing them, I did a solocast. It's just you and me talking about things I've learned while serving the industrial sector for the last eight-plus years as a sales and marketing consultant. Today, I discuss how to stop giving away engineering and consulting services for free.
Here are some of my thoughts from this episode:
- How to package your expertise so you don't go down these long time-suck paths where you give away free insight and engineering work
- Examples of how paid engagement can work, including a site audit, a second opinion service, a research report, and a product sample
- An idea I call "the spectrum of value creation"
- ...And how your buyer's mindset changes when you approach them this way (and why that's a great thing for your business!)
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Are you really doing content marketing if you don't create white papers, write blog posts, and deliver long speeches about the benefits of your product? Can a CAD model help educate your prospective buyers just as effectively as a nice, fat e-book can?
On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show, Adam Beck, Director of Marketing at CADENAS PARTsolutions, talked about educating your audience using CAD models.
Here's what we discussed with Adam:
- How to protect real manufacturing models while using a CAD model as a form of content marketing
- The day-long event he put on for content marketers in industrial manufacturing
- How to educate customers using models as a marketing tool
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
When a lot of industrial companies start out, they're lean. Nimble. Close to their customers. But as business scales and becomes more complex, they lose the opportunity to be in constant contact with the market.
Often, when you go into an industrial company as a new marketing hire, you have to rebuild strategic marketing as a core competency. Know what your customers care about, how the industry is structured, and how you are positioned. Then, tell a story with that information.
On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show, MJ Peters, VP Marketing at Firetrace, a $35 million business with approximately a hundred employees, talked about creating sustainable growth for your manufacturing company.
Here's what we discussed with MJ:
- Three key areas where marketing impacts the business
- Using tangible metrics to sort out what's working and what's not in marketing
- How to create sustainable growth when you sell in a cyclical market
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
Try describing a mechanical thing with a blog post. It's not easy. It's not the right format. But try taking a 3-D model, making it photorealistic, and then doing animations of how it works. Now, you're on to something.
So when you think about content marketing, do you think blogs, social media, and podcasts? Or do you think, "What's going to help my audience?"
On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show, Nick Goellner, sales and marketing leader for Advanced Machine & Engineering and managing director of Making Chips, talked about content marketing in the industrial sector.
Here's what we discussed with Nick:
- The role content marketing should play inside a manufacturing organization
- Why content is your job even if you are not a marketer (it's all about the function of content)
- The reason you shouldn't be scared your competitors will rip off your content
- The books Nick's reading this summer
To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.
I like working with people who get dirty building stuff. That's why I'm committed to serving the industrial sector by producing resourceful, helpful, and objective content.
In the past two years, I've written 50,000 words of content, or about a whole business book, to help manufacturers figure out how to grow their businesses. (That was just my writing; my team of 18 people in St. Louis produced a lot more.)
So it's a natural transition to ask: What other media could we explore to publish these insights? That's how we came to launch The Manufacturing Executive, our podcast to help leaders of manufacturing companies grow their businesses. We bring in voices from outside our company to talk about their successes, their struggles, what they've learned, and what's working and what's not in industrial marketing and manufacturing sales..
Got an idea for the show? Go to gorilla76.com/learn and click "connect." To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.