On this week's Industrial Talk Podcast we're talking to John Nottingham, Co-Founder of Nottingham Spirk about “Solving Customer's Problems Through Innovation”.  Get the answers to your “Customer Centric Solutions” questions along with John's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!

Finally, get your exclusive free access to the Industrial Academy and a series on “Why You Need To Podcast” for Greater Success in 2021. All links designed for keeping you current in this rapidly changing Industrial Market. Learn! Grow! Enjoy!

JOHN NOTTINGHAM'S CONTACT INFORMATION:

Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-nottingham-a359a9a/

Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nottingham-spirk/

Company Website: https://www.nottinghamspirk.com/

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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

nottingham, customer, patent, innovation center, obvious, big, problem, innovation, john, sherwin williams, put, digital, location, prototype, product, industry, dazzled, manufactured, scott, real

00:00

This industrial talk podcast was recorded on location at Nottingham, Spirk and E and y or Ernst and Young or just EY. Both companies dedicated to your success focused on the future and solving big problems contact Nottingham Spirk and EY if you have a desire for a brighter future

00:27

Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So good on your hardhat grab your work boots, and let's write

00:45

Welcome to industrial talk the number one industrial related podcast in the universe. And I'm not overselling that. It celebrates you the industrial heroes, the people that get it done. You are bold, you are brave. You dare greatly you innovate. You solve problems. You're changing lives and you're changing the world each and every day. And that's what this platform is for you for you. We celebrate you. Alright, we're broadcasting if you've heard the last one we're broadcasting from Nottingham Spirk. You're saying yourself, Scott, I don't know what that is. You will because I'm talking to the gentleman right here. Right next to me. His name is John Nottingham. And he is one of Nottingham sorry, he's not the Nottingham sorry. Let's get cracking. HEY, this is fantastic. Like, I'm telling you, listener, listeners, you need to put this on your bucket list. Big time. Can Can people just come in and see this place?

01:40

By LIDAR? No.

01:42

Well, do I know somebody that can make that happen?

01:44

I promise.

01:47

So contact me and I'll be able to open doors because this is a spectacular, and I mean, spectacular location. For the listeners. Let's just level set real quick here, John, just give us a little I mean, clearly, it's a bigger conversation, but just give us a little background on who you are.

02:05

Well, my partner John Spirk and I graduated from design school, and we both got fortune 500 job offers my parents were so proud. And we turned it down.

02:20

Then your parents are saying what we found

02:23

a garage. And we started an innovation company and our parents said, What are you doing? What is that? We did it? And I never looked back?

02:34

See? So the question is why? I mean, that's not conventional thinking, John, it is not. It's not it. And I guarantee you, your parents are saying we need to what, what you just graduated, and that's a heck of a school. Yeah.

02:49

But But we wanted to do something different. You know, we wanted to do something big. And we had to start small.

02:58

Right? And by the way, if you're listening, that's a helicopter flying over cut, top of us disregard John's more important than that helicopter. So let's listen to John there. But why? What was that inside of you that said, hey, I want to do something because you come here today? Yeah. I mean, you've seen the whole journey. You come here today. It's impressive. Nothing less, nothing short of impressive. Why at that particular time, did you guys say I'm going to go to I'm going to go a different direction?

03:25

Well, we've always created, we were always, we're always building things, always designing things, always innovating things. And graduating, we just kept going. We just kept finding companies that wanted to go on a journey. And create something and and grow.

03:45

See, this is interesting. I had a conversation with a gentleman and and what stuck out and you guys live it here. Yeah, this is what's interesting. You think of the end user, you think of that person over here, that you're going to be designing something here. And you're going to say, hey, I want to solve a problem. I want to deliver something. I want to I want them to get a user experience, whatever that is. That that was was that a typical thinking at the time?

04:15

Yes. So every I don't care what business you're in. You have a customer, right? Yes. Yeah. So

04:24

you, let's put it that way. Yes. Or it's a hobby. So

04:28

the fortune 500 Number one CEO came to visit us. Ask Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, and I and he's going around our innovation center. Well describe our innovation center. Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. And I said Doug here, you know, you're the number one CEO in the world, largest company in the world. He says, You know, John, if I don't deliver to my customer she wants I'm done. I need innovation. I need something to make her say, Wow, okay, yeah. John, that's your job. I said, Your I

05:10

see this is interesting. Now I can I can rattle off all of the challenges of the pandemic. Yes. And they're out there got it understand. One of the things that I believe as a positive is the, the the need for businesses to collaborate to solve problems to figure out solutions. And one of the things that popped out is the power of that customer. All of a sudden, I can't get my products. And everybody's a supply chain. Expert. And and it's, it's an interesting realization of how important that customer is. And if you're not pinpoint focused on their needs, you're missing the mark,

05:54

part of our secret sauce. And it's so simple. And it's amazing how many people don't do it blows me away with my client partners, I say I want to know your customer. I want your customer inside our Innovation Center, inside our focus room, behind our two way mirror, I want you to see this the twinkle in their eye. I want to see the body language. They may not even say something, but I want you to see your customer. What are you putting your customers now, all of a sudden, now you have a pandemic? HEY, your your your customers freaked out? What are you going to do about it? Here's opportunity. Say every problem. Every every problem that I see is an innovation invention in disguise. Now, yeah, you'll say, I've got rehab 13 150 issued atoms that we have created co created with our with our client partners. 13 150.

06:55

That's, that's, that's spectacular. I don't have one.

06:59

There we go. So you know what? To get a patent, so simple. It's so no, no,

07:06

no, no, no, no, no, you're soft pedaling, because. Okay,

07:10

go ahead. I'm gonna give you this thing. There's only one criteria for a patent. patent claim. It has to be ready for this. Okay. On obvious. That's it. I'm serious. It doesn't it's it's not a good idea. It's not a great solution. It's if it's obvious, it doesn't get a patent. It only gets a patent if it's not obvious. That's it.

07:39

Okay, so I'm wandering the halls here, right? Yeah. And you've got example after example, after victory after victory of just displays. Yes. All excited. It's like, yes, yes. I just I'm dazzled right back. There was one in there. And when you have that definition, it's the baby cradle one, right? Yes. Come on. That's obvious. No, no, it isn't.

08:02

Hold on, hold on. You want to know if the patent is? Yes, please. Okay. It's easy to do a bassinet, right. Right there. Okay. Our client wanted to stick out. So we had to do something on obvious. So okay, what do I do? I have my customer come in a mother. She's gonna have a baby. What are some of the issues that are happening? So we look at the trends and there's one trend that mothers are co sleeping with their babies in their bed? That's not a good, a good idea. But I'm not gonna argue it. That's my customer talking. So what did I do? I did a bassinet that is swiveled on to the bottom Hold on a second. Hold on a second. Hold on. It's brought to the mother's bed. And the side has a spring and the mother can cradle and CO sleep with her baby in her bed and the baby is is comforted and safe. Now listen to this. So we so we got a patent on it. Right? An obvious yes, it's Las Vegas to the juvenile furniture show right? At the end of the show, they have an award for number one innovation at show. Guess which one didn't bang go okay. If you or your significant other is going to a baby shower wants a big deal. Maybe gift. It's the Bassen nest bass and nest an obvious Oh, this thing is the number one bassinet in the country because it's on obvious see.

09:48

So I'm walking by and I see it and then I realize it's like no kidding. Are you kidding me? This is amazing. Yeah, it is. Yeah. So okay, so as we as we venture in so here's the deal. Alright, so I come to you, I'm a business, I'm going, Okay, God, I need your help. You're going to go and you're going to look at my customer, whatever it is like, what do they need? And you're going to have a conversation. It's real. It's like, what are you looking for? What's what's going on? What's your pain, whatever, you

10:13

know, I say, Be careful what you wish for, because it will come true

10:16

in it and see, and that's interesting, because it's real out there. Right? What I am fascinated by it, is that you'd say, okay, got this idea. We go through the prototype, you're starting to design it. Right. Very cool, right? But you also throw in, is it? Is it going to be marketable? Is there a business case around that? Yes. And then all of a sudden, you're gonna say, okay, yes, yes. And then you're gonna say, now we have to modify, or we have to manufacture right? This product. Yeah, you're involved there. Yes. And that's why you have such great success, because it's cradle to grave grave. And it is because you, you take into consideration and this is where I find I'm sorry, I'm sure. You can tell. I'm geeking out everybody. This is just too cool. Right? Where it starts to fail is like, Here, here's your here. Here it is. Now. Good luck with it.

11:07

Now, let me tell you, that's cool. Let me tell you the secret sauce. Don't tell the other secrets. Anybody? Okay. Remember that? 13 150 patents I say? Now, the US government has given 10 million patents? What percentage? What percentage of those 10 million do you think have been commercialized? What percentage?

11:30

I unfortunately know the answer. Because i i I'm very inquisitive. 5%. Baby?

11:36

Yes. 5%? Yes. 5%. That is, everybody knows that number. All right. Everybody knows, like, that's

11:43

common knowledge.

11:44

I got a patent award. I was. I was National Academy of inventors. I got an award from the from the commissioner of US patents, and he's putting the metal around my neck. And I reminded him I said, I said, you know that only 5%? Yeah, I see it. He's like, Yeah, yeah. I said, we have 1300 50 patents. 95% have been commercialized 95%. And

12:11

the remaining 5% are still in the process of getting commercialized yet.

12:15

So So here's the thing. Why is that? Big? Why? Why is the track record of other patents so abysmal? Because they're invented in silos? Yeah, you have an insights group. And that they throw it over the wall, and it goes to a design group, they throw it over the wall, it goes to the engineer that throw it over the wall to the prototype, or they keep trying it over the wall. Okay. And by the time it's at, it doesn't bear any resemblance to where you started. You see him saying, what we do, this is what we do in our innovation center here. And you're looking at it, it's historic Bill, you like this?

12:54

That's a whole nother conversation, because I just look at it. And it's like, all I can think of is how did they get the material in here? How did they, they built it. And then when you go when you walk in the rotunda, whatever you want to come back,

13:07

you know, you know, the return of our innovation center is bigger than the US Capitol.

13:13

Spectacular. That's the first thing I noticed. It's like, whoa, whoa, taking my breath away. I

13:21

know. It's impressive.

13:22

Very cool. So we're second, the secret sauce that gets thrown over the wall, throwing it over the wall.

13:31

We start with a plant partner, they have give me your biggest problem. Give me your biggest opportunity. Just you think it's impossible? On obvious, okay, right. And we put a team together at the very beginning, we have a project manager, okay, the project manager has leads for insights, design, engineering, prototyping, digitization commercialization, and they're all there at the front end all of them. And they very carefully go through a 12 month process to commercialization and 95% get there. That's the difference.

14:14

How do you and because I, I interview many within industry, my backgrounds industry, and I and I've been experienced in that, that conference room where somebody comes up with an idea. Okay, it might not, it might be a little off the mark, but there might be some nuggets of truth, right? Yeah. But in industry, it gets shut down.

14:40

That's the problem. That's the silo. Exactly. Correct.

14:43

Yeah. So create that cool. Okay. So what we do, don't shoot people do we do

14:48

is we start with the customer. We start with how right? It's all right. Okay. You start with a customer. So you bring a customer in. Okay. and you start talking to him, you know, what about this product or that product? What do you love? What do you hate? What this? Did you start getting this input, okay? And you get their pain points. And you can you start, all of a sudden you open the customers mind and you start picking their brain, what do they do? What do they want, so forth. That's number one. Then you take all of that great data, and you go into your designers. And now your designers have what we call a creative session. And the creative session is we focus in a room, you have about eight to 12 people. And we focus on what we call mild to wild. Man, it's cool. Alright, so mild is the obvious thing, you know, just get that out of your head. Okay. Yeah. Now, you got that out your head. What's the wildest thing you could say? I don't care if it can't be done. I don't care if the technology then I don't care if it's levitating. I don't care what what is the wildest, wildest thing? Now get that out of your head. Now, everything in between, now you have 100 ideas. 100 ideas, I call that the diverging concept, you diverge, and you just, there's no bad ideas, by the way. Nobody can shoot anything down. Okay, good. And you do that. So now the walls are literally filled with posts, felled, and you're exhausted and you go home. Okay, you go home. The next session is the con verging session. You take those 100 ideas. Now you separate them in groups. You sketch your best ones, and everybody takes turns saying, I like this one, make a presentation. But here's this here's the here's the sacred thing. And I'm gonna give it don't tell anybody. Okay? Don't listen, guys. Everybody has three is everybody can do this. By the way. 333 note cards. Everybody gets three note cards. One note card says, nice. One note card says, Who cares? And one note card says, wow. Okay, now, it's coming out now. Put it down. Yeah. Make your make your passionate presentation on this idea. Now everybody at the same time, put up your notecards. Okay, now, he's made a passion or he or she made a passionate thing. Everybody says Who cares? I don't care. Get rid of it. It's never gonna fly. Okay. The next guy comes up. Next person comes up mix their passion thing. Nice. Nice. Nice. You know, that's the hardest one. Yeah, because everybody's got nice product too many nice product is produced. Nice and nice. And they come out. And they have nice sales. Nice sales. But when you have this thing, every once in a while you do. Everybody says Wow. Wow. You know, when you walked in, when you walked in our rotunda, what did you say? Oh, I

18:07

said, Wow, I did.

18:10

Not planned. Wow. Is it emotional response? Boom, wow. Okay. When I when I have this idea, and I put it in front of the group, and I say okay, put your note cards up and everybody says, Wow, I got a winner. I got it. Okay. Then the hard work starts. Yeah. Then you, you know, you design, you make a prototype of it, you always come back to the customer. Okay. You keep on going here. I had a thing, Scott, I think it was a new Iron, steam iron. And it was a prototype, but it looked just like the real thing. And I had a woman in there and said, I want to buy this thing. And we said, well, you know, it's a prototype. It's there's only one I mean, she did she She put her arms around it says I'm not leaving. I want to buy this thing. I knew I had a winner.

19:04

So this is interesting. Yeah. So there's a tremendous amount of energy. Oh, by

19:08

the way, become the number one selling art in the United States. But it is what yeah, what is it? What's the number one? I

19:14

don't? Don't know. But there

19:17

you go. I got a million of these stories to see, here's the deal.

19:20

Here's the deal. What makes this location this innovation center? Yes, this juggernaut and solutions is the fact that when you walk around your to your team, you can go from concept all the way to your

19:38

creating vertically integrated right there. Yes, everything's there.

19:43

Everything's there. Yeah. And you're saying I'm looping in the customer at the same time. So all

19:48

the way through ERP we are at this stage, the customer comes back. And you know, we know by the time we're out in the market, we know but then yeah, but then we never go on a national launch. We go on a soft launch. One soft launch with one retailer, one region of the country, because we want to know, even if we think it's a winner is the price right is a position right? Is it packaged? Right? Is it gonna? Is it gonna perform the way we want to? And then we see that and if there's a if there's an issue, we'll tweak it. No problem. But when we get it right, then scaling is no problem. No problem. It's just so exciting. Let me tell you this story. Amazing. I've the Sherwin Williams twist and pour paint container. You see that?

20:33

Okay, so I've seen it. Yes. Okay, good. Talk to us about the show. Cuz it's obvious, but everybody knew he's like,

20:41

talk not only is it not obvious, I've got 23 patents on it. But yeah, who's counting? Who's counting? Who's counting? Okay, so paint has been in metal cans forever. Okay. You need a screwdriver, open it you need a hammer to close it. You know, you know the contractor. He doesn't care. But the do it yourselfer does big time. So we bring the dirt yourself around. She says I can't get a butter knife to open this. I mean, I don't want what if I had

21:11

sorry, guys, five years? Yes. I was there. butter knife we're getting

21:17

we're getting so they got to open the open the thing with a with a thing. It always pours down the stack. You gotta have a hammer to close it. It's messy. You know what? Maybe there's a better package. So we did. We partnered with Sherwin Williams, we created a product called a question pour paint container. You don't need up, you just twist it open. You poured it doesn't drip. You push it back. And it's a square can and it's wonderful. Now we knew the customer liked it. Loved it

21:48

doesn't get stuck. Now. See, when I saw it out there on the floor, or wherever it was within the journEY around this place? When I saw it, I just said how many times have I taken a can use the butter knife, open it up? Had to share it or do whatever and then close it back up with a nut with a hammer. And it splatters everywhere. It was just but it never changed.

22:15

Is that good customer engagement? I don't think so.

22:17

No, not one bit. This is it. Right? Do you like it?

22:21

Great right here. See? So that is dazzling? Right? It's dad?

22:29

He does stuff all day long. Man. This is a blood test with that. It's it's the it's that little machine. Gotcha.

22:36

And that's it. Yes. And it is it is going to change blood testing in the world. Not the not the world. Why? The art. So let me tell you, let me tell you. It has a little has a little thing called the clock chip, you prick your finger, you take a blood test, you put it on our little handheld machine, right? And instantaneously. You can tell for instance, if your blood is too thin or too thick if you're taking a blood thinner, okay? With not with no antigens, it's used. It uses physics instead of chemistry. Alright, you don't have to get antigens from China. You can do it right here. It's all digital, and it's instantaneous has never been done. And it's on obvious

23:24

scene. That's amazing. Yeah. So you just eliminated the necess. The supply chain, it says it's it's digital. It's right next right there. It doesn't have to tell you, man, it's, it's spectacular.

23:38

It's been what care bike? Yes. mountain bike. So the bike has been manufactured in Northeast Ohio. And because it's an E bike, it's got software that has three modes. One is E by, you know, 25 miles an hour, no license, moped well, more powerful and full on badass motorcycles. 85 miles an hour, right? Yes, same thing. Yeah, it's been manufactured right here, and it's got a plug in battery, you can take it out, you can run your laptop on it in the woods or whatever. I mean, it changes the game, and it's gonna be manufacturing. So

24:21

I have we could, we can definitely talk forever. For me, I don't have the time. I could just sit here and have a great DisnEY Land of innovation, big time. And it is true that you're not underselling that one bit. Oh, not one and how bad now one of the questions I do have, because you've been around for many years. I think we're coming up on what the universe is Xero big 500 And we're starting our second five year 50 year plan. And you should yeah, you'll be around. There's a legacy here.

24:51

We're working. We're working on that. Yeah, you're

24:52

fine. You're fine. But the thing that I'm interested in is how did this whole it's like one day People were talking about this digital transformation. It's great. It's, it's good around a coffee table. But now it's real real. How has that really impacted the way you look at products? Everything

25:12

is digital today, everything. And, and I, you know, when you go into our prototype facility, which is like that prototype, isn't that great?

25:21

I like every I even like, I mean, I like every part of this building.

25:25

Here's the things we ourselves was factory 3.0 Here, we've got all of these, these, these CNC machines. Yeah. And in digital, 3d printing is all that stuff. But we are even taking the ones that are like 30 years old. And we're digitizing. You don't have to have a brand new. You don't have to redo your factory. That's it now. Yes. And so you can you can get you can get predictive maintenance, you can get yours next. Oh, you can do a digital twin of your old old factory and bring it up to factory 4.0 and an eight that hard. See,

26:05

where do you see it? Okay, put your future hat on. Okay.

26:09

Are you kidding me? Scott, I always have my future.

26:12

He was taking a group around his organization here. And you can tell that there's a there's still immense passion. You're never tired about? Oh, no, no. And rightly so. I was born to do you were born to do this. So where do you where do you think it's going? Where's this? My

26:28

God? The sky is the limit. We just have the launch pad here. Alright, we have the launch pad. We're building the rockets. And I don't know how have these rockets are gonna go but the sky's the limit. I'm telling you.

26:41

What if a company wants to get ahold of you, what do you do?

26:43

Pick up the phone.

26:48

World Wide Web, you know that that internet,

26:50

you can push a

26:51

button rallies. And I'm telling you, it's an honor. This is exciting. This is this is the manifestation of me as a kid going to DisnEYland. And in the Carousel of Progress, I have to share this reel with you real quick. So I was here last night, doing a walkthrough, getting all giddy getting all just so jazzed about the whole thing. I go back, my wife and my son are with me. And I just said you can't believe it. And I'm hyperventilating as I explained this particular location, and that I yanked my son. I said, You got to get out. You're coming down here, just because I want to see the dome. You got to see the dome. And then we walked around and you guys have been absolutely gracious, gracious. And it's very cool. Thank you. Excellent. Alright listeners. You can reach him out of the worldwide web. That is it's it's under

27:44

Nottingham's. Oh, there

27:45

you go.com Right. You got that URL.

27:48

I did that.

27:50

All right. We're gonna wrap it up on their site. So stay tuned, do not go away. You will not be disappointed.

27:56

You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

28:05

Come on. You've got to love that conversation. That is Mr. John Nottingham. He is a trail blazer. You cannot and I mean, you cannot deny the impact that Nottingham's for E y is having in manufacturing industry as a whole. They are solving problems. It is a big deal. Nottingham spirk.com Go out there. And I'm just telling you, you got to put that on your bucket list for an opportunity to sort of see that location. You will be dazzled by alright. Remember, we've got to educate. We've got to collaborate. And we've got to innovate. Not an expert, Mr. John Nottingham and team Nottingham spurt. Classic example. Do not let another day go by without your commitment to that need to educate that need to collaborate and that need to innovate. All right. Be bold, be brave daring greatly. We're going to have another great conversation right around the corner. So stay tuned.

The post John Nottingham with Nottingham Spirk appeared first on Industrial Talk.

In this week's Industrial Talk Podcast we're talking to Christine Witte, Director of Product and Services at Seam Group about “Looking at Safety the way we look at our Children”.  Get the answers to your “Safety” questions along with Christine's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!

Finally, get your exclusive free access to the Industrial Academy and a series on “Why You Need To Podcast” for Greater Success in 2020. All links designed for keeping you current in this rapidly changing Industrial Market. Learn! Grow! Enjoy!

CHRISTINE WITTE'S CONTACT INFORMATION:

Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-o-rourke-witte-cmrp-52442bb/

Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seamgroup/

Company Website: https://www.seamgroup.com/

PODCAST VIDEO:

THE STRATEGIC REASON “WHY YOU NEED TO PODCAST”:

OTHER GREAT INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES:

NEOM:  https://www.neom.com/en-us

CAP Logistics:  https://www.caplogistics.com/

Hitachi Vantara: https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/home.html

Industrial Marketing Solutions:  https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-marketing/

Industrial Academy: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-academy/

Industrial Dojo: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial_dojo/

Safety With Purpose Podcast: https://safetywithpurpose.com/

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Business Beatitude the Book

Do you desire a more joy-filled, deeply-enduring sense of accomplishment and success? Live your business the way you want to live with the BUSINESS BEATITUDES…The Bridge connecting sacrifice to success. YOU NEED THE BUSINESS BEATITUDES!

TAP INTO YOUR INDUSTRIAL SOUL, RESERVE YOUR COPY NOW! BE BOLD. BE BRAVE. DARE GREATLY AND CHANGE THE WORLD. GET THE BUSINESS BEATITUDES!

Reserve My Copy and My 25% Discount

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

safety, cme group, industrial, people, problem, create, oxygen, christine, industry, conversations, maintenance, reliability, big, desensitized, year, absolutely, lily, assets, safe, skilled worker

00:04

Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's get all right. Once again, thank you very much for joining the industrial talk podcast of the number one industrial related podcast in the universe. Where we celebrate industry heroes like you, you are the miracle, you are the hope you are the individuals that create dreams. You're bold, you're brave, you dare greatly. You solve problems. You're always curious. And that's why you're changing lives. And you're changing the world. We have a great interview. Her name is Christine a Witte, now it's spelled wi t t, but it's pronounced Witte, and she's got a major stack card out there. Let's get cracking. Yeah, we're gonna be talking about safety on this podcast. And it's always been an interesting dilemma, personally, is that when we start talking about safety, the data, what for whatever reason, the data never really changes. The focus is always on safety. I see all of the wonderful posters out there right? in the workplace saying, hey, you're the You're the reason to be safe. All of that good stuff tried to be motivational. But the data doesn't support that. And I have always been fascinated. Christine came to me. And she says, Scott, I think an interesting way of looking at safety is this. Safety should be prioritized across all verticals of the industry. Yes. But what if everyone looked at safety, the way that we look at our children? Yeah, why not? Why is it sort of all of a sudden, different. When we step out of the house, we go to our location and safeties, we say safety is important. But we just continued, sort of go through the motions. But then all of a sudden, you're not going to let your kids just run across the street without being safe, you're not going to let your children do something like climb a ladder without being safe or not, or explaining some of the challenges. I think that's a brilliant point of view. All right. Again, I'm going to be harping on these events, because I want me personally selfish reason and get back to normal as much as we possibly can. I want to get back to normal, I want to have fun, I want to be able to continue to just sort of sing the praises of industry. first event that I want to put on my calendar would be October 5 through the seventh. And it is a beautiful Barcelona. And if you've never been to Barcelona, it is a must. I mean, you got to go to that town. It's great. And hopefully I'll be broadcasting from that location. But it's a great event brought to you by IoT solutions World Congress, Farah, Barcelona, and the industrial internet Consortium, great people putting on a great program. Last year, it was cancelled, of course, this year, boom, you got to put that on your calendar that is once again October 5 through the seventh this year. The next event is in Cleveland, Ohio, and is the manufacturing and technology show. This is November 9 through the 11th. And again, I was in Cleveland last year, wonderful people, great food, exceptional venue, a, again, a wonderful opportunity to get back to normal. Go to that manufacturing and technology show November 9 through the 11th. But fear not all of this information will be out on industrial talk.com homepage, which we are redesigning as we speak so that you don't have to struggle finding these great events or great learning opportunities are wonderful speakers. Right there right now. All right. Great stat card on Christine Woody. So you got to reach out to her. And she is with the same group. And let's just check out her. What Oh, she's the director of products and service with CME Group. The website CME Group. That's s e a m gr o up, Christine, a Witte like city. Enjoy the interview. Christine, welcome to the industrial talk podcast absolute honor that you found time in your busy schedule to be on the number one industry related podcast in the universe. And I mean that from my heart. How are you doing? Great, Scott, thank you for having me here today. Excellent. You are absolutely wonderful. I'm excited about the conversation in safety. Just let's level set a little bit. You're with the same group. Give us a little background on what you do is seen? Yes, of course.

04:57

I'm with Steam group. We are focused on reliability, maintenance and safety. I am the director of product and services. And today we're going to talk about something that's very near and dear to my heart safety.

05:09

I love it. Because let's just sort of, let's just lay it out on the just right there, let's be candid about it. We talk a lot about safety. But for whatever reason, we don't, we still don't make a dent in the data. And what what I like about CME Group is that I've had conversations about reliability, I've had conversations about maintenance, and I have constant conversations about safety. But it's marrying those two, but you have a unique, unique approach to how we look at safety. And I got to tell you, I'm a big fan of that approach. So with that said, let's talk a little bit about that. We're looking at and I think because you're a mother, mother of four beautiful children, looking at safety, from the perspective of kids is a real powerful way of looking at it.

06:03

Can you explain a little bit about that? Yeah, you know, I think that's kind of what we're missing in the industrial space. It's desensitized, and we're not. It's not emotional for us. But if you put yourselves in the shoes of a parent, and you look at safety, the way that you protect your children, it's very emotional, it's always top of mind, you don't even if you're late for school, you don't rush, you know, across the road, when cars are flying by you still take the exact steps you knew you need to take to keep your children safe. But what we see in the industrial space is quite the opposite. We see this lacs way of approaching safety where you've done it once you can do it again. And there isn't that emotional tie to it. If anything, safety is almost an antithesis of you know, the productivity because if you make a mistake, you're punished for it, and your peers look down on you. And it's, it's really, it's fine. There's not an advocate for safety in the way that there's an advocate for protecting your children know

06:57

that big time hit the nail on the head, you're absolutely spot on. I guarantee it companies out there, that we have the conversation. Things happen if you're moving around out in the field, things happen. And and those things that are happening could be unsafe, it could be near me, and and nobody wants to get into an accident or whatever. But we do. And then when that happens, we get the hammer thrown down on us. And we learn quickly how to fudge and not look at the numbers properly, whatever it might be, we

07:32

be rear we know we loo catalyzed so we want to hide and that that you know penalization is driving a problem because then you're you know, we probably aren't being transparent about all the things that are unsafe. And there isn't that closed loop process. It's very much it's an opposing relationship. And I think that, you know, there's no compromise. There's no new, diverse or innovative way of looking at it, we really need to change that, Scott, it's a if you look at the statistics, you would actually be appalled.

07:59

To give us give us an

08:00

f1 from from a webinar, a webinar that Terry O'Hanlon, he's a big reliability leader, great mentor of mine 10 times more industrial technicians die per year than first responders from accidents in the industrial space that could have been prevented. We know all these failure modes are we know where all these hazards hit. But we rush or we forget or a manager is pushing for something to be completed. And that particular person wasn't the skilled worker that should have completed that task. There's all these reasons why they happen. But technicians aren't first responders. They shouldn't be risking their lives every day. I mean, to me, I don't that doesn't sit well with me and and then you look at OSHA intend to OSHA was to drive safety. And for 50 years, they've been putting all these processes and regulations in place. But in the last 10 years, the serious injuries and fatalities have increased or they've plateaued. They have not decreased, like some of those slips and falls, right. So why there's a lot of reasons one thing that we've talked about it seem is there's this like disproportionate relationship between the minor injuries and the serious injuries and we take the same approach to safety that we deal with slips and falls to burns and and crushes basically which are the ones that are the biggest Yeah, the biggest reason for for lost lives. And it's

09:25

just the culture it's just I don't know what it would take and I'll give you an example. If I go out to whatever social platforms out there, okay fine. And I look and I scroll eyes, hips, hips, I will always fall upon my heartbreaking for that abandoned dog, I will always look at things differently, but then when it comes to people in the field in the in the plants you know, yeah, whatever you become, like you said, desensitize What do we do? What do to change? that mindset,

10:00

we become desensitized because we're looking at a fine, or we're looking at a, you know, piece of paper that has showed a reduction in our safety rating. We're not looking at the life that was lost, we're not hearing the story about that gentleman at 30 years old, who got electrocuted and doesn't go home to his family and his kids. That is something you can't be desensitized to, you remember that. But instead, we see Oh, so and so let's just say Johnson Controls has been decreased to a level or a safety rating of B, which means that their vendors won't let them in. And that's what we think about. And that's the wrong way to think about it. It has

10:36

punitive, financial, motivator and punch, fortunately, and you're right, you're right. Anybody out there knows that that doors will be closed, my, my financial livelihood will be impacted if I come. And that's, that's at all levels. I can't get into businesses, I can't get hired all of this, it happens everywhere. And so you are incentivizing people to not tell the truth, fudge the numbers just because I gotta keep my doors open. I don't know where you start.

11:12

Yeah, let's go back to kids. So we think about how we raise our children to speak up if they see something unsafe, if they see a stranger and stranger danger, and they screen it and they have no problem. There's no mental model holding them back from being very vocal about what's not safe or tattletaling, when their sister or brother does something unsafe. But in the industrial space, we see something, but we don't necessarily say something because we feel that I may be penalized for bringing this up. Or maybe it's not a big deal, because I don't have the skill set or the knowledge or the experience to know that that is actually a very big hazard that I should be mitigating. It's, it's just not clear. It's not part of the culture. And we have all these trainings and education, but it doesn't stick, you'll see an increase maybe in the, I guess the safe, safer ways of doing things. But then, months later, it's back to normal, because that change process hasn't been put in place that it hasn't been ingrained in their souls and their hearts the way it is, when we protect our kids. I mean, that's the only real way i can think about it. And if we compare it to other industries, like let's look at healthcare, the innovation that happened, look at COVID, we, the 10 years it takes to do to create go through the drug trials, now we do it in six months, three pharmaceutical companies did it in six months, they came together knowing we had no choice that innovation needs to happen in the industrial space, how I think there's a technology enabled part of this, I don't know specifically what that is, same group is looking into different things like heat mapping to show risk. So you actually know what that risk could be based on the different processes within the plant and the and they change the different workers at different processes, the different regions, but you still as a human have to take ownership. And from the top down, it has to be cultural.

12:55

You know, it's interesting, it's always a human element. It's always the necessity for somebody to truly champion who has the swag for whatever reason to be able to, to instill and move forward with change, because the reality is, somebody come flying in, hey, we're going to be safety centric, whatever company, and then that individual flies back out. nothing really happens. business takes over, I need to, you know, make my production numbers. That means I've got to cut corners. That means I've got to do things that are unacceptable. And you know what the problem is? Everybody does the same thing. It's not just one person that's just been a, you know, a cowboy out there and just plays in a truck. No, everybody, everybody's doing it. And I think I think a way a possibly moving that needle just a little bit. It has to be down at the local level, but you have to do it incrementally. So that it creates I think you said stickiness. Tell us what do you think? Yeah, I

14:07

think um, as you're saying that I'm thinking about something that's personal to me that's worth sharing because it shows that it's an ecosystem of different players that must come together from the leadership to the manufacturer. So the OEMs to the regulators to the reinsurer. So, I think about my daughter Lily, when she was in they were all born very premature. They were triplets right of course, they're born premature, but they were doing pretty well. And Lily was on an oxygen Blender that was supposed to be giving out a certain amount of oxygen. And that diet was set on room air which is 21%. Right Lily never decided and if you think about you know your oxygen levels, your D sat all day long, a little bit here a little bit there. Lily was always at 100%. So right there, that's an anomaly that someone should have questioned. Everybody called her super baby instead. They didn't question why knowing they'd never seen that before. They just thought Wow, she's a super baby. Okay, but then when they would take for up to clean her, she would reset drastically. So they just assumed she doesn't like that. But as a clinician, you know that that's not realistic. And the layers of ignorance beneath those assumptions. Wasn't anyone's fault. But there wasn't that culture of it doesn't look right. So let's question it. Let's come together. And, you know, roundtable on it a couple weeks later, Lou is getting trios for her retinal development and tortuosity for blood vessels because of over oxygen over oxygenation. So toxic levels of oxygen are being saturated into her blood vessels, which in her retina, which is known as retinopathy of prematurity, and that is common, and babies that need a lot more oxygen, to stay alive, so that they can actually, um, their brain can develop, but in babies that don't need it, it's very detrimental. And it's kind of a skill that the clinician has to weigh very carefully. So long story short, that oxygen Blender was mis calibrated, during preventative maintenance, and there was no way to actually confirm that that preventative maintenance was done correctly. And that that 21% was getting off 21%, it was the opposite was getting off 70%. So what happened then, is the standard of care changed. Now every oxygen blender, every baby that goes on a blender, they check it with a dial to make sure that it is actually calibrated correctly. And every time they change it, they recheck it. So they've created some sort of redundancy, so that the last one to defense isn't that sticker on the back of the in the industrial space, we don't do that we don't. And then, and then outside of that, even the OEMs get involved now. And the manufacturers have of the RVM, pulse oximeters and the digital analyzers that show you what you're really getting, they all get involved. And they talk about this issue that occurred, the new standard of care and the safety net to prevent it from happening again. And it's spread throughout the neck us right, because they come together to say we're going to protect babies going forward from ever having this happen having this happen again. But we don't do that in the industrial space, we hide it, it's under the rug, we don't hear about it, we just know there was a fine someone died on with your business, there has to be some sort of way that all these stakeholders come together. And they say no more as a manufacturer of this equipment, this enterprise asset, let's say, as a regulator, as a reinsure, as a company, who has people that are employed to do a job, all of these people within this ecosystem need to come together and create a safety net around safety. And I think when that happens, it's not so disparate. It's not so silent, it's not so opposing, it's um, it's a commitment and a family and, and a culture, I guess, is the best.

17:34

I hear what you're saying, I hear what you're saying. And I think that really, from my perspective, the only way that I see it really getting done, it's got to be one company at a time, that company has to realize that maybe some of the, there will be difficult conversations. And in those difficult conversations, you can't sit there and hammer people and and teach them to hold back. It's got to be inclusive in areas like it's that is the mindset to have. I'll give you an example. When I was alignment, climate towers, we didn't have people falling out of the sky, there's no way right, you knew what the risk were you looked around, you had that conversation, they were just touching, you know, energized lines. That didn't happen, you would have these conversations all the time, you were aware of the risks you were in, and it's life or death, right? It's either or it's it's on or off, it doesn't matter. And it's amazing that our conversations were around like that safety. And people aren't, like I said, fallen out of the sky kicking up and up, I believe in a manufacturing or a highly complex system. Unlike maybe linework, where you see it in front of you. These you know, you've got different locations within an organization requiring different sensitivities that that level of knowledge has to amp it up from perspective to

19:08

just covered a few things that are part of the problem is there's a continuously growing gap in skilled workers. There's a it's a very big problem. You know, I'm on a government or Government Relations Committee for this problem to try to create apprenticeships to fill that gap as all of these workers aged out, but then you have these these mechanical systems, these electrical systems that are much more complicated and and have all these different components that there's just no awareness or knowledge bank, on how to appropriately maintain them, how to even inspect them, how, what type of, you know, protective equipment to have when you inspect them, and that's where I believe technology is going to help us there. But the complexity of the, you know, these innovative systems and the skills gap. Oh, that's something that I wouldn't want to be responsible for you

19:59

bring up a Really interesting challenge. Like when I was alignment, I went through an apprenticeship program, it took four or five years to get to a second step, journeyman. And it was, you know, you're doing it, you're working it, and you understood, and it was an apprenticeship, and you had to take tests, you had to progress anyway. It, it seems to me that, that that commitment to education from an industrial perspective, and an apprenticeship approach is lacking, too. And that means and, and that the sophistication of the assets that exist in the field today have just went through the roof. It's not just a pump, it's a pump with a lot of tech to it.

20:44

And the people designing those are these brilliant engineers that don't understand the use case for the actual, you know, how they take shape in a plant, an intern last summer, and she's a mechanical engineer at Duke, she had no idea what reliability and maintainability of these assets mentioned, you know, as a field to understand that, when these systems are commissioned, how they're maintained across their asset lifecycle, and that to me was like, wow, we need to do a better job. While these, you know, during the education phase of it, but also, they're complex, because these kids are, you know, stem, stem, stem computer lab, everything is taking what happened to just the normal trade school, like those, I don't think they're there anymore, at least, you know, my high school, I could have went to shop, I could have went to homag, I could have went to, you know, become a cosmetologist. Now, those programs, there's no funding, and they've been replaced with computer labs, which of course, that's a great thing for advancing that part of where we're going. And we need that because automation and visualization, we need to have those skills, but we're going to instill new people to fix these machines to maintain these machines to understand how to, that's a big gap. Big problem.

21:52

I think if you could communicate a level of sophistication, before you were just like a wrench Turner over here, and that's where you were going in your wrench-turner, that's not the case. I look at the the profession of reliability, the profession of safety, the profession of maintenance, like a doctor, if you can communicate, you've got a sick asset out there. And you're you're consuming the data, you're looking at it, you're assessing the situation, and then you're going to apply, you know, whatever the care needs to be. We have a need to be able to communicate, and to be able to make sure that it's it's not it's not a wrench Turner, it's far more important. It's sophistication.

22:38

It is that's what when you mentioned the doctor, it's like, have you heard of this concierge doctors where they really manage your wellness, not just your, your physical exam, it's your wellness, it's your you know, it's all inclusive. So I don't go once a year to get checked, I am managed 365 days a year, 24 hours a day to ensure that I am well and then I am mitigating things that will make me unwell staying ahead of them. We don't do that with assets, we check them because we have to. Yep, check off got my piece of paper I'm done. I think we need a concierge we're maintaining these pieces of equipment. And I think that's exactly what we used together. Safety, reliability and maintenance. So potentially that's where the issue is and or that's where the opportunity is. And we now need to figure out how to land that and expand it to make it stick.

23:22

Yeah, and I love the the term stickiness because you're absolutely spot on. I've been at involved with many organizations, everybody talking like we're going to be a reliability centric organization. You come back six year or a year from now, and it's all falling apart safety, they've gone All right, we're gonna put up all the posters around, but it still doesn't change it. And and and their maintenance is still reactive, and still causing a lot of problems. Yeah, exactly. Right. It just happens. And I don't know. It's it's cultural doc got it. If you could come up if if CME Group could come up with a, a cogent way of being able to create that whole holistic view of moving forward and keeping people safe and, and assets up and running and maintenance? Oh, gosh,

24:17

I have no doubt we will. I mean, we're all very passionate about it. And when we understand what needs to happen, we know we'll get there we're figuring out exactly how to get there so that it does all these problems across regions. And different use cases because it isn't a one size fits all. It has to be flexible and it has to be you have to be able to tweak it for our audience and for whatever they're doing. You're in that space. You have to

24:39

one size does not fit all and and you're absolutely spot on. And you're going to have to have that insight and vision to be able to adjust and to mold that program. Alright. You had me at safety. How do people get ahold of you?

24:58

I can be reached pretty much The email text phone I LinkedIn Find me on LinkedIn. Christine O'Rourke Witte is where you'll find me but go to CME Group comm check out our websites, check out our LinkedIn page, you'll see me on there. And I look forward to talking to you guys. If you have any ideas for us, we have a challenge that we can solve for you. You know, we'd love to help. Again, it's a great group, we're very passionate about what we're doing and where we're going.

25:26

I have to say that I love that that triad view of and I'm looking out at the website, the CME Group website, which is really nice. In that triad view of safety, reliability and maintenance. Yes. But in the real world, we always like maintenance, it's over here. Reliability is that person in the thing and safety is over here. There's no it's not across but it is across it is a part of that. Oh, you are just absolutely wonderful Christy now, listeners, her last name is wi t t e with E like city and CME Group SCA m gr. o u p is the organization. Absolutely great, great, great. Team out there. Good job, Christy. Thank you, Scott. It was a pleasure. All right, listeners, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. So if you're not, we're gonna have all the contact information of Christine and the same group. So stay tuned. You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network. All right. What did I tell you? Did you like that topic? I thought that topic was exceptional. If everyone looked at safety, the way we looked at our trip, yeah, things would be changed that data, that data would go down in a big way. CME Group is a company, check her out. Great stat card out on LinkedIn, you will not be disappointed. All right. To reiterate, we've got a couple of events. Let's get back to normal. We've got one October 5 through the seventh. This is IoT solutions. We'll Contreras Congress is brought to you by fair Barcelona and the industrial internet Consortium. Absolutely great people, great companies putting on a great, great show. The other one is the manufacturing and technology show. That is November 9 through the 11th. Get your focus up to Cleveland, and enjoy this particular event because you will not be disappointed. All right, be bold, be brave, daring, greatly hang out with people who are bold, brave, daring greatly. Be the creator of drapes, be the miracle. Be the hope. That's what industry is all about. Thank you very much for joining the industrial talk podcast. We're gonna have another great interview right around the corner.

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In this week's Industrial Talk Podcast, we're talking to Jennifer Gremmert, Executive Director at Energy Outreach Colorado about “Energy with a heart. Keeping your neighbor, safe, warm and healthy”. Get the answers to your “How Can I Help” questions along with Jennifer's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, energy, jennifer, home, funding, community, colorado, programs, challenge, podcast, families, natural gas, organization, utility, big, collaborate, partners, talking, industrial, health

SPEAKERS

Scott MacKenzie

00:04

Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go. Alright, welcome to the industrial talk podcast. My name is Scott MacKenzie, and thank you very much for joining this platform. This platform this podcast celebrates you, the women and men of industry. You are bold. You are braver. You dare greatly you changing the world and you're changing lives. Why not? Why not celebrate you because you deserve it. I'm a big fan of yours, FYI. So if anybody says, I don't have any fans, they're lying. Because you have one right here. Scott MacKenzie? industrial talk podcast. Okay, we're gonna be starting a new series. Now, this series is interesting. And we're gonna kick it off, and we'll get some more information. And in the hot seat, her name is Jennifer Gremmert. Right. And she is the executive director at energy outreach Colorado. We're speaking about the heart and helping people. How can you complain against that? Come on, let's get rockin. She's a firecracker. A lot of fun. Cool. As cool can be. That's who Jennifer is. But before we get going, I mentioned it briefly in the, you know, quickly. Now, this is interesting. So there's a, there's a desire on this part in a number of really great people who have a desire to sort of make sense of all this. So there's sensemaking, right? Of all of this COVID stuff, what do we do? Now, on this particular podcast, you've heard me hammer on and on and on, about the necessity to rebuild or survive, rebuild and prosper, right? What do we do? What are the strategies? How do we make sense of that 2020 is behind us. 2021 is right ahead of us. And we need strategies, we need people to be able to provide insights on what we can do to survive, rebuild and prosper. We have to you have to we have to make this happen. Because we're all about and and this is how it started talking about collaboration, right? collaborate, we just can't do it on ourselves collaborate, innovate, because we got to think differently. We've got to, I mean, we just have to, not just from a technology perspective, but just more into the how do we relate? How do we communicate? How do we make people succeed? How do we solve problems. And then, of course, the big one, for me, the huge one, for me, the biggest one of the bunch, is educate, and that's where sense making comes into play. We have been through a challenging year, some more than others. Some are tough. I mean, you get you get the various degrees. But the reality is, nobody's going to sit there and say, I was sort of a normal year, it wasn't right. And so myself, cap logistics, and others have come up with this program that we're putting, trying to put a meat on the bones as we speak, we're going to drive a flag in this, you know, in the ground, but it is a way of being able to create real, real masterminds that have real insights to solve real problems that you and others can truly execute, not just from, from a business, but all the way up into the government level and downward and, you know, an extend out, how do we help people succeed? How do we help people

04:01

survive? Right? What are the strategies and tactics in it, because I've been talking about collaboration, this is purely a collaborative effort. And Jennifer, here is the first one out of the gate. So this is how it rolls, we'll do podcasts, we will definitely start talking about all of the the details associated with what Jennifer does and others do. And then we start to collaborate and collect all that information. And then on January, put this on your calendar, January 28, we're going to be talking about the community side of this effort, right, and how we can help the community from the perspective of people who are truly and companies who are truly in the trenches, and helping people succeed. And then we're going to do that, not just from that we're going to do it from an academic point of view. We're going to do it from a business point of view. And we're going to do it from a government point of view. And we're going to create an incredible network and across All mastermind group that you can collaborate with, and, and everybody, everybody wins. And that's what we're trying to do. And we're using the platform such as industrial talk, podcasts, videos, all the media that we can possibly muster up to be able to get that message out and get you tactical solutions. That makes sense, because we're in them sensemaking business, how's that? I'm worn out. One little intro, and I'm worn out. All right, let's get on with the interview. Because she's wonderful. She's with an organization called energy outreach. Now, this is what's interesting about it. They help people and they start with, with their energy bills, and with their that are maybe challenged in some way, shape or form, they're able to sort of help keep that light on, keep the energy going, keep the natural gas paid, and be able to help them from from truly an overall health perspective. survive. And this isn't it. This isn't Colorado, but but pretty much every state has a similar organization. And I just I love this stuff. I love when people put their their thoughts into action. and her team at energy outreach, Colorado, puts it into action. And we need more people like Jennifer, you need to step up and we need to just do our part. There's a lot of people that need help. And there are a lot of great organizations and a lot of great people like Jennifer, that want to help. And that can provide an excellent avenue to make that happen. Right. Let's start talking about caring. Let's start talking about giving of your time and effort and not having or expecting anything in return. Because your heroes, you are industry heroes, and this platform is for you. So let's get on with the interview. Jennifer Gremmert. Now that's gr e m. Ma. e. RT, the organization is Energy Outreach Colorado. And she's a fireplug. So enjoy the interview. Jennifer, welcome to the industrial talk podcast. I'm telling you. I'm looking forward to this conversation. How are you doing?

07:12

I'm doing great. Thank you for having me.

07:14

All the way from Colorado. It's cold over there. Do you have you got snow?

07:20

Yeah, it was supposed to snow tonight. So is it really? Yes.

07:26

Love the snow? We don't get enough of that here. Well, we get none. In Louisiana. Maybe maybe the part of the top of the boot but not not here in old New Orleans area. Now. What it does, it's a national security issue. You know, it's one of those problems. So anyway, for the listeners out there, now we're gonna have a great conversation I and I am just jacked about it. Give us a little background, who you are, and why you're such an incredible professional, then we're gonna venture on into the interview itself.

07:53

Sure. So I'm Jennifer Bremmer, I'm the executive director of energy outreach Colorado. So we're a statewide nonprofit whose mission is to ensure that all Coloradans can afford home energy. And I've been fortunate to be with this organization for over 20 years, I've spent my entire career in the nonprofit sector focused on affordable energy, affordable housing, economic literacy, even did a little higher education. But I am a person who really enjoys fundraising, I enjoy re purpose funding to help those in need. I've made a made a career out of it.

08:34

So but how does somebody like you? Why, why? Why is this? Why did you get involved?

08:44

I think I grew up in a family that was all about, you know, economic equality and sort of knowing that there's a lot of people that have more than me, but so many more people that have left. And so when I kind of discovered the nonprofit sector, as a career opportunity, I kind of jumped on it. I have an Economics and Political science background. So I like that intersection of policy and, you know, money, map and, and distribution of resources. I discovered energy outreach Colorado in the mid 90s. I was the fourth employee hired. And this was when energy, you know, it's always been obviously a critical need, and basically, but it was a little simpler than it is now. Right? It was sort of the framework that we had of our energy sector was how it was designed 100 years ago. And in that transition, we've seen huge shifts in how energy is delivered and the importance of it. And so it's been really an exciting field to be in and to be able to help people access affordable, reliable energy. It's been a great joy.

09:54

It's a it's an interesting journey, to say the least because what I mean when you start talking about The necessity to provide it's the state of Colorado. It's not just it's the state. Okay. There, there's a community out there that needs help there needs assistance. And power is pretty important. I mean, I, I put it right there at the top of necessities within a family people's lives. How has you How have you seen it sort of change from when you started to where you are today? And where do you see it going?

10:33

But I think, you know, it's, we're in a post COVID conversation, right? So people are home, they understand what he and energy means to them. But they understand the health of the home and how that relates, I think we're also seeing, you know, climate change being a big conversation, you know, reduction in carbon. When we think about energy, we tend to think about, maybe it's gasoline in our cars, we don't tend to think about the natural gas or electricity coming into our homes. And so from that consumer perspective, you know, I think about energy all the time. Most people spend human fear, they just take for granted that they turn right at the beginning, do

11:17

I'm one of them, but it's like, we had a storm come through a power's out, have gone, what is going on here?

11:22

What have they not done? Exactly, I think of Louisiana and the impact of power, wise writing, you know, and I think this is something that we just have to, you know, balance of how energy comes to us how we use it, you know, the value that it has in our lives. And then as we look at sort of this transformation of energy, right, that we want to produce energy in different ways that we want to consume it in different ways that we're starting to have technology that allows us to control that usage differently than it used to. And I think we are continuing to understand what a vital resource it is, and what a highly nuanced conversation is, in terms of energy generation, how it comes into our home, is something that's evolving really, really rapidly again, when you think of the proposition of how energy is delivered, it's been sort of traditionally done, or over 100 years. And in the last, I would argue, 10 to 15 years, it's completely transforming.

12:23

It's being driven by a lot of innovation. I mean, there's a lot of innovation going on there now, but I'm gonna I'm gonna have to address the the elephant in the room. And that's COVID. Right? Yeah. A, you have a community and that community is in need. What are your biggest challenges, especially today, and the uncertainty of the future? What's your biggest needs?

12:43

So pre COVID, about one in four Colorado households qualify for our programs based on age. And what we're seeing post COVID is just more households that are underemployed or unemployed, that are just really struggling with resources, and also that, again, need for having energy in your home or home or in a residential usages. Right. So that affordability issue comes into play. You know, we've already seen some income inequality in this country that then gets exacerbated when you have a situation like this. And so we work really closely with, you know, our government partners, there's public funding that goes into both energy systems and energy efficiency. My organization fills in the gap for this problem vailable and then working with utility companies, to put people on payment arrangements to start moving talking about how we ensure people stay connected. And then how can we think about, you know, that intersection of energy, housing and health, really in terms of like looking at energy efficiency programs, and things that are going to make that home healthier while also reducing costs? So we're in a really interesting place right now, we've been developing programs over the last two years, we've got great partners across the state. But like you said, Colorado be, you know, kind of microcosm I work in, we have an urban corridor that has one set of issues. And we've been and regulated in vertically integrated utilities. We have eastern plains that are more of that Midwest, high plains that have smaller communities, rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities that work with and then we have resort communities where we have high concentration of wealth, but the people that we work with, or that we serve, are traveling multiple counties to really be the essential workers in those communities, they have much higher rates of conflict. So we have to balance all of those interests as we look at this work and not sort of a one size fits all, but really integrate with what people need. And we're fortunate that we have strong partners.

14:54

Yeah. Do you see any? I mean, I know there's a Do you have a crystal ball type thing however, one of the challenges I mean, really, with your market here with this COVID, because, quite frankly, your services, your solutions are truly needed. We need to rebuild, we need to figure out solutions, and to help people, you know, survive and then rebuild, and so on, is vitally important. But what do you see probably that biggest issue that you've got to deal with, in your in your group?

15:32

Yeah, it's really meeting people where they are and what they need. So we do you have a holistic approach to this. So most people come to us in a crisis, they can't afford their energy bill, or they don't have access to heat. And so make sure that they, you know, get their furnace repaired or replace that we, you know, get them on a risk management program, you know, on a payment, a reason that we help pay that utility bill for them in their short term, then we really try to educate around, you know, conservation, what can they do to reduce the usage, what equipment can be replaced? And then we're looking at long term energy solutions that we do through a lot of regulatory and legislative work around energy policy. So what is the right design and community? How do people interact with their utility partner? How do we think about not only just individuals, but small business owners who are also really struggling in this? Yeah, you know, we're cut, we're trying to, basically, like, overall rates with what how we can deliver these, you know, innovative, and I think, really, you know, good programs to people to help reduce that burden. Because, again, we need a healthy workforce, you need people, you know, participation as much as possible. We also need healthy utility companies, there are cornerstones of a lot of our communities, and they're doing tremendous work, right. When you have a storm, you know, being able to be agile. But I think all of these in this transition, when you have any major transition like this, there's tensions. So I think that's where more education is around energy, in general, more conversation about it. It's not a black and white issue. There's a lot of nuances in this. I think innovation is exciting. And we're starting to figure out how we can get community solar gardens and get those subscriptions so that we can provide long term affordability for folks.

17:26

You said solar gardens,

17:28

correct? Oh, yeah. Gotcha, like a big solar array. So versus rooftop system, which may not be you know, I have a strong opinion about that, just because there's so much limited funding we have in this space, right, you know, thinking about where are the economies of scale, utility scale solar, solar gardens, there's all different terms. But I think, you know, as we look toward this transformation, again, there's ways are so much more affordable, etc. It's on par with the other source of energy. And so making sure that the families we represent paid into that system to subsidize it that they get access. And so we have to just kind of keeping sheep.

18:11

Here's the challenge I have, and and you in this short conversation, you've rattled off a ton of stuff. Yeah, you could do this, you could do this, you can do this, you can do this. But But let's, let's sort of narrow it down to let's say, three things that one can do. I mean, just right now. Sure, I can call you. I, I just, there's just and I don't have time, like, give me some Quick Hits here.

18:39

Well, I mean, in every community across this country, there are local organizations that are supporting vulnerable customers, you know, large organizations like Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army, those are groups that we work really closely with. But in every community, a lot of times there's a food bank, or a rental assistance program that also has introduced on top of it. So our local community partners are really, really good at finding out who those families are need. There's a lot of faith based institutions doing this. The challenge is every state does this a little bit differently. Right. There's federal programs that are that some are run by community action agencies, some are accounting. You know, I think, the there's a lie II Clearinghouse that sort of has a national view of this. You know, looking at all the different utility programs, it's kind of all over the place, because energy regulation and maintenance. But I can tell every, every state, there's an organization similar to ours, we're doing the kind of work we do. And I think, you know, look at what your utility company does when you donate bills. You know, help your neighbors right?

19:50

Right? I do like that now. That's all great. Okay. So I got a number that starts with the number or but surprised With power, if I don't have power, I'm having a hard time with enough. It's just like what? But anyway, let's say I can make that call and I can get that. So there's people out there and organizations, companies, whatever, are willing to help. Yes, you're still struggling?

20:14

Yeah, we have to look at what's happening with COVID, there's part of our population that's driving, they're working from home, nothing's changed, their expenses are down, we have more resources. And then we have a group of folks that are always going to be challenged because of the wages they have. They're maybe underemployed or working less hours, or they get sick and sick time. And so there's this balance that we're seeing. And so how can one group help support the other group? So there's a sort of a right, that there's a shared benefit of supporting these kinds of emergency assistance programs. And I think what we find is most of the families, I would say, over 75% of the families we serve, just need our help once or twice. If that one, I'm sort of immediate, something happened, right now, it's a lot of health challenges and job interruptions. But it could be a divorce, it could be something that just happens, all of a sudden, you don't have the income to make ends meet, you need a little bit of help. That's why we designed these programs. You know, for the other 25%, you're an older dog, maybe you're someone who's disabled as on income, and so your income doesn't change. So as other expenses, like you said, energy's top of the stack, because the bill that you pay first, but it's also interesting, because you pay for it after you write. So there's like a difference for that. And I think when we think about utilities, in general, what how broadband becomes so critical, how waters becomes open. And all these things are layering on top of each other. And so I think, you know, again, more awareness that we can have around affordability issues.

21:56

So okay, that's all great. So it's good. You're doing yeoman's work, it's fantastic. I love it. But there's got to be roadblocks, there's got to be challenges. It doesn't just, you know, wake up and go, Hey, check it out. Another check is in mail. Check it out. You know, what? I mean? What are the roadblocks?

22:16

I think, you know, funding's always a problem. I mean, I think that's, you know, regardless of what, you know, challenge you're trying to write and so what we try to do is use the best of the resources that we have, our funding comes from the taxpayers, utility, ratepayers, or donations. And so we take that very seriously and try to be as efficient as I think there's, you know, just a constant struggle around what's the best investment? And how do you, you know, make that I think the barriers that we have for the families we serve is, it's a lot of people, it's a very humbling experience to have to ask for help. In our sort of public assistance world, it's a lot of, you know, repeating yourself over and over tell your story. It's very humbling, it's hard to do. And I think what we're trying to figure out is how to better create systems and structures that can allow this assistance to flow in an easier way. And I think that's just something that we're always going to struggle with services,

23:21

and you're dealing with dignity. I mean, some people are probably having a hard time. And do you ever have to say, I'm sorry, we just because we just talked about funding? We can't help you. Do you say that? Or do you just say, yeah, we'll figure it out, we will figure it out.

23:40

We really try to figure it out. I think part of the challenge of the balanced public funding and private funding, is the public funding has a lot of caveats to it, you know, people have to do their due diligence, you know, in terms of distributing this funding, because that's the appropriate thing to do. The where we try to bring in flexible funding is to help ease that in situations, I'll give you an example. Let's say we have someone that has a really old furnace, and it dies. And they've been mandating it forever and ever. And we want to put in a high efficiency gas furnace, it's we have really affordable natural gas rates, do you think that's going to save them a lot of money, it's going to be better, but their electrical panel needs to be updated, or they don't have the right ventilation. So those are the things that in the past, a public firm may have to say, Oh, I'm sorry, we can't do this because we don't have the funding to bridge that difference. And that's where we really said, you know, we have so few opportunities to get into these homes. Let's help when we can. So how can you provide that flexible support, we're really starting to see tillys understand that health and safety aspect. You know, one other example is think of a child that has a chronic respiratory issue and they're constantly going back and forth to the hospital and we release them into a home that has You know, really poor indoor air quality, maybe really old carpeting that's holding on to a lot of dust and, you know, hair and things that are just exacerbating respiratory problems. What if we went in and made that home healthier? reduced that, you know, kind of impact on that household? Can we then track reduced health costs and improve, you know, quality of life and less school?

25:24

Work? I

25:25

mean, I think we have to really start making these connections more broadly. And, and I think that's just the nature of when you start to really experience this individually. You know, in Colorado, we had fire wildfires all summer, where they would open their windows at night to let fresh air in, and they could, you know, that all of a sudden changes the equation for people about what is you know, health and home? energy?

25:54

Yeah,

25:55

interesting conversation.

25:56

Yeah, that's a tough one you're absolutely spot on. And yet, yeah, there are so many little variables that you have to deal with. Are you always just sort of sitting there one day is like, man, I didn't think about I've been doing this for 20 years. I didn't think about that one.

26:10

Yes, it's constant. And I said it like the 30,000 foot level, right? I think big solutions big. And then my staff will come to me, and they're like, I'm in a building, and I can't fit the new furnace in the elevator to get to the boiler. And

26:28

I'm sorry, for laughing. That's funny. It's true. No, I

26:31

mean, we had a house where there was a tree growing through the house, and then you're like, Okay, well, what pot of money do I use to fix that? You know, working in rural communities that don't have the same inner connection. You know, we, we've done work on. And I was just telling somebody that's like, in southern Colorado, we still have a lot of families that use wood as their primary heating source. And so there's like an indoor air coffee component to that challenge, right. But there's a style aspect of it. And so we don't want to just replace it without thinking about customer choice. But if people you know, it's a bad it's always about, and I think we always try to think of it from the customer perspective and family, and how can we help them meet the needs that they have without, you know, changing?

27:22

And it's so funny, because when we start talking about energy, I I naturally gravitate toward power. Right. But it's it's also natural gas. It's a it's it's all components. propane. See? I just naturally it's like, Yeah, I got the power comes into that line. Yeah, yeah. But no, it's it's much, much grander than that. Now, once again, if pre via a pre COVID was one and four, do you have any ideas of what it's going to be in? Well, whatever you call this, this next normal ish, post, whatever?

28:00

No, I don't I mean, I think we're just trying to stay nimble. What we do know is our need is up about 40%, you know, from where it was last year, at the same time?

28:11

Oh, sorry.

28:12

Our agency partners are just seeing, you know, so much more need in terms of food assistance and rental assistance. And so again, civil money. You know, I think there's been a lot of great efforts, you know, at the federal level, and certainly at the state of Colorado, we just were awarded $5 million through a special session, the governor, and have initiated with our legislature and the legislature has been, you know, terribly supportive. But I think it's these are just drops in the bucket that are trying to get us through. And so there's, again, how we don't know exactly how long it will go. We know there's a lot of people struggling, I think we're trying to make sure that people that are kind of new to this situation may not have

28:56

Yeah, in the past, I would imagine this, like I would never know, I wouldn't know, I wouldn't even be like, dang, I can't pay my bills, then I wouldn't know where to go from there.

29:11

And what I want people to know is like, there's a lot of us working really hard to generate resources, so we can help you in that time. Yeah, I also think people need to reach out to their utility. Because those those companies have programs in place. They're, they're putting doing payment arrangements, they you know, have a lot of knowledge and really, they want to keep you as customers. it's in their best interest. And so we have to kind of work together this temporary area, and I think that's again for small businesses as

29:43

well. Yeah, we're gonna have to wrap this up. Now, let me ask you this, if I will, I would say I've got a lot of cash in my pocket and I want to give it to somebody and I want to give it to you. Where do I go?

29:54

You go to WWW dot energy outreach.org our website has all of our programs and then partners people can figure out where to access health. You know, for you as an individual, we also have programs and health like multifamily affordable housing or nonprofits and their efficiency, then you can connect to national partners that we have that do this work all across the country. Energy outreach.org

30:21

check that out. Man. I have nothing to add to that I have. I can't even poke holes in that strategy. I mean, it's easy, go to energy. outreach.org.

30:31

Easy.

30:33

And you can get pretty much all the information. I guarantee you worst case scenario, I would imagine there's a phone number and say, Hey, I got a question. I mean, what else can you ask for?

30:44

We have lots of places to put that funding and we can order them in any way you want

30:49

to do it, because we do this. And we do this. We can do this. We can. I mean, it's amazing. Kudos to you and your team. absolutely wonderful. And I think that you're going to be needed more than ever increase by 40%. It's like there's there's a neat 40% increase down here. Awesome. I love you. This is good stuff. I love what you guys do. You're awesome. All right, you listeners out there. Yeah, no, no, no, it's all on this side listeners out there. I want you to get involved. So we're going to wrap it up on the other side, do not go away. Because we will be right back. You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

31:34

All right. Once again, thank you very much for joining the industrial talk podcast. How about that having heart, Jennifer Gremmert gr e m, m e r t is the name, the organization is energy, outreach, Colorado, go out to energy outreach.org get some information, you're not going to be disappointed. And people need your help. And I know that you guys are absolutely generous and kind, big hearted, just like Jennifer. All right. Again, January 28, is going to be the day that we're going to be sort of driving that flag in for this particular sort of mastermind group on how we will survive, rebuild and prosper. But with people who have a real vested interest in helping you and your company succeed, right. And they have insights, and we have to collaborate, we have to be innovative, we have to educate. And that's the real premise. So we have to make sense of all this. So that we understand what to do, where to go, and how we can definitely survive because we need you. It's it's that important. And these individuals, like Jennifer and others, are just willing to give up their time, their energy, their insights, their heart, to be able to help us in these very challenging times. All right. Everything that you can possibly imagine will be out at industrial talk Com. This particular podcast will have all those links. And then we're gonna continue to sort of pump on it. This was the first one out of the gate. Jennifer was kind enough to be able to say, Yes, I will do it. I see the vision. I understand it, and I want to be a part of it. Thank you, Jennifer. All right. Again, be bold, be brave, daring greatly. and hang out with people who are bold, brave and daring greatly, and you're going to change the world. And that's what you're all about. Because you're an industry and you do that. All right, thank you very much. And we're going to be back with another incredible podcast interview. Uh, shortly be safe.

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Industrial Talk Podcast continues its series on #OperationPhoenix to provide Hope, Optimism and Innovative Strategies for Action today and in a post COVID-19 world.

In this episode, we talk Talent Retention with Lisa Ryan, CSP, Founder and Chief Appreciation Strategist with Grategy on strategies to keep your top talent from becoming someone else's!

In this Industrial Talk episode, Lisa shares 3-Actionable Steps that will:

1. Increase retention
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3. With little time, money or effort to be successful

More than ever, technology and innovation is truly needed during this time of transition

Again, NOW is the time to evaluate and question every aspect of your business to ensure long-term viability and possibly increase your market share!

Over the coming weeks, Industrial Talk will be discussing tangible solutions to take Action today with a keen eye on success for the new future.

Bottom-line, NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PULLBACK! We need to be Bold, Brave and Dare Greatly to make this challenging time and opportunity for succeed.

Are You Ready? Find out how to excel in today's market on this episode of the Industrial Talk Podcast.

Learn more about Lisa on this episode and the links below:

LISA RYAN'S CONTACT INFORMATION:

Company Website: https://lisaryanspeaks.com/

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Do you desire a more joy-filled, deeply-enduring sense of accomplishment and success? Live your business the way you want to live with the BUSINESS BEATITUDES…The Bridge connecting sacrifice to success. YOU NEED THE BUSINESS BEATITUDES!

TAP INTO YOUR INDUSTRIAL SOUL, RESERVE YOUR COPY NOW! BE BOLD. BE BRAVE. DARE GREATLY AND CHANGE THE WORLD. GET THE BUSINESS BEATITUDES!

Reserve My Copy and My 25% Discount

The post Operation Phoenix: Retaining Top Industrial Talent Strategies with Lisa Ryan with Grategy appeared first on Industrial Talk.

Industrial Talk Podcast continues its series on #OperationPhoenix to provide Hope, Optimism and Innovative Strategies for Action today and in a post COVID-19 world.

In this episode, we talk enablement technology with Jeron Balzer, CSE, Founder and Senior Contributor with Floraldino on Strategies to Leverage Technology to Improve Communications and Workforce Engagement with a Fragmented workforce and Market! More than ever, technology and innovation is truly needed during this time of transition

Again, NOW is the time to evaluate and question every aspect of your business to ensure long-term viability and possibly increase your market share!

Over the coming weeks, Industrial Talk will be discussing tangible solutions to take Action today with a keen eye on success for the new future.

Bottom-line, NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PULLBACK! We need to be Bold, Brave and Dare Greatly to make this challenging time and opportunity for succeed.

Are You Ready? Find out how to excel in today's market on this episode of the Industrial Talk Podcast.

Learn more about Jeron and the wonderful team at Floraldino on this episode and the links below:

JERON BALZER'S CONTACT INFORMATION:

Company Website: https://www.floraldino.com/

Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeroenbalzer/

Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/floraldino/

PODCAST VIDEO:

THE STRATEGIC REASON “WHY YOU NEED TO PODCAST”:

OTHER GREAT INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES:

Safeopedia: https://www.safeopedia.com/

Industrial Marketing Solutions:  https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-marketing/

Industrial Academy: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-academy/

Industrial Dojo: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial_dojo/

Safety With Purpose Podcast: https://safetywithpurpose.com/

YOUR INDUSTRIAL DIGITAL TOOLBOX:

LifterLMS: Get One Month Free for $1 – https://lifterlms.com/

Active Campaign: Active Campaign Link

BombBomb: BombBomb Link

Social Jukebox: https://www.socialjukebox.com/

Industrial Academy (One Month Free Access And One Free Licence For Future Industrial Leader):

Business Beatitude the Book

Do you desire a more joy-filled, deeply-enduring sense of accomplishment and success? Live your business the way you want to live with the BUSINESS BEATITUDES…The Bridge connecting sacrifice to success. YOU NEED THE BUSINESS BEATITUDES!

TAP INTO YOUR INDUSTRIAL SOUL, RESERVE YOUR COPY NOW! BE BOLD. BE BRAVE. DARE GREATLY AND CHANGE THE WORLD. GET THE BUSINESS BEATITUDES!

Reserve My Copy and My 25% Discount

The post Operation Phoenix: Business Strategies that Leverage Technology for Success. appeared first on Industrial Talk.

The post Operation Phoenix: Business As Usual Is Dead! appeared first on Industrial Talk.

The post Operation Phoenix: Well-Being Strategies in times of Personal and Business Disruption appeared first on Industrial Talk.

The post Why You Need To Podcast – Ultra-Micro Content Creation! appeared first on Industrial Talk.

In this week's Industrial Talk Podcast we are continuing our series about Why You Need To Podcast! Again a podcast strategy is vital to improving your Sales and Marketing opportunities and to humanizes your Brand in 2020.

In this episode, we address “Podcast Sales Funnel Strategies”. The power of podcasting is that it's an incredible sales platform. We start at developing content that is focused on positive internal resources. The following episodes will also include strategies on Partners, Customers and Prospects. Stay tuned, we are going through all sales channels in the coming weeks. Find out how to bring in Sales by leveraging your podcast platform! Be Bold, Be Brave, Dare Greatly and Change the World!

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

00:01                                    Again Scott MacKenzie. We are talking once again about why you need to podcast. Now you heard my why, you've understood the necessity that I don't like the word. I can't. You can, I know you can as well as, um, the ability to humanize content. You need to be able to stand out, right? That's where we're out. Now we're getting into the sales component. That's where I'm really passionate about. Uh, if I didn't start the podcast back in my story because I, I needed to create a way of being able to, uh, bring about attention to my company and leverage something that is different in this hotel, numbness, this sameness that exists there in content. And now we're going to venture on into, uh, exactly what that is and we're going to just sorta go step by step because I'm going to limit the time to make sure that you understand and capture bottom line.

01:01                                    If you don't want to do the podcast, if you don't want to try to figure out how to do it, I've got all the information out there. But if you still don't want to do it or you're nervous about or whatever, you need to find somebody, you need to find somebody to be able to do it on a consistent basis because it is a powerful sales, marketing and branding platform. If you're out there on, uh, the watching it on video, we're going to go to a slide. All right? This is a, this is a slide and this is how I typically approach a target audience. This is how, uh, when representing other companies, this is how I approach my relationship with the companies. And now you can, you know, take off my hat, put your hat on and you can apply the same strategy, but we're going to go step by step.

01:51                                    So if you're out there on the video, we have four components for targeted audience market for content, okay? And one is internal. Those are internal people, the uh, partners, people that are partners to your solutions or whatever it might be, customers who have used your services in the past, like your solutions, whatever it might be. And of course that targeted prospect audience. So the first one, we're going to talk a little bit those, that's how I sort of arrange the way I look at how I am approaching the market using of course, the, the podcast platform. So the first one we're going to talk about in this episodes, it's internal. So once again, we talked about the podcast providing a really a human component to your content, your marketing material, your sales approach. And what we're doing with the podcast is being able to pull out that human component in the dialogue or in the conversation we have with whoever that might be.

03:09                                    And in this case, we're talking specifically about internal people. So I have a company, this is how it is. I have a company now I have internal people who would like to talk, who, who are passionate about what the organization is doing, what the company is doing, whatever that purpose might be. I'm going to identify these people because what I'm going to do is I'm going to build a content centric sort of strategy around the human, right? That's what makes sense. And I'm going to start with the easiest low hanging fruit out there. And that is the internal, those are the people that are internal to your organization. So what I do is I'll say, all right, company, Acme, whatever, my B, let's talk about getting some internal people that reflect and, and are a part of whatever you're doing now. It, it could be, it could be people that are in customer service, it could be your sales individuals, it could be, uh, operations, it, it could be a mix of all your internal people.

04:21                                    And this is what it does. One, they're very positive. It's an an without being an infomercial to your company. It's baked in because it's about your company. And what people hear is like, wow, they're very happy about this company. They're very passionate about what they do. They're excited about where the company's going. They like the purpose of the company. That's what you're trying to draw out in this conversation. And you highlight them. Hey, here's, here's Susie Q and we're going to talk a little bit about why she's so passionate about customer service. Here's Joe Guy and we're going to talk a little bit about their focus on, you know, maintenance, whatever it might be. But the reality is it's always positive. It's positive interaction. It is, it's just a great interview. You know what else it does outside of the whole sales component. Outside of all of that, you create an environment within your organization that's pretty excited.

05:22                                    It's pretty cool. Hey, you know what I did? I did an uh, I did a podcast where my company and it was a lot of fun and we had a great time. And just that alone creates a great culture, right? So the first thing out of the gate, right? You interview internal individuals. This is a part of building your content platform into a sales. And so you can, you can sit here and say, okay, here's the best part, another best part. Here's a, here's another part. You could sit there with this interview and then say, Hey, you know, customer, but you prospect, you know, prospect work. We're real passionate about our customer service and we just interviewed, uh, this person, uh, about customer service and why they're so happy about it and what, what they believe in. And these are the individuals that we highlight within our organization.

06:15                                    I just thought of you prospect, enjoy the conversation. All of a sudden you're giving information that is specific, impossible, possibly beneficial to your prospect about customer service, how your organization does customer service. It just goes on and on and you know what else? Now I'm going to take that podcast, I'm going to transcribe it, I'm going to use an automated transcription and now I'm going to put that on your website. And now all of a sudden, SEO wise, organic wise, now you have content, written content on your website that is specific to your organization, that is that you know, Google and other web search engines are looking for. And then all of a sudden you, you've got to keep building it, use your long tail strategies. So right off the bat, you need to do podcasting. You need to consider how to bring that into your organization.

07:18                                    And this strategy that we're going to go through over the, as long as it takes for you to realize that you need it, we're going to continue on this path. So today you got to think about it. Look at your internal, get everything all up there. It'll be out on industrial talk.com I mean, it's all available for you for free. And this is how I, me personally use this platform to sell, to, to gain attention, to create a better brand, to market my business. This is it. This is it. It starts internally and it makes people feel good. And you get your story out there, you transcribe it, it's all positive. So again, be bold. Be brave, dare greatly. I'm not going to belabor the point. Get it done. Become part of the podcast and let's see where it goes. So tomorrow we're going to be talking about your partners. So stay tuned. You're listening to the industrial talk podcast network.

PODCAST VIDEO:

RELATED PODCAST(S):

Why You Need To Podcast – My Why and Find Your Why!

Why You Need To Podcast – The Old Way

Why You Need To Podcast – I Can’t

Industrial Podcasting 101 – The Reason

OTHER GREAT INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES:

Safeopedia: https://www.safeopedia.com/

Industrial Marketing Solutions:  https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-marketing/

Industrial Academy: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-academy/

Industrial Dojo: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial_dojo/

Safety With Purpose Podcast: https://safetywithpurpose.com/

YOUR INDUSTRIAL DIGITAL TOOLBOX:

LifterLMS: Get One Month Free for $1 – https://lifterlms.com/

Active Campaign: Active Campaign Link

BombBomb: BombBomb Link

Social Jukebox: https://www.socialjukebox.com/

Industrial Academy (One Month Free Access And One Free Licence For Future Industrial Leader):

Industrial Talk Free Webinars:

Business Beatitude the Book

Do you desire a more joy-filled, deeply-enduring sense of accomplishment and success? Live your business the way you want to live with the BUSINESS BEATITUDES…The Bridge connecting sacrifice to success. YOU NEED THE BUSINESS BEATITUDES!

TAP INTO YOUR INDUSTRIAL SOUL, RESERVE YOUR COPY NOW! BE BOLD. BE BRAVE. DARE GREATLY AND CHANGE THE WORLD. GET THE BUSINESS BEATITUDES!

Reserve My Copy and My 25% Discount

The post Why You Need To Podcast – Podcast Sales Funnel Strategy appeared first on Industrial Talk.

Process, Process, Process!

With Elite Athletes, establishing and refining processes are vital to their success – it's an important step to honing and tracking progress. In this Industrial Talk Podcast we discuss the importance of Elite Industrial Professionals to establish and refine Business Processes and making this effort a Top Priority for Success.

Podcast Transcript:

[00:01]                                    The industrial talk podcast GO-BIG in just six minutes a day. Building a legacy of success in a rapidly changing industrial market. All right, welcome to the industry to talk podcast, so glad that you are here. Thank you very much for joining. My name is Scott MacKenzie. Let's get going. We're going to be talking about process.

[00:19]                                    Yes, Oh yeah, process, but before we get going, let's talk about that industrial grade toolbox. We've got two boxes and solutions, industrial grade and we want to make sure that you're looking at ActiveCampaigns, CRM. You need that for your email marketing BombBomb. That is that video email solution that brings out that human side of you and then Social Jukebox. Do more with less, be able to post to be effective at that. Social Jukebox is a great and powerful tool and then because we're about 100, 100% about your success, the content on this platform, the industrial talk platform is all about education to a Industrial Academy and the Industrial Dojo. Both are located out on Industrial Talk.com. Go around, get that information, continue to feed yourself with education because it's real important so that you definitely can be a success. Okay. This is a topic that is so important to me.

[01:24]                                    It is something that I have done for my entire 30 plus career in industry and it's always about processes, process, process, process. So let's start out with some data. And this comes from a Haploops. That's  Haploose. Anyway, support business processes because what we did, first off, we've talked about that a Elite Athlete in what they do right in that podcast. And then we had another podcast talked about Grit, determination, never giving up. That's also important. Now we're going to proceed into process. Okay? Inefficient business processes have five times more impact on the customer, then the delivery of a poor product, five times poor business processes. And here's a stat for you. 52% stated their organization, their organization, your organization. My organization had never or occasionally developed performance measurements to evaluate the success or failure of business processes.

[02:42]                                    So in essence, you're just sort of the businesses in general. And I can see how this happens because businesses just grow any fall then change and whatever it does, right, they just, it happens and it's so hard to sit back and say, okay, let's, let's map out these processes and then turn those processes with some, you know, a tax document it and because it's so important because another stat here, here's a successful business process analyst and design is that understanding the business processes and business process matrix strategies and goals will provide or reduce order cash cycles. Can you believe that that's money in your pocket or reduce process costs by 10 to 15% money in your pocket. So let's talk a little bit about what we're doing about process. Okay. You're saying to yourself, man, I do not. And I mean I do not want to get into a conference room and I do not want to just start running out processes and, and just sort of sitting there.

[03:51]                                    What I'm asking you, I did another podcast and that is that is defect elimination. You can run processes on Defect Elimination. Okay, so process. So what you have is very simple is a process box with two little lines. That is your hierarchy process. That's one, two. Then you have a process box that's just two, three. You have a decision box, it's a yes or no, right? Always in a question. Do we debt to debt, question mark and then another one, one is a document looking thing. Hey, that's a document. So when you have that conversation and that's a document, you put a document there and you'd define that document and then the final one, the final one is his end. That's it. That's all it is. We get into in the industrial world, we get into this effort of just like, okay, we've got to get down this process and we got to go so granular we got to just go deep, deep, deep, and it never ever gets done.

[05:01]                                    So I'm challenging you through defect elimination to run simple processes that just map it out. Just say you've got a problem. The problem state is, is got a problem. What is the process today? Well here it is. That doesn't work or it doesn't even exist. So here it is and then you're just map it out. Very simple and then you look at it and your team says, yeah, that that's pretty much what we'd like to do. Or, or the, yeah, that's the process. And then document it and just say that's it. You could always, and I mean always go back and do more, right? You can always be more focused on detail but, but we in industry, me too, I get tied up with a lot of other shiny objects, which is not a good habit to be in. And so it's important that we link Defect Elimination, you've got that Grit, you've got that determination and now we're going to be mapping out that process. And it's important because you want to get up, boom, know what you're doing and it has bottom line financial value to your business and your, your your work. Right. It makes sense. And, and I've got, I'm going to be creating a video out there that is going to be just all specific to prod processes because I'm that passionate

[06:34]                                    about it. And then you'll see what I do. And you're going to say that's it, but it's the fact that you're doing it right. It's the fact that you're documenting them and it's because you want bottom line value. You don't want to create frustration for your customers. I don't, and I'll tell you I have, so you're not alone. I've been there, done that. Let's do this together. Thank you very much for joining the industrial talk podcast. We'll be back tomorrow. Have a wonderful day, evening, morning, whatever time you're listening to it. Thank you very much for joining. I appreciate it.

Related Podcast:

Industrial Leadership: Learning From Elite Athletes

Related Blog:

Successful are the Humble – They know who they are.

The post Industrial Leadership: Process, Process, Process! appeared first on The Industrial Talk Podcast with Scott MacKenzie.

The post Industrial Leadership: Process, Process, Process! appeared first on Industrial Talk.

Industrial Leadership – What is The Industrial Pain: 1. Being able to find, hire and retain Industrial talent. 2. Finding ways to have a sustainable competitive Industrial advantage and 3. Dealing with the reality that its no longer enough to run a good and decent Industrial company. (You have to be willing to articulate the social and political benefits of your company.) Ed Eppley, Founder of The Eppley Group , discusses The disciplines that will let owners, execs and managers who run industrial operations not only survive but thrive in this time of profound change. Find out more about Ed Eppley:

Website:  http://www.theeppleygroup.com/

Personal LinkedIn

Twitter

Industrial Resources:

Reliability Web – One location on all things Reliable!

Industrial Academy – Industrial Courses for the Industrial Pro taught by the best in Industry.

Industrial Dojo – All things related to Industrial Sales, Industrial Marketing and Industrial Branding.

The post Industrial Leadership: Ed Eppley discusses Surviving and Thriving in this time of Profound Industrial Change! appeared first on The Industrial Talk Podcast with Scott MacKenzie.

The post Industrial Leadership: Ed Eppley discusses Surviving and Thriving in this time of Profound Industrial Change! appeared first on Industrial Talk.