Chris Luecke with Manufacturing Happy Hour Podcast

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Manufacturing Happy Hour, podcast, automation, digital transformation, industry 4.0, AI, manufacturing success, collaboration, innovation, skilled trades, capital markets, exponential growth, digital twins, virtual commissioning, manufacturing resurgence.

00:00

Scott, 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

00:21

let's go all right once again. Thank you very much for joining industrial talk, and thank you for your continued support of this platform that celebrates industry professionals all around the world. Yes, you're bold, brave, you dare greatly innovate, you collaborate. You're solving today's problems each and every day in a rapidly moving market. It's exciting out there. Thank you for what you do now. This conversation is with a legend, Chris Luecke manufacturing Happy Hour podcast. I want to highlight four individuals who are in the manufacturing and industry space, who are telling stories and who are really passionate about you succeeding. And this is no he's a heavyweight. So let's get cracking with the conversation. They're gonna try to make it quick. The reason for it is that, yeah, here we are having a conversation Chris and I, Storm is going on outside my window. Weren't having a grand conversation, and lo and behold, power goes out. Live by technology, die by technology. Conversation stop. So we get back on thinking, hey, maybe we can do it again. So we just sort of carried on with the conversation. So I'm, I'm sort of slated to try to MIT knit this together, this conversation together. No, we're having a great conversation. And you know what else happened? Yeah, the power goes out again. And then finally, we just said, had this conversation after the third time, said, Okay, Let's reschedule. So we rescheduled the next day and finished up the conversation, however, however, just be mindful of the fact that it's it's me trying to edit all of the good parts, because he came in with a wheelbarrow full of insights, and all of it is important and and so I just said, I don't know I'm going to edit out the dead spots, because there were dead spots, just because we weren't online, and then just sort of pull it all together. Just recognize the guy brings absolutely an amazing insights into what he does, why he's passionate and and how he is focused on manufacturing success. That's Chris, his contact information. Everything out there, this is a numero uno connection. If you don't, you just got to do it and follow them manufacturing Happy Hour podcast right there. All right, let's get on with the and sorry again, it's I edited, but it gets a little jumpy. And you know, you get to be brought into the fact that there's power outages, but that's okay. We're a podcast. So here's the conversation. 321, Chris, welcome to industrial talk. Thank you very much for finding time in your business. I've been looking forward to this conversation in a big way. How are you doing today?

03:37

Scott, I'm doing great. I've been looking forward to this conversation as well. Yeah, thank you for having me on the show.

03:44

Yeah, this is listeners. Is going to be a conversation really about Chris, his podcast, manufacturing happy hour. Why? And of course, we're going to get into some manufacturing stuff. But really is about me interested in Chris. That's that's pretty much the gist of that story. So you have an audience of one for sure.

04:07

Hey, I love you. Everyone's audience starts with the first listener.

04:13

You know what's so funny about how I started the podcast? I started it as a result of a sort of a marketing platform for my other company. And I would always go in, and if I wanted to meet somebody, and, you know, hopefully get some opportunities, I would say, Hey, would you be willing to get on my podcast? And you've been in the podcast business for a number of years, and it was like, even if it was my wife forced to listen to it and myself, yeah, that was the audience.

04:43

But hey, it was, it's, uh, most people don't get this that podcasting is almost most effective, especially into the B to B world as a prospecting tool, a way to build those relationships without being like, Hey, can I sell you something? Do you.

05:00

Do, sorry as we we just went right into it, just because I agree with you, and I think it's even better. I think it's a way of being able to create that relationship. Everybody talks about creating the relationship with your prospects, but it goes a little beyond that. It's like, yeah, now I'm talking to you, and now I understand your who you are, and now we're friends, exactly.

05:23

It's that foundation of trust that you start to build.

05:27

Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah. I'm all in before we get into that, more of that conversation, because I can tell you, I'm ready to roll. Give us a little background on Chris.

05:37

Yeah, well, it's funny. The reason I brought up some of those topics is that's kind of how manufacturing Happy Hour got started. So, you know, at the end of the day, I'm an engineer by degree. Went to Marquette University, you know, started my typically, yeah, yeah. Started, started my career as an engineer, working with Anheuser Busch. So that's where I kind of got that, that beer spin to everything that I do.

06:04

And go ahead, no, that's just, see, that's cool stuff. I always love they have tours, right? I always go to the beer tours. It's always clean,

06:20

yeah, yeah, no. I mean, I someone's pointed out that I've spent my career with Budweiser as well as Rockwell Automation. And my view of manufacturing is kind of a spoiled view of manufacturing, because, as you said, both of those companies like keep things pretty tidy, very clean. They hold themselves to high standards. So, you know, we talk about going in, you know, when I talk about manufacturing no longer being dull, dirty and dangerous, right? You know, admittedly, I was always in a world where it never was dull or dirty or dangerous, like those are two companies that were always, always keeping it real. But to get back to the story, so start with Budweiser as an engineer, but quickly went into sales with Rockwell Automation, and I had moved out to the Bay Area, where I was calling on a younger demographic of customers, and I realized I needed a way to reach a younger audience. I was in my 20s at the time when I started manufacturing happy hour as what was ultimately like a campy YouTube series that was recorded on my iPhone where I'd talk about automation technology with various subject matter experts, solutions architects, over a beer. And that's where it all got started. So manufacturing Happy Hour was just like a side hustle I was doing while I was working a full time job, and eventually, as manufacturing Happy Hour evolved into a long form podcast, a leadership podcast, described disguised as a manufacturing podcast, is how I describe it. Oftentimes today, I started seeing an opportunity to really take it into a full time platform where I'd be a full time content creator, party planner, and, you know, basically community builder at the end of the day,

08:06

Hi Chris. We are having some weather problems. You have been such a soldier, and you've been so good about the whole thing. Power has been going out in my place. And, well, we, we just, let's just continue so we already have the background. I've added out the stuff that we're chirping about, but I got the background that's all good. What made you decide that I need to start a podcast like out of the blue? That always fascinates me, because there's always that, that point in time that you might be driving or laying in bed or doing whatever, watching and, oh, I need to do that. Tell us about that.

08:47

10:09

and I see that I believe that Mike is an Audio Technica.

10:14

Yes, yep, I use a lot of audio technica. And actually, I've been using this one basically since day one, like, I've got a lot of equipment that's tried and true, absolutely.

10:26

And I would imagine, you see, I had the same journey. I bought two of those, and it was so funny, because the journey that I went on similar to what you were saying, for whatever reason, I'm driving coming back from a client, listening to a podcast, and I said, Ah, I can do that. And all I wanted was some Trojan horse marketing capabilities to have some sort of a different conversation to have with somebody other than, hey, we do industrial maintenance. You want to talk to me? They'll run out of the room like they're on fire, if you know that's the case. And I can see that. And so my journey and see if it's the same. What that just moment Tito is something, weather problems. Everyone weather problems. Tell me if this is the same when you decided that you were going to podcast, because I've been podcasting for a number of years too, as well as and it felt like I've been doing it forever. You you researched, you went through that process, you bought the stuff, and then you made that decision that okay, I guess I gotta do one. Tell us. Tell us about that one.

11:36

Yeah, so it, it's funny, my podcasting journey actually started with a different podcast. I technically still run a show called pub cast worldwide, where I was traveling around the world. I podcasted it in five different countries, interviewing people over drinks in bars and breweries around the world, really exploring drinking culture and craft beer culture around the world, and that started when manufacturing Happy Hour was just a campy iPhone smartphone video series. But the reason I bring it up is I remember the first bit of equipment that I bought were like $20 USB headset microphones. I plugged them into my laptop. Like, my initial investment into podcasting for like, the first six or so episodes is probably, like $40 in total, because I already had the laptop. I already had some recording software on there. And I think that's something that gets a lot of people held up with getting started. People always make excuses. This isn't, you know, podcasting is obviously what we're talking about right now, but yeah, people tend to use equipment as an excuse to not start many things, right? I don't have the right hockey stick, I don't have the right running shoes, I don't have the right microphone, right? So they just put off starting it forever. I took an approach where it's just like, I'm gonna buy some of the basically bare bones, cheapest equipment I can right couple headset mics for 20 bucks each. Plug them into my laptop. I recorded five or six episodes like that, and at that point, I'm like, Hey, I love this. I'm having fun with it. I've released some episodes. A handful of people are listening. I'm going to take it a step further. And I upgraded and bought the next round of more proper recording equipment, right? Like zoom, h6 remote recorder. For people that are in the podcasting, yeah, they might know that. But my lesson for the folks out here is never let equipment be an excuse. I mean, literally, like you can do most content creation on your smartphone these days, so just get started. And then once you're getting in a groove, once you realize you like it, maybe most importantly, once you realize there's a potential audience there that can grow over time, then you can start putting down some cash to

14:06

I don't like the way I sound. I don't like the way, you know, I look. You know, there's, there's a ton of reasons why people don't do it. But don't you think it's a medium that is needed within industry as a whole? When I say industry, I mean, you know, it's manufacturing. It's, it's whatever, oil and gas, it's, it's what don't you think it's? It's time for many to just go all in and and be able to produce the content that is consumed by younger people like

14:38

16:28

Again for the fourth time, welcome

16:31

back. What's up? Scott, good to be back. Yeah.

16:35

It's been 24 hours we had, we had a huge storm come through listeners and and it knocked everything out. But we we soldier on. The story has to be told. Chris has one, and it's an amazing story. So thank you for your flexibility, my friend.

16:54

Of course, I know many people are probably listening on audio, but I wore the same outfit just to keep the keep the same vibe going.

17:02

I did. I changed my hat and my shirt. I wasn't thinking proactively. Like you are. You're amazing. Appreciate so where we left off? We left off with, Okay, we've got, and I've got the recording. I'll do it. We have your background. I want to venture in into a little bit more detail about the your platform, why it's important and and what are you trying to accomplish with this particular platform? What? What? What's that noble purpose that says that's why it's here. By the way, I'm going to ask you some questions about beer, because I I'm fascinated by that.

17:44

I love it. I love it. Do you want me to jump in first? Then to the why behind the platform and what purpose is?

17:52

Yeah, I think that's important. Well,

17:54

I can talk to that really easily, because I think the common theme of the manufacturing Happy Hour platform that exists as a podcast, as a community, as an event series. It's all about getting people together to collaborate and share ideas over a beverage, or in the style of having a beverage with someone, right? You're candid, you're Frank. You know, there are no wrong answers. You're brainstorming. You're trying to think of, you know, whatever will drive things forward, right? And that's the vibe first and foremost of the podcast, right? If people listen to the interviews, I'm trying to equip manufacturing leaders, just like you are, with the tools and technologies and insights by listening to the experiences of folks that have been there, done that. That's the vibe of the podcast now the event series, as well as the community that exists digitally through platforms like LinkedIn, that's almost giving my audience the mic, so to speak, because it's one thing for me to have that conversation with someone one on one. It's another thing to get a bunch of like minded, forward thinking individuals in the same room, or in the same virtual room, to also have those candid conversations, learn from one another, teach one another. And that's really where I see the strength of manufacturing Happy Hour is it's meant to be a place where people come together and distribute ideas that help them in their careers, businesses and the industry as a whole.

19:28

Do you? Do you take that information, that is, you know, flipped over and put it into a hey, come over here. Here's some great insights. And it's instead of you having to listen to the podcast or the information, or the round table, or the community. Do you? Do you publish like that? Yeah, a

19:47

little bit. I mean, you'll see basically my entire LinkedIn presence for all practical purposes is just a rehash of what goes on on the podcast at the events. So I think. Think if the listeners are picking up an action from this, I'm always trying to meet people where they are, right, if you want to tune into the podcast, great, but that is by no means the only spot you're going to be able to find the ideas, the insights, the people that appear on the podcast right like I'm sharing that to LinkedIn, newsletters, the show notes pages I create are like a summarized version of a lot of that. There are a lot of different spots people can go to get the vibe, the energy and the insights of manufacturing happy hour.

20:34

Do you do? Do you see it benefiting? I mean, do you do you see some tangible benefits? I'll get some pushback on something. It's, it's one, it's always sort of the same voices, because they're the ones that sort of put themselves out there. But two is it really are, are, are we making an impact in a positive way? Because that's what we're hearing, I mean, heart and all that garbage.

21:01

I think so. I think all of all of us, as I like to describe us, voices of industry, I think we are making an impact. I know we're making an impact based on the connections I've seen made across the industry. I'll give you a couple examples, right? Like I threw like a dinner party like, almost like evening getaway for like, 10 voices in manufacturing, gosh, like two years or so ago, a ton of those people are still great friends, have found way to work together, introduced one another to do new business opportunities. So there's that for sure. But most recently, I was just thinking I was at, and this kind of goes back to me reflecting on my career 15 years ago, when it started, I was at the a 310, yeah, exactly. I'll tell you what. When I wear a hat like I am today, I shave like 10 years off of my appearance. So that's, that's a fair comment.

22:01

Scott, amazing, continue,

22:04

yeah, yeah, to go and to go into detail. There I was at the a three business forum, right association for advancing automation, one of the best professional organizations in our space, in my opinion, particularly for those in robotics, automation, etc. And there was a younger individual there, fairly fresh out of college, that was building his own robotics company. He had just started his startup journey. And first of all, I'm like, thank goodness there are. There's like, you know, for lack of a better word, young blood, like you, coming into these meetings and things like that. And what I did to leverage my platform. I was at a live event, but I went on LinkedIn and i repurpo, i reposted one of his recent posts of him literally building his startup in his garage right there was an AMR there, and I reposted it. I'm like, Hey, so and so is here for his first a three business forum, if you get a chance to meet him, reach out. I think he said, like, something like, over 10 people reached out to connect with him after that, right? And it goes back to even when I'm at a live event, I'm going to use my digital platform to make connections with other folks, right? Because people see that, and then, you know, because I was also thinking back. It's like, what would I have loved when I was, like, fresh out of school, going to my first events? I'm like, gosh, and by the way, some some people did this for me. Right people were making introductions for me, getting me introduced to the right people in their own way. It's a different world now, where we have digital platforms, where it's like, almost like, retweet, repost. You know, meet this individual that just entered in our industry, that's a perfect example, I think, of something that I did that thanks to the strength of my network and my platform, was able to create some meaningful relationships. But the other thing I'd say is that's not something that's unique to me. Other people can take those little actions that drive connections. So those are a couple of examples of where I see the work that you and myself and our other peers are doing making an impact.

24:08

See, that's, that's well said, well said, I'm more dazzled by that young pup coming up with and developing a company I just, I would love to have gone to that garage and just sat there, yeah, hang on every word. And it's always, what I always sort of marvel at is the why, what, what? Well, you just sort of having a taco, and then all of a sudden you said, Gosh, I can do this. It's just the human spirit is always so amazing. I just think it's incredible. And you bring up a good point, all of the technology, and you've seen tremendous change. You've been doing this for many, many, many years. You've seen it from when you started, and now where we're at today, I believe there's a tremendous rent. Of thoughts that's taking place. I A lot of it's way above my pay grade. But the reality is, I see it, I feel it, I sense it, and then I have conversations with people like you and others. Where do you where do you see it going? I mean, I just, I mean, futurize it. Maybe I want to, I want to know your thoughts.

25:23

26:08

a second man, when I was like, Oh my gosh, you just realized how fragile that chain was.

26:14

Yeah, 100% so that's what that's that's one of the key events that has brought on this manufacturing resurgence here in the United States, within our neighbors, within a lot of Western nations, etc. So to put it very simply, the next generation is going to go where the money's at. Like it was in finance, you know, for a couple decades. It was in tech for a couple decades. And let's think about this couple the opportunity where people are excited and investing in manufacturing. Again, couple that with the opportunity where skilled trades jobs are in vogue again, college has gotten just about as expensive as it as it can become, so the next generation is looking at alternatives to education. I want to be very clear, like college is, and as far as I'm concerned, always will be a great path to success. But I'm excited that there are other paths to success. There's, there have always been these paths, right? But I don't want to say we demonized skilled trades for a long time, but we

27:16

can, you could say that because we did, yeah, I'm just telling you we

27:20

28:25

Do you think that we and industry as a whole, are we? Are we? Are we positioning ourselves to be able to inspire those young individuals, those young professionals, that, or do we need to step up our game to be able to do that. Then I have a and then I have a question about the money in the capital markets and manufacturing.

28:47

Yeah, I think we do need to step up our game. I think we've been doing the right things to this point. But I think what we as folks that are in the trenches in the manufacturing industry, that have been sharing this narrative for a long time that automation creates jobs. There are a lot of great, fulfilling career paths in this space. We need to recognize that many of those conversations I feel are still happening within an echo chamber, and it's getting a little circular. We need to be very deliberate about making sure we're doing the activities to reach the rest of the population, to talk about what manufacturing really means, to talk about what the opportunities really mean. It means manufacturers, executives at small to mid size, manufacturers, startups and hard tech et cetera. They need to be showing up to the meetups that take place in their cities, where other software tech companies are, where the other movers and shakers are, manufacturers need to take it upon themselves. Be like, I'm gonna show up in these spaces where maybe we haven't been showing up, especially in cities, right? Like, I think in more rural. Areas, manufacturers and the big manufacturing companies in those areas have always had more of an anchor presence, right? You know, the the local manufacturing company is probably going to be the sponsor of the the annual Fourth of July fireworks show that's going on. But in cities, there's just so many other things going on that manufacturers need to get out of the shop, get out of their office and head to the meetups where young tech talent is hanging out, where college grads are hanging out, where the rest of the tech and startup community is hanging out, and be like, Hey, we're here. You might not know a ton about us yet, but I bet if you get to know us, and I'm going to do the things I need to do as a manufacturer to make sure you get to know us. I bet you're going to be interested in what we do after you have a little more familiarity with our space.

30:47

See, it's interesting. When I started podcasting, I had another company, and it was sort of an epiphany, where I said, Well, Scott, talking to myself, you're going to have to, you're going to have to learn this stuff, you're going to have to sort of advocate, you're going to have to sort of put yourself out there and and be able to have these conversations and, and it was all wrapped around, how do I market? You know, I, I sort of outsourced it like here, do some marketing for me, blah, blah, blah. And then I realized there was that was weak on my part, and I recognized the necessity at that time, saying, Scott, you just going to have to, no matter how uncomfortable it is. You got to get out there, and you got to do it, and you got to be that face. And I, and I, I think the same thing exists for manufacturers. They just have to, not nine to five or whatever, 10 hour days and then run on home and whatever there has to be. You have to, I believe that one individual, or the individuals have to sort of be those advocates for the future and put themselves out there.

32:04

I agree, and I think part of it is another way to think about it is, you know, if you're tired after work, right, and you're like, why do I need to go to this event? Why do I need to go to this event, this meetup with the tech community, or whatever it is, the way I think about it is, if your ecosystem is strong, if the manufacturing and industrial ecosystem is strong, your business is also going to be strong. It's an all ships rise with the tide scenario. In order for an ecosystem be strong, you need to be getting the new people into it, right? You can't just be resting on your laurels of years of success making parts if you're a job shop, for example, for the same 10 customers, right? You got to grow. You got to have that growth mindset. You need to take the actions that get you in front of people, that allow you to expand the ecosystem.

32:49

Okay, shifting gears real quick. How do you address what I believe is a again, I'll use the term Renaissance. Within the manufacturing space, there's a lot of buzz, a lot of chirping that's happening out there, and they're saying, hey, let's reassure near shore, bring in this and make us the most powerful manufacturing country in the world. And all of we see that, okay? But it also gets down to can we given you know, the challenges with resources, is that a more automation question, or, how do we how do we do it? How do we achieve that?

33:32

35:46

Do you believe the capital markets are all bullish on manufacturing? Do you think that there will be a surge in companies and capital looking to place capital for their business, for their manufacture, for expansion. And do you think the driver would be leveraging innovation if I was a manufacturer and I'm trying to get capital, I better have, I believe better have an innovative mindset and and leverage that technology. Do you agree with

36:23

that? I would agree that you need to have that innovative mindset when it comes to, you know, getting any sort of funding. Usually that conversation involves, you know, how many people are you employing as well? So I think you need to be very good at articulating the connection between innovation and people, and you know what? As I'm saying this, I think I'm coming to what my own realization or perspective is around that the better you are at tying that together, the more you're going to be able to say, we're going to it, we're going to be able to produce 3x 10x what we would have been then, had we use traditional manufacturing because we've got the right people and the right brain power and the right technology combined. I need to dive into this a little bit more in my free time and really kind of get some data and stats behind what I'm saying, but that at a very high level, feels like the combination that gets people excited about manufacturing and shows them that it's real, and shows them that we're not talking about bringing an old school factory from the 70s back over, you know, on shore. We're talking about new, clean, safe, innovative manufacturing and manufacturing jobs.

37:38

Yeah, I agree with you 100% I like the fact that you, you, you know my background so finance, and you're absolutely correct. Yeah, the normal model would be, go in, how can, and it's, like you said, it's people, how do I, how do I deal with that and be able to impact the bottom line my expenses in such a way. But I think we're at a we're at a point where I always say, if you need, if you're if you're in business, you better be educating because it's happening. You better be listening to individuals in podcasts like yours and others. You better be educating. You better be innovating, and you better be collaborating. I believe that those from from a stool perspective, I like that just because I want to, I want to interact with other individuals. I might not have all the answers, but the opportunity to collaborate is exciting. And saying, oh, yeah, right, I'm better because of that, right? And then, of course, from it's all education, so yeah, just is what

38:48

it is now, great, great points.

38:52

Wait, because you've been in automation, because it's been such a journey for you, and you've seen it from many years back to where it is today. What's your take on where we're going again? I want to put that future hat. Where do you see it? I mean, I want to know, you know, all of this automation conversation, is it getting better? Are we, you know, we were at an event together. Is it going to be, you know, they're going to be robots that are going to sort of look like humans and take care of business. And, you know,

39:25

I mean, there will be humanoids for certain applications. No doubt, I'm not going to go the humanoid route, because I do think there is just, you know, it's cool that they're working on that. The route I'm going to go, though, is, there's so much lower hanging fruit right now. Like, let's think about where AMRs autonomous mobile robots, those are like, if you think, if you compare those to humanoid robots. 10 years ago, AMRs were not ubiquitous. They were still the technology was being proven out. They're ubiquitous. Liquidus now like go use AMRs if you are in a warehouse, if you have an opportunity to leverage them. That's been proven. The risk factor of adopting those now is not that high. So I want to start off with some really low hanging fruit type opportunities. One area that has been talked about in the automation space for a very long time is digital transformation industry 4.0 you know, getting all these connected technologies together. And go ahead, continue. Yeah, I'll be quick with this. I think artificial intelligence. I know artificial intelligence is that missing piece that's allowing to take a lot of that what was, let's just call it random data, and start contextualizing that data into something meaningful that manufacturers can use. That's an area where I'm excited about automation, because now all those promises of digital transformation that we're going to require a lot of data scientists and hours and hours to cleanse data contextualize it. There are now tools that exist at the edge, for example, inside of a factory, that can contextualize and help manufacturers draw conclusions from what's going on inside of their facilities in real time. And if you get enough of that again, that's going to be one of those factors that contributes to exponential increases in productivity in manufacturing.

41:28

Now, I agree with you on that, too, as well, that that's spot on. And and it's so funny, you mentioned industry 4.0. How long have we been talking about that? How long have we been talking about IoT, IIoT, whatever you want to call it, and it was the stumbling block. Was a tsunami of data, good, bad, whatever, noise, not noisy. In that data, there was there was gold, and that gold was tactical, and I can make better decisions, but it was always a point where, who, how am I gonna I can't even process this, but now we do, and now hopefully the data is scrubbed or good, and then we're making those decisions. You're absolutely right. I agree with you. People are talking about industry five, Dotto,

42:17

yeah. I mean, I am not subscribing to that term. I know what it is, I mean, but if you think, I mean, remember this whole industry 4.03, Dotto thing refers to industrial revolutions like my, my perspective, and we don't need to talk about buzzwords that long is industry five? Zero is just another fancy term that you can tack on to be like industry four. Oh, plus people, that's all it is. We're still in this current revolution, right? Like that, that that hasn't changed.

42:48

So, yeah, let's nail this down. Let's, let's, let's, let's succeed at this. Let's, let's deliver because, Boy, I'll tell you. It was a report that came out and they were talking about the size of the market, the IoT market. It was outrageous, but then again, it sort of collapsed on itself to a certain extent. It became more of a a miscellaneous file, sort of, let's just stick it in the industry for Dotto. Let's take that, whatever that goes over here, you know, digital twin, well, let's put it over here. You know, now I think we're, we're maturing enough to be able to sort of say, yeah, it's happening, by the way. Want to

43:24

know how I can tell we're maturing. I just recorded a podcast that, and I mentioned this at the 36 minute mark. I mentioned to my guests, it's like, you know, we've been talking about digital transformation this whole time, and we have not once said The term digital transformation, once you can get to the point where you're not just throwing out these terms for the sake of throwing them out, you're talking about what's actually going on behind the scenes. What actually turns taking data, contextualizing it, and making decisions based off of that, what actually turns that into a reality? That's when you know you're getting beyond the hype and you're getting into reality.

44:03

I like it. You're hitting on all cylinders. I appreciate that. Chris, hey, we have to wrap this up because we have other we're trying. We're both in the school of thought that we have to make sure that it's a certain amount of time so that people can listen to it and then get back in the car and listen to it again and finish it up, because once they leave, it's hard for them to come on back.

44:23

Yep, no, I hear you. I love keeping it tight. You've asked great questions. This has been a ton of fun. I appreciate having me on Scott, yeah, you're

44:30

awesome, man. You're so resilient. There, right there. You're the you're the definition of resilience. Dealing with all the weather as I look back, it's not so bad. We're going to make

44:40

it through. I was just gonna say, I know you're based down in Louisiana. I love traveling to Louisiana. I've spent months of my life down there. I know dealing with the weather down there is part of, part of the beauty of living in that area.

44:54

Wow, you took the negative and turned it into a positive, saying it was the beauty is like, holy. Cow. It's it's steamy. I always talk, I talk about the Louisiana blindness is when you get out of a car that's cold, and then you walk outside, then your glasses all fog up.

45:12

I lived down, I 10, not too far from you, in Houston, for four years. So I definitely felt that a ton

45:19

same weather, absolutely the same weather. What is the best way for somebody that says, hey, I want to get a hold of Chris LinkedIn?

45:27

Yeah, LinkedIn, for sure. And I'd also say, Hey, if you want to tune into the podcast, I mean, just search manufacturing Happy Hour on Google, you'll find it on Spotify, Apple podcast, YouTube should be the thing that just dominates the whole first page of Google,

45:41

yeah, yeah. Okay, here's the deal. What's your favorite beer? What beer blew you away?

45:47

I got, I got two answers to this. My first answer is, I'm a Midwest guy, so I get all four seasons. I love seasonal beer, right? I love a cold Pilsner in the middle of summer. I love a nice, spicy, thick, winter, warmer in the winter when it's snowing outside. My all time, favorite beer, though, is from St Louis, Missouri, where I'm from, originally, four hands brewing has a beer called city wide American Pale Ale, and I just think it is the perfect beer. The design of the can is beautiful. It's very much about the city St Louis, and it's a pale ale, and it's Hoppy, but it's not too hoppy. The ABV is like five and a half percent. Beer is something you should be able to enjoy and not feel exhausted after having right, not, not everything needs to be an eight and a half percent Double IPA. Although I do enjoy those, I just like it because it's drinkable, it's sessionable. You want to have two, you can have two. It just does everything a good beer should do.

46:50

Yeah, I agree with you 100% I remember being introduced to a Belgian beer, and you know it, it's Duval, and it and it was just, it's high in alcohol. It's like, What the Where am I at here? Man, it went right to my head.

47:08

Yeah, that's that. That's a good beer in the winter, like, if you're having a nice Belgian quad, that's thick, it's got some, like, your taste to it. I mean, that's a, that's a beer to have when it's snowing outside.

47:21

Well, thank you. Parting. Insights into beer. I love it. I will definitely. I'm gonna go online and look for citywide.

47:30

IPA. Look at look it up. Look it up. I think you can only get it in St Louis, in the Missouri area, but I'll make sure I grab some for you. One of the next times we see one another, I'll make sure you at least get a can. I always have some on hand. There's no doubt about that.

47:43

Very good. You are wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you for your resilience, and appreciate you being on industrial talk,

47:49

my friend. Hey, thanks a ton Scott. Have a good one. Hey,

47:53

we're gonna have all the contact information for Chris out on industrial talk. So fear not reach out. This is a high priority connection, so make it happen. We're gonna wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned. We will be right back.

48:06

You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

48:15

Yeah? What I tell you, yeah, it got a little choppy in there because I tried to edit it and but, but the reality is, here's the deal, Chris again, brings incredible insights, tremendous wisdom gained over many years. I you never have a bad conversation with them. He'll never, ever have have a you leave going, I didn't get much out of that. No, he brings he brings insights. He brings wisdom. That's Chris, you know, subscribe to his podcast. Yeah, you Yes. You will not be disappointed. Industrial talk is here for you. I say it all the time. You want to have a conversation, you want to amplify your message, you want to get it out there. Yeah, just go out to industrial talk.com. Click on the button says, Hey Scott, let's connect. And I'll say Absolutely, let's have a conversation. So anyway, go out to industrial talk. Let's connect. Let's have a conversation. Let's see how we can amplify your story. All right. Be bold, be brave. Dare greatly. Definitely hang out with Chris. Change the world. We're going to have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned.