Jim Mayer with The Manufacturing Connector

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Manufacturing, podcast, industrial innovation, Jim Mayer, employee engagement, digital transformation, culture consultant, talent management, AI, social media, content creation, human element, industry trends, technology solutions, leadership development.

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 let's go.

00:22

All right, we have a quick intro. You know why we have a quick intro? Because we have a long conversation. And the conversation the individual in the hot seat, Jim is his name, Jim Mayer, and he is a podcaster, but he is a manufacturing Juggernaut, and he understands what's going on in the marketplace. We talk about why it's important for you industry to consider amplifying your voice, talking about what you do, and use today's marketing platforms to be able to help you succeed in the future and much more. Let's get cracking. So Jim and I, we go to, we go to Vince. We circle the, you know, we're we're gathering around and talking and having a good old time. And it was just one of these things where I thought, I want to know me. I want to know why. Why do you do what you do? He has a huge heart. He just has a huge heart. He's super passionate about your success and and providing and, and, you know, elevating individuals who have solutions. It's an amazing conversation. It's got a lot of pepper in it, but you need it. You need to subscribe. You, you if you're in the world of manufacturing, this is, this is a must subscribe podcast, because he's is, like I said, his heart is in the right place. He wants to help you. He is prolific. He not he doesn't stop. You go out to his stat card. He doesn't stop. He has boundless energy, and he's passionate. Boy is he passionate? It is all right. I said I was going to make this short. I'm making it short. Here's Jim. Yes, he is here. You're saying to yourself, Scott, how the heck? How did you get Jim on your podcast? He's a nice guy, and he said, Yes, I want to be on. Jim is in the house. Jim, what do you say? Man, what? What is the deal? Talk

02:35

to us. Man, I, I, have been a fan of just your voice for a long time now. We met in person earlier this year, but I have never had the benefit of my name being said by that like buttery Boy, that voice, that one, right? That was pretty magical. Man that made my day. I appreciate it, Scott,

03:04

it's all the mic. It's not it. It's technology. It's not me. I I sound like Donald Duck without the mic. You don't

03:12

hardly, but it is a beautiful mic. I told you that last time we talked, I'm doing well, beautiful day. I'm looking down at rocks instead of a bottom. I'm having a great conversation with you. You're

03:23

in Arizona, Phoenix, Phoenix area. Yeah, Phoenix, yep.

03:27

We are only 94 degrees today, so we're a little bit of a Yeah, a little cold snap.

03:33

I was doing a project in Phoenix one time, and I was staying in anthem. I had a little place in anthem and doing some work for the utility company. And I remember one day it was like 120 and I had my window down in my little truck, and I'm driving down, and I thought my skin was peeling back. It was a blow torch, and it was so hot. And I just remember in the back of my head somebody said, but it's a dry heat. Oh, it's a freaking furnace. It's furnace so dry. It's

04:11

so hot. It is I rear ended somebody years ago on what was, at the time, the hottest day that I had experienced here. It was 127 degrees outside, and my car wouldn't start. I couldn't get back in it because it was just a convection oven. At that point, the guy that I rear ended wouldn't allow me into his truck because he was that frustrated with me, and so I stood outside with a golf towel over my head, trying to give myself shade, and people were stopping by with bottles of water because I was that miserable looking on the side of the road

04:59

here. Is the people that have the pity. Oh, look at that. Oh, my God, absolutely,

05:04

you need water.

05:06

You need something. I I highly have, yeah, well, that's, yeah, it's, it's brutal, but it's great, you know? I mean, there's, I mean, there's some really incredible desert up there. You know, the I love the smell of the monsoons coming in. Then you head north toward, you know, Flagstaff, and then it's just that desert is just full of drama. It's just,

05:31

it's it. And what a lot of people don't understand Scott is how diverse in topography and and climate Arizona really is, I mean, we get snow eight months of the year at elevation all the way down to the desert where, I mean, I saw, I've seen snow twice in the 16 years that we've lived here. I've seen it snow twice in Scottsdale in the middle of winter, we just had that random flash Cold Snap, and we'll get snow on the ground. Wow, yeah, it's wild. People don't get that. It gets cold in the desert. In the wintertime, they think it's 100 degrees year round. We have to, we have to, like, cover our plants to keep them from freezing, and, you know, drip the faucets outside so that they don't, the pipes don't freeze, and all that

06:29

kind of it's, it's very dramatic. It's, it's really pretty cool. It's beautiful. It's beautiful stuff. Before we get into this eventually, when we get into this conversation about Jim and his podcast and why he does it is we need to establish because I don't know Jim real well, but I want to know Him better, so he needs to share with us who Jim is and why he's such an incredible person.

06:55

I have been in the industry for 25 years ish, I left college after a semester. It didn't work for me, and I floated between retail and restaurant jobs and finally landed in construction. Had to learn a trade, as my dad told me, I had to have something that that give me insurance really was a big deal, and I had missed the entrance timing for the machinist program at the community college where I was living. So I learned how to build houses, and I did that for a number of years up in northwest Colorado, Steamboat Springs area, another beautiful corner of the world, really rough place, you know, nothing like having your boss call you at 6am and say there's more than six inches of snow. We're having a powder day today, which just meant we got paid to go ski. And that was amazing, right? That was but I, I ended up falling off one too many roofs. We didn't follow a whole lot of great OCHA practices. I won't mention the name of the company I worked for, but, yeah, I fell off a lot of roofs. Let's just put it that way. And so one of the guy,

08:19

it's dangerous. You look at some of the pitch, some of the whole, I don't even know how they stick to the how they even roof it. I don't know,

08:33

yeah, well, and that was the thing is, yeah, we had, you have to have the snow shed off the roof, right? So it has to be at a great pitch anyway, so fell off a lot of those. I'm standing in the covered area, the dried out area for this job, and my Fastenal rep came in and said, Hey, why are you doing this? You're killing yourself. You need to go sell the supplies that you use every day. And I said, I don't know how to talk to people. He goes, yes, I've seen you talk at the bar. I was bartending at nights at the time. He goes, I've seen you talk to people at the bar. I know how you talk to people. Just do that and sell, you know, hammers and construction supplies. And I said, Sure. So I applied for a job. They ended up in Long Beach, California, with fast

09:25

help. There one of

09:28

11:38

So just never really liked talking. Is all of a sudden in the world of talking all the time, and and guys, yeah, I always think God has had God has a sense of humor,

11:52

absolutely right

11:53

here. No, we'll put you here. Okay,

11:56

14:17

working for program to Jump in, because i Are you also, let's say I'm. I'm a manufacturer. I'm getting this information. I see what the my front end looks like, what they're what they feel, or what are they, what their insights might be. Do you take me, owner of the manufacturer, and say, Okay, this is where we need to go, and you shepherd me along. And do I say, Yeah, Jim also helps me sustain whatever the results are.

14:49

I didn't at the time. At the time, it was just the survey. I do that now. So as I when I left the NTMA, I was going to. Go out on my own. And I got a call from a friend of mine after I left the NTMA, I left without a another job really lined up, because I was going to launch my own thing. And I got a call from a friend of mine who said, Hey, I need I need help. I need you. And so I went and worked for an organization called BIG Kaiser, OEM of of boring bars, tool holders and I helped them with their tool preset or department, ran their their tool presetters from speronie, that department, but along the way, also helped them with their change management as they were going from family, owned us owned organization to a Japanese corporate owned organization. They had two years that they were transitioning, and that's, that's, that's, yeah, a lot of change, a lot of change, a lot and and so help them through that transition. Left at the end of 21 and went full time into my company, and I came in hot, and I failed every way possible, because the first failure was even though I knew this industry very well, I came in and called myself a culture consultant for manufacturers. Scott You and I both know that manufacturers hate two words more than any two words, and one is culture, and the other is consultant. And so I set myself up to fail from from words.

16:29

I just said, I don't know about that there. I wish I was back there. Just maybe help a little bit, because I'm bristly. Yeah,

16:42

I didn't do a whole I didn't do the due diligence side of that very well on how I was going to position myself. But failure led to ultimate, you know, success in us talking today, right? And But to answer your previous question, yeah, I go in. I help them assess their culture, where they currently are, the employee sentiment, their employee engagement level, where they want to be as a culture. I help them define their mission, vision and values. I help them understand how they need to live those values, the behaviors they have to have to live those values, to live that mission, to live that vision. And are you ongoing trainings for the clients that I still have in soft skills, you know, active listening, leadership development, I help companies build out performance management frameworks and onboarding frameworks and things of that nature to really help the entire employee experience. But that's that's like less than 10% of what I do, because what I found Scott is the market. They love what I have to say about culture, but they don't love having somebody come in, and they don't love to feel judged about it. And so what I have done over the course of the last three years is I started a podcast, which has now turned into four shows that I do, and it's just, it's a lot of fun, and that's the bulk of what I do now, is I create content that that hopefully resonates and helps change the industry.

18:37

Say, a trailblazer. You know that that, that great story, by the way, I didn't mean to just gloss I want to be a good listener. I want you to, I want you to walk away from this experience saying, what an active listener, what a great

18:51

guy. Just your body language alone. Scott tells me that you're active listening. You're leaning forward, you're engaged, you're not you're

19:01

I'm hanging on your word, baby. I look at that. Maybe I have to, I have to step back real quick. You were in Long Beach, you know, I lived in Long Beach. I did not know that. Yes, I lived in the Wrigley area, which is a two block area. Well, it's a historical district. It did that. And when you start talking about the where you were working, Long Beach Harbor, did you go to San Pedro?

19:26

San Pedro Wilmington, both LA and Long Beach Harbor? Yeah.

19:31

So I was working as a transmission lineman, a journeyman for Southern California, Edison and so the getaway towers. These were the tallest, well, tallest ones I've ever climbed. And they were getting there. They were coming out of the Long Beach, generating going across the harbor, and 475 feet I'd have to climb. No, be kidding. Trucks, the big trucks looked like just little ants. It's it is climbing, it is climbing. And the rope you had to haul like, it's like

20:12

those muscles of yours. Man,

20:14

yeah, no, you don't ask me to do that again. Man, anyway, I'm sorry. I digress. By the way, I grew up in Barstow, and I know you went through Barstow to go to Vegas.

20:23

Yes, absolutely, I sure did. Danny,

20:27

yeah, you've been all over. Yeah, it's seasoned. It's all this salt and pepper. It's mostly salt, Never, not much pepper anymore. Like, not yours. Like, here's a salt and pepper. You're here.

20:38

Yeah, I got the salt and pepper going. Yeah, I love it,

20:40

salt. I'm just whatever clay looking and I know. All right, let's, let's get into that podcast. Why? What? What was that? What was that? I know my I know my story. When I said I got a podcast, it was just simple as that, I'm driving. I got a podcast. I have no I don't know where that came from, but it came from someplace. What? Why? What? What was that force behind you?

21:09

22:48

I'm not talking to anybody. I love talk. I am. I

22:53

am not a podcaster. And she said, You tell companies and people all the time that they need to be comfortable being uncomfortable. This is your turn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I said, dang it. She used my own words against me, and pardon me. So I bought a URL, did some research on podcasting and what I needed. So I bought a cheap microphone that I still have today. I bought these headphones that I still have today. Invested in this inexpensive podcast platform, record recording plus hosting platform called a lead to and bought a URL for a couple bucks on GoDaddy and didn't know what else to call the podcast, so I called it the manufacturing culture podcast. How more on the nose Could you be than that? Right? Right? And so I bought a URL, got the equipment, announced it on LinkedIn, and quickly I had 60 some odd people respond and say, I want to be part of this podcast. And when I had been doing my research, I found that there were, I found that there were, like, something like 4 million podcasts on Apple that only had one episode. I found that the average podcast there's so many out there, and the average podcaster only, it lasts 11 episodes before they give up. So I decided that I was going to do 12 episodes. I was going to take 12 of those 60 something people and I was going to start a podcast and just do it for 12 episodes, three months, you know, 12 weeks. Nobody was going to listen to it anyway. So it wasn't going to be a big deal. One hour a week I would record. I didn't know how to edit. Uh. So I didn't and so I just recorded my first episode with a dear friend of mine, Kristen Carlson, out of Western Mass. She got me marked permanently explicit on Apple podcasts because she cussed over the allotted amount of times to be able to select it myself, and and I was off to the races, and so record release, no editing, but somebody listened, and they emailed me on LinkedIn and said, Hey, we're we just changed the way that we led a meeting today based on your interview that you did last week. And I said, Oh, fuck, it worked like somebody listened and it and they changed the way that they operated based on the words of my guest. I said, Now I have to keep going. So that was 122 episodes ago, Scott, and here we are still making the show along the way, I found that I had multiple audiences. I had people, I had some guests on that were talking about solutions. And, you know, whether it was hardware, software, tools, technology, that kind of stuff. And I but my returning listeners, my my heartbeat of the show. They weren't listening. I was getting new listeners, but I my returning listeners weren't listening. So I started reaching out to those returning listeners and asking them questions like, Why aren't you listening? And they said things like, well, you're talking about solutions. I don't want solutions. I want to hear somebody's story. I want the profiler. Yeah, and I reached out to some of the people who were engaging with the content with that highlighted the tools and technology, and asked some questions like, why? How did you find us? And, well, we've known about you for a while. We just don't give a about somebody's history and their journey in the industry. We have X problem, and we need a solution. And so I then started the manufacturing connector YouTube channel, which is a show that highlights tools and technology. And so I have software companies. I have hardware companies come on. I have automation companies come on. I have service providers, recruiters, things of that nature come on, and they talk about their processes and how they solve the problems that the industry has then got a wild,

27:42

I have to, I have to, sort of jump in. Don't you think it's all great to talk about process, it's all great to talk about the technology. Sometimes it, it can be a little, shall we say, dry and and it doesn't minimize or the importance of it. How do you in your head, Jim, take that topic and create something that's entertaining, something that's engaging. I'm always fascinated by that, because I think it's incumbent upon me to try to say, Yeah, collecting data is not, not known to be, you know, dead sexy. But how do we create that buzz? Tell me about that.

28:33

It's all about creating it. For me, it's all about creating the narrative arc. And I do this is the one show that I actually do a lot of pre work for my other my manufacturing culture podcast, I have four common questions I ask every guest. Everything outside of that is just natural conversation with the manufacturing connector on the YouTube show, I do a lot of pre work. I research the brand itself. I research their tools. I need to understand as much as I possibly can, based on internet research, what that narrative arc is going to be. I just recorded one this morning with a guest that actually came from our time at hacks live, and that'll be a fun one to get out there. It's all about NDT testing, and software that helps with NDT testing inspection, but which is a very dry topic, right? How do you make that exciting for

29:37

that one I like,

29:39

and it's it's creating that narrative arc. So I started off with the origin story. How did this company come about? Then we get into a problem statement, and we discuss what the actual need is that their solution fills. We talked then about the solution itself. We talked. About their ICP, their their customer profile, right there, the customer that they want buying their product. Then we do a very short demo of the product itself to show it in action and how it can relate to that ICP, from there, we talk about the broader implications that this has within the industry. How can this help with, in this case, with the software on NDT, we talked about how, how can this help with digital transformation efforts in an industry that we see 67 to 70% of digital transformations fail. How can this it's visible, it's horrible. So how can we help? Yeah, that digital transformation come along by utilizing a software like this that has very targeted solutions for very targeted problems. And then we wrap it up by talking about the human element, right? How does this tool or technology that we're talking about help with knowledge transfer from one generation to the other? How does it help with the lives of the people on the floor currently, and so we make this whole narrative arc throughout and then at the end, I asked my guests what I haven't asked them that they want to share. And that's always a magic question, right? So that's, that's the way I try and make it as sexy as possible.

31:44

32:37

and I, I've repeated this, and you might have actually heard it at either hex live or MD and M. People hate change that's forced on them. People love change that they help author. If this whole idea that people hate change as a blanket statement is so false, because if that were the case, there wouldn't be a travel industry, there wouldn't be a restaurant industry, there wouldn't be a fashion industry. People love to change. They love to cut their hair, trim their beards, change their clothes. They love the uniqueness of it. But what all of those things have in common is people author the change. It's not forced upon them. That's insightful. So when we look at change, when in terms of digital transformation, it's typically the failures that we see when we have whether that's a preset or sitting on a shop floor under a dust tarp, like $100,000 paperweight, or we've got ERP systems that are barely having the capabilities scratched at the surface, whatever that is. It's because the owners and leadership of these shops go to these trade shows that you and I both go to all the time, and they invest in these technologies and come back to their shops and say, You know what, you're going to use this. And people like the F I am, I don't need that. I can solve my problems here, here and here, where I really need help is 123, not x, y, z, that you think I need help. So if we spent more time as leaders going to the shop floor and saying, hey, yeah, I've identified this, this area needs to be improved. Whether that's scrap rate, whether that's OEE, whatever that metric that we're chasing that needs to be improved upon. If we go to the shop floor and say, how do we do this? Is there technology out there that does this? I do an exercise. Scott, and sorry to rant, but I do exercise.

34:52

It's not a rent free zone, man. I mean, you can laugh away. No,

34:56

I do an exercise with shops that. Work with called shop floor Shark Tank, where I divide the company up into groups based on department. No no two people can work in the same department. So every team has people from different departments, and they have to talk about their biggest issue in their department, and they have to sell their issue to their team, and collectively, they pick one issue and one solution, and then they have to pitch it to the owner and to me and the winner. The owner has to guarantee that the winner will be implemented within 30 days, and the amount of ideas, Scott, that what we get out of this is unbelievable.

35:49

Oh, I can only imagine. And, yeah, and what you're doing is you're pulling in. You're saying, hey, I want to hear what you have to say. I want your insights. I value your opinion. Yeah. When's

36:05

the last time you were in a shop or facility, a large facility, and you saw an actual suggestion box? We don't do that? No,

36:15

because you know why? Because the ones that did it never really looked in the suggestion box. They were just suggestion boxes. They didn't nobody's going in there and saying, right, looks like Jim has a suggestion. Oh, whatever. That's pushing rope uphill. I can't do it. Yeah, and

36:38

so we do this. So we bring the authorship to the teams. And if, if owners, if leaders in this space, did that more before they went to a trade show, they would come back with technology, digital transformation tools that actually stuck.

37:01

Yeah, that's brilliant. I like it. I put, you know, I have a notebook here, and I wrote it down. I thought that was pretty brilliant. Another thing that's brilliant, yeah, no problem, man. I'm not gonna run. I'm definitely not gonna run with it. I'm just gonna say, hey, shop tank. It's a shop or Shark Tank. I like that, you know. And it's another thing, right? All the organizations you ever been to, all you know, I myself included, right? We've been to the number of organizations has any organization saying, I love our ERP, I love it. I think it's fantastic. Whoa. I love our legacy systems that are all connected in some way, shape or form. Not one, not one. Can we do better? Can we do better than that? Oh, absolutely. I think you know, the technology once again, is, is getting to a point where, when I was a when I was with PwC, and we were deploying systems way back when. Yeah, those systems weren't user friendly. The nobody really talked about the gooey and why the GUI needs to be a little bit better design. No, nobody is like, what this is? What you get? It or not, I'm gonna force feed it down your throat. No, nowadays it's, nowadays, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's better. Like, you gotta pull in. I mean, I believe the key is pulling in those people in the front and like, getting it, yeah, yeah, all of a sudden you're not going to get the same response. It's the people that are the roadblocks.

38:41

Absolutely, and as service providers, as software companies, as as tech companies and tool companies, we need to do a better job of providing the why for the floor, right? And I think that's part of the missing element as well. Yeah, shop owners don't know how to position the why to the floor once they buy these, the these tools and technologies, so that they then default to what's easy, what's known, and that's what what's easy and what's known is that top down, forced command and control approach of I bought it, so you're going to use it, right? Yeah? If we connect the dots and make it easier for people to understand, it'll be easier to implement,

39:32

yeah, and what's interesting is that we start pulling in the the realities of AI, and the AI is going out, I'm grabbing that data, I'm normalizing it, I'm making it relevant, and then I'm spitting out, spitting out tactical, you know, insights and and if, if that data is just being pencil whipped because this the front line people, everybody doesn't like this. System. Well, you're not even taking advantage of maybe the wonderful brave new world of AI, and how that's going to shape your business for the future, make it more resilient. Yeah,

40:14

you brought up Brave New World. I often wonder what all this Huxley would have thought of AI and the the time that we're in now, uh, anyway,

40:24

that I digress. I'll throw something out for you. This is something that I've been noodling on, you know, outside of the fact that I'm, I'm, I'm standing firm, I'm gonna be, I'm not going to be one of those AI guys where the portion of my brain just atrophies because I just don't develop it anymore, because AI has taken that portion of my brain, and so I don't want that. But as time goes on, what what makes AI so interesting large language models so interesting is that you and me and in the countless of individuals that are producing content, information, hanging the worldwide web right. Eventually I and I see this. This is just me. I I don't know. Eventually everything will be driven by AI, and then there will be nothing new there. I don't, I don't know. I'm just sort of, I don't

41:21

disagree with you. I don't disagree. So part of what I do, I have certain parts of my day carved out for certain, like stupid bits of life, right? So I, I, well, I carved out a little bit of time to go through the manufacturing subreddits on on Reddit, right? Lots of great stories, source material for conversations that I have on on different podcasts, right? The other one is, I scroll through Instagram, very image oriented, yeah, social media, the amount of AI generated content that exists on Tiktok and Instagram right now, there are entire pages that are dedicated to AI generated videos and clips, yes, and it is a mind numbing as fuck. Pardon my language, but it is mind numbing and B, it's repeating themes that we have been talking about for ever, right? There is to your point, zero original thought, zero original idea. And so that's why when a show like yours, a show like mine, Chris is the automation, ladies, Megan's comes out, and we have authentic Greg Christensen when we have authentic conversations, that's why those moments are sticking out, and that's why we're getting the traction we're getting, because in this mind numbing landscape on social media of AI generated BS, we are bringing authenticity and that human element back to the trade.

43:17

Absolutely. Man baby, stand firm. Keep producing. Keep doing that. I have one more question. Because you're, you're very engaging. I have one more question. So I was, I was thinking about this, so and, yeah, it's, it's, it's a little weird. Don't give me, don't, don't judge me. Jim. So I was thinking about beautiful, I have a granddaughter. I think she's just absolutely the most beautiful thing on the on planet Earth, right? Beauty, and it's just in it, and that beauty touches my soul in such a unique and profound way, right? And then there's other, you know, the mountains beautiful. You just sit there and you drink it in, and you go, man, that's beautiful. I'm different because of that, right? Can industry be beautiful? What I hate to catch you off guard on this, because I was, I've been thinking about it, and I have an idea. Let's go ahead. Okay,

44:22

so, yeah, I've got, and you can't see it, but I've got the mural. That is, it's up there. It's all, I don't know if I can pan up out of Detroit,

44:37

right? Yeah, to me,

44:40

that's industrial beauty, the idea that humans can all work together to achieve manufacturing something massive, is Beauty to me. Go

44:54

ahead, yeah, and you're absolutely spot on. Okay, some point you. You're absolutely right. Let's just talk about SpaceX, that rocket ship that has been put together, that massive structure that is going to fly. And then you get the perspective of how little people are next to it, and you're thinking to yourself, beauty within industry always resides in the individual and the people, and that's where you're at. That's that's the beauty of industry. It's the people and and it is how it's it's the people that can produce cool things like this on site, laser cut, whatever that is, it's right there. That's awesome. Like, I love that. Yeah, that's cool. But people, it's

45:49

all the people you're absolutely right. And you look at the different personas, right? And even the grumpiest people in this industry are beautiful because of their contribution to this knowledge, their ability. I some of the grumpiest people are also the most willing to share their knowledge. It's just, is the next generation willing to listen, right? And are they able to connect in a way that knowledge is able to be transferred? But the people of this industry are the beautiful parts, right? They are the components. They are the ones who built the middle class, who can rebuild the middle class, who are just, yeah, they're crafts people, they're technicians. They're they keep this world moving, and they do it with a smile. And that's,

46:43

yeah, pretty amazing. You're absolutely right. And, and, and come full circle. That's why I believe I do podcasts. You do podcasts. It's always the human element associated with that. And I can geek out like the next individual and look at that robot, or look at that what I can geek out, but it's, it's just, I can't help but recognize the human element that went into doing that, that that just my mind gets blown, that's, that's the beauty. There you go. And the the

47:19

effect on the humans afterwards. Right? That robot that we saw at hexagon live. How is that robot going to change human lives on factory floors? Right? To me, that's the beauty behind it. If we are able to change lives for the better, then this industry is doing the right thing,

47:40

yes, and it is, we are they are people? Yeah, it's, it's an exciting time. I wish I was younger. I wish I had some pepper in my beard, not some. No, I'm here. I'm soldiering on. I'm going to continue to carry the torch and and be real and not let my brain atrophy because of AI.

48:03

And I appreciate that, and I want to bring this whole conversation the beauty of humans. Yeah, back to your post you made recognizing a couple of us in the space, Greg, myself, Nikki and Chris. And there was a comment on there that really it resonated with me on that human element level. And that comment talked about the monkey and the bananas. And is this just another moment to go so you know, like and subscribe, and is that what you're doing here, Scott, love what you're doing, but hey, well, and so that comment was a moment that I needed, because it gave me the wake up call that I needed Scott to say, am I still doing this for the right reasons? Yes, and the the answer is, some of my actions could lead people to not believe that I was doing it for the right reasons. So now I need to re look at how my actions are perceived, and is the intention there, right? Am I doing things to advance the industry, or am I just another talking head that's going to repeat the same issues that we've talked about for the last 25 years without posing any solutions or talking to people who can pose solutions, right? And so I mean a I love the post out of you. Thank you very much. Your kind soul. But I loved that comment from that person. I loved the ability that he had to be vulnerable on a space like LinkedIn and on a. Posts about content creators and people who are creating things in the most vulnerable way possible for the industry, the moment that they took to question.

50:20

I loved it. It was, it was so interesting because it's normally, it's like, hey, thumbs up. Hey, like, which is, hey, you know, it's the, it's the typical engagement in which it's fine, it's all good. I wanted to just make sure that that that I wrote down my purpose. I'm refining my purpose here, and so I'm going to continue to refine my purpose, because I believe it drives and keeps me focused on what is right, on why I do what I do and what you do. And anyway, I truly believe you and others have this noble purpose. You can't give up. You can't you can't stop it is. It's, from my perspective, an obligation on your part to continue to highlight the people, the solutions, the industry, so that we continue to are better. We're just better. So I wrote this down. I believe my purpose as I continue to refine it, don't jump on me to educate, educate industrial markets, or educate industry and bring order and access to information. Now if, but I'm going to pull in a personal part. There's got to be a people. There's got to be but anyway, I just that's your obligation, that's what. And everybody that I've come in contact, you know, the people that saying I'm just doing it because I, I've got this. I'm doing it because I, it's absolutely I don't like that. Yeah, I

51:55

know, and you're right. I don't do this for me. I don't do this for my ego. I could make a whole lot more money if I just said to an organization, yeah, I'll pair it whatever you want me to. I'm not gonna. It'll all be a surface level. I could wait make way more money if that were the case. But I refuse to do that for myself. I refuse to jump into this whole follower count conversation. I don't care. I'd rather build a community of people and have that community be connected with me and me feel the ability to be vulnerable in front of that community, then have people who follow to allow myself to have clout and ego. I just it's two different sides of the same content creator

52:54

coin. And here's, here's one last thing, one last thing, vanity metrics. Yes, I get to the point where, hey, did somebody give me a thumbs up? Like, really? Does that really mean anything? That's vanity? No, it's the information that we're so fortunate to be able to be a part of truly impact and help industry and individuals you know succeed in whatever that that definition might be

53:26

100% and if you've ever watched the social dilemma on Netflix, the documentary called social dilemma about the chemistry that goes into why people crave that. Thumbs up, the like, the comment, the engagement, oh, there. Instead, it releases serotonin, so it becomes like a drug to get those likes. It's it gets up there with any other serotonin inducing behavior, whether that's drugs, alcohol, adrenaline and skydiving, it's the same chemical response inside your brain that you crave, and that's why people crave those thumbs up. Yeah, that's why. What's the name? It's called the social dilemma.

54:25

I agree with that.

54:27

Oh, it's, it's mind boggling. And what you'll find in there is the person who created so that it's a documentary about social media, how it impacts young people, right? Which is terrifying in its own right, but the person who created the like button for Facebook says that that is the biggest mistake, the biggest regret that they have ever done in their entire career, because they created this serotonin chasing ball. Button that anybody could hit,

55:03

blaming man, that just blows my mind. We know intuitively because we're in, shall we say, we're in it, we do it and and it's what is available for us to be able to sort of tell that story. But I didn't know that's, that's, that's mind blowing.

55:22

Yeah, it's wild. So watch that, watch that, and then come on my show, and we'll talk about the social dilemma on my show. How's that?

55:31

Okay? I'll do that. Will I get depressed? Will I be

55:35

it's informational. I mean, there, there will be moments that you're like, all right, this granddaughter of mine that I find to be so beautiful. Let's have a talk about social media in a couple of years. I love it, but depression no definitely pause and think, and what I've had to do is reorganize on my phone my own expectations of myself when it comes to social media. What social media am I going to allow to be on my phone versus what social media do I force myself to access from a desktop? Because if I have it on my phone, I'm going to get those notifications about likes, comments, etc, and do I need that driver every moment of my day, when I'm at a trade show, when I'm at an event, do I need to then look at that? Or can I access it from my desktop and carve out certain areas of my time every day to access that information which just limits that, that brain response?

56:38

Yeah. See, this is interesting. That's that's that's like you said, it's a whole nother conversation, but it's one of those conversations that is necessary, because whether we like it or not, podcasts are not going away. So companies need to just recognize the fact that podcasts are not going away. And the reason they're not going away is because it's a great medium to be able to tell your story, to be able to amplify your message and and, you know, touch customers where they maybe are listening. So it's just, and we, we just have social. I'm not going to launch a multi million dollar campaign on some sort of channel. It's just not going to happen. It's right, not so it's available, but you better start embracing it and figuring that out. Oh, there you go. Jim, what's the best way to people get a hold of you and one more last comment. You are the record holder for the longest podcast I've ever done on industrial talk. Congratulations. Oh, will take that watch the title going, Oh man, it's gonna suck my re the my computer resources down to a nothing. How dare

57:49

he I apologize, but this was a great conversation. It was

57:53

fun. So how did they get a hold of you? What's, what's, uh, what's the

57:56

easiest way is to find me on on LinkedIn as we talk about social media, LinkedIn. Jim Bear, I'm in a bucket full of orange ping pong balls, or a bathtub of orange ping pong balls on LinkedIn, they can also reach out to me on my website, the MFG connector.com

58:15

I've got a both up here. I've got your stat card as well as your website, perfect. And, of course, just like everybody else, you use blue too. Everybody uses blue. Blue on the website, yeah, I love that blue. Yes. On a website, it's just blue,

58:31

five CC, four, EC is the hex code for that color on there. I love that color. I mean, my son bought me a watch band of it. I just, I don't know what it is. It's that and this kind of charcoal gray,

58:47

and I'm happy I agree. I remember, I digress before we wrap up. I remember when I ventured into this whole world of podcasting, and I was being inundated through a tsunami of information on things like color, like, well, that's that color is, you know, color tone, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm going, I don't even know what you're talking about. It's gibberish. What am I supposed to do? And the learning curve was just sort of upside down. It was like, I'm nose diving. I'm upside down, nose diving. But you persevere, you you make it happen. Absolutely Well, you were absolutely stunning.

59:31

This was a great show.

59:33

Not going to disappoint. All right, listeners, we're going to wrap it up on the other side. You're going to have all the see. This is, this is a must contact. We're going to have it all out on industrial talk, his stat card, his website, his everything that you can possibly even as I'm going to get your, I think I have your link to your your podcast, so I'm going to have the link out there subscribe. Got it, man. All right, listeners, we're going to wrap it up on the side. Stay tuned. We will be right back. Attack.

You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

Yeah, Jim. Jim Mayer, you need to reach out to him. Stat card, out on industrial talk podcast. Out on industrial talk website. Out on industrial talk. Where do you go and make sure that you connect with him? Oh, all roads lead to industrial talk. How about that for a conversation? I was fun. I really enjoyed the energy. He made it simple. Made it easy for me to chat about him. He's he's interesting, all right. Again, industrial talk is here for you. You need to amplify your message. Well, you need to get on his podcast, and you need to get on my podcast. We need to be able to amplify. We want you to succeed in a big way. And it's easy. You go out to industrial talk, you click connect with me. You talk to me and we're good to go. It's easy, easy peasy. I'm also out on LinkedIn. You can find me all right. Be bold, be brave. Dear greatly. I say it all the time. Hang out with Jim. You will be changing the world. We're gonna have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned.