Jim Vinoski with the Manufacturing Talks Web Show and Podcast

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Industrial talk, manufacturing, podcast, workforce development, skilled trades, innovation, private equity, supply chain, automation, education, policy impact, investment, manufacturing supremacy, storytelling, culture change.

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

00:21

all right once again. Welcome to industrial talk, and thank you for your continued support of this platform, this, this ever expanding platform that celebrates industry professionals such as yourself. You're bold, yeah, you're brave, you dare greatly, you innovate, you do all that stuff, and you're making the world a better place. That's why we celebrate you on industrial talk, we continue our series in the hot seat. In this series, I have to, I have to play some clarification. I'm highlighting the industrial voices within the podcast world, so that you listener, have all of the resources available and in the hot seat, Jim Vinoski Right there, manufacturing talk, web show podcast. And we're talking about the why and the why you need to do something like this. You need to amplify your voice. You know, you just gotta do it. So let's get a cracking with the conversation. Yeah, so we've, we've interviewed a number of people who have who've taken that bold step and said, I would like to be able to, because I have a big heart, and I'm passionate about industry, manufacturing, you name it, whatever, whatever segment it falls into, I want to be able to sort of help others tell their story, because what you are doing is cool stuff. So you sit you just, you just can't, you can't imagine how, how important what you do and and again, you might just sort of blow it off. And you're saying to yourself, oh, Scott, I, I can't do that. I don't know why, but the reality is, is that you do and we have to do a better job at inspiring them, and this is part of our conversation. So this is why having these conversations with these industrial influencers, you know, is an important part of inspiring the next generation of industrial leaders. We have to do that. We have all of this wonderful stuff that's taking place, and everything's coming back over here, or whatever mind investments. It's It's really exciting. But the reality is, are we doing our part? Are we are we amplifying the opportunity to say, hey, let's help with the next generation. Let's inspire them. What does that look like? Do not just sort of, I'll let somebody else do it. No, we have to do it. We are obligated. You, manufacturer, obligated. You, industrial, professional, obligated it. And we need to do this. And we're coming out with another program on industrial talk, and we're going to really focus in on how we inspire the young, you know, people to say, Yeah, I want to get involved in industry. We have to do it, and we're going to use the platform, the media that is available, so that this information can get Boy, talk about Tongue Tied get consumed. I don't know why I was having a hard time with that, but I did. My tongue was tied, but you get the picture. Come on, you get the picture. We got to do it. We got to, we have to do this yesterday. We have to keep on going. All right. Vinsoski, Jim Vinoski, he's passionate. He's got a great pro, you know, subscribe manufacturing tag, the manufacturing talk, web show, podcast right there. I'm on his I'm on his stack card right there. All right, enjoy the conversation with Jim. Jim, welcome to industrial talk. Thank you. Thank you so much for finding time in your busy schedule to to be on the platform. How are you doing today?

04:40

Doing good, Scott, how are you? I'm well. Thank you for asking.

04:43

The weather is changing, and it always goes to the weather. Here in Louisiana, it's been hot and miserable and muggy and all that stuff, but now in the morning, I'm able to walk my dog without getting into a lathery sweat, which is a good thing.

04:59

Well, here in Michigan. And we're already down into the 40s for lows, so we don't mind it cooling off. We just know what's coming soon after that.

05:08

Yeah, but I want that just because that means you get to have to pull out the jackets and you you change your your clothing fashions, like I'm still in shorts, and we're still having a pool party, right going up and in September. Anyway. All right, for the listeners, let's, let's level set. Let's get a little background on who Jim is. Why? Why you're a great professional.

05:34

Okay, yeah, well, yeah, Jim Vinoski have spent my entire career in manufacturing, started out in chemicals, did paints and coatings and food ingredients, and then finally landed up in food proper. I worked for about 16 years with General Mills and and then along the way, went from engineering and, you know, project management, process improvement stuff out on the factory floor, to first, technical management, engineering and maintenance, and then plant management and beyond. And you know, the thing I hang my hat on is I was never very far away from the factory floor. So that's one tie I've always kept alive, is knowing what the people on the floor are dealing with and what their needs are. And I think that's a big piece of what we miss these days, back right around seven years ago, I started writing about manufacturing for Forbes, and just, you know, the realization then is how very little one person in manufacturing, even for multiple decades, really sees the whole broad scheme of manufacturing. And so I get to dig into all those corners I hadn't personally been involved in. And then a few years ago, saw the whole podcast and web show thing taking off, and thought, well, it's a cool way to share the stories I've already been doing for Forbes. So I jumped in with that, and yeah, now I've got my own show called manufacturing talks, which you're going to be on here

06:59

on Friday. I saw it on my calendar, and I'm all right with excitement,

07:03

you know, but yeah, thanks for having me on your show too.

07:07

Yeah, it's always odd as a podcaster to be on the other side and being interviewed and peppered with questions, and you think to yourself, I'm not trained this way.

07:20

Yeah, I'll do my best.

07:23

I look like a fool. We asked a question, and this is a going off on a tangent. The food industry is getting a lot of attention. Yeah, yeah, just recently. It just is. How do you what's that all about? I mean, I just, I'm just intrigued. Are some of the things that are coming out. I mean, I'm a big fan of food menu, but, yeah, what's, what's going on, dude, give me, give me a little inside

07:51

screen, right? It's getting a lot of attention, and not a lot of it good. I characterize it in a few different ways. It's at its core, I think, you know, it's a whole competition thing. And you know, there's always been that competition, but the rise of private label and store brands and their quality advances have put enormous pressure on the branded CPGs consumer packaged goods. So that's been a real difficulty for quite a long time. Unfortunately, a lot of the big brands chose to fight that by, for some reason, cost cutting and taking away from their own quality. I had a guy named Peter McDonald on my show a couple of months ago, and he's a just absolute marketing guru, and specializes in CPGs. And I love how he put it, and that was, if you lose sight of where you create value for your consumer, for your customer, then then you're headed downhill from there. And I think that's what's happened to a lot of the CPGs. And, you know, coupled with that, is difficulties

09:06

I have to interrupt CPG, what is CPG, yeah, consumer

09:09

packaged goods. So includes everything in food, plus the consumables you use in your home every day, like cleaning products and things like that, right? And so, you know, there are other difficulties, price pressures, things like that, but I think at its root is just losing that sight of the value that the that quality advantage they enjoyed over the store brands and generics of the world for so many decades has evaporated. And it's just, it's a losing game for them.

09:44

I never thought of that. You're absolutely right. I go to the store, and if I look at at just the I'll date myself plain label. And I know that that going with the known brand is. Not that much of a difference. It does it? Does it warrant that price differentiation? You know? Then I have to ask, and it's like, well, not really sweetener. I can't tell.

10:11

Yeah, well, and you kind of allude to another thing, and that is that the innovation hasn't been coming from the big companies. So you're talking about kind of the run of the mill products you go looking for, and you didn't talk about anything new or exciting, right? Because it's not happening with the big the big brands.

10:29

Wow, see, that's a that's a mind blower. I Well,

10:33

and that's that whole piece. I don't know if you've ever heard of Clayton Christensen. He wrote the book The Innovators Dilemma, years and years ago. Unfortunately, he's passed away, but his legacy lives on, because it's just such a remarkable concept that it's so difficult, once you become a very successful company, to disrupt yourself and yet to stay in the game for the long term, you've got to be constantly innovating and getting better, and you're fighting against yourself. That's pretty difficult. I mean, Kodak is the essential example, right? They had digital technology long before it took off. They just chose not to go after it, because it would have disrupted their main bread and butter.

11:11

Wow, see already, man, you're adding value.

11:18

Better sign off now

11:22

you know what I'm going to do, and I'm going to take that information and I'm going to share it with my family. Yes, they really, they don't appreciate it, but they they're going to hear about it, because that's amazing. How did we, how did, how did Jim decide that I want to get into podcasting because, yeah, it's sort of interesting. I know my journey, but I want to hear what what you had, had to

11:48

say. I'm I'm very active on LinkedIn. Got a great network there, and tied in, obviously, with a lot of folks in manufacturing, in different forms and fashion. Like I said, it was back probably four years ago. Around there, four or five years ago, I started seeing a lot of people I was connected with, doing podcasting, doing video shows, and just kind of got wondering, you know, it's not like they came from that background. You know, there

12:16

nobody from this just, let's just lay that out. In the world of industry, nobody has come from that background,

12:26

absolutely manufacturing.

12:29

You have to bring the street cred receipts for anybody to listen to you. If I was talking head off the street. Have a great voice, but don't have any street cred. Nobody's gonna listen to you.

12:44

That's right. You know, the great example of that is Mike Rowe, who, yeah, absolutely, didn't come from the world of dirty jobs, but what gave him the street cred was doing the job in dirty jobs, and getting his hands dirty, and then getting involved in the skilled trades and that advocacy. And I mean, what a voice he's become, and what a great voice he has to boot. But yeah, you're right. Most people coming with the knowledge, with the background, don't have the broadcasting background, and I certainly didn't, but I just decided, you know, I'm going to give it a go. And I literally ran over to my local Best Buy, picked up the webcam they had on their shelf, the mic they had on their shelf, and came home and just started doing it.

13:31

Yeah, that's a common journey. I remember I I decided that, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna podcast. And the reason I wanted a podcast was open doors. I want to have engaging conversation with prospects and be able to hear about what they've got going anyway. It was just a real, a powerful Trojan horse marketing platform. And I said, I got to do this, and then you go in, and I've been doing it for eight years, nine years, whatever. And and you get on Google, and you try to find the information and the equipment and some equipment, it's just, you're just, you're venturing in, into a dark realm, because you have no idea. You're just doing it. And something inside of you are saying, I gotta do it. You know what? The interesting part too is that many and again, I just got off a call with the company. I said, it's gotta be strategic for you. You've gotta look at it from a strategic perspective, and you've got to continue and move and keep at it, no matter what. No, oh, I don't like the way I sound, I don't like the way I look. I don't like this. You know, it's always I don't likes

14:52

well, and nobody does right?

14:55

We're not beautiful people. We're

14:59

not it's true. But. Did not recruit for looks when I entered the manufacturing world, or good voices.

15:07

Yeah, no, it's, it's just, I, I'm just always fascinated. How many, how many podcasts have you done, you think

15:18

other than my own? Or like, the number of my shows, No, yours, yours. I just had episode 171, go, yeah.

15:25

See, yeah. Podcasters quit after what? Five, yeah, seven, typical, yeah. And they're out there. And so you, you know you're not gonna, you're not gonna make an impact. Why? Why? Why podcast in the sense, what was that passion? What was that driving force? I You go to Best Buy, you find that information, and you get it. But why? What's the hard part? The heart? Not hard?

15:54

Well, a piece of it is, I know there's just a lot of people who don't read articles anymore, if they ever did. So I'm out there writing at Forbes, which is obviously a huge outlet, and yet still not reaching a huge, broad audience. So when I started seeing the shows out there, I thought, well, here's a way to get these stories that I love. Because, I mean, when I started writing for Forbes, I told my first editor what I wanted to do is write about what we do in American manufacturing, because so many people think we don't make anything anymore, which couldn't be further from the truth. And so looking to share those same stories more broadly and with a different audience was the big appeal for me. And so that's what got me going into it. Originally, I started by going back to people I had already written about, and, you know, going through their stories in video format. Since then, what I've found is the stories that work in written format and in video format are oftentimes different, and so it also broadens my reach and scope of stories that I tell.

17:01

Yeah, yeah, but, but do you want to make a difference? Is that, is that really the driving that that's the soul of why it started with, it's like, it's like, do I really want to have this conversation?

17:18

Oh, it's fine. I think it started in that one kind of burning passion was to tell the stories of people doing cool things in manufacturing, yeah, um, it branched out from there, and I think it's become a combination of that and kind of beating the drum on things that are problems that we need to fix. You mentioned in our intro, we'll talk about workforce. That's a big piece of it, the skilled trades, those things, and then plus, I've been into politics my whole life. And you know, people who think politics and business are separate couldn't be more wrong, because what goes on in Washington and the state capitol so greatly impact what we're able to do in the business world, especially in manufacturing. The parts of manufacturing that are hollowed out, I contend, were hollowed out primarily by politics and so talking about those policy areas where not only do we need to stop doing stupid things, but we need to undo some of what we've already done?

18:25

Do you think that's because I agree with you 100% i i believe, over a period of time, we as a as a nation, have discouraged, to a certain extent, people getting involved in manufacturing. When I was in high school, we had, you know, trades, you know, we had shop classes, which was great. I loved it, right? But over a period of time, it was sort of in essence, discouraged, active, absolutely.

19:02

20:04

Yeah, I agree with you 100% and I think linking what is taking place in DC versus what's out in in the heartland and all of the manufacturing, the reality is, what's being pushed in DC is to revitalize, bring more manufacturing scale, it build it out. Whatever my challenge, which you could probably answer better than I can, because I can't, is it's a it's a human equation, if I mean, you can only automate so much. You can only, I mean, you you can't. You still need people. Yeah, what are we doing? What are we doing to help bring that in? Because every time when somebody says, Yeah, I'm reassuring, reshoring, where, what, how, who, good?

20:57

Yep, it absolutely is a people equation, and it's interesting to me. I had a back and forth with one of my LinkedIn contacts just in the last week, where he was saying the skills gap is a myth, and it's really about company culture, and that's what we have to fix. And I'm like, that's a fallacy of false choice. They're both problems. The skills gap is very real. And to your point, you know, you had shop classes. You probably had mechanically oriented or electrically oriented projects that you did with your dad at home. Yeah, maybe had a car you worked on. Kids today don't have any of that, most of them, and so to think that they're just going to naturally come up with these skills that we used to count on being ingrained. That's just folly. And so there are great things going on. I've highlighted a bunch of them. Actually, my show next week is with a woman named Angie Simon, who developed a program for skilled trades out of the building trades world, where she worked her whole career and just doing these summer camps to introduce youth to basics, you know, plumbing, electrical, mechanical stuff they use in the building trades. And she talked about, yeah, it was a crisis that we're trying to turn around. And I had Maria Ford on with her. She's president of industrial at Stanley, Black and Decker and DeWalt, who's sponsoring the program. She said the same thing, yeah, trying to hire for our corner of the world. We're seeing that same thing. To say there's no skilled trades. Problem is, is definitely burying your head in the sand, but it's also a numbers problem. You know, I don't know why we got surprised by the fact that since world war two ended, we've been talking about the baby boomers, right? And they call it that for a reason, so we don't have the numbers to replace them, and they're actually now on the back end of their retirement, they're going out in droves, the last of them, and then my generation, Gen X will be right behind them. And you know, we can recover from that. We've got some bigger generations coming, but we're not replacing the baby boomers by the numbers anytime soon. And so you got this double whammy effect of, don't have the numbers, don't have the skills. And so it's going to be the combination of things we can do. So it's training people up as quickly as we can to get the skills, the modern skills we need. It's not the same skills we needed back in the 80s when I came out. And it's automation. It's going to be taking away the drudgery that remains, the brainless work, the check your brain at the door, stuff, what people are important because of their minds and their creativity and that we have to tap into.

23:55

Do you think? And I want to, I want to touch upon culture, but I'm not going to do that yet. There is, there is truth to the fact that maybe many of these manufacturers have to rethink the way way they do business.

24:10

Cold, yeah, I, when I responded to the gentleman, said, Look, I wrote this article. I included a link to it. And this was years ago, five, six years ago, I wrote an article something along the lines of, if we want more people in manufacturing, we have to make it suck less. Yeah, beautiful, perfect, yeah. And so it's, it's the jobs that that can be difficult, it's the conditions that can be difficult. But the biggest thing, and he hit on it, and I couldn't agree more, is the culture and rule by fear. Like I said, the check your brain at the door. Yeah, people aren't gonna go for that anymore, and God bless them for not going for that. You know, previous generations shouldn't have put up with it. We maybe weren't in a situation where we could push back. Back effectively. But I'll tell you right now, if you think you're going to hire someone in and mistreat them and they're going to stick around, you're going out of business.

25:07

Yeah, no, you're, you're, that's, that's really, yeah, that's insightful. One of the challenges that I always think when, when I was growing up, I went through an apprenticeship program. I became a journeyman lineman that took, uh, four years took, and it's right, each and every day I'm I'm either digging a ditch, climbing a pole, being yelled at by some you know guy, but, but it was a part of the apprenticeship, and it was serious, right? Yeah, yeah, we and I don't see it. Maybe you see it, but I'm not sure if our education system is nimble enough or adaptable enough to be able to train these new entrants. I just don't see it because it took forever for me, four years.

26:00

No, I don't. I don't think our our primary education outlets are in any way, shape or form, going to be part of the solution anytime soon. They become too politicized and ridiculous. You know, if they haven't had shop classes alone for a generation or more, just getting those re established is going to take years. And so it's really going to have to be alternative outlets, the trade schools, the community colleges, those are untapped resources still, even though they have been ramping up and, you know, realizing that there's this, this shift in attitude as well as need. And I think they are, they are responding extremely well, but it's still too little. And so if you're in manufacturing and you're not connecting with those kinds of outlets and working actively with them, you're also going out of business. Yeah.

27:04

And it gets down to, once again, that culture that that you gotta and

27:09

taking things for granted, you know, you, like we talked about earlier, you could count on people coming in with basic skills in the past, and that's not the case anymore. And if you think someone's going to come along and fix that for you, then you're way off base. You've got to be fixing it for yourself.

27:23

See, there's a lot of heavy lifting that's got to go on here, for sure. The the thing that drives me, because you you touched upon it, is the perception changing, the perception of manufacturing buzz and I mean buzz around it. Why it is, it's, I'll use the term cool. It's where you want to be. It's where the cool kids are hanging out and and we don't do industry doesn't do a good job at creating that. So I'll give you an example. I want, I'm a I'm a big SpaceX nut, right? I want to see those launches. I want to see it, right? And what always fascinates me is, outside of the fact that they're doing it, which is just absolutely off the charts, creating something that's never been created that type of stuff, yep, but the energy within all of the people, they're screaming and they're yelling, they're, they're, they're rowing this boat in the same direction, and they're energized. And it's, it's like, that's where we need to get going. That's sort of like, at the top, we've got to do that. And that comes through just telling that story,

28:45

yeah, yeah, telling the story, getting people aligned up and down the the whole landscape, we've talked about policy makers, we've talked about teachers. It's parents too. Parents still, you know, they're, they're still thinking that manufacturing jobs are dark and dirty and dangerous and a dead end and, yeah, no one else is going to change that perception for us. We've got to do that as well. I saw something really disheartening. Is actually a guy I'll mention by name, Jason Primo, who's one of my favorite guys on LinkedIn, always, uh, very thought provoking. And we were in an exchange yesterday, and he commented about, you know, he's got a machine shop himself. He won't let people in there because of the liability. The ambulance chasers are just waiting for something to go wrong, and they'll be out of business if something happens. And I don't know how you fix that, so I've kind of hammered manufacturers for ages about you got to let people in. You got got to let people in. I think large corporations probably can still manage that, because they've got the armies of lawyers and pot of money to fight back. But a you know, sole operator like Jason can't, and so it's going to be getting those people. On board who can do that, and making sure that they're highlighting, you know, in person, what can happen making videos. I started a thing just Yeah, turn of the year this past year, doing my own version of how it's made. And I need to get back to it. They were pretty popular videos. Went to errands making makers of lawn mowers and snow blowers, and saw them doing zero turn lawn mowers. Went from one end to the other, did one on my hometown company I love, called stormy Cromer that makes this iconic winter hat, and showed their operation couple others, yeah, if we can't be there in person, make really cool videos and sell manufacturing because it

30:39

is cool. Yeah, we got to do it. I believe it has to be done yesterday. I mean, and to your point, there's this, this culture, this this liability culture that that unfortunately is permeating. And I got it, yep, we when I was doing shop class. Are you kidding me? Shop glass, I'm welding and I'm working. I'm doing I things are spinning,

31:08

for sure, I remember using a belt sander, yeah, my high school, high school shop class, and, man, I'm doing a piece of wood, and all of a sudden the thing just blows up. Yeah, wood goes flying. The belt flies to pieces. Sorry. Turned out I had, I had got it wrong on the the piece support, the piece I was working on steel support that held it, and I got it where it wedged between the belt and the support, and then just tore the whole belt up. And fortunately, I wasn't hurt. No one was hurt. It was dramatic, but those are

31:48

things you gotta learn not to do that

31:51

again. I never did

31:55

Exactly, yep, exactly. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right that, but there's a lot that has to change. Yeah, I'm, I was talking to, oh gosh, Brian. Was his name about that. I I'm blanking. However he was, he's running a company. It's a manufacturing company, and what, what he brings out, that is undeniable is that the United States is, is the number one market in the world, two for consumers or whatever, and and it's, it's just, if you're a manufacturer around the world, yeah, you want, you want your product here, absolutely, and that's, that's a good thing. That's something that we need to truly recognize. It is the place where you want to do business, yep, is, and be able to develop the solutions to be able to do that is, is vital,

33:03

yeah. Well, you know, for all the hoopla over the tariff monstrosity, yeah, one thing that became clear is there were people willing to greatly change their tariff situation to retain access to the American market. Yeah. I mean, look at what Europe went to. They were several percentage points to their favor when it started. Now they're at a 15% tariff to the negative just to retain access.

33:35

Yeah, yeah. And it's very real, yeah. It should be approached that way. And I'm sort of it puts it in perspective that this is a good market, yes, and, and, and, and people want to sell into it, and if you want to sell into it, yeah, there's, there's a cost. And I just, I just see the benefits. I just do,

33:58

yeah, well, the other piece that I've been banging the drum on is the whole finance world, because that's one of the the areas of expertise that actively drove manufacturing overseas, came up with these new measures that said, Oh, if you have assets like factories and productive systems, that's a negative. That's a bad thing. So we're counting that against you in the finance world,

34:28

yeah, see that is absolutely that's a whole nother conversation is, I know, how do you start to develop and and deploy capital effectively to be able to expand and to do what you need to do. And I think that that conversation has not been happening either.

34:51

That's one I've jumped in with both feet on just in the last year I started because I was hearing these horror stories about private equity. And its effect on manufacturing. I had a guy named Jeff leimbach who wrote a book about the decline of American manufacturing, and one of his first points in the book was about the effect of PE and its extraction of wealth from manufacturing by getting rid of assets, you know, depriving companies of capital they need to operate and invest in the future. And I think people are starting to realize that I've since gotten involved with some folks who are trying to do it right. And you know that actually may be a big add on to my consultancy is helping people find those responsible actors out there. I've talked to shop owners who say, yeah, I get calls every single day from investors wanting to jump in. But then, number one, they treat me like they're doing me a favor. Number two, the stuff they're talking about would kill my business. And number three, they're not going to say the term, but it's not it's not complimentary,

36:03

yeah, and I would say, also a trust say you're calling me, you're saying, Hey, I've got a bucket load of cash here that we want to invest in your business. Well, who are you? Oh, Scott. Well, what does that mean? What then, then the owner has to go down that road and do his or her due diligence to just figure out, do I trust you? Do I want to proceed? And it clock, clock, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, and I don't have the bandwidth, yeah, but I need, I need capital,

36:38

right? It's so bad. I've got a buddy in western Wisconsin named Matt goosey who also runs a machine shop, family operation his dad put together, and he told me of a company, a guy he knows, who had a machine shop the other side of the state, who just shut it down. He was ready to retire, and rather than sell it to the sharks, he shut the operation down, sold the pieces, and just gave Matt his list of customers and said, Hey, take care of these folks, just because he did not want to deal with what you're talking about and get taken I mean, what a shame, you know, The jobs that were lost there in the community. Yeah, other people will pick up the work. It'll go to other places. But you know something, this guy worked his life on building, and he just lets it go, because there's such bad actors out there in the investment world, he didn't want to deal with them. So, yeah, we got to fix that. No, honestly, that's because it's pretty well decided I'm going to jump in, yeah, somehow build that coalition of like you say, Trust it'd be here are people that you can jump in with, and they'll treat you, right?

37:55

I think that's a brilliant model. I think you're absolutely spot on. You know they they have that in other industries where you know Angie's List, wherever that is, that one you know plumber. Now that plumber has been thoroughly vetted, and I feel warm and fuzzy because I trust Angie. Yep, you know. Well, that's

38:15

a great example. And let me throw it out. I mean, your your viewers, if you're in business, and you've dealt with the responsible investment firm, let me know. Connect with me on LinkedIn. I will connect with anyone who sends me a connection request. Connect with me. Send me their name, and I will add them to the list. I'll start building that list today. Brilliant. I've got one. I'm working with them personally right now. Let's build it to be able to be a lot bigger, because the need is there. I mean, that's another thing I keep hearing is, holy cow. You know, with the baby boomers going out, there are companies for sale all over the place, but it's such a morass to get through that. Yeah, so if I can help,

38:55

I'll help. Yeah, that's brilliant. The company was century equipment. Brian Baker is the president. He's the one, and it was a great conversation. And he's very optimistic and bullish. But to your point, with the finance, you know, I'm always going to gravitate toward that, just because it's always, you know, I wanna, I'm, I'm dreaming big. I need, I should be, yeah, you know, I need as a manufacturer, for manufacturing, I'm dreaming big. I I need a partner, a financial partner that has my best interest, truly has my best interest. Yeah, that's, that's, that's the Shangri La,

39:40

well, and you know, it's not like anyone's doing you a favor. You know, that's what Matt talked about, as people coming in with that attitude, they're going to make good money. I mean, manufacturing is still a great investment, and it's going to get better because of all these disruptions in supply chain. People realizing having stock. Coming from the other side of the world works when it works well, and then when it goes to crap, your business is on the ropes. And so I mean, I keep saying we're in this moment in manufacturing I haven't seen in my 38 year career, where I think we can truly make a huge step forward, back toward manufacturing supremacy, which I think is where we should be. It's going to take money, and people will make good money investing.

40:28

I agree with you, absolutely. I'm all on board. Definitely. These are all, whatever the challenges we're dealing with today, as we delineated them in our conversation, they can be resolved, they can be addressed and be solved. And that's not a problem. We just need to recognize that it's a different world out there. And, you know, be bold. I always say, be bold, brave and dare greatly and just you'll be fine. Yeah, somebody could get a hold of you.

41:00

I'm on LinkedIn. That's my number one social media. I'm on x both as at Jim Vinoski and at manufacturing, M, F, G, P, a, l, k, s, muff talks, manufacturing talks, YouTube, manufacturing talks, web show. I'm on all the podcast outlets, manufacturing talks, yeah. Jim@vanoske.net if you want to email me, there it is

41:29

all right, right, Jim, you were fantastic. I could get was fun. Scott, thanks so much. Continue this conversation.

41:36

Come Friday, I get to ask you the question,

41:40

put you in the hot seat. Not going to do anywhere here as

41:44

well as you did here. Oh, I don't believe that for a second.

41:49

Well, thank you very much for being on the show. I really appreciate you. All right, we're going to have all the contact information for Jim out on industrial talk. So fear not. This is a high priority connection. Make it happen. So we're going to wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned. We will be right back.

42:07

You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

42:16

Jim Vinoski, incredible conversation. I always get inspired and I feel like I'm not alone. Sometimes I feel like I'm alone, but then when I talk to people like Jim, I'm not alone, we can chuck it up and have a grand old time and just and just know that we're in a great market talking to incredible people and and that's you, it's right. Jim manufacturing talks, web show and podcast. It's a mouthful, but worth subscribing. Make it happen. He's got, he's got tremendous skills, amazing. All right, I say it all the time. Be bold, be brave. There greatly. Hang out with people like Jim and you're going to be changing the world. We're gonna have another great conversation shortly. So you know, don't go away. Keep supporting industrial talk, because we like you. You.