300: Chris Luecke’s Friends from High School Interview Him on His Own Podcast, LIVE in St. Louis

0:00If you're heading to IMTS this year, make sure Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence is part of your game plan. While jumping into an F1 racing simulator or participating in a free throw competition might not sound like your typical trade show booth, Hexagon is anything but typical. Hexagon is the architect of innovation in manufacturing and a global leader in measurement technologies. You can find them in the East Building at booth 134102, and when you visit the booth, you can claim a free LEGO set of their Maestro CMM by going to manufacturinghappyhour.com slash LEGO. Hexagon's precision measurement, digital, and autonomous solutions help vital industries build, inspect, navigate, and innovate with confidence.

0:45Whether you're looking to solve inspection challenges or just geek out over some very impressive manufacturing technology, the Hexagon team will be at IMTS to talk shop. So if you're at IMTS 2026, make sure to visit Hexagon in the East building at booth 134-102 and tell them Chris from Manufacturing Happy Hour sent you. Sign up to meet with them and claim your free Lego Maestro CMM by going to manufacturinghappyhour.com slash Lego, and we hope to see you in Chicago. What has been harder to maintain over 300 episodes? Your liver and level of fitness through all of these brewery visits? Or your ego now that people actually listen to you?

1:32Welcome to Manufacturing Happy Hour. The podcast where we get real about the latest trends and technologies impacting modern manufacturers. Manufacturing Happy Hour. Each week, we interview industry experts that are at the top of their craft and give you the tools, tactics, and strategies you need to take your career and your business to the next level. And now, your host, Chris Lukey. Episode 300, Manufacturing Happy Hour. Hey, first and foremost, thank you for tuning into this show. Thank you for helping get us to episode 300. It's been a pleasure podcasting to you, podcasting with you, joining you at all our parties.

2:22And speaking of parties, episode 300 was recorded live in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. And we've got a special twist in this episode for you. To celebrate 300 episodes, this is a reverse interview. And because we're in my hometown, I'm being interviewed by three of my high school friends. I will say up front that I think this is constructive. There's plenty of good ribbing, but I think we also do a good job of explaining any inside joke or giving the backstory that comes up in this conversation. This episode is meant to be a fun discussion, a bit different from what we normally do, but I still hope you'll learn some things along the way as I do try to relate some of the things that come up back to typical topics that come up on the show.

3:08But to open this episode in St. Louis, I am joined by three manufacturing leaders in the St. Louis area as we talk about what is made in Missouri. We have this 15-minute opening segment featuring Joe Mazzola, General Manager of McHenry Automation. We have Michael Eaton, Executive Director of the Missouri Association of Manufacturers. And we have Maria Barra, President of Made in Missouri. So as we dive into today's conversation recorded live at Urban Chestnut Brewing in St. Louis' Grove neighborhood, we're going to start off with a 10 to 15 minute conversation around manufacturing in the St. Louis area and beyond.

3:51And then we're going to bring up my buddies, Pat Morris, Rob Garwitz, and John Petcher to the stage to turn the tables and interview me. Hey, thank you so much for helping bring this show to 300 episodes. Let's head to the brewery.

4:12All right, St. Louis, welcome to the 300th episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour. Give yourselves a round of applause.

4:25Thanks for coming out here to Urban Chestnut, where as I was chatting with the three guests from my 250th episode. I was just doing some math there. I'm like, oh wait, we actually recorded the 250th episode in this room, private setting during that time, but it is good to be back here. So hey, just to give you an idea of tonight's format or to introduce myself, if you're not familiar with Manufacturing Happy Hour, if you're here because you're part of the manufacturing community in the area, Manufacturing Happy Hour is the show where we talk about trends and technologies impacting manufacturing.

5:00the way you would is if you're having a drink with someone, right? Candidly, and when possible, we try to do it in a brewery like Urban Chestnut here in the Grove in St. Louis. I also describe it as a leadership podcast disguised as a manufacturing podcast. So we're going to be celebrating Missouri manufacturing here at the start. And then just so you're not surprised by what's coming, the second half of the conversation, I've done this once before. It's a reverse interview. I will be a guest on my own podcast, but this time around, rather than having a fellow manufacturer interview me, I've got three of my friends from high school since I'm from here because we wanted to give you a little bit of a treat.

5:40Should be a bit of a riot. So that's what's coming up next. But first, we've got three manufacturing leaders from the state of Missouri here. So let's do a quick round of introductions. Michael, how do you describe what you do if you're having a drink with someone? Networking, creating a culture connection with the Missouri Association of Manufacturers. Awesome. Appreciate all the things you do here at the Missouri Association of Manufacturers. Joe, how about yourself? Quickest way to explain it is we help customers make things, whether it's beer, soap, lubricants, whatever the situation, we help do the controls behind it to automate a factory and manufacture whatever that is.

6:19And Maria, how about yourself? We are an organization that tours facilities. We bring awareness of what's being made in Missouri. So, and for context, in addition to everyone in this room, predominantly folks that I know are from St. Louis, people will be listening to this podcast across the country when it comes out. So in the spirit of celebrating things that are made in Missouri, made in St. Louis, I'd love to do a quick rapid fire round. What is one of the coolest things that you've seen from your tours, from the people you've worked with that's made here in, let's say, the St. Louis area, if we can narrow it down a little bit, that people might not know about as well, right?

6:58People know Anheuser-Busch started here. People know Boeing, formerly known as McDonnell Douglas, right? Or some of the things that might go under the radar a little bit. Joe, I'm going to start with you because kind of coincidentally, in addition to doing our little high school segment later on, you and I also knew one another in high school because you would crash a party that I threw in my parents' backyard every summer. Grade school, potentially. Early days. Yeah. Yeah. Long ago. So we've been hanging out long before we started careers in manufacturing. Had any idea we'd start careers in manufacturing.

7:30actually. So I thought it was only appropriate that you start this round of rapid fire, cool things made in STL. I love being put on the spot. Thanks, Chris. Yeah. One of the coolest things I think that's made here that we've seen recently was making railroad ties with recycled plastics, right? So coming up with that next solution for getting rid of creosote soaked wood and finding a use for plastics and turning it into the future of the railroad system. So that's pretty cool. All right. So railroad ties is number one. And actually, I was just in New York City this year. I think I might have even mentioned this on the podcast before.

8:09There's a very cool transportation museum there where they have a lot of, it's an abandoned sub, I shouldn't say abandoned, right? But it's a retired subway station that they have filled with vintage rail cars that they have since retired. And many of them were built in St. Louis as well. So railroad ties to subway cars. We've been making cool stuff for years. Maria, what might you add? You were just mentioning that you go on a bunch of tours. I'd be very interested to hear some of the cool things you've seen recently. I mean, we've been on several different from all kinds of spectrum. We just went to Joe's Chemical and things I didn't know was, you know, black olives that you buy in a can are actually green olives that have been changed into black.

8:51I know. Crazy. The audience is very surprised by that, actually. you don't even want to know what's in your orange juice but that was another thing i mean these are things we need joe's chemical produces right here um so that was one wilson manufacturing name tags everybody wears a name tag i did not know how much work went into a name tag sticker name tags so you know they're creating plates doing all the things to make the name tags happen and then Another tour we went on was the Missouri, oh my gosh, the Commemorative Air Force. So they're out in Portage to Sioux and they are basically preserving history.

9:32They have a B-25 bomber, all kinds of military equipment and vehicles from World War II. So it's just a really cool nonprofit out there. If you've never been out there, I'm a big fan. quite the range everything from black olives that are actually green olives trying to keep it interesting yeah no i love it and uh you know michael you and i were just talking before this conversation you are at 363 plant tours as the missouri association of manufacturers as an organization and you're approaching 365 did i get my numbers right there absolutely yeah so of those 300 plus tours what would you highlight from thest louis area yeah that's hard because we've seen some incredible things.

10:18I don't know if folks realize you've all seen the movie Apollo 13. It all came down to that last bit of juice in that battery cell that was manufactured over in Joplin, Missouri. They're the reason the Hubble telescope is still taking pictures today because of their battery cells. So the statewide is amazing manufacturing landscape. I'd say here in the St. Louis area, man, you get so many things that are supporting the military, DOD. I think Boeing works with close to 300 subcontracting manufacturers, and you know they're here in this area. Pepper spray. How many people buy pepper spray? That's Sabre, manufactured right here in Fenton, Missouri, which is impressive.

11:11And it's still a lot of handwork processes there. So just really some, it would be really hard to boil that down to one cool thing. We've been in Lebanon, Missouri, the whiskey barrels, right? Just an incredible, incredible tour. And we're flame shooting up everywhere is pretty awesome as well. So, um, but yeah, it's some amazing manufacturing going on right here in St. Louis that you probably don't know about. Natoli, right? They make, uh, the, um, yeah, the presses for the, for everything from Flintstone vitamins to any medication you have on your cabinet right now. Those forms are made right here.

12:03So, uh, Really impressive stuff. So I wasn't sure if we were going to get a list of like a dozen like we got from all of you or just a few ones. Or just me. There's no doubt a lot of a variety of things that are made here. In addition to looking at what's being made in the St. Louis area and broader out in Missouri, one thing, Michael, I want to piggyback off of is you and I have chatted before about like the different characteristics of different regions, the ecosystems, how manufacturers work together. And I think it would be really cool for the folks listening to this, whether you're from St.

12:35Louis or whether you're from somewhere completely different. I mean, what's unique about the way St. Louis manufacturers work together and lift people up? I think maybe a way that we've talked about, it's like it's a collaboration over competition mentality. Like St. Louis manufacturers really want to work with other St. Louis manufacturers. They absolutely do. And that is very unique in all the communities we've traveled around the state and even beyond. And here in St. Louis, we have heard more often from manufacturers of, I wonder what other St. Louis manufacturer we could work with to produce this piece.

13:13Over at Cambridge, they pride themselves on working effectively, efficiently. And yeah, they might manufacture a component in their shop, but if it's more cost effective to work with the guy down the street, they're open to doing that. And we hear that more in St. Louis than we do anywhere else in the state of Missouri. Maria, I have a similar question for you. I mean, how are you seeing examples of St. Louis manufacturers banning together? So just an example of that, we were on a tour at Printterior. They are 3D printing. And one of the guys in our group, Brian Crump from Enviropack. Enviropack is a company that creates molded fiber.

13:54So if you get an Amazon package and whatever item you bought, it's in that like plastic, you know, mold. Enviropack actually makes a mold that's environmentally friendly versus and it's made out of molded pulp, which is a really cool tour also. But Brian brought one of his mold, one of his molds that he wanted to see if Printier could print it in 3D printing and save him time and cost. so just the fact that he brought that piece on the tour and wanted you know to have a conversation I thought that was really cool yeah awesome story I've got one last question and Joe this one's going to go to you because I referenced it that uh you know you and I have known one another before we started our careers in manufacturing I mean what's an observation you've made about manufacturing in the St.

14:47Louis region from your time as an integration leader that you'd love you You know, that not only you think people that that's a cool observation, but something you think manufacturing leaders listening to this can learn from. Oh, good question. I'm glad you asked that long question. I try to ask the questions long sometimes so I can give you time to think of a few things as I'm asking it. Right. You know, the potential here, I think, is really the thing that has we've really seen an increase in. And the amount of things that are happening here now is just when I first started, and maybe to some extent it's just more of my awareness in the environment and what's going on here.

15:26But I believe there's a lot more going here in St. Louis than there was 10 years ago. There's a lot more going down in Springfield than there was 10 years ago and all around Missouri. But here in St. Louis, it just seems like there's always new plants going in, new lines going in at existing plants, trying to expand and reuse the existing workforce we have here, the population we have helped try to grow the region and become a manufacturing hub as much as we were 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, right? So, yeah. Well, thank you all for bringing your stories, your insights, the things you observed from your time serving and going through the different manufacturers in the region.

16:09Hey, everyone, give it up for Maria, Joe, and Michael for kicking off tonight's show.

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17:40all right let's start rolling through segment two so i'm gonna do a quick introduction of everyone up here because i want to set some context for you know at least one of the reasons why i wanted to ask each of you to be up here so uh to my left patrick morris uh fellow dismet alumni he got to fire up big d from the back of the room that's what we like to hear on yeah there's there's going to be some high school conversation no doubt because uh one of our rivals is at the end of the line here uh we'll get to that in a second but patrick has also run his own podcast in a past life so good to have a fellow podcaster up here rob and i rob garwitz we've been friends since freshman year of high school also at dismet cross-country buddies pat also a cross-country runner.

18:27And I've lived away from St. Louis and Missouri for, you know, pretty much since college. But every time I would come back, Rob and I would riff about, you know, you going through an MBA, me starting a company, you starting companies. Like, we've always gotten together every time I've been back in town. So Rob's probably gotten to follow my, I guess, career story more so than a lot of my friends. And John Petcher, at the end, we played in a band in high school together. So this is not the first time we've shared the stage or shared microphones together. I'll say it up front, that band name was the Atomic Monkey Project.

19:02AMP for short. And if you're thinking this to yourselves, yes, that was an awesome name for a high school band. Will you be doing a, you know, reprise rendition tonight, just the two of you? Maybe an acoustic version, perhaps. It's funny, you're not the first person to have asked that question to me today. I'll take the audience, Chris. Not tonight, but we actually did do our first reunion in 19 years. I think it was closer to 20, but yeah. Yeah, it's been a long time. 19, 20, once you get into the double digits, time is a flat circle. But nevertheless, we just did probably our first and only reunion at that point.

19:40Let's just at this point call it the farewell show. I think that's the way to do it. But hey, we've got another show for you tonight, so that's all I have. I kind of prepped them. I said, you're going to prepare the questions. My audience is generally people in the manufacturing industry, but because we talk about business on the show, fire away. Ask what you want. I tried to give you some guardrails, but this could get rowdy as things get going. So, Pat, what can the audience expect? Well, first off, Chris, thank you for the question. What we can expect is a little bit of throwback down memory lane.

20:14We can really think of whatever we want to ask you. That's the beauty of us being the host. So if I may, just to give a little context, I did a podcast back in the day called Drumroll, Let's Get Comfortable. It was a podcast about St. Louis food, drink, the comforts of life. And I was thinking, getting onto this stage with you, I did Let's Get Comfortable. You do this. You travel, you interview all these manufacturing leaders, You've done 300 shows. You've gone thousands of miles. And what resonated to me is like, how do you do this? Like, seriously, like what's wrong with you? Like the stamina, what's your magic drug?

20:59What's the pill that you have? What can you share with all of us so we can just get a glimpse of what it's like to have the energy that you do to do this? I'm going to try to answer these questions like the way you ask them with the answer you're looking for. but I might tweak it a little bit because that's what I do as a podcast host. One of the things that comes to mind, how do I do this? What I do where, hey, we're in the manufacturing industry. We tour a podcast like it's a concert, right? We throw parties and things like that. The main thing I would say, there's no special secret. There's no special drug.

21:36I just drink a cup of coffee every day and I try to get sleep where I can. But I feel the real secret is just borrowing best practices from other areas completely outside of the manufacturing realm. I mean, what I would say is, you know, I've been to concerts with all of you guys growing up, right? Like, I'm obsessed with live music, played live music before. And what we do here at Manufacturing Happy Hour, it's kind of the same DIY mentality like a young band would take, right? You got to book your own shows. You got to be creative. You got to find, you know, the guests the same way you find the different bands you play with.

22:13So, you know, that's not the only area where I borrow best practices. Like when Manufacturing Happy Hour started, I was looking at like travel bloggers and things like that. I'm like, we make a lot of cool things in the manufacturing industry. This is back in 2016, by the way, when no one was making content. And I'm just like, hey, we could make cool videos about the stuff we make too or the stuff we do. We're literally making things. We have robots. We have automation. It's cool technology. there's no reason we can't borrow this best practice and apply it to our industry so borrowing ideas from other areas outside of the realm of manufacturing i think would be the way i would answer that travel blogger uh anthony bourdain has always been someone who is your idol rest in peace i'm more of a guy fieri guy just for that context but you know in your personality that makes sense although i feel like i'm kind of a guy fieri type guy too shut the front door you know all right okay i digress you can pass it on to somebody else now if you like Rob, go for it.

23:06I'll jump in. Okay, Chris, you failed to leave out the detail when you gave our backgrounds that none of us here have any clue of what anyone does here. No, no, for context, I sell software as John and I are both in the software industry. Also software, yep. Fundraising, yeah. And Pat's a fundraiser. So anyways, I think you should have included that in our credentials. I figured people might pick it up as we went through the conversation. Is it obvious? I want to get that out of the way here in case it's obvious. Okay, I want to start. I want to get to know Chris as a man and future father. Does anybody know Chris is going to be a father?

23:45I told him it was okay. Did I just reveal a secret? No, no, no. I told him it was okay to share that up here. I am going to be a dad starting on October 31st. Cheers to that. Let's talk about that. Yeah, cheers. First off, congratulations, Chris. Thank you, everyone. Godspeed. Okay, so Chris, my question. You're becoming a dad, and you're obviously somebody that always has something going on. You're always traveling somewhere. So the real question is, are you emotionally prepared to take care of a human being that has no interest in your itinerary? One, we're manufacturing. Sorry. And then two-part question.

24:21The second part of that question is, how do you plan to spend your time when you're a father? That's a great question. um we've been trying to get this tour done so i can be home uh with my wife as we prepare and enter the third trimester right now so um am i emotionally prepared uh what i've learned from everyone no that is the right answer right everyone said you'll never be fully prepared for it so thank you for answering the first part of that question john no but what i would say is I do feel confident. I should also add something else about your intros as well. All three of these guys are amazing fathers.

25:00So I have a great network of friends to learn from. So while I might not be emotionally prepared or really, I don't think there's ever any way to get to that level. I do feel good about the friends that I've made that, you know, can help me along the way. And I lean on for for tips when i'm panicking and at home obviously you know my son will have no interest in my itinerary which i mean i'll be honest one of the reasons i've been building up like a platform like manufacturing happy hour is i kind of saw what would happen if i went the corporate path i'd i'd probably be ambitious i'd you know go for the promotions and things like that and i might be told to get on a plane at moments when i didn't want to so i've been trying I mean, there's an element of lifestyle design to this as well, because I do want to be at home to spend time with my son.

25:53I'm just glad that it's on record that we're amazing fathers on a recording and a video. So thank you for that. You're welcome. Anything I can do to help. Appreciate it. Send that to my wife, please. Yeah. Mine's here, so you can tell her to her face. She already heard it. Yeah. Fantastic. He's a great dad. So, Chris, you and I have known each other for a long time. um you know obviously high school we did room together for a little bit during college um you know always the organizer always the planner so back then I would refer to you as my only friend with a real job uh the rest of us were working in the service industry you were working at Anheuser Bush making at the time$15 an hour which we thought was golden at that time so now you've matured into being my only friend with a fake job.

26:41So what I would like to know, though, is what was a bigger leap of faith? Was it going from, you know, the corporate world into podcasting or was it playing the 8 a.m. slot at the Battle of the Bands at Slew's Spring Mixer in high school? All right. So we'll start off with a quick definition. Slew, St. Louis U High, literally less than a mile from where we're recording this podcast tonight um and our band when we were sophomores in high school were graciously gifted the opportunity to play at 8 a.m on a saturday morning before anyone else had shown up i should there were many less people there than are here tonight significantly less although this isn't this is actually a really important thing to highlight it's a lesson in friendship of like the four people that were there to watch us rob was one of them the guy shows up so you know what was a bigger leap of faith playing that or jumping into manufacturing happy hour full-time um you know in both cases i had practice right like i didn't like blindly one day you know quit my job and start manufacturing happy hour that day i think one of the lessons that you'll hear from a lot of entrepreneurs or business people about how they've started their companies, it's like, well, it didn't start the second I left my job.

28:03I've been building up what I was doing before then. So there was an element of, hey, we went into that show with practice. And I went into this with practice as well. One thing I couldn't prepare myself for that day. So picture four 16-year-olds playing music, albeit not that great, but playing music on stage. We'll call it music. Yeah. So we're doing this early set. One thing I couldn't prepare for that day and maybe this is a lesson in when not to give high schoolers too much responsibility they'll schedule a band at 8 a.m they'll also set up the stage on a bunch of textbooks because it had just rained outside so the stage was like being balanced on it's like risers that were resting on textbooks as we're getting into the bridge yeah super safe as we're getting into the bridge of our final song of the set right and this set this song rocked it was a good one um it's a it was an original song called kick out actually so we're getting to the bridge um i don't remember that i the the riff was really the magic of the song the lyrics weren't great john sing it they were terrible yeah but here's here's what happened i fell through the stage at that point a hole in the stage opened up and i fell through it and i'm being a little overdramatic Right.

29:20My whole right leg went below it or something like that. Right. But obviously the five people in the audience saw it. And I had to make the decision of do I use this as an excuse or do I just keep powering through. Right. And that happens with every show, everything you do, regardless of what your career, whether it's a podcast, whether you're working on the plant floor, things don't go according to plan. and in the moment you have to adjust. So that is one of the most concrete, early examples in my life where a situation did not go according to plan, but we played through it. That's a great segue because my next question for you was, context, you've always been somebody who can laugh at yourself.

30:01We love to laugh at you while you laugh at yourself, et cetera. 300 shows, there have to have been some similar miscues along the way. And since we have the chance to get introspective with you. Can you give us a little enlightenment, a little embarrassment, a little fun on something that happened along these 300 shows that you were like, oh man, that was embarrassing, but I can laugh at it now. Oh my goodness. I mean, one - Just one. Yeah, I mean - I know you failed miserably on men. I'm kidding. There are more than a few, right? I think one thing when you start doing events, right? Like, you know, when you're doing a show, whether you're a band, whether you're a podcast, right?

30:39and you throw live features where you invite a bunch of people out and people show up, you end up having massive events. Sometimes hundreds of people show up. Other times, 20 show up. You can't get the highs without some of the lows along the way. So it might come to me later, Pat. I'm trying to think of a funny story. It's a funny one, but if you don't have one, that's okay. A big hiccup, right? But, you know, I'll say this, like, you know, every entrepreneurial journey, every business has some highs and lows and you work through it. Pat, I'm going to come back to this. We'll figure out an embarrassing story, if not about this, something from high school by the end of the end of the show.

31:21So that way the audience can get their money for it. I want to embarrass you just a little bit. Okay. Okay. All right. No, this is my way of saying there are many things that don't go according to plan and you just got to get comfortable following through the stage and adjusting. Well said. I'm going to stay on the family theme. I don't know how many of you know Chris's father, Ken Lukey But I know Ken Lukey very well He's sitting in the front row Sorry to single you out Shout out to my parents And let's just say There's a common thread here With Ken, obviously Chris's father Pat and I know Ken very well From our days at DeSmet How many years did you work at DeSmet?

32:0050 50 years So it's not an understatement to say that he is an absolute legend in our high school circles and the St. Louis high school community. So that being said, knowing that this shows apparently about leadership. It is about leadership. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just, yeah. That was well done. Shining example of a leader. Pat and I experienced it with your father, Ken. So talk about your dad. Are you ever going to be able to surpass the legend that is Ken Lukey? but in more seriousness, talk about how your father has helped shape you as a leader. Oh, wow. That is a big question in front of a live audience and in front of my parents as well.

32:42Pressure's on. I'll say this. One way he has helped shape me, I am an absolute workaholic. Like, Pat, back to your first question, how do you do this? Like, he was in the hallways of DeSmet every moment. Like, you know, he was out there a ton. And that said, as I was growing up, you know, in grade school and, you know, I didn't think he was always out there. I knew he took his job seriously. I remember when I was super young, like, I don't know how well I remember it, like two or three, like I would wake up every morning and like say goodbye as he was like driving away. Right. So, you know, I saw him going to work every day.

33:19And I think that probably was one of the early impacts of like, hey, work is work is something important. Right. But, you know, despite giving his heart and soul to, you know, his vocation, his calling at Dismet, he was always there for dinner, for coaching sports growing up. So those are some of the things that I feel like I've learned from you, Dad. There is a balance there. Sometimes the balance might not always look like purely the black and white balance, but it was awesome seeing you work as hard as you did and also seeing you around all the time growing up as well. Round of applause for that.

33:58Well said. Yeah, Ken. And I do have a follow-up question, and I think I know the answer, but I'll ask it anyways. Ken's always had a fantastic beard. You've had it for decades. And you just don't. When's the last time you didn't have a beard? Like 1972. Two? Three? Okay. We always said one of the best fundraisers our high school could ever do was if we raise X amount of dollars, Ken Lukey will shave his beard. And so I tried that. I also had worked at the Smetton Fundraising back in the day. And I tried that my first year there, and I directly quote your dad said, cutting off my beard would be cutting off my arm.

34:36It's a part of me. It's a non-negotiable. but back to you can you would you or is it just the beautiful mutton chops i i it's an honest question we have a living legend right maybe the most embarrassing thing that's happened in the 300 episodes is my you know i guess guest host whatever we want to call you called out my sideburns there you have it so that's something um you can skip the last question then because yeah there we go i told you we'd get back to it um you know i just i don't know my i have a brother named Tim as well. It was cool. We did a live show in New York a while ago and he got to see it.

35:13And he has a nice beard. He's got a great beard, right? I feel like at some point you just got to preemptively admit defeat and say, it's like, you know what? I'm not going to grow a beard as great as Ken. I'm not even going to grow a beard as great as my brother Tim and just chalk it up to the clean shaven look it's not a bad look i'm just it was an honest question that's all it was a good question yeah very fair all right well that was my question back to john i guess yeah so i'm gonna double back just slightly um because if there's one thing i know about chris is that he's probably one of the most authentic like genuine people you ever meet in your life this is how he is all the time this is not a character he is this outgoing this committed and this over the top about everything.

36:03The man still uses Dropbox categorized by date and by event to manage all of his photos. Like forget Apple Photos or Google Photos. He still uses Dropbox. I use Apple Photos too, but I just have, you know, this is a, I mean, I save all my old, keep going. Yeah, keep asking the questions. I'm not done. I'm not done. I'm not done with my question. So like I said, you know, one of your superpowers is being authentically you. So I guess my next question to kind of turn this into a little bit of an industry question is, how would you talk to other people about bringing that authentic part of yourself into your professional life without overdoing it and while still remaining genuine?

36:47I was going to say that's a great question. It is a great question. These have all been great questions, by the way. You guys should just quit your jobs and start podcasting full time, too. There's too many dudes with podcasts. I'm considering it. All right. Well, so to answer that question, how do I try to get other people to bring that authenticity out? I'll share this in kind of like a current events standpoint, relevant to manufacturers, right? Because I know there are a lot of manufacturers in here. There are a lot of manufacturers listening. I mean, one of the things that I talk to a lot of people right now where I get a lot of people that want to jump on the show and talk about artificial intelligence, right?

37:22And artificial intelligence just happens to be the big transforming technology in manufacturing right now. You know, five, ten years ago, you heard this term called Industry 4.0 all the time. You still hear about it a little bit today. I see a lot of people try to maybe build their core expertise and even some of their personality around what's hot at the moment. Right. So whether that's in an industrial context, like we're talking right now or just, you know, whatever your industry is. Right. Like there are opportunities to kind of latch on to whatever the big, important new tech or trend is.

37:57And that's worth doing. Right. These are things you want to be familiar with. But what I try to explain to people, it's like, look, everyone else is talking about artificial intelligence right now. Everyone else is talking about industry for right now. What are the things that you can talk about that are timeless, that highlight who you are, that highlight your expertise, that can allow you to stand out from the pack? So that way, when you do dive in to those other things, people know who you are, what you're all about, what your values are, and you're not just another person talking about the latest, greatest thing in tech or manufacturing.

38:31Good answer for a good question. Thank you. Does Dropbox use AI yet? Another good question. Of course they do. I bet if you went to their website, the first thing it would talk about is some AI-powered teacher. I could add that to your resume. I'm just saying. Okay. Hey, I'm able to dig up photos from 2007, from 2005 on a dime when someone asks me for them. So just because I use some old school technology doesn't mean it doesn't have its pros and cons. It's amazing. If it works, it works. Okay, I have a few, shifting gears here, a few rapid fire St. Louis themed questions for you. All right, hometown questions.

39:04All right, I mean, so context again, I'm wearing this DeSmet Burger Club shirt. Chris and I were on some of the founding crews of the famous to Smet Burger Club. We went around 20 years ago, starting 20 years ago, finding the best burgers in St. Louis. And it's still going on today. So Chris, what is your go-to burger in St. Louis? My go-to burger, not only in St. Louis, but it also happens to be my go-to burger in the world. And it's funny, I was just chatting with my tour partners at Maintain Exit Asset Watch about where's the best burger in St. Louis yesterday. It's an important question. So I will answer this by saying Carl's Drive-In, I think, is the perfect burger in the world.

39:47You can clap for that. I heard someone started it. Carl's Drive-In. Yes. Not to be confused with Carl's Jr., the burger chain. Carl's Drive-In, to set context, it's eight seats on one side, eight seats on the other. You sit at the counter. They make their own root beer in-house, or at least they did. I assume they still do. But they're smash burgers. I mean, they're exactly what a smash burger should be like, just pressed into the grill. And they throw like the onions in there as well. So the onions kind of get baked in. The edges are super crisp. I go to other spots that say they have a, quote, good smash burger.

40:21And it's like a third pound patty. I'm like, that's not a smash burger. You got to get some of that nice crunch that Carl's Drive-In here in St. Louis has. So best burger in St. Louis, Carl's Drive-In for sure. Fantastic. These are rapid fire, by the way. That was a long answer. Let's go with the next one. I love Carl's driving, though. Like, I just said it wasn't just St. Louis. It was my favorite part in the world. I actually, I said rapid fire knowing that it might not be rapid fire. So I'm going to pass on, but then I have more St. Louis questions for you coming up. Okay. No more rapid fire?

40:51That wasn't really rapid fire. That was... Because he's too long-winded. We'll sprinkle in the rapid fire. Yeah, that was my fault. I messed up the rapid fire part. It was, you did exactly what I hoped. Classic. I knew when we put these two together, I'd just keep talking. Okay. All right, Chris, 300 episodes. Let's go on that theme. That means you've had a front row seat to a lot of people, their careers, their success, etc. So talk to us about all the impressive people you've interviewed. What's the commonality you've seen between those people that you would want to share with this audience today?

41:23I would say it's difficult to pinpoint a single commonality. One thing I noticed with, maybe not even noticed, but the things I admire in the people that I interview the most are the ones that are able to highlight their expertise and highlight how strong the other people on their team within their organization are as well. because I think there's a balance, right? One bit of pushback I get when reaching out to guests sometimes is they want to feature someone else. They want to pass the buck. They don't want any of the spotlight. I'm like, I think there needs to be a little bit of, you know, learning from the folks that are really good at what they do, but also the leaders that really, and the reason I call them leaders instead of managers, for example, right, is they're able to spread the love across the organization and highlight, hey, this is what I do really well as the person that's leading operations at this equipment manufacturer, the person that's running this line.

42:18But all of this is possible because I have a lot of other great folks around me. So that's one of the things that I observe frequently because one of the fun things about doing this podcast is I get to hear the answers that come up kind of organically all the time. And I know it sounds cliche sometimes, but when you're asking someone, you know, what makes the company you work with special? I mean, it's inevitable. They're going to say the people here at XYZ organization is what really sets us apart. So that's one of the things that I learned frequently in that capacity. The other thing, and maybe you guys picked this up earlier, since this podcast travels quite a bit, one of the strengths that I hear in other folks or the things that I've learned is the regions that can think bigger than just their city limits or just their state, but can expand that ecosystem beyond just one area.

43:08Let's be clear. It's important to make sure, hey, let's say the St. Louis ecosystem is strong. The Casey ecosystem is strong. But once you can start expanding that and being like, all right, all ships rise with the tide, like let's get this beyond the borders, right? How to create this like Midwest mega region. That's one of the things that I think really sticks out as well, getting to talk to a lot of different people in different places. The more you can take that all ships rise with the tide approach, those are the regions that I see really being successful in manufacturing. So kind of took that a step further, but I think I answered that.

43:42Yeah, I like it. And I also heard a servant leadership theme in there early on. Sounds like a man that had a Jesuit education. I'm surprised it took us a while to call out Jesuit education specifically, all four of us up here. Well done, Mr. Lukey. Man for others, I love it. Speaking of which, having gone to the original Jesuit school in the area. But inferior. What did going to the second best Jesuit institution in town teach you about? Cut that. Redact that. We'll leave it in there. But in all seriousness, who has the better alumni network for getting you free beers when you travel all over the country?

44:18Oh, you have a acing the whole. Oh, my goodness. I mean, I'm not going to answer it directly about the free beer comment because I don't want to give away anyone's secrets. But if you look at some of the great breweries around St. Louis, first of all, shout out round of applause for Urban Chestnut for hosting us tonight. Have to start there. But, you know, back to your ecosystem question, right? You get a good Jesuit education from DeSmet Jesuit, the best Jesuit high school in town. And then you're like, hey, how can I help lift up other breweries as well? You see Four Hands and Civil Life as examples of.

44:55Yep. DeSmet grads, you know, running businesses. It should be very clear, manufacturing businesses as well. So I feel like this might have been a rapid fire question, but this was a way to highlight the high school alumni network that runs great breweries across the St. Louis region. I had a rapid fire question actually that was, what's your favorite beer in St. Louis? But out of respect to where we are, you know, I don't want to put you in an awkward position. That could be another embarrassing moment on this podcast. So I can move along to the next one. My favorite beer at Urban Chestnut There you go Is Urban Underdog I don't know if this is like just lore at this point But I feel like a lot of breweries love like those macro style lagers And I heard that you know there was a point where everyone was like We need a beer like this too Otherwise we're going to be drinking like a competitive macro lager While we're brewing our beer on brew days And I feel like that's where you get great beers like Urban Underdog that are essentially like easy drinking beers with just awesome ingredients.

46:00So I'm going to highlight that as one of the wonderful beers here at Urban Chestnut. The pale ale or the lager? The lager, the lager, the OG, the original. More of a pale ale guy, but okay. Did I get that right? All right, we just got confirmation from Patrick at the bar that my story was correct. Okay, then Alf that real quick. You're in town, you want ice cream. Are you going Ted Drew's or somewhere else? Ted Drew's all day long. I've almost always gotten a M &M concrete. I've started varying it up over the years, but that is my go-to. Ted Drew's frozen custard. I should be clear. I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

46:37That also has some iconic and great frozen custard. They don't hold a candle to Ted Drew's. Even all those cows up there, they can't compare. They do a good job, but I was hoping for a round of applause for Ted Drew's. I was hoping that was, there we go. There we go. They're like, okay, okay. Not pandering to the audience at all. I do genuinely believe Ted Drew's is the best. Before Ted Drew's, you have to get dinner. There's some great pizza here, but I was thinking the Emo's thing. Like, would you do Emo's or somewhere else for that? Usually Emo's. As someone that doesn't live here, usually the first call I make when I land in the airport is to the Emo's that's off of Oakland Avenue, because it's exactly like 15, 20 minutes from the airport.

47:17So by the time we get there, pizza and the toasted ravioli, that's always a key part of the order. Those are ready to go. All right. I'll pause there. All right, Chris. For the audience here, I don't know if they know this, but your dream in high school was to build roller coasters. Is that accurate? Okay. That's correct. 100 % correct. Okay. So obviously you're not building roller coasters. Instead, you built a podcast about manufacturing. Congratulations. Good job. um but now chris let's go back to chris let's go back to chris as the kid what's what's the connection between that dreamer that we all knew in high school about dreaming doing big things building roller coasters to obviously you've built something really cool and neat here take us back to what's the connection between that kid back then and and what you've built now yeah i um a few ways to answer this one i spent my lunch break at worlds of fun yesterday and i rode four roller coasters before our Kansas City show last night.

48:17So I haven't lost that spark. I've also interviewed a few roller coaster manufacturers on this show because it is manufacturing related. One of the things that I realized, I think, towards the end of my engineering degree that maybe derailed, pun intended, that original path was I'm like, you know what? I don't know if being an engineer is exactly what I want to be, but I'm certainly going to take that problem solving skill set and bring it wherever I go. And I think that's one thing I've done with manufacturing happy hour where I see challenges or challenges other people are facing in the industry as opportunities to create something and build something new like we've done here.

48:56The other thing is, Robin, I know you were there for this. I'm pretty sure like when we went to Warped Tour 2002 out at Riverport Amphitheater. I don't think I was there. I wasn't there no you were there you were there you were there with us um he has pictures in his dropbox he does what's been your other buddy rob when we went there in 2002 i think i just saw like a bunch of bands playing punk rock playing by their own rules and i think i was just like i want to do this in some fashion the rest of my life and i think that's been a big part of the ethos of building manufacturing happy hours uh you know being in the industry where i want people to see that we can play by our own rules and things like that right there are best practices we want to learn from but uh i think one of the most powerful things people can do is look at where you know hey why aren't we creating videos in our industry why aren't we doing xyz and jump on that and create that so i think maybe my problem solving mentality that i developed as an engineer coupled with some of those early high school influences like going to our first concerts ever set me on that path.

50:04On that note, if a corporate sponsor came to you and said I will bankroll manufacturing happy hour for the next year. I'll sponsor all of your events but the catch is the Atomic Monkey Project has to be the opening act for every single one. That's an easy yes. I mean, I feel like we never lived up to our potential. So yeah I would say yes to that all day long. That was an easy, that was a rapid fire question right there. Easy, easy one word answer. Then I have a hard rapid fire question for the last one. Let's manufacture. And I think of this because especially around sporting events and whatnot, you've texted me and you're like, I'm going to like 14 things when I'm in St.

50:44Louis in the next 24 hours. So manufacture for us. Yeah. What would be your, like there's, there's no limits on the sports team, the band that's in town at the pageant or wherever you want to go. So what's your dream 24 hours in St. Louis? We already know what you're going to eat. So map out the rest for us. All right, a good, solid 24 hours. Had I planned my time better, I was actually just talking to Michael about this earlier, there was an afternoon game today for the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Great win, yeah. I would have driven in for that. Trying to think. Probably going to Donut Drive-In or Strange Donuts.

51:20Excellent. A round of applause for Donut Drive-In. Yeah, shout out to Donut Drive-In. not Ted Drew's but Donut Driving I'm going for a run either in Forest Park or around Francis Park you know closer to my neighborhood Tower Grove Park honorable mention as well any trip to St. Louis wouldn't be complete without a visit to the City Museum gotta go there playground for all ages for anyone I know everyone in this room knows the City Museum and if you don't I'm shocked but I'm going to explain it in like 15 seconds anyway it is a playground for adults with just all these structures built outside, a ton of man-made caves inside.

51:59It is the ultimate place for hide-and-go-seek in the world. So going there, very excited to take my son there when he's ready for that. That'll be a great experience. Let's see. I still need to name a lunch spot. St. Louis has some killer sandwiches. We highlighted a burger. Blue City Deli. Blue City Deli was going to be on that list. Gramophone. You could go to Joya's. You could go to Gramophone, or you could go to Union Loafers. They have killer sandwiches with obviously insanely good bread. Like you can't go wrong with any of those four sandwich spots. So getting a sandwich for lunch for sure.

52:32I'm trying to figure out how much, how much time we have left. If I can catch a concert, let's just pretend it's 2006. I'm going to a show at Mississippi nights. But, but since it's not, we're probably going to the pageant or off Broadway, which are also awesome spots. And then I realized I skipped ahead to the show. We should talk about dinner as well. certainly we got to do some brewery hopping as well urban chestnut uh four hands civil life those would be a few of the ones we'd be hitting up um dinner gosh i know wright's tavern is the spot that's hard to get a reservation yeah it's hard to get a reservation there right now i'm trying to think you know if i haven't had emo's pizza at that point yet let's just say that's that's where we're going it's a dream scenario so you're at wright's tavern and then after the concert we're going to close down the bar at Little Lager on Hampton Avenue.

53:25If you haven't been there yet, it's like a 12-seat bar. It is, again, not being hyperbolic. I said the Carl's Drive-N-Burger is my favorite burger in the world. My favorite bar in the world, and I've been to more than a few places, is Little Lager on Hampton. There you have it, folks. Are you just listening off all of your sponsors today? Are you trying to get new business? What is this? I don't think... The spots I go to hang out are very different from people in the manufacturing industry that sponsor the show. All right. Well, I told you I know nothing about this. So, okay. All right. Actually, I'm going to build off of John's question earlier.

54:01Chris, one thing I admire about you is your self-confidence. You're comfortable in your own skin. You've always just chased what you wanted to do in life, and you make no apologies for it. And I agree. It's a superpower. I think it's something that everybody can look at and say, yeah, I could use a little more of that. So what I want to know is where does that confidence come from? I've tried to dissect this over time. I think the easy answer would be I and Pat, I think you've all kind of highlighted this early on. Like, I'm very OK being the butt of jokes. I'm OK being laughed at and things like that, as long as we're all laughing together.

54:43Right. So, you know, I'm willing to take the hits there. And I think when you interact with folks that way, like, you know, you kind of just it's a really fun way to develop thick skin, to be honest. Right. Because you don't really feel offended by it. You're just like playing along. Everyone's in on the joke. And over time, you know, I think that just gave me the confidence to try new things, snowboard down a mountain, try to be in a band, try to be in another band, try to start this podcast and take it full time. Right. So I'm going to go back to that practice comment right before John and I would jump on stage.

55:17It's practice. The more you get used to doing like little risks, the less those little risks feel like big risks. Right. So then you can take the big leaps like starting your own company and things like that. So I think it's just that little practice. Certainly being comfortable being the butt of jokes, I think, helped in some way. I was I was just chatting with a group of people later. We just took this tour through Philadelphia not too long ago. and I'm like, I feel at home in Philadelphia, right? The way you show love in Philadelphia is just constantly ribbing at your friends and things like that.

55:48And it's like Philadelphia, I think, has a lot in common with St. Louis, right? You go there, people are super proud of all things Philly, just like the way we're proud of all things St. Louis. So going into those moments kind of makes me reflect on that. So I think just when I can look at, if I can take a joke for the greater good of our friend group getting a laugh, I think that helped develop thick skin in the most fun way possible over the years. And in turn, the confidence you were just asking about. All right. My last rapid fire question is best away game that you have seen a St. Louis team play in another city.

56:24I know we've done some blues trips together before. What tops your list? I'm trying to think right now. I can tell you the worst was when I spent$175 to watch the blues get knocked out of the 2016 Western Conference Finals in San Jose. On a Wednesday, I was like one of three Blues fans there, and that was an atrocious game to watch. I do have an answer for this, and it didn't do me any favors when I brought up this story when this tour was going through Boston recently. But the best away game that I've never been to, funny enough, our buddy Matt in the audience went to that game that night was when the Blues won the Stanley Cup in Boston.

57:09I happened to be in Boston the night the Blues won the Stanley Cup. Yeah, give it up for the Blues. Come on. Let's go. Yeah. Let's go, Blues. Sound the horn. Yeah. But no, like I was – actually, this ties in my original answer. I was so scarred from that experience of going to that Sharks game and watching the Blues lose to the Sharks in an away game. I'm like this is the lowest low you can get as a sports fan when everyone else in the place is more related than ever And you're on the losing side It's terrible and i'm like at least san jose is pretty chill if that happens to me in boston during game seven I'm in for like the rudest fan base potentially ever They are not laughing with you in that.

57:55No, no, they're not they're not laughing with you at that point I'm, like I don't think I can handle it. So what I did I didn't start watching the game until we had a 2-0 lead I waited until I had that level of confidence I went to one of my favorite breweries in Boston Trillium and I will always remember watching that TV in a sea of Boston fans and like jumping as high as I could on top of my bar stool when Braden Shen scored the 3-0 goal with 10 minutes left to go because that was like I knew it was happening at that point and as everyone here fromst louis has suffered through for years like it just felt unreal that we were actually going to win the stanley cup in 2019 i see heads nodding so that's the best away game i never went to i was right there but i i couldn't bear to do it kudos to our buddy matt in the audience who had the bravery to walk in that night um but that was that was awesome to matt um so staying on the blues um you probably recall you had a couple predictive moments via text you had with me throughout the playoffs and you were correct in those assessments i mean i gotta admit i could probably find them on my phone nail on the head in different parts of our journey to the cup he's like it's okay we're gonna get we're gonna lose tomorrow we're gonna come back and win it and it's gonna be this score and he'd always be plus minus like a goal.

59:20It was actually kind of creepy. And you'd always be the first person to them immediately after it happened, text me and be like, I told you this was going to happen. And so it was great. So let's look in your crystal ball for a moment. And when will the Blues win the next Stanley Cup? I'm kidding. On the manufacturing side, let's shift back for a moment. Look in your crystal ball. Where do you see this industry going? Big picture with changes in the next five to 10 years. And then part B is where do you see going with this industry in the next five to 10 years? Where do I see the industry going?

59:53I mean, now is a great time to be in manufacturing, particularly most of our audience that listens to this show is based here in the U.S., right? There's a lot of excitement around it. I think one thing I reflect on a lot of times is if you're on social media, you probably see a lot of comedians that lampoon like corporate life, like, you know, having a quote unquote email job, right? I think people are getting excited to be like, oh, it's really cool to build stuff, whether that's at a small SMB manufacturer, whether that's at an enterprise manufacturer. So there's just some genuine enthusiasm about building things again.

1:00:27There's a shift to empowering skilled trades again, right? We're looking at it's like, hey, we need people going to college. We need people doing skilled trades. We need all of it, right? You know, bringing that dignity back into all of these different jobs, I think is setting us on a great path right now. And I would think a lot of people listening to this podcast would probably agree agree with that so um not to say that there aren't going to be bumps on the road but we're going to be building some cool things over the next five years and i very specifically didn't answer that question by referencing artificial intelligence because i know that's going to have a huge impact but we talk about that plenty on the show so that's where i see the industry going where do i see this podcast going yeah for you and your career with this podcast in manufacturing with junior coming, et cetera.

1:01:12You know, I would, I mean, we're going to do, we're going to continue to do tours like this periodically, right. Making them, you know, these week long stints where we hit three to four different markets, right. Because in addition to artificial intelligence, having a big impact on the manufacturing industry, it's also having an impact on the way it's like, Hey, we actually want to go somewhere and hang out with folks. Right. When you look at content and you're like, was this AI generated? Was this real, I think folks are craving that analog in-person experience that we're having right now. So I'm going to continue to double down on this, but just being very deliberate with the timing, because as we've talked about, I'm going to learn very quickly what it's like not to have that freedom that I've had for 39 years just to up and go whenever I feel like it.

1:01:59I'm just concerned that in a few years or maybe a year when you're like, wow, this is really hard with a kid, we're going to find an AI generated manufacturing. It's like, wait a second. Is this real or is this not? Can't really tell anymore. That won't happen. After being galvanized by concerts starting in 2002, the in-person live experience is never going anywhere. It's never going anywhere. It's always going to be a part of manufacturing happy hour because how rude would it be of me to run a podcast called that has happy hour in the title and not continue to throw events like this. AI is pretending to drink, yeah.

1:02:35Good answer. Do we just keep going? Just keep going? Yeah, you can keep it. Yeah, I'd say we probably got another round of questions. You got anything burning? They haven't boot us off the stage yet, yeah. Okay, all right. I'd say one more round of questions. That's probably where we're at at this point. All right, going to the well. Let's see. We already talked about that. It's a fake job. We live together. We were in a bad band. It's a real job. Let's see. What has been harder to maintain over 300 episodes? your liver and level of fitness through all of these brewery visits or your ego now that people actually listen to you?

1:03:10One thing I like about the show... Save the best for last. That was a great way to ask that question, by the way. Going back to the whole thick-skinned, happy-to-be-the-butt-of-the-jokes type thing. One thing I like about this show is it is an opportunity where every once in a while, say every 100 episodes, I get to share some of my expertise, right? And I get to be the guest. But for the other 99 episodes, I'm happy to feature everyone else in this industry that's doing cool stuff and learn from them and bring out their strengths in whatever way we can through interviews on this podcast. So I feel like keeping the ego in check has been okay.

1:03:48Keeping the liver in check, I mean, I feel like just getting to 39 years old, it's been, it's no coincidence, right? Millennials got really into craft beer when we graduated from college. There was the big craft beer boom. we also started feeling the effects once we got into our mid-30s and there's also this great non-alcoholic beer boom as well because one of the things that would happen in the early days of manufacturing happy hour after about a year we stopped recording every episode at like 4 p.m. in the afternoon we started doing morning additions and things like that but people still wanted to drink a beer in the morning like hey we're recording this episode do you want to crack a beer i'm like i don't know if i can sustain this forever so you know the advent of non-alcoholic beers has made it easier to maintain my liver.

1:04:31But hey, with any challenge, I don't know. I feel like I've done a good job of keeping the liver and ego in check. I don't know if you believe that, actually. I mean, the ego's never been the issue. Are you drinking an NA drink right now, Chris? No, I did that when I was setting up earlier today. But if we're recording this... Do we have any drinks here that he could drink while he was setting up? Okay, I just want to make sure the bar could confirm. Yeah, no, I wasn't lying about that. I am having a Stammtisch since we are here in the Stammtisch room tonight, a good German lager that is named after, for the record, this is a fun thing that I know I'm going off the rails on this rapid fire thing, but Stammtisch is the German word for the locals table at a bar.

1:05:15So it's very much meant to pay homage to the folks that show up and have their conversation on a regular basis over a beverage. I like it. Did you have any other question? because if you don't i i have one of the podcaster so just piggybacking back in thank you piggybacking off of what john said so this is the 300th this is our first time up here how did we do do we come back for the 400th 500th 600th i'm not gonna decide that we've got a great how did these guys do hosting manufacturing happy hour for the 300th episode there we go they haven't left so they liked it yeah they probably have more drink tickets in their pockets you still got out of full room.

1:05:55You guys did great. I just appreciate you coming up here and not embarrassing me too much. When I was telling other people about the idea for this episode, they're like, that sounds like a terrible idea, but have fun with that. So, no, thank you for the genuine questions for the trips down memory lane. Guys, I thought it was a great mix of things that our regular listeners are going to enjoy, but also, you know, diving into the St. Louis well, because I'll say it again, these episodes where we go on location are about celebrating the great things we're doing in the different cities we visit. And St.

1:06:26Louis is doing cool things. St. Louis has always been doing cool things for manufacturing, but culturally, lifestyle, this is an awesome city, and I am always, always proud to call it home. Well said. It was an honor to be up here with you tonight. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thanks, guys. All right, folks. We are almost at the very end of our episode. As these guys exit the stage, give it up for Pat, Rob, and John. I'm going to give a final toast, And I'd love it if my friends from Asset Watch could join me on stage for this because these tours do not happen without a ton of support from partners like Garrett at Asset Watch.

1:07:06So why don't you come join me up on stage really quickly. By the way, they're giving out a ton of cool swag. This has been part of the All-American Manufacturing Summer Tour. And they really leaned into, like, the summer camp vibe of it all. So if you want to get branded beach towels, frisbees, lanterns, anything that could be helpful camping, make sure to grab some in the back when you leave. Also, I'm selling T-shirts here to your left, my right at the end of this show as well. So, hey, I'd love it, Garrett, if you can give us a quick word, like 30 seconds. How do you describe what Asset Watch does?

1:07:43And then we'll raise a glass to you and everyone here. So I'll be honest, my first six months, I probably couldn't have given a great answer to that. But after getting out and meeting more of our customers, like you talked about getting out and making this a people thing, the easiest way to sum up what we do is we solve people problems. We solve people problems by combining human expertise. So guys like Rob there in the back of the room, one of our CMEs, we combine that expertise with AI insights and use that to help manufacturers get ahead of downtime and make sure that they have more planned downtime with their families.

1:08:14and we do that by giving insights and having maintenance recommendations and we can feed those recommendations into partners like Ashley and maintain X to make it actionable and faster for the maintenance teams to get back to what they need to do and make sure that they get to go home and see their families like I'm going to do here in a few hours. Yes Garrett speaking of which you've been on this tour all week long in Des Moines and Kansas City and St. Louis so thank you for being a part of this hey give it up for maintain x and asset watch for making this entire tour possible and then the last thing i'll say is give it up for uh imts the big show this has been like a road show leading up to the biggest manufacturing trade show in the country takes place every other year it's hosted by association for manufacturing technology amt so uh imts has been a huge part of making this all possible.

1:09:05Our next parties are going to be in Chicago, September 14th through 19th, where you guys will be joining me there as well. So Garrett, any final words? I just want to say thanks for having us. I've learned so much the last three days and met so many cool people. It's been a really awesome experience to be a part of. Well, thank you for being a part of it. Thank you, all of you. Thank you to the Missouri Association of Manufacturers for driving a ton of attendance tonight. Always great linking up with you guys. Thank you for all the things you're building, you're doing. We're going to sign off with a stay innovative, stay thirsty.

1:09:38Thanks so much for coming out. Cheers, St. Louis.

1:09:46All right, everyone. I hope you enjoyed that one. We are going to wrap up quickly here at the end. The main thing I want to say is thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming to the parties, coming to the live shows, tuning into this podcast, whether it's every week or when you see a title that sticks out that you want to listen to. All of you out there make this show possible. We've got 300 episodes under our belt. Let's go for 300 more. Thank you for being a part of Manufacturing Happy Hour. Check out the show notes page if you want to connect with any of this week's guests. And with that one final, stay innovative, stay thirsty, and we'll catch you again next week.

1:10:28Cheers. Thanks for listening to Manufacturing Happy Hour, powered by the Industrial Network.