302: Philly's Answer to the Talent Shortage (LIVE in King of Prussia, PA)

0:00We've created the stigma in this country that the trades are the consolation prize that the dumb kids go, right? Trying to reimagine the dignity because some of the smartest people I know work in the trades. A lot of them have beach homes. A lot of them have multiple kids that they put through really great schools.

0:16Welcome to Manufacturing Happy Hour, the podcast where we get real about the latest trends and technologies impacting modern manufacturers.

0:29Each 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. Alright, we're heading to Philadelphia for episode 302. City of brotherly love. I should clarify, we're actually in King of Prussia, right outside of Philadelphia, for this rowdy live episode. Today we're talking about Philadelphia's answer to the workforce shortage, and I'll say this up front. This is how I've always dreamed of manufacturing happy hour live shows going. A lot of great audience involvement, had a lot of fun, and an incredible discussion from start to finish.

1:22There are really two, sort of three parts to this discussion, and I'll prep you for what to expect. We open the conversation with a discussion around Philly's manufacturing ecosystem in general. We're joined by Brett Lister of Open Tolerance, Ashley Watkins of JBM Technologies, and Matt Bruner, founder and president of American Precision Works, who are manufacturing right in the heart of Philadelphia. You're going to learn more about all three of these individuals in just a second, But they kick off our conversation. And then for part two, Matt sticks around on stage and we're joined by Gregory Thompson, director of skilled trades for Philadelphia Youth Basketball.

2:02If that sounds like an odd combination, it'll make sense in a little bit. We're also joined by Hannah McGarry, director of workforce development at the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center. So between manufacturers and folks that are focused on collaboration and workforce development, we truly have a great set of panelists to cover the topic of workforce in the greater Philadelphia area. Then finally, at the end of our conversation, we have a little fun segment to wrap up this final date of the northeast leg of the All-American Manufacturing Summer Tour. I'm joined on stage by John Hughes of Clifton Larson Allen and Nick Haas of MaintainX, who are hanging out with me throughout the tour.

2:42we have a little fun with this last part of the conversation. So let's jump in and head to southeastern Pennsylvania for today's episode.

2:58All right, folks, welcome to the All-American Manufacturing Summer Tour, the final stop of, I should say, the final stop of our first leg here in the northeast. Philly, give it up for yourselves. Thanks for coming out tonight.

3:18I heard someone chanting. I don't know what that was. I'm going to assume it's like an Eagles chant or something. Did I capture that right? Yeah, there's one of my proudest moments of 2017, 2017, or 2018 was Gritty had just been created. And I was coming out here for a conference and I knew there was going to be an after party at the bar that's like the mega bar near all the sports stadiums. What's it called? Xfinity Live. Yeah. Stateside Live. Obviously, it's obviously it's changed corporate sponsorships over the years. We know this. That happens with every stadium and every venue out there. But I can say that I did in fact achieve my goal of that conference and I got a photo with Gritty that night.

4:12And it is still one of the proudest moments of my Philly going life. So anyway, that's a little anecdote to start. I love coming to Philadelphia. I'm originally from St. Louis and I'm going to say this as a compliment, right? I feel like it's the most East Coast version of St. Louis there is. Just insane amounts of pride in this city. I feel right at home anytime I come here. So thank you for welcoming Manufacturing Happy Hour out here. As we get into our podcast, we have a few segments tonight. But before we get started, I do want to thank two groups that have made this entire tour possible. So, hey, give another round of applause for Clifton Larson Allen and Maintain X, who have made the entire tour possible.

4:59And Nick from Maintain X and John from CLA. They're going to come up towards the end of the ensemble of interviews we have tonight for some fun at the very end. But I wanted to start with that. But as we get into our conversation, Manufacturing Happy Hour, if you're not familiar with it, it is a place where we have conversations about the industry, trends, technologies, different things that are impacting what we do, the opportunities, the challenges we're facing. We talk about it in a candid way, as if we're having a beer with one another. So since we're literally having a beer here in King of Prussia, really quickly, for our first round of panelists, if you could describe what you do in 30 seconds as if you're having a beer with someone.

5:38Let's go down the line real fast, and then we'll get into a quick conversation around the Philadelphia ecosystem for manufacturing. So, Ashley, why don't you kick us off? Sure. So my name's Ashley. I sell CNC machines and equipment and solutions, really, to manufacturers. The best part about that is we go out, get drunk, and I convince you to spend a lot of money.

6:00exactly what we're doing here tonight here at the brewery so all right that's gonna that's gonna be a tough intro to top but brett you're up next i'm not topping that one hi my name is brett lester i'm the owner of b &b dynamic machining and uh we make parts but the main thing is why i'm here tonight is i'm also the founder of open tolerance that's a collaboration group and we're just trying to get the name out there because we're not in competition we're just trying to compete against overseas. So that's what Open Tolerance is about. So if you're interested, come up to me afterwards and let me know.

6:31Yeah, and I'll ask you about Open. Yeah, give it up for Brett and Open Tolerance. I knew we were going to have a lively audience here in Philly. So, yeah, just keep the clapping coming. That makes the live show all the much better. We'll have you tell us about Open Tolerance in a second because I also want to give a shout-out to the two local organizations that partnered with us on this event. And Ashley, I believe you turned tonight into NTMA's, your chapters, summer event. So thank you for doing that with us. Give it up for NTMA. And give it up for Open Tolerance as well. So thank you. Keep clapping going.

7:07Open Tolerance. Clapping for Open Tolerance. There we go. So thank you both for what you do. And Matt, you're going to be up here throughout most of the evening. So I'm excited to hear your introduction. Oh, man, put me on the spot here. Well, my name is Matt Bruner. I launched American Precision Works in Philadelphia and got to set the record straight here because we're out in King of Prussia right now. It is true. We are 45 minutes outside of Philadelphia. We're in the heart of Philly. We're excited about the pride and energy that the people can bring to modern CNC machining. Here in the audience, I've got my business partner, John, and we're still new to this.

7:43There are a lot of great shops in the area, so it's humbling to be up on the stage. It was funny when we were putting together Yeah, give it up for Matt I have never had a crowd this lively For one of our live shows So I'm just getting used to the constant applause This is great

8:05Alright I'm going to have trouble keeping my composure tonight I can tell But that's a good thing here at Manufacturing Happy Hour So just to give you an idea of what we're going to do tonight So this first segment's about the Philadelphia manufacturing ecosystem. Then we're going to do a little bit of a swap. We're going to have two more folks come up. We're going to talk about the workforce here in Philadelphia and the different things you're doing to develop your workforce. Then finally, we'll have a little fun segment at the end with Nick and John, like I mentioned. So to get into it, let's start our conversation around the manufacturing ecosystem here in the greater Philadelphia area.

8:40In fact, Matt, maybe you can kind of help characterize this for people that listen to this podcast outside of the Philly area. When we think of the Philadelphia region, it's Philly, it's King of Prussia, the surrounding areas, it's South Jersey as well. So give us a little bit of the regional bounds, if you will, as well as how you would characterize the manufacturing ecosystem here. Yeah, so I've been lucky serving the region more on the sales side for probably close to eight years now. Um, Southeastern PA, South Jersey, there's a ton of manufacturing energy. So a lot of, uh, defense aerospace with, uh, big legacy and rotocraft, a lot of modern technologies for med device manufacturers and traditional naval defense manufacturing.

9:28Um, man, there's countless shops. I don't know if you have numbers to back this up, Ashley, but I think my territory within about a 90-minute drive of Philly covered 300-plus users of CNC machinery. One thing that was always notable to me, though, was there was just a massive vacuum of manufacturers right within Philadelphia County, which is synonymous with the city. I'll probably come back to that a bit as far as the reason for being for my business, APW. But Philly, at least the area as a whole, has a really strong legacy in manufacturing. There's still investment, I mean, seemingly every day out of the Navy Yard.

10:07So there's a new defense manufacturer coming to Ben Salem,$100 million project. But I'll pass the mic, at least for now, maybe to Ashley. You could comment on the territory as well. Yeah. So for, you know, my company, JBM Technologies, we sell machinery. The New Jersey and Southeast Pennsylvania region, which we also encompass Delaware, is the largest territory by volume of manufacturers that we have within the whole company across five states. Brett, what would you add about the ecosystem? Yeah, just basically the same thing that they did. I mean, it's strong. I remember when my partner first, when we first started up, he's like, man, do you know how many other companies are in this area that do machining?

10:50And yeah, it's strong. There are a lot of companies in this area that do machining, and And we take a lot of pride in it, I think. What comes out of Philadelphia is good work. So I got one more group question for this segment of the conversation, as well as a couple individual questions. But one thing I'd be very interested to know from your perspective, for the manufacturers that listen to this across the country at a future date, and for the folks in the audience, like things we can celebrate here that we're doing well in this region, what is a best practice that you see taking place in Philadelphia?

11:24And Matt, be careful you don't spoil too much because our whole workforce conversation, I think, will be a giant best practice. But I'd be curious, Brett, maybe we'll start with you on this one and then Ashley and then Matt, you can kind of back clean up on that. So what's the best practice you think others can learn from the strengths of your region? I mean, I'm going to go with my group, Open Tolerance. Just as far as small businesses is concerned, us supporting one another, I've talked to other guys in Massachusetts and Maine and stuff like that, and they're like, man, I just can't do something like that in my area.

11:55What we do as far as trading work, sharing equipment, sharing knowledge. I mean, Matt and Ashley are part of it. I mean, Ashley sells machines. You know, there's a couple other members out in the audience tonight. I think it goes against the grain, and I think a lot of other manufacturers think that it can't be done or it shouldn't be done, and that's not the case. It really is, again, very open. That's why the name is Open Tolerance. It's an open discussion. I've had other people in my virtual meetings because we just started virtual meetings. What are we going to do as far as I don't hide any of my prints when we do the group meetings?

12:30I'm not afraid of anyone coming in and stealing my work. And the knowledge that's shared, I love helping the startups. There's a couple of startups in my group. That is, I believe, one of the strengths of this area is collaboration, in my opinion. Yeah, no, that's a great answer. You actually stole one of the other questions I was going to ask you as to what like open tolerance does. And I think you said why, you know, why was it so important for you personally to start a group like open tolerance, a group that is just inherently based around manufacturers in a region collaborating better with one another?

13:05At least that's how I interpret it as an outsider. So my brother's in real estate that has nothing to do with manufacturing, but he's part of a mastermind group And when we first started the company the one book I was listening to back and forth was Napoleon Hill's think and grow rich And they were always talking about a mastermind group in there So what kind of started as a mastermind turned into a collaboration group because not everyone in the meeting are owners A mastermind is more owners holding each other accountable for you know, whatever they're going to do in the future This turned into a collaboration group, which is again people sharing knowledge.

13:35It started with me Cal The manufacturing manager over at Ram Precision and Marcio who couldn't make it tonight He's the owner of Max Machining because I know these were two guys that wanted to collaborate You know, I had one guy that came in with a snowmobile part Marcio was willing to use this firearm to reverse engineer it for me for free I've used Marcio's grinder. I was at another shop yesterday using their surface grinder because mine what my motor went Me and Jim lead them. We've shared work together. We've shared machines, it's it's it really is awesome and I can't say enough good things about it but I'm also the founder of it there have been a lot of firsts give it up for Brett give it up for what he's doing with Open Tolerance there have been a lot of firsts on this tour like our first morning show largest event ever all of these firsts first time in Philly it's long overdue give Ashley credit on that she's been asking me to come here for a long time so we made it happen

14:34but another first on the tour brett that was like the quickest anyone's ever delivered like five to seven case studies in like a one minute period so we need to leave it to philly to be like really direct and succinct with that so thank you for that so um i forgot what order we were going and who's still ashley you're next ashley you're next uh so kind of going off of what Brett said, a little story. Back in the beginning of my career, there was a manufacturing conference in Philadelphia and I went to it. And of course, now knowing what I know about conferences and the level of collaboration that happens there on a national scale, it was very closed.

15:17There was a lot of people. I don't know if they were manufacturers in this area because again, it was a national conference, but they were very unwilling to discuss and reach out to people that they haven't met before. It was very clicky. And I feel like what makes Philadelphia great is that now we have that willingness to change. We recognize that that was an issue. We knew we needed to change it. And with Brett Scourge, like open tolerance, and even with the New Jersey, Pennsylvania chapter of the NTMA, we are actively trying to change that view that other people might have of the Northeast in general.

15:52But Philly is really, I feel like, spearheading that campaign to make manufacturing and the collaboration between all of us more open to everyone, regardless of, you know, your company size, your revenue, the parts that you make, the machines you have, all that. Yeah. And my follow up question for you is actually going to be around NTMA and the work that you're doing within your chapter specifically. So I'd love for you to say a few words about that before I hand it off to Matt to wrap up this first segment. Sure. So the New Jersey, Pennsylvania chapter of the NTMA, which is the National Tooling and Machining Association, we do a lot.

16:30We try to do events monthly. We have manufacturing members. We have resources for people locally and nationally, like financial resources. We have different associate members that can help manufacturers, a part of our group with, you know, banking, insurance, even machinery and engineering studies and things like that. So it's really a good group to be a part of to help grow your business and use all of our resources without having to go out and find your own. They're all right at your fingertips within the chapter and nationally. Awesome. So hey, round of applause for NTMA as well. we've learned over two years of doing these tours that it is just it's it's just way better for the entire community when we can partner with a local organization like yours so thank you so much for being a part of uh our evening tonight so matt if you can take us home on this last segment you know what would you what would be your final words on what someone i shouldn't say your final words because you're about to be part of our next lineup in the in the podcast but what's a best practice you think folks can learn from Philly?

17:41I mean, I think it's just the energy that lives within the soul of Philly. You teed it up at the start. Just your favorite memory here was gritty. And I mean, Philly is a city of grit and you see that everywhere. There's a ton of diversity. There's a ton of energy. And that's just flat out what manufacturing needs. Like, I think I got tired of going into a lot of manufacturers that just felt in a way old and tired. And, you know, if we're really going to revitalize manufacturing here, I truly believe we need to do it in a place that brings energy and just has energy in its DNA. And I mean, you know, Philly, it's definitely rough around the edges, but the people here will step up.

18:24They're going to take a ton of pride in their work. And, you know, being in the precision machining business, we need everyone to pull their weight and be upfront and in your face. And if something's not right, speak up and say it. And we're going to work together as a team to get the job done. Awesome summary. Hey, everyone, give it up for our first panel of the night. Ashley, Brett, thanks for hanging out on stage. Keep your seats because we're just going to do a quick swap. Hannah and Greg are going to join us on stage next for our next segment of the conversation. We'll be back in a moment.

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20:24All right. Well, Matt, rather than have you introduce yourself twice, we're going to jump right in. Hannah, if you could describe what you do as if you're having a beverage with someone. So I work for the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center. We're an industrial resource center that we work with manufacturers in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties. also South Jersey. We help them grow their business. So in many ways, what I do is I work with companies and schools to help bring career awareness to manufacturing jobs that are in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. There are about 5 ,000 manufacturers in the region that do, you know, a number of things.

21:16And, you know, our kids really don't know about that. And so that's my job. So I do what I consider the fun stuff, going to schools and doing presentations. I work with many of the organizations and manufacturers that are here today. And yeah, so I do the workforce development stuff. And that's what this whole part of the conversation about is around workforce development and the things you're doing really well here in the region. So, Greg, tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm Greg Thompson, Director of Skilled Trades at Philadelphia Youth Basketball, a nonprofit organization that leverages basketball to provide a number of opportunities per young people.

21:57Specifically, we have a lot of 18-year-olds who come out of our program not wanting to go to college. And I lead our Varsity Trades Academy, which prepares them for careers in advanced manufacturing and getting them used to tools like micrometers, dial calipers, CNC machines, and dye.

22:18It's funny, when I saw Greg's name show up on the list of people that had registered, I'm like, why is a youth basketball leader coming? It just didn't make sense. And then I saw Director of Skilled Trades. I'm like, this feels like something we need to dig into a bit further, which is why we're on stage tonight as a result of that. So if you register for Manufacturing Happy Hour event with a really interesting, like almost contrarian title, you might end up on stage. So that's more of a reference for the audience in the future. But we'll actually go the reverse direction this time. Greg, we'll start with you and then we'll finish with Matt.

22:52How would you characterize the workforce here in Philadelphia today? And then after that, Matt, I'm going to ask you about a story around your business specifically. Yeah, the workforce is reflective of this room, right? It's a white male-dominated industry, and our organization is trying to change that and provide those opportunities for especially women and people of color. That's what a lot of our students look like coming through our basketball programs. And having conversations with the Mats and Sams and Brents leading up to the launch of our Varsview Trades Academy, asking questions like what's missing in the workforce.

23:26What we were hearing most of was people that show up early, people that are coachable, people that are resilient, and ones that take initiatives. All those things that basketball is sports and still. And so for us, if we can handle the wraparound services of getting them their driver's license, getting them some basic exposure to tools and equipment in the industry, making sure that their math skills are up to the power, but the employers are looking for. We have the social network of people in this room around Philly, and our basketball organization is averaging over 1 ,400 people through our building each and every day.

23:58have this total pipeline of young people from 5 to 25 that just don't know about machining. Once we educate on them, it's a big hook for this screen-ager generation with the technology and a lot of the tools in the industry. Screen-ager is a term that we hear about on the show occasionally, so I'm sure some of our regular listeners will pick that up. But I love that very succinct answer you just gave on why it made so much sense to create a skilled trades program out of a basketball program, right? show up early, coachable, everything you listed makes perfect sense for that. So we'll dig into your story a little bit more on that in a second.

24:36But Hannah, how do you characterize the workforce here in the region? Or how would you describe what makes it special? Yeah, what makes it special to me is that it is turning, right? So piggybacking off what Greg said, for the past 50 years, I mean, I grew up in Philadelphia. It was always college, college, college, college, everybody's got to go to college. When I say it's turning, I'm saying that parents and organizations are getting on board with college isn't for everyone. It's great for if you need to do that, but it's not for everyone, right? So we're getting the word out there over the past three years.

25:19I mean, I've been in workforce a long time, but over the past three years through DVIRC and the initiatives that we have going on. We're working with Greg. We're working with companies like Matt's and we are, you know, turning the ship around. So, you know, the kids are getting excited. They're doing what they like to do. Cause I always say you're at work a lot of hours. You got to like what you do. So it's, it is turning a little bit. I've got a couple more questions for you in a little bit regarding what you're doing around, like, and specifically workforce around the defense industrial base.

25:54To give everyone some context here, I mean, being in the Navy Yard in New York City right before this, in Hartford, in the Boston area, that has been a through line of this entire tour. So I definitely want to get some of your takes on that here in a little bit. But, you know, Matt, I want to hear from you as a manufacturer around what you feel characterizes the workforce here. And maybe this is a good opportunity to share why, when you could have picked to put your company anywhere in the greater Philadelphia area, despite, let's say, some barriers or some challenges that you would face by putting it in Philadelphia itself, you said, no, I'm going to do it here.

26:34I'm going to do it right in the heart of Philly. I'd love to hear why that's been advantageous for you. Yeah, I mean, for us, it's funny because I'll tell people where our shop's located and, you know, existing manufacturers look at us like we've got a third eye. The traffic sucks, the parking's bad, the roads are terrible, our windows are broken, there's graffiti on the walls, and there's a wage tax. And how would anyone possibly come to work in that environment? But I think we can draw a bit of a parallel where we're sitting out here in King of Prussia right now because you know it's really tough to bring outsiders from outsiders of Philly into Philly.

27:16The opposite is also true. So if we just look at a little bubble around where our facility is located there are 500 ,000 people there are two great trade schools there are two top-tier universities in Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania. We have no competing machine shops but for the people that live in that circle it's a pain for them to get out to a place like King of Prussia. So when, you know, surrounding shops ask us, like, where are we going to find our machinists? We're fishing an entirely different pond. And yes, there's a small wage tax that we'll pay. But frankly, our costs to employ someone, especially if we're taking someone unskilled, is also lower because our competition is so much less.

27:56And, you know, you talk about like this, this ship kind of turning on the workforce front. I think it's already turned pretty damn far, at least a lot further than people expect. You know, we're not just trying to pull from maybe a lower skilled talent pool, but, you know, we're pulling from engineering students at Penn and Penn State that maybe don't have transportation. They want to work close to where they're living this summer. They may not work forever at our shop, but, you know, these are like the ideal candidates for what I think a lot of manufacturers and surrounding areas are looking for.

28:31We just have to open our doors and accept that they may be coming from a bit of a different background, but they're ready. They're ready to step up to the challenges for modern manufacturing. Give it up for Matt. I'll weave this in with a theme that we hear on Manufacturing Happy Hour quite a bit, but I don't know if I've ever directly addressed. I feel like what you described was you took something that a lot of other people view as a challenge, and when enough other people view something as a challenge, you can turn that into an opportunity or a competitive advantage for yourself. Did I capture that right?

29:07Yeah, I think so. And just to, I mean, share a couple of case studies, like a lot of our competitors, and I don't want to say competitors because I want every shop to succeed. Like I love the industry. I grew up around it. I hope that every shop in the greater Philly region has a path to grow. But one of the biggest barriers to growth is finding people. You know, for us, a competitive advantage is being able to bring in, say, a kid from Greg's program who's hungry. They're ready to learn. They're going to work super hard. They may not have all the skills, but they could be a longtime employee for us with the right training.

29:39But just a small example, we've got a second shift running. Our machines, our spindles are turning. And that's hard for a lot of shops in greater Philly to set up for a mix of reasons. some of its technology and systems, but a lot of it, if an employee is pushed into second shift, they're going to go work instead for first shift at another shop in their business park. You know, another thing that I don't know how much we should be celebrating this necessarily, but folks that we employ do not celebrate the same holidays that I do. And, you know, we had an employee last year who said, I don't care about Thanksgiving.

30:14I want to come in and run machines. I'm like, that's great. That's a competitive advantage for us when we're hiring from a diverse group, our spindles are running more. We're able to get better utilization out of the capital that we've invested. And it benefits our customers because we can be more economical and efficient. And I think that's a testament to what Philly makes really easily available to us. Awesome answer all around. Hannah, I want to go back to you and ask you around the workforce, around the defense industrial base right now, because one of the things that I think of when I think of Philly is submarine manufacturing and anyone that's watched an NFL game over the past like three or so years fly eagles fly I think that's what you say here um

31:02I'm I'm from St. Louis I don't have a great impression of the NFL but I do love a fan base that loves their team so I appreciate I appreciate the passion around here but uh um going back to the main point. You know, you would see commercials all the time for buildsubmarines.com, which I thought was really cool when I started seeing those come up, right? Because all of a sudden it's like, okay, everything we've been talking about with workforce and needing people manufacturing, finally we have this very mainstream outlet here in the US. So anyway, that was a bit of a tangent, but I'm curious how, you know, your thoughts around the workforce as it relates to getting more people into the defense industrial base?

31:44Yeah. So on many fronts, the Navy is putting a lot of money into building new submarines as well as fixing the ones that we have because our fleet is behind, right? 20 % of the parts and services that go into making a new submarine come from manufacturers in the Philadelphia area. That's a lot of parts, right? So yeah, that does, yeah, that constitutes a round of applause. That means a lot of work for the companies that are in this room, right? And they need workers, right? So my job is to go out and talk to as many students, as many people as possible about those jobs in those manufacturers. And one of the ways that we get the word out there is by an organization, not an organization, a website called buildsubmarines.com.

32:49I give out stickers and magnets to kids and I explain to them, Go out there and do your research. These are companies all across the country that are looking for talent. And you don't know what these jobs are because you've never heard of them before. But one of them, look at the job descriptions. Do your research on the company. It might jazz you. There's internships on those websites as well. So I'm constantly getting the word out about buildsubmarines.com, but also about the good family sustaining wages that these kids can have when they graduate, sometimes high school, if they're in a, you know, in the position to do that.

33:37we also do programming at the middle school level because we're finding that the more you open kids minds they go home and talk about it to their parents this is what i do work for in for me for dv irc is word of mouth and i i talk to about 1200 kids a year that's just the school year i'm not talking about the summertime programmings that I do. So it's, if you want to get involved as far as manufacturers are concerned, I'd love to talk to your young professionals who can help me go out and talk to young kids because they don't want to see me talking to them, right? I'm not a machinist, but they want to talk to young professionals, right?

34:24Absolutely. Yeah. And I'm going to ask you kind of like what you're like the little success metrics or anecdotes that convince you that hey the work we're doing is working right because I think it's important for people to keep that in mind that are listening to this like how do I know if my efforts are paying off right so that'll be the last question but Greg I do want to ask you first you know how what inspired you to start uh you know the skilled trades program through Philly youth basketball you've given a little bit of that, but I'd love just to hear the story itself. You mentioned the characteristics, right?

34:58Those aligned really well, but what's the story there? Because I feel like this is something that you can turn into some advice as you're sharing that story. If someone's listening to this in Detroit or California, LA, Dallas, for example, I want folks around the country that are listening to this to kind of be like, what's stopping me from doing this in my city as well? Yeah, I love that embarrassment. So we operate out of the Sixth Man Center, which is in a nice kind of neighborhood of billy was built two years ago into a hundred thousand square foot state-of-the-art facility and we had a black owned general contractor who built it probably about 400 different skilled trades workers worked on it's across i don't know 19 20 different trades zero women building and zero men of color that despite being an organization not as committed to racial and gender equity like you are and for a lot of you in this room you're probably like dub drag they could have troubled you about trades being a white nail dominated industry but for us it was really eye-opening.

35:53And we've created the stigma in this country that the trades are the consolation prize that the dumb kids go, right? Trying to reimagine the dignity because some of the smartest people I know work in the trades. A lot of them have beach homes. A lot of them have multiple kids that they put through really great schools. And why isn't that accessible for our young people that come through our basketball program? And what I was scaring more and more as we researched and traveled around the country and learned from people up in Canada when it comes to workforce development is not the technical training piece that's the soft skill training piece that makes today's difference with today's generation and those votex and those shop classes in high school are just becoming more and more a thing in the past or more and more under resourced and you can't be what you can't see in today's economy so bringing in culture relatable instructors through the mvd program that hannah runs has been great for us to expose our students and then getting people like that and other employers on board who have hired our folks has been a big wavelength for us.

36:53And it just all comes down to social capital. If it's a big industry, then it's enough who you know more than one to know for sure. Awesome work that you're doing. I'm going to go back to that final question and we'll do it in reverse order. Greg, Hannah, Matt, I'm curious if you can share the anecdote, a little metric, whatever it is. This isn't a lightning round per se, but it's just like, what's that little thing? that you notice that shows that the efforts you're putting in are paying off. Again, could be a metric, could be a story. Greg, what do you got? One of our students, his name is Sadir.

37:28Sadir is currently at Accelerated Training for Defense Manufacturing down in Danville, Virginia. So he's in a four-month training program to become a welder for the Department of Defense. Got a text from him recently just like, I learn more in this four months of training than I ever did in my four years of high school. Like this is actual applicable stuff that's gonna get me a pathway to middle wage income and it's really clicking for me right now. So for me, that was the aha moment I had recently of this is really working and young adults really want this trade and this money that comes with it if people are willing to give them a shot.

38:04Great example. Hannah, you were talking about the 1 ,200 people that you impact every year. Feel free to expound on that. Feel free to double down on that. I'm interested to hear your final take. Yeah. So we are involved in small schools like the Liguori Academy in Kensington. We go there and work with their students, but we also work with larger organizations. So we're involved with Girls Exploring Tomorrow's Technology, which, you know, is outreach to hundreds of students in the southeast region. we also work with Greg and his organization and we work very closely with Father Judge High School so we run the gamut and I can give you a you know a number of examples but one of the ones that always touches my heart is we had gotten DVIRC had gotten some complimentary Phillies tickets remember this Greg and I reached out to Greg and I said is there anybody that you work with any of your students that would like free tickets to the Phillies game.

39:13And I don't, did I share the picture with you? So there was a, there was one of his students that he gave Phillies tickets to. Their child had never been to a Phillies game. They sent us a picture of them and their mom. And you know what? It brought tears to my eyes, but all because we have connections and we're collaborating and we're doing outreach about manufacturing. But also, you know, we are creating opportunities for kids that might not ever get them. And to me, that's the biggest part. So if I touch one kid, you know, a month, I'm happy because that's what warms, you know, my heart. And that's what workforce and outreach is all about.

40:04One of the things that's cool about being the visitor in all these conversations is I can kind of just get a vibe for the region and community and connection and, you know, to like to quote open tolerance. Right. The openness and the collaboration just comes across in all the conversations and examples you're sharing. So awesome stories, both of you. Matt, take us home on this one. Yeah, this one's tough because I don't feel like we're the ones doing anything other than just existing. Whereas you're employing people. Give yourself more credit than that. Come on. In terms of trying to pull people in, we've got great partners like Greg, like Ron Sizer at the Community College, Adam Ring at Ben Franklin High School.

40:50John and I have talked multiple times that like our biggest challenge isn't where are we going to find people. it's like, man, we can't create jobs fast enough for all the people we want to hire. And that's another issue for us to solve on the business side. But there are three moments that really stand out where it kind of made me realize maybe we're not so crazy doing what we're trying to do. One of them last summer, we pulled a student over from Ron's program and we weren't ready to hire immediately. But Ron at the community college, right? For context. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to work in the CNC machining market in Philly and not know Ron.

41:26He's phenomenal. But brought a kid through last summer. It was probably 90 degrees in the shop. We don't even have air conditioning yet. He was so excited just to see that we were investing in this technology. They were making parts that go into outer space. That as he was leaving, he asked if he could bring his mom in for a tour. I was like, that was just terribly touching. And it pains me that we didn't have a spot for them to slot into right away. Something else, maybe a little more lighthearted, like we've had multiple people reach out through our website and drop an interest form for employment and think our shop is fake.

42:01Like no one's investing in five axis technology in King's Essay. But here we are, and there are people that are still raising their hand to want to come be a part of it. And then doubling up on what you shared about convincing the next generation of of manufacturing opportunities of our interns this summer, I might not get this number right. It's either three or four of their collective four parents are doctors. And that tells me that manufacturing doesn't have as negative of a perception as we think it does. And, you know, these kids that probably were in households where being a doctor was the, you know, the best path or the available path, they're instead saying, no, I want to work in advanced manufacturing.

42:45I'll close it there. that is awesome that's a great spot to close you're all doing things to change the perception around manufacturing give it up for matt hannah greg thank you for being a part of tonight's show next round of our interviews coming up right after a word from our sponsor

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43:58Less guesswork, fewer silos, and making smarter choices earlier. PTC's industrial newsletter. Subscribe at manufacturinghappyhour.com slash PTC. And now, back to today's episode.

44:20All right, we have one more short segment here to wrap things up. So one thing that we do on these tours, I guess we've started doing it on these tours, the final stop is an opportunity to kind of have a little fun, reflect on the whole journey. and you being the audience here at the final stop, I want to invite Nick and John up on stage to help wrap things up. And I'll share some context when I switch microphones. Typically, we reflect on the tour. We talk about what we learned across the Northeast. We might do that, but I actually don't know how this segment's going to go because I said, we were chatting before we started recording.

45:02I'm like, you know what, Nick, John, John, why don't you surprise me with the segment we do at the end? You can talk about whatever topic you want. You can ask me questions. So for context also, John is with CLA. Nick, co-founder of MaintainX, sponsors of the tour. Give him a quick round of applause, please. So now I'm maybe in the hot seat. So we're going to see where this goes. So John, Nick, who wants to lead off here? All right, Chris, I'll jump in. So first of all, I just want to say what a privilege it's been to be on this tour with you. We've done, what, four stops here? Four stops in three days.

45:43We did our first ever morning event. We've basically thrown four parties in under 50 hours. It's pretty crazy.

45:52So, Chris, we've certainly had a lot of fun on this tour. And the first question I want to ask you, so this is Manufacturing Happy Hour. We're up here on stage. We've got a drink in our hand. Have you ever had a guest that had too much to drink? Yes, I can answer this question, but I also have a bit of, I'll say a bit of an escape route. So I ran another podcast for a long time. Technically, it's on hiatus, but I just haven't done it in a while. It was called Pubcast Worldwide. It was my excuse to interview anyone around the world and talk to them over beers, right? And it was really cool, right?

46:31I traveled to five different continents to record that show. So it was a great warmup for, I guess, turning into a professional podcaster. But I'm not going to say who it was, but I am not going to say whether they were a movie star or a musician. But I got to interview one of my idols. And when we when we started the conversation, this individual was like, all right, we're going to do a shot of this local whiskey and a beer for every round of our interview. and we did okay we finished the you can dig back in my archives you can probably listen to this episode of my old show Pubcast Worldwide and maybe you'd figure it out I do think we held it together the funny part of the story is I probably had too much to drink that night because we got through like four rounds of this and I had to go meet up with a bunch of my friends and my cousins for dinner afterwards and I walked out of that interview I'm like oh my goodness I got to get it together in like a 30 minute period.

47:33So created a good interview and a great lesson in stamina after that. Maybe to answer your question more directly, one thing I tell people when they come on manufacturing happy hour, I'm like, this isn't drunk history. Like we're not talking, we're not talking about manufacturing like hammer. The idea is to talk about it casually the way you would, as if you were having a beer with one another. So I hope that anecdote, which actually threw me under my under the bus, more than it threw my guest under the bus. I hope that anecdote answered the question. Okay, so we're having a beer. We're not having shots in a six pack.

48:07Exactly, yes. It's just beer, no shots of Old Crow whiskey in between. I'm sure someone in the audience is going to pick up where that's the regional specialty and be able to deduce things from there. Chris, I feel like we're going to have to dig that episode out of the archives now. To be fair, it's a great episode. Like I said, I think it's actually a pretty insightful interview. But nevertheless, that's a fun Easter egg for everyone listening in this room or afterwards to dig up. Awesome. Yeah, so super, super grateful to be here as well. Those of you who, I can't say if you're authentically and not share this with you up front, I am born and raised in Dallas, Texas.

48:53I'm a dive-harder cat. Oh, yeah. But I did help pay for all your beer tonight

49:03So that was awesome Nick excellent intro yeah maybe one of the best intros we've ever had So you know I don't want anyone to think I'm pandering because I'm I'm definitely not This has been a this has been a behind the enemies line behind enemy lines tour for me We would go into New York Giants territory uh Ville so no it's it's fun But in all seriousness, what I really love about, you know, just a quick survey, how many here work in a manufacturing plant and are on the floor at least once or twice a week, if not every day? Love it. How many of you all are aspirationally hoping to get there or want to see a manufacturing plant but haven't had a chance to do it for one reason or another?

49:45Yeah, it's all right. You don't have to be shy. and and what i what i love about this is that the the ecosystem in the community here that that chris is cultivating and then with what's happening with uh in tmma and and uh all the other folks that are helping and and you guys with the cla is that you're cultivating this ecosystem that feels like a place where manufacturing curious people feel welcome to come and learn more about it um manufacturing is really cool yeah i don't think we say that enough. I don't think it gets enough. Like it still feels dirty or like somewhat of a consolation. Like it is awesome.

50:21It's the coolest experience I think you can have walking around in one of the coolest places you can work. And so it's such a privilege to be part of this and get to help cultivate that ecosystem. And for those of you who do have that opportunity to work in a plant, invite people who, you know, invite schools and when you can find a way to bring in people to those environments let them see the cool things you're building um show them some get them a chance to see like something cool in person instead of another hour on tiktok like this is like healing for the human soul we need more manufacturing but chris like i did i know you shared this on on your podcast and you talked about it but you haven't said it tonight and i know there was probably still quite a few folks were meeting you and now that you've talked and opened up the can of worms of pubcast why pivot to manufacturing where's that passion for the the ecosystem come from you?

51:13Passion for the ecosystem has grown over the years from doing Manufacturing Happy Hour. So I always tell people the story like Manufacturing Happy Hour started 10 years ago. I mean, this whole, all the tours we've been doing are kind of like a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the show this year. I tell people it started as a campy video series, right, in late 2016, early 2017. We were talking about tech, you know, it was just filmed on an iPhone and things like that, right? And back then, it was just like, you could post a video to LinkedIn, and it would be the only video there. There was no competition for content on LinkedIn at that point.

51:54So it kind of grew at that point. And once we started doing the tours, once Manufacturing Happy Hour turned into what I always describe it as, it's a leadership podcast Disguise a Manufacturing Podcast, right? We're trying to pull the best practices, the things that we're doing as people, not necessarily always about the technology, et cetera. We're trying to pull those best practices out. And I just saw how much this industry was craving community and things like that. And that made me more excited to double down on manufacturing, explore the stories deeper. There's a lot more you can get out of a 45-minute interview than you can get out of like a five minute quick video about a piece of technology, right?

52:43So by doing Manufacturing Happy Hour, and I think this would be my lesson for anyone that wants to do something over a long period of time. Like you learn more about it. You learn more about the impact the longer you go. You can't really predict everything just within the first few months, even the first few years, right? You just gotta get out there and do it consistently on a regular basis. The other thing I'll say is doing a drinking podcast that was primarily geared towards breweries, I'll be perfectly honest, manufacturers tend to have more budget than your local craft brewery as well. So there was a pragmatic aspect of it.

53:18It's like I can build a career out of this versus just a hobby out of it, for example. I thought that was going to get more laughs than that did, but that's okay. We're going to take Nick. I was going to say next time we do this we're going to take Nick to DC so he can go to the entire NFC East and go behind enemy lines across the board I can't beat him while they're down at least the peers there you go there you go but Nick did that answer the question I know I went on kind of like a long rambling story about how manufacturing happy hour evolved and helped me continue to grow my passion for the community and the industry on a regular basis and honestly anyone that doubles down on whatever their niche is like i feel like that's what happens the more you dig into it that's it i mean my path is is is unorthodox as well and a lot of people do and i think that's something that more folks have like deserve to hear is that there's not a traditional path that you have to take to get in manufacturing um it's not like being a doctor where you have to go to med school and you got to do right like this is however life find if you're curious and you want to get into the space like find your way here it's super cool uh and this now is the most important time in our generation uh and probably and possibly in american history to be doubling down and investing in manufacturing making sure that we've got a strong base here and i'm super proud of everything that's being done here in philly so cheers to that philadelphia thank you so much nick john thank you so much for jumping on stage give it up one more time for maintain x and CLA making this entire tour possible.

54:56Give it up for Open Tolerance. Give it up for NTMA. It's always awesome to partner with the community in these areas. And finally, give it up for yourselves because of all your enthusiasm, your collaboration, you guys are awesome. We're going to wrap this the way we always do our show with a stay innovative, stay thirsty. Thanks for coming to the show. The party still continues. Food should still be out there. Drink tickets are still good. So stick around. Yeah. Party.

55:32Everyone, thank you for listening. Hey, I got to give a shout out to the brewery as well. Thank you, Khan Schocken Brewing in King of Prussia for hosting this live show. If you weren't watching the video, it is a very cool space. They basically have a whole conference center attached directly to the brewery. So really cool setup for a Manufacturing Happy Hour live show. Honestly, you really can't get much better than that. Hey, if you want to connect with Matt, Gregory, Hannah, Ashley, or Brett, make sure to head over to the show notes page at manufacturinghappyhour.com. And also thank you to our tour sponsors and our local sponsors for making this episode possible.

56:15with that thanks for tuning in thanks for catching us on tour thanks for listening to this show we'll catch you again next time thanks for listening to Manufacturing Happy Hour powered by the Industrial Network