In this episode of the Missing Half podcast, host Bill Woods sits down with Abby Wurzbach, Business Solutions Specialist at MANTEC and President of the Young Manufacturers Network. Abby outlines how MANTEC helps manufacturers with workforce development, marketing, process improvements, and technology integration, and shares her inspiring journey of launching the Young Manufacturers Network to address the lack of resources for young professionals in manufacturing.
The discussion dives into critical issues such as workforce recruitment challenges, the generational shift in workplace culture, the importance of workforce branding, and strategies manufacturers can adopt to remain competitive. Abby’s passion for connecting people and her innovative programs, like K-16 workforce pipelines, make this a must-listen episode for manufacturing leaders tackling workforce gaps and young professionals navigating the manufacturing space.
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Bill: Thank you for joining the Missing Half podcast where we're discovering what's missing in manufacturing and B2B marketing. Today I have a special guest I met at a manufacturing expo, a connector of people in the manufacturing space. Abby Wurzbach. Abby, welcome to the conversation.
Abby: Thank you so much. Happy to be here.
Bill: So Abby, we met at the Manufacturing Expo in York, Pennsylvania, a fantastic show that you and your organization put on to connect people in the manufacturing space. And your current title there is you’re a business solutions specialist. Maybe tell us a little bit about what MANTEC is, your role there, and what that organization does in the manufacturing community.
Abby: Yeah, absolutely. So MANTEC is a nonprofit organization here in South Central PA. We are on a mission to help manufacturers around us grow and get better through whatever they might need. We do a lot of work in the sales and marketing space and process improvement, workforce development, so training and things like that. And then we can also help them find the right pieces of technology, whether it's a robot or some other fun piece of tech within manufacturing. But yeah, it's a little bit about what we do.
Bill: No, that's great. I remember being in that show, walking through it, meeting a lot of great people, a lot of great companies and recognizing that you guys are building a vibrant community of support in the manufacturing space that isn't necessarily available everywhere. And I think that show was a great opportunity to meet and greet and kind of share and maybe talk about, I guess we could take a minute and talk about that show for a second. You guys had a large number of people exhibiting from various service provider spaces, but there are a number of manufacturers there. They were exhibiting their wares. We had robots exhibiting how they sorted things and did all types of robotic things. There were process manufacturers. Maybe just tell a little bit about that community and the attendees at that show.
Abby: Yeah, absolutely. So that show was actually the Manufacturers Association of South Central PA. So that's their show. Yeah. And we had a table there. MANTEC were a partner of MA. So, yeah, so we were there as an attendee, just like you were. So MANTEC and YMM, we both had tables. But yeah, that Manufacturers Expo is huge. It brings together just a ton of manufacturers from South Central PA and honestly kind of beyond. And it highlights the impact that each of those companies has on this region. It shows the really cool things they're doing. There's always fun robots, like you said, just stuff to see on the floor that you don't really realize where stuff comes from until you just step into the space, step into the industry, and really, really open your eyes to what all is there in South Central PA. But yeah.
Bill: One of the other things that you're involved with and we're to talk about here in a minute is you're the president of the Young Manufacturers Network. Maybe talk a little bit about that. What how the genesis of that organization and the impact you're seeing that have on, you know, maybe one of the biggest issues that we're going to talk about as well as recruitment and bringing people into the manufacturing space. So maybe talk about that, please.
Abby: Yeah, for sure. So Young Manufacturers Network was something that kind of started off of an idea. I was at an event talking to someone and my age often gets brought up. I’m only 23. I was 22 when I started out in industry. And like many young people, it's always, oh my gosh, you're so young. I remember when I was your age. And one of the women that was, made one of those comments, I was talking to her and she said, I remember when I was your age, I didn't have a group like Women in Manufacturing or any of these other networking groups to go to. And I really felt alone and I really could have used that. And my career track to success would have looked a lot differently had I had an organization like this. And I heard that and I was like, my gosh, like that can't be the story for another young person in industry. And so I mentioned something to my coworker and I was like, hey, can we do something about this? Like, can we create a space for young people? And he was like, that's a good idea. Let's pitch it to our boss. And we did. And he said, run with it. And so now here we are about nine, 10 months later, we're over 60 members strong. We’ve had over 15 events, over 200 attendees at those events so far. And we just see continued growth to come. Lots and lots of really exciting things to develop, mentor and support the next generation of manufacturing for sure. It's great.
Bill: Well, congratulations on that idea. More congratulations on the gumption to take that idea from concept to reality and then seeing it through. That's amazing. And certainly this ties into one of the things we're seeing that is a tremendous problem at all levels and in all spaces in the manufacturing community is workforce recruitment and whether that's in the office, in the administration roles, sales roles, production worker roles. There are so many challenges we heard over and over again at that expo and that we hear in the marketplace from manufacturers who are struggling to find workers. So maybe talk a little bit about that problem and then maybe some of the solutions you see to that problem.
Abby: Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, we all know what happened back in 2020. We had a fun little pandemic and that really shifted, really highlighted a lot of changes that, maybe our workforce isn't necessarily as strong as we thought. And so a lot of our manufacturers are facing that truth. The silver tsunami is real. We saw a big group of the boomers just left the workforce. And so there's this weird gap where we've seen this huge shift where lot of folks have left and we don't necessarily have younger folks to fill in the roles that they're leaving. So the skilled trades, not a lot of folks have gone into skilled trades. So that's a lot of what manufacturing is. It's CNC, welding, all that stuff. Like that's gone away, right? Fewer and fewer folks are going into skilled trades. Another big piece, we're actually just seeing smaller numbers across the board in terms of, you know, I know public school enrollment since COVID has gone down drastically, which means even our like, literally the amount of people that we have going into the workforce is just dropping. And so how are we going to meet that demand, whether it's through automation, innovating products, maybe it's improving processes and reducing waste. Who knows what that's going to look like, but workforce is real. It's an issue and something that we at MANTEC are trying really, really hard to meet those needs, help manufacturers fill those gaps and fill in the pipeline where we can, for sure.
Bill: Yeah, think we're definitely seeing specifically in like Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio. We are not seeing the population growth that we're seeing in the South and the Southwest. There's a lot of people still on the coast, certainly in the Southern regions of our country and in the Rust Belt, in the traditional industrial areas, we're not seeing that population growth. So there's that supply side issue. But then also those folks who are here, less of them are interested in these careers. And there's a host of reasons for that. mean, there are people, celebrities who talk about this, like Mike Rowe with the dirty jobs and all of those things. But I think the reality is there is a tremendous gap and void that we're going to have to work very, very hard to fill because there appears to be another industrial revolution, manufacturing revolution that is starting to take hold. And certainly with some of the changes in government and some of those things, we're seeing all types of variability. But the, I think the, one of the things I wanted to ask you about, and so we have a problem. And you guys are working on it from a, reeducation development. There's a lot of, programs you guys have, but what are you seeing manufacturing companies doing? Those who are struggling more and less like who's winning this battle, who's losing, not naming companies, but the types of companies and the behaviors they're exhibiting or the things they're doing to be proactive to address their workforce issues.
Abby: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the biggest things that companies who succeed are looking at is culture. It's huge right now. And I mean, we mentioned the generational shift already. And so if we're going to talk generational shift, we have to talk generational norms. And so these Gen Z millennial workforces aren't looking for a job where I'm going to work, work, work, make a lot of money and go home and spend it all. We're looking for work-life balance. We’re looking for can I hang out with my coworkers and have a good company vibe? Can I grow in my career? What does my career track look like? Do I have those steps in the ladder that I can reach? And so I think when you look at companies that are succeeding, companies that are retaining talent, they're one, offering opportunities for people to grow. They're enrolling them in training classes. They're saying, hey, if you want to be a manager one day, here are three things you can do to get there. They're inviting them to go to networking events and events with other young people. They're sending them to the Young Manufacturers Network events, which is super great for us. They're also just thriving on culture. They're hiring based on will this person fit our company culture, not just I need a body, let me fill it. Because if it's I need a body, let me fill it, they're going to be gone the next day. You need someone who's going to fit within your organization. So hiring for great fit is what I've seen help companies succeed.
Bill: So I couldn't agree more. I think those are all very, very important aspects. The other thing that we've seen that's differentiated those who seem to be having a much higher level of success in addressing the workforce issue is not only are they trying to address the items that you discussed, but then they're also doing a good job of marketing and communicating that proactively to prospective applicants, to their current workforce, to kind of build them up and continue to build that momentum. And even to the community at large so that everybody understands the value of the mission, vision and values of that organization in the market. Do you see marketing as a part of this for those who being more successful?
Abby: Yes, absolutely. Marketing is a tool. Marketing is a tool. If you have a workforce that is dwindling and you need more people, then you need to be doing workforce branding and workforce marketing. And so communicating that to manufacturers is tough because they hear marketing and they're like, oh, that's just that stuff that we do to get more sales. And we have salespeople for that. We don't need marketing. And it's like, well, you need people. You don't even have the salesperson to get the sales. So how are you going to find them? And so that's when we've seen success of, maybe it's using marketing in a creative way. Maybe it's changing the way we're listing our job titles on LinkedIn. Maybe it's posting the same job, not necessarily the same exact job description, but posting it in a few different ways. That's still marketing. Posting it, changing around the content and sharing it in different ways. Maybe it's, you know, looking at our current culture, looking at what does it mean to be an employee at ABC company? What is our culture? And so, you know, we look for in sales and in marketing, we're, we're marketing towards an ideal customer. And I think in workforce branding, you have to be marketing towards an ideal coworker, someone who you can get along with. Like if you fit these three boxes, you're gonna fit into this company and then you're hiring right fit and right person as opposed to just filling the box and filling the need. So I feel like that kinda. Yeah.
Bill: I love that. I love that. we've done a number of initiatives for a number of our clients in that space. And we've absolutely seen a tremendous return on investment and they have been bucking the trends. And let's talk about that silver tsunami that you talked about. I think prior generations were willing to take the job and find out. Right. Because whatever people say, whatever in like a, on their application and in the in the interview and most people are nervous during an interview. So in 30 minutes, everybody's struggling a little bit. Just like any buyer, any type any type of applicant wants to know before they go and apply. They want to know and research 75 percent of that applicant journey online. They want to watch videos. They want to hear from other people who've been there awhile. They want to hear about the training. They want to hear about the matriculation program or the steps or the ways you can get promoted and move up through the organization. And so one, you have to define and have all those things and have those programs, but then you have to brand it and like put some type of North star out there that people can really rally around and, then communicate it. Right. And that's social media. That's YouTube. That's that's having the CEO get on a YouTube interview or a podcast and say, hey, this is who we are. This is what we do. This is our culture, our mission, vision, values. So they hear it from the people so that there's that genuine connection throughout that process. So I think that's absolutely what is working. Is it the best? I don't know, but it's the best we have today in the process. And those who are investing in that, the other thing that's beautiful, the way we do it that makes it more cost effective is whenever we're doing these initiatives for our clients, we can often double dip. And with a little bit of our work and some creativity, we can not only use that content for applicants, we can use it also for clients as well. So it's, it's not like you need a whole new budget. It's not like you need a whole like different department to focus on this. This can be kind of like a tag along or a small add-on to a current engagement that allows you to layer this in and really address that problem.
Abby: Right, right, right. Cause like your company's brand isn't just this is what we sell. Your company's brand is who is my company? And that's the brand you want to push, right? It's not just we make widgets and you know, because we manufacture these widgets buy from us, it's we care about our employees. We care about the product we're making. Our people that we're hiring care about the product we're making, which means you're going to get a good quality product. All of those pieces are contributing to your entire brand, which just like you said. That's what your marketing pushes. That's what you're marketing. You're marketing your brand. You're marketing your company. You're marketing your story. So yeah.
Bill: Absolutely. Yeah, because when we think about branding, branding matters to all stakeholders. So whether that's an applicant, a current employee, a vendor, a customer, shareholders, just the community at large, all of those stakeholders want to understand that brand. Whether or not they become fans or promoters or whatever, that's a decision and you're not going to make everybody happy. So you just try and do your thing in your swim lane. But having an eye to all stakeholders and recognizing now, and I think this is going to continue for years to come, understanding that applicants and the workforce and developing that channel is as important as developing your client channel, is going to be the thing that that's going to differentiate between the winners and losers over the next 10 years. Who's gonna be able to get the workforce and who isn't. Because I think automation is coming, manufacturing 4.0, all those things, but I do not believe that the level of technology adoption can replace the workforce so fast that we're not going to have to continue to address this issue. So anyway, it's exciting to see that you're seeing that is something that may be missing from some manufacturing companies and those that are getting it are really addressing a problem or kind of a step ahead. Whenever you, so at MANTEC, you guys are really focusing on some of these, what I would call initiatives, like maybe talk about workforce pathways and what that is, please.
Abby: Yeah, absolutely. No. So when you think about workforce, most of time you're thinking about the people that are already in it, which is good. You should be educating those who are already in it. That's important. Like that's how you retain your workforce. But there's people who aren't there yet. There's not just, you know, not just like random people, not just like people on the street, but there's young people who may not be aware that a career in manufacturing exists. And so those initiatives that you've mentioned, that's a lot of what MANTEC does. So we have programs for what we say K through 16. And then even once you get into the workforce, there's stuff for you too. So starting in like K through six, elementary school, we have something called the career concierge. And so this is someone on our team who's dedicated to helping kids discover careers in manufacturing. So I go into third grade classrooms and I talk about how chocolate is made. And I talk about how cheese is made and how the stage that Taylor Swift is, the stage she sings on is made right here in South Central PA, didn’t you know? And so, to be able to just educate young people, like, there's really cool stuff that's made here near me. So that's what we do in kindergarten through sixth, in junior high, we do the same thing. We'll have the same conversations. We'll upgrade a little bit, obviously, but we'll have those same conversations with middle schoolers. But we also have our What's So Cool About Manufacturing program. And this is a program that's statewide in Pennsylvania and New York as well. And so this is a group of kids, a group of seventh and eighth graders, who are sometimes a little bit chaotic, but you bring them all together. They get paired up with a manufacturing facility near their school, and they get to go in with GoPros and interview people and learn about careers and learn about how things are made and just have a great experience just right there in a manufacturing facility and learn. And then they compete in like a contest and there's like coolest video and coolest product and you know, all these different awards they can win in statewide programs, the whole thing. So What's So Cool is great. That's another one of our workforce programs, then again, the high school level. And so we actually created a program, used to be called Career Test Drive. We've just rebranded it as MFGU. And so this is a program for rising seniors in high school, where we have one for advanced and applied engineering, manufacturing engineering. And then we have one that we're just starting this year for supply chain. And so those are two programs we partner with a university, one with York College of Pennsylvania and the other with Millersville University in Lancaster County. And so we leverage those two schools and their partnerships to get these kids industry-recognized credentials, hands on experience. They go on five different tours to different facilities. And if they complete an exam and pass the exam by the end of the time, they even get a stipend, which all of this is grant funded by the state of Pennsylvania. We're working on college programs now. We're not really sure what that's looking like, but it's internships, connecting them with manufacturers, it's mentorship, it's all these different pieces. And so that's kind of building out that workforce pipeline, right? We can talk about pipeline all we want, and we can talk about, you know, who's gonna enter the workforce, but if you're not even working on those who, before they even get to college, right? Like, I didn't know manufacturing existed when I was in high school, and here I am now, right? So start to gauge that interest and start to grab that interest and get them excited. That could drastically affect our workforce issue that we're working on. So yeah, absolutely. Workforce pipeline initiatives are huge for MANTEC, and something we're really, really passionate about here.
Bill: No, I think that's great. I mean, getting young people involved and exposed to different types of careers early on is so important. And, you know, for my generation, and we won't go into how old I am, but, you know, my grandfather, both of my grandfathers worked in the steel mills here in Johnstown and Pittsburgh. And we grew up with a manufacturing mentality from, you know, knowing that those patriarchs in our family had been involved in that and even on their retirements, visited them or those type of things. I think when we look at this current generation, and I have no statistics to back this up, but my guess would be that most young people if surveyed in these high school have never been on a factory floor, are very unaware of what it takes to make things in industry. So that type of engagement and just allowing them to see what's out there, that's tremendous and I think that, yeah, we have to start at a grassroots level and start at a very early age. We can't just assume, oh, we get out of school, high school, trade school, college, whatever, and we need to get a job. And then we're just going to go fill out an application, whatever's closest to our house. Those days that generation of is gone. That's not going to happen. So that's, that's a great, program. The other thing I know you guys do is you guys not only support manufacturing companies with this type of workforce pathways and development, but you guys also help with some leadership training, correct? So maybe can you talk a little bit about that, please?
Abby: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So MANTEC’s super involved in the training space. We recognize that once you're in the workforce, a great way to retain talent is to upscale. Or even just to grow business, you have to upscale regardless. You can't just stay stagnant, otherwise you're never gonna improve and you're never gonna grow a business. So two of our biggest places we play in are that supervisory leadership, that workforce development, and then also continuous improvement. So we do training anywhere from Lean, Six Sigma, we do supervisory training, project management, leadership development, whatever it might be. We play in a lot of different spaces. We even have an AI training course coming up in a couple of weeks. So we try to really engage that workforce and give the manufacturers, here's all the things that you can be trained in, everything that could help you. Let's take that step. Let's start to learn and see how this can impact our company for sure.
Bill: No, that's great. I know you guys also do some marketing training in support of your manufacturers. What, when we think about that and the Missing Half podcast is about discovering what's missing in manufacturing and B2B marketing. Whenever you're engaging companies with that training, where are you seeing the most requests? What are they struggling with the most or what do you see after talking with them or going through these programs that they're missing the most in their marketing programs?
Abby: Yeah, no, it's a great question. And I think it's something that a lot of manufacturers don't think about until it's too late. They don't think about marketing or like sales. They say, hey, you we got three months lead time, so we don't need this until it's, dang, wait, we've made our processes more efficient. Now we don't have anything to fill our machines. We have machines sitting stagnant. What are we going to do? We need business. And so then they're like, help, we need something. And so to be honest with you, a lot of the times it's reactionary and where we come in is we try to help clients think ahead and say like, hey, like, what are you doing? How do you get business right now? How much of your business is with one client? Maybe a lot of their business only has one customer. Maybe for some of their business, what happens when that customer switches companies? What happens when that customer goes bankrupt? What happens to you then? And so it becomes this conversation that's, oh my gosh, well maybe I should have something working in the background where I don't necessarily need to go look for sales, but I need something working for me so people can think, well I should reach out to ABC company when I need something. And so that's what we educate our manufacturing clients. That's what marketing is. It's that something that keeps, it's in the back of people's minds. It brings people in. It's this, if sales is active searching for clients, then marketing is this passive thing working in the background along with sales to bring them to you where you're not necessarily going to them. It can play a little bit in both, right? But that's kind of how we explain it to our clients. And so, yeah, I mean, if that's the gap, the gap I would say is we don't know until it's too late. And so that's where MANTEC comes in is, hey, let's have that conversation ahead of time so that we're prepared and we can start, you know, maybe it's a website, maybe it's SEO, maybe it's a whole marketing plan, who knows? But we pair them up with the right resource for them, the right fit, right problem, right solution, right provider. That's what we do. So, yeah.
Bill: No, I think that makes a ton of sense and we see that a lot with manufacturers, especially if you have manufacturers, I would say that are in that five to $30 million range. Those that have kind of moved up 50 million plus, they probably have diversified their sales. They probably are little more proactive because to reach that scale, it's very uncommon to have a manufacturing plant with one customer with one thing that has reached that scale. But certainly in that let's say sub $30 million a year revenue space, we see a lot of manufacturing companies that fit that profile. They aren't proactive. They're reactive. They are beholden to one major customer, one aging sales person who has a lot of relationships. And the reality is whether you call it the silver tsunami or whatever it is, all of that is not going to be available or a predictor of success in the future because it is not going to be able to be perpetuated. And we need to really, we need to educate more of these companies to make sure that they see that as a gap and they're ready to take those next step forward. And we see that a lot and we do some similar exercises trying to bring people to a place of understanding. And, I think one of the challenges is, and I don't know if you see this is something that's missing is, there's a lack of awareness, but then there's also an undervaluing of marketing as a function so that, you know, if they think, yeah, we have a marketing budget. Okay, what is it? Yeah, we went to a trade show last year. We bought some swag and we got some new signs. Well, that is probably not, that's probably not gonna get the job done, right? That's not gonna address the needs. It's not gonna address the workforce marketing needs. And it's certainly not going to address the marketing needs for attracting new clients. Do you see that as something that's missing as well, as that proper valuation of what it costs to do good marketing?
Abby: Yes. And I would say sometimes it's a challenge. So MANTEC also works for primarily small and medium sized manufacturers. So our clients are that pretty like lower end of the spectrum in terms of revenue. And so a lot of their business is tied up with one person. And that's where we kind of provide that value is we've seen a lot of it before. And so a lot of those clients who may fall into that like, well, we can't spend all that money on marketing. And it's, well, what happens when you don't have any money to spend at all because you haven't marketed and you didn't get sales, right? Like that's the hard, like, conversation that you don't really want to have, but it's also like, hey, you got to spend it to earn it. And so that's kind of the conversation you sometimes have to have when it comes to marketing. And I totally agree with you that it is a hard one to have because not all clients recognize that. Yeah.
Bill: Yeah, and they don't want to hear it because it's hard. One of the things we try to communicate to clients because we've been able to take the playbooks and frameworks and deliverables that we have been delivering for years to clients that are 30, 50, $100 million. And we've been able to kind of package them and come up with light options for smaller manufacturers is there has never been a greater opportunity with the technological innovation, AI and maturity of digital marketing for smaller manufacturers to catch up. I mean, we can catch clients up very rapidly. And I'm sure as you've introduced some of your members and constituents to other marketing agencies or professionals, it is, it doesn't take the same million dollars it took for the industry leader to get there over the past 10 years. It's cheaper, faster, better, smarter now. And you can kind of skip some of the things that they pioneered and just do the high priority items with a much smaller budget, a much smaller team and get those things done. What have you seen in that space?
Abby: Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, you kind of hit it initially, like the use of AI, right? So now a manufacturer who maybe didn't do any marketing at all, didn't have a newsletter, didn't have social posts, didn't have anything can say, hey, mysterious AI, whichever one you want to use, hey, can you spit out a marketing plan for me? And it'll come up. And so someone who may not have the dollars available can now use AI to put something together. Or can use AI to give them new ideas of how can I brand this? How can I market this? What can I do differently or what can I add to make my experience more valuable? And it really truly is. It's made it a lot easier, but it's also made it a little bit more, I don't wanna say risky, but there is the challenge of, like what happens when I ask my AI to do something and it does it wrong and it doesn't understand my company, like how do I do that? How do I train my AI to actually know what I want from it? And that's been a challenge for manufacturers, something that we're trying to help with with training classes and things like that. We did an AI webinar on how to train your AI and understand what you want. That was really helpful for me. I now feel like I could train my AI as much as I want. But we see that that is something that though it is easier, you have to know how to use it well. And so that's kind of where we reference other folks to kind of make that easier for people. But yeah.
Bill: Well and we see it from the marketing agency space, if someone isn't going to self produce, the volume of work that we can do is probably three X what it was four or five years ago because of using more of these tools. Right. So it used to be that editing video took hours and hours and hours. Now we can use some tools to edit video very, very rapidly because AI takes some of the work out of it. So we, what we see is the ability for our marketing professionals and team members to use that AI to work much faster, to be able to provide what seven years ago, a Fortune 500 company spent a million dollars to generate all this stuff in these campaigns and content and social and video and a website and all of the stuff. I mean, for a hundred thousand dollars now, you can generate the same thing and probably better because you've learned from all the things they've done. So I feel like it's more accessible than ever. I do agree with you that the promise of AI is there, but the challenge is also, think small to medium sized business owners are not going to be able to become proficient as AI prompt engineers in every area of their business. So they're not going to be able to be that in HR, in accounting, in finance, in marketing, in training in all of those things. There's still going to be the need for people like us who are testing in our swim lane. So we're testing prompts. We're testing those things across hundreds of clients, across thousands of to-dos and projects. So there's still going to be that ability to leverage professionals who are just leveraging it better. But I think that's going to be one of the challenges. But to get started and save time. So instead of us coming in and doing an eight week assessment for branding, if they want to give us the stuff, okay, great. Let's not waste time on that. We're still going to, maybe we can cut that part of the engagement down to two weeks where, you know, they give us a bunch of information that they've worked with their people and AI to produce. And then we're to take that and really refine it. So there's ways to cut slack and, just waste out of all the processes using these tools. And that excites me because, we're just faster and better at what we do.
Abby: Right. Absolutely. And well, the, what you just described is lean, which, know, it's a manufacturing term you think about on the manufacturing floor, but like AI has made marketing more lean. You're cutting out waste, being more efficient, you're getting more done. And so like, I think that is just such a beautiful like picture of like how well, the way we think in manufacturing can be applied to literally everything. It can be applied to marketing. Yeah, absolutely.
Bill: Absolutely. We always describe with the team, what we do at 50 Marketing is that we have a conveyor belt that starts with the client and they're starting to give us information and that conveyor belt goes the whole way through our system and all of our people and all of the touch points and out the, know, what we're shipping out the far end of that conveyor that goes on the trucks or on the website or on the social media is the end product. So we think a lot about what we do as a marketing factory and that same idea. And lean, you're exactly right. We're using AI every day, not only AI, other SaaS products, other tools, frameworks, and the way we do things to reduce waste and get to that end product and those outcomes that the clients need as quickly and as efficiently as possible. So I love that analogy. That's a great takeaway. Abby, when you think about, so I'm going to pivot a little bit. I think this Young Manufacturers Network is just fantastic. And maybe, you you've talked about these attendees, members, and all these events. What, as you've gone through this process over the last nine months, you said, I think it was nine months? Okay. Yeah. So by the time this comes out, we'll probably be at your birthday of the event or of the organization. So maybe talk to us about like what was the most successful event and why? Like what was the one that you got the most engagement you felt that your users got the most out of or, and it might be like the Christmas party or whatever, but that would be the most fun one. But maybe we'll stay on the professional side of like a topic or something like that.
Abby: No, absolutely. Yeah, no, it's great question. So our events kind of change. We do manufacturing meetups, which are like networking events. We've done lunch and learns. Then this morning, actually, we held our first wake up workshop, which is like a breakfast learning experience on purpose in the workplace. And when I look back over, and we do industry tours as well, but when I look back over all of the events we've held, it's not even like a numbers thing. What was the most successful? The most successful events that I've held have been ones where as I'm leaving and as I'm cleaning up and as folks are rolling out of wherever we are, someone comes up to me and they say, Abby, you're like, this was awesome. They were like, I'm an operations manager at my place. And I just talked to an operations manager, at their place, and we're struggling with the exact same thing. And it was just so refreshing to be able to talk to someone who got me. Like that, oh my word. That was my most successful event because while it wasn't my most well attended event, it was the space where young people were able to connect. They were able to learn from one another. They were able to understand what each other was going through, which you don't necessarily get at any young professionals organization. It's just for young manufacturers. That was definitely one of the most successful events for me, just seeing that click and the mission we lived out in what we're working on. So yeah, that was awesome.
Bill: Well, I think that's so important and I hope you recognize the value of that because there's something that is missing in today's culture and that is going to continue to be more difficult to achieve. As we see more technology adoption, as we see more engagement with AI, there is still the human connection of people connecting with people to solve problems that is going to remain constant. And while these tools and processes and AI and all the technology and the training that will address some of those issues. There will always be the human element that is hopefully prevalent. I don't know, maybe, who knows? I'm not a prognosticator or a futurist, but that's always going to be there. And developing community around problems always seems to develop better outcomes. I used to own a business that there were a number of nationwide, well actually worldwide dealers. And the best events that that manufacturing company had is when they got the dealers together and then they stopped talking and let the dealers talk amongst themselves. That's where we really identified commonalities in problems and solutions. And then we're able to grow more rapidly and optimize in a much higher rate than we were just hearing, like watching the PowerPoint poison and the, know, endless slides and analysis that were done by analysts 3000 miles away, right? So I think that the community you're developing there is just invaluable. There's not a way to put a value on that. And certainly developing community in a space that is not mainstream, we are not going to hear TikTok influencers or Hollywood influencers or mainstream media talk about manufacturing as this glorious, amazing thing. And the sad thing is, it is amazing. I get excited when I walk on factory floors, when I smell cutting oil, where I smell wood being cut. It brings me back to my youth. My parents owned a number of factories. I grew up on factory floors. It just gets my blood pumping. So I want to commend you. I want to encourage you as a young professional, continue to invest in that organization and continue to develop other leaders to carry that torch in case you're ever moving on in your career. That's not your trajectory and build that legacy because that to me and those people coming up to you at the end with that human connection, that's so valuable. So I just want to commend you on that. You and your team members, whoever else is involved with that, keep going, keep fighting and keep pursuing that dream.
Abby: Thank you.
Bill: So when we think about, let's talk a little bit about geography because I think that's an important thing that is often just overlooked. You guys are over in the Eastern part of the state, central Eastern, right?
Abby: South central. Yeah.
Bill: And when we look at that, all of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New York, Maryland, we are the Rust Belt, right? And then you can even go up to Michigan and Wisconsin. But this is the Rust Belt. And the history of this geography is certainly one that participated in the Industrial Revolution. And we're certainly seeing the, a similar pattern developing with the energy boom, the cheap energy that can be supplied here in the United States. So there is an opportunity for that second industrial revolution to really occur. Are you hearing conversations among manufacturers in that space or are they so tied up with workforce problems and supply chains that they're not really able to step back and have that perspective and see the opportunity that's here in our geography with cheap natural gas being prolific and available to help power these manufacturing facilities?
Abby: Yeah, great question. And it's one that I think, yes, there is a gap. And it's funny because you mentioned four or five states that are in the Rust Belt, but you've also mentioned four or five states that are also within the Appalachian region where it's difficult to talk about things like that. And so MANTEC is actually a part of a grant right now through the Appalachian Regional Commission to talk, to make conversations about, hey, look at the energy crisis that we're facing as well. What can you do? Can you make a product? Can you make your factory more efficient? What changes can you be making to play a role in that piece? And I think it's something that as industry grows, I think folks are still focused on that workforce piece. It's huge. It's workforce and automation I think are the two biggest things people talk about currently. Then energy is just something that's scary. Nobody like, nobody in manufacturing likes to talk about energy and efficiencies and all that jazz. It's just overwhelming and confusing. And so we try to, the doors close. However, we do have a group of manufacturers and similar folks in Lancaster. We kind have this cohort going. It's a energy efficiency cohort, sustainability cohort, if you will. We have this cohort of folks that just meet and talk and say, hey, what are we doing? What small differences are we making to kind of eat away at these energy inefficiencies and that kind of thing. And so I think in a small way, yes, some manufacturers turn in the conversation, but it is a lot tougher to get the conversation started than one would think. So yeah, I'm not sure if that answers that question or not.
Bill: Yeah. No, that's great. I think just having conversations about this is important. All areas of it. You know, one of the things I think that's an assumption by the manufacturing sector is that if they need more energy and electricity, it will always be available in there. And that is not true. And certainly we're starting to come to grips as a society with the tremendous potential of AI, but also the tremendous drain that these computers and these large centers and all this infrastructure for AI is going to, it's going to put a tremendous demand on our energy infrastructure, specifically electricity. And we have been, we have lived through several decades where that has not been an issue. If someone wanted to build a plant, there was energy, everything worked well. It, we have to start thinking about that. And I think, you know, being more efficient, cutting waste, great. And that should happen no matter what, right? Because we need to be lean, we need to cut costs. That is not going to answer the question. There has to be other things developed. And I'm not smart enough to be in that conversation about, it nuclear? Is it natural gas? Is it oil? How are they going to do it? But we need to start having that conversation and being in support of multiple solutions because I'm sure there's not one solution. It's going to be a host of, they're going to have to pull a lot of different levers to make that work and make sure that we have the right energy infrastructure, support the growth. We are certainly fortunate here in Appalachia to have the natural gas that's recently been discovered and recently just shows how old I am over the past 10 to 20 years and that whole development. And that's similar to the oil discovery in Petrol Valley back in way back. That was even before my time. But anyway, I think that's an issue that's going to have to be brought to the forefront and there's going to have to be coalitions developed. And from a political standpoint, both sides of the aisle are going to have to rally around solutions because it is coming and it is not going to fix itself. So that's just, I think if you talk about workforce, you talk about automation, and then you talk about energy, those could be some of the big three. And we're hoping that marketing is like a short behind that fourth, to support, help grow those companies as well. Well, Abby, this has been a great conversation. I'm really excited to hear about what you guys are doing because I think the other thing we have to recognize is manufacturing is an industry that is made up of people and there needs to be connections beyond commoditization of manufactured goods that go, you know, raw materials that go into one end of a plant and come out as a finished good out of the other end. There are people involved at all levels. And if we are going to continue to perpetuate a manufacturing industry that is robust, that's growing, that's resilient in Pennsylvania specifically, and the Rust Belt, and then even our country, we have to recognize the people component, whether it's culture, mission, vision, values, workforce, development, all of those things have to be recognized and nurtured if we're going to have a successful future. So I think these conversations are fantastic. I want to applaud the work you guys are doing at MANTEC, the Young Manufacturers Network. I love that. You guys need to take that nationally. You need to grow that and get chapters everywhere because that could fill an amazing gap that exists in our society. So thank you so much for having these conversations with us today.
Abby: Oh my gosh, thank you for having me and thank you guys for the work that you're doing to help highlight manufacturing and this awesome industry that we have here in Pennsylvania.
Bill: Thank you, Abby. Thank you for joining the Missing Half podcast where we're discovering what's missing in manufacturing and B2B marketing. Like, share, subscribe. Have a great day.