00:00:04:22 – 00:00:14:19
Unknown
Just in, my friend. It’s great to have you here on the Manufacturing Finance Front podcast. Welcome.
00:00:14:21 – 00:00:36:23
Unknown
To. Yes. again, because you were on Machine Shop Mastery a couple of years ago or whenever now. but, but this is the Pro shop, podcast, and we we don’t need to, don’t need to avoid, you know, really digging into the meat and potatoes of of how pro shop is helped with your company.
00:00:36:23 – 00:01:06:07
Unknown
And so, that’s what we’re here to talk about. And I’d love to start with you a bit of an introduction about your background and how you came to on this shop. For those that haven’t listened to your Machine Shop Mastery episode, which I encourage everyone to go listen to as well. But, yeah, let’s give us the background first.
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Unknown
So at the. At the bank. Right.
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Unknown
Oh, nice. Yeah.
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Unknown
Yeah.
00:02:21:05 – 00:02:51:12
Unknown
Absolutely.
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Unknown
Banker’s hours. Yeah.
00:03:24:13 – 00:03:36:17
Unknown
Got it.
00:03:39:14 – 00:03:44:10
Unknown
Okay.
00:03:44:12 – 00:03:52:09
Unknown
Got it. Oh, wow. Yeah. Have you moved. Have you moved since.
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Unknown
Okay. Got it. Yeah.
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Unknown
Okay.
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Unknown
Okay.
00:04:44:07 – 00:04:48:21
Unknown
Right.
00:04:48:23 – 00:05:15:15
Unknown
I’m sure the whole, metaphor of drinking from a fire hose was so true for you. I can’t imagine through a three month crash course in how to own and run a machine shop. And then. Then you’re on your own.
00:05:15:17 – 00:05:18:17
Unknown
Right.
00:05:18:19 – 00:05:35:02
Unknown
Sure. You’re. You’re in. So you did have. You did have days where you questioned the choice.
00:05:35:04 – 00:05:50:17
Unknown
Yeah.
00:05:50:19 – 00:06:08:07
Unknown
Yeah. Sure.
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Unknown
Yeah.
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Unknown
Right.
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Unknown
Right.
00:06:54:08 – 00:07:02:00
Unknown
Yeah.
00:07:25:09 – 00:07:37:13
Unknown
Yeah. That is the industry I know. So as and and you’ve come to know. Well it’s it’s it’s incredible. It’s incredible.
00:07:37:15 – 00:07:47:05
Unknown
Oh I’m sure.
00:07:55:03 – 00:08:00:21
Unknown
Yeah.
00:08:00:23 – 00:08:21:14
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. No I mean I’ve, you know, known you for a few years now and I know that’s how you show up. Just fully engaged. Happy to help, you know, just and that comes back in spades. You know, that’s a good way to be a be a human, to be honest. Right.
00:08:21:16 – 00:08:26:06
Unknown
Yeah.
00:08:26:08 – 00:08:45:21
Unknown
Sure. Absolutely.
00:08:45:23 – 00:08:52:20
Unknown
To.
00:08:52:22 – 00:09:04:23
Unknown
There’s a lot of wisdom there. A lot of shops. Just take whatever they comes their way, and it gets them in a whole mess of trouble. Yeah, I.
00:09:09:14 – 00:09:16:03
Unknown
Yeah.
00:09:18:08 – 00:09:28:17
Unknown
Right.
00:09:28:19 – 00:09:40:22
Unknown
Sure.
00:09:41:17 – 00:10:30:11
Unknown
Yeah. Well that’s I mean you describe something that’s just ubiquitous in the industry. It’s the, it’s the, you know the feast or famine, the ebb and flow of industries and the economy and customers and yeah, it’s just one more thing to that makes is the hardest business in the world. So, so, so, tell us what is focus on machining kind of look like today, in terms of types of equipment and specialties, just so people get a level set on them.
00:10:30:13 – 00:10:50:13
Unknown
Yeah.
00:10:50:15 – 00:10:54:16
Unknown
Nice.
00:10:56:10 – 00:11:11:14
Unknown
Yeah.
00:11:19:17 – 00:11:33:12
Unknown
Yeah. Sure.
00:11:36:04 – 00:11:48:22
Unknown
Yeah.
00:12:13:05 – 00:12:26:01
Unknown
Yeah.
00:12:26:03 – 00:12:38:05
Unknown
Sure.
00:12:52:17 – 00:12:57:21
Unknown
Yeah.
00:13:04:13 – 00:13:30:18
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. I presume it’s somewhat aspirational to become that sort of contract manufacturer, but still with the capabilities to, you know, quick turn job shop work to get you some of those contracts maybe in the future. They absolutely do. Yeah.
00:13:35:05 – 00:13:53:19
Unknown
Yeah. For sure.
00:13:54:16 – 00:14:13:20
Unknown
Yeah. If it’s useful to you and anyone listening, we went through that journey at Pro CNC and we ultimately decided because we tried to do both, you know, we’re doing some decent sized production work and then we’d, we’d insert the quick run job, you know, and it was just a huge struggle, you know, to try to.
00:14:13:21 – 00:14:38:04
Unknown
Yeah, try to balance the two. So we made the decision, you know, pretty early on to completely separate the value streams, have our production department and have our quick turn prototype department. They had different machines, different people, different managers. And, you know, and we could respond, you know, very quickly to, you know, day long lead times, you know, one, two, three, 4 or 5 day lead times.
00:14:39:00 – 00:14:55:23
Unknown
and we weren’t trying to insert that work in between two production jobs or break into a job that’s set up already, you know, and, it was a huge differentiator, you know, because that quick turn work also comes with some pretty nice margins, right? You can charge quite a bit if you can turn something around in a few days.
00:14:56:12 – 00:15:21:09
Unknown
and those guys that we were so lucky to have, they could they could make parts so fast. They were just wizards, you know, incredible journeyman level programmer machinist combos and and, yeah. And then that would be a great foot in the door to win that production. So, but.
00:15:23:12 – 00:15:32:20
Unknown
Yeah.
00:15:32:22 – 00:15:42:19
Unknown
Yeah. Yep.
00:15:42:21 – 00:15:47:18
Unknown
Oh wow.
00:15:47:20 – 00:15:54:00
Unknown
Yep.
00:15:54:02 – 00:16:07:07
Unknown
It would be mind numbing. Yeah. We mind numbing for it. Absolutely.
00:16:07:09 – 00:16:30:11
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. and I wanted to touch on the the the moving up that food chain to that higher level tier of customer. Obviously, there’s less competition there because fewer shops can can play in that game. that there’s a keen interest in shops, you know, a lot more shops are wanting to get certified and they, they realize they need to kind of move up that.
00:16:30:11 – 00:16:51:22
Unknown
But the way I think about it is those customers are willing to pay for the processes and systems that go into place to make sure their parts show up on time and perfect, whereas the customers that don’t require an A certification, for example, they still basically have the expectations that their parts are going to be perfect and on time.
00:16:52:01 – 00:17:09:18
Unknown
They’re just not willing to pay for it. Right. So you still you still have to have the systems and the processes and all the stuff. They just their margins are just going to be way, way lower. So, it’s not like you can skimp on things and like, cut corners. You can’t. You got to do it well for everybody.
00:17:09:19 – 00:17:31:01
Unknown
But the companies that are willing to pay the additional, you know, hourly rate or whatever to make sure that everything’s perfect, those are the customers that, you know, and they’re the ones that are likely going to have those long term contracts to.
00:17:31:03 – 00:17:34:08
Unknown
Correct.
00:17:34:10 – 00:17:43:15
Unknown
Oh, of course. Absolutely.
00:17:43:17 – 00:17:50:07
Unknown
Right. Sure.
00:18:00:22 – 00:18:09:11
Unknown
Yeah.
00:18:09:13 – 00:18:18:13
Unknown
For sure.
00:18:22:22 – 00:18:35:06
Unknown
Yeah.
00:18:43:19 – 00:19:10:12
Unknown
Yep. Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. So. Well said. And you’re right, it’s, there’s like you said, there’s definitely still plenty of competition at that level. It’s just, it is a smaller, smaller group, but it’s a different conversation. And it just made me think of something back in the days we made, I made lots of little sort of cabin electronics, you know, intricate parts, lots of small cutters.
00:19:11:02 – 00:19:37:12
Unknown
and there was this shop that we competed with all the time, like, we knew their name because it just came up with the customer. But they were all the way across the country. They were in Pennsylvania. We were in Washington, you know, and for years we were just always competing, have been against contracts and, you know, and years later, after we sold Pro CNC, we got a call from this shop wanting to look at pro shop, and they became a customer of ours.
00:19:37:14 – 00:19:52:22
Unknown
So they’re now run pro shop, but they were sort of notorious as like number one competitor, you know, in the machine shop space for years. And now they’re, it’s up for customers. So I just when, when they got that when I got that email or call one day I was like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe it’s such a small world.
00:19:53:00 – 00:20:03:04
Unknown
But, it’s not actually that small at worlds, though. But,
00:20:03:06 – 00:20:24:14
Unknown
Sure.
00:20:24:16 – 00:20:32:19
Unknown
Right.
00:20:32:21 – 00:20:47:12
Unknown
Right. Well. Yeah.
00:20:58:08 – 00:21:09:12
Unknown
And then. And then printing it to paper. Yeah.
00:21:09:14 – 00:21:50:02
Unknown
Yeah. Sure, sure.
00:21:50:04 – 00:21:54:18
Unknown
Okay.
00:21:54:20 – 00:22:03:09
Unknown
Right.
00:22:08:16 – 00:22:33:02
Unknown
Yep.
00:23:00:22 – 00:23:18:00
Unknown
Absolutely.
00:23:43:02 – 00:23:54:09
Unknown
Sure.
00:23:54:11 – 00:24:09:21
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. You’re.
00:24:14:22 – 00:24:20:00
Unknown
Sure.
00:24:20:02 – 00:24:41:01
Unknown
Well I think that, thank you for those words. I think the, the, you know, the skepticism I’ll call it, or the cautiousness is totally warranted. You know, I was just talking or interviewed a customer, for this podcast just a few days ago. And Pro Shop was their fourth ERP system. Right. They just got burned so many times.
00:24:41:17 – 00:25:13:06
Unknown
it’s just terrible. But, Yeah. Glad, glad that the the, the results matched the sales pitch, if you call it that. so besides wanting to get a s, were there any other just things that weren’t, weren’t working as well that that pushed you or was it really just the go to goal for getting a 900 certified?
00:25:26:02 – 00:25:39:09
Unknown
Right.
00:26:07:00 – 00:26:12:11
Unknown
Right. Sure.
00:26:12:17 – 00:26:22:04
Unknown
yeah.
00:26:22:06 – 00:26:48:15
Unknown
Right.
00:26:48:17 – 00:27:08:11
Unknown
Sure. Right. Doesn’t pencil out? Nope. No.
00:27:31:23 – 00:27:39:21
Unknown
Right.
00:27:39:23 – 00:27:53:20
Unknown
Right.
00:28:01:18 – 00:28:27:20
Unknown
Right. That is awesome. so you then took the plunge, got implement, got implemented. I presume the experience was decent. Oh, you work with Lacey, is that right? Yeah. You couldn’t have anything but a fantastic with Lacey. She’s since moved on to our product team, so she’s not working directly, but, But she’s kicking ass and taking names in that department, too, so,
00:28:27:21 – 00:28:58:09
Unknown
Cool. Awesome. and then, you know, what was that, like, with, you know, the team, you know, getting used to and being, you know, faced with getting rid of the paper and the change. I imagine that was easy for some and hard for others. Can you share a little bit of that?
00:29:52:13 – 00:30:10:16
Unknown
That was.
00:30:16:05 – 00:30:26:00
Unknown
Okay.
00:30:31:03 – 00:30:37:16
Unknown
Right.
00:30:37:18 – 00:30:41:10
Unknown
Right.
00:30:41:12 – 00:30:58:16
Unknown
Yeah.
00:31:05:05 – 00:31:24:10
Unknown
Right.
00:31:24:12 – 00:31:31:02
Unknown
Right.
00:32:02:13 – 00:32:28:21
Unknown
I love that, that idea of doing a PowerPoint and giving some sneak peeks to the team in advance of going live. That is such a great idea. I definitely wrote that down. yeah. Thank you for that. so at what point did, did you have any kind of sort of moment when you, you know, or finally go in and, you know, you realize like, this is going to be a game changer for us.
00:32:29:06 – 00:32:57:10
Unknown
was there any moment or job or something?
00:33:36:00 – 00:33:47:13
Unknown
Right.
00:33:47:14 – 00:33:54:10
Unknown
Oh, nice. Yeah.
00:34:16:15 – 00:34:39:23
Unknown
Right. Right. Nice.
00:34:40:01 – 00:34:44:13
Unknown
Yeah.
00:34:55:16 – 00:34:59:08
Unknown
Right.
00:35:08:04 – 00:35:30:22
Unknown
Okay.
00:35:31:00 – 00:35:37:13
Unknown
Nice.
00:35:39:16 – 00:35:50:19
Unknown
Right.
00:35:50:20 – 00:35:56:21
Unknown
Right.
00:35:56:23 – 00:36:12:14
Unknown
Yep.
00:36:23:10 – 00:36:34:14
Unknown
Sure. Right. Love it.
00:37:18:07 – 00:37:24:17
Unknown
Okay. Right.
00:37:24:19 – 00:37:31:13
Unknown
Right. It’s just easy.
00:37:31:15 – 00:37:49:20
Unknown
Yeah.
00:37:49:22 – 00:37:56:06
Unknown
Right.
00:37:56:08 – 00:38:01:17
Unknown
Right.
00:38:01:19 – 00:38:14:04
Unknown
Right.
00:38:14:06 – 00:38:37:11
Unknown
Yeah.
00:38:44:14 – 00:39:22:06
Unknown
Right.
00:39:22:08 – 00:39:44:23
Unknown
Right.
00:40:11:13 – 00:40:23:17
Unknown
Right. It’s. It’s extra. Yeah. I’ll take more time.
00:40:23:18 – 00:40:45:07
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like. It’s very. Yeah.
00:40:45:09 – 00:41:01:15
Unknown
Yeah. Well, some of those, Yeah. Some of those most discerning, clients. It’s like you’re selling them the paperwork, and the parts are just a bonus, right? Like the paperwork. So most of what they care about the most. Right.
00:41:01:16 – 00:41:20:11
Unknown
Yeah. I want to come back to the adoption with your team. I remember when you were running a day shift, and I remember this from a previous story. and you wanted to put in a night shift, but you really needed all the work instructions and pictures and everything. And you did a little challenge, like with a cash bonus.
00:41:20:23 – 00:42:40:09
Unknown
can you share what you did there? I thought it was brilliant.
00:43:09:08 – 00:43:12:22
Unknown
Right.
00:43:13:00 – 00:43:22:07
Unknown
Money well spent.
00:43:22:09 – 00:43:26:08
Unknown
Right.
00:43:26:10 – 00:43:32:08
Unknown
Of course, of course.
00:44:01:10 – 00:44:14:05
Unknown
Yep.
00:44:15:14 – 00:44:19:12
Unknown
Right.
00:44:19:14 – 00:44:24:19
Unknown
Right.
00:44:24:21 – 00:44:34:12
Unknown
Yes. Yes.
00:44:42:01 – 00:44:48:08
Unknown
Sure.
00:44:52:03 – 00:44:55:15
Unknown
Yes.
00:44:55:17 – 00:45:34:05
Unknown
It was. Yes. I’ve, I’ve seen that there’s a video that went viral about a dad teaching or having their kid do it for a peanut butter sandwich. It’s like put the peanut butter on the bread. So you put it on like the edge of the bread and they’re like no, it’s on the face. It’s like, it didn’t say that, but, your story reminds me that you.
00:45:34:07 – 00:45:51:17
Unknown
That is so fantastic. So your story reminds me of, one that I’ll share that I thought was just incredible. so I was at a shop down in Portland, and I was there on the on the night shift. We were shooting a video during the daytime, and, so night shift was pretty sparse. Just a couple of guys.
00:45:51:17 – 00:46:09:05
Unknown
And, there was a pretty young man, early 20s, I guess. And he was setting up a five axis mill, and, I’m. So I thought to myself, clearly, this is, you know, been here a while or, you know, came from another shop or something. So I said, well, how long, how long you been here? And he said, I’ve been here about six months.
00:46:09:05 – 00:46:25:03
Unknown
And I said, oh, okay. So which shop did you come from? Right. So like, I know most of the shops in the area is like I came from KFC and I’m like KFC and like, I don’t know that shop. I’m like, what shop is that? He’s like, no Kentucky Fried Chicken. I’m like, so as like, is this your first manufacturing job?
00:46:25:03 – 00:46:47:02
Unknown
First? He’s like, yeah, I’m like, you came from fast food and you’re setting up a five axis mill on night shift in six months. He’s like, yeah, was I’m like, how in the world do you know how to do that? He’s like, well, I’m pretty mechanically inclined, but come check out the pro shop page. And it had pictures and video and like fully documented on and he just follow the instructions, just like you were saying.
00:46:47:04 – 00:47:01:21
Unknown
And I’m like holy smokes. Like that. That’s a game changer in how fast you can onboard a, you know, a competent person that doesn’t has very little experience and gets to be productive.
00:48:10:22 – 00:48:33:16
Unknown
Yeah. That’s fantastic. Yeah I you know I’m a fan of your marketing. I know paperless parts helps you with it. It’s really great. yeah. You definitely look you’d have no idea. You’re not a small, you know, in a relatively small shop. So, Yeah, it’s it’s, Yeah. Portraying that image and and backing it up with the systems and the results is, such a such a differentiator.
00:48:37:14 – 00:49:02:13
Unknown
Do you have any sense of the ROI you might, have gotten with Pro Shop? I know it’s a it’s a very hard question because there’s so many different variables that.
00:49:37:00 – 00:49:49:09
Unknown
Sure.
00:50:31:20 – 00:50:43:15
Unknown
That’s a good way to put it.
00:50:47:22 – 00:50:54:11
Unknown
You. Sure.
00:50:54:13 – 00:51:14:12
Unknown
Right.
00:51:16:20 – 00:51:26:06
Unknown
Yeah. For sure.
00:51:30:17 – 00:51:47:05
Unknown
Yeah I appreciate it. Those are do you think those are like you said a third the revenue or double the employees or those is like is that really what your gut says would be the difference.
00:51:58:22 – 00:52:14:21
Unknown
Took me a while.
00:52:52:19 – 00:52:56:21
Unknown
Yeah.
00:53:03:23 – 00:53:26:17
Unknown
Yeah. And I recent.
00:53:44:19 – 00:53:54:17
Unknown
Right.
00:53:57:07 – 00:54:14:22
Unknown
Sure.
00:54:15:00 – 00:54:22:22
Unknown
You know.
00:54:23:00 – 00:54:29:10
Unknown
Right. So.
00:54:29:12 – 00:54:48:10
Unknown
Did you think going into it that that was going to be an, an an important component of it? Because the reason I ask this. We definitely we’ve had, you know, prospects that looked at pro shop got demos and they’re like, this is going to take me like an extra 30 minutes at the beginning. I can’t do that.
00:54:48:10 – 00:55:07:20
Unknown
I don’t have time for that work. Like, you’re just going to kill me with paperwork, you know, ironically. and I’m like, I, I swear on my life, if you just spend a little bit more time planning more intentionally upfront, you will save hours and days on the back end. Some people just can’t get that through their head.
00:55:07:20 – 00:56:28:08
Unknown
So what would you say to just, like, reinforce that that is actually true is not just a sales pitch.
00:56:30:14 – 00:56:50:15
Unknown
I get it. Yeah.
00:57:20:21 – 00:57:30:15
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:30:17 – 00:57:43:22
Unknown
That’s a great thing.
00:57:45:21 – 00:58:06:16
Unknown
Sure, sir.
00:58:09:10 – 00:58:13:21
Unknown
Yeah.
00:58:13:23 – 00:58:27:14
Unknown
Thank you for sharing that. We’ll take that clip and and play it for people that are on the fence or or little, not bought into that idea.
00:58:36:20 – 00:58:53:23
Unknown
Right.
00:58:54:01 – 00:59:01:21
Unknown
Yeah.
00:59:01:23 – 00:59:22:08
Unknown
Yeah. Well, that brings up a, a point sometimes, you know, Pro shop has a lot of modules, right? You mentioned the fixture module and the equipment module and all these things. And, you know, we as you know, we don’t we don’t separate them and sell them in different packages. You know, so many other ERP so like, oh, here’s the basic package.
00:59:22:08 – 00:59:44:14
Unknown
And you can get advanced scheduling package and the advanced planning package or the advanced quality package. And the way we think about a shop is it’s, it’s, you know, from from quote to cash, it’s like a chain. And if you cut out a link, the whole thing falls apart. And all those modules do work together, meshed together in a way that is is like an operating system.
00:59:44:14 – 01:00:08:18
Unknown
And if you just cut out a section of that operating system, the whole thing falls apart. And that’s why we’ve never believed in the concept of trying to upsell other packages like, no, we need to give you all of it. You may not need all of it on day one. Like, not everyone starts with a fixture module, you know, on day one, but ultimately they’re going to find value in it and it’s going to emerge its way into all the other workflows and the set ups and the, you know, all that.
01:00:08:18 – 01:00:32:08
Unknown
So, yeah. just, I appreciate your comments about how, you know, how that how trusting the process and, you know, not rushing is important. I and I do want to ask you about, you said the word trust. You know, trust the process. Trust the experts. you know, I think in our society, trust is like an all time low, at least for the last many decades.
01:00:32:14 – 01:01:41:10
Unknown
especially in business. There’s a lot of you know, just talking to a company a couple days ago, you know, they went through, like, a year long ERP, super painful process and finally pulled the plug. And they’re like, suing the vendor. so they’re very, you know, gun shy. what did it take for us to build trust with you to, for you to sort of go all in and, you know, and, be willing to listen, and learn.
01:01:41:12 – 01:02:02:23
Unknown
Through.
01:02:27:18 – 01:02:42:10
Unknown
Right. Sure.
01:02:42:12 – 01:03:05:04
Unknown
Sure.
01:03:17:21 – 01:03:25:11
Unknown
And it.
01:03:25:13 – 01:03:29:22
Unknown
Right.
01:04:49:09 – 01:05:01:07
Unknown
Right.
01:05:01:21 – 01:05:14:17
Unknown
Right.
01:05:15:19 – 01:05:21:09
Unknown
And. Sure.
01:05:21:10 – 01:05:32:17
Unknown
Sure.
01:05:48:06 – 01:05:55:05
Unknown
Right.
01:05:55:07 – 01:06:16:10
Unknown
Well I appreciate that. Yeah. That team cares so much about doing a good job and being responsive. And they do an incredible job I, I know you know Jamie Marsella you guys have you know gotten to know each other as pro shop customers. And he, he said we he said, you know, of all the software products I use, pro shop sets the bar at an unrealistically high level.
01:06:16:10 – 01:06:35:08
Unknown
That just isn’t fair to the other companies, which is, yeah, such an incredible compliment. but he also put me through my paces with lots of demos and like, all right, talk to me about this. Show me how. And, I feel a little bad that, people listening today will not get a demo with me because I don’t do that anymore.
01:06:35:09 – 01:06:57:18
Unknown
You were one of the early, early adopters. Lucky ones. But, yeah, I, I, I loved that stuff. You mean seeing the, you know, the look on someone’s face when you show them the one click, you know, document package and they’re like, are you kidding me? Like, I spent ten hours doing that, and that’s now one click. You know, it’s like, yeah, it was I love doing that.
01:06:57:18 – 01:07:05:23
Unknown
And I do miss that. Maybe I’ll do a demo here and there just for fun, but but,
01:07:06:01 – 01:07:13:21
Unknown
Right.
01:07:17:05 – 01:07:22:00
Unknown
Yeah.
01:08:10:05 – 01:08:47:12
Unknown
Right.
01:08:52:01 – 01:08:56:02
Unknown
Right.
01:08:56:04 – 01:09:00:11
Unknown
From.
01:09:00:13 – 01:09:17:22
Unknown
Right.
01:09:38:07 – 01:09:45:05
Unknown
There’s the order. Yeah.
01:09:45:06 – 01:10:11:12
Unknown
Oh, man. That’s music to my ears because, you know, for anyone that listens to me, you know, much at all I talk about. And I actually even realize, I think, you know, Chris, Jody from East Branch. we we we, we did a presentation together at Top Shops 2019, I think, about using your business processes and systems as a sales tool.
01:10:11:14 – 01:10:40:20
Unknown
Right. Because everyone can have a fancy ass website and look at my new five axis horizontal machine, and they can still be an absolute chaotic mess. You know, when you pull back the curtains and, and it’s really and like you said, buyers have been bitten time and time and time again. And so it’s when you show them, like irrefutable proof that you have really solid processes, you’re not relying on luck and just sheer, you know, sheer brute force to get their job out.
01:10:41:02 – 01:11:00:16
Unknown
That gives them the level of confidence to say, all right, this is a shop I want to work with. Like, because they’re in the risk mitigation business. You’re right. They got to launch that rocket. If they don’t get those parts, their job might be on the line. Right? because they chose you as a vendor. And, so, yeah, the most piece of mind you can give them is the assurance that, yep, we are locked in.
01:11:00:16 – 01:11:22:06
Unknown
We are good. We have we have systems and it’s going to result in parts on time, good quality paperwork, no problems. And, yeah. So thank you.
01:11:23:02 – 01:11:33:10
Unknown
Right.
01:11:58:05 – 01:12:05:06
Unknown
Right.
01:12:05:08 – 01:12:13:00
Unknown
Yeah. Absolutely.
01:12:13:11 – 01:12:41:04
Unknown
Man. Yeah. Bad news is not like a fine wine. It doesn’t get better with age. Awesome. Well, Justin, I know we’re well over the one hour target. but this has been such a fun conversation. you know, the name of this show is is manufacturing transformed? can you just share a few words about. We’ve it’s the whole conversation has been about that, but maybe summarizing it in a way that’s, a nice sound bite about.
01:12:41:04 – 01:13:20:01
Unknown
Really. You know, how it’s been for you.
01:13:20:03 – 01:13:28:10
Unknown
And.
01:13:28:12 – 01:14:19:21
Unknown
Myself.
01:14:26:01 – 01:14:40:00
Unknown
Right.
01:14:40:02 – 01:15:03:16
Unknown
I love it, man. So, Yeah, it is, you know, I have this, our whole company is just incredibly passionate about, the manufacturing industry and how important it is the foundation of the economy and just job creation and and, and it is an absolute honor and a pleasure to to partner with you, to serve you, to help you see these kind of results.
01:15:04:19 – 01:15:22:20
Unknown
you know, I take these clips back and share it with the team, and just people just have smiles on their faces from ear to ear. So thank you for sharing everything you’ve shared today. I know it’s authentic and genuine. and I’m sure everyone listening can can tell that as well. and, yeah, just thank you so much.
01:15:23:01 – 01:15:50:04
Unknown
I really appreciate you being on here today.
01:15:50:05 – 01:16:09:02
Unknown
Thank you again. So if people want to reach out and find out about, this kickass shop called focused on machining, how would they do that?
01:16:09:04 – 01:16:14:04
Unknown
Yeah.
01:16:14:06 – 01:16:28:16
Unknown
Yeah, we’ll make sure all we’ll make sure all the links are in the show notes. So Justin will thank you again so much. This is truly been, a really fun last hour or so. And, Yeah, thanks for sharing your transformation story with us.
01:16:34:18 – 01:16:53:18
Unknown
Oh, buddy, I got a good one for you today. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Here’s your latest Justin Quinn from Focused Machining. Justin’s office. I didn’t even have to say more. You know, that’s going to be a good interview. That guy. I know you’re working with him on cybersecurity stuff and all sorts of cool things, but, Yeah.
01:16:53:20 – 01:17:12:05
Unknown
just, you know, recall that, of course, he he worked as a banker and decided to buy this shop because he wanted to get back, like, more hands on, like he was in the in the, in the, Air Force. so very cool in that regard. but, you know, it was, a learning curve when he started.
01:17:12:07 – 01:17:31:06
Unknown
You know, I remember he was saying, you know, that, you know, a little bit into it, he’s like, oh, my gosh, what have I gotten myself into? Right. But, you know, but he’s a man. He’s he’s got grit. He’s got determination. So he kept, you know, he built a bunch of systems. He got E2 back in the day.
01:17:31:08 – 01:17:50:21
Unknown
and he said, you know, that worked pretty well, but ultimately it was killing them from a systems perspective. And they just really needed, yeah. Something more. and, so, you know, he really put me through my paces with pro shop and he did, like many, many demos and, back then I was the one doing the demos.
01:17:50:23 – 01:18:20:06
Unknown
So, I remember, doing those with him and, and, yeah, it’s, it’s been it’s been, you know, a journey for him since, you know, they, he did implementation incredibly well. And I didn’t know this, but Lacy, who was his implementation person, he said whenever he could do a session with Lacy, he would then summarize what he learned in a PowerPoint and then present that to his team, like the next day or, you know, days after and sort of incredible.
01:18:20:06 – 01:18:42:04
Unknown
I know I’m like, that’s a really good tip. We should, like build into our process. maybe a little PowerPoint that we pre-prepared like, here’s what you can learn. Here’s what you can go show this to your team right here. but, yeah. So his rollout was pretty smooth. You know, he was nervous. Like, all shops are about people adopting it, but, you know, they got on.
01:18:42:06 – 01:19:04:15
Unknown
so they they all got onboard really easily, really quickly. and then he just really reinforced, like Pro shop allows them to punch above their weight. It’s the heart and soul of the company. They wouldn’t be anywhere near where they are today without it. and then, and then one of the summaries is, you know, they’ve grown considerably since they bought pro shop.
01:19:04:17 – 01:19:23:00
Unknown
You know, an employee count. He did peak last year. He had to lay some folks off, as, you know, as as, you know, it was an economically difficult year last year. things are coming back pretty strongly now, but they’re basically at around the same headcount they were when he bought Pro Shop. Pretty close, but he’s way, way up on revenue.
01:19:23:02 – 01:19:42:02
Unknown
And he said ultimately they’d have to either he would have if he was still on E2, he’d have to have like way more people just doing overhead functions, or they’d be way lower in revenue because they wouldn’t have been able to grow. so that feels good because a guy like Justin, you want to really support him and help him out and help him achieve, you know, greatness in his in his business.
01:19:42:02 – 01:20:12:06
Unknown
So it was really rewarding. Yeah. Really rewarding. Phone call. So or. Oh, well, I’m just hearing that people can, you know, through the ups and downs, still see the value. It’s not like, you know, one of those scenarios where sometimes you, you see everything with those rose colored glasses when everything’s, you know, up into the right, but you know that it’s still good when people are like, yeah, even after a bit of a slow period, it’s super clear that this was super, positively impactful and we’re doing way more business with the same people like, perfect.
01:20:12:06 – 01:20:31:08
Unknown
That’s like the real evidence, not just we’re doing better and we’re making more sales, but, you know, it’s really impactful. that’s great and just deserved for Justin. Oh, man. So I’m excited to see his future. He’s, he’s going to end up being a pretty big shot, but it’ll be cool to be along for that journey. Nice.
01:20:31:10 – 01:20:34:18
Unknown
Anyway, so that’s the summary. Cool. Nice catching up with you.
