293: Manufacturing Leadership That Works with Author and Geislinger CEO Jason Woodard

Speaker A: If you don't lead yourself first, you're not going to have any success leading anybody else. Do what you say and say what you do. Be a man or woman of your word. If you tell somebody you're going to do something, do it.

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

Speaker A: My new patch made happy.

Speaker B: Each week we interview industry experts that are at the top of their craft, uh, 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 Lueky. Hey, everyone, it's episode 293. This week we've got Jason Woodard on the show. He is the CEO of Geislinger Corporation. Now, they do torsional vibration dampers. They do torsional vibration monitoring systems for engines and wind turbines. We'll get into more about all of that here in a bit. But we also get into his new book, Manufacturing Leadership that Works. So this is an old school episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour, diving into manufacturing leadership tactics and strategies. As always, if you want to connect with Jason, if you want to grab his book again, that's Manufacturing Leadership. This works. Or you just want to learn more, make sure to go to the show notes page@manufacturinghappyhour.com 293 and with that, let's meet up for a virtual beverage with Jason Woodard. Jason, if we were having today's conversation but over a beverage, where would that be? Paint the picture.

Speaker A: Well, Chris, I'll tell you what. I'm in Battle Creek, Michigan and we have a super cool little pub. They do a beer and pizza. It's called Handmap Brewing. There's a local couple who started it. He was a brewmaster, I think the owner, the guy in Chicago. So they make all their own beers on site and they have a great selection. And here's a super cool thing. So since we're talking manufacturing, it is in the basement of a hundred plus year old carton manufacturing m plant. It is nice. It is so cool and the beer is great. The pizza is good. So Handmap Brewing, Battle Creek, Michigan, that's where you and I would be sitting having a beer.

Speaker B: Yeah, Handmap, uh, references the way many folks from Michigan describe where they are. Right. You put it in a hand. I think I'm doing this the right way if people are looking at it. So you got you. Battle Creek would be kind of right in the middle here on the south end of the state. And then if you're really creative. I mean, the Upper Peninsula, I'm doing it the wrong, but the Upper Peninsula. Let's see. This would. This. This would be. This would be the way it would go. So. All right. Well, yeah, for the video, folks watching the video, I was doing the literal hand map, and, uh, I think some people are familiar with the hand map itself, but I don't know if everyone's familiar with the Upper Peninsula that you can basically do that with the other half of Michigan, too. So.

Speaker A: So if you ever want to do a. A live podcast and come to town, I. I know the owners. I could probably get us in there for a. For an episode, so. And we have a big industrial park here, so I know lots of manufacturing leaders in town.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, this would be great. So let's. Let's, uh. You know, today it's virtual, but let's say we're there having a flight, having a Pilsner, ipa, whatever it is, over at Handmap Brewing in the basement of that old carton. Manufacture. I'm very curious. You just wrote a book, Manufacturing Leadership that Works. I'd be curious to know, was there a moment that inspired you to write this book, or is this something you've been planning on for years? Take us behind the scenes there a little bit.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good question. I think about 10 years ago, uh, when I was managing a plant here in town, uh, we had so many crazy things that happened there. My staff used to just jokingly say, you should write a book some days, because it was just an interesting plant, an interesting culture, and there were just crazy stories. So that planted a seed. And then over the last, I would say, five years or so, I've realized I've gotten to a point in my career where I certainly don't have all the answers at all. But I've worked in this industry for 35 years, so I'm on that end of my career, and I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot about what not to do. I've learned a lot about what to do, and I. The greatest satisfaction in my job is developing people. I absolutely love to develop my team. I like to hit the metrics and see the improvements and all the things that run the business. But pouring into people and seeing that you have an impact in their lives is, number one, most satisfying. And so I started thinking about, man, if I, you know, if I spent the time to put something down on paper of everything that I've learned and how, you know, what are the. What are the disciplines and principles that you could employ in manufacturing leadership to make a difference. And the other thing I looked around and I did, there's a, there's a lot of great content on leadership for sure, a lot of great authors, and there's a lot of, there's a lot of good information on manufacturing from like a lean six sigma perspective. I mean there's whole organizations around that. But I didn't, I did not see anything that brought them together. Like, you know, what are the principles and what are the tactics, very practically speaking, that you can do to be a great leader in manufacturing, whether it's frontline leadership, supervision, plant manager, VP over multiple sites. So that's finally when I said, okay, I'm going to do this. And it was a three year journey. I'm not an author. I, uh, worked at it and worked at it and worked at it and yeah, finally it all came together late last year.

Speaker B: Well, we'll talk about the book a little bit more. Some of the lessons that go into it, some of the things that folks might not be able to find in the book as well that they might only find by listening to this podcast. So we'll get into all that, but let's get into your career a little bit first. And uh, just looking at your background, I see a lot of operations leadership, I see a lot of plant management. Like those seem to be common threads because, I mean you've been everywhere from Brembo, Paragon Metals, uh, Magna, uh, Magna International, uh, you've been at more than a few spots in leadership roles. In your own words, is there a common thread across these experiences over, you know, just, I mean, I'm just looking at the past decade plus. Uh, but there's, I know there's experience beyond that, but what do you, what would you say is the common thread?

Speaker A: Well, the common thread regarding what, what good looks like or what bad looks like or just in the roles?

Speaker B: Well, yeah, I would say in the roles in terms of your career, what's been the common thread? And then we'll get into the good and the bad about, uh, you know, we don't need to name names, but we'll, we'll figure out what, what, uh, to put it simply, what manufacturing leadership that doesn't work looks like to provide the inverse to your book?

Speaker A: Well, yeah, so the common thread, I think, and for people who have worked in these roles and work in plants and operations leadership, this is not going to be a surprise. And I've worked in, as you mentioned, several organizations a lot of automotive, but also some industrials and um, medical technology, manufacturing company. And the common thread that I love is the um, kind of the rate of the operation, the pace of daily work. It is always high intensity, always lots of things going on, not only with the machinery and the processes and supply chain, but then you throw people into the mix which again for me I love. This is something that's also been a common thread. When you are in a plant leadership role, you get to work with people from a very diverse um, background educationally, um, sometimes social, economic background. You know, I've, I've ran plants where I have engineers with MBAs. And these guys were top of their class, born in the us, born in India, born all over the country, Mexico, super high aptitude, super ambitious. And we're working out on the floor with blue collar folks from that region. Grew up on a farm, you know, grew up in that city who never pursued education, weren't interested in it. And that we all can come together in a good culture and work together and solve problems together. And rarely does politics come up, rarely does any of the divisive stuff come up. Man, we just, we're just showing up at that place every day to solve problems together. And the pace is there, the sights, the sounds, the smells and a good culture, the collaboration, no matter the background of the people is there. So that's what I love about manufacturing is those key things, no matter what industry or what plant that I've worked in.

Speaker B: So I have no doubt a uh, positive culture is going to have something to do with manufacturing leadership that works. But before we get there, maybe we'll have some fun with this. Can you share a story? And again, you don't need to call out the company per se, but since you've been around the block more than a few times, what's an example of manufacturing leadership that doesn't work?

Speaker A: I will tell you a specific story and not name names or company names. And I was a, uh, I was a frontline supervisor, fairly new to that role. This was a long time ago and we had a, well, it was a distressed plant but a specifically a new launch that wasn't going well. And our plant manager was new to the position. He'd been promoted from uh, I think a quality manager role. And uh, we're out on the floor fighting this new process and old machines. It's a new process, old machines, completely uncapable, not getting much support from the support staff. And he, I never forget this, he would come out and we had hour by hour, boards Dry. I mean, these were just easels, right? Dry erase and light. Like nasty comments about why basically we were sucking so bad and why isn't this thing running and it needs to be making rate and then disappear. Like, he'd do that while my guys were at break, would just come back and be totally defeated because they just got their asses kicked, for lack of a better term. The last four hours of the day with a process that they were handed and no support. And then the leader of the plant comes out, and if they're there, he'd berate them. If they're not, he leaves nasty notes on there. So I never forgot that. And I have had a few other leaders that I worked with that were like that just come out and go after the frontline employees who are doing what they can with garbage processes and no support and just have this completely unrealistic expectation and holding the wrong people accountable. And as I've moved into plant leadership roles, my teams begin to learn that I'm. The highest level of accountability that I'm going to have is with my support staff, because it's my team and then their team. So you're talking engineers, maintenance materials. Because your frontline team, uh, for the most part, they're going to, they're going to execute and they're going to do what they can with what they're being given. If you give them garbage processes or garbage materials or garbage systems, that's what they're going to. That's what they're going to have to produce with. And so to go after them. It's just, it's very frustrating for me. Occasionally you have some frontline people that, you know, need that accountability at that level. But most of the time they're coming in and doing what they're told to do. Right? They're following the process or following the SOPs and, uh, bad outcomes is not their fault the vast majority of the time.

Speaker B: Yeah, we'll, we'll get into how you lead frontline folks. Processes that need to be in place a bit later on in the conversation. There are a couple foundational ways that I, uh, want to get there, though. Uh, I'm going to ask this question, the context of your current role. You're the CEO at, uh, Geislinger Corporation. You're doing torsional vibration dampers. You're doing, uh, things for wind turbines at the end of the day, and I'm curious. And you've moved up the ranks there pretty quickly. You started as plant manager, you've been CEO. Now you're CEO. I'm curious what does. And before we get into the details, can you describe what manufacturing leadership has looked like in those roles in the context of your current role? Because I think that's a big, you know, that'll help frame up some of the lessons you're about to share.

Speaker A: Yeah, so yeah, when I started at the organization we were still pretty small started there's a plant manager, um, knew that I, you know I came to the organization with the, with the mind towards eventually moving in the CEO role. So had had that um, goal in mind. But I took a very hands on approach because it was a small organization at the time. We're talking 35 people I think, uh, one shift getting ready to go to two when I started. And so I had to take a very hands on approach and I was willing to do that. I had a team that was reporting uh, to me when I started that were uh, pretty overwhelmed. They were still, they were buried with work, uh, to, I mean we're talking administrative as well as hands on shop floor work. And so my approach for them when I first got there was what can I take off your plates? Like yeah, I might be a plant manager and I've been a VP of ops and I've been these things. But I also still know how to get in the system and generate PMs from a CMMS or place orders or do whatever I can do to help with this very, very small team. And I think that went a long ways with them. I was not unwilling to do work. I mean uh, for probably my first year and a half I just took over the CMMS system and it was still a little bit old school paperwork and I would hand out PMs every week. But that gave me a chance though Chris to go out and get to know the team. Like I'd go out and hand them out and collect them every week and talk to the guys and you know, get to know that small team that we had at the time. Uh, and then as I, my role changed to CEO, you know, starting to grow and uh, expand in my responsibilities, uh, including supply chain management and purchasing. Um, here again, you know, showing that team that I'm willing to come alongside them and work hands on and spend time getting to know them. I want to know what do you struggle with, you know, what are you battling? What can I do to get barriers out of your way? Also showing them that I would come alongside them and help them work. It's interesting, uh, last year so I do journaling which I recommend for people who are, um, in leadership roles. And I was doing some journaling this weekend, Labor Day week, or, excuse m, me, Memorial Day weekend. And I look back. I like to look back once in a while and read on old journalism. I saw one from last year, Memorial Day, and I'd noted in there that we're behind on orders. Lots of business. It's all good. We had a crew of guys that said they would come in and work, but my supervisors, all them were like, had plans to not work. So I went in and worked. I'm like, I'll come in and cover for you guys if we've got a team to work. So again, for me, that's the willingness to just jump in and get your hands dirty and, you know, and be a part of. Be a part of it and not say, hey, here's the expectation. You guys go take care of it. And I'm, I'm leaving. Like, if you need me to jump in and help, I'm going to jump in and help. Not to micromanage. Uh, you know, I try to also balance that, but sure to, you know, be willing to jump in and help and come alongside them and, you know, not forget where you came from.

Speaker B: So I've got a couple questions that'll get into some, some more of these tactics. You're just highlighting a couple of them. Getting hands on, clearing roadblocks. Uh, also, what not to do, not micromanaging. Uh, one, one thing I did that I should really give you the opportunity to do is I very quickly described what Geislinger does. Let's go back to handmap brewing really quickly. I was talking about vibration dampers for wind turbines, but I'd love to hear how you describe what your company does is if you're having a beer with someone.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's great, and I appreciate you asking that, Chris. So, uh, Geistlinger has been around since 1958, uh, when it was, uh, founded by the current owner's grandpa or great grandpa, depending on the generation you want to talk about. 100% family owned by a family in Austria. And, uh, they intend to keep it that way. We were their first, uh, subsidiary outside of Austria 25 years ago. Actually. We're getting ready to celebrate our 25th anniversary in a couple of weeks. So I'm super excited. Yeah, I'm excited about that. So we build vibration dampeners for internal combustion engines. Any, you know, any, any car guy or gal knows that there's a vibration dampener on any small gas engine on the passenger vehicles. Those have uh, rubber or elastomer to, to um, help with vibration. Ours are made of steel springs. It's kind of our secret sauce. And we only are in that 1500 horsepower and above range, so up to 25, 30,000 horsepower. So we're on shipping vessels, containers, military vessels, military ground vehicles, um, power generating engines, uh, frac transmissions, uh, we have work on those natural gas. So natural gas compressors that both store and move the natural gas. Um, we have several customers that build those products that we have, uh, not only dampers, but we also build couplings that do the same thing that reduce that torsional vibration. You mentioned wind turbines. We do have, uh, couplings that we, that are in wind turbines mainly in Europe where there's a lot more uh, of wind energy that's in place. And those are made from carbon. So we have a carbon manufacturing, um, operation within our large, uh, machining facility in Austria where they build huge carbon couplings that absorb misalignment and also a little bit of vibration dampening. But mainly they're a misalignment coupling. So yeah, what I tell people is we protect the engines that drive the critical infrastructure in the US if it comes to generating power. Moving gas, moving oil and military were across all those industries. And locomotives as well.

Speaker B: Yeah. Uh, critical industries. Not to mention, uh, not low cost pieces of equipment. No, either that you're protecting, so.

Speaker A: That's exactly right. Yeah.

Speaker B: Well, I appreciate you taking us there. Let's jump back in to leadership that works. And one of my questions is, I believe one of the first steps you talk about is that you got to be able to lead yourself first before you're able to lead anyone. Right. Whether it's the front line, uh, CEO or a C level team, you got to be able to lead yourself first. And you were just talking about your journaling habit. Right. I think that's one of the, uh, a key habit to that. I'm an advocate of that as well. But what is, what is leading yourself look like for the folks that are out there listening? And keep in mind, we've got folks that are on the front line. We've got folks that are in leadership roles, we've got folks that are new to the industry as well. So I'd love to hear some of maybe your across the spectrum advice for this audience of manufacturing leaders that regardless of their role, I mean they're all folks that do care about their career and their companies.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, if they're listening to your podcast. Right. They're trying to develop and grow. So they care about that.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker A: That, uh, is my first chapter. And that is the first chapter for a very important reason. If you don't lead yourself first, you're not going to have any success leading anybody else. So what does that mean? Uh, one of the key things I would say is that do what you say and say what you do. You know, be a man or woman of your word. If you tell somebody you're going to do something, do it. And if for some reason you can't follow through on a commitment, go back and let them know that you're not going to be able to follow through on the commitment. And I don't care if you're a machinist, a machine operator, a president, a plant manager, a supervisor. If you're not doing that, you have a credibility problem, and people aren't going to follow you in that. That's why that is so important. And I talk, I tell a story about that in the book of When I Learned that the hard way. So that's a big one. You know, self discipline, show up on time. You know, I'll, uh, say, I'll tell you one of the pieces of advice my dad used to drill into me when I was a young kid, and he's like, I don't care if you're pushing a broom, but whatever you're doing, do the best you can. And if that means sweeping the floor better that, you know, it's the best that you can, then sweep the floor the best that you can. And I have had young people come to me and ask for career advice and indicate that they would like to be promoted and they're interested in promotional opportunities at work. And the one thing I always tell them is that you need to be great at the job you're doing today. And I can't tell you. And unfortunately, I've had several instances where it's people who are not engaged in their current role and not really interested, and they're bored. You know, they're probably bored. They probably could do a great job if they wanted to, but they won't

Speaker B: hold them or it's not the right. It's not the right fit, whatever it is. Right. There could be plenty of reasons that folks aren't engaged, but I agree with your point on this.

Speaker A: Yeah. And they just don't. They just don't hold themselves. They don't push themselves to just keep grinding it out. And so when they come and say, hey, uh, you know, this job's easy, uh, you know, I'm interested in being a supervisor or a team leader. I'm a machinist, but that's a piece of cake. And I'm like, well, every time we walk by, you're sitting on your tush and you're not aggressive at keeping your machine running. You don't keep your work area clean. You're not out helping other co workers, which you could because you're really smart. So those are all I want to see you do really well at your job before I'm even going to consider you getting promoted. So that's all about leading yourself. I would tell one quick story about this. Years ago, I was in maintenance. So I came up through the, through the trades after I. That was my first kind of promotion, if you will. I'm a journeyman industrial maintenance mechanic. I haven't done that for many, many years, but I. I'm proud to still have that journeyman's card. And I was working third shift at a plant, and the culture in that plant was if something breaks down, the supervisor will call the maintenance guy or the electrician. As long as you show up and get their machine running, they literally don't care what you're doing the rest of the night. You could be sleeping, you could be reading magazines. We didn't have phones back then and that, uh, those devices. But at the time I chose, I'd come into work and I would go find the stack of PMs that nobody else did, and I'd walk around the plant doing the PMs that I could. And, you know, you felt like you're doing that and nobody sees it because it's the middle of the night, your boss doesn't care, your supervisors on the staff don't care. But I'll never forget, I had one of the supervisors that worked night shift, and he told me one time, he said, you know, that work ethic. He said, well, will eventually pay off. He goes, uh, it will get noticed. I know sometimes it doesn't feel like it probably does, but. And he was right. And that was a little bit of an encouragement than I needed because it had been really easy just to, you know, go slip back in the corner like the other guys did and do nothing all night until you got called. So just hold yourself accountable, hold yourself to a higher standard, because you control that. That's the one thing you control is your, you know, your attitude, your motivation, your work ethic. That's where it all starts.

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I appreciate you taking us through that. Be a person of your word, show up on time and where we really doubled down was do the best that you can, regardless of the role that you're in. We'll be back in a moment, but ah, first a quick word from our sponsor. If you think ERP Systems or MRP software is just for the big guys, then you need to hear about our sponsor. MrPeasy. You know, the best manufacturing systems aren't flashy, they're quiet. No material shortages, no production surprises. Just a plan your team can trust. MRP software was once reserved for large enterprises, but MrPeasy leveled the playing field with a cloud based platform built specifically for small and mid sized manufacturers. It's fast to implement, intuitive for teams, and powerful where operational visibility matters most. Consider this power electronics manufacturer. After adopting MrPeasy, they reported zero material shortages and significantly fewer disruptions. Now orders clearly show what needs to be produced and what must be purchased before work begins. By the way, this solution took like three hours to implement. When your systems provide this level of clarity, leadership can spend less time reacting and more time steering the business forward. If you too would like this level of Clarity, visit MrPeasy M.com to learn more today. And now back to our episode. So when you're able to lead yourself, let's take it a step further. This is one of the areas that I think is a big crux to this episode. Uh, I've heard you talk about why leaders must engage frontline folks in other episodes and I think it's probably important to summarize a little bit of that here. I knowing our audience, I bet they have a little bit of idea. I think they understand some of the why, but I'd love to hear it from your perspective, but I'd love you to go further and give us some tips on how do you engage the front line.

Speaker A: I mean they're the ones who know what's really going on. Uh m the higher I grow in my career and the more just kind of disconnected I come from the floor through my normal work, the more I realize what I'm hearing as a leader is a little bit of the truth. If you want to know the real truth, you got to go out and talk to the people who are handling the processes every day. And it's not because you're being lied to in most cases, it's just that it's being filtered, uh, up to you. And so solving problems. And I tell a story in the book about that, you just got to go out on the floor and talk to the people they're dealing with and ask Them how, you know, what are the things that they're struggling with, what are the things that are pissing them off on a regular basis? What can you do to make things better? And really the thing that I leverage, uh, Chris, because I'm not by nature like an outgoing, super charismatic person, but I do naturally take an interest in people's background and their context of their life. And so you said, like, what do I do to make those connections? I will just go out on the floor even now, um, put my steel toes on. I don't have to wear them every day anymore, but I keep them in my office, I put them on, I go out, I do a lap and I'll stop somewhere, I'll stop at a machine and just start talking to someone and ask them how they're doing, like what's going on in their life, like how the machines running, what are they learning, what are they being challenged with? If they're a new employee, I want to see how their training's been going so far. And a lot of times they're going to spin things pretty well because of who I am. But you still can read between the lines when they tell you that this or that's a little bit of a struggle. You know, that there's probably more to it than that. But just to uh, a build trust, let them know that I'm an approachable human being. I will often talk about, you know, we'll share personal stories, whatever. I want them to know that I get up and put my pants on one leg at a time like they do and you know, take care of my lawn and you know, have, have dogs that give me a headache and you know, grandkids and all the things are just normal human experiences and understand about their context. Where did they grow up? Where did you used to work, you know, why did you come here? What's your family life, you got kids? Are you married? All those sort of things too, to build the trust. The key is start building that trust because then they know over time I can tell this guy if something's going bad out here. I'm always breaking this tool. I don't know why this is happening. It's super frustrating. We have this happen all the time. I'm not going to get yelled at because I've been on other plants where they just come around looking at someone to yell at and that's not going to happen here.

Speaker B: So I have a follow up question to that. Then you talked about going out there, uh, in addition to getting to know them, you Know, sharing the commonalities of your background, understanding how their life's going. I'm curious to know what happens when you get that feedback and they do share. It's like, well, this is the thing that's given me challenges in my job right now. What does that next step look like to address either those micro challenges? Maybe it's just a challenge for this one person, or maybe you've been out on the floor and you hear the same thing from three different people over the course of a few weeks, which probably, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if that's uh, a scenario that you come across on, on a regular basis. What's a challenge for one person probably isn't an isolated thing. What do you do to take action on that? What's, what's the next step and how do you communicate that action is being taken? If it's something that's not a quick fix per se?

Speaker A: Uh, that's a great question, Chris. And it depends on if it's a, you call it a micro challenge, which I love because it's the first time I've heard about it and you know, I just happened upon it when I'm talking to this person. And especially in my role now, because now I have a plant manager, right? I have, you know, we have quality leader. I have people on my team, uh, I will, I have regular one to ones within my entire team. And so I will either in a one to one or casually I will mention to them, and I have people on my team that I trust deeply and I'll mention to them, hey, I was out doing a lap and this got brought up and at least make, uh, you know, cross check with my plant leader. Like, have you heard about this? Is this a big problem? Because of what that person's dealing with isn't really showing up on anyone else's radar. Probably we can't pour a bunch of resources into it, but I will at least circle back and let that person know, hey, you know, talk to him about it. Uh, but you know, you gotta be careful with that because then they're like, oh, I'm gonna wait for the CEO to come out and then I can get done whatever I want every time he comes out. Now spin that. And I've experienced many times, especially as a plant manager, when we have a critical problem and I'm out asking questions of people that work in that area, work in that process, and I start to triangulate, as you said, I'm hearing kind of some of the same things then I'm going to pull my support staff together and I'm going to say this is, guys, this is what I'm hearing. And I really want to be out there with that support staff and coach them through that and say, let's go talk to the operators and see what they're saying so that they see that's the most effective way to solve the problem. But I will absolutely bring them out and we'll walk through that and look into those uh, items in detail. But yeah, I definitely want, and this goes back to the very first chapter of Leading yourself. It's super important for me that if someone brings something up to me, I'm going to at least circle back and say, hey, we're taking a look at it. May not be able to do anything with it for whatever reason. You know, it's maybe not, I get it's a headache for you, but it's not really on our top radar for what we can resource right now. But we hear you and I think that's important to people. They, they want to be heard. I think most people understand that every single thing they want to be changed or fixed isn't going to be. But if they feel like they were at least heard and listened to, I think that's uh, the most important part.

Speaker B: Yeah. As, as we get to the end of our conversation, I have one question for you about the book writing process, but I'm curious, is there anything we didn't cover yet that you wish would have come up in today's discussion?

Speaker A: I just want to recommend if you are a manufacturing leader at any level or you would like to someday be a manufacturing leader. I think the book will be helpful and look, I'm not, I'm not going to get rich. I probably won't break even on this book. It's not why I wrote it. I really want to help people. I love helping people. So, you know, you can go to Amazon, pick up a copy and um, reach out to me on LinkedIn. It's probably the easiest way to find me. And I've had people reach out and ask me questions and connect. I love to help, love to mentor and ask, answer questions where I can. So I really want to, I really want to pour back into the industry that has, it's changed my life. I mean from when I got out of high school to where I am now and my family's, you know, entire, uh, livelihood has been based on manufacturing. So love the industry and love to help people in it and I will

Speaker B: have spots to connect with you spots to purchase your book over atmanufacturing happy hour.com. my last question for you is are there any authors that inspire you? Right. Like I one, one thing that I've thought of when I haven't written a book before, it's a, it's, it's an activity that, that will happen someday. I know that but right now we're in the middle of a 10 year anniversary podcast tour that's probably going to extend another year. So gotta, gotta prioritize a But I'm curious, are there uh, authors that inspired you when you're reading their books? Whether it's self help or heck even something fiction, you're just like gosh, I would love to write a book like this or I would love to incorporate something about this author's style.

Speaker A: Yes. Uh, Patrick Lencioni is a, I think pretty well known leadership author and he writes, he takes leadership concepts and puts them into a fable novel form and it is so readable and so understandable and he takes what would otherwise be pretty, I guess, complex, complex, um, principles and ideas around leadership and really simplifies them. And so I love reading his books. They're super practical. I'm a practical person. I think most folks that work in our industry are practical. So he probably more than any author, not only because of his content and how it's helped form m my leadership values and principles, but his style of writing as well is so good. It's so good.

Speaker B: Yeah, I was uh, I was doing a little Google search while you mentioned him. I'm like, I've come across his work before. I know I have. The five Dysfunctions of a team is the book of his that, that sticks out the most. So excellent. Well, I appreciate you taking us uh, behind the scenes in that aspect of uh, maybe, maybe not a direct aspect of the writing process but very cool to hear someone whose work has inspired you beforehand. So for the folks out there listening, check out Manufacturing Leadership that Works Again Show Notes page over@manufacturinghappyhour.com and uh, with that Jason, it was wonderful meeting up audibly, virtually over at Handmap Brewing today. Thanks so much for jumping on the show.

Speaker A: Thanks Chris. Appreciate it man.

Speaker B: Hey, thanks for listening. Make sure to head to the show notes page manufacturinghappyhour.com293 to pick up your copy of Manufacturing Leadership that Works. Thanks so much to Jason for jumping on today's show. Thanks so much to all of our sponsors that make this show possible. We're going to wrap up quickly this week. Stay innovative, stay thirsty. We'll see you back here on the show real soon or we'll see you on the road for any of Manufacturing Happy Hour's upcoming tours. Catch you soon. Thanks for listening to Manufacturing Happy Hour, powered by the industrial Network.