Lee - Host (00:01.892)
Hello want to welcome you to the podcast here. We have Chris Lukey with us. He is the founder of the manufacturing happy hour podcast. Thanks for joining us Chris.

Chris Luecke (00:13.635)
Great to be here, Lee. Thanks for having me today.

Lee - Host (00:16.164)
Yeah, absolutely. Kind of want to jump in and really start with kind of talking about your background. As we were discussing earlier, you grew up in St. Louis, which is where we're located. So had some good stories about, you know, kind of where you grew up, local sports teams, things like that. But kind of want to let you give us a little background on, know, your journey of where you got today and kind of stops along the way.

with different companies and kind of what led you into this, you know, this manufacturing focused line of work. So I kind of turn it over to you for a little bit.

Chris Luecke (00:53.955)
Yeah, sounds good. Yeah, I wish I could start more podcasts just riffing about the latest happenings with the St. Louis Blues, but we already did that off camera today, so we'll save our audience that part of the story. yeah, there were a few questions there about how Manufacturing Happy Hour came to be, what the career journey looked like leading up to there. I'll start off with, let's say the first part of that, right? What is Manufacturing Happy Hour for the audience? And then we'll get into kind of the journey that led there.

Lee - Host (01:01.594)
All right.

Chris Luecke (01:23.927)
So Manufacturing Happy Hour, as I describe it, is a leadership podcast disguised as a manufacturing podcast. It is a weekly show, primarily a one-on-one interview-based show where I speak to leaders across the manufacturing industry to really understand the latest trends and technologies and most importantly, the actions they're taking to implement those technologies or take their business to the next level.

So other manufacturing leaders can learn from that. Now, a good portion of the audience is based in North America, but as the show has grown over the time, you know, I literally just came back from Europe learning from, hey, what are manufacturers doing over in places like Germany to be successful? So really what one of the common threads of the show that has evolved is that I'm going to different places, exploring what manufacturing means to the local community.

the local culture, et cetera, and trying to help manufacturers learn from, what's working in Pittsburgh, for example, or what's working in a place like central Nebraska, right? You we go to rural and urban areas, what's working in Germany? And it's really meant to be a way that folks can learn from other manufacturers in different parts of the world and find ways to take those tips, the things that are working there, and apply them to their business.

Lee - Host (02:35.705)
Right.

Chris Luecke (02:50.955)
as well. during that time, manufacturing happy hours evolved into more than a podcast. At the end of the day, it's a community of listeners and leaders that listen to the show. And one of the nice aspects of having a show called manufacturing happy hours, I don't have to change the brand or the name at all if I'm throwing a party at a trade show, for example, right? It translates very well to being an event platform also.

Lee - Host (03:08.716)
Right.

Lee - Host (03:13.454)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, definitely want to kind of dive into some of those things that you just touched on as far as differences between markets within the US, but also the US versus other countries. kind of backing up a little bit, kind of tell us a little bit about your background. You you joined Rockwell Automation. That was your first job out of college.

Maybe kind of walk us through some of the roles you had there and you know, I'm guessing that some of those roles has kind of led you to where you are today with with manufacturing happy hour.

Chris Luecke (03:48.397)
Yeah, actually the different roles I did and the way they evolved really played into why and how manufacturing happy hour got started. So I'll even go back one more step before the Rockwell days. So talked about how I'm from St. Louis and things like that. I went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So that's where the Rockwell connection started. That's a Milwaukee based company.

But my first true engineering job, I was studying to be a mechanical engineer, was with Anheuser-Busch. I did my co-op with Budweiser in St. Louis, kind of alternating school and work. Pretty common thing for engineering majors to do where they go to school for four and a half years or five years, but they take semesters off to work in an intro engineering role at different companies. my first...

Lee - Host (04:13.603)
Okay.

Lee - Host (04:37.356)
OK, nice.

Chris Luecke (04:39.533)
Yeah, my first role was with Metal Container Corporation, so the aluminum can making side of the business, but based on the fact that I run a company now called Manufacturing Happy Hour, I think it's very appropriate that my first role was being with one of the largest beer companies in the world. yeah.

Lee - Host (04:51.824)
Yeah.

Lee - Host (04:56.854)
Yeah, nice. I didn't know that. That's cool.

Chris Luecke (05:00.161)
It was cool to cut my teeth as an engineer there, but I think as time evolved, like when I was in college, I was running a radio show and things like that. I was doing a lot of other non-engineer type things. So when it came time to go into the real world, my first job ended up being with Rockwell Automation as a salesperson there. And I think that was a great way to start my career. I've always been gravitated towards promotions, sales and marketing essentially. So I took my

technical prowess and was able to turn it into a role where I was really helping communicate the value of what automation could bring to an organization. And as a salesperson for Rockwell, I worked in two different markets. First was down in Houston, Texas for the first four years of my career, and then out in the San Francisco Bay area, serving the semiconductor high tech industry during the next five years of my career. And that's really where manufacturing happy hour got started. I was moving from a market

Houston, Texas, that was very relationship based. A lot of folks that had been at their companies working in the chemical and oil and gas industry for 20, 30 plus years and things like that. So relationships important, in-person meetings were important. Fast forward four years and I moved to the Bay Area and we all have our visions of what the tech scene is like in San Francisco. And a lot of that's true. have individuals that work for a company for a year, two, three years and then they jump to the next spot.

Lee - Host (06:05.712)
Right. Right.

Lee - Host (06:17.424)
You

Chris Luecke (06:27.071)
I needed a new way to reach in my audience of decision makers. And by the way, that set of decision makers was younger. So I was thinking to myself, I was in my 20s at the time, it's like, how do I consume content while I do it through podcasts and videos? So, cracked myself a beer on a Saturday afternoon, recorded a little video on my iPhone, sent it to some of my mentors and said, hey, wouldn't it be cool if we...

went beyond the buzzwords and just started talking about manufacturing and automation as if we're having a beer with one another. And Manufacturing Happy Hour really started as a campy video series that I was just recording on a smartphone for the first three years. And eventually it evolved into what I described it as today, which is a leadership podcast disguised as a manufacturing podcast. I went from doing three to five minute, almost little commercials.

Lee - Host (06:59.248)
Yeah.

Lee - Host (07:15.47)
Right, right.

Chris Luecke (07:21.771)
if you will, where we were drinking a beer, talking about automation to longer conversations, 40, 50, 60 minute long discussions with manufacturing leaders where we could really get into the nuts and bolts of what made them tick and what allowed their businesses to succeed. So the evolution of my customer base was what really brought on Manufacturing Happy Hour.

Lee - Host (07:35.674)
Yeah.

Lee - Host (07:40.89)
Thank

Lee - Host (07:45.858)
wow. Interesting. So when you were doing that, though, when you started that, that was you were with Rockwell and it was really just a way to kind of get your name out there, break the ice, maybe get a foot in the door with, you know, customers to just to kind of open the open the door and have a conversation.

Chris Luecke (07:56.014)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Luecke (08:03.895)
Yeah, I would agree with that. The other thing I would say is like I was young, younger at that point, right? So I, you know, I was a newbie to the industry at that point. Like really when you're in your 20s, early 30s, right? You're still relatively new to the workforce in the grand scheme of things. So I was using it as a way to learn and build credibility. Now, having done this for almost 10 years, I think I've built up some of that credibility. Now I know a thing or two about the industry, but

Lee - Host (08:20.474)
Sure.

Chris Luecke (08:31.395)
When I talk to folks about starting a podcast and things like that, it's like, hey, if you're in a niche and you're young, like this is your excuse to meet people and learn about the industry. And that's what I was using it as. And I still use it as that to this day. Like I'm learning something new with every interview that I do, but especially when you're green to the space that you're entering and you're working in. I mean, it was a tremendous way to build some rapport and relationships in the industry.

Lee - Host (08:40.719)
Right.

Lee - Host (08:59.566)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So when you when you first started with Rockwell, did you envision that you were going to kind of take on a sales role? Or did you have something else in mind when you came out of college and, know, mechanical engineer?

Chris Luecke (09:15.865)
Yeah, I mean, to be quite frank, I I graduated in 2009, so the economy was in a pretty rough spot at that point. And I had had the good fortune of interning in a quality role at Rockwell prior to that. you know, I'd gotten wind of their sales training program, great program. I mean, what a great way to just get ramped up into the field you're going into. I interviewed for that.

Lee - Host (09:24.165)
Yeah.

Lee - Host (09:28.524)
Okay, okay.

Chris Luecke (09:42.425)
probably in November of 2009 and I was graduating shortly after but the training program wasn't gonna start until July of 2010. So when I got that job, when I got that offer, I'm like, well, that's pretty sweet. Cause I'm looking around at a lot of my friends that didn't have anything going for them at that point. Let alone that gave me the opportunity to have like six months off of school where I got to travel around Europe a bit before I started my full-time job. So.

Lee - Host (10:01.68)
tough market.

Lee - Host (10:08.08)
nice.

Chris Luecke (10:10.177)
Never got to study abroad, but I did a cool backpacking trip after I graduated from college. I was, I mean, that was a whole jaunt around Western Europe. I've since gone back to Europe and done like Eastern Europe and things like that. basically, I didn't travel for the whole six months. I was over there for closer to like three months, but flew over, went into Rome, kind of did a loop around Italy, Spain, France, the Benelux countries.

Lee - Host (10:16.27)
nice, where'd you go?

Chris Luecke (10:39.265)
went down through Germany to Switzerland and then flew up to the Isles. So got to experience England, Ireland and Scotland after that. So a great initial sampling. If I could give advice to someone coming out of college or someone that's in their 20s, like do some of that traveling when you're young because I still travel quite a bit like that. You know, I was mentioning I was just over in Germany for manufacturing happy hour. Went up to explore Norway for a little bit after that.

Lee - Host (10:46.414)
Wow.

Lee - Host (11:07.3)
nice.

Chris Luecke (11:08.397)
But there's a different style of travel in your late 30s than there is in your early 20s. You got more energy, you can stay out late with the folks you meet in hostels, you meet people from around the world. It was a very cool experience to have at that age.

Lee - Host (11:13.742)
Right.

Lee - Host (11:25.678)
Yeah. And so when you did that trip, that just, I mean, I'm guessing it wasn't a very structured trip. was just kind of a, you know, go where I'm going to go and, and, you know, find a place last minute to sleep kind of thing.

Chris Luecke (11:40.193)
Little bit. mean Lee I'm an engineer so I need some structure and I plan things ahead like I kind of knew what the general route was gonna be I knew there was a concert festival in England that I was gonna go to during that trip So I had some guardrails to that trip, but I went over I think with my first like week and a half of hostels and train rides booked and then you know that the nice thing is you can once you're over in Europe you can kind of go anywhere right like and hop on a train a Ryanair flight and get wherever you need to go pretty cheaply so

Lee - Host (12:05.336)
Right. Yeah.

Chris Luecke (12:10.091)
I kept it a little more flexible after that, but I still had some spots like in the trip where I knew I had to be like, I knew when my return flight from London was. So there was a point A and a point B that I needed to get to, but yeah.

Lee - Host (12:25.168)
that's cool. That is, you're right. mean, to have that kind of that little gap there with the safety net knowing there's a job waiting for me when I get back, that's a pretty cool thing to have. And like you said, I mean, some of the experiences that you had, I'm sure, and people you met, stories and whatnot, that's pretty cool.

Chris Luecke (12:45.357)
Well, I mean, let's tie it back into manufacturing happy hour really quickly. that, those type of experiences when you're younger shape the things you do when you're later in your career. Like I did write a blog post back in like 2016 or something titled how long-term international travel makes you a better business person. But even today, like manufacturing happy hour, like we've talked about, I'm going all around the world now to figure out what is working for manufacturers in different regions. And

had I not been bitten by that travel bug earlier on, I might not be taking the same approach to my podcast that I am today. There are different ways you can go about learning what manufacturers are doing. I think part of it is my own interests and personality, but the other aspect is knowing how much you can learn when you're in a different part of the world.

Lee - Host (13:23.13)
Sure. Yeah.

Chris Luecke (13:38.381)
That has shaped the way I run manufacturing happy hour today and why I put so much emphasis on making sure manufacturers are learning from folks that are outside the borders of their state or their country.

Lee - Host (13:51.064)
Yeah, that's a great point. It makes sense. then you have to have that willingness to kind of be open to learn best practices that maybe working for someone that's in a different market that you're not seeing those types of things in your market. But that can be a pretty big competitive advantage sometimes, too.

Chris Luecke (14:11.673)
100 % I mean just to put a really concrete example to it when I was over in Germany just a couple weeks ago One thing we see at a lot of American trade shows for example is individuals talking about how you know, we need more skilled labor we need to improve what people's perception is of the trades and when I was over in Germany, I made a comment to the organizers of the show afterwards I'm like I didn't see as much of that talk here. Like we got a

increase the prestige of manufacturing. We gotta get people in the trades. And the very simple comment was it's like, well, we've held people in those type of roles in prestige for decades. Like that never went away in Germany. So it's very cool to see how different parts of the world are emphasizing different opportunities and challenges. And I think there's a lot that can be learned from there. I mean, I think people in the United States, for example, would love the fact that people are just

automatically go into the trades. They know it's a prestigious career path. They know it's a place where apprenticeships can like set you up for success for decades to come. So those are the type of things that I'm always looking for where it's like, hey, one thing that this part of the world is already doing very well is the prestige that is built around skilled trades. In a part of the world where I live, where we're facing a workforce shortage of something like two million people over the next like,

Lee - Host (15:21.314)
Right. Right.

Chris Luecke (15:40.723)
know, 10 years, like there's something we can learn from what they're doing.

Lee - Host (15:44.752)
Mm hmm. Yeah. So what are some of those things that you're finding that they're? I mean, like you said, it really never, they never had those issues like we have here, but I guess are there certain things that you're seeing that they're doing that that kind of help maintain? you know, that, that, that

work environment that people aren't looking, I don't want to say looking down on those types of jobs, but I would say here in the US that definitely happens for some industries.

Chris Luecke (16:14.883)
Mm-hmm. Well, I think culturally you look at it right German engineering German manufacturing like it has a reputation not just in Germany But around the world, you know That's why people go out of their way to buy Volkswagen's and Audis and things like that and Mercedes like that's been there forever So there's an element of brand to it. There's also the fact that they have such a robust apprenticeship trying to think of what the right word for it like

Lee - Host (16:28.238)
Right. Right.

Chris Luecke (16:41.561)
It is an established way of getting folks trained and into industry. It is an option that people know exists. I think that's part of the issue here. There are a lot of people within the US that don't even really, manufacturing doesn't even cross their mind when they're in their teens or when they're in college as a career path, right? Those are the things that I think they're doing really well over there. even let's localize this a bit more to, let's say, North America.

Lee - Host (16:46.553)
Okay.

Chris Luecke (17:09.055)
You know, one of the things I think people can learn when they travel to a rural area, for example, is they see how much that local manufacturing company, whether it's a more mom and pop operation that employs a couple hundred people in, let's say, central Nebraska, southern Missouri, or whether it's a massive steel plant, for example, in the middle of Ohio. Like, those facilities, those companies are central.

to the success of those regions. Like you can tell when you go into a small town, whether they have like a pillar manufacturer there, like a central organization there, or if they don't, right? The vibe, the prosperity, everything about it is totally apparent. And that's something urban areas I think can learn a lot from. I've had conversations with, you know, another individual from St. Louis named Drew Crowe. He does a lot of advocacy for.

Lee - Host (17:41.371)
Sure.

Chris Luecke (18:05.217)
manufacturing not only in St. Louis but around the country as well. We've talked about this before that you kind of lose that focus around how manufacturing is important to a region in an urban area when you don't see the stark contrast that you do in a rural area where there's a set like an organization that's just central to that area. You kind of think about it a little bit right because everyone knows what fortune 500s are based in their city.

but you don't necessarily think about manufacturing in that same way.

Lee - Host (18:38.448)
Right. That's true. So what are some of the things you're seeing? You touched on this kind of apprenticeship, these programs that they have over in Europe. I are you seeing some of those similar things starting to happen now in the US that is trying to kind of ease that transition for someone who maybe they're finishing high school instead of going to college, they have this opportunity that kind of makes that smooth transition?

Chris Luecke (19:03.691)
I am starting to see that. think starting is the very fair way to describe it. I do feel the dialogue around we need to get more folks into skilled trades, we need to increase the prestige of skilled trades. The way I look at it as a podcaster in the manufacturing industry, that conversation, that dialogue is now not just within the industrial circles that we speak with, but

The general public is talking about it as well. You see guys like Mike Rowe, for example, from Dirty Jobs that have helped bring that type of conversation to the mainstream. I think that's a very important part of it. One of the points that I know my audience has heard me talk about recently, but for this to really catch its stride, this trend of getting folks into skilled trades jobs, what really needs to take place, and I don't know why we always seem to forget this part of it, like,

18 year olds don't necessarily look up to a 38 year old the same way they look up to someone that's 22, 23, 24, right? They see that person having a similar life experience to them. They can see themselves in that person's shoes a little bit more. I think once we start getting that next generation, I don't want to say that first generation of folks, but let's say a bunch of Gen Z people that are 22, 23, 24,

into manufacturing fields, into skilled trades jobs, and the folks that they grew up with that are five, six or so years younger can start seeing those individuals having success, having fulfillment in their career, enjoying what they do when they go to work, being able to purchase a house early on, not having potentially the same amount of college debt that they've seen folks that have gone alternative routes, which are still very valuable, by the way. Like I think we,

Lee - Host (20:44.645)
Right.

Lee - Host (20:48.176)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Luecke (20:54.731)
almost within the manufacturing industry sometimes are really on the skilled trades kick that we're starting to forget how much an engineering degree can do for you. Like what I want to happen is I want every, I want all these paths to feel like viable, prestigious paths, right? You know, for me, yeah, going the engineering route was 100 % the route I should have gone. Getting an engineering degree was definitely...

Lee - Host (21:12.464)
Sure. Exactly.

Chris Luecke (21:21.037)
what I should have done. It plays to my strengths, it helped me develop a skill set around problem solving, and it even helped me develop my entrepreneurial edge as well. You know, that's not to say that you can't go into skilled trades, learn the trade, learn the business, and say to yourself, gosh, gosh, I've been a CNC machinist for five years, I kinda know how this shop runs now, maybe I wanna move up, maybe I wanna own my own shop. Like, I want people to see that all of those paths are viable ways to go.

Lee - Host (21:44.569)
Right.

Chris Luecke (21:50.465)
And I think the wonderful thing that can happen in this point in time is people can find more opportunities that play to their strengths, whether that's going the college route or whether that's going the skilled trades route.

Lee - Host (22:03.15)
Yeah, no, I 100 % agree that that that should be something that's on the table when you know, someone who is a junior senior in high school, and they're looking at all their options that you know, they have these paths that are, I don't want to say clearly defined, but they're kind of laid out for them of

where they can look at where this potentially could take them. And like you said, that they have someone they're looking up to possibly that is at four five years older than them. And they can see, okay, if I take this path, I mean, they're living, they've bought their first house. It's a good life and it's not kind of like looked down upon. Whereas I still feel like we're in this, and I'm sure it's different for every market, but...

We're in this environment where it's still like you gotta go to college, you gotta get that four-year degree or else you're not gonna have a good life, which is not true. it's just not, those paths aren't laid out clearly and clearly defined of what those options are.

Chris Luecke (23:02.829)
Yeah, I think we're right on the cusp of this change occurring because I am, like I said, I'm seeing more of that dialogue enter the mainstream. Let's not discount the importance of seeing an Instagram account that's dedicated to skilled trades or dedicated even to things like someone that's a plumber, for example, like in a world where kids wanna be YouTube influencers, for example.

there's a way to be a trades person and be an influencer and quite frankly, it's probably a better niche than just trying to be like a general influencer out there talking about Pokemon cards, for example. you know, there are a lot of technologies and tools in place like the new social media landscape that I think continue to get this on the radar of more and more folks. That's why I feel we're at an inflection point where things are really starting to change right now.

Lee - Host (23:36.553)
Yeah, right.

Lee - Host (23:53.072)
Yeah. No, it always amazes me. You know, I'm, I'm a little older than my mid to upper forties. Um, but I'm kind of of that generation where I see both sides, but even, know, when I would see folks, you know, starting a YouTube channel and want to be an influencer, your first reaction is like, ah, come on. Like you gotta get a real job at that is just not the case. It's just not the case anymore. And like you said, whether it's someone who, um,

they're just an influencer, whether it's from, you know, trends and fashion and things like that, or to very niche type of channels, whether it's a trades thing or whatever the case may be, there's just so many different avenues that and there's people just making a really, really good living doing those sorts of things. And so, like you said, I mean, it's there's, there's just so many different options that are on the table. And hopefully we're kind of at that point where

it just kind of spills over into becomes more of the norm of, well, I can look at all these different things and let's see where my path takes me.

Chris Luecke (24:59.619)
Yeah, I'm optimistic, but it's gonna take more folks like you and me and folks that are 10, 15 years younger than us sharing these messages and making sure the folks that aren't aware of these options are aware of these options now.

Lee - Host (25:15.14)
Yeah, for sure. Kind of staying on the subject of your podcast with Manufacturing Happy Hour, you also have one that you started. think you still kind of run a little bit. It's called Pubcast Worldwide. Is that right? Yeah, tell me something about that.

Chris Luecke (25:29.859)
Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. A pub cast. Yeah. Pub cast to clear the air on what that is. It is a podcast recorded at a pub or a bar or a brewery. So, yes, that was. It is it is well, you know, this is this will actually be a lesson that I think ties into what we were just talking about, because I started manufacturing happy hour and pub cast worldwide at the same time. Pub cast worldwide was a podcast where I was interviewing.

Lee - Host (25:44.152)
I see a recurring theme here, Chris.

Lee - Host (25:53.006)
Yeah.

Chris Luecke (26:02.069)
anyone and anyone over drinks during my travels around the world. Whereas at that time, manufacturing happy hour was, as I described it, a campy video series that was like three to five minute videos recorded on my iPhone. And this ties directly back into that influencer conversation we were just having. The audience I was targeting with pub cast worldwide was too general.

Right, it was an excuse for me to talk to anyone and anyone over a drink at bars and breweries around the world. And it really evolved into almost like a global craft beer show, if you will. So I eventually did niche down with it, but at the same time, manufacturing happy hour was growing in what I would say was a more lucrative vertical, right? Manufacturing, for examples. Manufacturers tend to have more...

marketing dollars than a local craft brewery does, if you will. So if you look at the two different audiences I was targeting, what I started to see was it's like, I could actually kind of build a business out of what I'm doing with manufacturing happy hour, whereas doing something with a more general audience in a vertical that didn't necessarily have the same money that they could invest into getting their word out on a podcast.

for example, that's why manufacturing happy hours started to evolve into my main focus that it is today. Whereas right at this immediate moment, Pubcast Worldwide is kind of on the back burner to an extent. But I will say, I loved doing Pubcast Worldwide. It was a ton of fun. I got to interview punk rock bands at beer festivals in San Diego. I got to interview brewers in...

Lee - Host (27:34.416)
Sure. Yeah.

Chris Luecke (27:48.633)
Japan, in Australia, in Chile. I'm probably one of the only podcasters in the world that can say I've recorded podcasts on five different continents. There are a lot of cool things, there are a lot of cool things that I did there, a lot of lessons that I learned that apply to my business today. But for anyone listening that is thinking of going the path of becoming a creator in some way, shape, or form, I think it does illustrate the power of picking a niche that

Lee - Host (27:58.576)
nice.

Chris Luecke (28:17.913)
And let's not forget that 10 years ago, manufacturing was kind of considered a boring industry. Like it was considered dull, dark, dirty, dangerous. And quite frankly, I think the industry as a whole was not doing a good job of sharing the story of manufacturing. Like I was, when I started doing videos in 2017, I was the only person doing videos in manufacturing. That's a bit hyperbolic, right? But I was like one of a handful of individuals that was like,

Lee - Host (28:45.05)
Sure.

Chris Luecke (28:46.327)
Wait a second, like it's cool to see how a robot works. It's cool to see how additive manufacturing works or how machining this part works. Like I was one of the first people to put that on video and it was just, you know, it was an opportunity to really start spreading the word about manufacturing using modern media that I had been using in the past for like travel podcasting, if you will.

Lee - Host (29:13.57)
Right, right. Yeah. Do you get a lot of people reaching out to you just asking questions about, you hey, how do I go about starting something like this? You know, what are your suggestions of how I do this?

Chris Luecke (29:28.237)
Yeah, it's funny, literally the reason I was about five minutes late to this morning's call was I was finishing a conversation about that with another individual that had been running their podcast. And actually he asked me the question, like, you still recommend that folks start podcasts today? And my answer is yes, with a couple caveats, or not caveats, but a couple things you need to be aware of going into a podcast, right? First of all, it's gonna be more work than you expect.

When I started podcasting, certainly, I'm just like, it's gonna be easy. We're just recording it on audio. I'll add an intro and outro, throw it on iTunes, and we're good to go, right? There's a lot of other extra work, a lot of production, a lot of preparation for these interviews that goes into it as well. So I make sure that folks that are wanting to go into it understand that it's gonna be a bigger lift than you think it is. And the other thing I say, back to the lesson about Pubcast Worldwide versus my niche audience with manufacturing happy hour.

The more you can pick a vertical, the better off you're gonna be. Don't expect to get Joe Rogan type listenership numbers. You're not gonna be in the millions. If you're a podcast that has a thousand or even a couple hundred listeners, that's still pretty good. The real value of podcasting comes from making connections and learning more about your industry and building a reputation for yourself in your vertical.

Lee - Host (30:33.168)
Ha!

Chris Luecke (30:52.257)
I would always say first and foremost, that is going to be your biggest ROI for starting a podcast or some sort of content series. Maybe eventually turning it into a business and getting sponsors, et cetera. That's totally secondary, if you will.

Lee - Host (31:07.194)
Sure. Right. I would agree with that. I mean, we started this and I think it was more like you said, it was a way for us to kind of make introductions. Sometimes it's with current customers that we have, both buyers and sellers on the Bryzos platform. But also just, you know, we mentioned, I talked about this when we were talking before the show, just we've had guests that have nothing to do with the metals industry.

but they've been some of our kind of most commented on or most popular episodes, just hearing people's stories. And sometimes those lead to introductions, you know, after that meeting will, I'll receive an email saying, Hey, love being on your show. you know, I want to introduce you to this person. They're actually in the metals industry and just different things like that. But to your point, it, it wasn't this focused, we're to start this podcast for, and it's going to be

a business, so to speak. It was just kind of this tangential thing that we started that really just was bringing awareness to Bryzos, kind of getting us our name out there more, our personalities, getting to know us. we're just regular people kind of, you know, bringing you inside behind the curtain kind of thing.

But to your point, think it does, it kind of snowballs from there. And then I think if someone was really focused on, I want to turn this into a business, those things kind of come down the line. You you almost have to kind of, you have to put in the work, I would say, before things start to really happen. Not that, again, not that we're focused on that, but that would be, that's what I would think would happen.

Chris Luecke (32:52.215)
I mean, Brizos is really like a poster child for what a B2B podcast should be. A couple of things that I heard you say there, sometimes you're talking to partners or suppliers on the show. When people are thinking about starting their own show, I always say, hey, if you're doing an interview show, one of your target groups of guests should be people that are your customers today or people that you wish were your customers. And that latter one is so important because

What's more exciting, receiving a cold email saying, hey, this is what we do here at our company, would you like to schedule some time to chat versus saying, hey, I've seen what your company is all about. I understand you have a dynamic leader as your COO, CEO. We have a podcast that targets this type of audience. Would you like to be on it, right? What a much better way of building rapport with someone that could turn into business. But the other part,

Lee - Host (33:44.676)
Yeah.

Chris Luecke (33:48.971)
of that is you don't want to be overly tactical, overly commercial. You're talking to other folks that in the industry have valuable pieces of information they can share with your audience. And as you said, just by those type of conversations, even if they're not directly related to the metals industry, depending on who knows who or what type of topic comes up that just resonates with the right person at the right time, those can still turn into business intros as well. So I love what you're doing over there, Brizos. I think it's the right.

mentality and the right way to go about doing a podcast in today's modern media landscape.

Lee - Host (34:26.35)
Yeah. I appreciate that. And, you know, Rachel does a great job of reaching out to, to folks. And I mean, we've had guests on the podcast that, you know, they, started using Brysos, I mean, for a hot minute and she'll just reach out to them. And next thing I know a week later, they're here in our office, face to face doing a podcast. And we're like, this is so cool that, you know, we don't get to kind of share our story really ever.

Chris Luecke (34:46.403)
Yeah.

Lee - Host (34:52.432)
Um, and so for you to reach out and extend that invitation, uh, this is great. And then it just, it just kind of snowballs from there and they make introductions and. know, if it turns out they start using Brasos more great, but that, that wasn't kind of our, that's not our focus. Um, I think sometimes that's even better when it's like that, you know, there's no expectation. It's like, Hey, if you want to come on and.

Talk about your business, talk about Bryzos, whatever you want to talk about is fine with us. It seems to kind of lead to more things down the road.

Chris Luecke (35:22.711)
Yeah, yeah, that's the way to do it. In fact, when I get asked that question in the future of, how do I start a podcast in the B2B space? I might be like, hey, check out what Bryzos is doing over there. That's a primary example.

Lee - Host (35:33.716)
There you go. So tell me about some of your favorite episodes, whether it's on manufacturing happy hour or pub cast worldwide. I know you never want to kind of say, Hey, this was my favorite one, but maybe just some cool stories, cool guests. Uh, what can you share with us?

Chris Luecke (35:51.449)
Yeah, yeah, great question. And I like that you already added the disclaimer there. Before I ever answer this question, I always say it's like, hey, I've enjoyed every episode I've done. A lot of great guests, a lot of great lessons learned, a lot of nuggets in all of these different episodes. But there are some that I can say are certainly memorable. We'll start off with one that's very niche to the automation industry, if you will.

Lee - Host (35:57.377)
Yeah.

Chris Luecke (36:20.077)
There is a viral video from the 90s called the retro-incabulator, which is a, if you're not familiar with it, look up retro-incabulator. It's gonna be the first video that shows up. It's a techno-babble video. It's this one guy with a really dry matter of fact voice talking through all these nonsense terms to describe a piece of equipment called the retro-incabulator. So I can't remember all the terms in there, but they talk about

things like side fumbling and like just nonsense words are used in there. So one time I was at a trade show and I walked by a booth and I recognized the voice. I'm like, that's the guy that does the retro and cabulator video. So I got to interview him and kind of do like an oral history behind the scenes episode on the history of the retro and cabulator, if you will, and how this whole viral sensation came to be. So.

Lee - Host (36:53.743)
Right.

Lee - Host (37:00.878)
No way.

Chris Luecke (37:16.001)
Not really an episode that manufacturing leaders would like learn a lot of things that are gonna transform their business per se, but a very fun episode. So that's always a fun one to lead off on. That's episode 66 of manufacturing happy hour on the retro-encabulator. know, yeah, some of the other ones that stick out, you know, I was speaking with an individual named Jason T. Ray from Paperless Parts recently. He's been on the show a few times.

Lee - Host (37:26.778)
Yeah.

Lee - Host (37:31.896)
OK.

Lee - Host (37:42.245)
yeah. Okay.

Chris Luecke (37:44.141)
but had a conversation with him and we were talking about the skills gap, something we've talked about on this conversation a couple times about how do we get more people into skilled trades. And he had a very powerful line in that show saying, when we know something has been an issue for as long as it has, it's no longer a skills gap, it's a leadership gap. And I think that really puts the onus on the manufacturing leaders that listen saying, hey, we know this is an issue, so what are we gonna do about it, right? And there are,

You know, there are so many episodes in the manufacturing happy hour catalog that that folks have talked about what they've done to inspire the next generation recruit and retain talent. You know, I even have an episode, episode one hundred eighty three, which is like a case study on how a small manufacturer first adopted robotics. And it ended up turning into a story on how not only did it help this company become more productive, but it helped them hire more people.

and it helped them promote the people that were already within their organization as well. Like welders that started using this cobot were able to develop the skills they needed to become fabricators, right? That's a promotion, that's a higher paid job. So lessons like that, episodes like that, always stick out. And then lastly, since you asked about manufacturing happy hour and pub cast worldwide, right? Like, you know,

It's very cool to record episodes in different parts of the world, whether that's in the Czech Republic, whether that's in Australia. But one of the episodes that sticks out was I was at a beer tasting demonstration in Yokohama, Japan. And it was all in Japanese. Like I'm there for four hours on an afternoon in middle of my trip, whole things in Japanese. There was the individual.

that invited me, he spoke a little English, so he would translate for me every once in a while. He's like, hey, this is kind of what we're saying here, and things like that. But, you know, after we were done, I did a little episode with him as well. We talked about craft beer in Japan, and certainly we talked about things like, in their lagers, they try to incorporate some Japanese ingredients, right? They bring in yuzu fruit, for example, which gives it a nice light citrusy flavor. But what stuck out to me in that day was it was really one of the...

Chris Luecke (40:04.749)
few times in my life where I kind of had an opportunity to feel like the other, right? I was in a room, you know, I was the only American in the room, didn't speak a lick of Japanese, and it helped me appreciate how, you know, in many ways privileged I am to be able to go to pretty much anywhere in the world, and I know that my language is the common language across the world, and it was an experience that helped me put myself in the shoes.

Lee - Host (40:17.06)
You

Chris Luecke (40:33.686)
of other folks that don't have that same privileges or don't have other privileges as well. So this has surprisingly become kind of a theme of this conversation, but there's a ton you can learn from traveling outside of your comfort zone. And that was a scenario where I was like knee deep in it the whole time. Now it certainly helped that it was a social atmosphere where there was beer and things like that. So even if you don't speak the same language, there are a lot of areas where you can find common ground.

Lee - Host (40:35.268)
Yeah.

Lee - Host (40:39.118)
Right. Yeah.

Lee - Host (40:55.471)
Right.

Lee - Host (40:58.896)
You're like, take another beer over here, please.

Chris Luecke (41:02.081)
So no, was great, but those are some of the most memorable moments from my podcasting career.

Lee - Host (41:07.492)
Yeah, nice, nice. Those were some good ones. So kind of we've hit on some topics here about, you know, shortage of labor and things like that. But what are some other like the biggest pain points, you know, when you're talking to these manufacturing leaders, whether it's shop owners or whomever, what are some of the other major pain points that they're seeing in their day to day business?

Chris Luecke (41:33.389)
Yeah, yeah, great question. We've talked about a lot about the skills gap and finding talent. So I'm gonna skip that for now and talk about a different challenge that we're coming across. Because I think, especially for an audience of manufacturers, it's pretty well known that that's a challenge folks are facing. I was recently, actually the episode that just came out this week, episode 245, I was having a conversation with an individual named Brett Boyd. He's the CEO of Sustainment. And they've been doing a survey.

Lee - Host (41:40.56)
Sure.

Lee - Host (41:49.199)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Luecke (42:01.721)
in partnership with the new American Industrial Alliance, NIA, and they've been speaking with mid-market manufacturers, taking a real grassroots approach to, what are the challenges and needs of manufacturers in this day and age? And one of the things that surprised me about that conversation was what the number one challenge they had encountered so far in that survey, and it wasn't talent, the number one challenge was access to capital.

for projects, right? And I think that makes a lot of sense as well. In addition to making sure you have the right people, there are a lot of manufacturers, especially maybe ones that haven't invested in automation as much up to this point that don't necessarily have the access or don't know how to access the dollars they need to adopt their first robot or automate for the first time. And we could go on and on about what some of the solutions are to that, right?

national MEP network manufacturing extension partnership groups that often have grants and funding that local small manufacturers can take and take advantage of to fund some of their projects. There are a lot of different things that folks can do, but that was listed as one of the initial challenges that folks are facing, right? Access to capital or not knowing how to access the capital and just to provide more

like actionable solutions, right? One of the things that we're seeing in the manufacturing industry come up is more models of financing is the wrong word, but let's say robots as a service, for example. You can get your first robot from certain companies and leverage it from an as a service standpoint. So you're paying more out of an operations budget than you are a capital budget. So when it comes to questions of how am I gonna finance, how am I going to get,

Lee - Host (43:48.176)
Okay.

Chris Luecke (43:53.325)
this new technology, more options are coming to play in that area right now. So that highlights a bit of a challenge that manufacturers are facing and one of the solutions, or I should say a couple of the solutions, right? MEP networks, RAS models, there are new ways to go about financing some of these technologies.

Lee - Host (44:12.014)
Yeah. Yeah, I'm not familiar with the kind of like you said, out of funding of operations instead of capital. But it makes sense. I I have to imagine that's just a major decision that especially a smaller business is trying to, you know, kind of evaluate and decide do we spend, you know, millions of dollars to kind of upgrade equipment and different things.

that's got to be a tough call for someone to make and then not only to make that decision but then actually execute it and come up with the capital and different things like that. So that's interesting to hear there's some options out there like that.

Chris Luecke (44:55.213)
Yeah, well it's also, I mean from my standpoint, it was interesting to hear that the skills gap or finding talent isn't always the first thing on people's mind as well. I think we default to that a lot, especially folks that are in the industry. It's like, well of course that's gonna be their number one issue. And while it often is their number one issue or usually very close behind, it's good to hear what some of the other challenges are and how people are overcoming them.

Lee - Host (45:06.671)
you

Lee - Host (45:22.03)
Yeah. And do you find, generally speaking, obviously, it's going to vary customer to customer or business to business, but do you find that there's still a lot of people that are resistant to this change that that's, you know, whether it's robotics or just technology in general within their their business, their shop, or, you know, saying I'm not resistant to the change necessarily, it's just

resistance resistant to how to implement that or how to purchase that. What are you what are you hearing mostly from these businesses?

Chris Luecke (45:59.193)
That's a great question, one that I was kind of given an eye-opening, personal insight on recently is that as someone that runs a podcast that's knee-deep in manufacturing and automation and what's working in the manufacturing world, and as someone that spent his career working at Rockwell and Anheuser-Busch, like two of the creme de la creme-like best manufacturing companies out there, very well run,

Lee - Host (46:24.11)
You're right.

Chris Luecke (46:29.091)
Personally, I think I miss some of the realities of manufacturers sometimes. Like I know there are a lot of folks out there that haven't automated, don't wanna automate, don't know how, they're retiring, they don't know who they're gonna transition their machine shop to. I will say one of...

I'm not gonna call it a weakness, right? But an area of insight I've received recently is I need to do a better job of diving deep into the trenches and finding these companies that are on just a different playing field right now to truly see some of these realities. Cause I know those folks are out there right now. I'm just very lucky that I get to see a lot of the folks that are leveraging the technology and have come a long way with it in the meantime. So.

Lee - Host (47:07.287)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Chris Luecke (47:15.873)
What I do, to answer your question though, I think one of the things I'm seeing a lot with some of the folks that I've spoken with is there are these small mom and pop manufacturing shops that have no transition plan right now. Like folks that are probably going to liquidate the business or they could sell it to private equity or something like that. There are a lot of options that are on the table and quite frankly, a lot of these leaders that are running those shops, they need to start looking at.

For the audience that I speak to a lot of times, folks that are go-getters in the manufacturing industry, leaders in this space, a topic that's been coming up on the show is, know, what can you do to go about buying a machine shop, right? Like there's gonna become an opportunity for this next generation of people coming into the industry. Maybe it's someone that's worked at a shop for four or five years. Like if you've got that entrepreneurial bug or that entrepreneurial tendency,

There's a tremendous opportunity sitting out there right now. I think there's something like 15,000 machine shops across the US or across North America right now. And I don't know the stat of how many of those lack a transition plan, but with the technology that's come a long way that you can implement to connect some machine shops, connect your machines, add some synergies to the process, there is a tremendous opportunity right now in American manufacturing to take advantage of some of those synergies.

Lee - Host (48:38.808)
Yeah, I would imagine so. I there's, I mean, just a whole generation that's kind of hitting that age of retirement. And like you said, you know, don't have a plan. You know, what is the exit plan? Is there one even? And to your point, there's probably a lot of

employees at these businesses that probably have that bug of, hey, I'd be interested in this, but do they have the knowledge, the resources to know, how do I go about doing this? You know, what are my options here of buying this business, taking over this business, but I'm sure that there's so many opportunities out there, like you said, just across the country. And that's from small mom and pops to medium sized businesses alike.

Chris Luecke (49:25.945)
Yeah, yeah, again, we're at an inflection point in manufacturing where some folks are gonna start taking advantage of these opportunities and then other people are going to see what opportunities exist in this space and other people will jump on board as well.

Lee - Host (49:39.932)
Mm Yeah. Yep. And then kind of switching over a little bit, not necessarily pain points, but maybe what are some of the biggest trends that you've seen over the last year, three years, five years, whatever the case may be? Obviously, we robotics is huge. But are there other things that you're seeing when you're talking to these business owners?

Chris Luecke (50:05.699)
Yeah, you know, since I am pretty deep in the automation space, I will share a trend, one of the buzzy trends and then one of the real trends. So right now we're seeing a lot of humanoid robots at trade shows and things like that, right? The quadrupeds, the robots on different feet. There are companies that are making, no pun intended, major strides in this space right now. Agility Robotics is always one of the first that comes to mind because they're really doing like,

been placing activities like the dullest of the dull applications in warehouses and manufacturing that should be the first priority for all robots out there, right? I'm so sick and tired of seeing videos of robots cracking eggs in someone's house and making like someone breakfast, right? That like, maybe they can do that someday, but I don't care about that right now. There's a lot of dull.

Lee - Host (50:52.046)
Alright.

Lee - Host (50:57.23)
Right.

Chris Luecke (50:58.881)
like jobs that involve a lot of lifting that can create back pain that robots should be doing first. So I love seeing companies like Agility Robotics taking that approach to humanoids. That's the trend. That's the buzzy thing right now. Let's talk about something manufacturers should be adopting right away in robotics, like AMRs, autonomous mobile robots, these little robots that zip around on wheels inside of manufacturing facilities. They're safe. They can sense when someone is by them and they need to stop.

Those, let's remember 10 years ago, those were like new, they were still innovating in that space. It wasn't like go time for those, but it is go time for those solutions now. Like manufacturers, like there's not like a lot of risk in adopting that right now. They have been proven out. You're seeing large enterprises using them. The way I like to approach things in manufacturing is taking a no nonsense approach. Like we see the buzzwords, we see the buzzy things like humanoids, but while that's going on,

Lee - Host (51:35.908)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Luecke (51:58.029)
There's a solution out there like AMRs in this case that is very well proven, that is very low risk at this stage. We've seen how it works in every application under the sun, not every application under the sun, but you know what I mean. We've seen it work in a lot of different scenarios. That is something that manufacturers should feel safer about adopting at this point. So, and that's the case for a lot of different solutions. I worked with Fix Software for a while, a company that Rockwell Automation bought.

Lee - Host (52:10.672)
Sure, Right.

Lee - Host (52:17.84)
Yeah.

Chris Luecke (52:24.973)
they created CMMS, they didn't create it, but they have a CMMS platform, computerized maintenance management. It digitizes your maintenance department, right? It moves you off of using Post-it notes saying, hey Jim, when you get here for shift two, go check out that wrapper on line three and do whatever XYZ maintenance tasks are on there. It puts it into a cloud-based platform so that way there's a single source of truth.

to what preventative maintenance needs to get done, who completed what when, and you're no longer relying on Excel sheets or paper records to do that type of thing. My message to manufacturers is there is so much basic technology that's been proven out now that those are the first things that you should go after, right? We're seeing the buzzy trends, but don't let that cause you to lose sight of maybe some of the 101 type of solutions that you have yet to adopt.

Lee - Host (53:10.35)
Right. Right.

Chris Luecke (53:20.887)
That's my advice to manufacturers.

Lee - Host (53:21.154)
Right. Yeah. And do you so along the lines of software, I mean, do you see these companies? Have they all for the most part adopted some sort of software that's that's kind of improving their their day to day processes? Or are there still plenty of them out there that are still kind of like you said, I mean, they're going old school and it's they don't really have anything that's that's in place yet.

Chris Luecke (53:47.949)
Both. mean, lot of the shops that I get invited into, a lot of the manufacturing facilities I get invited into, they've got their MES, they've got their ERP. I mean, things are humming along pretty well. But I know there are a lot of shops out there that do not have that yet. Otherwise, you wouldn't see companies like FIX Software continuing to grow and acquire new customers on a regular basis. So they're both across the manufacturing spectrum right now.

Lee - Host (54:12.899)
Right.

Lee - Host (54:17.038)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we see, you know, with Brysos, obviously being a software in the metals industry. I would say that your smaller kind of mom and pop fabricators are usually the first to kind of adopt because they don't really maybe have anything that's currently in place. And so this is an easy, wow, this this is really helping me expedite.

the things I'm doing on a daily basis as far as pricing and bidding and purchasing and things like that. And then your larger companies are like, we already have our software and our way of doing things. slowly as they start to, as they're introduced to it and they get a taste of how it works, I mean, you start to see those medium size and even larger companies adopt it. Just because I think ever since COVID, you just have so many people wearing, I mean,

so many different hats and they're so strapped for time and they're getting pulled a million different directions. And so if there's something that can just save them, I mean, it doesn't sound like much, but if it saves them one to two hours a day, I mean, that's, that adds up and it's, it's a massive amount. And you know, there's, there's, you're always going to have the folks that are, that think I don't need this. I can do it better.

I can get a better price on my material like all these different things but there we have so many that that they value that time they're saving that one that one to two hours per day and so if they're like hey if it you know find a pain a percent or two more for material

big deal. Like I just I sat down and I had this material I had to purchase and it was off my desk in a matter of two minutes and I'm on to the next thing that that's worth so much to me. And you know our biggest struggle is really just kind of getting the word out. You know we're still a small company. You know we don't have some big sales force that's kind of going across the country and getting the word out but.

Lee - Host (56:15.44)
Little by little and things like with this podcast I mean we have people reaching out to us that that say I was introduced by one of your guests or I saw an episode because you had this guest on what do you guys do different things like that, but

I feel like more and more that resistance to change is kind of going away. And I'm guessing that's happening in other areas as well with different software and automation and robotics and different things like that. And it's more of, I'm not necessarily resistant to the change itself, but I'm resistant to like, how do I do this? What are...

Chris Luecke (56:56.75)
you

Lee - Host (56:57.358)
What are my best options? How do I implement this? Do I have the employees to implement an entire, a new software for our business or new machinery, equipment, things like that? And I guess that's the struggle for a lot of these companies of, you know, just how do we execute this plan?

Chris Luecke (57:16.643)
You know, I think tying this back to a lot of our conversation, I think we're gonna see an influx of innovators entering the manufacturing industry here. There already are people doing that. And it goes back to a simple reason we talked about the young folks, right? If you look back at, you know, finance was big in the 90s, folks were flocking to New York City for that, tech was big in the 2000s, people were flocking to the Bay Area for that. People will go where the money is.

Lee - Host (57:26.554)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Luecke (57:44.331)
and people are starting to see that there's money in manufacturing. So again, as you get that next generation, and I'm not necessarily just talking in terms of age, right? You get that next generation of innovative, forward-thinking people entering the hot industry at the time. I have a sense, I'm very optimistic that manufacturing is one of those industries, if not the industry, that's going to start seeing that flood.

Lee - Host (58:10.788)
Yeah. Yeah. It's when you were talking about the younger generation, it's funny. It reminded me of, I mean, we've had so many people that start using Bryzos and they're on the purchasing side of things and whether they're estimating or, or procurement. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone that's younger say, this is so amazing. Cause I no longer have to talk to someone. Right. Like I, mean,

Chris Luecke (58:38.071)
I don't like that part of it as much, I understand the speed aspect of it.

Lee - Host (58:40.4)
And I, right, I get it. Yes, because I come from a sales background, right? And so when someone would send me an email, hey, I'm looking for this size, this quantity, can you send me a price? My natural reaction was I called them.

Right. If it wasn't, if it was just a black and white kind of question or inquiry, sure, maybe just email them a response. But a lot of times there's a little more to the job and whatnot. And so it would warrant a phone call or at least I thought it did. And, you know, cause that's where I felt like I brought the value of I'm going to call this person and really try and figure out what their pain points are and come up with a solution. But

More and more I think the person on the other end of that phone call is like I don't want you to call me. Like don't call me. Just send me the information. And that's I think that's kind of what my point was is when you're dealing with commodity type of material, you know, they don't want that phone call. They don't they don't need someone stopping in their their shop once a week or once a month to kind of hey how are things going and you know.

I'm busy enough, so I just want to purchase my material and move on to the next thing on my list.

Chris Luecke (59:55.405)
Yeah, it's about removing friction. Like I know I kind of balked at that because I do like the social aspect of B2B business. But if you can make your buying process as frictionless as possible, right? Like, I mean, think of Amazon, right? Lower the amount of clicks it takes to get from picking the product to saying, I'm going to have this delivered at my house tomorrow. Right? Like I think they are, you know, regardless of what folks think of them.

Lee - Host (01:00:00.823)
I know, I know.

Chris Luecke (01:00:22.573)
you can use them as an example of a company that has one singular mission. It's like getting you whatever you need as quickly as possible at a competitive price, right? And more companies need to figure out like, what is the one singular thing they're trying to do to make someone's life better and easier and optimize how you do that every minute of the day. I shouldn't say optimize every minute of the day, but optimizing that.

should be your focus as a business in addition to completing the deliveries and things like that that you already have.

Lee - Host (01:00:55.854)
Right, right. It's so funny you say these things. mean, a couple things you just hit on were, I mean, they were kind of our North Star when we were developing our new model of Bryzos. Just that frictionless experience. know, Amazon obviously, like you said, was one. I mean, everything in from our

our UI, the whole experience of getting pricing on the app, purchasing, that's what we always felt like, okay, we need to make this as frictionless as possible. How do we do that? So every decision we thought about, that was kind of front and center. And then you also touched on companies that they start out with just kind of one thing they focus on, right? And we studied some of those companies, like DocuSign.

It's a perfect example. mean, it's look how big of a business that is and like that is the one thing they do and that's it. Now it's amazing, it's that was that that's another thing that we focused on is because you know how it is when you're starting a business. There's just all these.

Chris Luecke (01:01:55.203)
Just sign in a piece of paper, that's it. Yeah.

Lee - Host (01:02:08.772)
these things that you can kind of, they grab your attention. Cause some customers like, it'd be great if you could do this and do this. And next thing you know, scope creep comes in and you're, mean, you're doing all these different things. Okay. But nothing great. And so when we started Bryzos and still to this day, I mean, we've expanded a little bit, but we kind of have really stayed focused on here's what the products that we want to offer.

This is the experience we want someone to have and we really trying to stay in that lane and just make it kind of fine tune that whole process from start to finish. you know, someday maybe, yeah, we'll, we'll start to branch out into these different areas and different things. But for now that we just, can't be sidetracked with that at all. And I think it's served us well in how we've developed the software, how

the feedback we get from both buyers and sellers of our product, you know, they're just like, my God, this is just so amazing. It so easy to use. That's one thing we hang our hat on. I mean, I'll do a demo with someone, but my first response to them is, well, just try it out yourself, right? Like you, you should be able to sit down and use this without anyone helping you. Now, if you need some help, I'm happy to do it. but we get that feedback a lot of

I mean, there's zero learning curve involved. And that's what we wanted, that frictionless experience. Yeah.

Chris Luecke (01:03:40.035)
Yeah, yeah, no, I appreciate the Bryzos tie-ins as well as we've weaved our way through this conversation.

Lee - Host (01:03:47.108)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, it's been a pleasure, you know, talking with you. Some great, great stories here. For those listening, if they want to connect with you or find you, what's the best way to do that?

Chris Luecke (01:04:02.307)
Yeah, number one, subscribe to Manufacturing Happy Hour. If you like this show, I think they'll like Manufacturing Happy Hour as well. just search Manufacturing Happy Hour on Google or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be the first thing that comes up. And happy to connect on LinkedIn as well. My last name's a confusing German name. It's Lukey, so if you look up Chris Lukey, L-U-E-C-K-E, it's six letters. You should be able to come across me pretty easily.

Lee - Host (01:04:29.488)
Perfect perfect. All right. Well that sounds good Thanks again, and I'm sure we'll be talking soon All right, there's thank you

Chris Luecke (01:04:38.083)
Cheers.