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Business of Machining - Episode 42
209 Plays7 years ago
"It's a good time to be alive." - Grimsmo It doesn't get any better than having the world of information at your fingertips. SAYONARA lag time! The guys record using ZenCaster to lean out the podcasts and close the gap between life and release date. What happens in Vegas...is AUTODESK UNIVERSITY. Saunders attends to speak about Social Media and Modern Manufacturing. One step back, two steps forward. While gathering information about the intricacies of an ERP system, Saunders realizes the first step starts with streamlining processes in the shop. The only thing harder than saying "no" is following through with a begrudged "yes." Grimsmo finds that being honest and upfront gets easier with practice. It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Grimsmo and Erik? Not only are they literally flying high, this past few weeks of production have left them on cloud 9. Erik's Instagram Post Hiring employees is a lot like DATING. While the comparison might seem like a stretch, the similarities are striking. Although local schools and colleges have a pool of candidates, the protocol for reaching out seems ambiguous. In a world of immediacy, it's no surprise that finding uninterrupted time is like trying to find Sasquatch. Maybe it's not about finding it, it's about deciding what can wait. Calling all listeners! We want to hear from you. If this podcast has helped you, make a post on Instagram or Facebook.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Zencastr
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning and welcome to the Business of Machining, episode number 42. My name is John Grimsmough. My name is John Saunders. Good morning. Good morning. I am actually really fired up that we're trying the Zencaster. Yeah, so basically we've been trying all kinds of different recording methods this whole time and now we're trying this online platform Zencaster as well as all the backups. But yeah, it should sync everything together and it should make Julie's life a lot easier in the editing department.
00:00:28
Speaker
Well, it's just funny, it bothers me that we live in this world. Like why would we, this has so many benefits of reducing. So basically Julie was, because she's awesome and wants to have, she's like the John Grinsville, I think she wants it to be perfect. So she would go through and cut out the other person's audio when they weren't talking, which is super tedious and not in the spirit of what we did with this podcast, which is really just, you know, let's just hit record on our conversations.
Live Publishing and Editing Benefits
00:00:54
Speaker
We're not trying to turn it into a big production. So,
00:00:58
Speaker
In theory, Zencaster does that. Right. Awesome. It's your audio when we're talking and back and forth. We'll see, right? Yeah, right. Totally. But then, potentially, we could turn these into live the day of, which would be really nice, because I feel like we don't gain much by having them on the delay.
00:01:18
Speaker
No. I mean, Julia takes time to edit, like quite a lot of time now, but it's not two weeks. Right. And it's just like, I'm going to talk about what I'm doing this week, but then it's weird because people message you and you're like, what?
00:01:33
Speaker
Yeah, so lean one-piece flow it would be really sweet to have this uploaded, you know tonight this one won't be but in the future that's exciting I guess we have to take like two weeks off in the podcast to let the buffer catch up or burn out Yeah, we'd figure it out
Las Vegas Trip and Irony
00:01:52
Speaker
No, this is cool because I'm going to Las Vegas tomorrow for the first time I'm ever going with my wife. We were joking because I think we've both been like, I don't know, five or 10 times in the last 10 years, but we've never been together.
00:02:07
Speaker
which is something kind of ironic because the just tone of Vegas, we're not really like that, but it's funny. So I'm super excited, a little bit of R&R. She's running a race and get to have some downtime and just chill out, no kids.
Impact of Social Media on Manufacturing
00:02:23
Speaker
And then my talk that I'm doing at Autodesk University is called Social Media in Modern Manufacturing.
00:02:30
Speaker
And I'm taking a little bit of liberty with the word social media. We are talking about the explicit Instagrams and Facebooks, but we're also talking about all of the, I don't even know what we're on right now, Web 2.0, Web 4.0, whatever it is, but all of the like online tools and systems and resources and companies and platforms and services that we use. And I looked at that slide, it's a really good slide. And none of those companies, with the exception of like Amazon or something, none of them existed like eight or 10 years ago.
00:02:57
Speaker
Right. And they're all like critical and crucial to how we run our business. And so it's things like Zencaster. Yeah, these little time saving devices or like Instagram is a enormous part of our business now. Right. And YouTube, both of us, right?
00:03:15
Speaker
But it's also, it's the things like how we use our time clock software, our payroll software, or are fulfilled by Amazon, or the ship station, or the ship, like all the, it's super fun and sexy if you're an entrepreneur. It's not retail software, you know what I mean? But I'm sure there's equal retail softwares, you know, that do the same thing. No, no, I mean like your average Joe isn't going to be interested in it like they are Instagram. Oh yeah. It's just like B2B software stuff that is so freaking awesome.
00:03:46
Speaker
It's a good time to be alive. We're lucky and fortunate. Everything's at our fingertips now.
Exploring Odoo ERP
00:03:52
Speaker
I love it. Right. The battle is figuring out that software. What is a good ERP? It's actually funny. I was reading an old email from a buddy who runs a company called Seneca Woodworking, really good guy. And he had already mentioned Odoo to me as an ERP like three months ago. And it goes back to like,
00:04:14
Speaker
selective perception where it was kind of in one year out the other three months ago. But now that I took the time to do that demo, I'm now like hyper focused on that word and in ERPs and looking into it. Excellent. Yeah, I did look into Odoo briefly just to get get a feel for it. It sounds pretty awesome. I'd like to see it implemented in a machine shop environment, you know? Yeah, I'd like this me to or absent that implemented anywhere. Right.
00:04:43
Speaker
Um, the sales guy emailed me back and he was like, basically he called me out. He's, he answered all of my questions about outstanding, you know, can it do this? How does it do that? And then he was like, kind of like a, what's the next step? So it was kind of like that harder
Importance of Honesty in Business
00:04:57
Speaker
sell. Like, Hey, you know, if we meet the, um, if we meet your goals, why are, you know, how am I going to get you to move forward? Are you waiting?
00:05:05
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's a fair look. I mean, I get it. He's a salesman. And then it's funny because I feel like a lot of people, including me sometimes want to get weird. You get awkward at those things. And I just wrote back and it's like, just be honest. And I just wrote back. I was like, look, to be honest, your software is way more capable than I had originally thought of, or ERP systems in general are way more capable than I had realized as a layman.
00:05:29
Speaker
It's also way more of an investment in time and expense and upfront capital. So we're going to spend the next six months trying to streamline because I think that's what I thought. Like I don't want to have somebody come here to implement an ERP system and have them tell us you need to sort your inventory or sort your processes out. And so I said, we're going to spend the next six months doing that. And let's talk in the summer of 18. And he wrote back and he was like, I really appreciate the candid response.
00:05:55
Speaker
Nice. Which is just, you know, I think it's okay. I guess it goes back to Dale Carnegie thing. It's like, it's okay to be honest. Yeah.
00:06:04
Speaker
You know, people trust you more when you're honest, even when it's not, you know, fluffy and nice all the time. It's the truth. It's honest, you know, no use hiding it. And that's something I'm working on too a lot, is exactly that. You know, telling people no and having it be okay. You know, I feel bad telling people no, but if I don't really want to do it, then it's, you know, nothing says I need to say yes. Right, right. What have you been up to this week?
00:06:32
Speaker
Crushing it. Super, super busy production week. Yeah? Yeah, we're actually able to hold. The past three weeks have been really solid and consistent, edging slightly better this week, which is excellent. And now that we're on this roll, we're just trying to hold it. So yeah, it's been really,
Flying Adventures with Dad
00:06:53
Speaker
really good. Dude, it's great. It's great.
00:06:56
Speaker
Tuesday, I think. Eric and I took most of the day off, and we went flying with my dad. He's got his pilot's license. So we rented a Cessna, and we flew directly over Niagara Falls and all around. I saw your brother post that picture. That was freaking amazing. Yeah, I've got some pictures too. I never got around to posting, but I should do that. Yeah, so it was really cool. It was a really fun time. Good bonding experience with the boys.
00:07:22
Speaker
Yeah, I go ahead. No, I'm done. Oh, I was going to say, I didn't know if I wanted to share this like publicly because I don't know if I'm going to do it or go through with it, but I took my first flying lesson last weekend. Really?
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah. Cool. I've been interested in it. I think it's really cool. And there's an airport literally that abuts our shop. And for me, it would be somewhat of a recreational thing, meaning like, OK, if I want to go somewhere with the wife or family, it's a tool and a means to do that. Also, frankly, bigger driver would be things like, if I want to go up to Cleveland to film or Indianapolis to film for the channel, it's a way to get there and back in a much more
00:08:07
Speaker
enjoyable and efficient manner, but there's all these drawbacks about like weather and practicality and frankly cost. Um, so I'm kind of doing it with an open mind, but I'm starting, I'm going to start lessons and see where it goes.
00:08:20
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, it is a huge investment in time and cash. So you have to really want to do it. Either you want to be like a commercial pilot, or you just want to do it for super fun. That's what my dad did, basically. He just loves it. He used to do it 20 plus years ago. And then he had kids, and we grew up, and he kind of moved away. But now he's basically retired. And he's like, yeah, I need to get my pilot's license again. This is a big part of my life.
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's for you Yeah, yeah concerns me because I don't I'm not gonna do it unless I can pour myself into it and That's a big kind of event. Yeah, exactly. I've got a lot going on. Yeah, exactly so we'll see yeah, it's it is we it was it is surreal if and if if
00:09:08
Speaker
I mean, I would highly encourage anybody who's even really interested to go. It's probably not even that expensive. Around here, you can go up for 30 minutes in a rental plane with a pilot for like $50 or $100. Nice. And it's cool to see the world from that view. And it was your kind of 101 intro to like, did you get to hold the controls at all even just for a second?
00:09:32
Speaker
Oh, no, no. It was a lesson. I mean, he took off, and he landed. But I was in the left seat, and I flew to the plane for an hour. I mean, I did dozens of turns and maneuvers up and down. Yeah. Yeah, I did that with a helicopter about three or four years ago. Serious? So I did the same lesson, but in a helicopter for an hour, you go up. I was in control. I got to hover on the landing. And it was surreal.
00:10:00
Speaker
That's insane. You don't have your airplane license, do you? No.
00:10:06
Speaker
Oh, okay. Helicopters are like crazy advanced. Right. It suited me perfectly. Um, so I don't know. The thing with the airplanes is whenever I go up with my dad, um, I get it's not air sick. It's just, I feel like crap. Like I get a wicked headache and just something's wrong with my body. I don't know what it is. Um, I didn't get that in the helicopter. Um, but yeah, it's probably because
00:10:32
Speaker
It's probably because you're too far away from your machines. Yeah, they're calling to me. Withdrawal. Magnetic field kind of thing. Yeah. Anyway, what'd you get up to this week?
Business Challenges and Financial Decisions
00:10:43
Speaker
We had a great example of an entrepreneurial week, like just what a roller coaster. Mostly good. We, yes, it's tough because like, I like, I like,
00:10:55
Speaker
I have to share this stuff because otherwise, I was thinking about that the other day. Why do we talk? Is this still making sure we're still pushing each other and keeping it raw? Right. Making sure we're actually okay, not just saying we're okay.
00:11:11
Speaker
Right. Like, am I better off and are you better off and because we're doing this and look, we had a great week. We're just we're spending a lot of money. Yeah. And that's OK. I think one of the things I.
00:11:27
Speaker
Well, it's not burn money. I need to start spending the time to do even a 20-minute variance analysis. What that means is I'm probably guilty of the same thing 99% of other small business owners are doing, which is that you have some sort of a
00:11:47
Speaker
budget and then you have your accounting and the two never talk to each other. So I'm a big believer that you should have a separate revenue budget and a separate expense budget because so many of our expenses are are not driven by
00:12:04
Speaker
Actually, for us, so many of our expenses are not working capital issues. It's not like I'm buying more inventory that's sitting on the shelf. That's just a working capital problem. We're actually just spending money on R&D or more longer term stuff or shop improvements. Or I just spent $1,000 to get my forklift trainer license so I can train people here to be forklift certified, which is code and requirement. And that's important. But there was $1,000 that wasn't in the budget.
00:12:30
Speaker
So, my goal is to change my either budget categories or QuickBooks categories on expenses so that at the end of the month, I can at least look through and get a better feeling of, okay, why does your budget deviate from your actual? Because according to my budget, we're doing great. Is that you're not foreseeing these variable things?
00:12:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's because here's a blunt answer. It's because I'm too busy. I'm busier than I would like. I'm finding myself doing a lot of tasks and I have less time to think than I would like, which is something I don't want to talk to you about today. But one of the rebuttals to that is to
00:13:15
Speaker
Well, it sounds more irresponsible when I say it out loud, but one of the ways to solve that is to throw money at the problem, meaning we have a really, really, really cool new product that we're working on this week. It's been something I've been in the back of my head and it came about way quicker than I thought. And so we grabbed some material, we whipped up, we whipped up a couple of different versions of it, and I now need to do more. I'm gone to Vegas next week, the guys are here, we've got
00:13:40
Speaker
So what do I do? I just order extra of the clamps for it and I order extra raw material and get it in. And it doesn't sound like much, but all of a sudden it was 250 here and 350 here and $100 for a tool here. And all of a sudden you just spent $600 on something that was like nothing, you know? And will we make money? Yeah, we will at the end. Or Ed is like, hey, I could use these springs for something or this tool.
00:14:08
Speaker
Strong belief is that you should find great people get them on your team and let them do great things And everyone here does a great job with what they do Which means I don't want to especially at this stage say no or nickel and dime them. Nobody's being irresponsible But that's what happens, you know
00:14:25
Speaker
Yeah, you don't want to slow them down in any capacity. Like Eric here is just due to previous experience, just averse to spending money. Whereas I like to spend money. I like to get tools. And if there's a new thing that I need, I'll usually try and get it. Whereas Eric's holding it back. And I'm like, dude, if you need that, it's $600. I'll just get it for you. It's not an issue. Right.
00:14:50
Speaker
Yeah, and the flashlight research that I've been working on, which I've kind of on hold right now, as we talked about last week. But I've put probably $1,000 into that already, and now it's on hold. So it kind of feels weird, but it's long-term. Sorry, why is it on hold? Debt repayment first. Oh, OK. Focus on production first. Good for you. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Yeah, so that's fine. It's great.
00:15:15
Speaker
It's funny because there is such a... First of all, I want to make it clear. When I say we're spending more money than I thought, basically my bank account is flat or falling a little bit each month. Whereas according to my budget, it should be growing each month. So it's not like we're... I don't want to make it sound like we have a problem, but that's also the point of a business is usually not to end up with less money each month.
00:15:40
Speaker
But what's funny to me is, as the business has grown and the numbers kind of get bigger, is the dichotomy of the business life versus the home life. Because my wife and I are so pretty frugal on most things. So it's like, hey, should we do this? Should we buy this? And sometimes we'll have this long conversation over $200 or $300. And a lot of times, I've spent $300 before 9 AM at the shop. Oh, totally. I'm the same way.
00:16:03
Speaker
Um, and I don't mean that in like a, I don't have a double standard. It's just different. Yep. Yep. Oh yeah. I've spent easily $10,000 in a single day at the shop. Whereas at home to spend 10 grand is like, Oh my God, what are you doing? Right? Like my wife probably should get a new computer. Her laptop is like five or six years old and she's been a trooper, but I'm like, ah, you know, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Whereas like everyone here has had new computers in the last two months. Yeah. Sorry. I don't know.
00:16:32
Speaker
OK, so talk about your week. What's the update on the Norseman pallets? Picking away at it. I mean, it is a big project. It's not just a chunk of aluminum with four holes in it. There's a lot of clamps. Right now, the last thing I'm finishing up is the steel clamps that I'm making, which will hold the handles onto the thing, and then a little bit more
00:16:58
Speaker
cam work and it's basically done or at least done enough to start using. So I'm super close. Are you are you happy with where you are? I wish I was further, but I'm super happy with how it's coming along and I'm wicked excited to get it done because it's going to be a game changer. So, yeah, I mean, we always wish we would be better off, but you're not. You haven't had setbacks. You haven't been.
00:17:22
Speaker
Do you have it succumbed to distractions or problems? No, it's like the distraction is production. It's real work. It's money making work, which is that you can't complain about that, right? But yeah, I was in the shop at five o'clock this morning. So I got almost two hours before our podcast working on these clamps and some other stuff. So just getting closer and closer. The other thing is on Monday, remember last week I told you about a new machinist to hire potential.
Evaluating Potential Hires
00:17:52
Speaker
Yes. So on Monday he came in and we worked together for about five hours. He was here. So a lot of, you know, talking and going over with what he wants and what I want and, you know, showing him the shop and everything. But we actually got to work. Like he ran the lathe and he made some parts and he ran the mill and kind of me sussing out his skill set and his
00:18:14
Speaker
abilities and it was really, really, really good. It was a good experience. I heard somebody else relate it to like, when you hire somebody or when you go work somewhere, it's like dating. You don't just dive right in and get married on the first day. You go on a couple of dates and then you work your way up and then et cetera. So this was kind of like our first date, having him here, just feeling it out, no commitments, anything like that. But yeah, he would have to,
00:18:43
Speaker
If he wants to work here, he would have to quit his good paying job in aerospace. And he'd have to give up an apartment, which he's using to commute for this job that's kind of far away. And then he can live closer.
00:18:59
Speaker
et cetera, et cetera. But it's a big deal for him. And it's a big deal for us because it's a lot of money and a new person on the team. But so it's got to fit for everybody. And I think it does. So tomorrow he's going to come back, I think, get another couple of dates in and then
00:19:16
Speaker
And then I think, I think we're moving forward probably not till like January 1st, maybe December, but, but yeah. Good for you. I feel like that's, you're doing it exactly the right way, which is, you know, to be, to be blunt or a little bit crass. Remember back to when you were a, you know, 16 year old in high school and all you wanted to do was, you know, get out on a date and kiss a girl or something. You know, you're just so fired up. And so, yeah.
00:19:39
Speaker
kind of like the first thing you see is good enough or let's just, let's tell yourself it's perfect. And it's like, you know, because you want the results so fast, like, yeah. Yeah. And you can't necessarily, you know, you're not in a position to bring in six machinists and there may not even be six machinists interested or able to, that's not a realistic scenario, but that's what you should think about. It's like, Hey, the ideal situation is I would have the chance to go through this with multiple people and see who's the best fit, see who's the best person. And, um,
00:20:08
Speaker
At the end of the day, when you look at most crazy successful or cutting edge technology companies, that's
Hiring Strategies: Rock Stars vs. Young Talent
00:20:15
Speaker
what they do. They bring in a pool of people and they have this kind of hunger games. You know what I mean? It's tough because some people don't always respond well to those environments. I don't want to be put next to
00:20:28
Speaker
Geez, I would be horrified to be put next to a real machinist and told, hey, you've got two hours to make this part. But that's also like, just be yourself. If you're not a good fit, you're not a good fit. Yeah. But you're right. It is a different scenario. Like if you were gunning for a job as a machinist and you went in by yourself and they were the only person you'd interviewed, you would interview very well. Like you're charismatic, you're smart, you know stuff.
00:20:54
Speaker
But to put you up against some super trained, highly knowledgeable guy at a test, you'd probably lose. I would just tell Rob Lockwood it's a different address. So he'd show up to the wrong place. Oh, it moved last minute. Yeah. Ninth green at nine. Yeah. No, it's good for you, man. That's really exciting. And that's awesome to make it work so that he can come in some and get to know it more and see and all that.
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah, and he's super excited. I asked him, I'm like, so after spending some time here working, do you have a different impression of us? He's followed our business for a long time. He knows that he's known me for 10 years, acquaintance wise. And I'm like, do you have a different impression? And he goes, no, it's exactly what I expected. And it's exactly what I want.
00:21:42
Speaker
Huh, that's cool. Yeah, that's great. Good for you. And he's actually, his job title is a process engineer in aerospace. His job title is a process engineer in aerospace. So he's already telling us like, we should probably think about doing this and we should probably think about doing that. And his job is to write process sheets and to organize the people. And oh my God, it's going to be like everything I want to do with Lean, he's an expert at.
00:22:09
Speaker
that honestly, it may be the first time I've...
00:22:14
Speaker
You're actually making me feel jealous right now in a bad way. That's really freaking cool. Good for you. I've talked to a bunch of our friends about this. Jay Pearson's one of them. And I asked him a bunch of questions about hiring and about this guy and stuff. And he said the best hires he's ever made. He only hires rock stars. And he pays them well. And he's tried to hire new people, trainees, young kids, et cetera. It never works out.
00:22:43
Speaker
And that works for him. And this would be my version of hiring a rock star. You know what I mean? But he says it's transformed his business in ways that he could have never done on his own.
00:22:58
Speaker
I love that. I struggle with that because I want to give in this. I don't mean to make myself sound, but I'm being honest. I mean, we don't have that rock star talent pool here per se. And and that's not to say you couldn't find somebody or find it or make it happen. But I also want to give younger kids a chance and get them in here and teach them. And there's that attitude of we don't hire a machinist. We hire people and teach them to do their job, which takes a lot more to do.
00:23:25
Speaker
It also goes back to the bootstrapper in me of, I don't know, I wouldn't be against, I would be,
00:23:35
Speaker
I would love to be in a situation where I also had that chance. Good for you. And I totally agree with you. And I kind of felt like I've been going back and forth, right? Do I hire the rock star? Do I hire the kid and teach him how to do it? And I can see both ways working out well. I still, in the next couple of years, I can definitely see myself hiring some kids because I want that experience too. I want to bring in young talent and
00:23:59
Speaker
and help them grow it and mold it. Like we want to fill a media person position, kind of like you're Julie. I don't need some 35 year old expert that wants $35 an hour. I don't need it. I don't want it. I want a 19 year old kid that's fresh out of high school that's like loves video but has nowhere to go kind of thing. That'd be like, I've got a perfect opportunity for you.
00:24:22
Speaker
It's actually interesting. I am like, I got to get more help around here. And that's a tough, very tough feeling to have when you're also looking at your books and being like, we're investing a lot in this business. It's good. It's good. But that's the psychology that hits you. When I said I had a roller coaster of a day, it's because some days we're like, darn, we did great. And then some days you're like, wow, we just spent a lot of money.
00:24:48
Speaker
I reached out to the local community college and said, hey, do you have any digital marketing or communications folks? So I've got somebody coming in at 9am to interview for an internship just to help out with some graphics design, some WordPress, some structure and content for the NOC site. So we'll see. They only sent one person over. I would like to have had two or three to kind of pick from because again, I think that's the better way to do it. But one step at a time.
00:25:14
Speaker
So how do you, this sounds like a stupid question thinking in my head, but how do you reach out to the local community college and ask these things? Because I have plenty of high schools and colleges and universities around here to pick from.
00:25:29
Speaker
Yeah, so just do it. I mean, I'm not apologetic about reaching out. In this case, I have a really good childhood friend who is a key person at that school. So that makes it easy to get that introduction because he'll write the email to the right faculty person and that email gets read because he's the second in chain there. But seriously,
00:25:48
Speaker
just reach out. Here's the thing that is shocking to me and it makes my blood boil is that I have had numerous faculty members or numerous people be very lackadaisical or very lazy or indifferent about
00:26:04
Speaker
companies coming to them with paid opportunities for their students. In my opinion, they should do every single thing possible to respond in a serious, interested, passionate, and helpful manner. Because at the end of the day, I understand that college is about more than just getting a job. It's about learning and a process of thinking and so forth. But I get, especially on a two-year program that is much more technical or career vocational oriented, it makes me
00:26:33
Speaker
get so ticked off when a faculty member is like, oh, I'll get around to thinking about maybe who would be a good fit. Like I am coming to you offering to pay your students on a very flexible schedule. It gets me fired up.
00:26:48
Speaker
So my point is, I don't know what it's like around your area, but don't let that deter you if you have some faculty members that are not, you know, they don't have that. I guess it's just what you feel like as an entrepreneur where you've got to fight for what you want and you've got to be hungry. And so when I see these, you know, it fits the stereotype of you have some person who maybe has tenure or maybe is just doesn't have a good sense of how the real world works. And they're like, they're not looking out for their best interests of their students. Frustrating.
00:27:16
Speaker
Yeah, they're just trying to make their job easier basically. But you want to be, I would try to focus on one or two schools or something to get to know people there also because at the end of the day, it's the real world and no one's going to tell you this. But the more you show them the love, the more they're going to want to send you their best students or they may even reach out to you proactively and say, hey, we've got a real, really good person because that's how the world works like it or not.
00:27:45
Speaker
Yep. It's funny, just at the end of the school year, this past summer, I reached out to the local high school, which has a big robotics team after hearing you talk about your local robotics school. So yeah, they've got a really big robotics team and they travel all over and win competitions and stuff. And their school is literally like three blocks away from my shop. Yeah.
00:28:08
Speaker
So I sent him a nice email, and I said, look, I'm maybe looking for people. I just want to touch base. I feel like we shouldn't get to know each other because we're so close, and opportunities, et cetera, et cetera. Four months later, I hear back from him. Yeah. I just heard back a couple weeks ago, and he's like, yeah, that sounds good. Maybe I'll drop by the shop, and if it works out, I'll bring the students over. And I'm like, great. That took four months for you to answer. I mean, yeah, it was over summer, but still.
00:28:36
Speaker
Right. But if I can humbly suggest, don't be exploratory in the tone of your email. Don't say, we're thinking about, it's just like what I tell people, when you want a job shop quote, if you email us and you're like, I might be thinking about making this part. I'm not sure. It depends on how much it costs. I don't have a lot of money. Could you quote it in one, five, 2,500, and 300? It's like, I'm not going to
00:29:00
Speaker
I'm maybe not going to quote your job or I'm not going to take it seriously. Write me an email and say, we're making this product. Could you please quote it in one or two samples and then quantity 50. Have confidence in what you're doing. You should email these people and say, we are hiring a, we will be hiring a digital media person. We'd like to know if you'd be interested in helping us source or find that person. Excellent. Really, really good advice.
00:29:30
Speaker
You don't have to follow through with it. If they aren't the good fit or whatever, that's fine. Let them kind of step up to the ball. Right. And then they take you seriously. Yep. That's really good. Hey, how do I do less?
00:29:49
Speaker
I'm hiring to get that answer solved. What frustrates me is I love what I do. I was thinking about that. I was like, do I actually do really miss having a boss? Let me tell you, I sincerely mean that. It was great having a boss where it was like, hey, this is what you need to do. This is what's on tap. This is how you meet expectations. This is how you exceed expectations.
00:30:14
Speaker
Some days you miss that, but I just don't have enough time to think.
Finding Time for Strategic Thinking
00:30:20
Speaker
And when I do think, I find it's really hard to pick up.
00:30:23
Speaker
with the last time I was thinking like, oh, where did I put down my notes? Or that was really good. And I need to be able to build off of that and not restart from a blank slate every time, whether it's every day or whether it's every seven days. Do you have this at all? I feel like I have a decent amount of time to think and process and do what I want to do internally, whether it's coming up with new stuff. Maybe I just make the time for it.
00:30:50
Speaker
I think more than I do. Maybe you're doing more on a day-to-day basis, like actually executing on things, whereas I tend to spend a lot of time just thinking and planning on things and not executing enough. Where do you do this, though? Do you guys have to shop? Yeah, sometimes. I mean, at the shop, I'm sure you do too, but I spend a lot of time on my computer. And if a thought comes into my head, I do it.
00:31:16
Speaker
Even if it kind of distracts me from important stuff, sometimes I'll research that thing or I'll look up that product or I'll add that to my Amazon list. As it comes to me, instead of waiting for later to think about it and process it, I get it done. But it's at the detriment of real production.
00:31:36
Speaker
So do you, so like when I think about that, I think about, I've been going to, there's a Starbucks literally like a thousand yards down the road. So I actually have been going there a lot for like an hour in the middle of the day or something. And it's, it's super, I can't believe I, I feel like it's a weakness to admit this, but like, it's actually really good for me to get out of my normal office to think, which I hate, but whatever it is what it is. Um, but
00:32:02
Speaker
For me to do what you just said, I probably get a legit one email every three minutes. So I really needed to close my email. And then for here, I probably get somebody here who wants to ask me something in the shop every, I'd say every 15 minutes. Yeah. And maybe you don't have that yet. Maybe that's coming. I don't yet. Because Eric's pretty much self-sufficient. Barry and I work together pretty closely.
00:32:35
Speaker
I used to stay up wicked late all the time to have this time to myself. Nowadays, most of the time, I try to get up early. And since I have this schedule, I don't wake up, shower, go to the shop like you do. I want to take the kids to school for 8.30. So if I wake up at 5, I have two and a half hours to probably come back. Oh, because you don't go to the shop and come back. Right. Right, right, right. So on a good day, on a smart day,
00:32:56
Speaker
And then I mean, the other thing I do is,
00:33:04
Speaker
work on one of the morning routines that I'm kind of trying to finalize, you know, that works best for me. Um, usually try to exercise and then sometimes I'll just sit there and think like after before my exercise and just like process the morning thoughts. And sometimes I'll skip my whole exercise because I've been thinking too much and I ran out of time and it's a good thing, right? Like, like I'll use that time to think, which you're not getting, right? Right.
00:33:30
Speaker
Right. That's a good thing. It's tough because I am very fresh in the morning. I very much love and not in a polyacres. I want to punch you away. But like I love now seizing the day. And it used to be that when I got up early, it was tough. And now I'm like,
00:33:47
Speaker
550 or 555, I am like ready to go. At 620, I'm at my desk here at the shop and I'm like, I'm in a good mood. But then, you know, three o'clock, it's really hard to think, you know, I've made a lot of decisions and gone through a lot.
00:34:03
Speaker
And I have no more. Yvonne and I were joking about this. When I was back in New York, I would get home from my day job and I would legit work in the shop from like six till 10 or 11, really work. And now, you know, we hang out with the kids and then from like seven, 7.30 till nine, I have really, I was trying to do math infusion at like 7.30 two nights ago. And I was like, this is what dementia is like. I can't do basic math right now.
00:34:31
Speaker
It wasn't funny. Imagine you only have 100 decisions in a day, and you use them all. No, but I was trying to do a counter board. I don't remember what it was. I was like, how can I not do this right now? This is insane. And I'm happy. And don't get me wrong. It's not like I love all this. I just miss
00:34:54
Speaker
I was like, I was like, you're going to, you're going to hang up on me. I was like, I wonder if I drink one of those like energy drinks. This would like, let me, I was like, no, I'm not doing that. I've never, no, that's not me. Do you, what's your, I know you get up at different, what's your, what's the closest thing to a normal routine for you in terms of getting up and going to bed?
Morning Routine and Productivity
00:35:14
Speaker
Five o'clock wake up. Um, today was four 30 cause I wanted to be at the shop by five. Um,
00:35:22
Speaker
But yeah, five o'clock wake up, go downstairs in the basement where it's quiet. And then I've got a Tony Robbins, but 20 minute kind of morning routine that you listen to. And he has to do a bunch of like breathing exercises and thinking about goals and thinking about all the things you appreciate in life. And it's pretty powerful and I'm really enjoying it. The same one every morning?
00:35:44
Speaker
Yeah. I found it in August and I've been listening to it most mornings. Do I have to buy it? No, it's to me. I found it at the end of an hour and a half YouTube video of one of his seminars. And I ripped the audio of this 20 minutes where he puts the whole audience into this. It's not really meditation, but it's similar.
00:36:10
Speaker
Yeah, I wish I'd probably have the link somewhere. Maybe I'll send it to you for the show notes, because it's really good. OK, awesome. Yeah, 20 minutes, and I feel like I'm on fire at the end of that. And then I do my workout, and then maybe get an hour to work on whatever I want, emails, CAD, CAM, whatever, and then breakfast, take the kids to school, then I'm in the shop by 9 o'clock. And I usually stay till 5 or 6.
00:36:35
Speaker
But then are you productive at night or when you go to bed? Okay. On that schedule, no. I go home, you know, I'm home by six or seven and then, you know, spend some time with the kids, eat dinner, get the kids to sleep. And then it's like nine or 10 o'clock and I have the choice, do I ruin my schedule and stay up late? Either try to work or watch a show or a movie or something or be smart and go to bed by 10 or 11. And then I, you know, schedule restarts.
00:37:05
Speaker
It's pretty easy to ruin the schedule by staying up till midnight, one o'clock, getting stuck on something. Because as hard as I feel like I work, I need my sleep. I think sleep a lot because I'm usually in bed by 10, 10.30 and I get up at six or whatever. So that's actually seven, eight hours of sleep.
00:37:31
Speaker
I've never been able to do, at least sustainably do the like three, four, five hours of sleep, like some people can. Yeah, I was on five hours of sleep for like a year or two, probably two years ago.
00:37:42
Speaker
It was aggressive and I don't know if it was the best idea, but I got a lot done. I think six to seven is my ideal number. If I sleep to eight, I feel groggy. That's interesting. It doesn't work for me. Sometimes I've done eight or nine just on a Saturday morning or something and I'm like lazy all Saturday. But if I get five or six or almost seven, I can wake up fired. It's weird.
00:38:10
Speaker
What are you up to today? Today, a lot of stuff. Going to make some blades, and then we're going to heat treat them. And it's super annoying and super busy being on this piece by piece schedule until we get the new palette. But it's close. Got it. And we're producing really good numbers. Good for you. And it's awesome.
00:38:32
Speaker
You have material in stock. You make it into a knife. You put it up as a maker's choice. You generate cash, revenue, ship it. That's the process right now? Yep. And in a perfect scenario, that entire process takes two days.
00:38:46
Speaker
Yep. From raw materials to knife out the door two days. Now, the world is not perfect. And Eric currently has 20 plus knives that he still needs to take pictures of to put on the website. Things back up because there's only so much time in the day. And he's thinking to himself, do I take a few hours to take all these pictures? Or do I finish another knife today? I want to finish another knife today. You know what I mean? And then the work piles up. Sure. Sure, sure, sure.
00:39:13
Speaker
Even on the Maker's Choice Private-ish stuff, you're taking pictures that take a couple of hours? It can. You've got to clean the knife. You've got to make it look good. They fingerprint pretty easily. And when there's a lot to do, 20 knives at a few minutes each, that's a few hours. Oh, OK. More than one knife. Yeah, yeah. OK, got it.
00:39:39
Speaker
You just raised two really good points, which I think we should save for next week, but that's interesting. This thought occurred to me this morning when I was getting in the shower and thinking about our podcasts or our talk. And I was like, wow, I'd never really thought about this, but our businesses are so, you and I are so similar, if I can say that, like so similar in so many ways, but at this point now,
00:40:02
Speaker
our companies have completely forked, which is that to be blunt or at the risk of summarizing, you have a supply problem and I have a demand problem. Now, neither are a problem in that explicit word or sense, but that ties in with the other thing I want to talk to you about next week, which is...
Setting Future Goals
00:40:19
Speaker
I think coming back to why you and I do this, which is to kind of keep a sense of accountability and keep us on track. You know, I miss, I want you to be my boss. Like I miss having that boss. Let's talk about what I hate the word. I hate saying 2018 goals. Let's talk about what we want to finish 2018 having accomplished and where we want to be. Good. Awesome. Let's do it. I love it. Yeah. Looking forward to that. Oh, anything else? No, I think that's pretty good.
00:40:49
Speaker
Oh, I was going to ask. I was going to ask our listeners. We would like your help, which is not to tell your friends about this podcast because that never happens. But if you enjoy this and you use social media, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, will you post what you've gotten out of this podcast? Feel free to tag John or I or on whatever social media platform it is. But we'd love to have people if they get this kind of spread the word.
00:41:18
Speaker
Yeah, I love seeing posts on Instagram or comments on YouTube or whatever, where people are appreciating any value that they get out of this. And frankly, telling the value so that we know what works.
00:41:32
Speaker
No, it's our listeners job to do that because that's their fee of entrance to keep paying this forward and sharing it. And I think John and I aren't going to share anything publicly yet, but we're thinking about what does this podcast become? And we want to see your input and your passion about thinking. We've had so many people say, you should have guests on here.
00:41:53
Speaker
It's a conversation between me and John, so I don't want to change that, but there are some thoughts that we've had. So we appreciate folks paying it forward and sharing and posting about it. Yeah, and we appreciate you guys just listening to us talk about our day. I mean, it's kind of surreal, but I get so many texts from my friends and stuff that are like, oh man, I'm dealing with that exact same problem. I'm so glad you guys talked about it.
00:42:20
Speaker
It's funny to me. It goes back to the Dale Carnegie thing. I was just being honest. It seems funny to me that.
00:42:26
Speaker
our sort of simplistic, very raw, honest podcast, like you and I don't put effort into this in the sense that we, you know, we don't sit down and contrive up a schedule or to talk about these are just real world things. It seems funny to me that that in and of itself seems to be the unique value that we bring to the podcast world like what, you know, because everyone, yeah.
00:42:51
Speaker
Yeah, at best, we might have two bullet points to bring up throughout the thing. But yeah, it's not this scripted or super planned out thing. Yeah, awesome. I am going to go have fun in Vegas. I will see you next Friday. Yes, sounds good. You'll be back by then, huh? All right. I come back. Yeah, I come back Thursday. So I'll be here Friday morning. I'm jealous. I couldn't go this year, but I had a blast at AU last year.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited. I really am. But it's I like being at the shop. We're in a good place right now here. I want to keep keep I'm excited about where we're going to be. Sorry, put it that way. Good stuff. Awesome. See you bud. All right. Take care. Bye.