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Christine Frank - TCIC Inc.
81 Plays9 months ago
Christine Frank doesn’t just lead in a gritty industry—she owns one. In this episode, Christine shares her unconventional journey from fluid power tech to engineer and business owner, navigating global industrial automation, cybersecurity, and the challenge of being a woman in steel-toed industries. We talk about the importance of building trust, showing up, asking good questions—and yes, how not to wear heels to a wastewater plant. If you care about leadership, infrastructure, or avoiding cybersecurity backdoors through your HVAC system, this one’s for you.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Gritty Leadership Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Gritty Leadership, the podcast where we celebrate the leaders who make and move America. We're diving into the untold stories of resilience, innovation, and perseverance of the leaders in the gritty industries that keep America running.
00:00:13
Speaker
I'm Brian Smith, and together with my co-host Angie Jones, we're on a mission to honor the leadership that's often overlooked but makes all the difference. So let's get into it, because real leadership gets its hands dirty.
Meet Christine Frank: Trailblazing in Gritty Industries
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome to the Gritty Podcast, Gritty Leadership Podcast. Angie, Sam, great to see you guys. Hey, Brian. Great to be here, Brian. Awesome. Well, we have an awesome guest today. Christine is a character.
00:00:39
Speaker
She has grown up around gritty businesses for some time, was working successfully in gritty businesses long before it was very common for ah women to be in gritty businesses very much. And so she has some great perspective, I think, on forging a path,
00:01:01
Speaker
For women leaders in gritty businesses, I'm always really, really impressed by women like her who had the um drive and courage to move into those spaces where it had to have been so difficult in the early years.
00:01:20
Speaker
ah But she clearly did not give a damn. and uh and me and made it hers and uh and nobody was gonna mess with her either and uh so i think you're gonna really enjoy this conversation i learned a lot and i hope you do too so um we'll go to that and look forward to seeing you guys in our next episode Welcome to the Gritty Leadership Podcast. We are very excited to welcome Christine Frank to the podcast today. Welcome, Christine, and thanks for joining us.
00:01:56
Speaker
Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Awesome. ah We'll just jump right in and ah tell us a little bit about you. Tell us your story, where you came from, what you're doing, and um and how you got here.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Born and raised in Minnesota, don't you know? super then. Yeah, real good then. So my background, um I grew up in Minnesota my whole entire life, but I've been global up until a few years ago for a majority of my ah work life.
Career Transition: From Fluid Power to IT
00:02:28
Speaker
So I started out in fluid power. So that's kind of the the first thing that I started doing. um Fluid power is basically pneumatics, hydraulics, and electrical, the three types of power.
00:02:42
Speaker
Then I went in and started working for the industry um after working in distribution for a little bit. i'm So I started working in the early 90s, don't tell anybody, well, mid 90s, we'll just say that. um I've really always, my whole entire life, really enjoyed anything mechanical, electrical. I mean, I know we're not supposed to use these words anymore, but I was a tomboy.
00:03:06
Speaker
I hung out boys my whole life, didn't know any better. So fluid power really worked for me when I went to school because it was all guys hanging out with and I got to turn wrenches. So it was pretty fun.
00:03:17
Speaker
But we also did a lot of programming and things like that. so i Were you an engineer by trade then? or I am now, but I wasn't then. ah So fluid power was a two-year degree, and I think that was probably the best education to learn engineering um than just getting your engineering degree.
00:03:33
Speaker
And then later I went on to do um industrial technology, which is basically management of plants and factories, which I've never done. never done it. But I've worked with so many plants and factories and and process control customers that it's it's a really good base to understand how they they run their businesses.
00:03:53
Speaker
um So i worked for Honeywell for many years and I worked in industrial automation from Honeywell. Then I worked at ah Siemens as well and SICK.
00:04:04
Speaker
And then a few years after that, I decided I really wanted to get away from strictly industrial automation and see what it would like to what it would like to be on the IT side.
00:04:18
Speaker
Teaching IT people what industrial automation really was. So I went and worked for some pretty big players such as Dell, HPE, and then also a company called Progress where they do ah ERP systems for industrial automation companies.
00:04:37
Speaker
So there's three ERP systems and they're the one that does all of that for industrial automation. And when COVID hit, I was like, oh boy, What am I going to do? I really don't want the title of IoT in my name anymore because every time I have it, they either um go through restructuring, reshuffling, recategorizing or whatever. And I thought, I want to go back to where I started, which it was in distribution.
TCIC's Vision and Offerings
00:05:04
Speaker
And so I bought TCIC in 2020. And that's where I am. Awesome. So tell us about TCIC. So TCIC started over 30 years ago. And when I purchased it, what I recognized was it wasn't just a distributor. They were doing things that actually connected to IoT or Industry 4.0, and they didn't even know it.
00:05:29
Speaker
So we are a distributor for industrial automation, process control, some building automation, and then we are also a service provider for wireless communications, radios,
00:05:43
Speaker
short range, long range cellular devices, and really bridging that gap between industrial and IT again, because we're working with either that the end users or the OEM equipment manufacturers, if that makes sense. um and the cool thing is, is that because I've been in industrial communications for a very long time as kind of my specialty, on top of that with safety,
00:06:12
Speaker
it's really benefited a lot of the customers because they're not just talking to somebody who owns a distributor, they're talking to someone who's traveled globally and understands applications all over the place or use cases.
00:06:23
Speaker
So that's TCIC in a nutshell. But yeah, we offer engineering services and then we sell product, but we always help customers with design development, um really trying to find solutions that fit their needs versus just saying, here, buy this.
00:06:37
Speaker
but How can we future proof you? How can we bring you forward? and i And I always look at it as people, process and things. How can we help the people? What is that process to get there?
00:06:49
Speaker
And what are the things that you need in order to get it? Excellent. What are the kinds of problems you solve for your customers then? So we work with, like I said, all different types of industrial folks. And when I say industrial, I mean anything on the cement side of the house.
00:07:07
Speaker
I don't care. Right. Yeah. we're not on cur yeah yeah Gotcha. Yeah. So that's kind of a thing I came up on the tri i came up with about 15 years ago to explain it to IT people, really.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah. Well, that's great. Gritty is kind of what we came up with. So same idea. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so what I found was a lot of people didn't understand that there are so many divisions and different markets and different types of applications and industrial, but I could explain it to him as anything on the cement side of the house, anything that was rugged, dirty, you had to worry about shock, vibration, noise, all those kinds of things. so So we help anyone on the cement side of the house with industrial communications as one of our focuses, whether that's connecting to SCADA systems, PLCs, PACs, whatever you want to call them, um as well as doing the wireless communications for it out in the field.
00:08:04
Speaker
So we really take the time to help customers in development of their wireless plans, say at a water wastewater treatment plant. But then they're connecting to all the lift stations and they want to know, you know, what the level is inside of it or if a manhole is gone, it could be really anything.
Case Studies and Industry Challenges
00:08:24
Speaker
But mainly what they're doing is they're connecting to those locations to collect data and then take that data and take action on it. But that's one area.
00:08:35
Speaker
Another area that we work on is within manufacturing. So I'm okay to say this. One of my largest customers is a boat manufacturer and they have 13 locations across the globe.
00:08:47
Speaker
And we actually work with them on in all their different locations, developing new ways to collect data and make them more accessible. not just collecting the data, but actually taking action on it.
00:09:00
Speaker
So whether it's um doing a security system monitoring for employees or a risk analysis out there for them, or maybe it's we're building a panel where they're doing an and on system so they can actually look at their tack time throughout the process of the manufacturing. How long does it take to put the carpet in the boat?
00:09:23
Speaker
or of course other things, but they're looking at each one of those stations in those cells and they want to know how can we improve that process, what's missing from that process and how can we make it better for our workers.
00:09:36
Speaker
It's not about eliminating of them. It's about bringing the ability for them to see within that process, develop a better process and train their people better. Yeah, that's interesting because like centralizing that data from multiple locations has to be a challenge for a big company like that.
00:09:54
Speaker
Absolutely. And you have to work with the IT t side too, right? And so that bridging of that gap is having the IT t folks understand, yes, we need security, but certificates and different things don't change in the industrial world as fast as in the IT side.
00:10:11
Speaker
So be patient. he I think a lot of them don't unders understand that. So we try to explain also network segmentation. How do you segment your network so that IT and OT can play well and Taco Tuesday, as I call it, doesn't conflict with what's happening on the factory floor. And what I mean by that is what happens if an email goes through at the same time um ah sensor goes out on the manufacturing floor?
00:10:39
Speaker
Whose signal gets there first? Well, IT t folks don't think about what is ah mission critical on the factory side so they don't understand the data process, right? What has to get through, um what has to get there, you know, no latency, um deterministic, all those types of things.
00:10:58
Speaker
So we work with the IT folks to understand, yes, we can connect together, but there's still priorities on the network that have to be concerned with and this is why. And so I spend a lot of time explaining network segmentation, why using managed switches is an absolute when you're mixing IT t and OT for those reasons.
00:11:18
Speaker
So that if Bobby sends that Taco Tuesday email out and guess what? We didn't get that other bit of information. Nobody's in trouble. does that Does that help answer that?
00:11:29
Speaker
I think so. Yeah. yeah I don't know. You know, my ADD sometimes, I forget where I am. So just check it. Oh, yeah. No, i I'm part of the club, too. I i definitely understand.
00:11:41
Speaker
wo Yeah. squirrels Yeah, exactly for sure. No, I'm i'm right there with you. So how many people are ah in the company with you? Oh, we are five strong.
00:11:54
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah. ah But then I also work with a lot of contractors, system integrators and folks that help me um in between, which is great. I have quite a few ah partnerships um all across the country to actually help me with development design in those areas that were not necessarily right in their backyard.
00:12:13
Speaker
um And I always look for really good integrator folks, um whether it's process control or discrete automation. always look for those folks because of me having global ah customers.
00:12:28
Speaker
If we can't get out there right away, I look for other ones that I can trust and work with them to with ah the different products that we support.
The Return of U.S. Manufacturing and Security Concerns
00:12:37
Speaker
So are you inventorying product or are you? we do. Yeah, we do. So we're not just drop shipping. We actually do. um We stock, we have inventory, um not as much as say a strictly controls or electrical supply house, because we're really working with more high tech in the sense that It's networking communications.
00:13:01
Speaker
And that's you can't always stock because you don't know what kind of radio you're going to need based on the location. And but then once we get working with, say, an OEM that's doing remote monitoring, we'll stock all that for them.
00:13:16
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yeah, so we have different product lines that we work with. um HMS, the folks at Redline and HMS actually merged.
00:13:26
Speaker
So that's kind of exciting because we had both lines and we were able to keep that. We do HMIs, we work with folks like Vipa who build out PLCs and communications.
00:13:38
Speaker
um We have HMIs, a lot of different vendors, not just um not just one. So we have 32 actually on our line card. Awesome. um So what made you want to go buy a business?
00:13:52
Speaker
Oh, yeah, never finished that sentence, did I? So COVID hit. I kind of did. COVID hit and I decided I really didn't want to get reorganized again within a big organization.
00:14:03
Speaker
love big organizations, but when they only go quarter at to quarter and you're only as good as that quarter or whatever, the the direction of the top level.
00:14:17
Speaker
IoT sometimes they think they can make it work in two years. Takes a lot longer than industrial, right? You might not have a a great customer for three to six years, depending on the lifecycle and with where they are in planning.
00:14:32
Speaker
So two years is not enough runway for it to be a positive effect. So when I started looking at the distributor and like I told you earlier, um that they're IoT and they didn't know it. I was like, this is perfect.
00:14:45
Speaker
Now I can go to my customers and offer them a full solution with but the right products or best in class versus, oh, I only have this one widget. who So I like that so that we can integrate a lot of products together to come up with the best solution.
00:15:00
Speaker
And sometimes we don't even use the ones we distribute. Sometimes we find them other ones because that's a better solution. It doesn't matter to me who we use or who we buy from, although I love my vendors, but sometimes you have to go out and outsource.
00:15:13
Speaker
I think we we definitely relate to the courage it takes to do that. Yeah, absolutely. It's been interesting. As I tell everybody, I'm living the dream.
00:15:26
Speaker
Whenever they ask me, you doing and I'm living the dream. The biggest change, I mean, i don't want to piss anyone off, but to be frank, um with the presidential election changing, our customers are really excited because manufacturing is coming back.
00:15:45
Speaker
So because I started out the mid 90s, I remember when a lot of manufacturers such as furniture making, such as ah textiles, um pharmaceuticals all used to be here.
00:15:58
Speaker
And then in the early 2000s, they all left. Well, they're coming back. That's pretty exciting. Same thing with semiconductors that ran until the mid 2005, 2006 before they left.
00:16:10
Speaker
so i see a lot of excitement And I also see in some of our um private sector public sectors, government, they're starting to invest and in actual um not just replacing equipment, but actually looking at it as as a security thing.
00:16:30
Speaker
as well as improving the infrastructure. So I do think over the next year or two, you're gonna see a lot more um capital expenditures for infrastructure for security. And I don't mean physical security, i'm i'm i'm I do, but I also mean cybersecurity, right?
00:16:48
Speaker
and And really protecting that because there's still a lot of holes out there. that people haven't thought about backdooring through the HVAC system if it doesn't have a password. boy So let's talk about that. How should manufacturers be thinking about cybersecurity today?
00:17:06
Speaker
and and And I know you're an expert in this, so let's let's ah pretend, for example, that I know nothing about this because I don't. um you know So try to keep it simple for me. like How should manufacturers be thinking about cybersecurity?
00:17:21
Speaker
There's a lot of different ways of thinking about it because it does have physical and cyber kind of should be built in together. I think that um depending on locations and all that, you know, there a lot of them are tying in cameras now at the substations um in the plant itself.
00:17:41
Speaker
But cybersecurity from the standpoint of making sure that IT t and OT work together so that they're protecting the shop floor. who Because there are a lot of open holes on the shop floor if you're not segmenting your network and understanding that.
00:17:58
Speaker
And cybersecurity can help with that, right? But it's not the same as IT security. There's different elements that come in there. And so getting the two groups together to understand that is super important.
00:18:09
Speaker
And so from my perspective, I think that the company really needs to have a push for both sides to work together and not one more dominant over the other when it comes to cybersecurity. Because if you do that, you're not going to end up with a robust system.
00:18:26
Speaker
So and and the other thing, too, is I kind of think of every customer as a new snowflake. Nobody is the same, even though they look alike. And you really you really have to look at the customer's needs, not just trying to blanket a cybersecurity approach to everyone. It's not the same.
00:18:43
Speaker
Mm hmm. But you said, I mean earlier saying like someone might be able to get in through your HVAC system. That seems kind of scary to me. like is that So building automation systems use BACnet.
00:18:55
Speaker
BACnet is essentially runs on the same type of cable as serial and and r j forty five for Ethernet. And a lot of places don't replace their HVAC systems while they're building automation control systems for years because just like in a factory, you don't build it and remodel it every two years. You set it and you forget it.
00:19:16
Speaker
Same thing with the HVAC. And so if they have an older system that they didn't set passwords on because they set it and forget it, there are ways to backdoor in through it if it's connected to other parts of the network.
00:19:31
Speaker
Right. That i've I've been talking about that for about 10 years now. And I had a airport actually go back and look at their facility and they went, oh, my gosh, it's wide open.
00:19:45
Speaker
Oh, wow. yeah Yep. Is that a hard thing to fix or is it just something you got to just it's not that hard to fix. You just have to do it. Well, in BACnet, you're able to actually password protect. It's built into it, but a lot of people just put password.
00:20:00
Speaker
So maybe changing it and letting only a few people know about it would be a good thing instead of just password, password or password. Or do some people like have it firewalled off from their main network or?
00:20:12
Speaker
Not all of them do. Because again, that HVAC system or the building automation system itself was set up so long ago, nobody thought it was going to be connected to the internet. Right. Right.
00:20:24
Speaker
Right? So that to me is a vulnerability that a lot of people overlook and it does affect the, it does affect the whole system because a lot of, a lot of the time IT folks are connecting into that building automation and they're managing it, but they don't realize there's a backdoor on it.
00:20:43
Speaker
Also older um control communication systems out there too. If it's nine to 10 years old and it has an ethernet port on it, password, password, Yeah.
00:20:54
Speaker
Factory reset. So thinking about those things, how how do I protect something that's still working out there? um And I don't want to lock it completely down. Do I put a device in front of it?
00:21:07
Speaker
What do I do? You know, there's a lot of different ways to look at cybersecurity and there's not one way that's the best. And advocating for just making sure they're changing passwords or making sure that nobody knows the factory reset is a really good thing.
00:21:23
Speaker
and Unfortunately, that that's still out there. um You know, a couple years ago, I think it was, and I won't say the automation company's name because it's allegedly, allegedly their ODM manufacturer in Asia was,
00:21:39
Speaker
was still putting the backdoor password on it up until two years ago. And they were telling customers to take a key in the front of the PLC and turn it to um not to manual.
00:21:52
Speaker
So to lock it out because they didn't have a fix for it. So there's still a lot of that going on too in the industrial space where the control systems, even though people think that they're password there isn't a factory reset, some of them still do.
Data Insights and Customer-Centric Solutions
00:22:07
Speaker
so you got to be careful and make sure you understand that. so So I would say besides trying to understand what you need to do and what you need to protect and think about those vulnerabilities, it's also making sure that you do an audit every few years to see if you're doing that, right?
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah. And how old is your equipment? That's a good key indicator. And just, ah again, ah maybe a silly question from a simple caveman marketer like me.
00:22:35
Speaker
ah When you're talking about communication, you're talking about like systems talking to systems. You're not talking about necessarily people communicating. No, no, no, you're right. i'm I'm talking about field buses, networks and communications over industrial Ethernet, which is different than standard TCP IP.
00:22:53
Speaker
Yeah, but you're not talking about like walkie talkies. No, yeah I'm talking about machine to machine, which we don't really use in the industrial space, but that's a good explanation. Um,
00:23:04
Speaker
ah cell to cell, work cell to work cell, but the control system has its own communications network on it, whether it's serial, field bus, or ah form of industrial ethernet and making sure that we're looking at that and managing it.
00:23:20
Speaker
As you've started this business and been going after it, how i I assume you have competitors out there, right? Oh, of course. um how How do you differentiate what you do versus what your competitors are doing?
00:23:35
Speaker
It's really about giving them the right products, but also supporting them in their application. So as I said before, if we don't have the right product, we're going to find something that's going to work.
00:23:46
Speaker
But what I like to do as a technology interview with people to truly understand what is it that you're doing today that you want to do differently? Or what is it you don't know that you want to do differently?
00:23:57
Speaker
who Right. And in manufacturing, when we When we want to improve something, there's a reason usually, and there's a cost behind it.
00:24:08
Speaker
So ah ROI is great, but ah ROA is even more important. Return on assets. So how much money am I making from that asset if I improve? So for instance, if you're making cream corn and the cream corn's been made the same way for 40 years, you're probably not going to change your equipment.
00:24:25
Speaker
You're only going change your label. That was a very Minnesota example, by the way. I know. I've met a lot of people out there don't even know what cream corn is. it's it's ah it's ah It's an interesting byproduct of corn. How's that?
00:24:37
Speaker
Yeah. That's in cream. Yeah. Yeah. That has no cream in it. No, no. It's the cream that comes to the top. Yeah. It's a fun fact. i I say to one of my... So i ah my my kid's 16 and he's got this ah lovely friend and i his friend is... ah always coming up with fun facts, but they're ah usually not that great.
00:24:59
Speaker
And I always say to him, I'm like, Finn, you know, a fun fact needs to be fun. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's otherwise it's just a fact. But, you know, we can't all be Cliff Clavins.
00:25:11
Speaker
That's true. And I would say that ah cream corn. That's if anybody understands what I'm talking about. I'm i'm with you 100%. Yeah. But cream corn not not containing cream. I think that's a good discussion topic for for later.
00:25:28
Speaker
Most definitely. it's yeah It's a fun process to watch. I bet. Yeah. yeah So we were talking about how you how you differentiate yourself. Oh, yeah. So we help customers. Two ADHD kids here. Sorry. I know. I know. Totally.
00:25:42
Speaker
I think the main thing is is that ever since I bought the company, i've i made it I've made it all about the customers and not just about money, even though I like money. But if I can solve your problem and you're happy and I'm happy, you're going to come back.
00:25:58
Speaker
I also believe that you gotta to get back to people immediately versus um any latency, just like on a machine, we don't like that. We don't like latency. And really the other thing is, is it's about um
00:26:15
Speaker
educating customers on new ways of doing things um and what the benefits are. And again, way, how can they improve their process or their machine or their equipment?
00:26:26
Speaker
And if there's no reason to improve it, and it's not gonna value them, I'm not gonna tell them to rip and replace everything and and and on their machine. I just won't do that.
00:26:38
Speaker
I'm pretty open and and upfront um depending on the solution that they're looking for. Where some people out there will say, you need to rip and replace everything. It's not always true, especially if a machine's been around 50 years.
00:26:50
Speaker
Sure, it can be updated and retrofit, but ripping and replacing everything doesn't mean that you can make more flagpoles. It just means you can collect more data on the flagpoles, but you're still making it it in the same way that you always did.
00:27:05
Speaker
so So I'm careful about that with people as well, is everybody wants to chase the data, but if the data doesn't improve the process, what's the point? The way I like to always think about it is what action are we going to take? What decision are we going to make based on the data we gather?
00:27:21
Speaker
if we can't answer that question, then we're just looking for stuff that's interesting. And context, because not, and I have this saying, not all data is created equal. Some come with consequences.
00:27:33
Speaker
oh And so what do I mean by that? So when I worked for ah one of the manufacturers I worked for that ah they were building a piece of equipment or a piece of hardware that had dip switches on it. Okay.
00:27:48
Speaker
Love the market switch. I know. And the marketing person came to me one day and said, Oh my gosh, Christine, I know why people like that product. Everyone online and everyone who calls in is asking about the dip swishes. That must be the reason why they love it. And I said, actually, no, it's because they don't understand it.
00:28:09
Speaker
So again, there wasn't the context behind the data. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to apologize on behalf of the marketing community for what Christine just went through. and ah that is not reflective in any way of how i would like to be seen as a marketer.
00:28:28
Speaker
um But I understand exactly what you're going through. so And it wasn't a bad thing because after I explained it to her, she goes, Oh, so what we really need to do is write more white paper so people can understand and how to troubleshoot it.
00:28:42
Speaker
Right. With this device. Yeah. But the context behind that data was was not all there. So even though we got a lot of data points about that product, that product actually wasn't the reason why they were calling in.
00:28:58
Speaker
It was the dip switches and dip switches are not fun if you don't know binary. No. ah Or if you have big, like ah meaty fingers, they're not fun either. That's why we keep those small screwdrivers around.
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah. No, I always say when I think about data, I think about it in three levels. You have data, which is just the numbers. so You have information, which is what are the numbers doing? Are they going up or down? Are they big are they small?
00:29:25
Speaker
But then you have insights, which is what you're talking about. What does it mean? yeah and if you can't get to that kind of third level, it sort of doesn't matter. Yeah. the whether theyre even even the information are they going up or down like is that good or bad like um like right and then how do you predict for bad when you've never had it right yeah like what does good look like what does bad look like um and so yeah i mean i i imagine in your business having to like be able to set baselines and understand uh
00:30:04
Speaker
the data you're getting from this equipment and help your customers understand it, it has to be part of the part of the process and part of the value. And how long do we have to collect the data to see an anomaly that tells us it's bad? Because we can't predict for bad if we don't know what bad is, right?
00:30:22
Speaker
And that process might take a long time. And some people are okay with it and others are like, i don't know I'm collecting the data then, everything's perfect.
Christine's Unique Experience and Advice for New Grads
00:30:32
Speaker
Well, so I mean, in water treatment, hopefully you don't ever see bad.
00:30:37
Speaker
No, no, no. You don't want that. No, no. Crappy days are not good
00:30:43
Speaker
yeah not Yeah. No, I was on the city council for my town here. And every every year the water department would come in and give a little report on like what they were up to. And every year I'd say, as long as I have no idea what you people are doing, you guys are doing a great job.
00:31:00
Speaker
Yeah. Exactly. that That's definitely true. You don't want it in the news. Yeah. ah So it's, yeah, it's good stuff. So in the end, I try to differentiate myself um by having more knowledge and in certain areas in technology so that I can act as a um an extension of my customer's business. At the end, that's really what's the key differentiation, I believe.
00:31:26
Speaker
um Having the the global um vast knowledge that I've seen over the years, I think it really helps versus my competitors who may have only been a local sales guy. or gal or person for, you know, the last 15 years. They haven't seen all the applications that I have. I mean, I've been over 3000 plus different factories globally, probably more than that.
00:31:49
Speaker
And I've seen a lot of stuff. And and and of course, I always tell the customer, oh that is so interesting. That is really, really different. You guys are doing a great job. And then I think about it and go, oh, it looks like the one over there, but they don't know it.
00:32:01
Speaker
Right? Even though it's one guy's making razor blades and the other one's making boeings, they still have certain systems and and ways of doing their controls automation that's similar, right?
00:32:14
Speaker
And they both have ways of improving on it. So you can learn from that to teach others. um I think that's ah that's a big key differentiation between a lot of my competitors is I have that ability to look at things end to end as well.
00:32:28
Speaker
And what I mean by that is because I went to school for fluid power first, I understand hydraulics, I understand electrical, I understand mechanical, I understand pneumatics. I can look at a machine all the way through the electrical, all the way up into the control system, the SCADA, where a lot of folks are a little more siloed in the areas that they've learned.
00:32:49
Speaker
um if they're just say a mechanical engineer or not just, but, but they have a mechanical versus an electrical, right? Those are two different, two different areas. And you don't really cross pneumatics and hydraulics with electrical that often.
00:33:06
Speaker
If that makes sense, you do, but not all the time. It's usually have different people who manage that. And so I can look at a machine, walk in and go, oh, and they go, how do you know that much? and I go, because I went to school for all that earlier, you know?
00:33:19
Speaker
Yeah. um I think that's a big key differentiator. And then I would say the last key differentiator between myself and the others is I pick up my phone. There are so many people who don't pick up their phone.
00:33:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, 100%. Might sound silly, but I don't want a text message. I want someone to call me back if I have a problem. Yeah. Don't text me.
00:33:42
Speaker
And certainly don't write me a dissertation that's, you know, 17 pages long that we could have talked on the phone for two minutes. You could have told me to turn on that bit of information. So 100 percent new grads. It depends where they're graduating from.
00:33:56
Speaker
ah You know, a lot of kids now are aren't doing computer science and those types of things. It seems like um it's still needed in industrial automation. So don't think that you only have to go work for Google and Apple.
00:34:10
Speaker
There are control systems and and and other things that are happening in our industry that still can relate to what you went to school for in that, say. um People coming out of electrical engineering or even tech school.
00:34:25
Speaker
Find someone who believes in you. Don't just go work for someone because they're going to give you the biggest paycheck. Find someone who believes in you. is going It will help and mentor you, whether that's a large company or a small company.
00:34:39
Speaker
Don't take it just because of the money, because you know what? If you're not liking what you're doing, no amount of money matters. but That's the honest truth. And um I've chased the money and i've and I've chased my dreams. And I think it's better to chase the things you enjoy than the money will come later.
00:34:58
Speaker
That's probably one of my biggest things and advice. um The other thing would be do your research, look around. Not everybody wants to work in a wastewater treatment plant. I admit that.
00:35:09
Speaker
I don't like going to them very often. I like being in the field where they're the, the pumping stations are those kinds of things, so but it's still interesting. And if your school offers you to go and visit plants and factories, do it and then ask questions. Cause that's okay.
00:35:28
Speaker
Don't go on a tour and don't say anything. Ask the guy, well, how do you do that? Why do you do that? What's the process? What would you change? um Be inquisitive, ask questions. so Oh, and show up.
00:35:42
Speaker
no Nobody likes someone who doesn't show up because they got to work from home, you know, five days a week. Don't get me wrong. I work from home too. But if you're in a group and there's a team, you got to be there um or you're not going to learn anything just through your computer.
00:35:59
Speaker
I'm kind of on the line with that. I think it's important to have connections and and it's important to get to know different people. so And listen. as so As a woman leader and and in a and a concrete floor business, talk a little bit maybe about your experience and what advice you'd have for women getting into this industry and
Advice for Women in Gritty Industries
00:36:22
Speaker
and how they might want to think about their career and this in this um in a world that is maybe not super friendly to women and the things to
00:36:35
Speaker
to watch for and to make sure that they are successful and setting themselves up to be in the best possible position. So that's a that's a really big question.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah. And there's a lot of different areas I could talk about. When I first started out in the industry, there were ah few women, one in every 40 people, maybe at not even half the time, maybe one in 200.
00:37:02
Speaker
two hundred What I learned real quickly is I had to know more than the guys I worked with. And I had to become an expert because if I was just, this is gonna sound, this is back when it was, if I was just a girl selling motors in a skirt, nobody cared.
00:37:24
Speaker
And so what I learned real quickly is I needed to look at technology from the standpoint of what was bleeding edge, what was riding on the edge and what was going to be. So that's why i focused on industrial networks and communications, field buses, um process safety and machine safety, because that wasn't something the average Joe or Christine was doing.
00:37:51
Speaker
That was specialized. And I did that because I had to bring value. If I didn't bring value, then I was just a girl in a skirt, which I won't wear a skirt to a factory. That's another big tip.
00:38:02
Speaker
That's why I talked about that.
00:38:07
Speaker
Nobody told me when I started out how to dress when you're going to a manufacturing facility. um And what two of my worst sales calls I ever did my whole entire life starting out was wearing a purple suit with gold buttons. I call it my purple suit with gold buttons day.
00:38:25
Speaker
And the first two places that I went, one was a um was a coal plant. And the second one was a water treatment plant. The coal plant, I wore this beautiful suit and the guys thought it was really funny and brought me up over the turbines in a skirt.
00:38:44
Speaker
Yeah, that was that was interesting. And I got catcalled. They don't do that anymore. Thank gosh. We don't have to worry about that anymore. And then the other one was to a water, wastewater treatment plant where I had to go out to the pump house.
00:38:58
Speaker
And back then they didn't have rails on the sides of the catwalk. And I wore spiky heel shoes. And almost fell in. So I take my shoes off. I had to sit down and then walk barefoot over this. swo I know it was terrible.
00:39:12
Speaker
um What else was I supposed to do? Nobody told me you weren't supposed to wear those kind of shoes. Nobody told me you weren't supposed to wear skirts. Who was there to tell you? Nobody. Yeah. They just sent me out there and said, go ahead.
00:39:24
Speaker
go Go get it, girl. So if anything, it's...
00:39:32
Speaker
Don't think you're going to get by just doing what everyone else is. Go above and beyond.
00:39:41
Speaker
Understand that what you say holds a lot more weight and and choose your words wisely. um I'm not saying be PC. That's not what I mean by that, by choosing your words wisely.
00:39:55
Speaker
I mean, listen and don't don't be offended sometimes when when when people say things in this industry, because whether we like it or not, I mean, not completely offensive, but I'm just saying people will call you, hey, guy how you doing, buddy?
00:40:09
Speaker
That's okay. You know, nobody's going to get hurt. um Stand your ground if you need to, but but always rise above and always look at the future of technology and don't do just enough to get by because you won't.
00:40:26
Speaker
you need to You need to focus. You need to pick something you enjoy. i mean, if you don't like networks, don't do that, but be the best at it. Hold tight to it and and find those mentors again, because if I had not had people who really cared about me and knew that I could do a great job, I wouldn't be here where I am today.
00:40:50
Speaker
And that's due to quite a few different managers I've had over the years or friends. I mean, I have lifelong friends from being in the industry and they still call me, you know, and I call them that I haven't worked with them in 20 years.
00:41:03
Speaker
So make friends. It's it's. I know it's a lot harder right now for for younger folks to really understand the social aspect of it. But i've I've worked at companies because I knew someone 20 years ago. Right?
00:41:17
Speaker
And we've developed those relationships and continued. And that's whether you're male or female or or whatever. I mean, make those relationships take that time. And I'm not talking about going out and getting drunk with them and all that kind of stuff. I'm talking about just getting to know them.
00:41:32
Speaker
Who are they? What do they want to be beyond work? um really important. And if you do that, you leave ah mark on people that they um remember you to, right?
Closing Thoughts and Gratitude
00:41:44
Speaker
Oh, I remember that person as me ah asked me about my kids and my family and what I like to do versus all they asked me is what kind of product I wanted. Those relationships are so critical. You're so right. and And I think the advice you gave is great. I think it's great for men and women.
00:42:01
Speaker
That's what I was saying, right? It's for both. I mean, and men don't wear high heels into a factory. I'm sorry. It doesn't work. yeah i I mean, if you want to somewhere else, that's fine. Totally. Yeah. ah Yeah. i'm i tend to I tend to prefer flats in most cases. I'm...
00:42:19
Speaker
And grit on the bottom of your shoes. Number one tip, when you go into a very oily, dirty, greasy, grimy place, you got to have some skid on those shoes because otherwise you're going go skiing.
00:42:30
Speaker
Yeah. Right across the shop floor. So yeah, that's my other tip. I did that once too. That was bad idea. Yeah. Every time I wear heels, I look like a baby giraffe. it Oh, I bet. Yeah.
00:42:43
Speaker
Thank you so much for your time today and for joining us on the podcast. And we hope to have you back someday and learn some more. i would like that. And I really appreciate you reaching out. um We all need each other. And I hope that we can become friends from this as well. So thank you so much.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah. Well, let's find a time to grab a coffee. It'd be really fun. I would like that. Awesome. Well, thanks again. Thank you.