Naomi Pittman began her career in IT but found herself looking for more.

Now Naomi is a master electrician and the owner of ElekProTek, an electrical & controls contractor with presence in 6 states! 

Nikki & Naomi talk about her journey, entrepreneur stuff like building a website and growing a client base, and the apprenticeship model that allows skilled tradespeople with the drive to succeed to become masters of their craft. 

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Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!

Nikki and Ali G had the opportunity to interview Özlem Biber with EPLAN at Rockwell Automation Fair in Boston last month.

She is an Account Manager in the Chicago area and she called on Ali years ago when she was working at Probat so it was a fun reunion.

We promise we did not mean to talk about EPLAN so much but we can't be too surprised the conversation kept coming back to it considering Özlem has spent almost 23 years with the company and is really passionate about what she does!

Massive shout out to EPLAN for sponsoring our show and being fantastic to work with, the more people we meet and the more we learn about them the more we want to do together. 

P.S. Their booth at Automation Fair was an amazing sight to behold and we couldn't have asked for a better setup than a glass enclosed conference room on the show floor for doing our interview!

Support the show

__________________________________________________________________

Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!

Nikki speaks with Chelsea Lantto, president of Trenton Forging Company, a forging company that delivers high-quality forged steel components.

Although not new to forging, as a second-generation leader of the company, Chelsea shares the history of Trenton Forging and how it's become a family operated business. The company strives to complete their long-term plan of gradual automation to replace outdated technology while also prioritizing the well-being of their workforce.
 
They talk about the company's growth, the decision to invest in automation, competition in the market, and the need to always look to the future to continue innovating in the centuries old craft of metal forging. 

Support the show

__________________________________________________________________

Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!

Nikki talks to Priyansha Bagaria, Founder & CEO of Loopr AI a computer vision company solving the complex challenges traditional vision inspection still can't solve. 

She started working in her family's manufacturing plant at a young age and saw what good employment opportunities in manufacturing can do for a community, but also the challenges that can come with trying to automate a process that may not be 100% automatable or just too expensive for a small to mid size manufacturer to undertake. 

They talk vision, quality control, and how the new world of AI and remote work can be a boon to many that traditionally have had limited work opportunities outside the home. 

Support the show

__________________________________________________________________

Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!

This week, Nikki and Ali G speak with Elisa Ochoa, Client Advisor at Skellig Automation.

They met Elisa at the Inductive Automation Ignition Community Conference in Folsom recently and had to have her on the show to learn more.

Elisa moved to LA from Mexico for college and became a DeltaV engineer who recently made the move into a client advisory (ghasp sales) role at a systems integrator!

They talk of the importance of finding the right fit for a solution, the negative perception of sales, and Elisa's own journey with podcasting. Check out her podcast Derrumbando El Muro (if you speak spanish). 

Check out Elisa's LinkedIn page here.

Support the show

__________________________________________________________________

Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!

With October being Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Automation Ladies decided to speak with some experts in the field Leah & Hayley. Leah is the Principal Cybersecurity Specialist at Nextlink labs, while Hayley is a Product Marketing Specialist for Network and Security at Phoenix Contact. Follow them on LinkedIn!

These cybersecurity ladies discuss ways to protect yourself against cyberattacks, what to look out for as an individual and as a company to stay safe, and the importance of having standards across the board.

Disclaimer: With this being a LinkedIn Live technical difficulties can happen. Unfortunately, this chat was cut short and the stream was unable to continue.

Support the show

__________________________________________________________________

Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!

In this live episode, Nikki and Ali G spoke with David Garcia and Nathan Schaffer, creators of MarketMate AI, a software built for industrial companies to help them scale their marketing efforts.

We wanted to know does this work for a company like Process and Controls Engineering LLC a systems integration firm run by an engineer, and if so, how? 

Want to see the demo? Check out the live episode on our page.

Support the show

__________________________________________________________________

Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!

In this episode Nikki sits down, in person, with Sarah Larson - Digital Business Manager at ePLAN. 

Spending most of her career at Rockwell Automation, initially in technical support but then growing into both sales and marketing roles, she is one of our favorite people in *gasp* marketing. 

Hear the story of how her mom had to lobby to get her into shop class, what she thinks about the state of the customer journey in our industry, and where to find her at Automation Fair! 

Support the show

__________________________________________________________________

Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!

In this episode Nikki and Ali have a chat with Ann Wyatt the owner of Ann Wyatt Recruiting and the host of Workforce 4.0 a Linkedin Live show and podcast about the manufacturing workforce.

This episode is a little more "girl talk" style than our usual interviews since they are all pretty good friends now since meeting in person at Automate earlier this year and participating together in the infamous "Dino Run" through the show floor.

We cover Ann's recent visit to Seattle to work with Process and Controls Engineering LLC and Kids PLC Kits workshop at Clover Park Technical College. Hear her thoughts on the gum wall and shenanigans at the Space Needle with Ali, as well as more serious topics like her increasingly important role at PCE managing HR and all things people as they experience rapid growth in headcount. 

Please note this episode contains some explicit language [E].

Support the show

__________________________________________________________________

Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!

Nikki and Ali talk with Lynn McMahon founder & Engineer at Monona Instrumentation & Controls. 

After spending nearly a decade writing software for machines in the Aerospace and Pharmaceutical industries, Lynn branched out and started her own consulting firm.

The ladies talk industry, entrepreneurship, professional certifications and how to balance it all. 

Support the show

__________________________________________________________________

Co-Hosts are Alicia Gilpin Director of Engineering at Process and Controls Engineering LLC, Nikki Gonzales Director of Business Development at Weintek USA, and Courtney Fernandez Robot Master at FAST One Solutions.

Follow us on Linkedin and YouTube for live videos, demos, and other content!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for episode updates, job announcements, and more!

Get in touch with us at automationladies.io!

P.S. - Help our podcast grow with a 5-star podcast review if you love us!