In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, Jim Mayer interviews Elvin Hurst, the founder of Country Craft, who shares his journey from a farmer to a successful entrepreneur in the cabinetry industry. Elvin discusses the challenges of maintaining craftsmanship in a changing workforce, the importance of family values in business, and the evolution of Country Craft over the years. He reflects on the support he received from his family and community, the impact of technology on craftsmanship, and his hopes for the future of the business as it transitions to the next generation.

Takeaways

• Elvin Hurst's journey began with a table saw that his wife gifted him.
• Country Craft started in a garage and grew into a large facility.
• The company's motto is to provide quality at a fair price.
• Finding skilled craftsmen is a challenge in today's workforce.
• Family values play a crucial role in the business's success.
• Elvin's children now run the company, continuing the legacy.
• Technology has been embraced while maintaining craftsmanship.
• Support from family and community was vital in the early days.
• The importance of staying positive during economic challenges.
• Elvin hopes for a future where his grandchildren can take over the business.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and Background
• 02:49 The Birth of Country Craft
• 05:30 Challenges in Craftsmanship and Workforce
• 08:15 Navigating Economic Challenges
• 10:43 Family Business Dynamics
• 13:29 Memorable Moments and Values
• 16:12 Future Concerns and Legacy

In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer speaks with Danny Gonzales, a media expert in the manufacturing sector. They discuss the importance of storytelling and digital marketing in changing perceptions of manufacturing, the impact of AI on content creation, and the need for a strong organizational culture. Danny shares his journey into the industry, the challenges manufacturers face in marketing, and the significance of vulnerability in leadership. The conversation highlights the evolving landscape of manufacturing and the opportunities for growth through effective communication and engagement.

• Manufacturing is often perceived negatively, but it has a lot of creativity and innovation.
• Storytelling can change the perception of manufacturing and highlight its impact.
• Many manufacturers are unaware of the positive effects they have on the world.
• AI is democratizing content creation, making it accessible to all companies.
• A strong organizational culture is essential for attracting and retaining talent.
• Marketing strategies often lack a clear direction and understanding of the customer.
• Vulnerability in leadership can build trust and improve company culture.
• Internal and external communications should align to reflect company values.
• The manufacturing industry needs to overcome outdated narratives to attract new talent.
• Knowledge transfer from experienced workers to younger generations is crucial for the industry's future.

• 00:00 Introduction to the Manufacturing Culture Podcast
• 01:13 The Excitement of Industrial Marketing Summit
• 03:07 Danny Gonzalez's Unique Perspective on Life
• 06:53 Defining Culture in the Manufacturing Context
• 09:19 Danny's Journey from Accounting to Video Production
• 12:08 The Wonder of Manufacturing Facilities
• 14:09 Overcoming Negative Perceptions in Manufacturing
• 17:41 The Importance of Authentic Storytelling
• 19:50 The Shift in Manufacturing Narratives
• 21:29 The Role of AI in Content Creation
• 24:06 The Rise of Generative AI in Marketing
• 26:38 Authenticity in AI-Driven Storytelling
• 28:17 Balancing Human and AI Content
• 32:43 Common Pitfalls in Industrial Marketing
• 34:39 Leveraging Company Culture in Storytelling
• 39:12 Vulnerability and Transparency in Manufacturing
• 40:57 Future Success Metrics for Industrial Marketing

Scott Peters on Trades, Talent and the Culture Shift Manufacturing Can’t Avoid

Scott Peters is one of those guests who reminds you why the industry still matters. He came up in the late seventies, learned the trade before CNC was common, built model-kit molds that ended up on Kmart shelves, moved into medical devices where your mistakes affect real lives, and eventually ran a 300-person plant in Guangzhou where “yes-boss culture” smashed into his belief that people should think for themselves.

This conversation isn’t polished. It’s real. Offshoring. Apprenticeships. Pay. Responsibility. Pride. And the uncomfortable truth that young people won’t line up for jobs that pay less than McDonald’s.

Scott argues that culture isn’t a slogan. It’s whether people feel safe enough to tell you you’re wrong and proud enough to stand beside the work they produce. If you care about the future of plastics, the trades or the next generation coming up behind us, this one is worth the time.

What you’ll hear

Scott’s jump from the Marines to an apprentice mold maker after his mother spotted a classifieds ad and pushed him toward it.

What mold shops looked like in the late seventies and early eighties when CAD wasn’t an option and everything ran on skill, graphite smudges and problem solving.

Why seeing his designs turn into products on store shelves changed how he viewed responsibility and pride in the trade.

How managing a Chinese plant forced him to break top-down culture and build a team willing to challenge him instead of nodding along.

Why he thinks shops are losing young talent to Amazon warehouses and fast food, and how transparent pay ladders used to keep apprentices motivated for years.

The generational damage caused by offshoring and why communities still don’t trust manufacturing jobs even as the work returns.

How to build culture that works on the floor instead of in HR decks: respect, honesty, disagreement and shared ownership of deadlines.

Where to listen

Available on all platforms. Search “Manufacturing Culture Podcast.”

#manufacturingculture #manufacturing #trades #skilledtrades #plastics #injectionmolding #moldmaking #manufacturingjobs #engineering #operations #leadership

Emily Ting from CCS America joins Jim to talk about what culture actually feels like at work, how it shapes the day to day, and why marketing in industrial manufacturing is still years behind other B2B sectors. She walks through her journey from Japanese speaking intern to “do everything” marketer, three years working inside a Japanese headquarters, and the reality of being the bridge between leadership, engineers, sales and the outside world. Emily shares how she translates deeply technical machine vision concepts into something humans can understand, why AI has not killed the need for good lighting, and how a short book about penguins on a melting iceberg helped CCS rethink its culture and distributor program.

What you’ll hear

How Emily defines culture as “what you feel in the air” when you walk into work, and why it can either energize you or quietly drain you.

The story of how Japanese fluency opened the door at CCS, sent her to headquarters in Japan, and what she learned from that office culture.

Practical tips for doing business and filming content in Japan, from privacy expectations to simple etiquette that changes how you show up.

What it is really like to be the person who turns hardcore machine vision physics and jargon into useful stories and content.

Why leadership asking for ROI without clear goals is such a common pattern, and how she tries to navigate that tension.

How CCS Americas had to reset expectations after the Covid boom and get sales, marketing and engineering genuinely aligned again.

Why industrial marketing is still behind B2B SaaS, and what manufacturers can borrow without repeating old mistakes.

How the book “Our Iceberg Is Melting” turned into required reading and gave everyone a way to see themselves in the change story.

Topics covered

Culture as lived experience versus official “values”

Working in Japan, unspoken rules and privacy around filming

Translating technical machine vision and lighting concepts

AI hype in inspection and why fundamentals still matter

Getting leadership, engineers and marketing on the same page

Remote and hybrid culture in a small, spread out team

Designing a distributor program as a culture project, not just a sales program

The messy reality of modern industrial marketing

Key quotes

“Culture is what you feel in the air when you walk into work. Do you feel ready to do what you set out to do, or like there’s a pressure sitting on your mind all day”

“Marketing is much messier than people want. You rarely get a perfect straight line between what you did and the deal that closed.”

“Sometimes the decision is no decision. Staying in the status quo feels safer than making a move that might go wrong.”

“AI did not make lighting irrelevant. If bad lighting did not matter, those AI companies would not keep coming back to us for help.”

“You do not always get the insight you want by asking the question directly. Sometimes you have to go the long way round to reach the part of the customer that actually decides.”

Jim sits down with tax strategist Nik Agharkar, for a conversation that starts with tax day anxiety and spirals into culture, capitalism, immigration, vo-tech, wealth inequality, and what it really means to build a healthy organization. Nik shares why he believes the tax code is an incentive system instead of a punishment, how leadership shapes culture, why Gen Z is choosing trades over college, and how America can rebuild its middle class by fixing the incentives we’ve quietly broken over the last 40 years. This episode is raw, political, personal, and surprisingly hopeful.

Why this conversation matters

If you lead a manufacturing team or run a business, your world is shaped by taxes whether you notice it or not. Nik lays out how incentives in the tax code ripple through hiring, layoffs, wages, infrastructure, and the decline of the American middle class. He explains why trades are rising again, why offshoring hollowed out capacity, and how culture starts with servant leadership rather than command-and-control. This is a rare conversation that connects factory floors, tax strategy, political history, and the lived experience of an immigrant family into one cohesive picture of where we are and what needs to change.

What you’ll hear

• Why “every day is tax day” if you touch money

• Jim’s tax-induced heart palpitations versus Nik’s calm love of paperwork

• Nik’s life-as-a-movie: middle school bullying, Jonah Hill, and learning to laugh at everything

• His definition of culture built around ownership, servant leadership, and leading by example

• Why rules for thee but not for me destroys culture — and what his HR-leader wife taught him about consistency

• Growing up between America and India, and why the contrast taught him gratitude, discipline, and risk calculation

• How scarcity abroad reframed what “risk” really means in America

• Why going to college can be a bigger gamble than going into the trades

• The surge of Gen Z and Gen Alpha entering the trades and rejecting the old college playbook

• Offshoring, the collapse of vo-tech, and how we quietly kneecapped our own middle class

• How tax cuts incentivized bad business, short-term hiring cycles, and underinvestment in people

• The 1950s wealth distribution Americans still prefer — and how far we’ve drifted

• Why wealth concentration is dangerous, not just unfair

• The forgotten history of charitable foundations exploding when tax rates were high

• How small businesses pay the price because they don’t have tax departments

• Why a kid would be better off buying a Haas machine and starting a job shop than taking on six-figure student debt

• The infrastructure crisis — and why we’re not ready to bring manufacturing back onshore

• Politics, social media, and how outrage culture destroyed our ability to talk to one another

• Why Americans should be critical of every administration, not cheerleaders for a team

• The simple fixes: higher corporate taxes, better incentives for small business, and fully funded vo-tech

• Nik’s parting message about being better to each other and limiting social media for your own sanity

Nik’s take

We’ve got to stop dividing ourselves and start thinking clearly again. Limit your social media. Be better to your neighbor. And stop cheering for politicians — they work for you.

Jim’s take

There aren’t many people who can connect tax code, culture, and the collapse of the middle class and make it interesting, but Nik does it. This one goes way off the rails in the best way.

Ian Wilson is a creative turned industrial brand strategist who believes real culture is the level of authenticity people can bring to work. In this episode, he and Jim talk about why manufacturing feels more grounded than other industries, why specs and machines are only half the story, and how authenticity—not polish—is what builds trust online and on the shop floor.

What You’ll Hear

How Ian went from writing music to building brands in manufacturing

Why he believes “you can’t hype up a spring” and what that says about honesty in marketing

What culture really means inside an industrial business

How family-owned manufacturers can turn values and pride into their strongest brand asset

Why too many manufacturers are still “allergic to marketing”

The difference between performative culture and real culture

How to pull real company values from leadership to the shop floor

Why brand voice matters even when buyers only care about specs

How to make digital feel authentic without fluff

The future of manufacturing culture, community, and education

Topics Covered

Authenticity and culture in manufacturing

Industrial marketing and branding

AI’s role in marketing and creativity

Bridging creative and engineering mindsets

Defining company values with honesty

Community and workforce development in the trades

Key Quotes

“Culture is the level of authenticity people can bring with them to work.”

“You can’t hype up a spring. It either works or it doesn’t.”

“Some manufacturers are allergic to marketing—but that’s exactly where the opportunity is.”

“Pretty is easy. Authentic is hard.”

“The future of manufacturing is stronger communities and better futures for our kids.”

Jim’s Take

Ian brings a mix of humor, depth, and hard truth that’s rare in branding conversations. He reminds us that the best marketing doesn’t try to make manufacturing look cool—it shows the real pride and people behind the work.

Connect with the Manufacturing Culture Podcast

Follow for weekly conversations with the people shaping culture across the industrial world.

Julie Runez leads marketing for a custom automation firm that designs and builds one-off manufacturing machinery. She came back to work after years at home with her kids, brought a journalist’s curiosity, and learned industrial marketing from the ground up during the early months of 2020. Without case studies she could publicly share and with very long, high-stakes sales cycles, Julie shifted the strategy away from chasing clicks to creating in-person proof. The result is a zero-cost lab inside their facility where vendors and manufacturers test ideas together, train teams, and de-risk projects before anyone signs. We talk culture, kindness in leadership, learning fast, and why most problems are system problems, not people problems.

Why this conversation matters

If you sell complex, capital equipment under NDA, the usual playbook won’t carry you. Julie shows how to earn trust when buyers need confidence more than content, and how to build culture around the people you want to attract.

What you’ll hear

How journalism skills, parenting, and resourcefulness translated into an effective solo marketing role.

Why kindness from the founder set the tone for culture and risk-taking.

The limits of digital in NDA-heavy environments and how in-person proof fills the gap.

Inside the lab concept and how cross-vendor collaboration builds end-to-end confidence.

Using ClickUp and simple SOPs to turn tribal knowledge into systems.

Handling the “I’m in over my head” moments by finding the skill, the person, or the room that solves it.

Topics covered

Culture as the environment you create for the people you want.

Experimenting, failing forward, and deciding what actually works for your business.

Sales cycles that run from a year to many years, and how to stay relevant in the meantime.

Bringing vendors, engineers, and customers together to test and train before purchase.

Storytelling that focuses on outcomes, not features.

Letting the next generation toss the box aside rather than just think outside it.

Quotes to pull

“When you buy a drill, you’re buying holes. Our buyers need confidence their problem will be solved.”

“In tough moments it’s usually a system problem, not a human problem.”

“The lab is our proof. People can see parts move, get training, and leave with answers.”

“Kindness from leadership makes everything else solvable.”

Guest

Julie Runez is the marketing lead for a custom automation and machine-building company serving life sciences and other regulated industries. She built an in-house lab program that lets manufacturers and vendor partners test concepts, train operators, and de-risk projects at zero cost.

Sponsor

Med Device Boston at the BCEC, September 30 to October 1. A sourcing and education expo with suppliers, workshops, and expert-led sessions for the next generation of med-tech.

Sydney Mrowczynski didn’t plan to end up under a welding hood. As a teenager she dreamed of fashion design — until a boyfriend told her she couldn’t weld. Challenge accepted. A few years later, she’s worked across multiple shops, learned how things really get built, and is now studying industrial management and applied engineering at Southern Illinois University to bridge the gap between the floor and the front office.

This episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast is a crash course in what real culture looks like from someone living it. Sydney’s take is simple: great culture means communication, teamwork, and quality. Most shops have one or two of those — rarely all three. She shares what it’s like being the only woman on the floor, the extra proof she’s had to carry into every new job, and why too many people get comfortable doing things “almost right” for 20 years.

We get into failure as a teacher — how welding forces you to face mistakes and learn faster than any classroom. Sydney talks about integrity, leadership, and the shops that cover bad welds instead of fixing them. She lays out the difference between a leader who checks in, listens, and teaches versus one who just points and barks orders.

If you run a team, hire apprentices, or manage training programs, you’ll want to hear her take on trade schools too — how they teach to plate instead of teaching to reality. She argues that students should weld on rusted, greasy, and painted metal, not perfect coupons, if they’re expected to survive their first week on the job.

Sydney is now balancing school with work at Tenco Hydro in Sugar Grove, Illinois, helping bring metal fabrication in house and ship their first stainless wastewater tank. She’s seen the gaps firsthand — and she’s building the bridge from within.

It’s an honest, sharp conversation about what manufacturing culture really needs: leaders who communicate clearly, care about quality, and build environments where new talent wants to stay.

Sponsor

Med Device Boston is your go-to Med Tech sourcing and education expo, September 30 through October 1 at Boston’s BCEC. With 200+ suppliers, 1,500+ attending professionals, and expert-led workshops on 3D printing, AI, materials, regulatory tech, and contract manufacturing, it’s built to advance the next generation of medical device innovation. Visit meddeviceboston.com to register.

Connect

Find Sydney Mrowczynski on LinkedIn

Subscribe to the Manufacturing Culture Podcast on YouTube and your favorite platform.

In this episode of The Manufacturing Culture Podcast, Jim sits down with Chris Humphrey, Business Development Manager at AirPro Fan & Blower Company, to explore how purpose, people, and love of neighbor shape lasting manufacturing cultures. From growing up in a motorcycle dealership to hiking the Appalachian Trail during a “quarter-life crisis,” Chris shares how his journey through machining, engineering, and leadership led him to rediscover the true purpose behind manufacturing — building communities, providing meaningful work, and caring for people along the way.

Together, they unpack what culture means beyond the walls of a company, how leadership grounded in empathy can transform performance, and why AirPro’s employee-owned model has created one of the most authentic examples of modern manufacturing culture today.

What You’ll Hear:

Chris’s early years in machining and how vocational education shaped his career

The “quarter-life crisis” that changed his perspective on work and purpose

Why every manufacturing job supports six others and how that drives community impact

Lessons from the rifle industry on culture, stress, and leadership

How AirPro Fan & Blower built a thriving employee-owned culture around love of neighbor

The difference between condemning managers and leaders who come alongside

Why culture, not compensation, is the real key to long-term retention

How manufacturing can reclaim its image and attract the next generation

The future of manufacturing through technology, AI, and purpose-driven leadership

Key Quotes:

“Manufacturing supports my community. That realization changed everything for me.”

“Love of neighbor is a culture driver. It changes how you lead, how you sell, and how you care for people.”

“People remember who you are, not just what you did.”

“When a company puts care at the center, success takes care of itself.”

Topics Covered:

Manufacturing culture, leadership, purpose, employee ownership, community, vocational education, business development, supply chain, culture change, mentorship, AI in manufacturing, future of work.

Jim’s Take:

Chris’s story is a reminder that culture isn’t a policy — it’s people caring for each other. His journey from shop floor to business development shows how purpose evolves but never disappears when it’s built on the right foundation

Med Device Boston — The go-to med tech sourcing and education expo, September 30th–October 1st at Boston’s BCEC. Explore the next generation of medical device innovation at meddeviceboston.com.

Katie Friday is a sales engineer who took the scenic route into manufacturing. She started in social work, battled through an engineering pivot at WVU, worked her way from project engineering to sales, and now lives at the intersection of customers, controls, and culture. We talk about resilient learning, why great SOPs read like fifth grade science, the reality of safety projects, and how leadership sets the tone for teams. There is a rom-com opening scene, a baby blue Beetle, and a giant robot in Wilmington. Most of all, there is a clear picture of how supportive culture turns new hires into future leaders.

Why this conversation matters

Culture is a team sport and leadership is the lever. Katie shows how cross-functional respect between engineering, maintenance, and operations speeds projects up, how good documentation creates confidence on the floor, and why automation does not erase jobs. It raises the skill ceiling and demands better training.

Conversation highlights

Meeting story at IMTS and a friendship that started in an elevator.

Katie’s rom-com life pitch featuring a 2013 baby blue Beetle and a bee.

Switching from social work to industrial engineering and learning resilience the hard way.

From receptionist to project engineer to sales engineer and why talking to customers clicked.

The coolest project sighting, a towering broadcast robot and the crews that build stages for NASCAR, ESPN, and even the Super Bowl.

Safety projects move first and fast, and the scheduling whiplash that brings.

SOPs that actually teach, pictures over jargon, and testing docs with non engineers.

Women navigating a male heavy field, boundaries, and a shoutout to mentor Kimberly Pelke.

Why new adopters of automation are the next wave and how AI will show up on the plant floor.

Topics covered

Company culture as daily behavior, not a poster on the wall.

Leadership modeling communication and teamwork.

Sales engineering as translator between customers and controls teams.

Budget timing, stakeholders, and the real blockers to moving from design to execution.

Operator training that matches the tech.

Automation as job shifter and skill builder, not a job eraser.

Women in STEM, representation that changes decisions, and early pipeline programs.

Quotes

“I do not mind being the dumbest in the room. It just means I am learning.”

“Good culture feels like a team that actually communicates and still pulls toward the same goal.”

“Automation does not eliminate people. It asks them to learn new skills.”

“Great SOPs should read like fifth grade science. Pictures help people keep the line running.”

Guest

Katie Friday is a sales engineer working across pharma, food and beverage, rubber and tire, and other regulated environments. She graduated from West Virginia University in industrial engineering, cut her teeth in project engineering, and now helps manufacturers scope, justify, and deliver automation upgrades with Industrial Automated Systems and sister company Triune Electric.

Shoutouts and resources mentioned

Industrial Automated Systems and Triune Electric.

Mentor Kimberly Pelke, director of business development.

Move Over Bob, a culture first magazine introducing young women to trades.

Rosie Riveters, early STEM confidence through productive struggle.

Vendors seen on the floor, including Siemens, Rockwell, and Schneider Electric.

WVU, the scene of the pivot and the grind.

Sponsor

Med Device Boston is a sourcing and education expo at Boston’s BCEC, September 30 to October 1. Two hundred plus suppliers, hands on workshops, and expert led sessions focused on the next generation of med tech. Register at meddeviceboston.com and plan your visit. The link is in the show notes.

Connect

Host, Jim Mayer. Subscribe to Manufacturing Culture on YouTube and your favorite podcast app. Share the episode with a friend who is wrestling with training and documentation after an automation upgrade.