THIS is a new year! It’s YOUR year!

Manufacturing Masters founder, Darrin Mitchell, is on the pod and he’s giving you permission to: 

- Step outside your comfort zone

- Start creating agreements instead of expectations 

- Ask for the help you need…you’ll get it

And, stop being too busy to ACT on the advice and insight you get!

Life is short. It’s time you stop “surviving another year” and start “thriving.”

Darrin and Allison also do a rapid reflect on 2023’s biggest ahas and get you fired up for the year ahead.

And, after you tune in, WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU…Are you playing small and staying safe inside your comfort zone?

Feel like you keep looking for your cheese in the same place?

Wish you knew who to turn to for help?

Thank YOU! 

For your time, attention, support, suggestions, comments, and, frankly, for showing up every day this year doing the hard things.

This podcast is made on behalf of and for you.

Bringing you the latest best practices, expertise, and courageous conversations to fuel your life and your business truly lights our fire. 

We put together a 2023 Mashup of clips from our first 26 episodes so you can catch something you may have missed, get to know 26 manufacturing experts you can connect with, and end the year with a blast of ideas and inspiration!

And, after you tune in, WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU…What’s one thing you’d like more of in 2024? Less of? What topic or challenge should we cover in 2024?

AGREE or DISAGREE Trying to market to and sell everyone is overwhelming and, frankly, incredibly inefficient!

You end up feeling like you’re casting a global net when you should be waving around a butterfly net instead. ;-)

Think about it…you're not looking for a thousand new customers. You’re probably looking for 1-5 this year. Right?!

This episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast with Emily Wilkins from Marketing Metal will help you zero in on your ideal WHO and HOW to makes marketing more efficient and sales easier.

She happens to be an expert on the MM platform too and she offers insights, easy questions to identify your WHO and downloadable pdfs to help yourself right now. And, after you tune in, WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU…

How many customers are you looking to create this year? Would it be easier if you could more easily identify “ideal fit” and stop wasting time on the wrong fit?

Wouldn’t it be incredible if someone could give you an easy framework for turning Linkedin connections into paying customers?

Zero spam. No gimmicks.

Just the simple steps you can take, as a real, authentic human, to stop being a wallflower and start making real connections that lead to business. 

As in, YOU become the life of the party instead of that word-vomit guy/gal that everyone runs from when they see you enter the room.

That’s what you’ll get out of today’s episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast with expert, Jamie Irvine (host of the Heavy Duty Parts Report podcast and CEO of Heavy Duty Consulting).

Jamie and Allison talk about the 9 steps you can take, starting today, and best part is you don’t need a massive following for this to work.

At the end, don’t miss Jamie’s surprising AHA that’s a great reminder to us all that real results take time and patience.

Wished that you had a coach or small team in place, of people just like you, that you could bounce ideas off, share your successes and failures with, and who would hold you accountable so you could GROW IN A BIGGER WAY?

This is that SUPER episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast you’ve been waiting for. 

Allison sits down with the two Superfriends that she’s been Masterminding with every single week for more than 10 years! TEN YEARS!!

After being asked repeatedly over the years, “How do I create a group like that and get the results you’re getting, ”Allison DeFord from Felt Marketing, Beth Goldfarb Jackson from CauseFarm Creative, and Christina Haakenson from Juve Creative are pulling back their capes to spill the secret sauce:

- Find out why and how they started doing this in the first place

- The process they’ve developed that you can use too

- The pro’s and cons and impact it’s had

- What “throwing a glass at you” means

- The magical annual retreat that’s worth millions $$$$$

If you’re using social media to market your products, you’re doing it all wrong!

According to Jake Hall, the Manufacturing Millennial (and a resident expert on the Manufacturing Masters platform), today, social media is the marketing tool for your company and your culture, not your products.(At least if you want to attract Millennial and Get Z top talent.)

With over 70K followers on Linkedin and more than 100,000,000 views of his content he’s built a following and understands how manufacturers need to adapt to attract the next generation.

In this episode you’ll find out: 

-What’s important to Millennials and Gen Z 

-How they interview you as much as you do them 

-How to take your existing content and make it not boring 

-How to turn all your people into salespeople 

-How to target people you don’t know

How do you know when it’s the right time to rebrand a 50-year old manufacturing business?   

- When you no longer make the thing that’s part of your company name  

- When prospects are confused right from the get go  

- When your name is too long and not memorable  

- When your logo and identity look old and outdated 

Gary Bales, President of Aurora Boardworks, answers all your questions in this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast.

"As a leader, it's ok to admit you don't know what you're doing–hire people you trust and take the next right step.” –Gary Bales

Gary gets REBRAND-real about:

1. the thought process that goes into pulling the trigger on a rebrand

2. how much to include your team in the decision making

3. how to overcome the fear of “what if this doesn’t work?”

4. trusting the team you hire to guide you through the process

And, as an Engineer, Gary talks about embracing change and balancing your left-brain analytics and risk management and your right-brain creative vision and intuition.

"Linkedin is a waste of time, I’ve got a business to run!”

Think your people will use it? Pooh pooh it? 

Maybe it will take off at first and then flame out just as fast.

OR

It will surprise you and everyone else that, after three years, it’s still going strong and so popular that you had to also hang one upstairs. 

And, as a result, morale is higher than ever and you’ve drastically improved your entire culture. So much so, that when customers tour your place, they notice and mention it! 

Exactly what happened at Eden Valley Poultry and expert Troy Lenihan is on the Manufacturing Masters podcast to tell all.

So you can try this and enjoy the same kind of success within your organization.

Tune in and find out all the benefits you’ll create, not to mention, other ways Troy has boldly experimented with massively successful results.

Your ROI for this marketing spend = trackable VIEWS and possibly a prospect spending longer on your website (MEH!)

Sure, you’ve made it a little easier for someone to know, like, and trust you.But there’s SO MUCH MORE you can do with that same money.

In this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast, you’ll find out from expert Jeff Long of True Focus Media, how to use that same $$ to create 15-30 pieces of content across multiple digital channels and turn viewers into buyers.

By the end of this episode you’ll feel more comfortable being uncomfortable with video.

You’ll understand what a Video Value Bomb  is and how to use them to grow sales.

How to XXX multiply your content. And, what to do if you yourself have video phobia.