Conveyor Cougar: Automate or Get Left Behind with Cathy Rinne

Season 7 kicks off with Cathy “Conveyor Cougar” Rinne, President of FlexLine Automation, a 15-person, woman-owned integrator known for moving fast, shipping when it counts, and adapting the playbook—from conveyors and robotics to a TikTok presence that actually reaches engineers.

We talk about what leadership really means in a family business, how FlexLine is using AI to automate drawings and quoting, and why an automation company that won’t automate itself will eventually get noticed.

Cathy also shares how her agricultural roots shape how she approaches factory problems: use what you have, fix what breaks, and design for reality. From autosteer tractors to rural manufacturing, we explore why some of the most important automation work happens outside major tech hubs.

We also challenge a common myth: going direct isn’t always faster or cheaper. Custom automation often requires an integrator’s experience, inventory, and responsiveness.

If you care about practical automation—AI that saves engineers time, robotics that fit the job, and service that actually shows up—this episode is for you.

🔗 Connect with Cathy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%90%86-cathy-rinne-a1764a11/

Website: https://flex-lineautomation.com/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theconveyorcougar

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Welcome to Automation Ladies, the only podcast we know of where girls talk about industrial automation. This is season seven. It's 2026. And the band is back together. All of us are here. I am your host, Nikki Gonzalez, Director of Business Development at WinTech USA and co-host of the conference OT Staticon, which is going to be in its third year this year, as well as co-founder of Automation Ladies with my co-host here, Ali G, or Alicia Gilpin. And then Courtney has joined our roster as well. She's been around for a couple seasons, so you guys should probably know her. But for those of you that may be first-time listeners or don't know us, I neglect this sometimes. Uh, we should introduce ourselves. So, Ali, why don't you tell everyone hi and who you are?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

I'm Ali G. I'm co-host of Automation Ladies and uh co-founder of OT Skatacon, which is happening on July 22nd through 24th this year. Um, I also am the CEO of Process and Controls Engineering LLC, my own um engineering firm. I'm also uh co-founder of Kids PLC Kids, a nonprofit to help uh new talent find mechatronics as a career. Super cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

So Ali is a chemical engineer, turned controls engineer, um, right? And that she kind of speaks to that controls engineering realm of the industrial automation industry. And then we have Courtney Fernandez, our robotics expert. Courtney has a new role this year, working on some new stuff. Courtney, you want to say hi and introduce yourself?

Guest Welcome: Kathy “Conveyor Cougar” Rennie

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yeah, sure. Uh still Courtney Fernandez and still uh involved with Fast One Solutions, although that's mostly uh my husband, Alberto Fernandez now. I am with Relativity Space now, and I get to work on like really cool stuff that I'm mostly not allowed to talk about. Um but it is it is robotic and it uh it's just bigger robots than I have done in the past. So it's been a lot of fun for me for like the last six months. But if you've noticed me being distinctly absent from social media, uh I've been head down kind of trying to fit into this new role, and it's been violently changing over at relativity space because we're gonna launch a rocket in December. Um so things are going a little nuts um here in Long Beach.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Very, very, very cool. So Courtney's history involves going from being an embedded electrical engineer, right, to uh getting her master's in robotics and going into industrial automation, um, taking some time being an integrator. And so she's got like a really varied experience that worked uh as a trainer for Cobots for a while as well. So we're really lucky to have her. And we're lucky that she's still available to do the show with us, uh, even with all this craziness and building rockets and robots and stuff. So thank you, Courtney. Um Courtney's based in Southern California. I'm based in Houston, Texas, and Allie is now based in Louisiana. Can you yeah, somewhere around Lafayette, right? Is that south of Lafayette? Okay, cool. So I think that concludes uh the introduction of the host this time, and we'd love to welcome our first guest of this season to the show, uh, one of our industry favorites, um, someone that we I think uh literally and figuratively in lots of ways sometimes call mom. Um Kathy Rennie, welcome to Automation Ladies. Hey, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

It's always great to see my girls.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

We are uh very glad to have you here. It I think is a comfort to us for the first episode of the season as we're figuring out some new stuff to have somebody that we're very comfortable with. And uh great to catch up, but I think also we haven't had you solo on the show before. Uh am I right to say that you and Lauren have come on in the past when we were at I think Automate? And so I think we still have some room to A kind of hear, you know, particularly your story, and then catch up on all the things you're doing. So we just know all about AI and what we're using AI for and all that good stuff. So I won't get into that.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

Um my career's not nearly as glamorous as uh as you guys, you know. Um I co-founded Flexline uh 42 years ago with my husband and his parents. Um, so I've been doing this for a long time. I've been president of the company since 1999. So um literally raised my daughter Lauren. She's now 40 with 40 years of experience. She doesn't like me to throw that number out there, but you know, she's not here to kick me or give me a glaring look. So so we've been doing this for a while. And um I I really don't know what to say that that you know, every year is a challenge, and there's always something on the bingo card that I didn't anticipate. And so it's um it's a position that's required a lot of uh growth.

FlexLine’s Origins And Evolution

SPEAKER_02 5:55

So can you tell us for those that don't know? I know a lot of people in our ecosystem in our audience, they know you, they know flex line automation. But for somebody that doesn't know, what does Flexline do? Um, and you know, what kind of size company and where are you located?

SPEAKER_03 6:09

Well, we are um a small family-owned company. We're woman-owned, actually, and we're located in southern Illinois, actually closer to St. Louis than Chicago. A lot of people think Illinois all we're northern for some reason. So we're in the very southern end. Um, FlexLine began all of those years ago as a conveyor integrator, and probably about 15 years or so ago, I started to recognize that the market was shifting and um the role of conveyance was changing. And I knew that we were gonna have to do something else if we were gonna remain relevant. And so we got into robotics integration at that time, and we've since then have our own patented uh box erector, robotic box erector, which is a pretty popular item. And we're working on um a gluing mechanism for that. So it won't all only do taping of boxes, it'll be able to glue some boxes. So, you know, I mean the biggest part of my job is trying to think of ways to keep us relevant. That's that's usually what I get up thinking about, what I go to bed thinking about.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah, yeah. So the the role of president um for people that aren't really in business, uh at least for me, it took me some time to realize like what's the difference between who the CEO and the owner and the president and the chairman, and you know, larger companies have a lot more levels to things. Um how would you describe your sort of journey into the role of president and and why is what do you do as a president of a company?

What A President Does In A Family Business

SPEAKER_03 7:54

Well, you know, I think you're right, larger companies have a lot of layers, and Flex Line is not a layer cake. We're kind of that sheet cake that your grandma bakes you for your birthday, you know, and it's um pretty much the same flavor from the top to the bottom, you know, there's not a whole lot of icing, there's not a whole lot of fluff in between, and um I honestly I think that when the company started, my father-in-law and my husband were the primarily the engineers of the company. And so basically I did everything that they didn't have time or want to do. So I was packing up boxes, I was turning wrenches, you know, they would go out and sell a project, and then I would be building it in our shop and helping with all of that and managing the inventory and just um from that moved into bookkeeping. And so I was doing all of our billing and all of our ordering and and everything. So basically I just did every role that nobody else wanted. And I I think that's how I wound up to be the president. I think that, you know, um, and if you ask my husband this question, he'll tell you it's because I'm naturally bossy, but I don't know that that really has a whole lot to do with it. But anyway, um, I have more of the organizational, um, my background is in business management, so I had more of the business and the organizational skills than either of them. And my mother-in-law, her role was basically to take care of Lauren, you know, so that was her contribution to the company. Um, she made the working mom of kids, like having someone taking care of your kids. Right, yeah. And and you know, and the beautiful thing about that was she had her own office here, Lauren was here on site, Lauren was able to travel with us. So um, when you when you just start a business, it requires so much time and so much energy. And there were times that, you know, I wouldn't, you know, see my husband, we'd wave at each other in the airport, you know, as as he was going to his gate and I was coming back for mine. And it was just that time consuming. So having her here and having her be able to take care of Lauren and still having me feel like I was a part of Lauren's life, you know, I think was was instrumental. And that contribution often gets overlooked. Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Um, so the role of president, as I understand it, is kind of the person that sets like is the backbone of the operations, right? You you know the day-to-day, you are in charge of kind of what happens, what runs.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

Basically, I I you gotta consider me more like the the captain of the ship. Okay. You know, I'm mapping out where the where we're sailing, what ports we're gonna stop at. Um and it's really my team though, that make the ship move and and do all of the things. I'm I'm more the the thoughts behind it and um make a lot of suggestions that when you're in a family company don't always get followed. So I feel like I have an atypical presidential role because sometimes I can be vetoed instead of the other way around. Also, right? Yeah. So, you know, um I am the majority shareholder of the company, but uh sometimes that's used as a weapon against me and not not anything. But um, it's fine. It's fun in a small company. It's fun that I have such a great team that I can count on that, you know, really are trying to listen and work together with me and Lauren, because Lauren is basically um next in line for the throne, right? So a lot of what I do these days is trying to one get the business to the point where I can pass it off to her and not be quite as crazy for her to pick up and and take forward as it was when I did. Um, I became president when my husband's dad retired. And so he decided to leave the company and it left this big hole, and there was nobody else in the organization that had really worked in every avenue. My husband is excellent, I mean, best problem solver, engineer, crazy science guy, terrible businessman. You know, I'm just terrible. Um, so it it really was a natural thing for me to step into that role. And then, you know, I try to use it more to educate and to bring everybody else along. So, you know, it's not like a dictatorship where I sit in my office and I say, okay, this is the policy and everybody's gonna follow it. You know, in a small company, it doesn't work that way. You know, everybody has to buy in. I have to do a lot of listening, I have to do a lot of sales, you know, to to my own team. So it's um it's a unique business model to work so closely with your husband and your child and your child's spouse, and my brother-in-law works here also. So um, you know, it makes for some very tense holidays sometimes. And um, you know, sometimes at Christmas dinner we have to tell each other, hey, this is this is our day off, you know, stop talking about work. So it's it's challenging, but it's it's a it's a role that I think I am naturally inclined to do. Although, I mean, I wake up a lot of days and I think that there is in no way that I'm prepared or capable to make some of the decisions that I make. So, you know, sometimes I struggle with that because I I have to teach myself a lot as I go and learn as I go, because you know, things are a lot different now than they were 40 years ago. So the world is changing, business is changing, and if you refuse to evolve with it, you know, you're just gonna go by the wayside. So a lot of what I do is trying to learn every day so that I can help bring that information to the rest of my team and give them resources so that they can do what they need to do.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Wonderful. I guess there's a real life moment here. Um, we in the earlier seasons we used to have cats um come into the show sometimes. Uh, we may still have that on Allie's side. I don't know. I have a blind dog over here that somehow always needs to go out as soon as I start recording. So I'm gonna head out here and and take my blind dog outside and let uh Allie and Courtney get get a word in.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

What's what's something that you've learned recently, Kathleen, that's uh that you brought back to your team that you feel was actually like, I don't want to say monumental, but like what's the biggest thing that you've brought back in the last couple of years that you think's helped your team like run with it?

SPEAKER_03 14:44

I know we were talking um a little earlier about AI and how I think it's really important to, especially as a small business, learn how you're going to leverage that technology within your organization. And, you know, we're looking at using it to help a lot more with maybe automating drawings and quoting and engineering and freeing up my engineering team from a lot of the mundane tasks and some of the things that can be easily automated, uh, using an AI agent for that. And, you know, I think when I it it was a couple of years ago at Automate, I think I saw a robot and and it was the um it was the one that you guys probably saw too, that you could talk to it and and she was writing her own code, and you know, you would talk to her like Naura. Yeah, Neuro, I think it was Neuro Robotics. Neuro, yeah. Yeah. So I came back to the team and I'm like, okay, guys, this is where we're going as an industry. This is where everything is going, and they laughed in my face, right? My engineers were like, that's 10 years away, that's just for the show, nothing like that is ever going to happen. You know, you're crazy, that's way down the road. And I was like, no, I I really don't think it is. I think that this this technology is just growing and expanding exponentially. And um, I take every opportunity that I can to tell them I told you so. Because, you know, now AI is embedded in pretty much everything you do. You know, you can't you can't have an app on your phone that doesn't have um AI included. Um so, you know, the the I think it's like the next big frontier. And I know it's a buzzword and people get tired of hearing about it, but you know, I think in a small company like ours, what I'm doing is trying to figure out, you know, how can we incorporate AI into our workflow to make it easier for the for the team and to make a better experience for the customer?

SPEAKER_01 16:51

How do you think your team feels about using it so far? Is it like a productivity booster, or are they or do or do they just hate you for like brow beating them with it?

Adopting AI And Team Buy-In

SPEAKER_03 17:01

You know, it's kind of a mixed bag because my team spans several generations. I've got I've got the boomers, I've got uh my older millennial, um, I've got some Gen Z, and um, you know, you would really, I guess, see the most hesitancy coming, surprisingly, not from my boomer, but from my older millennials who are like, oh, I don't know, you know, I we like to do things our way in this way and that way. And of course, the young kids, they're very adaptive, you know, they're like, sure, I think that's a great idea, and you know, we should try working on it. And so it's pretty much a mixed bag. I won't say that everybody is bought in because there's still a lot of fear, there's still a lot of skepticism, but I feel like you know, it's happening whether we want it to or not. You can bury your head in your sand all you want, but it it's still going to happen. And if you don't find ways to incorporate that and to make those changes, um, somebody else is going to. And so, you know, especially in in the automation industry, you know, you know, I think it's very important for us to live what we do. And that's, you know, if we're not automating our own internal processes, are we really an automation company? But it's a mixed bag. I'm getting some pushback and some that are just like, well, I'm gonna wait and see, you know, what you come up with and how it works, and you know, we'll we'll see from there. But we're also deploying a new um ERP system right now, so they already hate me.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

So the ERP is a four-letter word, right? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

So yeah, this is this was a big adjustment, and it's not quite doing everything the way we wanted or thought that it should. And so I'm already not the most popular person in the building. And when I bring them the idea of more technology, they're just kind of like, Oh, I don't know about you.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

How many people work for Flex Line?

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Uh 15. Beautiful. All right. Is it mostly like engineering shed in the middle of a cornfield here in southern Illinois? Actually, we have three facilities, but uh, you know, it's just a small handful of us.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

You know, I've seen this meme popping up a lot uh with people who work in tech. Uh, like the longer you're in tech, the more you just want to throw away like all of your tech. And when you said being in the middle of a cornfield in Illinois, I was just kind of like, yes.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

That sounds amazing. It is nice, it is nice. But I also live on a 320-acre farm, so my day is crazy before I ever get here. So, you know, I'm I'm looking for ways to automate a lot of those tasks too. And and you know, that's one of the things that I point out. Being from a rural area a lot, you know, you would get a lot of pushback. And then I'm like, yeah, but the farmer down the road, you know, I mean, he hasn't drove his own tractor for years, you know, he's used auto steer.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

So come on, guys, really, you know, I think some of the coolest innovation in terms of automation has come from farmers, yeah. And like people who don't have, you know, engineering degrees in the middle of rural areas who are like, I have no support, I can't call the electric company. Uh, nobody's coming to fix anything for me. Um, like those people are geniuses and they find ways to automate things that blow my mind.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

It requires a lot of ingenuity to be a farmer.

unknown 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

And um, you know, I think that that part of I was born and raised on a farm, um, have lived on a farm my entire life. So I think a lot of that ingenuity, problem-solving skills, um, willingness to try new things, I think was born out of um that upbringing, you know, because as a farmer, you you have to be able to solve your own problems. You can't always go to town and get a part, you know. Sometimes you got to make your own. And, you know, so it it has made us have a lot more ingenuity, I think.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

So Allie and I both come from dairy farming backgrounds, or dairy backgrounds. Although, yeah, Allie, I don't know, your grandparents didn't did they do the farming or they just made the butter in the milk? They made the butter. Yeah, okay. So I I come from um two different sides. One of them is dairy farmers. The other side, my grandpa worked in the dairy and made the butter. Um similar to Ali's grandpa. And then we have this friend Vinny Endress, who is a dairy farmer turned controls engineer, who's one of our speakers uh at OT Skatacon. He talks about ag automation. And yeah, I think it opens a like a lot of people are surprised at the ingenuity and you know, some of the things that they automate in farming and then some of the things that they don't, that like industry folks would think are obvious. Yeah. Um, they're very different on a farm than they are in a factory, I would say.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

Absolutely. But yeah, I mean, I'm impressed with with the amount of automation that takes place in dairy and that has taken place, you know. Um, the dairy farm of my childhood is completely gone now, you know, and and it's it's really cool. I watch a lot of videos and reels and things, and I see a lot of the tech that they're doing, and and it's amazing. And there's this stereotype that you know, farmers are just you know, hayseeds, dumb, dumb farmers, but they're some of the brightest individuals you will ever meet, you know.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

And um innovative. And what they're doing as far as automating the the milking process and all of that is really phenomenal. I mean, it's there's a lot going on.

Farming Ingenuity And Automation Parallels

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Yeah, I would love to visit more. I've only been to close to my hometown in Iceland, there is a dairy farm that has opened a cafe. And so they have a upstairs portion that overlooks the dairy barn. And so as you eat and drink there, you can actually see the cows and you can see them going to get their massage whenever they want to. They can go get milked whenever they want to. They can Yeah, fully automated. Automated for them, but at their at their leisure. Like they um and I think it's a super cool thing to be able to use automation to make the whole operation like more humane and better for the cows and then for the consumer. Like that's also really great to know and then to see, and then to be able to go there and like see where your milk is coming from and um that sort of stuff. And I I think, yeah, my grandpa back when he was on a dairy farm actually made his he built his own electric, like power electric, hydroelectric dam power station, because there isn't always electricity or different things that you need, especially at the time like way back then. Um and so they just you know took care of it.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

Yeah, absolutely. You know, and I mean that was that was pretty much how I was raised, you know. I mean, if there was a problem, you you just solved it and you you looked around and you used what you had at hand. And um, you know, I think I bring a lot of that to Flexline. I know my husband does as well because, you know, when we're not here, we're we're farming together. And we don't do row crops anymore. We've leased our our row crop land because that was just way too much, but we still have cattle and we still have um make some hay and stuff like that, and we'll help the farmer out that leases our our acreage for row crop and stuff. So, you know, I get to play in it enough just to kind of keep me interested and um satisfied without having the full-time responsibility of that because you know that's a that's a tough, a really tough career.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Yeah, yeah, I know. And I don't know if if people who thinks that farmers are raking it in hand over fifth, other than maybe the big, big corporate, you know, farm operations, which I wouldn't call farmers necessarily in the same way that like a family farm is, right?

SPEAKER_03 25:03

Um but volatility, there's been a lot of craziness going on in nobody had tariff on their bingo card, right? So, you know, and and when you look at the way that it affects agriculture, their input costs have risen exponentially as well, kind of the same as you know, ours in in my field, you know, I'm looking, I'm paying a lot more. Um, I'm seeing anywhere from 10 to 25 percent increases in raw materials. And um, you know, so that really I think has complicated things for not just agriculture, but for all business, small business especially, um, since we don't often have the margins to be able to absorb that that kind of a hit. 2025 was a really interesting year to be a business owner and to be a farmer, and to be, I think, you know, um pretty much plug anything into that uh sentence. It was it's it was an interesting year. Um it was definitely trying. I um I wasn't really prepared for for that. It's been again one of those, well, here we are, gonna have to figure something out right away, kind of experiences. So, but we're seeing it um on the farm end as well. Cattle prices are up, you know, then corn is down, and you know, it's it's just always it's always something. I got a question. What what made you study business? Well, I wanted to be a veterinarian. And um, you know, I still that's still a big hobby of mine. I read a lot of um books on veterinary medicine and things like that. Uh, you know, it just wound up that uh it's like, what can I do that I'm gonna get a return on my investment? You know, basically. And it was interesting because my generation, when we went to school, you know, guidance counselors were like, well, you can be a nurse or a teacher, or um you could be a homemaker, or or you know, nobody ever really said um anything about having an opportunity in STEM, right? So I think that's probably what kept me on the business side of things is because I didn't have anybody to guide me in that direction. I mean, obviously, um, you don't work in automation for 42 years without having some aptitude, some mechanical aptitude. And as I said, I did a lot of the building, um, quoting, I mean, basically every element of the company I've I've been involved in. So um that's how I ended up in business. It was like, you know, hey, you want to be a teacher, you want to be a secretary, what do you want, what do you want to do? And you know, I didn't really want to be a secretary. If I'm gonna be in business, I you know thought I wanted to do a little more than that. So not to say that, you know, because secretaries, I think, one of the most critical roles in any company. So, you know, I'm not trying to belittle any any role at all, because especially in a small business, every role is super important. And I would never say that just a secretary, because it's like, you know, I've got an administrative assistant that I don't know what I would do without.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

So yeah, I'm uh there right now. Like I we're in the process of finding the one because I I didn't there was a period in my career where I didn't respect executives needing that type of help because I think my life was simple enough that I could juggle it all and I could manage it.

Social Media Strategy And TikTok Impact

SPEAKER_03 28:43

And I worked for a manager that also could um but just taking every phone call yourself. I mean, I mean I get a million phone calls a day because everybody will get my number and be like, oh my god, I've got the president's number. I want I want them to buy my whatever. And I'm like, you know, I'm the last person you need to call for that. You know, I am where your sales pitches come to die, guys, because I buy coffee and toilet paper. Those are the two things that I have a really strong um opinion on, and where I really um will, you know, throw down my authority. It's like if we don't have the sharmin and we don't, you know, somebody's gonna be in trouble. So it's like, don't bring me the store brand stuff. You know, I don't want the two ply. I want, you know. So unless you're selling uh Charmin or really good coffee, I'm probably not who you need to talk to. And so what I love is that um they can redirect those calls to where you know they'd be better off and save my time, save their time because I am I am not it. You know, I might be I might be at the head of this ship, but I don't tell everybody what to buy. You know, I mean I I expect that you know they know what they need and they're making those purchases, and I, you know, and I don't work for your firm. So, you know, don't expect me to patch pass your sales pitch along to my team, you know, unless I'm gonna get a commission. I'm not I don't work for you. I'm not a salesperson for you.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

Well, there's this lovely gradual onset of like experience and age, and I don't think they necessarily have to go together. I know young people with a lot of experience, but you know, not the smartest engineer anymore. I don't know that I ever was, honestly, but like I like I can tell other younger, smarter engineers like, oh, that, that, that, and that need to be done. But if you want me to do that math, uh, you know, prepare for it to be wrong, or like I'm not afraid to be like wrong or an a-hole anymore. Like, I'm okay with you not liking me, which, you know, is is a weird thing to cross into, but like that sounds like everything you're saying where you're like, I know what has to happen, but I'm not necessarily the best person to be doing the actual things.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

Yeah, my ship has sailed. I'm not the actual person to be doing things, you know. I mean, I can still run airline and I can still do all of that stuff, but I don't get up and down as easily as I once did, you know? And and I I think that the hardest part for me was when we started the company and I was doing almost everything myself. I was very passionate about things being done a certain way, my way. And one of the hardest things that I've had to learn in taking this role was to let people express themselves and the way they go about doing things. And it doesn't always have to be exactly my way, and we can still get to the same point, and I I can be a little more chill about it. And so um having this position has required a level of maturity that I didn't think I was ever gonna get, and sometimes still don't feel like I have, you know, because I want to be like, no, no, no, I'll just do it myself, you know. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I I totally get that.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

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SPEAKER_01 33:03

I feel like I'm mature enough to say yes and no to things and let other people do stuff now, but I don't know when I'm supposed to get to the level of maturity that I'm supposed to be at in my 40s. Today I learned of a product line whose abbreviation is E D, and I laughed for like five minutes on the meeting. I was camera off, but uh like I don't know where the level of maturity is supposed to happen, you know.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

Well, I mean it's like nobody notices all the minion toys behind me, right? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Um gotta hang on to that childish part of us.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

Level of maturity. Uh I'm I'm basically a 12-year-old, you know. I still laugh at fart jokes. I mean, I don't I don't know. Um I I don't think you ever want to use lose your sense of youth, though. I mean, if you're not having fun in what you're doing, you're doing it wrong. I mean, when you do when you have a career that spans 42 years, if you don't enjoy it, I mean, come on. You know, so I I try to have fun. Lauren gets a little um aggravated at me because I'm kind of like hurting a cat. Now, you'll know exactly how that is. You know, it's kind of hard to keep me focused sometimes because you know, I'm I I'm playful like that, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

I think that also poor memory for me watching you run around recording Lauren carrying uh stuff into and out of an exhibitor booth uh for TikTok. It was just like that. Like she was annoyed, like, no, don't help me carry the stuff, please make your TikTok. But it was so amazing to watch you guys interact.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

Definitely poor memory. Well, you know, if she would have done TikTok, I wouldn't have had to. So, you know, that was on her. I would have been the one carrying in the stuff, right? You know, hey, that that was all her.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

So are you like your TikTok presence? So let's talk about that for a minute. Your um your nickname on TikTok, uh, and I guess it also on LinkedIn, the the moniker, the conveyor cougar, clearly conveys that you're of the older generation than maybe the the rest of the folks that are jumping on the trends of TikTok and things like that. And yeah, I I I I feel you with like us millennials kind of being stuck in the middle because now we're all of a sudden in this like huge place of responsibility. So we can't quite play. Um maybe the same way that like the the earlier in career folks can that are younger, it comes more natively to them. And then maybe someone like you who's like, I now I'm at a point where I don't, you know, I don't have to care as hard like that. But have you found that to be something that bridges, you know, creates opportunities for you to get across to people that are colleagues or customers or kind of of our industry and of the people that are making decisions? Or is that purely for trying to attract and engage kind of the younger generation that is more likely to be on TikTok? I think it's trying to help me stay relevant.

Direct-To-Manufacturer Myths Vs Integrator Value

SPEAKER_03 36:06

You know, I talk about that a lot. It's like, you know, you you've got to be aware of what the other generations are doing. And, you know, I mean, these are these are people that are now in our industry. They're doing purchasing. This is these are the engineers. You have to be able to speak to them where they are. And really, there's no better place to find out where they are than TikTok. You know, I mean, you get a um a real cornucopia of uh of information from that. But I think that it keeps me young, you know. Um, it definitely helps when you know somebody is communicating, you know, with the with the Gen Zs or something, and they'll throw in some slang and I can throw it back, and they're like, wow, you know. But you know, we TikTok was really accidental. It was kind of a joke. Our we were spending a ton of money doing these really nice marketing, and some of them were really clever and witty, and you know, our flamethrower video and our robot emporium video. I mean, they were great, but they were sitting out on YouTube and they were just like crickets, right? Yeah, and the social media company that we had employed at that time was like, well, what you really need is a TikTok account. And of course, Lauren, being my millennial, was like, not it, right? Not it at all. And so uh I looked around and there was really nobody else in the company that was willing to step up and do it. And so being the typical Gen X that I am, I am uh the old, old, oldest Gen X. Um, I was just like, sure, I'll do it. So, you know, I found myself a 12-year-old, taught me how to basically make a TikTok, and off I went, right? And I just had fun with it, and I still have fun with it, and it's never about really content, nothing. It's it's just more about it's a fun way to connect, it's a fun way to get your name out there. Um, we did see like a 300% increase in web traffic right after I started the the TikTok. And you know, I'm not like wildly popular TikTok like you know, some of these guys, you know, I certainly can't retire and monetize my TikTok, but I've got like 1500 followers or something. And for automation videos, I think that's pretty good because, you know, I mean, it takes a certain person to want to watch, you know, robots or conveyors do something, you know, it's not you know the most exciting um content out there, but I have a lot of followers that that really enjoy that kind of content and enjoy my sense of humor and enjoy my um musical tastes and things like that. So, you know, I'm just out I'm just having fun with it. And and it has really, I think, helped um shine a light on Flexline as a company. Um, because people feel like they know me. Yeah. And through social media, I think what is so important about social media in today's market is you know, having that sense of familiarity and feeling like you have a relationship and you build trust with somebody before you actually do business, I think is really important. And I mean, you girls have have known me for a number of years, you've met me in person, you've seen me online. Is there a difference? No, what you see is what you get right here, you know. And I think people have appreciated that. And um, you know, even when I I do corny or stupid stuff or I share things on LinkedIn that Lauren will be like, Mom, that's really not LinkedIn appropriate. And I'm like, Well, I'm here to break the rules, you know. It must be LinkedIn appropriate if I post it, by golly, and you know, um, if you don't like it, scroll on by. I mean, I yell that to her in her office all the time. You know, if you don't like it, scroll on, girl, scroll on. So, you know, right.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

There's a lot of content out there, and people don't need to engage with all of it. But that's very cool that you have 1500 people engaging on TikTok or or watching automation videos. I know I would be one of them if I was on TikTok.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

Well, the one time I started on TikTok, I it I I watched cleaning videos and people restocking their carpet cleaning videos, or um, there's a guy out there that trims cow hooves, and I'm like, this is fascinating. And I will watch this for hours, and I'm thinking, was that the guy that finds like the problems in the hook and excavates them? I watched that guy too. Uh why I keep watching that. You know, so I will say you gotta be really careful and really disciplined. Um, but mainly I have used uh TikTok as kind of a springboard to other social media. So a lot of the things that I'll create on TikTok, I will share to Facebook or I'll share to Instagram or to LinkedIn or whatever. Because I feel like you know, you have to have um a pretty diverse social media presence because you know, not everybody's on TikTok, not everybody is doing um, you know, Facebook, not everybody, so you you know, you have to throw a little bit of content out there everywhere and kind of keep up with it that way. And you know, if I if I were doing social media right, I'd probably be on it all day. But as it stands, you know, I'll go on, I'll make a video, I might watch a few for research, you know, reasons. Um, when I get yelled at for scrolling too much on my phone, I'll be like, well, I'm just working, you know, sorry. Um, but I think it's important because I think that's how these generations find out about things. I mean, I was really surprised at the percentage of Gen Z that make their purchasing decisions based off social media. You know, it's it's completely different. People buy differently now than they did back when I was working in sales, you know, 30 years ago. Um, it's a completely different animal. And if you're still trying to use the same techniques that you used 20, 30 years ago, you're doing it wrong because people are changing. And you know, you have to change the way that you engage with them. And to me, social media kind of keeps me aware of of that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

It's um I feel like social media serves the can serve the purpose of like kind of getting to know somebody as an entity, as a person, before you engage with them on something complex, like an engineering project, right? You want to know that they're trustworthy, that they have a team that can perform. Um, you feel like you know enough about them that they, you know, if they're doing bad work, that that reputation would, you know, build credibility. Right. But for purchasing on TikTok is something I think of more as like a consumer experience, like, hey, I saw something, I'm interested in it, somebody recommended it. I'm just gonna go ahead and click and buy that without talking to a person.

SPEAKER_03 43:22

User-generated content.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Yeah, but you guys do custom integration, but you also have these standard products like the box easy. Does that ever just get like somebody saw it online and looked up the specs and figured out they want it and they just call in them or or go online and want to buy it? Or is that always a very heavily engineered, you know, sort of led conversation?

SPEAKER_03 43:44

Well, the box easy is always kind of heavily engineered because it really depends on box sizes and the location of the box magazine. That's going to determine the reach of the robot and the size of the robot. So um, because we try to um do multiple box sizes from a single pick point so you don't have to change over end of arm tooling, anything like that, or make a lot of program changes. You know, we like it to be very simple, and so it's it's always pretty much um an engineered uh product, but we do we stock a huge inventory of flexlink conveyors here, um, conveyor parts, Dorner parts, Bosch Rex Raw, things like that. So we do a tremendous amount of parts business. Okay. And people will see those and we'll call because, like, hey, I know you handle this particular product. And so, not everything is a system. We do a lot of parts or engineered parts sales along with system sales or systems integration. So um that's definitely something that again, it's it's not a oh my gosh, I just saw this really cool um lip liner that never wipes off or something like that that I might impulse by, right? But I I have impulse purchased some things off my Facebook um feed that I seriously regret, right? Um, you know, so I try to resist that because you know, not everything they say is true. I have found that out. Not all of these sales pitches are uh factual, yeah. But yeah, for I mean, mainly we're using social media to funnel people to our website or to make the phone call to call in and speak to us. You know, we're not really doing the direct, you know, buy online kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Also very much speaks to we don't really have the opportunity to to manufacture demand for anything. Right. If people don't need a conveyor part, they're not we're not gonna be able to convince them to buy it with a video and some unsubstantiated product claims.

SPEAKER_03 45:54

Yeah, so it's it's different, you know, it's a different type of marketing. And so for for us in the automation business, is TikTok ever going to be, you know, exactly what you're saying? No, probably no. Um, but do people see some of the stuff that I throw out there and are curious? And maybe they see an application that we've done, and then all of a sudden they're working on a project and they're like, oh my God, I saw somebody that did that. Oh, yeah, it's the conveyor cougar. I'll go look that up, or I'll I'll go back and see, and I'll give them a call. And so it's it's really trying to um just to get that content out there and available. People might not use what they see today, but you know, you plant that seed, and you know, maybe next year, or they move jobs and they're in a different position and they run across something and they're now like, okay, I need this, and I know somebody who really knows a lot about this or who has uh a lot of resources in this area. And I think that that's it's it's an informational tool for us.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Yeah, and it's easy enough to remember different, honestly. I'll say, like, so flex line automation is the name of your company. Yeah, flex link conveyors is one of the brands that you represent, right? And early on, like when I didn't deal with those two, I mixed the two up a lot. Um, and so like there's a lot of names and technologies and things in our industry that are very similar. Um, I found this out, like also working nationally, there's just a lot of regional companies that sound exactly the same or they're off by one letter or something. Whereas like your identity and your personality and you're the conveyor cougar, you know, like that, you don't mix that up with anything else.

SPEAKER_03 47:38

Well, one of the things that I always try to point out about, you know, a lot of people will be like, well, you know, you you sell flexlink conveyors, why shouldn't I just go directly to FlexLink? Um, you know, I'll get a better price, I'll get a whatever. And you know, if if you're ordering something standard off the shelf, yeah, maybe. Um, but if you're looking at an integration project and maybe uh a product, a standard product needs to be customized for you, you're not gonna get that at the manufacturer level. So I think that there's always going to be a reason to have a partnership with a good integrator because you know, we'll take some of these uh flex link items and and you know, we've turned them into magnetic conveyors or air conveyors or backlit conveyors and things that are not standard. You're not going to get that if you call flexlink, you know, because what we're looking at is solving your problem. Yeah, and if we can do it with a standard product offering, of course, that's economical the best way to go, but that's not always possible. So the fact that we have the ability to customize the solution, I think gives us an advantage.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Yeah, I'll also say just coming from the manufacturer side of things, I work for Wintech, we're a manufacturer. I've worked for uh Festo and Keynes in the past, which are also the manufacturers. Um, we're not always faster at shipping. Sometimes we're slower. Wintech in this case, we we have a good warehouse, we ship next day, but I've bought from many manufacturers that will take up to a week to ship out an order because they're used to handling large quantity orders from their distributors and you know bigger companies. And so A, you're not necessarily likely to get a faster response or better service, and B, you're not necessarily likely to get a better price either. Uh in some cases, it'll be worse than you can get from a good distributor or integrator. Um and yeah, I think that's kind of a perception that I don't know, you know, I think it probably depends. Depends on the manufacturer and the distributor of each one. There's there's you know pros and cons there. Um, but that would be an interesting, I think I should do an episode on that topic just because like having worked across the aisles of these different relationships, distributors, systems, integrators, manufacturers, there's a lot of, you know, sort of nuance there um that maybe not everybody knows. And some of those things seem very counterintuitive unless you know kind of the reasoning or or you know, the reasoning behind them and then different scenarios in which you want to make sure that you have all those relationships.

SPEAKER_03 50:13

Well, I have uh like you know, three quarters of a million dollars worth of conveyor parts sitting on my shelf back there, so that if somebody calls flex line automation, the first difference you're gonna notice is a human is going to answer your phone call. Yeah. You know, you're gonna actually speak with a person who is going to be able to get you to who you need, what you need. And I mean, there have been instances when we're not here, our phones ring to my cell phone, my husband's cell phone, or Lauren's cell phone. So it's like we're always on call. I've come in on Saturday before and packed up parts for a courier to pick up. Um, actually, uh, I was a private pilot for for quite a while.

Hyper-Responsive Service And Customer Stories

SPEAKER_02 50:56

No way, I did not know this. Yeah, we have no new careers, but I here I've just learned something completely.

SPEAKER_03 51:03

My my husband and I both used to fly. His dad um was a helicopter flight instructor, and so we it was a uh aviation was really big in his family, and so um I kind of got sucked into that, and we both flew quite a bit. And and at that time, you know, hey, I would throw a box you know in into the plane and fly it out, you know, at different places. So that level of customer service you don't get from a big company, from a manufacturer, because it's kind of like that layer cake we talked about. You know, there's lots of layers, there's lots of icing, there's lots of fluff in between those layers. And, you know, when you call flex line, you're gonna get a person, you're gonna get a decision maker, somebody that's gonna be able to act on your request immediately. And, you know, I keep enough conveyor that I can build a hundred foot of conveyor and turn it around in 24 hours if I need to. And um we have, you know, we've we've gotten orders before and they've they're like, I need this, and I need this in two days. Can you do it? Sure. You know, so I think that would be a great episode because there is a big misnomer that you know, going direct is is the way to go.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Yeah. Absolutely. So I think we're we're running, you know, pretty close to time here. We should probably uh start wrapping things up. I could go on forever on tangent and other things that I thought of that I that I want to ask you. Um, Kathy, is there anything that you want to talk about that we haven't asked?

SPEAKER_03 52:40

I you know, I don't know. Um I mentioned that we're working on a gluing application for the box easy, so kind of keep an eye out. That's gonna be coming, coming soon. And we're doing that at Pac Expo. Uh, I don't know if we'll be taking it to a trade show yet this year or um definitely won't be ready for automate, but we will be at automate. We are going to be hosting our own um automation fair again. We're looking at doing that maybe sometime in in late April, early May. We haven't set the date exactly for that, but that's always a really wildly popular event.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

Um yeah, I actually wanted to mention that because that is something that, you know, in your area, right, of rural southern Illinois, there's not a lot of opportunities to go to these trade shows. Um unless you really have, you know, a big reason to travel and the expense and stuff. So is that something that you guys put on for the community to see what automation is? Or uh is it is it more of just like a hey, come see what we have to sell? Like, what's the motivation behind how long have you been doing it?

Community Automation Fair For Rural Manufacturers

SPEAKER_03 53:49

Lauren and I, this will be our our third, third year, third or fourth year, I don't know. Um, but Lauren and I were were leaving automate one year, and I was walking behind these two gentlemen, and they were like, Oh my god, did you see this? And you know, I didn't even know they made those. And and I'm it it just kind of resonated with me. People, you can't Google what you don't know, yeah, right, right. And a lot of the businesses, a lot of the small to mid-sized rural manufacturers, they don't have the budgets to send people to Vegas or send people to Chicago or wherever. And so these guys are basically relying on catalogs and the internet. And it just really struck me. You how do you Google what you don't know? You how would you even begin? If you can't go to a trace show and see some of the things that are there, how do you even know where to begin to look? And so that was why we started having our own automation fair because there are so many small, mid-sized rural manufacturers in this area that just don't have access to that information. So it's our goal always to put on a show with a very diverse group of um of exhibitors. You know, it's really weird. It's in our facility. I don't have a booth in it. We really aren't even promoting our products. It's it's it's my way of trying to bring the trade show to people that don't have an opportunity to go that I feel like need to have that experience and they need to be able to, you know, to touch and feel and look at some of these things that are available and and then begin to get an idea of what to Google, you know, when they need to, or at least have some contacts and some resources available so you know they can call or they can, you know, be like, hey, uh we're doing this. Maybe it's not something I know anything about. Somebody at a trade show asked me, can you do this? And I was like, Well, that's not the right question because yeah, I can. The question is, should I? And that's no, but here's the number for the guys who should. And so, you know, we're we're matchmakers a lot in that area, but it's it's something I'm really passionate about because I think that these small, mid-sized rural manufacturers are underserved and overlooked. And uh a lot of the bigger companies, they don't want to spend their resources because you know you're driving an hour, two hours or more in between companies. So these guys don't get any sales calls, they don't, they don't get anything, you know. And yeah, if you look at our GDP, if you look at what's most of manufacturing, they're small, mid-sized rural manufacturers. So if there's anybody that we should be supporting right now, especially um it's those guys, you know. So that's something that's super important to Lauren and I, and the reason why we do it and why we invite anybody who wants to come, set up as an exhibitor is welcome. We don't charge an exhibitor fee. Um, you know, you can make a donation if you'd like to help pay because we buy everybody who comes lunch. You know, we have a food truck on site. So, you know, do you want to write us a check to help offset the cost of food? Fantastic, but it's it's not a requirement because what we want to do is bring that technology to these companies that wouldn't otherwise have access to it.

SPEAKER_02 57:12

Yeah. Well, that I think is a fantastic way to end this interview um with four minutes to spare. Um, so what I would love to do is make sure that when you guys have uh the information finalized, the dates, the you know, registration page, whatever that is, that we get you up on our uh Automation Ladies uh events calendar. Oh, that would be fantastic. Well, that is something that we're putting together this year, um, both events that we are gonna be at and just events that we think you know people should know about. And I would now like to try uh to make an effort to get more smaller regional events onto that page and there to be a some sort of you know finder of what based on location. So that yeah, that'd be awesome. For me now as a single parent with two kids, like it's I love going to these events and you know, flying out and everything. Luckily, it is something I get to do as part of my job, but it's also a you know, it's a real challenge uh with scheduling and other things. And so whenever there's something I realize I can drive to and don't have to spend the night, for instance, um, that's always like a real nice treat for me, something that I can do without being spending the night away from my kids. Um, and so I I can imagine there's plenty of other people out there with whether it's an employer restraint that they don't have the budget, or maybe it's just even if you could go on your employer's dime, you have caretaking responsibilities or absolutely whatever that is that keeps you from traveling too far. And so if we can bring these little mini events to more people's attention, you can go find something locally.

SPEAKER_03 58:44

We invited people from about a 200, 250 mile radius. And I had one company that sent 11 engineers, and they thanked me personally before they left because they were like, this is the only opportunity we have. And then we had another company that I overheard two gentlemen talking, and one of them was like, and they had drove probably an hour, hour and a half, and he was like, I thought this was gonna be so lame, and I figured this probably wasn't even gonna be worth the drive. There's so much cool stuff here, and that's that's the feedback that I want. I want there to be so much cool stuff that these people that don't have an opportunity to see it are just floored. And already I've got people reaching out saying, When is the next one? When is the next one? We want to come. So it's I think it's super important to promote those small uh events for all the reasons you mentioned, because it's it's important that we support that section of manufacturing.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

Absolutely. So, where should people go to anything we haven't mentioned yet in terms of how should people reach out to you, if they want to do business with Flexline or if they want to take part in the event, um, or anything else that you want people to know that they should contact you or your company about?

SPEAKER_03 59:57

Well, you know, our website is always a great place to start, and it's uh flexlineautomation.com, and flex line is hyphenated. Um or you can always call in. Uh, the number is 618-826-5086. There's always gonna be a human that answers your call. You're gonna get to speak to somebody that will be able to address your your needs right away. Um, email, uh follow me on LinkedIn, just look up Conveyor Cougar. I think I come up that way. Follow me on TikTok, you know, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Snapchat, I'm on Reddit, I'm on, you know, you name it, X, uh threads, Facebook. Okay, social media.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:43

Yeah, yeah. And and everybody should know now, you know, what type of person you are, how to approach you, uh, what not to tell you about, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:53

Just you know, hey, if you've got a question, um, let me know. If I don't, I I've been doing this a long time. I might not know everything, but I I know how to use resources, and I think that's the important thing. I might not know it, but I know a guy who does, right? So, you know, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:09

And then Lauren Vandemark, your daughter, is the sales and marketing manager. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:14

She is.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:15

Um, so you guys can also find her on LinkedIn, um, touch base with her if you're looking for project support. So thank you so much, Kathy. I am so glad to have you back on the show. I I really looked forward to, and I think I told you this. I thought about it last year. I was like, man, I just want to fly out, go to Kathy's farm. But then I thought about the drive, and then I was like, I'm not sure which airport, and then that sounds complicated, and I probably shouldn't show up on your doorstep. So I'm in the St.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:40

Louis and you have an open invitation.

How To Connect With FlexLine And Closing

SPEAKER_02 1:01:42

I will make it out there one day. And in the meantime, thank you so much for coming on the show. Um in the audience, man, if you you know, just want there there's like no scenario in which you shouldn't connect with Kathy, really. I mean, if you're in the interview, and uh you're gonna find that it will be an enrichment to your feed, to your career, to your relationships, um, to learn from her and and what she's doing out there and flexline in general. We'll see you guys at Automate, we'll see you guys at PacExpo. Um and have a great rest of your Tuesday. Bye. Thank you, bye everybody. Thank you for listening to Automation Ladies. If you like our content and you want to stay in touch, please connect with us on LinkedIn, follow the show page, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and you can send us a message or a copy on our website, automationladies.io. We look forward to getting to know you. Our producer is Veronica Espinoza, and our music is composed by Daniel J.