From Newsroom To Packaging: Sarah Wynn On Building Digital Community

Automation media, trade shows, and digital content are reshaping how the industrial automation industry connects. In this episode, Sarah shares insights from covering manufacturing and packaging events, building relationships across OEMs and integrators, and how social media and content creation are influencing the future of automation, engineering, and industrial technology.

Transcript

Welcome, Loss, And New Season Plans

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Welcome to Automation Ladies, the only podcast we know of where girls talk about industrial automation. Sarah Wynn. Welcome to Automation Ladies. How are you? Hi, Nikki. I'm doing well. How are you doing? Very good. Um at this very moment, I'm very good. Uh I my day has involved some crying, but right now I'm having a really great time.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Well, so I I hope no, I don't cause you any tears. It's not my intent. Uh I hope we can have a nice, nice little back and forth. I'm really excited to meet you. This is the first time we've ever talked on Zoom or you know, video chat. Uh and we've gone back and forth for a while on LinkedIn, so I'm really excited.

Sarah’s Path To WTWH And Digital Roots

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah. And for those of you that are listening on audio, um, we're hoping that this episode is also now video. We're planning to make the series both video and audio depending on how you like to consume. Sarah's got a lovely home office with Christmas decorations up already, because it is the beginning of December. And we will should be publishing this episode in January as part of the next season. And because Sarah happens to be the first episode I'm recording since this happened, I'll just throw this out there and try not to take make it too much of this episode. But I recently went through a personal loss. I lost my partner, my husband. Um, and if you guys have listened to the show for a while, you know I have two little kids. Um, I work a lot, and and so my husband was kind of my at-home rock keeping things going while I was out traveling too much and working too much and doing the stuff that I'm super passionate about. Um, I have a career that I can't stop doing. And uh he didn't. So that was our arrangement, and that's changed. And so I haven't been able to record an episode in a while. Um, Allie and Courtney have also been busy. Uh, Allie got a new job at Relativity Space. And did I say Allie or did I say Courtney? Courtney got a new job. Um, Allie's moving. And yeah, so we got a lot of stuff going on. And so um Sarah is the first person I've caught up with since then because we've been trying to talk forever, and I just didn't want to keep putting it off. We were rescheduled, she was traveling. Um, we she goes to a lot of shows as well. So, like she mentioned, we've gone back and forth on LinkedIn a bit. I've started consuming a lot of her content from the shows that I can't go to, which reminds me a lot of how I met Allie. I started consuming her content from Pac Expo on LinkedIn, and then we talked, and then we met at Automate. So I will probably meet Sarah at a trade show next year, I'm guessing, in 2026. Uh so I'm very excited to hopefully make a new friend. And as it goes on automation, ladies, it's, you know, this is a space for us to be able to talk about the stuff that we do at work in a way that's, I don't know, fun and relatable to us. And so if you're in on this conversation and that speaks to you, that's awesome. And we look forward to getting to know you hopefully as well, in person or online. Uh, but yeah, with that, Sarah, thank you for coming on to my uh our crazy show. I'm the only one hosting today. Allie is actually driving a truck with her belongings down to Louisiana. And Courtney is working her rocking her awesome new job. Um, they're gonna be doing lives next year. Um, we're gonna try to do at least two live demos a month, and Allie and Courtney will be leading most of those. And then I'm gonna keep doing the talking show because as much as I love seeing tech demos, um, I love the connections I get to make with people in this industry across this medium. So, Sarah, um, I should start with the standard question that we have on here on Automation Ladies, which is really just in your own words, and as much as you want to include and not include, tell us how you got here to be an editor at WTWH Media.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Definitely. And first I want to say, Nikki, thank you for the invite. I am really excited, like I said at the top, to be on Automation Ladies. And um, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. My thoughts and prayers are with you. I hope we can make this next hour uplifting and fun for you. Um and I thought we were we were already friends. I thought we were already friends.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

So yeah, you know, there's just it kind of goes in stages. I'm glad you thought that because I am sometimes a weirdo and think I'm friends with people, and then I look, they look at me and they're like, huh, okay. Yeah. No, I am very friendly, um, and I like to make friends. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Yes. So all about me. Um, my name is Sarah Wynne. I am a senior editor for WTWH Media. I primarily work on packagingoem.com. Sometimes I contribute to controlengineering.com as well. How did I get here? It's a long road. I would um I will say that I've been a digital journalist for almost a decade. And when I say digital journalist, and I should point out that I am not an engineer. I I cover engineering topics, but I am not an engineer. Um I don't think that we would be receiving the content we are from you if you were. So yes, I like to say I'm the queen of the gifts. Uh, if you you can add me on LinkedIn, feel free. But how did I get here? Been a digital journalist for about 10 years. I worked in local news in Columbus, Ohio. I also worked in national news, but before I was ever a digital journalist, I was a digital marketer. Might make sense now with some of the content that I make. Um, I've done social media really in a part-time capacity for about 15 years and a full-time for about 12 or 13. I started, and I should just say, Nikki, I went to the Ohio State University and I'm really into it, and it'll probably come up again.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

But I know some people that are really into that. It's that's a thing.

Branding, Names, And Rescue Dogs

SPEAKER_01 6:43

It's a thing. Uh, I started doing social media for the athletic department when I was in school. I worked with the men's and women's basketball teams that kind of propelled me to work with Nike for about a year on digital activations around Ohio State when I was a student. Uh, post grad, I did social for Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and then I started my news career. So that's a very fast-track way to say how I got here. Um, I've been with WTWH Media for a year. I work, like I said, primarily on packagingoam.com. We are a B2B company. WTWH stands for willing to work harder. I get a lot of questions what the acronym means, and that's what it is. I was about to ask if you hadn't brought it up. Uh, I say I aim to do that each and every day, along with making hashtag winning content. My last name is Win, and it's very much a personal brand. So I've been with WTWH for a year covering packaging OEMs. We cover machine builders, our audience manufacturers, technology suppliers, some components as well. Um, yeah, so that's very high level. I know I threw a lot at you.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

No, that's great. Um, I'm my mind has gone like 10 different directions, including I'm gonna start with the least relevant one.

unknown 7:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

If you ever come to Houston, um, you'll have fun looking at the billboards for various lawyers, law firms. They're everywhere where you and uh injured in a truck crash, or you know, it's just that seems to be a huge industry here. And there's this law firm um that these partners, uh push and win. And it used to be, uh, I believe, and I probably shouldn't say this, but I believe it to be like a a name of Polish origin, maybe P-U-S-C-H, something like that for push. Yeah, and then um the Vietnamese win spelling, N-G-U-Y-EN. And so it was push and win, and like they had a lot of clever ads for we push, so you win sort of stuff. Yeah, and like in that industry, like perfect. Yes, names and personal brands built on your names. If your name is like industry relevant or relevant to what you do, or relevant to the outcome that you bring, like what a fun and and cool coincidence that you can capitalize on.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Yes, I didn't I didn't like my last name, Nikki, growing up. My teachers would make fun puns off of it. I thought it was so embarrassing. And then all I do is win came out the the song, and it changed my life. So I there's a lot of Sarah's you'll meet in the world. I usually say Sarah Win, as in I'm Sarah, all I do is win because most people don't forget that.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yeah, that's great. And then the the the twist on the on the law firm story here is um yes, the partnership broke up, but push had such good branding that he found himself another win. So now it's another guy with long hair and a beard, and it's last name is spelled W Y, like yours, but with an E at the end. W-Y-N-N-E.

unknown 9:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

And and he ignored they acknowledge it in their marketing. They've got some um new billboards, and one of them is like, it's complicated, push and win, and it shows them like laying together in a like it just it's I don't know. I think it's kind of hilarious. And uh I don't know if that really works. I guess maybe it works for uh legal clients, but like to me, I look at these things from a branding perspective, a marketing perspective, like and and it's also just kind of funny. Um yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Well, I I'll add that I do have a Houston connection. I was just in Houston a few months ago. Um, and my I have three rescue dogs outside of work. Animal rescue is one of my biggest passions. One of them is from Houston, and my mom and I actually drove from Cleveland to Houston to pick him up.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Yeah. Oh, that's well, I'm glad you didn't get in a wreck and need to call one of these crazy lawyers.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

You need to call push and win.

Why Manufacturing Stories Hook A Journalist

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Um sports angle is pretty cool too. Um starting there. What I mean, what possible path brought you into manufacturing? How did that door open or that opportunity come to you?

unknown 10:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Was it something you wanted, or it just came?

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Um, I'll say that I'm a storyteller and I think manufacturing and packaging have a lot of stories to tell. Uh, and I thought my skill set would translate pretty well. And when I say my skill set, I mean digital. I'm not a traditional print magazine editor. I have a lot of respect for them, but my background has always been in digital. Uh, so I was looking for a new role about last fall, a little over a year ago, and I saw this one come across. And one of the big pieces of my life and my success, it's really credited to people who've believed in me and who've supported me along the way. So I knew, and if I were to make a role switch, I would need someone, especially on the topic of packaging and manufacturing, that knew their stuff and would be willing to teach me. Because I'll admit, Nikki, a year ago I didn't know that flexible packaging didn't come just in a pouch. I know this now. And I learned, but I saw this role and I did some research, and I actually found my supervisor now, Stephanie Neal. She's been in the space for a long time. I will not say how many years, but she's I have met Stephanie a couple times.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yeah, she's great. I would love to spend more time with her. She seems really, really cool. And I love I she's made some content in our booth at she made some content with us at Automate this year. Um, so that is about the extent I've had interacting with her. Um no, also, uh, I and I just posted this on LinkedIn today, but the A3 Business Forum, I actually met her there. That's the first time I met her, and I had a drink with her, and we just chatted all about her renovating her house and all kinds of stuff. So, yes, I have actually hung out with her a bit, and she's great.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

She's awesome. I say she's the GOAT. So if you're gonna learn packaging and manufacturing, you want to learn from the best, I I think she's the best. So uh I knew if I was making this switch, I had to have someone who was willing to teach me. Uh, and she's been that. So it really was several factors. I thought the the industry's topics could be told digitally in different ways. Um, and then there was a mentor who was willing to take me under their wing and teach me everything, kind of like a karate kid situation. Yeah.

unknown 13:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

That is like huge value when it comes to looking at a job. You can look at like the job description and the pay and your duties and everything, but like I've always thought to myself too, like, what am I what else am I learning? Who am I getting to learn from as part of this? Um I think, yeah, working for different people over the years, a such a big part of whether you succeed or not in your job and whether you like it or not is who you're working for. Um and whether they are the person that teaches you or they provide you with the right person to teach you, right? Either one, but super, super important. So that's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah, and I know I am I'll we said at the top, weird. I I'll admit I'm a little weird, I'm a little kooky. Some of my ideas, like, oh, let's take a pick and place robot and make it a gif, and then it did really well. So we did it again. Um, but she she always is open to my creative ways I go about this, and she keeps me on track in terms of uh, you know, the coverage and angles and things like that. She's always there to help. So yeah, Stephanie's great. I knew she would come up in this. So if you're listening, Stephanie, you're you're the I shouldn't say you're the best, you're the goat. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Well, we'll probably end up having Stephanie on the show sometime in the future. I don't see why.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

She, this is a nice plug.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

She has away from that.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

She has a new podcast too. It's on controlengineering.com. Control all. Oh, I'm not kidding.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I have been totally out of the loop for a while. So, like, yes, I well also, that's great. How long has that been going?

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Uh, a few months. It's up, it's all on control engineering. New episode uh recently came out.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

I'll just say that because I uh we know this will we will make sure that um we link to that podcast in the show notes. It like the most recent episode won't be the most recent because our episode will be coming out in a few weeks. Um, but we'll just go ahead and link to the main show so that you can catch the latest episode. Um I should add that I have a podcast too. Well, of course. I I do know that I was gonna ask about that. So yeah, way to way to go. Uh bring it up. So, what is your podcast all about? And why should people listen to it? Or who should listen to it?

Mentors, Creative Freedom, And New Podcasts

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Who should listen to it if you're a oh yeah, manufacturer, plant engineer? I would say that's that's our target audience. So my podcast is called The Downtime. I co-host it with Sherry Kasperzek, she's executive editor of WTWH Media's Automation and Control Brands. Sherry and I pitched this podcast back in the spring to Stephanie, and she said, Go for it, go for it. And within a week, we had our first episode up. We were we'll finish 2025 with 34 episodes. It's a weekly show, it comes out every Thursday. Um, we've had some really interesting conversations. We talked with Atlantic Packaging and how they automated the vinyl record pressing line for Memphis record pressing. That was a neat episode. We've talked VFDs with Nord, uh, we've had Schneider Electric on, we've had Who's Your Feeder? Like I could go on and on. I mean, there's 34 episodes, so I'm not gonna name every single one. But yeah, it's a it's a nice little show, and I will tell you, it is not a traditional um manufacturing kind of podcast. I think Nikki would appreciate it. We when I say this, I mean we might be talking VFDs one second and like pumpkin spice the next. Like we we are chattering. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

And I mean, honestly, that's that's really kind of what the point of well, not I have like a million points to automation ladies, so I say this a lot. Uh but yeah, just to be able to talk about it the way that we do when we hang out, like or or when we are having conversations with people that are not like sales pressure conversations, like when you randomly meet someone at a trade show and you're talking shop with them, but you're also just kind of like having fun. That is the only way that I get these episodes done because if it felt too much like work, I I can't have too many jobs. Um but this is obviously part of your job. But it's it's really good that you guys I I appreciate that you're not doing it the kind of corporate-y style, where all you can do is talk, or or I guess in your case it would be like just journalistic. Um I feel like just our industry is kind of plagued with very technical and dry stuff, which you need when you're at the stage of like figuring out your specifications. Um, stay up to date and like learn new stuff and relate with people and learn new applications, like it doesn't have to be so serious all the time.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah, and I'll add one of my favorite parts about my role is being able to tell the human stories behind the machines. I think cold water, we have a story up on cold water distilling. I think that's where you and I initially connected, Nikki, on this story. Oh, yeah. They um uh have distilling dreams and they have a copking line to fund those dreams. Um it's an awesome story. It goes back, it starts with reality TV. Kentucky basketball players are involved. I'm not gonna give the whole story away, but yeah, I love telling the human side, and it's probably the consumer news piece of me that still lingers around, but it is one of my favorite things.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

No, I love that. I like that a lot, and I love that story, and I think that's why I like e probably reached out to you or I commented on it or something immediately because it was it was just a pleasure to read. It didn't hurt that like I uh I guess Hamric Packaging, I think, is one of the co-investors in the co it in the facility, and they're one of our customers that use our HMI on um their machines, and so just to see like to be able to read something related to something that I know and it'd be that interesting and entertaining. Yeah, because it did remind me of something I would read in a regular back when I did used to read like newspapers or well, and once that we're not just focused on like doom and gloom. I don't know. I just feel like now I've I'm kind of allergic to news. Like I like my industry stuff, and then my family at home. I feel like the rest of the world that not to get into any of that, it's just it's a lot, and I come I come from that industry too.

Trade Shows As Year-Round Content Engines

SPEAKER_01 19:16

So, yes, I know. So I was looking for a role. I could use my skill set and tell an industry stories, and I've been fortunate I've had that opportunity to do that with packaging, with manufacturing. Um, but Hamric's a great example. I live in Northeast Ohio. Hamrick is very close to my house. I was there over the summer. I saw your HMIs. I have some pictures if you want them.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

But uh, anybody, seriously. Okay, I'm gonna go a little off track here, but I've gotten a lot of messages from people and thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that sent me a message while I've been away or like condolence messages, like I don't know what to say, but I just wanted to say we're here for you kind of messages. Like, I when people around me have had losses, like it's super weird and I don't know what to do. And I want to do the right thing, but I also don't want to be like the hundredth person to ask, How are you doing today? Like, whatever. It's just it's weird, you don't know what to say. And a lot of people message, they're like, hey, I don't I don't want to bother you, right? Um so if you want to send me a message, if you are A, if you're listening to the show and you're not connected to me on LinkedIn, you're welcome to go ahead and do that. I would love that. Um, B, you're welcome to send me a message, it will not bother me. Um, I may not respond or respond right away, but I it made me feel really, really good in a really crappy time to get so many nice messages from people that I work with or that I know from industry. Um and one of the things that people have asked, like, I don't know what I can do from far away, you know, I don't know you that well, but I if there's anything I can do to help, like, what can I do to help? And one of the things that's a challenge, I'll just be honest, is like juggling, being a single mom, um, having side things like the podcast and the and the conference, and then having a job and you know, just all of that. And uh a lot of my stuff that I had planned this year, because I basically lost a quarter of this year, like plus a little bit, um, was some of my initiatives around going out to more shows, creating more content. Um, I have a lot of stuff planned that like now just get pushed into next quarter or next year or whatever. And thankfully, like WinTech is just being super awesome about all of this. Um, but one of the things I asked two people was exactly that. Just if you, hey, they're like, hey, I'm going to this event. I'm like, hey, if you see any HMIs or WinTech HMIs, like send me a picture. Because I'm not out there, but they're out there everywhere. And the more people I know that can, because people tell me that all the time, they're like, oh man, I see Wintech everywhere. Like, please, yes, send me a picture. So if you hear this, just keep this in your brain. If you ever want to help Nikki, if you see WinTech anywhere, just send me the picture. Tell me where it is. If you if you have that extra time, if not, just send it. Um, that's a super nice little helpful way uh to add some value to my day and to help me do my job to the best of my ability at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

So well, I will go through my my archives of my hamrick pictures, and uh, I'm sure I have at least one. So I'll send it over. I do have um, it's not on my desk right now, but if you follow me on LinkedIn, I have this little Win Hot Wheels van I take around. I put it on conveyors, things like that. I have a picture of the the van on an HMI, but I'm not sure if it's a if it's a WinTech. I'm not sure.

unknown 22:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

It would be fitting though to have a WIN van on a WinTech HMI.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

I know, right? Okay, so that's yeah, people um I didn't know this, but a lot of people call it WINTEC because it's spelled differently. It's actually an acronym. Um for some uh but it's it's the name, uh I guess it's up to interpretation, but our our interpretation is that we like to win, not wine.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Oh, I love that. I might take it.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah. So what sort of content when you came into this role? You came into B2B, you came into manufacturing from this consumer background, from sports, from college stuff, from um what what were your observations on what you felt like was glaringly needed or yeah, that we could do that we weren't doing?

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Um, well, I'll just add most a large large portion of my background is in social media and social media management. I managed for most of my career, including in local and national news. I worked on social campaigns. Um, so that was kind of my first crack at it. I I started and within my first week or two, I had a story up and I said, Can I have an Adobe license? I want to make graphics, and from there, off it went. And it's interesting, we talked talked about Hamric. Hamric was one of the first uh to repost packaging OEM. So when I when I started a year ago, we had 115 LinkedIn followers on our packaging OEM account. We are almost to 1400 present day. We're very close. Um, so we have really grown this community, and it's it's been one of the my most favorite things I've done in my career. I grew audiences at Ohio State. I kind of inherited audiences at some other roles, but this one we built it from the ground up. And most of these people I've met in person, I've met at shows, we've had them on the podcast. Um, so it's it's very rewarding. But yeah, so what did I notice mainly how I could leverage social to one get traffic to my content and share the industry stories in a way that hasn't that I didn't I hadn't seen it be done.

How Sarah Plans And Shoots On The Floor

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Yeah, no, that's that's actually that's a great observation. So I will say most of the industry coverage that I do read in the and I read the online versions of these trade magazines, right? Uh, but my path has been following the person that wrote the story and then subscribing or starting to read the rest of the publication, not so much the other way around. Um when I just read the publication, unless it was and I now I can't remember, I probably came across your That's how we met, I think. You're probably the only person whose story I've read and then like wanted to follow. Oh, versus the other way around, where I usually read something and then like because I found a lot of journalists aren't even on social media or they're on Twitter or they're on like someplace I'm not, so I don't really do social media other than LinkedIn. Um, so oftentimes when I go out, try to like connect with journalists or follow them, it's just they're not like where I am, which is LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Yeah, well, that was a huge shift for me because the B2C audience, LinkedIn was never my main platform. No. So when I came on a year, I I've increased my my personal brand quite a bit as well, but um I knew coming into this role I would have to really leverage LinkedIn and find different ways to make content stick. Uh, we've done we've had some good posts, but yeah, I think I think you and I connected initially. It was either the HH Barnum automation trailer video. I did a little video and for the video. Oh, it could have been that one too. Yeah. And then I had cold water right after, right after.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Yeah. Obviously, now since we're both like now, I'm so um, because of my position with Wintech and us working primarily with OEMs and a lot with packaging OEMs, um, all of a sudden now, like we are in the same orbit, right? So it's not surprising that you're covering like more customers. H H Barnum is one of our big uh is our biggest distributor, probably. So I file follow what they're doing. Um and I also, you know, it's it's hit or miss whether or not like our distributors are doing a lot of social, um doing a lot of multimedia type marketing. Um definitely depends on size. Some of them are more aggressive about it than others.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Yeah. I'll say that HH Barnum, the reason the photos or videos even exist is because PBC Linear posted that they were at the event on LinkedIn, which was about five miles from my house. So I took my lunch break. I I didn't know about it until the day of. I took my lunch break, went over there. I said, Hey, how are you doing? They're like, You want to do a video? I said, Absolutely. I was like, let me grab my equipment in my car. Oh, yes, I brought it just in case, just in case. So yeah, that's what it's all about. Everything I a lot of people are hesitant with social. I just grew up with it. I've done it for so long. It's it's like a it's just the way I kind of go about things. But yeah, that's how the HH Barnum content came about. And thank you to them. They they did it all on the spot.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Yeah. Uh and honestly, that's how I like to do too, like the the live demos that we do on automation ladies and stuff. I mean, people are obviously we schedule them in advance, so they are allowed to prep. But I just try to say, grab a person that does this on a regular basis and just let them do their thing. I don't want anything special, I don't want anything like scripted specifically for me or prepared for our audience. Just bring on someone that knows the thing real well. And they typically talk about it, no problem, off the cuff.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

Go at it.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah. Exactly. Which is why, like at trade shows and stuff too, I always think it's kind of interesting when I walk up and I want to hear from someone, they're like, oh, oh, I'm not the person to talk to. And I clearly I know the engineers are not going to be the people that are gonna want to talk to media usually. Um and big companies have to be, you know, afraid of all their different PR rules and stuff like that. But I operate kind of in the in the smaller uh arenas because I feel like it's easier to have more impact and you can do a lot more when you're not super constrained by a lot of red tape. Um, and it sounds like WTWH is kind of a place like that as well, like Stephanie letting you experiment and just approving something or didn't you know, like let's just okay, approve it and then just get it done. Let's give it a shot, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:52

She gives me a lot of creative freedom and I appreciate that. Um, she likes I work pretty autonomous independently, I guess you could say. Um, but if I ever have a question, uh I'll add too, I'm not like most millennials. I am not afraid to call on the phone. So I will FaceTime her, I will call her, say, I need help, and she'll answer or she can't, she'll get back to me. But yeah, she does. It's it's a great place to be, a lot of creative freedom. Really, it's kind of like a sandbox, and whatever I kind of envision I can build. Um, I just had this idea this week, and by the time this airs, this will be out, so it's okay. We we did photo galleries for every trade show we went to this year. Um, PacExpo Southeast, Pac Expo Las Vegas, Automate. Um, and I'm missing one, Pro Mat. So we're bringing them, we brought them back for flashback Fridays, just pulling photos that we had already taken and getting vendors and brands in the feed that you don't necessarily see every day. Uh, one I met this year at Lynmont USA. They were they're excellent. We yeah, I know them. Peter Zafaro. We had his son Zaren Zafaro, Zaren Zafiro, I'm sorry, on the podcast. He has a great episode too. He was back on in the summer. But yeah, just just spotlighting as many people as I can and really making that that digital connection.

Relationship-Driven Industry And Associations

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Yeah, and I think a lot of people right now are they're realizing that the trade show marketing is really important, but it's also like you have to stretch it just all year, right? Like and you create that content at the shows, and then you have you have to be communicating with your ecosystem like almost all year about, even from that like one show. Um but the the way to get ROI out of the shows now is different than it used to be. And I still see some people like only showing up at the show and then again next year, and like maybe trying to call the leads in the meantime. Um but I'm guessing they're probably not getting as much as they could out of it, right? If if they're not producing the content. Or if you're not a company that produces the content, right? Like initiatives like this helps keep those, like those just those huge efforts, expenditures of time and money that these trade shows are. And let's be honest, for like machinery, OEMs, these things are no joke. You're shipping tons across, you know, who knows how far the setup and all that, all those fees for all the booths and all that, the internet and the carpet and stuff is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

The carpet. I've seen some really interesting carpet this year. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I was I was just at the Schneider Electric Innovation Summit. They had the greenest carpet I had ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Oh, was it like all branded by Schneider because it was their event?

SPEAKER_01 31:40

So they was their event, yeah. So they invited us. Um, and it's but we don't have to talk all about carpet, it just made me think of it. It just popped up.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Yeah, yeah. No, it's one of those incidental things that if you're involved in the trade show business, you start to notice and learn. And I think us with like these, I don't know, engineering type brains, you you spot anomalies and patterns, and then there's things that are outliers, and you're just like, Oh my god, why is carpet so expensive?

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Um well, I had never been to a trade show until this year.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

So okay, so that was actually another thing I was gonna ask. Like, uh not coming from the B2B world, like what what impressions, if any, do you have um about our trade show world?

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Woo! The the event that really stands out, the booths were just beautiful, was ProMat at McCormick Place in Chicago. That one okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

And it was I have still never made it to ProMat. As a person that works in this OEM space with HMIs, would you recommend I go to ProMat?

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Yes, I had a I really enjoyed I enjoyed every event I went to. Uh, I really enjoyed ProMat. We had some good stories that came out of out of that that you can read on packagingoam.com. A big one, Ranpak brought this uh sustainable paper palette wrap to the North American market. This was back in the spring. It was through a collaboration with Ranpak and Paperwrap Green by Orange. That's they're based in Austria, and Mondi Group, who supplies the stretch stretchable paper. So that was a good demo.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Is it the kind with like those little bitty slits in it?

SPEAKER_01 33:08

No slits, and we we have a gif of it. This gif was my best gift. This gift was the best.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Let's link to this gift because now I'm curious.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Listen to this, yes, it's my best gift of the whole year.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Okay. Yeah, that was ProMet was great. Yes, had it and met some great people that work with MHI. Um, they're everyone, I will say too, in this industry has been extremely welcoming to me, very nice. Um, when you come from consumer news, you work with a lot of personalities. I'm not saying there's not personalities in this space, um, but everyone has really embraced me and welcomed me with open arms, and I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Yeah, I do find that um kind of depends on what where you where you sit in the industry, whether it feels extremely welcoming or not. Um, but I think at your level where you're coming in, especially you know, on the media side, and I've never been in the like in the media rooms at the trade shows and stuff before. So I again I wouldn't be able to speak to how friendly those people are. Um but I do find in general like this industry is full of really great people. Uh and I I think you are also with the right group to be coming in and and to be like really welcomed. Um I think they're yeah, I will speak to I'll just I know people that have had terrible trade show experiences. I've personally had a terrible trade show experience. Um, and I and then also a really great one at the exact same show, just different years and different circumstances and different ways that I was coming to the show, presenting or not presenting, but like walking up to booths. Yeah. Um, it really depends on too, like what you say you're doing, whether people are gonna be nice to you or not. Uh luckily, hey, can I give you some of the coverage uh and media and whatever? Like that typically I think gets to be uh received really, really well. But I'm glad you're finding that you're liking that. I personally uh have found that like also the industry associations that run the shows are full of like really, really great people. Um I've been going to for the last few years mostly A3 events, which is they run Automate and several other uh conferences and things that are smaller than Automate. Um and I've really, really gotten to love and know like a lot of the people that are in that association and longtime members of the association and people that are on the board and so on. Same thing with um another one called the Association for High Tech Distribution. So those are the distributors that sell the brands. Um do a lot of the value added helping the customer select what they need, that sort of thing. Um, yeah, like you know, HH Barnum, like not like you don't know what a distributor is. Uh so the association that HH Barnum belongs to, um, and a lot of the manufacturers that work with that network of distributors, I found to be an amazing group of people as well. And I've been actually part of the selection that I had um when I chose this job with Wintech at the beginning of this year was the ability to stay involved with these organizations because I really enjoy the people that I've met there so much that I think I would feel a slight loss in my life if I took a job that made me leave those associations.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Yeah. I understand.

FaceTime Factory Tours And GIF Magic

SPEAKER_00 36:22

And that really like speaks to kind of like yeah, the people side of the business, even though it's tech it's a tech business, but it's really a manufacturing, it's really supporting like yeah, just making all the stuff that we all use, but the tech side of it, um but like it's so much about the people and the relationships, and I think telling those stories in that sense is so important and being able to form those relationships in a different way than we used to, because it used to be those personal relationships were made, I don't know, on the golf course and doing things that people used to be able to do and used to you know connect over. And now with demographics changing in the workforce and the way that we work changing, um, a lot of those opportunities aren't there. So, how do we still have this industry built on relationships have those opportunities to make the relationships? And I think that like now, really these associations, these events, and then the online interactions that are made in between those events are what are creating a lot of the new relationships for me anyway, um, that used to be a lot more local. So I live in Houston now, but like honestly, most of my best business relationships and stuff um are people that are that live elsewhere. I just I see them a few times a year at conferences or yeah, uh whatever. And uh yeah, so there's a couple now that I'm with uh WinTech, I need to get more into the OEM side of things. And so MHI is an association, right? The material handling institute, is that what that stands for?

SPEAKER_01 37:53

I believe so, yes.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

I think so, yeah. I'll I'll let them correct me if anybody from them listens to the show if that's wrong. Um that's one that I've never made it to because I've never been big on the logistics side of the industry, more so on the discrete manufacturing, packaging, um, and working with systems integrators and stuff. So, and then the other one is PMMI. So that's PACE. And we I just joined PMMI, and so I'll probably be attending more of their events next year. Um problem is I can't clone myself and be traveling at every event. Right. If only if only. Um, so that is why I also I rely on coverage and interacting with people that are at the shows that when I'm not there, um, which is why I just posted today, like I can't go to A3 business forum next year, but I highly recommend it. I've been going for years, and if somebody is going for the first time, um, and I highly recommend you know going if that is the group that you need to be networking with. Um I'm happy to make introductions to anybody, even if I'm not gonna be there, because I can see the coverage, I can see pictures on LinkedIn, I can message people that are there, and you can message me, right? So I don't have to be completely disconnected from the event just because I'm not there. Um, which helps my helps with my FOMO a little bit because now I can't I probably can't travel as much um without a partner with my kids and stuff. So that's a challenge for me. Um, I really have this like I want to do everything personality.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

I I think that's where we're the same. I I think we have that, is what I'm trying to say. But I was at Automate, I was with Stephanie, but we weren't together at the booth. We could have met then. It's okay. It worked out, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Yeah, I do have to be better about my doing trying to do everything at trade shows because even this year at Automate, I thought I pared down like what I was doing so that I would have a little bit more calmness. Um yeah, creating content and then like just walking between like different sections of the halls, it takes so much time. I overbooked myself again, like big time.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Yeah, I think I did 27 booth visits at PEC Expo Las Vegas. Wow. So my goal, my goal going in, I I always do a walk the floor, and if something's interesting, I'll uh I'll make sure to say hello. Uh, but I try to have appointments and I like to have some questions in in mind going in. Uh because I do a lot of videos and I most of my interviews are on video. Uh so there's that, and then I like to do obviously photo galleries, I mentioned those, and a little recap video each day. A little recap video with a popular song. So when we were in Detroit, we did Kiss, Detroit Rock City. That one was cool. Yeah. And Fanic had a robot moving the guitars. That was cool.

Neurodiversity, Personality, And Work Style

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Yeah. So if you're not already following Sarah on LinkedIn, um definitely do. And we do do this at the end as well, but I think we're coming up on the end here. Um, oh, we got maybe a little bit of time. I'm trying to keep the episodes more concise. Um, I was gonna ask, yeah, how do you plan what you're covering at shows? So you already just gave me a glimpse of that a little bit. You like to try to have a plan of who you're visiting and what you're gonna ask them. Yeah. But how how do you know? Like, do you look through the exhibitor list and just decide what you're interested in? Is it people that you are somehow aware of already in your network and you have some plan that you want to go see them?

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Um being in that this is my I guess you could call this my rookie year in packaging, going into Pac Expo Southeast, I I want to meet everyone. I wanted to put a face to the name. Um now I'm a little bit more selective. I'm definitely looking for the new innovations. There are some OEMs I've built a good relationship with over the past year. Uh, even if I don't necessarily write about them from that event, um, Morrison Container Handling Solutions is a good one. I did an OEM profile on them in the fall and made sure to stop by and say hello when we were in Las Vegas. So uh just trying to meet as many people as possible. And if the one thing you should probably know about me is I am extremely organized. It might not look like it with my background because it's a little chaotic. Uh, but when it comes to work, I'm like a spreadsheet queen. So I go in with a schedule. Everything is I try as much as I can to keep myself in certain halls if it's a big show because I learned the hard way. Going from one hall to the other is not fun very quickly. Um, I just go in and I have a few topics in mind. The the one thing I did a little different for Pac Expo Las Vegas, I talked to dozens of dozens of OEMs, component suppliers, and really asked what the big trends were at the show. And then when I got home, I wrote up a Pac Expo trend story, did a little video on that. I've also been putting my face more much more on the content the last few months than I did at the beginning, probably because I feel a little bit more comfortable with it now. Uh, not that I wasn't comfortable showing my face, just that I was, I mean, I was and still am learning the industry. Um, and I want to make sure I tell it properly. That's that's the the organization in me, probably, and the perfectionist quite a little bit. But yeah, so I I go in and sometimes we have some research reports too that are up in packaging. That there's those are great to check out. Energy efficiency and packaging machineries one. We have one on biologics. I just did one on material handling in October. We have a few more coming out in 2026 that I'm working on now. So if I'm going to a show, I know I have this report coming, I'll make sure to make contacts. So I knew the material handling ebook was coming. I met a lot of material handling and conveyance companies in the meantime uh to build those relationships and uh very fortunate for them. And I I also, Nikki, I just talk a lot. You might have noticed this. Uh, I have met people at the airport that I've gone on to do stories about. Um, I just see it and I kind of go for it.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

Yeah, somebody at once asked me at a trade show how I pick who I talk to. Um because I yeah, typically have worked as a sales engineer. Um, and some usually we'll have applications engineers also in the booth. And yeah, they were just like, How do you do it? You talk to everyone. Like, how do you decide? And I was just like, No, you don't decide. You start the conversation with everyone. What you have to learn how to do quickly is is decide where to take the conversation, and it may be to shut it down very quickly, or it may be to it's you know, hey, see you next year, or maybe it's hey, go see this booth down there because that's really what you're looking for. Or, you know, maybe it's hey, uh, bring your coworker by tomorrow, or you never know. And the person. May not be the right person to talk to, but you never know who they know or what they're there for. So I always try to start the conversation. Um, because yeah, I think and some of us, yeah, you just kind of like sometimes get a vibe or whatever. I've also met some people at the airport or in the airplane that yeah, I think sometimes like uh I think the universe brings everybody those opportunities all the time. Some of us are just more eager about finding them. Um I think they've done some studies, like pessimistic people will like walk past money on the ground because they're just not looking. Um, but like more positively minded people that are always like on the lookout for opportunity, like they literally just see the money on the ground and the other people don't.

Top Trends To Watch In 2026

SPEAKER_01 45:28

Um it's well, I'm an only child, so I I grew up around adults, so I grew up just having to read the room and be able to talk to adults as you know, a little kid. I think it's really helped. Um and I just I walk in the room, I I I feel vibe. It sounds silly, but I kind of like I when you and I just messaged on LinkedIn, I was like, okay, I like her, I can just tell. And it's when I first met with Stephanie Neal, uh, we did a zoom and I was like, okay, I like her. I can, I can just, I can just tell. Um, so yeah, I go in with the mindset, but I and I try to meet everyone I can. And I'm all I always ask, hey, can I add you on LinkedIn while we're here? Because if I do content on them, I want to make sure I'm tagging the right, the right person. Some people there's a lot of Sarah wins in the world, believe it or not, but I want to make sure we have the right connection. So yeah, that's that's one thing, but the shows are a lot of fun, they're a lot of work, and they seem to make even more work when I get home.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Of course, yes. That is they are uh definitely generators of more follow-up work, always a lot, yeah. But I love work while you're there, because in the case of like stuff that you would normally be doing, and then all the new stuff that comes from the shows. Um, but it's also just it's a great way to have that consistency of being able to like catch up with people on a regular basis that you would never go like visit them on purpose, like travel um just for that. And it allows, yeah, just to just build these cross, I don't know, these relationship, these industry relationships that also, I mean, our industry is kind of like you once you know a certain area, you know, you can do a lot of things within that. There's a lot of transferable skills between like whether you're at the component supplier or at the OEM or at the manufacturer, the your plant engineer for a while. My some of my favorite people are are ones that have played multiple of those roles because you start to you just see so many different sides of kind of the same problem. You become more well-rounded, you can relate more to the people around you, you can relate more to whatever either solutions you're buying or selling or supporting or writing about or whatever that is, right? So um I personally think, yeah, the media world and the in-person kind of the events and the digital, like it all ties together with with the digital content tied to the personal brand. Because that's how we can kind of keep that thread of knowing people even if we're not seeing them all the time.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

Yeah, I I've even FaceTimed with OEMs. So uh whatever way I can. I when we did the cold water story, I knew I couldn't physically go to Tennessee, but I saw Jordan Hamric was there and I said, Can I FaceTime with you so I can see it? Because I would like to write it accurately. And and we went around and it it was awesome. So we've done with Hamrick, we've done it with some others too. So if any OEM is listening wants to do a FaceTime tour, I'm definitely down for it.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Okay. Yeah, maybe that's maybe that is the way to do it, and that's an awesome idea because I've been wanting to do more like shop tours, factory tours. Um, I really, yes, I I can see why your gifts are so popular. I've been wanting to do short videos of like machines of what they when they spit something out. Like that motion, like that's so satisfying to me to see whatever the product, even if it's in the middle of the line and it's like a a work in progress, still like whatever high volume thing that machine spits out, it's so satisfying.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

Satisfying. I love that. Uh, it's funny you bring up the gifts because I've been obsessed with gifts long before they were even had gift keyboards. I if I don't know if you remember Tumblr, I used to go on Tumblr and save gifts to my phone and like had a little gift folder. So I had like instant like gifts to send to my friends in terms of texting. So we did some when I when I worked in local news, I was the Ohio State digital reporter for for football, for basketball. And when you're in Columbus, Ohio, it's it's a religion, it's a very big deal. So I wanted to experiment. We did some gifts with them, team running out, different players. So yeah, the gifts have always been a part of me. It's it's fun to be able to integrate it, integrate it into this. And they're gonna toss out some packaging lingo unadvertently, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

Yeah, I love, and it's fun to be able to take like, I don't know, and I don't pay attention to these trends much because I'm not on other social media, but there are like social media trends that you can kind of stick uh niche, you know, industry stuff on, and it's really funny. And like the only people that get it are the ones that get your industry lingo or whatever. Yeah. Um, so it's like, yeah, inside your the it's like the automation dad joke, but now it's like now it's a meme, right?

SPEAKER_01 50:13

Yeah, yeah. I love memes too.

SPEAKER_00 50:15

Out of controls is a is a is an account that does a lot of like automation, like funny controls engineering. Um you should follow them. I think they're on TikTok or something.

Where To Find Sarah And What’s Next

SPEAKER_01 50:25

Okay, yeah, we we met um, we did a podcast uh a few months ago with Flex Line Automation's Kathy Rinney. She is on TikTok as the conveyor cougar. She has got a fun story too.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

Uh we love her. We've had her and Lauren on the show. So you guys can listen to that. I talked to them. Um, I think I recorded one on my phone at Automate one year, or no, it was the A3 Business Forum. And then I think they came on for a live another time. Um, but they are great, and they're also big into Kathy's huge into animal rescue, so I'm sure you guys connected over that. She's seen my dogs, yes.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

Yes, they're three of them.

SPEAKER_00 51:03

But I try not to go on too many tangents, even though I do. It's my it's my brand, it's my style of ADHD. I've learned. I used to think I was just weird, and now it's like, I don't know if it's disappointing or or just nice to know that it's not really just weirdness, it's just like I have a lot of what I thought were my quirks are very common symptoms for people with uh ADHD or like my type of thinking. And I just met up with a college friend that I haven't seen in a really long time, and uh, he's an engineer. And I mostly had engineering friends in college, even though not an I'm not an engineer, I just kind of gravitate to that style of thinking or something. And I asked him this question. I was like, did you ever think that my weirdness like, did you think that I had ADHD? Because that now I'm like, how did I not know this? Like all of my up all these people were like taking Ritalins to stay up for for tests and stuff like that. And I thought it was, I don't know, I just thought it was cheaty because I didn't and then it's like I could have legitimately had that prescription. I just had no idea. Yeah. And I asked him, I was like, Did you ever think that uh that might be it? And he's like, Well, did you think that I had the uh I got autism? And I was like, Oh yeah, no, we're just both weird, and like we're just both weird, yeah. And you can label it as weird, or or you can, you know, go with the official letters of whatever your diagnosis is. But the truth is, us in the kind of this engineering field, um, we attract a lot more uh neurodivergent people, I think, with with the the types of skill sets and things that we need. And it's typically less reliant on good social skills and not and being super normal, right? Like a little bit of weirdness is accepted because our whatever other skills we bring to the table. And then I think now we're bringing out a lot of the human side of our business into this content and stuff. Like it's becoming blatantly obvious how weird we are, and it's cool, and it's nice to be able to connect with each other because it's very relatable when you're in a room of people that are similarly weird to you. I wouldn't say equally because all our weirdnesses are different, but well, I mean, I can't really see it.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

I'll move my chair. I mean, I have two wrestling WWE championship belts hanging in my office. I see those, yes. I think that's pretty weird. Here, I'll move so the last one was actually given to me when I was promoted in local news by my news director. So we aired a wrestling show and WWE sent us this belt. She offered me this promotion. I said I'll do it, but I would like the belt too. And she said, done. Here you go. So I like to see it every day. It is a little kooky, it's a little weird, but it makes me happy. So it's always in the background of the podcast too when we record it.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

Okay, yeah. That is um that's a great setup. I actually am in the process of trying to sell my house. So I have nothing permanent set up right now for podcasts, but that is one of my goals for next year is to set up like just a good podcasting spot in my next house. Because I guess I'm doing this now for a while. Uh we did debate whether or not we should just shut down the show, and we all realize that we love doing it too much, and so we'll be keep doing it. And I can't believe that it's been close to four years. I guess about three, like it said three and a half or something last time I checked. And it feels a lot shorter than that. But I guess that is uh time flies when you're having fun. Yeah. Yeah. So back to I guess maybe a little bit more of a oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 54:33

Oh, I was just gonna say any burning questions.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

Yeah, I was gonna, I did, I did prep some, you know, in case this hadn't wouldn't be an interesting conversation. In case I was clearly didn't need to go back to any of my notes. Uh, but I did want to ask you, since you've been at the shows and I haven't, and you've been asking people this, um, even though I feel like these usually result in such uh vague answers that like it, they're not super exciting. But what are the top trends that you think are exciting? And I guess maybe I'll reframe the question based on what we talked about about the shows. What are some of the topics that you think you're planning on going to try to talk to people about next year that are new?

SPEAKER_01 55:13

I mean, it AI continues to every event I go to, especially the later in this year, AI, AI, AI. So that will be one. Digital transformation and packaging will be one. Um hope to expand my horizons a bit. Remote management will be one. Um, predictive maintenance again. So, like I said, this was um, I could say my rookie year in packaging. So learning the foundation. Now I have to build the house. I want to execute, I want to do more feature stories. You'll see some more OEM profiles um coming up from unpackaging OEM's website, along with research reports. We did a flexible packaging deep dive a few months ago. I'd like to do a part two uh focused on the machinery. Uh, the first one was really about the materials, and that's how I told you about my flexible pouch story, and I learned a lot along the way. Uh so yeah, there's a lot going on. I'm really excited. Obviously, too, when I go to these shows, I want to meet everyone, I want to hear stories that we can share on our platforms to to others to read. And that's not just the podcast, it's written content, videos, all of the above. I love quotes. Obviously, I'm a writer, so uh I I hear sound bites like when people say them. I like I have a Jordan Hammer quote I haven't used yet, and I'm like waiting for the right moment because I know it's it's just gonna land. Um, he knows what the quote is, but no one else, just us. So, anyways, I just I think of things like that, and things just come to me in the moment. I will be on the couch with my dogs, and I have a great idea. I'm very well known for writing on my phone. I I literally will write stories on my phone. I just did it going to the event I went to a few weeks ago. Um, there's a story on Intars Vision Group with AI in their pre-filled syringe detection system. That story's up on Packaging Williams website. Most of it was written on my phone. So, like, well, I'm kind of getting on a tangent, but if I have an idea, I just start writing it out. I'm I have to write, I have to see it. I'm a visual learner. Okay. So that's that's kind of that's a very long-winded answer. I apologize.

SPEAKER_00 57:21

That's okay. You just uh you're making me feel very good about myself because why? Well, because no, no, no. Um, well, because that that's exactly what I do all the time. Okay. Um and and it's I just feel like a certain kinship to how you think or how how you work, uh, because just I mean, honestly, before this podcast, I had planned to give myself uh what I don't relate to as much is the is the organizing. Like I I I have given up on thinking that I am a very good organizer or organized person. I am, but in like very sporadic kind of ways. Um I I I do better with help organizing myself. But I started something today that like was a new idea, and I just I couldn't stop myself from getting it to a place that like and and I would have if I didn't have the show, I'd still be working on it. But we had the scheduled and I knew I needed to do it and stuff. But like some people work really well having everything planned out and they can work towards these goals, and like it's just a type of linear thinking that I don't have, and I require for me to like use my powers, I need to be intensely interested in something. And so sometimes my focus jumps around a bit because I become interested in something, and then it's hard to bring me back to something that no longer carries my interest.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_00 58:41

Um, and the industry is so cool in the sense that like it's never boring as long as you like have like kind of a playground or a sandbox within that you can play and like try out different things that you're interested in. And so I feel like I'm in the same type of position now because I have a job that is very they've also given me a lot of leeway of like, hey, bring your ideas. We hired you for your ideas in addition to you know, skills and things to do the job. But like part of it is we don't know what the job is until you come up with the idea, also, you know, and that is like really fun, right? Because you know you have a set of goals, you know what where you're trying to go, you know where that you're steering the ship, like as a company. But I think as far as especially when it comes to smaller things like tactics or trying new things, or uh it's like sometimes you just need to act on them when they come. Yeah, and if they succeed, then you've done something pretty extraordinary because it would have taken a long time, probably, if you had like gone for approval and thought about it too long and planned it out, and then like maybe the moment would have even passed for that to have been successful. But it, you know, it's just a certain type of thinker or person that can like run with an idea immediately and make something out of it that's actually worthwhile, and then you know, make some hopefully good judgments about whether to continue that or not. You don't sink too much time into it into you know a fool's errand while you're in the middle of something important. But these are some of the things that I struggle with constantly.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:09

Yeah, because I have all kinds of ideas and I like to actually remember, I worked in consumer news and breaking news. I've handled presidential elections, I've handled Ohio elections, I've handled COVID, uh sports, Supreme Court decisions. So when something comes down, your focus has to instantly shift entirely to that topic. So I think that's kind of where I get it from. But my in terms of the ideas and making content, I feel much more in this role, like I have a sandbox and I can test an experiment and see what does well, and I really love that. And so my goal is to make packagingoam.com as good as it can be, and social media, of course, it's a huge factor, a huge piece of what I do, but um and and be able to share the industry's stories and spotlight OEMs and spotlight machine builders behind the machines. Yes, I want to see the machine uh making the flexible pouch, but I want to hear the expert behind it why what he thinks about it or what she thinks about it. I shouldn't assume it's a man.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:10

Uh, so that's that's I'm just about to interview a director of manufacturing for an OEM that's a woman next next week. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

Yeah, we have a lot of female guests on the downtown podcast. Um, and the other thing I'll say when I talked about quotes, quotes are one of my favorite things. Uh, my favorite being closed mouths don't get fed. If you never ask, you will never know. So when Nikki asked me to be on the show, said yeah, of course, I'll do it. She asked me.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:37

Yeah, and I would like to encourage more people in this industry to not be afraid to ask what they think might be dumb questions. Again, you're never gonna get the answer if you don't ask. And I think we're as engineers, and I I I don't I won't lump myself in. I just I know enough of them. And oftentimes they feel like they need to know or they should know everything. What you end up learning later on in your career is that nobody knows anything and everybody needs to ask all the time. And you learn most of the things through experience, through the hard way, on the job. And so you might as well save yourself a little bit of that by asking because you'll still learn way too much just on the job, because this automation packaging, you know, machinery, manufacturing world, there's a lot of stuff that's been done, but a lot of it, it's just constantly like new stuff, unique situations, things that we have to deal with. So everybody's learning all the time. Um, and it really is a place where you'll find people are more happy to help than I think would judge you for asking questions. Um my last question, and you've already answered quite a bit of this. Um and I am known for my compound questions. I'll double I say one question, no, but really it's just what um what should people do if they want to engage more with you, your content, where should they go to follow you, um, and what should they expect to see from you next year? So I think we've kind of already we can just recap it, right? We've podcast, where can they read, see your content, and shows they're gonna see you at next year.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:07

Definitely. So you can find me on LinkedIn, linkedin.com slash s arwyn. Sarwin. Sarah Win was taken. We went with SARWin. Uh you can also find my content at packagingoem.com. The downtime podcast lives on packagingoam.com and plant engineering's website. Um, and what shows will I be at next year? I will be bringing my I have a little stabilizer, Nikki, for my iPhone. When we meet in person, you'll get to see it. I'll have my stabilizer with me, taking videos for gifts and social and all the above and interviews. I will be at PacExpo East in February. I believe I'm going to Modex in April. And Automate is on the table for June. That's in Chicago. Uh, and then Pac Expo in Chicago, going back to Chicago, which is which is fine with me because it's pretty close. It's about an hour flight. Um, so those that's what's on deck, but you never know. I I had some invitations come my way this year where I was able to learn more about industrial automation and cover that topic, which we didn't go into a bit quite a bit, but there's links to that on my social um in terms of open software defined automation. There's podcasts on that as well in the downtime. But yeah, that's uh that's where I will be. But you can always find me online. You can send me an email. My work email is on packaging OEM's website, so check that out. And the last thing I will say is subscribe to the packaging OEM newsletter. Subscribe to the packaging OEM newsletter. That one is uh that's my big project going into 2026. Try to make it and revamp it. Um make it the place to be. And you'll see that I've got some good ideas. I'm not gonna spill it all my tea, but some okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:49

Well, I look forward to having you hopefully as a return guest sometime later this year, assuming it's January now, um, or or somewhere around there. Uh, I hope to maybe see you at the Pac Expo East. If not, um I'm gonna send Nick Moss, but I'm hoping to meet him there. He's one of our sales guys that handles the East Coast. Uh but yeah, you'll find me at some more PMMI events next year. And I'll definitely, well, you said automate's on the table, so I will see you somewhere next year for sure. Um, and I will also send you an invite. You've now been invited to OT Skatecon as well in Houston in the summertime if you want to come with the sweltering heat. Uh H time. We like to get an Airbnb with the pool. I highly recommend that.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:30

Oh my gosh, I have an Airbnb story I can tell you offline.

Closing, Community, And Calls To Connect

SPEAKER_00 1:05:33

Um well, with that, thank you so much for joining me, Sarah. Um, those of you that are listening, there will be some changes, but hopefully we have this is a new season out. Um, we also have a newsletter you can subscribe to, would appreciate that. Uh, we are going to be putting some more effort into our YouTube channel. So if you're watching this and this is on video, thank you. Um, I guess like and subscribe, like my seven-year-old knows how to say. Uh, those of them that grew up with all this natively. And we are going to keep making our content. Um, it's taken us longer than we thought to get a lot better at it, I think, in terms of production quality, but we are working on it and we really appreciate all the relationships that we've made, um, including with media that we get to learn from. Honestly, that's another, you know, piece of this. When I see you creating your content on uh these shows and things like that, that's all stuff that uh I pick up from because although we're not a media company, I mean, I guess this is kind of this is another form of media. We just don't we do it from our kind of grassroots angle. Um, and it's really, really great to see other outlets doing similar stuff because I think more fun, relatable, where you can see the real stories. Real people content is what I would like to be consuming, and I'm assuming the rest of you. So yeah, follow Sarah, connect with her, and I hope to see you at our next LinkedIn Live or catch you on the next episode. 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 coffee on our website, automationladies.io. We look forward to getting to know you. Our producer is Veronica Espinoza, and our music is composed by Samuel James.