Kirsten Austin, Rosa Parks + Audrey Hepburn, and Saying Yes to Yourself

In our latest episode, we sit down with Kirsten Austin, the powerhouse president of DCSC, Inc., a company with over 30 years of experience helping distribution, manufacturing, and fulfillment companies for over three decades with their ERP, WMS, and Shipping Solutions. We take a look into her journey in the software industry, exploring the ups and downs that have shaped her into the leader she is today. 

Kirsten also opens up about the women in history who've inspired her, like Audrey Hepburn and Rosa Parks, and how their courage has influenced her own path. 

We tackle some real talk about the challenges women face in the workplace, the importance of saying no (even when it's tough!), and why it's so crucial to get out there and explore the world while you're young. Kirsten's advice to young women is straightforward: "Just do it. Whether you want to travel to Europe, Mexico, or hike the Grand Canyon, find a way to make it happen. You'll never regret it." She even shares her own adventure of hiking 12 miles in the Grand Canyon!

Bonus content:  Get Kirsten's "Top 5 Tips for Overcoming Fear" by becoming a Hello Moxie member!

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00)
You're listening to Hello Moxie with Nicole Donnelly. In each episode, we'll of unforgettable heroines, their courage, and bring to light the lasting impact they've had across generations. Get inspired by the stories of those who embodied true Moxie and pave the way for others to follow. Hello Moxie is sponsored by DMG Digital.

Speaker 2 (00:04)
We honor the umbrella thread that connects the fear.

see.

Speaker 1 (00:29)
A woman-owned marketing consultancy dedicated to how 3-to-B companies and commerce brands create exceptional customer experiences.

Speaker 2 (00:31)
helping be an e-commerce brand.

Speaker 1 (00:39)
Hello and welcome to Hello Moxie. Today I am joined by the amazing Kirsten Austin. Kirsten and I met on LinkedIn several years ago and we have become LinkedIn buddies over the years. She and I met through the USA manufacturing hour, Twitter, guess, XChat now, but it was Twitter back in the day. And I'm so delighted to have her on the show today to...

share some of her moxie moments and share the women in history who have inspired her. But let's learn a little bit more about Kirsten. Kirsten, why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are? Give us a little bit your bio and your background for our listeners.

Speaker 2 (01:19)
Sounds good. Thank you.

Nicole, first of all, for having me, I appreciate that. And I just love how positive you are and love when I see your posts on LinkedIn and you're just an amazing, wonderful woman. So thank you so much for having me. I am Kirsten Austin. I'm the president of DCSC. We are a software company. We developed a warehouse management and multi-carrier shipping solution called DC Warehouse. So we're the developer.

of that. We serve distributors and manufacturers all over North America. We've been in business for over 30 years. I was one of the founders. getting old. was in the software business when the world, you know, the internet was called the World Wide Web. So it's pretty crazy. We also do consulting work for manufacturers and distributors. So

We look at their operations, look at anything that could be improved or streamlined. And then we also sell a ERP product called Acumatica. So we just have years of experience with manufacturing and distribution companies and just rocking and rolling with all of that.

Speaker 1 (02:37)
sure it keeps you busy. Man, that's a lot. That's a lot of good stuff that you're doing and so much that manufacturers really need help with. Kirsten, I'd to know what is lighting you up right now? What is bringing you joy?

Speaker 2 (02:46)
Yeah.

What is bringing me joy? Well, literally lighting me up is my Christmas tree. put that up this weekend. I am just, you know, every Christmas I get a little melancholy because I've lost people and it can be kind of a tender season. But this year I just am ready to rock it. I'm like really excited about Christmas. So sounds cliche, but I'm rocking with the season.

Speaker 1 (03:03)
Lovely.

You're rocking with the season. I love that. just took my daughters to see the Nutcracker last night. It was so beautiful. And I'm with you. I love the holiday season. I love just the excitement. Everybody's so excited. There's always the new surprises of things that you're finding when you go out shopping and it's all the newness and the wonder and all of it is so lovely. But I think you the nail on the head that it is a tender time. It's a very tender time for a lot of people.

Because it's a time of a lot of joy, then whenever you've dealt with loss, as many of us have in our lives, it's like that you have to deal with both of those very bittersweet feelings of really grieving all over again, maybe the loss of people that are close to you. finding place to also celebrate and having those two things together is a very bittersweet thing.

Speaker 2 (04:11)
That is true.

Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (04:20)
Very

good. Well, I love that. I'd love to see a picture of your Christmas tree. My girls, every year they, you know, when they were younger, I was always the one that was like, let's get the Christmas decorations out. And I was, I'm like one of those right after Halloween kind of people, like, let's get it up right after Halloween. Let's bring that holiday magic out as soon as we possibly can.

And my girls have like totally picked up on the trend. Kirsten and May now beat me to the punch. They were like begging me this year. They're like, mom, let's get the Christmas decorations up. I'm like, hold your horses a second. Like, I just need a minute to breathe. So I feel like I've passed the torch on to them. It's really fun. So yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:59)
I'm so nostalgic. Like I have ornaments from just eons ago. And you know, I still have ugly ornaments that people gave me, but just because they gave them to me, I just don't have the heart. So I put them on the back of the tree. And then I overanalyze it. I'm like, wait a second, I need this. it, you know, but it's, I just posted it on LinkedIn. So after the session today, you can go up there and see my work on the tree.

Speaker 1 (05:27)
Can't wait, can't wait. We'll have to share it with our listeners too through on our social media. That'll be fun. Good. Well, awesome. Well, let's talk a little bit about the women in history who've inspired you. You know, our show is all about connection. We want, we love to share the stories of the women present and past and the women who've connected to them. So tell me, Kirsten, who is or who are some women in history who've just really inspired you in your life?

Speaker 2 (05:54)
love women. I really do. I mean, I love men too. Probably a little too much, but no, I love

Speaker 1 (06:06)
I love men too. I think you have to love men when you work in manufacturing, You to.

Speaker 2 (06:12)
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And it is really weird because, you know, I'll stick to the question, but I'm kind of deviating. you know, women and men are really different in so many ways, but then we're so alike in so many ways.

Who has inspired me? So I am a book junkie. Like I just read and read and read. And when I was younger, I would just get fixated on certain people and read their biographies and read multiple biographies on them. So the first person that I'm going to talk about is Audrey Hepburn. How beautiful she was. gorgeous. Absolutely. Just, just.

understatingly stunning. I love that movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. I watched it time and time and time again, but I thought she was just an amazing person because when I read about her, people really may not know this, but she was a great uniter. And so when she worked on the set and there were actors that didn't like one another or there was tension on the set, she was really, really good at mitigating that and just

really unifying people. She was just a gorgeous lady. And then she aged so beautifully. mean, she died really early. I think she was 63 when she passed away, but she didn't do all that crazy plastic surgery and big lip crazy stuff. And even at the very end of her lifetime, she worked for UNICEF. constantly

stood up for children and children's rights and she ended up in 1988 going to Ethiopia and she was the goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. So that was one of my heroes. The other one, I mean, this sounds very cliche, but it's not cliche, was Rosa Parks. Come on, let's give Rosa a two thumbs up. Yes. So.

Speaker 1 (08:20)
Yes!

Speaker 2 (08:23)
Rosa Parks was 42 years old and working all day as a seamstress and gets on the bus. And I can't even believe that we had a country that, you know, segregated black and white people. just, cannot even believe it. So here she is. She wasn't even in the first 10 seats because that was the supposed rule that the first 10 seats were set up for white people. So I think she was either in the 11th or 12th. I forgot that.

you know, granular detail. But you know, she was tired. She worked all day. And you know, she was told to move and she said no. And that started, you know, just how brave of her and it wasn't even like she went to work looking for a fight. She just did something a normal brave woman would do and say, you know what, I've worked all day. This is ridiculous. I'm not moving from the seat and look and look what happened.

I mean, she spawned a movement. So Rosa Parks and then modern day, even though she has passed away, my mom was just amazing. She totally, totally inspired me. My mom was from Germany. She was a translator. So she spoke seven different languages. it's crazy, you know, and I can barely even speak the English language, but here she is.

And she met my dad. My dad was way far up there in the army. He was like the lieutenant colonel status, but she was this translator, met him, fell in love, and did such a brave thing and came over here to the United States of America. And she just was an amazing person. She just brought us up so well. We had such good work ethic.

I mean, we were doing chores when we were really little and we had jobs when we were very young, but she's just always my biggest supporter. Just she'd like, when I started my own business, I mean, she just was my biggest fan. And you know, if I ever close a big deal, she'd be like the first person I would call, I'm like, mom, wouldn't believe it. she'd be like, did you get it? Did you get it done? It was so cute. And with her German accent, she'd go, well.

V know who's buying dinner tonight. So she was just really an amazing living. And so a lot of who I am is really how she raised me.

Speaker 1 (10:57)
we know who's buying dinner tonight. love that. Sounds like she had an amazing sense of humor and clearly she was just very, very intelligent to be able to learn seven languages.

Speaker 2 (11:14)
And

she was just really curious just about people and, you know, and she had taught Bible study for 28 years, but I kind of just love her form of Christianity because I am a Christian. But, you know, I never really liked the Christians, no offense.

Anybody's like that. That's your listener. I never really liked the people that just threw it in your face all the time. She did it more by service and doing good things for people. she would we were always the house that everybody spent the night at, you know, the backyard was a huge, you know, big diamond because we used to play wiffle ball and kickball and all of that. was just an awesome woman. Very, very, very smart, very generous and

you know, just very curious. She was just curious about everything, so.

Speaker 1 (12:12)
Well, I love that you shared about these three very powerful women. When I think about Audrey Hepburn, I loved how you shared that she was always bringing people together on set. She was such a peacemaker. I thought about that with you too, with your work. I imagine you've built your career for 30 years, you've built this business. I'm sure that you've had to be a peacemaker.

and bring people together wherever you're going when you're having to do with so many digital transformation projects, right? Like that's a huge, huge skill, I think probably that you'd share.

Speaker 2 (12:47)
Yeah,

you definitely must know the supply chain industry. it's, it's, it's really hard because, know, we're basically revolutionizing how people do, you know, do their work and instead of manually entering information, they're

barcoding and they're streamlining things and, you know, we're giving you data that you can analyze and look at really quick. But, you know, it always starts with a project and you got to get people through the phases of the project. And, you're absolutely right. It can sometimes be political, know, different parts, know, different departments, not unifying, you know, I would hate to say that I've never met anybody in manufacturing or distribution without

an ego, you know, like I'm an ego tamer. then sometimes you have to get multiple people to work together. And yeah, I'm a pretty straight shooter. So a lot of my job is really just getting people on the same page, getting people to, you know, rethink kind of, you know, the strategy really is.

is to get that ROI when you're investing in technology and try to remove your ego from it and just get it done. And then you have people that are afraid of technology. They think that it's gonna take over their business. Like, everything is new and there's good and bad with technology with everything, but to take people away from manually doing paperwork and being able to be agile and...

get their job done in record time and then use that time and use that information for good things. That's really positive. yes, I'm definitely and I love your name Peacemaker. That's cute. I have definitely been a peacemaker.

Speaker 1 (14:39)
Sure.

I love how you said you're an ego tamer and it kind of ties to what you said earlier when you shared that you find that men and women are more alike than they are different. I would love for you to elaborate on that a little bit because I would say that there I think there's a connection there. I think your ability to be able to see the similarities maybe between men and women or see the commonalities when you're working with your clients. Would you say that that's helped you be a better ego tamer?

Speaker 2 (15:03)
Yeah, absolutely. know, women, and I love this about them. They're absolutely beautiful. You know, even when I tell a story, I mean, you will know the street that I walked on, you will know the sweater I was wearing, you will know the three people that I saw along the way, you know, it just, you know, when and you know, like, I have a friend that we both have ADHD, and we can't even get through

conversation. She's like, just, just let me finish what I am like, okay, okay. You know, we're, we're men and I, just absolutely love them as well. But, you know, I learned over the years to make my emails to men. Good tip for women. Very, short, three sentences, know, boom, number one, number number three, you know. Yeah, but, but, you know, the way that

Speaker 1 (15:56)
that.

Speaker 2 (16:01)
I think that we're very, very much alike is success comes from work ethic and there are no magic pills. There's no such thing as easy money. And I think that maybe men and women take a different approach to projects, but when it all comes down to it, I think men and women are just both goal oriented for sure. And I learned so much from

wonderful men through my career.

I think men and women are very goal oriented. I think that there are very, very many men who also are unifiers, you know, that can, you know, make everyone feel good and unified departments and get projects done. You know, I think there's men and women that are very good at work arounds. if you, you know, get a challenge, women might like in my case, you know, I might call like.

two or three different people in my industry and say, have you ever run across this or, you know, have you ever heard of this happening? And they'll give, you know, they'll help me out and men might do it a different way. They may just try something, you know, see if it works. Let's see if it sticks. Hey, it worked great.

Speaker 1 (17:17)
I think that's beautiful. You mentioned that men and women are goal-oriented, unitors, and resourceful in their own ways. And I just love that you share that men and women are so alike. I think it's such an important point for us to think about the ways that we're alike whenever we're working together on a project or anywhere, because it's those things that we share in common that unite us, it's going to help us be able to collaborate better.

and move forward in a positive direction, especially when you're dealing with really challenging digital transformation projects. work in the B2B e-commerce space as a marketer, and I can totally identify with a lot of those challenges that you have whenever you're trying to implement any sort of new change process, technology. It always starts with the people, right? If you can't get the people to buy into the change.

then you're not going to get the adoption. You're not going to really see that ROI or that impact that you know that it can have. And so I love that your focus is really on like, what can we do to bring the people together? How can we unite them and make sure that everybody's on the train and they want to be on the train. Take some time and effort to get there. But once everyone's on the train, that's when the magic happens. It's incredible. Yeah. Very cool.

Speaker 2 (18:37)
Really is.

Speaker 1 (18:40)
And I love what you shared about Rosa Parks. think what you shared about her saying no, just to me strikes me not that she was being difficult, but that she was very much in tune with her own intuition and her own voice. And she believed in that and trusted herself. And she had enough respect for herself to know what she needed in that moment. She was tired. She had a long day and she needed a break. And she...

had enough self-respect to say, no, this is what I need right now. And I'm going to ask for it. And don't you think sometimes as women, it's hard for us, we're naturally wired to just want to take care of everyone around us.

Speaker 2 (19:23)
Saying no is, I mean, God love her. that just, I still think about that moment where she was just exhausted and she was like, no.

not going to do it, you know. And it changed a nation. And speaking of no, no is hard, that's another thing for women. You know, the older I get, the more I learn to say no, because you know, women can burn out so easily. I mean, I'm not saying men can't burn out because it's certainly both men and women can burn out.

But I used to do 10 million things. I'd volunteer here and do this, and then I hit my social life. then I like to...

get out in nature and go hiking. Then, you know, I always want to do this and that. And then if anybody asked me to help them do this, I would do it. And like, I think when I turned 50 is when I learned that beautiful word, no. And it took me about a year to be able to say no without backup because before I'd feel guilty and I'm like, no, I'm really sorry, but you not into it. Not feeling it.

Speaker 1 (20:38)
What have you noticed since you've gotten more comfortable just saying no without the reason, without having to give the reason? What have you noticed?

Speaker 2 (20:46)
Number one, my sanity is just like, just, don't even know how to explain it. It's just my, you know, my sanity is just, I'm just so much more at peace with myself, you know, and you get kind of comfortable with it, you know, because in, in by nature, I mean, I am still like very, very, you know, maternal, like I think of my employees as my children. I know that sounds weird, but I do.

Sometimes I think of my customers as children, even my vendors, you know, but yeah, you know, you can only do so much during the day. Your health is everything, you know, because once your health is gone, it's, you know, that's bad. you, so you really want to take care of your health and your mental health is really tied into your physical health. And I'm not sure if the, you know, everybody really understands how.

those two are so tied in together. yeah, I've just, you know, notice that when I say no and, then people, and I always say, ask me again sometime because I, you know, I still want to be invited to the party if I want to go on, you know, I don't want to be, you know, discluded, but I've just noticed that I've a lot more sane since learning how to just say, not feeling it.

Speaker 1 (22:09)
I love that. And also I think for me, I've noticed when I say no, it's authentic, no, like, no, I really just, this is not what I want to do right now, or I don't have the time for it, or I have other priorities. It really increases my own respect for myself and also for other people's time too. Because I'm thinking, for example, like,

Oh, if I commit to this, but I have all these other things that I have going on, I'm really not going to be able to give what I want to this person who needs this for me. So by me saying no, it's respecting them. I'm saying, look, I can't give what's really needed to this project task, whatever it might be. So I'm respecting you by saying no, and I'm respecting myself. And when people have said no to me, that's what I've gotten out of it. I'm like, oh, what a great like...

they're being very respectful to themselves, but also to me too, by saying no, rather than it being like, they don't like me or they don't want to help me. It's not that, you know, it's just, you know, getting clarity on. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (23:15)
So I have my technical sabbatical like on the weekends, don't have my phone on. mean, very rarely unless I need to call or text somebody will I get on the phone? don't want to get I don't get on social media. You know, I

go hiking and if no one can go hiking with me, I go by me, myself and I. I have to say no sometimes because in order to be my best at work and being a leader is not always easy. I'm sure you know this, you run podcasts, you're in marketing for B2B agency, you you got to be on your game if you want to be successful. So you got to protect your sanity and protect your health and mental health is very important as well.

Speaker 1 (24:04)
love what you said, how you have to be on your game. then you, but before that, you said that you intentionally choose to shut everything off on the weekend. You're not connected to your phone or your social media and you spend time outside and that helps you stay on your game. I think that's such beautiful advice because so much of the time, think we think that we have to just always be going on connected in order to

achieve, be successful, reach our goals, you know, like this hustle. But there's such wisdom in being able to have the discernment to say, I need to step away. And that's going to help me show up and be able to do more of the right things to serve my clients, my customers, my employees in the best way by taking the time to step away, be with myself in solitude.

And I just love that advice. think there's such, such wisdom in that for so many women who really struggle with disconnecting in that way. And men, we all do. It's not just a female thing, it's all of us.

Speaker 2 (25:08)
You know that I'm a social gal. Like I love my, the USA manufacturing hour every Thursday at one o'clock, which I love that. And you know, I'm going to talk about another woman really quick because I'm not sure how much time we have, but Ruby Ruzine with social success marketing. And I know that you know, Ruby, you know, she's been with me from the beginning. we've had, you know, and we are so thankful.

We've always had three co-leaders to help line up hosts and keep this thing going. But I was just talking to Ruby the other day. I'm like, Ruby, you've been with me from the very beginning on this. And I'm like, are you cool for doing it next year? And she's like, yeah, let's do it. And she's the sweetheart. And talk about a really smart woman who.

You know, she's, you know, she, she's from the Philippines. She came over here. She became a United States citizen. She's got an MBA. She's brilliant, you know, and she's so not about herself. You don't hear her, you know, talk, talk, talk about Ruby. She just does tons of stuff behind the scenes. So she's also very inspiring to me.

Speaker 1 (26:26)
she gets it done. And she's a pioneer. Like literally, she's a pioneer, just like your mom was. And just like you are, like building this company that you've been building for 30 years. Is that what you mentioned? It's 30 years that you've been building this company.

Speaker 2 (26:40)
It's over 30 years now. Yeah, I can't believe I was in my 20s when I started this. And I still feel like I'm in my 20s, but you know, I've had to grow up a little bit. you know, when I think of it, I'm like, my God, I was in my 20s when I started this.

Speaker 1 (26:55)
Yeah. mean, do you realize just how rare it is to be able to build a business and have it stay in business for that long? That is incredible longevity. That's a really remarkable achievement and testament to your ability to be able to flex and bend and adapt and grow and all of those things. What do you think has been really key, if you were to think about what's been really key to your success and being able to build this company for the past 30 years?

Speaker 2 (27:22)
Relationships, I am very, very lucky to have a very good team that I work with. And the way that we work here is you still have to lead people. You definitely can't just let everyone to their own devices.

You can't micromanage people that that's just so over and done with. You've got to take really smart people and you just got to say, this is what I need to get done. And I don't care how you do it, but just, this is what the end result needs to be. And I will support like, what do you need? Do you need a new piece of software? you need, what do you, what do you need to get this done? and then you do it and then, you know,

I think business relationships are just so important. mean, I have customers that they've got my cell phone number. I treat them as I would a friend or family member. They spend money with our company and our products really run their business. So, we're very personable and we're very respectful. And so I just think.

building relationships and maintaining those relationships are really important and key to being successful.

Speaker 1 (28:53)
I love that, that, that what you, what you said there about when you're working with your employees, you ask them, what do you need to get this done? It just shows such a service mindset. Like you're going to do whatever it takes to help them be successful. But not only is it a service mindset, you are empowering them to tell you what they need rather than you saying, okay, I'm going to make sure you have X, Y, Z. This is what I think you need. It's just, it's such a

It's an empowering question to ask. What do you need to get the job done? And I'll get it for you. It's empowering, but also very humble and service oriented. And I think that's just really, really a cool way to approach your relationship with your employees. I really love.

Speaker 2 (29:36)
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (29:37)
My gosh, well, I totally think that you're a pioneer just like your mama, for sure. Look at you. cool. So my last and final question for you is thinking about the young women that are coming up now, maybe they're graduating from high school or college right now and their new life is before them. They've got their whole future ahead of them. What advice would you give to them? What's some words of wisdom maybe that you would want to tell to your younger self or that you would share with them that could help them?

as they navigate the future.

Speaker 2 (30:09)
would say explore the world while you can. Because know life will get in the way and you know you get married, have children, know work and all of that. But explore the world while you can especially when you're young and when you have your health and can do that. Don't ever be afraid to do something. You know I think fear is the worst thing for men and for women. Like it like...

I think I've seen it on a bumper sticker, but have you ever seen that Nicole where it's like, you know, feel the fear and do it anyway, or something like that? Yes. I just think that that's really important, you know, because like some of my favorite times in life, and I don't mean to sound like a weirdo, but they were when I was with myself, you know, I hiked 12 miles in the Grand Canyon.

Speaker 1 (30:58)
You

Speaker 2 (31:06)
on my own and it was the most beautiful experience I've ever had in my lifetime. It was just absolutely gorgeous. I've gone to all sorts of national parks on my own. Just do it. Just like Nike says, do it. Feel the fear, do it anyway, do it. Don't always play the safe route. mean, don't be ridiculous. mean...

Speaker 1 (31:33)
Hahaha

Speaker 2 (31:34)
Personal safety is obviously important. You know, I could go on and on. think every woman should take a self-defense class, but I won't go into all of that. But basically my advice to any young woman is just, just do it. Do it now. You want to go to Germany or you want to go to Europe or you want to go to Mexico or you want to hike the Grand Canyon, do it. Figure out a way, do it, get it done. You'll never regret it.

Speaker 1 (32:02)
That's such good advice. Just do it. Just do it. And I also love that you make time for yourself. Like it's so clear to me that you really enjoy your own company. And I think that's such an important skill for women to just really learn to just enjoy your own company and be with yourself and fall in love with yourself. Because the more that you fall in love with yourself, the more love that you can give to other people. Like the more you learn to give that compassion to yourself, you're just naturally going to feel it more abundantly for the people around you.

very wise words. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. This has been such a fun time. my gosh, I love it.

Speaker 2 (32:37)
Great.

I hope I did a good job for you. was really excited about it, but I'm like, okay, we're going to talk about women. I love women. I've got this. I hope I did good for you, Nicole.

Speaker 1 (32:47)
you did so great. let's, I would love for you to share with our listeners just one more time. I'd love to just a little bit about the chat, the USA manufacturers chat that you have on X.

Speaker 2 (32:57)
Thank you

so much. every Thursday at one central standard time, if you go into the search bar of X, I still call it Twitter, but it's USA MFG hour. We have our USA manufacturing hour. The purpose of this chat is even though we love everyone around the world,

very, very sorry, maybe not. I'd like to keep job here in the United States of America. And yeah, yep. I am a reshoreholic. And so every single Thursday, we talk about things that could benefit manufacturers. So

Speaker 1 (33:31)
reshoring.

Speaker 2 (33:43)
You can, and I'll put, don't know if I can give you a link to all of our chats, but we have recaps of every single chat. We talk about marketing. We talk about reshoring. We talk about any type of new technology. You know, we talk about things such as ERP and WMS and why they're important for manufacturers. We talk about shipping.

God, we talked about so much. There's been so many cool people on the show, like Adam Baker with Schooley Mitchell. He did a couple sessions, but there was things that I didn't even know about that. That he talked about for ways to manufacturers to save money, renegotiating things with, you know, their phone, with their health insurance, you know, just low hanging fruit. had Harry Moser who's just a, he's, I think his, his organization is Reeveshore Now.

He talked about reshoring and really the numbers in it because people think, well, it's cheaper if I bring, you know, this in, you know, no offense to Asia or anything like that. But is it really cheaper because you're waiting so long for that product? Look at what happened during the whole COVID situation. Talk about it, you know, an SH blah, blah show. That was crazy. If that didn't tell people we need to do more here in the States.

So we talk about everything. It's great. We even have people from, we have Nigel from, um, Pilatus online. He joins us every Thursday and he's from outside of the UK. So it's just people that want to help manufacturing companies and promote USA manufacturing. And I love it. It's, it's a great thing. I need you to do it next year. I'm going to have to have you.

Speaker 1 (35:32)
Yes. I would love to host it again. I hosted it in 2022. It was fantastic. it's such a fun way to learn. Really fun. It's really lively. Everyone comes with their meme game and it keeps it really fun. it's like this beautiful mix of like, you're going to learn a ton in that hour, but you're going to have so much fun doing it. So I can't recommend it enough.

Speaker 2 (35:37)
You did a great job.

It's so easy to host and it's such a great for brand awareness for several reasons. So the layout is basically you come up with five questions and answers. You ask your tweet peeps or ex peeps to guess at this. it's really fun because sometimes we'll have the best ideas come out of that, the best exchange of information. And then after the chat takes place,

We write a recap and we constantly share those on LinkedIn, share those on Twitter. So it's like knock knock free advertising for anybody that wants to do it. it's just so fun. And even when I host, I love it. It's so fun. It is the fastest hour on the internet. It's great. So I hope that anybody who hasn't seen us in a while or anybody that just is curious,

hop on X, you know, just type it in the search bar and join us. It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (37:01)
Yes, and we'll make sure to include all the details in the show notes for this episode. So check the show notes and you'll see all the information on how you can get connected to USA Manufacturing Hour. It's fantastic. And Kirsten, thanks again for being on the show. This has been such a delight. Love it. Can't wait to keep this conversation going. That's a wrap for today's episode of Hello Moxie. I hope you felt that unbreakable thread connecting you to the women of the past.

to the trailblazing pioneers of today. Their stories of audacity, resilience, and courage are a powerful reminder of what's possible for you when you choose to live with Moxie.