People in Production Podcast with Ryan Nelson

Local Power, Real Partnerships

• Circle of 5 • Season 1 • Episode 17

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What if the most valuable tool on your shop floor isn’t a machine, but trust? We sit down with Katherine O’Toole of the Kansas City NTMA to unpack how humility, human-powered networking, and a smart partnership with the Missouri Association of Manufacturers sparked a new kind of regional expo—one that actually shortens supply chains, surfaces hidden capabilities, and helps local OEMs meet local suppliers.

Katherine brings a grounded, no-frills perspective shaped by growing up in a family tool-and-die shop. She shares why owning the “connector” role beats chasing perfection, and how the “Who Not How” mindset transformed event planning from a solo grind into a high-impact collaboration. We get into the nuts and bolts of the Kansas City Manufacturing Expo: a kickoff with NTMA’s national president Roger Atkins, two rounds of targeted breakouts for HR, purchasing, engineering, cybersecurity, and leadership, and an expo floor designed for real conversations, not just scans and swag. Small and midsize manufacturers learn to differentiate beyond capability lists, while OEMs discover the speed and clarity of working with suppliers they can visit over lunch instead of flying across time zones.

You’ll hear why abundance beats competition, how local partnerships let shops bid bigger jobs together, and what it looks like to build a culture where people don’t just tolerate each other—they trust each other. Expect practical insights you can use immediately: preparing your booth, clarifying your specialty, walking the floor with a sourcing plan, and turning introductions into purchase orders. It’s a blueprint for resilient, regional manufacturing that values people, proximity, and shared wins.

If you’re ready to meet the partners who will move your work faster and smarter, join us. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who needs a stronger local bench, and leave a quick review to help more builders find the show.


Expo Website: https://www.mamstrong.org/kc-mfg-expo-and-conference
Registration:  https://portal.mamstrong.org/eventDetail?id=a0yPo000007tANhIAM
Ryan's LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/circleof5

SPEAKER_02:

Hey everyone, welcome back to the People in Production podcast. This is Ryan Nelson with Circle of Five Coaching, and I really invest in relationships with people and help them develop trust within their manufacturing organization. And in this podcast, we have the opportunity to have Catherine O'Toole join us from the Kansas City National Tooling and Machining Association. And we're going to talk about Catherine's love for what she's doing. We are going to be talking about the amazing partnership that she's developed with another organization to put on the third thing we're going to talk about, which is the upcoming Kansas City Manufacturing Expo. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun just hearing some of Catherine's insight and her joy. And so with that being said, let's bring Catherine on. Hey Catherine, how are you?

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, I'm well, Ryan. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, I'm excited to have this conversation. It's been a while since we've connected. Life has happened, but it just really seemed appropriate to come back and connect with you and see where things are at. And I just I want to just start with just dialing into you've been in your role now for I think this is your finishing up your third year. Is that about right?

SPEAKER_01:

I just hit two and a half years. Yes. Two and a half years.

SPEAKER_02:

Halfway through two and a half years. And you just seem to continue to be going deeper and deeper into what you're doing. And there just seems to be a love for your job. Tell me, I always love asking leaders, what gets you out of bed in the morning? Why do you get up and think I get to work today? Tell me a little about that.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I feel like my answer to that has really been evolving, Ryan. And I think as of late, I have a very comfortable answer that I can share. You know, I'm I'm a very average person. I am very underprepared and under equipped to be in a lot of the situations that as of late I have been able to be a part of or have been put into or asked to, you know, facilitate. Um, but I think that's what I love is that as an average individual, I represent most everybody else, right? Like we're all kind of in that boat together. And I love planning events for people like myself, uh, who work in small businesses, like the one that, you know, I grew up in with my family's tool and die shop. And I love helping them. And I love watching them find success. And I love celebrating that success. And it truly brings me great joy to be that connector and event planner when I know what I am doing is bringing benefit and value.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Catherine, I love that so much. And I'm just a few months ahead of my journey in this coaching and consulting space, uh, specifically focus and manufacturing. I've been doing coaching and development for my whole career, but just really feeling this dialed perspective on focusing on coaching. And there's this process we go through in discovering our voice in Elaine. And like you were saying, you've kind of started getting more and more comfortable with that. I think early on we try to do everything we can. And for me, I've realized that my primary voice is in developing trust within the organization. How do we create a culture of trust? Because as you can probably identify with me, there's a lot of manufacturing out there that the people just don't trust each other. They just tolerate each other, they're just going through the motions. But the new currency, I think, in leadership is really building trust. And so I think where I'm saying, And you know what I love about that, Ryan? What's that?

SPEAKER_01:

And somebody can disagree with me. Go ahead. We'd love your feedback, but that's not AI powered, that's human powered. And that relationship-based networking is what I love, and that is why I love the job that I have.

SPEAKER_02:

That's awesome. Great, great insights, great feedback. And thanks for letting me explore that a little bit.

SPEAKER_01:

And yeah, I'm I'll I'm gonna go one bit further, Ryan. And I think you're right on doing too much, right? I really used to eat myself up as well. I still get very nervous when I have to publicly speak. I'll stutter, I'll sweat. I don't like that. And I in the past would feel like I failed an event, right? Because I didn't open it in my 30 seconds in the spotlight. Well, I I'm not the main speaker. Like I don't have to be that. My job is to bring people together. So I think I've allowed myself to accept, you know, really what my position is, and that I don't have to be perfect across the board, but that that's okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, let's talk about that because you've been incredibly effective at building partnerships, and then you've surrounded yourself with other people who have a mindset of um not scarcity but abundance. And you know, I think of uh our president Fred Stipkovitz, who Fred's just like, guys, there is plenty of business out there, we're not in competition with each other. If we know our fellow industry people, we can support each other and we can lift each other up. And I love that mindset. And you did something, and this has been brewing over time, but in February, you courageously reached out at the Missouri Association of Manufacturing's um annual conf uh trade show Midwest, yeah, manufacturers trade show. Yeah, yep, the trade show, and uh it was a great event, and you just said, you know what, we're gonna be there. We need something like this in Kansas City. Let's let's see if they'd be willing to meet with us after the conference to share. So you took the whole board, um, I think almost the whole board was there, and you all sat with the leadership from Missouri Association of Manufacturing and said, What does it look like to put on a trade show? Because we need to give more exposure. And then as I understand it, um in that conversation, they were just like, Wait, so where are you doing this in Kansas City and in the Missouri side? And you're like, Well, that's where we think. And they're like, Can we help you with it? So here, just that next level, you developed a relationship that could some people could see it adversarial, but you you welcomed their desire to be involved. Tell me about the beauty of that collaboration uh with Missouri Association of Manufacturers.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, yeah. You know, I think first and foremost, uh it starts with humility. So, like you, we mentioned in a previous conversation, you know, looking at what what you do best, you know, our niche is precision metal manufacturing. When you look at other larger associations that exist on both sides of the state line here, they're manufacturing centered. You know, we we're a subcategory, and I truly believe our members are gonna find great value from what we do because it speaks it speaks to their daily activity. Sure, we need to be a part of these other things also, and they're doing unique things as well. But just as you shared, let's compliment one another. Let's not compete. Let's look at what we do best and let's bring our best together for something epic. And ma'am was so excited to partner with us. You know, we appreciate their organization, um, their website generation, their name tag printing, just how they put all the pieces together in a very fabulous and professional way. And those are all things that I want to learn, but that is not something that, you know, um, again, I have a degree in or anything that I had experienced before, but they were willing to support that because they saw the great energy amongst the people we have here in Kansas City and the collaboration amongst our members. And that really stood out. So I think that speaks to our Casey manufacturing community and what we're doing to merge uh Missouri Association of Manufacturers with NTMA.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Catherine, that is so great. And I think you're you're sharing an important principle. There are the things that we could learn, but honestly, you sitting at your computer in your dining room or office or whatever and trying to figure out how to make name tags and how to bring QR badges when there's somebody that that's already doing it, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

And yeah, you could try to figure it all out. And you know, when you have a genuine relationship, which is what the events that I plan are about building and what we have done with ma'am, you know, we've co-hosted an event, Ryan, um, that you actually uh led. Uh uh and we've done some other great things together as well. But I generally, genuinely, excuse me, want their team to be successful. And yeah, why if they are doing it and it works, then let's let me learn from you.

SPEAKER_02:

And guys, that is that is leadership. We think leadership is figuring it out by yourself, but great leaders figure out who they need around them and they fill their gaps with people who are smarter than they are, better than they are at the things that they need to be doing. And if anyone wants to read about that, there's a great book out there by Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan called Who, Not How. And it literally says, quit asking the question, how do I get this done? But who do I need to get this done as effectively as we need it to get done? And the truth is, once you hand it to someone who knows how to do it, you're gonna get way much, way more impact out of that than if you tried to do it yourself. And that's really important, I think, for us as leaders to understand that getting the right people to the table will accelerate what you're doing in your organization. So I want to give you props for not saying, no, I gotta do this myself, and then in the final sprint, you like create drama for everyone else to come in.

SPEAKER_01:

I do, I think I'm um just hearing what you're saying, I need to give a big shout out. Um I'm sorry, I just I got a very important note here um that a chicken is out of the coop.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh well they need to pause this to address the issue.

SPEAKER_01:

Excuse the interruption. Okay, we'll deal with that in a minute. Hopefully the chicken doesn't go too far. But I want to come back to giving a big shout out to my board. I feel that, you know, through invitation and through watching their involvement with their companies, um, you know, I I really got a great board. We've built a wonderful group that is forward-thinking, progressive in how they want to do business and interact with others. And so I just want to shout them out. Uh, Casey and T-May board, you guys are awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

That's awesome. They are awesome. Every one of them is is on board with where the organization is going. And it's been great to see.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And you know, I think it's hard, Ryan. When you join a board, you represent, in our case, the precision metal manufacturing community, no longer your company. And that's hard to shag off at times when you're so used to thinking about your role, your daily task, what you need to do to help your yourself, your company succeed, but really switch it off and let's look at the larger community. And they do such a great job with that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's great stuff. That's great stuff. Let's shift gears for a little bit here. So let's talk about the upcoming expo. And there's really two areas that I want to explore this with you. Number one, why do we need this expo? And then number two, what do we expect out of this expo? So let's tackle number one first. Why is this even necessary for the Kansas City shops?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, uh, you know, the majority of our KCMTA member members, excuse me, uh are small and medium-sized enterprise. They're doing great things. They are they're very key to the manufacturing community at large. Um, but you know, unfortunately, they don't always do the best at putting out there the great things that they're doing. You know, our smaller shops with six to ten employees and owner president is working on the shop floor, um, handling all of the finances, sales. So, you know, for them to create a blog or to post or to do X, Y, or Z to really market themselves in in addition to everything else that they have going on is tough. So the first thing this expo lets us do is show off our members. And I am so excited, Ryan, to share that of the 61 companies exhibiting, 36 are NTMA members, and at least another handful have regularly attended our events. So these are, you know, real life small businesses that are gonna be getting the attention that they deserve by showcasing themselves. And then secondly, it lets our OEMs also manufacturing facilities, and for those that are maybe not familiar with that term, the original equipment manufacturers, the ones that take the parts and the pieces and the components and they put them together into that finished good that goes out for sale, uh, they can meet local suppliers. They can save time, they can save on shipping, they can build a local relationship. It lets them see who is here that can do the metal fabrication work that they need. And we've got all kinds of exhibitors, plastic injection, molders, uh, welding facilities, uh uh tooling. So there's it's it's not just you know machine work.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and Catherine, you know, I was talking with a local company that I was inviting to be a part of this recently. And they were talking about the dynamic of this is if they're working with a vendor in Utah and there's a trouble in production, they literally have to send someone on a plane to go out there, spend a few days trying to figure it out. And here, shops can literally invite the local person to hey, come on over, we'll do lunch, and I'll bring you into the shop and we'll show you what we're dealing with.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's the way that let me show you my equipment, let me show you exactly where it's gonna be made, how it's gonna be made, and who's gonna be making it. Yeah, and then you have that relationship to troubleshoot anything. You're gonna you're gonna save a lot and gain a lot that way.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and I think so. That's that's facet one of what this is event, what this event is. We're giving exposure to local companies to be able to um work and collaborate with other uh local companies who are needing the services they provide. And then the other side of that is that many of our members are going to be having people from their shop coming and attending to A look at what's available and B to grow their own capacity in that type of thing. So tell me a little bit about what's gonna happen at the event that's gonna benefit those who attend.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, first and foremost, we have a great kickoff on the 28th, which is Tuesday evening. Our national NTMA president Roger Atkins is gonna be flying in and joining us, gonna be kind of giving us some national updates. And um, we are so excited to have him here to meet so many of our members. And I'm also working on a really great um, just a brief uh speaker uh moment with somebody that is really um gonna stand out. And once it's official, I can't wait to share it. But uh, I'm like 99% sure it's gonna be there, and I know people are gonna want to hear from him. So we'll have both of them. We'll have a happy hour and a networking time. So exhibitors can meet other um shops. We've welcomed, I believe, 16 uh new members this year to our local chapter. So there are a lot of new faces. So members can meet new members, they can meet people that they didn't know were members because again, we have a lot of folks exhibiting who might not be able to otherwise attend some of our events. You know, they're they're a little further out um on either side of the state line. And then on Wednesday, our big day will start with breakfast. The expo floor will be open, and then we'll begin our breakout sessions. So we'll have two rounds of breakout sessions with four options at each with a lunch break in the middle. And Ryan, you're gonna be presenting for us.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. And it's gonna be a fun time. I'm trying to remember, uh, I'm doing a few different conferences coming up, and I believe for this one, I'm actually gonna be talking about the the difference between a promotion and um and moving into a leadership role and how we sometimes confuse that and we create our own chaos in that. And that's gonna be great. I'm looking at it.

SPEAKER_01:

And what I love about those sessions, just like yours, we could be targeting somebody from HR, a purchaser, an engineer, somebody who is handling um the cybersecurity side of things. There's literally a breakout session for everyone who is choosing to attend this event. Of course, you know, we are we're geared towards those who are making, you know, supplier purchasing decisions um or engineers who are directly involved with that. But we want everybody to come and learn more about our manufacturing community and see what we have going on. So we do have an option for everyone.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's great. So those two breakout periods where they can choose from eight different uh uh shop or workshops, uh, and those are 45 minutes apiece. That takes us up to lunch, and then what's happening from there?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh well, we'll we'll we'll run one round before lunch, lunch, and then another round after and then we'll go back to the expo floor so um individuals can continue to make great contacts and you know really learn you know what work that they could save out to local suppliers.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And so bring your business cards, be ready to exchange a business card, be ready to drop it into a bowl for someone doing a drawing. And and I want to point out this uh Catherine, I know you and your team uh with um Missouri Association of Manufacturers, you've done training on how to prep your exhibit space, and they've been talking through some things. So this isn't just a thrown together thing, this is a built system that's equipped people to show up with their best stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

So um this is not back to our previous conversation, identifying what you do best, right? You know, people multiple times I was asked yesterday at a lunch meeting. They're like, isn't that kind of weird? Like, I mean, most of these companies kind of do the same thing and they're just gonna like set up and they're gonna bring their customers to this event. Well, yes, that is exactly what is happening. But the intent is to invite potential customers as well, not just, you know, your best client or customer that you know you deal with on a routine basis, but who who is your dream target? Who do you really think that you could benefit in the greater manufacturing community and show off your specialty, which does make you unique and different because what is going on in your shop is special. And I think it's really neat to see members seek to identify that. And I can't wait to watch them show that off. And really, our members want to collaborate with one another, so it's an opportunity for them as well to learn more about each other and how they can partner together to bid larger jobs as well.

SPEAKER_02:

In your shop, you might have capacity to do fabrication and stuff, but you don't have capacity to paint. There might be another shop down the road that has the capacity to paint, but they're not doing enough to keep their line full. So you might discover a partner that's wanting to bring in work that can do it locally, and you don't have to send it off someplace else. So just come with an open mind of how can I serve this community and how can this community benefit me as well? And you're gonna see opportunities to grow your business and your future, and just see that there's other people that are that are intentionally growing their community with their companies at the same time, and it's gonna be a great event.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, yeah. And I think you know, people, a few are like, yeah, should I attend? I just don't really know if this applies. My answer would be absolutely yes. Show up in support of local manufacturing and and then make it fit for you once you get there. But I think there's something for everybody, and it's gonna be a great time.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Catherine, I'm excited about it. Thanks so much for connecting with us today and sharing some of your story. And uh, we're gonna have to let you go and find your Chase the chicken and cure the chicken.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh we hope that uh people maybe I'll uh post a great video of myself uh doing that in the comments.

SPEAKER_02:

We want people to be involved. Hey, what do they need to do to get registered?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, uh it's very easy. Jump on the website, which I can also link um when we share this um podcast out, and yeah, enter your name, your company name, and your email address. It's really as easy as that.

SPEAKER_02:

That's great. Well, thanks for all you're doing, Catherine. Thanks for how you show up and the value you have for building the network. And I'm looking forward to being a part of this uh later this month.

SPEAKER_01:

Can't wait to celebrate all the connections that are made.

SPEAKER_02:

All right. Thanks, Catherine.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks, Ryan.

SPEAKER_02:

And that's what we've got. Catherine is on fire, she's doing some great things, and I think you're gonna love this expo. Uh, if you're even remotely thinking about being a part of this, be sure to go to the link under the podcast here. Go check it out, be there, build your network of relationships, build your future. Uh, thanks for taking some time to watch us. We really appreciate you listening. Take care.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks, Ryan.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, hey there. Name's Mike. Been working in manufacturing for about twelve years now, and they went and promoted me to supervisor four years back. Thought I was moving up in the world. Turns out I just got a front row seat to all the dysfunction. I'm not perfect, but I care about my people, and I'm trying to figure this leadership thing out without losing my mind. Or my hair. So, I've been asking Ryan some tough questions, and let me tell you, the guy's got answers that actually make sense on the shop floor. You ought to check it out. Head over to his LinkedIn page and watch him break it down. He answers my questions in a way that makes sense in the shop. Alright, that's it. I'm Supervisor Mike. See ya.