Fired Up Podcast Ep.8 | Putting Your Stamp on the Workplace

We have talked a lot about getting the next generation into the trades so on this episode we are thrilled to hear from two young people with promising careers about their journeys and experiences into the skilled trades?

Welcome to Episode 8 of the Fired Up Podcast, a production of The Trade Collective. Hosts Dr. Pete Bavis and Patrick Hughes sit down with Tom, David, and Ewan from Ward Manufacturing to discuss what it is like to be a young person in metal stamping. 

David and Ewan tell their story from high school to finding their place working for Ward Manufacturing. They break down why the traditional college path wasn’t working for them and how they have been able to find community, excitement, and financial stability at Ward Manufacturing. 

Meet The Guest:

🎙️ Tom Ward: Tom is a third generation owner of Ward Manufacturing and is currently serving as Vice President. Tom believes in investing in young talent and the community. Tom wants the next generation to feel inspired by stories like David’s and Ewan’s to help find their direction.

🎙️David Abramson: David is extremely smart but did not like school at all. David did everything he could to just get through it. Somehow, he did learn things. (Begrudgingly, he took the ACT and scored a 31.) He had no idea what he was going to do in life. That was until he found his place at Ward Manufacturing. 

🎙️Ewan Mclean: Ewan was a fantastic student. Got very high marks in high school took AP and was college ready. Ewan started the engineering program at Colorado School of Mines, but he wanted to start working. 

In this episode, we discuss:

🔥 How do you know that the skilled trades are right for you? What do you get from working in the skilled trades that you don’t get from traditional four-year college? How do we show students all the paths available to them.

🔥 How do you add value to the workplace? How do you build a community and culture in the workplace? How do you add value to the community around you?
Join the Movement: New episodes drop every other Tuesday.

Follow our journey on social media!

Contact & Support: General Inquiries: info@thetradecollective.org

Igniting the future of the skilled trades. Let's get fired up! 🔥

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Oh maybe.

SPEAKER_05 0:08

Why not? What's a flippable? I have no clue.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

I'm too old. These kids these days. These kids, they might know.

SPEAKER_05 0:14

We actually brought some kids these days to talk to. We did.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

That is true.

SPEAKER_05 0:19

How are you, Pete?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_05 0:21

Good.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

How are you?

SPEAKER_05 0:22

I usually like to start by hearing some things that are going on at the high school. What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 0:27

What is going on at the high school? We did state testing. That's really exciting. Um, that's actually not exciting, but that's what we did this week. So uh, and then a lot of union. We did uh we're doing negotiations. So I sit and I watch people, I watch their body language, and I keep my mouth shut. And that's not what I'm gonna do now. Now I'm gonna talk. So I've had a whole day of not talking. So you guys are in for it, or it's gonna be a blast.

SPEAKER_05 0:52

I've gotten a couple, it's not like we have a big audience yet, but but describe our high school to people. When you are in when you're in Philadelphia or where you're somebody, what do you tell people? What is this place that you work at? What tell us a little bit about sort of the complicated nature of what a high school is?

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Oh my goodness. Well, first of all, we have about 3,600 kids, uh, which is huge for a school. We're the only school in town, so everybody comes to the school. The interesting thing about that is that everybody has an opinion of the school because we have a lot of alumni who also went to the school, who have kids at the school, right? So, and it's it's it really is like held up as one of like the best places in town. People love it, or they hate it, depending on their experience, because people have different experiences. But it is an identity piece of the town. So there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that. Um, it has a high academic reputation and it has historically had that. Um, it continues to have that. Um, it also is an extraordinarily racially diverse place. Um, I ran numbers for people and found out that Evanston Township High School has the most unique demographic characteristics of any school pretty much in the entire United States. And when I say that, I'm talking about percentage of black students, percentage of uh Latino students, Hispanic students, percentage of white students, and then you factor in the social, uh, the the SES, the economic backgrounds of kids, and we are truly unique. And then we we set out to meet the needs of every kid uh to varying degrees. So so we're very intentional.

SPEAKER_05 2:28

It's a literally miles away, two miles away, or a few miles down the road. It's a completely different environment.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Completely in either direction. In either direction. You have the city of Chicago or you have Womet Waneka Nutrier, which is which is nice. I mean, it's great to sit in that space between those two places because you get you get a lot of those two spaces, yeah, and you get a unique identity for the town.

SPEAKER_05 2:53

I think we need to every once in a while just kind of review that so that when people check in to what we're doing, the conversations we're having, it's a complex pool to work with.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

It's an incredibly complex pool. We try to meet the needs of everyone. Um, and we're more attuned to it now than ever before. Each year, each iteration of this place gets better because we become more attuned to what's going on, um, what's going on in the community, what's going on with our students, and what's going on in the world, um, local world. And that's part of the reason I'm on the podcast is to learn more about the world of work, work-based learning, uh, the trades specifically. Uh, because for a long time we we did an okay job, not really. Um, you know, we were at College for All, and I think you're gonna hear about the consequences of a College for All environment today a little bit. Um, and what we can do to help kids find their way earlier and you know, have them um have them figure that out or at least get an idea of what they want to do further on, beyond third block, third period. What am I gonna do third period? Tends to be most high school kids' experience. But we want kids to plan beyond third period and to broaden their opportunities. So that's why I'm here.

SPEAKER_05 4:04

So glad. Thank you for bringing us back. So uh we have some representatives from Ward Manufacturing here today, a local steel stamping company, manufacturing company. I'm really excited about today. I've been friends for Tom Ward here now for I don't know, 20, 25 years. Let's start with you, Tom, and then we'll get to you guys. We're gonna introduce you guys. And I'm kind of excited to for this for this particular episode because this is gonna be a cool conversation. Um, we've been having it by ourselves for a long time. Um, just a little backdrop. How long has word manufacturing been here? Where is it? What do you guys do?

SPEAKER_04 4:44

Uh word manufacturing has been around for 83 years. Um, I'm fortunate enough to be the the third generation of that family business. We have a fourth generation in there now, and I would consider these two part of that fourth generation. And uh we're very grateful that it's a it's still a thriving company and we've been able to evolve nimbly, you know, over the over the last 83 years. I'm excited more than ever because I think this fourth generation is uh is really smart and very capable.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

And uh how are you saying about the first, second, and third generation?

SPEAKER_04 5:24

Well, the fact that it it weathered me is uh is the shocker of all shockers for for most. Um uh but again, it was it was it was a very good business, a very stable business, and uh uh we make a product. We make products. Tell me, tell me what metal stampings go into ever metal stampings uh go into an infinite practically amount of of different assemblies, uh, industrial assemblies, right? Um this is this this happens to go into the plumbing, plumbing industry. One of our strengths is our diversification. So we we we supply product to so many different industries. So we're not beholden to any one particular industry. A lot of people in our space uh supply a lot of product to the automotive industry. Exactly. In many uh cases exclusively. And uh and you live and die by that industry. We supply to such a diverse group of industries that when one seems to be struggling, like the automotive industry, like there were a lot of our competitors that got involved in in the EV world that was like shot out of a cannon and then you know, basically got turned off. We weren't we didn't suffer any of that. And a lot of our competitors had to invest a lot of money to be a part of the EV growth. And it was a huge risk. And then when it died, you know, that that that hurt a lot of my competitors.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

So, Tom, when you say it hurts your competitors, what do you mean realistically when you say hurt?

SPEAKER_04 6:57

So imagine uh you have this opportunity, the EV world, everything was going EV. So in order for me to supply to them, I have to buy equipment, and it's not cheap equipment. I have to tool up to to do a lot of that work. And uh hoping that the the the work would come and it would continue for for a long period of time. So tremendous investment, you know. And uh if if if it when it caved in and the world said, no, we're not this isn't working, we're not going to EV. What do they do with that investment? They have to repurpose it in some way. Imagine borrowing millions and millions of dollars to get involved in this opportunity, and then it caves in. What do you do?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:42

Because now your equipment isn't worth what potentially it was. So we didn't we weren't involved in that. So our our work, we've we run some of the same parts that we've run for 78 years. I would say 83, but I don't know that that's exactly the case. But yes, we still run some of the same work that we've started our business. I I'll talk about the industries. Places are I think that that's that's um paint a picture for people because they can't most people have no idea.

SPEAKER_05 8:16

You're on the clue.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

I have like how they they make stuff over there. I don't know where where's it go? Particularly in our town. We're we drive down Main Street. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

So the plumbing industry, one of our big customers is in the plumbing world. Okay. Um, and they bought buy a lot of product uh out of brass, and brass is an expensive material, and uh uh we we supply a lot of product to the to the seal industry, and this is where people maybe don't understand how many things uh require seals, you know. Um like the shaft seal industry. So imagine the water pump in your car has a shaft that runs through it. On the outside of the water pump is the pulley that your belt drives in your car. You pop your hood, you see your belts, right? That shaft, which is connected to that pulley, goes into the water pump. So on the outside, you have to seal the dust and the grime and whatever gets into the wall the engine compartment outside.

unknown 9:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

The shaft turns and is connected to an impeller inside the water pump. So all the coolant that's inside your engine has to not come out of the come run down the shaft. So that seal is very, very important for keeping the coolant in and the dirt out. And if those two things fail, your car overheats, your engine fails, it's a it's a disaster. So that water pump seal, that seal that seals that shaft is critical to the function of the overall larger unit of the entire car. Your bumpers are metal stampings too, and they could fall off on your way home. You're gonna make it home and you're gonna get it repaired. When your water pump goes, your car's your car's going anywhere. Your entire assembly is shot.

SPEAKER_05 10:04

So you're talking about an 83-year-old company, you've been making parts for the same companies, same industry for almost for 83 years. Um, I believe some of those people might have aged out of the employment by now. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

I never met those people.

SPEAKER_05 10:22

Your relationship with those companies is longer than the people who are making them.

SPEAKER_04 10:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 10:26

So you're you have an aging workforce. We've been hearing a lot about aging workforces in America. Talk about aging workforce and then this new generation of talent that you've got sitting next to you, and that's what excites you about the next 10 years of your business.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

So I would say 15, 18 years ago, the head of our tool room uh came to me and said, You we're we've we we've got a bunch of old people here. You know, and if your your goal is to continue this business, you know, over the next 10 years, all five of these guys are gonna be gone. They're gonna be dead or they're gonna be retired. Um what are you what are what is your plan to to to fix that? And um I didn't have a plan. You know, I'd have to like hope for the best was was the first thought, you know. But we had been talking for so long about you know, how do we inspire kids to want to get into this trade? Because it's a great trade and it's uh it's it's a great income. And um it's not easy. So but how so how do we expose people to kids to to this opportunity? And so we got involved in job fairs, some uh manufacturing day events where we had a hundred kids come through our facility, David being one of them um in high school, and uh kind of got the ball rolling. And now I think our momentum and it took a long time, and we have a lot of competitors that never got into that game, just kind of hoped again, said, Well, we hope for the best. We put an ad in the paper, or now you put an ad in wherever you put it in.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Whatever it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Yeah, and uh and you hope for the best. So over time we started to get some kids involved, and they had an aptitude for it. And now we've got so many young, young people that when I get young potential um employees, they they uh they resonate with these uh other young people that are like this. This is a young staff, and they're people that are very nice and and and happy and and seem like they're having a good time. I want to do that. I want to, I mean, it's one thing to walk into a business where everybody's old and curmudgeony, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Young doesn't want to be a bunch of crafty guys hanging scenario, right?

SPEAKER_04 12:39

And we were that, you know, and now we're not, now we're the opposite of it.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

The opposite. And what changes with that?

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Oh, energy. Yeah, you know, I look at projects today at my age and go, oh, that looks hard. Like that looks like a lot of work. These guys are like, let's go. They're excited, you know. And uh my job now is just to to to make it a nice place for them to work and give them the tools that they need to do it at a very high level. And we're super and one of the luxuries of being in business for 80 years is we can do that.

SPEAKER_05 13:10

Well, I've watched your company change from what you just described, and let's get to it, David. Um what's up? What's up? Welcome to the Fired Up Podcast. Here it is. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Truth teller, right here, right in the middle.

SPEAKER_05 13:23

Oh, yeah. Well, it's really, it's really great. I've loved getting to know you over the last 10 years, and um, I think you bring such an energy and wisdom to clearly to the company, but also to our community and your care about this desire for growing the trades and introducing people to that. I'm really glad to have you. Thanks. Tell us tell us your story. How'd you tell us your like where you grew up and and and kind of where you're at now?

SPEAKER_03 13:50

Gotcha. Uh I grew up in Evanston. Um, I was actually born in California, but moved here at a very young age, younger than I can remember. So I spent my whole life here. Um my parents lived right over on Sheridan Road and South Boulevard. And so, you know, elementary school, middle school, and found my way up to ETHS. And uh yeah, that's sort of my my background being a being a kid here. Yeah. What kind of student were you? What kind of um I I was a pretty good student up until uh I was thinking about this this morning because I knew you were gonna ask that. And um I th I want to say like 13. The rail sort of fell off the track a little bit. And um I I you know I still tried, but it just I was just starting to lose it. You know, it was kind of I started getting good at BS and everything and kicking the can down the road. And why did why was that? What what happened? I don't know. I think at that age I had no idea, you know, it was like frustrating, you know, because it was like I'm supposed to be doing this, and my parents want me to be doing it. My teachers are like, you're not turning in your work. And I just I'd sit down to do it, and I'd be like, Oh, I just can't, you know, you can't put the pencil to the paper. I'd stare at a blank page for an hour trying to figure out how to start an essay, and it was just not my thing. I I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 15:05

P is that common?

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Yeah, it was really hard. Yeah, and that sort of just kept rolling. You were lost. Oh, yeah, I was lost. Well, it didn't connect to you at all. It happened early.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah, that sounds 13's pretty early for that, but you know, yeah. So, how did you go through it then? You just kind of BSed your way through it.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

You're like, I'm just gonna go through the motions, right? Right. I got really good at BSing it, turning things in at the last second. Oh, I'll turn it in next week for you know, 10 10 off my grade or whatever it is, and then you know, never really like gave a hundred percent into it. It was all kind of like, let me Were your parents worried about you? Oh, yeah, big time, big time. What do your parents do? Um, my dad was a lawyer, he's retired. Both my parents are retired now, which is great for them. Um, my dad was a lawyer for 40-something years. Um, my mom went to cosmetology school and she cut hair and she sold makeup and she majored in Spanish too. So she sold makeup in the Spanish-speaking countries. So she was in South America a lot, and then she raised me and my brother, two great kids.

SPEAKER_05 16:06

So the expectation was in this town that you were to do what? Get good grades and what? Go to college. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:14

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 16:15

And how did that go?

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Horribly. Yeah, right. Well, no, it didn't go horribly. It's great. Where I'm at now, I've never been happier in my life. I feel fantastic about it. But yeah, that I mean that's that's the goal, that's what you're set up for. And uh, I think you you it's something that's in the back of your mind the whole time you're even from middle school, you know, you know the next step is high school, and after that it's off to the world and college and stuff like that. And so that's in the back of your mind. And when you're not when it's not working that way, and you keep going, well, I'll figure it out at some point, and you just never figure it out. I don't know. It's a pretty, pretty like deep hole you dig yourself down into, and you kind of I don't know. I felt there was like there was nothing, you know? That's that's kind of what it was like for me.

SPEAKER_04 17:00

When did when did you get the inspiration? Like what what what what finally sparked you from not spark? Spark, there we go. Yeah, um, to get to get inspired about what you were doing.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

It took a while. I don't even think when I first started at Ward Manufacturing, I did I still don't think I had that spark. I you know, I took the job because I had nothing else going on. I think that was the happiest day of my parents' lives because they were like, well, he's doing something. You know, thank God he's not doing whatever he was doing in high school. But yeah, I think for the first and tell me what happened for high school, then right immediately to how'd you get from high school to Ward? So I went on the manufacturing day tour and um a uh a classmate of mine who I work with now at Ward Manufacturing, and he's awesome. Uh him and I were way into all of John Lawrence's classes at the high school. So it was he's he's not with us, but he's with us in the spirit here. Yeah. John, hey John. Anything to say? He runs the shop class. He he runs the shop class. He's he's he's an awesome teacher because he's very realistic about how the world works, you know. So he doesn't he doesn't shortcut anything or hold anything back. He's he's a he's a real human being, you know. If you're messing around in his class, he's brutal to you. And if you're good at it, he's still brutal to you, you know, and that's just how the world works, you know. It sort of never backs off. Um, but he's great. So I we went on a manufacturing day tour. Um, I got split off from the group at some point with Neemai, who's my classmate and coworker now. And we ended up sitting by the the tooling engineer at the time, Tom Mueller. And we knew a little bit about programming CNC from John Lawrence's class, but not a ton. But he, you know, he's showing us designs on the computer, and you know, here's where I started, and here's the design. And then we program it and we make all the blocks in the CNC, and we're we start having a real conversation with him. Oh, I know what that is. Oh, so your end mill's doing this tool path, and this is how you're cutting the seal. And he's like, Man, you guys kind of know what you're talking about. So he went back to Tom, I believe, after we were all gone, and he said, I like these two kids. You ought to give you ought to give them a call after high school. So um, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:02

Who said they liked you?

SPEAKER_03 19:03

Tom Mueller. Yeah, Tom Mueller, yeah, yeah. He was the tooling engineer. He he put it he put Best Job interview ever. Best job interview ever.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Seriously.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

I didn't and when I got hired, I didn't even have an interview. They were like, You start Thursday.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Yeah, because you already did your interview.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

I didn't need to I did nothing. I kicked rocks for two weeks when I graduated. And um John Lawrence called me and he said, Can I give your number to Ward Manufacturing? They called me and they want to reach out to you. And I think I was at a skate park or something, skate, skateboarding and probably drinking a beer or something. I shouldn't have been doing but you know, I said, Yeah, have him.

SPEAKER_05 19:37

And how long you've been there now?

SPEAKER_03 19:38

10 years.

SPEAKER_05 19:39

10 years, and now you're you just are signing your you're buying your first house. I am, yeah. How what does that feel like?

SPEAKER_03 19:46

Uh I'm not across the finish line yet, so it's a little scary and overwhelming. Um, but I'm ready to just sort of. How old are you now? I'm 28.

SPEAKER_05 19:54

You're 28 and you're buying a house.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

Yeah, yeah. 30 years ago, they would have said that was normal, I think. You know, like 28. It's about time, you know.

SPEAKER_05 20:05

It's not normal anymore. No, at all. Let's uh let's pause for a minute and get to Ewan. Ewan, um, you're my neighbor. I've known you a long time. Most of your life.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:16

Um tell us your story if you don't mind.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Uh mine's both similar to David's and like a complete 180. So I have always been in Evanson. I lived in Chicago for maybe three years. I was born there, but then moved kind of before I could remember anything. Uh, and went through all the middle schools and or no, sorry, went through all of uh elementary school, middle school, got to ETHS just like he did. Uh I was actually a really good student. Um, super dedicated in school. I had a very solid idea of what I was doing. I kind of knew that I wanted to be an engineer from the get-go. I was always building crap. It started with Legos and then kind of moved on to, you know, more buying stuff from Home Depot or stealing some construction materials from a construction site or something. Um, whatever I could do to get my hands on something. And I thought that's what engineering was, you know. I thought that you in the real world would get to touch a lot of stuff with your hands and actually be, you know, like on site doing stuff, and went through high school uh with that understanding of engineering. And so I got really good grades, took a bunch of AP and honors classes, uh, was super dedicated and uh show off.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Just you know, you know, just that's how it was.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

You were just doing it to yeah, you were you were in it.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

That's that's what it was.

SPEAKER_05 21:47

Yeah, what was your GPA graduating out of?

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Um it was like a three point nine or something. And uh AP Well, yeah, the AP credit that's like the whole weighted thing was even different. But it was, yeah, I think it was like a three-nine. And uh I don't know. That's just my parents had high academic expectations and were super supportive. And I had a bunch of things.

SPEAKER_05 22:09

Even though your dad's a Canadian?

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

It's somehow still.

SPEAKER_05 22:14

I'm just decent. Hi, Ross. I had to throw it in Ross on the one.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

I'm sure that's the first of many. Well, applied to a bunch of colleges, got into all of them, and went to the Colorado School of Minds, which is like a pretty hardcore engineering school. Uh, and I was excited. I was uh I was I was ready to get going, and then I start there and kind of get, you know, a rude awakening of like there's a lot of sitting around at a desk involved in engineering and kind of felt like I wasn't really applying myself very much, you know. And they're freshman year classes are born, they're not, you know, you're not doing very interesting stuff, but I was kind of asking upperclassmen and all that, and they were like, oh, it kind of you don't actually get your hands on that much stuff. And so I uh I went through, I got good grades and all that, but I was kind of a little demotivated. The the school wasn't really a right fit for me, so I I came home and went to Loyola for a semester just to kind of get some classes out of the way uh and figure out where I wanted to go next. But the summer after freshman year, I started an internship at Ward, and it was actually through the same guy, John Lawrence. Uh I took I took four straight years of the engineering classes. Uh and they they were great. They exposed me to a lot of stuff. And uh at some point in that first semester of freshman year, I reached out to John Lawrence and I was like, hey, I don't really don't really like where this is headed. And he uh, you know, he basically said, I could get you a job right in the tool room at Ward Manufacturing, I think you'd be a great fit for it. So after freshman year, I started an internship there in the summer, and within the first week, it was like something clicked. It was all that I had been you know loving, applying myself doing, but I could do it in real life and make money and you know actually see a result of my work. So I uh I worked there over the summer and I actually went back to another school. I went to CU Boulder for a semester, but by then, soon when as soon as I got back, I was like, school is just not right for me whatsoever.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

I think you texted me a week into your semester.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Yeah. I was like, oh, I'm I I knew very early on that I was, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:28

Well, when he when he left to go to Colorado, um I said, We loved you. I mean, in the all these people absolutely loved. I mean, what in the work that he was doing was not simple stuff. Right, right. I mean, it was he had his not only his hands. I always say, you know, the the trades people say, I want to work with my with my hands. Working with in the tool and die trade, it's 90% working with your mind.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

For sure.

SPEAKER_04 24:55

Yeah, and and 10% working with your hands, and that is is a fact. Um and so when he left, I said, Well, you can Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever. You want to come, come work, you know, come do whatever you want to do. And I think you called me uh right around Thanksgiving time and said, Can I come back? I'm gonna work there. I said, Absolutely, and everyone was excited because he's such a talented kid. And now think about this. Had I gone back and seen what this guy was doing in high school, I'd be like, We're not hiring.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

I'm glad I'm I'm glad I didn't have to sit down for an actual yeah, right?

SPEAKER_04 25:32

He's a genius, you know. But but David, he even, you know, I think the thing is is he came in and he he worked in quality for a little while, and then he again he he understood print reading very quickly, like everything came very quickly to him. Like it was he it was intuitive. And um and then when I started to see him get passionate about the things that he was doing, it was like he was shot out of a cannon, you know. Now he designs. I mean, he's our head designer. I mean, you and you if you saw the things that he was doing that he's doing right now, it's it's quite impressive. It's it's quite impressive.

SPEAKER_05 26:12

You and go go back to your you're you're gonna leave your third school. You're what is that like to and then I get excited when you go to war and you're kind of are you embarrassed? Are you tell me what's going on for you at that time because and what were the conversations maybe at home or with yourself that were going on that what what what what did you what was going on for you?

SPEAKER_00 26:37

I mean, it was kind of a a whirlwind going between three schools and three semesters, and then also getting this taste of a great job in the summer. Um it was, you know, all over the place. There's zero stability. I was still figuring out what I wanted to do. I still had the idea, I knew what my skills and passions were. I just no longer knew where they could possibly be applied. Um but the closest thing to that was the internship at Ward, because they threw me into the deep end for sure that summer. I was working on some pretty complicated stuff, and so and only because you were capable.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

He wouldn't have done it if if you know he proved himself very, very early.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

He's got a rare knack for mechanical understanding of things that I think you don't see in most people. So he got he got the he got the apprentice pass. Normally we would have dragged you through the mod for three years. Yeah, but you were assertive, but you were you you you're one of the lucky ones, you know. No, but you I mean you had it, you had it.

SPEAKER_05 27:37

But I I want to get back to the part though. Yeah, yeah. Because I think that that um I I don't think you're alone. I think there's other kids that everything that I hear of that I've gotten to know you and hear you, I hear a lot of other people kind of stuck or or not sure how to how to get first of all, you guys got access. John Lawrence created access for you and a teacher, believed in you kids, believed in, you know, they've developed a cool ri relationship. So um, but go back to this part of um, and I'm I'm I I'm very sensitive. Because what when when you first came in, I heard about this. You you there was this tool that you were making a part that was like, I'm gonna probably say it wrong, correct me, but you were making a fixture. There was a part that would there was a tool that you were making that was punching out like 2,000 parts per week. And then you saw something and brought a formula, you thought of a formula that Mr. Ducrane taught you when you were a sophomore. Right? Yeah. Tell me what and and like that was like right. It's like this you who brings formulas in their head?

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Yeah. It wasn't why you even made that formula, yeah. What the original design was that was provided to you.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Um well, so the machine was kind of already in the works by uh our maintenance guy, and he was having trouble figuring out the hole spacing. It's like a rotating table where you load parts on it and they get a hole threaded, and he couldn't figure out the the whole spacing. You know, it's a bunch of parts on this whatever diameter circle.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

Uh and it indexes.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Yep, indexes, does two at a time, and I looked at it and I was like, oh, I'll give it I'll give it a shot. And uh just kind of remembered some stuff that I was taught in high school and kind of touched on in college a little bit, um, and and worked it out and made a made a sketch that ended up being like exactly what it was. We checked it on a CAD program and it was like it it helped him, you know, finish the finish the project out and make a functioning machine.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

I like that you mentioned CAD because the original design for it was CAD, but not computer-aided design, it was cardboard aided design. So he was given a cardboard circle with lines drawn on it and going, I gotta make something that rotates.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Yeah. So oh my goodness. It was it was broken down. Like he gave me this idea, but what what I saw was more of like, oh, we want to put a it's this diameter.

SPEAKER_05 30:16

So this is one of many. Yeah, it's right. Oh yeah. One of many things that that you and has come in, and you're like, oh my gosh. Well, tell me what that does to you as a company and you as a an employee or new now, a friend and colleague. What's it like to have talent like that?

SPEAKER_03 30:33

Oh, it's huge. It's huge. It's um it it's it's a fire starter for everybody. And uh, you know, when you have somebody like that who you can um trust to think outside of the box, but get to an end result that's like tangible and works. And then, you know, we've hired other young guys over the last couple of years that are sort of in a similar boat. And when you come in in the morning and everybody's filling up their coffee mug, and the discussions that bounce between these people are just out of this world. Deep theoretical stuff, and how are we gonna figure this out? And remember this thing I saw two years ago. Here's what we're gonna do now. And it's I don't know. It's just like a fire slit on.

SPEAKER_05 31:14

I I had a went lunch over there the other day, and it the first of all, it's a lot of Evanston kids. How many Evanston kids are working there, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:22

Um, I mean, nobody wants to say like six or seven currently, probably. Does that help? Yeah, for sure. Why? For sure. Well, we all we all have a we all have a common background in some kind of a way. So, you know, Evanston's got its weird lingo that's sort of shared amongst the kids, and we all speak that lingo, and we have the same goofy experiences in life and had the same teachers, and I there's something that just sort of like connects you at the root and uh sort of makes that deeper theoretical stuff easy because you've broken down that barrier of, you know, I don't need to get to know you over the next two years. It's hard for another no, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

No, no uh. So let's back up. So, like you you're you're you you really didn't like the college experience, you're sitting there locked to a desk working on it, just it sounds terrible. Yeah, and then you're going over to board manufacturing, literally handed the kind of stuff you wanted when you were younger to really like, you know, I'm thinking back to the kid who's playing with Legos, and now all of a sudden it's oh, I can problem solve, I can create, I can the value in that must have been for you, must have been like extraordinary.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

I mean, the possibilities were like actually endless. You know, there's there's spots where you can always improve things or find a better, quicker way to do things, and you can instead of just designing it and giving it to somebody else, actually do it. Yeah, which was the part that I was missing out in engineering school. So that summer, I mean, there were there were a couple things I did which were they were relatively simple, but it's nice to make an improvement and then see it happen. And that was something that you'd never get in college.

SPEAKER_04 32:59

And in any manufacturing company like like us, process improvement is yeah, there's critical.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

There's numbers that come with it. How do you save? Well, there's no there's no end.

SPEAKER_04 33:08

There's no end. We have 35 presses and we make over 3,000 different parts, and they're all different. And they all run, then nothing is similar. Right, right, right. So when you start looking at growth, well, how do you grow? Well, you can add equipment and run things slowly, or you can improve on everything that you're doing, and that is a endless pursuit in our company. And these young guys like they they thrive on that. And how lucky am I that like these guys are always thinking? And and the fun thing about our facility is something is is happening out on the floor and it's dumb and it's slow, it makes us all nuts.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Why are we doing it that way? Right.

SPEAKER_04 33:50

Are we doing it that way because there is no other way, or are we doing it that way because we're we've just decided to not fix it? Or so it's it's a it's like a relentless challenge every single day on the floor. When you've got I'm not saying two, when you've got a whole group of people that are inspired by making things better, because making things better makes their lives easier and leads to making more money and leads to having job satisfaction where you're you're improving. So you know how many places there are that that that people go to work and they just go, Don't open your mouth, do what I tell you. Keep your head down and keep your head down. These these two wouldn't last in that uh space.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

So, how did you build that culture, Tom? Because that's it that there's there's culture that's built there.

SPEAKER_04 34:43

To me, if you're a business owner, it's your duty to do that. If you're a business owner to me, like and you're lucky enough, I'm considerably lucky to be in that position, right? Um why wouldn't I want to make it that way? Because I if you know how it's always that way. No, I mean the generations before was keep your head down and sh shut your mouth. Yeah, I imagine that came from experience. Do what I tell you to do.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04 35:10

Because you don't know enough. And I didn't know enough to do it any differently. Yeah, but over the years, once I got a little more autonomous about it, uh it it it made it the the the byproduct of of uh delivering the message that way started to come back to me in spades. Yeah, you know, like if he's happy and he's happy, and I give them enough leash to kind of chart their own destiny, we're all winning.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:39

We are all winning this thing. And um and it's it it it feeds itself, yeah. At some point it feeds itself, and now I've got enough uh young people that get that get that. What what's their responsibility for making things better, you know, is uh uh is we all live in a happier place and it's inspiring, it's fun. We we listen, I always say this it's like I wish this was like we were all actors and we were on a movie set. That sounds sexier than being in a metal stamping manufacturing company, doesn't it? And I think that would imagine that central casting. I think that'd probably be more fun. However, we've committed to being a metal stamper. So how do we make that the best that it can be? And that's it. And it's you know, again, I we luckily we can afford to supply them with the right tools to do it at a very high level. I one of the pictures that I sent you was of our new machining center, a VF6. It's a large machining center, it's brand new. And um you were rocking on it today, and he he showed me what he was milling in this thing. He goes, Yeah, this is a tiny end mill, and doing all these 3D things. And it was like that's really cool. And he's excited about, you know, doing it. And and that machine allows him to do his job faster, more in a more sophisticated way. Um, he can do bigger pieces all in one setup, which makes everything more accurate. You know, it's just you know, and so and that was a big investment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:13

I mean, you make investments like that because of the future. 100%. Otherwise, you sell the company.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

And they could do that job on the other machines. They could.

SPEAKER_05 37:22

We asked for it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

That's true.

SPEAKER_05 37:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we were starting the trade collective and we were just sort of banging around on this idea, first of all, thank you for your support. And thank you for being a company that's involved in our community. Let me just say that. Yeah, you know, and and investing in our community this way in our young people, period. Just just say that. Um what the hell was I just gonna say? I don't know. Shoot.

SPEAKER_04 37:50

It's self-serving. When I'm getting involved in in with Evanston High School, getting involved in all the different organizations in the city has been because my dad was like, don't bring anybody in here, don't show them anything, don't because you know what? Somebody's gonna come and steal all our business. You know, and I for a while I thought, well, I guess that's how this works. You gotta be, you gotta shut the door and don't let anybody see. But the minute you and I became close and I started to reach out to the community, it it was very quickly, it became like, no, this is this is this is serving me. Yeah, you know, this is not what I'm contributing to the to the city. Uh these two work for us.

SPEAKER_05 38:34

What's your invite to other companies, other manufacturing? Apparently, we need in a 10-mile radius to Evanston, we need 930 people because of the aging workforce, 10 mile radius in manufacturing alone, we need 930 people. So you're gonna need two or three every year, let's say. Uh, but how do we how do we engage the other manufacturers and the other companies to begin to think this way and build culture like you're building? You have any thoughts for that?

SPEAKER_04 39:04

I think they need to determine what their issues are, right? What what what what in any organization, what are your issues? What are you trying to solve? Where are you trying to go? You know, if you're a company that just is decided that, well, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna in five years, I'm gonna sell this place.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

Well, that's a different mindset.

SPEAKER_04 39:23

Different, different strategy altogether. And a lot of them think that way.

SPEAKER_05 39:28

This strategy that I hear is John Lawrence. It's getting you, it's you getting to know a community, yeah, and you then starting to talk to other people. It was a very people-oriented. I don't think I heard the word indeed or any any algorithm at all in your connection to finding you people and five minutes tiring. What's that?

SPEAKER_00 39:51

The five bit is tiring.

SPEAKER_05 39:56

I haven't even heard that, but I love it. I like it.

SPEAKER_03 39:59

I'd love to expand on that for a bit. It's quite important. We've got we've got Ewan's is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. I would say this kid's so smart.

SPEAKER_05 40:10

We've You're saying he's the best thing that's ever happened. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

So I think I was the best thing that ever happened to Brian. I'll say that for him. Yeah, I think Ewan's the best thing that's ever happened to me at war manufacturing. And then since then, we've needed like four more people because guys just retire, right? So we I went out on a little hiring journey. I didn't go through any indeeds or whatever you call it. It was all LinkedIn stuff. So I just added people that looked young in their profile picture and across the industry, and uh reached out to them personally. And I had some people in, and I said, I'm not hiring on experience, I'm hiring on vibes. So it's you know, are you a cool, you're a cool dude? Are you gonna fit in with a you and a and a me and a and an Alan and a Fernando and all these great guys that we have? And that's what we hired on. Because anyone with a good vibe can learn anything.

SPEAKER_05 41:02

All right, Brian's not here, but would you just shout him out? You've got a different Brian, actually. Oh, that's not our Brian. Well, fine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

And I will this show up on camera?

SPEAKER_05 41:12

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 41:13

This is great. This is a this is a word manufacturing one-star review.

SPEAKER_05 41:17

Here, get into the microphone because they can't hear you review.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

One-star review for ward manufacturer on Google. Keeping it classy is the comment there. Um, I don't know what that could possibly be about because we don't sell any commercially available products.

SPEAKER_04 41:32

So no, nobody's reviewing our product and thinking that it's never got the review, but it was somehow a knock, and we don't know why.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

It's one of the greatest classy. That's all we did. I love this thing. It deserved to be on a t-shirt. The best t-shirt I've ever had. If Brian Sullivan's out there, I'd love to give you a tour of board manufacturing and tell you what tell you what we're all about, man, because it's this, I'm lost with this one.

SPEAKER_04 41:56

So if I could add to that vibe thing, so we get these young kids in who invariably were tool and die makers at another company and they weren't happy. Right. They were stuck on third shift. Or they were stuck in a tool room where they say, You run the grinder, don't look at the CNC machine, don't, you know, or you all you do is debug tools, and you're gonna go out there and determine what's wrong with this die, and then you're gonna take it apart and hand this component off to the guy in the CNC machine, and then he's gonna machine it because I can get away with paying him less than you, or I don't know how it works. I really don't. And these are young, dissatisfied people who worked for other companies in our industry. And they come in, well, they're and they're skeptical, they just think that's what the world is. That's what they know. I got I got into this trade, and this is what the trade looks like. And uh our hopes always is if we can get those kids in and they can see the Ewans and the Davids and the Fernandes and the Allen's and the and they can see what those guys are doing. There is no you run the grinder. We're gonna teach you to run everything because if you can run everything, you are a major value to all of us.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:08

If you go, well, I've taken it this far and then I gotta hand it off to him. Uh okay, well, now you've slowed us down. So um, I mean, I Alan is a great example. You know, he was never allowed to build a die, you know, in in his company. Correct me if I'm short. And that he's like, I got into this trade because that's what I want to do. And so I remember he was there like six months, and I walked into the terminal. I'm like, Alan, what's up? Um, he goes, Great. I just I just finished designing my first die and I just ordered all the material and I'm gonna make I'm doing the whole thing on my own. And he goes, It's the greatest thing, it's exactly what I got in this job to do. And I'm at first, I looked around, I'm like, is he qualified for this? But he was thrilled because they he everyone trusted him enough and he. Was getting to do what he what he got into the trade to do. And now he's another, like, and he works really hard and he's and his attitude. I love, I mean, again, one of the one of the greatest joys of my life is like, well, why don't when are you gonna retire? You know, it's like these guys are doing all the work anyway. I just like being I like being there. I like I like running with these guys. What is the liar doing?

SPEAKER_05 44:25

I I will I believe when you were hired, he took your parents out to lunch or something like that, or something like that. Right?

SPEAKER_04 44:34

Well, I I wanted them, I know that they were all in for college, and I respect that. They were right, and they had no idea what Ewan was doing. I don't think. I mean, you could go home and tell them what you were doing, but I don't think they ever really understood what ward manufacturing was, what his duties were there, and what he was learning. I said, I want to meet him. Just have him come in. I just want to show them what you're doing because I if yeah, I guarantee you, when they see when they literally put their eyeballs on what you're doing, they're gonna be they're gonna understand, hopefully they'll understand your passion and all this. And you were friends with them, okay, and uh and they came in and and and and saw it. I said, This is what you're saying, and you know, I he can do whatever he wants, but uh the kid has amazing talent, and uh, you know, I I love having them here.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

So uh what's it what's it what's it like to hear that? It's uh it's it's great. I mean, yeah, I would I I I don't think we'll ever get used to it.

SPEAKER_05 45:35

It's it's it's kind of crazy to hear that much amazing stuff being said, but yeah, it's well it doesn't sound like it's just because you're a nice you are a nice person, but it it sounds like you're really providing a real value to something that and isn't that what life isn't that like the best part of life right there?

SPEAKER_00 45:53

Yeah, I mean it is, and I just got lucky enough for I can do it while also exercising my own passions and skills and interests and stuff. I kind of just landed in the right place.

SPEAKER_05 46:03

So what are you working on? What gets you excited right now? What are you working on that that's lighting you up right now?

SPEAKER_00 46:08

Uh I've got a a big project with the engineering department going on right now that's about to get back in motion. I've got I'm kind of filling in a bunch of advanced work for David. Stuff just gets thrown my way to work on the C and C machines or little bits of design work or just stuff here and there. Kind of just filling in. It's not not what I expected when I thought I'd be starting an apprenticeship for sure. Uh but it's a bunch of high-level stuff that's very challenging. Challenging stuff is what keeps me engaged.

SPEAKER_05 46:42

And where do you go get smarter? Where do you where do you learn? Where do you keep learning?

SPEAKER_00 46:48

Well, I mean, I'm uh I'm in trade school now. I've got a bunch of really experienced and helpful coworkers to support me. And then honestly, a pretty fair amount is just learning by myself, just trying things out. Screwing things up. Yeah. Surprisingly low amount as of now of uh screen things. It's it's happened.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

Even not screwing things up, but you do something one way and you go, I thought that was the best way. I gotta change my approach.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Maybe it gets you the right result, but it takes extra time. I mean, the greatest thing about this trade there's a million ways to do the exact same thing. You give every toolmaker a part to machine, we're all gonna do it differently. It's all gonna come out with the right function to the right dimensions.

SPEAKER_04 47:29

It's you know, it's about some are better than others. Yeah, but but yeah, they're all the right parts.

SPEAKER_05 47:35

David, what's your position at the company now?

SPEAKER_03 47:37

Uh, I run in circles for somewhere between eight and ten hours. No, I'm just kidding. Um I hit my thumb with a hammer many times a day. Um no, I'm the tool room manager now. So um I I manager is not even the right word. I kind of don't like that term. Um, it's more a facilitator. Um, so I I use my experience to make sure that everybody who's doing the cool stuff has everything they need to get it done. They're fully supported.

SPEAKER_04 48:08

Um, and his title is tool room manager. But I like the way he's describing it.

SPEAKER_03 48:13

Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't, I'm not, I work for them, you know. It's not they don't work for me and I work for Tom Ward. I work for them. So I make sure that they can they can do what they need to do 100% of the tell me what it's like to work for Tom Ward and Nick, and you've got a family business, right?

SPEAKER_05 48:27

Yes, yeah, it's great. Tell me that's awesome. Tell me why.

SPEAKER_03 48:31

I could talk to him every day. The guy who owns the business, I talk to on a daily basis. He just walks right through the door. He goes, What's up, everybody?

SPEAKER_04 48:42

We're gonna, we're gonna we're gonna sh cut that down a little bit, but uh in the future. I love it. No, that's my favorite thing. Yeah, that's my favorite.

SPEAKER_03 48:52

Yeah, it's easy. You you you you feel supported. Um, you need help with something, you just gotta ask. Um it's it's like you know. They trust you. Yeah, they trust you. You you that's the thing. When you don't interact with who is making high-level decisions on a daily basis, you're just I don't know, you're just in the wind, I guess. You're just who do you go to? But it's such a powerful tool. I gotta ask a question.

SPEAKER_04 49:15

My biggest pleasure, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Yeah, I gotta ask a question. Yeah. So you read all this stuff about this generation being impossible to work with, impossible for guys our age to embrace. That's not what I'm seeing here. I'm seeing like an incredibly high-functioning culture, an incredibly high-functioning team. I'm seeing great leadership. That's the counter narrative. How did that, how'd you get that in a world that is telling not just people our age, the older the gray hairs here, but telling you guys that that, oh, this is a troubled generation. They're they're they're not hard workers, they're lazy, they they want to run the company and don't know anything. What's the difference?

SPEAKER_05 49:58

Because this I can tell you right now, I think I think your son, Nick, is a huge piece of this puzzle, huh?

SPEAKER_03 50:05

For sure.

SPEAKER_05 50:05

For sure, right? And I'm not it's no hit on you. It's just that the next generation of is of ownership is is Nick, and he brings a lot of energy and a lot, right?

SPEAKER_04 50:17

He's smart, and he's smart. Yeah, his brother Tommy's working hard, he's learning every day too. Yep. You know, I wish I could tell you that there was a philosophical awakening. Like I, but over the years, you know what is what has worked, what has felt right?

SPEAKER_01 50:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:36

You know, the evolution of the culture is I I know what doesn't work. I could run out there and yell and kick and scream and and point fingers and blame and and there are places that do that. That's certainly never paid one ounce of dividends. But over the years, uh collaboratively working together and respecting one another and giving them room to breathe and kind of chart their own destiny to a degree. Like you, you have a you have a stake in what your destiny is. But I could say that they have to feel it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:13

And this goes to money too. Let's talk money real quick. Because yeah, because you came to me early at the trade collection, you're like, tell people my 401k program. Tell people how we pay people, right? You're not a you're a non-union shop. You're and you just bought a house and you're 28 years old. You're buying a house, excuse me, you haven't gotten over there yet, but um everyone seems pretty happy.

SPEAKER_04 51:38

It closes on the 15th, so it's it's happening. It's happening.

SPEAKER_05 51:42

But talk to me about money because I just I like talking about it. It's not something everyone really likes to talk about, apparently, but let's talk about it. What are you making good money? Yeah, tell me. And you went to him like a couple years ago and kind of gave the business like, hey, I'm optimizing your company and I want to be right.

SPEAKER_04 52:02

I mean, I I yeah, I think that's a good story to tell. Yeah, can I tell that story? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 52:07

Okay, go right ahead.

SPEAKER_04 52:08

Um, so we we at the twice a year we we we give out bonuses, and um forever, my dad. You had to just rely on my father's generosity. And if he was having a bad day, I didn't care how what did made no difference if the company was making a ton of money or not. Is he gonna watch this podcast? He won't deny it.

SPEAKER_03 52:33

You're not invited to Christmas.

SPEAKER_04 52:36

Looks like holidays are gonna be rough, but that was the way it was done. Yeah, I'm gonna give another $50 every year to whoever, and then you know, he would bitch about it, you know. Um, and uh and so it was just and it was rough. Yeah, that was rough. Like, and if he was in a bad way or something, if you did something wrong, or you know, if there was a big reject or something like that, it happened to come around bonus time. Oh, you were like, oh god, that was that was the the mate, the metrics that he was gonna use to dole out the extra pay. And so David and and Brian came got together and came to me one year and said, uh, listen, I can quantify the money that we have saved your business in the tool room. We can we've been measuring it right from overtime to this uh material purchases, etc. etc. Can you tie my bonus to a percentage of that? And I was like, that's never that's never been presented to me before, but hell yes, of course. That's genius. And uh and again, that's that's the I'm gonna give you control to a degree of your of your destiny. And he I'm happy that they felt safe enough. I would have never gone to my dad and and asked that. Not ever. It just that was not something uh that was open for discussion, yeah, you know. Um but I was thrilled. I'm like, yeah, oh my god, I do it every year. And they and they saved the company a lot of money and they got a percentage of it. And it was uh, you know, and it was I let's keep doing it, you know. And so again, but it's more of the spirit of if you have an idea and it pencils out and it makes sense, there is no yes to every one of them. Yeah, yes to every single one of them. If it's a dumb idea, I'm gonna tell you it's a dumb idea. But and there's been plenty of those, but there have to be a lot of dumb ideas to get to the good ideas. But even the dumb ideas, we can laugh about the dumb ideas, but if they feel free to come with a good idea, right? That's that's the magic.

SPEAKER_05 54:53

Isn't that the fun in an 83-year-old business? Yeah, right, to be able to keep innovating and keep trying new ideas.

SPEAKER_04 55:01

Um we don't have to do that, but we get to do that. Isn't that the way that it should be? We get to do that. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_05 55:08

We're gonna we gotta wrap up here in a minute, but but I want to just, if there's anything that you wanted to come to the fire to talk about today that we didn't talk about, or um, you know, I'm proud of you two. I'm really proud of how your company has evolved. I think it's I love going, I loved having lunch over there the other day. And you know, it's just a beautiful place. It's really nice. I think the your customers should be really proud of the people who are making their products for them. That's a it's a good thing. What you're doing with um, you know, the Evanston Grows program. And how tell just tell real quick about that, real quick, if you don't mind.

SPEAKER_04 55:42

Uh the back lot behind our facility, we had we had built a garden during COVID when we we thought there's gonna be no food and everybody's gonna die. Let's start growing vegetables. We had some gardeners. I mean, that's how chaotic it got. Times where we better start growing our own food, guys, because this metal stamping thing is gonna die. Um, so we'd started growing food, and then everybody would from the shop would go out. Then we in in in the nine planner boxes that we built, you could there was enough produce grown where everyone could go out there during the season and pick tons of tomatoes and peppers and jalapenos and onions, and and uh and you could do that every day. That's how much it it grew. And then Patrick introduced us to Evanston Groves, which grows and gives uh produce away for free to those in need. And we created an ally uh an alliance with them where they now we donated our back lot to them. And last year they grew 11,000 pounds of vegetables and gave every single bit of it away to people that you know don't have access to that stuff. And uh it's been great, it's been absolutely the most wonderful thing in the world. And and I go out there in the morning, like today, there was a bunch of volunteers out there, and um, and these are happy people, these are people that are like getting their hands dirty and but doing it for a purpose that is great.

SPEAKER_05 57:07

So, you know, it was an abandoned lot, basically, it was an empty lot for the most part, and you've turned it into a compute commute complete community benefit.

SPEAKER_01 57:15

And I'm sure that that makes a difference when people, potential, you know, clients come and tour your facility and then they see that.

SPEAKER_04 57:22

You would be shocked at how how self-serving that actually is. And I I don't say that in a in a meeting, but no, no, no, but people must love it that way.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

I've never thought of it that way. People must love it though when they see that.

SPEAKER_04 57:34

Customers come in and audit our business and they meet our people and they meet the kids and they see what they're doing, and they're like overly impressed with the with the work that we're doing. We pass our audits with flying colors, and they're like, okay, we want to do business with you. Yeah, but then we take them outside and we show them the garden, and and something shifts. It's a really interesting thing. It's like oh, and you're you're human beings too. Like, how is that? You know, I don't see that a lot. I see industrial buildings and I see, you know, uptight, you know, organizations. And um, so it's and it uh it speaks to our people that we care too. You know, it's like another example of we're trying to do something right. And we weren't doing anything with a lot anyway. Yeah, so why not? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:16

Well, that's been my interaction with you has been that caring human being that took a risk, reached into the high school, connected kids, opened the doors for for you know, manufacturing day, all those things. And then and then to hire our alumni in the way you have, and it was a risk, I'm sure, but to have the success you've had and then the track work. Look at Davis track work. Yeah, it was yeah, bigger, bigger risk out of them. Roll red guys, baby. Yes, but I just it just it's just a great um a great partnership, and and we're really fortunate to have you in the community. And um thank you. Yeah, that human part is huge.

SPEAKER_04 58:53

It's big, it's big. And again, we get to do we get to do this. We don't have to do this, right? And I have to do this, right? And a lot of people, I caught some flack for it. Well, why aren't you you could you could park 20 trucks back there and make X amount of money, and you know, okay that but this sounds better. This sounds like something. And every Thursday they bring in boxes of of produce and we give it away to all the people that work at our place too. And it's I love it, you know, it's absolutely great.

SPEAKER_05 59:23

Yo, and what do you want to close us out with? What are you thinking about?

SPEAKER_00 59:26

Uh I don't have much to say, quite honestly.

SPEAKER_05 59:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:29

Well, I'm proud of you. I want to tell you, as a neighbor, as somebody I watched grow up, I think you're awesome.

SPEAKER_00 59:35

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 59:35

Really proud of you. And just all that you had to go through to think, you know, for the for the pressure that our community puts on on us as kids. I I don't think we mean to do that, but it's just what we do. And I think um your story and your story is more people just need to hear that it's okay to have permission to be happy and to follow something that you love doing and um to be in a trusted place to be able to do that. David, you you you have uh, you know, any closing thoughts that you have of I want to know what's up with you, man. What's up with me?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:11

What's going on in the trade collective?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:13

In the last week, thanks for asking. I know that wasn't set up that way, but it's on a cue card. We've kind of pivoted, we kind of have a goal that we know we think we've got. You know, what what they're doing up in Lake County right now, what they've been doing for 49 years, they've 2,700 kids every day get to go and in high school get to go and do this thing. We need to build a training center in our community. So there's a manufacturing training center, plumbing, welding, you know, child care. Whatever we need, whatever our community needs, we need to go build a training center.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:49

They have nursing.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:50

We need to get and quit yelling at the high school for not doing something. Quit yelling at Oakton, and I'm saying this to myself, you know, and quit putting pressure on people that probably aren't really good at that. And let's go do what they're doing up in in in, you know, in other communities, they're doing it really well. Let's create a shared thing between, in this case, 11 high schools in the Oakton School District. Let's go, let's go build something. And so what's what's triggered that is a conversation with what do we do with 2100 Ridge? What do we do with the the old city hall that's sitting empty right now? Whether that's the right building for that or not, it's certainly driving a whole thought process for us to let we need to change the finish line. The finish line needs to be let's go create a training center in our community that is a publicly funded training center. End of story. That's what I'm driving on right now. And I've got it's so much more invigorating for me to kind of like it's easy to beat up the high school. It's just easy. It's kind of easy. Or to be frustrated with the more. No, but he's been calling this the apology tourism.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

Fairness, I said it maybe three times out of six podcasts.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:14

But but that change that we did to you, or the embarrassment or whatever that is, that's us. That's all of us. How do we change that?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:22

How do we change that? How do we change that? How do we change the data?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:24

I think we do it by bringing industry to the table.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:27

I think so too.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:28

By by hearing this conversation.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:29

Yeah, them telling their story, I think, has merit and weight. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:34

So your story is worth more than than than me getting up and telling folks or or anybody at the high school telling folks. So yeah, your story is is a huge leap forward for this community for our high school. And Pat, what you're talking about in terms of building that center, I love that. I think that's and to share that among 11 high schools in the Oakden district would be incredible.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:56

Yeah. We're calling it the relevant training center, like something that's actually relevant. And I'm not saying other things aren't. It's just it whatever goes into this building, it gotta be relevant to what the industry actually needs. Okay. So um that that's what we're thanks for asking. I mean, that's that's you know, I've always got something we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:16

Where society is headed, where society is headed. The the jobs that we provide are are have some some strength. AI is gonna change a lot of other things, right? And I don't, I'm I'm not trying to hope. But it's um I'm but making things, yeah, building things, flushing toilets will always be necessary, yep. Forever and ever and ever and ever. And so, you know, I think people will understand that that there's some security in the things in which we do. Um, and there aren't in many things that we thought marketing. I mean, you think that there's gonna be a 200-person marketing department anywhere in the world in the next 10 years? I doubt it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:00

I doubt it. A lot of a lot of the, you know, when you you look at the outcomes for for college majors, you know, even five, six years ago, it was like computer science is the thing. They're they're making like you know, 200 stacks coming out. Not anymore. Not even close. It's changed quickly, it's changed overnight. Yeah, overnight. Um, so yeah, and it's coming for finance, it's coming for all those, all those all those majors, attorneys.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:26

Well, guys, thanks, thanks for coming in. Look at these two.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:29

He's like, all right, we're we gotta get it.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:30

It is time's up.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:33

Time's a part right now.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:34

I'm just saying, you know, we could depress ourselves into something, but I think the choices these guys made are clear and amazing. It's so fun to hear people happy and loving going into work and being with each other. That's just if we could build a lot more of that, that'd be great. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:52

So and you didn't have to wait four years to do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

That's the point. Start making money right away, start saving for retirement right away. No debt. It's a good head start. Yeah, no debt.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:03

We have a compounded interest conversation if we want, you know. Do it real quick.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:09

No, Brian would like to hear that.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:11

No, shout out to Brian and compounded interest. He invented it as for one.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:19

Start saving when you're 18 as opposed to 35. It's a big difference.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:23

What does it mean? It's everything. Tell me. That's how you get to the finish line, man. Tell me. It's the only way people retire.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:30

What is compounded interest?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:31

Tell tell a kid right now. Compounded interest is you make money on the money that you made the year before and the year before, and the year before, and the year before. And it's not, it's not a linear thing, it's an exponential thing. So it just takes off, man. And that's how you really accumulate wealth. And I'm so glad I had a mentor like Brian to catch me early on because he's a very financially savvy guy and he's all about investing. And this is one of your co workers. Oh, he's my boss for the last 10 years, and he He was relentless about it. Get in the 401k. The day you're eligible to get in the 401k. Because the difference between doing it now or when you're 25 or when you're 30, you're talking hundreds of thousands, if not millions. So at age what you started at probably 19. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:18

That's pretty great. Are you women?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:20

Yeah. I started pretty Brian bullied me daily. I mean, thank God. Five years. Five years could be the millions of dollars.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:29

It's the best financial literacy you'll ever get. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:32

Seriously.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:33

You don't even have to understand it, just do it. Yeah. Right? It's the best. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:37

Here's some Heckies barbecue sauce, guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:41

That's amazing. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:43

Thanks for joining us on the Fired Up Podcast. You guys are amazing. Yeah. Thanks for all of your data. Thank you for having me. For Warren Manufacturing. Thanks for what you do for our community. Thank you. You guys are awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:54

Fantastic. All right.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:57

How'd we do? All right. That was good.