Analog Leader
Helping Supervisors and Managers become true People Leaders through human-centered, Analog skills.
Analog Leader
Mike Petersen
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In this episode of Analog Leader, Mike Peterson, owner of Spire Ranges and Critical Laser, shares lessons on leadership, company culture, emotional intelligence, work-life balance, and building teams that actually want to work together. From managing hourly workers to engineers and sales teams, Mike explains why structure, presence, and treating people like people matters more than ever.
In entrepreneurship is something's always on fire. And really, you're running around with you know your fire extinguisher just trying to put out the biggest fire and then work your way down to the smallest fires.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to Analog Leader. Our guest today is Mike Peterson. Mike, welcome. Hey, happy to be here. Good to have you. I was excited when I when I uh sent you a text message and asked if there was a chance that we could get you on. Uh I was I was reaching out there hoping to pull in an old favor, and man, you answered it right away. So I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00No, happy to do it.
SPEAKER_02Love it. So, what we're going to talk about today is your relationships with people from hourly workforce all the way up to the customers that you see on a regular basis. And you kind of as an owner of two different companies have a wide range of people that you influence on a daily basis. And I'd like to learn how what are the what are your secrets to making those relationships good and to the skills, we we call them analog skills that require your presence, your your genuine uh authenticity, and the things that require you to be personal with people. What are the skills that you use on a regular basis that way? So I'm gonna ask you a series of questions and whatnot, but but I really just want to have an open conversation with you about that. Shoot, open book.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so tell us about your businesses. So Critical Laser is um how we're 34, turning 35 this year, started in 1992. Uh I was 12, 11 or 12 at the time when it started, uh, and worked there with my dad. So um he was an employee and then ended up buying it with a couple partners. Then after I graduated college, I bought one partner in 06, I bought another partner in 2011. And dad and I were partners until the end of 24, and uh he retired. And so I bought him out of that company. And Critical is a CNC laser cutting metal fabrication shop. So we service uh all sorts of clients uh across different industries, construction, signage, off-road um manufacturers, uh mostly steel, stainless steel, aluminum. Um we do laser cutting and forming. Um and then spy ranges is my other business, and we do uh shooting range equipment and installation and construction. So um military, law enforcement, private sector, residential homes. Uh typically we won't build the building, but we'll put the uh any the all the range equipment, bullet traps, target systems, software, acoustics, all that. We can stick that inside the box. So uh that one's uh 10 years old. So started in 2025, 2020, or 2015, 2016. Uh and I I got actually brought in by a capital company there in 2020. So I've been there since 2020.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So your clients uh really for both of these organizations are spread across the globe, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So uh Critical Laser's got work all over the place. Um you know, sometimes we don't know where it goes. Um Spire Ranges is is definitely global. We've got work in Nigeria, Bahrain, Denmark, Poland, Mexico, Brazil, um most the bulk of our work here is here in the United States. Um but yeah, we're we're all over.
SPEAKER_02So I've been in your shop at Critical Laser and uh and it's a it's an amazing shop. The CNC machines in there and the laser cutting machines are just they're fascinating to see all of that technology that goes into it. But aside from that technology, you have a pretty good hourly workforce, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yep, for sure. The bulk of our workforce is is on an hourly setup. We only have a few salary staff at at critical. So um, but but all the way from you know, from our our you know, typically call labor guys that are you know just picking up parts off the ground and counting them, stacking them, um, getting them ready to go to our quality control team, to our laser operators, you know, our CNC operating team. Um we have some professionals up front that do our drafting and CAD using SOLIDWORKS and draft site. Um and so yeah, we're kind of across the board.
SPEAKER_02And I'm guessing it's the same kind of a thing in the in the Spire range shop, that there's a lot of hourly folks there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, uh you know, we actually have less hourly folks um at Spire. So um more professionals there, which is uh definitely a different paradigm for the way we manage those teams. Um so at Spire, um we have we obviously have management staff, our ops are ops guys, and then um we have a drafting engineer, a mechanical engineer, a mechatronics engineer. Um, so yeah, those guys are more, and then our sales team. So um, yeah, more professional on that side than than hourly labor, like at Critical Laser.
SPEAKER_02So as an owner in both of these organizations, you're dealing with people who are like, as you said, picking stuff off the floor and stacking it up and getting ready for a shipment, yeah, for sure. All the way up to people who are highly educated engineers, sales professionals, and and kind of everything in the in the realm of experience from that hourly worker to an engineer or a or a sales team. Uh how do you manage the different range of relationships from that group of people?
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's it's complicated. It's complicated. Yeah, they um they respond significantly different to different interactions. Um the my my daily guys at Critical Laser, they're they're pretty happy, go lucky, you know, um coming to work and doing their thing. You can bring in a box of donuts and they're like, donuts, right? They're really excited. Um if you bring donuts to you know the engineering staff at Spire, they're like, cool, donuts. Yeah, right. Like they it they just um the way and and the way they interact as teams is really different. Yeah, really different. Um, and I don't know if I would say that's a uh an education level thing. I would say it's a uh personality type deal. You know, engineers, accountants, attorneys, right, doctors, you say, you know, that you always hear the cliche, that they've got different personalities and and they do. Um, you know, the engineering team is very detailed, they're very specific. Uh they they enjoy bantering back and forth on you know tolerances of equipment and how to build something, and um and and and the the labor team is significantly different. They just they really like specific direction. So they want to know, okay, what do you need me to do today? They pick up those parts, count them, stick them in a box. Cool. Um, where the and those are different than the sales staff who doesn't like don't tell them what to do at all. Like they they have a goal and don't tell them how to get there. Yeah. So yeah, really different.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. You know, I think that it's one of those things where when I was an hourly worker, I never I never saw myself moving into leadership and certainly not management or the CEO of a company as I am now. I really saw myself as a worker be and somebody who really enjoyed knowing what the end of the task looked like and being able to get to that point. You know, seeing seeing the physical work get done and then be able to say, all done.
SPEAKER_00There it is. Yeah. Yeah. There's parts of my day where um I really miss working out in the laser shop where I could get to the end of the day and be like, hey, there's my palette of parts, right? Like I, this this is what I created during the day, um, versus sometimes sitting at my desk where I I'm not exactly sure what I got all the way accomplished by the end of the day.
SPEAKER_02For sure. I think it's I think it's more intense on your end, but you I think about an engineer sitting down at a computer and designing a a target range that has motion and everything else in it, and all the different moving parts that he has to take from his brain and put into a program that then goes to a drawing that goes to a workforce that's going to build it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, totally. Yeah, it goes out to different vendors where they're making different components. We're ordering um, you know, motors and control systems and PLCs and all that has to come back and get put back together, and then we ship it out to a range. So it's a yeah, there's there's a long process before the engineer sees what his idea was come to life for sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's a long, it's a long waiting process from he knows exactly what he wants to build, but to actually seeing it to a place where people are using it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It can be a year or longer, could it can be, yeah, yeah, it can be a long time. Yeah. So we spent a lot of 2025. Um, our team spent a lot of time uh building a new a new system. So they revamped a handful of the parts that we're using, and and um those new ranges are just coming online and they're pretty excited to see them go. That's awesome. They spent a whole year designing them. Wow.
SPEAKER_02I there's a lot that goes into those kind of things. You know, I as I if I go to a range, I don't even think about everything that goes into it. I just I just know what's there and that it works.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, literally moving parts. There's a lot of moving parts. So give me an average day for Mike Peterson. Um yeah, so uh sprinting. I'm sprinting from thing to thing almost all the time. So uh I live in Pleasant Grove. Uh the closest office to me is Critical Laser in Linden, and so that's where I start my day. Um, usually between 6:30-ish, 6 30 and 7, I get to the office and start immediately um dumping through the email box and just kind of clearing out what I can um before our first meeting starts. First meeting starts at 8 a.m. That's our production meeting. Um, and that's all the production staff, leadership staff are critical. Um I've got various meetings in the morning, um, people shadowing outside the door until around lunchtime. And then the lunchtime is when I swap and I head to our office for Spire's here in Springville. Uh, and then I sort of repeat that process. I've got a sales meeting on Wednesdays, production meetings on Tuesdays, a new project meeting is on Thursday. Um I've found that the organization is the key to being productive for me, um, managing both places and both teams. And it's it's really important to have good management leadership at both of those places. So because you're um like you mentioned in the beginning, you know, your physical presence is important. Um they each place only gets about half my physical presence. Um and and it it definitely changed the dynamic. I was at critical long before I was at Spire, and my lack of physical presence at critical, yeah, it's definitely felt it's it's a big deal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So you you brought something up that I think is critically important for our listeners to understand. If you don't schedule your day and if you don't try and stick to that schedule and you just let priorities push you around, how would that affect your businesses?
SPEAKER_00You know, the joke we always make in in entrepreneurship is something's always on fire. And really, you're running around with you know, your fire extinguisher just trying to put out the biggest fire and then work your way down to the smallest fires. Um, yeah, if you don't have a schedule, someone will stand outside your door and just wait to bring you the next problem constantly. Um and then even if you're walking around the shop or the office, when you pop by, I think the staff sees you as, you know, they don't get a lot of your time. And so they want to spring that problem on you while you're right there. Um, and so you kind of have to, you got to schedule your your time. You need you need formal structured meetings for production, for sales, um, new projects, cash flow, you know, all that has to be in a structured meeting. And then in those other meetings, those things will pop up and they'll be like, hey, can we talk about this and we can talk about that? And you have to draw a line and say that's that is not this meeting, that's the next meeting. Um and we're utilizing some technology, you know, we're using AI to record our meetings and it's you know, it's it's bringing out action items and and things, but um, yeah, you you you gotta have structure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, structure is important.
SPEAKER_02I agree, and I think technology is one of those things that if we use it to serve us, it does a great job of serving us. But if we use it to schedule us and to set our priorities for us, it it's not as great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's not as great. It's not as intuitive as, you know, you when you're in a when you're in an actual person-to-person meeting with your team, you can you can glean, you know, some of my team members, I have one team member specifically that has uh in poker, you'd call him a tell. You can tell when he's stressed out, he breathes really deep, or he rubs the back of his head, and you you're kind of picking up on these physical cues of like, I he's he needs some extra. You know, we gotta we gotta talk to him after this meeting, figure out exactly what's going on. Um, and you don't you I feel like we actually don't get that in a Zoom meeting or a remote conference call. Um, and also AI won't pick up on those, you know, those those personal ticks, if you will, or nuances that that you as a leader have to identify and circle back with that individual person later. Yeah, you won't get that. AI won't pick that out of your meeting and and make you an action item for that.
SPEAKER_02So, really, really critical uh key point there that you brought up. That emotional intelligence that it takes to be able to recognize when someone's showing frustration and to actually feel their frustration is pretty important, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I think we lose that. I'm I'm lucky enough to not have uh a big remote workforce. You know, my staff is is in both offices most of the time, and um I prefer that. I I like the the team atmosphere, um, I like the emotional intelligence that's happening from person to person, that personal interaction is important um for our companies. I know different companies are you know have different deals, but for us that's that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_02You know, when I was young, there was a there was a show on television called Dragnet. I don't know if you're old enough to remember Dragnet, but the reruns. Okay. Well, so there was a there was a detective on there, and when he was interviewing people, he'd say, Just the facts, Jim. Just give me the facts. And I think that we focus on what are the facts and we try to get to the point quickly, but sometimes when you're when you're getting facts, you can gather every bit of the facts, but you really don't know what the frustration is. When we can get the facts and the feelings, get the emotional side of things, and know how that frustrates them, why it frustrates them, and how they feel about it, the sense of urgency is better conveyed. Yeah, yeah, I would agree. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're there's there's an nuances to communicating with each member of your team. Um and I I think it's important as a leader to view your people as part of your team. Um, I I try really, and I think vocabulary is really important. So you'll you'll rarely ever hear me use the word employee or employer. Um, I think those are really objectifying words. So I think employees get fired and you know they work for you. Um, and employers do the firing and are like, you know, this this piece of the top of your org chart, you know, the boss, the employer. Um, and I and I think really it's detrimental as a leader to start viewing your people as objects that way. Yeah. Um when you objectify them as somebody who you could just get a new one all the time, like I'll just get another one. Like, you can quit, I'll get a new you. Um, that I think your staff feels that. Your team is aware of that emotional intelligence of feeling that they're expendable.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And if they feel like they're expendable, they're gonna act like they're expendable.
SPEAKER_02I agree. I totally agree. So one of the things that as we're talking that strikes me is that you've got so many priorities going on and so many things to do. I think that a lot of times, especially frontline hourly workers, they don't they don't see everything behind the scenes and they don't realize the stress and everything that you go through on a daily basis. And then on top of all of that, Mike, you have a family.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, wife and five kids.
SPEAKER_02So a wife and five kids, and that if you don't spend time on that, what happens?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's that's a that's that's tricky. Um balancing, balancing all those things can be hard. I I was having a conversation actually the other day with with uh my father-in-law, who's recently retired, and uh we were talking about work-life balance and and is balance really a thing, and you know, is it more cycle? You know, when you have cycles of when your business is really crazy and it gets a lot of your focus and your family gets less focus, and then when maybe your business is going well, your family could get more focus. Is that a cyclical deal and not nearly a balanced thing? Um, I've been lucky enough to work close to home. Um, I you know, I worked with my dad for for 25 years before he retired. Um, and I think from him I learned real quick that uh, man, you gotta go to the baseball game. Yeah, I mean, I can't tell you a time where my dad missed one of my baseball games or a basketball game or a jiu-jitsu tournament or whatever it is I was up to. You know, and sometimes that meant he went back to work that night, you know. But um I yeah, be being present at your business is as equally important as being present at home. Yeah, you gotta be home.
SPEAKER_02I think there's a lot of owners uh and CEOs and high-level people who lose that part of their life and it doesn't make their life better. It doesn't make their business better. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, I yeah, I don't think so. Yeah, I I think um you know the last couple of years, uh I've um unfortunately lost a f a few friends um that have been pretty young and and and some friends have had challenges with with kids who've had cancer and and other accidents and things going on. And um, you know, my my kids and family hear me say it all the time. But like as long as my kids are healthy and my wife kisses me goodnight, everything else is extra. Like that's like I live in that bubble of because you know you can be you can be filthy rich, you can be, you know, you can be Jeff Bezos, you can be whoever you want to be, but man, you got a you got a sick kid, right? You got you got a kid with cancer that that you can't fix, that you can't throw money at that problem. Um, you know, your wife didn't like you because you're a jerk. You can't throw, you know, she doesn't want a new car. You know, you could ask Ashley, you know, I'm like, yeah, buy you a new car. She's like, I'd rather you come home. Like, oh, okay. Yeah, that's that's not what they want. They really want your time. So, um, yeah, healthy kids, wife who kisses me, that's everything else is extra after that. That's excellent perspective.
SPEAKER_02Excellent perspective. So let's take that down to the to the shop floor. Uh I know that you have some people who have been working for you for a lot of years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, a long time. So why do they stay? Wow, that's that's a that's a good question. I I think sometimes that's okay. Uh I think sometimes I would say atmosphere, culture, you know, all the buzzwords you want to throw around. Um but candidly, it's hard to find a new job. I think sometimes they I think sometimes you end up with people on your team that should not be on your team anymore, but they're not out looking for a job because it's hard to find another job. Or um, you know, it's uh what's that old saying, like you don't you you'll make a change when it hurts enough. You know, when when it gets painful enough is when you'll when you'll try to do something different. Um and sometimes that gets really painful for the company um where the person's willing to write it out. And and you gotta step in and say, hey, you know, either you change or we change, but you know, it's not working. Um but I think for us at Critical Laser Inspire, um, I know I've got a handful of guys off today because their boys literally have baseball games. They're playing in a tournament in Oram and uh a couple of them FaceTimed me yesterday because they were uh their boys were playing each other and they were like, hey, we're not at work because we're we're watching baseball. And uh I I we try to support that. Um if your kid has a uh a play at school or the Halloween parade or a baseball game, whatever's going on, um, we try to make sure you you know that's a priority. That's that's where you should be. And and I think that's a big part of we're really family-oriented. It is not odd to see any of our team, you know, spouse bounce in for lunch or kids, my own kids are around the office. Um we we try to make a a family atmosphere at work. And and it works for us. We have small teams, right? I've got 10 or 11 at one place and 10 or 11 at the other. And so I can name everybody's spouse, I can name everybody's kids. Um, those are the size of teams that I am comfortable and would I would say prefer to manage.
SPEAKER_02I think that's really important too. I I love that you said you know their, you know who they are, you know their spouse, you know their kids. Tell me how you learn that. What do you do? What what motivates you to go out there and learn about these people?
SPEAKER_00I think viewing them as people and not just, you know, cogs in our you know, machine wheel. You know, they're not just another motor in in what we're doing, but that they are people, right? We spend a lot of time together at work. Uh, you know, most people spend more time at work than they spend at home. Um, that's that's definitely true for you know anybody who's working eight to ten hours.
SPEAKER_01Day.
SPEAKER_00Um so you know, they're people and they've got wives and kids and husbands and you know grandkids and and things going on. And I think uh a responsible business owner or leader understands that work shouldn't be life. You know, it just it just can't be. So you have to look at them as people who have other priorities. And you can see sometimes that people are agitated or stressed out at work, and it's not always a work thing, right? They've got something at home. Um, you know, they might have a sick kid or a schedule or you know, a budget issue or whatever is going on. Like work isn't always why they're um unhappy at work. Sometimes things at home are stressors that that bleed into their work attitude. For sure.
SPEAKER_02Every one of us has a life, and that life can sometimes get messy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I think that's important to understand that that balance, and and I commend you for recognizing that people are people. One of the things we work with a lot of large companies, and I tell all of the leaders who will give me the time to listen, that every key performance indicator that they measure is delivered by an hourly worker.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is that true in your business that every everything that goes to a customer somehow touches the hands of an hourly worker?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, at Critical, the customer will place an order by talking to either Curtis or Cole and uh or even Julie, uh, who's our front office lead. Um, she will either take that repeat order um and you know, call up the work that we've had before, and then she sends it to Danny, who's the production lead, and he's gonna schedule it out to Jet or Hinckley, who is running lasers or press breaks. Um Jack or Felipe or Chase are gonna pull those parts off the laser, they're gonna clean them, count them, stack them, check them for quality, mark the boxes, put them on a palette, wrap that palette up. Um, all that happens without me touching it. Right? I mean, those hourly team members, they touch everything. And then, and then when I get to my desk and I'm looking at the the PL for the the month, and I'm like, well, how many parts did we make? And how much money did we make on those parts? And did we hit our hourly rates? Well, it it all depends on on how they did their job when they touched each part.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. The businesses of the world are built on the backs of frontline workers. For sure. Everything that is delivered to a customer eventually somehow touches the hands of a frontline worker. And supervising those frontline workers is one of the areas that we've seen as kind of a gap in training. People get promoted, and I'm sure it's the same in your place. Somebody will work for you for a while and they do a great job, and you'll say, Okay, I want you to lead this team. People get promoted to those positions, and on that day, you you lose your best worker and you gain a supervisor who doesn't know anything about leading people. And that gap of what do we do to give those people the skills that they need in order to lead people is really what we want to focus on with analog leaders. So let's shift gears a little bit and talk about what are the skills that the people who report to you but lead your teams, what what are the skills that you look for in those people?
SPEAKER_00Um we're we're hoping that they that they also look at that team member as a person. Um it is easy to get focused on your performance indicators and looking at those numbers, and then those numbers turn people into numbers. Um so so we want them to understand also that that's how we view our team as members of our team or are members of our staff. Um we're looking for somebody who wants to show the line guys how to do it the right way. Um, you know, you can take, you know, I can take my best laser operator and he's really good. Um, but sometimes they'll have a mentality of it's quicker if I do it. And so they won't show the younger guys or the younger members of the team how to do something because like, ah, it's just quicker if I do it. Then they get in there and they do it. Um, but the problem is obviously is okay, but that means you got to keep doing it. And we have to teach this guy how to do it the way you do it, or you're always gonna keep doing it. And now I've given you all these leadership responsibilities, and you're in charge of the schedule, and you're in charge of quality control, and you're in charge of all the stuff, but you're also doing your old job because you didn't show anybody else how to do it. Um, so that's a that's a key, that's a key thing. We've got they've got to learn to pass off those responsibilities and teach that same level of qual of quality to the younger generation coming up of what we expect and and how we do that. Um yeah, we're looking for someone who wants to teach.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's perfect insight that way. Uh, you know, I was in a a place in Kansas here just a few weeks ago, and a maintenance manager who had started off as a forklift operator in their warehouse and moved up through different jobs and moved into maintenance, went to night school while he was while he could and learned how to do some electrical maintenance, then became an electrical, an electrician in the company, moved to a lead person supervisor, and now is the department manager. And I was asking him what his biggest frustrations were, and he says, I've got a whole bunch of 50-year-olds out there that know how to do the job, and they won't teach any of the young kids how to do it. 100%. 100% that's true. Yeah. I and I think it's that mentality that you're talking about. It's like, yeah, so just it's quicker if I do it. It's just quicker if I do it.
SPEAKER_00It is this one time. It is right now, it is quicker if you do it right now, but it is not quicker the 50 other times that job has to be done again. Yep. So, you know, and we have to tell our guys that, yeah, it it right now, you're right, that it's faster. But it it won't be faster the next time it happens. And we have the same procedures all the time. So, you know, everything that comes off the laser specifically has to be cleaned. We run it either through a time saver machine or a grinder, and we have quality control specs. Well, if you don't teach the guys who are supposed to be doing that how to meet those quality control specs, then you know, every time something comes off the laser, that spec has to be met. So, you know, we're gonna produce you know tens of thousands of parts every month, and you can't look at all of them. You have to show those team members how to do that. Yeah. Tribal knowledge, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure, tribal knowledge. Um, and and for a small company, processes and procedures are hard. Um and specifically for critical, we as a job shop, we have certain customers that um they're very detailed, and and the tolerances on you know, laser are five thousandths of an inch, and they want them really dialed in. And sometimes we're cutting a sign for a ranch, and it's like, no man, just cut it out, give it to me. Um, so getting consistency amongst the team members for hey, this these parts for this customer have to look like this, and these parts for this customer have to look like that. Um, it's really difficult to write a manual to show these guys pictures of what everything's supposed to look like when your customer base is that broad.
SPEAKER_02So I've had the pleasure of seeing your work firsthand. Uh if someone, if if one of our listeners wants to see what does critical do, what is what is Spire all about, how would they find you and what what what do they do to see your your work?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we've you know, both both both websites have really great pictures on them. So you can you can cruise to our critical laser.com website or our spire ranges.com website um and see all the different things that that we're into. Critical, um, you know, we can end up with, you know, we have like a hundred dollar minimum. If you'll spend a hundred bucks on something, we'll we'll make it. Um and that can be, like I said, it could be a sign, it could be um last week. I think we made a uh top to a wedding cake. They wanted a very specific picture that we laser cut out and it's going on somebody's wedding cake, um, all the way to parts for um our shooting ranges at Spire, um, which are you know half inch thick armor plate. Um, so vast difference of things there. Um, but Spire is a little different, right? Um those are those are bigger ticket items. We don't do anything for a hundred bucks at Spire. Um, you know, we we do some residential shooting ranges. Um, that's probably the the lowest cost. Well, actually, that's not true. Spire does have a consumer line of steel targets. So you could go to Spire and find some some portable steel targets that you can take out to the ranch or or the mountains and shoot shoot steel on. Um so we do we do have some lower things that you can get. So again, that's spire ranges with an S. Spire Ranges.com and critical laser. Label laser.com.com.
SPEAKER_02Yep. I'm thinking that an analog leader sign right there, cut out. We could handle that. I think that would look very good. We can handle that. Yeah. Send us a file. We will cut it out. So uh a few things before we before we wrap this up. I've always been impressed by your work ethic, by uh all that you've accomplished in your career and in your life and your family life and your work life. I've always been inspired by you. And and really, I mean, I I've just I've saw you from a distance and thought there's a guy who has it all together who really understands what life's all about. So I've always looked at you as someone that I see as somewhat of a mentor to me, even though you're significantly younger than me. I've always I've always looked at you as an example. So how did you get where you are and who are the people who have inspired you along your career and taught you some of these analog skills that you have and the way that you interact with people? Where did you learn all this?
SPEAKER_00Um you know, I I think uh a lot like you, I got a lot of time with my dad. Um, you know, I you know you grew up ranching and farming um and and working with your dad, and I grew up in the laser shop working with my dad. Um so I learned a lot of my people skills from him. I learned a lot of my work ethic from him. I think uh small business owners and ranchers are pretty similar. Uh you know, five o'clock doesn't mean work's over. Um, and it certainly doesn't start at 9 a.m. So uh, you know, there there were days where we we got up early and got to the shop because we had a deadline, and days we stayed through the night because we had a deadline. Um and I and I think uh a lot of there's kind of that saying I joke with some friends all the time that you know they're like, oh, it must be nice to be a business owner, you know, you set your own schedule. Um and and I remind them it, you know, it wasn't uh a year or two ago that I was working a graveyard shift. You know, just someone had to do it, and it was me. Um and and and I, you know, I got to work, I did my regular critical shift, and then I got to Spire and I got that thing done. I went home and um watched Nash play baseball and got some dinner, and then I went back to the to the shop and ran lasers till 2:30 or 3 in the morning. Um and I learned that from my dad. Um I've had uh a unique opportunity to be a part of a a business owner's group called Entrepreneurs Organization, and inside there I've met a handful of really close friends um in different industries that have that have have showed me and and shared insight of how their industry does things, which is different than the way you know my industry standards have been. Um and and sharing those have been really, really important to the way I've tried to um develop my business structure. Um and in all honesty, like I'm not an innovator, I'm a copycat. So I just look at what other people have been doing and I'm like, that seems to be working really well. Uh and I I try to copy that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02There's nothing wrong with that. I think we all have a certain propensity to see what other people succeed with and and model that. So you talked about your father and the influence that he had. Uh uh Nash, your your son is here on a job shadow day. And uh tell me what are the lessons that you want to pass off and that you do pass off to your children?
SPEAKER_00I I I think I try the thing I learned from my dad was um, you know, all the way until he retired, uh he was the guy that cleaned the bathroom at the shop. Um it wasn't odd to see him with a broom or, you know, it it just it and I think what's important I learned from him was uh no matter what my title was, right? We talked about titles before we got started. Um I'm not above cleaning the bathroom. I enjoy pushing a broom around the shop. I like making the piles and I like sweeping them up. Um I I hope that my kids feel uh or see that example that I learned from my dad that where I'm not above any work. And just because my title says owner or CEO or president of something, um it doesn't mean that I don't get out there and and and get the job done. You know, we have commitments as a company to make, and it doesn't matter, you know, whose title it is to get that job done, but it just the work has to be completed.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's an excellent lesson for people to learn. I think that the best business owners, the best CEOs, the best entrepreneurs are people who have done the work and aren't afraid of the work and know the importance of the work. Because as I said earlier, everything that uh that is critical laser is Spire is delivered by an hourly associate somewhere along the way. So uh I think that not not only not being afraid of that work, but honoring that work is important.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I uh joke sometimes that my hands are softer than they used to be. Um, but uh I got I got scars to prove where they've been. And so uh yeah, I don't get out of the shop as often as I like to, but but uh well we did it. Yeah, a lot of long hours.
SPEAKER_02Well, Mike, I appreciate everything that we've been able to talk about here today. I would like to ask one one last uh ask of you. If you could give advice to someone who was just promoted to a supervisor position, they're gonna run a team of 12 people, and it's their first time ever being a supervisor, a leader in the work setting, what advice would you give to that individual?
SPEAKER_00Um set clear boundaries, be clear with your processes and procedures where you can, and recognize those those are people. Those are people that that that that work with you, not for you.
SPEAKER_02Excellent. You know what that I love I love the way you said that. They work with you, not for you. I think that people get caught up on titles. We were talking about titles, as you said. People get caught up. I'm the boss now, I'm the supervisor. And the title isn't what gives you the authority to lead people, it's their acceptance of you as a leader and whether or not they believe in you and are willing to follow you and work with you. That's where the authority truly comes from, don't you think?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would agree. Yeah, I mean, um, there's all sorts of examples throughout history, and um one of them that's a that's a I I think a fictional, um, but there's a great uh HBO special years ago called Banda Brothers, and there's uh a leader early in in that show in the first few episodes, Captain Sobel was his name, and uh horrible leader. And the the whole you could tell the the storyline was setting up that um he wasn't willing to do the work. Um needed really a lot of the the glory and and attention and accolades needed to be his. And sometimes he was just grinding on the guys to grind on him. Um and uh you gotta recognize that you know I don't have anybody who works for me at either place, right? Those are those are members, and I don't and I don't let I don't let them have the same thought process. Nobody works for um anybody else. We we work together as a team. Anything I do um has direct correlation to my general operations manager or to our office staff or to our engineers. I can't, I don't make decisions until I I call them, talk to them, get their insight on how whatever decision I'm gonna make impacts their daily work, workload, responsibilities. Um yeah, you just you just you you work with people, nobody works for somebody else.
SPEAKER_02I think that that's uh that's what sets up your success. Mike, I appreciate the time you spent with us. Is there anything that you'd like our audience to hear before we end this episode?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, I I get asked a question pretty frequently that I think is is a pretty good question, is like, hey, if you were to go back to you know 22 or 23-year-old you and give yourself some advice, knowing now um, you know, that's always a good question. You know, what would you go back and and fix? Um I I'm a huge fan of vulnerability. And so I like, you know, I'm not offended by a question of like, hey, tell me when you messed it up. Yeah, give me an example of a mistake you made or when you mishandled something, or it didn't go, you know, the way you wanted it to. Um I I think that's a powerful question, right? Because I think learning from your mistakes is huge.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So, you know, I can identify, uh, I think I've become more passionate about my stance of people working with me, not for me, because in my younger years, I don't think I did that very well.
SPEAKER_02Is there anything that you'd like our audience to hear before we end this episode? No, I I think we covered it. I think we covered it. It was good to see you. Okay, it's good to see you. Thank you. Yeah, happy to do it. Thanks for tuning in to Analog Leader.