Weekly Impact by Lay of The Land

Alright. Welcome to lay of the land week in review. This is the week of, what's today, Kris?

I don't even know, Jim. That's it's Monday. How about that? No. It's not it's not fair. It's 10th. I should know that Okay. At the top of my head. Alright. Well, sorry.

Alright, everybody. Welcome to the land, weekend review. Today is June 10, 2024. I'm Jim Haviland.

I'm Kris Snyder.

And we are here to review the last week, including the last podcast coming off of lay of the land. And, Kris, I was super excited about this. It was number 169 [https://www.layoftheland.fm/169-aaron-slodov-atomic-industries-techno-industrial-optimism-and-exascaling-american-manufact/], Aaron Slodov of Atomic Industries, and here's a man with a lot of vision including a manifesto. You don't get that every day.

Yeah. I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to reading it.

Oh, no. It's good, man. He covers a lot of it in the pod too. I mean, the the general notion here is that, as a country, we've really come away from being able to build things and, being able to build the things that we need, and, you know, in in favor of, you know, cynically looking at at at, you know, at profits. I mean, you and I talked about this.

We had a, you know, a big business that was heavily based in in labor, and we hated it because it was hard and we didn't do it very well in the end, like, the the bottom part of our tier of our business, because it is really hard. But it was a services business all the same. We weren't building anything.

Yeah. No. And it was it was assembly too. I mean, it still had had some assembly to it. Right? I think

Fair enough.

I think that that one's hard because we had probably 3 things. We had software going on. We had service. We had a bit of assembly pulling and trying to be great at all 3 things. I think that was part of the learning curve.

It is hard, and I think that's like, Aaron, in the pod really talks about how that is really the the holy grail of what we need to get to. And it dropped on the 80th anniversary of D Day, and I think that's important, because it he actually goes into that with the, manifesto is that, you know, what we did to win D Day. I mean, if we if we hadn't won d Day, you know, the whole world's a different place. Right.

Right?

So but what we had to do is is we had to have an incredible war machine building machinery, the the planes that we built, all those b 24 bombers that that, folks like, you know, the the heroes of the day were were drilling, all those those landing craft. That was a lot of work. We couldn't do it now, Kris.

Yeah. He had me as soon as he said exascale American manufacturing.

Yeah.

Yeah. I was in. Right? I was like, I need to know more. There's there's more here in this moment.

And, there's so much we could be doing. And, so it's really amazing. I mean, the the Silicon Valley approach to manufacturing, and he lays out the the the gap between what happens in, you know, when we talk about our man attritional manufacturing business, which became very, you know, embedded in the culture of, unions and in the weekend, which is great, you know, with those important developments. But the but the reality is, hey. What have we what we need to go to get done right now to make this thing a great business? And I think those you know, bring those things together is really a powerful concept.

Yeah. I've had I've coached 2 companies, that were in that stamping dye manufacturing. 1 was, G and S Metals, Chris Schwartz. Shout out to those folks. And then they're literally bringing in steel. And then what G and S Metals does, they they think, like, muffin pans, but they coat it the steel. Right? And then they ship it out in, like, Dollar General, Walmart, or big distribution points for them. But when you walk into that facility and you see and you hear about the lines and even the automation they're trying to do, and it's hot and it's loud and all that stuff. I mean, that's that's the epitome of what he was talking about. Like, how do we do that better? And there's so many interesting problems to be solved. And I think, you know, even my own interpretation, walking in those places is not is not something that I would aspire for my kids to do. I know it sounds hard to say that. Right? But but I think that's the mind shift. If we're really gonna be great at it, we have to take up that mind shift of, I would encourage my kids to go to to do software right now. Right? But it's like, how do we get them to really think about the trades and mastery in the manufacturing environment, to do that exascale of American manufacturing.

Yeah. And my my son, of course, is a is a shining example of that. He didn't care about anything until he figured out that metals were cool. Right. Now he said And you could

build something with it.

And now I got a grinder in my garage. So, alright. So that's good. So, Aaron, don't miss that 1 my my friends. That that is and it's important for Cleveland as well because we do have the so many opportunities here in Cleveland to bring back stuff. Just, in fact, let's move into the next conversation I had. Jeremiah Landy last week in Copley, Ohio, you know, which there's a lovely, winery out there. But his his business really brings together hardware and software to help people build that first product. So really his his, his approach is to help start ups, hey, we know we have this thing, this thing we wanna create, how do we turn into a product? And it usually involves some hardware and software.

Jeremiah is a great great character. I love him dearly now because he, and he's done all these weird things. He's an electrician, but he's also a coder. And, you know, he, started his career at Hyland. He he was 1 of the the, early, developers of the start of the Starbucks app.

Right? How many days do a week do you use that? And it's really, you know, bringing those things together and having he has a very, Silicon Valley approach to doing that kind of work because what he what he does is, you know, you gotta pay this stuff, but, you know, knowing that a lot of them are gonna run out of money, if you stop paying me, then I take I can have non exclusive rights to all the IP. Yeah. It's very very, you know, like, VC approach to how you would do that work.

Well and then you can see, I mean, just the commonality of your guys' background, your engineering kind of pedigree coming into that type of stuff. Right? The the artist, the tinkerer of things, and, I'm still working on I have not finished, Rick Rubin's book, The Creative Act, but it just inspires me as you were sharing that story of your interaction with him, like, all that. Because it it the creative act is entrepreneurial in its nature. Right?

It's it's still as we don't wanna think about it being a process. There's so much process that Rick's pointing out that that goes into being creative and how do you produce the thing. So anyways, I think that it sounds awesome.

Which is really the source of the magic when we do land events. Like, everybody in there is, like, right there. They're like, like Yeah. Hey. What are you working on?

They get a big answer, right, which is great. And, third thing, that that I encountered last week, I did a lot of introducing people to to other people, and I this will cover all the meetings I have, but but, I really enjoyed, a lunch I had on Friday with Tracy Miller from Color 3, 1 of my clients, and Riley Burke, who is the CEO of Burke Industries at a at a very young age because she took over from her father. And she was on pod 157 [https://www.layoftheland.fm/157-reilly-berk-berk-enterprises/]. And, she they're both in Warren, Ohio. They've been, you know, circling around Warren, Ohio being amazing entrepreneurs that are hedged down getting their work done.

They've they've, like, looked at the same buildings when they're looking to expand. I mean, it was, like, interesting him him talk about the I mean, this is Warren's not big

The last time I checked.

They must have bumped each other into grocery store at some point.

Yeah. Well, I think that's part of the entrepreneurial life as we got our heads down so often in building mode, right, that we don't you know, they you need a reason, the introduction of value to pick your head up and and look around because, you know, we're we're kinda sometimes single focused, right, in what we're trying

to build. Focus, you know, we we teach it all day long. Right? I mean, you you gotta, you know, focus on what's urgent and important. And, the, the reality is we also believe that everyone needs a peer group.

And Yeah.

They're talking about developing a peer group down there. I mean, I think, you know, Tracy realized she needed a peer group, and she came up and she joined EO Cleveland, which is a great, great organization. We support EO Cleveland. We think it's a great great place to get a peer group. But they also wanted you know, I I taught them, you know, what you taught me about what what Nadi's been saying about the, ambitious leaders, and they need to find more ambitious leaders and they were like, if a light bulb went off, yes. Yes. Because because what they have down there are things like BNI, which is not a bad which is a great thing, you know, for for lead sharing or whatever, but just finding other people that really wanna get somewhere and build something and do something great.

Well and, unfortunately, geography matters. Right? So part of having been in EO Cleveland for 13 plus years, it was hard for us to get folks from Akron, Canton, and even just across the east side, west side. Like, most of the forums got built on 1 side or the other. It sounds ridiculous because that's, like, less than 30 minutes away.

Having lived in Chicago. Right? He's like, he can't go anywhere in less than an hour

Like, oh, no. That that's Lakewood. I I can't get there from here.

That's gotta be, what, 25 minutes from there.

So, unfortunately, geography matters, and I think some of that goes back to your peer groups. And while it you know, it's not that far removed from downtown Cleveland, it's far enough. And I think being able to look around your backyard, your local community

Yeah.

And there's still ambitious founders around there. We just gotta find them.

Well, I'm I'm most excited about that with those 2 getting together because they really hit it off, which is great. But Riley has been moving toward and doing stuff more with Pittsburgh and because they're, you know, somewhat equidistant. And, and Tracy's been doing more stuff with with Cleveland. So, like, what if they get their stuff together? So, you know, because it's really not that far.

I mean, it's, you know, the same neighborhood. Right? So, which is great. Oh, wait. I meant forgot to mention.

Jeremiah, he's partnered with Manoj who was on episode number 119 [https://www.layoftheland.fm/19-manoj-jhaveri-hyr-medical/], and that's Hyr Medical. So, you know, all the same tiny world. Right? So let's talk a little bit about what's, you know, other events coming up. I I we missed the, the fundraiser at, Bounce, which is too which is too bad because they did they did a great fundraiser.

There was tequila involved, so I was I'm sorry I missed it.

But but but really fun organization.

I mean Great organization. Lots, you know, lots of lots of great stuff going on there. But we have E and Y Awards coming up, Chris. I know this one's the 1 near and dear to your heart.

Yep. This Thursday, 6 PM at the Marriott. You know, it's for a whole region, so it's not just Cleveland. It used to just be kind of more city based, but, yeah, we're gonna pick up we pick up Pittsburgh. I mean, we pick up Kentucky. Mhmm. So it's a very big region, and they moved this event. But for those that aren't aware, runs this entrepreneur of the year program. You submit an application. You can be at different stages. You're gonna see some of these folks that are gonna win that are truly an entrepreneur but in a larger company and some that are more close to the start. We've had folks that have won on there like, Aaron Grossman, which is what was Aaron's 41. 41. Yep. And Jim Poshock more recent on, episode 152.

Yeah. You know, I won gosh, Jim. I forget what year it was. 2015, maybe. So it's been a bit for me.

And and and the thing is, like, people apply and then you keep going back. I mean, to try because there is a progression that goes on there. They do develop during that time, and that's and that's a fun thing to watch.

Yeah. No. I think I applied for a couple years before I You learn a little bit. I think it's kinda like the Heisman Trophy to some degree. You you gotta get awareness of what what it takes, right, to really understand, and not on a political situation, but understand the application and when's the right time to do. But it's a it culminates in an, in a national, those that do win get to go to the national side of things and compete there as well. And that event is in Palm Springs in the fall, typically November, and it's an amazing event of entrepreneurs getting together and hearing and learning about stories.

And as your job of being a being a leader, ambitious leaders wanna you're always hiring. You're always recruiting. You're always raising money. You guide you things like this, and people notice you, and and you've got access to, the capital and the people, and, you know, it's a it's a great the reason to do it isn't for your yourself. It's for the organization. The organization needs that out of you

They need and and your learning comes from often being around those other folks that have been there before you. Right? And I think just those that amount of engagement just makes you stronger.

There you go. Alright, folks. That's that's what we got for this week. Hope you enjoy the week. Can't wait to hear what what pod drops next Thursday, Kris.

I'm looking forward to it, Jim.

Alright. Thanks, man. Bye. Alright. Bye.