Manufacturing Masters Podcast

Hosted by Manufacturing Masters Podcast with Allison DeFord

BusinessInterviews guests

Website RSS feed

Episodes

Latest episode

Dec 2024

Language

About the show

Tune in to the Manufacturing Masters Podcast for courageous conversations with manufacturing leaders and experts that will help you transform at the speed of culture and grow your business. Hosted by our resident marketing expert, Allison DeFord, and here for you weekly to share relatable stories, insights, and best practices in manufacturing to keep you inspired, motivated, and empowered. New episodes drop every Wednesday. THIS ISN'T JUST A LISTENING PODCAST, IT'S A DOING PODCAST. Here we grow!

Listen to episodes

59 recent

December 19, 202446 min

Episode #58: Playing the Holiday Blues with Lalith Gunaratne

COCKTAIL FOR STRESS -Putting a business bow on 2024 -Family gatherings and politics -Gifts -Weather/Shorter Days -Over eating/drinking -Preparing for a new year You feeling it too? 🥹 In this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast, Alison DeFord is joined by our resident expert, Lalith Gunaratne. He’s an engineer, serial entrepreneur, educator, parent, and mindfulness expert and one of our most popular guests. You’ll gain a better understanding of WHY you’re feeling anxiety or stress right now and how to overcome it (no therapy or special shoes required). Topics include some basic science behind your Circadian Rhythm, why Season Affective Disorder is real, and the things you can do to weather the stress and really tune in to yourself, your team, and even your customers.

November 14, 202446 min

Episode #57: Mindful Leadership and High Performance Culture with Lalith Gunaratne

Vision, mission, and values…how do they become more than just words on a poster hanging in the lunch room? Mindful leadership…that’s how! Living those values daily. And not just the leadership team, but everyone in the company. A high performance company requires a high performance culture. This starts at the top and it begins with awareness. In this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast, Allison DeFord has brought back (by popular demand) our resident mindfulness expert and former engineer and manufacturing owner, Lalith Gunaratne. What’s in it for you? 1. Understanding the value in becoming more aware and in taking a breath before you react 2. How to create an appreciative culture and what that actually means 3. How to create psychological safety for your team 4. How to turn your mission and values into a living thing Before you sit down with your team to plan for next year, give this a listen. But only if you want to improve, create a healthier culture and customer experience. Not to mention profoundly affecting your bottomline.

October 17, 202439 min

Epísode #56: Keeping it Legal with Gayle Wadden

The absolute sexiest and most interesting topic to dip into is HR and compliance…no? But wait, it can be, especially when it’s laid out in a compelling way and it helps you steer clear of litigation and a bad rep! In this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast, Allison DeFord dives in headfirst with our resident expert, Gayle Wadden, co-founder at Compliance Works. In a brisk 30 minutes, you’ll have a clearer understanding of WHY this is such an important topic to understand and HOW to tackle it in a proactive way. Takeaways: 1. Why you should care 2. How to be proactive and avoid costly litigation or a class action lawsuit 3. How compliance is a lot like insurance 4. Protect your reputation and make recruiting easier by creating a culture of compliance POWERFUL. TRANSFORMATIVE.

October 9, 20241 hr 1 min

Episode #55: Lead By Letting Go: "Antarctic' Mike Pierce

Would it surprise you to know that the #1 constant in manufacturing is CHALLENGES? With every sale, employee, season, and SKU. You can’t stop them from coming. But you can lead differently to transform those challenges into changes that move your team and your business forward. In this EXTENDED CUT episode, Allison DeFord goes 90° below zero with prolific storyteller, speaker, and leadership expert, ‘Antarctic’ Mike Pierce. He shares a real-life story that happened in 1914 that altered his trajectory and took him on an adventure that involves: 🥶 a 59’ freezer in San Diego 🏃🏻‍♂️running not one but two ultra marathons on an ice shelf in Antarctica 💔 heartbreak and healing Takeaways: 1. How to see difficulty differently 2. How to lead by letting go 3. How to get your people from good to great POWERFUL. TRANSFORMATIVE. MIC DROP MOMENTS. You’ll be mesmerized and better equipped to practice harder so the race feels easy and those around you will be enabled to rise to the occasion.

October 2, 202435 min

Episode #54 - Make The Most Of Manufacturing Day with Bill Padnos

According to Deloitte, manufacturing is looking at 1.9 million jobs that will go unfilled by 2033. Unless we do something about it now! Manufacturing Day is October 4th…a day when manufacturers open their doors to share with local communities and students the crucial role manufacturing serves in the economy, as well as the important and rewarding jobs it provide. In this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast, Allison DeFord pulls back the curtain on your window of opportunity with expert Bill Padnos, founder of CTSG Strategies. Find out WHY you need to participate. Tap into a list of ideas on WHAT to do and WHO to invite. Working together, we’ll close the skills gap for good!

September 25, 202439 min

Episode #53: Using Automation to Get More Done with Less Effort with Wilton Rogers III

Isn’t automation all about the robots? NO. It’s so much more. And, it’s the way to get more done with less effort. The average company can improve efficiency by more than 30%. Without adding people. So, why aren’t we taking advantage of this? Tune in to this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast with Allison DeFord and “The Automation Guy”, Wilton Rogers III, founder of Simply Automate and host of Automation Nation podcast. Get the skinny on minimizing the manual tasks that are a time suck on your business and how to automate with software to improve efficiency and reduce your labor costs.

September 11, 202458 min

Episode #52: Getting Lean and Mean with Chad Metcalf

So many of you are interested in learning how to build a culture of problem solvers! (Head scratch here…2 questions come to mind) 1) Where do you start? 2) Can you buy a course or a GUIDE and do it on your own or do you need to hire someone to help? In this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast, Allison DeFord gets LEAN and mean with our resident expert, Chad Metcalf, Founder and President of Value Stream Solutions. Tune in and get your questions answered so you can get your business flowing more smoothly (and profitably)! Get clear on the 4 LEAN FUNDAMENTALS and 3 Primary Tools to get started. And, don’t miss Chad’s expert advice in the close.

September 4, 202444 min

Episode #51: Driving Explosive Growth with Mark Roberts

Would it surprise you to know that the majority of manufacturing sales people haven’t been formally trained in sales? Or that many sales people avoid the close because they don’t know how. And, that your C and D customers are actually happier with you than your A customers. 🤯 These are common sales problems and the good news is that they’re all fixable. No SMOKE AND MIRRORS required! On this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast Allison DeFord gets into the sales weeds with THE sales problem fixer. Mark Roberts is the CEO and Founder of OTB Solutions and the author of “Driving Explosive Growth” and “Voice of Customer." His no smoke and mirrors framework leverages three data sets to ensure your sales team is structured, trained, and coached to deliver value to your customers and shareholders. And, don’t miss the last 3 minutes for Mark’s 🎤 drop moment of advice for which manufacturer you can be during uncertain times. 🔥

August 28, 202440 min

Episode #50 - Simple techniques to mitigate daily stress with Lalith Gunaratne

Do you ever feel like you’re the leader or manager who regularly shows up with their hair on fire? 🔥 Or unable to focus because that monkey brain of yours is bouncing all over the place? Daily stress gets the best of all of us and how we deal with can be the difference between soaring success or dismal failure. Stress and emotional drain affects our bodies too. And, it seeps into relationships both at work and at home. Fortunately, there is a solution that’s both portable and free! And, it starts working immediately! In this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast, Allison DeFord gets into the simple science and profound results you can get from mindfulness and meditation with our resident expert, Lalith Gunaratne. Lalith is a former engineer, manufacturing business owner and entrepreneur and he’s also a Director and coach at LGSE Partners. He’s going to teach you simple techniques to mitigate daily stress to improve your brain, gut, relationships and your business! You’ll learn what the 3 Arrows are and the one word and practice he uses every single day that will transform your life. 💯 www.manufacturing-masters.com/podcast

August 7, 202435 min

Episode #49: How Manufacturing Leaders Master Execution with Monte Pedersen

As Good to Great author Jim Collins suggests, “𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚋𝚞𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝟷% 𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝟿𝟿% 𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝.” And, alignment requires a good strategy. (Followed by buy-in and execution.) This can feel like a tall order! 💯 Good news for you, Manufacturing Masters expert Monte Pedersen, Principal of the CDA Group LLC, joins Allison DeFord in this episode of the Manufacturing Masters Podcast to show you: 1 - What makes a good strategy. 2 - What happens when it breaks down. 3 - What “well-executed” looks like. 4 - How to get your people focused on better execution. Plus, how often to analyze your results!