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14: Conversations with Manufacturers - with Darrin Mitchell
Manage episode 341111835 series 3345299
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Meet Darrin:
Over the last 20 years, Darren grew a very successful manufacturing business. He developed a worldwide marketing system with partners on six continents. Patented intellectual property, a global supply chain, and had profits 10 times the industry average. That's pretty, pretty impressive. Most impressive. He did it from a small remote island in Canada, not adjacent to the customers or supply chain. He used social media innovation and resourcefulness to create a new model for business. Awesome. Today, Darren's team at Mitchell Industries has developed several digital learning platforms or organizations looking for industry best practices. Their first platform manufacturing masters has over 2500 global users and they just kicked it off this year.
Kris: What why the love of manufacturing? What brings you into this space?
Darrin: So we started the process to patent our products. And only after I stumbled through it and hundreds of 1000s of dollars later, the government came to me and said, Could you teach us how to do this? To run a business and do you know how many mistakes I made along the way? So I'm very passionate about small to medium-sized manufacturers. So anywhere under the 200 million mark, usually the owners still have some sort of relationship with the company that hasn't become a corporate entity yet. And looking to find ways to give them access to the world's best information in bite-size form, so they can access it, where, when, and how they need it, meeting them where they're at. And I'm very, very passionate about that. And one thing I also realized when we started this process, is there are lots of people out there who have those answers, I shouldn't be one of them. So what we did is, much like yourself, Kris, who we've recruited to talk about aftermarket parts sales, we've also recruited so far 106 other manufacturing experts in everything from women in manufacturing, to employee engagement, to operations, how to get the best out of your engineering team, you know, 20, some years, somebody, you know, the guy we have who does this, who used to work for Boeing, who lives in Seattle, you know, he talks about how to get the last 10% out of your engineering team, and I was watching the videos going, never knew how to get the first 90% We want to make sure that, you know, right now we're over 500 videos, we want to make sure that we have a tool that is available to the leadership team of those small to medium businesses, that again, they have the right information, like we're usually talking five to 10-minute videos. And whenever they have that particular thing come up or they're about to experience something, maybe you're planning on implementing an ERP or maybe you haven't done that yet. Or maybe you're you have to fire your CFO, you know, there's a great video on that we have about what to look for in a CFO. So again, right now we have over 500, video libraries and growing, and the other one that we've added. So just pick your categories, all the way from sales and marketing to how to do trade shows to technical things, we don't get into things like programming, how to program a PLC, because there are other assets out there that do that. I'm obsessed with what manufacturing businesses today spend 85% of their time doing, and that's leading the business, not the technical person. And it's the thing that most of us who came up, I'm showing my hands right now because they're beaten up. Most of us who came through the ranks ended up in leadership positions. We did it because we had technical skills. Unfortunately, or fortunately, you foot now find yourself in a leadership position and you're going, we should go back and bend more steel. Now there's someone in your office crying, but I know how to.
Lori: Is there anything Darren that you can think of right now and in all your conversations with manufacturers that manufacturers are worried about right now?
Darrin: I have two things that I would want your listeners to listen to carefully today. One you need to begin an employee health program, looking out for the health and wellness of your employees. So The reason that I say this is manyfold is you've been busy, you've been extremely stressed for the last three, or four years, maybe some of you have been stressed for 30 years, you've been extremely stressed, which you've got through it. Congratulations, if you miss something, you have a team of people who haven't recovered yet. And they're still under stress, they do not have hope, and they do not feel appreciated. And it's there's a flip side to this. So this is why you need to do this, you just have to do it. If you care about your people just start doing it, you don't if I have to explain why I'm just never gonna get the point across. I just want manufacturers to recognize that there are a ton of resources that are out there, you just have to recognize that just being busy and getting through things has taken a human toll. Now, here's the flip side, you have never had a greater gift in the current state of the economy, to poach the leaders, you need to grow your business. Because the same people you need those people who are loyal and committed and have great insights and who are part of those other teams are also feeling beaten up and unappreciated. So there were times in my career when I was, honestly, actively headhunting. Certain people and other companies realize that I want this person and will never get them. Just they're you know, they that you would, if you were to cut them, they would believe their company colors. And now is the time to go after those people. Because those people are very much feeling unappreciated, and distressed.
And so much more…
Connect with Darrin
Connect with the broads!
Connect with Erin on LinkedIn and visit http://www.earthlinginteractive.com for web-based solutions to your complex business problems!
Connect with Lori on LinkedIn and visit www.keystoneclick.com for your strategic digital marketing needs!
Connect with Kris on LinkedIn and visit www.genalpha.com for OEM and aftermarket digital solutions!
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