On today’s show I’m bringing back one of my favorite past guests on the podcast—Damon Pistulka. The first time Damon was on the show he talked about his company Exit Your Way, which helps businesses level up for successful acquisitions. Today he is going to talk about his other venture, B2BTail, which advises small manufacturing companies to improve their online visibility to potential buyers. Damon says that a significant portion of today’s manufacturing buyers belong to Gen Z. And the most effective way to connect with them is through YouTube and social media videos that showcase your company’s work and…
Author: Noah Graff
As a kid, one of my first memories flying Southwest Airlines was the flight attendant telling jokes throughout the flight over the PA and then serenading the plane when we landed. That kind of thing was phased out in the early 2000s as the airline became focused on business travel. But because the company hired people for positive personality traits and treated the employees well, the high standard for warmth and customer service still survived. I really don’t care for Southwest’s open seating policy and the planes have hardly any legroom. But I’ve always considered them the good guys airline…
My guest on today’s show, Thadd Mellott, called us at Graff-Pinkert because he needed a Star SB20 CNC Swiss machine. His company, Circle M Spring, in Warsaw, Indiana, produces medical parts, including implantable orthopedic components. Circle M Spring is currently merging with a medical component design company that specializes in sports medicine. Thadd is incredibly excited about the merger because he now will have the rare ability to supply medical components directly to hospitals—a privilege that most machining companies can only dream about. Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link. . View the podcast on our YouTube…
On today’s podcast episode, you’re going to hear the story of a thriving fifth-generation family manufacturing business that is constantly reinventing itself. I interviewed Adria and Aaron Bagshaw, owners of W.H. Bagshaw, a machining company in Nashua, New Hampshire, that started over 150 years ago! For 135 years, W.H. Bagshaw produced the same type of metal needles and pins on ancient equipment until the company purchased its first CNC Swiss machine in 2005. Since then, the company has modernized and acquired three other manufacturing companies, including its newest addition, a wooden baseball bat company, Walter Bats. Those topics make this…
Today we’re running a podcast that I guested on in September of 2024 called “Networking and Marketing Made Simple.” The show focuses on how LinkedIn can be used to grow your business. It’s hosted by Scott Aaron, who for the last seven months was my LinkedIn coach, an experience that is already paying dividends in our businesses. On his show I focused on one of my favorite topics, harnessing the power of serendipity to be successful in business and life. It often takes a bit of luck to accomplish extraordinary things, and that luck almost never happens on its own.…
“This is your last chance, Superman. Why don’t you do yourself a favor, and take a chill pill.” –Lex Luthor in Superman. “I would hope you would support who we are. Not, who we are not.”–Hoosiers Can you think of a bad Gene Hackman movie? I don’t think I can. To be honest I haven’t seen many of the old ones that he is famous for like The French Connection or Mississippi Burning–my father in-law keeps telling me to see that one. I love his flicks like Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, The Firm, Hoosiers, and even The Bird…
Have you ever dreamed about combining your expertise and passions to become an entrepreneur? My guess on today’s podcast did just that. Erez Speiser is the creator of machiningdoctor.com, a site for professionals in the machining industry to get technical information to simplify their work. The site offers resources such as a sophisticated feeds and speeds calculator for six types of machining processes. It even contains a machining encyclopedia. Before creating Machining Doctor, Erez worked for cutting tools giant ISCAR for over 20 years and managed a Swiss machine shop. But serendipitous elements, namely a love of hiking in his…
When Trump was elected President for a second term, I expected there would be a lot of talk about tariffs, but I didn’t anticipate all the attention on the Panama Canal and Greenland. So, it seemed like the perfect time for Lloyd and I to talk to one of our favorite geopolitics experts, Dr. Andrew R. Thomas, best selling author and Professor of Business at the University of Akron. It also just so happens that Thomas is a part-time resident of Panama and he recently wrote a book about the Panama Canal. It was a fun interview. We explored how…
Dave Polito is my Star CNC guru. He’s always been there when I’ve had questions, whether I was asking about a 1999 Star SA12, or a sweet SV38R located in Asia, or the ever flummoxing Siemens control on an ECAS-20. Dave is the owner of Quality Machine Tool Services, the Star distributor for Illinois and southern Wisconsin. He has been servicing and selling Star Swiss screw machines for over 35 years. For much of his career he did technical service and applications. Quality Machine Tool Services started as strictly a service center and then in 2009 began selling Star machines. *************…
My guest on today’s podcast, Anthony Davis, told me that since age 10 he and his brother knew they wanted to join their family business, Global CNC, a tooling manufacturer for CNC lathes and mills. Today at age 23, Anthony runs the company alongside his 25-year-old brother, Alexander, and their 84-year-old grandfather who founded the company 40 years ago. What I love about Anthony is how ALL-IN he is in his work. He values carrying on his grandfather’s legacy, but he is also driven to innovate into new products and marketing techniques. He glows as he talks about how he…