Build Strong Connections First with Emily Wilkins
Live with Alaska MEP
Join us for an insightful live interview with Emily Wilkins, Founder and President of Marketing Metal.
Live Summary
Join Sami Jo Lewis from the Alaska MEP and eCommerce Evangelist for Manufacturers Curt Anderson - Founder of B2Btail with Emily Wilkins, Founder and President of Marketing Metal.
Entrepreneur, Writer, and Brand Strategist, Emily Wilkins brings her offbeat perspective on growing a profitable, impactful job shop with a killer brand and laser-focused plan.
Key Highlights
• Marketing strategies for a manufacturing business. 8:59
• Branding and sales for a manufacturing business. 12:41
• Narrowing focus and building expertise in manufacturing. 18:10
• Marketing strategies for job shops. 22:39
• Marketing strategies and networking in the manufacturing industry. 28:22
Transcription
Sami Jo Lewis 00:08
Hi, everybody, thank you so much for joining us. Happy Thursday. I hope you guys are having a wonderful day. We have a great interviewee today we're super excited to get it kicked off and of course, the lovely Curt, how are you doing today, Curt?
Curt Anderson 00:23
Oh, my goodness, Sami Jo if I was any better. I'd have a twin. I heard that line the other day. So I thought I'd share that with our wonderful guests. So let's give a big warm round of applause for our guest today. How about Emily Wilkins? Emily Happy Thursday. How are you?
Emily Wilkins 00:42
I'm doing great. How are you Curt?
Curt Anderson 00:46
Just too good. It's when I'm on stage with you my friend. It's just what I know life is just way too good. So Emily house from the great state of Michigan and she is a marketing diva, a marketing guru. She's the founder The brainchild, the CEO behind Marketing Metal, and she exclusively works with manufacturers on how to stop being boring. We're going to talk about radical we getting radical and all sorts of fun things. Sami Jo, we've got a ton to cover when we dig into our first question for today.
Sami Jo Lewis 01:18
All right, so the first question want to start off with was, what does it mean to be a radical Job Shop?
Emily Wilkins 01:25
So, radical job shots are the shots that they know who they are and they're not afraid to show it. They're very specific about who they will work with and what type of team members they welcome their profitable and impactful on their community well let's you know, let's take that a little further now and we you know, you and I go back a little ways not too
Curt Anderson 01:55
far back but you've been you've we've done a couple of live fun jam sessions together and as I said, like you chose to go the route of manufacturing. And you know, guys, you know, stop by manufacturing metal.com tons of great information that you provide. Why why manufacturing what took your heart what let your superpowers your talents or skills, what brought you into the world of manufacturing? Yeah, it's marketing metal but
Emily Wilkins 02:24
manufacturing metal. Yeah, it's fine. This marketing word. You know what,
Curt Anderson 02:28
I'm not a young guy anymore. Are you? What's
Emily Wilkins 02:30
up with me Sami Joe. So
Curt Anderson 02:33
marketing metal. Yeah, um, I've I've always been around manufacturing. My you know, I
Emily Wilkins 02:39
grew up in the Detroit area and my whole family's in the automotive world. You know, grew up spending a lot of time with my dad in his garage and my, my grandpa was the VP of a machine shop in in the Detroit area and my husband's grandpa was owned a shop like a competing shop. How far down the road Yeah, it's in my blood. I spent most of my career as the you know, the internal marketing person. The one and only a number of small job shops. My most recent position before I started marketing metal I was the marketing director and customer service. Queen at a small prototype shop we had a CNC machine shop and we did a lot of urethane castings and different random things. Perfect okay. And then I want to tie in one more thing with so that
Curt Anderson 03:45
was in your blood in your DNA, you love dealing with manufacturing? Why? Now you get to work with OEMs you really love singing to like you talk a lot about those job shots. Why? Why in particular, the those job shots really resonate with you. Yeah, I just really recognized a need
Emily Wilkins 04:05
in that space is what I knew to I mean, those are the types of companies I worked at. I did do a stint at GV at GE Aviation. And, you know, I worked in the toy industry for a little while for some bigger OEMs but, but most of my career has been with these small shops. And I've just seen a huge disconnect there with marketing and, and, you know, agencies were really struggling to serve them and they just didn't really know what they needed or you know, and they would end up spending money on stuff that they don't need or you know, or just not spending money at all because they're afraid. It's afraid to waste money and so, so I just really saw an opportunity for, you know, for someone to come in and really speak their language and have a clear process that they could relate to and understand and something that would empower them to really take what we build and run with it. Absolutely love it. Sammy Jo let's let's dive into next question to you have teed up for him
Curt Anderson 05:14
all right, so I'm not radical job shop. Let's go into
Sami Jo Lewis 05:17
how can a radical brand and marketing fan attract and retain better customers and yeah, I think job shops get
Emily Wilkins 05:31
they they become commoditize you know, they can be seen as a commodity and they end up getting in this just race to the bottom there, you know, in bidding wars with other shots and they just they don't distinguish themselves from each other when really that they do have unique qualities and capabilities and you know, when you really get down into it they're just really bad at communicating that so. So I help them do that. Well, let's take it another step further. So let's think about like, you know, when you think about the non
Curt Anderson 06:07
radical, maybe they're radical, but they just don't even realize it, namely the case your superpower is coming in and pulling that
Emily Wilkins 06:15
out. Right. So I have a couple of questions that I'm going to hit you with, but let's
Curt Anderson 06:19
How do you walk us through that process? If you could, because like, that really is your magic is digging into that job shop and not even realizing they're like, Oh, I love what you just I don't love what you said but you are so true. A race to the bottom. They think they're a commodity. We're just a bender. We're just a chop chop, talk about how you transform them really mentally first, and then how you bring that brand to the website. Yeah, I start with a thing called the setup.
Emily Wilkins 06:49
Every good project starts with a good setup. So we have an hour and a half to two hour call just virtual like this. I have customers all over the country. And we just start with a virtual chat like this. I really get to know get to know them who they are, where they came from, why they're, you know why they started this job shop or acquired it or, you know, however that happens with the history is there and what they're really passionate about. really breaking down their personality and trying to trying to pull that out because you know, you can you can go to any shop for for the same things, but what's really going to stand out you know, I'll ask any job shop where their customers came from and they will tell you a relationship you know, the majority of their work comes from relationships. So, what I do is help them bring that personality out in a digital format so that when a new customer or a new partner or a job candidate comes across their their website or their brand however, they actually get more of a feel for that from the beginning and they get a better understanding of you know who their shop really is and what makes them special and different. And I love that you brought up the mindset piece, because that's, that's so important. I think a lot of these owners are, they're just very humble and which, which makes them great. You know, great, great leaders. They're great entrepreneurs are really good at what they do. A lot of them are very involved in their communities. And but you don't you don't get that you don't get that impression from the beginning. Right. So, and they just felt like, they don't like to talk about themselves. They don't like to, you know, talk themselves up. So, you know, kind of just bring them along and you have to do that these days. Right. Well, I think that's a great point. And that's where, you know, so for manufacturers maybe they've
Curt Anderson 08:59
started to use the word like burnt or maybe they haven't had a great relationship with marketers in the past, because you know, that marketer might be working with retail and service sector where they need to be more of you know, like have the megaphone and you know, shining bright light on them because you know, in retail it you have to be that guerrilla marketer. Yeah, that the manufacturer, you know, like you said, they're quiet or introverted. They've been like, just nose to the grindstone for, you know, years, maybe even decades. Maybe this is a third generation business, and they've gotten decades you know, with, you know, their whole legacy is like no marketing whatsoever. This is new into like when you come into the picture what's nice is I you specifically you speak manufacturing, you know, as marketing metal like you speak their language you pull that information out. Let's go here for a second. You work closely with MEPs manufacturing ascension partnerships. Today, we're with the Alaska MEP, you work in different states. And I've had front row seat of some of the work that you've done and I know some of your clients and like they just they rave about the work that you do. Talk a little bit about like I know nothing about I don't know where I'm going but one in Pennsylvania, right. Sure. A little bit of that that story of like how you came in and just really brought that website to light for that. Yeah, so you're talking about Peter feet trading i Sure. There. Yeah, one of my favorite customers favorite
Emily Wilkins 10:22
projects I've ever worked on. You know, a key trading company like, like going so I went after their setup. I you know, I I wrote up a brief that gets into the nitty gritty of what I see is their best strategy moving forward. It's usually a you know, seven page document of, you know, this is your Northstar this, this is your personality, this is your customer. This is how we're, you know how we're going to communicate with them. And then I recommend one of our packages so, so Peters needed to go all out they they were a second generation business, the daughter and son in law were taking over and they really wanted to bring a new level of professionalism to their company. They have been, you know, doing a ton of internal work to, you know, bring their processes up and train and you know, do all the things internally to to really serve their customers better. But their you know, their website didn't really communicate that it didn't give them a great you know, you just they just look like any old key trader when you know when you go to their website so during their setup Diana had the signup the hiker the side give a damn and like well, hot damn you know, I think of the snaps right? How often will give a hot damn like, that's their whole philosophy around you know, how they do everything. It's it's how they're, they are with their people like we, we we care about the work we care about each other, we care about ourselves. And, you know, really giving a damn was was the philosophy that her parents built the company and that's the legacy that they really wanted to carry through. So, so we just brought it out and made it really, you know, exciting and fun and interesting. And yeah, being on site with them was so cool, seeing all the different harnesses that they use and you know, opening the first star in this key like all inspired is comes out like okay, we have to capture that like that's so cool. So um, Emily if you don't mind Sami Jo, I know we haven't done this before. If you don't mind. I'm going to I'm going to I'm
Curt Anderson 12:41
going to try to share my screen. I know you and I this will be our first rodeo doing this together. Let me try to re screen because I really I'd love to pull up this website and let me see if see if this works the Can you see my screen in our wait yep there we go. I can you guys see that? Yes. Perfect. All right, Emily. So let's let's, let's spend a minute taking a little tour. So you just give a little background. On the side. We're just talking about like how you brought this vision to life for the folks at Peters. Yeah. Really focusing
Emily Wilkins 13:23
on the relationships like this this woman in this picture is one of their one of their customers. She took the time to come to the shop while we were there and give us an interview and you know, do the pictures and things. Those those human moments and human connection that's really important like you know, showing your equipment is good too, obviously, but like, but showing the people is it goes so much further. You know, people people connect with other people so so that was one thing that we really wanted to make sure we brought out was those human things. Personality and the personality, the family and us. That's
Sami Jo Lewis 14:13
the family right there.
Emily Wilkins 14:14
Like I tell you what you did here is just
Curt Anderson 14:17
so awesome. You know, and I down here, you know, again, if your manufacturer out there and you know, you're like our little light on our website, or you know, I flick it could be better. You know, look at some of the things that Emily did here. So, you know, social buttons down here. We've got like her the accreditation, ISO certified, you know, the association that they belong to the NTMA ITAR so you know, just all sorts of helpful information to try to build and establish that trust as quickly as possible. And again, guys, if you get a chance, jot you know, check out Peters Petri comm and we'll get back on the program. I'll stop sharing my screen there. And I think you were asking too about how the I mean, he was involved with that. Yeah, please do.
Emily Wilkins 14:59
Let's go there. Yeah, so they they funded part of the project. So I actually sent my invoices to the NTMA. Nw IRS, and WRC. Yeah, that's right. A lot of different acronyms when you're dealing with the manufacturing extension partnership.
Curt Anderson 15:16
So again, we're here at Alaska MEP, but you did a great job. This is one of the Pensieve there's multiple Pennsylvania MEPs. And it's a long acronym, NW IRC, where you connected with those folks, and then they came in and help Peters bring this new website. To live but again, they couldn't do it without you. So kudos to you for doing such a great job. And like this is just one little example of the work that that she does. So Emily, we are I'm sorry, Sammy Jo, we can get back into program. I just I love that example. I just wanted to share that here today. No, I love it. Thank you so much. It was so great to see your work. And see it live. So I appreciate
Sami Jo Lewis 15:51
you bringing that up, Kurt. So the next question want to dive into is Why is branding, more important than sales work when you're building a legacy that will last? So sales is always going to be important, but
Emily Wilkins 16:06
having the brand component kind of starting with the brand is only going to help your sales team because if you really nail down what brands stand for what your messaging is, who that perfect customer is why you're different. And you know why that customer should want to work with you maybe what are the things that the that prospect has struggled with in the past working, you know, sourcing your service or you know, what are some of their fears and frustrations in in hiring this type of work or sourcing this type of work, you know, anything that you can do to really understand your customer, right and same goes for job candidates, you know, understanding what the you know, what is the job market look like these days? And where are people at with that, like what are they looking for in a job and you know, in a career, just really getting that messaging down that that's only going to help your sales team per salesperson a lot of times you know it's it's the owner, right doing the sales or, or one VP of sales, doing all the work. So having having that messaging and really understanding who that customer is is really important. And and obviously having the materials to go with that so you know the website and, and brochures for sons and business cards. You know, if you're going to invest in a trade show, having a nice booth and you know that that is actually going to stop people and get them to ask questions and engage with your sales team and it really just makes the sales person's life so much easier. And it makes them so much more effective at their job. Yeah, I absolutely no, I love that. And, you know, again, being the
Sami Jo Lewis 18:09
branding guru, Emily,
Curt Anderson 18:10
you and I had a great conversation recently and you were talking about like, you know, as you know, service providers alike, you know, we need to practice what we preach and you really hit me with a ton of bricks, you're like, Hey, I'm really trying to, you know, stay in my strike zone, narrow down my services, and really exhaust my superpowers because I can give the best service possible. You're definitely you know, kind of shutting off maybe some other services that aren't quite in my wheelhouse or I found out I found I'm better at this. Yeah, how do you like with manufacturers, especially chop shots? God bless you know, all the manufacturers out there. Sometimes they try to be a little bit of everything to everybody, right? Like, hey, you know, we need your we need to keep the machines running, of course. folks working on the floor. Talk a little bit about how do you help practice you know, like, you're, you're practicing what you preach? How do you help those manufacturers that maybe get a little bit? You know, I'm sorry to say all over the board, but get a little you know, how do we how do you help people narrow in a little bit? Yeah. It's you hit the nail right on the head. I mean, to say,
Emily Wilkins 19:11
these people are, they're problem solvers, right? They want to solve problems. That's what they're, you know, that's what their whole thing is. That's what they're here for. And, and they probably can solve any problem. They can make any part because they're, you know, they're investors and tinkerers and people who, you know, understand how things work. So, it's really hard for them to say no to projects that are maybe not a great fit for them and and I used to be in the same place with my business when I first started marketing metal four years ago, I was you know, I think initially I had a manufacturing focus, but I wasn't gonna say no to any anybody you know, I had worked for any small business and I had you know, a crop insurance agents and retreat house in North Carolina and like, permaculture retreat in Texas, like just all these weird things and and every time you get a new project like that, you're learning an entire new language sometimes, I mean for marketing, of course, but for manufacturers to like they have to, you know, if you're used to doing automotive stuff and you take an aerospace project, like one that doesn't require certification, whatever, I mean, there's a whole, you know, certification process that they have to go through or like, inspection process that's new or, or maybe they're trying to do a component that's different from what they normally do, and it just takes a lot of time to figure that stuff out in the beginning, and that eats away at your profitability. And not just because you're spending all that time doing it, but also because you maybe could be spending that time on a project that is more in your wheelhouse and more profitable and for me, and I know the same is true for a lot of my my customers. You know, the thought of of narrowing my focus was like, antithesis to what I got into this for you know, like, I love learning about new, you know, new types of businesses and you know, learning hearing people's stories and like the permaculture place in Texas was really freaking cool and I loved learning about that but but, on the other hand, like now, since I narrowed into only working two jobs two years ago, you know, I've I've become an expert in this space and I positioned myself as an expert in the space and with every project, I, you know, became more and more of an expert and everything that I do like this, you know, I just solidify that expertise. So and the same is true for them. You know, the more practice they have in one specific areas, the better they're going to do, and the more they're going to get that type of work. Love. Awesome answer, Amy. Jo, what do you have next?
Curt Anderson 22:18
No, I love that. I love that you can build the expertise. I know that's something that we've also talked
Sami Jo Lewis 22:22
about and struggle with. We just can't be everything to everyone. So when she's really start narrowing it down, you really do build that expertise. So I'm super happy that you shared with us today. So the next question I'm gonna hit you with is how can shops cut out the BS and create space for more meaningful work with greater impact? Sounds like we were kind of touching on that a little bit. With find your niche but if you want to dive into that just a little bit more if there's anything you left out. Yeah, we we've covered a lot of that but I've worked with a
Emily Wilkins 22:53
few shots too on like, like they're, they're very specialized and what they do and they're not just gonna you know, take an RFQ off the internet off their website and then quote it like that's, that's not their process. It's not how they work. So we we stopped doing that, like they don't have an RFQ page on their website now. Like we have a we don't just work with anyone page and you know, book a 15 minute call with me to find out if we're a good fit, like I have on my website. Because it's, you know, each request like that, that comes through you have to you have to spend the time responding to it and and the more of those, you know, crap RFQs that you get, the more you get buried in them and it's just a time waster. So anytime you can eliminate time wasters like that, that's that's going to be helpful. So it's not just about attracting the right work, but it's also like dissuading the wrong work, right, like making sure that you know, Joe Schmo down the street knows that you're not going to be a good shop for them to find out to get their tractor fix or whatever. Because a lot of shops end up with that work. Yeah, I couldn't love that more. Like, you know, time wasters. I know Emily,
Curt Anderson 24:13
when we did our jam session, I was give a shout out to you know, those profit killers, time wasters, right profit killers and time wasters. And that's, you know, like, with your superpower of like, bringing that like the example we just showed and again, go to Emily's website, go to Marketing metal, and checkout. She has all sorts of great examples, check, follow her on LinkedIn, her social is just phenomenal. And I strongly encourage invite everybody to sign up for her newsletter. I love reading your newsletter, Emily, I ported it to the other day, Sami Jo, it's funny, it's snarky, and it's all about just deep diving deep because she knows her ideal buyer. She knows who she is staying in her lane, like she said, and she's speaking clearly and concisely to that client. Sami Jo. I know we're coming in at a time once you take it home for us. Excuse my fear my dog my dogs like I was gonna say minus snoring on here and now he's barking so
Emily Wilkins 25:07
great. So Sami Jo taking the song.
Curt Anderson 25:11
Why do so many jobs, job shops get stuck on the feast or famine?
Sami Jo Lewis 25:16
The hamster wheel of death. Just got excited. They had like so much to say. There's so much to say on this topic. They also both
Emily Wilkins 25:27
have hotspots to the sides of Texas right now. So I'm trying to keep them from going after that. Yeah, and that's kind of the there's a couple there's a couple of things, everything that we were just talking about right the saying yes to any work that comes through. But but also not having a clear marketing presence. You know, when when you don't have a strong brand and you know, an engaging website that pulls people in if you don't have any sort of social media presence, or you know, an email blasts. You don't have to do all these things either. Like I would tell you if you are new to marketing, don't do all these things like choose one thing to focus on but have a you know, have a clear goal of okay, I'm going to post on LinkedIn twice a week for you know, give yourself 90 days. I'm gonna do 90 days posting twice a week on LinkedIn, and, you know, reaching out to 15 connections and just tell reminding them that you're there like just having a you know, a very clear goal of what you things that you can do to bring those leads in and keep them kind of rolling in consistently. Yeah, Kurt mentioned my email like, I've gotten quite a few people respond to my email, but I've just kind of been out there for what like I actually just started my email like, what has it been like two months? Yeah. You know, and I'm a marketing person. Like I just got to this. I built most of my, you know, my business by just posting on LinkedIn, and networking and connecting with people having 15 minute intro calls. Anything that you can do to be more memorable is going to help but yeah, just reminding people that you're there how however you decide to do that, you know, the more you the more time you spend reminding people who you are and how you can help them, the more frequently you're going to get those leads coming in. You know, SEO used to be the huge thing like how do I get to the top of Google it's, it's not anymore. It's, I mean, it's important and, you know, that can organically grow. But I wouldn't, I wouldn't necessarily tell people to put a bunch of money into SEO because it's not in and of itself, it's not going to bring in consistent leads that are going to be worth your while. That makes sense. It does and I love what you're saying is we're coming in at a time is you know, really that consistency, you know,
Curt Anderson 28:22
I mean takeaways today, you know, stop being the best kept secret, get out there and like really resonate, you know, rock your brand, be yourself, show off your client, show off your customers, your team, your staff, your equipment, just show your awesomeness, and boy, you know, you know connect with someone like Emily you know, if you're like, boy, I'm not sure where to turn. Reach out to your local MVP for our folks in Alaska. Certainly connect with Sammy Joe and the amazing, incredible team at the Alaska MVP. But again, you know, mine was Emily Wilkins, kind of foul you know, if you're new on LinkedIn, follow eight follow me follow Sammy, Jo, follow me follow all of us on LinkedIn. We would love to connect and engage with you. But boy, just get started. Just get started. And we last thing as we wind down any any events coming up speaking events, anything that you want to put on folks radar that they can find you coming up into next few months? Yeah, I'm speaking at Fabtech next week, which I'm super excited. About. Definitely not ready to worry about,
Emily Wilkins 29:20
hey, until we're ready, we'll never never actually do it. And there's a empowering women and industry event coming up in October. That's also in Chicago. It's gonna be really cool. And I'm going to be flying all over the US in the next couple of months doing outside customers and Alaska is on my bucket list. So anybody who wants to do a project let me know. She just ate you put it out into the person.
Curt Anderson 29:50
You know the manufacturing gods are going to call you up to Alaska. So Emily, I want to give a huge warm thank you my respect my admiration for you. You know is off the charts. Love your work, love our friendship. Sammy Jo, thank you, my friend for this opportunity to spend quality time with you once you close us out today. Yeah, no, thank you so much, Karen. Thank you, Emily. It was such a joy to have you here with us
Sami Jo Lewis 30:13
today. I did want to give a shout out so we do these every other Thursdays at noon. 30 minutes. So catch us in two Thursdays from now at an event that you guys can look forward to as we will be hosting a sales training bootcamp in Anchorage October 10 through 11 You can find more of our details online and get registered for that soon. So we hope you can take advantage of this sales training that we have coming up in April. And thank you both so much. Have a great rest your Thursday. See you
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