• 54:38
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Manufacturing marketing, buyer connection, business recovery, proactive strategies, reactive strategies, digital marketing, e-commerce, SWOT analysis, customer pain points, growth mindset, industry change, LinkedIn, website optimization, return on investment, expert collaboration.
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, DiAnn Beyer, Curt Anderson
Damon Pistulka 00:02
Hey, Kurt, it’s Friday, and you know what that means? It’s time for stop being the best kept secret. Wow. Today we’re going to be talking about manufacturing marketing strategies that connect with buyers, and we have none other than Diane buyer here today. Kurt, I’m so excited, man. I’m just going to turn it over to you and let’s get going. Hey, thank
Curt Anderson 00:26
you, brother, dude, I like, I literally, I’ve been, I’ve been awake since like, 130 now. It was partially because how excited I am for Diane. It’s also because I have a dog that snores really loud. So that was the but I’ve been up. I’ve been just so fired up, Diane, this is so long overdue. So thank you for taking time out of your schedule to join us. How are you? I’m good. Thank you for having me. Oh my goodness gracious. We have so much like Damon, we can be here for like five hours, but we, you know, we can’t keep it right here for five hours. So Diane, I’m going to start here. Okay, I’m starting here. Now. You are a repeat offender. Been on the show once before, but it was many, many, many, many years ago. So I’m going to start from I’m starting right at the top. You ready? You sitting down? Yes.
DiAnn Beyer 01:07
Am I getting my jacket like Saturday Night Live? Yeah. Or do I have to wait for five?
Curt Anderson 01:16
We’ll get it in the mail. Tour, right. Fine. Send it over to her. But Dan, little girl growing up, you know, where I’m going, little girl growing up in wonderful city, Philadelphia, yes, who was your hero? Who was your hero as a little girl growing up?
DiAnn Beyer 01:34
That would be my parents, you know. And I just recently lost my father in May. So you know, Dad, Dad’s my hero, and I hear his voice with me all the time. So yeah, and mom and dad have made an incredible impact on how I view things from a business perspective. Dad was in business and marketing and sales, but mom was in education, and to pull those perspectives together really set me on a different path.
Curt Anderson 02:07
Nice, well, absolutely. And I just so much love and respect for your dad. And if you, if you’re comfortable, I know that it’s fresh. And if you are comfortable with me going there share a little bit, you’re, you know. So Damon, we’re talking about, like, you know, I know a guy, her dad was, like, the, I know a guy, guy like, he knew, like, he had a great circle, great network, right? Dan, just share a little bit about your dad’s superpower and, like, how he built a successful business, kind of, like just being the quarterback, knowing who to go to.
DiAnn Beyer 02:37
Sure, Dad was a master in relationships. And, you know, we currently, in the last five years, I’ve started to hear it pick up more and more about how businesses do. Businesses more it’s person to person, not business to business, right? It’s the relationships we develop. And dad was that guy way before that was popular, right? Like he, he was able to not only talk to people, but remember their pain points, remember what was important. And when he go and talk to somebody else, hey, you need to connect with and they would make those connections. He grew up in a small community where he had a lot of family surrounding him, and it was a tight knit group where even friends and neighbors were considered family. And it’s just something about Dad, he picked up, I think, from that community, the sense of, we all belong together. We’re all important together, and that, you know, you’re the best, like, I need you in my life, kind of mentality. And he treated everybody like that, like he always want to learn from somebody else and learn to pull them in and and do right by them, because he knew what the reciprocal benefits, right? So it was, yeah, Dad’s my hero.
Curt Anderson 04:05
Well, wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. And, you know, and dad’s super proud of his little girl. How talk a little bit on, like, how watching dad in action, you know, we’re going to dive into, you’re a business recovery specialist. We’re going to dive into marketing strategies. We’re going to talk about proactive, reactive, a little bit of mindset today just share like how some of Dad’s superpowers fed into you, and how you applied it to your day to
DiAnn Beyer 04:29
day. So it’s kind of funny because so I’m an accountant. That was I decided, you know, if you ever heard the saying, the best way to make God laugh is to come up with a plan. That was me. I decided real early in high school I was going to be accountant. I was going to go to college, I was going to get my CPA. I was going to work for a major CPA firm. And God went, yeah, uh huh, right. And. Dad was in sales and marketing, and at the same time that I was graduating and getting into manufacturing, Dad switched careers and got into working with manufacturers. So we often tease each other, did I follow him, or did he follow me into management, into working and into manufacturing and so But dad just had this incredible way of just really getting down to the issues that were bothering the people their problems and finding solutions. And that’s where I think that I view myself, not just as an accountant, but a problem solver and able to have the difficult discussions that we you know, if you only tell me tip of the iceberg of the problem, my solution is going to miss the the bullseye. And dad had a great way of creating this natural, relaxed environment where we can talk about the problems and create a safe zone. And I hope I do them justice by pulling that forward, you know, because he was, he was a master at that?
Curt Anderson 06:22
Yeah, absolutely. So love it and the safe zone. And so I’m going to go, let’s, let’s, let’s just dive right in. Damon. You ready to roll up your sleeves? Let’s dive right into it. So you dear, dear close friend to both Damon and myself, we just, I feel iron sharpens iron. My world is so much better with you in it. You just make everybody around you better. You elevate and one thing that you always love to say is, like, it’s great having a friend that holds the mirror up so, you know, like, my wife, I don’t know if you guys with your spouses are like, you know, hey, is there anything my teeth? You know, like, you know, Diane’s the person that like, is going to say, like, Hey, dude, like, Kurt, like, you got something in your teeth. Never has to tell me that my hair is messed up, Damon, but just tells me, like, if I’ve got right something, my teeth right? So then you’re comfortable having those tough conversations, but you just use the word like, from dad, that that safe spot, that safety zone, talk a little bit. So we’re going to dive into, like, helping manufacturers on their marketing strategies, you know, maybe rebounding or recovery talk a little bit like, how do you kick off a tough conversation. Is that a good place for us to start? How do you start a tough conversation?
DiAnn Beyer 07:28
So you know, I wouldn’t say that I have any special skills with starting off commerce tough conversation. Because when you’re talking with a manufacturer who’s struggling with sales or losing employees or declines in operating they know they’re hurting. They know they have to have a tough discussion, right? But it’s creating a space where there’s no judgment. There’s an ease of flow, of conversation, of presenting from a problem solving solution side of things, to get to the appropriate solution, we need to understand all that is happening and what where the problems really are right we we don’t want to just put a finger in the dam Right and find out that’s a much larger problem,
Curt Anderson 08:22
right? Or the outlet, right? They were the outlet. Neither one, right?
DiAnn Beyer 08:27
And to go back to, you know, you asked me, my heroes were my parents were my heroes, and they gave me advice. You know, I blend a bit of dad and mom, right? Dad was always a big person to say, do your best until you can do better. And that he was always pushing for, you know, you do what you can do now as well as you can do, but always be pushing that constant improvement right, always being moving forward, making something better. And I’m going to circle back to that in a minute. Mom, with her education background and being an art teacher, she always came around and said, remember anybody coming to you comes to you with their own picture book, their own photo album, their own memories, their own place and perspective. And when you put those two together to answer your question or how you have those difficult it’s respect and kindness. First of all, with the people you’re speaking with, right? You create that mutual, respectful place we speak kindly to one another, which I think we all need to kind of circle back and pull that back into our daily lives, and it’s where I think my foundation from comes from with we want to constantly be moving forward in improvement. We need to identify we’re better together. Everybody. Bring. Is a piece that helps elevate the team, and when you honor that, when you create that environment that just naturally, in my opinion, creates the safe place where then we can talk, because we know we’re we can share the vulnerable and the negative and the hard times and the problems, but we know we’re sitting in a circle of experts and friends, and the expertise is going to elevate the entire team.
Curt Anderson 10:27
Drop the mic. Damon man, that was that was phenomenal. Thank you. All right, so guys, thank you for joining us. Drop us a note. Let us know you’re out there. If you have any questions, put it in the chat box. We’ve got an expert here for you. We have our dear friend, Diane buyer, do yourself a favor. Connect with Diane on LinkedIn. She has all sorts of wonderful content that she puts out. Damon, I’m going to slide into we’re going to talk about proactive, reactive, anything, anything so far that you want to add any, anything you want to chime in.
Damon Pistulka 10:53
Now, let’s just go. Let’s go.
Curt Anderson 10:58
Master the educator, isn’t it? Up right now. Alright, Diane masterclass, let’s roll. Let’s rock and roll. Talk about like somebody being proactive versus kind of reactive. What does what when we say that, what does that look like to you?
DiAnn Beyer 11:12
Okay, so those are terminologies that you know I use when I’m talking about US manufacturing. In working with manufacturers over my career, I have noticed that what I call we have the status quo manufacturer. We have a reactive manufacturer, and we have a proactive manufacturer. And what I mean by that are we have manufacturers and status quo who create a product and then feel like this is our baby. We’re going to do this. We’re not going to change it. This is perfect as is, and they don’t ever they resist change. We have the reactive manufacturer who will continue similar mindset of this is our product. This is what we do best. We’re not going to change until outside influences come in and impact them and force change, and then they’re flying to try to address the issues that are hitting them. And usually these come up and hit them in a negative impact because they weren’t able to foresee it coming. Now, there are always things in industry we don’t for forsake. Covid is a perfect example. Nobody. I don’t think anybody had on their bin bingo card covid, and that created major issues in the industry. A proactive manif manufacturer is the one who’s going to sit there and look at, where are we? How can we make it better? How can we move forward, how can we grow, how can we improve? This is where I think everybody in US manufacturing needs to be moving to we really, I huge advocate for US manufacturing. I think we really need to start having more discussions about US manufacturing and how to improve the industry overall. This is one area, and I’ll give you a few few examples of why I think being proactive is our cell phones, for example, right? If we stood in a status quo or reactive mindset when Alexander Graham Bell started with the foam, we’d still be on the wall. Hello, right? Yeah. It same thing with our washing machines. If we stood with the way it was done, we’d all still be down the stream washing our clothes in the crick or on those washboards. Right? Person, improvement is constantly changing. And that’s that’s the key that I think a lot of people miss is, and I’m going to butcher his name, but the Greek philosopher her heritage by i He said, The only constant is change. Yes, and when we move to a place of addressing change happens, and we have to be looking at change and seeing how we can constantly be improving our we become the leaders in the industry. We become proactive. We we create the next genera, generation of technology or products. Um, yes. So you know, I personally, when I work with manufacturers in distress, and I’ll give you a big secret here, we do what’s called a SWOT analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal. You can do this personally, for yourself or for your team or for your main manufacturing company. Identify those things that are internal strengths and weaknesses. External are the opportunities and threats. Look at those. Do a square divide it into columns, list them out. What. We do as part of our recovery strategy is we take the threats from the outside, external that we can identify, because you can’t identify everything, and we say, how can we turn these into opportunities? And then when we’re looking at the opportunities that present. From that, we move to, how do I need to improve? What are my weaknesses associated to these opportunities? And then when you look at your opportunities, or I’m sorry, your weaknesses, you then move that, what can I do to strengthen? Make these weaknesses my strength. So I’m always saying we want to look at how we can stand in strength. If you look at the quadrants of the strength, weakness, opportunities, threat, you’re building a backwards Z, always taking it to your strength. That is a flow of constant improvement. An example would be a threat right now to many manufacturers, is AI has come out artificial intelligence. There is an opportunity there of, how can I use this outside software, this intelligence that’s coming out to improve my business weakness? I’m not knowledgeable of it. Strength. I’m going to learn it. I’m going to lose that employee. I’m going to put it in and find out how I can work more effectively. If you’re not doing that, somebody else is. They’re working smarter, faster and easier, and they’re cheap, jumping ahead in competition.
Damon Pistulka 16:46
Yeah, and AI is a great example, I think, because it’s it’s something that you can put your head in the sand, or you can learn enough to be dangerous and see. How can it help us today a little bit, and then how can it help us a little bit more tomorrow, as things develop, right? Go ahead. I No, no, that’s good.
DiAnn Beyer 17:08
Go I and I use this not just with my businesses, but I think I told Kurt earlier, I just spent time with a girlfriend last Friday night, who we went to dinner, and she started asking me about some personal development she wants to do, and we just use this technique. And it was a perfect example, because we sat down and we went through her strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats and what she and and her goals, and we put it all together, and we came up with a plan, which was perfect for what I always talk about. You know, you want to be proactive and constantly improving, right? I then called another friend the next day and said, Hey, you have experience in this field. Do you have any advice? And I was told, Oh, you’ve got to tell her about this new software package. It’s a game changer. She she utilized that, and that’s a perfect example where we’re better together. Yeah, right. And, and, you know, it’s, I’ve got to say, it’s interesting that we’re talking today on September 12, about coming together, because, to me, the horrific 911 activities. When I talk to people about what happened in 911 I follow up with September 12, yeah, because that was the last day I felt that we as a country, came together as a united country. Yep, we really, we grieved, we came together, we moved, we improved. And it’s devastating to me right now to feel that we have 24 year old adults who’ve never experienced what it’s like for us to come together and work in that way. It’s, it’s, and I’ve seen so many examples in both my professional and personal career of where we are better together. Yeah, I just Yeah, that’s so incredibly important
Curt Anderson 19:22
process. Oh, I totally agree. Damon, we’ve got a couple comments here.
Damon Pistulka 19:26
You want to grab them. Yeah, we do. We do well, we got first, hello, great topic to talk about. And then we got a another topic at hello from Pakistan. Love learning more from the experts to polish my skills and take the market game to the next level. James Kunkel stopped by said, This is great. And then we got someone else says marketing has a great role in terms of connecting with the buyer. No doubt we’re going to get into that a little bit more here. Thanks everyone for the comments. Keep them coming. If you got questions you want us to answer, go ahead and drop them in the chat.
Curt Anderson 19:59
Yeah. Absolutely thanks guys. Happy Friday to everybody. And so again, we’ve got Diane buyers, just a business recovery specialist. Please do yourself a favor. Connect with Diane on LinkedIn. Follow her content. So Diane, so folks, just join us. We’re talking about proactive compared to reactive. What do you like? What’s it take if I have a reactive mindset. What does it take? Like, how can I change like, Man, I really want to get proactive, but man, this is just how we’ve done it. This is how I’ve always done it, and this has always worked. And I had like, the if it ain’t broke, don’t break it mentality. How do I change that mindset to get into more proactive? Any tips or advice there?
DiAnn Beyer 20:41
Well, it, it’s embracing growth. It’s embracing improvement, right when, when we limit ourselves to and I’m going to start quoting one of my favorite books, mindset, okay, mindset is all about there’s a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. When you stay in a fixed mindset, you’re not looking for change, you’re you’re saying, This is how it’s always been done. This is where I’m going to be when you’re looking at growth, that’s where you can be proactive. When you’re looking for improvement, that’s when you can be moving forward, I can’t stress enough in business and industry, the business and industry and manufacturing is always changing. Somebody is always coming out and innovating new products and services. There is always advancement in technology, if we address and accept and acknowledge that change happens. If we want to stay on top of our game, we have to learn to ride those waves and change that requires a mindset in growth improvement. How can we do better? What do our customers need? How can we fix their pain points? How can we improve?
Curt Anderson 22:00
Yep, yep. Got the mic number two. Damon, yeah, yeah. So, because Go ahead, please.
Damon Pistulka 22:08
Well, you know, and I think when manufacturers are pretty intuitive about doing this, when they look at a process, right, I’m making this and I’m making it over and over. They’re continually refining, getting a little better. But when, like today, talking about manufacturing marketing strategies, what a lot of people have done is they’ve, they’ve built, done the set it and forget it kind of thing, you know. So they built the website a long time ago. They they may have set up at something on YouTube or something 10 years ago and and really not thought about it. And that’s, it’s, it’s the we have to bring that into our entire business, including the back office, including our marketing, including our operations.
DiAnn Beyer 22:54
So you bring up an excellent point, and I, I apologize for skipping over it, right? It’s not just, how do we take the phone and improve it, right? How do we take the washer and improve it? You know, our manufacturers are experts in their products and services it, but business isn’t just your product and service. It’s your marketing. It’s and your website is. And is a good example, and LinkedIn is a good example, but you need to stay abreast of the changes that are happening in the market industry. Years ago, LinkedIn was just your electronic business card and or your resume. We had to find your next job. Now, there’s a bunch of people out on LinkedIn who are using it to make business connections. If you just have it as your resume, and you fix it and set it and forget it and move on, you’re being left behind because those who are using it to build their circle of experts and their their business contact portfolio, they’re moving same with your website. Years ago, when it first came out, your website was a placeholder on the internet so people could find you, because it was the new way of doing business. It was replacing the phone book. But as soon as the first person put e Commerce on their site, the game changed. If you’re not seeing on top of those changes in industry, you’re being left behind. Websites are now a primary way businesses do their sales, their marketing, and get it and Google Analytics, from what I understand from those experts who are teaching me, Google Analytics have just changed on how SEO is functioning if you’re not staying on top of that as part of your business model, or getting experts involved in that to help you. You’re getting left behind. You’re letting your website just be your placeholder. So when I’m speaking about being proactive and growth and looking at things, I’m talking about every aspect of your business, right? I’ll be honest in the last five. Dollars. We were worked with a manufacturer that a colleague brought me their financials and said, You see all these negative balances on this account? And I went, they’re not negative balances. They’re using an accounting software from the 1990s that was identifying credit accounts with a negative in front. I’m telling you right now, if you’re using software from the 1990s for your accounting systems. You are being left behind by those who have current technology. It’s like my Eagles team going out and playing on the field with the best top of the line equipment today, in helmets, and your team showing up with the 1940s helmets and gears. Yeah, those
Curt Anderson 25:40
are the ones Damon and I played with when we when we were Yeah, right.
DiAnn Beyer 25:45
Stop skewing your track. You you limit your ability. And these are critical things to be thinking about as an overall business, part of mindset and strategy plan, because these areas, if you’re not working effectively, efficiently in all areas of your business, somebody else is
Curt Anderson 26:07
Yeah, yeah. Hey, and by the way, Damon, let’s grab that comment real quick. Somebody Yeah, they liked your 911 and
Damon Pistulka 26:14
love the 912 analogy. Yeah, yeah. So thank you.
Curt Anderson 26:18
Thank you again. Thank you guys for the comments. Thank you for being here. I know where are we? We’re coming to the top of the hour. So if you’re just, if you’re jumping off, thank you. Connect with Diane. If you’re just jumping in. We’ve got Diane Beyer, business recovery specialist, Diane, I don’t know if you remember, we had a funny conversation where, you know, in the past, God bless our manufacturers. They relighted on they relighted they relied on trade shows. They relied on jump into the car. Word of mouth. What do you have to say? And I you know, what do you have to say for those folks to be? How do we get them more proactive and stop relying on maybe some of these older, previous ways of growing business? Any thoughts there?
DiAnn Beyer 26:55
Okay, so in in the past, you had not only trade shows, you had the lovely postcard being sent to your customer, right the I can’t stress enough when you’re using the old way of doing something, if somebody comes in with a new technique, they’re working harder, smart and faster than you are. They’re reaching out and talking to somebody that you’re not trade shows. I know they still have them. I know they’re still working on them, but as an accountant, as somebody who’s in business recovery, there is a lot of expense with buying a booth and shipping equipment and material to your booth, and then Manning staff at your booth and paying for their hotel lodging and their meals and the giveaways. It’s an extensive expense. Expenses are something we are all looking at right now in 2025 with the change in the marketplace, and you’re limited to those people who show up to your booth, and those people attending the conference might not be there looking for your solution, yeah. However, you have LinkedIn, social media, digital marketing game plan, you’re speaking directly to your soulmate. You’ve got ways for them to search for you on internet and find you. You have an E commerce platform you are then talking to your specific customer. And don’t quote me, because I don’t know the numbers, but people now search the internet, and the number grows every year before they make a buying decision. We’ve got a whole generation behind us who do not want to talk to anybody. They want to get on their fancy phones. As my husband and I say, get on your fancy phone and find it, and you’ll make a business decision at 1am at night. Press, purchase, buy it, and your competitor just got your sale?
Damon Pistulka 29:02
Yeah, yep, it’s, it’s a huge thing when you’re when your digital presence allows someone to get to know you, get to know about your company, get to know about specifically how your product or services might help them without them even interacting with the salesperson. It’s a huge thing. Absolutely. Just like you said, if you can get it all the way to the point of pushing the button to buy, you’re getting sales as that company that no one else is going to get.
DiAnn Beyer 29:31
Well and think about the timing of it too. Because the original question asked me about trade shows. Well, if I’m booking a trade show now for November, I’ve got all of September and October and part of November before I get to meet the people who are showing up, and that’s if something doesn’t happen. Like Kurt, I was supposed to meet you at a convention two years ago, and I had a postponed because my mother in law passed away. You know, there’s a time effect, but if you have your digital game plan, you have your website set up, you. Have your social media set up, you have your SEO ghost, and you’re driving traffic to your website, and you’re providing a service. 24/7, you’re capturing those sales from now to that November that somebody else is just waiting to show up to their trade show in November. It’s what I call a game changer. And yes, Kurt knows, Damon knows. I will reference baseball and football analogies all day long. If you want, you need to run the basis on your digital game plan. Make sure you have an E commerce i And hey, bonus, as a business recovery specialist, I’m always pushing projects that are going to be bring big return on investment. Roi means to be a big performance metrics needs to be part of that plan, right? Yeah, I can sit there and say, Hey, your company needs to have training on the guy in the warehouse to drive the forklift, absolutely, but it’s not going to move your bottom line numbers, like working your digital game plan, helping you build recovery, helping you get out of of lost profits and operating profits.
Damon Pistulka 31:13
And first of all, we got a quick comment says, Thank you. Diane, appreciate it. One of the things I was thinking about the other day that’s changed over the last years as we talked about some of these set and forget it people, is that marketing is not a nice to have anymore. It’s a foundational piece of your business, and just like your equipment, you’re not going to be able to produce the products you want with equipment that’s substandard, right? And and I was thinking about this specifically in in manufacturing and other B to B industries, is that there’s a base level of investment that we have to make in our businesses if we want to generate the clients, generate the leads, and be seen as the companies we really are. Because when we leave those those digital, that digital presence, to languish in time, someone comes to look at you and they go, Well, that looks like my grandfather’s company. And or, or they come to you and they you really are underwhelming, right? You may have done a million great things or have a million great products that they should really just be wow and but if your website doesn’t talk about that, doesn’t show the great things, and have customers on there talking about it, and all the things that people have come to know and respect because the the players, whether we like it or not, the Amazon of the world, that’s the behemoth, right? They’ve driven our expectations to be able to look and go, Okay, what are other people saying? How popular is it? And then can I get it tomorrow? You know? And we, we have to be moving forward as manufacturers.
DiAnn Beyer 33:01
Great points. You’ve got me thinking several things all at once, right? You’re triggering the brain capacity here. First, have you heard the saying dress for success? Yep, that’s what your website has to do. It’s got to be current. You have to be dressed for success. You have to put this is your digital footprint. This is your this is your face of your company is is how people are finding you. Now. Second, you bring up a great, great point that I’m going to roll back to changes and threats and industry. You brought up Amazon, Amazon, people are clicking on and buying right? We need to be understanding and mindful of what’s happening in the marketplace. How many more Amazon buildings are being put up to hold product to sell and distribute, how many of our brick and mortar companies are struggling to compete because people are not walking in the door anymore. You’re going to start seeing and it’s happening now. Our retailers are starting to provide pickup services where you can order in line and pick up with no fee, and you don’t even have to walk through their store there that that is an analogy that that’s currently happening, not an analogy. That’s something we need to be looking at, because that is a change that is currently happening that is a threat to everybody’s business. How do I get my market, my target customer, my product, to the right people? When these shifts and changes are happening in the marketplace, when people can go online and purchase a product similar to yours, and they can do it in 30 seconds flat, and it can show up to the door with somebody dropping it off, these are all threats to a business where somebody has to drop. Drive up and pick up your stuff, like these are, these are the kind of threats that I’m talking about when, when you’re looking when we’re talking about being a proactive manufacturer, a reactive will wait until they lose sales and go, what’s happening? Why aren’t people buying from us? And then start looking around and go, Oh, wait a minute. You see that Amazon building that was just built down the street. Proactive ones are going to say, hey, wait a minute. People are buying online. 83% or whatever the current number is, is buying without talking to anybody. You know, if, for example, if you still have one of those companies where somebody calls and goes, hello, you’ve read it on remaining line. Press one for customer service. Press two for sales. Press three for returns, no one else is getting on and going.
DiAnn Beyer 36:02
You it’s the changes in the industry we have to be aware of. These are the threats that are impacting our businesses, and when they impact our businesses, they’re impacting our bottom line. When they’re packing our bottom line, our sales. It directly affects our employees. It directly affects our ability to continue because Kurt, what is one of my favorite sayings we are in business, to stay in business,
DiAnn Beyer 36:35
to be focused on Those things that keep us in business.
Curt Anderson 36:42
We just got to take a moment of silence, like, dude, like, this is just an absolute masterclass right here. So, all right, couple of things I want to recap. I have never heard, and I’ve been doing websites for, I don’t know, a couple years, I guess now, dress for success. I’ve never thought or heard that analogy, that total dropped the mic. Shamelessly, give Diane credit for that one. But think about that. So think about your not, because, like, when I say you are, I’m thinking about, like, my own digital presence. And like, Am I dressed for success, on my LinkedIn, on my YouTube channel, on my website, and I strongly encourage, welcome, invite our listeners. Man, like, really scrutinize that. Like, Diane is notorious. You can’t ask for a better friend than Diane Beyer. She’s going to hold up that mirror to you. Man, hold up the mirror to your website and take a look. And you’ve mentioned e commerce, digital self serve. You know, you know it’s what, like, 60, 70% of the buying decision is now done online. Yeah. So Diane, for the person that was, like, man, Diane, like, this is a fire hose. Like, I love what you’re saying. I just need to get started. Like, I just, I’ve got to get off the sideline. And so, like, your recovery, folks again, like, do you have, like, that first step, that very first step that, like, Okay, I’m not going to eat the elephant. I don’t like, who Damon, who came up with that expression, by the way, anyway, that’s not a very nice one, but I’m not going to do everything. But what’s a good first step from, from your perspective, when you work with your manufacturers?
DiAnn Beyer 38:11
So the first step is realizing we have a problem, right? The first step is something is something that somebody is outperforming me, somebody is out working smarter, faster, quicker, easier and more efficiently. Those are the first steps. Then it depends on, you know, where what are you looking to improve, personal improvement, I absolutely recommend reading mindset and seeing the two mindsets, because instantly, and I’ve said this to you before, when you read and look like I have it all marked on my special pages from this book. I’ve read this twice. Once you see it, yes, once, once you just read it last week, you know. And it’s funny that we’re bringing this up because I have mentored, grown new out of college adults who are asking how to do interview process. And you know, when you’re new and you just want that job, you just want to give the answers to have somebody pick you, and I refer them to mindset, and I refer them to your interviewing to make sure it’s a good fit for you. Don’t go in trying to give all the right answers for them to pick you go in with the right questions to make sure they’re the good fit for for you not you know it needs to work personally. If that’s what you’re looking for, personal to growth mindsets a good thing. And if it’s professional, it, I would say, get your experts, because we don’t know what we don’t know until somebody shows us what we don’t know. And if I circle back to one of my other. Quotes, we are better together. When we come together with our experience and expertise and come into a safe zone, we elevate the entire team exponentially. Those are where your solutions are alright.
Curt Anderson 40:13
My friend Diane, you’ve mentioned the word e commerce once or twice. Oh, I think it’s a favorite word. Are you so are you trying to tell us something like, are you giving us a hint? Like, are you implying? Are you suggesting? Should are so you are an E commerce fan. Is that what you’re saying?
DiAnn Beyer 40:27
I am a huge e commerce fan. I It is a huge return investment. Going back to my accounting standpoint, we were comparing trade shows versus e commerce Yeah, I am a cost benefit person. I am an accountant. I am going to sit down with presidents and CEOs of companies and owners of companies and say, How much is this costing you? What is the benefit? How much is this costing you? What is the benefit? What is your return on investment in these areas? Trade shows, ton of expense. And I’m not saying don’t go to them. They do serve a purpose, and you have to. You’re the expert in your own industry, and what works for you need to show up, because there’s also educational pieces to that. And if I’m sitting here standing in the shoes of you’re constantly want to be growing and learning from your colleagues, that’s a good place to do it. But always look at, what is the cost of doing something, what benefits? What’s our return investments? Where are performance metrics? E commerce is one that I have seen repeatedly. You put it on to your website, you have the ability for people to purchase from you. 24/7, it exponentially changes your sales because it gives a person the ability to buy at 3am and they’re more in the morning when the baby’s crying and they can’t get back to sleep, yep, it also gives you the ability to free up your sales people to handle the more complicated sales and processes, and those you know for manufacture that customizes things to certain specs for an employee, your sales people can work on those where the direct purchase can be handled in an automated way. It’s a game changer.
Damon Pistulka 42:25
Mm, hmm, yep. Well, and I think too, that what, what we’re seeing, and you mentioned this a while ago, is, is younger buyers want to be able to buy, right? They want to be able to get on and buy. And some people still may, they may want to go to a place and look at a product and touch a product and do that before they buy. But when you do this Omni approach, where e commerce is a part of it, you’re going to find that even for expensive products, I mean, you can look at vehicles, you can look at CNC machining equipment. You can spend $100,000 online and just Bing, bang, boom, and something shows up at your door, if you want to. And it’s, it’s not just for the 2995 or the $300 item. It’s for whatever you’re selling. It could be a street sweeper. It can be a, you know, whatever.
DiAnn Beyer 43:18
So you, I didn’t mean to cut job, Damon, but you’re bringing up an excellent point. For example, changes in industry, what you’re talking about, big ticket item. I can go out to any local car dealer right now and kick the tires, but I can come home and get online, and I can now search price, and I can now order my car online from the one who’s going to give me the best deal so I can still touch it, but I but the consumer now has the ability to go buy it online from somebody so I don’t like what you’re saying to me in person, I can go buy somewhere else. Who’s going to match me on what’s important to me, which is price, because I’ve already done the research, right? The the touching part of the car is just, do I like the way the seat feels so this wheel where I want it to be? Do it? Yeah, right, cuz it’s already done online now, right? And bring the second. I’m going to circle back around to what you said about the younger generation. Right now in the industry, we have an older generation who set in their ways, like talk to somebody on a phone. When somebody answer the phone wants the customer service to be there, doesn’t want an automated line. We’ve got a newer generation who doesn’t want to talk to anybody, including ordering their lunch. They want to order it, have it delivered. They don’t want to talk to me. If you make them talk to to somebody, they’re going to order their sandwich from somewhere else. Yep. What’s going to happen in industry? Those older generation are going to retire and move out. The younger generation are going to become our leaders in business and industry, and then we’re going to have a whole new generation come. In with their particulars. If these are our soul mates, our our buyers, our client firms, we have to understand the generational understanding and the industry as well and be mindful that What did I say in the beginning? The only constant in business and industry is change. Here’s a perfect example, our buying models, our customers, our soulmates, they’re in constant state of change. When you have to keep up with that change, yeah?
Curt Anderson 45:36
Masterclass, that’s all I gotta say. Damon, masterclass, yeah, I’m just writing notes. Oh, my I got, like, I got, yeah, I got two, I got, I should, I should have had a bigger piece of paper. But yeah, I’m back and forth on note. Diane, this is absolutely phenomenal. I Gosh, I’ve lost track of time. We’re like, we’re winding down on time. Damon, thoughts, comments, questions, I didn’t ask anything that you can think
Damon Pistulka 46:01
- Thank you. Thank you.
Curt Anderson 46:05
Alright, we have two two last questions. Dan, first off, thank you, thank you. Thank you. This was absolutely incredible. This was amazing for our manufacturing friends out there that I just I want to recap something that you said identifying that you have the problem, first and foremost, right? Absolutely. And then secondly, like just identifying, Okay, where can we move the needle? Diane focused on, like she went through that whole Z on the SWOT analysis, and then diving in, what are our core strengths? How can we exploit those? How can we exploit that online and surrounding yourselves subject matter experts. You don’t need to be the expert on everything. You don’t need to be expert on anything, but you can be the expert on lining yourself up with the right people. Diane, you have a deep bench of subject matter experts. You You’re found in your dad’s footsteps playing quarterback so as recovery specialist. You love playing that quarterback role. Is that right? Okay?
DiAnn Beyer 47:02
I do do. I like it. I’m going to go back to what you said, surround yourself with experts, right? I like I don’t like to be the smartest person in the room. I want to be learning from somebody else. I know my key strengths and skills, and I am willing to bring them to any table. But I want to surround myself with the people who are going to bring their skill set and help me learn and grow. And that’s where the true manic magic happens. That’s where the numbers exponentially change, right? That’s where growth takes off. Because I don’t have to be the master of everything, right, right? And trying to be the master of everything, I’m going to be the master of nothing, right? And I can stay focused on what I’m good at, and I can surround myself with colleagues who are experts in their fields. That’s what makes difference, and that’s a game changer. And I’ll circle back to mindset. That’s one of the things that she brings up here. She speaks about Lee Iacocca when he took over the car company, just be surrounded with people who were yes men who just told him he was great because he wanted to be the smartest person in the room, and it led to great failures. And I totally believe that there’s lots of examples in the book of that happening is when we bring our strengths to the situation and bring our circle of people and we work together, that’s when true growth and prosperity happens.
Curt Anderson 48:29
Next question, just savoring. We’re just savoring. Okay? Diane Beyer, my dear friend. So first off, everybody, please connect with Diane. Last question, best business advice that you’ve ever received, or that you would love to pass along to young entrepreneur out there, or maybe a seasoned entrepreneur, they just need to hear some good advice. What do you have for us?
DiAnn Beyer 48:55
So best business advice, I’m gonna I’m gonna answer it this way. My parents gave me a lot of good personal advice. Dad was a master of sayings curtain. You know the story, dad would say, get your attitude right. You know, attitude is everything to make sure you get it right. And that led him to recover from a stroke where he was told he was going to be paralyzed for the rest of his life and actually learn to walk again and drive and live an incredible life post stroke for 10 years, there’s a lot of of personal advice I’ve gotten that has meant the world to me. I’m going to throw it back at you. The best business advice that I’ve ever gotten was from the two of you know your soulmate, know your customer. Those conversations took me back to you know, surface level, where, who, who am I serving? What’s my but it forced me to dig deeper. And go. Where are the pain points? How do I help them become the hero of their story? How can I be the best service to them that they need? How can we elevate and it also cut the noise out of those who are not truly my soulmates, those who are truly don’t need my services, and that enabled me to move my focus to where it really needed to be. So I thank you.
Curt Anderson 50:30
Thank you. That was very, very that warmed my heart. Thank you, Diane and my gosh, what? All right, one last question, I guess I lied. Did I have one last Do you know my baseball question? Do you know my baseball I
DiAnn Beyer 50:44
think I do, and I think I’m ready for it. I love
Curt Anderson 50:47
but I love running the bases. I want to tee it up. You ready? Go ahead. Okay, it’s Philadelphia. Phillies are playing a dreaded match. It’s the bottom of the ninth. Bryce Harper, standing on second base. We need a single two outs bottom of the ninth. Manager turns on the bench. Says, Hey, buyer, yep, grab your helmet, grab your bat, get up to the plate. Hit. Bryce Harper, in for the winning run. Diane Beyer, what is your walk up song, my friend?
DiAnn Beyer 51:15
So if you had asked me a year or two ago that that, I would have said center field by John feldgra, okay, I love it, especially since there’s a line in there about Casey at the bat and my man name was Casey, but running the bases put me in, being there for my clients when you need me, I’ll sit the bench until you need me and then call me in when you do. I’d love that. That was originally what I would have said was my walk up now, I would say, here comes the sun by The Beatles, because in dealing with manufacturers who’ve been struggling with all the changes in the industry, with how heavy and dark and and difficult it can be sometimes we all need a little sunshine and to just have that hope coming, that we can work together. We can raise the beat we can work with our team. We can embrace Harper off of first and get the team a win. Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. There we go again.
Curt Anderson 52:24
Nobody’s ever used that one. Here comes. No. What a great song. So yeah, go out there, jump on YouTube, pull up the sun if you’re not familiar, if you haven’t heard in a while, great song, Diane, thank you. That was just such a wonderful song. Damon takeaways, thoughts, what are your what’s going through your
Damon Pistulka 52:39
mind right now? Oh, just thanks for being here today. Diane, just appreciate you stopping by.
DiAnn Beyer 52:44
I appreciate you guys more than you know. Oh, right back
Curt Anderson 52:48
at you. So, all right, Damon, we will close out. So first off, a huge, huge, huge, thank you to everybody that joined us today. If you’ve been hanging out with us, I look at the clock we’ve we’re at 53 minutes, right this, you know, it’s a great time to stand up and stretch. And how about, let’s give Diane a big stand innovation for just this masterclass. Yes, how to, you know, just really crush it, taking manufacturing marketing strategies to the next level. Tons and tons of incredible value bombs throughout the entire conversation. Diane on a personal I want to tell you how much I thank you, how much I appreciate you, how much you mean to me, my family. You are truly a blessing, a gift. You make everybody around you just better, brighter. And when you talk about here comes a son, I just say, Here comes Diane. So just what a perfect song for you. And just thank you for making 2025 on my on a professional level, such a wonderful, amazing year. And I, I appreciate you more than you know, and I thank you. From by my heart. Damon, take it away,
DiAnn Beyer 53:51
brother.
Damon Pistulka 53:52
All right. Well, Diane, thanks for being here. I want to reiterate what Kurt said, Just Thanks for Thanks for being and being in our lives. It’s awesome. It’s awesome. It’s awesome. And thanks for sharing today like you did.
DiAnn Beyer 54:03
It’s Thank you. I appreciate you both more than words can say.
Damon Pistulka 54:08
So awesome. Well, thanks everyone for dropping the comments. We see there’s other people listening too. We didn’t see the comments from you, but we know you’re out there. Thanks for being there. If you got into this late go back to the beginning. Start over because Diane was sharing some golden nuggets over and over, and you will appreciate it. If you do, we’re going to be out for now, but we’ll be back again with another awesome guest. Thanks, everybody. We’ll see you later. You.
