welcome to the art of succession podcast
with Barrett young join us as we explore
the strategies stories and insights that
shape the Journey of leadership
Transitions and business success no
matter where you find yourself along the
journey this is the podcast where you'll
find the tools to make it happen I would
get involved in other aspects like sales
and whatnot but nowhere near to the
extent that I am now you know retirement
was something that he never thought he
would do um you know we'll figure it out
when we'll figure it out when the
biggest lesson I learned was how to just
put one foot in front of the other my
name is Barrett young and this is the
arst succession podcast my guest today
is Garrett Noak president of lamothermic
a Manufacturing Company in New York
Garrett welcome to the artistic
session thanks for having me
Barrett so we've got a story that we're
gonna unpack today uh your father was
the president of the company and then he
unfortunately passed what year did he
pass in uh
2022 okay so he passed just just under
three years ago and you found yourself
at the age of 25 taking over this
Manufacturing Company um before we get
into that what what's interested you in
telling this story today on the artist
succession um hopefully reaching the one
person out there that's in my shoes and
can look back and say
you could do it
too all right I appreciate that thank
you so much for being open and candid in
this interview so did your father start
the company just tell me a little bit
about the origin of the company quite
briefly sure um yeah so we make
investment
castings um for commercial industrial
use um anything you can think of dad
founded the company back in 1976 he was
working for the company that builts our
induction furnaces that we used to melt
um the metal and he was working for that
company and um was getting a little
stagnant in that role and said I I can
do this whole casting thing too and went
and uh built the company so he uh
started in my grandparents basement and
got a location here Cold Springs down
the road couple years later moved to
Pauling and now we're in Brewster we've
been here for probably about 30
something years so okay kind how it
started so you grew up in this business
then I did I've been running around this
place since I was you know yay tall with
my scooter and my old Sony
Walkman okay did did Dad have any
co-founders or anything or uh uh he
started the business uh with a college
roommate um and they
saw different Visions for the business
so they split ways my uncle joined the
business so my father and my uncle uh
really kind of built it from the ground
up okay gotcha uh is your uncle still in
the business or uh as of last year uh he
is retired and it's me okay all right so
your your father then wasn't 100% owner
at the time of his passing correct but
he was the acting president and and
running the company that's correct okay
uh had you been involved in the business
tell me a little bit about your
involvement up up until that point sure
um like I said I've been running around
these walls since I was a little kid and
when I became 16 I started working in
the business you know officially rather
than just helping my dad push the button
a kid um and I would come here after
school when I was in high school and
work a couple hours here a couple hours
there I'd come in on the
weekends uh then I went to college uh I
graduated from senior news with a degree
in mechanical engineering and during my
college breaks I
would come and work kind of like a
engineering intern if you will when I
graduated college I got hired full-time
as a manufacturing engineer here and
spent probably uh let's see if I do the
math correctly about four years doing Ma
up until Dad's passing okay so from
teenage years it was your purpose to
come into the family business then yeah
it was kind of my intent um I was really
big into computers when I was younger
and I went off to school thinking I'm
going to be a computer engineer I don't
need this dirty manufacturing stuff and
and then one day I had a professor that
gave a presentation in mechanical
engineering and I just sat there and at
the end of the presentation I said what
in the world am I doing this is so cool
and um had I do it all again I'd
probably gone to school for
manufacturing engineering rather than
mechanical engineering but yeah that's
what kind of flipped the switch and one
day I just kind of made the decision I
think this is what I want to do and it
still is what I want to do okay
interesting um and give me just a
ballpark on the size of the company like
number of employees uh volume or
anything like that that you're you're
comfortable sharing sure
um we've been as high as probably about
130 people um currently we're about
53 um when I took over the business we
were at um about 70 in change um 2024
was a slower year than I had liked um
but we resided in a 50,000 foot facility
we've run as much as three shifts almost
247 for the most part um um we're about
$12
million okay are I mean do you have like
large Supply or large customers or is it
more small order like what's that look
like um a little bit of everything um we
have some very large customers that make
things that you and I use every single
day you see them all around the world in
terms of automotive and I got the guy
down the road that's rebuilding you know
a barn and want some door handles made
so uh everything in between okay so I'm
I'm just trying to get a I'm trying to
get some context here of what you're
stepping into at at 25 years old so what
I stepped into I'd say you know we're we
haven't grown all that much about a12
million company we had about 70 change
employees running three
shifts pretty stable other than like
supply chain issues and covid and stuff
like that so that's kind of what I what
I stepped into I was going to say that's
about the timeline it sounds oh yeah
that was a um a painful time in terms of
the supply chain and Co and everything
yeah um but it's a wellestablished
business um when I got into it I
definitely saw room for improvement and
there were some red flags in my
mind but when Dad pass past it was kind
of my first priority to take care of
some of those things when I stepped in I
was kind of like drinking out of a fire
hose you know I had gone to school for
engineering I think what I'd say is
proficient in doing some of the
engineering things
here had no formal training and how to
run a business or any of the legal or HR
matters or anything like
that yeah prior to his passing what was
your what was your role were you a
department head or shadowing him what
what did that look like just a
manufacturing engineer um I was
developing processes for the products
that we
manufacture
um from you know Soup To
Nuts but that was really kind of it my
Niche was in engineering and I would get
involved in other aspects like sales and
whatnot but now I near nowhere near to
the extent that I am
now so I was kind of just dipping my
toes in the water dad didn't really have
a succession plan which was kind of the
hardest part for me gotcha but prior to
that you were I mean how many mechanical
engineers would you guys have on staff I
mean one of 10 one of three what about
one of three one of four okay gotcha so
you're kind of in the middle even though
you're you know the owner's kid and
everything like that have been running
around doing this for six years
but so you don't have like department or
budget uh responsibility or anything at
this point no at that point no not at
all okay um and your father passed of
cancer correct yeah he lost his third
battle unfortunately I'm sorry uh how
how many years has had he been uh
fighting this um so he got red
diagnosed um with cancer in 20 20 so on
top of Co which was a nightmare in
itself um that's when he was diagnosed
so we spent you know two and change
years battling what everyone else was
battling in terms of the world of Co and
whatnot and we were battling you know
dad being sick let you know Co aside
imuno
compromised a difficult way of living
if you will um it was a very emotional
time in my life and you know when I
think about it it's still
emotional
but it was something
that you know you do the best you
can yeah prior to that his first two uh
bouts with with cancer I mean were you a
a child when he first was diagnosed
yeah I was a child I don't remember how
what age I was but I I was too young to
understand um and it was difficult on my
mom
and my brother was a little bit too
young to understand but my sister
understood by the time I understood what
had happened it had happened and you
know he was in remission for you know 18
years or something like that I don't
know the exact amount okay almost your
entire life then yeah yeah and
um um his second
battle was when I was in college
so we thought that kind of cleared up
and then it progressed into a different
or was a you know it became a different
type of cancer so it was you know we're
going down the road this way and it said
well we're going that way type of
deal
okay I appreciate you sharing that I
know it's it's touchy and emotional sure
um so you you came in sounds like right
before the third bout with cancer
started again yep and and you said he
passed without a succession plan
so I I I mean succession planning for
any business owner is hard enough
already we don't want to you know we
don't want to admit that there's an end
out there um I imagine fighting cancer
you just have to stay optimistic and not
give in to that is that is that why he
was wasn't putting he wasn't
prioritizing succession planning do you
think can't really tell you what was
going through his head other than it
wasn't um on the top of his to-do list
my dad like me loved what he did and you
know retirement was something that he
never thought he would do um you know
we'll figure it out when we'll figure it
out when well when came and
gone so it wasn't something that he was
really
um thinking
about okay how much planning had he done
I mean had he had he put anything in
place is it like a 20-year-old will
or uh yeah we had a you know he had a
will um but it really didn't do much in
terms of me figuring out anything with
the business there was
a um
you know outdated drafts of things but
nothing too
crazy gotcha so I mean if we can can we
talk about this for a little bit because
a lot of people think you know wills and
Estates and trusts and things like that
and they think oh if I just write it
down in that it's going to take care of
the
family but business owners need an
operations plan I mean there's oh that's
the majority of it in my opinion um
doesn't matter what you put down on
paper if you don't have a plan to
execute who cares what's on paper you
won't be able to do it yeah especially
if if you don't have a family member
involved in the business or signing
power over checks and bank accounts and
things like that um it could take months
to try to unfreeze assets or get in
contact with a with a um Trustee of a
any estate plan but you've got payroll
coming up this next week so yeah um
lessons learned that you want to share
or re or just enforce from
that um the biggest lesson I learned was
how to just put one foot in front of the
other every day for quite a long time
until I was starting to feel confident
in what I was doing U we
have had and still have u a wonderful
team that helped me
get through it um to a point where I
felt a little bit more
stable but the biggest lesson I take
away like I said is just learning how to
keep
going a a a good therapist and um some
good hard work goes a long way and
organization learn as much as you can
every day because you don't want to be
rushed to do at all a short period of
time I mean if you don't want to please
stop me sure but talk me through that
first month after he passed I mean you
have to wake up you have to go in and
then you also have employees who've
probably been working with them for 15
20 maybe even 40 years at this point and
you have to get them to show up and do
the work I mean was there grief
counselor involved for the team or just
a lot of touching checking in and um a
lot of checking in yeah I'll tell you as
as much as I can from the beginning
um I remember the morning that dead had
passed and we got a call from the doctor
saying you know this was the
end and that for me is where it started
um obviously took the day off
and we waited for the end to come it was
kind of slow and
painful I took about two days off to
grieve and I came into the
office and that's when I said all right
it's it's time to keep
going everyone here was holding the
weight for me and my uncle was here and
he said all right Garrett it's time to
go you I said all right let's do it and
the next you know several weeks it was
all right well Dad has a empty desk here
um what do I do with that I spent a lot
of time cleaning the desk because Dad
has all these files what are
these went through those
um yeah I was checking in with myself
checking in with the people that work
for me you know
it was a difficult time for
everyone but everyone kind of stood on
each other's shoulders it
was you know this is what Dad would have
wanted dad would want would have wanted
us to do it this way and while you know
that's kind of hard in today's way of
thinking at the you know immediate month
after his passing was
um you know let's let's make Dad proud
and let's keep you know doing the thing
I need to get done and uh it was
probably a week or two after that I said
all right I need to learn what to do
like I said we have a team that that
kept me
going but a lot of the the growing pains
were me figuring it
out and you
know kind of by the way it goes making
it my own
style I I didn't have a whole lot of
time working with my dad in the capacity
of what it means to run a business I had
time with him doing engineering related
projects but I have no idea what my dad
would have said on half the things I
needed to ask him about running a
business so who I mean who were you able
to lean on during this time had your
uncle had any experience running the
business too or um advisor CPA anything
attorney yeah I had a a good amount of
people people um our general manager
that was running the plant for you
know 30 about 30 years or something at
the time really has a good grasp on the
way the business runs and my uncle was
here you know doing the
same most of the the key managers I have
were the ones
that held their own and helped me create
my own
way my my first
goal probably in the six the six months
after my Dad's passing for me mentally
was you know stabilize what what do I
need to do to stabilize because I felt
very unstable at the time you know I
didn't know what I didn't know and U it
was a
rapid exercise and learning of learning
the things I I I don't know
I I mean a company of 70 you've you've
got to have systems and HR and um
accounting department sales different
kinds of things am I am I correct in
that and so those things had been set up
in advance and kind of just leaned on
those some of the things some of them
not so much you know we don't have an
accounting department we have somebody
that does accounting that interfaces
with our accountants and you know same
thing with HR and their sales team was
one at the time so like I didn't have
these big you know giant teams of
people but I had people and so they just
kept doing while you're taking these six
months to stabilize they're just kind of
business as usual trying to keep things
going the way that they had been going
yeah I'd say that's a good description
of it it was you know we do have systems
and
processes that kept things going yeah
like you said you know business as usual
um but from a leadership of the business
standpoint that's really where I needed
to to fill the gaps because anyone knows
you know how to follow the directions
and push the buttons but um you know in
terms of where is the company going from
here is
a much larger
question yeah uh what happen you know
when do we decide the directions need to
change yeah exactly and and for me that
was the the the biggest thing
understanding the you know prior to this
I had no real understanding of the
financial situation the company and it
was all a black box to me and it was
like all right time to open the box and
dig in and see what's
there all that was kind of done as
needed as needed
to and you know that kind of led me into
the next phase of after I stabilize you
know what do I learn that will help me
grow and then how do I grow and develop
and now I find myself in this growing
and developing stage you know here we
are almost uh you know three years later
it's a totally different picture Okay um
I definitely want to get into what
you've done with the company and made it
your made it your
own I I mean I don't want you to feel
like you're dishonoring your dad but
what kind of messes did you find what
kind of what kind of mess do people
leave because they always think I can
fix this
tomorrow a lot of things that my
dad didn't know about you know he was
really great
engineer um not so
much a person that wanted to really
drive a company in a direction you know
he didn't um he didn't find that part as
fun as an exciting as I do which is you
know totally fine
um I wouldn't say there was anything
messy if I had to get close to the term
messy it probably would have
been just the way that there weren't any
there wasn't a blueprint on how to keep
going there was no if Dad piss past then
do this type of thing um yeah there
there was no plan I think that was the
part that that bothered me it was I I
knew things that had to get done
but not from you know
dad's planning um the size that you guys
were at and number of employees and just
the the size of your customers and
everything were there I mean was there
any fear that Revenue was going to dry
up I don't know if your dad was involved
in that relationship side of sales or
not oh yeah he was and I was fearful of
that but no one else was I'm proud to
say we didn't lose a single customer
over the that Dad wasn't around we
didn't lose a single employee du the
fact that Dad wasn't around so the the
brand of the business remained even
though I had concerns about
it that's that's amazing yeah anything
else uh around this that I haven't asked
or um haven't PRI
into
um not off the top of my head no okay
all right so the first six months did
were you able I assume within the first
six months to stabilize the company did
that go faster than expected did it go
slower than expected uh it went faster
than expected you know stabilize the
company maybe isn't the right term
because it's not like we were you know
about to crash or anything it was more
so you know we're kind of on autopilot
and there's a time and a place for when
you get a down you know off of autopilot
and you know who's going to fly the
plane type of thing um you know we were
we were moving forward in in an okay
Direction um stabilize for me was
understand the systems and what are the
next steps going to look like and yeah I
was able to do that um a lot of hours a
lot of soul searching quite frankly um
you know now it was well what do I want
to do it was no longer well what did Dad
and I want to do it was
what did I want to do walk me through
that first decision to change something
what what's going on in your mind
emotionally you know is this the right
thing is it too fast is it too soon talk
talk me through that first change I have
a bunch of them and I still have some
today and I probably always will um but
probably one of the biggest things is in
the summer of 23
uh we gutted a part of our production
facility to revamp it um the induction
melter that we used to melt our
metal
was you know had seen better days and we
decided that we were going to buy and
Implement a new one and the company that
we bought the melter from is where dad
started off his career before he decided
to create this
business and people that I talked to
during the sale remember
dead um and we
took um at least 10 days and gutted out
our operation where if we tried to turn
turn the lights back on it wouldn't
worked um we redid everything we broke
up floors we replumbed this and redid
the electrical lines on that um and we
spent hour and hours and all I could
think was is am I going to be able to
you know turn this thing on at the end
of the day and get back to where we
were and it was probably the most
stressful day of my career when we went
to turn the machine on and it didn't
work and I said I've spent 10 days and I
was part of the crew too I was up on the
boom leftt and everything and I'm like
we spent 10 days and this thing's not
turning on and everyone has to come to
work two days from now and I'm supposed
to pay people this week what do you mean
it doesn't work and um the poor guy
commissioning the unit um heard it for
me but uh it was a false alarm they put
the wrong sticker on the machine and had
the wrong settings in but I was very
scared you know I was I made the
decision that we're going to revamp this
thing and we're going to spend 10 days
shut down we you know making this thing
better and all I can remember is
standing there watching my con my
contractor Jackhammer the floor part and
I'm sitting there all right well there
goes that part there goes that part and
U once he started breaking up the deck I
was like should I have done this can I
can I manage to turn the operation back
on um we did it and it worked great
something that we're all really proud of
but boy was I scared boy was I unsure if
I was going to be in business a week
later after
some of the headaches I had that
week I mean given that was your dad's
experience I I imagine he was that
person running the entire show in the
past when you guys had installed these
right yeah and here I am call the
shots yeah all that all that knowledge
that was stored in his head he just he
knew it to do kind of thing yep yep he
did just for context because I am an
accountant and I love this kind of stuff
uh how many what's the dollar amount of
the size a piece of equipment and and
just complete install that we're talking
about here probably when it's all said
and done you know like labor and
materials and Contracting in the
unit
uh
probably half a million's too low but
three quarters is probably too much okay
somewhere in that range not exactly
pocket change for my a business yeah
yeah and you have how many of these
operating one usually oh just this is it
we had two one was broken and one was on
the
fritz and I mean you know when we're
down for a day and that machine turns
off and it's not melting metal you know
I'm losing Revenue at tremendous
speed
um and I just decided you know if I if I
could go three days without this running
it would you know pay for the
machine and eventually it would break
and it would break and I didn't have
somebody to fix it and i' have to call a
technician and the dollar started adding
up really quick I said we need to do
something different
here so all right uh after you
identified the problem was it another
day of refiguring everything or was it
oh yeah it was about a day to get things
back up and running but it was scary
probably this one of the scariest days
of my
career um I started kind of going
through my head you know what do I need
to do to make sure people have jobs you
know in a couple days from now and that
they're going to stay in the payroll
things like
that but at the end of the day it worked
really well I mean it was a it was a
long project in the planning we probably
spent eight months planning it a lot of
hard work and commitment from everyone
and
I'm so glad we did it it worked great
just boy was I terrified in the
moment so since that since then that
that first big project I mean have you
what kind of Direction have you chosen
since now you're no longer just keeping
going in the same direction you you
mentioned you're down about a third of
your Workforce is it re is it shifting
your business model or anything like
that the biggest thing that we saw was
during Co everyone would buy a lot of
product from us and the supply chains
were so disrupted that they said oh I
better go buy more so and that pushed
our lead times out which made somebody
else say oh that takes a long time to
get my product better buy more so people
bought and bought and bought kind of
like toilet paper I mean you go through
castings a lot slower than you do toilet
paper though right so we kind of saw the
flip side of people um having too much
in on their shelves and that's kind of
what we saw in late 23 through 2024 so
that was kind of our reducing head count
we're on our way back up now um we're
actively hiring people and I see nothing
but some really great things for 25 and
26 in terms of new business um the
direction I'm taking the company is it's
different than what Dad would do um we
are not an ISO 90001 certified company
but hopefully by the end of March we
will
be
um and and what's that mean for you guys
um ISO 90001 is a international standard
that dictates Quality Management Systems
you know basically the way you run your
business and how do you follow the
processes that you have and ensure that
the business is in tune for risks and
things like that and there's a you know
a portion of succession planning you
know in that standard if you will um so
for us it means getting new business
because we essentially will hold their
certificate that says we have got
through the checklist of what you're
looking for you know it's a pretty
competent industry
certification um it's it's a culture
shift it's you know we're going to do
things by the book now rather than go by
the seat of our pants and if we say
we're going to do this we're going to do
this um it's a it's a culture
change you know Dad wasn't big on on
that
that uh that way of going but it's
something I think is really valuable for
the business because if you implement
the requirements of the certification
it'll make your business better and
it'll open doors for New Opportunities
so it's something we've been working on
for the last probably close to a year
now okay so it's more of a reliability
certification not like a tolerance or a
Precision kind of measurement of what
you could do some of it is
um for the most part yeah it's you know
are you doing what you say you do and do
you have ABC to make sure that your
company Works U you know in this
manner um you know I'm I'm targeting
markets that uh and customers that I
feel
are really good for the business and
while I'm never going to kick a customer
out a
door focusing my efforts on the ones
that matter more than that you know I'm
getting a good Roa good Roi
on you know we've had customers over the
years that we've struggled to do you
know good business with you know those
have kind of dropped out I think the
biggest thing that
um is different is I I hold a extremely
high standard the way that I want the
business to operate U and I love what I
do and I want everyone in this business
to want to come to work you know I
understand not everyone's obsessed with
what they do but come to work doing
something that you find meaningful
rewarding that you want to be part of a
team that achieves a common goal um and
if you have the attitude that you're
going to row the boat in the other
direction then you know you're better
off at you know a different
company and it's something that I have
little tolerance for so that's
definitely different too
where do you think that comes from
because I mean you shared three years
ago when when Dad passed you had none of
the business side the understanding of
you know what makes this kind of company
so I mean where's that come from for
you um you mean in terms of the
knowledge the attitude or the attitude
like what what helped you to develop
that that different approach than
Dad um do you think it's a it's a time
like a period of your life thing like do
you think he was that way when he
started a company in the 70s and 80s or
I don't I don't really know what how he
was but for me it's about I think the
type of person I am the type of person
I'd want to work for the type of
business I would want to work for um and
I've gotten a lot of and I mean a lot of
great resources to lean
on local councils here that I'm a part
of peer leadership groups that I'm a
part
of business owners that I know that I
can pick up the phone and call when
there's an issue you know how would you
approach this problem how would you
approach this and it's kind of just been
like this giant
encyclopedia in my back pocket
that well isn't really right has a lot
of different ways of going about
different situations and I feel very
confident the network that I've grown so
I think a big part of it is n networking
who do you know and what have they been
through don't make the same mistakes
that somebody else has already made that
they can tell you to not do what they
did um that type of thing i' I've met
one of my you know friends and mentors
is somebody I didn't know him he knew my
dad and he came to my dad's wake and
says you don't know me but I know you
you know come come by my shop next week
and let's talk and people that want to
see me
succeed have been really really
helpful I think the
the thing that kind of glues everything
together is the
culture and I think it's
just what kind of culture of a business
would you want to be in you know no one
wants to be at a business where they
constantly can't stand you know this
person or that
person so I mean it sounds like you're
Shifting the culture maybe slowly or
just focusing it or you know I know in
our business I've I've got clients
who've been clients of our firm longer
than I've been alive even much longer
than I've been here um and some of those
clients will still throw that well
that's not the way things used to be
around here how did you go
about casting a vision for that change
getting people on board and then making
the hard decisions if somebody is rowing
in the wrong direction that they need to
get out how how did you build support
behind you for that
um and I know it's probably in process
still so it's it is in process but um
finding the right as Jim colins said in
his book Finding you know getting the
right people in the right seats on the
right bus and you know once I identified
who's in the right seats on the right
bus U it makes it pretty obvious who
isn't and I still struggle with the well
that's not the way your dad would have
done it or you know 20 years ago we used
to do this and at some
point just have to draw the line in the
sand and it took a long time for me and
sometimes I still go back on the other
the other side of the line but uh you
know as a business owner and somebody
that's trying to create a culture and
you know develop a
business the people that want to see you
succeed I think it's very obvious that
they want to help you and they'll be
there for you to do the things that need
to get
done
and I think Drawing the Line is
something that just needs to be done um
you know especially with some people
that have been here a long time I you
know I appreciate that you've been doing
this for X period x years like this but
I want you to you know take the skills
that you have and I want you to do them
like that and most people have really
come along come a long way with that
type of attitude it's appreciating the
work that people have put in and valuing
what they've contributed to the company
but realizing that you know we're here
and you know we're going to go here and
sorry but that's where we're going
then the right people people that are on
the right people in the right seats they
get it yeah did you have Champions
within the company I mean I know you had
mentors and you know did you have
anybody in the company that started to
see that Vision early on and then help
you spread it within the company oh I
think it's still
ongoing I think a leader is not somebody
that's defined by their role as being at
the top of the organization you can be a
leader and be at the bottom of the
organization and the you know the or
chart and yeah once the
people identifi that this is the way
that you know we want to go I think the
attitude
spreads uh relatively quickly maybe not
as fast as say a bad attitude but yeah
it it does spread I didn't per se have
anyone that says you know this is the
way we're going to do it because Garrett
said so this way um but people that got
the message you know well whether it was
me explaining it you know word for word
or understanding it in the actions that
I took am
taking
okay um I'm interested in the operations
of a company your size with that many
employees where do you find yourself
today in like daily weekly operations
what's what's that look like a little
bit of everywhere uh I started out after
Dad passed kind of
what needs to get done and how are we
going to do it and I find myself wanting
to actually do it and my idea was all
right I need to learn how to do all
these things so that I can uh you know
help the people that are doing them and
I think that's important um
some I think some people in my shoes
don't understand that they don't have to
do everything but they have to have
enough knowledge to not have you know
the carpet split from underneath them
that type of attitude yeah um in today's
day I've done enough of the things that
I think I really need to to know in
order to manage the other people that
are doing
them um and now my day-to-day
is
it's it's Unique in the sense that I'm
still doing some things that are you
know that have to get done like
clockwork but I spend a large portion of
my time setting the vision for the
company and supporting the goals that I
set for the year say you know we're
going to do X Y or Z for the year okay
so the actions that I do every day
whether it's interacting with people out
on the shop floor
or you know working with somebody on a
reporting system whatever I'm doing has
to support the actions
that that I have you know that I've set
for myself tell tell I mean I know
you've you've had to let people go so
tell me about your approach to hiring
and finding the right fit for new people
because you said you're planning on
scaling up here look 25 and 26 are going
to be growth years again so what are you
looking
for in
team
um I think the author's name is Patrick
lyion yeah
um the ideal team player that's the best
book for Noah
who you want on your team or not you
know the three key attributes of being
hungry humble and smart those are my big
three check boxes um hungry and humble
are the are the bigger of the two you
know I need people that they might not
know but they're going to find out you
know I had a basketball coach when I was
younger I says I don't want the All-Star
I want the guy that could be coached and
that's how I feel you know I don't want
the people that are going to tell me
that's not my job or that's not in my
job description I want people to say oh
I want to learn how to do that how can I
contribute towards the success of the
company for the people that come in here
that I bringing on my team they have to
have those attributes and they have to
be people that understand the vision of
the company understand that this is a a
team approach this is a place where
people can build careers and you know
have satisfying career um where they're
not just a number so so you know in
looking for people that's kind of the
attitude
that you know I'll take I I'll ask a
bunch of technical questions on
interviews as well but you know they
could hit home runs on the
technical aspects of the interview if
they can't prove to me that there's
somebody that is willing to learn and
develop and Advance then it's not enough
for me so that's kind of where I set the
bar high in times in terms of the people
that I want here
I you know I don't go
with the notion
of yeah they're really good at their job
but you know they're a pain to work
with I set the line very
clear um I assume then you're involved
in the hiring still of all all employees
at this point um yep for most part um I
don't get deep in the woods in terms of
some of the machine operator positions
we have but anything above that yeah
pretty involved in do you have a
favorite question or how how do you cut
through the interview BS to actually to
find that in a candidate oh I've got a
lot of good
questions um I think one of
them there so many good ones I think one
of the ones that I asked that brings out
true colors in people
is where do most companies miss the
boat because if somebody's going to tell
me that most companies miss the boat
on insert whatever I don't want
here uh then it's going to be pretty
obvious to me and then the other thing
is what's what motivates them you know
I'm looking for somebody that's
motivated by learning by uh performing
working with people that they want to be
with you know the answers to what
motivates somebody usually
Finds Its way into my three key
attributes somewhere along the lines if
they like to learn you know they say
they're motivated by learning things
they're hungry they you know like
working within a team they're motivated
by teamwork they're humble you know that
that type of thing
um a lot of it is just learning to kind
of understand when people are telling
you what you know they think you want to
hear versus whether you're having a genu
more of a conversation with somebody you
know obviously obviously within
professional uh you know bounce but when
it becomes so much of an interview where
you can tell that they're just telling
you what you want to hear you know I
have no interest in that type of
conversation
gotcha um other than a culture of
excellence and saying we're heading this
direction we're we're heading towards a
higher quality or higher level of
customer how else how else are you
building culture in your company over
the past three
years um I think one of the things
is the commitment that we make to our
customers I would like the you know the
culture within the company is something
that you know has improved and is
improving but also the culture on the
outside of the company um we've
struggled to you know hit ontime
deliveries and things like that um and
I've set some pretty high expectations
for anyone that's interfacing with a
customer the expectation of anyone
interfacing with a customer is they're
going to hear back to you today you know
unless you're sick or something like
that you know if you're out of the
office you have your out of the office
on but the point is they know that they
could pick up the phone and talk to
somebody and they might not get their
answer today but they're going to hear
from somebody and they're going to know
when they get their answer so the way
that the company has perceived from the
outside world is something that's really
important to me that I've been working
on
gotcha um how are you developing
leaders within the company to move
up identifying the people that are
hungry humble and smart give them as
many opportunities to
succeed you know the beauty of being in
a small business is we don't have
somebody that only does one thing we all
wear a bunch of hats who wants to take
the most hat and learn the most
things and then they will naturally lead
up I have had people that I've you know
grooming
or have started to develop into you know
some of the more key roles here because
they are the ones that say gett I want
to do this Garrett I want to
learn I see the way that you want to
take the company I want to help you get
there those are the people that identify
to me as the leaders of of a business
because you know they hold that same
Visionary type attitude and then in
terms of how I actually go about doing
it we're a team here so if you don't
know you ask and if you know you find
out I've sent a lot of people to
trainings that pay for
schooling you know whatever courses
somebody comes up to me and say Garrett
I want to learn about this because I
take this
class most of the time I say
yes gotcha awesome
uh Garrett before we move on to the
lightning round is there is there
anything else that I haven't asked yet
or haven't covered that you want to
add
um I think it's really important for
business owners to understand
that there's more to business and
money there's a real people aspect and
that's something that I enjoy I mean
everyone you know everyone running a
business wants to run a profitable
company and
hopefully it's for the right reasons to
be able to you know invest in their
people and make the world a better place
via their contribution of their business
that's something that I think
is under undervalued and quite frankly
not enough people that aren't running
businesses understand that yeah thanks
for sharing that that's
great all right uh I'll do a lightning
round at the end of my episode so are
you ready to go let's go all right uh do
you you prefer coffee or tea and how do
you like it prepared uh tea and Any
Which
Way hot or cold both I prefer hot gotcha
gotcha okay um pie or cake and do you
have a favorite kind
cake um pton lava cake okay all
right um I mean you just shared one for
business owners but what's a common
belief among entrepreneurs that you
would want to challenge
the way teams are built rather than just
you know paying somebody and say you
know go do this here's your job help
them get there all right uh do you have
a favorite holiday and why Thanksgiving
it's low stress eat bunch of good food
no presents everyone just it's a good
time to practice
gratitude awesome love it um are you a
morning or a night person and do you
have a favorite routine that you like
morning wake up walk upstairs to my home
gym workout whatever kind of workout it
is sit down do a 10-minute meditation in
the morning go downstairs have a bowl of
Greek yogurt with healthy toppings take
a nice shower make my tea head to work
what what what's one thing that you
would want your successor to remember
you for being
a leader um
providing the right people the right
opportunities um and where are you
finding creativity right now in your
work or for your work the leaders that
I've met a lot of people have a lot of
great ideas and I think AI is wonderful
as long as you don't use it to replace
your blame you know if you use it as a
supplement per se there's so much you
know time that can be saved and things
that can be done
I think we're on the verge of an
explosion here in a good way yeah are
you are you meeting monthly or weekly
with with your local peer groups what's
that look like for you um I am part of a
local CEO group that meets um every
other month of the group and every
alternating every other month with the
group leader and I'm a part of uh the
local manufacturing Council here that uh
will'll have
I'm not on the board but they'll have
board meetings that I
attend for you know quite frequently and
all sorts of different events that I'm
doing at least once a month that local
CEO group that you're in I mean how deep
into the weeds operations of each
other's businesses do you got do you
guys get are you like looking at
financials together is it sharing
just it's financials it's struggles it's
challenges it's making sure everyone is
doing what they need to do to work
towards their goal goals so kind of
holding each other
accountable nice how how many people in
that group uh I just joined recently and
we're at seven so it's and it's you know
non non-competing
interests people that have business
problems that doesn't matter what
business you're in awesome love it
Mastermind group that's great to hear
yeah uh what do you have coming up in
the next year that's got you really
excited everything I I love love what I
do there's so much fun to have but um
we're bringing on some new big accounts
uh we're going to get our ISO
certification like I mentioned during
the show um we have new people coming on
board you know developing
people all kinds of new projects that
are launching us into the 21st century
in terms of
Technology um I could go on and on that
ISO 9 901 I think is you said number
right what how long of a process is that
and do you have to hire a consultant to
audit it or how's that yeah we hired a
consultant um to work with us and I also
sent my director of quality to a
class to learn how to basically get our
certification depends on the company how
far along you are um we like to say that
we've always had it just without sticker
and we had some cleanup to do so it
could take years or you know couple
months for for somebody there's a lot of
internal audits that need to happen and
external audits that need to happen to
clean up the paperwork side of things
but we've been implementing new systems
over the last six months that need to be
implemented but it's definitely a work
progress so it's been under a year
though from the time you decided to when
you when you should finish this thing up
yeah we're coming up about a year now
gotcha and we had some time loss because
I was Ill earlier in the year so
collectively yeah okay uh and where can
people find out more information about
you Garrett I'm all over LinkedIn reach
me on LinkedIn um and there's some you
know my brief bio on lm.com but if
anyone's
interested shoot me a connection request
on link to awesome thank you so much for
sharing your story Garrett I appreciate
it no problem thanks you've been
listening to the art of succession
podcast with your host Barrett Young
twice a month we'll bring you interviews
sharing the successes and challenges
from business owners with their own
succession Stories the art of succession
is sponsored by gwcp and is provided for
informational purposes only before
engaging in any transaction you should
consult your own adviser if you've
enjoyed this episode please share it
with others and we'll see you on the
next one