Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Copper at the Core: How Jim Wargo and Electric Materials Supply the Building Blocks of Modern Technology | Manufacturing Series

Transcript

Copper at the Core: How Jim Wargo and Electric Materials Supply the Building Blocks of Modern Technology | Manufacturing Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Jim Margo. Jim is a sales representative at
0:21
the Electric Materials Company, founded in 1915.
0:25
They are a leading manufacturer of copper forgings, castings and
0:29
high quality electrical components for industries like
0:32
transportation, oil and gas, defense and power generation.
0:37
They operate out of a massive 420,000 square foot facility
0:42
offering custom engineered products and a fast 24/7 repair
0:47
service. Their mission reflects the motto
0:51
right the first time, on time, every time.
0:55
Now Jim has been a part of electric Material sales team
0:58
helping connect clients with reliable solutions.
1:01
He also has prior experience as the GM at the Lawrence Park
1:05
Diner in Lawrence Park, PA and was the head wine maker for a
1:10
local winery. Throughout his career, Jim has
1:13
shown strong dedication to top quality service, whether it's
1:17
supplying industrial components or running a restaurant.
1:21
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:24
brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where
1:27
we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that
1:31
are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your
1:34
bottom line. One recent client was able to
1:36
add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by
1:41
implementing one of our innovative programs.
1:44
Results vary for each company and some organizations may not
1:47
be eligible. To find out if your company
1:49
qualifies, contact us today at AD Back benefits.com.
1:53
All right, back to our guest today, the inside sales Rep at
1:57
The Electric Materials Company, Jim Wargo.
1:59
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:02
I appreciate the time with you, Anthony, and thank you for
2:04
reaching out and hopefully we can answer some questions here
2:08
and inspire people and just tell them what we're about.
2:12
All right, let's roll up our sleeves and do all that.
2:14
So before we get into talking about your role at the Electric
2:18
Materials Company, tell us a little bit about your time at
2:22
the diner. What made this place special and
2:26
what was your role there? Well, growing up, I grew up in a
2:29
town called Northeast, which is where Electric Materials is.
2:32
The Lawrence Park Diner always had this aura around it.
2:36
It was built for the GE facility that was in Erie, PA.
2:40
It's still there. It's now Wabtec, but it was
2:42
built for GE. They were running 3 shifts,
2:45
seven days a week. It was huge.
2:48
And they're celebrating 75 years.
2:50
Last year, they're under 76. So this little diner was brought
2:53
in and it's on the National Historical Registry.
2:57
And it was always, as a child, you remember the food there, You
3:02
know, I remember the Greek sauce.
3:03
The Greek sauce was amazing as a kid.
3:06
So it worked out that my best friend, she bought the diner and
3:12
I was kind of in between another job as a wine maker and she
3:16
asked me to help out one or two days.
3:18
So I did. All of a sudden, that turned
3:19
into six days a week. So I left the winery and started
3:23
working with her full time. So between the two of us, we
3:27
just nailed it. She's an amazing woman.
3:30
Don Van Skoder, amazing owner, amazing woman.
3:33
She has turned that into a top 10% in the world on TripAdvisor.
3:39
We had visitors from Germany, Jamaica, all over the world.
3:43
They come just for that place. It's world worldwide known.
3:47
It really is world known for the Greek sauce, the food.
3:51
Everything is done right in front of you.
3:52
There's no back kitchen cooking. That's where all the prep work
3:55
was that I was in charge of the prep work, kind of managing
3:59
that. But you have a chef on a 36
4:01
square inch grill cooking everything for 200 some patrons
4:05
a day. Wow.
4:06
Yeah, it is absolutely phenomenal.
4:09
And what's funny is the diner at Lawrence Park.
4:11
It's spelled with an OR not an ER like everywhere else, but
4:15
it's kind of like a northern Pennsylvania thing.
4:18
And the diner in Lawrence Park was the very first one to spell
4:22
it with an O because it was a spelling error.
4:24
They were opening, they were opening up 76 years ago.
4:30
And they ran an ad in the paper and said, come experience the
4:33
Lawrence Park diner. And they put it with an O.
4:36
So people were kind of joking around, oh, let's go see that
4:38
big mistake that they had. Let's go see the mistake.
4:40
Well, the food spoke for itself. So over the years, the food is
4:44
still speaking for itself. People recognize the O and it
4:48
just flourished from there. And as it is right now, they're
4:51
open 8:00 to 2:00 Monday. Mondays are closed, so Tuesday
4:56
through Sunday, 8 to 2. And sometimes there is like 1/2
5:00
hour wait just to get in there. Wow.
5:02
But. Everybody wants to come see the
5:04
OH. Everything wants to see the Oh,
5:06
absolutely. And and what's cool about it is
5:08
she has kept everything the same.
5:10
So the seats are sitting on the tile.
5:13
Everything is 76 years old, so it is absolutely, it is a
5:18
National Monument right there, right here in Lawrence Park.
5:22
And what's so special about the Greek sauce?
5:25
The Greek sauce, it's very special.
5:27
It's almost like a Coney Island sauce, but we had a lot of
5:32
Greeks in the Lawrence Park area and they gave a couple recipes
5:36
and all that. So I think it was about four
5:39
owners ago he came up and developed a Greek sauce with
5:41
those people and it has just flourished from then.
5:44
There's a bunch of Greek sauces in Erie.
5:47
I'm not a favoritism here on this one, but I will say the
5:49
Large Park Diner has the best in Erie.
5:52
OK, so how is it that you came to be the head wine maker at a
5:56
local winery? Is this something you'd had
5:58
previous experience you're training in?
6:01
Well, I always dabbled it in at home.
6:03
It was one of those hobbies where, you know, I had a carboy
6:05
off to the side making homemade wine.
6:08
And it's a story maybe we can get into later about a life
6:11
change and all that. But I became friends with the
6:14
family of a winery here called Arrowhead Winery.
6:19
They actually were the biggest in Pennsylvania three years ago.
6:24
They did just about half, 1,000,000 gallons of wine and
6:27
juice out the door. So a very big facility.
6:31
I'm supplying 60 some other wineries with product, but I got
6:36
to know the family making my own wine.
6:38
I worked with them a little bit behind the scenes in the grapes,
6:42
you know, because what we have around here, it's the second
6:44
largest grape growing region in America outside of that valley.
6:48
If you start in Geneva, OH, and you go up to the Finger Lakes,
6:52
the great region along I-90 corridor is the second largest
6:56
in America. And I was very fortunate to work
6:59
with the Mobileia family at Arrowhead.
7:02
And I worked in the vineyards a little bit just, you know, spare
7:06
time this that with the family and they moved me inside, said,
7:10
hey, if you're interested, we know you have a little bit of a
7:12
background in winemaking. So I worked with a head
7:15
winemaker. He eventually moved on.
7:18
I rolled into that position for about two years.
7:20
I became the head wine maker out there and I went from a simple 5
7:23
gallon carboy to walking into tanks.
7:26
I had 3000 gallons capacity. So what?
7:30
Did you have to change about your process going from smaller
7:33
scale to bigger scale? Timing.
7:37
The best part about wine? It's like home making beer.
7:42
Other spirits, the math stays the same.
7:45
So what you do in 5 gallons you the math is the same for 10,000
7:49
gallons, that that equation doesn't change, just the zeros
7:52
added change. So all you had to do was realize
7:57
OK, 5 gallons is only going to take two weeks to ferment where
8:01
3005 thousand gallons is going to take a little bit longer.
8:04
So you had to time everything just right so you would not run
8:07
out of product. At that time, I believe we had
8:10
like 35 different wines going in the winery.
8:13
So at that process we had everything going and we were
8:16
bottling for other companies. Other companies would bring us
8:19
their product. We would bottle.
8:20
We had the own bottle bottling line in there.
8:23
We had a deep freeze cooler that went to -20° that we could cold
8:29
press and everything there. All the grapes were pressed on
8:33
site. There was no juice bot.
8:35
So when it came harvest time, late August, early September,
8:39
for 90 days straight, we were there working with grapes.
8:43
So it was, it was an interesting process, it really was.
8:46
You know, it when you said it's the second largest grape growing
8:50
region in the country, that really surprised me because I,
8:54
you know, I think I've been to Napa and Sonoma, you know,
8:57
beautiful, but it's a particular type of climate and you know
9:01
where you are, you know, on the shores of Lake Erie, very
9:05
different climate there. What?
9:06
What is it that makes it such a great, great growing region?
9:11
Easy to say no, it's a, it's a good region because it's almost
9:15
like a microclimate. What's nice about it is the, if
9:19
anybody that knows the area, I-90 runs right along the whole
9:23
Lakeshore from Geneva to the Finger Lakes.
9:26
You get 5 miles South of I-90. There's no grapes.
9:30
But what's nice about Lake Erie, it is a very shallow, it's the
9:33
shallowest lake of all the Great Lakes.
9:35
So all the wind coming off during late fall, during harvest
9:40
is still that warm climate. While the temperatures getting
9:43
cold, we're still getting that warmer air off the lake.
9:46
So that helps feed it. So we're not getting any type of
9:48
frost or freeze. Same thing as in the summertime.
9:54
I mean, sorry, springtime down South Pittsburgh, West Virginia,
9:58
they're starting to get that thaw.
9:59
Buds are coming out. Some of those fruit trees, the
10:02
cherry trees are starting to see the buds also.
10:04
You get a deep freeze, those buds are killed.
10:06
You lose fruit. Up here, the lake is frozen.
10:10
So as those warm temperatures come, we might have a 50° day,
10:14
but those cold winds off the lake are keeping us at 30
10:17
degrees, 40°. So nothing is budding.
10:20
So if we do get that late freeze, none of the buds are
10:23
ruined. So it's actually a perfect
10:25
microclimate area to grow grapes.
10:28
And the soil is phenomenal. Back in the day, his name was
10:33
Mr. Phillips. He had thousands of acres of
10:37
Concord grapes. He was the largest grape grower
10:40
in America. And that was right here in
10:42
Northeast. And that is why Welch's,
10:44
everybody knows the name Welch's.
10:46
They have one of their largest facilities here in our town and
10:49
they work with all the farmers. So come the middle of September,
10:53
this whole town smells like grapes.
10:55
The the smell is phenomenal around here.
10:59
That's pretty interesting. OK, let's shift gears into what
11:02
you're doing now. How did the opportunity at
11:04
Electric Materials Company come about?
11:07
Well, it started. It was one of those nice stories
11:10
where I started on the floor. We have, we're very virtually
11:14
vertically integrated here. So we have our own shipping
11:17
department mill passing everything.
11:21
I started in the shipping department here.
11:24
So I got to see the product at the very end where I would
11:27
receive it. I'd make the box, put it in the
11:29
box, put the shipping labels on and get them out of here.
11:33
I then was asked to go to our other side, our salary side, and
11:38
kind of get worked into what's called an order editing
11:41
position. And what that is, is where we
11:43
take the customers verbiage and we switch it into our verbiage,
11:47
which we are accustomed to and we can build orders to.
11:50
So I was able to read the orders, see what the customer
11:53
needed, put it into our terms for production.
11:56
So I went from the very end from putting the product in the box
11:59
to now writing the order before it's even started.
12:02
I did that for about a year, year and a half.
12:04
And then I was asked if I was interested in sales.
12:08
I've always loved talking to customers, to people and I made
12:13
the switch to sales and I saw the very true beginning of it
12:16
where I'm working those customers relationships where
12:19
I'm calling them, they're calling me, I'm doing visits.
12:22
So I'm grabbing that order, working with the customer, then
12:26
going to the order editors who are there now, taking it all the
12:30
way through the process. So I did start basically at the
12:32
very end and now I'm at the very beginning and it's been a great
12:36
experience, you know, knowing, knowing the facility the way I
12:40
do over 10 years here. I, I really enjoy what I do
12:44
working with the customers and I feel for the customer.
12:47
You know, I'm here for it. And I think all my life
12:51
experiences, you know, a Renaissance man, as some people
12:55
have said, it's idea. For those for those who are
12:58
wondering during the pre interview, that's what I said.
13:02
Just so Jim isn't, isn't being too boastful there that that was
13:06
a term I threw out? Sorry, go ahead.
13:08
Anthony labeled me on that one, but it gives me depreciation to
13:12
know that, you know, the customers matter the most.
13:15
And that's what I love about electric materials is we care
13:18
about the customers. We, we can do whatever we want,
13:21
but we want the customers happy. And that's why our motto is, you
13:24
know, right the first time, on time, every time.
13:26
We want to make your experience here the best possible.
13:29
And for me that's caring. I that's just my nature.
13:31
I want to be involved and I want to be hands on and I want to
13:34
give the best possible time, the best product and just make
13:38
everybody happy. So I think it's pretty cool that
13:43
as you put it, you you sort of you started your work there at
13:45
the end of the process, moved your way into the middle and now
13:49
you're involved at the front end.
13:51
You've got, you know, like a really holistic view of kind of
13:57
what goes on there. And I have to assume that that's
14:00
helpful in supporting the customer.
14:03
Help us better understand in layman's terms, what is it that
14:07
you guys do there? What?
14:08
What are you making? Who are you servicing?
14:10
Well, it's, it's very complex. A lot of people's industries,
14:15
it's like, OK, we make bread, we make eggs, we make copper
14:19
products that could be anything from a copper hammer.
14:22
We still make those. If you look at some of the gas
14:26
trucks that go around with the tankers, the tanker trucks,
14:30
those valves, when they open and close, they have to be hammered
14:34
closed. Well, you don't want to spark.
14:35
So copper does not spark. So they use our hammers to close
14:41
those valves and open the valves just like they do in mines.
14:44
You know, they're pounding away, they can't have a spark.
14:46
So we're still involved with Copper Hammers.
14:49
Our company actually started on this right here.
14:52
And if you ever go online to like YouTube, you research us,
14:55
whatever it'll say, it all started with a trolley wheel and
14:58
that's what this is right here. And to be honest, we still make
15:01
them 1915. Mr. Hertzel started this company
15:05
making trolley wheels because that was the future.
15:07
That's what everybody was traveling by.
15:10
You know, they run on the rails, wire goes through there,
15:12
everything goes on, it creates power.
15:15
That's how everything's going to go.
15:16
So we started with the trolley wheel.
15:19
From there we developed into hammers, we developed into other
15:23
products. So when you say what do we do?
15:26
We do a little bit of everything.
15:28
We're in data centers. We make copper components for
15:31
data centers that could be anything from computers to cell
15:34
phones, Anything technology we're involved in.
15:38
We are involved in people movers.
15:40
We make things called commutators.
15:42
Commutators are a Rotary switch used in DC motors.
15:49
It reverses the direction of current flow and it causes
15:53
rotational spin. So if you have like a vacuum or
15:56
something, this is a very small commutator.
15:58
If you think about it, it spins, it has magnets on the armature,
16:01
it will start spinning and it creates power that could be used
16:05
in airplanes, submarines, elevators, anything that has a
16:11
motor that needs that motion turning, it creates that power.
16:14
So we're involved in that. The best part about what we do
16:18
is copper is 100% conductivity, which means you're not going to
16:22
lose anything across the board. So if you got to transfer power
16:25
from one side to another and not lose any amperage or anything,
16:29
you've got to use copper. Sorry, just that that sounds
16:34
kind of like an interesting point there.
16:36
Are there other materials that people sometimes use and they
16:39
they create this loss of power that you're talking about?
16:42
And and you will see it, some people can use aluminum.
16:47
Aluminum is conductive itself, but it's not 100% brass, which
16:53
we also make here because brass is just a sub component of
16:55
copper. It's just a different elements
16:57
involved in it. Brass will drop you down
17:00
sometimes to like 80% conductivity.
17:02
So it all depends what you want. You can use brass, you can use
17:06
aluminum. Why would you choose to use
17:10
something other than copper, considering that copper has 100%
17:13
conductivity? It it could be you think about a
17:17
breaker switch where you have 100% coming in, but that breaker
17:21
is there to make sure nothing more than 70% gets passed on.
17:25
You could overload, you know, you think about your power
17:27
strip, your power strip comes in.
17:30
You don't want 100% of that to blast it out to everything
17:33
because it would get overloaded. So some people will want you
17:36
know that 100% coming in, but maybe filter out 70 to compact
17:41
it so nothing gets overloaded in the system.
17:45
Got it. And and then I interrupted you.
17:46
You were talking about some of the other stuff that you guys
17:48
do. Please continue.
17:49
Jim yeah, yes. And we do make rotor bars.
17:54
Can't really see the screen behind me, I'll give a little
17:55
bit, But you can see we make different size rotor bars that
17:59
go into commutators, some facilities in the United States
18:04
and across the world. We supply worldwide, they'll
18:06
make their own commutators. So what they do is they'll buy
18:09
the rings, they'll buy the rotor bars from us and they'll
18:12
assemble it there or they'll have us assemble it.
18:16
We have our own forge. You think about compacting
18:20
coming down, we're in every. You think about any industry
18:24
where there is power we're involved in.
18:29
And so as you think about, obviously every company has
18:32
competitors, somebody who's doing similar things, what sets
18:35
you guys apart? I think what sets us apart is
18:38
our quality. It just it speaks for itself.
18:43
We have always been known as the Cadillac Copper of America and
18:47
that's what we do. You know, you could pour copper
18:50
into into a hole in the ground and make a ring that that
18:54
doesn't give you top quality. What we do here is after 110
18:58
years of being in business, we are all one spot, one stop.
19:03
We are vertically integrated. So what we do is we pour our own
19:06
copper. We make them into billets.
19:08
You got to think of billets as a Round 2, and then we extrude our
19:13
own product. Everything we do is in house.
19:15
We do not take any product and ship it out waiting for somebody
19:19
else or bringing a product in. So we are responsible for our
19:22
own quality control and our own time.
19:24
We're not waiting on somebody else where some of our
19:26
competitors kind of outsource some of their product.
19:31
They start here, but they can't make their own copper, so they
19:34
bring copper in. They can't extrude it.
19:37
We do it all here. One of our biggest attributes is
19:41
we can plate in house. We have America's largest silver
19:44
plating line. We can plate up to 20 feet wide
19:48
long. I mean we also do 10, we do
19:52
nickel. So we do all that in house.
19:54
We're not outsourcing it to another place.
19:56
It's all here in our facility. So basically like I had talked
20:00
about, I started here in shipping, now I'm in sales from
20:03
start to finish. We do all the product here,
20:05
start to finish your product. When a customer orders from us,
20:09
it does not leave our building until it's on the way to their
20:12
facility. So we're responsible for
20:14
everything. Only thing we do not have here
20:16
is our own trucking company. We have our own shipping
20:18
department, the quality control, everything here is handled by us
20:23
and I think that sets us apart. You know, you mentioned this a
20:26
couple of times and I want to draw more attention to it
20:29
because this strikes me as a particularly unusual 110 years
20:37
the company has been around and it started with a copper trolley
20:43
wheel, yes, which you still make today.
20:45
But you know, I'm going to give a, you know, a very short
20:49
summary over that course of the 110 years.
20:52
Obviously the company has acknowledged that there are many
20:56
other uses for copper and the other types of metal products
21:00
that you guys produce. But to have that kind of
21:03
longevity and success, you know, not just squeaking by not just
21:09
making it, but thriving, you know, 200 and, or what was it a
21:13
400,000 square foot facility that, that you guys operate.
21:16
I mean, that's enormous. I, I know that you obviously
21:20
haven't been there for, you know, even most of the, the
21:23
lifespan of the company, but, you know, now having been a part
21:26
of it for several years, can you put your finger on why you think
21:31
that the company has survived so many upturns, downturns in the
21:37
economy? You know, 110 years is
21:39
impressive. What?
21:40
What is it about the company that's allowed it to remain
21:43
successful for so long? I think the keyword would be
21:47
adaptation. You know, we did start with the
21:49
trolley wheel because that's what everything was.
21:52
And through our years here we have adapted to what our
21:57
customers are looking for, what the world is looking for.
22:01
Cell phones were. I didn't have a cell phone until
22:04
I started college. I didn't have one in high
22:06
school. They weren't around.
22:07
We've developed and adapted to what the need for people
22:12
currently is. So we've gone from a trolley
22:15
wheel to working with car manufacturers for connections on
22:22
batteries. So we do battery terminals, so
22:23
we do sub feeds, we do connectors.
22:26
We have transformed that into power grids.
22:30
Power industry distribution is one of our big areas where we
22:35
help build with Transformers. You know, we make components of
22:38
that. We have our own casting here, so
22:41
our foundry makes castings that go into Transformers, which
22:44
creates power. As we developed cell phones and
22:47
everything else, we became part of that in the data center
22:50
because you need copper in there to make that connection and
22:55
connectivity. Moving on even more in the data
22:58
center, you're looking at all these grand AIS.
23:01
So the latest is AI. We're working with some
23:04
companies that have these huge mainframes, huge ideas, and
23:08
we're working with them in the medical field.
23:10
As times have changed, we are working with medical fields
23:13
because copper is chem. It doesn't hold any type of
23:18
bacteria. You walk in the buildings and
23:21
you think about, you grab a brass rail.
23:23
Why do they use brass? Because it cannot transmit any
23:27
type of bacteria. It's bacteria free.
23:30
So a lot of hospitals and medical equipment will use that
23:34
because basically it's a cleanser.
23:37
It does not have any bacterial formations on it, so it becomes
23:41
very critical. So through the year, starting
23:43
with the trolley wheel, we've developed.
23:46
Yeah, we still make hammers, soldering coppers, but we have
23:49
moved on to bus bars for different industries, which are
23:53
now hitting. Some industries have dropped and
23:56
others have picked up and that's where we have adapted ourselves
23:59
to pick up on. OK, where's where's the strong
24:01
bit? Where's the small bit?
24:03
A few years ago, our forge was super busy.
24:07
We used to make anode balls, you know, they mixed paint,
24:10
everything that went away. Our forge was kind of hurting.
24:14
So we took those guys, put them in another aspect of our company
24:17
which was flourishing. Now all of a sudden forgings are
24:19
coming back and we're rocking and rolling on that three
24:23
shifts, six days a week. So again, we are adapting to
24:27
what the needs are for our customers.
24:31
Like I said, we started with trolley wheel, now we're in data
24:33
centers. Yeah, it's striking me what in
24:38
interesting and unusual material copper is.
24:41
Yeah, I mean, here's here's what I've picked up on.
24:44
No spark, right. So it's good for for hammers and
24:47
you know, in an environment where you can't have any risk of
24:50
that happening, a no bacteria environment, which sounds almost
24:55
unbelievable. And and then 100% conductivity.
24:59
It like somebody should write a book about this is it is that
25:02
I'm sure that they have. But are there any other sort of
25:05
like miracle properties to copper that I'm not in tune with
25:08
yet? Well, there's a lot of benefits.
25:11
It all depends what you read into a few years ago, I don't
25:14
know if you remember, the copper bracelets were huge.
25:16
People would wear the copper bracelets, their skin would turn
25:19
green. They're like, oh, but it would
25:20
heal. It helps with basically, you
25:23
know, the blood flow, everything because again, it's helping
25:27
register copper balances. Everybody believe it or not,
25:31
copper is somewhat used in wine making.
25:34
If there's a bad flavor or something, you can use copper
25:37
sulfate, an aspect of copper to regulate some of that high
25:42
acidity and all that. Some wineries, getting back to
25:45
my wine business, wineries will actually use a copper channel to
25:50
go through there. You have people make whiskey.
25:52
What do they make it in? They make it in a copper pot.
25:55
That way. Guess what, it's heating up.
25:57
You're not losing any energy. Everything.
25:59
It's not exothermic, it's endothermic.
26:01
It stays within itself. So it is a very unique element
26:08
and I think it's something we're going to see more of here,
26:11
especially because with the latest, with the presidential
26:15
election happening, and I know President Trump is interested in
26:19
copper and making everything here in America, bringing it
26:22
back in from overseas. I think you're going to see a
26:25
huge push for copper products, not only just for the remainder
26:29
this year, but for the next 5-10 years, you're going to see a big
26:32
push for copper products here in America.
26:35
So it's just going to get bigger and bigger.
26:37
Jim, what is EM Express? EM Express, that is a offer that
26:44
we do for our customers in case there's an emergency, breaks
26:48
down a breakdown. Say we there's a motor, they're
26:51
going out, all of a sudden they get a power surge, it breaks
26:54
down, they're down losing money by the hour.
26:58
They need us and our EM Express to get the job back in here
27:03
fixed and back to them as soon as possible.
27:06
We will try to do it. Depending on the severity, we
27:08
can try to do it within seven days, 14 days, whatever we can
27:12
do to get it done. We've had customers from
27:15
overseas, domestically come to us.
27:17
Hey, you know, we're losing millions of dollars a week.
27:21
How soon can we get it? And that's where we come in and
27:24
help them out. What's nice about us, being in
27:27
the business for 110 years, we've pretty much seen
27:29
everything. The rings, the commutators, you
27:33
tell us the frame. We have great Corps of Engineers
27:36
here. We have a dynamic group.
27:37
We really do. It is a fantastic team.
27:40
I love working here. They know their product.
27:44
We've had a lot of experience here.
27:46
Some of the guys have been here 3540 years.
27:49
They've seen it all. And so when a customer has a
27:51
breakdown, all they have to do is give us a couple of small
27:53
things. We know exactly what they need.
27:56
We make it here, we get it to them, and they're back up and
27:58
running. Can you think of a specific
28:01
example where that rapid turn around made a critical
28:04
difference to one of your clients?
28:07
Sorry, speakers going off there. It's going to go up one more
28:10
time. That's all right.
28:13
This is what it's, this is what it's like.
28:15
This is the work environment. Absolutely.
28:17
Well, you got to think about it. Say you're at, I'll just make up
28:21
1 Hoover Dam. One of the doors is not working
28:24
because they need a commutator. The commutator is creating
28:27
power. Water coming through that breaks
28:29
down. That's a major issue.
28:32
They're losing power. So they'll call us and I'm not
28:34
saying they did not working with Hoover Dam, but they'll call us
28:39
and be, hey, you know, can you identify this commutator boom.
28:42
We'll send it to our engineers, our order editors.
28:45
They'll ID it and be like, yeah, that's what it goes on.
28:47
It goes on this armature boom, boom.
28:50
We'll get a replacement to them as fast as possible.
28:53
So all they have to do is shut down for a couple hours, take
28:56
the old one off, put our new one on, and they're back up and
28:59
running because it could be a major catastrophe.
29:02
And we see it a lot, especially with some of the natural
29:07
disasters that we have, especially in our country
29:10
between the Hurricanes, the Tornadoes, you see power grids
29:14
down. We want to get power back up and
29:16
running. So a lot of our customers in the
29:18
power grid, they lose, they're decimated.
29:21
You think about all the powers, you know, they're a week out.
29:24
People need oxygen machines, they need electricity for heat
29:30
power, just to clean up with all that system down.
29:34
Our parts that go into those Transformers are very crucial.
29:37
So we'll get the call, you know, hey, electric materials, we need
29:40
this product as soon as possible.
29:41
How can you help us out? We'll be there on our EM
29:44
Express, get on the product they need as soon as possible so
29:46
everybody can get back to living their lives and hopefully
29:50
getting better. So you guys started in 1915,
29:55
you've expanded, you've got this massive 400 + 1000 square foot
30:00
facility. You guys have seen, you know,
30:02
tremendous and sustained growth over the years.
30:06
From a sales perspective, what growth strategy has been the
30:11
most successful for the business?
30:15
I think for us is the flexibility of helping our
30:18
customers out. You know, copper shoots up.
30:22
I think copper right now is over $5 a pound.
30:25
It was $3 a pound about a year ago, about four dollars, $3.00.
30:29
So you're really seeing copper go up.
30:31
We don't go in and just, you know, gouge.
30:34
We want to work with our customers because it's just like
30:36
going to the grocery store with egg prices or everything.
30:39
Everything else is rising and rising.
30:41
Unfortunately, we cannot take those costs and take a hitting
30:46
for so long, but we try to hold on as long as possible before
30:49
pushing that on to our customers.
30:51
And I think that's really helped us out with our relationships
30:54
where the customer is like, hey, we understand there's an
30:57
increase, how can you help us out?
30:58
And we work with them to make a better relationship because it
31:02
is a give and go. You know, we work with them,
31:03
they work with us and it it just helps out everybody in the long
31:07
run. We're we're a lot, we're really
31:10
flexible. We'll get people in.
31:13
I just had an order last week that they don't they did not
31:16
want it until the end of October.
31:18
They called me and say, Jim, you know, we kind of made a mistake.
31:20
We needed OK, well, let's let's get you in there.
31:23
And we adapt to what they need. And it goes back to that word
31:26
adaptation. You know, we adapt to what is
31:30
needed by our customer base or by society.
31:33
And that's how we help them out. Right.
31:37
The first time, on time, every time.
31:40
It's the guiding principle there.
31:44
Is that something that's just sort of like put up on a
31:46
placard? And I don't know, people like to
31:49
talk about it, but it doesn't really get implemented or used
31:52
or sort of integrated into the day-to-day operations?
31:55
Well, yes and no. Yes, it's on a placard, but no,
31:58
we do go by that every day. We have our own quality
32:01
department here in house. Again, in house we have
32:04
everything. So our quality department with
32:07
the ferro arm, we have metallurgists on scene, we have
32:11
many inspectors out on the floor.
32:15
So at every process of the build, be it a simple bar to a
32:19
commutator, we have inspectors along the way that are checking
32:22
lengths, they're checking diameters, they're checking
32:25
every aspect of it. So when it gets to the customer,
32:28
the customer knows, hey, this is the right bar I needed, the
32:31
right ring I needed, we delivered on time, the order was
32:36
right. So we were right the first time
32:38
on time. And we try to we do it every
32:40
single time. And that's one of the processes
32:43
that we're very proud of. And our our quality department
32:46
here is fantastic. The person in lead of that has
32:49
been here over 40 years. He is trained, we are ISO
32:54
approved. So every year we work with ISO
32:57
to get approved so we can work with projects.
32:59
We follow all standards. We have our own inside
33:02
tolerancing which is actually tighter than some of our
33:05
customers tolerances. So we make it tough on ourself.
33:08
So when the customer gets it, they'll be pleased with the
33:11
product knowing that we had no problem hitting NER
33:13
qualifications because we hit our more harder internal
33:18
requirements. What do you think future growth
33:21
looks like? I think future wise, it's just
33:26
going to keep expanding. Right now, knock on wood, we are
33:31
seeing a huge growth in business.
33:35
What we have done in the last six months almost encompasses
33:38
what we did all of last year. Wow.
33:41
Yeah, it is. It is a big push.
33:44
Phenomenal. Oh, it is.
33:46
And our sales team, everybody here from sales to shipping,
33:51
everybody here, they are just knocking it out of the park.
33:54
It is a team effort and that just shows how we work as a team
33:58
that everything is coming together and we are showing such
34:01
a better year already. And you know we're basically
34:05
halfway in. We're six months into our
34:07
calendar year and our calendar year runs September through
34:11
August. So that's why I say that and
34:14
just the growth is phenomenal. Talking with some of our
34:16
customers like in the power grid, they are booked out until
34:20
next September already. So we're starting to see some of
34:23
our attributes and business ventures, they're being booked
34:28
all the way out. So that means we're going to get
34:30
booked going. And again, I think the push to
34:33
buy America is going to be very beneficial to us because we are
34:38
one of the few companies that melts their own copper in house
34:42
making a true made in America product.
34:45
And we can push that onto our customers that need to buy
34:49
American. But also we're seeing a push at
34:52
the same time, a push out of the European nation for our product
34:56
because they know our quality as right the first time, on time,
34:59
every time we can deliver that product.
35:02
So I just see everything right now growing and growing, and
35:06
hopefully this bubble doesn't burst for a while.
35:09
So it's interesting because you know, Europeans ordering your
35:13
product, there's a lot of freight involved, right?
35:16
These, some of these parts are big, they're heavy, they're
35:18
bulky. And so to be ordering from the
35:23
States, having it, you know, trucked to the border, put on an
35:27
ocean freighter over to the coast, Europe, unloaded, put on
35:32
another truck, like that's a lot of extra expense.
35:34
I mean, what you guys are delivering to them must be
35:38
something that they can't find in terms of the quality level.
35:42
They're closer to home. Absolutely.
35:45
And there are a lot of opportunities over in Europe for
35:48
them to purchase material over there.
35:50
But they come to us again because they know they're going
35:52
to get that quality product. They're, they don't have to
35:55
search 1015 thousand different websites.
35:58
They come to ours and they realize, hey, you can offer
36:01
everything at one shop. And I think when you come down
36:03
to the freight, that is the key. They don't have to come to us
36:06
for the copper, have us ship it to somebody else to put it
36:09
together, go to another place to plate and then finally go to
36:13
them. They're coming to us for a part
36:15
that is drawn extruded, it is cut to size, it is plated, it is
36:20
boxed and it's on their way to them.
36:22
They're getting it at one stop because you think about some of
36:24
the product coming in from overseas with us, you know, to
36:27
America, you're paying a lot of freight charges.
36:29
You know, those freight charges do add up.
36:31
So if we can keep everything in one spot for them, it's only one
36:35
freight charge over to them and they're still knowing they're
36:38
getting that quality. Product you, you make a really
36:40
good point that I hadn't really wrapped my head around there,
36:43
Jim, Is that a lot of other places that folks may buy from,
36:48
there's extra freight cost baked in because, right, they had to
36:53
get this part from here or you know, get the, the metal melted
36:58
over here and forged and you guys are able to do that under
37:01
one roof. So you bring in the raw
37:03
materials and you're moving it from one part of your plant to
37:06
another rather than from one part of the country to another.
37:09
And so there's a lot of cost efficiencies in that as you guys
37:15
are, you know, you're experiencing this huge growth
37:17
and you're talking about, you know, the push to buy more
37:20
American you think is going to continue to fuel this.
37:23
But do you think that's the reason why you've seen such
37:26
incredible growth already in the past six months or is there
37:30
something else that's fueling that?
37:32
You mentioned that the, your, your clients that are the, the
37:36
power producers, the power companies that you know, they've
37:40
got these huge orders like what's going on in that sector
37:42
that they've got such a backlog. Well, I think some of it has to
37:46
do with the Buy American, but a lot of it has to do with the
37:51
infrastructure. You know, as places are
37:54
expanding, you think of Las Vegas, it's in the middle of a
37:57
desert. All of a sudden it expands,
37:59
expands. Well, as people are expanding
38:01
into other areas, the power grids need upgraded, the power
38:04
grids need advanced. So everything that we've done in
38:08
the past 20-30 years, you now are getting to that cycle where
38:12
everything has to be redone. You know, you want to upgrade
38:15
here, upgrade here. You know, you think of cell
38:17
phones, you know, that's great. If you have an iPhone 2, it
38:20
might still work, but everybody wants that 16, so you always
38:24
want to do that upgrade. So it's going to get a little
38:25
bit better. And I think that's where the
38:26
push was initially in the last 5-6 months was for those power
38:31
upgrades. It was a good time.
38:34
Economy is good. OK, let's redo the
38:37
infrastructure. So you're starting to see a lot
38:38
of those power grids getting those upgrades to everybody.
38:42
A lot of it has to do with you think about your cable service,
38:47
the Internet, a lot of it is going, it's changing from the
38:50
old dial up to, you know, streaming and everything.
38:54
So all those data centers have to get caught up.
38:58
The newest push is AIAI is a huge push everywhere in the
39:02
business. AI encompasses the globe and so
39:06
you're starting to see a lot of new places and plants come into
39:11
fruition and using the copper product that we supply.
39:14
So you're just seeing an upgrade across the board on every Ave.
39:19
and like I said, I don't think it's going to stop at any time
39:22
because as soon as you you slow down over here, this one
39:25
realizes, oh, we gotta pull our product up now to get up with
39:29
our competitor. So here they are going, battling
39:32
each other constantly upgrading, keeping luckily us in the
39:36
middle, busy I. Want to shift gears on you now,
39:40
Jim. In my experience, growth often
39:45
times comes from facing our biggest challenges.
39:48
I'd be curious to hear about a serious challenge that you've
39:51
overcome. What was it, how'd you work
39:54
through it, and what did you learn coming out the other side
39:58
Well. I think the biggest challenge in
40:02
my life, and you know, everybody's gone through it.
40:05
Not everybody, a lot of people have gone through it is, you
40:08
know, I was working here at Electric Materials and then I
40:11
ended up going through a divorce.
40:13
I had a young son at the time. He was, I believe, 5 at the
40:16
time. It was very tough.
40:18
So I started getting pulled different ways.
40:21
And that's kind of where I became a wine maker.
40:24
You know, I had already been making wine at home and I was
40:27
here at Electric Materials. But, you know, with everything
40:30
going on, I just, my head wasn't into it.
40:32
And so my friends called me and they're just like, hey, listen,
40:36
maybe a change of, you know, just scenery would do a little
40:39
bit different. So I ended up leaving here and
40:41
that's when I went to the winery and it opened up a lot of doors
40:44
for me. You know, I made the product,
40:47
but yet I was still selling the wine.
40:49
You know, we would go to shows, we'd have our showroom wine
40:52
tasting. I was still doing that sales,
40:54
which I love. And then at that time, because
40:57
of working at the winery, I met my friend and her and her
41:04
husband walked in one day and I started a conversation.
41:07
And also we became instant friends.
41:10
And because of that instant friendship, I got to know the
41:12
Lawrence Park Diner and I started working there with her.
41:16
And at the same point I was helping manage that place with
41:19
her. I'm in the back prepping, I'm
41:21
meeting with customers. I'm still selling product.
41:23
I was selling the diner, the food, you know, everything about
41:28
it, the history, talking with people.
41:30
And while I was there, it just kind of connected that even
41:34
though I left Electric Material sales, I was still selling.
41:38
I wasn't selling copper. I was selling wine.
41:40
I was selling food. I was selling a product, but I
41:42
was still selling. And I reflected that that was my
41:46
passion is to sell this product. So the opportunity came.
41:52
Got a call from Electric Materials.
41:54
Jim, are you still interested? I'm like, yeah, you know, so we
41:56
talked it out and came back, and it's like joining a family
41:59
reunion. It really was.
42:01
I came back and it was like nothing ever changed.
42:06
A lot of the people I worked with were still here because I
42:08
hadn't been gone that long. So I came back in and it's it's
42:12
been fantastic. The sales manager, the
42:15
president, CFO, everybody here is just phenomenal.
42:19
And I think that's how our whole, our whole facility feels
42:24
like. It is a family.
42:25
We do a lot of group activities together.
42:27
We have picnics as a group. Yeah, we're 426,000 square feet,
42:33
but pretty much everybody knows everyone and that's what makes
42:36
it nice. A lot of them live in the area,
42:38
so it's a community wide area and it, you know, the old saying
42:43
is you can never go home again. I did.
42:45
I came back, I'm home again here and I just love it.
42:48
But I think that was the toughest challenge was going
42:50
through the divorce, not knowing what's going to happen.
42:54
And I find myself right back here happier.
42:56
My son is 17, junior in high school, about to go to college
43:00
here. And you know, in a little bit.
43:03
So time is going by getting a couple more Gray hairs, but it's
43:08
just fantastic. And then I I think it's just a
43:10
story to show. Never give up.
43:12
And you might not know what your true passion is in life until
43:17
you're kind of confronted to be, well, this is common.
43:19
This is common, this common. You found your passion.
43:22
And I did find my passion here at Electric materials.
43:24
I really did. That's a really cool story.
43:27
I appreciate you sharing that. And it's interesting how, you
43:32
know, such a stressful and, and emotionally painful time, like a
43:35
divorce, you can look back on and see that sort of the seeds
43:41
of the future were, were being planted, you know, shortly after
43:45
that. And, and I, I like the message
43:48
of resilience here, right? Because it's when you go through
43:53
something really tough like that, like a, a natural human
43:56
reaction can be to just sort of withdraw, right?
43:59
Sort of pull yourself out of society to, to just hunker down
44:05
and it, it feels normal and natural and helpful.
44:10
But the best thing for you during those times is to get up,
44:14
to get busy, to get back out there to try different things,
44:18
try on different hats. You know, you got to try on a
44:22
bunch of hats that don't fit to find the one that does.
44:25
And I think that that's what your story highlights and you
44:28
were able to come home again into a role that suits you even
44:32
better than, you know, some of the other positive experiences
44:35
that you'd had there at Electric Materials.
44:37
So that's pretty cool. Thank you.
44:40
And, and it is, you know, the old saying is you get knocked
44:42
down 9 times, you get up 9 times, you know it.
44:45
You're going to get knocked down in life no matter what.
44:47
It's how you react to it. And I think that's the key is
44:51
the world is never going to be a utopian facility.
44:54
You know, it's not going to be a perfect idea.
44:57
There are going to be knockdowns in life, but it's how you come
45:00
back. And that's one thing I try to do
45:03
is to stay positive no matter what.
45:06
I'm a very happy person. I enjoy life.
45:08
I enjoy this job. And I try to teach that to my
45:11
son is no matter what, you know, you're 17 years old, I tell them
45:15
you're going to have heart, you know, heartbreak, you're going
45:17
to have hardships, but you got to keep moving on, stay
45:20
resilient. You're going to find out what
45:23
life has to offer and there we go.
45:27
But we're working. And as many times, as many times
45:32
as you get knocked down, come back stronger because every time
45:35
you get knocked down, you get tougher.
45:37
You get tougher. And I'm just happy to say that
45:41
it worked out for me and hopefully it works out for many
45:43
other people. There's no reason to give up.
45:46
You know, today could be a hard day, but tomorrow could be the
45:48
best day ever. And that's what you always got
45:50
to look forward to is the next day.
45:53
I love that. Jim, is there a particular
45:56
resource that you might recommend for other folks that's
45:59
been helpful for you, whether it's a book or a podcast or some
46:03
kind of a course that you took? One of the best things I went to
46:08
Gandon University here in Erie and one of the best courses I
46:12
took was on networking, how to network with people.
46:16
We meet people every day and IT it just happens to be you meet
46:22
somebody, OK, they know somebody, they know somebody.
46:24
It's all about networking and knowing your worth.
46:28
I think that is a key phrase that I use myself is know your
46:33
worth. Don't let anybody tell you that
46:36
you're not good enough, you're not smart enough.
46:38
You make them realize that you are and that course again and
46:42
taught me that, that networking and promoting yourself, it makes
46:47
you more confident, not cocky or arrogant, but more confident in
46:51
yourself, not only in an aspect of a business, but in an aspect
46:56
of personal. So if you personally feel
46:59
yourself as confident, that's going to promote yourself off
47:03
and cash yourself off in not only your personal life, but
47:06
your business life as you're confident and you can move on.
47:10
I would read any book on networking.
47:13
I know there's books out there across I I'm bad on authors and
47:17
I apologize on that. I would love to give a shout out
47:20
to a book, but I don't have one off the top.
47:22
But just anything where you can concentrate on the art of
47:25
networking and communication That that's the key.
47:29
Because a lot of times, you know, I'm on a school board and
47:34
I'll walk in and I'll, you know, reach my hand out to talk to a
47:37
certain young person, male, female, and they look with their
47:40
eyes down. Make that eye contact, make it
47:43
personal, make the eye contact stand up.
47:46
When somebody you know offers a hand, stand up, shake that hand,
47:50
look them in the eye. And those are the ones that I
47:53
see, especially with this newer generation growing up going
47:57
through school is a lot of them are lacking that confidence.
48:01
So network talk, get with people, a small group, whatever,
48:06
and work on those communications, work on those
48:09
ideallyologies and just become confident in yourself.
48:14
Yeah, I like that because, you know, so many of my friends that
48:18
I've known over the years, they're looking for a new career
48:21
opportunity and they'll do the job boards and they'll, you
48:24
know, scour LinkedIn, whatnot. And it feels like more times
48:28
than not, the best opportunities that come about are from people
48:33
they already know, people that are in your network, people who
48:36
already, you know, they, they know the face, they know the
48:39
name, they know the personality, they've had some interaction
48:43
with you. So, yeah, the more people that
48:45
you get a chance to interact with not.
48:50
And I also think it's important. And I think you probably agree
48:52
with this, Jim. It's, you know, it's not just
48:54
about, you know, what, what can I take from that person?
48:58
It's what can I offer to that person, right?
49:01
Like that's, that's how you really enhance a relationship
49:04
and and kind of get the the ball rolling.
49:07
Absolutely. Yeah.
49:08
You never, you know, you're going to summer relationships
49:10
where you always have that one upper, you know, they always got
49:12
to up you. You're like, oh, I got a story.
49:13
I'm going to do 1 better. No, you always want to take in
49:16
what they have and take that information.
49:18
But if you can help them, help them out, you know, it's a give
49:21
and take. You know, if it's a give, give,
49:23
give, that doesn't work. You have to be able to help them
49:25
out. And, you know, just relying on
49:28
people is the key. You know, it got me through, you
49:32
know, tough times in my life with the divorce.
49:33
You know, I leaned on people, I leaned on friends, I leaned on
49:36
strangers that became friends. And I think that is the key is
49:41
they took from me. I took from them and we gave
49:44
each other something. And I think that is the key, not
49:47
only business, but just in life in general.
49:50
Yeah, I like that. Any daily habits or rituals,
49:55
practices that you go through that help keep you centered and
49:59
on track? I like to get up early.
50:04
It kills my son sometimes. And I'm up at like, you know,
50:06
3/30, 4:00 in the morning. I like to just to spend about an
50:10
hour, hour and a half and just kind of sit, reflect on
50:13
everything to be like, OK, this is what I want to do today.
50:15
And I, I kind of pre plan my day beforehand before I just, you
50:19
know, the alarm clock goes off. Next thing I know I'm in the
50:21
shower. I'm doing this and it, it's just
50:23
too fast. I want that hour, hour and a
50:25
half just to reflect on the day, think about, OK, this is what's
50:28
going on. Yeah, yesterday might have been
50:30
bad. I was stressed out about this.
50:32
But you know what? I'm going to do this, this this
50:34
different. And it, it just takes time for
50:37
me where I think a lot of people that work Monday through Friday,
50:42
they might take it just for their weekends to be like, OK,
50:44
Saturday I'm not doing anything. Well, then you just sit around
50:46
all day Saturday. Then you feel bad on Sundays.
50:49
You didn't do anything on Saturday.
50:51
This way with me taking that hour, an hour and a half a day
50:54
of just basically reflection, I'm relaxed, ready to go into
50:59
the day. I come in, I'm awake, let's go.
51:02
Some of my Co workers might tell you I'm a little too energetic
51:04
first thing in the morning. You know I've already had those
51:08
two 3 cups of coffee you. Got up hours before they did.
51:12
Now you're fueled with the caffeine.
51:14
You're on a roll. Exactly.
51:16
I'm ready to conquer the day, but I think that just takes a
51:20
little bit of, you know, ritual where every day you just sit,
51:25
sit, sit time apart. It's like making your bed in the
51:27
morning every day. Some people do, some don't.
51:30
I do because it gives me something that I accomplished
51:33
and finished already. You know, I got out of bed, I
51:35
made the bed. Hey, I accomplished defeat
51:37
already. That's one thing I can say
51:40
positive about the day. You have to look at positivity
51:43
in your life. If you're always negative on
51:46
yourself, you're negative in your atmosphere.
51:49
Your negativity is going to affect you tremendously, but
51:53
you're also going to affect everybody around you.
51:56
You know, you think of that piece of fruit that has a little
51:58
bit of fuzz on it touches another piece, that fuzz starts
52:00
connecting and connecting all the way down.
52:03
So if I can spend an hour and a half and get my positivity
52:06
going, not only for myself but for my son when I take him to
52:09
school or I come here to work that positivity and just build.
52:12
I just think it just makes a greater work environment and
52:18
also a better me where I'm not burned out, where I got to sit
52:21
down all day Saturday or Sunday, not do anything because I had no
52:24
time. I'm making time daily to just
52:28
decompress de stress and find my focus again.
52:32
I like that, Jim. If we were to talk, say, a year
52:36
from now and you were celebrating something, what
52:40
would that be? What would you hope it would be?
52:44
Not a marriage, no, I'm just joking.
52:48
Not a divorce. I know that.
52:50
I think it would just maybe be a record sales year.
52:54
I would love. I don't do anything just for me.
52:57
I I'm not a self accolade guy. I would love for us, my manager,
53:03
Allison, President Lucian to call in all of us, all the
53:08
employees to say we had a record year after, you know, after one
53:12
year, we just had record amount of product complaints, returns,
53:19
smallest ever. And you know, just have that
53:22
record year where it shows our hard work, our dedication has
53:26
paid off. That would reward me.
53:29
It really would. Yeah, sounds like you guys are
53:32
well on your way to that. I mean, you're saying the first
53:35
six months you've already beaten what you did all of last year,
53:39
so. Yeah, it's impressive and it is
53:42
getting there. And like I said, it's nothing
53:43
like I don't want to hold up a trophy, say, oh, look what I
53:45
got. I'm not that type of guy.
53:47
My reward is the people around me.
53:49
The business I work for is succeeding.
53:53
I think one of the best things around here is we are, we're
53:57
currently hiring. We need workers and I think that
54:00
is a great mode as a company because some business, some
54:05
businesses excuse me, are currently downsizing, you know
54:09
they're letting employees go. We are currently hiring.
54:11
We've hired I believe over 40 in the last 4-5 months and we're
54:16
still looking to head on. So I just say that is a growth
54:21
means a lot to me and it rewards me that I as a salesman and the
54:26
whole sales team, we are doing our jobs to get work in here so
54:30
we can bring people in and give them jobs.
54:33
You know, I'm not putting us on the pedestal because we're not.
54:36
It is a whole team effort. We cannot do it ourselves.
54:39
It is across the board. The entire people here, we are
54:42
all working hard, working together to create job
54:46
opportunities for other people, to bring them in here and enjoy
54:49
our family atmosphere. I was and you kind of maybe you
54:53
touched on the answer to my question here, which is, you
54:56
know, when people do come to work there, why are they coming?
55:01
What? What is it that draws them in,
55:02
and what keeps them there? I think what it is, it is a, a
55:06
feel of family. It really is the pay is the pay
55:10
is great, good benefits. We partake and, you know,
55:15
different activities, our human resources, they do great jobs.
55:20
We have little picnics. We have, you know, outings.
55:24
It is just a great place to work.
55:26
Is it stressful and fast-paced sometimes?
55:30
Yeah, absolutely. Every place is.
55:32
You sell newspapers at a stand and sometimes you're not busy.
55:35
Next day you have 20 people deep.
55:37
That's every industry. But around here, we all work
55:40
together. We do not.
55:42
You come in tomorrow, Anthony, we're not going to set you up
55:45
for failure because we're all invested in the company, our
55:49
retiree with their pension and all that they're looking at us
55:53
to help them out. We currently working for them,
55:57
but we're also working for us who create our retirement fund.
56:01
And being a small town Northeast, you know, we're just
56:06
a little, little speck on the New York border there, but we're
56:10
very goal oriented. We're very tight.
56:14
We're people call this the Norman Rockwell community
56:18
because basically we are we're like a Hallmark movie our town.
56:21
And I think that atmosphere with everybody's attitude here of
56:26
working together, being a team, it's just fantastic.
56:30
And one of the aspects that I think is nice is we have
56:32
generationals, you know, legacies here.
56:36
We have people that their grandfather worked here, their
56:38
dad worked here, they work here, their son works here.
56:42
So we see a lot of that here. And I think that shows a lot of
56:44
pride in what our company does, that a certain family, or should
56:49
say families have a legacy here that hey, my name has been in
56:54
this building for almost 100 years.
56:58
And I think it's fantastic where we open the doors for a tour for
57:02
like 100 year. We had a tour in here.
57:04
We had people come in like, Oh my gosh, my grandfather worked
57:07
on this machine, my dad worked on this machine.
57:09
This is where, you know, and you just see that and it brings
57:13
pride to a lot of people. And I think that's what we have
57:15
a lot of here at Election Materials is pride.
57:20
That's so cool. I mean, I feel like that's
57:21
something out of an old movie. You don't, you don't hear that
57:24
very much anymore where you got 123 generations of people, you
57:28
know, working at the company. Jim, I've just got one more
57:32
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
57:34
do 2 things. First of all, I'm going to
57:35
invite all of our listeners to hit the follow button on their
57:37
favorite podcast app so you can continue to get more great
57:41
interviews like we've had today with Jim.
57:44
Jim, I also want to let people know the best way to either
57:48
continue to follow your story, that of the companies or to get
57:51
in touch with you directly. What would that be?
57:54
You can follow us.online@electmat.com.
57:57
That's ELECMA t.com. We have a nice web page.
58:01
We're actually getting that redone in remarks for 1:10, but
58:05
you can follow us online there. Easiest way to call us is our
58:08
800 number. It's 800-356-2211.
58:13
That gives the Direct Line. You can get a hold of the
58:16
operator to get us in sales or if you are in the industry and
58:21
you're going to shows. ISA is one of the biggest shows
58:26
in the country. We always have a booth there.
58:29
Please stop by the booth at ISA. This year it's in Nashville.
58:33
We will be going overseas for a show.
58:37
We are Cast Expo, we are always around, but probably the best
58:41
way would be our website at electmat.com or the 800-356-2211
58:47
for a direct call in. Great.
58:49
And we'll make sure we put all that in the show notes as well.
58:52
So last question for you, Jim, as you look to the future, what
58:56
exciting changes do you see coming to your industry?
59:02
It's almost endless. I think the biggest thing is
59:05
going to be the whole data center and where that goes.
59:09
As we're getting more computer savvy, more AI, it's going to be
59:13
interesting to see how the industry changes towards that.
59:19
The car industry, you know, you've gone to battery cars
59:22
instead of gas cars. There's now a push for hydrogen
59:26
cars. You've seen that over in Europe
59:28
where they're actually using hydrogen cars.
59:30
So you're seeing that development from gas to electric
59:33
to hydrogen and also cell phones to AI to other products.
59:38
So I'm excited to see exactly what's going to happen next.
59:42
I saw a great meme online just yesterday where a guy had a
59:46
telephone, a boom box, a telephone book in front of him.
59:51
And it's like all that is now in the palm of your hand.
59:53
And you think about it, all that is right there.
59:56
What does the future hold? What are we going to have in our
59:58
hands? You know, in our ears?
1:00:02
You know, five years down the road, it's just mind blowing of
1:00:04
what we can do and I'm excited to see how we are going to adapt
1:00:07
to that. It it's going to be a fun ride,
1:00:10
it really is. You know, it's interesting
1:00:12
because when I ask this question of most of my guests, they
1:00:16
respond with ways that they're starting to use AI in their jobs
1:00:22
or their businesses. And your response is still very
1:00:27
much related to AI, but it's a little bit different because
1:00:31
it's in the demand for your products because AI is booming
1:00:36
so much. Yes, yes.
1:00:38
And and that goes back to the use of the boards.
1:00:42
You know, you got the computer boards, everything involved, and
1:00:46
that's where our product comes in.
1:00:47
So again, we're going to have to adapt to what that need is.
1:00:50
So again, you know, we have all these parallel paths, now we're
1:00:53
going to start another one and have another branch come off
1:00:56
that family tree here. OK, Jim, Margo, I want to be the
1:01:00
first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story
1:01:03
with us today. I really appreciate it.
1:01:05
I appreciate the time, Anthony, and I appreciate you reaching
1:01:07
out and I'm glad we could do this together.
1:01:09
It was a lot of fun, folks. That's a wrap on another episode
1:01:12
of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:01:15
today.