The Manufacturing Millennial - Jake Hall

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobrhall/

How did Jake gain a following of over 70,000 on LinkedIn? 
As a full time industry advocate and keynote speaker what is his favorite part of his job? 
What do his 3 robot dogs do to help the industry? 

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This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Transcript

Cory Connors: 0:31

Welcome to sustainable packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is my friend, Mr. Jake Hall, who is an industry advocate. How are you, Jake?

Jake Hall: 0:40

I'm doing good, Corey. It's great to be

Cory Connors: 0:42

on, man. And we've grown up together here the last few years through, we were part of the LinkedIn creator accelerator program, the first 100 in the world tell us about that experience. The two of you, the two of us got to go through it. It was amazing from my point of view, but I would love to know your insights. Yeah,

Jake Hall: 1:03

So it was one of those things where I saw like come through either I was forwarded or like I saw on a news thing and that would have been in what spring of 2012. The application would have been fall of 2021 right? Yes. And, I was just, I'm trying to figure out LinkedIn as a platform for me to, grow my brand, to talk more about the industry that I'm involved with. And I figured, well, geez, I'm going to just give it a shot and say, Hey, my goal is to advocate my industry has massive misconceptions about what, manufacturing is, what automation does, what robots do. And, we got connected and like part of the program was to connect and collaborate with other people, outside of your industry is part of that 100. And, you and I think chatted after one of the breakout sessions. And yeah, ever since then it's incredible where I thought our industries were very. Separated, but actually there we've run into each other a few times at different shows or been at different events at the same time. So it's it's been exciting to see how that's all transpired.

Cory Connors: 2:08

I agree. And well said LinkedIn is a platform to jump off of and it's certainly changed my life. And I know it's changed yours. I think what you're over 70, 000 followers or something like that on LinkedIn, which is amazing. Well done. Thank you. Well, let's before we get too far, let's talk about your background a little bit. How did you get into automation and manufacturing and all of that? What was what brought you here?

Jake Hall: 2:35

Yeah, great question. So, I would have to say we jumped back to when I was in high school. My first job was working for like a manufacturing company. I did what I call the grunt work of the industry where everyone starts. I swept the floors. I brushed and cleaned down and blew off all the metal chips on lathes and manual mills and the CNC equipment. I probably smelled way too much acetone cleaning all of the steel weldments that were going into, painting and grinding. That

Cory Connors: 3:02

explains a lot. It explains a lot,

Jake Hall: 3:04

But it was great in high school. I was involved with FIRST Robotics and I knew that, hey, I love this mentality and mindset of solving problems with, math and science and engineering and creativity. So I went to college, I got a manufacturing engineering degree and then went into the world of automation distribution right out of college, where I saw a lot of different components that went into Custom automation, machinery, robotics, vision systems, motion control, PLCs, all the different components that were there. And that was a phenomenal experience because they got to see all the different aspects of what manufacturing has to offer from not just one specific industry, which is where, Michigan's known for his automotive, but there was so much like food and Bev and packaging and. Pharmaceutical and biomed devices and furniture. It really got me to see just how much manufacturing has to offer. And I've always been super passionate about the industry and getting You know, next generation's excited. I was involved with coaching legally. I coached my own legal league teams when I was still in high school my junior and senior year, and we did really well, we went up, we went some of the large awards during through all that time. And so the story really transforms to where I am now with my own, the manufacturing millennial, my own personal brand when the pandemic started. So I was working in outside sales and we were told to go work from home. And I figured, well, geez, my whole thing is going and having conversations in person, talking to people. And all of a sudden I can't do that anymore. We got to be home working in our office. A lot of like, even though a lot of the manufacturing companies were still considered essential workers, a lot of the engineers and people, unless you were a frontline worker that was physically hands on the machine, they all were still working from home. So all the engineers and business development, people with internally, we're all working from home. So I couldn't have that face to face contact. So I turned to LinkedIn at the time, which would have been, spring of 2020, and I had maybe like 150, 200 connections on a platform. It was strictly a, what I thought was a. A resume builder, right? You want to go out there and you want your resume digitally where people can look at your profile. Great. There it is. And I figured, well, I'll just start posting content around the industry, what the solutions are, the technology, what I'm seeing trends. And it was really interesting because my content really started to resonate a lot more with than just my connections that I had. And all of a sudden I gained a hundred followers that month. And then I gained a hundred followers than the next week. And then all of a sudden I gained a hundred followers in a day. And it was like one of those things where, okay, people really enjoy the content. I think, my personality is one that, people can relate to. I'm very energetic and passionate about it. And I think it's during a time when. We always heard negative negativity. I tried to push positivity into what we were talking about. And it really resonated with a lot of people. So fast forward, to, a few years later, I started doing more partnerships. I grew, several thousands and tens of thousands of followers. And now all of a sudden, fast forward today, I'm an out. On my own in the industry where I'm doing a combination of things, keynote speaking at associations or trade shows and events working with those trade shows for promotion, working with a lot of individual companies to highlight applications and technologies and solutions that they're bringing to the industry to, share with my audience because my audience is. 70, 000 plus industry professionals. Like I know my target audience is a lot of people's ideal customer demographic. And it's one of those things where I, when I'm doing these partnerships is very much, it's not a sales thing, it's like, Hey, is it relatable to me, can I actually create value on it and. Not so much highlighting your product, but highlighting the problems that we're solving in the industry. And I think people really resonated with that when, I create content and the content isn't salesy. It's more just, Hey, I'm going to entertain you and I'm going to make it educational. Here's the post. And I think a lot of people really resonate and enjoy that. Exactly.

Cory Connors: 7:06

And I think you and I are very similar in that point of view, where we're taking a positive scope where we're only focusing on what is positive and what can be fixed? What could be the result of a positive move? If we did this

Jake Hall: 7:23

could happen. Exactly. And that's like to underline, like, not. Avoid the issues that are out there, for example, like within manufacturing, we're doing a horrible job connecting the next generation. We're not doing a great job bringing more women into manufacturing. So those are topics that we need to talk about, but you talk about it in a way that's going to show what positivity can create from it, not just, staying on a negativity, but saying, Hey, this is why we can no longer stay here. This is where we need to go.

Cory Connors: 7:51

Yeah, that's excellent points. Have you developed any programs with anyone where you can bring young people or women or minorities or anything into the industry to help make it more sustainable for the future.

Jake Hall: 8:05

Yeah. So there's a few programs I'm involved with by no means that I create them, but there's like, it's one of those things where changes that happen from an individual happens from a community. So there's a few that I'm super passionate about here in West Michigan, where I am. One of them is discover manufacturing and that wrapped up about a month ago this is being recorded in December. So just people have a timeframe. So fall of 2023, if you're listening to this we had an event called discover manufacturing. So we had Our goal of, we're still getting all the numbers from the schools, but the goal between eight to 10, 000 high school students to go into end user and manufacturing companies. So around 60 or 70 companies to get real world experience of what does it mean being inside of a manufacturer? What are jobs that are available? What are the different avenues that you can create, you can take in terms of Education, right? You don't need to go to college to get a four year engineering degree to be in manufacturing. You can go and be a part of a vocational school while you're still in high school. You can become an apprentice. You can go to a local community college. You can go get an engineering degree. So the big thing was, is right. Despite the myth that, Hey, you have to have a four year engineering degree to do this. That's not the case. But also just talking about the diversity, what manufacturing has to offer, right? We were told by our parents who grew up in the eighties and nineties and saw manufacturing have a shift in jobs, go overseas. And actually was this dark, dirty doll industry. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, it's changed a lot. Now there's a lot more talk about technology, innovation, and sustainability, coming from your side of the face. And all of a sudden we need to then change the outlook and the perception that what of what manufacturing is. And the best way to do that is to bring kids in to these facilities to see them in person. So that's one. The other one that's going to be happening in The spring of 2024 is called my career quest. And so what we're doing is we're renting out a our convention center here in Grand Rapids. And our goal is to bring in and we're busing in around 8, 500 students to meet with companies. In person to talk with them. So there's gonna be five industry segments that we're looking at, and then they can go and they go 15 minutes at each industry segment or about 15 to 20 minutes at each industry segment. And then they can go and talk to the companies and they're interactive. Right. A couple of the rules that we have is like, there's no branding that they can have as a company, right? You can't hand out business cards that say your company name on it. You can't hand out, give me that say company, Hannah. This is strictly for advocating the industry. Like we're coming together as a whole to move the industry forward together. So it's not just a sales pitch per company. It's free for companies. Like if you, if a company wants to go there and advocate, it's free. They can get a 10 by 10 booth or whatever they need for free. Now there's costs to that as well. So part of what I'm trying to do is raise about 150, 000. Which costs, to get the the walls, the tables, the chairs, the staff, the cost of buses to bring kids in. And it's like, that's what we're doing. And like, I think that's the change that we see is we can post on social media. We can talk about change, but we need to act on change. So you look at in a. Six month period of time. We're impacting 20, 000 the goal of 20, 000 kids who are still in high school, who can make decisions about their future, that's change. And like, and that's how, and that's how we move an industry forward. And great thing about it is. Every community can do this. It's like, we're not doing a special sauce or a special recipe. It's like get a group of great volunteers who are passionate about this. A lot of times it's companies who are working in there and they're in, the recruiting or the HR or the, the acquisition type of thing and they get on board and they support it. And that's what we do.

Cory Connors: 11:58

That's exciting. It's exciting to be a part of the change for the next generation and to provide them with opportunities my nephew's 18, he just Got back from his first semester in college and he's like, I don't I don't know if it's for me And I said, well, that's okay he said he wants to go into a trade and maybe that's manufacturing maybe that's A plumber, electrician, something like that. Are you seeing with the onset of AI? Are you seeing, this is a two part question, are you seeing manufacturing change with that technology and then are you seeing the need for equipment changing? Does that make sense? Yeah,

Jake Hall: 12:46

absolutely. AI, I would say is just one of the things that we're seeing change the industry. There's a lot of there's a lot of opportunity, but there's also a lot of buzz. Around AI. Is chat GPT going to impact manufacturing in a dramatic way? Probably not. But at the same time, I see AI impacting a lot more actual white collar than color and a lot of areas, right? A lot of us were doing Excel sheets and data and, trending predicting like that's up. That's up. Thing that's impacting like jobs, individuals. AI though is like great at like modeling and predictive maintenance and condition monitoring for a lot of facilities, right? You can go out there and you can plug a vibration or a temperature sensor on to a. Side of a machine or a motor and all of a sudden you can be building models to give you the best idea of when that component is wearing down or heating up, or would need maintenance. Right. That's a great thing. AI is impacting a lot of vision applications. So all of a sudden you can build libraries to do visual analysis where all of a sudden I can now pick really complex parts and random orientations, which is what we see in real world industry. To make robotic applications, a lot more integral. And I think just as a whole, as we're seeing within manufacturing is an industry, as jobs become less physical and more intelligent, we need to shift. And the manufacturing industry where let's face it. We're never going to have more workers than we do now in manufacturing right now, we have about 12. 9 million people working in manufacturing, the United States, even though the GDP or the total, economic impact of manufacturing is going to continue to grow. We're going to see a decrease in workers. And I think what's going to happen is just manufacturing's going to have less, I would say, low labor, low skill jobs and more higher skilled, higher paid jobs where all of a sudden it's not just a technician, it's now a robot technician or a PLC programmer. Right. As we implement automation into manufacturing. Jobs aren't being removed. It's just the types of jobs are being removed and shifting. But that's just general economics in trends, right? We don't complain about the the combine or the tractor that was on a farm, right. In the 1920s and thirties, when all of a sudden we could now. Manage a hundred acres of cropland versus 15 acres of cropland with an oxen, that way. And so it's just one of those things where as a trends it's just a shift that's happening in the industry and we could never have. We can never have new jobs if we always did things the old way. And I think that's just what we're going to see in manufacturing. But like the other thing that would argue is like AI, for example, with that tool and other technologies, it's allowing so many. Smaller companies, small to medium sized businesses to be competitive and what is now not just a, I guess you could say a regional or a state or a domestic, but now an international competition. So all of a sudden, um, larry's CNC machine shop down the street is trying to make parts for a tier 2 automotive company and their prices are twice as high compared to a company that's completely overseas and, a very low cost, Asian labor market, how could they be competitive while you introduce a. That can do lights out machine tending. Now all of a sudden you can run that machine. It still has to be loaded and managed by a worker, but now you can run that robot twice as long or that machine twice as long. So what is that doing? It might not be creating a new job because we have a robot, but that's saving the jobs of that 16, 20, 25 employee company because. They're now able to stay competitive in what's a global economy. So I always like to point out robots, for example, just like AI. I don't think in short term. Yes, they might take jobs. They might remove people out of positions, but long term big picture. I think robots of this technology is going to, what's going to allow a lot of small to medium sized businesses, which keep in mind is 98. 6 percent of all manufacturers here in the United States classifies a small to medium sized business, 90. 8. 6%. Like it's just astronomical and spectrum size. And that's, and that technology is what allows these companies to stay competitive, to stay in business and to really, at the end of the day, keep their local community going because they're hiring people that are local and allows them to compete with the big boys at big multi million dollar, facilities. That's

Cory Connors: 17:39

my answer. I think that's brilliant. And I've, I can totally relate as a packaging professional. I've actually had a customer say, we don't want any automation equipment because we don't want to fire anybody. And I said Whoa. That's not the intention here. The intention is to upgrade their jobs, make them even more valuable to you and to the company and, eventually their pay will increase rather than they'll be eliminated because like you said, they're going to, they're going to operate the robot. They're going to handle the The tech system that's been integrated, it's like you said, short term, yes, that could eliminate, but it can then promote or grow and increase your efficiency. And all these things I'd like to talk a little bit about how automation and how manufacturing is moving towards sustainability in a faster and a greater way.

Jake Hall: 19:11

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Any specific questions or you just want me to talk with and talk about what I'm seeing?

Cory Connors: 19:16

Well, the question is and what we're calling it is the green bottom line. Okay. And how are people in proving their green bottom line? Yeah. Mean being better for the environment through automation and through manufacturing equipment.

Jake Hall: 19:34

Yeah. So I would think There's a two way approach that I'm seeing right now. One is when you look at what this next generation of workforce wants to be a part of, right? The millennials and the Gen Zs, the young ones they want to be a part of a company that is focused on an impact larger than themselves. Yeah. And one of those main talking points, a lot of areas is sustainability. They don't want to go work for a company that's polluting. The environment around them. They want to see a company that's creating good beyond the product in which they and they make. So I think, you're there. A lot of companies are seeing pressure from a new generation to see. We want to do good with what we're doing and what we're making. The other 1 is, I think a lot of companies are seeing there is a. An actual value in return to being more sustainable and costs. And I see a lot of that when it comes to within manufacturing not like, let's talk about like sustainability from recycling, but let's talk about like sustainability within efficiency, right? Manufacturers as a whole are one of the largest energy consumers in terms of industry. And the United States, I don't know the exact numbers, but I've seen it. And manufacturing's if not the top, they're in the top. And one of those things was at the bottom line, the green line, as we're talking, representing the dollar if you can go out there and you can reduce the amount of energy consumption that's happening, you can find ways to reduce the amount of compressed air is extremely expensive with the manufacturing, as you go out ways and say, I'm going to reduce. Air leakage. I'm going to reduce scrap rate. It's not just quote unquote for the environment. And a lot of times it's just making you more competitive. When we look at overall equipment of effectiveness, which is a big, metric that a lot of companies try and track, OEE scrap is very much a part of that heavy equation. And at the end, they scrap isn't sustainable. So, it's one of those things where, I think a lot of companies are seeing as margins are getting tighter. They're getting more demand from their customer instead of going out and buying a brand new set of equipment. Can you go out there and make the existing equipment more efficient and more profitable? And a lot of times that's reducing scrap. That's reducing energy efficiency. That's monitoring your energy consumption. If it's one of those things where let's say you're running three different shifts. During one of your shifts, one of these machines has to run eight hours a day. Right. Can you track what the best time to use that energy to keep that peak demand lower, as tracking, I think a lot of times companies would just process when it was most available, but all of a sudden people, when the people are looking at each one machine and seeing how much power they're drawing on each line or a piece of equipment, they can be much more focused. And I guess what's the word I'm looking for, Corey intentional. Yeah, with how they're running the manufacturing shop floor in the manufacturing business. So, like, that would be an answer like around sustainability. I think a lot of times it's a it's a tough subject because a lot of times I went to a conference and. It was an association. And it just, like, I talked and read the crowd. It was probably 300 or 400 people and they were just getting shoved down their throat on sustainability. And it came over, there was some European speakers. It was a French speaker, no offense to French listeners on this. You guys are dry, you're drier than you're drier than your wine. But like, it was one of those things where. The biggest way to discourage change is just to tell people why they're wrong. rAther than going in there and saying, look at ways that you can improve the cash flow and the CapEx that's coming into your business. And so what needs to happen a lot of times with a lot of these manufacturers who are very proud of the businesses that they created and the things that they do, the way the approach is just as critical as what the approach is.

Cory Connors: 23:36

Excellent point. I'm so thankful that you answered it that way, because I had an analogy that I was going to share. I interviewed a trucking company and they were going through a sustainability audit and they found out that their mechanics were having to refill the refrigerant in the refrigerated trucks all the time. Yeah. And they couldn't figure out why. And then what they did was they went through and they fixed all the leaks. And not only did it make them more sustainable because they were not off gassing this refrigerant, whatever it's called, I don't know. But it's a huge cost savings to the point where I think it paid for 1 of the mechanics. Salaries. It was that big. Yeah. So one of those people saved their career, or pay for themselves by finding these things. So you're exactly right. You have an intention. You're intentionally trying to be more sustainable and, oh, look here, we're going to save money too.

Jake Hall: 24:37

And so that's the approach that I would say needs to happen within manufacturing is we've, it's sustainability is not a new talk in manufacturing. Right. It was there, we heard it. Manu sustainability has become very much political now in a lot of areas. And it's one of those things it shouldn't be a political discussion, like being sustainable is not a. A green political movement. It's at the end of the day, it's how to improve your company's, bottom line in a lot of areas. And I think that's just one of those. And that's the approach that needs to happen.

Cory Connors: 25:13

Excellent. Yeah. Waste reduction, all these things they all fall under this umbrella term of sustainability. And I think that's why a lot of people say, well, sustainability doesn't mean anything well, sustainability means everything. It's like, well, what's the answer.

Jake Hall: 25:28

And I think the thing to highlight though, is sustainability just as it, just a material aspects like sustainability can, we can see through so many digital solutions now as well, it's not just emptying out the scrap bin, less it's there's so many ways that we can make it really impactful.

Cory Connors: 25:45

Let's let's talk about your sidekick your robot dog. Yes. I want to talk about this because I think he or it is amazing.

Jake Hall: 25:56

I actually have it right next to me by chance. Oh my gosh. That's amazing. I was working on it a little bit earlier today.

Cory Connors: 26:01

Tell us about it. What do you call it? What is it? How does it how has it changed the way you do things? Yeah,

Jake Hall: 26:07

So, the name of it is is Clark. Clark the manufacturing mascot. It's a quadruped robot. I have three of them now, actually. And so for me it's, while these robots are very much Can be used for industrial applications like mobile IOT and monitoring platforms and walking through manufacturing facilities and construction sites to, acquire and access data to give you more real time information. This is very much of an out outreach tool for me. And a promotional tool for me too, right? You go to a trade show and you you bring a robot. It, every cell phone comes out. And you can take pictures of it and videos and people love it. But at the same time, bring it into schools and events. I've brought this into just in the past, like three weeks past month, like three or four different Lego league and first tech and vex competitions. Just to let kids play with our high school students or open houses. They love it. And it's one of those things you can have discussions and you can have discussions with the parents around. What manufacturing is now the impact that it's creating. And at the same time, I'm looking at it as where, Hey, if there's a business out there that is, wants to make their exhibition booth a little bit cooler, you can rent a robot for me, slap your company logo and a wrap around it. And it's going to draw people into your booth. And that's a great marketing tool as well.

Cory Connors: 27:24

Well, I was introduced to your sidekick at LinkedIn headquarters, where we got to go together in Chicago because of our well, just the work we're doing with LinkedIn is, it's really exciting, but talk about a group of people just enamored with what you're doing immediately the second you turned it on, everybody stops and looks at it and wow, what's this? This is really cool. Yeah.

Jake Hall: 27:48

Yeah. Absolutely. It's a great conversation creator. I brought it to Detroit for a Alliance tailgate party and it made it on a Monday night football on TV. It was one of those things. It's people, even outside the industry, you can have great conversations around what is manufacturing today? What is robotics today? It's not a black mirrors episode where a robot's going to come and try and chase you down and kill you. iT's it really has a lot of real world applications. That's exciting.

Cory Connors: 28:20

So you said you have three. Are they all named Clark or are they? No.

Jake Hall: 28:25

One's named Clark. I'm going to name the other one probably Harry Carey. I'm going to go with the Cubs theme. So one's going to be Harry Carey. And then I was thinking maybe the other one, like Bill Murray or Marie, because Bill Murray is a huge Chicago Cubs fan. So figure out, Harry Carey, Bill Murray, Clark and and go from there.

Cory Connors: 28:47

That's awesome. Well, I think it's incredible. I did want to ask you a little bit about as a keynote speaker, you're speaking in front of hundreds or sometimes even thousands of people. Can you tell us a little bit about what's your favorite part of that?

Jake Hall: 29:02

People making people laugh and sharing my passion, like I, I love talking to people like for me, for some people, there's stage fright. I would say, give me a thousand people and 45 minutes of their time. And I'm going to make them laugh, and I'm going to make them laugh talking about an industry that a lot of times is rather boring, right? Manufacturing a lot of times is engineers. Let's face a lot of engineers. Are very dull. And being able to make conversations around technology, workforce, manufacturing, automation exciting and engagable uh, is a skill set. I would say I, I'm very thankful. I've been blessed with And yeah, it's just a lot of fun. I love going out and giving presentations at different events. And either through a corporate trade show or an association or internally for a, larger company, they're having their own like little HR summit or marketing summit, having me come in and give them a presentation is is really enjoyable. So either if it's a thousand or if it's 25 or 50 it's really fun to do.

Cory Connors: 30:01

I agree. And it's a different experience every time. Yeah. And like you said, it's so awesome to connect with people in a way that is memorable for both of you. Well said. Absolutely. Well, how do people get in touch with you when they're ready to have you be a keynote speaker for them or just want to work

Jake Hall: 30:20

with you? Yeah. I would say the best place is, find me on the platform on LinkedIn. Like if you're not on LinkedIn, I would encourage you to get there because there's so much value in it and that area. So LinkedIn will be huge. If you want to go on the website, the manufacturing millennial. com, you can find me that way. I am on all social platforms, so I don't have the following like you do on Tik TOK, but I'm, I am a Tik TOK. I do have a couple thousand followers. It's great, LinkedIn, my website, or just email me, Jake at the manufacturing millennial. com.

Cory Connors: 30:49

Well, thank you, sir. Really appreciate this. And it's been so fun to grow up with you in this industry and be in our own niche, but support each other. So thank

Jake Hall: 31:00

you for that. Croy, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Thank you.