102. He Borrowed $1M to Save His Team: Gary Poesnecker with Spectrum Machine & Design
Machine Shop Mastery
Some machine shop owners talk about people-first leadership. Few are willing to put everything on the line to prove it. In this episode of Machine Shop Mastery, I sit down with Gary Poesnecker, founder of Spectrum Machine & Design, whose leadership was tested when the world shut down. Faced with collapsing demand during COVID, Gary made a decision most owners wouldn’t: he borrowed over $1 million to keep his team employed and protect the tribal knowledge inside his shop. That moment didn’t happen in isolation. It was the result of decades of experience across precision grinding,...
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101. Extreme Specialization: The Strategy Behind a 123-Person Gear Company
Machine Shop Mastery
Most machine shops grow by adding capabilities, chasing new markets, and saying “yes” as often as possible. Forest City Gear took the opposite path — and built a 123-person company by doing it. In this episode of Machine Shop Mastery, I sit down with Kika Young, President of Forest City Gear, to unpack how extreme specialization became the company’s competitive advantage. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, Forest City Gear made the intentional decision to focus almost exclusively on one thing: high-precision, loose gears. That focus reshaped everything — from who...
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100. Collective Wisdom: Best Ideas from the First 99 Episodes of Machine Shop Mastery
Machine Shop Mastery
Reaching 100 episodes is more than a milestone. It’s a moment to step back and recognize what’s been built together. In this special compilation episode of Machine Shop Mastery, I reflect on the most powerful ideas, lessons, and human stories that emerged from the first 99 conversations with shop owners and manufacturing leaders across the industry. When this podcast started, I thought we were chasing a simple question: what makes great shops great? What became clear over time is that we weren’t really talking about machines or parts at all. We were talking about responsibility,...
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99. Love God, Love People, and Make Chips: The Visionary Leadership of Bill Cox
Machine Shop Mastery
Some manufacturing businesses grow because of timing, technology, or market opportunity. Others endure because of values. In this episode of Machine Shop Mastery, I sit down with Bill Cox of Cox Manufacturing, a nearly 70-year-old family business whose legacy was forged through resilience, faith, and an unwavering commitment to people. Bill shares the remarkable origin story of Cox Manufacturing, which began with a single Swiss machine purchased at auction in the 1950s and grew into a high-volume precision operation shipping millions of parts each week. Along the way, the company played a...
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98. Behind the Scenes of a Top Shop with Jayme Rahz
Machine Shop Mastery
What does a truly dialed-in machine shop look like behind the scenes? In this episode of Machine Shop Mastery, I sit down with Jayme Rahz of Midway Swiss Turn, one of the most intentional and well-run shops I’ve come across. I met Jayme at the Top Shops Conference, where Midway Swiss Turn was recognized for Shop Floor Best Practices, and after this conversation, it’s easy to see why. Jayme shares the full origin story of the business, which started in a garage with her father-in-law and grew into a highly automated Swiss-focused operation in Ohio. Over more than two decades, the shop...
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97. The Human Side of Hard Businesses: Culture, Trust, and Long-Term Leadership
Machine Shop Mastery
Staying in business for decades requires more than machines, processes, and good customers.In this episode of Machine Shop Mastery, I sit down with Bonnie and Ken Kuhn of Kuhn Tool, a multi-generation, family-owned shop in northwest Pennsylvania that has quietly endured for more than six decades. What makes this conversation special isn’t just the longevity of the business, but the way Bonnie and Ken have built it together. From surviving offshoring waves and major customer losses to steadily growing from a handful of employees into a thriving operation, their story is rooted in...
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96. From Pole Barn to Precision Powerhouse: Shane Grant’s 10-Year Shop Journey
Machine Shop Mastery
In this episode of Machine Shop Mastery, I finally sit down with Shane Grant from Machining Momentum, a guest I’ve been hoping to have on the show for a long time. Shane has spent the last decade building his shop from the ground up, literally starting in a backyard pole barn and growing it into a precision-focused operation that’s now hitting its stride in a new industrial facility. What makes Shane’s story compelling isn’t just the growth, but how intentionally it happened. He shares how early exposure to machining through a family business, followed by experience in automotive,...
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95. Why Clean Floors, Strong Culture & High-End Machines Drive Valuation
Machine Shop Mastery
One of the questions I think about constantly is what actually makes a machine shop valuable. Not just today, but five, ten, or even twenty years down the road. It’s easy to point to machines, revenue, or backlog, but the real drivers of long-term value usually run much deeper. That’s exactly why I wanted to sit down with Jamie Goettler, Chief Revenue Officer of BTX Precision, for this episode of Machine Shop Mastery. BTX Precision is one of the fastest-growing advanced manufacturing platforms in the country. Jamie brings a rare blend of perspectives to the conversation. With more than two...
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94. How Losing a Machine Shop Led to Gabe Draper’s Calling
Machine Shop Mastery
Some conversations stay with you long after you hit “stop” on the recorder—and my time with Gabe Draper is absolutely one of them. I’ve known Gabe for years, but I never fully understood the depth of the journey he endured as he attempted to take over, stabilize, and ultimately shut down the family machine shop. His story isn’t just informative; it’s gut-wrenching, enlightening, and, ultimately, incredibly redemptive. In this episode, Gabe walks me through the emotional roller coaster of trying to save a failing shop, the painful impact of relying too heavily on one industry,...
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93. A Builder at Heart Pivots and Buys a Machine Shop
Machine Shop Mastery
Buying a machine shop is never simple — and for Matt Fortner, it was a leap into the unknown. Coming from backgrounds in plumbing, industrial fittings, product development, and even scrap metal buying, Matt felt a pull to get back to “building something real.” That pull led him to Progress Machining in Muskegon, Michigan — a shop he became the fifth person to attempt purchasing. Once inside, Matt quickly realized how much transformation the business needed. The shop was filled with aging machines, tribal knowledge, and 60 tons of accumulated scrap and unused tooling. Setups stretched...
info_outlineWhen you’ve poured 46 years of your life into building a thriving precision machine shop—one that grew from a one-man garage to 50 employees, world-class equipment, and top-tier aerospace customers—you don’t expect it to end with burnout.
In this deeply candid episode, I sit down with Cody Sisson, a lifelong machinist who built a remarkable business through decades of grit, innovation, and commitment to excellence—only to watch it collapse under the weight of exhaustion, health crises, and a perfect storm of setbacks.
Cody opens up about the early days of his shop, the thrill of landing major accounts like Honeywell and Hewlett-Packard, and the pride he took in caring for both his people and his customers. But he also shares the hidden cost of relentless drive—the long hours, delegation gone wrong, and emotional fatigue that slowly drained his passion for the work he once loved.
This conversation isn’t just about loss—it’s about lessons. Cody now dedicates his time to helping other shop owners recognize the warning signs of burnout and put systems in place before it’s too late. His honesty offers a powerful reminder that even the strongest leaders can fall when they ignore their own limits.
If you’ve ever felt stretched thin as a shop owner or wondered what happens when the drive that built your business turns into the very thing that destroys it, this episode is one you can’t afford to miss.
You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...
- (0:52) The rise and fall of Cody’s 46-year-old aerospace machine shop
- (3:13) Cody’s trajectory from fascination with engines to building his own machine shop
- (9:37) Cody took the leap and started his own shop with just a few manual machines
- (10:44) Check out Verdant Commercial Capital for a true partner in your corner
- (13:37) Landing his first major customers and growing through word-of-mouth and persistence
- (16:07) Surviving the 1983 recession and pivoting to new industries
- (18:14) Buying an abandoned farm and rebuilding the business from scratch
- (18:50) Rapid growth to 50 employees and early adoption of CNC technology
- (23:05) Embracing concurrent engineering and “dying on the sword” for customers
- (25:35) Building a culture where employees loved to work—and introducing a 4-day workweek
- (26:57) Implementing DCD (later Epicor) ERP and custom shop-floor tracking in 1994
- (29:02) Meet me at the EBITDA Growth Systems Double Your Value Event!
- (33:00) Lessons from hiring the wrong leaders and trusting too easily
- (38:56) Buying and renovating a dream facility and investing in new equipment
- (41:16) Living through a quarter-million-dollar mill-run mistake
- (42:51) Navigating bankruptcy and a double cancer diagnosis
- (44:25) Catastrophic misquotes and lost margins that sealed the company’s fate
- (46:28) The decision to shut down—and organizing a job fair to protect his employees
- (47:43) Processing the grief of losing a business you’ve built your entire life
- (49:02) Cody’s reflections on burnout, fear, and the mental toll of ownership
- (50:30) How Cody is helping other shop owners recognize and prevent burnout
- (59:30) Join us at Top Shops 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina
Resources & People Mentioned
- Check out Verdant Commercial Capital for a true partner in your corner
- Get a discount for EBITDA Growth Systems Double Your Value Event: DYV25MC
- Join us at Top Shops 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina
Connect with Cody Sisson
- Sisson Performance
- Connect on LinkedIn
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