Scaling Smarter: Lessons from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, 492
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Release Date: 11/04/2025
We Put AI in the Hot Seat: Machine Shop Advice from Chatbots, 502
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
We’ve kicked off a lot of years on MakingChips, but never quite like this. To start 2026, we decided to try something completely different. Instead of bringing on a shop owner, a technology provider, or an industry expert, Mike and Paul invited three artificial intelligence chatbots to join the conversation. No prep calls. No talking points. Just live questions and real-time answers from Miles (from Sesame), Gemini, and ChatGPT. The result was equal parts fascinating, funny, and just a little bit eerie. In this episode, we explore what happens when you ask AI the same...
info_outline
Building Shops That Last: The Final Lesson of Machine Shop MBA, 501
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
As we close out 2025, we’re wrapping up more than just a year. This episode marks the conclusion of the Machine Shop MBA series, a collaboration with CLA and Modern Machine Shop built around insights from the Top Shops benchmarking program. What started as a practical exploration of shop metrics ends with a much bigger question: what truly separates shops that survive from shops that endure? For this final chapter, we’re joined again by Brent Donaldson of Modern Machine Shop, who helped kick off the series earlier in the year. Drawing from hundreds of shop visits and...
info_outline
At the Boring Bar: Rare Perfection, Real Talk, and the Systems That Separate Top Shops, 500
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Some episodes are planned. Others are produced. And then there are episodes like this one—where the setting, the people, and the moment all collide into something memorable. For the 500th episode of MakingChips, the team gathered once again At the Boring Bar for an unfiltered, bourbon-fueled roundtable with leaders from across the manufacturing ecosystem. Recorded live at Roush Yates Manufacturing Solutions during the Top Shops Conference in Charlotte, this special annual episode brings together shop owners, executives, advisors, and industry partners for the kinds of conversations...
info_outline
From Scarcity to Sales Pipeline: How Smart Shops Take Control of Growth with Factur, 499
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
What happens when a machine shop does everything right operationally but still feels exposed when markets shift, customers pull back, or one industry cools overnight? In this episode of MakingChips, the conversation turns squarely toward one of the most uncomfortable and misunderstood areas of manufacturing leadership: proactive sales and diversification. We’re joined by Gabe Draper, founder of Factur, and Alan Hartmann, CEO of Hartmann’s Inc., a multi-generation Texas manufacturer. Gabe shares a raw and honest origin story that starts with growing up in a manufacturing family, fighting to...
info_outline
Chaos, Curiosity & Chipmaking: Larry Robbins’ Wild Ride Through Manufacturing, 498
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Some conversations feel scripted. This one… absolutely did not. Larry Robbins walked in ready to talk life, passion, family, culture, workholding, philosophy, and whatever else popped into his head — and somehow it all connected back to manufacturing. This episode of MakingChips is one of the most unhinged, hilarious, honest, and wisdom-packed conversations we’ve ever recorded. Larry has been in the industry for nearly 46 years, and he’s collected enough stories, scars, and laughs for ten careers. From his father dragging him into the business (“long hair doesn’t work...
info_outline
The Double Your Value Mindset: Planning, Growth & Real Talk from the EGS Event, 497
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
In this special episode of MakingChips, we broadcast from the EBITDA Growth Systems Double Your Value Planning Event—a gathering designed to pull shop owners out of the day-to-day grind and force intentional thinking about long-term growth. This year’s event was hosted at the Sandvik Coromant facility in Mebane, North Carolina, creating a perfect backdrop for conversations about planning, strategy, and culture. Paul is joined by three key voices who bring decades of hard-earned manufacturing wisdom: Jim Carr, a founding voice of MakingChips; Zach Overton, who is deep in the trenches of...
info_outline
Forged Through Fire: How Phoenix Heat Treating Rebuilt Its Culture, Systems & Leadership, 496
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
In this episode of MakingChips, we sit down with Charlie Hushek, President of Phoenix Heat Treating, whose family has been in the heat-Treating world for over a century. Charlie is a fifth-generation heat Treatinger—but his leadership story is anything but inherited. When he stepped into the business in 2020, he wasn’t handed stability. He was handed a crisis. Within a matter of months, Phoenix Heat Treating lost its NADCAP certification—twice—suffered major operational setbacks, faced COVID turmoil, and endured the tragic loss of their general manager. For a company where more...
info_outline
Inside the Winners’ Circle: Top Shops 2025 Live from the NASCAR Hall of Fame, 495
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Top Shops 2025 brought together the most innovative, forward-thinking leaders in manufacturing—and this year’s gathering at the NASCAR Hall of Fame felt like stepping directly into the winners’ circle. Surrounded by the energy of hundreds of top-tier manufacturers, we sat down with the four shops recognized as the crème de la crème in their categories: Technology, Shopfloor Technology, Business Strategy, and Human Resources. Together, these honorees represent what’s possible when ambition meets execution. In this special episode of MakingChips, recorded live in Charlotte, we talk...
info_outline
IMTS Insider: Building the World’s Largest Manufacturing Show, 494
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
When you walk into IMTS—the International Manufacturing Technology Show—it’s easy to be awestruck by the machines, the energy, and the sheer scale. But few people realize just how much planning, logistics, and collaboration go into bringing that experience to life. In this episode of MakingChips, we sit down with Mark Kennedy, Senior Director of Exhibitions at AMT, to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the world’s largest manufacturing trade show comes together. This conversation dives deep into the IMTS Exhibitor Workshop, a two-day event that helps exhibitors prepare for...
info_outline
High Quality People, High Quality Work: Making Small Big with Goldman Sachs 10KSB, 493
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
We’re coming to you once again from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in Washington, D.C.—the largest gathering of small business owners in U.S. history. This time, we’re joined by two inspiring leaders from the Metalworking Nation who prove that the heart of American manufacturing beats strongest in small towns and family-run shops. Our guests, Jenny Steffensmeier, owner of Steffensmeier Welding & Manufacturing in Pilot Grove, Iowa, and Paul Bothe, third-generation owner of a CNC job shop in Kenosha, Wisconsin, share how the Goldman Sachs...
info_outlineWe’re coming to you live from Washington, D.C., at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit—the largest gathering of small business owners in U.S. history. With more than 2,700 entrepreneurs in one place, the energy is electric, and the conversations are powerful. Among them is our guest, Brandon Dahms, owner of Innovative Manufacturing & Engineering (IME) in Des Moines, Iowa.
Brandon’s story captures what this summit is all about—growth, resilience, and transformation. After starting his career with plans to work in sports marketing, he took an unexpected turn into manufacturing and never looked back. Today, his 10,000-square-foot, lights-out machining operation runs nearly 24/7, serving as proof that automation, strategy, and strong leadership can turn even the smallest shop into a powerhouse.
In this episode, we talk with Brandon about how the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program helped him refine his growth strategy, strengthen his company culture, and position IME for long-term success. We dive into what it’s like to go through a program that feels like an “MBA for real-world business owners” and how it shaped his ability to pivot from a traditional job shop to a high-volume, automated manufacturer.
We also explore the advocacy side of the program—how small business owners like Brandon are meeting directly with congressional leaders to influence policy on issues that affect manufacturers every day: workforce development, healthcare costs, and economic uncertainty. From his experience in the classroom to his conversations on Capitol Hill, Brandon shows how one voice can help represent the entire metalworking nation.
If you’ve ever wondered how programs like this can truly impact your business—and why stepping outside your bubble might be the key to future growth—this conversation is one you don’t want to miss.
Segments
- (0:39) Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA)
- (1:15) Recording at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit
- (2:48) Brandon Dahms’ origin story in metalworking
- (6:07) Why “Innovative Manufacturing & Engineering” stuck (and why it’s a long email address)
- (7:17) Why apply for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program?
- (11:13) Why the investment of time is invaluable—Brandon’s personal ROI
- (12:40) Manufacturing’s place in the conversation: explaining CNC to non-manufacturers
- (13:30) The Voices advocacy program: How advocacy efforts translate into real policy conversations
- (16:05) Navigating uncertainty: Tariffs, government shutdowns, and planning for growth
- (18:16) SMW Autoblok: automation and workholding innovation
- (19:28) Applying 10KSB lessons to IME—pivoting, culture, and core values
- (21:08) Pivoting from job shop to high-volume manufacturing and reshoring work
- (22:51) Presenting the capstone project (a real-world growth plan)
- (24:34) How networking led to new high-volume customers
- (26:53) Balancing capacity, growth, and selectivity in customer relationships
- (28:21) Hiring for core values first, technical skill second (and personality tests that help)
- (31:20) Aligning personal goals with company growth
- (33:07) How to apply for the 10,000 Small Businesses program and what to expect
- (34:45) How MakingChips’ “Machine Shop MBA” series aligns with the same mission
- (36:44) Why the best ideas often come from outside your industry
- (38:00) Hire MFG Leaders—find manufacturing talent that fits
Resources mentioned on this episode
- Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit
- Connect with Brandon Dahms on LinkedIn
- Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA)
- SMW Autoblok: automation and workholding innovation
- Hire MFG Leaders—find manufacturing talent that fits
- Apply for Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses