Dec. 23, 2025

Is It Time to Rethink Everything You Believe About Manufacturing?

This conversation cuts through the myths and shows you what’s really happening in U.S. manufacturing today — the opportunities, the urgency, and the cultural shift we need if we want the next generation to thrive.

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dot com. This is beyond confidence and now here's your host,

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div Park.

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Good morning, it's Tuesday, and of course it's a wonderful

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morning because I get to be with you. So there

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has been a question in the past recent years because

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a lot of recent college graduates are not getting a job.

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So is there another route? What other options are there

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for our youth and how can they have different careers?

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And that's exactly what we will be talking about today.

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Welcome Terry.

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W Thanks for having me. I'm honored to be on.

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Yes, it's no fantastic to have you on the show.

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So usually we start out with a moment in your

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early childhood or in your early youth. Do you recall

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a moment or a person that left a post and

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mark on you.

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Oh boy, besides family members, because my dad and my

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mom and of course my uncles were very influential. I

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grew up as a single child of a single parent.

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But I think playing ball, a lot of my coaches

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were mentors to me, and some of my teachers in

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high school were mentors to me. So there's numerous ones,

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but Frank Anderson was an ap calculus and physics teacher.

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He was a mentor to me and Dave Kenson and

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Jim Kane, two of my coaches in high school.

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And what is one of the things that you learn

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from them and are still caring?

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Well, I learned how a lot of character based things

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that came from my family and my mentors.

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And the character prevails all and.

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It to how you act and how you conduct yourself

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actually supersedes the talents that you have, however great they are,

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because as you walk out the door, your talents will

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be forgotten about, but your character will be remembered.

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Very true. So as we talk about character, and what

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would you say are some of the important values that

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you still hold true today?

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Well, first and foremost the two character components I think

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that I've always been raising our children and even our

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grandchildren is honesty, is an integrity are the top two

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facets of any persona I think. But hard work and

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diligence and perseverance are also a tertiary or secondary character.

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But honesty integrity are my top two.

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Yeah, No, definitely. And when we talk about hard work

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and diligence, So there are a lot of youngsters right

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now who have put in a lot of hard work,

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a lot of diligence, and their college work. You know,

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they're graduating, and sometimes they're putting in hard work even

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in the jobs. And there have been a lot of layoffs,

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and the career is no longer a certainty in American

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culture like there used to be. Okay, you know, I'm

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talking about several decades back. You go in, you join

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a company, you walk out, you have a pension, and

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your life is set. But now it is either the

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careers get outdated, or companies layoff people, or that career

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is gone. So amidst all of these, tell us you

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champion manufacturing. So tell us your journey and also a

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little bit about that.

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Well, I was very fortunate in that this year we're

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celebrating a one hundred year legacy in manufacturing, and I'm

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at the end of my forty fifth year of being

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in the manufacturing sector. But I think what's happening is

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over the years, and I think our educational system has

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the cost have risen so tremendously that they've outpaced the

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salaries that they offer.

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In the general career set.

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But generally speaking, manufacturing has got a huge void because

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our culture has somehow can come up with this perception

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that manufacturing's not done in the US anymore, and that

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it's outdated and it's not technology technologically savvy, and all

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these perceptions that are incorrect.

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And as a result, there's a I call it return

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on education.

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Where your cost, your time frame and cost to develop

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a skill set if it matches your natural abilities and inclinations,

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the time frame and of getting into a manufacturing skill

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based career is so much quicker, so much less costly,

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and so much more financially rewarding in comparative terms.

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So let's say someone you know, a youngster in high

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school there deciding whether to go to college or whether

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to go into like manufacturing as you're talking about, and

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you still want a bright future, they don't want to

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be capped at a certain level of compensation. So how

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can they go about and what are any resources that

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you can recommend?

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Well, first of all, Diva, there's there's not a lot

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of awareness of manufacturing careers, So that's first. So a

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lot of times with young people, they're not even aware

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of what they might be able to pursue. They know

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that mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and most

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of the family and friends are telling them, you know,

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go down the four to five year college path. And

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some of them want to go into student debt just

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because they have to, which I say, don't do.

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But if we can just make.

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Them aware of the manufacturing sector and how it's been

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neglected in terms of a talent pool for so long,

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and you know, chain do their research. Do internships during

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high school. A lot of people are young people are

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making the transition from internships in a manufacturing company into

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having them pay for their education and their upskilling as

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they grow within the company. But I think you have

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to as a young person, you know, we go back

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to those character based items, you know, integrity and honesty.

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I tell young people, you know, arrive early, leave late,

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and tell the truth and you'll be successful in no

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matter what you do. And so if they just knew

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about manufacturing, do their research, get into an internship.

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And.

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Whether you have the money or not, even if you

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have the money, give it a look and I think

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you'll be surprised. And then when you get into supply

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and demand, just the basic concept. There's a huge demand

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in manufacturing and a short supply, which is now raised

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in the bar, not only in the skill set you need,

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but what they'll pay you as a result.

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And what are some of the industrial sectors that they

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can look for.

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You know, manufacturing is so broad based, and not only

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is it broad based, but also there's more conventional career

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sets that they also need. They need accountants, they need

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legal representation, they need salespeople, they need HR executives and

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thus dusty So I think, you know, aerospace is big in.

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This country, Defense is big in this country. General.

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Manufacturing. Entrepreneurship is a huge element in manufacturing. The young

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people probably have no idea that people young people go

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into manufacturing and then next thing, you know, they either

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develop their own product and make it, or you know,

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start their own company and then start their own manufacturing subcontract,

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machine shop or what have you. There's food manufacturing, there's

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pharmaceutical manufacturing.

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I mean it goes. You know, chip manufacturing is making.

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Not a comeback, but they're starting to realize the importance

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of making chips in this country.

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Microchips.

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So there's so many and it's such a broad definition,

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and there's so many other career sets that are embedded

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as well in manufacturing.

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Companies.

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So what you shed is very powerful that Okay, here

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you are, you're learning how to manufacture. You're learning inside out.

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You know, what are the issues, what are the problems.

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You're learning that pore competencies and skill sets. So of course,

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now if you decide to open up your own company,

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you just don't have that external knowledge. You have internal knowledge.

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So that said, you know you were talking about the

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chips and all that, So tell us more about is

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there a parallel with gamers into digital CNC manufacturing. So

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first of all, tell our audience what is digital CNC

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manufacturing and draw the parallel.

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Okay, well, in manufacturing today, there's a first of all,

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a lot of automation. We have to be automated in

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our processes to be competitive globally and many things. If not,

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I'm not going to say everything, but a large double

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digit percentage is digital based, is computerized. And so that

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being said, there's also a concept called the digital twin,

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which Siemens is a big advocate of, which means that

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you can actually replicate a process in the digital world

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and then understand potential failures potential improvements that can be

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made in a digital.

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World before you implement it in a physical world.

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So when I wrote my second book, I didn't realize

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my young I have three children, three adult children, and

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my youngest child's who's no longer young.

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Is a gamer.

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And I didn't realize in our world we have over

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three billion gamers and that's how many did you say?

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Three billion in the world.

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Wow, So a large percentage of the population are gamers.

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And so what I try to advocate, and I talked to.

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Barbara Humpton it seemens about this is that there's a.

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Connection between the prevalence for young people in gaming with

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the digital world, the computerized world, the automated world of manufacturing.

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But if you don't know about it, you don't you

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can't see that parallel.

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Hmm yeah, no, definitely. So basically what you're saying is

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that you can take a gamer skills and move into

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the digital manufacturer.

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Yes, and it has to be I mean, there has

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to be your your own interest and passion and your

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own skill set intuitively has to match. But people aren't

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making the decision about manufacturing because they know about it

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and because they don't want it, and they've made that determination.

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They either don't know about it or their perceptions about

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manufacturing are so outdated that they kind of write it off.

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And I'm here to say that, you know, there's a void,

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and you know, once again supply and demand, you know,

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take advantage of that, and you'll be competing with less

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of a populace for a job. Instead of having thousands

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of candidates, there may be dozens or hundreds of candidates,

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and as a result, you'll stand out and if you

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show pass for it, you'll definitely get a shot for sure.

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Yeah. No, absolutely. So you have mentioned that you know

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your family has a history in manufacturing. Tell us about that.

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Well, my grandfather was the one in nineteen twenty five,

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so we're one hundred years out now, and he started

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with a machine tool builder in Chicago. His father, my

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great grandfather, came from Norway and he passed fairly young.

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So my grandfather had to go to work at a

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very young age and literally, you know, figuratively and literally

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started sweeping the floors for a machine tool builder. And

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that started down our path, down the manufacturing route, and

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then my two uncles and my father followed. And much

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as I thought, I didn't want to work for the family,

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for my father, particularly because he was his standards were

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unbelievably high.

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I gave it a shot. That was forty five years ago.

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So tell us about your manufacturing journey.

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Well, my manufacturing journey.

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You know, I was very good in physics and math,

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you know, science and math, and I initially I didn't

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think I was going to go that path. So I

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considered photography, I considered psychology. I considered a lot of

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different things. And then I realized, you know, the competitive pool,

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the opportunities, and I'm like, if I'm really talented at

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something and I have an opportunity within the family, I

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would be silly and irresponsible not to at least try.

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To pursue it or consider it.

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So I started with my uncle at a machine shop

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in Milwaukee, initially as a teenager I think I was nineteen,

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and then maybe even twenty working actually eighteen and nineteen,

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working summers for him. And then soon after my wife

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and I got married, I worked for him for about

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probably a little bit less than a year, and then

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my dad called me and said, you know, would you consider,

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you know, working for the family business for me? And

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as I alluded to a minute ago or a second ago,

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I almost told him no.

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Immediately and then.

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I really thought about it, and I thought to myself, well, hey,

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that's not fair to my wife. I should really talk

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to her and see get her take on it. And I,

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you know, out of respect for my dad, but even

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my grandfather, I should really possibly give it a shot

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and think about it.

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So, you know, I gave it a shot and started.

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Wisconsin calling on machine shops and manufacturers for five years,

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moved down to Illinois, started doing the same there, moving

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into management and sales manager, vice president, president, and then

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the owner.

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And that was a forty five year journey.

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So you worked your way up. It wasn't that like, Okay,

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you know, this is my father's company and I'm just

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going to step into the role.

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Very well put, very well put. My family and myself.

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None of us and nobody thinks that they want to

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be that young person or younger person with that silver spoon,

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at least I never did. And so my dad I

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started running the company. And my dad had cancer surgery

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when I was twenty six, and so he basically said, right,

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you're gonna have to start running the company. And I

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was ill prepared even five years in to do that.

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So he wanted to give me a title, and I said,

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I don't want the title.

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And he goes, what do you mean you're going to

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be running the company? And I go, I'm the son

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of the boss. You were the son of the boss.

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And you should know that that in itself is not

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necessarily a badge of honor. It's it can work against

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you more than it can work for you. And until

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people get to know you and see your work ethic

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and that you're leading by example. And so it probably

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wasn't for another ten years that I even decided to

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take on like a managerial title.

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Mmm. And that definitely speaks of your character, that integrity

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that you initially talked about, because so many times what

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happens is people will say, oh, that's nepotism, and so

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many times people who rise up from the family there

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even called nepple babies. And as you said that that

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goes more against you, like because there are more things

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tacked against you rather than in your favor, because it's

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not easy to get the trust of other people.

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No, that's that's well said, and you know there's nothing

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wrong with nepotism in itself, but it's up to you

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and it's within your your character. How you accept the

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nepotism and that opportunity, and you need to leave your mark,

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and I think I did, In fact, I know I did.

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And you need to take the opportunity that's been given

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to you and make the best of it. But you

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have being self aware. A lot of people don't understand that,

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being self aware of how people perceive you and the

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character or the image that you portray. Many times, that's

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as important as anything that you stand for.

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Mm hm. So in you and Johnny as he rose

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in the ranks, what are some of the lessons that

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you can share with her audience.

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You know, one of my favorite lessons was one of

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my mentors besides my father who's who's passed, is another

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individual who's since passed, and his name was John Comparini.

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And I really had a tough time with making decisions

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and wondering did I make the right decision, you know,

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because you know, I was working for my dad and

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once again, he had extremely high standards. So I second

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guessed myself early early in you know, six sixth, seventh

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and eighth year, moving into a decision making scenario. And

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one thing he said, he said, he told me, he said, Cherry,

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I never made a decision that I always think things

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out very well that I thought at the time was

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the incorrect decision or a bad decision. What you need

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to understand is that circumstances.

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Change and you need to revisit it.

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But if you do your homework and you really, you know,

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look things seriously through and through and make a decision,

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at the time, it was the right decision. But things

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do change, you know, after the fact and forward, and

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you need to revisit those things.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely, And so what I'm hearing is that no decision, well,

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some decisions have to be final because you know, things

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have been implemented, you can't do anything about it, yep.

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But that said, you can revisit those decisions and adapt

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to the changing circumstances. So in your course of experience,

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have you developed any frameworks for decision making?

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Yeah, I think that's a really good question, Diviya.

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One thing I learned as a young person is that

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people always came to me to make decisions, and my

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dad taught me this as well, but then I honed

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it is that people want you to make decisions and

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they don't.

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Give you all the facts that you need, so you

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have to turn more times often than not.

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Rather than given an immediate decision, you have to turn

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things back and say, well, I need five more data

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sets or I need five more questions answered, and then

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I can give you a decision. And young people or

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people that are new to the managerial profession or position

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don't realize that, and then they make decisions but they

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don't have all the facts. So rushing to a decision

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is not necessarily always.

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Prudent or good advice. But you know, there's the.

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Opposite, and never making a decision or waiting to make

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an important decision too long is also the case. So

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you need to develop a mindset, and you know, a cadence,

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I guess is the word I'm looking for that you

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know what you need as far as information and data sets,

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and then once you know that, then make a decision accordingly.

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So basically, have all your facts, assumptions and data. So

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this way you're making an informed decision rather than making

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decision out of emotions or so basically you're going for

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the fact based decision. And when we talk about the

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fact back, fact based decision making. Now from there, what

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happens is the way our human brains are designed. People

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make decisions emotionally and then justify it logically. So during

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have you experienced those moments where your emotions took over

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your logic and made those decisions and then either regretted

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them or thought like, oh, I wish I had made

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a different decision.

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Yeah, no, that's very well said. Many times, what I'll do.

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I guess this is one reason that I got into writing,

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because writing was very therapeutic for me, and my dad

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wrote a lot, but I think it wasn't therapeutic for him.

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It's just he had a tough time in communicating with

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especially his kids, face to face, and so a lot

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of times I would write things down and then I

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would look at things and I would you know, read

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them objectively, almost from a third person standpoint, and then see,

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you know, with email, this is very very prevalent and

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very good advice in that write an email, but do

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not address it. In other words, don't put the email

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address in the top quite yet. And then because a

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lot of times, you know, you can say things and

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you can recover and counteract something you've said when when

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you're speaking or having conversation or in a debate, so

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to speak. But when you write things too late, it's

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already on paper, it's already in an email. So you know,

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if you're emotional and you're writing something and you're upset

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or excited or whatever, write it out, but don't put

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the email address in until you know, or put your

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own email address in until you know. It sounds the

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way you want it to be and it's not emotional

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and it's based on the facts and what's prudent and

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business and compassionate all wrapped into one.

394
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Absolutely. Now, when we're talking about decision making, you're talking

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about taking that pause and also that ownership. That accountability

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