The Manufacturer’s Mindset Podcast by Ballantine Digital

Jeremy Axel never planned on selling conveyors. He was selling SolidWorks in Denver when a customer needed help, and a couple of years later he took the leap and founded Fluent Conveyors.In this episode, Jeremy talks about why he saw complacency in the conveyor market as an opening, and why he thinks expensive industrial equipment deserves marketing that looks the part. He explains why his email signature says sales instead of owner, why he cringes when someone calls him their boss, and why owning a mistake ends the conversation while deflecting drags it out for an hour.Jeremy also opens up about his company's two-year website redesign. He hired and fired three outside designers before his internal team nailed the first concept, and he shares what he would do differently: get your ducks in a row first, put agency commitments in the contract, and build a brand guideline (his is now 140 pages). He also warns about paralysis by analysis when you start chasing pixel-perfect.We wrap with his 4:30 a.m. start, the book club on his own podcast, Never in Reverse, and whether his five- and six-year-old boys will end up selling conveyors. 

What do you do when a prospect you really want to work with stops answering? Mark Bryant, VP of Business Development and Marketing at Canyonside Labs, mails them a Snickers bar.Mark has spent over 25 years in the dietary supplement industry. He started with a part-time job in college making calls for a supplement brand, and since then he has worked the production line, run quality checks, driven the forklift, cleaned the bathrooms, and led sales and marketing. Today Canyonside Labs is a contract manufacturer that helps brands bring capsule, liquid, and powder supplements to market.In this conversation with Ryan Cote, Mark shares:Why he sends something physical, like a candy bar and a short note, when a good-fit prospect goes quietHow a discovery call and a quick rough quote early on keep both sides from wasting timeWhy Canyonside tells prospects they are interviewing them tooHow LinkedIn, suppliers, and a past mastermind group keep him learning as AI changes every industryThe biggest challenge of his career: losing his job when a company he had worked at for 16 years closed, starting his own manufacturing company in Idaho, outgrowing it, and selling it to the group that turned it into Canyonside LabsWhy he is happy to refer a brand to another manufacturer when Canyonside is not the right fitIf you work in sales, business development, or run a manufacturing company, Mark's story is a reminder that relationships and persistence carry a business further than you might think.

A prospect shows real interest, asks for a quote, and then goes silent. For manufacturers selling capital equipment, that silence isn't a no. It's usually just the sales cycle.In this episode, Ryan Cote talks with Evan Bates, business advisor at MANTEC, part of Pennsylvania's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) network. Evan started his career at 22 traveling the world selling machines for a boutique manufacturer, later opened and ran a rock climbing gym, and came back to manufacturing to help companies in south central Pennsylvania grow their sales and marketing.Evan and Ryan cover:What a typical day looks like advising manufacturers across a nine county territory with over 2,000 manufacturersWhy process improvement, not tariffs, is the challenge manufacturers keep bringing upThe 50/50 split he's seeing in how tariffs are affecting his clientsWhy industrial sales comes down to relationships, and why those relationships need to be documented so business doesn't walk out the door when a salesperson leavesHow to handle leads that go dark when sales cycles run 12 to 18 monthsFollow-up ideas that beat the "just checking in" email: short videos, LinkedIn, trade shows, even a postcardHow many manufacturers still run without a CRM, and what that costs themWhere Evan goes to keep learning, including LinkedIn Learning, YouTube, Reddit, and AI tools

Joe Gambino is the founder of Rogue Fabrication, an Oregon tool design and manufacturing company known for tube benders, notchers, and press brakes built for fabricators in tubing and motorsports. He designed the first bender for himself, because everything on the market needed concrete anchors in a garage floor he was renting. Friends wanted one. Then a swap meet crowd wanted one. Then his wife gave him two years to find out if it was a career or a side hustle, and he spent those two years working 80 hour weeks.In this episode, Joe walks Ryan through the engineering decisions behind the machine, why separating the die from the clamp made it cheaper and stronger, and how that same design led to two patents and a mandrel bender that costs five grand instead of fifty. He also gets into the hard parts: defending your reputation against Facebook critics without fighting them, leaving one-star reviews up on purpose, and learning that shop culture has to be built before it breaks.If you make something and sell it, there is a lot here on product development, YouTube as an education channel, and running a growing shop without letting it follow you home.

Brandon Lincoln handles all the marketing for Ideal Manufacturing and all the marketing and sales for Ideal Rockaway, two companies under one roof in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. One sells industrial woodworking machinery. The other sells skid steer attachments. They could not be more different from a marketing standpoint, and Brandon explains why.On the woodworking side, his team ranks for the right keywords and even shows up in Google's AI overviews, but the leads still don't come through the site. The reason is simple. Those buyers are not searching. Many are still flipping through trade magazines and relying on dealer relationships and in-person visits. Brandon found something that does work: five-minute, long-form video demonstrations filmed while machines get tested before they ship. Buyers watch a full cycle, see the finished parts, then call with technical questions. He says that video content sells better than the best SEO he can produce.The skid steer attachment side is the opposite. Short-form Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Meta ads drive a steady stream of leads that convert.Brandon also walks through how he runs a day (leads and follow-ups first, projects second), what it takes to coordinate trade shows like the International Woodworking Fair and Equip Exposition, and the sales framework that changed how he talks to customers: sorting every negotiation into assertive, accommodating, or analytical, then speaking that person's language back to them.If you market or sell technical products, especially into an industry that has not moved online, this one is worth your time. 

John Hilgendorf handles all marketing for ABM Equipment, a company that designs dry bulk solid systems and inspection equipment for the food, chemical, and nutraceutical industries. And when I say all marketing, I mean all of it. Content, trade shows, brochures, the website, even a custom training platform he built from scratch.In this episode, John explains why he avoids paid ads entirely and has gone all-in on organic marketing. He shares how repeated website hacks nearly tanked their SEO, what his high school wrestling coach taught him about the danger of shortcuts (and why that lesson applies directly to SEO), and how his team landed one of the biggest food producers in the world as a client by pulling together a presentation over a single weekend.We also get into a great conversation about managing uncertainty, why Ubersuggest might be the best SEO tool for solo marketers, and what it's like to be the only marketing person at a growing manufacturer.If you're wearing multiple hats at a manufacturing company, this one's for you. 

Ryan Tilly of MSC Floors shares how honest marketing, SEO blogs, paid search, and real human connection help drive growth in a niche manufacturing industry. We also talk AI, trade shows, storytelling, and why effort still matters.

Michael Brooks has spent nearly 38 years with Oneda Corporation, so he’s seen a lot of change in manufacturing. In this episode, he shares what he’s learned about building strong customer relationships, doing business with a Japanese-influenced company, handling urgent customer needs, and staying useful as the industry keeps changing. It’s a down-to-earth conversation about trust, experience, problem-solving, and why listening still matters. 

Gabriela Miraglia of FormuNova shares her journey of building a cosmetic contract manufacturing company focused on small-batch production, innovative product development, and strong team culture. She also talks about the leadership lessons she learned from her entrepreneurial family, the challenge of managing finances as a business owner, and how her team is using AI.

Frank Lamb joins The Manufacturer's Mindset Podcast to share his unconventional path from uncertainty to a 40-year career in industrial automation. He explains what manufacturers should know about PLCs, robotics, AI, and the risks of scaling too fast, offering practical advice for engineers, entrepreneurs, and the next generation of technical talent.