In this episode, host Jordan Yates interviews David Turner, owner of Process and automation specialists, about the importance of trying out different career paths and gaining experience. David shares his own experience of working in the restaurant industry and exploring various job roles in engineering. He emphasizes the value of developing communication and sales skills, as well as the importance of networking and building relationships. David also discusses the challenges and rewards of running his own business and offers advice for those looking to gain new experiences and find their passion.
Takeaways
Trying out different career paths and gaining experience is essential for personal and professional growth.
Developing communication and sales skills is crucial for success in any job role.
Networking and building relationships can open doors to new opportunities.
Finding a balance between taking on new challenges and focusing on areas of expertise is key.
In this episode, host Jordan Yates interviews David Turner, owner of Process and automation specialists, about the importance of trying out different career paths and gaining experience. David shares his own experience of working in the restaurant industry and exploring various job roles in engineering. He emphasizes the value of developing communication and sales skills, as well as the importance of networking and building relationships. David also discusses the challenges and rewards of running his own business and offers advice for those looking to gain new experiences and find their passion.
Takeaways
Trying out different career paths and gaining experience is essential for personal and professional growth.
Developing communication and sales skills is crucial for success in any job role.
Networking and building relationships can open doors to new opportunities.
Finding a balance between taking on new challenges and focusing on areas of expertise is key.
Welcome back to another episode of Failing For you. It is me, your host, jordan Yates, and for the first time ever, one of our new sponsors is coming on the pod, so hopefully, as you guys are listening to this, you just heard his quick ad and you already know him. It is the David Turner from Process and Automation Specialists. David, say hello in real time.
Speaker 2:
Hello in real time.
Speaker 1:
But real quick. Before we get started, let's hear a quick message from our sponsors.
Speaker 2:
Hi there, I'm David Turner from Process and Automation Specialists. In our world, process improvement isn't just a phrase. It's the key to unlocking efficiency in your operations. With over 20 years of hands-on experience in the heart of manufacturing plants, I've walked in your shoes, worked alongside teams like yours, and understand the ins and outs of your daily challenges. My journey from the plant floor to leading process solutions means I know exactly what it takes to elevate your operations. Interested in transforming your process efficiency? With a partner who's been there, let's connect on LinkedIn. Don't wait for the future of automation, let's create it. Process and Automation Specialists engineering efficiency together.
Speaker 3:
Go ahead, push our buttons. Actually, you don't have to physically push our buttons at all. Here at CapTron, we specialize in innovative capacitive sensor technologies, which means better ergonomics for your workplace and, unlike mechanical buttons that break or malfunction after repeated use, our sensors are rated for 100 million operations. Durability is the name of the game and we're winning, and you can be too. Visit CapTron at Automate 2024 in Chicago, illinois, on May 6th through 9th at Booth 2886, or visit CapTroncom. Captron install once, replace never.
Speaker 1:
You know what's funny? It's like anytime I've ever introduced a podcast host or sorry, guest, I'm like say hello everybody, they'll go hello everybody. I say say hello in real time. You say say hello. It's always exactly what I say.
Speaker 2:
I think it came from a full house episode that we all watched as kids, and it's like oh it just stuck with us.
Speaker 1:
It's something about the guest they picked that they all have the exact same humor. So, guys, I'm excited to have David on because we love people who have learned a lot, failed a lot. We love small business owners, we love the tech community, manufacturing people. David just fits in a lot of the boxes of guests we typically have on, and the topic we had talked about before recording today is the concept of trying out a lot of different career paths and getting experience and being able to be okay with getting experience in ways that you didn't exactly expect, because really, as much as we learn in school, you still need to try out certain job types to know what you like, what you don't like and learn from there. So that's what we're going to talk about with David today, and I think he had sort of an anecdote at the beginning where we were just chatting about how he used to work in a restaurant and he tried a lot of things there. So, before we get into all the world of technology, david, can you tell us about what it was like when you worked in that restaurant and the different things you tried out there?
Speaker 2:
Okay, absolutely. Actually, I went into an Applebee's Everyone remembers those, if they're still around and I started out as an expediter the one that puts all the meals together and gives it to the server and then ultimately went to busing and serving and then one day they had a need for a dishwasher, so I raised my hand and volunteered to wash dishes for the evening. So it's just really really good to like. I just wanted to do everything. I just wanted to get exposure to that, get exposure to this to see, you know, just to see what it's like. So I just had a really you know, really no, not necessarily fun time learning, but you know, I learned. You know how to interact with people. I learned how not to interact with people. So it was no, it was good to kind of expose myself to all those so that you know, going through school I was able to do the same thing with other areas Retail, for one, you know.
Speaker 3:
I worked in retail.
Speaker 2:
I worked in a pizza joint. So just you know, trying to try out all the things, just you know, get exposure set when I'm out there. I know what these people are going through. I think that was really, really key.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. Actually, I worked at an Applebee's too, when I was 16. It only lasted a month, though, because I had basically I didn't have my license yet, and so my mom had to drive me to work. But my mom and my stepdad went to bed really early, and so basically like I had to be done by nine or I didn't have a ride. And I remember one night, like my person that was supposed to relieve me from my shift, and it show up and my mom called every 15 minutes, called my boss and was like why is she still working? Why is she still working? And I'm like, oh my God, mom, you're embarrassing me, what are you doing? And I got so much trouble. She's like you know, you're not allowed to work past nine, and I was like I'm 16. I can't tell my boss to know, so it's my memory of Applebee's. But it's funny that you had the like actual want to try everything. Would you say you were more of a naturally inquisitive, I guess, teenager Like, did you like going into new stuff?
Speaker 2:
I did, I really did. You know I broke a lot of stuff as a kid. You know taking stuff, taking items apart, taking clocks apart. You know causing fires all the stuff you do as a kid when you're trying to learn how to how something works. So, yeah, naturally inquisitive for sure. So I think overall you know that just kind of blossomed into you know learning about, you know stuff with my hands to. You know learning about roles and jobs people do just to learn more about, learn more about what they go through on a daily basis. I mean, that's even now when I go to a sit down restaurant I'm expecting, you know, the two minute, two bite check back. Why don't they check on me?
Speaker 1:
Exactly yes, so you, you did engineering in school. Is that what your degrees in?
Speaker 2:
Yes, I got a degree in chemical engineering from Auburn.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
And then about six years after school I went back to get my MBA. I did that part time through through Lehigh University up in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1:
Very cool. So I guess at that point you were already well in your way of I like to try new things out. When you were doing your chemical engineering degree, did you have any internships or co-ops or like looks into the industry yet, or were you just doing school and regular jobs?
Speaker 2:
I actually got a job with Buckman labs. They do chemical sales, especially chemical sales, and I worked at two different paper mills and was able to do everything chemical, chemical related, so everything that was related to any any process chemistry that were going on. Ultimately, while I was working with them, they had they'd gotten a bid to do all the, all the the chemicals inside of a facility that was doing recycled newsprint Interesting. So you know it was. It was everything on the boiler house, everything on the line, all the flocculants, all the, the de-inking chemicals which are really interesting, all the reclamers. I also worked in a coated board plant doing sampling on their, their biosides as well as their polymers to help organize the fibers together to make a good sheet. So. So I got to. You know, as a teenager, in college, I was inside a paper mill machine running and doing my sampling, and so I learned a lot of safety, learned a lot about safety during working at the paper mills because they're inherently unsafe areas. So it was great. So but, yeah, I got to, I got to see every aspect of a paper mill doing, doing that role, because of you know, that's where they had all the all the chemicals are. You know you. You add chemicals on the front end of the boiler house. You add chemicals to break apart the wood chips. You add chemicals to kill all the bioside, the biological agents inside of the inks. So it was. It was great to be able to see that from start to finish on the on the chemistry side, just because I was able to also see it on the plant manufacturing side.
Speaker 1:
So, david, through all these things that you did, was there a point when you were like I'm figuring out what I like, I'm figuring out what I don't like, and did you kind of catalog these tasks that you're doing in your head as, like, this goes into a bucket of things I'm interested in and this doesn't like? Were you aware that you were, like, actively filtering through what you wanted to do?
Speaker 2:
Um, you know I yes and no. So, as I was, I just had, you know, that inkling and that curiosity to learn, so I wanted to go through. But Ultimately, you know I, I learned what I was good at and what I wasn't, and that's you know. In that kind of drove, you know me into a comfort zone of doing, doing, I'm doing roles where all this is comfortable to me. Let me, let me do it like Some. You know, process improvement stuff, working on flows and pipes Versus capital projects. You know, managing major capital projects was, was, a pain and I didn't like it, so I didn't really. I just kind of learned that you know what I was good at and I kind of migrated that way. Yeah throughout my roles but ultimately, you know it kind of, you know, over time, it was well, how am I gonna grow as a person if I don't go out and learn, you know, and and work on the things I'm bad at? Yeah, so that really, you know, I, I, you know I got a job up in a plant in Pennsylvania. I did that for five years and it half of it was automation and you know, ripping out old, you know thumb wheels and circular charts and putting in, you know, honeywell DCS systems. But the other half of that was managing major capital projects. Yeah, so by years three and four, I was, you know, working on multi-million dollar projects and having to manage those with the contractors and the installation. So, you know, I, I volunteered for that, that, that that opportunity, just because I knew I was bad at it. And the previous job and I, you know, going through the NBA process, I learned that, you know I have new tools, my tool that I did a project management certificate for that and I was like, well, now I have this tool that maybe I want to, I want to flex it, I want to, I want to work on it, I want to hone it. So I, you know, I was like sure I'll work on this packaging project and you know, going from there it's like I was able to to work on the things I was bad at. So I think from that standpoint, you know, I starting out it was I knew what I wanted to do, what I didn't want to do, but it was more like I was good at stuff. So I've migrated that direction. I was good at those tasks, those jobs, those opportunities and just kind of left the harder stuff alone. But, you know, as you grow as a person, as you grow you really you realize, well, if I really want to grow myself, I need to work on the, on the, on the tasks and the jobs and the opportunities that I'm bad at. So so that's what I did was, you know, learning more, adding tools to my tool belt to be more Successful as a, as a, as a individual one, but, as you know, as a career engineer as well.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely. And so like, as you Got more experience in the things that you originally weren't as good at, did you like them more as you got better at them, or was it still not your cup of tea even once you mastered the skill?
Speaker 2:
Oh, I wouldn't say I mastered the skill, I just got better at it. But no, I'm not as scared to take on those roles. I mean, it's not, it's not, it's not a oh, I don't want to do that, so I'm not going to. It's like it's a more of a Well, let me hone some more, let me get better at it, and you know, so I can, you know, make it, and it's. It's not that the project fails, it's just that it's harder on me to make it successful. So now, being able to hone those skills, I'm able to make it easier on myself to to run certain roles and certain opportunities.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I know. That's why it makes sense. I feel like Pushing yourself and challenging yourself is definitely a muscle to keep up and it's cool that you're aware of that, because I'm the same way in my personal life and my career of I like to try to make myself do at least one uncomfortable thing a week. Rather, it's trying out a workout class like zoom by hate dancing. I hate dancing, I have no rhythm, but like I'll go make myself do that. Or a new Pilates class or something towards like I need to stay uncomfortable to continue to like grow, because if I don't continue to push myself outside of my comfort zone, then it is just so easy to stay comfy and it's like why would I do anything different? Why would I change? But, like you said, there's, there's the ability to once you're in there, you can adjust, you can get better and then decide if you like it or not. What other, I guess, experiences have you had of realizing that a job may be different in real life versus what you thought it was when you were coming out of school? Because I feel like being an Engineer can be very different than what you think it's gonna be. Maybe a lot more spreadsheets, maybe a lot more just admin work, but did you ever kind of have an experience where you're like this is not what I thought it was gonna be, whether it's good or bad?
Speaker 2:
Well, I think you know in school, you know it's all about the calculations and being able to produce good numbers. Getting out of school, it's more about writing good reports, but also being a salesman. You've got to sell your ideas every day. Oh, I think this is gonna work. No, it's. I know this is gonna work and here's the proof of it. You know it's a lot more confidence. You know Confidence that you need to. You need to find and build To be a better salesman, because we're all in sales. Yeah, I mean, we're all in sales. You know whether it's, you know, actively trying to sell something to a client or it's trying to sell your idea to your boss, we're all in sales. And I think that was, that was the biggest Aha I had coming from school to the real world is, you know we've got it. We've got to be able to sell our ideas because you know, sometimes that makes sense, sometimes they don't, but regardless, we got it. We got to be able to sell it or accept that we're wrong. And you know, accepting that is sometimes harder than than it should be. But you know I I do accept it and you know that's. That's just part of part of the nature. We're not. We're never always right, but I'm clearly right all the time.
Speaker 1:
Everyone knows they listen to my podcast. When, when do you feel like you develop that skill of learning to communicate and Convey your ideas through? I guess how you say sell like? I just see that as like communication in general, but when did you develop those soft skills?
Speaker 2:
I'm still developing them. Honestly, you know, it's, you know, I think, my first, my first job out of school. I was actually a lab technician, just because I graduated in the summer and, you know, there were no engineering jobs in the area. So, I worked for a carbon black plant and did lab tech for about three months before becoming in a control supervisor, but during that time I was able to. I actually worked alongside the operators and they taught me everything they knew about the process and that I think that that humbled me a lot yeah and you know, being able to work around those guys and recognize and learn from them that you know, as I mean, as welcoming as they were, you know, ultimately being able to communicate came out of that. You know it's not, it's not talking In a, in a Better than role, it's just communicating ideas. It's not, you know it's not being, you know, condescending, it's just communicating ideas. And you know, in high school I was a jerk and I recognize that now. You know I was, I was. You know it's like one of those, one of those items. Like all kids can be jerks from time to time I was more one than I'd like to admit. But you know, I think coming out of school, you know, honestly, school helped a little bit, a lot, because you know I was around people as smart as me and or smarter. Really, my entire study group was much smarter than I was, which is why they were a great study group.
Speaker 1:
Engineering couples, you know.
Speaker 2:
For sure, but being around, being around guys who were, you know, welcoming to me and teaching me the ropes, and I learned a lot from those guys and they even after work. They would know I was a young kid Right out of school and these guys been working in the plants for, you know, a better part of a decade and you know they they were older, with families, but they, you know, they brought me under their wing and, you know, just, you know, kind of mentored me through that whole transition from school to real life. So that really helped.
Speaker 1:
That's so sweet. Yeah, I guess it's nice when you come out of school and you get a good mentor. I feel like it could be hit or miss, just depending on the situation, or if some people just don't jive well with their mentors and then they're like, oh, they're sexist or racist, or sometimes it's just like, okay, you just you didn't vibe well, you know, so it's it's always lucky to get someone where it's like, okay, they're pretty decent and they're showing you things that you can learn from. But how, how many different jobs did you have from Then till now where you also kind of got to experiment, seeing what you like, how you got to apply your degree Like? What other sectors and spaces have you been in?
Speaker 2:
I've worked in oil and gas Off a refinery units, the self recovery off refinery units. Then I went to a food food plant where we made emulsifiers. So it wasn't it was AIB certified but it wasn't like Like washed down every day kind of Food grade plants. Then I went to specialty chemicals. That was part of specialty chemicals as well. Actually, when I designed chemical feed systems for five years, gotta got a patent out of it, so a co-inventor of a patent, so that was. That was never on my bucket list but kind of cool yeah. And then went and worked at animal feed additive Company. So a lot of different, a lot of different roles and a lot of different opportunities to learn, varying areas of engineering, from product design to process design, mm-hmm, a lot of packaging and automation opportunities as well. So you know ultimately five, five different areas After school where I got to learn and kind of grow.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, now that you're a business owner though, you don't only do like your engineering expertise, but you have to do like the things that require running a business, like taxes and employment and stuff like that what, what has that been like in your spirit of trying new things? How's that going?
Speaker 2:
Well, I have paid penalties and taxes on several occasions, mostly local, locality taxes. Like I threw everything into legal zoom and and they go through quick books, so everything's digital. I actually have to. I bought a bunch of checks to print off and I've printed exactly three checks in the past year.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Mostly to Kentucky State tax licensing. So so you know it's taxes are critical to staying out of hawk with the government. But other than that, I was really blessed to have a great network of people locally here in Kentucky where you know I could start working and get immediate opportunities. And you know it's really grown from there traveling to other facilities. But right now it's really a networking time where you know everyone that I've gotten work through and opportunities to present with have been part of my network for the better part of a decade. I just people, I know people that worked with me in past business relationships where I was, quite honestly, on the other end of the line. You know I was buying from them. Now they're bringing me and saying I have a client, you know you had this running well, can you do this for my client? And so I'll go out and I'll do all sorts of different aspects. I think really it's focusing on, you know, process improvements and automation, just because I think that's really a niche market right now. And there's, you know, and I don't want to be an integrator per se, but I want to help integrators because I think that we offer a service that can augment their talents. You know I don't really want to build panels but we can design them. But that just takes a certain level of effort and capital. That you know. I've heard horror stories with the supply chain that you know capital gets tied up with. You know you're sitting on a hundred thousand dollar panel waiting on a $10 part and you know that that's for the big boys to deal with. I'm here augmenting hours and time and services to you know, to improve processes.
Speaker 1:
Mm, hmm. So I guess then the question is, and answer this is, honestly, is you like because it's your business, but would you say, and this experimentation of the point in your life of doing things, of figuring out what you like and don't like, how your business has turned out, you probably found like a niche and you're like OK, I know this could be profitable. How much do you like your day to day stuff and what some stuff that you wish you could add or take away, like what's, what's it been like being all of it?
Speaker 2:
Honestly, I, you know, I, I enjoy it. I really enjoy running a business. Yes, my, my plate's piled higher than I can. I can chew it down, but I think a big part of that is, you know, I, I've just now started saying no like no, we can get to that in August. So I think you know understanding and balancing my time and my, my guys' times so that we can provide a good service to the, to the client as well. As you know, it's being able to say no. If there's something that's not in our skill set, then you know saying no, no, we're because it doesn't make sense, because you're going to be paying us To learn a new skill set. Yeah, let's let's augment what we have, let's augment your clients needs to what you're missing and we can, we can fill those gaps. But I think that's a big part of it is just kind of learning through those, through those ways to say no, and I think that's probably you know having and quite honestly, marketing I I'm learning and I know I'm really bad at it, so so not right now, that's that's my, that's my hone. Skill honing is in marketing, learning about all the all the things with marketing keyword searches, seo. Mm-hmm commercials, sponsorships, networking events, trade shows. I've got my first trade show coming up ever.
Speaker 1:
I'm gonna be an exhibitor at.
Speaker 2:
That's the assembly show south nice. So I'll have a booth there. I'll be at automate, but probably not with a booth, because it's a national show and I really want to kind of stay regional right now.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, I know, because then if you start getting customers that are far out and that just becomes like a Bit much sometimes but um, that's, that's really cool. I love to hear that people like what they're doing for their businesses and times. You know, I see people that are just very fiscally minded and they like see something in the market where they know they can make money, and then they're like man, I actually really hate doing this, but I know it makes good money but it's. It's nice. You could always tell when somebody likes what they're doing and I feel like every interaction I've had with you like you just seem like you fit this role very well. But, as we're, you know getting towards the end. I'm curious, because you know, for the listeners if they're wanting to kind of Experiment with new things and find ways to kind of see what they like in a job and don't like and like want to get new Experience. There's always that catch-22 of like you have to have experience to have this job, but no one will give me experience. Do you have any pointers to them of how to go about that? I?
Speaker 2:
Think the best thing is to get your foot in the door. There was, there was a role I I had, but it took me two years to get. It was engineering manager role. I was hired on as an engineer To to work with the group With. You know I had a great mentor at the time to become an engineering manager, but Ultimately I had to do the job for about two years before they actually promoted me into it because they wanted to the. You know, they wanted to see me do it. They wanted proof that I could do it. So I I was a lab manager for a while and then I got into engineering manager. So I think a big part of it is just get your foot in the door somewhere. You know I wasn't an engineer starting out of school. I was a lab technician, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:
I was.
Speaker 2:
I was in that role. I learned, even even as a lab technician, that there was stuff for me to learn. I, you know I wasn't gonna be the you know I wasn't gonna not learn something.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I'm sure for this, you know? Yeah, exactly an engineer.
Speaker 2:
I'm an engineer. No, no, there's always learning opportunities. So I think, from that standpoint, job skills are transferable across the board. All skills, Uh-huh, regardless of where you start, it's just starting, yeah, and then, and then go from there.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think, I think that's good advice, like that's always tell people, even with like making content or marketing, like just start, like and some of that, okay, great, well, where? Well, okay, if you we can't do everything for you, you have to do something yourself, like what you need to do. Find somewhere you want to Work and say it's like Google is something really big, it's huge. Go find a start-up. That is a mini version of whatever you really want to do or where you want to be, and get your foot in there. That's how I got my experience. I wanted to be a petroleum engineer. It was what I was going to school for like. That was like do or die, I'm gonna be that. So I come across. God. Where did I don't remember? I found the ad like somewhere online they needed a Person to do like data entry at this tiny, itsy-bitsy oil and gas service company. I was literally answering phone calls and filling out spreadsheets and then I was like hey guys, I'm an engineer in training, I'm only like a sophomore. But I actually know some stuff and then, like once you're in the Industry rather it be a technician or an admin person Then you know someone, then you have that technical experience on your resume and then you leverage it for your next role and it's just like kind of once you're in infiltrate, you know use the resources, use the people around you, but get in somehow and then Be bold and then you'll figure it out and one day look back and like, dang, not all this experience, like I don't even know how that happened, and it's like he's got to be willing to put yourself out there and, like David said earlier, occasionally and get your idea shot down and be okay with it. You know it's scary, but like what are you gonna do nothing?
Speaker 2:
like Exactly. But you're absolutely right. You know you got to get in. Just just get in and be bold. Yeah, don't be a jerk, I mean, that doesn't get us anywhere, but but you know, get in and you got. And you know, unfortunately, you know, this industry is still, it's still Networking. You got to know somebody because you still, regardless of anything, you've got a, there's still risk for people putting their faith in you. So they, they need a comfort level and that, whether it's knowing them face to face, knowing your, your, you know your friends devout for you, knowing your parents devout for you, you know that's there. They're still a network Networking aspect to getting in the door.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely, and then actually showing up and doing a good job, unlike the first time. David hired me to help me help him with something, and then I promised something and then I messed it up and then Now here we are working together still. So people can be forgiving and really nice. Oh have faith in your network and guys like I can always say if we you want to reach out to me or David to talk with us More about it. In our experience, you know, we try to keep the episodes around 30 minutes because I know there's a drop-off after that. So we're gonna wrap up for today, but I'm gonna put all David's information in the description below and it'll already be there because he's sponsoring this episode, but it'll be there doubly so you can reach out to him.
Speaker 2:
Thank you.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, of course, david. Is there anything else you want to say to the listeners before we wrap up today?
Speaker 2:
Enjoy sales because, regardless what role you you have, you're gonna be a sales guy, salesperson.
Speaker 1:
I hate that. I hate sales. No, that's really good advice, guys. Well, of course, thank you so much for listening to another episode and, as always, I'm your host, jordan Yates, and in the meantime, I'll be failing for you. See you next time.
