The NEXT BIG THING with Keith D. Terry

The Hidden Empire: Why Manufacturing Is Still America’s Power Move”

• Keith D. Terry • Season 1 • Episode 41

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When most people think of wealth in America, they think tech startups, Wall Street, or real estate. Hardly anyone says manufacturing. But the truth? Manufacturing is still alive—and it remains one of the most powerful engines for building wealth, jobs, and community impact.

In this episode of The NEXT BIG THING with Keith D. Terry, I sit down with Terry Atwater, Owner and President of Enova Investments LLC, National Materials Transport LLC, and Enova Care, LLC. With over 25 years of experience at industry giants like General Electric, IDEX, and Berkshire Hathaway, Terry has worked alongside legendary leaders including Jack Welch and Warren Buffett. Today, he’s building companies that prove manufacturing is far from dead.

We dive into:

  • How manufacturing ownership creates wealth, jobs, and legacies that last
  • The impact of tariffs, reshoring, and U.S.–Mexico trade on American industry
  • Why “it’s not the big that beat the small—it’s the fast that beat the slow”
  • The role of AI, automation, and logistics in shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing
  • How manufacturing businesses can transform entire communities by creating opportunity

Terry’s story is proof that ownership isn’t just about making money—it’s about building systems, shaping communities, and leading with vision.

If you’ve ever wondered whether American manufacturing still matters—or how you can play a role in its future—this is the episode you can’t miss.

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Keith D. Terry and JJaed Productions, LLC produced this episode. www.jjaedproductions.com

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For podcast guest recommendations, contact kterry@keithdterry.com

Speaker 1:

Keith D Terry, a consultant, a coach and a serial entrepreneur. The mission here is to teach, inspire and to motivate. Today's episode is going to challenge what you think about American business. If you ask most people where wealth is built in this country, they'll tell you tech, startups, wall Street, real estate. Hardly anyone will ever say manufacturing. Why? Because we've been told manufacturing is dead in America, that all the jobs are overseas, the factories are gone and the only way to win now is to go high tech. I say again, the only way to win is to go high tech AI.

Speaker 1:

The truth is, manufacturing is very much alive and for the people who know how to own it, lead it and grow it, it's one of the most powerful wealth building engines left in this country. It creates jobs, it shapes communities and it builds legacies that last for generations. I just want to give you a few factual points to keep in mind before I introduce my guest. Today, manufacturing has about 12.7 million factory jobs. Now that's below the early 2000 level, but it is roughly back to the pre-pandemic numbers. The output share manufacturing consistently and check this out consistently contributes about one-tenth of the US GDP. Now, this is enormous considering a country that's dominated by services. So let's talk about it, let's get into it. Today, my guest has lived this reality.

Speaker 1:

Mr Terry Atwater is the owner and president of Inova Investments LLC, national Materials Transport LLC and Inova Care LLC If I'm pronoun pronounced it, he'll correct me on the other end of this, overseeing strategic direction and growth for multiple businesses. With more than 25 years of experience, Terry has worked with industry giants like General Electric, idx Corporation and Berkshire Hathaway and has collaborated directly with legendary leaders such as Jack Welch, warren Buffett. He's been featured in bestselling book Real Change Leaders, holds an engineering and he holds an engineering degree from Western Michigan University and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. Beyond the boardroom, terry is a devoted family man, a motivational speaker and a lifelong student of achievement, and part of the greatest fraternity in the world Kappa, alpha, psi Fraternity Incorporated. Terry, welcome to the show. How are you, my friend?

Speaker 2:

Yo, I'm doing great Good to be with you and it's a great platform you have here as well. Thank, you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you very much. So, as we get into this, tell my listeners a little bit about you. I know about you, but they don't, so where do you come from?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm originally from Evansville, Indiana, so I'm a Hoosier by birth.

Speaker 2:

but I grew up here in the Chicago area. Most of my life I wrench rack, played football. Of course, engineering is my background and I had the privilege, of course my father, who's also a Catholic, both you and I of seeing him work in corporate America and also be an entrepreneur as well. So of course, my mind was always biased towards being an entrepreneur and at the age of nine and at the age of 10, I was in the summertime I was in the office calling buyers for pricing on parts and things of that nature, which, of course, kind of when you indoctrinate a young person's mind into something, they take hold of it. So, although I worked in corporate America for a long period of time, you know, the innate desire of owning my own has always been in me.

Speaker 1:

That's great, but before we get into that, I just found out something I didn't know. You ran track and you played football. What was your?

Speaker 2:

what was your heat? Well, let's just say that in the state of Illinois I'm still one of the top spinners. Well, let's just say that in the state of Illinois I'm still one of the top spinners. If you go look at the record books, 1986, came in third in the state and that was the fastest time ever in the state of Illinois, and it still stands today. So we had some smoke back in the day. And of course you know, I played football in college as well and ran track there too.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I didn't know that. What position in football? Defensive back quarterback? Oh, so you were out there hitting folks. Okay, that's the only way to do it. I love it. I love it. Thanks for that. So now let's jump into this conversation. So you've led companies across the globe and work with some of the most iconic business leaders in history. What's the thorough line in your journey that shaped how you lead today?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, just not being afraid of change is a huge thing For me. Always using my career as a way to learn more, to gain competencies that you need to run companies, to make thought-provoking decisions that affect the bottom line, and being able to just go ahead and try different areas, you know, give me the biggest problem you have. Let me go tackle that. That's a way of understanding how to be a problem solver, to generate income or to generate productivity and improve bottom line. So that's how I got my start in corporate America and that's what I kind of use as my platform to always be in manufacturing, so to speak. And then, of course, I was able to go international with a lot of those opportunities as well, and that's been an eye-opening endeavor for me, which has allowed me to do what I'm doing today.

Speaker 1:

Yeah and I want to. So when you were nine, were you just trying to be a good son, helping out his dad? Did you see the connection to where you are now? That's a big, bold question and ask. So tell me about that.

Speaker 2:

It was one of those things where you know you're out of school for the summer and you know my mother wasn't going to let me sit around at the house, so of course she would drop me off to my father's business and then all the people would give me things to stay busy. And so they would give me quote sheets to call certain people to get pricing, and of course they would call them ahead of time. Listen, terry Atwater Jr is going to give you a call. Work with them on getting pricing that we need pricing from you on these certain items. So that's how I got started really looking at businesses and looking at products. Then, of course, just working in the summertime for my father as well.

Speaker 2:

Out on the manufacturing floor I used to drill holes into pipes for garbage cans. So when he did a lot of that kind of work for the state of North Carolina, I've done everything from working drill presses to sanding machines. Okay. Then, of course, in the office dealing with buyers, customers, we had a lighting store as well back in the day when I was junior high school. So I got a chance to work on all kinds of lighting fixtures for various home builders, those types of things. So just understanding the nature of how to work in that kind of setting kind of biased my mind towards being able to know every aspect of business when it came to just the spirit that I have within me.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's great. So you work with some large companies? I did, and was there a pull to come to own your own? Or what was the fight like staying in corporate America versus jumping out and owning your own?

Speaker 2:

Well, initially, you know, I wanted to go into corporate America because I wanted to learn what I didn't know, and I chose General Electric out of college because they had a program called the Manufacturing Management Program where it gave you the equivalent of five years of experience in different areas of manufacturing over a two-year period of time.

Speaker 2:

So it was an accelerated program that they had a corporate entry program, that I traveled and worked in large, high-volume companies to special-oriented engineering companies over a two-year period of time, which gave me a good foundation. And then I went on to the audit staff and did a lot of work and looking at different business models, different business practices for GE and then running companies as a result of that. So everything I did in corporate America was designed to give me the background, the platform, the global vision and the global insight of what takes place, so that I could do my own thing. Of course, eventually and I stayed longer than I planned on staying in corporate America, you know things were rolling pretty well. But then I made the decision it was time to go ahead and do my own thing and I was grateful that I did it when I did it.

Speaker 1:

But I wish.

Speaker 2:

I would have done it sooner, as a matter of fact.

Speaker 1:

Now take me to that. Let's talk about that decision. Sure, was that a tough one, or was it a no-brainer? I mean, I would assume you were married with kids and mortgages and was blessed accordingly as a result of it. So, security-wise, I felt good when it came to that.

Speaker 2:

But what was really important was just the amount of knowledge and experience I gained while being in corporate America. And you know, when you make millions of dollars for other folks and other companies and you have the know-how, you know you can choose to stay that track. Nothing wrong with it. But I wanted to control my own destiny. I wanted to control my ability. I wanted to own every aspect of what I do. If it fails it's my fault and if it succeeds it's my fault. And here, 14 years later, I'm blessed to be doing what I'm doing right now. I still get calls to come back to corporate America now, and I've been out of it for a long period of time. But I know how to look at a business, evaluate it, understand where the warts are located or the opportunities for significant improvement and make a decision whether it's something that I can do. You know, do and benefit from or not.

Speaker 1:

Right, and you know you've acquired over 30 businesses, or what's the number?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so in my corporate career you know, acquired over 30 different companies for different entities, whether it be GE, IDEX or Berkshire Hathaway, Did some really good deals with all of them, and every deal has its own characteristics. Every opportunity has its own strategic plan of why you're acquiring it and why it's critical to whatever business you're working for. So I was able to create the strategic map and I'll do a shout out here. There's a gentleman named Kevin Hostetler who I worked for at IDEX Tough guy to work for, but learned a ton from him and it gave me a really good foundation to really just do some great things off of and used all that to grow and develop and as a result of that, I was able to do my own thing.

Speaker 1:

So I'm curious do you have a process by which you look at businesses, even today?

Speaker 2:

I do, I do, I do and I don't do too many acquisitions today. Of course, most everything I do is organic, but the same kind of strategy that you use to look at opportunities for acquisitions is a strange strategy. You use for organic growth as well, and so I use the same kind of process for organic growth to look at where it's synergistic with what I do today or how it can be additive in nature to what I'm doing today to create the ability to reach into a customer and become part of their total system to support their needs.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's talk current day. See, trump's been talking about tariffs and wanting to bring things back. What makes sense of what's happening from a manufacturing standpoint?

Speaker 2:

I'm kind of a supporter of that. To a certain degree it helps me out.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

You know I've had so many inquiries over the last geez, four and a half months about things that we're currently doing right now already in North America, to add to what I'm already doing. So of course, we're judicious about how we look at it. We're judicious about our costing mechanisms in order to make things happen. I have a really good team that I'm able to work with to make sure we make the right kind of decisions for the company and to move it forward. But for what I can see right now, there hasn't been a significant impact. But we're going to start seeing the impact over the next four to 18 months in terms of the tariff cost, things of that nature. It'll reset itself and, of course, it's going to drive more manufacturing back this way, because the inquiries are pretty strong when it comes to that right now, from what I can see.

Speaker 1:

Now, when you say it'll reset itself, what do you mean by that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So because of the tariffs, the market levels are going to reset themselves. I see Companies in business to generate income for their shareholders or for the owners of those companies. So of course the unfortunate part about that as a consumer we're going to see some level of inflation. The question is how much will we see and how much productivity can be gained to avoid passing that cost on to customers? And of course that's kind of the philosophy I've always used it's never the big that beat the small, it's always the fast that beat the slow. And so of course I focus on speed and productivity versus size.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So that's interesting because you know, before I get into my preamble, a little bit more on what's happening now. Do you think that the manufacturing in the US can build up enough and quickly enough? Because you just made something, you just said something pretty powerful. It's not the big versus small, it's just low versus fast. You know they can't build factories quick enough, so what's your perspective on the time frame that we're talking about?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think. I think it's definitely over the next five to 10 years. Ok, not going to be overnight, you know a snapshot for sure. It's going to be tough from a behavioral point of view for the government to go retroactive on that and take them off, because the income is going to flow in and, of course, income is what governments need. So, whether you like the politics or not, from a business point of view, it is what it is in terms of the change in dynamics that's going to take place associated with the tariffs.

Speaker 1:

So you think the tariffs are going to stick?

Speaker 2:

I think a good majority of them are going to stick. You may see some fluctuation in some of the rates, but for the most part it's going to be pretty sticky. I'm pretty certain of that.

Speaker 1:

Only because, again, once you get used to seeing the cash flow roll in, because again, once you get used to seeing the cash flow roll in, it's going to be tough to turn that valve off and say, hey, no, we're not going to take that in. Well, you know. And so now that gets me into kind of the power of manufacturing ownership. And so I made a statement that you can create wealth on the manufacturing side. I believe that. Do you concur, or do you see it a little different than I? Definitely concur.

Speaker 2:

The key is where you choose to focus on, number one and number two, how you introduce productivity into your processes. I'm never going to have China-level costs. I spent years moving products from the US to China US to Mexico first, then US to China in second. We're to Mexico first and US to China in second. We're never going to be at the same level as China, vietnam, those type of companies, but where you can make improvements is productivity and speed, depending on what industry you are in Things like clothing, maybe, some toys, things of that nature they will probably still be, you know, offshore to a certain degree. But in the areas that I focus on in terms from a manufacturing point of view, for packaging companies and for product companies that integrate our products into theirs, there'll be good opportunities for those things to come back, and we're already seeing it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so help me, terry, to understand the manufacturing landscape. You know, in my mind, as a product innovator, I've done a number of things brought companies and products to market, but I never thought about the logistics of transportation or housing. As a manufacturer, how do you think about it? Help my listeners to understand the ecosystem on the manufacturing side.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is number one. When you produce a product for a customer, you try to figure out how many more services can you introduce to them to support their operations. Okay, so it literally went from I can produce a product for you, I can also store it for you from a distribution point of view. And oh, by the way, if you want, I could put it on a box truck, a semi truck, deliver it to your customers or to another location for you in between operations as well. And that's kind of how we moved down the continuum of manufacturing to logistics, to packaging and then to logistics as well, by being able to just be in all those various areas.

Speaker 1:

So that's pretty powerful. I hope folks are really listening. So what do you think is the biggest misconception about manufacturing today?

Speaker 2:

That you can't generate enough income to have a sustainable entity long term and to employ the right kind of people to maintain, to run it and to focus on it. There's definitely a good base of knowledge that's out there. That's manufacturing related. There are great schools, trade schools that have great tool and die individuals that have great technicians that you can even groom and learn and move into your organizations. Trades are going to be where it's going to be at longer term because the trades are where we're seeing the need for good quality individuals welders, yeah yeah, mold and dye experts, electricians you know all of those various areas that require some type of trade support, along with the new technologies that are out there in those manufacturing areas to use equipment for that. So a combination of technology plus trade-oriented individuals, that's powerful. And again, it's on speed, not on size.

Speaker 1:

Well, you know it's interesting. I've heard people say, with manufacturing coming back to the United States, it won't happen because the pricing structure is going to be too much. You know, an American welder or American manufacturing worker makes way too much, or I won't say way too much, but makes more than a Mexican worker or Chinese worker. But I heard you say something interesting It'll level set itself, It'll reset itself. Do you believe that all kind of manufacturing can come back to the United States shores or is there only a certain type?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't believe all types will be able to come back. I definitely agree with that. Like I mentioned earlier, I don't believe that clothing will come back like we think it will, nor toy manufacturing, those type of things. But the things related to the automotive industry, things related to more house-oriented goods, housing-oriented goods, more things that require a lay point identification, which I do a ton of as well, such as packaging type materials, those types of things that are, you know, that would not be cost advantage to bring from overseas, those things are flourishing tremendously. I mean they'll do well. So, yeah, it won't be for everything, but there are definitely huge opportunities that are coming back across this way.

Speaker 1:

Well, I can't escape this conversation without talking about AI. I would assume, having worked, you know I've worked for some large companies, diagnostic companies, abbott being one of them. I've never seen them assemble, but I know when we were developing it on the R&D side I saw it. What's your thought about AI on the manufacturing side? Is it going to help bring the cost down?

Speaker 2:

raise the cost up, or what's your thought? Yeah, I think it's going to definitely help the cost scenario in manufacturing. When it comes to the staff-oriented positions, the direct touch positions that touch the product, that touch the level of operation, you're still going to have to have individuals to play a key role in those type things. Give you an example you know, and if you go into an Amazon warehouse, you know you have a lot of robotics that are moving around products all over the place, but you still have to have the human interaction to make sure things are addressed properly within those manufacturing or those packaging environments, and that's going to be the case in manufacturing also. For example, will I need 36 people to run 36 pieces of equipment? No, but will I be able to use 12 people or 10 people to run 36 pieces of equipment? Absolutely, and that's how you look at productivity and speed from a cost point of view, using AI or using technology to be a guide for you.

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, because I think wealth can be created. Do you have any thoughts on, you know, now we have Trump putting tariffs out, there is a demand now. The hopeful reaction is that a lot of these companies will now invest in the United States. Any thought on what impact a manufacturing plant can have on a community? I'm interested in that because, you know, I have a mother who we have a family home down in Canton, mississippi and one of the auto manufacturers I forget Nissan put a huge plant down there. I saw the impact there. But from a manufacturing standpoint, when you think about America, any idea where you think they might end up landing?

Speaker 2:

Well, I can't speak specifically on some companies but for myself. You know, I chose to focus most of my operations in the Kenosha Wisconsin Zion, illinois, pleasant Prairie, wisconsin area, specifically because, number one, I want to touch everything, you know, I want to see all the different companies. But, number two, we're located in communities where people of color, who I focus on heavily from a ministry point of view and I'll call it a missionary work If I can help our people get an opportunity to do great things and be accountable for it and the results, that helps the community overall and that's what I focus on. To give you an example, we start at 6 o'clock in the morning with all my operations, 6 am in the morning and their day typically ends at 2.30, 3.30, or 4.30, depending on what their roles are and what they do. And the whole goal in doing that was, number one, you don't have time to fool around at night if you've got to be up at 6 o'clock in the morning to be at work, Right, so we did it for that reason.

Speaker 2:

And then, number two, it gives those who may not have an opportunity because of some historical things they did in high school or whatever the case may be, I see To reintroduce themselves into the work industry. We give them a chance. Be on time, be constructive. You can then stay with us or we can give you a recommendation to move on to other companies by what you do showing up on time, being accountable and being a productive person in our organization and it's worked out real well for us to be able to see people go and flourish at other locations or to stay with us either way, because we're positioned to be able to help a lot of people do good things for themselves.

Speaker 1:

Well, good for you. I didn't know that. I mean, that's pretty remarkable Six. You know I'm up way earlier than that most days, you and me both. I just can't help myself. Once you lock in, that's what you lock in at, but that's great when you think about manufacturing. You chose Wisconsin and Zion. You know there's some huge facilities there. Was that one reason, another reason why you chose that versus Chicago or where you're from Indiana?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, I grew up in this on the border area of Wisconsin and Illinois, so of course I'm familiar with the landscape there. And then also I chose mostly on the Wisconsin side of the border because there's some clear tax advantages that I'm able to receive to set up manufacturing there, Pretty plugged in with some of the you know the establishment in those areas, to be able to do some things to help the community, which of course is what I like to do as well. And then, quite frankly, a lot of my large customers are in that geographic region also, Most of my customers are within a 200 mile radius of where I'm located at from terms of a manufacturing point of view and then my trucking goals all over the country. So that's a whole different thing.

Speaker 1:

Wow, wow. So how big you know. Talk a little bit about trucking, because trucking is also it was incredibly huge or profitable for a lot of folks before the pandemic. You see, I mean you've been in at the forefront of a lot of these shifts. What do you see happening on the trucking side?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you have to be judicious in whom you're working with and what you're doing. Of course, it was a huge boom during COVID and post-COVID to a certain degree, and all of a sudden things got back to a normal rhythm. And what's been nice for my company is, you know, I have about 30 semis on the road, a bunch of straight trucks. Also, there's a lot of the work we do or with customers that I do work for in all of my warehouses and in my manufacturing. So we, you know I don't move a product if I can't generate some revenue or an income from it, of course, and we've been fortunate enough to have a lot of dedicated work that we can do and I got good people that are able to maintain that and do a good job, you know, with, of course, the right kind of nudging and oversight. I'll call it yeah.

Speaker 1:

So for those folks that are listening to this, or people who've never really considered manufacturing as a career, any advice. I mean, what would you tell folks that might be considering this either as a career or an investment?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. If you look at the US and I'll call the country at large we are definitely product-driven individuals, so we like the next widget. We like any kind of opportunity for us to, so we like the next widget. We like any kind of opportunity for us to support or show some type of product, no matter what it is, and every product has a root.

Speaker 2:

It has a beginning and the key thing is finding out what are the beginnings of all of those various type items that you work on and becoming part of that process and being a part of that product process and being a part of that product. So my encouragement is you know, if you're ever interested in manufacturing, there's always something that you can find that's a need, as time continues to change and move on. And then, once you identify that need, understand the lineage of that need or that product, and then find out where you can fit in to provide a value add that uses speed, to provide a service or provide a product to whatever that end product is going to be Subcomponents, subassembly, part, whatever the case may be and know-how, and then make sure you provide a value to your customer along with that and that's been the biggest thing that I've utilized- I mean that's really interesting and I hope people are listening.

Speaker 1:

I never, you know, I never really considered, considered it's too late for me to have a manufacturing career, but I certainly, when I think about you, know what you just said. Subassembly, there are pathways of entry for those entrepreneurs.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Am I correct in that?

Speaker 2:

There is. I actually buy things from Asia myself, okay, and I use sub-assembly packages along with that. So there's definitely, you know, some of the products that we supply to other customers. You know, and again, when you can become part of their DNA, then you can become a value add to them in whatever area they need. You know it's understanding their needs closely.

Speaker 1:

And you know what's interesting For the other part of my business I'm a consultant. I was on the phone earlier today talking to someone who has a pretty innovative product and I was just sitting there thinking that perhaps I need to connect them with someone like you, because the product hasn't been created yet and you know you have to think about every aspect of it, because you know you want a minimally viable product but you don't want it to cost a million dollars.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly right yeah.

Speaker 1:

And if it costs a million dollars. Some price points are that way because it's an expensive product, but the vast majority of these aren't so are there. Is there a way for innovators to interact with manufacturers like yourself?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they have to know what they want. An innovator is someone that has the creative mindset that identifies the need. And the key thing is how do they bring that to market, how do they give it life, how do they give it the ability to be systemic, moving forward as a product that can survive long term and recognizing that everything has iterations in terms of life cycle, and to be able to manage that and still do well, and I think what has to happen is they have to have the mindset of okay, how do I make sure this is the best cost scenario that I can come up with, along with the right kind of pricing strategy to get it into the market that creates a demand for the product. It's economy, one-on-one. It's about demand and recognizing the need to satisfy the need and then how I communicate that to the marketplace. That's going to be key.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, and it's interesting. Well, you know, we just have time for maybe one or two more questions, but these are going to be fun ones. So if you can go back to your first year as a business owner, would you do something different? What would you do differently?

Speaker 2:

Wow, what would I do differently? Everything. I was lucky to have some encouragement from my father to go ahead and step out and do my thing. I think the biggest thing I would do differently is just make sure I I mean you can have some deep conversations with wonderful business leaders and my peers A lot of my peers are multimillionaires and they've done real well in corporate America or they have their own companies as well. So I still dialogue with them today in a different sphere. But right, when you start your own entity, you own everything. Having a better board scenario to bounce things off of would have done me, you know, done well for me, or just the right kind of constituents to talk to about different things to make sure I don't make certain mistakes that I knew I was going to make. The key thing is you make fewer mistakes than the wins you have, and I was fortunate enough to do that before.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, that's a huge one. You know, having started a couple of businesses, you don't want to go it alone and you want folks that hold you accountable, of course, but that you can have that deep conversation, because I really, you know, I really think people are sleeping on manufacturing, think people are sleeping on manufacturing, and when they think about it, they think about you know, this bottle, or they think about a toy or a piece of clothing, but manufacturing is all over the map, from this mic I'm using to the syringe that the doctor's using to the MRI machine. So there's a lot involved in it, and so I really appreciate your comments about what you would do differently as you started. Last question for you what do you think of the? Do you think? What's your thought on the future of American manufacturing?

Speaker 2:

I think it's going to always be there. There'll be a need for some form of manufacturing. You know reliance on other countries. That's going to still take place, but again, the more you rely on other countries such as China, vietnam, places where I mean that business is actually matriculating from those locations to other low-cost areas now as well, there's going to always be a need for a foundation in the base you know, we're definitely moving into the AI generation, the data centers that are out there to facilitate AI and the use of AI in different industries.

Speaker 2:

The key is finding where your niche is, where you can fit in, and providing a product or service in the manufacturing area. That's going to require you being in the US.

Speaker 1:

You know it's interesting. You just said something that made me think that that might be what you're thinking. Should I consider a data center like a manufacturing location or no?

Speaker 2:

Well, the you know the data center is going to be used to drive the information, the information and the knowledge and the know-how. It's definitely the latest biggest boom that's out there right now and the key thing there, of course, is how much power can you get at any specific location to run the data? So, of course, power consumption is a huge thing right now. You've got companies looking for gigawatts and megawatts of power to facilitate and run data centers, and a lot of the old manufacturing sites have a good amount of power that's not being utilized. So the key is can you find those locations and then can you capitalize on those sites to turn them into data-oriented centers.

Speaker 1:

Well, terry, you really helped. Well, you know, I always thought that and I could be wrong that the data centers would be something that a chat, gpt or an Apple or whomever would not give up their control because it's the data component of it. But as an innovator here, maybe I'm not thinking correctly that they would give it up. If data centers are something that folks can build to help house information for people, that's pretty important.

Speaker 2:

That's another angle. There's several universities now that have disciplines specifically designed to manage, run and work in data centers. Specifically, University of Missouri is one that I deal with Wow, I deal with. And there's others that have disciplines specifically for engineers or systems engineers to run, to manage, to deal with the hardware in the data center.

Speaker 1:

Terry, I want to thank you for being on the show. I know you got to go back and run your massive organization, and so my last question to you is I want you to complete this sentence for me the future of American manufacturing belongs to who?

Speaker 2:

To those who understand how to be productive and bring a benefit and value to the customers they serve. Thank you, sir, it's not the big that beat the small, it's the fast that beat the slow.

Speaker 1:

Terry, thank you for pulling back the curtain on the manufacturing world. People got a chance to see it. Your stories prove that ownership isn't just about making money. It's about building systems and creating opportunities, and I love just how you're thinking about it and how you're shaping your community with intention. Thanks for listening to the Next Big Thing. I'm your host, Keith D Terry. If you've enjoyed this episode and you'd like to support this podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media or leave a rating and a review. To catch all the latest from me, you can follow me on my YouTube channel at Keith D Terry. If you want to recommend a guest, please email me at info at terryperformancegroupcom. This has been produced by your host and Jade Productions.