---
title: "The Top 5 Mavericks (so far)"
date: 2024-08-21 16:54:24
description: "The top 5 episodes (so far) feature mavericks who pour their blood, sweat, and tears into keeping the manufacturing dream alive."
keywords: "top 5"
categories: [The Datanomix Blog]
tags: [Manufacturing Mavericks, Manufacturing Technology, Podcast]
---

The [**Manufacturing Mavericks Podcast**](https://datanomix.io/mavericks) shares compelling stories from some of the most respected leaders in the manufacturing industry. Let’s recap the top 5 episodes (so far).

[](https://datanomix.io/mavericks/dont-tell-me-no-tell-me-how/)

### #5 Don’t Tell Me No—Tell Me How

Mike Payne, Owner of Hill Manufacturing, has leveraged his background in private equity and data analysis to double his shop’s size in five years—every five-years.

[Listen Now](https://datanomix.io/mavericks/dont-tell-me-no-tell-me-how/)

_“‘Don’t tell me no; tell me how.’ It’s a can-do attitude. Like, yeah, we can do it. It may or may not be the most economical or smartest decision, but we can do anything.” _

[](https://datanomix.io/mavericks/staying-competitive-in-a-very-competitive-market/)

### #4 Staying Competitive in a Very Competitive Market

Hernan Ricaurte shares how he took over his Dad’s shop and grew it in a very competitive area (southern California), serving highly competitive markets (aerospace, defense, and medical devices).

[Listen Now](https://datanomix.io/mavericks/staying-competitive-in-a-very-competitive-market/)

_“I probably would have invested in the digital technologies a little bit earlier to capture more data and organize data from the beginning because that would have allowed us to understand better what our costs were, you know, are we making money in parts or not._” 

### #3 Humility, Curiosity, and Impatience—The Key Ingredients of Entrepreneurship

Shop Owner Gus Gutierrez talks about how the most valuable things you learn in life often can’t be taught in school.

[Listen Now](https://datanomix.io/mavericks/staying-competitive-in-a-very-competitive-market/)

_“In my mind, there’s a difference between a good employee and an engaged employee. And I believe—truly believe—that culture makes an employee engaged_._” _

[](https://datanomix.io/mavericks/making-things-happen)

### #2 Making Things Happen

Eric Van Orden is the Swiss Lead at Paramount Machine in Salt Lake City, UT. He calls himself “just a guy,” but Greg knew he was a Manufacturing Maverick when he set up an in-person meeting for 4 am.

[Listen Now](https://datanomix.io/mavericks/making-things-happen)

_“There’s a lot of guys in the industry that are 50, 60, even 70 years old. If no one fills that void, then it’s just going to stop—which can’t happen_. It can’t happen for cities, states, the country. We need manufacturing. _” _

[](https://datanomix.io/mavericks/podcast-1-jackrussell)

### #1 Entrepreneurship is Never a Straight Line

It’s no surprise that Jack Russell’s episode has had the most downloads! He is the ultimate Manufacturing Maverick, who bought a machine shop with his 401K and grew it from 3 people to now 40!

[Listen Now](https://datanomix.io/mavericks/podcast-1-jackrussell)

_“_You have to always be out there looking for where that next job is or evaluating what customers are good and what customers are just too high on the pain & suffering scale. You have to be willing to get rid of some customers too.’_” _

## Never Miss an Episode

Hear real stories from people inspiring innovation in manufacturing and subscribe to Manufacturing Mavericks on iTunes, Spotify, Google, or your favorite podcast app.

[Learn More](https://datanomix.io/mavericks)

[](https://datanomix.io/first-down-webinars/)