Episode #40: Reindustrialization and Manufacturing Visibility with Tony Gunn
In this episode of U.S. Manufacturing Today, the podcast powered by Veryable, host Matt Horine features Tony Gunn, CEO of TGM Global and creator of the Worldwide Machinist brand. Tony shares his journey from nearly becoming a professional soccer player to entering the manufacturing industry at age 20, eventually evolving into a global advocate for machinists and the manufacturing sector. The discussion covers Tony's unconventional path, the importance of storytelling in manufacturing, and the need for the US to reclaim its leadership in the industry through technology, culture, education, and awareness. Tony provides insights on the significance of fearless decision-making, gratitude, hard work, and positivity. The episode also touches on the challenges and opportunities of reshoring, the critical role of professional associations, and advice for the next generation of manufacturers. Stay tuned for Tony's autobiography, set for release in Q1 2026.
Links
- Tony Gunn on LinkedIn
- Tony's Website
- The Worldwide Machinist
- Navigating Trump 2.0
- Veryable Is Revitalizing U.S. Manufacturing
- Sign Up on the Veryable Platform
- Veryable Shop
Timestamps
- 00:00 Introduction to US Manufacturing Today
- 00:15 Meet Tony Gunn: A Global Voice in Manufacturing
- 01:30 Tony's Unconventional Journey to Manufacturing
- 03:54 From Machinist to Media: Tony's Career Evolution
- 05:09 The Importance of Manufacturing
- 08:18 Challenges and Opportunities in Manufacturing
- 13:58 Global Perspectives on Manufacturing
- 20:15 The Consumerism Shift and Its Impact
- 22:51 Traits of Successful Manufacturing Organizations
- 26:22 The Rapid Pace of Technological Advancement
- 27:19 Generational Shifts in the Workforce
- 28:44 The Reality of Reshoring in US Manufacturing
- 30:17 Challenges and Opportunities in Global Manufacturing
- 36:08 Inspiring the Next Generation of Manufacturers
- 37:09 Personal Growth Through Adversity
- 42:38 The Importance of Associations and Networking
- 44:21 Future Plans and Global Travels
- 47:07 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Episode Transcript
Matt Horine: [00:00:00] Welcome back to US Manufacturing today. The podcast powered by Veryable where we talk with the leaders, innovators, and change makers, shaping the future of American industry, along with providing regular updates on the state of manufacturing, the changing landscape policies, and more.
Today we're joined by one of the most recognizable voices and global manufacturing. Tony Gunn, CEO of TGM, global creator of the worldwide machinist brand, and a man who has quite literally traveled the world to elevate machinists. Engineers and operators who keep our industrial backbone moving. Tony has been to more than 70 countries, visiting shops, large and small, capturing stories, beating innovators, and working to make manufacturing visible again.
He started in the industry at age 20 with no family background in manufacturing and worked as a machinist for 12 years. Moved into r and d, then technical consulting, and eventually global operations and manufacturing media. Today he runs his own ventures, the Machinist Club and the worldwide Machinist With a mission.
Tell the stories of the people who actually make things and rebuild the pride and [00:01:00] visibility. We've lost over decades of offshoring. Tony is also a storyteller, a connector, and one of the strongest voices for the next generation of machinist and engineers. And today we're going to explore how the US can reclaim its leadership in manufacturing, not just through technology, but through culture, education, and awareness.
Tony, it's an honor to have you on the show.
Tony Gunn: I appreciate that introduction. I if I would've written it myself, I couldn't have done better. Matt, well done. Yeah,
Matt Horine: thank you. We're, we are very excited to have you. An incredible background and a great story to tell, and I think that's where we'll jump straight into it.
You have one of the most. Unconventional and inspiring pass in this space from nearly going pro as a soccer player. I think there was some time at Pizza Hut and to a machinist at 20 with zero family connection to the trade when we talked and met each other. Can you walk us through how you found manufacturing and why it caught your attention?
Tony Gunn: The journey itself has been one of those ones of constant expansion of the comfort zone, whether doing it on purpose or completely accidental. It's just I think life has taken me in the direction of constantly trying [00:02:00] something new, whether I'm. Brave enough to do it, or I'm absolutely terrified to give it a try.
I walk towards it anyway, and that's been been the path. You mentioned soccer, you mentioned Pizza Hut. We can talk a little bit about that. There was a small cent as a hip hop artist. There was. I opened a natural healing company. There's just, I like to try things. As a young man, I knew for sure I was gonna be a professional soccer player.
I just knew it. I was the best on every team I played on just about. I was a troublemaker as well, certainly a misfit. I got kicked out of a lot of different things, whether it be high school classes actually dropped out my junior year because I failed too many classes. I couldn't even play soccer like I wanted to.
I went to summer school and graduated on time with my class, and I was a little embarrassed that I dropped out at all, but I was pissed 'cause I didn't pass enough classes to play soccer, and that's the only reason I was there, was soccer. I did that and then I decided, you know what, maybe school's important.
So I, I started trying my senior year after I took summer school and my senior year, I had like a 3.6, 3.8 GPA out of four for depending on where in the world people are listening. That [00:03:00] really great year. I graduated with a 1.26 cumulative GPA. Now, do you know how bad you have to be to graduate with a 1.26 with a 3.6, 3.8 in your senior year outta four year?
That's horrible. School was not for me, but I loved playing soccer and I knew I was gonna be a pro. I went into college and I, my grades were so bad, as I've already mentioned, that the highly, the schools that recruited me very highly, that were ranked in the nation that were D one schools could not because my grades were bad.
So I ended up going to a JUCO school, that JUCO school my freshman year. I ended up becoming the sixth leading scorer in the nation my freshman year in Juco. I won MVP most valuable offensive player. My second year, I said my second soccer year. I didn't actually make it to the end of my second year of college.
So my second soccer year, I was on the all Big East team trying to make the national team for juco. And I knew I was gonna be a pro player, but I wasn't and I wasn't good enough. Manufacturing started to sneak into my life on accident and when I was a young man, as I've mentioned already, I make, [00:04:00] I've made a lot of mistakes.
I like to think that I've learned from a lot of those mistakes. Matt, when I was a young man, I had a very short, temporary, intimate relationship that led to a child and I needed to find a job that allowed me to, to have health insurance, all types of insurance without any kind of preexisting conditions based on the situation that I put myself into.
It was a difficult situation that I needed to navigate and I was gonna do with love and kindness, and I did. And that job that had the insurance happened to be manufacturing. I didn't know anything about it, Matt. I didn't have love. I didn't have hate, I didn't have anything. I just didn't. I just needed a job.
I started out on a very basic punch press. I've said this part of the story a lot. Very punch, basic punch press, working weekends, mopping floors, waxing the floors, just trying to make, do whatever I could to make ends meet. And it just happened to be manufacturing. You mentioned 12 years as a machinist, which is correct, and over those 12 years, there's three different companies where I worked my way.
To being as high as I could go within these organizations that I was at [00:05:00] before I made a transition and, and so I'll just give a brief overview of that and then I'll pause because you've also mentioned technical consulting world, traveling media. We can dive into that a little bit too. But I think manufacturing's important to understand.
'cause a lot of people out there know me for my voice and for my interviews and for the popularity contest that happens in the thought leader influencer world that I don't really wanna be a part of, but I'm accidentally a part of. So I think it's important to focus a bit on manufacturing. I started in precious metals, so gold, platinum, silver, that type of stuff.
In fact, Nat National Geographic, or Channel, I can't remember what I think it was Nat Geo. Came into our facility and they brought $10 million worth of gold brick into the facility. 'cause it was our responsibility to melt it down. They so they found the gold brick. From a sunken ship off the coast of Carolina and they wanted to commemorate the ship, so it was our job to melt it down.
Our tool and die department made the tool, the dyes, so that we could stamp out these really cool coins and, and pushing this cart around with millions of dollars. It was really [00:06:00] fascinating. So working in this world was unique. I learned how to do line by line programming over the 12 year span. I probably programmed a hundred different machines, learned the manual stuff to start.
My CAD software at that time was Excel. Which turned into Alpha cam and the woodworking world, and I did a little bit of Autodesk as well, and Mastercam and AutoCAD, all of this stuff I, I ran company improvement committees. I was in charge of the software record, I think software, which is a mathematical equation if you imagine Six Sigma being drawn up on a board of where your bottlenecks are, what's going on in your facility, what the flows are gonna be.
Imagine this software actually util utilizing the right. Trigonometry and calculations will allow you to visually see the flow. If you're doing the math correct, you can watch it instead of it just being on paper. And I was in charge of that, which is funny 'cause I didn't make it past like algebra one or Geometry in my high school.
But yet when you put numbers into a program or into these things, it made sense to me in real life. And so I grew within the industry learning [00:07:00] as much as I could, programming a bunch of machines, running from precious metals to more of your standard materials like steel and um, and brass and aluminum and these type of materials.
And then I moved into woodworking. Growing within the woodworking industry took me as I accidentally became a interior designer as well before transitioning into into the consulting side of things. So I'll pause there 'cause I'm talking too much, but that's the short version of the manufacturing side of things.
Matt Horine: Yeah, you said a ton of really great stuff there. I think one on the interior design part, I think most interior designers find themselves accidentally there, so that's a pretty common theme with my experience with them. But you know, one thing that you really did highlight and as part of your personal story.
That journey is so important for manufacturing because it highlights the upward mobility, and manufacturing is unique. Everybody earns their way, but in manufacturing it's a little bit more hands-on. So that's something that's really great for our audience to hear because there is upward mobility, and we'll get to that later in the show about how the next [00:08:00] generation of people getting involved with manufacturing.
The other one that I caught there was, I was not good at high school math either. We're all, we all made it. I think there's a great joke about, man, the Pythagorean Theorem will come in really handy. This, this tax season, like it's gonna really help me file my taxes. But that's neither here nor there. We won't go into my grades in math in high school.
Where was the moment for you where that machining turned from a job into a mission. And I think that's a really big part of your story is that you saw this early hands-on experience. It's shaped the way that you speak about factories and machinists and leaders today.
Tony Gunn: So the reason that's such a good story is because when I was a machinist, like actually machining things day in and day out at these facilities, and I think this will probably resonate with some folks out there.
I don't think I appreciated it. I don't think I was. Respected by the outside world if I told 'em what I was doing. I don't think really, my bosses were nice and I don't want to downplay their kindness, but I don't think they honored me as something that's extremely important [00:09:00] to the backbone of society or even to their company.
If I'm being honest, I don't think I realized how important manufacturing was until I got out of the shop, until I got out into the world to start doing. Trade shows and seeing some of these other places that I never would've thought I'd be able to see. I've had the opportunity, the great opportunity, uh, humbly to work with the head engineers at places like SpaceX and Facebook and Google and Apple and nasa and Nike and Samsung, and the list goes on and on.
And you mentioned small shops as well, and I love working in garages also, which I've done a ton of, but I don't think I really, a, as with most people, I don't. We really appreciate something until we see what happens when it's missing. For me, it was a job. I needed insurance, I needed, I was so suffocated with my week to week livelihood.
Can I pay my rent? Am I gonna take care of this new child when my family survived this? That type of stuff. [00:10:00] And so manufacturing, it could have been anything. And in fact, about three, four years in, I wanna say I quit and. I went and worked. I was a traffic foreman on a night crew for road construction, and I did that for a year, but about six months of that year I actually double dip, and so I would work night crew for about 5:00 PM until depending on when we finished laying the asphalt from 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM.
And the reason I switched is 'cause of money. It was because I needed more money. I wasn't getting the raises that I thought I deserved and I needed more money. And they more or less tripled what I was making after being at one place for four years. They tripled it for me to go there day one on salary and not even hourly.
And so that's why I did it. But I, I doubled dipped, so I would then go back into the original company I was working for the first four years, and I'd work like a 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM shift because. They still needed, like I had when I was with that company, I helped them create seven patents for the jewelry industry that people were utilizing for like their engagement rings and [00:11:00] wedding bands and things like.
So my programming expertise at that time, at least within that facility, we don't know what we don't know, and I learned that a lot later. But within that facility, I knew what I was doing. So I was able to work both. And at that time I felt like I was, I wasn't rich, not even close, but at that time, at 24 years old, 23 years, I felt like I had, I wasn't cashing paychecks because I was getting more money than I actually needed at that time, but there was something about manufacturing that drew me back to it, and I ended up leaving the construction world.
There was some conflict that I didn't love. I'm not a big fan of conflict. I always just want everyone to get along. I know that's not reasonable. I know that never happens, but. It is the type of personality I have. Why can't we all just get along and be friends and help each other thrive and survive?
That's what I want. So I ended up going back, but really to answer your question, it wasn't, yeah, it wasn't until I saw the big picture. And I think that's what motivated to do what I'm doing now and the media side of things, Matt, because I don't really care for social media, honestly. And when I'm done with this, I'll probably [00:12:00] delete it all or give it away or something.
I don't, I'm not a big stroller. I don't spend a lot of time on there myself, unless it's important or I'm having a conversation with someone that's important. But I realized, thinking back to what I'm doing now and what I felt then, because I'm an old man, I'm 47 years old now, and I didn't really grow up with the everything, the digital resources in our hand.
I was still going to card catalogs and dreaming through the National Geographic magazines of where I wanted to go in the world and explore. Right. That was my life. So what I realized was when I had the opportunity to share these stories of significance that show. We machine the unseen that moves the world.
That's the slogan at the Worldwide Machinist, at the Machinist Club. We machine the unseen that moves the world since the internet exists, but we've for the most part, kept our stories to ourselves, kept our cards closed. We haven't wanted to share a whole lot inside of shops. Those who are willing to open their doors and allow me to come in and share the significance of what they're creating for the entire world.
If I [00:13:00] can inspire the folks inside a machine shop of how important they are to make that transition quicker than it took me to have to see it outside of a machine shop. I, I hope that happens. I hope that works. And to answer your question, it took me a while and it took me traveling to see it, but I hope what I'm doing can bring it into machine shops so the young guys and gals out there can immediately understand the influence and the importance that they create worldwide.
Matt Horine: Man, that's so compelling because you know, people are often talking about like the front end of the funnel, right? Like, how do we get more people in trades, or how do we get more people in manufacturing? I think it probably starts with the way that you frame it now for people who are in it. You know what I mean?
It's something that. At Veryable, we're very passionate about our operators or people who are doing, just like you explained, you were picking up extra work in those components, doing construction, but also looking to build extra income, learn a trade, learn a skill, and while accomplishing other life goals.
So it's, it's something that we see and it's very common, but it's not heralded as often as it should be. And I think that's a big. Leading into next [00:14:00] question and phase of this is your mission to make manufacturing visible has, I would dare to call it a global movement because of your global exposure and what all you've done.
But why is it that the world overlooks its own industrial background? Why is it so easy to overlook that? Is it a digital age that we're in where? Tech is a little more heralded, and maybe it's too much of the screen time you were referencing earlier, which made me a little bit more conscious when you said that I'm a doom scroller and I'm terminally online for my job, but probably back corners of X and places like that.
What is it that that has made, not just in the United States, all over the world, that kind of overlooks this industrial backbone?
Tony Gunn: So I'm gonna try to speak quickly and incorporate as much as I can on this, because this goes back to 50, 64, 40, 50, 60 years ago. And it's not a global thing per se, because if we look at the world right now, Matt, China embraces their machinists, they embraces their manufacturing.
India, same thing, embracing their manufacturing. Brazil, I was just there a few weeks ago, [00:15:00] embraces their manufacturing. Mexico, same thing. You see the countries that are, do not have a labor shortage or a skills gap that are paying attention to opportunity and, and when I go to the Asian Pacific. Although we could make the discussion that they still have some, some precision that they could work on instead of just throwing a whole bunch of people at operations.
Opportunity. Opportunity is what a lot of places in the world see. So when I go to Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, India, uh, these places see it as opportunity. It's not a good job or a bad job. It's not. Why didn't you become a, it's opportunity to work hard and create something and make a difference to turn something raw into something.
Tangible and valuable and worthwhile. But to answer your question on the US and probably some places in Europe as well, because there are some similarities there. Maybe even your certainly Australia and maybe even your Japans, I think Korea's doing okay, [00:16:00] but they have some complaints. You figure I've been all over the world from manufacturing, right?
I get unique perspectives from all of these folks and I love it. Let's dive back. In the Industrial Revolution. Manufacturing was the job, right? Every, it was a great job. You had the union, you could take care of a family with one job and the wife at home and the kids, or whatever it was. During that time, I wasn't alive.
You could take care of a family through manufacturing. You could own a house, you could own a car, you could take your vacation. All of these things existed. It was honored and respected. And because the Industrial Revolution came soon after World War ii, a lot of these folks also felt pride in protecting their country.
And what happened was. That there was a time when everybody wanted things cheaper. So we shipped everything overseas to be done cheaper and during this time a lot of those countries I just mentioned weren't as successful as they are now. So they were willing to do things for dirt cheap and the quality wouldn't be there, but for dirt cheap.
So let's keep some of the quality here in the US and Europe and let's make things dirt cheap in other places and bring it and buy that. Let's [00:17:00] become. Consumerist company, a country instead of a manufacturer, a maker country, right? So now we're a consumerist country, and now everything's being made in these other countries where you can be, do it for cheaper, faster, the labor doesn't matter.
But what happened by doing that is a lot of people lost their jobs. So when you lose your jobs, you're not gonna advocate for your kids to go into that world. So we have a generation of folks who lost their jobs, who now say, screw you to all of this. Why did you take it from me? I'm gonna send my kid to university to get them a real job that they can't lose, that they can trust.
They have a degree and a certificate that they can show to the world. They can sit in that cubicle and make money or go bid on the stock market or whatever it might be. Working with your hands is bullshit because I lost my job, so now. What happened is now we have a ripple effect of wanting things less extensively, which we got, and we became a consumerist.
And we love our clothes and our purses and our shoes and our cars and all these things. And it's great that it's lesser prices, but we don't make things anymore. So now we've realized we have a two to four [00:18:00] person, 4 million person skills gap that's only growing. And there are a lot of advocates out there that I highly respect, that are trying to make a difference in, in the change of mindset.
But what we now have to do is we're not just changing the mindset of if a 10-year-old kid was listening to me today, he is like, dude, you mean you came from absolute poverty where you had food stamps and you were drinking powdered milk and you've now been to over 80 countries and you Yeah, this is true.
And this is what manufacturers brought to my life. And I might inspire that kid, that kid's gonna go home and tell his mom and dad and they're gonna stick their fingers up and you know which finger I'm talking about. No, you're not. No, you're not gonna do that because you know what happened to my parents?
So we didn't trust it for a while, so now what we're trying to do is rebuild the credibility of what it can do, how much it matters by nearshoring and reshoring, and working together and becoming a maker country. Again, that's very important to understand, but that's the reason why it left. To begin with, and not all countries are structured with the same mindset that we currently have, and I think we're [00:19:00] doing an okay job of creating awareness.
You mentioned, Matt, when you're scrolling on social media, you fall into that dark hole. A lot of us do. You're, we're all two clicks away from a rabbit hole on YouTube, I promise you, where you don't want to be, but a lot of us are like that. I would actually give credit. Because kids are accidentally finding sparks flying or someone welding or an electrician maybe even getting electrocuted or making a joke about us.
That creates awareness that a kid goes, what is that? I was never shown that before. So I actually give credit to the social media side to at least make people ask questions. It's a, manufacturing is still a bit slow to truly embrace what social media world can do for them. But as a general rule, I actually credit.
The different avenues of social media for when your algorithm's reading something that you've thought was funny. You find another funny, but it might be funny in manufacturing, and then you ask a question about it. So I'm actually for it on the social media side, which is why I think, and I hope what we're doing right now is reaching people that never would've found [00:20:00] it previously.
Matt Horine: I think one, you create high visibility content in a space that typically avoids the spotlight. It's something that we joke about. Customers may not wanna hop on something like this because they're focused on doing the job and doing the job well, and that's exactly what you want. But you said something so important, and I don't think we've even framed it that way on this show before because we take an approach of it at looking at it like a, I don't think the managerial is the right word, or academic's the right word, but why did offshoring happen?
Labor arbitrage cheaper to make stuff over there. Labor as a fixed cost structure was super high in the United States because it provided a certain standard of living. We don't talk enough about the consumerism shift and what that really meant for people. And I order something, uh, this morning when I get to the office, and I might expect it on my porch by the time I get home.
Those are fast-paced expectations. Right? And you look at that and also put that up against how else has the economy changed in the last 50 years? Credit utilization way up, people in more debt than they've been in [00:21:00] ever before. We're buying things cheaper, but it's being built in a way that is not sustainable.
And maybe this is the reckoning moment where we say, oh wow. Our industrial base is actually the key to our national success. We don't have a pipeline. I'm looking at numbers coming out recently about recent college grads who were told to learn to code. 25% of them not getting, it's higher than that. I think it's down to 12% of them are getting jobs immediately post-graduation, which is just, it's an insane statistic because we tell.
You frame this really nicely because you know, most people realize it later in life, but if you realize it early, you capture it on the front end as you need to do what you wanna do and telling people you should or should not go to college, or you should not go into trades. They've gotta flow to where their creativity and where their interests lie.
And I think that's something big that we don't highlight enough on the show, is that we did shift from that because people saw what happened to their parents. I've told this story a couple times on this show. My grandfather was a. Prototypical World War ii, greatest generation profile. Grew up in a small rural [00:22:00] town, poorer than we were at, at any phase in like the post-industrial post-war period.
Served in the war, served in the Navy, came back, worked in a manufacturing plant for 25 years, and he built a life and he built something post-service that he, his retirement age was somewhere right before that plant got offshore. So he was lucky. He was at the tail end of that where he said, wow, the plant's closed.
And that's sad, and I could see it in my town. There's a whole cohort of people who didn't have that, and pensions have gone away and things have gone away that we used to bolster manufacturing with. So I really appreciate kinda that framework around the consumer mindset. It's like we talk about manufacturing, we talk about skills kit, what do you do as a consumer?
You know, you buy stuff from Amazon, you, you order stuff direct to consumer online that you expect there within a week. It's our expectations that often frame it. But you've also said something else. You've talked to thousands of companies through your show, through your travels. What are the common traits of the most successful modern machining and manufacturing organizations, and specifically just 'cause it's us manufacturing [00:23:00] today, so we can highlight the US but also what you've seen around the world.
Tony Gunn: I actually do get asked this question fairly often because everyone's curious about what are people doing to generate success, right? Everyone wants to know how we can be successful. I think, and this is probably gonna be really cliche, stereotypical, you've probably heard it before, but I think the most successful places are the ones that have the broadest mind, and I don't mean smartest minds willing to try.
Willing to learn. Willing to accept that they don't know something. I said it earlier in this show, we don't know what we don't know. And that's, it's a fact for everyone. We don't know what we don't know. And we also currently have, thanks to social media, so some, I'm butting heads between generations.
There's, there's so many differences between butting heads and there's a general rule, and this doesn't exist across the board. And there's always someone out there that comments. That's not true Tony. But as a general rule. Most of the owners sit in the boomer generation, and then it goes all the way through whatever generation we're at right now with their 18 year olds, with [00:24:00] kids who were 1-year-old with a tablet or something, a smart something in their hand.
One of the most brilliant shops I've ever been into that they're fully automated and not just with their machines, but digitally as well, has one of the most open-minded, clever, and willing to learn. Boomer generation folks that I've ever met, and he leans on heavily. A kid that is 21 year, 20 years old because that kid knows everything about the shop.
Thanks to being, understanding AI and digital digitalization, and I think we can say automation is key. We're talking about a skills gap, and I think everybody says it, and I think it's way too obvious at this point for me to repeat it over and over again because we know it like. If we're short, 50% of the people we need in our shop, what replaces it?
Automation, and there's ways to automate. That makes someone happy. You see it in, in shipping and things like that, right? We, in manufacturing, we have, [00:25:00] whether you want to go with pallet change system for a high mix situation or bar feed for typically more runoff hearts, lots of higher production or robots for higher production or cobots for high mix.
There's, there's options to do it. And so automation to me at this point, it's not in the future. It's not even the now. It's something we should have been doing a long time ago. We should have embraced it a long time ago. And if we're not. So I go back to your question to answer it with not necessarily a said product or even the word automation, whether it's digital or with hardware, but just having an open mind and the ability to accept that someone at 20 years old might know something that you don't know if you have the money to invest in it, and if you have the, if you have the ability to bring all of these generations together in a boardroom like King, author Knight of the Round Table, and everyone is respected equally.
You're gonna accomplish a lot because one kid saw something online while the other guy may have gone to a trade show and the other gal may have been [00:26:00] talking to her aunt and uncle, or whatever it might be. If we respect each other and we have an open mind, we can navigate this labor shortage and skills gap rather effectively and efficiently, I believe.
But to me. If someone's gonna thrive, it cannot be. We've always done it this way. It cannot be. We've done this for X amount of years and it's always worked. We must. Be on the forefront of creativity. My job is to understand technology and share it with the world, and I can't keep up. I can only imagine what it's like to run a machine shop and try and keep up.
It's my responsibility to do this and I can't because it's moving, at least as far as I understand it. We are currently moving quicker with technology unless say Lantis existed and if Atlantis existed, I heard they destroyed themselves with technology. After Atlantas destroyed themselves, we are currently moving quicker with technology than we ever have in the history of humankind.
In which case, how long did it take to go from a horse and buggy to the first car, to the faster car, to the, to maybe a plane or a boat? [00:27:00] You think about this, all of it's moving so quickly now, so we have to have people we can trust around us, because if you don't have people you can trust, you're gonna be sold something that's not gonna make sense.
But if you surround yourself with people you trust and you have an open mind to embrace opportunity. Your shop can and will thrive.
Matt Horine: You started out with saying it's cliche, it's really not because it's a common thing that everybody sees. It's one of those things that the discourse online, if you do read, if you're terminally on, on X, former Twitter, like I am checking out how things are going.
One of the things that you do see about the discourse is like this displacement of the boomer generation because they are. They're the largest ownership group, and not just in manufacturing, but like asset class, all those types of things. And they're still there. And that's just the nature of a lifetime of work and should be applauded in many ways.
But sometimes that understanding doesn't trickle down into the next generation and things about Gen X that. Now they're approaching 50 or a little bit above 50 when the hiring market dips, there's real concern that they may not get back on a job. I, [00:28:00] it's, I saw a crazy stat that I think it's like one in four gen Xers may never work in a traditional role again after they leave that last role in their fifties.
And so that's, and that's. Sphere of the job market, the traditional job market. And so they'll look at other ways to make a living in an income. And then the classic millennial and Gen Z stuff that is, is pretty common. It's like prime working age for millennials and Gen X or Gen Z. But that's all aside the point.
But you're right, because if you can invest, if I can invest and I have the ability to do that, and the next generation and they can actually do something for this business that we couldn't see, we didn't have line of sight to. That's where it all comes together. So I've caught that up front where you said, it's a little cliche.
It is, but it's also not because it's like the most common thing that we see every day in manufacturing environments. Turning now a little bit to more of the reshoring and what we call reindustrialization. Here in the United States because I think there's been some major momentum, at least around the buzz of it.
But I like to get into the real reindustrialization on this show. A lot of times you see it [00:29:00] announced in like X amount of jobs created or a new plant is opening, or this is, we look at it from sectors to the shop floor and shop floors where it's actually really happening and going on. When you zoom out at the global level, what signals do you see that US manufacturing come back could be real and it's actually happening this time, reshoring.
Tony Gunn: Are we? Is it real? I heard people say yes. I've heard people say no. My brain is a very logical type thinker, very practical type thinker. If we're reshoring, if we're really reshoring, and I know tariffs is something that we're talking about right now, but I'm gonna leave that out for the most part because that could change again tomorrow.
But if we're really reshoring, do we have the infrastructure and or the people to do it? I propose that question to you and anyone out there, if we're truly reshoring. If you think about how many people, if we're talking about a two to 4 million person skills gap currently, and that's with our current manufacturing capabilities, and let's be [00:30:00] fair, the US is still number two in the world in all of manufacturing and it's worth being proud of, and it is elite and all of these things I'm saying about being consumerism, they're all true.
And that it doesn't make it less true. It just means that there's more that could be done and we are currently in a crisis that we need to pay attention to. So if we are reassuring, Matt and I pose this question to anyone listening right now and leave it in the comments who's doing it? We don't have the forging facilities anymore.
We're not making, we're not forging our own medals. I've been to one or two of them in the country. I've filmed there. I love it. It feels like I wanna beat my chest. I feel, I feel like Tim, the tool man, Taylor, and this is where it all comes from and it's super cool, but most of them were sent off. Most of them are done elsewhere.
Oh. When you think about what products are us made. We have some cutting tools. We have some coolants, we have things like that. But when you think about machine tools, the ones that actually make product, you can't name a dozen. You can't name half a dozen. You could probably name two or three. That's very important to understand when you think [00:31:00] about someone like China, Japan, Korea, Germany.
Switzerland, they have dozens of machine tool capabilities of all sizes. Let's think today, if, and this isn't possible, but let's go to a fantasy world real quick and say, if everyone shut down their borders and you could only make, based on the resources you have within your country, we'd be in big trouble.
So with that being the case, yes, there is a buzz about reshore and yes, we're talking about it. The tariffs are supposed to inspire people to buy more locally. That's part of the goal of it, to make more locally. But can we. So to take this broader into other parts of the world, I'm not sure. I'm not sure that other parts of the world are currently recognized in the US as reshoring.
I think the tariffs have deterred everyone. They know that they need the business. We're still number two in the world in manufacturing. There's big business to be done here. You think about what Tesla's doing with these Gigafactories and Amazon and all the places they're putting them up in the country.
I heard a [00:32:00] rumor that that Japan just dedicated $50 billion or $20 billion to creating more infrastructure here in the us and we're hopeful that Korea will do it and India will do it, and all of these things. Are there conversations about it? Absolutely. There is a lot of people taking a step back because of these tariffs and going, do I really want to go through the headaches?
And some people, because it's in their DNA will and are going to, but it doesn't make it fun. It doesn't make it easy when you work with, when you want to work with someone, like really want to work with someone, you make it easy for them to work with you. You make it fun and productive and you want them to be a part of it.
And these, these situations that have made people guess. When I travel to these other countries, it's it's conversation every single time. And of, what do you think? And I typically don't have opinions because it's not my responsibility to have them, and I prefer to listen and ask the questions as the shoes you're in right now.
But I do spend a lot of time with people that share these stories with me. So [00:33:00] a little bit of devil's advocate, a little bit of hope. I want it to be there. And also when I say it this way, with a little bit of harshness in my voice. I also really believe in it. I really believe that US manufacturing can grow and thrive with a few small tweaks and realizing it is a global economy and we can't take it all back, but to work together.
And if we can work together in harmony, we will dominate in manufacturing again. I believe that there's just a, some quirks that need to be worked out.
Matt Horine: Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head because, uh, on the other side of that bargain is a non industrialized nation up to 30 years ago, 40 years ago.
It's represented a lot of upward mobility on their front, and you can take different sides of every issue. My, my typical framework around that is that tariffs and ideas should be reciprocal and free trade is best when it's free and free. Right? That that's the best purest state of nature is I will trade you this for that without any type of subsidy or any type of whatever.
On the other side [00:34:00] of it, and so that's how I always try to think of it. But you've highlighted the point that the Reindustrialization movement is not so much about the raw manufacturing here. It is about national sovereignty and defense in the sense that if you turned everything off tomorrow, what could you provide for your country?
That is a big question that I think we lose sight of in the day to day, right? It's, yes, we want to manufacture. I've had guests on this show that say, we don't want this type of manufacturing back. It needs to be automated. It's like we want it all back. I think the joke was we don't wanna make toasters like we can find a great way to make a toast an American made toaster.
Let's do that. So that is certainly a lot of the discourse that you get in the day-to-day, but it's such a pressing issue that you highlighted on the labor issue. Our viewpoint on that is that it's there, the capacity is there. It's about access. From our standpoint and point of view is how do you get people, like we talked about early on in the show, how do you match, match their schedule?
How do you match their interest and how do you rate them and give them that feedback that you talked about? Can they be rated by the business and get pay quicker and do things outside of the traditional structure of. [00:35:00] Hiring, buying seasonal cyclicality or all those things. But it's so critical for us on the labor side because it's how do you build that infinite flexible capacity.
But to your point, the infrastructure side, I've had multiple people on our show say, we don't have the power generation for what you're trying to do, like what we're talking about. And that is a, it depends on the red tape. Can we cut the red tape quick enough? Can we restart nuclear? And that's a whole nother debate because there was a pretty heavy debate about it in the eighties, and some people.
They didn't like it. And then you also know that it's like the fastest, cleanest power. So there's, but there's risk and reward with it. Right? And I'm certainly not advocating for this or that. 'cause I do not pretend to be any type of nuclear engineer physicist that can understand those things, but more power is needed and that kind of infrastructure being built.
So really great and great insights from your global travels, because there are two sides to that issue. I think it's something that we want to see it through the lens of great partners like Japan. Japan has been very forthcoming with how they want to help partner and rebuild us manufacturing. It's a funny story because back in the eighties [00:36:00] everybody was worried about Japan.
Right. It was worried about like the automotive industry. Right now they're on an economic cycle too. It's one way or the other. That's certainly something to take a look at. Let's talk really specifically though about inspiring the next generation. 'cause your story was. It's compelling about how you, you didn't stumble into manufacturing, but it provided a life for you and it built a life for you and something that you stacked on and built on into this content creation and this advocating that you do, you know, what advice do you give young people in shops who want to build their career, travel, take on leadership roles like you have?
What is the key piece of advice that you provide them and saying, aside from just do your job well you, do you have anything, or is it more about showing them and learning, like you were saying, through that content creation?
Tony Gunn: I think it's very important to work hard. I think it's very important to have gratitude.
I think it's very important to be fearless, and I think it's very important to try to remain as positive as possible in life. Now, these are aspects that could be taken into any job and any career, and I know it's [00:37:00] not easy all the time. We all are going through something, we all have a story to share.
We're all in some sort of pain, whether it's mental, physical, spiritual, whatever it might be. But when I was 22 years old, viral pneumonia suffocated and killed me in the hospital. And the only way I survived that was I had to physically beat the fluid in my lungs and break it up. 'cause it was so aggressive to, to spit it out.
And it was one of those moments and it of is this it for me? It my, according to the doctors, they don't know if I'm gonna survive. And if you look at the chart, my lungs are in the checked box of 80 to a hundred percent full. I can't breathe. I'm on oxygen. There's, I've been in here a week and a half. It's only gotten worse.
These are supposed to be the experts. Is this the end of my life? And as I mentioned, I was a horrible kid. I got in a lot of trouble. A misfit. If I, if the innerweb existed when I was a teenager, I'd either be dead or on a reality show, one of the two things or dead while getting on a reality. I would've been that [00:38:00] absolute asshole that needed to do all the cool things to show off for the camera.
I'm really happy it didn't exist while I was a teenager. So whether it's manufacturing or any aspect of life, if we have gratitude for any difficult situation because it makes us tougher, then we start to find the good in things around us. If we are positive minded, then. If we have a tough day or something doesn't go perfectly, then we have the opportunity to learn from that and do better the next day.
If we work hard, people are gonna see that work ethic with within us. Everyone wants to see and work alongside someone that doesn't need to be micromanaged. It's not widening and complaining that will put their head down or pick their head up and offer, uh, results, but work hard and be a, a part of that environment, I think.
Being fearless has probably been the largest catalyst of everything I've done. The largest results that have happened in my life were after taking a leap during the most scariest times when I was, when I [00:39:00] switched from being a machinist or a, technically I was an interior designer at this time, but from that world into the international consulting world, and it was an accident.
Living. My wife and I were living in dc. She was six months pregnant. I was sick and tired of the job I had. We didn't know exactly what we wanted to do. We just know that a lot of people were retiring in Florida. We had visited twice before that. We put everything in a U-Haul. I had no job, no guaranteed jobs, no guaranteed place to live.
She was six months pregnant and we drove south to Florida. I got interviewed by three companies and hired by all three companies. One of those happened to be the consulting company that took me around the world. I was poor. Growing up, I didn't get to see the world. The first international trip I ever took was to Mexico when I was 26 years old and since about 32 and I'm 47 now.
I've been to about 70, 80 countries. That was a huge leap when, and I loved working with that company. I loved it, but COVID hit and COVID changed a lot of people's plans. Again, another huge [00:40:00] catalyst of my life was when COVID hit. I don't really do stress, worry, fear, and anxiety. Matt, I feel like they're killers.
They're, you can eat as healthy as you want, but if you say stressed out, you're gonna die. And I, that's pretty blunt and probably exaggerated. But stress is a killer. Worry is a killer. Fear is a killer. So when that happened and I saw the world was in chaos, I respectfully quit the, I was actually working for two companies at that time.
Respectfully quit working with both of those companies and I went, my family, we put everything into storage. My family and I, my daughter, my wife flew, were backpacking through Mexico. We spent several months in Mexico just looking up at the stars, realizing how amazing the multiverse is, and we got, I got some phone calls about what I was gonna do next, and that's when I took on the media side.
I figured my heart is happiest when I'm of service to others is this is an opportunity to give back to an industry that is taking care of me. And it's not necessarily, I don't want to be any kind of famous, I don't necessarily want to be on everyone's front page news, but if it's my responsibility, if I have.
A story to tell that I helped tell it and tell [00:41:00] other people's stories. Maybe that's a gift that I'm supposed to do. And then the most recent one, even though I love the company I was working with, media, is to step out on my own and have the flexibility and the freedom to help people the way I want to help them to help.
Not just the people with money, but the people who don't have a whole lot but deserve to be seen and want to grow and support. Because education typically doesn't have a lot of funds for us to be able to afford to give to education all the time. Or maybe it's one of the most important aspects of making sure that we have manufacturing in the next 10 or 20 years.
Being able to dedicate some of my time to that as well. So every largest growth aspect of my life has come from facing something extremely scary. Just holding my breath.
Matt Horine: Yeah, that's, I think that most people would say that like when you think you're at bottom, you know, that might be where you, you have to stand up and do something for yourself and do something.
The old phrase like, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It's cliche too, but it's also real. It's one of those things that's like, nobody's gonna do this but [00:42:00] you, and there's no way out but through. And that's how, if you're not looking at it that way, manufacturers live that every day. And you're probably speaking to a lot of truth to our audience right now, and so maybe somebody who needed to hear it.
This is the part of the show though. I ask for what I call the free advice. So I know you've been a consultant, I know you've been, you've got this great company and this great movement going on. But this is where maybe if someone's listening now, if you had to give one message to American Manufacturers small shop, big OEM machinist students, just an umbrella.
What would it be outside of being fearless? 'cause I think that's kind of omnipresent with what your advice stream is overall. But what should manufacturers do right now that could make a difference in their life?
Tony Gunn: I'm going to lean on something I learned somewhat recently with associations because I always thought associations were a good old boys club where the guys got together and and just drank beer and laughed at everyone.
Aha. They're not us. We are great. But I've gone to a few recently and I would say. Certainly small to medium sized shops. [00:43:00] You remember that old saying, Matt, and I'm sure you do. It's not what you know, but who you know. Join an association, one that matches your personality. Connect with like-minded souls, discuss successes and failures that everyone is going through, because as a general rule, most of us can go home to our families or to our friends, and they don't know what the hell we're talking about manufacturing.
So surrounding yourself with people who know and not just know, but love talking about it. You're gonna find yourself in conversations that will help benefit you, your shop, your heart and everything moving forward. And I know that's, it's a plug for associations. And I haven't said anyone specifically, but I've learned a lot over the last couple of years about what they do and how they help.
And if I'm a small shop or medium shop, that's what I would do. I. We can do a lot on our own. All. What does it say? All ships rise, all the tide rise, all ships rise, that kind of thing. Get with an association that resonates with your soul, that connects with the parts you're making, that connects with the people that you like and spend time there.
Go to the events, and that's gonna give you [00:44:00] the networking capability to leapfrog someone who's trying to do it all by themselves.
Matt Horine: That's a really good point because there is somebody who's not gonna come off the bench. We hear a lot of times that folks are on the sidelines right now. They're waiting for something to happen.
And for most manufacturers, the the environment's set. The stage is set. You can run your own, run your own course, and fulfill your own destiny on that front. So where's TGM Global and the worldwide machinist? Where are you headed next? What's anything big on the horizon?
Tony Gunn: Everything. Always Matt. Oh my gosh.
I'm already exhausted just thinking about it immediately when the new year gets here. Headed to Asia for almost a month already on my calendar for next year is Taiwan, Indonesia, India, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, the US obviously. I think we got Sweden in the mix. And then all over the US we got IMTS coming up next year along with a whole lot of, we got G Toff in Japan.
We got MTOs in Korea. We got M Tex. Again, a different version, but in India. You got expo manufacturer [00:45:00] where I'll be given a keynote there, the opening keynote from Mexico. This is nonstop. This is, I've accidentally created something that I can't slow down and the momentum is a, is a, is a, it's a beast. It's amazing.
I'm excited the fact that it's, now we have, I have my own logo. I'm so excited about that. And I, and again, I loved consulting and working and contracting with other folks, but, but we machine the unseen that moves the world and to be able to give this to a machinist that deserves to be seen. We have hats and mugs and jewelry like necklaces and cuff links and lapel pins, and it's just, it's, it's the creativity that helps my heart thrive and beat with purpose.
To have purpose is so very important, so incredibly excited. We just crossed over 400,000 subscribers on YouTube. I think we'll be around 800,000 to a million and a half by the end of the year. This is, this is a momentum that I'm grateful for and I hope I can handle. I hope I can handle the pressure. I hope I can do right by the industry.
I hope I can do right by the people who want to work [00:46:00] with me. I honor the, this industry so very much that your, that everyone, whoever's listening right now, your voices matter. Thank you for anyone who's ever been brave enough to join me on camera to share their story, much like why I'm here with Matt today.
He's gracious enough to offer me the platform to share a little bit about myself, and I want to do the same for you folks out there. Yeah, we're doing well, Matt. I'm extremely excited.
Matt Horine: Yeah. I believe you're doing great things. And you mentioned the YouTube channel. Where else can our listeners follow your work, join your community, and get involved with the Machinist Club?
Tony Gunn: Yeah, anytime you look up either the Machinist Club or the worldwide machinist. My most utilized platforms are YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you want to go to tony gunn.com, that's my website as well. Other than that, I'm just bouncing around the world. So come see me anytime. People make jokes now about signing something and or taking it or needing, needing money for a selfie.
How much do you charge running now? It'll never be that. Not ever. Let's just enjoy what we're doing and high five each other along the way.
Matt Horine: [00:47:00] Yeah. That's funny. I, what's that joke about? It's like you, y'all are getting paid for taking selfies. Wait, I've been doing this for free. Oh, that's great. I've been doing this for free.
Awesome. Well, Tony, such a pleasure to have you on the show. Just a great outlook on manufacturing and really shining a light on machinists, programmers, operators, welders, and builders who make our modern life possible. So thank you for coming on today.
Tony Gunn: Oh, it's an absolute pleasure. And one last selfish plug, Matt, if it's okay, I'm actually working on my autobiography that'll tell a lot of this story, but country by country, written form of all the experiences I've had going around the world for the last 25, 35 years, including my childhood and hardships.
So all of that's gonna be. Transparent on paper for people to read. Moving into Q1 of 2026.
Matt Horine: Awesome. We'll be on the lookout for it. It's a very inspiring story. Thanks again for coming on.
Tony Gunn: Uh, thank you brother. You've been a fantastic host. Never stop doing what you're doing.
Matt Horine: Thank you very much. To everyone listening, follow Tony on LinkedIn and YouTube.
Check out his work at tonygunn.com and get involved in the Machinist Club. And [00:48:00] this is the kind of community that builds the future.
Matt Horine: Alright to stay ahead of the curve and to help plan your strategy, please check out our [00:26:00] website at www.veryableops.com and under the resources section titled Trump 2.0, where you can see the framework around upcoming policies and how it will impact you and your business. If you're on socials, give us a follow on LinkedIn, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram. And if you're enjoying the podcast, please feel free to follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and leave us a rating and don't forget to subscribe. Thank you again for joining us and learning more about how you can make your way.