Irregardless

In this episode of Irregardless, Lee Letourneau sits down with Keith Jentsch, VP of Sales at Fabrication Solutions & Technologies (FST) out of Longview, Texas. Keith's path is anything but typical: plant manager at 21, moved his family to Texas on a month of runway with no job lined up, and worked his way from service manager to VP of Sales in just four years at FST. They get into how FST sell...

In Part 2, Codie opens up about the moment that changed everything. A cancer diagnosis at 39 forced him to rethink what he was doing with his time and who he was doing it for. It's the reason he left the fire department, went all in on metal art, and built Sage Country Customs into what it is today. Codie talks about how that experience shaped his perspective as an artist and as a person, what it'...

Codie Aljets, metal sculptor and owner of Sage Country Customs out of Gunnison, Colorado, joins Shep to dig into how he got here. Codie grew up in Dorsey, Illinois, a town of about 150 people, where his family ran a mechanic and body shop. He was always drawn to the creative side of that world, but it took years and a lot of detours before that instinct turned into a career. From three-dimensional...

Chad Broyles, Executive Vice President of Majestic Steel USA, sits down with Shep to talk about what it actually means to be a technology-first company in the steel industry. Majestic is a nearly 50-year-old, family-owned service center with nine locations across the U.S., but Chad says what sets them apart is their approach to data, AI, and their proprietary customer platform M-Hub. Chad shares h...

Part 2 of Shep's conversation with Philip Bell, President and CEO of the Steel Manufacturers Association. They zoom out from the mill floor and get into the bigger picture: what AI actually threatens, who it threatens first, and where the line is between opportunity and disruption. Phil shares his unfiltered take on AI and intellectual property, why unfettered growth worries him, and how it's chal...

Shep sits down with Philip Bell, President and CEO of the Steel Manufacturers Association, the largest steel industry trade association in the U.S. Phil's mission is straightforward: fight for domestic steel producers in Washington, advocate for free and fair trade, and make sure a strong country keeps a strong steel industry. In Part 1, they break down how the U.S. quietly surpassed Japan to beco...

Shep sits down with Steve Feamster, owner of Sanitary Welding LLC out of Novi, Michigan. Steve specializes in hygienic, food-grade stainless steel fabrication, the behind-the-scenes work that keeps food processing plants, pharmaceutical facilities, and water filtration systems clean and running. It's one of those industries that quietly touches just about everything. Steve's road to get there is a...

Emme Hughes is 23, owns a 10,000 square foot metal fabrication shop in Enid, Oklahoma, and will tell you straight up: if it's metal, EH Metalworks does it. She started cutting signs on a plasma table at 18 out of pure obsession, landed a competitive USDA grant for a fiber laser cutter, and built a full-service shop from the ground up. But that's only part of the story. Before the business, there w...

In Pt. 2 of our conversation with Andrew Roberson , owner of Dark Threat Fabrication in Heber Springs, Arkansas, we pull back the curtain on what it really takes to keep a fab shop running and growing. Andrew gets into the early grind of chasing customers with nothing but a plasma table, the leap of faith into his first laser and press brake, and the late-night LinkedIn message that turned into a...

In Episode 50 of Irregardless, we sit down with Andrew Roberson , owner of Dark Threat Fabrication in Heber Springs, Arkansas. Andrew comes from a family that's been building custom homes in Arkansas for over 110 years, and that heritage of craftsmanship, faith, and hard work shaped everything that came next. After earning a mechanical engineering degree and working at Husqvarna and Siemens, a tax...

We're taking Irregardless to NASCC! This special episode was recorded at NASCC 2026 in Atlanta, where Rachel was joined by three guests from across the steel industry. Tyler Sease , President of Southern Steel Engineers, talks about building a niche structural engineering firm that works exclusively with fabricators, detailers, and erectors. Haylee Fort , Business Development at Willbanks Metals,...

In Part 2, Rachel continues her conversation with Jonah Myerberg, CTO and co-founder of Desktop Metal. Jonah breaks down exactly how Desktop Metal's binder jetting technology works and why it's fundamentally different from the laser-based metal printing that came before it. From printing green parts at room temperature to sintering in a furnace, he makes a complex manufacturing process surprisingl...

In Part 1 of Ep. 47, Jonah Myerberg, CTO and co-founder of Desktop Metal, joins Rachel to share his unconventional career path through mechanical engineering. He discusses his time designing power tools at Black & Decker, developing speaker systems at Bose, and later revolutionizing battery technology for Formula 1 racing. Jonah covers his work at A123 Systems developing high-performance batte...

Emmy Ross, Director of Business Development at Astro Metal Craft and StellarCraft, joins us to talk about growing a custom metal fabrication business and the unique challenge of marketing to two very different worlds: architects and industrial buyers. Emmy walks us through landmark projects like the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport and the Minnesota State Office Building, and explains how StellarCraft...

In this episode, Shep Hickey sits down with Matthew Nix, founder of Nix Companies and fifth-generation owner of what started as a blacksmith shop in the late 1800s. Matthew shares the story of a family business that spent four generations quietly defying the odds, never growing, never dying, staying strictly mom-and-pop. When Matthew joined, everything changed. He walks through how he spotted the...

This week we're crossing the border for the very first time! Brooke Laing and Eric Hyatt join us all the way from Toronto, both steamfitter apprentices with Local 46 and co-hosts of their own podcast, Two Bolts Short of a Flange . We get into the ins and outs of the Canadian apprenticeship system, what it's actually like to work in a steel mill, and the very real generational gap that's been left...

What happens when a girl who's supposed to follow the "safe" path falls in love with her Ford Mustang instead? Nushrat "Nush" Ahmed didn't take the route her Bengali family had mapped out for her, and thank God she didn't. From turning wrenches on muscle cars to earning the name "Miss Swiss" behind a CNC machine, Nush has built a career that most people twice her age would envy. Now, as CEO and Co...

Shep Hickey sits down with Jeff Matuszak, owner of Carolina Metal Fabricators, a Raleigh-based industrial fabrication company specializing in handrails, platforms, mezzanines, and custom stainless, aluminum, and carbon work. But as Jeff explains, the scope of what they do is always evolving. Each year brings new projects and new opportunities. In this conversation, Jeff shares his entrepreneurial...

From Poland to Dominos Pizza to Director of Engineering. Jack Gorzko's story is the American Dream in action. In this episode, Shep sits down with Jack Gorzko, Director of Engineering at Canam Steel Corp, to talk steel joists, structural engineering, and the winding road that brought him from growing up in Poland to leading projects for one of the top names in steel right here in St. Louis. Jack o...

Lee Letourneau sits down with Anthony Jacobs in Chicago for the final episode of our FABTECH 2025 series. Anthony is the owner of Vigilante Welding and runs the popular YouTube channel Meltin' Metal Anthony, where he shares everything he knows about welding, entrepreneurship, and running a business. Anthony kicks things off with the story behind Vigilante Welding's name, which goes back to the old...

In this episode, Shep sits down with Evan Uyetake, Head of Sales at Leadline Marketing, live from FABTECH 2025. Leadline specializes in helping companies in the industrial, manufacturing, and fabrication space build smarter marketing strategies. Shep and Evan dive into why so many companies in the metals industry get marketing wrong. It's not just about spending money, it's about spending it wisel...

In this episode, Bryzos COO Lee Letourneau sits down with José Reyes, owner of Texas Arc Welding Academy and Texas Arc Welding Supply. José shares how welding offered him a new path when many around him were heading straight into construction. A high school counselor introduced him to the trade and connected him with a welder who helped launch his career. From there, he built a strong foundation i...

In this episode, Rachel Hartman sits down with Laynie Locke, founder of Lips and Sticks Welding, at FABTECH 2025. Laynie shares how she built her brand creating fun and feminine hood decals, stickers, hats, and apparel designed to give women in welding a way to express themselves on the job. Before welding, Laynie spent 15 years in marketing, often working with welding schools and shops. Being aro...

This week on Irregardless , host Rachel Hartman sits down with Steve Kost , metal artist and founder of Metal Health Artwork , for an inspiring conversation recorded from FABTECH 2025! Steve’s journey is one of grit, healing, and transformation. From his early days as a Seabee in the U.S. Navy, serving in Somalia in the 1990s, to his years as an ironworker in Chicago, Steve’s hands have always bui...

Recorded from the show floor at FABTECH 2025 , host Rachel Hartman sits down with Emily Wilkins , CEO and Founder of Marketing Metal;  a bold, no-BS agency built for the “Radical Job Shop” of the metals industry. Emily shares her journey growing up near Detroit in a GM family, trading a mechanical engineering path for a passion in marketing, and ultimately founding Marketing Metal, the “anti-agenc...