Nick Popa learned his trade at the Henry Ford Trade School under Henry Ford, then ran a shop called Epic Machine. A teenager swept its floors, worked his way onto the machines, survived a motorcycle accident that put him in traction weeks before his daughter was born, and eventually bought the company on a twenty-year handshake buyout. That daughter is Melinda Keway, and today she owns the place. Melinda never planned any of it. She studied journalism, wanted to be Barbara Walters, and was chasing a career on the police beat when her father called and said he needed a quality person right now, and did she know what ISO was. She did not. He told her not to worry about it. She got scammed, in her words, into manufacturing, earned her lead auditor certification, and was a few months into fixing the paperwork when her dad had a stroke and she became the glue that held the shop together. That was more than twenty years ago. Two years ago, she took it all over and told him she was taking Epic from five million to ten. Epic makes precision tooling for the foundry industry and ships it to twenty-nine states and twelve countries, but the reason to listen is what Melinda built when the skilled people stopped showing up. Tired of waiting, the shop opened its own school inside the building, an intense eight-week course where a student picks mill or lathe and learns to program, set up, and run it for real, smells and fork trucks and broken taps included. She trains for the whole industry, not just her floor, and tells her people to go find the work that means something to them. She runs an open book where everybody has to know everything, and she credits it all to the team on the floor, because she has never machined a thing in her life. On the shop screen is a question she wants everyone to sit with. Do you ever wonder if what you do matters? Key Takeaways Interview where people are comfortable. Melinda runs every interview out on the shop floor, not across a desk, because machinists open up around the machines and tooling they know, and both sides learn fast whether it is a fit. When the talent won't come, build it. Rather than wait for skilled people, Epic opened its own eight-week school that trains one thing well, mill or lathe, and sends graduates into the whole industry. Train for the industry, not just your shop. She tells people to go find meaningful work wherever it is, because the industry's need for skilled people is bigger than any one company. Open book beats top dog. Everybody at Epic learns to program, set up, and operate, and nobody hoards knowledge to stay indispensable. Independence makes the whole shop stronger. Lead from your gaps. Melinda has never machined a part, and she treats that as an advantage, depending on and empowering the experts on her floor instead of overriding them. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and who Melinda is 02:46 Icebreaker: a Parks and Rec mockumentary 04:40 Culture is the vibe 05:26 Why she interviews out on the shop floor 09:16 Her dad, the janitor who bought the company 13:14 From summer jobs to journalism dreams 14:12 Scammed into a quality job 15:59 Taking over, and five to ten million 18:53 A reality show, and removing the gatekeeping 22:30 Do you ever wonder if what you do matters? 25:52 Why Epic built its own school 28:11 Inside the eight-week program 32:05 Building people for the whole industry, not just Epic 35:07 Open book: everybody has to know everything 38:22 What makes her proud 41:37 The legacy she wants to leave 43:26 Lean manufacturing and a shout-out to dad Find Melinda LinkedIn: Melinda Keway Epic Machine (Fenton, Michigan)
