Steel Nation: The Fabrication Industry Podcast

Myke Wilkerson
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  • Entrepreneurship

Steel Nation is The Fabrication Industry Podcast about the people who bend metal for a living… fabricators, welders, metal-working artists, and shop owners nobody in the business world thinks to interview. That's the whole problem. Tech and finance get endless podcasts breaking down their playbooks, while some of the best business lessons I've ever heard get told once, on a shop floor, to nobody. So I sit down with the people doing the work and we rewind a little bit... Because the people who shape metal shape communities too, and their mindset travels a lot further than the shop floor.

Episodes

  1. Sep 14

    EP07: She Knew Nothing About Manufacturing. Now CEOs Take Her Calls - Shannon & Jeremiah | FST

    Shannon Lehna didn't come up through the trades. She was a newly single mom in Quebec, working on a lingerie line for breast cancer survivors, when she started posting on LinkedIn hoping somebody would offer her a job. Somebody did. A few years and a few recruiters later, she's doing business development for FST. In this one she walks through how she got here and what she learned building an audience in an industry that wasn't looking for her. Why she stopped chasing operations managers and started going straight to the CEO. Why a post with a person in it beats a post with a product in it every time. What she found out about patents the expensive way. And how she handles the parts of this business that come with being a woman in a male-dominated field. FST owner Jeremiah Weekley sits in for this one and adds his own take on picking the right customers, fear-based company cultures, and why going over somebody's head sometimes wins the order anyway. Find Shannon on LinkedIn or reach her at shannon@fststeelfab.com.

  2. Aug 6

    EP06: He Laid Off 70% of His Workforce.. Then Hired Them Back Weeks Later - Nathan Pool

    Nathan Pool knows what it means to lead when everything is on the line. Just days after Global Vessel & Tank became a 100% employee-owned company, the pandemic hit, oil prices collapsed, and the company lost most of its work almost overnight. Nathan and his leadership team were forced to lay off roughly 70% of their workforce.. then moved quickly enough to bring most of them back within weeks. In this episode, Nathan shares how his experience as a U.S. Army Infantry Scout shaped the discipline, decisiveness, and calm he now brings to his role as CEO and Chairman of GVT. He talks about starting at the company for $15 an hour cleaning robots, working his way through multiple operational roles, and learning that strong leadership is not about barking orders... it is about keeping people aligned, protecting the culture, and moving forward together. Nathan also opens up about the weight of layoffs, building a company where employees feel valued, preparing for future downturns, and why leaders must be willing to make difficult decisions without losing sight of the families affected by them. It is an honest conversation about pressure, employee ownership, resilience, and what it takes to lead more than 200 people through uncertainty. This episode is for anyone trying to grow into leadership, navigate a difficult season, or build a company capable of surviving the next storm.

    EP06: He Laid Off 70% of His Workforce.. Then Hired Them Back Weeks Later - Nathan Pool

  3. Jul 30

    EP05: "My Dad Didn't Raise a B*tch" | From School Teacher to the Shop Floor - Candace Forbes

    Candace didn't grow up planning to run a fab shop. She spent nine years teaching middle school ELA and math. Then her father called and said he was going to sell the family business... the one built with his brother thirty years earlier, the one her older brother was supposed to inherit before he died of a heart attack. She said yes. What followed was a year and a half on the shop floor learning to fit and weld from the men who'd been there since before she was born.. one of whom told her she'd never amount to anything, and another who looked at her painted nails and said he wasn't sure this was for her. She proved both of them wrong. She also cried in her car most of the way home for the better part of a year. In this episode, Candace talks about walking into plants where engineers assume she's decoration, the outage in Louisiana where a mechanic went over her head about a welding rod and got publicly humiliated by the results, the day she and her dad screamed at each other in front of the whole crew, and the afternoon her quiet 18-year-old son walked into his grandparents' office and told them they weren't going to ruin what his mother had built. It's a conversation about the legacy you didn't ask for, proving yourself in a room that already decided about you, and how badly a grown woman can still need to hear her father say he's proud.

    EP05: "My Dad Didn't Raise a B*tch" | From School Teacher to the Shop Floor - Candace Forbes

  4. Jul 22

    EP04: The Steel Industry Forgot How to Sell Itself... Now It Can’t Find Workers - Mike D'Alexander

    The steel industry has a workforce problem... but is the real issue that it forgot how to tell its own story? In this episode of the Steel Nation Podcast, Myke Wilkerson sits down with the publisher behind Modern Metals and FFJournal to discuss more than three decades of change across steel, manufacturing, publishing, and business. They explore the rise of automation and AI, the generational transition happening inside family-owned companies, and why the industry continues to struggle to attract its next generation of skilled workers. The conversation also examines why companies that continue marketing during difficult economic periods often emerge stronger, why relationships still matter in an increasingly digital world, and what younger leaders must understand as they inherit the future of manufacturing. From carrying on a family legacy to adapting when “the old way” no longer works, this episode is a reminder that technology may transform the industry... but it can never replace the human element.

    EP04: The Steel Industry Forgot How to Sell Itself... Now It Can’t Find Workers - Mike D'Alexander

  5. Jun 17

    EP03: He Had $70K Due by Friday… and $3K in the Bank - Kyle Bentley

    In this episode, Kyle Bentley shares the story of how a 17-year-old welder’s helper turned into a business owner willing to bet everything on himself. From working overtime at McDonald’s, to practicing welds on lunch breaks, to launching Bentley Welding with only $3,000 in the bank and $70,000 due by Friday, Kyle’s story is a raw look at risk, grit, faith, and the cost of building something real. But this conversation goes beyond business. Kyle opens up about divorce, rebuilding his purpose, serving his community, sitting on the school board, leading nonprofit work, and learning that legacy is less about having your name remembered — and more about leaving people better than you found them. This is a blue-collar story about pressure, progress, and what happens when “grow or die” becomes more than a business strategy.

    EP03: He Had $70K Due by Friday… and $3K in the Bank - Kyle Bentley

  6. Jun 2

    EP02: He Was Given an 8% Chance To Live… Then Built a Life Out of Metal - Codie Aljets

    In this episode, we sit down with metal artist and former firefighter Codie Aljets, whose life changed after a stage four cancer diagnosis at just 39 years old. After losing his career, his strength, and nearly his life, Codie found a new mission through metal art... Creating legacy pieces filled with grit, meaning, and personal story. From the emotional story behind “Strong Like a Bull” to raising nearly $100,000 for cancer support organizations, Codie shares what it means to turn pain into purpose, why tomorrow is never guaranteed, and how art became his way of leaving something lasting behind. This conversation is about cancer, family, masculinity, legacy, faith, grit, and the kind of purpose that only comes from walking through fire and choosing to build something beautiful on the other side. Listen if you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to rebuild your life after everything changes.

    EP02: He Was Given an 8% Chance To Live… Then Built a Life Out of Metal - Codie Aljets

  7. May 5

    EP01: Barbie The Welder - Pain, Purpose, & Craftsmenship

    In this episode, Barbie the Welder tells how a scene from a movie changed the course of her life, how welding became far more than a craft, and why the art she creates is really a reflection of what she has lived through. From grief, anger, and self-doubt to purpose, craftsmanship, and building a life on her own terms, this conversation goes far beyond metal. It’s about turning pain into fuel, finding identity through creation, and learning how the things we build can ultimately build us.

    EP01: Barbie The Welder - Pain, Purpose, & Craftsmenship
  • 7 Episodes

About

Steel Nation is The Fabrication Industry Podcast about the people who bend metal for a living… fabricators, welders, metal-working artists, and shop owners nobody in the business world thinks to interview. That's the whole problem. Tech and finance get endless podcasts breaking down their playbooks, while some of the best business lessons I've ever heard get told once, on a shop floor, to nobody. So I sit down with the people doing the work and we rewind a little bit... Because the people who shape metal shape communities too, and their mindset travels a lot further than the shop floor.

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