Episode 194 with Brittany Fichter and Max Ceron

The CWB Association had the privilege to attend Fabtech in Orlando, Florida this year. We are bringing you special episodes recorded in person to keep our members on top of what’s new and exciting in the steel and welding industry.

Brittany Fichter from Superflash Compressed Gas Equipment joins us to share her journey from a professional photographer to a Sales Professional in the industrial gases industry. Her insights reveal the dynamic nature of her role, the importance of industry events, and how Superflash is making global strides in compressed gas equipment. Brittany reflects on the supportive environment she has encountered, sharing personal experiences and the hurdles women face in achieving equitable representation.

Follow Brittany:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thearcbishop/ 
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyfichter/

Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
Miller: https://www.millerwelds.com/products/augmentedarc
Canaweld: https://canaweld.com/
Josef Gases: https://josefgases.com/

Fabtech is North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event! Schedule the next event in your calendar: September 8-11th, 2025 in Chicago, IL. https://www.fabtechexpo.com/

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast, pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin.

Speaker 1 0:24

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Speaker 1 1:01

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Speaker 1 1:47

Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Ron and I'm here in sunny Orlando, florida, where it has been beautiful weather, a little bit windy today, a little bit milder, humid, af. My hair is like a ball, a fuzz, and my voice is slowly escaping me, as it does every Fabtech. Today we have someone that we've met at a few Fabtechs now and we've been establishing a relationship. We have lots of fun and we finally got you on the podcast. We got Brittany Victor here From Superflash.

Speaker 2 2:21

Yes, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 2:22

How you doing.

Speaker 2 2:23

Doing well. How are you doing?

Speaker 1 2:25

I'm good you know it's fun. It's been a big show. We've been doing a lot of stuff. The one thing I haven't had time to do is get on the show floor. That's kind of a bummer, I feel like I should.

Speaker 2 2:38

It's great out there. I haven't been able to escape the booth much. I haven't been able to escape the booth.

Speaker 1 2:43

Much People have been telling me that they feel like it might be the biggest attendance ever. We'll see, you've been to Chicago, right?

Speaker 2 2:50

Been to Chicago and Atlanta.

Speaker 1 2:54

How does this?

Speaker 2 2:54

feel. Compared to the Chicago show, it is definitely busy, love it. It is a lot more spread out. It feels like yes, I agree, finding everything. I I can barely feel my legs anymore.

Speaker 1 3:06

Oh, I know I know there's been people that we've been talking to that are like, hey, I spent the last day going through the the place it looks awesome, and they're like it's too bad, they don't have like a forming part and I was like, uh, did you cross the street? They're like what do you mean across the street?

Speaker 1 3:22

it's like it's a whole nother show on the other side, like you got to get over there right so it's, it's been it's, it's large, it's a lot of footprint, but from what I hear, the floor has been pretty packed.

Speaker 2 3:34

Yeah, it's been amazing attendance. We were a little worried with the hurricane and everything happening but seems, luckily, everything worked out being here.

Speaker 1 3:45

So how long have you been with Superflash?

Speaker 2 3:47

Six years now.

Speaker 1 3:49

Six years and what does Superflash do?

Speaker 2 3:54

So Superflash compressed gas equipment. We're really known for our flashback arresters, quick connectors, but we also have full-line gas mixers. We do custom heating solutions.

Speaker 1 4:04

And are you just in the Us? Are you around the world? We?

Speaker 2 4:07

are around the world. So we have a german company, ibida, that is our sister company, so we've got some of them here with us in states as well, which is fantastic.

Speaker 1 4:18

But and how old is the company overall?

Speaker 2 4:20

like has it been around a long time so super flash has been around since 91 and ibida has been 70 some years now well, yeah well, I'm older than 91, so I'm older than super flow I am too, but I'm not gonna say how much so how did britney get into this world of gas mixture companies?

Speaker 1 4:42

and, uh, you know, like it's not a niche that people are like. You know, like you're 16 years old, you're like when I grow up, I want to sell gas mixing, mixing components complete accident yeah so, yeah, absolutely, I ended up having brain surgery.

Speaker 2 4:57

I was doing professional photography at the time, had surgery, took a little break and my friend's like hey, we're hiring in marketing, we have several companies, and so I started and I was like our industrial side's pretty neat and started doing that. They sent me to Fabtech.

Speaker 1 5:18

I had never seen welding in person.

Speaker 2 5:22

That day I signed up for my first welding class, I was was like this is it?

Speaker 1 5:26

yeah, you guys have no choice I'm here I'm not going anywhere did you have any trades experience, like, I mean, photography is a trade, right, it is a. It's a skill that you learn. There's lots of pizza pieces and parts to it. Um, did that translate into your, into this new career that you ventured into?

Speaker 2 5:44

yes, so I still do a lot of the photography for the company and I had been doing some marketing stuff as well and had sales. But it just, it just clicked and I got hooked.

Speaker 1 5:55

So what was it that you wanted to be when you grew up? A lot of things I wanted to be a paleontologist okay a paleontologist and a doctor paleontologist, I also thought that would be a super dope job right and travel the world digging up bones. You know like that'd be fun. An actor, that's tough, gig, tough. Do you still think about getting into the acting game?

Speaker 2 6:24

Life is an act.

Speaker 1 6:27

Isn't that Shakespeare, yeah?

Speaker 2 6:30

I also wanted to be a doctor, an actor, pilot, and some jobs aren't really real. I wanted to have hot air balloon tour guides.

Speaker 1 6:42

That sounds like it's a win.

Speaker 2 6:45

It sounded like it made sense to me With animals. I don't know, it didn't make sense, but I'm still working on it.

Speaker 1 6:53

A petting zoo in a basket in the air. Yeah, I'm down, completely safe. Yeah, so when you got into the world of Superfly, there must have been a learning curve there. Right, there have been. Like you said, you came in into sales here's products you get sent to your first fabtech. You see, welding that's I mean fabtech in itself can be overwhelming right there's so much there, how did you start taking that in and thinking like I'm gonna make a career out of this?

Women in Welding Industry Progress

Speaker 2 7:25

I don't know if I ever thought I'm gonna make a career out of this. It was more. I found this so exciting and the welding industry is so welcoming, so so many people were like anything you need, let me know. And I think every single day when I was doing the marketing I wanted to understand well, what are our products doing? What is this happening? And my boss is so supportive that he would let me at least run in the office 20 times a day until he locked it, Like what does this do?

Speaker 3 7:56

What does?

Speaker 2 7:57

this mean Tell me more, but everyone just welcomed you open arms. And I'm not done learning? Yeah, it never stops.

Speaker 1 8:05

I know it's midget. Everyone just welcomed you open arms and I'm not done learning.

Speaker 2 8:07

Yeah, it never stops. I know it's midget and I'm an expert on one thing, but you see how huge this is.

Speaker 1 8:12

Yeah, it's unreal. You know you were just talking about a story about. You know some people are not as accommodating and nice, and this is part of the journey of the trades in today's world that we're trying to correct. Right, it's a big part of what we do. I see you volunteer on a number of of groups and a lot of it is to support women in the industry. We do a lot of work with awmi and other women organizations, because we're sitting at four to five percent women in the industry right now, which is embarrassing and we need to get way more. Schools are saying that they're getting up into the 20 30 enrollment rate for girls, which is great, but then we have a whole retention piece because once they get onto the workforce, there's a lot of jerks, yeah, a lot of ugly stuff, right? So if you could tell me the story the the one you told me about, you know the guy who wanted to ask the question.

Speaker 2 9:05

Yes.

Speaker 1 9:06

You know, because I think that's a great example of. It seems small, but I would be offended. I would be offended, and maybe that's the male privilege in me being like I have a right to be offended or something, but at the end of the day, I think it's right. So let me know.

Speaker 2 9:25

So we're at the booth and everyone's kind of talking. I finish up with a customer, someone else is waiting, and I'm like, hey, how's it going? Do you have any questions? I see he's looking at the gas mixers and he's like, yeah, I want to ask some questions on the gas mixers. Ok, how may I help you? Well, I would like to wait for one of them. It's pretty technical, okay. And I'm like, okay, well, I'm in sales, I'm more than happy.

Speaker 1 9:50

I work in the booth.

Speaker 3 9:51

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 9:52

They didn't just send me here for fun.

Speaker 1 9:54

I wish they would.

Speaker 2 9:55

But yeah, so and he's like, well, it's pretty technical, so happy to wait. So one happy to wait, so one of them finally frees up, comes over and he just goes. Yeah, I just wanted to know, uh, is this gas mixer able to do argon co2? Which is like the most basic question ever right like and I'm like okay, I could have handled that but that's fine. So, and then he started asking. So the guys were picking up what was going on too. So they're kind of going back like she can answer this.

Speaker 2 10:30

But I'd say overall, this year I've seen more females here than ever before. It's fantastic.

Speaker 1 10:37

I've seen, I'm starting to see actual like groups of women that are coming from companies. It's not just like a woman, you know, like following along with a guy or whatever. It's like you know 10 women together from a company representing, and they're all in positions from leadership to the floor. That's what we need to find.

Speaker 2 10:56

That's the stuff we need right yes, absolutely, and there's so many different communities and not everyone's that way. There's a few bad apples and they're kind of used to the industry one way, but we're changing it and I'm not leaving yeah, they don't have a say.

Speaker 1 11:11

Really, if you have a question, I can help you how's it like within super flash? You know, was there a lot of women when you started?

Speaker 2 11:19

there were you one of the first, you know actually we are so lucky we are a family-run company and our CEO is a woman.

Speaker 1 11:27

Oh mom.

Speaker 2 11:29

Yeah, absolutely so. She is highly educated, fantastic second generation, so not much issue at all at work.

Speaker 1 11:39

So, when you come to Fabtech, what is it that you seek to do here, you know, with super flash, are you looking to sell? Are you looking to increase exposure? Are you, are you flogging a new product, like what was the mission when you guys get together before you show up? What are we doing? Yes, so all of the above, all of the above um, a lot of it's education.

Speaker 2 12:00

A lot of people don't know the difference of this or the last welding class I took, I I might be a little snippy sometime and at first the teacher was talking and they just have check valves, not flashback arresters. We're about to do oxy-fuel cutting and I go, I'm not touching that. And it's like what? And it's like no, you don't have a flashback arrestor on that, I am not touching that. So next class I donated some Like hey, more than happy to do that yeah but no, a lot of it's education.

Speaker 2 12:35

We sell through distributors, but we like to go ahead and let end users know we'll help you out with everything. Um, the gas mixers have been taking off, so that's been a lot of it too.

Speaker 1 12:47

What makes your gas mixer different than anybody else's?

Speaker 2 12:50

Yeah, how much time do we have?

Speaker 1 12:52

An hour.

Speaker 2 12:54

So, it depends what one of my favorite is our super shield. So it is a fully variable 435 cubic feet an hour. It can do argon and CO2.

Speaker 3 13:05

Wow, right, absolutely.

Speaker 2 13:08

So that's covered. You see, in a lot of the welding schools so it can power seven to eight booths. But also we're seeing a lot of people do like pelican cases being able to take it outside because they don't know, do I need 75, 25? What do I need? And you're able to control your shielding gas right there.

Speaker 1 13:25

So that is been a flagship for you, yeah, flagship one and taken off. So I find it interesting that you said that you had to educate people to know that you have to use flashback arresters and stuff like that. Is that something common in the us that people don't use flashback wrestlers, like in canada? It's like the law. Like you cannot even think about setting it up without flashback wrestlers it depends where and it depends who.

Speaker 2 13:55

Um, so some people are like, well, this is the way, or they're all created equal, and it's like, well, a little education and it helps and we want to show like, hey, this, why, and this is going to be the difference.

Speaker 1 14:10

Yeah, yeah. And the debate, though, can you have at the start of the torch, at the end of the torch.

Speaker 2 14:17

Torch and regulator.

Speaker 1 14:18

Protect your people, protect your equipment Right, because that's what I remember being in school when I was younger and it was like well, there's ones that you can put here and there's ones you can put there, or you can do both.

Speaker 2 14:35

I'm like I'm sure there's some type of rule that you're supposed to follow, right right, so depends on what you're trying to do, but you should always, always protect your people number one, but you also want to protect your equipment.

Speaker 1 14:41

You want to protect your peace. So go ahead and do it all and when you guys come to fab tax I'm sure you come go to lots of shows, right is. Is there a different audience here than there would be at some of the other shows?

Speaker 2 14:55

so a lot of the other shows we do. We're very involved in gata gases and welding distributors association, so that's more distributors that show just happened like a week ago, didn't it? Yeah, we didn't go to the annual this year, but we went to every single regional um, so that was fantastic. Um, so you're talking to the distributors more there.

Speaker 1 15:17

Where I get really excited at fabtech seeing the students- that are brand new to it and being able to let them know like hey, look at this and and then sometimes I might sneak out of the booth a little bit too and go look at some stuff for myself, so we just interviewed someone this morning and they were talking about they expected to see more kids here and I said, well, fab tech's not really a kid type of conference, like I think the minimum age is 18 even just to get in, but there is a lot of young welders like like we're talking early 20s, right, and they're pretty fresh, right. I'd imagine seeing all the options. How do you pick? How do you get someone to say, stop at Super Flash, before you go, look at the other eight competitors or go ahead and look at them? But we're different.

Speaker 1 16:08

Well, we got a prime location, that's right, you said right by lincoln right we are right at the entrance, so we're hitting you twice when you're coming, when you're leaving yeah but it's also.

Speaker 2 16:19

People have stickers. We've got great stickers in the booth and you wouldn't believe how many people just come every year. So we have spark. Our mascot is a oxyfuel welding robot, but then when I started welding, I wanted a girl version. So now we have sparkle okay, nice and um, I hear they're gonna maybe have a dog soon, named miggy me, so we'll be having that soon a whole family of welding machine things are heating up, yeah, oh now, you're gonna get through this week.

Speaker 1 16:58

You're, you're gonna. You know, every day you're out there flogging the, the deal and doing the thing. Where do you see this leading to for yourself professionally? Do you see yourself working in sales for a long time?

Speaker 2 17:11

I hope so. Yeah, are you happy in?

Speaker 1 17:13

this role or do you look to move into other areas?

Speaker 2 17:16

So I originally started in marketing and after bugging the boss so much, they kind of stole me over to the sales side. But still love doing so much of but I think I'm just so outgoing. I want to be talking to people, want to share look at this.

Speaker 1 17:34

Look at this.

Speaker 2 17:35

This is cool, like yeah, so I, as long as they don't kick me out I'm.

Exploring Welding, Dinosaurs, and Industry

Speaker 1 17:40

I'm here. Now let's talk about your welding career. You know, like you said, you got into welding, are you? Is it a hobbyist? Yeah, yeah, like you like to build things. Or do you said you got into welding? Is it a hobbyist? Yeah, yeah, you like to build things. Or you do metal art. What's the kind of stuff you like to weld?

Speaker 2 17:54

So still completely learning. I've done two classes. Now I want to continue. Luckily, work has supported me and paid for each of my classes. That's nice and hopefully they're going to continue. But I recently got a plasma cutter and what I want to do is you know, those like balsa wood things you have for little kids. I'm using that as a template and I'm going to be making some metal dinosaurs okay, yeah, and that's what I'm really excited about. I'm like all practice this and go ahead and tack it together, do that?

Speaker 1 18:32

So this is not the first time I've heard you say that word.

Speaker 2 18:35

Dinosaurs.

Speaker 1 18:35

Dinosaurs in the last 24 hours. It doesn't happen everywhere with most people that dinosaurs come up often, but we were at what's called Universal Studios yesterday for the Hard Rock Cafe thing and there's dinosaurs there, real ones. People are wondering you love dinosaurs? Tell me about your love for dinosaurs.

Speaker 2 18:57

I don't know why, I just find them fascinating. My favorite is a Parasaurolophus, and it's the one with the long on the back of the crest.

Speaker 1 19:08

Like the dreads, oh no, like the big bone, yeah. So the long on the back, like the dreads, oh no, like the big bone, yeah. So it goes on the back so what I really like about?

Speaker 2 19:14

yeah, actually, it would be a great bottle opener. What I like about them is they are so versatile, so they are really social one, but they care about their family. They're not going to fight unless you go ahead and threaten them, but they also can do all fours or they can be on two, and just something you don't know about and we don't know. The myth, I don't know. I find it fascinating.

Speaker 1 19:39

But how do we know?

Speaker 2 19:40

We don't.

Speaker 1 19:42

Right, that's the tricky part. I love dinosaurs too. I love the idea that there's just been previous generations of a ruling animal, right, right. I love the idea that the the dinosaurs that we like, the big cool ones that we think of that was like the sixth round, right, there had already been like four massive extinctions on the planet before that. The dinosaurs had a run like we're talking, a serious run, like we're not even a tenth into the run that they had.

Speaker 1 20:09

They were in charge for like 150 million years like it was a long time now. Does the love of dinosaurs translate into the welding world? Like you said, you're looking to build things with dinosaurs. I feel like this could be a whole avenue of of imagination with welding isn't everything with welding, you're it kind it kind of is Nothing's off limits.

Speaker 2 20:32

But it is funny how you mentioned the errors. I'm really passionate about teaching young and my nephew he wasn't so interested in welding. My niece she kind of is like anything Aunt Britt does is super cool, so she's into learning about welding and dinosaurs. I was buying her a toy and the guy's trying to upsell and he's like, oh, what about this? And she's like those were millions of years apart, they would have never been better, they wouldn't have been friends at all.

Speaker 2 21:04

She's just like. Looks at me like this guy. Yeah, she's just like. Looks at me like this guy.

Speaker 1 21:09

Yeah, yeah, oh. And I love how paleontology the study of history in general always uncovers new truths.

Speaker 2 21:16

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 21:17

Right, when I was a kid growing up, it was 100%. Dinosaurs were cold-blooded. They're just giant lizards.

Speaker 2 21:21

Yep, right Now they're covered in feathers.

Speaker 1 21:24

Yeah, now we know that they had feathers, fur. Some were warm-blooded, some were cold-blooded. Right, there was a way wider variation than we ever knew as we learned. I relate that to the welding world. In my life, there's things that have changed significantly over the last 30 years of my welding career. In your six years, you know, like I don't know if you feel like six years is a long time, From my end it's like you're just getting started. I'm just getting started, but in your six years have you noticed changes?

Speaker 2 21:52

I mean the Cobots. You didn't see those everywhere and now everywhere you go. So that, but it's always changing. But there's also the basics that you always have to go back to and stay with.

Speaker 1 22:06

Yeah Well, let's take a break for our sponsors right now and we'll come back right after the advertisers that support the show have a little spiel. We'll be back here with Brittany after the break, here in Fabtech Orlando 2024. We'll be right back. Looking for top-quality welding machines and accessories, look no further than CannaWeld. Based in Vaughan, ontario, cannaweld designs, designs, assembles and tests premium welding machines right here in canada. Our products are csa certified and ontario made approved, reflecting our unwavering commitment to excellence. Count on us for superior service that's faster and more efficient than market competitors. Whether you're in aerospace, education or any other precision welding industry, canna weld has the perfect welding solution for you. Visit cannaweldcom today to discover why professionals rely on CannaWeld for their welding needs. Cannaweld where precision meets reliability in welding. Enjoy peace of mind with our four-year warranty on most machines. Conditions do apply.

Speaker 1 23:07

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Speaker 1 24:05

Yeah, it is. When you guys, when the company started, the name would imply that it was mainly safety equipment, backlash arresters and stuff like that. But now you're into the mixing. Are you doing regulators, are you?

Speaker 2 24:19

what's on the list? What's?

Speaker 1 24:20

not on the list the list is growing.

Speaker 2 24:23

I can't exactly say what's coming um, but next year at fabtech, I'm pretty excited we're going to have even cool stuff even more, um so never ending, but as long as it fits.

Speaker 2 24:36

So we are basically an umbrella of companies. So what we specialize in? Super flash compressed gas equipment, while we also we also have Oxigo, which is portable medical oxygen concentrators, we have applied home health care, and then we also have Life Corporation, which is emergency oxygen. So really everything's based on gases. We are a small segment of the welding, since there's so many things, but we want to be the experts in that area.

Speaker 1 25:08

Yeah, so do you guys do uh like helium for medical equipment too and stuff like that? You know I can't talk much on the medical side yeah, honestly I don't want to say something wrong, so I remember learning about helium in mri machines and being so astonished that we could use a gas as an insulator, like that, right, right, because I remember thinking like I know that we use it in welding and the same principles apply to magnetic resonance machines and I was like that is so wild, like science is so wild, yeah, like everything.

Speaker 2 25:41

Yeah, everything you look at is so much detailed once you really get into it and deep dive.

Speaker 1 25:46

We're going to be hanging out with uh frankie later from from uh, you know well, right and uh, one of the things that he really wants to talk about and even and chucky actually brought it up too was the new nitrogen cutting systems that are coming out and all these amazing nitrogen cutting systems. Are you guys in that game too? Are you guys doing work on just supplying that form of compressed gas industry?

Speaker 2 26:09

not so much so, we are more so the safety equipment right now. But frankie and jackie, I gotta love them there yeah I think frank was probably one of my first friends in the industry too. That he's really fun. Just Just welcomed me like I don't know who you are and yeah, and Chuck is just wild. And Chuck's Chuck, chuck's.

Speaker 1 26:34

Chuck, chuck's Chuck. He's a fun guy to hang out with Gotta love him yeah. Let's talk about that. What's the experience with the people? You know, like Fabtech it sort of turns into like a community and we all talk about our wild community and our local communities and how wonderful the welding community is, but then there's, like the fab tech people that you see every year and you start to look forward to seeing them.

Speaker 1 26:57

You're like you only see them once a year, but you're excited to see them. Yeah, right, and and it becomes like its own little community, especially with social media now, because you can kind of keep tabs on what people are up to throughout the year or shoot a question here and there, but then you know you're going to have a solid three to four days with them at Fabtech. How's that community been for you?

Speaker 2 27:16

So Frank, chuck, all of them, we actually we kind of call her, it's our summer family- because, we also have like the aiwd buying group.

Speaker 1 27:27

We spent direct audit everywhere.

Speaker 2 27:29

I got it um, basically every regional. So then it's all of a sudden like fab tech's done, it's that break starts snowing in ohio and it's like I miss my welding people I'm not gonna see them till spring, but it's fantastic and they're also in so many of the committees, simon, so we still zoom everything like that, but seeing everyone in person getting to hang out, have fun completely different yeah, and why join these committees?

Speaker 1 28:02

you know, like you said, you're a part of these committees. Volunteerism I love. We run an association, but at the end of the day, not everyone's cut out for it. You know, not everybody wants to volunteer their extra time. What attracts you to do that?

Speaker 2 28:16

I mean you get to work with some of the best in the industry. You get to learn. You get to give back. I mean, when I started, everyone opened me with welcome arms, so I want to be able to do that. I'm part of the women of gases and welding in GATA. I'm part of the young professionals. I'm very you guys help me, let me help you.

Speaker 1 28:38

I tried getting in on the young professionals, but apparently I'm too old. No, it's okay, young people don't need me.

Speaker 2 28:48

But I love seeing it. I'm pretty sure you'd make the cut. No, you don't have to lie, it's okay.

Speaker 1 28:52

I'm like gray, as Santa Claus we know, but for yourself you know to to be in a sales position in the welding community. Um, as a volunteer, how can you mentor? What's the mentorship you're hoping to bring to young girls and women looking to get into the trade?

Speaker 2 29:11

honestly anything they need, whether it's support, like we were talking about the story earlier, a guy a gross yeah you know like hey we're together and also sharing stories of hey, we've been through this or this may happen, or if you have any questions. I mean we have, yes, direct competitors, but we're also great friends and they're for each other, so anything someone needs. I am also a huge part of american welding society, started the publicity chair for the Cleveland section and I'm a dork. I just want to be surrounded by welding. Yeah.

Speaker 1 29:52

How much does your company leverage that passion you have, or does everyone at your work love welding?

Promoting Welding Through Art and Creativity

Speaker 2 29:58

Basically. They know I'm a little different than everyone else, but they're super supportive of it, and several other people are in several other committees we are CGA committees, things like that but they also really foster being your own person taking care. So over the summer we had what we called Summer of Spirit. Every week we had different things to make the company fun different, and so I had a spark and sparkle coloring contest and they're like.

Speaker 1 30:30

you know what fine I'm like so you like, brought coloring paper I made our mascots and I turned them black and white and so then there was an adult coloring contest.

Speaker 2 30:40

Because why, why only kids?

Speaker 1 30:42

who won?

Speaker 2 30:43

um. So we had a couple different winners so we had ash in arizona, and then we had danielle in our west lake office well.

Speaker 1 30:51

Congrats to ash and danielle on winning the coloring contest. I'm not good at coloring, like you gotta be. Uh, pay attention to detail. You know, I feel like I color outside lines too much well, maybe that's because there's not enough adult welding coloring contests that you're interested in. I gotta practice, right, I gotta practice.

Speaker 2 31:12

I'll send it to you I would love that.

Speaker 1 31:14

That'd be fantastic. We talk about all the time like how do we get kids into this?

Speaker 2 31:19

oh, I, I'll send you guys tons of coloring like how do we get kids into the trades?

Speaker 1 31:23

how do we start putting welding for them? Like is there? I never even thought. Like could we do a coloring book welding things? Write that down, daniela. I like that idea well, and you're also starting to see more books for the younger kids.

Speaker 2 31:36

But I think there's also that stigma of you used to you need to go to college right or you're not going to make money, you go to the trade school. That's for the kids that aren't cut out for college. I see some people with some pretty nice vehicles that are welders and there's a lot of options. And I also go to a lot of the local high schools and say, hey, you don't have to necessarily. You might be interested in welding, but you can do marketing.

Speaker 1 32:09

You can do sales.

Speaker 2 32:10

There's a million avenues.

Speaker 1 32:11

You can be an engineer, you can be whatever.

Speaker 2 32:14

It's nonstop, so you don't just have to be a welder in the industry.

Speaker 1 32:20

Do you see yourself trying to get? I mean, you already told me you want to get better as a welder. Are you going to take maybe a longer?

Speaker 2 32:32

course, or maybe I'll go for an aws certification, or eventually absolutely, but it's also the balance of hey time working time exactly um but I need you on so I can get anyone that wants to help me teach me.

Speaker 1 32:43

Show me please yeah, do you have or what's like the type of welding that you like to do the most? Tag really right off the top, just like that what material?

Speaker 2 32:55

um well I I want, I want to get good at doing aluminum oh, that's not easy, yeah exactly I've got, I've got goals, um. But when I did tag it just but what?

Speaker 1 33:08

why, why did like, why do you? So I'm not a huge tag fan. People are gonna roast me for that, but it's like so oh oh no, it's methodic.

Speaker 2 33:19

It's just like you're in the zone and just I don't know. It's just beautiful to me. I do have fun with tag. I have fun, I love welding tag stainless.

Speaker 1 33:24

It flows in so zone and just I don't know. It's just beautiful to me. I do have fun with TIG. I have fun, I love welding TIG stainless. It flows in, so pretty and nice and you get the colors. Yeah Right, I love that stuff. I can't explain why but it just immediately that just was like I like this.

Speaker 2 33:39

This feels right.

Speaker 1 33:41

And when you're building stuff at home, are you building?

Speaker 2 33:44

Attempting to build stuff at home. Yeah, when you're attempting to build stuff at home.

Speaker 1 33:48

are you trying to do something functional? Are you trying to just be more artistic? Like you're a past photographer, you have an eye for art. You know I feel like space, right, right. Does that come into your world of welding?

Speaker 2 34:07

I mean sometimes it'll be.

Speaker 3 34:08

I haven't had a chance and I just want to practice, lay down some beads.

Speaker 2 34:10

Yeah, just I got a little time.

Speaker 1 34:11

Or also I get angry a little bit um and I find it very relaxing to go out in the garage and just go ahead and just stare at that little blue light for a bit.

Speaker 2 34:21

Yeah unfortunately, I have too many ideas. I. I'm like oh, I want to do this, I want to make this, I want to do this and I just have a whole notebook and eventually I'll get there. But each thing I want to challenge myself and improve a little bit.

Speaker 1 34:36

That's cool.

Speaker 2 34:37

And luckily I'm really bad, so I've got a lot of room to improve.

Speaker 1 34:41

The ceiling is high yeah exactly so that's the best part too, is you just continually get better, right, right. What about at your industry, like super flash, the, the safety components of welding? Have you seen a lot of competitors come up in your experience over the last six years attending conferences, you know, we talked to the welding companies and they say well, you know, 10 years ago there was five welding companies, now there's 50. There used to be three robot companies, now there's 40. Is there a lot of people coming into the safety space that you guys occupy?

Speaker 2 35:14

Not so much. There's a couple people and they've been there.

Speaker 1 35:20

It's not like a job start.

Speaker 2 35:22

You don't want to trust safety, you don't want to trust someone's life with junk and something that doesn't have backing, or like hey, I ripped this off.

Speaker 1 35:32

Like here.

Speaker 2 35:33

Protect your welder.

Speaker 1 35:35

Yeah, so Do you find shops are more open to the conversation of safety now?

Safety and Future in Welding

Speaker 2 35:41

Yeah, absolutely yeah. Unfortunately, the worst thing is when something happens and then everyone comes like yeah or a close call, and well, they say, rules are written in blood. Oh, I've never heard that I like it, but I don't like it exactly that's what that's.

Speaker 1 35:59

That's why I love that saying, because it's an ugly truth that we tend not to make change until it's too late, and then we're forced to, even though we all probably knew everyone knew that the thing was dangerous. We wait till something bad happens and we're like okay, I guess now we have to have a rule.

Speaker 2 36:16

Right, it's working right now. Yeah, it's working until it doesn't.

Speaker 1 36:20

Your whole job is to not go there.

Speaker 2 36:22

Yeah, absolutely, but you see that with PPE too. How many people end up doing something and they're like I should have been wearing this. Yeah yeah, just be safe.

Speaker 1 36:33

We have everything to do it, right, right. It's just, I don't get it, you don't get not doing it.

Speaker 2 36:41

Just put your PPE on, put your proper, like, just take care of your stuff, take care of your people.

Speaker 1 36:48

Yeah, I still, to this day, see people I work with not wear their PPE and then they're in the hospital because something's in their eye or something and it's like well, like I don't understand how this is not easy to connect here.

Speaker 2 37:02

Yeah.

Speaker 1 37:03

I'm speechless on that.

Speaker 2 37:05

I have nothing to say because, but unfortunately then you notice the people that then have something and they're like, oh, never again from your point of view, when you're, when you're selling a product, you're talking to a potential customer.

Speaker 1 37:20

How much of your conversation is going to be about the benefits of the product for like? Ease of use, support, selling, price point even?

Speaker 2 37:29

we're not price point, no, no, we're quality okay.

Speaker 1 37:33

And then, on the other side of the conversation, you have safety do you go more? Safety side do you go more? This is the product you need for your thing. Safety is just awesome it.

Speaker 2 37:42

It depends what they need. It more so is what they're asking about? What fits their needs. A lot of them are familiar with us. Our flashback arresters are 100% tested. They're made over in Germany.

Speaker 2 37:55

So a lot of people are like oh, I know you guys, this is the only one I want to use, great, fantastic, other ones you need to educate a little more. Do I need this? Do I need this? Do I need that? So, whatever they need, we're willing to help them out. Now we do sell through mainly distributors, but we'll go ahead and work with the end user completely. They'll come to us say I don't know what I need, the shop needs this, this. We'll take care of it all. And then just say here, go to the distributor. They'll take, take care of you there, but we'll take care of the technical yeah which is another thing.

Speaker 2 38:28

I'm on our technical queue at work, so I answer the phone a lot and they're like oh, hey, sweetie, uh, someone there that knows something about. Uh, it's called p s I yes, I am aware of the pI. Okay, you needed pie. What's up?

Speaker 1 38:50

Now, you know you're talking about people reaching out. How does that process work? You know, like you say, you go through the distributors, and that's cool, where they're going to buy it end user. But if someone just calls you from a shop and they say, hey, you know, we're looking to set up 15 torches, what do we need's? What's the minimum, what's the maximum? What would work best? Do you guys send someone there to work, figure it out? Or is it like over the phone pictures?

Speaker 2 39:16

a lot of it will be over the phone, um, because you know we are quite smaller um as far as the actual, but we'll take the time. Call us, I don't care, I want to talk about it and I want to see your shop anyways.

Speaker 3 39:30

So, that.

Speaker 2 39:31

But we'll take the time, we'll work with them. But I love the distributors. They have the feet everywhere so they're able to do that. But we'll go. We'll make calls all the time and I love when I get to go to the shops and stuff, and then I'm like hey, also, what's this while I'm here, yeah yeah, but where are you going to be in a couple of years?

Speaker 1 39:55

You know, like your path here. Do you want to be a sales manager? Do you want to? Because you said you kind of could see you'd be happy doing sales for a long time.

Speaker 2 40:04

Absolutely Right.

Speaker 1 40:10

But would you like to be part of like manage a bigger area, would you like to?

Speaker 2 40:12

see more stuff. Would you like to be more in schools, like what I? I'm really big on the education so I would love to do a lot more with that, but it's also with social media, things like that yeah it's a lot easier to reach a lot of people. But yeah, as long as they'll have me, I'm going to be here, Then again, I wouldn't have thought several years ago.

Speaker 2 40:35

That this is where you would be that this is where I would be, and now I can't imagine being anywhere else. I just want to continue to learn and know as much as possible about everything.

Speaker 1 40:47

Is there any future products that are going to have dinosaur names from?

Speaker 2 40:52

you just oh you know how mad kurt's gonna be when I get back at the booth and I am blaming you on that idea, because why not yeah?

Speaker 1 41:04

it makes sense powerful, huge lots of gas like for real. Imagine a dinosaur fart. Have you ever thought about?

Speaker 2 41:14

that.

Speaker 1 41:16

Did you say a dinosaur?

Speaker 2 41:18

fart? Yeah, because they eat a lot of rocks and everything too, yeah, no there's a song about dinosaurs for little kids and it does a dinosaur burp.

Speaker 1 41:30

Okay, all right. Yeah, all right, we can extrapolate from.

Speaker 3 41:34

There.

Speaker 1 41:36

Well, gas, dinosaurs, safety it's all in the same realm.

Speaker 2 41:43

Yeah. I mean what if the dinosaurs had flashback arresters?

Speaker 1 41:47

Hey safety first Right Safety. They probably wouldn't be extinct.

Speaker 2 41:52

Kurt is going to be so mad at you when I get back to the booth, I'll be like this is not my idea, but it's pretty genius and we need to go with this.

Speaker 1 42:04

So you got a day and a half left here, right? Are you leaving Thursday or Friday?

Speaker 2 42:08

Actually, I am staying through next week.

Speaker 1 42:10

Oh, you said you have some family or something nearby. Well, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 42:15

I was born in Florida, okay, and then I grew up in Ohio. We moved there, but once we were done with school, my mom's like. You know what I'm going back to Florida, Going back yeah. But with the hurricanes she fled to Ohio. I was planning on spending the weekend with her. We're teaching class in our headquarters in. Orlando, so I'm just going to hang out for the weekend instead of visiting her, unfortunately and then teach classes.

Speaker 1 42:44

And what are the classes you're teaching?

Speaker 2 42:46

So it's basically compressed gas safety. So it goes into the flashback wrestlers, how to handle the cylinders, just a one-day course, okay, cool, good overview and it's absolutely fantastic so should you, or should you not ever pick up a cylinder by its lid with cream? Yeah, why wouldn't you know?

Speaker 1 43:09

that's an actual question on a school exam what you should see how many times kids get that wrong?

Speaker 2 43:15

no yeah, yeah, yeah is it on their first day?

Speaker 1 43:20

like to see, like your assessment, where you're at or it's like you've been doing this for a while. It's like you've been doing it for a while, like you know how tests will just throw in a weird question to see if you're actually paying attention. I've seen that question come up and then I've seen people get it wrong and it's like that's a gimme. Guys like come on boy. No, can you roll two cylinders?

Speaker 2 43:40

oh my gosh, that's that's wild.

Speaker 1 43:43

Eh, I've never been able to get good at that.

Speaker 2 43:46

No, I can do one really good I can rock and roll with one, I I can't. No, not, not well, I yeah I'm awkward, and'm already, and I think that's also why I care about safety so much is. I am very clumsy.

Speaker 1 44:01

Oh, you're a reason for people to be safe.

Speaker 3 44:04

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 44:04

Yeah, I almost fell down the escalator earlier.

Speaker 1 44:11

Danielle almost got eaten by the escalator today.

Speaker 2 44:13

Oh, Well, that's why her and I get along so well. We immediately clicked hey, you like pink, you like welding, you're clumsy. Are we best friends?

Speaker 1 44:25

Perfect. Well, you know. To wrap up the show, let's ask a question here In terms of you know, if someone wanted to get into sales in the welding world, it can be pretty intimidating because there's it's a big learning curve, right? What would you recommend or what kind of advice would you give to someone that's looking to get into, like, the sales part? Maybe they've been doing sales in a different world, but we need sales people in this world.

Speaker 2 44:49

Yeah, I mean get involved and ask questions. I still sometimes feel like I'm the little kid sitting at the grown-up table at Thanksgiving and, for a while, ask questions. There's so many organizations, there's so many people that will help you. Don't be afraid, because that guy that's been doing it knows everything. He didn't know everything at first he learned from somewhere. Yeah, get involved, get your hands dirty too. Once I actually sparked, like did that? It's like oh, I get this so much more, so get involved. Ask questions.

Speaker 1 45:28

Awesome. Well, how do people find Super Flash? How do people get information if they want to buy something, how do they do it?

Speaker 2 45:36

Oxifuelsafetycom or hit me up on LinkedIn. You can find me on Instagram, Dark Bishop. Also SuperflashCG on Instagram. Anywhere, we'll help you out, Awesome.

Speaker 1 45:50

Well, thank you very much, Brittany. It's been a wonderful experience to have you on the show.

Speaker 2 45:53

It's been a wonder.

Speaker 1 45:54

Yeah, we've talked about dinosaurs with extinctions, paleontology uh, what else we? We talked about a lot of things.

Speaker 2 46:02

There's one thing, um, besides welding, I would like to say I would like to be a contestant on wheel of fortune, that's my other goal, right.

Speaker 1 46:09

So if anyone knows an in, you're already on the sort of short list, right?

Speaker 2 46:14

I I've I've interviewed, I've done the the group interview.

Speaker 1 46:17

So if anybody wants to pull some strings and get britney on wheel of fortune, she has promised not to blurt out dinosaur name yeah, if I don't know the answer, I'll yell welding well, awesome. Thank you very much for being on the show.

Speaker 1 46:31

Uh, it was great to have you here for the people that have been watching and following along this Fab Tech specials this week. We're coming down to the last two days. We've got a few more episodes to go. We're having lots of fun. If you're in or near the area of Orlando, come check out the show. It's amazing. It's huge. Bring your walk-in shoes. Don't be wearing no fancy shoes. You've got to be comfortable. It's a lot of steps.

Speaker 3 46:53

Yeah.

Speaker 1 46:54

And it's kind of warm.

Speaker 2 46:55

And the shoes?

Speaker 1 46:56

Well, it's cold in the building but it's hot outside. But follow, comment and share. And also we have a new fan mail feature on our website for Buzzsprout and you can send us some fan mail through there. So thank you very much and I'll catch you at the next one. We hope you enjoy the show.

Speaker 3 47:23

You've been listening to the CWB Association Welding Podcast with Max Cerone. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at cwbassociationorg to learn more. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to learn about in the future. Produced by the CWB Group and presented by Max Horn, this podcast serves to educate and connect the welding community. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.