This week I sat down with Nico McTague, a soon-to-be welder up in Toronto who's about to finish an eight-month intensive program and walk straight into her first welding job. What makes her story worth your time isn't just where she's headed, it's where she came from.

Nico spent years in healthcare caring for people with special needs, a career she loved until burnout, and the addiction that came with trying to cope with it, forced a hard reset. A family friend offered to get her into a steel mill. She walked in expecting to hate it. Instead she fell in love with the noise, the heat, the cranes, and watching molten metal turn into beams and rebar. That was the spark. A few weeks later she took the leap into welding school and never looked back.

We get into what it actually takes to break into the trades. Treating school like a job. Starting your job search before you graduate. Keeping your certifications current. And the one habit Nico credits for finishing all her certs while the rest of her cohort was still catching up: she isn't afraid to ask questions. If you've ever been the only person in the room who looks like you, or you've ever managed someone who was, this conversation will land.

We also dig into something I care a lot about, which is how we grow this industry. Nico wants to mentor women into welding and make the trades a place people can actually see themselves in. We talk about representation, the missing off ramp from school into skilled work, and why getting kids tinkering at nine or ten matters more than we admit. The demand is staggering and the tent needs to get bigger.

Whether you run a shop that's hiring, you're thinking about a career change of your own, or you just want a reminder that people-first beats spec-sheet talk, this one's for you.

• (0:00) Making the trades a place women can see themselves in
• (1:00) I welcome Nico McTague, a soon-to-be welder in Toronto
• (2:42) Healthcare, a hard reset, and her experience in a steel mill
• (6:36) Three weeks to decide: taking the leap into welding school
• (8:00) Take your shop high-end with DN Solutions
• (9:14) A five-person winter cohort and using a small class to her advantage
• (11:48) What she wants in a first role: room to grow and a place that welcomes women
• (14:00) Dial in your workholding with SMW Autoblok
• (14:42) Treating trade school like a job, including the call when you can't show
• (16:44) Getting certified and starting the job hunt early
• (18:05) Why detail-oriented women are a manufacturer's secret weapon
• (19:26) The habit that changed everything: not being afraid to ask questions
• (21:11) A shout-out to Gabby, the instructor who meets everyone where they are
• (22:26) Get real answers on your website with Navu
• (23:39) Nico's mission: mentoring more women into the trades
• (25:15) The representation gap, the demand crunch, and getting kids into trades early
• (29:01) Why Nico is incredibly grateful for the lessons life has dealt her

• DN Solutions
• SMW Autoblok
• Navu
• Manufacturing Pathways Consortium
• Shonali Ditz on MakingSparks

• Connect with Nico on LinkedIn

In this episode, I sit down with Emme Hughes, the 23-year-old owner of EH Metalworks in Enid, Oklahoma. She runs a woman-owned custom job shop that does laser cutting, plasma cutting, tube bending, and fabrication in aluminum and stainless. What struck me is that she has been around metal fabrication her entire life. Her Paw Paw taught her to TIG weld when she was six years old, and by 18 she was running her own plasma table and hiring her first employees.

Emme's story starts in her Paw Paw's shop. He spent more than 50 years in fabrication, ran an ASME code shop, and did work for refineries and grain companies across Oklahoma. She grew up welding beside him, racing sprint cars on the dirt track behind the shop, and soaking up everything he knew. When she got out of high school, she taught herself to run the plasma table, posted her work on Facebook, and watched the orders take off fast enough that she had to start hiring people at 19.

Now she's working to grow out of the small business boot camp phase, where you take whatever comes in the door, and into steady, repeatable manufacturing. That's why she chased her Oklahoma DOT certification and is finishing a federal woman-owned certification. Her thinking is sharp for any shop owner to hear: chase the work people need, not just the work people want. The custom signs and railings make great social posts, but the mandatory, unglamorous jobs are what pay the bills.

We also get into the harder parts of building a business young, from learning to lead men twice her age at 18 to setting boundaries between friendship and work. And we talk about the bittersweet thread running through all of it, the mentor who made it possible. Emme lost her Paw Paw about a year ago, and he was coaching her from the shop right up to the end.

If you're running a job shop, or thinking about starting one, there's a lot here to take away: how to build durable demand, how to grow into leadership, and why Emme's real goal isn't size for its own sake. As she puts it, she wants to build something big, not for her, but for the people she can employ.

What's Covered in this Episode

• (0:57) Introducing Emme Hughes of EH Metalworks in Enid, Oklahoma
• (2:36) Emme on running a woman-owned custom job shop: laser, plasma, mandrel tube bending, aluminum and stainless
• (5:48) Chasing needs over wants, and why she pursued Oklahoma DOT certification for steady work
• (6:50) Building the business on the unglamorous, mandatory jobs, not just the custom pieces
• (7:32) How she got here: her Paw Paw's 50-year fabrication career and ASME code shop
• (8:52) Learning to TIG weld at six (and the trust that made it possible)
• (13:12) Take your shop to the next level with ProShop ERP and invest in yourself first
• (14:48) Diving into her work on micro sprint cars and the dirt track
• (19:18) Her first hires at 18 and 19 when the Facebook orders blew up
• (21:19) Learning to lead and the hard line between friendship and business
• (25:32) Her Paw Paw's integral role in her life and business
• (28:56) Burned by recruiters who don't get manufacturing? Meet Hire MFG Leaders
• (29:25) Turning the corner: a USDA grant, mentor Jodi Harris, and her first laser
• (31:03) How big does she want to go? Not for her, but for the people
• (33:23) A head-scratcher job: resizing gas-plant rings and water-jetting silicone gaskets
• (35:58) The print governs all: do the job and skip the second-guessing
• (36:48) Invest in your leadership at Elevate during IMTS 2026, powered by AMT and Women in Manufacturing
• (37:40) Meeting her fiance and sparking a local powder coating business
• (40:12) Why it all comes back to people and relationships

• ProShop ERP
• Hire MFG Leaders
• IMTS 2026 Elevate Conference

• EH Metalworks
• Connect with Emme on LinkedIn

In this episode, I sit down with Travis Mitchell, a full-time creator who has built a flat-sheet fiber laser, tube laser, metal 3D printer, CNC equipment, and more from his garage. Travis did not come from a machine-building background. He started in graphic design, got hooked on 3D printing, and followed that curiosity all the way into building machines most people would assume require an OEM, a factory, and a much larger budget.

We dig into what it actually takes to design a DIY fiber laser: starting with the controller, finding compatible components, decoding manuals, studying commercial machines, and iterating through the countless variables that make laser cutting work. Assist gas, focus height, cutting recipes, capacitive sensing, motion control, and support documentation all become part of the puzzle.

But this conversation is about more than one guy's wildly ambitious garage. It is about what happens as serious manufacturing capability becomes cheaper, smaller, and more accessible. Travis built his first fiber laser for around $15,000. Now, compact air-cooled machines with real cutting capability are entering the market at similar price points, ready to be delivered instead of assembled piece by piece.

For job shops, fabricators, and makers alike, the question is changing. It is no longer just, "Can I get this capability?" It is, "Should I build it, buy it, or rethink what my shop can do?" That gap between industrial equipment and accessible technology is shrinking, and Travis is building right in the middle of it.

• (0:00) The capability you can buy or build keeps getting cheaper and more accessible
• (1:05) Meet Travis Mitchell, the creator building fab machines in his garage
• (3:35) From graphic design burnout to 3D printing to DIY machine building
• (7:50) Why accessible tech and working technology stacks are manufacturing's future
• (8:53) How Travis concepts a machine: start at the brain, then build around it
• (11:20) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions
• (12:33) Shopping by user manual instead of spec sheet
• (13:38) Using ChatGPT and Gemini to digest 100-page manuals (and the love-hate reality)
• (17:50) The first big project: a flat-sheet fiber laser nobody had built on camera
• (21:21) Why you need to join us at the IMTS Job Shops Workshop on September 15
• (22:16) Ordering from China and learning assist gas from a single internet photo
• (25:53) The love-hate with cheap Chinese parts versus true production machines
• (27:53) Building the DIY tube laser and solving the chuck and clamping problem
• (32:08) Tube laser capabilities, and designing around the cost of shipping material
• (34:54) How can ProShop ERP help you achieve on-time delivery?
• (36:24) Buying a prosumer Skyfire 1200W air-cooled fiber laser and how it compares to xTool and G-Weike
• (39:29) Lasers versus plasma, and why nobody wants a water jet in their garage
• (41:13) The CO2 Galvo build, made with his own shop's machines
• (43:32) Why fiber lasers need a controller with capacitive height sensing
• (46:45) A new four-car garage and a plan to build a machine together

• Why you need to join us at IMTS 2026!
• Eagle Lasers
• DN Solutions
• ProShop ERP
• SendCutSend

• YouTube: Travis Mitchell (DIY Fiber Laser)