Growing Two Family Manufacturing Businesses Through People-First Leadership

Intro  0:06

Welcome to the Growth + Exit podcast where owners of privately held middle market companies talk about founding, scaling and exiting their businesses successfully. Learn how to maximize and monetize your business on your own terms. Let’s get started.

Heather Bennett  0:30

Hello. I’m Heather Bennett, your host for the Growth + Exit podcast featuring middle market owners and experts talking about founding, growing, scaling and exiting their businesses on their own terms. Past guests include Whitney Opperman, General Manager of Opperman & Son Matt Vuckov, co founder and CEO of TalentCraft. And Kelly Schrad, founder and chairman of DataVizion. This episode is brought to you by Newport LLC, a team of seasoned C suite executives who help CEOs of privately held companies grow de risk and exit their businesses successfully. Newport LLC is a winner of the prestigious Inc. Magazine 2025 Power Partner Award. This is a list of elite B2B companies from across the globe. To see the entire list, go to inc.com/power-partner-awards. To learn more about Newport, visit us at Newportllc.com, or find us on LinkedIn. Before introducing today’s guests, I would like to thank Chicago Innovation, 1871 and the Professional Women’s Club of Chicago for introducing me to today’s guests. Over the last couple of years I’ve seen her speak. She’s an outstanding person, so I’ll get right to talking about her. Aneesa Muthana is the CEO and co owner of not one but two manufacturing companies, Pioneer Services, Incorporated located in the Chicagoland area, and M&M Quality Grinding, which are all is also located in Chicago. Both of them offer specialized one in precision Swiss parts and centerless grinding. And then M&M specializes in exceptional bar stock and bar processing services to customers across North America, with over three decades in manufacturing leadership, Aneesa  is a sought out keynote speaker and writer on business, diversity and leadership. Her writing has been featured in manufacturing periodicals, the Wall Street Journal and for pieces for Deloitte as a keynote speaker. Mathana has delivered addresses to audiences including the University of Notre Dame and it or IMTS, the International manufacturing technology show her speaking topics include team dynamics, data driven automation and personal authenticity. And personally, I was lucky enough to hear her share her take on what a personal board of directors looks like a couple years ago. So Aneesa, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here.

Aneesa Muthana  3:12

Thank you, Heather, that was a mouthful.

Heather Bennett  3:16

Yeah, like I said, and that was cut down. I had a lot I could have covered with you. Well, thank you. Thank you for the kind introduction, and thank you for being here so so let’s get right to it. How did you get started in the manufacturing business?

Aneesa Muthana  3:31

Some girls had Barbie dolls at the age of 11. I had a centerless grinder. That’s the family joke. So my parents opened up a machine shop when I was 11 years old, right away, I just love being part of it, part of the business. It was really how our family spent our time together. It was running machines, looking for customers. Even our drive to and from work, we would look for customers and with large bars on their on the truck, and put the name of the company that was either the transit company or the freight company, or the actual company that owned the material. So it was, it was, I feel like, introduced to me at such a young age that it was just literally part of my DNA, and I loved it. I love being on the shop floor. I love doing everything from like tedious tasks like filing, and it gave me purpose at a very young age, and again, spending time with my family, seeing my parents live the American dream like work for so long for someone else, and then be able to open up their own shop. And, you know, DCFS was never called, you know, no child labor laws, I hope, maybe. But nothing bad came from it, except the fact that we were able to really build the business together as a family.

Heather Bennett  4:59

Yeah. A such a wonderful story. And I love hearing about families bringing in their entire family from the beginning. It’s so important and to acknowledge that business is not just, you know, you can’t just always leave it at home, and sometimes it’s important to bring it with you. Yeah. So, so how did you like, kind of tell me about your career coming up in the company. Like, how did you I don’t I’m guessing they didn’t hand you a 12 the CEO title. So how did you come through?

Aneesa Muthana  5:31

Well, depends on who you ask, right? So I actually left the family business, and I was 23 years old. It was back in 1993 and for those that are doing the math, I just turned 56 and and so when I left the family business, I felt like I didn’t belong. It was my the family business. And but by then, I was a young adult, there were very far and few women in the industry, so everyone from our employees to the truck drivers to, you know, my customers who I worked with trusted me and knew and some of them wouldn’t even talk to my brothers. They wanted me. So that obviously made me feel valued. But then there was just too many times that, you know, I needed to explain that I was, you know, capable of doing something. I had to convince people to listen to me, and it was just exhausting. It was exhausting for me and it was exhausting for my family. So I was actually just recent single mom of two young boys, no degree, no formal education. Everything I learned was within those four walls, but I, you know, looking back at it, I was like, my god, like I was really brave. But at that moment, it didn’t feel like I was braver. It was a courageous decision. It just felt that it wasn’t right fake. And so I left, and when I left, I never looked back. I went into business with my uncle. And at that time, my uncle only knew grinding, which my family does. What my family does is bar grinding, which they sell, either a service of grinding the 12 Foot, typically 12 Foot, bar, sometimes three foot, sometimes up to 24 feet and or they sell ground material to customers, and customers like Pioneer, the company that we had, my uncle and I continue to have, but he wanted to go into grinding and not machining, and so when he asked me to join him, and him and I always got along really well. We actually worked together at my parents company. We used to work the night shift, which was like, early afternoon to like, you know, nine o’clock PM, and we drive home together and and I was like, I can’t leave the family business and compete with the family. That just doesn’t feel right, and so I told him, I said, I’ll do all the work. I’ll take full responsibility, but I need you to be my silent partner, and that really was for three reasons. Number one, I didn’t want the same dynamics that I had at M&M and people second guessing me and voting my going to my uncle and him facing the same issues my dad did. Number two, I didn’t want even though I have fond memories of working with my family, I also know the challenges that come with it, and I have so much love and respect for my uncle that I didn’t want the business to come between us. So I didn’t want that either. And then, thirdly, I didn’t, you know, I didn’t want to compete with my family. I, you know, for me to be able to call the shots, I would have to be responsible. So the three reasons why I proposed it in hindsight, again, that was brilliant. And at the moment I just, it was just coming from my heart. No strategy, no you know, I want to do this because I want to be the CEO. No ego. It was more like I’ll do the work. You know, I’m humble enough to do the work. I’m hard working. And he knew that, and he trusted me, and he empowered me, and he continues to do that until now. And I love him dearly, and he gave me the opportunity that no degree, no formal education, and I came in, rolled up my sleeves, learned machining literally on the shop floor, understood it under certain cycle time, like differently than bar grinding, because on the Pioneer side, we do precision machining, And that’s a whole different animal. And you know, 35 years later, or 32 years later, we’re still in a good place. He’s still my silent partner. Love him to death, and he has the utmost respect. And we’ve grown drastically now, back in 2021 my dad, after 29 years. I was ready to retire, and the only option was to bring an outsider to buy his shares. And my brothers and my mother didn’t want that, and so they called me, and they said, We want you to come back and buy him out. And at first, I was like, No, thank you, but I thought about it, and we, the both companies, really complement each other. And you know the I know M&M, I know, you know the ins and outs of running it, but I’ve been gone for 29 years, so it was after a lot of prayer, and also just, you know, knowing that I was going to take on the family legacy, and, you know, make it hopefully, even better, and being able to lead that was such an honor. And so I agreed, but I gave my brothers the same conditions I gave my uncle 29 years ago, and I said, The only way is that you would be my silent partners. Otherwise, I don’t want anyone second guessing me. This is like really hard work to run a manufacturing facility, and having too many opinions and also the history that they have in whether it’s with employees or processes that they’ve locked down or didn’t lock down and needed to be locked down, needed some heavy lifting, and I knew that, and so I was again, willing to do the work, but I didn’t want anyone second guessing me. And some of the employees were actually the same employees that when I left, and the same people that were second guessing me when I was 23 so I didn’t want to revisit that. And so my brother’s one is already in his 60s, he’s retired, and the other one wants to travel the world. And he was ecstatic, and so and my mom was like, This is my dream. My dream was to have my children, you know, own the business that your father and I built, and not have an outsider come in. So thankfully, it worked out, and now, four years later, we’re in a good place.

Heather Bennett  12:06

Okay, so tell me, gosh, it’s two things I know you had told me a story at one point about almost selling. What led to that and what, what was the result?

Aneesa Muthana 12:21

Yeah, so on the Pioneer side, during covid, a lot of my employees took off weeks at a time, and during the holidays, I just had everyone, you know, they all wanted to take the time off, and it was just me and maybe one or two other employees. And I just felt so alone, and I felt like, my god, like, this is I haven’t seen my mom, and at that point, it was probably a year, or close to a year, and it was just like, like, I don’t want to live like this. I I need an out. I need an out. I need a succession plan, and I didn’t find one. So I was like, You know what, I’m gonna sell. Like, I so many people are so happy and, and at that time, you were, you know, you mentioned you my speaking event. I was getting paid big bucks to do speaking events, and I was like, considering writing a book, and, and I was just like, I have this path now, and I want to take my mom and travel the world with her, because I don’t get to see her during covid. So I want to make sure that, you know, these years, that my mom is getting older, that I’m spending more time in my you know, at that point, I had three grandchildren, and my daughter in law was pregnant with the fourth. And, you know, wanting to spend more time with my grandchildren, and I’m just like, there’s just no way that I can do all of that and run a business. So the only alternative is to sell. So I got a broker, did everything, provided all the documents. We were in very strong position, making you very profitable company, and profitable not because we were gouging, but profitable because we were serving industries and holding tolerances and locking down processes that really just brought the company and everyone that had walked in as a potential seller always left in awe of like how the company was built, and for a small company, having work instructions in place and processes properly documented was something that we worked really hard throughout the years. And so I was ready to sell. I found the buyer. We got to the closing day, and there were some things that I that they said that they would do for my employees, and obviously they wanted me to stay for, I think it was a year. It wasn’t defined exactly, but it was that I would be available for them, and I was good with that, and everything was going well. And at the very end, when we were supposed to close, they. Weren’t. They didn’t come. They didn’t come to introduce themselves to my employees, and they we were supposed to close like that morning or that evening, and then that next morning they, I was supposed to introduce them, and some of my key employees already knew what I was doing, and so it wasn’t going to be a complete shock for everyone. So they didn’t, they didn’t have flights booked. They didn’t have any information. And then when I was asking about the benefits, like, when am I supposed to cancel? Like, Blue Cross, Blue Shield. Like, when is it going to go into your net? Like the little the red tape in the processes weren’t locked down, and it just didn’t feel right, and it didn’t feel like they that they were even going to offer my employees the nearly any benefits, let alone the benefits that I was offering them. So I just like, I’m like, I know I’m not going to have a say once I sign. I know this is going to just go away and it’s not going to be my problem. But it didn’t feel right. And so I already, in my mind, have planned, like, you know, my vacations, my travel writing, the book. I literally had, like, looking for a publisher and getting ideas from my friends that have written books. And so I had it all planned out. And that evening, I get a call, and they were playing games. They were negotiating for things that never came up in the beginning. And I said, and my attorney told their attorney, and I was on the call, and it was like we were all on this call, the brokers, the attorneys, the buyer and me and my attorney told them. They says, I know this woman, and she is going to walk away if you guys don’t get your together. They didn’t believe them. And so I listened to that, what they had to say, and I said, I’m not selling. And they said, no, no, we’ll get back to and then they got back to me. The next day we were supposed to close. That day, I said I’m not selling. That night, I locked myself in my office, and I didn’t share this part with you, but I’ll share it now, because everyone needs to know this. I locked myself in my office, turned off the light, laid on the couch, which I rarely lay down on my couch, and just cried, cry because, like, I felt betrayed, and I felt like, like the path that I thought was I was going the travel, seeing my mom, spending time with my grandkids, doing all of that. It was kind of sabotage. It’s not going to happen because there’s no way I’m going to sell to them, and now I got to start over. And so I was, like, exhausted, and so I remembered my broker saying, you know, this is something that I always worried about, like, sellers, you know, get to the day of the closing and they back out. I’m like, I didn’t back out. They played games. They backed out and they were playing games, and I’m not playing. I said, the difference between me and those sellers, and I said this word, literally, word for word. I said, is that I believe that this is my fate, like, obviously it’s their doing, but God willed it. And so because God willed it, I’m going to come back fighting. I’m going to make my company better. I’m going to figure out a different succession plan, because this option isn’t an option anymore in my mind, not because of any doing on my part, but because of the doing on their part. But now I’ll figure it out. And so immediately, I bought more machines, I moved into a larger facility. I built an executive team that’s able to run the company without me. Everything changed, and it took that to make me make those changes that maybe even though my company was running, well, there wasn’t anyone other than me making those decisions. It was I was the go to for everyone. I was having one on ones with way too many people. And so now that forced me that I want to travel, I want to spend time with my kids. I want to do speaking. I want to have hobbies. Well, then you need to have an executive team, and that executive team needs to take accountability and responsibility for a lot of the things that you handle and make the company bigger and better.

Heather Bennett  19:35

Thank you so much. I know that was quite an experience, so thank you for sharing yes and such, such a good illustration of the power of delegating and how truly great leaders understand that they can’t do it all and that they need. They need to reach out and find people to help them. I. I’m going forward. Gosh, so many directions to go. I Let’s talk about, you know, we talk about, like people you reach out to for advice, tell me about some of your mentors and and maybe, like, the speech that I had seen you give about your personal board of directors. Maybe talk about that, and because that was such a big decision and a big change in direction that you went through, not not just the decision not to sell, but the decision what to do, the decisions that came afterward and how to build and strengthen your company. Who, who did you rely on through all of this for advice,

Aneesa Muthana  20:41

to be honest with you, number one person is my mom. She’s always been a fantastic sounding board. Her intuition is second to none. I thought, I always think that I have like, like, go with your gut. And obviously, data is important too. I’m in manufacturing. We need data, but any big decision that I make, I use her as a sounding board. I talk to her. I take her out for pedicures, or we go out to eat, or she comes and visits, and we sit down, and I just talk to her about some things, and she gives me great advice. But other than her, there are like industry professionals, right? There’s miles free from PMPA. I’ve known him for so many years, and it’s always funny, because he’s like a 72 year old white man, and I am a 56 year old brown hijabi. And I don’t feel like there’s many differences between us. When you look at us, you see it. You see the obvious, but values, the passion for the industry, the credentials, understanding of People First mentality. So if the person isn’t aligned with my values, it’s impossible for that person to be a mentor or even a sounding board. And so that goes first, and it’s while you get to know people. When you hear someone, sometimes you hear someone speaking at an event, and you feel like, wow, this person is amazing. Buy them a cup of coffee, offer, you know, send them an email, tell them how amazing that speech was, and get to know them. And sometimes you’d be surprised. They’ll spend the time on a call, or they’ll turn out to be not the person that you thought, and you’re better off not making that connection. So it’s trial and error. Building your board of directors is that it’s not a formal thing. It’s not like a board of directors. It’s not, it sounds formal, but it’s not formal. It’s people that you respect, that you have, that are aligned with your values, and that you see, either presenting or in their career choices that they’ve made. And you’re like, I want to be that one day, then you should reach out to that person and ask them about their story, not necessarily. Can you be my mentor? And that, you know that’s I feel like the mentorship is, most of the time, chosen by the mentor, not the mentee. The mentee gets to make the connection, reaches out the but the mentor, when they see something in the mentee, they’ll continue that conversation and want you part of their life, because typically, it’s not a one way relationship. It’s a two way relationship. I learn as much from my mentees as much as they learn from me, whether it’s something that you know I’m talking about, I’m giving advice on, and I’m like, I never thought of it the way that they asked about it, or it puts me in check, right? If I’m giving advice and saying this is how I would handle it, and then it happens and I don’t handle it the way that I explained. It’s kind of a good reminder to say, yeah, I, I should, you know, you know, walk the walk and walk the talk, and not just talk about it, right? So I think mentorships are relationships and people that you trust, people that you know have your back, people that that want you to be successful. And it doesn’t have to be a board of 12. It could be a board of two or three. It could be family members, it could be colleagues, it could be your boss. It could be someone outside your company, but it should be someone that you respect, and you truly feel like that. They’re not only aligned with your values, but aligned with, you know, where you want to go.

Heather Bennett  24:38

That’s such great advice, and it is hard for people, especially when you’re younger and you’re starting out in an industry, to feel comfortable reaching out, but sometimes it’s just that first conversation that can make all the difference that’s such a good point. So I know you had mentioned, you know, no you. Credentials, no big, fancy degrees, any of that. And yet, I get the impression you’re a lifelong learner. And so tell me, how do you stay on top of of continuous learning and being prepared and finding out what you need to know to run your business well,

Aneesa Muthana  25:22

first you get outside of your four walls, and that, I think that I even struggled with that and back in the day, but now I make sure that I sit on boards. It’s a way of me giving back, and it’s a way of me learning rubbing shoulders with the best of the best in the industry, like, I’m on the Nan board National Association manufacturing I’m on the IMA board, Illinois Manufacturing Association. I’m on the med global board. That’s, you know, doctors going all over the world treating, you know, people that are in dire need of health care, and being able to be a value, like bringing my business experience into that world when you have doctors that really don’t deal with things that an organization needs to deal with. And so having bringing that value, I feel like, makes me more confident in who I am, but then being able to listen and understand other people’s challenges and other people’s successes and say, wow, you know that’s you that I dealt with something similar, and I handled it really well, or I didn’t Think of that. It’s putting yourself out there in ways that are really, truly authentic to who you are and your values and your skill sets, but also being open to listening and hearing and learning from others. And I feel you can’t lose when you’re around so many people that are leaders in industries and different all types of industries, whether it’s manufacturing, business or, you know, healthcare.

Heather Bennett  27:08

So only what’s what’s next for for the companies that you run, what are, what are you looking forward to in the future?

Aneesa Muthana  27:17

So we are growing. We are we’ve expanded. We’ve moved into so M&M was in 20,000 square feet, and now in August, in 2023 we moved into 70,000 square feet. Pioneer was in 24,000 square feet, and now we have 62,000 square feet, because M&M has bars that takes up more real estate than the machines for on the Pioneer side, where we machine, typically small parts. So we’ve gone into industries like we just became ISO 13, 485, congratulations.

Heather Bennett  27:55

Thank you. That’s a really, really big accomplishment.

Aneesa Muthana  27:58

It is, and that’s a testament to my team and and with that comes obviously opportunities in the medical space, more so than we had in the past. We now can make parts that go inside the body, not just inside equipment. We’ve been making parts for ventilators and other types of equipments, and for years, so being able to now, really, you know, have its own sell and have, you know, really, just lock down the processes that’s required in serving those industries. And we’ve been serving aerospace for years as well. And so having those credentials, having all of that, opens up doors that you know, going to events and you know, learning on what those opportunities are, and really, just really pushing our capabilities to a different level. I’m looking to not only expand in the capabilities that we have, but also in much more complex and maybe even larger diameters on the Pioneer side, on the M&M side, we’ve automated a lot, and we continue to do so, and we, excuse me, we continue to do so on the M&M side. And in that, seeing that, that lifting, it doesn’t ever happen anymore. You know, it’s it’s machines that are lifting and not people, though, that’s where we’re headed, and that’s where we’re going to continue with the innovation and the technology that is available to us.

Heather Bennett  29:34

That’s wonderful. And again, congratulations. I know it is. I was lucky enough to visit your facility and meet a lot of the wonderful people you work with, and your employees are truly dedicated towards achieving that goal and to see them reach it. I know you must be incredibly proud of all of them. So tell me about some of your proudest moments besides this one, I mean. Sleep. During this process of owning these manufacturing companies,

Aneesa Muthana  30:05

there’s been a lot of beautiful moments, you know, with challenges, you know, and overcoming challenges, that’s when you’re proud, right? It has to start with a challenge, and I think one of them was covid. I know that later on, there was, you know, funding available from the government. But prior to that, without knowing that, we were making parts for ventilators and the biotech industry, we had customers, you know, we were supplying parts for Tesla, we were supplying parts for aerospace. And so those companies were calling us and telling us, you know, put a hold on our orders. We’re not taking anything. And so that was like, you know, it’s really a challenge, and because you didn’t know what to expect anymore, and people were getting sick and people were dying. So what do you do as an employer? And so one of the prop one of my proudest moments, is not laying off my team. That’s when we were building work instructions and making sure that every process, every task that we had, there came a work instruction with that. I use that as an opportunity to make my business better. And then during I feel like, you know, back in the day when we lost a lot of our business and it went to China again, plenty of reason to lay people off, and I chose not to, and having that people first mentality, and by no means will all those people understand or value what I did for them. 100% like, that’s not going to happen. You’ll you’re lucky if 30% of them do like, in all honesty, even the people that are with me to this day sometimes are a little entitled, right? They’re so used to be being that way that they don’t really understand what it takes to make that happen. But for me personally, that’s a proud moment, like not because they appreciate it, but because I know how hard it is to do it, but I did it anyway. And so those are moments that I’m extremely proud of. And it wasn’t just me, it was me and my team, because they they had to support that. They had to figure out, like, what do we do when we’re slow? What do we do when what orders are coming in that we’re productive and beneficial? And there’s an ROI in the end. And then on the flip side of that is when my family called me and asked me to take the leadership role at M&M. You know, again, that’s the family legacy, my brother’s blood, sweat and tears, my mother, my father. You know, they came to this country from Yemen in the 60s. They spoke no English. They had no money. They started working. My dad was, you know, a dishwasher, and I remember when he got it promoted to a bus boy as a little girl. And like hearing him saying, now I get tips. And like getting excited about that, and then owning a company like M&M and building it to what it with, what he and my family built it with too, and then being asked to lead it like, How can I not be proud of those moments? Those are moments. Those are moments that have changed my legacy, you know, and provided me an opportunity to strengthen, you know, my footprint and my impact. You know, while I’m still on Earth,

Heather Bennett  33:24

and let’s, let’s talk about impact. I know you recently hosted a group of women in manufacturing at your facility, but I know you do so much more. Where do you see the greatest opportunities for impact going forward, not not just for you, but for other other leaders in manufacturing right now, what’s really needed? What where is that impact most needed going forward in manufacturing?

Aneesa Muthana  33:53

Yeah, I think in the manufacturing space, typically right women are the minorities and women. There’s associations like women in manufacturing. There’s typically associations that have a committee for women in manufacturing, or of that can of that association. So I feel like there’s so many opportunities to embrace and empower and support women to be successful in this industry more now than ever, and we’re still, you know, we still got a long way to go, and it’s not just manufacturing. It’s any male dominated industry. For a woman to feel comfortable to come into this industry, it’s not easy. It’s it is very difficult. But I would just, you know, challenge everyone, women specifically, is that the men also have their own set of challenges. And I feel like sometimes, you know, I had a men of Pioneer Service in M&M Quality Grinding dinner a few weeks ago with my guys, right? And because we do so much for the women, I go to the events I. Take my women employees with me to these events. I’ve brought in women and hosted them here. And I do other things than other than women events, but I do spend a considerable amount of time and resources to that that I don’t want the men to feel like, you know, what about my achievements? What about my struggles? What about my challenges and so and in this is really what has opened my eyes to. It is working in this industry for so long, and rubbing shoulders with men my entire life, and knowing that they have the same insecurities that I do, knowing that they have the same challenges that I do, so why not have the same resources that I do, and maybe they have more resources that I do, and but that doesn’t mean that their pain and their challenges should be ignored either. So I feel like it’s it’s worth saying to always make sure that, and I’ve said this so many times when I talk about diversity, equity and inclusion whenever you’re bashing the white male, whenever you’re, you know, labeling him as the bad guy, that’s, that’s not advocacy, that’s hypocrisy. That’s, you know, you don’t want to be put in a box, but you’re putting someone else in a box. So I feel like inclusion has to involve everyone, and for us to really leave an impact. For women, we need allies, male allies, and for us to have male allies, we have to also hear from them and hear from their challenges. And then hopefully, we’ll get to a point that we don’t have to say women of and it’s just all of us, right, believe me, like I walk into rooms and people ask me if I need a translator, you know, and you know, they second guess my skills. They second guess my competence, and who I am and I and I get it and I, but I’m not going to go take it out on a guy because someone else said that that doesn’t, you know, make everyone the bad guy, right? And even the one that asked me, sometimes it’s just ignorance, and he just needs to be educated. And believe me, once he starts talking to me, it happens fairly quickly.

Heather Bennett  37:16

That’s, I’m not surprised at all. So being such a kind, servant leader and just a really powerful business person in the industry to be the successful there must be habits, rituals that you do to keep yourself sharp and able to tackle whatever gets thrown your way every day. So what are some of those regular habits that you have to keep yourself strong and ready to go

Aneesa Muthana  37:44

before I share that I have to have a disclaimer, right? Okay, I am kind and I am a servant leader. There’s no doubt in my mind, and I live my life that way, but I hold people accountable, and I’m a hard boss. I was interviewing someone recently, and they looked up some of the videos, and they were just like, giddy right in the interview. And I was like, listen, that’s YouTube, that’s social media. Like, of course, that’s my the best of me, right? And so I make mistakes, but I hold myself accountable, and I hold the people that work for me accountable, and if I don’t, I have done a disservice to my companies, the companies that have I’ve been entrusted with. I have all these silent partners, and so in their entrusting me, they’re making the right decision. And I want to be kind, but I have to be also one of those leaders that hold people to the fire and make sure that you know in the kindest way, you can hold people accountable and still smile and joke with them and have a good relationship with them, but that that those expectations need to be clear and they also need to be set And so so I always that’s my disclaimer, because many times when someone gets to know me, they’re like, Oh, we never thought you were like, Did you think I was just like, Yes, ma’am, yes, sir. I’m not that either.

Heather Bennett  39:14

You really. You don’t get the level of the certification and the type of clients and the type of what you’re manufacturing. You can’t do that without having to be incredibly meticulous and very much being accountable and making sure that you’ve got the right team there at all times. So that’s I’ve worked partly in manufacturing in the past, and I understand you have to those maintaining those standards there. There’s very little margin of error, and it only works if everyone gets on board. So I definitely support what you just said. Thank you.

Aneesa Muthana  39:52

Thank you enough to answer your question. My rituals start at 4am every morning. I wake up and I pray, as a Muslim, we pray five times a day, and I pray a sixth time, which is not an obligation of prayer, but it’s a moment that everyone else is asleep. It’s just me and my Lord, and I get to cry to him, ask for His guidance, ask for His grace and mercy. And it really centers me. And then I pray the morning prayer shortly after typically, it’s sometimes depending on the sunrise. It could be as early as 3am or as late as 6am or 6:30am but nonetheless, that is, that is my faith, that is my foundation. I always feel like, when this is strong, my connection to my Creator, all of this falls into place. And when this is weak, none of this works out, even when it might seem to be working out, it’s not sitting well for me and so so that’s that’s number one. I also find it very important, especially at my age, to work out regularly. I almost work out every day. I try to every day, but at least four or five times a week, whether it’s lifting, I don’t do a lot of cardio. I although I would love to lose weight, I try to figure i At my age, I want to make sure that I’m not a burden on my grandchildren. So whatever I can do now to make sure that they’re not pushing a wheelchair but wrestling with me on the floor. That’s how I want to spend my years with my grandchildren. And as far as like managing my time, I am a list person. I have everything, either on my calendar or an alarm set. I don’t just wing it. I can wing it, and I’m good at winging it, but whenever I can, preparation is always key, and I don’t want to ever waste anyone’s time. I don’t want to be in front of a customer or a supplier with an ask without doing my due diligence, because that’s respectful, and I would expect the same and and really, just really spending the time to really just think through, not only being strategic long term, but day in and day out, just thinking like, what is, what is my high payoff activity? What am I? What am I supposed to be doing today? What are, what is the list of things that I must get done? And when you have that, that’s kind of like, you know, knock those out. And typically knock it out early before sometimes anyone’s even here. And I’m able to do that and feel good that I’ve done what I could. And whether I stay late or not, I feel like the majority of the heavy lifting is is morning. Speaking of alarms, that’s my one on one at 11am it gives me eight minutes to prepare. But yeah, so having my one on ones and checking in with anyone that is reporting to me, they should, at the bare minimum, have a meeting with me every other week, even if it’s a quick huddle 10 minutes me being a resource to them. That’s how it starts, not me holding them accountable. First, what do you need to be successful? How can I support you? And then, once that’s in place, then what is your drop dead deadline? And they navigate through that. They are the ones, because I want to empower them to be able to say, Yeah, this is the due date, and this is my drop dead, and then you move heaven and earth to get it dropped dead. And if you can’t, for whatever reason, some emergencies come up, let’s communicate. And that, I think I do very well. I give my team grace, I hold them accountable, and I’m a resource to them and set them up for success.

Heather Bennett  44:05

It’s just great advice for leading a team. One last question before I ask it, I want to point people in the direction of your website, the aneesamuthana.com and of course, you can reach her through M&M or Pioneer as well. What is one quick lesson that you would share with other business owners, people first?

Aneesa Muthana  44:36

When, yeah, when you put your people first, the right people first. Put the right people in place, but lead with people first, and the bottom line will grow with like numbers that you never expected, because people will will be wanting you to be successful. People, your people will be looking out for you and your company. I would. Just finished my one on one, my 9am one on one with my controller. And one of the things that we always talk about is that she watches my money better than I watch my money. Why? Why does she watch my money more better than I watch my money? Because she genuinely cares. It’s not the KPIs. It’s because she genuinely cares about the company, she wants to be successful and she likes me as a person. So when you have that in place, even in moments of failure or challenges you, there’s always a silver lining. There’s always something that’s going to good, that’s going to come out of it. It’s just a matter of you finding it and having a team that cares enough to help you find it.

Heather Bennett  45:47

Thank you so much. I I’ve been talking with Aneesa Muthana CEO of Pioneer Services and M&M Quality Grinding. Aneesa, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, your stories, your perspective. So very grateful for this time with you.

Aneesa Muthana  46:03

Thank you for having me, Heather.

Outro  46:11

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