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CEO Nubia Perez’s LinkedIn videos are an HR home-run. Will new customers follow?

Nubia Perez joined the family business full-time in 2012 and became CEO of Gretna Machine in 2023, a decade to ‘season’ and learn the ins-and-outs of operations. Right? Well, sort of. 

“During that time I wasn’t in a business development role, more behind the scenes,” says Perez. “For example, getting us into aerospace, leading the AS9100 certification efforts, and trying to organize the company and creating processes and procedures. That was my role.” 

When the time came, Perez approached business development with a few preconceived notions. “I did not have that sales role or development role for a good portion of the years that I was here, but during that time, I remember as a team talking about social media, and Facebook was very popular,” she says. “And our response was always, we're B2B, so there's no space for social media in our marketing efforts. We want to be private, under the radar. And that was just what we always thought – what’s the point? We already know we're not going to be using  Facebook on par with our major oil and gas customers.”

But inspiration comes from unexpected sources, at times. “To be honest, it was our 23-year-old receptionist who pushed me for months that I needed to get on social media,” she laughs. “At first I was, like, no, no, no. We are B2B. There's no space for it. I don't like social media. I don't do Facebook. I don't do any of that stuff. But she kept saying, ‘Nubia, you really need to get on LinkedIn.’” 

“So we just started. Our receptionist told me ‘let me just do one video.’ And I was very nervous. I said, ‘well, let me just talk about something. And I think our first videos were just talking about our values.”

The topic comes easy for Perez – and other generational leaders, where core values often sustain the business, year after year. It’s why, in part, they’re successful.

“Turns out it was something that came very natural; I didn't need a script or anything,” she says. “And once I kind of shook off the nerves, then I just kept doing it a little bit more frequently. And I remember reading about the important role of authenticity in leadership, and that really resonated with me. I knew I just needed to be myself.” 

The content was aligned with what Perez had been thinking about for years, like “What type of company are we? What type of values were we founded on 45 years ago?” Perez recounts. “And what are some values that haven't changed? What is our culture now? Not so much aspirational values, but culture that’s already here? To build on.”  

Turns out culture, and values, are what employees and customers care about. And so far, Perez’s LinkedIn videos have become an important HR asset. 

“The last couple of hires we've had have all been through LinkedIn,” says Perez. “Some of them have reached out to me without us even looking at hires. I started to receive messages asking me, ‘hey, are you looking to hire? Because I've seen what you guys are about and I'd love to be a part of that company.’ So it's made the hiring process actually quite more streamlined because we say ‘you can teach technical, but you can't teach values and culture.’”

All that said, has Perez’s LinkedIn sojourn resulted in new customers? Are Gretna Machine’s buyers hanging out on LinkedIn? After all, culture and values and people sometimes make or break a deal. Perez wouldn’t offer an unqualified ‘no’; for her, it’s really not the right question to ask, at this point. 

“I mean, once we succinctly determine what our top five core values are, and that we’re going to hire, fire, promote, partner – and look for in customers and vendors – with those in mind, then our brand is slowly taking shape around that,” she says. “But, we’re a machine shop that’s highly technical. Having our message evolve to more technical videos – to knowledge transfer” seems to be in the cards.

“For example, lessons around the world of lean manufacturing, of operational waste, of having standard processes and procedures that many family-owned businesses struggle with. Or, especially as a job-shop, if you have 26 different ways of onboarding a customer, then things are going to fall through the cracks. Or if hours before you're going to ship, you realize, ‘oh, I don't even know who I'm supposed to send this invoice to once we ship the parts,’ because we didn't do it in a standard way. These are lessons you learn,” she says, “that we’ve had to go through. After almost 45 years, we’re now in a position to share some of that knowledge.”

Whatever the messaging, Perez hopes one thing comes through on LinkedIn. “In a world of so much noise, in the world of so much of everything, I just want to see real, just real. I don't know what the opposite of authenticity is – non-authenticity, fakeness, whatever – but what I’m hoping to do is not what other companies are doing.” 

LinkedIn has evolved into a “career board”, of sorts. As such, Perez’s HR outcomes aren’t surprising. Today its legion of critics also bemoan the “humblebraggers” and self-promotion that’s replaced content that would otherwise lead to more dealmaking. 

But If Perez continues to bring “real”, new customers may follow. As much as LinkedIn earns its “humblebragger” reputation, good content always finds a path to people that matter. 

I know I’ll be watching. 

Bart Taylor is executive director of the Greater Houston Manufacturing Association, and publisher of MFGInsider. Reach him at [email protected].

Texas ranks 8th nationally in average manufacturing wages. Here’s why that number is changing fast (and how Houston’s manufacturing industry mix impacts labor costs)

Rising wages are today a magnet for America’s new manufacturing workforce, up 26% the past 10 years to a 50-state average of $85,507 per year.*

Higher labor costs can also be an impediment to growth. Ask owners and operators in California, where manufacturing employees earn an average annual income of $122,872 – tops in the US – and $251,872 for workers in Computer & Electronics Product manufacturing. 

It puts a fine point on why Utah has benefitted from an influx of California companies, where today average manufacturing annual wages are $75,545. It’s one reason that today Utah leads the nation in per-capita manufacturing employment growth (~12% year-over-year). 

For its part, Texas ranks 8th nationally in average annual manufacturing wages, at $94,449, arguably on the verge of becoming a high-cost labor state. The company it keeps in the top 10 have a reputation for being higher-cost states to do business:

But if overall cost-of-living including weighs on average manufacturing salaries, so too does the manufacturing industry mix in each state. 

It’s why Texas is poised to move up the ranking, even as Houston’s average wages will keep it closer to the mean. Not because Houston doesn’t flash high-wage industries: its robust Petroleum and Chemical Manufacturing industries command salaries that on average, are 35% or so higher than the all-manufacturing average ($135,000 - $166,000, annually). But as we also outlined, Houston’s leading manufacturing industry, Fabricated Metal Manufacturing (~53,000 employees), pays a more modest average wage – $79,220. 

The industry ‘cocktail’ fueling growth in Texas and elsewhere is a mix of technology-informed advanced manufacturing, with higher labor costs. Texas already ranks in the top 10 in average wages in the five ‘advanced manufacturing’ industries – most with higher annual wages than the current Texas average:

Texas Manufacturing Industry Wages

(Note: Transportation Equipment Manufacturing includes the automotive and aerospace supply chains.)

Email me for more data and other takeaways.

Bart Taylor is executive director of the Greater Houston Manufacturers Association. Reach him at [email protected].

*Source: all data from Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2014- 2024/Bureau of Labor Statistics. Special thanks to Brian Lewandowski, at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, for the lift on providing the raw data.