Episode
279: The Creative Process: Building Relationships and Businesses That Last, Live from The Argo in Milwaukee, WI
- Podcast
- Manufacturing Happy Hour
- Published
- Mar 17, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3179
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- http://manufacturinghappyhour.com
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Summary
What happens when a multimedia entrepreneur and a concert venue owner sit down for a live podcast? A good conversation – with a couple beers – about creativity, grit, and what it really takes to build something that lasts. In the first live episode of the year, recorded at The Argo in Milwaukee as part of Manufacturing Happy Hour’s 10-year anniversary, host Chris Luecke sits down with two longtime friends: Andrew J. Coate, co-founder of The Argo (a 700-capacity venue his team transformed from a historic 1950s cinema in under seven months), and Michael O’Sullivan, Creative Director at Motivation Media. Together they dig into the creative process, building businesses from the ground up, co-founder dynamics, and the long-term friendships that shape your best work. Later in the episode, manufacturing veterans and friends of the show, Kyle Mahan (Former Vice President and General Manager of the Automation Division at Wauseon Machine) and Bill Berrien (CEO at Pela Global Precision) join the stage to bring it all back to the shop floor. In this episode, find out: How Michael O’Sullivan and Andrew J. Coate have known each other since high school on the south side of Chicago, and how their paths kept crossing through business and creativity over more than two decades What it means to build a creative business in industries you wouldn’t expect, and why B2B and manufacturing are some of the most exciting places to be creative Turning creativity into a daily habit. Why practice, not talent, is the real shortcut, and how both guests built their creative muscles over time How constraints drive better creative decisions, and why that’s one of the most transferable lessons to the manufacturing floor The “done is better than perfect” mindset: balancing flexibility with process discipli…