Meet Steve Guglielmo from MHEDA

MEET STEVE GUGLIELMO FROM NAYLOR, LLC AND THE MHEDA JOURNAL

Welcome to the “Material Handling Helpful Tools Series”. This series will blog spotlight many different material handling professionals and provide helpful information for the material handling industry. Our goal is to introduce you to individuals and websites that can improve your success in the industry. Today, we will meet Steve Guglielmo from Naylor, LLC and The MHEDA Journal.

1. Tell us a little about yourself. Interests outside of work, family, pets, hobbies, entertainment, special talents.
I love sports, especially baseball and basketball. I am a diehard Red Sox fan and an avid fantasy sports player. I did an internship at Major League Lacrosse a few years ago to get experience in sports journalism in case I ever decided to make the switch back to the field I majored in, which is unlikely at this point. I’m getting married at the end of September to my high school sweetheart and I can’t wait. In my spare time I golf as much as I can.

2. What is your role in the organization?
I work for MHEDA’s publisher, Naylor LLC as an editor. I also serve as Managing Editor for MHEDA, where I am responsible for all content in the quarterly magazine as well as the bi-weekly MHEDA Connection. In addition, I manage the MHEDAjournal.org and the @MHEDA_Journal twitter page, as well as MHEDA’s Facebook and Google+ pages. It is my job to get as much publicity as possible for this amazing association and its members.

3. How did your career path land you in this role?
I went to Nazareth College in Rochester, NY to become a sports journalist and fell into this career by accident. I did not have a job lined up upon graduation in 2010, so during the interim I worked part time at a local softball park. It was during that time that I got a call from a publisher who had seen my resume on Monster. The interview was for a writing position about something called material handling. I had literally never heard of the industry or MHEDA prior to that call, but when you’re an unemployed college kid offered a full-time opportunity in your field, you jump at it. I’m so happy I did as I have been working for MHEDA for the past 4 years and truly love it.
I had the good fortune of finding a great friend and mentor at my first publisher who helped me to grow as a writer. The MHEDA staff and all of the members made learning the complex industry so much easier, which really helped me to ease into the role. When MHEDA changed publishers to Naylor LLC, I was lucky enough to be offered a role with them to help bridge the gap between the association and their new publisher. Since then I have gradually taken on more responsibility with the company which has been a blast.

4. What is the most exciting aspect of your job?
I think my favorite part of my job is all of the work that we’ve been doing with social media. When I started a few years ago, you could count on one hand the amount of people who used Twitter, or saw any value in using it. Now it has exploded and we’re trying to get every member to be involved in some way on some platform. Growing MHEDA’s social presence and getting the word out about the usefulness of these sites has been really exciting for me. With the magazine, we have a long-time, established audience and a proven track record of stories and features that readers love. So, as the saying goes, I don’t rock the boat too much in our print platform. I do what has proven to work. With our social media and MHEDA-TV platforms, I have a chance to really nurture and grow them from the ground floor. That’s exciting to me.

5. What makes yourself or your company unique and sets you apart from the rest of the industry?
I’m consistently one of the youngest Convention attendees (though not as young as I was when I was a fresh-faced 21-year-old at my first Convention), which I think gives me a different perspective from other generations that are there. The social media aspect that I just mentioned is a big part of that.

6. What product do you feel has the biggest impact on the material handling industry and is often overlooked?
A lot of people have referred to our industry as being “hidden in plain sight” and I can’t think of a more apt description. Material handling is literally the backbone of industry. I can’t think of an industry that doesn’t, at some point in their supply chain, move or store their materials. It’s what makes businesses run, but very few people outside the industry know about it and even fewer understand it. Like I said, I certainly didn’t when I started and I think that one aspect of my job as editor is to bring more awareness to our industry.

7. What is one tip or bit of advice that you can leave with our readers?
Embrace the Internet. It’s been here long enough to determine that it isn’t a fad. There are still MHEDA members who don’t have a website. In my opinion, that’s unthinkable and it’s costing them money. The first thing 99% of us do when we need a solution is go to Google (sorry Bing!) and if you aren’t there it’s a big deal. Do anything and everything you can to bolster your online presence and reputation.

8. What are the biggest changes you see with Material Handling in the future?
Social media. Even if you don’t see value in the social component of it, having an active presence will help your search engine rankings, which will have a direct effect on the way you communicate with customers. Social media has the potential to make cold calling a thing of the past.