Welcome back to Shop Talk, a podcast brought you by Autodesk Fusion where we hang out with designers and makers live from their workshop. We’re excited to give our listeners candid conversations from talented folks who pour their hearts and soul in their craft. In this episode, meet Melissa Ramos of M95 Design.

Melissa Ramos is a machinist and business owner. She’s a part of the new generation of business leaders that navigates the balance of social media outreach as well as traditional, door-to-door sales. As someone who didn’t originally have a background in marketing, Melissa taught herself everything she knows now. She’s a massive inspiration for any young person who wants to pursue manufacturing but doesn’t know where to start.

If you want to watch the full episode, follow the link below. Otherwise, here’s a quick excerpt from Melissa and Marty’s conversation.

It’s really important to [the Fusion team] on the product side to make make Fusion easy and fun to use. Back when I joined, we were really, really fostering the hobbyist community or the personal user community.

What really makes it helpful and easy is that there’s a lot of information online. I didn’t realize that when I started programming and machining. And I’m really glad that we went the Fusion way and not something else because it seems like everyone is going to Fusion way. There’s an endless amount of people that use Fusion, and the support that’s available online is great.

Even kids use Fusion. I went to a high school that didn’t have any woodworking or home economics classes, really. So it’s great to hear that kids as young as middle school are using the software. [Fusion is] easy. It’s for everyone. I really heard that lots of people want to get into it for fun since there’s so many hobby users. And it’s cheap.

You’re so active in social communities. Are you also participating in making learning content?

No, I don’t feel like I am there yet. But if I were to make any content, it would probably be the Fusion side because I think that’s the most beneficial people. But the problem is people don’t want to learn the basics. They want to learn how to make airplanes. And I’m like, “I don’t know how to make a airplane, so what’s the point of my content?”

I think I should invest time into making little YouTube videos anyway, because when I was starting off I had such a hard time learning. When I first looked online, I couldn’t find the videos to get me started. It was always, “Make this engine block with me!” And I’m like, “Dude, I just want to learn the basics.”

I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Maybe I need to get over the fear of what people are going to say if I just make basic, simple, videos like, “How to use a Haas machine,” because it looks really intimidating, but it’s not that hard.

I’ll admit that Haas is really good at releasing learning content. Haas creators like Mark Terryberry is great- he gives all kinds of amazing tips. But where is the content aimed at complete beginners? His content is great for those who know what they’re doing and want to do more. Everyone knows that the basics is really valuable for beginners.

When I first started, I don’t know what what these videos were talking about. English isn’t my first language, so I started school not knowing English. When I started watching these videos, I thought, “Dude, what the heck is an adaptive tool path?” It’s a different language from the conversation that we’re having right now. English versus manufacturing English, if that makes sense.

I think you should definitely make that content.

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