Power that pollinates

Show ID (00:04):
This is Power Onwards, the podcast that unveils how power technology shapes your everyday life.

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You are listening to Power Onward.

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What is power in your world? Power Onward. This is Power Onward, the podcast that unveils how power technology shapes your everyday life.

Kim Nguyen (00:33):
Imagine you're cultivating a garden. At first, you're not sure what to expect. You're planting seeds in fresh soil, watering them, and giving them all the TLC. The conditions aren't always ideal. Sometimes the weather's too hot, sometimes it rains a little too much, but you and the plants keep going. You believe that with the right care and patience, something beautiful will bloom from fresh veggies to new leaves. Witnessing their growth is rewarding to you. This is the spirit that Taylor embraces from starting as an auto shop mechanic to becoming a test engineer and, eventually, mechanical engineering technician coach at Cummins. She's learned how to flourish in any environment and help those around her do the same. I'm Kim.

Taylor Wolff (01:22):
And I'm Taylor.

Kim Nguyen (01:24):
Taylor, your journey is all about growth, not just professionally, but also personally. Can you share more about how you've cultivated this resilience and found your niche at Cummins?

Taylor Wolff (01:34):
Well, it all started with me trying to figure out what I wanted to do. So I was like, well, I need a job at least to start going to school. So my friend got me in at an oil change place and I was like, but I don't know how to do that. I dunno, I can't change a brake light bulb. So he's like, it's fine, we'll teach you. And so I was like, okay, if you say so. And I started working there. I started learning about cars and then I surprisingly really ended up liking it. So then I started taking the automotive classes at school and by the time that I finished my associate's degree, I was store manager at the oil change chain. And then at that point I was just kind of like, I need more than this. And so I decided a lot of my mentors in school had talked about a program at Southern Illinois University for automotive, and I decided that was the move for me. So I went to go get my bachelor's.

Kim Nguyen (02:30):
So after your bachelor's, what then brought you to Cummins?

Taylor Wolff (02:34):
Well, it was peak COVID at the time, so I was applying left and trying to find a place to fit in and I'd received a couple of offers, but the offer from Cummins sounded really intriguing to me. A lot more hands-on role as far as test engineering is concerned and I was like, I don't know what that is.

Kim Nguyen (02:51):
Actually, maybe I should back up. How did you even know about Cummins? Did you know about it or was it just like, well, I don't know what this place is, but I'll apply?

Taylor Wolff (02:57):
Yeah, knowing that Cummins is one of the biggest diesel engine manufacturers, I was like, that sounds like a cool place to work. And so having some options to choose from, the role of test engineers sounded the most hands-on and the most interesting to me.

Kim Nguyen (03:12):
Very cool. So when you first started, tell me about your experience at Cummins.

Taylor Wolff (03:18):
I had to learn how to be a test engineer. Being a lot more mechanically and automotive inclined, it was a different atmosphere than I was used to. Joining the world of engineering surrounded by mostly mechanical engineers, I was like, I don't think I belong here. Did they hire me by accident?

Kim Nguyen (03:35):
Well, how did those feelings evolve over time? I'm sure that's not how you felt long-term.

Taylor Wolff (03:39):
Correct. So basically after a while, I'm kind of doing my thing and learning the role and learning how we engineer and how we test engines here. And I'm like, wow. I think a lot of my knowledge that I have on how engines work and the basics have been actually really beneficial to me. More so than your standard mechanical engineer thinking that they have a lot more of the theory stuff. And I was like, I've seen this before in real life.

Kim Nguyen (04:04):
Because theoretically things can go one way, but having that hands-on experience at the oil change place gave you that strong foundation, that hands-on experience that kind of made you a little bit more experienced in that field, would you say?

Taylor Wolff (04:17):
Yeah, I would say the combination of the experience that I had in the shop before, but also I have a Jeep that I build and off road.

Kim Nguyen (04:25):
Very cool.

Taylor Wolff (04:26):
So a lot of experience working on my own car and modifying it and jacking it up, big tires, all of the things.

Kim Nguyen (04:34):
Alright. So going back to feeling like maybe you didn't belong, there was a lot of uncertainty. You felt like I might've made a mistake, you were able to get out of that situation. But is there some advice that you would give someone who feels like they're in the wrong place in their career?

Taylor Wolff (04:49):
First of all, I think the feelings of, I don't know if I'm supposed to be here, really started changing when I was able to offer my unique perspective to my teammates. And then they were like, oh, she knows more about this stuff than we do. Aha moment. So seeing that I was able to share something and bring value to the team, I think really helped kind of flip my view and make me feel a little bit less like an impostor. And then it actually worked out really well, which kind of lends into diversity and things like that with all of people's different backgrounds. They would help me with the engineering things and teach me thermal dynamic type stuff, and I'm just like, here's what a piston does.

Kim Nguyen (05:30):
It was an exchange, a meeting of the minds where you were able to exchange valuable information to behoove your work together.

Taylor Wolff (05:36):
Right, right.

Kim Nguyen (05:37):
Very cool.

Taylor Wolff (05:38):
So I guess back to your question is the second thing outside of finding ways that your differences can bring value is finding a mentor. I've had a mentor for almost as long as I've worked here, which has been a really cool opportunity that I've had in order to connect with people in other roles, other women in position of leadership. And that's really helped me throughout my journey, working in the shop and getting my footing there. There was a lot of obstacles to overcome being the woman in the shop, the girl stereotypically, the guys must know more than me. Even when I was the manager and I had other girls working for me, we would get a lot of things from customers talking about, I don't want you on my car. I'm like, okay, you can have one of the boys, that's fine. But I trained them.

Kim Nguyen (06:21):
Right. So whatever you get, I've helped.

Taylor Wolff (06:23):
Yeah, I've helped make it happen. So I make it sound easy, but it wasn't. You got to get some really tough skin to deal with that. So the amount of time that it took me to kind of overcome and be comfortable with the fact that not everyone's going to trust me and that's their problem, it's not mine. Coming to Cummins, I was a little worried. I was like, am I going to have to start this all over again with a different audience and not externally customer facing, but now I've got coworkers and engineering is also a really male dominated field. So I was like, how is this going to go? But I was very pleasantly surprised. We had a lot of diversity on our team, other women, people from other countries. So I got to learn a lot about people from other origins and learn about their cultures and things like that, which is super cool. But I would say that just my entire time being able to connect with other women, like I said, in leadership positions, other female engineers. We have female technicians too, which is super cool. I have two right now that work on my team, so shout out. But in general, I would say that it's been a very pleasant surprise that I don't face really any of our adversity here at Cummins because I'm a girl.

Kim Nguyen (07:32):
It's really amazing to know that you came from having to deal with being a woman in a male dominated field. Coming into this perspective with Cummins thinking you had to rebuild your entire reputation and your repertoire and knowing that that wasn't the case at all, everyone was really welcoming, everyone was approachable, and you felt like you were in a space where you could be your best and continue to thrive.

Taylor Wolff (07:53):
Absolutely. And even being a manager, it's like, are the technicians that report to me, are they going to think that I'm lesser because I'm not a man? No. The only thing that they're going to think lesser of me is if I'm a bad manager.

Kim Nguyen (08:05):
And that's like your skillset and what you are able to bring to the table as opposed to, are you a male? Are you a female? Or whatever. That doesn't matter.

Taylor Wolff (08:13):
Right.

Kim Nguyen (08:14):
Let's talk about Cummins impact. What's one thing that Cummins does that fills you with pride?

Taylor Wolff (08:20):
I'm really a huge fan of just the history, the roots of the company. I really enjoy working for a company that is so deeply rooted in just American history. We're talking first diesel engine in a vehicle. I know you had Lori on. That was super cool. I love listening to her. I also really enjoy that we do a lot for the community. Some of my favorites are our Earth Day EEEC events.

Kim Nguyen (08:45):
And what are EEEC events for those listeners who are not a part of the Cummins ecosystem?

Taylor Wolff (08:50):
So EEEC is Every Employee Every Community. Cummins really and empowers its employees to contribute to the communities in which we live and work. So one of the things that we do at the tech center is a tree giveaway in April. So I like to help hand out trees to everybody. You get a free tree sapling and you can plant it wherever you want and it's good for the environment.

Kim Nguyen (09:16):
And you're a proud plant parent at home. So I'm sure you love being able to see the others that you give way get nurtured and grow as well.

Taylor Wolff (09:24):
Absolutely.

Kim Nguyen (09:25):
Speaking of planting, you've got some other interesting hobbies. Tell me about how those tie into your work at Cummins.

Taylor Wolff (09:31):
I'm obviously really into plants. I have a vegetable garden. I have my houseplant collection that tends to get neglected in the summertime when I'm outside with my vegetables and my bees. I do keep bees. At least I'm trying my best to, it seems like all they ever want to do is try to die on me, so I have to be there to support them.

Kim Nguyen (09:54):
And all of these kind of go with the theme of environment, greenery, sustainability, and just a healthier planet, more prosperous world. Was that intentional that all of your hobbies tie into some of what Cummins focuses on?

Taylor Wolff (10:07):
I don't think so. I think those are just the things that I really love. And so I try to seek out the things that I love in my work too. So getting to be a part of our environmental volunteer opportunities. There's been a couple, so I try to jump on those when I can. Currently, I'm trying to see if maybe we can get a pollinator garden going at the tech center. We'll see.

Kim Nguyen (10:28):
In my apartment complex, they have garden beds and you can run a space there. I was too late to jump on board to do one. I was also afraid to commit. But if I were to start one, what is something you would recommend?

Taylor Wolff (10:40):
A good mix. So I would say you want to bring some flowers that are going to bring the pollinators in and preferably some that are going to be pest resistant. Keep the bag bugs away. So I like to use marigolds. Marigolds are good. Snapdragons are also good, if marigolds are kind of outplayed for you.

Kim Nguyen (11:00):
Why would you assume that? Okay. But we love all the recommendations. Okay, continue.

Taylor Wolff (11:05):
Yeah. And then your vegetables, whatever's your style for that.

Kim Nguyen (11:11):
I love chilies and basil. I love Thai basil specifically. I love to make, I just love the way they smell. I love the way they taste. I like infusing them in mocktails. I don't know. You can't go wrong with those two things.

Taylor Wolff (11:22):
Yeah. Well, I love my herbs too. I built a nice little herb pole on my back porch so I can just go out there and pick things and bring 'em into the kitchen.

Kim Nguyen (11:30):
Nice.

Taylor Wolff (11:31):
But yeah, herbs are always good and most of them actually also are pretty good pest deterrence too.

Kim Nguyen (11:36):
Good to know. Earlier you mentioned your team. Tell me more about your team, because what I think is so fascinating is you came into this wondering like, oh my gosh, are they going to like me? Am I going to bring value to the team? And then they were all hyping you up. Like, Taylor, you're amazing. We would love to work for you. So tell me more about that dynamic.

Taylor Wolff (11:54):
I would say in my past pre-Cummins, I learned a lot about how to not be a good manager.

Kim Nguyen (12:01):
That speaks volume, but we'll leave it there.

Taylor Wolff (12:04):
So with that being said, you can look at things in different lights. So you can either just say, this is terrible, I hate this, I'm miserable, my manager's awful. All of the things. I kind of chose to look at it through the lens of what can I learn from this? How can I make sure that I'm not like that person? How can I be a leader that people want to follow? And that's been a really important theme for me. Just because you're a leader doesn't mean you're also not a human. I put myself on the same level as my team. I tell them, Hey, I'm not perfect. They know that. They know that I'm not above being called out. Let me know if I've done something that you don't like. And I'm also not afraid to admit my mistakes. And I think that's really the key: leveling with people and saying, Hey, oops, I'm sorry.

Kim Nguyen (12:51):
We're all human. And it makes you more approachable. That level of communication, I feel like that opens the lines for more communication to give that feedback real time.

Taylor Wolff (12:59):
Yeah, I definitely like to lead from the group. I don't like to lead from the back or the front or whatever it is. I mean, if I could be in the test halls with them, I would.

Kim Nguyen (13:11):
Because you miss it. You get FOMO, don't you?

Taylor Wolff (13:12):
I do miss it. Yeah.

Kim Nguyen (13:15):
Talk to me more about that test. Can you paint a picture of what that actually looks like?

Taylor Wolff (13:18):
The tech center is one of the very coolest places to work. I love working at the tech center. It is so cool. We get to see all the super top-secret new product testing, so it makes us feel really special. But yeah, new engine platforms that are coming out, obviously we need to test them, make sure that they're going to be good before we get 'em in the hands of our customers. There's a lot of really cool stuff that goes into testing. I mean, we got an engine hooked up to a dyno in a room that is...

Kim Nguyen (13:47):
A dyno?

Taylor Wolff (13:48):
Yeah.

Kim Nguyen (13:48):
What is that?

Taylor Wolff (13:50):
Basically it is what spins the engine to get it going. And it measures a lot of things for us like torque and speed, things like that.

Kim Nguyen (13:57):
Gotcha.

Taylor Wolff (13:58):
Yeah. So it's hooked up and it's in this room. We have a lot, so we have a lot of test cells at the deck center. We have some special ones for altitude testing, cold cell testing. So we also have a tilt stand test cell so that we can mount the engine at different angles to make sure that things like construction equipment, we want to make sure that it's not going to be losing oil pressure and things like that if it gets too off tilt. So there's a lot of work that goes into getting an engine together before it's out on the road.

Kim Nguyen (14:30):
But that lends into the durability and reliability of it because in the most extreme climate or conditions, they've already been tested against that.

Taylor Wolff (14:37):
Right, right. And then we have our field test group that they take the engines out into what I say, the real world, but we try to mimic that as close as we can in the tech center within four walls. We go on a lot of long drives without ever leaving the building.

Kim Nguyen (14:52):
I like the way you put that. And so there's a lot of different places to test products. How many people are on your team helping to do this?

Taylor Wolff (15:03):
So my team specifically, I have 25.

Kim Nguyen (15:05):
Whoa.

Taylor Wolff (15:06):
And my department is the emissions technology test. So we do all of the emission certification testing. We also make sure that the OBD system is working the way that it should detecting...

Kim Nguyen (15:19):
OBD, you've lost me. What are we doing? What are we talking about?

Taylor Wolff (15:22):
The onboard diagnostics. So basically, your check engine light.

Kim Nguyen (15:25):
Gotcha.

Taylor Wolff (15:26):
A part of emission standards is we have to make sure that the check engine light comes on. That's something people don't really know about that they're like, oh, I just have this annoying light on my dash.

Kim Nguyen (15:36):
That's exactly how I view it. I am like, oh great, that's going to cost money. I see dollar signs when I see my check engine light.

Taylor Wolff (15:41):
But we're required to make sure that that is telling people that there's something wrong so they can get it fixed and not be out on the road and potentially putting out more emissions than they should be. So we have to make sure that works.

Kim Nguyen (15:53):
Right. How do you go about mentoring and guiding and leading with 25 people on your team?

Taylor Wolff (16:00):
It definitely takes some skill. It takes really my team. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I do all of it myself. I have a very talented team. I have some trades associates that essentially are kind of the in-between between me and the rest of my team. Their sole function is support. So they do a lot of the teaching and guiding of the team. We kind of all work together to train our new people. So being on night shift, we have this interesting circumstance where we don't have a lot of guidance, leadership, things like that. It is us. So that creates a lot more of a tighter knit group, a lot of teamwork, a lot more. We rely on each other to problem solve and get through issues, things like that. So.

Kim Nguyen (16:41):
You've cultivated your own community?

Taylor Wolff (16:43):
I certainly try.

Kim Nguyen (16:44):
It sounds so fun. I'd love to join you one evening, but it is way past my bedtime. I can't even lie. Taylor, I've had so much fun talking to you today. I know we've had a prior conversation where I spoke about my experience coming from social media in sports marketing, and coming from my experience of being a woman in a male dominated field where I was always asked, oh, who's plus one are you? When I'm like, no, no, no. It is me. I will be the one talking to the athletes. Thank you so much.

Taylor Wolff (17:13):
Yas queen.

Kim Nguyen (17:15):
But it, it's been good to hear your perspective and see others' experience of going through something like that. I also love that you become a leader. Not only do you get the mentorship and the female leaders around you, you are also one yourself. Thank you again for taking time to come on the podcast.

Taylor Wolff (17:31):
Absolutely. It's been a pleasure.

Kim Nguyen (17:34):
So what's the big idea for this episode? Just like the greenery that grows through the cracks of the concrete, resilience isn't just about getting through the hard stuff. It's also about taking your unique experiences and making it work for you. Taylor reminded us that no matter where you are, your real life experience can set you apart. And at the end of the day, if you ever feel out of place, just remember that your differences could be your biggest strengths. And when you put in the work and you see the impact of your efforts, it's like the satisfaction of a summer harvest. You get to see all the good that it's creating.

Show ID (18:05):
Power onward.

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Thank you for listening to Power Onward. Your support means the world to us. If you enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to dig deeper on what we covered today, check out the show notes for additional links or go to cummins.com/podcast. Until next time, Power Onward. We are from Cummins, the company that's been innovating toward the future for more than a hundred years. We're no strangers to rapid change, global shifts and economic uncertainty. We want to be your constant during the energy transition. Whenever, wherever, forever. Power onward.