Changemaker Diane Temme Stinton, Chief Administrative Officer, TMCO, Founder Anchovy

Somebody has to swing for the fences, and Diane Temme Stinton is living proof of what happens when you stop waiting for the “perfect” path. 

In this episode, we sit down with Diane, CEO of TMCO (Total Manufacturing Company) in Lincoln, Nebraska, to talk about leading a second-generation, family-owned contract metal manufacturing business that powers other brands across agriculture, energy, biomedical, and architectural work, while still showing up for community projects and nonprofit partners.

Connect with Diane and the TMCO at:

·       Website – https://www.tmcoinc.com/

·       Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/TotalManufacturingCo/

·       Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/tmcoinc

·       LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/tmco-inc-/

Transcript

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Welcome And Guest Setup

Diane Temme Stinton 0:00

Somebody has to swing for the fences.

Announcer 0:06

Welcome to Agency for Change, a podcast from KidGlov that brings you the stories of change makers who are actively working to improve our communities. In every episode, we'll meet with people who are making a lasting impact in the places we call home.

Lyn Wineman 0:29

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Agency for Change podcast. This is Lyn Wineman, president and chief strategist at KidGlov. So if you have as much fun listening to this podcast today as I did recording it, you are in for a treat. Today's guest proves that career paths don't always follow the sheet music. And you'll understand why I said that in a minute. Diane Temme Stinton started in Renaissance music, but she now leads a manufacturing company. She's launched a tech startup. She supports the community and she dreams big, very big. And she's doing it all while raising a family. I can't wait for you to hear her story. Let's dive in.

What TMCO Builds For The Region

Lyn Wineman 1:18

Diane, welcome to the podcast.

Diane Temme Stinton 1:21

Thank you so much for having me.

Lyn Wineman 1:23

I can't wait to hear about your story because you have done so many interesting things and are doing so many interesting things. But I'd like to start with TMCO and just have you tell us more about the company and the role it plays in supporting manufacturers and industries across the region.

Diane Temme Stinton 1:44

Absolutely. So TMCO stands for Total Manufacturing Company. It is a contract metal manufacturing company, which means we don't make our own product. So if you need something made out of metal, TMCO will make it.

Lyn Wineman 2:00

I love it.

Diane Temme Stinton 2:01

So we serve so many industry sectors, including agriculture, energy. We do some biomedical, we do architectural. You can see some of our work all across the city of Lincoln, actually Omaha and the rest of the state, in fact.

Lyn Wineman 2:18

I love it.

Diane Temme Stinton 2:18

So like the Second Gardens dome thing, the giant ZOO letters that are Lincoln Children's Zoo. Our work is just all over the rail yard. We've done so many wonderful community things. We've contributed to a lot of different nonprofits as well, doing that kind of work. If you go to Morning Hope, shout out to my friends at Morning Hope.

Lyn Wineman 2:44

That's a great nonprofit. We love Morning Hope. Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 2:48

Beautiful work, and their new facility really helps them like do the work that they do with bereavement. And a lot of our work is in that building, and we donated that to them. And it really personalizes that space. It gives it a character and it really allows the staff to really carry out the work that they do. And so for us, you know, as a manufacturing company, we're second generation, we're family-owned. My father started the business in 1974. So we are celebrating our 51st anniversary, and it's just such a pleasure and an honor to be in our Lincoln community, to give back to the community, to form so many meaningful partnerships and just to be a support and a service provider to so many other companies in our region and in our community.

Lyn Wineman 3:44

Diane, since you mentioned it, I actually didn't realize this, but I have on my desk a project that I think TMCO worked on for a client of ours called BraveBe, who did these great Christmas ornaments that have a handwritten quote from one of their kids. And I have it on my desk because it's so cute that when I put away Christmas decorations, I couldn't put this one away. So, and I know you've done so many big, little, small projects like that. But sometimes a project like this that seems small, it's a great way for them to thank their donors and be remembered. So, anyway, thank you for all that work that you do across the community.

From Music PhD To CEO

Lyn Wineman 4:28

So here's something I read about you because there was recently an article that had your story that was in the Omaha World Herald and the Lincoln Journal Star. I read that you didn't actually set out to run a manufacturing company. And I understand you actually have a PhD in music history. I love hearing about people's journeys. How did you get from one point to the next?

Diane Temme Stinton 4:55

I got lost, I think, in like—

Lyn Wineman 4:58

Oh well, sometimes getting lost is the best way to find what you need, right?

Diane Temme Stinton 5:02

I think so. I think I got lost. So music has always been a great passion of mine. I was very, I was very involved in music when I was in high school and going into college. And then there were a couple of things that happened, a couple setbacks, a couple of things where, you know, life doesn't go your way. Can you imagine?

Lyn Wineman 5:25

Yeah. Right.

Diane Temme Stinton 5:28

You know, it feels at some point like when you have those first experiences of disappointment, and not just disappointment, but, where there's like politics involved and it doesn't feel good, you know. So there were a few things that happened to me where it just felt like, wow, this is really not fair, and the system is rigged, and I became very disillusioned. And so I went to the University of Nebraska here in Lincoln, and I kind of quit music for a while. And so I was studying German and international studies, the German department at the university is was amazing, is and was amazing.

Lyn Wineman 6:11

I love it.

Diane Temme Stinton 6:12

And I just had such wonderful mentors there. I ended up studying abroad with the university. I was in Berlin for a while, and then you know, upon coming back, I was still looking for myself, and you know, but the passion for music has and is and will always be there, and so I just had to go back to music, and so I thought, well, if I'm gonna go do that, I might as well try a different experience. So then I moved to Bangor in North Wales, in the United Kingdom.

Lyn Wineman 6:43

Wow.

Diane Temme Stinton 6:44

Yep. If you're gonna be different, just be different.

Lyn Wineman 6:47

Do it.

Diane Temme Stinton 6:49

I went over there, and at that time, Bangor University now, in North Wales, they have such amazing faculty and such strong people in the fields of early music. And eventually, I met my mentor who is my doctoral supervisor, who specializes in 16th century music, and he somehow convinced me that somehow I may have— I may be good at this.

Lyn Wineman 7:16

Wow, he brought you back right after that bad experience. I love that.

Diane Temme Stinton 7:21

It did, and you know, like it's the people that see you. That's a theme in my life, like people who see you along the way and really mentor and give you that confidence. And so, you know, this this mentor really encouraged me in that area. And, you know, I really, really love languages, I love history, I love a puzzle. And so doing the PhD in early music kind of combined all of those passions for me and so it was really an amazing experience. But then, you know, I graduated in 2009 from the University of Nebraska. And I'm one of those millennials that, at that time, there were no jobs because of Christmas.

Lyn Wineman 8:08

It was a tough time to be in business. That's the year, or that's just about the time I started KidGlov. It was a tough time to start a business, it was a tough time to look for a job. It was just a tough time. It was tough.

Diane Temme Stinton 8:22

And so I just joke that everybody my age, like we're all over educated and underqualified to do anything. I went to grad school and continued because of the job market. It was—

Lyn Wineman 8:32

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 8:32

Were all kind of differing, right? And anyway, so, after that, I thought I would go into academia, I thought I would teach the children, I thought, you know, that would be my career and I would be doing research. And then I applied for a humanities fellowship at the University of Michigan. And I got a rejection letter, which would be, and it said, you know, thank you for your application. You know, unfortunately, we had a very, very strong pool of applicants, and out of the 900 applicants, you weren't in the top 10. And I thought, my God, like there are 900 people applying for this one thing.

Lyn Wineman 9:18

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 9:20

A humanities fellowship position that paid like $45,000.

Lyn Wineman 9:26

Yeah, right. I don't know if you can live in Michigan for that. Maybe you could have in 2009, but I don't know.

Diane Temme Stinton 9:33

Yes, not today, but I mean, it was at that point where I thought this doesn't seem viable, and a lot of things are adding up, and there's a lot of criticism, you know, like around higher education today about, you know, producing too many graduates where there's no jobs. Right. And anyway, so then I started to kind of, you know, kind of think about my options. I came back to Nebraska. I started working for the family biz, and it was, you know, it's a time in my life that I wouldn't replace for anything. I mean, having the luxury of being able to work alongside my father, who is the founder. I worked for my dad for a good five years. And that really was kind of the apprenticeship into the CEO position. So, really, I got so much on-the-job training. I was still doing some adjunct teaching, but then there was also just kind of a point where I was ready to let that go. So here

Anti Goals And A North Star

Diane Temme Stinton 10:29

we are.

Lyn Wineman 10:29

Wow, I love this story. You know, what I think is great about a story like that is there are so many different unexpected experiences that I'm sure have been extremely helpful to where you are and what you're doing today. Would you agree?

Diane Temme Stinton 10:49

Absolutely. And you know what? Like it's really funny because I'm not a goal setter. Like not, I'm very anti-goals. And I'm also very anti-planning. Like, I don't know.

Lyn Wineman 11:00

You're a very successful person for an anti-goal, anti-planning person. So whatever you're doing, it's working.

Diane Temme Stinton 11:07

Well, I don't, hear me out though. Hear me out. Yeah, so like I don't believe in in goal setting, and I don't really believe in, you know, that five-year plan. Because if I thought back five years, like I am nowhere where I thought I'd be. But I think that, you know, we kind of instead, like, you know, you kind of have a North Star, you have your personal values, you have, you know, a general direction that you're working towards. But I think, you know, leaving yourself open for the possibilities that life throw at you, like, I think you're much more receptive to, you know, opportunities in life. Like if you're open about like, you know, maybe goals and different things that you might find, you know, gems in places you wouldn't have otherwise lived.

Lyn Wineman 11:55

Yeah, Diane, I think that is a really, really great message. And I do, I do really, really appreciate

Building Culture Through Trust

Lyn Wineman 12:02

that. I want to ask you one more question about TMCO, because you've had such an incredible journey to the organization, at the organization. You know, when I think of TMCO in the community, the two things that I know about the organization are number one, you do great work. I don't really fully understand your work, but I know that you do great work. And I know that you have a great culture. I'm really curious, like, what are the things for you that have gone into being able to run a company that does great work and has a great culture?

Diane Temme Stinton 12:42

Oh man. Well, it— To me, it's all about trust. Trust in your team, trust in your people, our customers trust us, our community trusts us, and we trust each other. And so when we hire employees, you know, I always tell my HR team, you know, if you're not comfortable letting somebody in your house, why would you why would you let them in here? I would feel comfortable, and I'm not even I'm not even just saying this. I am— I would leave my children in the care of any one of these employees.

Lyn Wineman 13:19

Wow.

Diane Temme Stinton 13:19

Not for a long time.

Lyn Wineman 13:20

No, I'm kidding.

Diane Temme Stinton 13:21

They're three years old and five years old.

Lyn Wineman 13:26

Yeah, yeah, that's a handful.

Diane Temme Stinton 13:27

And if I had to have somebody watch my kids for a second, there's nobody in this company that I would say, oh God, absolutely not. Like I— We trust each other. We trust people. And you know, when you hire high caliber people, and that's not just about, you know, capacity or capability or skills, you know, you can't teach trust.

Lyn Wineman 13:49

Right.

Diane Temme Stinton 13:49

Like there's so many things about untangibles where for things like skills, you can train, you can put— you can teach people.

Lyn Wineman 13:59

Right.

Diane Temme Stinton 14:00

Trust factor and good character is not something that you can, you know, teach somebody. So, you know, trust, good character, and you know, it's the accountability of saying, you know, we are who we are and we're gonna do what we say we're gonna do.

Lyn Wineman 14:18

I love that so much. I love too how that trust aspect, when you think about the the two things that we're talking about, high quality work and an amazing culture. I mean, trust is the through line for both of those things, isn't it? So congratulations—

Diane Temme Stinton 14:35

Thank you.

Lyn Wineman 14:35

—for being that.

Diane Temme Stinton 14:37

It's about, you know, like you have to care. And I— this is now a famous question. Like when I used to be a light direct hiring, and when I was doing that for Anchovy.

Lyn Wineman 14:47

I can't wait to talk about Anchovy.

Diane Temme Stinton 14:50

Yeah, I ask interviewees, what do you care about? And it's really imperative in our company that you care about something bigger than yourself. Really clear when you do and whether that is family, the environment, your community, you know, like where you're really out to do something, right?

Lyn Wineman 15:13

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 15:13

I find that that makes such a huge

Anchovy App And Dinner Stress

Diane Temme Stinton 15:15

difference too.

Lyn Wineman 15:16

I love that, Diane. And speaking of being out to do something, so you're running a manufacturing company, you're a busy working mom, but then you've layered on top of that, you have a new project called Anchovy. Such a cute name. Can you tell us about Anchovy?

Diane Temme Stinton 15:35

Sure. So Anchovy is a recipe storage app. It's designed to be a place where you can store all your recipes and easily share them with friends or family. For me, like I had it like that messy binder of recipes that I have had. Screenshots, I have bookmark websites, I have things everywhere. And so it's just one place where you can have like all of your things and easily share that with family and friends, and then also you can convert those recipes into consolidated grocery lists that you can tick off when you're at the store.

Lyn Wineman 16:11

That is so important because my failure in cooking is always I am missing one or two ingredients, and I think I'm gonna fake it. And I am not good enough of a cook to fake a missing ingredient, right? I'm just not, yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 16:27

Or you think like you're at the store and you're like, oh crap, I was gonna make this, but I don't know what I need. I was supposed to— Hey, I don't remember what I need. And so, you know, just having all of that on your phone in this day and age just makes too much sense.

Lyn Wineman 16:40

Yeah, a hundred percent. So, what's the process like? So you kind of you had this idea, you had a need. Where did you go from there? Because a lot of people have an idea, they have a need, but they never take the next step, but you did.

Diane Temme Stinton 16:56

Yeah, well, and that's like that's another theme, like in my life, in my growth, like journey, being a CEO and being a founder. Like, let me tell you, it takes a different courage to become a founder.

Lyn Wineman 17:09

Yeah. As a founder myself, I get it, right? Like, yes.

Diane Temme Stinton 17:15

Yes, and being a CEO, being responsible for a company and all the decisions, but when the company already kind of exists and it's just about like, oh, okay, well, maybe we need to tweak directions, maybe we need to change a few things. So different than building something from the ground up. So I learned that. There was a point, even before I became CEO, where the question was like, would you bet on yourself? And for a long time I couldn't say that I would.

Lyn Wineman 17:45

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 17:46

Yeah. Wow. And then, you know, like being CEO, that was again one thing. And then, I had a kid and then another kid, and this was after my second child was born. And you know, you just mom life is different things.

Lyn Wineman 18:06

If you're not a mom, it's really hard to understand. Having been a mom and now a grandma, right? Like I get to see my kids raise their kids, right? Which is seriously the coolest thing ever. But it's a it's a lot. It's a lot.

Diane Temme Stinton 18:22

It's so hard. It's hard, you know. And I'm thinking to myself, like after my second child was bored, you know, I'm the CEO of this company, I'm a— I'm an educated person, I'm highly functional. And I wasn't even, I didn't have postpartum depression, I didn't have complications. I had a great support group. I, you know, marriage will do, thank God. A lot of things, like, are working in your favor. And even then, I felt like I don't know how I'm supposed to do this. And you go from like, oh, beautiful miracle life, to I'm a terrible mom, like so quickly. And what is overwhelming and frustrating, and I'm thinking to myself, too, like surely there's a tool, surely there's something out there. So I started downloading like every you know, recipe food app that I could find, and I just didn't like the experience of each. And so, so then the first thing that I did after I had this idea was I started talking to some friends. Yeah, I reached out to was my friend Jane Griffin. We had lunch, it was at the Scarlet. This is a—

Lyn Wineman 19:34

I love the Scarlet, by the way. It's a great hotel on the University of Nebraska's innovation campus.

Diane Temme Stinton 19:41

Yeah, yes, and that is a this is an infamous date in the Anchovy history where—

Lyn Wineman 19:45

I love it.

Diane Temme Stinton 19:47

And I said, and Jane, Jane Griffin is the most put together person that I know. Just, oh my god, to be her. And she's a mentor to me as well. And I sat down with Jane and I said, Jane, this is how I feel. This is the problem. Do you have this problem? And she said, Yes. Like, you know, when you think about what are you gonna have for dinner, like, oh.

Lyn Wineman 20:13

Yeah, right? Like, I've already had a hard full day. I'm gonna have two children running around under my feet. I'm exhausted and I'm hungry, and they're hungry. What are we gonna have for dinner? And I and and I forgot to thaw anything out, so I guess it's a happy meal, which we all know also makes us feel like a terrible parent to feed our children happy meals. Yes.

Diane Temme Stinton 20:37

And my god, did we have chicken. Like I'll go through. But no, that's absolutely right. So I, you know, talking to Jane, and you know, I said, here's here are the problems that I see too, you know, like just first you need to get all your stuff in one space, and then after that, you know, it's just that emotional energy of trying to figure out what you want to eat, and you know, how can we also share in that? So, for example, you know, like your grandkids, I guarantee you, whatever they eat, my kids will probably eat too.

Lyn Wineman 21:09

Probably.

Diane Temme Stinton 21:12

It feels like we're all doing this in isolation. And especially, I think you know, anybody who is like, you know, the chef of their family is that it's a it's a big burden that it's like they're just kind of bearing the load. I don't talk to my friends about, so what do you make for dinner? What do your kids like to eat? What do you, you know—

Lyn Wineman 21:34

Right, right.

Diane Temme Stinton 21:37

We don't share in that way and we should because like I think we're all kind of suffering in silence and we're all facing the same problem. So I thought, why don't we create a space that builds community? Like and share together for everyone's path.

Lyn Wineman 21:51

Yeah, yeah, I love that, right? Like we share music, we share ratings on places we go, restaurants. Why not make community? Around something that kind of is difficult and stressful.

Diane Temme Stinton 22:05

Yes. And also, like, I mean, you can Google stuff online. You can go to ChatGPT to find, you know, whatever recipes, most popular recipes. But at the same time, it's like, you know, the— I'm much more likely to, if you gave me a recipe and told me, screw by this, this is so great.

Lyn Wineman 22:24

Yeah, 100%.

Diane Temme Stinton 22:26

Yes. I would 1,000% trust you and try that, right? Right. Because we have a personal relationship. Whereas, you know, like if there's like a rating system, it's like 3,000 people rated this five stars. Like, well, okay, I don't know what that means. Or some people leave reviews online, like this recipe is terrible. It came out way too salty. And it's like, did you measure? Do you know how like it's very obvious that like they didn't really know what they were doing.

Lyn Wineman 22:54

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 22:55

But like why we, you know, and I think regionally too, you know, like we eat similar foods, I think, like whether it's based on heritage or ingredients, seasonalities, and other things. So, you know, I think that there's definitely ways that we can like come together.

Lyn Wineman 23:12

Yeah, you know, Diane, what I love about this is in one of your earlier comments, I wrote down these words about the importance of the people who see you. And when I think of what you're doing with Anchovy, I feel like you are seeing a whole section of busy working parents, right? Who have this stress and you're pulling the community together. And so I love it when things come full circle, and I really like that.

Naming Anchovy And Big Dreams

Lyn Wineman 23:45

But I gotta ask you the— here's the question in my mind how'd you come up with the name? Being a branding person, I love the name anchovy, it's so cute, right? But I don't know anybody who eats anchovies personally, but it's super cute as a name.

Diane Temme Stinton 24:02

Well, I like anchovy because it is a little community fish, it's not a solo swimmer. Like it swims together with other fish, so there's that. We were trying to be so clever with it. Yeah. We're trying to do like, you know, you know, food community, food fan.

Lyn Wineman 24:22

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 24:23

Sugar, feed something, plate, whatever, but like coming up with an original name in this day and age, and then you have to also like does it sound like an existing company?

Lyn Wineman 24:33

Right, right. Can you get a URL? Can you get a math name, right? Like all the things, yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 24:38

All the things. And so then we were just like spinning in circles. Like, I don't know. And then I was driving in my car going down K Street, like—

Lyn Wineman 24:51

I was just on K Street earlier today. I know, yes.

Diane Temme Stinton 24:55

I know exactly where I was again when this thought occurred to me, but I was thinking about the button app, which is now no more mint.

Lyn Wineman 25:04

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 25:04

And I thought mint, like it's money related, yeah. So one word kind of catchy, and I thought maybe we're trying too hard. It's so—

Lyn Wineman 25:17

Yeah, right?

Diane Temme Stinton 25:17

I was thinking to myself, Anchovy, and so then that's kind of where it started. It's like anchovy, and I start thinking about anchovies, and then I pitched it to Jane and Jane Griffin, who is now my senior project manager.

Lyn Wineman 25:35

I love this. I don't know Jane, but I feel like I want to know Jane.

Diane Temme Stinton 25:40

You should.

Lyn Wineman 25:40

She sounds amazing.

Diane Temme Stinton 25:42

Yeah, oh, and you need her recipes, like—

Lyn Wineman 25:45

Okay. I'm joining the app as soon as we're done to look for Jane's recipes.

Diane Temme Stinton 25:51

Yeah, so Anchovy. So one, so I told her like Anchovy and her reaction. I know we're not doing video, but I just should—

Lyn Wineman 26:02

It was, okay, she grimaced, she didn't instantly jump onto it, right?

Diane Temme Stinton 26:07

Oh no, she thought that it she thought it was terrible. But it's grown on everybody, and there's a couple of things like—

Lyn Wineman 26:15

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 26:16

There's a repellent quality to anchovy.

Lyn Wineman 26:19

Right.

Diane Temme Stinton 26:19

There's a repellent quality to dinner, there's repellent quality to the grime, there's a repellent quality, like anchovy is the you know.

Lyn Wineman 26:28

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 26:31

But here's the deal too like if you are a serious chef, you will know that you know the secret to Caesar salad is anchovy. It's a savory, it's a very eyebrow ingredient that a lot of people use in very, very sophisticated cooking and cuisine.

Lyn Wineman 26:52

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 26:53

And so, you know, I thought how interesting, like because it applies in like a lot of different contexts that you know, and it's also a very pretty original name.

Lyn Wineman 27:04

Yeah, I love it so much. Honestly, I think I did not know anything about anchovies as animals, but the fact that they're community fish, I love that. And I think the repellent factor also, like to me, when I think of the app Anchovy, I kind of you kind of the question in the back of your head is like, Will I like this recipe? Will my kids like this recipe? You know, and I think the anchovy thing kind of very subconsciously brings up that point in the back of your mind too. And it's just cute and fun to say. Like, I think when you name something, giving it something that's cute and fun to say, I think has a cool aspect to it too.

Diane Temme Stinton 27:50

And also, you know, like so we have like a little yearbook, and it we just got an ocean book from Barnes and Noble, and we're like we kind of sign it as we get new employees. And on the cover of it, I wrote my little introview motto, which is, "Little fish, big dreams." And so, and also like in the app space, if you're doing a con— a mass consumer product, let me tell you, like, it is insane. Like, nobody should do it. It's like craziness, it's—

Lyn Wineman 28:22

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 28:23

Impossible. It's—

Lyn Wineman 28:25

Right.

Diane Temme Stinton 28:25

It's very hard. It's hard to get people's attention, it's hard to get them time and energy to try a new thing, and so you know it's but I don't know, like the big dream is to become the first worldwide food app.

Lyn Wineman 28:40

I love it so much. All right, everybody who's listening, you can help Diane fulfill her dream, download the app, try out the recipes. I— She didn't know I was gonna say that, but I'm—

Diane Temme Stinton 28:52

It's on Google Play and Apple Store. It is free to use.

Lyn Wineman 28:57

I love it.

Diane Temme Stinton 28:57

And we are doing a fundraiser right now in partnership with KETV Omaha of the food bank for the Heartland, and so Julie Cornell, who's an anchor on KETV.

Lyn Wineman 29:14

I love Julie Cornell.

Diane Temme Stinton 29:15

I love Julie Cornell in this. She is a big Anchovy fan, not the food.

Lyn Wineman 29:23

I love it.

Diane Temme Stinton 29:24

And so she has a cookbook of her favorite recipes that is available for sale, 19.99, and all that benefit will go towards the food bank.

Lyn Wineman 29:36

Oh, what a great cause! See, I love that how you're tying together business, community, giving back.

Parenting Leadership And Founder Courage

Lyn Wineman 29:43

And actually, I've been wanting to ask you this, right? Because Diane, you are running a manufacturing company, you're the founder of an app, you are the mother of small children who are kind of in that most difficult phase, I'm gonna say. I think that three to five phase, that's not easy. Like you have to be a child psychologist on top of everything else. Instead of asking you how you do it, I want to ask you how do each of those things inform the other, right? Like, how does the— you like puzzles, how does the Diane Temme Stinton puzzle kind of work together there?

Diane Temme Stinton 30:21

Oh man. The mom and wife piece goes over everything else.

Lyn Wineman 30:30

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 30:31

So—

Lyn Wineman 30:31

Amazing.

Diane Temme Stinton 30:33

My family is the most important thing to me. My kids, setting my kids up to be hopefully productive and successful humans.

Lyn Wineman 30:41

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 30:42

And so, you know, the that's the the overlaying consideration. So doing Anchovy, you know, I'm doing this, you know, as a busy mom, trying to create tools that enable me to be not only a better mom, but then a better CEO because I'm spending less time on the things that like don't matter.

Lyn Wineman 31:04

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 31:05

Claim it for the things that do.

Lyn Wineman 31:07

I love that. That's amazing. That's amazing. So what's next for you, Diane? What are you looking forward to?

Diane Temme Stinton 31:14

Oh man, it's like we talked about at the beginning, right? So, like kind of North Star type stuff. We are looking forward to a brand refresh with Anchovy. So like you have to get the up now, so then you can like—

Lyn Wineman 31:28

Okay.

Diane Temme Stinton 31:30

Hit the refresh. And—

Lyn Wineman 31:31

I love it.

Diane Temme Stinton 31:32

A fun experience. I'm looking forward to on the Anchovy side, I'm looking forward to supporting more small businesses. So, you know, we have a lot of people in our community who are like literally invisible to the naked eye. So, for example, there are people who are baking out of their homes. They have a cottage food license, they're trying to create a business, they maybe want a storefront, but you know, they need to try to build a customer base, Right. You know, people who are also maybe running restaurants, it's a different way to maybe engage with people and also add like maybe a different revenue stream where we're looking forward to working with other nonprofits for fundraisers on the Anchovy. And then we're also looking forward to supporting our culinary institutions. And so we just have a lot of things going on. I'm really, really excited to see kind of where that all takes us. On the TMCO side, I'm just really excited about, you know, in manufacturing, you kind of have to roll with a lot of punches. And we're getting

Lyn Wineman 32:36

Yeah. Oh, it has been an interesting year, I'm guessing, right? Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 32:40

Yeah, let's not talk about the T-word. But no, it feels like we've gotten kind of, you know, you've gotten punched, and you know, you have to pivot and you have to roll and you have to, you know, there's always new opportunities though. And so I'm just really excited about just again, like keeping our minds open for opportunities. And I feel like again, looking back to my background, you know, that just really allows you to think creatively. I think my superpower is that like the obvious solution is never my solution. I just live outside the box. I'm not an in-the-box kind of person.

Lyn Wineman 33:21

I love it, I love it.

Diane Temme Stinton 33:22

Yeah, so that's what I'm looking forward to. And again, because I'm not a goal setter, I can't tell you what my goal is, but I can tell you that I feel like you know the sky's the limit.

Lyn Wineman 33:33

Your eyes are open to the opportunities. I love it. Diane, for people who are listening that want to find out more, let's start with how can they get on to Anchovy? I'm imagining we just go to the app store and search for Anchovy.

Diane Temme Stinton 33:48

Absolutely. So Google Play, Apple Store. But for more information about the website, you could also find us at www.anchovy.

Lyn Wineman 33:57

I love it. I also love that you got that URL that's easy for people to find. So good for you. And TMCO, how do we find out more about TMCO?

Diane Temme Stinton 34:07

Absolutely. So www.tmclinc.com, tmcoinc.com.

Lyn Wineman 34:14

Got it. All right. We'll make sure to get both of those, Diane, into the show notes. I want to ask you one more question before I'm gonna ask you our standard agency for change question that everyone's answered. Diane, I'm really curious. I think I've got a feel for a lot of your answers today, but I want to ask you this question. What do you care about, Diane?

Force For Good And Swinging Big

Lyn Wineman 34:36 Lyn Wineman 34:36 Diane Temme Stinton 34:36

Oh wow. You know, I care about just being a force for good. Care about being a force for good. I care about, you know, like there's such a stigma about like industry. I mean, there are companies that make other companies look real bad, you know?

Lyn Wineman 35:00

Yeah, yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 35:01

But I do want people to know that like there are a lot of ethical companies, there are a lot of companies who care, who care about communities, and also technology. There are a lot of bad actors in technology.

Lyn Wineman 35:14

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 35:15

You know, like in a global level, right? Like we see, you know, the the Zuckerbergs and the Bezos's. And I think, you know, you kind of get looped into kind of the, you know, there's some sketchy things in like big tech.

Lyn Wineman 35:32

Yeah.

Diane Temme Stinton 35:33

So I just have this vision that, you know, we can do so much good. And I know there's others out there who feel the same way, but I just feel like, you know, good, you know, good companies just have to continue to have a presence and that the public can't just lose hope that, you know, everybody's corrupt and everybody's just out for money. Like we, there are good people out there.

Lyn Wineman 35:58

A hundred percent. Diane, I feel that's why I feel lucky to be located in Lincoln, Nebraska. I feel like this is the epicenter of companies doing good, doing the right thing. So thank you for thank you for letting me ask you that question and and thank you for sharing. All right, the next question, I told you we're we're getting close to our 300th episode, and I've asked this question on every episode. And I am actually a collector of quotes, right? I love quotes, and I like to go into my quote vault for different things. Actually, if you could see my office, I have quotes all around me. I would like a Diane Temme Stinton original quote to share with our listeners.

Diane Temme Stinton 36:42

Okay, I'm going to derive it from something that somebody said to me that I felt like a compliment. And it was this, "Somebody has to swing for the fences." Somebody has to swing for the fences. And, you know, I think that in our lives, you know, like we spend a lot of our time just trying to get on first or trying to, you know, like, and you know, obviously, I think from our conversation, no surprise that I'm a very go-big-or-go-home type.

Lyn Wineman 37:13

Yeah, right. I'm learning that about as if I suspected it, but you have yes, you have confirmed my suspicions.

Diane Temme Stinton 37:22

Yeah. When you think about that, you know, well, somebody has to swing for the fences. Well, why not you?

Lyn Wineman 37:28

Right.

Diane Temme Stinton 37:29

That's my challenge, you know, to the listenership today. Like, why not you? And why not us? And why not here? Swing for the fences.

Lyn Wineman 37:37

I love it. So inspiring. That is A+ on that assignment.

Diane Temme Stinton 37:42

I don't even like baseball. I'd be pulled us close sure. But I do like that metaphor. I hear you, I hear you. All right, Diane, I have loved this conversation so much. And as we wrap up our time together today, I'd like to ask you what's the of all the things we've talked about, you've covered the things you care about, the things you dream about, what is the most important thing you'd like our listeners to remember about the work that you're doing? You know, I think in our community of Lincoln, you know, where we share similar passions, where we share similar missions. Like, please connect. Please connect others, please connect with me, because we can just do more when we work together.

Lyn Wineman 38:28

Yeah, I love that so much. Diane, it has been such a pleasure to talk with you. I fully believe the world needs more people like you, more organizations like TMCO, more apps like Anchovy. Thank you for taking time out to talk with us today. Thank you so much.

Where To Find Them And Closing

Announcer 38:50

We hope you enjoyed today's Agency for Change podcast. To hear all our interviews with those who are making a positive change in our communities, or to nominate a change maker you'd love to hear from, visit KidGlov.com at K-I-D-G-L-O-V.com to get in touch. As always, if you like what you've heard today, be sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.