From Piranha to Rock Bottom and Back: Sales, Manufacturing’s Shift South, and Rebuilding After FailureThe episode follows Jeff’s path into metal fabrication after being recruited to work for Piranha, where he led business development by building dealer relationships and traveling heavily across North America. He describes how Piranha’s brand and engineering—early fiber laser advances, a high-end cantilever laser design, and later importing lasers from Asia—helped shape his relationship-first approach to sales, including adapting appearance and communication to different audiences from shop-floor staff to CEOs. The conversation expands into U.S. manufacturing trends, including companies moving south due to cost of living, taxes, and regulatory pressures; growth in places like South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Texas; the importance of technical schools; and renewed shipbuilding and defense-driven demand along the Gulf Coast and Virginia. Jeff then shares his biggest “successful failure”: post-military struggles after an RPG-related traumatic brain injury, survivor guilt, desensitization from law enforcement work, infidelity, and an arrest in 2022 that led to job loss, public shame, and suicidal thoughts. He explains finding peace after his wife chose to stay, a pivotal church experience in Florida, further personal change through DMT treatment, and learning to prioritize truth, talking openly, ignoring criticism from the wrong people, and focusing on being a better husband, father, and person. He closes by defining success now as a strong family and raising his children well rather than money, status, or material things.