IMTS Recap, a Runaway Dog, and Why Easy AI Can Make You Less Productive

<p>Michael joins fresh off six days at IMTS 2026 in Chicago, and Matt is running on four hours of sleep after his own label printing show in Rosemont. Michael breaks down what made this IMTS night and day compared to two years ago: a loaned FANUC Robodrill in a 10x10 booth, the last-minute bailment insurance scramble to get it there, and geo-targeted Instagram ads that pulled CNC machinists within a four-mile radius straight to the booth. CoolantClear 3 officially launched and is finally back in stock.</p><p>Matt shares how his team scores and enriches trade show leads before they hit HubSpot, and why they make visitors wait so every conversation gets complete notes. The two compare proposal workflows (HTML versus PDF), talk through how to prioritize 100+ post-show proposals by buyer persona, and dig into ad fatigue, attribution blind spots, and what happened when Michael turned off $10K a month in Meta spend.</p><p>Also covered: Matt&#39;s 22,000 sq ft facility addition and ClickUp go-live, Michael&#39;s hard lesson about letting one product&#39;s demand surge pull the whole business off balance, and an honest conversation about how AI can leave you with seven projects 80% done instead of one finished. Plus the story of Teddy&#39;s 19-hour escape through Chicago.</p>