While Empowering Pumps recently began inviting people to Nominate a Pump Professional, this week’s Pump Person of the Week actually reached out to us!

“I LOVE your Empowering Brands!!” declares Michelle Honeycutt, General Manager at Wiley Equipment Company. “This market segment has needed this sort of support for a very long time.”

We were so happy to have Honeycutt share her story with us!

“I came to work at Wiley Equipment Company through family connections about 8 years ago. What started out as a temporary part time thing metamorphosed into full time, permanent position that organically changed to the point that now I am the acting general manager. Wiley Equipment Company Inc. is a family-owned and operated lubrication equipment business located in southern California for over 40 years. Our facility works with lubrication equipment, DEF equipment, air compressors, and auto Lifts because we work with several industries, including municipalities, airports, agriculture, trucking, mining, etc.

My favorite part of my job is working with family and friends.  I had the opportunity to work along side my father for a few years, and that gave me a whole new appreciation for him and what he does. Those that I work alongside daily have become family to me. Years ago when I first started at Wiley Equipment, I was the only woman on staff. Our crew had men aged within every decade – 20’s, 30’s, 40, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and believe it or not, 90’s. Gus worked with us until he was 92! He came in to the shop twice a week to help me learn to identify stuff. I called him the ‘Oracle’. This provided me with an amazing (and sometimes frustrating) opportunity to learn from these wonderful group of  guys that had generations of wisdom and knowledge to share with me. We once calculated that there was over 100 years of experience within the lubrication industry on staff at Wiley Equipment.

I am most proud of the fact that Wiley Equipment has always been family-owned and operated for over 40 years. I love coming up with real world solutions for our customers, especially when they are in the field and need help right away. I love getting to know a wide array of people and learning about industries I never thought about previously. There have been days when I have had an auto dealership on the phone that needs to completely relocate and expand, along with emails from a manufacture with questions about factory lubrication and a trucking company needing bulk DEF solutions because a rig of theirs had been damaged due to contaminated fluid. These customers reach out to Wiley Equipment from all over the country with real world working issues, and more often than not, a trusted relationship develops and they stay with us long term. The trust and bonds developed make me happy.

My advice to someone new to the industry would be to appreciate the ‘old’ guys. Their knowledge has been acquired through a lifetime of hard work and there aren’t many of them around any more. And to the ‘old’ guys, the world has changed a lot –  remember, the new guys and gals have things they can teach you too. Working both sides, sage wisdom and cutting edge innovation is really the key.”

Michelle, thank you so much for sharing your story with us and for letting us feature you as an Industry Pro of the Week!

Know an Amazing Person who is making valuable contributions within the Pump Industry? Nominate them to be “Pump Person of the Week”!