Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Ladies and gentlemen, boys, and girls of all ages. Welcome to the most amazing interview show on the information super highway. Now zooming to you live and simultaneously from two secret studio bunkers in dual time zones located somewhere South of Alaska, East of area 51 North of Guantanamo. And if we give you one more clue, we'll all be in deep trouble. It's the amazing twin namesake separated at birth that two most famous guys, not in witness protection. It's coffee with Jim and Jay.
Speaker 1 00:00:37 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to another fine episode of coffee that Jim and James, as I like to get started on our segments, give a few teasers. If I were to say where the wind comes sweeping down the plain, or we're not all from Muskogee, but we're from, or if I say, Oh, GA and I'm not referring to the old school graffiti artists, although back in my youth, we will never speak of that again. Anyways, when I refer to the OTA, I'm referring to the Oklahoma gas association. So before we get into our guests, Jeff here, I want to as always introduce my partner crime, my brother hidden in a secret bunker somewhere in the world, Mr. James Cross, James, how are you? This fine and beautiful morning. I'm awesome, Jimmy. And it's in Texas. Now. That's where the monitor is. And it's not much of a bunker. As you can see, Jimmy, as usual, you would add a little bit of flare every time. I can't decide it for like it it's still up in the air, but, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1 00:01:39 Put it back on track introduced Mr. Jeff Kaufman, the director of communications for both OTA, the Oklahoma gas association and the director of communications for professional development for the Oklahoma municipal Alliance. And, uh, it looks like I was kind of stalking you a little bit joke before, but it looks like you took a little bit of my advice on LinkedIn and upgraded your profile. So it reads committed to helping others with leadership communications, team building and customer service skills. So, uh, Jeff Kaufman, welcome to the show. This is where we would put in all the clapping and stuff at scale. But Jeff, welcome to the show. Glad you're here. I am doing this morning. I'm great, man. Thank you for having me. It's a real pleasure and honor to be here with a couple of my favorite people on the planet. And I really mean that so honored to have the opportunity to work with you and have this conversation this morning, and I'm really here for the mug.
Speaker 1 00:02:46 We can make that Apple. So Jeff, I know you from the OTA obviously, um, and by proxy the OMI, but, uh, Jim was actually the one that made me the connected me with the OTA originally. So just in full disclosure with everybody I've been involved with, um, well really for 2020, a little bit last year, but mainly here in 2020. So I'm excited to be a part of LGA and helping them craft their messages and do as much as I can to help the association. So Jeff, thank you for letting me be a part of that.
Speaker 2 00:03:23 Well, and I will tell all of the audience in Jim, if, if you're not aware of this, uh, uh, Mr. Cross's name appears on our website as an advisory board advisory member. That was hard for me to say this morning. And, and of course Jim and I go back and, and I think Jim, we met either met at one of our annual conferences or, uh, maybe in a, at a show in Tulsa, maybe a corporate Oklahoma corporation commission event. And I, and I think we go back and I think we may have broken bread there in Tulsa, but I, again am big fans of you guys. And I will not say that again because I'm not getting paid to
Speaker 3 00:03:59 The checks on the mail and you're absolute, right. I've been involved with the OTA for, Oh goodness, probably close to 10 years. And then during that time, you know, Jeff and I got to know each other, um, huge supporter of it throughout the years for my center point days on forward. And, you know, being able to connect the dots with Mr. Cross and getting his expertise into the OTA it's it was a perfect fit. And I couldn't have been happier to, uh, as what I do, the human switchboard, I connect the dots. So that was great.
Speaker 1 00:04:32 So, Jeff, um, tell us a little bit about the OTA, you know, what's going on over there? I know all we, you know, we're, we're part of something like 30, 30 to 40 different associations across the U S w N S. Um, so we, we feel it, we see it, we know how people are, are affected and changing during this time and associations and learning in ways to really reach out to people. And it looks like, you know, obviously that's part of your concern too, but tell us a little about what's going on with the LGA.
Speaker 2 00:05:10 You bet, you know, I think is the Oklahoma gas association, we obviously serve, you know, our membership is primarily from midstream down, down to the stove in, in customers' homes. That's sort of our space of our board in 2019, started looking yet at where we were, what our direction was gonna be. And so just recently, within the past few months, we put a new mission statement and some core values of our new mission statement is to assist members in developing leaders, focused on safety, best practice performance through education and networking. Uh, so we have a little bit of a tradition. So we always do a little safety moment at all of our meetings, little reminder of mask up, wash your hands, stay away from one another, uh, shifting to our core values safety. We want to share information and best practices for continuous improvement training, provide specialized training to benefit workforce development, leadership, to improve leadership skills and build future leaders and networking to provide opportunities to build strong industry connections.
Speaker 2 00:06:22 So that's sort of where we are. That's what we try to do as an association of, and to do that. We, we do a three events a year, three big events, uh, earlier in the year in February. Oklahoma's, let's say your session starts in February. So we have our annual legislative forum. Uh, it has really grown and developed beyond simple legislation. We get some great public policy makers in, we had the corporation commission speak in February. Uh, we do an annual leadership conference. It's a one day conference we're currently scheduled in November for that that's one day it's really designed to enhance what companies are already doing. You know, a lot of the large companies, uh, center, as you mentioned, enable, already have their in-house programs. This is a little bit of bonus training and that's one day. And of course we have our annual conference every year in will be, uh, virtually September one in September one and two. Uh, so do you have any questions before I go into that?
Speaker 1 00:07:29 Jim, I'll jump into this real quick because being a part of this, I just, I wanted to give my impression a little bit, you know, I'm, I'm a part of, uh, a lot of different associations. I attend a lot of events, um, but I will say one thing that really struck me with, with LGA and getting involved there was really the focus on leadership. Um, and in that last statement you made and, and their value and build future leaders, um, that, that sells it for me, right. Uh, once, once I got involved and really got, you know, on, on ramp and realized who I was sitting next to and how passionate everyone was, the leadership part is really what struck me. Um, and so I just wanted to state that because from who used to be an outsider, you know, thankfully on the Bob now that that struck me, it let me know I was in the right place. I'm working with the right people. So just wanted to state that Jimmy will have
Speaker 3 00:08:28 No, I was going to say, um, I, I agree with that. And the quality Jeff of the events that the OTA puts on are unbelievable. I mean, they're, world-class, and especially when I've gone through them throughout the years, especially when you see that people are members, even from outside of the state of Oklahoma that have so much admiration and respect for the OTA organization, that they traveled a little bit of distance as a time to come to the organization. And one thing that you did mention that networking, you know, w we talk about that a lot, but when we really look at this industry and what we can do and what we have the ability to do and, and connecting the dots and helping people, you know, I may not have the right answer, but I might know a person that has the right answer. And that's where I really thrive on when people give me a call and say, Hey, do you know anybody that does this? So again, kudos to the OTA, Jeff, absolutely kudos on that.
Speaker 2 00:09:20 Well, and I'll just say this, I agree. We work really hard on putting together great content. That is not the professional staff that is, uh, board members who spend a lot of time. Uh I'm I'm not an operational fellow, I'm an association professional. I don't know what keeps our members awake at night. So I'm certainly willing to hear that and, and build sessions to, to help answer those questions. Again, it's the board, they're, they're very involved. They're very active, have a little shout out to Mr. Krause who was, whose fingerprints are all over our mission statements and core values, uh, came with some great thoughts. And again, that's what we're really all about. Uh, even just getting input from everybody involved.
Speaker 1 00:10:05 Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And, um, it's been fun to, to interact. Like I said, the people that makes a difference and, um, knowing that you're sitting next to the right people, helping to craft those messages is pavement enough, but I will take my, um, Jeff, you started to kind of go down the path of the, you know, annual conference and being involved. I know, you know, kind of the pivot that that is having to be made and, and, uh, kind of where our heads that as an association, but you want to fill in our viewers a little bit on, on what, what, what's, how it's going to look, how it's going to look a little bit different and, uh, how, uh, you know, what's going to be on that agenda a little bit.
Speaker 2 00:10:51 You bet. Well, you know, obviously I think we all agree. We would love to be in person that would always be our desired outcome. Um, we just have the Rona going on and there's simply too much uncertainty. And I think the big thing for us was saying, we are unwilling to have, uh, organizations bring their people in, that could leave in impact their operations. Um, and, and again, the board spent a lot of time talking about that. So we are going to do a two day virtual event. Um, I am taking a break from, uh, being on websites and, and, and go to webinars, setting things up. Uh, but we are, will be September one. We will start the morning with the president and CEO of the American gas association, a pretty big gift for us. We'll have Karen Harbert on the phone on, on a virtual session.
Speaker 2 00:11:39 She'll talk about the future of natural gas. Uh, then we'll talk about the mega rule overview of rule changes. Uh, here in Oklahoma, we have passed medical marijuana. So that's always interesting for safety sensitive. And that session is cannabis concerns about safety, cautionary, tales, and compliance issues for the oil and gas industry, all public awareness ways to get people to listen. We have some of our member organizations presenting that one drone use for gas systems. Obviously that's an interesting topic for, for pipeline inspections. We will have representative from the Oklahoma aeronautics commission joining us, and then we will finish out the day damage prevention for educating contractors. Now, let me just be really clear about this. We will set up a series of individual seminars. You do not have to register for the whole day. Uh, I would actually encourage anyone. Who's interested to go and register for all of them. Then we will get notifications and you'll get reminders, but come to one, come to, to come to all six, we would love to have you. That's awesome. Oh, James. Uh, can I, can I get you to do me a favor? Yes, sir. I forgot what the, what the rate is for the conference. Could you share that with us? Do you recall? Um, I can't find information on that. I'm not seeing any numbers. Oh, wait, wait, because there is no charge. There is no charge.
Speaker 3 00:13:08 Can you say that again? Because my little ears are, um, are we saying that it is a event that's going to be held complimentary
Speaker 2 00:13:15 Well, recognizing what's going on in the industry and in budgets and those kinds of things for attendees, there is zero charge. Okay. Okay. But if you remind me, but Jim, if you remind me, I'll be more than happy to talk about what we're doing for our sponsors.
Speaker 3 00:13:34 I would absolutely be interested in that. And I will have to say this though, that what a great thing that is, because again, a lot of people are struggling with budgets this year. A lot of people are struggling with the whole conference sessions, you know, making the pitch to the higher ups as to whether they should go or not. And if they can go and attend and see one session or three sessions or something, he gets some value out of it. Oh my goodness. It's so worthwhile. And, uh, and I, and I think it will, uh, probably expand to where people will say, Hey, come join me or, you know, log into this or register for this, check it out.
Speaker 2 00:14:09 Yeah. And, and part of our growth, a part of our goals are to get more people involved. So that's day one, day two. We will start with our annual meeting of the association. Uh, that'll be a virtual format. And I think our first session of day two, where we pivot from operations, we're going to pivot to the soft skills, leadership team, building customer service communications, the things that are, that are near and dear to me. And we start with Mr. Cross and some coworkers from UWN. Would you tell us a little bit about that? A little further to learn more about that? Uh, in fact, we, we provided a webinar. If you remember about
Speaker 1 00:14:52 Two weeks in to the pandemic, uh, we realized that a lot of folks and a lot of people in the industry were struggling a bit with the transition to, you know, a remote workforce, managing it, leading it, you know, being a part of it. So we put together a webinar to help people basically. Um, we use our own story because a lot of people may not know, uh, we transitioned in about half a day. We were ready on the ready. Um, I remember going in that day to the office and there were a little bit of rumblings. We had an executive leadership meeting and decided we were going to pivot completely to remote. And, and, and I say, half a day, I'm saying 100% remote. Majority of people went home and plugged in their computer. We're ready to go. Um, but we are 100% there on March 18th to full business from home.
Speaker 1 00:15:51 Um, a lot of that was forethought with our leadership and our tech awesome technology department. But another part of that was having fantastic tools and people that can execute it. And so, uh, we tell a little bit of our story. We break it up into really the people, the tools, and, um, also the project management side of it. And, and I think it helps people to understand number one, they're not in it alone. You know, now, man, we're kind of pros at it three months, then what are the, you know, good, bad and ugly. That's, we've made it through. So we'll, we'll be talking a little bit of that. It's myself, uh, VP of brand, um, Dr. Matt joining our VP of education and Myra myocyte, who is our executive VP. So all of us from EWM and we'll be telling that story. So I'm really pumped about that.
Speaker 2 00:16:44 So, James, I want to ask a follow-up question here, because it's the, the session is thrived the amidst chaos, a discussion of remote workers. So it could really, I imagine be any kind of chaos, but the particular chaos here was having to leave the office in a day and be ready to work out. So yeah,
Speaker 1 00:17:01 Absolutely. I mean, we're talking about the remote workforce, but these, these principles apply no matter what, and that's the big take away, you know, if you're, if you don't have that personal touch and you're not really clued into your, your team or teams of teams, then, um, you know, you're missing out number one, uh, these, these methodologies, when it comes to project management and the tools we were using, the reason we were transitioning so fast where all these things were in place without the chaos. Right? So the fact that we rolled into the chaos is gave us a catchy title if you will. Um, but yeah, it's a, it'll transcend, it'll work better when we're not in chaos. Um, but if you are, it does provide a path of least resistance. You bet. You bet. Well, and thank
Speaker 2 00:17:50 You for in advance for you and your team helping us out there. I, I, I know there'll be at least one registering for that and that'll be,
Speaker 1 00:17:58 Oh yeah. Be there. Okay, fine.
Speaker 2 00:18:01 Um, I'm talking about audience. Uh, so yeah, so our second session of the day, it was titled practicing, uh, for best practices on managing ambiguity in pandemic and unusual operating sessions. Here's where we're really looking for our membership to have a conversation. It's a panel, we've got a one Oak we've got to enable. We've got Oklahoma natural gas in the conversation. We also have a city manager from the city of Tuttle here in Oklahoma. We do still have some municipal sisters. So we'll hear their perspectives on what they did sort of operationally, but not. But I do imagine there'll be some, some leadership and navigating expectations of folks. Now we only have three real sessions on, on the second, and we have a really special guest to present the last one. And it's a session called leading people, not like you. And I believe because no one else has really like him. Uh, Jim showers going to do that for us. Jim, tell me about that one. I'm just curious as to what I can expect
Speaker 1 00:19:06 And it's swelling. I hope it can stay inside that little zoom box.
Speaker 3 00:19:11 Yeah. You know, I'm shy, timid, naive. I don't know if I can give a presentation
Speaker 1 00:19:18 Jimmy,
Speaker 3 00:19:21 Like 2000 hits on LinkedIn with my bingo card. I tell you, Jeff, you kind of hit it on the nail head that not too many people are like me, but when you look at our workforce, uh, you know, we are in the most diverse workforce we've ever had. And I personally have been a diversity advocate for decades and I'm passionate about it. And we have a lot of fun with this. I've given this a few times in the past and had some great reactions, some great interaction with the, uh, members of the audience. And one thing to really note now in our industry, the aging workforce. So a lot of times when we think of, uh, leading people, not like you, a lot of these times right now, it's people that are younger. You know, people that are coming into the gas industry that are in their young twenties, that, you know, they Google everything and they look this up and they searching where my generation were like, give me that book. I want to look it up. You know, I'm flipping through pages and such. So, um, it's a, it's a fun, interactive session. I can't, uh, I can't wait to give it. It'll be, it'll be a lot of fun. We have,
Speaker 2 00:20:24 We're excited. We're excited,
Speaker 1 00:20:26 Jim and I both, um, you know, crafted that presentation have given him multiple times at various events. And, uh, we continue to kind of hone in on it even even better and better. So no pressure Jimmy.
Speaker 2 00:20:39 Oh no, no pressure, no pressure.
Speaker 1 00:20:42 Jeff, it sounds like y'all have an awesome event. Um, planned is, is there anything else you
Speaker 3 00:20:48 Want to add about that other than the fact that it's complimentary? So anything else you want to add about that in particular?
Speaker 2 00:20:55 So, so for attendees, it's complimentary, um, we do have, we do have some sponsorship opportunities for company partners, um, and it's a really outrageous fee. So you all need to be sitting down for $150. Okay. Three digits. Um,
Speaker 3 00:21:15 Can I talk you down to one 49?
Speaker 2 00:21:18 Uh, I knew a guy. Um, so yeah, we're, we're, we're, we're looking at the 150, you know, we're going to, we're going to do some signage, some recognition throughout the event. Um, we are, we're coming fast and furious into the virtual world. And then we also onboarded or on ran something new our LinkedIn page. So for the 150, we're going to get some, some, some recognition on our website. We're going to do some LinkedIn promotions. We're going to do some things in conference and you'll get a list of the attendees. So, um, the, today on this date, I am fast and furiously trying to set up a website and try to set up a webinar. If my plan goes, according to where it's supposed to, which is 50 50 at best, hopefully our website www okay, gas.org. We'll be ready for registration when this video comes out 50 50, but again, we'll keep, we'll keep you up to date and we'll work on the LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 00:22:19 So I imagine once the information is out, James and Jim will send out to their, those zillions of people. So we'll move it that way. We're working as fast as we could. My preference would have been to be out last week or just learning something new. And it's both frustrating and really exciting because we've simply never done this, but we're, we've done about four practice sessions as a team. We're just trying to get all the things worked out before we roll it out to our members. So we don't put out something that we're not absolutely happy with.
Speaker 3 00:22:49 Let me just jumping real quick. Your, you just mentioned that you learned something new and I can't tell you how many times you hear people saying, Oh, I wish I could this or wish that, or Oh, woe was with me. And I didn't know, we're all struggling with a lot of these issues right now and trying to work our way through them. And as I always say, every day, there's always a bright spot. You know, something that we learned that look at me, for example, this whole zoom, you know, six months ago, James, go to say, do you want to get on a zoom? And I'm like, I have no idea what it is. And now it's, you know, just better fact. And those are the good things. Any more things with Jeff that you've learned from all this or anything else you want to share, some of the goodness that has come about of this time?
Speaker 2 00:23:36 Well, you know, I think for me, as I'm reminded every day, what I, what I'm allowed to do, what I, what I have the privilege of being able to do. So my days are, are, are, are, are 70, 50, 70, 40. I don't know what the numbers are. Some Yogi Berra math there, of course, but about a third, two thirds of my time is with the Oakland municipal Alliance and we serve municipal utilities. So I have the privilege of going out to small utilities, all over Oklahoma and some larger ones in doing some professional development work, where they get maybe a day of training. So for example, tomorrow I will be in Duncan, Oklahoma, and Frederick, Oklahoma talking about the motivation of how we motivate ourselves and self motivation. And then the day after I'll be an hour just talking about goal setting and dealing with difficult people.
Speaker 2 00:24:26 So it may be very similar to your conversation, but I think we're what I love about DOJ. And my OMA is, is this ongoing dialogue that I'm 53, 54 very soon. Uh, but there's still something new to learn there. There's something to, to, to take away from this. And even as I advanced personally and professionally, that there are good things to find there's, there's, there's how I showed up with my ideas of leadership. May not matter because there's a different way to think about this. Um, my favorite exercise about communication skills is I have a 16 year old son quiz take the trash out. George, is that an effective message?
Speaker 1 00:25:17 Well, Masa and Kelly, where do you want me to take it down? How do you want me to take it everything in between, right? Sure.
Speaker 2 00:25:28 So it's a very simple example guys. But my point is, is if we're in a leadership role, as we are as parents or supervisors or coworkers for me a lot often we'll pin on outcomes. So again, there's a lot of learning to be had. And I use this example in my training sessions and people go, well, of course it's a clear message,
Speaker 1 00:25:54 Right?
Speaker 2 00:25:57 Maybe, maybe if the trash goes out and it's a clear message on and James and James House.
Speaker 1 00:26:05 Yeah. Where did you take it? Well, I can already see my son, you know, he's watching this tablet as he picks up a piece of trash from his room and fix it outside and puts it in the outside. Dumpster comes back and was like, take it out. I mean that, uh, you know, that's not effective, but it reminds me of, if you remember on seven habits and they talk about, you know, he, he talks about teaching his son to take care of the grass, the yard, right. And it was green and clean. Those were the two parameters. Right. And, um, just drove it home. I want to green and I want to clean and filling in the gaps, you know, for him along the way. But Jeff, this is something that we've bonded on. You know, I told Jim right at the beginning, I go, I don't think that Jeff Guy likes me. I realize you weren't on the call the first time. So, uh, then, then once we got on a call and started talking the same language, and I think, you know, now we're Facebook, friends and Instagram and all that. So now we got a little more meat behind it. It's like, man, we basically out there streaming the same thing.
Speaker 1 00:27:12 You know, it's something I'm really passionate about with my teams. And, um, anybody I can talk to, I'm really passionate about the fact that you can lead from anywhere. You bet leadership is not a title, it's an action. And it doesn't matter where you sit, whether it's at home with your friends, with your church, with your industry, that there's a place for leadership all day long. And I also, the last thing I'll bring up with the fact that there's not a silver bullet on leadership is that it is a growing set of tools that we continue to grow and grow and grow. Uh, and if you think you've made it there, then you probably got a little bit of work to do too. So yeah, man, I love it. I love we can, we're going to have to have that Geoff where we just talk about this all day.
Speaker 1 00:27:59 We've had some other folks, if you haven't watched our episode from miss Cindy Mitchell from Southern gas association, she taught us about strength based leadership. Uh, that's an awesome one as well. We'll just have to have a group of nerds like us on one day where we just talk about leadership and what works and, and what we're excited about at any given time, because, um, man, I could speak for hours. We may have to get a longer zoom call for that. But Jeff has, as we talk about that and we begin to wrap this thing up today. Do you have any final thoughts for us or for our viewers?
Speaker 2 00:28:39 Well, I mean, you know, James right on, you know, you know, preach, I think it's about always trying to get better. Usually when I, when I hear somebody is like, I got it all figured out or I I've got it all worked out, that's usually a red flag for, for two things. Number one is I'm not going to be able to reach that person. Number two, that probably maybe something how much I want to, how much time I want to invest with that person. Um, in terms of the, the big panel discussion, you know, getting a handful of this on you're talking about hours, um, I'm all on board. I would try to figure out if we want to share that or not selfishly, that may be something we sort of keep
Speaker 1 00:29:14 Just therapy it's soft skills therapy.
Speaker 2 00:29:16 Absolutely. Absolutely. So, so again, just a couple of things to wrap up again, we have the OTA virtually annual conference, September one, September to be on the lookout for our registration information. And I cannot thank you guys enough of, you know, like I go back to meeting Jim in Tulsa and or, or in, in Norman, whatever it was, it, it was so impactful. I can't remember which one it was.
Speaker 3 00:29:43 I do remember, I do remember, uh, eating a PayWay in, in Tulsa and all of your work and then the opportunity to do this and all the insight you provide to our board. I do appreciate you. And of course, thank you for what energy rural net does for our association in the industry. Yeah, man, I appreciate it. Now. I want to thank you, you guys for letting me play, play him at world. Cause I'm, I'm on number one. I, uh, I guess maybe I'm an honorary, uh, Oklahoma. Was that a word that just make that up?
Speaker 3 00:30:22 I think maybe I'm honorary I'm so close, you know, I'm just right there and be there in 40 minutes. Um, but I appreciate you guys letting me, um, you know, be a voice there, uh, shoulder to shoulder with you all. Absolutely, sir, I can do it quite often. So it would be no problem here for Jeff on behalf of, uh, James and I, we just want to thank you so much. Uh, you know, our friendship has gone on for years and being able to bring James into the, into the mix that brings me a lot of happiness and brings a lot of happiness just to have you on the show today. So we just want to say thank you to that. You've enlightened us again. I would encourage folks to connect with not just James and I, but also Jeff on LinkedIn, reach out to Jeff too, about the conference. Again, no cost conference. I would highly attend anybody, uh, in the energy industry to attend that conference. It would be a fantastic event for yourself. So please do. Um, and I think with that, I think we'll get ready to sign off. Um, again, thank you all for watching. We will see you next time on another exciting edition of coffee with Jim and James. And until then, God bless you and God bless our industry and have a great day and stay safe. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye bye-bye.
