Live @ The Utility Safety Conference pt. 2

[00:00:22] Speaker A: Jimmy, sometimes we go places we capture so much. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Yes. [00:00:27] Speaker A: Right? Yes. Long form is only long form to a degree. And then it gets into where you should split it up. [00:00:35] Speaker C: I agree. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Yep. [00:00:36] Speaker A: So this is one of those events for us utility safety partners 40th anniversary and safety conference. [00:00:46] Speaker D: You learn it pretty quick. [00:00:50] Speaker A: We were able to capture so much from so many folks, so many key folks and people that. That have been a part of this organization for so long. In an effort to put out more, we're gonna split a little bit of that up. So here's some of the fantastic content we captured from all kinds of folks. [00:01:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:10] Speaker A: You know, people from all over. [00:01:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:13] Speaker E: Very all over the world. [00:01:14] Speaker A: I mean, really, we came all the way here and hung out with Lindsey. [00:01:18] Speaker E: Sander from Austin and Gull Lake. Gull Lake, Minnesota, and Austin, Texas. [00:01:24] Speaker D: What are we doing? So stick around. [00:01:27] Speaker A: We're going to bring some of those folks on live from Banff, Canada. Man, get your park out. [00:01:32] Speaker E: Let's do it. Let's get it in our long johns. [00:01:35] Speaker A: Hey, we'll be back. [00:01:37] Speaker D: But I just realized, and you said it when you walked up, it's coffee with Jim and James. And James. [00:01:44] Speaker C: Right. [00:01:44] Speaker B: Okay. [00:01:45] Speaker D: Which is a rare occurrence when there's three gyms and you go by James or James. [00:01:49] Speaker C: I go by James. [00:01:49] Speaker B: Oh. [00:01:50] Speaker D: So I don't trust Jim's. I don't know what it is. You know what I mean? I think we can all synergize. [00:01:55] Speaker C: My mom raised me as James, and so, for whatever reason, I'm James. [00:01:59] Speaker E: My mother. Judges, allegedly, and maybe prosecutors allegedly use James. [00:02:05] Speaker D: I don't know where you're going with that. I only know if I hear Jimmy, I'm in trouble. [00:02:11] Speaker E: Well, people call me Jimmy. [00:02:13] Speaker D: There's only one person that can call me Jimmy, and that's my wife. [00:02:16] Speaker E: And there's everybody in the industry. A lot of people call me Jimmy. So that's enough about this, though. How did you guys meet, though? [00:02:24] Speaker C: I followed you guys on LinkedIn a little bit and seen some of your. Listened to some of the podcasts. But I haven't met either of you until today. [00:02:32] Speaker B: Okay. So. [00:02:33] Speaker D: Okay, yeah, we. [00:02:34] Speaker C: When I say met, I said hello and shook his hand. We haven't really spoken at all. [00:02:38] Speaker D: Yeah, this is. We're all learning together. [00:02:40] Speaker B: Okay. [00:02:41] Speaker D: Who we do know. And, James, before we get too far down the road, do us a favor. Introduce yourself to the people back home who you're with. [00:02:49] Speaker C: My name is James Wingate. I'm the executive director at Underground Service Alert of northern California, Nevada, commonly known as USA North 811. We're the 811 contact center that covers the northern two thirds of California geographically and the entire state of Nevada. So it's about 20 million people. And which is the fourth largest population served for a one call center following Texas. Let's see, Texas, Florida, Southern California, and us. [00:03:32] Speaker E: Yeah, that's my home state. [00:03:35] Speaker C: Okay. And then geographically we have the fourth or third largest service territory following Alaska and Texas. And then it's us. [00:03:44] Speaker E: Oh, sure. [00:03:45] Speaker C: So we got a massive responsibility. As far as me personally, I'm from Utah, born and raised in Salt Lake City. I went to college at the University of Utah, where I did geography. Kind of a nerd about maps. And you'll hear that as we get going. And we like that. People who know me on, people who know me in the industry are like, oh, don't get that guy going because. [00:04:08] Speaker D: Oh, that's gonna tell us more about that. [00:04:10] Speaker C: Yeah, you know what? Let's, let's wait a second. I'll get there. [00:04:13] Speaker D: Okay. [00:04:14] Speaker C: I worked for the Utah 811 center for 17 years before I came to California a little less than seven years ago. So it's been a bit of a culture shock as far as coming from Salt Lake City to the San Francisco Bay Area, if you can read between the lines on that. But it's part of the Bay Area. Do you live in. [00:04:32] Speaker E: I used to work out there. [00:04:33] Speaker D: Okay. [00:04:33] Speaker C: So our call center is in Concord, and then I live in Brentwood, which is the farthest eastern suburb. The farther away from San Francisco you get, the more affordable it gets, at least relatively. So I live on the last suburb before you hit Central Valley. Rural. So by design, anyway. [00:04:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:55] Speaker C: So I worked for the Utah center for 17 years before I came here. During that time, I did go back to school again and got a master's degree at BYU, Brigham Young University in public administration. Thought I wanted to be a city manager for a while, but. [00:05:12] Speaker D: I served. [00:05:13] Speaker C: On a city council in my small city that I lived in and the planning commission before that and got a taste of that. And I do have a. I don't know, a need that wants to fill the public service role. And sometimes protecting underground utilities doesn't fill that entirely. So sometimes I dabble extracurricularly, I guess you might say. [00:05:38] Speaker F: Dabble. [00:05:38] Speaker E: His fingers went like this. [00:05:40] Speaker C: Yes, dabble. [00:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:42] Speaker C: So, but it's been, it's been great. You know, I feel very blessed. I have a great job, great team. You've had some, some of my team members on your show. [00:05:51] Speaker E: Ryan Wyatt, Ryan White. [00:05:52] Speaker C: Not sure if you've had Kalimiadeon. [00:05:53] Speaker D: I don't know that. Maybe an archive somewhere. Where would we have seen? [00:06:00] Speaker C: He's at CGA and GSE and all those events. Well, I mean, I don't know how. [00:06:05] Speaker G: Many people you are. [00:06:07] Speaker E: I think I met. I think we met at CGA and Irvine or Anaheim. Yeah, I thought. I think so. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:18] Speaker E: Right. [00:06:18] Speaker C: We did a booth down there that year. You'll. We're bringing a big wheel to the CGA conference this year. It's kind of like wheel of fortune wheel, but turn vertically and you spin it around for prizes and that kind of thing. So that'll be a kind of a fun back in Vegas. Right. [00:06:34] Speaker D: So you're out here in Banff for what reason? [00:06:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:39] Speaker E: What are you doing here? [00:06:40] Speaker C: It's an excellent question. Why am I in Canada? Well, you know, I wish I had time and travel funds to go. Go to every one call center's anniversary milestones as far as their 40th, 40th, 45th, 50th. But I don't. But this one is special because, you know, they've combined four provinces to the business rules aligned, which is a monumental task, to get multiple independent provinces or states in the US to do that. So I wanted to be supportive of that because now the geographic area they're covering is about the equivalent of half of the United States. It's enormous to do from Manitoba west. It's just unbelievable. But also, they use the same software we do, which is provided by Pelican Corp. And we're kind of in the process of forming a user group, and I just wanted to show some support and solidarity for that. So that's the main reason why I'm here. [00:07:41] Speaker E: It really is a great testament. I just wanted to bring something to attention to. We were talking with Mel, CEO from Australia. [00:07:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:47] Speaker E: And they did something to us in 2020, 2019, something like that. [00:07:51] Speaker H: Where they combined all six. [00:07:52] Speaker B: Yes. [00:07:53] Speaker E: Into one, too. [00:07:54] Speaker C: Into a national one. [00:07:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:55] Speaker C: Her presentation was fantastic. She is sharp as attack. [00:07:59] Speaker B: Yes. [00:08:00] Speaker C: They're gonna. Great things are gonna be happening in Australia. [00:08:03] Speaker D: So have you ever been to ma'am? [00:08:05] Speaker C: No. [00:08:06] Speaker B: This. [00:08:06] Speaker C: I've actually been to Vancouver once, and then I went to Calgary once to visit utility safety partners back when they were Alberta. One call a few years ago when we were getting ready to do the software change to see Mike's system in action. Mike and Sherrod. So that's my only other times to Canada. So this is my first time to Banff, and it is stunningly, stunningly beautiful. And I'm kicking myself because, you know, I brought my conference closed. I didn't bring hiking boots or cold weather gear, which I should have thought to do because I got. Wow. [00:08:42] Speaker A: I didn't. [00:08:43] Speaker E: I gotta park it. [00:08:44] Speaker C: I gotta park it. [00:08:44] Speaker E: But no, it is stunning. Have you been to Yosemite? I know we're getting off track. [00:08:49] Speaker C: Yes, I have. [00:08:50] Speaker E: So I was telling James, Yosemite in this. Very different, definitely, but again, some of the same. [00:08:56] Speaker C: The concept of massive, you're in a valley and then huge walls around you. [00:09:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that's similar. [00:09:01] Speaker C: Same with Zion. [00:09:02] Speaker D: If you've been to Zion in Utah, just the size and magnitude your brain can't comprehend. Very cool. What we're trying to motivate folks back home that maybe haven't ever been a part of this event or in particular or usb, you know, what would you say to them that might motivate them to come out? [00:09:23] Speaker C: What have you learned to come to Canada? [00:09:25] Speaker D: Well, come to this event or get involved with us. [00:09:28] Speaker C: It's a great question. So I think in the United States, we sometimes are victims of our own excellence, and it leads us to be arrogant and think that we know how to do everything better than every other country in the world. And I think that is a foolish thought for us to have. And so I think we need to keep an eye on what's happening in other parts of the world. Australia being a fantastic example, but also Canada, you know, they're doing a lot of good things, and they don't even have legislation. So what does that say about what you can do through the power of cooperation without having to have the threat of the big stick? So now that being said, you know, I'm about to go to session here in a little bit about legislation because they do recognize a need. And I was talking to a gentleman earlier today who is a locate. He works for a city, I won't. [00:10:28] Speaker H: Name the city, but he works for. [00:10:29] Speaker C: A small city here in Alberta, and he creates tickets for his crews to excavate on the water system. He receives tickets and locates. He is the only locator. And he also is supervising these crews that dig. And the city has almost 100,000 people. It's not like this is a really small town. [00:10:49] Speaker H: I was gonna say, is this like. [00:10:51] Speaker E: 200 people down on the side of the mountain? [00:10:53] Speaker B: Right. [00:10:53] Speaker C: I was just shocked that he only has one person. I said, so you report to. I said, you report to the public works director? He said, yes. He said, I usually get about 70 tickets a day. I said, there's no way you can reach 70. 70. And he said, he can on a good day, he can only get in the field to 20 of them. So he has to manually clear 50 tickets or send a map or contact them and say, hey, you know what? [00:11:18] Speaker H: I can't be there. [00:11:20] Speaker C: Right. And so he's having to do the screening that, you know, you guys had Jimmy on here many times and, you know, he'll talk about. He'll talk about, you know, we got to get out of the mentality of every ticket is equal. [00:11:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:33] Speaker C: And this is in practice when you only have one person to handle 70 tickets in a day, you're going to have to say, okay, that homeowner doing sprinklers. I have the city water line. It's down 4ft. I'm going to. I'm going to say, hey, sorry I can't be out there. But at least he does respond to everything, every single thing. So the excavator knows he's not coming. And then if they really have something to come up, here's my cell phone and things like that. But anyway, I'm kind of going on a tangent here, but I think it's important for us to learn what other countries are doing. And it's hard from a resources perspective, you know, how do you justify travel funds to go all over the world or whatever? I can't do that. But, you know, I'm from California, where, the most popular populous state. I feel a stewardship to the nation instead of just having my focus on only northern California, Nevada. I feel like I owe it to the nation as a larger stakeholder with 20 million people in the third largest area to be involved on a national level and a little bit international if it can benefit us. So that's kind of my thinking for why I'm here. [00:12:41] Speaker D: James, appreciate everything you do. [00:12:44] Speaker C: You're welcome. You guys want me just for that? All right, I'll talk to teacher another day. Yeah, I mean, let me just give you a teaser. [00:13:09] Speaker B: Okay. [00:13:10] Speaker C: If you look at the graph of ticket volume, it's going up. Up. Sure. Meanwhile, we have a trillion dollar federal infrastructure bill that's now starting to roll out. We've got, in fact, just today the White House released a press release about how much of it is going to water projects. And I forget the number, but it's in the billions. Never mind all the telecom stuff, which we're, which I'm sure you guys have talked about already, but now doing, we've determined as a society that it's a right for everyone to have high speed Internet. So now we're deploying that in mass quantity. So. But meanwhile we still have roughly a third of damages happening from no ticket across the nation. [00:13:49] Speaker D: Right. [00:13:49] Speaker C: So what happens when, as we preach called before, you dig when those people finally do. Meanwhile the locators can't keep up with the volume today. So what are we going to do when the avalanche is volume comes? Well in my opinion the answer is not to just hire more locators. They're having a hard time getting people in the trades. And no offense to the locators, and I mean this in all sincerity, but unfortunately there are a lot of locators who are. They don't get a lot of recognition. It's a somewhat thankless job as far as if you market properly, no points, you're expected to market properly. But if you don't, you know, catastrophic consequences. And the concept of the contract locators is a good concept except that now we're to the point where, you know, you've got one guy with 70 tickets in a day and it's just not realistic from a safety perspective. So my tease is that we've got to think about technology in terms of sharing maps and baby steps. We don't have to move to the australian model tomorrow. But what about we share with certain contractors that are vetted by DPI or some third party neutral accredited association to say hey, Jim's construction is legit so you can get this cut. And I mean I have contractors who say if you let me self locate I will assume the liability of locating because that risk to me is lower. You know, the burden of proof is on the excavator already. They cause it. They cut a line. They did the actual cutting. So the burden of proof is on them to prove why it wasn't their fault that they did the cut. Right? [00:15:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:28] Speaker C: So some of them. Some of the big excavators that I talked to say look it's already. I'm already having to prove it. So how about I'll take on that liability if you give me your maps immediately when I create the ticket, which we do through technology. And I can start digging immediately instead of having to wait for late tickets. So. So you have to get everyone to participate. So that's the challenge. But I really think that's the future and I think we'll get very cool. [00:15:53] Speaker E: And I think that's something really streamlined at. [00:15:57] Speaker H: So again they would be trained on. [00:15:59] Speaker E: The locating process or they would have. [00:16:00] Speaker H: People trained on that process. [00:16:02] Speaker C: Well a lot of big excavators have in house locators that come and follow up and double check the marks that locators put down. [00:16:09] Speaker D: So they're double checking anyways. [00:16:10] Speaker C: Well, not all contracts do that, but some do. Some who realize that, okay, I'm about to mobilize a crew with a lot of expensive equipment, and we cannot have downtime. So it's worth it for them to have another locator, their own locator, come and follow up and double check those marks. So it's being done a lot already. Now, you have to have agreements because, as you know, if you want to locate properly, that means you have to access the pertinences. And, you know, they don't normally have permission to unhook it, you know, get into a pedestal or get into a manhole. And there's. And now you got to vent the manhole. There's all kinds of safety risks, and so the lawyers will have to get involved to make that work. But I do think it's a win win where utility operator gives their map, and now that's one less ticket for them to worry about. They can concentrate on the other 69 tickets. But the one excavator is going to do it himself and he gets. It's a win win that way. So I do think that's a future, and that was a little more than a tease, but I can get into those baby steps. Well, yeah. How are you going to share those? Well, you got to trust your maps first. Well, how are we going to get to trust the maps and not that part I'll save for later because that one I can go on a while. Yeah, yeah. [00:17:16] Speaker F: Because what did we just mention? [00:17:18] Speaker E: Maps. [00:17:19] Speaker D: It's a hot topic. [00:17:24] Speaker E: So we're going to get together at CGA. [00:17:26] Speaker C: Sure. Well, I'll be at GSC, too, so. So whichever one you guys, Ashley and. [00:17:30] Speaker E: I will be there. I'll be at the Florida natural gas during that week. [00:17:34] Speaker C: Okay. So we could. If you want to do so, we can have all three. James is again, we could do CGA. It's fine. I'll be there, too. All right. [00:17:42] Speaker D: Hey, we'll be back. [00:17:45] Speaker E: This is a good. James and I were talking a couple weeks, though, about, you know, some of the people that we met on LinkedIn through LinkedIn, and now get to see them in person. That's, you know, no matter what, as soon as you see somebody in person, then going forward, that relationship has changed. [00:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Completely change. [00:18:03] Speaker D: Awesome. [00:18:04] Speaker E: Allegedly. [00:18:05] Speaker D: We'll see how it changes now. That's right. [00:18:11] Speaker E: Our followers went down by one. [00:18:16] Speaker D: Peace out. [00:18:18] Speaker B: So. [00:18:18] Speaker I: So, guys. [00:18:19] Speaker E: Yeah, we're here we're here in Banff. [00:18:20] Speaker B: Yes, sir. [00:18:21] Speaker I: In Canada. [00:18:21] Speaker B: Yes. [00:18:22] Speaker I: And I'm from British Columbia, which is the next province west of here. [00:18:26] Speaker E: I've been to Vancouver. [00:18:27] Speaker D: I love. [00:18:28] Speaker B: Yep. [00:18:29] Speaker E: A lot of admiration. [00:18:29] Speaker I: And so I'm from the Okanagan Valley, and there's the Okanagan lake there. And in the Okanagan, we have Ogopogo, which is British Columbia's version of the Loch Ness monster. [00:18:38] Speaker B: Oh. Oh, really? [00:18:39] Speaker E: I didn't. [00:18:40] Speaker B: Okay. [00:18:40] Speaker E: I'm so. [00:18:41] Speaker B: I saw you guys talking about cleaning. [00:18:43] Speaker E: Your travel bags out. [00:18:46] Speaker B: That's what I brought you a little. [00:18:51] Speaker D: You come all the way to Canada and you think you're not going to. [00:18:55] Speaker A: Know anybody, and they show up and. [00:18:56] Speaker D: They bring you presents. [00:18:58] Speaker E: That is absolute. Do I have to declare this when I go back home? [00:19:02] Speaker I: No, it's not worth. Not worth enough money for you to have to declare. [00:19:05] Speaker E: Okay, you're good. [00:19:08] Speaker D: I was going to have a custom shakedown tomorrow. [00:19:12] Speaker E: It wouldn't be my first time, allegedly. [00:19:14] Speaker C: I'll just say that. Exactly. [00:19:16] Speaker D: Well, thank you, sir. For those who don't know you, do us a favor. Introduce yourself and who you're with. So I'm with. [00:19:22] Speaker I: My name is Tony Milliken. I'm with the company called Project Resources Group. We do a lot of design work for cable and telecom. We also are highly focused. And the reason we're at these types of conferences is on damage recovery. So my three favorite guys, Bobby Baco, you guys. [00:19:42] Speaker E: There are two. [00:19:43] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah. [00:19:44] Speaker I: But you have, Bobby Baco, Eric Excavator, and Larry Lamborghini are three damagers in plant. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:19:54] Speaker I: So those are our guys. You know, Helen, homeowner, too, but we shouldn't pick on her too much. [00:19:58] Speaker B: No, no. [00:19:59] Speaker E: Let's take it easy on Helen. [00:20:00] Speaker I: Take it easy on Helen. So, you know, those are the pieces and why we're part of this conversation. And what we do is we're part of the recovery piece. [00:20:11] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. [00:20:12] Speaker I: So when you know, Larry Lamborghini runs over a telephone pole, an investigator will show up, have that conversation, do the investigation, pull locate reports. Well, Larry wouldn't have a locate report, but locate reports, police reports, fill out all the paperwork, get all of the damage information together, because that's half the problem. [00:20:32] Speaker E: Right. [00:20:33] Speaker I: The technician shows up, he just wants to fix stuff. [00:20:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:37] Speaker I: When I go back to my tools days, you just want to fix stuff. [00:20:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. [00:20:41] Speaker I: You got nine other calls on your passenger seat. [00:20:44] Speaker E: Yeah, that's one done. [00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:46] Speaker E: Check it off. Next. [00:20:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:48] Speaker I: You know, your kids, you got a volleyball game or whatever? It is that you're trying to piece together. You know, you want to have that. That move forward and getting your day done. [00:20:58] Speaker B: Right. [00:20:58] Speaker I: So by us coming up as an investigator, taking that off the technicians plate. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:03] Speaker I: That's where the value is right now. [00:21:05] Speaker B: That. [00:21:05] Speaker D: I knew that. But obviously it occurs, right? [00:21:08] Speaker A: I mean, that segment we. [00:21:10] Speaker D: That's part of what our mission is. [00:21:12] Speaker A: As a show is kind of from. [00:21:15] Speaker D: Front to back, painting in all the gaps that we can. So, selfishly, I've only been in natural gas as our world. Right. But underground utility, utility industry, period, for eight years. [00:21:29] Speaker A: Right? [00:21:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:29] Speaker D: And so it was a lot to try to figure out. And so what I used to do was come to shows like this million years ago. Right. We didn't have a podcast or anything. And I would go from Booth to booth. [00:21:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:43] Speaker A: Going, what are you guys doing? [00:21:47] Speaker D: And in my mind, I was painting that in. Right. And so to hear this, obviously it happens, right. And obviously there's a model around it, but I don't know that I've ever identified it. And so I'm smarter today because you. [00:22:02] Speaker I: Said, well, thank you. [00:22:06] Speaker D: Annie brings prizes, and then I'm gonna click. [00:22:10] Speaker E: I just saw Cliff threw me a second, but I'm gonna extend that, too. I've been in the industry just under 25 years, and I still find that every event, every time I talk to people, I pick up. If I say at least one thing, I'm being. I'm not giving enough credence to it. I am continually learning, and I think that's a great part of our industry. And again, if we can do what we're doing today, meet friends on LinkedIn, get together, have some more collaboration, and share that story where, as I always say, we help one person do one thing better, more productive, safer. [00:22:41] Speaker D: That was you helping me today. [00:22:43] Speaker B: Yeah. There you go. [00:22:44] Speaker E: Absolutely. [00:22:45] Speaker D: We are here in Banff. Awesome. [00:22:47] Speaker A: Of that beautiful place. [00:22:48] Speaker D: Have you been here before? [00:22:50] Speaker E: I was at. [00:22:51] Speaker I: In fact, my first conference was in Banff, and I won the draw at the end of that conference, and I went down to Phoenix because of the draw I won. And it was from Pelican, who I'm. [00:23:06] Speaker E: Sure we've had some conversations. [00:23:08] Speaker D: They were just on. [00:23:09] Speaker I: And so I won the trip, went down to Phoenix, and met the business development director from Project Resources Group. [00:23:18] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:23:19] Speaker I: And years later, he calls me up after COVID and says, hey, what are you doing now? I said, well, I don't work for the utility anymore. He goes, I know, that's why I'm calling you. So that's how you never know what a conversation you may have ten years down the road could turn around and do for you. So it's kind of cool that way. [00:23:42] Speaker B: Wow. [00:23:42] Speaker E: Very cool. [00:23:44] Speaker D: We're trying to paint in the value back home for the folks that have never been here. Right? [00:23:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:49] Speaker D: Beautiful place, no doubt. Right. Right at the foot of the Rockies here. But there's a lot of work that goes on here. How important is this event to those maybe that don't know? [00:24:01] Speaker H: Well, I think the. [00:24:02] Speaker I: The Alberta team, USP specifically, they do a great job. You know, I'm a bigger part of the British Columbia team. [00:24:11] Speaker D: Sure. [00:24:12] Speaker I: But we don't have near the support from the industry and the financial piece. [00:24:18] Speaker E: To be able to pull something like this. [00:24:20] Speaker I: Not that we wouldn't want. [00:24:21] Speaker D: Okay. We were just in the meeting. There was a lot going on at USP. [00:24:26] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. [00:24:28] Speaker D: And in all different ways. I mean, they're doing great. The numbers look great. They're trending. Right. Everything it seems like they're doing is great. [00:24:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:36] Speaker G: Now they're well organized. [00:24:37] Speaker F: They're a well oiled machine. [00:24:39] Speaker I: And they've been around for a long time. [00:24:41] Speaker E: I mean, 40 years for them to. [00:24:43] Speaker I: Have been, you know, in the game. [00:24:45] Speaker D: James wasn't. [00:24:46] Speaker E: James wasn't even born then. [00:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:49] Speaker D: Just kidding. [00:24:50] Speaker I: Well, I mean, I started in 1985 in damage prevention, but, you know, still, you know, didn't have. Don't have as much experience as what Alberta has from all that piece. [00:25:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:25:01] Speaker D: I want to ask you. You're saying that. So you've been in there 39 years and prevention there. [00:25:06] Speaker E: That's good math. [00:25:07] Speaker I: Because I wouldn't come up with. [00:25:08] Speaker G: Because we knew 84 was. [00:25:12] Speaker E: He's like a calculator. [00:25:14] Speaker B: There you go. [00:25:14] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:25:15] Speaker D: But I'd love to hear why damage prevention is so important. [00:25:20] Speaker B: Okay. [00:25:21] Speaker E: So. [00:25:23] Speaker I: I'm trying to. I'm trying to piece this together. So apologies to your team, but damage prevention is so important because you don't know the effect of what happens. So when I started in cable tv back in 19, if you turned a neighborhood off, it didn't matter. [00:25:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. [00:25:42] Speaker I: You could literally say nobody ever died because their cable tv was off. You can't say that anymore. [00:25:48] Speaker E: No, you can't. Right. [00:25:49] Speaker I: Grandma Falls. Can't push your fall button. [00:25:51] Speaker E: Yeah, absolutely. [00:25:53] Speaker I: No phone, no 911. [00:25:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:55] Speaker I: You know, and, you know, if you have teenagers, if their Internet's off, you're killing them. [00:25:59] Speaker B: That's a whole other story. [00:26:01] Speaker D: Yeah. That's where the real danger is. Shout out to Liam criminal minds episode. [00:26:09] Speaker E: If you know what I'm saying. [00:26:10] Speaker D: I don't see my. My children a lot until the Internet goes out. [00:26:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:16] Speaker D: Then they all come out of the bedrooms. The problem, dad. [00:26:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:20] Speaker D: No. So I intentionally disconnect the Internet so I can see. [00:26:24] Speaker E: Exactly. [00:26:25] Speaker D: That's a good point. Well, brother, so great to shake your hand. Seriously, for being a champion of the show and reaching out to us. I don't know how long this has been in the making, but it seems like we talked a while back and Kev continue to. [00:26:43] Speaker E: That's awesome. [00:26:43] Speaker D: It's always great. And thank you for. [00:26:46] Speaker B: Oh, wait. Oh. [00:26:47] Speaker D: Go pogo. Ogo pogo. Learn something new every day. Hey, we'll be back. James, where were we? [00:26:56] Speaker E: Were talking about our pre planning for the Banff utility safety partners 40th anniversary and safety conference. And our friend Mike reached out and. [00:27:06] Speaker C: Asked a very simple question of you and I. [00:27:09] Speaker E: Very simple question. Were we up for skiing and snowboarding? [00:27:14] Speaker D: And I think my reply was, I haven't snowboarded in 24 years. [00:27:18] Speaker E: I was checking my health insurance. Because once you see the mountains here. [00:27:23] Speaker D: Coleman telling Coleman that I tore my MCl and that I couldn't make the rest of the tour. Like, I don't even know what to say. Obviously we said no so far. He's still working on this, though. [00:27:37] Speaker H: Anytime anyone comes to town, if they're making a trip out of this, I, you know, I can't resist. [00:27:43] Speaker E: I have to invite them. [00:27:44] Speaker H: I mean, it's just good. You can't get enough of that crisp mountain arrow here, right? [00:27:49] Speaker D: No doubt. Yeah. Mike. Michael, for those that don't know you, do us a favor and introduce yourself to people back home. [00:27:56] Speaker E: Sure, sure. [00:27:57] Speaker H: My name is Michael Mayer. I'm the president of 3D Line locating. We operate out of Alberta here. Also British Columbia and Saskatchewan, primarily on the western side of Canada here. [00:28:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:11] Speaker H: We locate underground pipelines. We map them. We manage that. Underground infrastructure data, and we just give our clients solutions that they need. They tell us what they need and we give it to them. [00:28:21] Speaker D: So. [00:28:22] Speaker E: And I understand, if I'm correct, that part of your technology not only does everything you said, but also if they don't or can't, they prefer not to. [00:28:32] Speaker D: Use pace, you can do the same. [00:28:34] Speaker E: Thing from the outside without entering the pipe. Is that a correct statement? [00:28:38] Speaker H: Somewhat, yeah. We've got some. Some tools that we use. A screening process and that's what we call it. It is a screening process by all means what it is. It's a quick assessment to assess for stresses and pipeline. So if there's movement or a flood or things start moving on hillsides, any uneven terrain is a key area. Um, but in general, if there's stress corrosion, cracking or dents or dings or some previous mechanical damage that they know about, they can just call us, we deploy out there, go do the job in and out and get them a. [00:29:18] Speaker D: Stress report so they can make that. [00:29:20] Speaker H: Informed decision right away. [00:29:22] Speaker D: That's awesome. Yeah. So we are live here in Banff. [00:29:26] Speaker C: Yes, we are. [00:29:27] Speaker D: We came up just for you to do this interview first. One beautiful venue, beautiful hotel here at Fairmont Castle. Have you ever been to this event before? The utility safety partners? [00:29:43] Speaker H: With utility safety partners, we've been using utility safety partners since they were, well, since they were like 30 years. We've been so, so every, every time we lodged an inquiry to do our work for our clients, you know, it's our first call too, right. It's a lot of information and the people that are engaged in that process, when we need information, how else are we going to get it right? It's just that service to this province, I think, has been invaluable to the success of the province and the growth and the economic value of it is just. I don't know if it was really perceived to be that 30 or 40 years ago, but, man, just the value of that service is critical. We didn't have it, man. I don't think this province would be anywhere where it is without it. So lots of key stakeholders have made it a critical piece of what's going on up here. And sometimes we do things a little differently in Alberta, but I mean, it's been working and allegedly everyone's looking to improve. [00:30:52] Speaker D: Allegedly. Allegedly they might do things different here. No, that's great. We're trying to motivate some folks back home that maybe haven't been out to this event in particular. What would you say to them about whether they're going to come out or not? [00:31:10] Speaker H: If you're involved in the damage prevention industry anywhere in North America, this, events like this are key, critical. I mean, we're gonna meet people from all over North America here. Even Australia. Yeah, even Texas. [00:31:29] Speaker D: Texas, Florida. [00:31:31] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. [00:31:32] Speaker H: I was it, I was in, this was twelve or 13 years ago. I was in Australia. I had my business, I was working with them too. I seen how they were doing it years ago as well, and it was working. So, you know, when you're, when you're collaborating with countries that are looking forward, I mean. [00:31:49] Speaker D: Yeah, man, that's where the magic is. [00:31:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:51] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:31:52] Speaker D: Well, man, appreciate the invite. [00:31:54] Speaker E: Beautiful. Thank you, guys. [00:31:55] Speaker D: Who knows the week is young, brother. The week is young. [00:32:02] Speaker H: There's so much to do here, and it's snowy now, so you guys came. Beautiful. [00:32:07] Speaker D: It really is. Hey, we'll be back. I got a couple of pictures to show you before we get started. Yeah, that was. [00:32:18] Speaker E: We're gonna get into that, you know. [00:32:19] Speaker C: By the way, as we do. [00:32:20] Speaker E: Why don't you please first introduce yourself to the audience? Yeah. [00:32:24] Speaker F: Well, hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Cliff Middle. I'm a damage prevention ambassador and a spokesperson for Georgia 811. I'm very happy to be here today at the utility Safety Partners conference that we have here their 40th anniversary of being able to spread that awareness of damage prevention. So we're all here for a good common cause, right? [00:32:45] Speaker B: We are. [00:32:46] Speaker E: And that's the beautiful thing about coming to this, is because everybody does have that common cause, which is wonderful. And everybody has a few uniquenesses and. [00:32:54] Speaker C: Things that they like to hone in on. [00:32:56] Speaker E: But this cross collaboration that we've seen everywhere, you know, we just talked about cooking from Australia, which is where really, he's really concerned with overhead power lines. [00:33:04] Speaker C: Right. [00:33:04] Speaker D: Lon Wild World is who you're co presenting with tomorrow. [00:33:08] Speaker F: Yeah, we're gonna do a co presentation, Cookie and I. [00:33:11] Speaker C: Tomorrow. [00:33:11] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:33:12] Speaker D: Cookie's like a Internet star. [00:33:14] Speaker F: Yeah, he is. [00:33:15] Speaker B: He is. [00:33:15] Speaker D: He's very well known, by the way. I'm going by cupcake the whole rest of the show. [00:33:20] Speaker E: All right, cupcake. [00:33:21] Speaker A: We're manifesting it. [00:33:23] Speaker E: I like it. I have to tell you, Cliff, we're just coming on to the. To the recording out of the. To the podcast portion. But you shared with us your story from 1986, when you were a trades person and had a very serious incident. That's as far as I'll leave it up to you to please tell that story, because it blew me away. [00:33:44] Speaker F: Well, it's a shocking story, right? No pun intended. No pun intended. [00:33:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:33:49] Speaker F: So, going back to 1986, I was a young man working on a conservation kind of doing what all young guys do, you know, eager to work and climb up the food chain when it comes to construction. And I was a sponge. I wanted to learn a lot, and I was getting a lot from my mentors out there. And I was in the process of going through an apprenticeship program in plumbing. And one day, I was just doing a normal job out on the job site, and I was operating a jackhammer, and I ended up jackhammering into this concrete area, and I hit three underground power cables with 4160 volts. So I've got one heck of an electrical shock. So you can imagine with electricity, you know, we always say we can't see it, but I can guarantee you we can sure as heck feel it. I bet. And I remember this immediate jolt, and then it was out. Lights were out, completely gone. I didn't know what was happening. What ended up happening was, is I was a burned about 15% of my body. And as I slid back down into the ditch for the second time, my knees came in contact with a jackhammer, and that's where I suffered most of the damage. I had about a third of the knee compartment that was completely disintegrated on both my left and right leg, on my knee joints, and also, you know, electricity. You know, I always talk about burns, right? You could get burned, what, by fire, by chemicals? By electricity. And I guess sometimes we could get burned in relationships. [00:35:11] Speaker B: Right. [00:35:11] Speaker F: But we don't want to talk about that. [00:35:12] Speaker B: Those are the jokes. [00:35:14] Speaker F: But anyway, so I had these significant burns, and. And then I also had a cardiac arrest, but it was, you know, and that's one of the things that I like to talk about. And, you know, as we talked about it before. [00:35:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:24] Speaker F: You know, you know, where's my passion and where does it lie? Coming to a phenomenal damage prevention conference like we have here today, it's, you know, I always like to say, if I could touch one life, if I can inspire one person to be able to go out there and do the best that they can do and be able to be accountable and come home to their loved ones, I've done my job, and that's kind of how I equate all of this and how this all works out for me. So that's what my favorite thing is, is boots on the ground, right. Talking to the guys that are in the field, but also, at the same time, trying to really promote the importance of damage prevention. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Right. [00:35:58] Speaker F: We always have to make sure that perfect practice makes perfect. We always have to go out there and work on the fundamentals. And that's, you know, one of my primary loves in life is, if you may call it that, is to be able to go out there and inspire others to be the best that they can be. [00:36:12] Speaker E: And let me just ask you a quick follow up to that. After your accident, I know there was. [00:36:16] Speaker D: A very long time of rehabilitation, and. [00:36:19] Speaker E: Getting back to where you are, it probably took, I don't know, years, I would imagine. When did you get into this space? Was it right away, or did you. [00:36:28] Speaker C: Find yourself going back into the workforce. [00:36:30] Speaker E: And then come in? [00:36:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:31] Speaker F: Well, that's a great question. A long time. And also, I was never able to go back into the workforce. And I think that's where, you know, on a personal level and, you know, on a human growth level, a lot of us need a place of belonging to go to. And being a part in an apprenticeship program, I was very, you know, disappointed that I was never able to do that. One of the biggest issues was that after I had my accident, we often don't see. We see what happens to the victim in the accident, but we don't see what's underneath the water. Like in an iceberg, right? [00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:02] Speaker F: And my mom at that time had an enormous amount of weight put in her lap. I was at the risk of losing both of my legs. We were very fortunate that we were able to find this doctor up at UCLA. But, you know, ultimately, I got into physical therapy. I couldn't walk or do anything like that. I got into canoe paddling and I fell in love with it. I got into a new culture. It wasn't construction, but it was sport. And I ended up making the Olympic team in 1996 and then again in Sydney, Australia. And then I had the incredible honor of being able to carry the US flag at the opening ceremony at the Sydney Games. So it's a big tape. You know, it's a long time frame, but, you know, all of that kind of comes together. And then how I got back into damage prevention was once I retired for a the Olympics, I needed to find a place for myself. Even though I have a full time career as a vice president for a development company, I needed a place to go. And I think that natural bread and butter progression. I got introduced to the damage prevention industry back in 2012 with George Eastman one. And I love it. I just love being a part of the process. [00:38:09] Speaker E: Passion and purpose when they collide, that's. [00:38:11] Speaker C: What you have right there. [00:38:13] Speaker D: Doubt. Well, we are in Banff. Beautiful, beautiful Fairmont here at the utility safety partners event. Why? I know that you're on the agenda, but why is this event important to you? [00:38:27] Speaker F: Yeah, well, it's very important to me because anytime, anytime I have the opportunity to be able to go out there and promote damage prevention and spread the awareness. Like I said, it doesn't matter if there's one person in the room, 100 or a thousand. Just takes one person to be able to make a difference. Because we all have families. We want to make sure that our workers not only come to work healthy and safe, but also go back to their loved ones. And that's my mission in an opportunity like this, I always like to do it. And you can't get away from Banff, right? I mean, such a beautiful place. [00:39:04] Speaker D: Well, I appreciate you. Appreciate you and all the work. [00:39:08] Speaker F: You likewise, too. [00:39:09] Speaker D: I appreciate you having me here. [00:39:10] Speaker E: Absolutely. [00:39:11] Speaker C: Know what's below and call before you dig. [00:39:13] Speaker E: Exactly. [00:39:14] Speaker D: I can't wait to attend the session. [00:39:15] Speaker F: Look out. There we go. [00:39:17] Speaker D: Hey, we'll be back. [00:39:18] Speaker F: Thank you. [00:39:20] Speaker D: What I learned last week is you can program these red buttons here with, like, as a producer, I could have, like, clapping and. Oh, really? So be lucky. [00:39:31] Speaker B: Be lucky. [00:39:32] Speaker D: You've got a map. Womp, womp, womp. [00:39:35] Speaker E: I used to have little thing during COVID that had, like, sound machine. It was, like, battery operated. And that was one of them. Like, we'd be doing. [00:39:42] Speaker G: I'd be like, little red thing. [00:39:44] Speaker C: Yes, I have it. [00:39:45] Speaker G: Yeah, the fart noise. [00:39:46] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:39:48] Speaker D: They're all children. [00:39:49] Speaker G: There's, like $15 on there. It's in the one drawer. And every once in a while, when I go into that drawer to look for something, if I find it, yeah, it humors me the rest of the afternoon. [00:39:58] Speaker D: That was. [00:39:58] Speaker E: That was. That was an instrument. Zoom. [00:40:01] Speaker B: Yes. [00:40:03] Speaker E: Apparatus during COVID time. [00:40:06] Speaker D: It's good to laugh with new friends or old friends or. It's amazing. Wiley just walked off stage. [00:40:14] Speaker A: I feel like he got mobbed afterwards. [00:40:16] Speaker D: He was mobbed in a good way. [00:40:18] Speaker G: And ripped my coat off. [00:40:20] Speaker D: It was horrible. [00:40:21] Speaker A: I sat in on quite a bit of it. We snuck out right at the end. But I said, when you walked up, speaking my love language with safety culture, absolutely. [00:40:31] Speaker E: Without a doubt. [00:40:32] Speaker D: Definitely something we're passionate about. [00:40:34] Speaker A: Do us a favor. For those that may not know you. [00:40:36] Speaker D: Let everybody know who you are. [00:40:38] Speaker C: Sure. [00:40:39] Speaker A: What you do. [00:40:39] Speaker G: So my name is Wiley Davidson. I'm out of Buffalo, New York, and I'm a motivational safety speaker. I've been in the safety business for about 20 years, and at one point in my career, I just had an opportunity to go out and deliver a message that really made a difference. And so once COVID hit and things kind of went sideways for a while, I realized that that's what I. I should be doing, you know? So I put together the current message, leaving a safety legacy. And it is. It's just been catching fire, you know, every conference, every month. I was just chatting with Cliff Middle, who had presented earlier this week. He was like, you know, it's. It's such a nice message that it's. It's refreshing change to, you know what, maybe a lot of our audience members are used to. It's a different way of looking at it. [00:41:25] Speaker A: It was funny. [00:41:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:28] Speaker A: I'm a comedy guy. You won't know it because I'm not very funny, but just getting people started, especially that early in the morning. [00:41:35] Speaker G: You know how this party last night. [00:41:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:39] Speaker E: Some of our costumes, allegedly. [00:41:42] Speaker G: Yeah. No photos that never had. [00:41:45] Speaker D: So we're here in Banff. [00:41:47] Speaker A: I mean, come on. [00:41:49] Speaker D: Yeah, you said it during your presentation. Look out the window. [00:41:52] Speaker A: How blessed are we? [00:41:53] Speaker G: Yeah, yeah. You know, and I say that all the time. It's almost that old analogy. Like, you pinch yourself, right? You not only have an opportunity to do this for a living and go out there and make a difference in people's lives, but you get to travel to amazing parts of the country or the continent, you know, and I'm fortunate. This is my second time in the Banff area, but I tell you, I'd come back a hundred times because it's just beautiful. [00:42:15] Speaker A: It was our first time as a show, but also as people. Right? Yeah, it was pretty epic. [00:42:23] Speaker E: Very epic. So, blessed question for you. James and I were commenting, we're talking this morning about our, this portion of the industry, this damage prevention group, these folks like yourself. And we were commenting that the amount of people that want to talk and share and get on the microphone has been exemplary compared to some of the other conferences. People like, oh, no, I'm just an engineer, or I just do project or this or that. [00:42:47] Speaker D: We're here. [00:42:48] Speaker E: It seems like a lot of people want to share that message, and you're a great example of that. So I do have two questions for you. Is there a place that people can go see something online of the, again, the talk this morning or another one that's recorded somewhere? Because I think a lot of people gain great benefit from that. [00:43:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:07] Speaker G: Well, to answer that first question, obviously the web, you know, leavingasafetylegacy.com is your easiest way to find me. Again, Wiley Davidson. You type that in, there aren't too many Wiley Davidson's out there. So I'm sure it'll be another easy way to track me and catch up and just drop me a line. Say hello, and if you want to hear more information or, you know, book an event or whatever, or just chat, you know, if one thing you've noticed, I don't shut up. I'm always talking. So I'll talk to anybody. [00:43:32] Speaker B: You'll talk to us? [00:43:33] Speaker G: Yeah, I talk to you guys. [00:43:34] Speaker D: I'll talk to anybody. That's the truth. We're, we are trying to motivate people. [00:43:40] Speaker A: And, you know, a lot of people back home aren't blessed enough to get to come out. Right. Some people have to work and be. [00:43:48] Speaker D: Out there in the field and still. [00:43:49] Speaker A: Do that type of stuff. [00:43:50] Speaker B: Stuff. [00:43:50] Speaker A: Not that we're not working. [00:43:51] Speaker E: No, no, I know what you meant. [00:43:53] Speaker B: They don't have a lot of flexibility. [00:43:56] Speaker A: And I'll loop you into it, as well. [00:43:59] Speaker D: It's our jobs to create those echoes. Right. [00:44:01] Speaker A: I mean, yes, we come here, but. [00:44:03] Speaker D: There'S 361 more days in this year that all of this got has to keep going. [00:44:10] Speaker B: Right? [00:44:10] Speaker G: Right. [00:44:11] Speaker D: If you could grab one message from your keynote. Right. You just came on stage. [00:44:15] Speaker B: Sure. [00:44:16] Speaker A: What would you tell to the folks back home? [00:44:17] Speaker G: Well, there's two or three, really, I would say, pivot point moments in the presentation, but one of the ones I really like the most is, like, work. Like, your kids are watching. [00:44:26] Speaker B: Yes. [00:44:26] Speaker G: You know, there's. There's a lot of truth to that. [00:44:29] Speaker E: Right? [00:44:29] Speaker G: Like you said, you feel it here. You know? Cause you may not realize it, but somebody is taking cues from you, especially if you've been doing the job for a long time. And if you have that mindset that your child's watching, you're gonna work safer. You're gonna follow the rules a whole lot easier than you are, you know? Well, no one's watching, so I don't care. I can, you know, cut a corner or take a shortcut. And ultimately, when it comes down to it, you may be teaching your own child someday. You know, a lot of people in this industry, their sons and daughters come right up behind them, you know, learning. [00:44:59] Speaker C: From what they've done. [00:45:00] Speaker D: So. [00:45:00] Speaker E: Summer shower. [00:45:01] Speaker B: Yep. [00:45:01] Speaker C: My daughter. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Yep. Absolutely. [00:45:03] Speaker G: So if you could work like, your kids are watching, you know that. And, you know, like you said, the humor part, you know, don't make me call your mama. [00:45:09] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:45:09] Speaker D: I was about to say that was my takeaway, because that gave me cold chills just thinking what my mom would say. [00:45:15] Speaker G: But it's interesting how that flipped, right? Because initially it was a joke, hey, don't make me call your mama. But then when you make it personal. [00:45:21] Speaker D: You'Re like, oh, I took your two of that slide. [00:45:25] Speaker A: Because that was my takeaway. [00:45:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:28] Speaker A: I don't want nobody call my mom. [00:45:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:30] Speaker G: You know, there's. I always say there's, like, there's two sides to safety, right? There's the arts and the science, the sciences that do this. Plus this equals you don't get hurt. [00:45:39] Speaker B: Yep. [00:45:39] Speaker G: You know, and that's where a lot of the technical sessions that we go to, these events kind of catch up, but I'm more the other side. The arts, the fluffy cultural, can't really put a finger on it. Hit you in the fields kind of. And I'm finding that folks are really, really appreciating it, you know, and are walking away with not one takeaway, but multiple takeaways as a result. So if that's what you're shooting to do, you know, you can't ask for a better way to hit the target. [00:46:07] Speaker E: Just quick thing to build on that. James and I were talking about this recently that, again, with the next generation coming into the industry and us trying to be mentors and not mentors in a way, for myself, I want to explain to all the next generation all the mistakes that I've made. And again, you can learn so much on a textbook, a to b, b to c, c to D. But again, a lot of the next generation want to know the gray area, you know, what's in between, a to b. What did you. [00:46:33] Speaker D: What were you thinking? [00:46:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:33] Speaker E: What did you experience? What did you think? [00:46:36] Speaker G: There's a great relationship connection there, right? Because you have the veteran employee that's done it, right? They've got the scars to prove it, you know, and they have a lot to share with those young folks coming in. [00:46:48] Speaker B: We do. [00:46:49] Speaker D: Right? [00:46:49] Speaker G: We can teach and show and educate them. But on the other side, the young folks have a lot to offer as well. Right, because they were raised in a culture of safety, weren't they? [00:46:59] Speaker C: Right. [00:47:00] Speaker G: Bike helmets, knee pads. [00:47:01] Speaker B: Yes. [00:47:01] Speaker G: Child proofing them, that's nothing more than PPE and lockout tag out, you know? So the important part is that we need to share our experiences, and they need to teach us so that we can get to that common ground where we can get home to that table every night and, you know, continue to live that quality of life that we, you know, we shoot for. [00:47:20] Speaker E: Amen. [00:47:20] Speaker C: Awesome. [00:47:21] Speaker D: We can all rally around. [00:47:22] Speaker E: Thank you so much. [00:47:23] Speaker G: Appreciate you taking the time to let me talk some more. [00:47:26] Speaker D: You can. [00:47:26] Speaker E: Thank you for killing me, for sharing my spirit. [00:47:29] Speaker D: This is important. [00:47:30] Speaker G: We'll be. [00:47:33] Speaker A: Well, in case we aren't we always videoing? I feel like my entire life is just on video now. I feel like the Kardashians of natural gas. [00:47:41] Speaker E: Wow. Which one are you, Kim or Courtney? [00:47:45] Speaker A: You tell me. [00:47:46] Speaker E: Go, boy. I just leaves me with an interesting. [00:47:50] Speaker A: And that's such a dated comment now, I think, because what's the next one? [00:47:54] Speaker E: What's more relevant to. [00:47:56] Speaker A: To that James Kardashians to the eighties rock bash last night. [00:48:07] Speaker E: That was fun. That brought back a lot. I like that. It brought back a lot of memories. You know, when you start to hear music, does music and smells, they say, no, your sense of smell will trigger a lot of memories from your past. You know, like. [00:48:22] Speaker A: Well, we were just talking about a breakfast, right? I was eating some. [00:48:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:27] Speaker E: Some post. [00:48:28] Speaker A: Post toasties, I don't know, whatever column. [00:48:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Cornflakes. [00:48:32] Speaker B: Yes. [00:48:33] Speaker A: Plain cornflakes. Cold milk. Makes me think of my childhood grandparents house in Sweetwater, Texas. On the farm, they always had. They always had a gallon or, you know, a container of real milk. [00:48:48] Speaker E: Fresh milk. Yeah, from the cow. [00:48:50] Speaker A: From the cow in there. And it was so cold, and I can picture it perfectly. And I would eat that there and only there because no one else had cornflakes. Like, just. Who buys plain corn flakes, right? I think most people like Canada. [00:49:05] Speaker E: Well. Or most people buy them for, like, some sort of additive for, like, a hamburger meat. [00:49:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:49:11] Speaker D: I use them in my meatloaf. [00:49:12] Speaker A: No, but this morning, that brought back that memory. And I told Jimmy. But same thing. Right. Hades, last night, it was fun. [00:49:21] Speaker E: It was fun. Some of the people really went all out, I have to be honest with you. On my prep for this trip, knowing that we landed in Calgary and drove over, my thought process was gear, survival gear, in case the car went in the ditch or whatever. [00:49:36] Speaker A: Mine was rock and roll. [00:49:37] Speaker E: Yeah, well, so mine was much different. So last night, I was not prepared for anything as far as a costume. But that's all. But that's okay. I mean, it's. We still had a lot of fun. I mean, I lasted. I lasted pretty long for me. [00:49:51] Speaker A: Luckily, they had ice cream. [00:49:53] Speaker E: They did. [00:49:54] Speaker A: Cooler full of ice cream because I kept Jimmy going when really he probably should have been in bed. We're looking at pictures. I just pulled them out from last night. There was a photo booth in the front. [00:50:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:06] Speaker A: And one of the funniest moments to me was Whitney and Scott Landis. Well, let me backtrack a little bit further because we're standing in a circle of people just networking. [00:50:16] Speaker B: Right. [00:50:17] Speaker A: There's a band on stage, but we're in another area, just a little bit off, like, where they doing some other things, a little quieter. And we're standing in a semicircle with a few people. [00:50:27] Speaker B: Six or seven people. [00:50:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know these things. Sometimes people have their spouse with them, especially at a place like this. [00:50:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:35] Speaker A: So you. You don't know the circle you're in. [00:50:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:38] Speaker A: Everybody has a name. [00:50:39] Speaker D: Tag. [00:50:39] Speaker A: But sometimes they spin around, you know, whatever. And so we're standing there, and there's this taller guy, like, I mean, skin. Skin tight zebra pants. You know, the workout pants they used to have in the eighties. He's wearing, like, a shirt with a tattoo sleeves. [00:50:56] Speaker B: Yep. [00:50:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:57] Speaker D: You know, and a wig the way. [00:50:59] Speaker A: And it's very emotional. Right. It's like, hanging down his bangs and. [00:51:03] Speaker E: Like, it's a blonde wig. [00:51:05] Speaker A: Blonde wig. [00:51:06] Speaker E: And it looks almost like on David Lee Ross Slash. Who's the other guy that they were talking from? Twisted sister. [00:51:12] Speaker A: Almost like Warren or. Oh, yeah, yeah, I know. You're talking out. [00:51:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:14] Speaker E: Whoever that lead singer was. [00:51:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:17] Speaker A: And so we. We're in the circle, but that person's not talking. [00:51:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:23] Speaker A: So Jim and I are talking, and I'm sitting there, and after about five minutes, I realize that Scott Landis, because he said something. [00:51:32] Speaker D: Safety. Right. [00:51:33] Speaker A: And so who will be at the excavation safety conference, global coming up here in a couple weeks, which is really there, which probably by the time this airs, it'll be. [00:51:44] Speaker E: Yeah, that's Scott's and Whitney's premier. That's their conference, you know? [00:51:48] Speaker A: Absolutely. So Scott standing there, I don't even realize it's him. And that makes it funny. But Whitney pops over and like, hey, let's go take some pictures, which I have in front of us now. And the funniest moment, though, was it took. We took, what, probably four or five takes of this picture in a photo. And in a photo, Whitney. Whitney was dressed to the nines, like eighties, right. If you know Whitney, you know, she's does anything. She does it all the way. And she kept. All right, ready, guys. [00:52:19] Speaker D: She was so worried about all of. [00:52:20] Speaker A: Us being ready and in the picture. [00:52:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:52:23] Speaker A: That she kept not being ready because it would count down and then snap. Right. And so on the last second to the last one, she gets in a new spot. She, like, gets down and. Ready? Ready, go. [00:52:34] Speaker E: And us three are in a perfect spot already. [00:52:37] Speaker A: And the logo for this event, because it prints them out in front of them. And if we show video on this one, you'll see it, the logo, which. [00:52:47] Speaker E: Is superimposed afterwards, so she didn't know. [00:52:50] Speaker A: It was right smack dab in the middle of Whitney's face. And you talk about laughing, crying from laughing. So funny. [00:53:01] Speaker E: And again, that was like our fourth or fifth or 6th take. And the wonderful lady that was running the booth just kept printing those pictures. Like the first thing she kept going to and printing. No, no, no, don't print. [00:53:13] Speaker C: Don't print. [00:53:14] Speaker E: And then she just kept printing, printing. So we had, like, you know, twelve pictures over there. We got a. We did get a great one, though. [00:53:20] Speaker A: Yeah, we did. And. Well, and I kept the one with the logo on the face, which is common. [00:53:27] Speaker E: We got to. [00:53:28] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, fun of that. There was a band all night. Broken toys played. They were amazing. They were so fun, truthfully. [00:53:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:37] Speaker A: They rocked the house. Yeah. Cool. You know, that's something I love about the damage prevention community as a whole, is they always have these parties. I'm not a costume gadget. [00:53:50] Speaker E: No, I'm not either. [00:53:51] Speaker A: Like, last thing I want to do, I'll be honest to everyone. I'm letting you know now so you're not disappointed later. Yeah. That's not what I do as my wife. I'm not the one that goes, yeah, you know what I want to be for Halloween? [00:54:01] Speaker D: It's not me. [00:54:02] Speaker E: No. [00:54:03] Speaker A: But luckily I had a pink hoodie. [00:54:07] Speaker E: You fit right in. [00:54:08] Speaker A: It worked. And people said, that's a great costume. And I was like, I literally wore this yesterday. Like, not as a costume. [00:54:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:54:15] Speaker A: Like, over the top of something. [00:54:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:16] Speaker A: So it worked out, but really cool group. It's fun to see people have fun, and damage prevention tends to schedule it. And I think it says something about the community. We work hard and we play hard. [00:54:28] Speaker E: Yeah, well, absolutely. And, you know, getting back to energy world and one of our core values or one of our sayings is no reason. Yeah, no reason. It can't be fun. And we work very hard. I was just actually talking to somebody from FortisBC just a few minutes ago who actually follows us, you know, and talking with them. They're. They're like, you guys have been traveling all over. You must be exhausted. And they travel a lot, too, at Fortis, BC. Oh, they travel a lot. They're like this, you guys. [00:54:59] Speaker A: Well, just getting around Canada is a lot. [00:55:01] Speaker E: Yeah, definitely. [00:55:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:02] Speaker A: It's no different than us traveling across. You going to California as a hall. [00:55:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, definitely. [00:55:08] Speaker A: All those very, very great group here. [00:55:12] Speaker E: But it's fun seeing, though, in that respect. So how many people we've met in person up here that follow us on LinkedIn, let's just say. And we finally got to meet some of these folks in person, shake their hands. Tony, for instance. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Tony. Tony was so great. So, Tony, if you don't know him, Tony, how do you say? [00:55:29] Speaker E: Milkin? [00:55:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:31] Speaker E: Milliken. [00:55:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:32] Speaker A: We're probably screwing that up. [00:55:33] Speaker E: Yeah, we probably are. Sorry, Tony. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Tony shows up, who we've only met on LinkedIn. And he, he was so excited that we were gonna be here, and he brought us ogopogo. [00:55:43] Speaker B: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. [00:55:45] Speaker A: Essentially the canadian Loch Ness monster. [00:55:48] Speaker E: I had no idea. [00:55:48] Speaker D: Did you know I looked it up. [00:55:49] Speaker A: Some more last night because I wanted to get the name right, how they spelled it. So Ogopogo. And so there's a lake. I think it's Lake Ogopogo or something, you know? [00:55:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:55:59] Speaker A: I'm probably screwing that up, too. Tony, maybe you should tell the story. But he brought us little trinkets, little keychains with the ogopogo on there, which is really cool. [00:56:09] Speaker D: It's silly. [00:56:10] Speaker A: It probably cost him $3 a piece. [00:56:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:13] Speaker A: But someone that thought about us, welcomed us to Canada way with something that meant something to him. And he was such a good dude. [00:56:21] Speaker B: Oh. [00:56:21] Speaker A: Like, we saw him all week and, and he sat down, chat with us. He was on the show. [00:56:26] Speaker E: Positive, energetic, the kind of people optimistic. [00:56:30] Speaker D: Our industry is full of. Debbie Shelley stopped by. [00:56:33] Speaker A: Look at that photobombing in the back. So many great folks here. She was a rock star last night. Like, literally, I thought she was on stage at one point. [00:56:41] Speaker E: Oh, her costume was to the tens. [00:56:43] Speaker A: We sat down with her yesterday and she said, I said, I don't know if you remember. I said, hey, so this event's been going on for 40 years. We're celebrating 40 years. How long have you been here and embalmed? And she said, 40 years. [00:56:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:59] Speaker D: Which there's a lot of people like. [00:57:01] Speaker A: That, that we met, and that says a lot about our organization, too. [00:57:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:08] Speaker E: And we talked about it yesterday that really, the people that are truly in the safety, damage prevention, all encompassing world, for the most part, it's not an absolute, but for the most part, these people have a passion and a purpose for it. [00:57:23] Speaker A: So put here for a reason. [00:57:25] Speaker E: They are absolutely, and they stay here. And when you, when you, again, on our discussions with folks, we ask about the longevity. You know, some of the people that say, I'm new to it. I've only been in this role for seven years, but I love it. I'm new. Seven years. [00:57:38] Speaker A: That's me. [00:57:39] Speaker D: What are you talking about? I'm the new guy. [00:57:41] Speaker E: Well, you know, but again, when the pat, when you're passionate and your purpose collide, it's absolutely magical. And that's one thing I do want to comment, too, about. Like, you know, we were at DCA a couple weeks ago, or I shouldn't even say a couple weeks. It was literally last. [00:57:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:56] Speaker E: Ten days. Now we're at this one, in this conference. Do we know how many folks are here? 250 maybe. [00:58:01] Speaker A: Maybe. I thought it was more like 100. 5200. [00:58:03] Speaker E: Okay. [00:58:04] Speaker A: That's a small group and huge impact. [00:58:07] Speaker E: But yes, huge impact because the amount of people. [00:58:10] Speaker B: Okay. [00:58:11] Speaker E: That are here, but the amount of people that want to get on and share their stories and talk about their purpose into the damage prevention world is incredible. And so again, sometimes we've been to events that might have 700 people, but only 100 people want to talk. [00:58:27] Speaker D: We were really recording, truthfully, we recorded. [00:58:30] Speaker A: Some extra on the first day that we didn't expect to get in fast. Yeah, right. Yeah, we recorded all day yesterday. And, I mean, we're going to leave here. We're wrapping up this morning. We may grab a couple more, but we're going to leave here with 20 to 25 episodes with a group of 150 people. [00:58:47] Speaker E: Incredible. [00:58:48] Speaker A: You do that math of what percent that is. That's a pretty big percentage to have on the show. [00:58:52] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:58:53] Speaker A: Again, I think our damage prevention industry is more wired for awareness and engagement. Like, it's a big part of what we saw at home. We've always had better support. That sounds bad. Let me start over. We've always had better engagement at damage prevention events. We saw it early on when we went CGA, Texas 811, Louisiana 811. Yep, all of those. But it's because people are wired for it. It's part of damage prevention is awareness. And where we've got to get the word out there, trainers, they're speakers, they're advocates. There's. [00:59:33] Speaker E: But you just hit it, James. You just hit it. This whole industry is ready to give a presentation because what they do, they want to share with others, not just here with us, but the other 364 days out of the year, they want to go and travel to a muni or to a utility or to a pipeline or to a right of way and share the story. And so they're very used to telling stories and it's a very vocal, more so vocal. I actually learned that I was consciously incompetent. I didn't, I knew, I knew that. I didn't know how, how vocal they were. And it really continues to validate that. [01:00:09] Speaker A: Yeah. And then when we go out, and this isn't a jab at natural gas, but a lot of the times we go out to natural gas events that are, you know, specific natural gas, we're talking to a lot of the damage prevention people and natural gas that stopped by, I mean, and others. But what I mean is the more vocal folks are usually your pipeline safety people, your image prevention people, your, you. [01:00:37] Speaker E: Know, MG is a great example from Oklahoma. [01:00:41] Speaker A: Sure. [01:00:41] Speaker E: I mean, he outspoken all the time. You know, Steve Allen, Shane Thacker. Yeah. How about Jim Francis? [01:00:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:49] Speaker B: Jeff Weiss. [01:00:50] Speaker A: All those folks have a place in our industry, but a big part of what they do is awareness. [01:00:56] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:00:56] Speaker D: Safety culture. [01:00:57] Speaker A: A big part of that is awareness. Psms. Still, all of that has to be there. So, yeah, we, we like, we like damage prevention. [01:01:07] Speaker D: We really do. [01:01:08] Speaker E: We really do. [01:01:09] Speaker A: I do. I feel like I'm home here. I never feel, not that I do anywhere else, but everyone is great. So thankful to be involved here. [01:01:20] Speaker E: Mike Sullivan. [01:01:21] Speaker A: I was about to say, well, look. [01:01:23] Speaker E: At us, you know, Yin and yang. We're on the same thing for once. What do we, were we even out. [01:01:28] Speaker C: Of the car yet? [01:01:29] Speaker E: When Mike was at our car saying, hello, welcome to Canada. [01:01:32] Speaker A: And when we got here, he commented on my post last night. I don't know if you saw it, but such great words of support from him. And he was. So we thanked him for having us out and he thanked us. Him for coming out. [01:01:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:47] Speaker A: You know, he's like, dude, y'all made the hall, not me. You know that I think that says something. [01:01:54] Speaker D: And there's a lot of folks like. [01:01:55] Speaker A: That that came because Mike like what he's built here and others. But yeah, there are a lot of international people here. Who did we talk to this morning from. Go from Minnesota? [01:02:07] Speaker E: Oh, barb. [01:02:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:08] Speaker E: Yeah, barb. [01:02:09] Speaker A: From go for. [01:02:11] Speaker E: Go for 811. [01:02:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:12] Speaker E: My home state. Or wait, I should say one of. Oh, don't you know there. Yeah, sure. One of my old home states who. [01:02:19] Speaker A: They'Re presenting to today. And we, we name dropped Sam hall because they're, they're presenting on a mapping project they're doing. And, and we said, you know, we. [01:02:30] Speaker D: Were on a call with Sam hall. [01:02:31] Speaker A: The other day, and if your ears are ringing, Sam, there's someone else's as passionate as you, as maps. Oh, and it sounds like y'all are in touch because they're doing great things over here. And I love the cross pollination, the collaborative. We talked to James Wingate yesterday, USA north, and hearing him talk about why he comes here and why it's important that he runs the largest, you know, area. [01:03:01] Speaker D: Their group runs the largest area of coverage. Right. [01:03:04] Speaker A: With that. California. [01:03:05] Speaker E: In Nevada. [01:03:06] Speaker A: In Nevada, yep. And so forth. And so looking at the states or Providence. [01:03:13] Speaker E: Providence. [01:03:14] Speaker A: Providence is up here. And how much ground is covered by formerly Alberta, one call, but now USP, he wanted to share that knowledge like how that's the only scale that makes sense, right. His mistakes and his learning could be shared with the folks here at USP and that's why he's here and that. [01:03:35] Speaker E: Collaboration is amazing and a key word you just said there, mistakes. And actually I was talking to our friend Lori over there this morning and. [01:03:42] Speaker A: I said our new best friend, our. [01:03:43] Speaker E: New best friend Laurie. [01:03:44] Speaker D: Like step brothers. Yeah, he's like Chris McCabe, man. [01:03:47] Speaker E: Yeah, he is like Chris McCabe. [01:03:48] Speaker D: I don't know what it is. [01:03:49] Speaker E: Has a look and the same type of personnel, but he's, you know, he's newer into the outside field. And I said, listen, if you ever want to pick my brain about something I had the years and decades of mistakes and getting back to what you were just talking about, sharing mistakes, people are not afraid to open up here in regards to, okay, I. And a lot of people are like, I probably could have done it a better way. This is what I did, this is how it resulted. And maybe this way could have been better. And they're sharing that because. Yeah, it is our podcast. [01:04:22] Speaker C: It took us four seasons to. [01:04:24] Speaker A: Still taking us, right, well, four seasons. [01:04:26] Speaker E: To get to this level of badness. [01:04:28] Speaker B: Right. [01:04:30] Speaker A: We got, we got a wrap up here today and then we're going to slowly make our way back to Calgary. Taking a little bit more of the scenery. It's snowing today. We hope to be, you know, bluebird skies and be able to take some things in. But I don't know, Jimmy, like if you're going to be a banff in the winter, like this is the experience. [01:04:52] Speaker E: I would. [01:04:53] Speaker A: I love blue skies and I want to see all the mountains, but at the same time it's winter. It's what you expected it. [01:05:00] Speaker E: And you took me out. You, you forced me to get out. I was a curmudgeon. But we actually took a little bit of a hike and it wasn't that big, but we actually saw some beautiful scenery. [01:05:12] Speaker D: You know, but PP. [01:05:13] Speaker A: I mean our big old park is. [01:05:16] Speaker E: We're key our energy world. Net parkas work like a rapper. [01:05:19] Speaker A: Last night, like in my park. [01:05:21] Speaker E: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:05:23] Speaker A: This giant park of big hood. Yeah, yeah. Extra to one size too big. [01:05:28] Speaker E: But you know, hey, they, they're life saving. It's a life saving measure here. [01:05:34] Speaker A: But it was a long hike when you add all that and then the snow and attempts. Right, but was it but epic. [01:05:41] Speaker E: We saw a frozen waterfall area which again, you have to think about this. [01:05:46] Speaker A: Falls here at Banff. We just took that hike down from Fairmont Springs to bow falls. [01:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Epic. Epic. [01:05:54] Speaker E: Because again, really just the natural beauty and to see how nature, how it freezes. 90% of it on the top in the winter time, but still the water is flowing underneath and on one side. [01:06:06] Speaker A: Smalls out of it. [01:06:08] Speaker E: It was like a ten foot wide smalling spot. [01:06:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:13] Speaker E: You know, that gives you idea how enormous the falls are. Normally, I'd say 100, 150ft across, maybe. I don't know. [01:06:20] Speaker B: I'm just guessing. [01:06:21] Speaker A: In the last month, we've literally recorded the podcast and watched wells, you know, splashing out in the. Yeah, in the ocean. We've snorkeled. Whether you had a good experience. [01:06:35] Speaker E: Okay, we still did it. We still snorkeled in Hawaii. [01:06:38] Speaker A: And we sitting here at the foot of the Rockies, I mean, it really gives you perspective. We've spent a lot of time this week just sitting in the show. And what I mean is just being thankful for the work that we've done. Absolutely the work that put us here. And I think that's important too. You know, sometimes we get so busy and we're on to the next one. [01:07:02] Speaker D: And next week we're at Amp, and next week we're global, and next week. [01:07:05] Speaker A: You know, those types of things that we don't just sit in the show a little bit and take it in ourselves. [01:07:11] Speaker C: I agree. [01:07:12] Speaker A: Because we're too busy. [01:07:13] Speaker B: I agree. [01:07:13] Speaker A: But places like this make you pause just enough to say. [01:07:16] Speaker E: And we, and I do feel satisfied that we did take a few minutes to pause, you know, and we're going. [01:07:21] Speaker A: To take some more right on the way back. And then it's. It's back at it. [01:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:24] Speaker D: You get a couple of weeks off. [01:07:26] Speaker A: How you like the sometimes Ashley component? [01:07:29] Speaker B: I love it. [01:07:30] Speaker E: It's absolutely a great having Ashley being part of the team and willing to step in. She has so much going on in her life, too, but she has absolutely stepped up to the plate and says when applicable and when I can, I would love to. So she and you are going to amp in New Orleans, which again, I've been a amp. I've been to many amp over the years and had a lot of interaction with AMP and I'm a true understander and believer. I'm so glad that we as a team are going, you and Ashley, and I'm going to have to miss global excavation because we're doing some great things in Florida with the Florida Natural Gas Association, Finga, we have our spring summit. And this year, with the help of Stephen Mayfield from city of Tallahassee, who is now our president this year, we're no longer just doing a committee and board meetings for the spring, but we're adding in a day and a half of educational seminars. [01:08:20] Speaker A: Shout out. [01:08:21] Speaker E: So again, good work over there. These are not sales opportunities, vendor spotlights. These are. If you have something that can help somebody be safer, more productive, that. Those are the. And we have Brian Dressel coming in on AOC's. [01:08:35] Speaker B: We have. [01:08:36] Speaker E: We have Steve Allen coming in, psms. So we have two energy world net phones. [01:08:40] Speaker A: We're bringing the show there later in the year, right? [01:08:42] Speaker D: Is that correct? [01:08:44] Speaker E: We think so, yeah. No, we should. [01:08:46] Speaker D: Some way, shape or form. [01:08:48] Speaker E: Yeah. Coffee with Jim and James will be represented at the summer expo and symposium, which is the huge one in Cape Coral. I've been to go into that for, I'd say, well over a decade. [01:09:00] Speaker A: We need you a running mate while you're there. Yeah, but we can, or is actually going to that one. [01:09:06] Speaker D: We're going to figure that. [01:09:06] Speaker E: We're going to figure it out. [01:09:07] Speaker A: Don't hold us. [01:09:08] Speaker E: Dale. [01:09:08] Speaker A: Dale Calhoun, you know, we got you. [01:09:10] Speaker E: We got you. [01:09:11] Speaker A: We got you. [01:09:12] Speaker D: Very busy. [01:09:13] Speaker A: You mentioned Amp. Ashley and I will be sitting down with this. The CEO of AMP, fantastic, Alan Thomas, has agreed to sit down with us and talk about it. He's a busy man that week, as you can imagine. [01:09:26] Speaker E: Are you going to talk to our friend, Kimberly Joy? [01:09:28] Speaker A: I have. [01:09:29] Speaker D: I just reached out to her yesterday. [01:09:31] Speaker A: And let her know that we will be there. Kimberly Joy is the incoming chair, I guess. Will they pass the gavel at this thing? You know? I don't know. [01:09:39] Speaker E: I don't know. [01:09:40] Speaker D: I don't know if it's this or the next, you know, but either way, big deal. [01:09:45] Speaker A: We'll sit down with her. [01:09:46] Speaker D: She was so excited. Here we're going. [01:09:48] Speaker E: She's turned into a great friend of all of ours. [01:09:50] Speaker D: Absolutely. [01:09:51] Speaker A: And a champion of the show. [01:09:52] Speaker D: Jim Kunkel will be there, able to sync up with himself. He. [01:09:58] Speaker A: I was just on his podcast, Digital Revolution, talking about AI, so I'm excited to see him in person. [01:10:05] Speaker D: Never met him in person. [01:10:07] Speaker A: Talked to our good friends over at Mesa, at AI American Innovations. [01:10:11] Speaker D: I talked to Cole Finney yesterday. Cole, he said, stop by. [01:10:14] Speaker A: We're gonna have an airstream. [01:10:16] Speaker E: Oh, no kidding. [01:10:17] Speaker A: He goes, this is our big dog show. [01:10:19] Speaker D: No kidding. We're gonna be there interviewing people, I. [01:10:23] Speaker A: Think, just in the airstream. [01:10:26] Speaker E: That's awesome. [01:10:27] Speaker A: Yeah, we're gonna go mobile this time and amp. We're not gonna bring the big setup. [01:10:31] Speaker B: Okay. [01:10:31] Speaker A: So Ashley and I are gonna be. [01:10:33] Speaker E: Oh, that's perfect. [01:10:34] Speaker D: Yeah. We're wondering we don't really have a. [01:10:35] Speaker A: Home base so we're gonna make the whole thing perfect. [01:10:38] Speaker E: That's wonderful. [01:10:39] Speaker D: Global. [01:10:39] Speaker A: After that with Scott Landis and his group we'll see Whitney again. [01:10:42] Speaker E: You're gonna spend more time in New Orleans than I have. [01:10:45] Speaker D: You what? [01:10:46] Speaker A: We go almost back to back weeks. [01:10:48] Speaker D: Yeah, a couple weeks in between. [01:10:49] Speaker A: I skipped one. We got Okie eight one one. I'll be sliding over from that. From amp and Norman. [01:10:56] Speaker B: Yep. [01:10:56] Speaker A: And MG and I are doing the show from there which will be a new experience. Wonderful. Which I'm super excited about, you know MG he. I mean they have the podcast over there. [01:11:05] Speaker B: Yeah they do. Yeah. [01:11:07] Speaker A: And so that'll be fun. And I'm speaking there on claim your. [01:11:10] Speaker D: Seat at the table. [01:11:11] Speaker E: Wonderful. [01:11:12] Speaker D: One of our favorite rest is history. [01:11:14] Speaker A: We continue down the great north american road trip coming to a city near you. We're adding dates every day it seems like. [01:11:23] Speaker D: I don't know how we're gonna do it. It may be copy with Jim and James sometimes Ashley, sometimes MG sometimes fill. [01:11:30] Speaker A: In the blank and we might right. [01:11:32] Speaker E: We might have to and it's funny. Aren't my words coming to life? I'm like James, we have to prepare for the unexpected. Things are going to come out of the woodworks you know, no matter how much and the great opportunities and some of these we if they schedule wise can fit in. I mean that's wonderful that we can service Jimmy. [01:11:50] Speaker A: Not to tease too much. [01:11:52] Speaker E: Oh, please go ahead. [01:11:53] Speaker A: But we knew it. We said we wanted to get out in the filled this year. You said we want to go do some things and we have some of those scheduled as well with some good friends at some different spots. [01:12:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:04] Speaker A: Operators here and there that we're going to be able to see how they're doing things, get out there, learn a little bit more and that's that. [01:12:12] Speaker D: We haven't even made it to the. [01:12:13] Speaker A: Halfway point of the year in the schedule at this point. All of this is happening in Q one and Q two. [01:12:19] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. [01:12:22] Speaker E: And the things we're talking about are we're literally talking coast to coast. [01:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:27] Speaker A: I'll just gonna be epic. And we are. We are blessed. Thankful to be here. Thank you to Mike Sullivan and the crew here at USP Jay and Carolyn. How great was it to fellowship with them? [01:12:40] Speaker E: Wonderful. [01:12:40] Speaker D: Synergize. [01:12:41] Speaker A: We've always been champions of each other. Even before, you know, we acquired DPA we were so close, you know I feel like we were obviously I was. [01:12:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:52] Speaker A: And to be able to be here together and to be on their turf. And what I mean is, Jay and his dad really have done work here in this space, in this and what was formerly Alberta, one call and now USP. And sort of. It was neat to be with him in that realization. [01:13:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:13:14] Speaker E: Teary eyed, he was. [01:13:15] Speaker A: Almost got emotional just talking about him, getting emotional. [01:13:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:18] Speaker A: Him knowing that, you know, he's walking in those shoes, and that's a big deal. [01:13:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:23] Speaker E: Well, he said. He said he. He knows his father is looking down and is very proud of the work he's doing. [01:13:28] Speaker B: You okay? [01:13:29] Speaker A: I gave him a hug after. Man, I feel you right now. [01:13:32] Speaker D: That's. That's really cool, man. And so that helps us paint in. [01:13:35] Speaker A: That why of when somebody back home says, why were y'all in Banff? Yeah, a great vacation. Someone joked about that here recently. Look, we're not lost on it. We are so blessed. But, yeah, we're here for a reason, and Jay and Carolyn have built a path here with this group that we just basically were blessed to be able to walk down. [01:13:58] Speaker E: Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah, no, you've mentioned a vacation. I think I just have to say it. But, you know, we get down in the booth seven ish. [01:14:08] Speaker B: Okay. [01:14:09] Speaker E: Every morning, and if we get back up to the room, not even leaving the hotel at all during the day or the conference area or the event center, whatever. If we're at the room by 08:00 that's a good. A good day. You know, it could be 09:00 and you haven't even stepped outside of the area. You haven't seen, you know. [01:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:14:27] Speaker A: You haven't been. We left the hotel yesterday, you know. [01:14:30] Speaker D: For an hour on the hike. [01:14:31] Speaker A: For an hour. [01:14:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:14:33] Speaker E: And when I say, when I looked at it from my window, I'm like, we really hadn't walked. It seemed like we're walking forever. I'm like, we just walked to the edge of the property, or, you know what I'm saying, at the hotel. But, you know, we did take a few minutes, so. [01:14:46] Speaker A: So great show, Jimmy, as always. Lots of great things happening up here. On to the next one. We've missed our counterpart, Ashley. Shout out to keeping it all together. [01:14:58] Speaker D: She's trying to get us all lined. [01:14:59] Speaker A: Up so we can hit the next events hard. [01:15:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:04] Speaker A: Sometimes Ashley is being more like Ashley. [01:15:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah. [01:15:08] Speaker A: She's very less, a lot less sometimes and a lot more all the time here lately. So shout out to her. [01:15:18] Speaker E: Huge shout out. Are you kidding me? [01:15:20] Speaker A: The whole team back home. [01:15:21] Speaker D: Yeah. Always with you. Appreciate you. [01:15:25] Speaker A: And appreciate you, brother. [01:15:26] Speaker D: See you down the road. Absolutely.