Thursday, February 24- Jim & James are in the recording studio to bring you the February Freestyle. Tune in to hear what they are up to this month.
Quick Links:
James Cross on Linkedin
Jim Schauer on Linkedin
Episode Transcript
[0:00] [music]
Jim Schauer: [0:24] Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this episode of “Coffee with Jim & James.” James, we are back. Studio D. D.
James Cross: [0:31] Live from Decatur. I mean, live recorded. I don’t know what that means.
Jim: [0:35] It’s exciting being back.
James: [0:37] It’s freestyle episode.
[0:38] [scratching noise]
Jim: [0:40] Let’s go.
James: [0:40] That was me scratching.
Jim: [0:41] Oh, boy. Don’t ever do that again.
James: [0:43] DJ style.
Jim: [0:45] [laughs]
James: [0:46] February is a crazy month.
Jim: [0:48] It is.
James: [0:48] Did we do one in January?
Jim: [0:51] I think we did one right around the holiday season.
James: [0:54] We called it good?
Jim: [0:55] Yeah. Things got busy. I’ve been swamped with TRACER, absolutely 200 miles an hour every day. It’s been an exciting time.
James: [1:05] We just recorded the TRACER episode.
Jim: [1:07] We did, not too long ago.
James: [1:09] 100th episode?
Jim: [1:10] Yep. We have a lot.
James: [1:12] Busy, busy, busy.
Jim: [1:12] You, though, sir, have been busy. I’ve been busy with TRACER, granted, and people have been seeing that, but you have been busy. There’s a couple updates I’d like to hear a little bit more about. Would you mind sharing that?
James: [1:29] I’ll start with the OGA Board. I’ve been involved with the OGA. I actually took that over for you when you relocated from Texas to Florida. I’ve been working closely with OGA, was a board advisor for a while, but actually got on the board in December, the end of last year, so really happy about that.
[1:51] Thank you to my OGA people over there, lots of great folks…
Jim: [1:56] Shoutout.
James: [1:55] doing good stuff over there, excited, making a difference.
[2:00] Jimmy, I know you’re doing something similar, but one of the commitments that I made this year, being in leadership, is I felt like I was spread a little too thin. That’s something that I feel like I picked up on during the pandemic was I had a lot of commitments out there.
[2:19] Something I brought to the table was should we pick a state‑level association or organization to really lean in to. For me, that was OGA. I’m 45 minutes from the Oklahoma border. We joke all the time. I’m basically in Oklahoma there…
Jim: [2:38] That is. You could admit that.
James: [2:40] OK. I’ve been working with them. Really excited to be on the board there. Excited to ‑‑ like I said ‑‑ work with really good people.
[2:50] [crosstalk]
Jim: [2:51] Yeah. Jeff, Jason, Tom.
James: [2:52] Tom. I love them.
Jim: [2:53] Yeah, they’re great.
James: [2:53] So many good folks. That was one thing.
Jim: [2:58] Drum roll.
[2:59] [drum roll]
James: [3:00] January 1 I was announced the Chief Culture Officer.
Jim: [3:05] I’m sorry. Say it one more time for me.
James: [3:07] Chief Culture Officer.
Jim: [3:08] Culture Officer. What does that mean, James? What does that mean to us?
James: [3:14] I’m still working on my elevator pitch a little bit. The way I explain it is more so than the title for me is the commitment of Energy Worldnet to its people and its culture.
Jim: [3:26] Definitely.
James: [3:27] If it shows anything, it’s saying that we take this seriously and so serious, Jim, that we put it at a corporate level, which means, as you know, we get money, we get a seat at the table, we get influence throughout the organization.
[3:48] I think that’s super important. We’re going to learn a lot this year on what that looks like and how it translates. So blessed.
Jim: [3:57] James, that your core of who you are as a person, and your passion, and purpose. When I think of chief culture officer, you come to mind. You really do.
James: [4:08] Thank you.
Jim: [4:09] Again, you’ve been living and breathing it, and it’s nice to see it come to… A hate to say formal, but more of a formal, organized type of path for you. It’s exciting. Can’t wait to see what you’re going to do this year.
[4:21] More will be coming on the show in regards to that.
James: [4:24] You bet. I think we’re going to kick off a culture series bringing some of our HR folks that we’ve met, some of our awesome HR folks here. Yeah, man. I’m so blessed, so humbled by it. Excited to get to work. Jimmy, you’ve been busy.
Jim: [4:42] I’ve been swamped. Absolutely swamped.
James: [4:44] I can see it on the shirt. See it on the swag.
Jim: [4:48] Stickers, everything.
James: [4:49] TRACER. The TRACER Asset Management that’s live. Check it out ewntracer.com.
Jim: [4:54] com.
James: [4:57] Lot of work went into this over the years. That’s your baby. How’s it feel to let the world see it?
Jim: [5:04] It’s wonderful.
James: [5:04] Bringing them in.
Jim: [5:05] We’ve done so much over the last 18, 24 months. Have it launched. Have the acceptance, and the interests, and all the interaction with the industry is just exciting. Again, you trust us with your people. Trust us with your assets. That’s what we came up with.
James: [5:19] Such a salesman. Say that again, Jimmy.
Jim: [5:22] You trust us with your people. Now trust us with your assets. Wait, let me give the…
[5:25] [clicking sound]
James: [5:27] That’s free of charge. Free of charge.
Jim: [5:30] It’s an important thing because we spend so much time. For close to three decades caring for people and their knowledge, skills, ability, training, education. Keeping the world a safer place to work. Making it a safer place to work.
[5:44] When you think about the assets, you want to give the same care to your assets, so it was a natural marriage. It’s great to be part of the EWN platform.
James: [5:53] Product launch was awesome.
Jim: [5:54] Yes, absolutely.
James: [5:55] Such a cool week. We’re actually in that week again in transparency here. We’re in the weekend, so the vibe is strong. We had awesome internal kickoff. Awesome external. We’re blessed.
Jim: [6:09] We are. Absolutely.
James: [6:11] Jimmy, it’s also travels season.
Jim: [6:14] Oh, God. I need to get in shape. AGA and SGA last year was tough.
James: [6:20] Somebody said round is a shape.
Jim: [6:22] [laughs] It is a shape. We need to get in our conference feet and length shape…
[6:27] [crosstalk]
James: [6:29] I can tell you based on my performance at AGA and SGA that I need to hit the gym, and I need better shoes.
Jim: [6:37] Yes, much better shoes. Insoles.
James: [6:39] My feet have been used to sitting and wearing flip‑flops for two years.
Jim: [6:44] That’s what I’ve been wearing. In Florida? Flip‑flops and Hey Dudes. Also, I put the boots back on. They barely fit.
James: [6:50] March kicks off. Big travel, right?
Jim: [6:52] Yes.
James: [6:53] I know. I’ve got some stuff early in the year in Oklahoma with my commitment there at Oklahoma. I’ll be speaking along with one of my colleagues, Kelsey Klingler. She’s been on the show if you know her. Director of safety and compliance. She will be speaking.
[7:10] We will be speaking alongside each other at the OKIE811 annual conference. Annual meeting, sorry. We’re going to be talking on laying foundational culture to ramp up a safety culture. Really cool.
Jim: [7:26] Yeah, that’s great.
James: [7:26] I love working with Kelsey. We’re going to be doing that together. Then, the following day I’m actually speaking one of the breakouts at the Oklahoma Excavation Safety Summit. Sorry.
Jim: [7:40] No, I think you’re right.
James: [7:42] I’ll be speaking there as well. Excited for that. Going to see our good friend MG over there. Also friend of the show. I’ll be getting there. I know you got some stuff coming out.
Jim: [7:56] Yeah. I kick off March. We go to Phoenix. We have the Global Excavation Safety Conference and Expo. Our friend, Scott Landis…
James: [8:05] Friend of the show.
Jim: [8:06] Friend of the show. Nick Temple will be there and so many more. I’m excited for that. Then, towards the end of the month, I have…
James: [8:15] Nick…Let me tell you something. Nick Temple is blowing up. Influencers. He’s got millions of clicks. This guy is blowing up. Shout out to him.
Jim: [8:26] DM him and give him a hard time.
[8:27] [crosstalk]
Jim: [8:28] Say that James told you to do so.
James: [8:30] He’s bigger than me.
[8:32] [crosstalk]
Jim: [8:33] Oh, my gosh. Look at SGA when we had him on the show. At that point, when we were live, it was you and me, and then Nick was like up to here.
James: [8:41] Towering behind us.
Jim: [8:43] Then, at the end of the month, I go to the FNGA, the Florida Natural Gas Association Board and Committee Meetings.
[8:49] Being that now, a Florida resident… Like what you did with Oklahoma, I’m really trying to get deep in the FNGA, and commit my time, and focus on it. It’s such a great organization.
James: [9:02] Are you hearing this, FNGA?
Jim: [9:04] They know. Shout out to Dale Calhoun and the whole team. That’s exciting. I’m excited to do that. Mid‑month…
James: [9:13] We’re going to be at Columbia, South Carolina, at the SGA Spring Conference & Expo. Lot of expos this year. We’re going to be bringing the show to that.
Jim: [9:24] Is this a little bit of a hint? That’s an exciting thing to know. We tested the water last year, right? AGA and SGA. I would say that should give people a little sneak peek that you’re probably going to see us a few times this year out live.
James: [9:42] You bet. We’ve talked a little bit about it, but we plan to visit about six or eight shows live with…I mean, you’re looking at it. This studio is something that we’ve put together to lean in again and bring a new wrinkle to what we’ve been doing.
[9:59] It’s weird to think that we’ve built this whole show on Zoom, basically. No free sponsors. Being able to take this on the road and deliver those shows while we’re there, that is our goal. We want to be the eyes and ears and bring that content back.
[10:15] We’ve set up some shows. We can’t go to all of them. We wish we could, but it does set a pace and give us an idea for the years to come.
Jim: [10:23] Absolutely. I’m excited. I’m absolutely excited.
James: [10:26] Jimmy…
Jim: [10:27] Sir, as always…
[10:29] [crosstalk]
James: [10:29] to do, man.
Jim: [10:29] being together in Studio D has been a high point once again. I appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
[10:36] Audience, thank you for tuning in. We will see you next week on “Coffee with Jim & James.” Everybody, take Care. Wait, do I get to dance out at the end? That’s awkward, isn’t it?
James: [10:46] It is weirder live.
Jim: [10:47] [laughs]
[10:47] [background music]