Tuesday, June 21- In part two, Chuck Compton, Bobby Franklin, Monica Simpson, and others joined Jim & James Live at the TGA O&M Conference.
Quick Links:
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Episode Transcript
[0:00] [music]
[0:23] Jim Schauer: James, we are back. Day three of TGA.
[0:25] James Cross: Final day.
Jim: [0:28] Is it really final? Is this it?
James: [0:29] It is for me. I don’t know what you’re doing.
Jim: [0:31] I might stick around for another day.
James: [0:32] Yeah.
Jim: [0:33] We have to travel this Sunday.
James: [0:35] I’m going to get back so I can wash all my clothes, so I can get ready.
Jim: [0:38] I’m not washing them. I’m just kidding.
James: [0:40] Febreeze it.
Jim: [0:42] No, everything’s going to the dry cleaner, we’ll be back in shape. What do you think of the conference? What do you…
James: [0:47] It’s good. I think I’m getting back in conference shape.
Jim: [0:49] It’s a lot. The biggest takeaway I have from here is that, we haven’t seen a lot of these folks in three years since 2019. We immediately…
James: [0:59] Where we left off.
Jim: [1:00] Like we didn’t even miss a beat. It was wonderful.
James: [1:03] It’s good to see a lot of smiling face. A lot of our friends, a lot of our enemies. No, just kidding. I’m just kidding. That was a joke.
Jim: [1:10] That was a joke.
James: [1:11] A lot of new friends.
Jim: [1:12] Absolutely, new faces in the industry.
James: [1:14] Something that we mentioned last time we were together, but I saw it again here and I guess, being Texas, you hit a lot closer to home, but all the young faces in the industry. This is our people saying, they’ve been here six months, eight months. That’s what we need.
Jim: [1:32] That’s exciting too because we’re…
James: [1:33] Youth.
Jim: [1:34] We’re talking about the aging workforce, where over the last eight years it’s been very concerning that so many people are retiring and now we’re getting some more, the next generation coming out of school.
[1:44] Coming out of trade schools, coming out of colleges and joining us which is wonderful.
James: [1:48] It’s pretty like day to day, we’re wrapping up. We’re grabbing a few people and then we’re going to shut this thing down.
Jim: [1:55] I like it. Brother as always…
James: [1:57] We’re going to be live.
Jim: [1:59] Aggressive.
James: [1:59] We’re live.
Jim: [2:00] All right.
James: [2:00] We’ll be back.
Jim: [2:01] We’ll be back. We are back day three. James, it is…What’s my term? Bevy. It’s a bevy of people here.
James: [2:09] Do you know what bevy means, Bill?
Bill: [2:10]Never heard it.
Jim: [2:11] Don’t worry about it. It’s in my world. As long as I’m happy with it, we’re good. Our new friend, Bill, we just met Bill today. Bill, please introduce yourself to the audience.
Bill: [2:23]I’m Bill Manning with Grubb & Associates. My territory is West Texas.
Jim: [2:28] Whoa, whoa.
James: [2:29] I’m from West Texas.
Bill: [2:31]West Taxes.
James: [2:32] Do you live in West Texas?
Bill: [2:33] Amarillo.
James: [2:34] Is that in West Texas?
Jim: [2:36] No, that’s Northern Texas, but we’re going to get through here, brother.
James: [2:39] I grew up in the Midland‑Odessa area in the primary. I grew up in Andrews, Texas, so just down the road. Man, good deal. What do you do?
Bill: [2:48]I’m a territory manager for Graham and Associates.
James: [2:51] Got it.
Bill: [2:52]We deal with the West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. It’s my territory.
Jim: [3:00] Who’s the people that you call on in those areas?
Bill: [3:03]You have Atmos with Texas Gas.
Jim: [3:06] Nicky Palmer was just on the show, Becky’s president.
James: [3:10] [inaudible] to the show.
Jim: [3:12] West Texas Gas, who in New Mexico?
Bill: [3:14]New Mexico Gas, Los Alamos, County of.
James: [3:20] Fine.
Jim: [3:21] Good.
Bill: [3:21]Just really starting to move into Arizona.
James: [3:24] Opportunity.
Jim: [3:26] I like that. Let me ask you a question, P12 pipe, we’ve had some conversations in the past, is that in your world too? Is it P12?
James: [3:33] PA12.
Bill: [3:33]PA12.
Jim: [3:34] I like it.
Bill: [3:35] It is a new product. It’s starting to take off.
Jim: [3:41] The biggest thing that I remember that instead of having a MAOP of 99 PSI, PA12 as I was corrected, I think it’s over 200, correct?
Bill: [3:50]250.
Jim: [3:50] See I did remember something. I was there. That’s huge for a grid. That’s a thing.
James: [3:55] We had the Evonik guys on talking about PA12 back in the day.
Jim: [3:59] Yep.
James: [3:59] Remember that show?
Jim: [4:01] Yeah.
James: [4:01] Well, how’s TGA been this week?
Bill: [4:03]It’s a lot of neat people. You get to meet a lot of good people there. I enjoy getting to visit with them. It’s not about just showing your product, but it’s about creating friendships.
Jim: [4:17] It is. Amen. We were talking on some personal things about land and such like that. Legacy, land and friendships are the one thing that keeps on going in.
Bill: [4:28]Absolutely.
[4:28] Jimmy We just met really today, but I can guarantee you the next time we see each other, it’ll be a handshake and a hug, a man hug that is, so anyways…
James: [4:36] Hey, we’ll be right back.
Jim: [4:38] Great. Thanks Bill.
Bill: [4:38]Thank you.
Jim: [4:39] Appreciate it too. See around. James, the river of people just does not end. I know our good buddy Chuck Compton wanted to get on. We kept asking him and every time I look over there, he’s on the phone.
James: [4:53] River pun…
Jim: [4:54] I did use a river pun.
James: [4:56] because we’re in Bronzeville.
Jim: [4:56] You see what I did right there? Chuck, good to have you stopping by. Thank you friend.
Chuck Compton: [5:00]Good to see you guys.
James: [5:01] Looking great.
Jim: [5:01] Chuck and I have been buddies, friends, good friends, texting friends for years. We’ve known each other a long time. Thank you for stopping by Chuck.
Chuck: [5:09]Appreciate it
Jim: [5:09] Would you please tell the audience name, what you do for Magnolia…? I kind of let that out of the net. Go ahead, introduce yourself, elevator speech.
Chuck: [5:17] My name’s Chuck Compton, Magnolia River. I’m in the PD group. I’m an account manager at 10 shows. I travel, my territory is really the whole United States. I help out the newer guys that we hire in the BD Group. I help manage a few GIS projects here and there. I help with the inspection group.
[5:36] Been with the company 19 years now, so I’ve been around the horn a little bit. So I kind of help wherever I’m needed at.
Jim: [5:43] He is a wealth of information, and I would say industry champion.
James: [5:46] Absolutely.
Chuck: [5:47]I don’t know about champion.
Jim: [5:48] We’re going to use the term champion. I like it.
James: [5:51] Chuck, I don’t know how much you’ve been out since we were talking here at TGA. We haven’t been together as TGA in three years. How’s it been, being back out with these folks and just in general?
Chuck: [6:04]Been great. Been a great show. I took my first airline flight Sunday. First time I’ve been on a plane in three years.
Jim: [6:10] Is that right?
Chuck: [6:11]Yeah, it was…
James: [6:12] Surreal.
Jim: [6:13] It was a little weird at the airport, wasn’t it?
Chuck: [6:15]Yeah, it was different. It was different getting through checkout. I found out I lost my A‑list preferred status, so instead of being the second one on the plane, I was like the last person on the plane.
James: [6:24] Welcome to our world.
Jim: [6:25] Yeah, welcome to all of our world.
Chuck: [6:28] I’m sure all of y’all hold status.
Jim: [6:30] No, status all really dropped.
James: [6:32] We used to.
Jim: [6:34] We’re building it back up. We’re getting back. We’re getting our conference legs.
James: [6:36] We were just saying we’re trying to get in conference shape again.
Chuck: [6:40]Yeah, this is the third. I went to the Mississippi show and the LGA show, and they were relatively well attended, but I was really…They had a pretty good crowd for the TGA. [inaudible] booth traffic, and great to catch up with folks I hadn’t seen in two or three years.
James: [6:56] You heading to SGA next week, or do you get to skip that one?
Chuck: [7:01]I’m not going to that one. I’m traveling somewhere next week. I have to look at my calendar.
Jim: [7:05] You going to ANGA, down in Orlando?
James: [7:07] We love all associations equally here.
Jim: [7:09] Love all, serve all, right? What is that, like Hard Rock says that? Love all, or something like that.
Chuck: [7:18]I think my next one’s LGA, down in New Orleans.
Jim: [7:22] Pipeline Safety Conference?
Chuck: [7:23]Yeah.
James: [7:24] We’ll see you there.
Chuck: [7:26] That’ll be a big one. Looking forward to that one.
James: [7:18] Chuck, good to see you, man.
Chuck: [7:20] Appreciate you guys.
Chuck: [7:22] See you later.
Jim: [7:24] I’m glad to call you my friend.
Chuck: [7:26] Me too.
Jim: [7:28] Thank you, sir. James, no river pun this time, but we do have a lot of friends coming over to us. A long‑term friend, we haven’t seen each other since 2018. We were just trying to figure it out. It was New Orleans Crowne Plaza, never speak of it again.
James: [7:47] Never speak of it again.
Jim: [7:48] Michael, good to see you.
Michael: [7:49]Good to see you, Jim.
Jim: [7:50] You doing all right?
Michael: [7:51] I’m well.
James: [7:52] Nice to meet you, Michael. Welcome to the show.
Jim: [7:53] Please introduce yourself to the audience and let them know what you do.
Michael: [7:57] I’m with JM Test out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Basically, we’re a company that hangs our hat on calibration and electrical safety calibrations, processed calibration, just trying to keep people safe and the planet environments or…
James: [8:19] We can get behind that.
Jim: [8:21] It almost sounds like TRACER could fit into your world because TRACER manages calibration records for assets out in the field. See what I just did?
Michael: [8:31]Imagine that.
James: [8:32] Y’all have…
Michael: [8:33]You made a one‑and‑a‑half‑minute presentation earlier in the week on that.
James: [8:37] Boom.
Jim: [8:37] I might have, 90 seconds…
Jim: [8:38] and I barely could talk except to say hi.
Michael: [8:42] …ran off the stage.
Jim: [8:41] I did.
James: [8:42] Michael, we don’t know how long you’ve been out, but we’ve been asking everybody when they come on how it’s been being here at TGA. Again, I don’t know how long of a hiatus you might’ve been on out there in the conference world. For some people, this is their first time back and seeing each other. How’s it been for you?
[8:58] Michael: I fit that mold as well. It’s been a while, like you say, back to 2018. Previous to that, I was with one of the gas operators, so it’s been a long, dry spell. I’m ready for some hydration.
Jim: [9:17] There we go.
Jim: [9:19] Where are you going next? What’s your next conference? You going to be at SGA next week?
Michael: [9:22]Yes, we will have a presence at SGA, so maybe we can…
James: [9:27] Cool. We’ll see you there, then.
Michael: [9:28] You bet. We’ll have some more dialogue about that business arrangement.
James: [9:32] You saw it here first.
Jim: [9:35] You said it. Let’s do it.
Jim: [9:37] I like it. Good seeing you, brother.
Michael: [9:39] I appreciate you guys.
James: [9:41] Michael, thanks you for stopping by.
Jim: [9:40] Thank you.
Jim: [9:41] James?
James: [9:43] A bevy.
Jim: [9:44] I love it. It’s passing on.
Jim: [9:46] I’m starting to rub off on people.
James: [9:48] Not really.
Jim: [9:48] We just actually met a new friend in the industry, Mr. Bobby Franklin.
James: [9:52] Hot topic.
Jim: [9:53] Good to meet you.
James: [9:54] All the rage, all the news.
Bobby: [9:56] It’s a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Jim: [9:56] Please introduce yourself to the audience.
Jim: [9:58] Tell them what you do.
Bobby: [10:00] Hey, guys. Bobby Franklin here. I’m with a company called ZEVAC. I’m a sales engineer for our Southern region, which is Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, a little bit of southern Mississippi. What we’ve got is our Zero Emissions Vacuum and Compression unit.
Jim: [10:12] We’ve got to break this down a little bit. You just threw so much at the audience. They are now scrambling. They’re googling that stuff, as they say, GTS, googling that stuff. See what I did there?
James: [10:23] I got it.
Jim: [10:24] ZEVAC, Z‑E‑V‑A‑C.
James: [10:27] Right there on his shirt.
Bobby: [10:29] That’s correct.
Jim: [10:28] This is an apparatus that does what?
Bobby: [10:33] A simplified form is a cross compression.
James: [10:36] Got it.
[10:37] Bobby: What we would do is we would take our unit, our cross compression unit, and if you had a segment of line that you wanted to evacuate without emitting to the air or flaring that gas and you wanted to put it back into your operating system, that’s the ZEVAC right there.
James: [10:50] Makes sense.
Jim: [10:53] Hold on a second. Bear with me. I’m waking up, whatever that term is. Anyways, this is green, right?
James: [11:00] Woke.
Jim: [11:00] Oh, that’s what it was.
Jim: [11:02] Whatever. We’re helping, really, to reduce greenhouse emissions. It’s good. I’m being serious now. We talked about this when I was at CenterPoint back in 2008, ’09, and ’10. We actually looked at trying to do some of these things.
[11:15] At that point, we were using big compressors and different stuff and it was a whole bunch. This is a really a cool thing.
James: [11:22] Very cool.
Jim: [11:23] If they go to the website, can they see this unit?
Bobby: [11:25] Yeah. If you go to our website, you can see this unit. We’ve got case studies up there from all types of different applications, compressor stations, handling 100 percent gas or 100 percent liquid, whatever it may be, that product.
[11:38] We have a pneumatically powered unit. You’re able to move whatever products you have and keep it all into the system.
Jim: [11:44] You are a wealth of information.
Jim: [11:46] to call you our friend.
James: [11:48] I hear that we might have you back on for a bigger episode, talk about this a little bit later. We’re not going to tease it. We don’t even know yet. We don’t even know what we don’t know yet. We are going to have you back, Bobby.
Jim: [11:59] Are we unconsciously incompetent? We don’t know what we don’t know?
James: [12:01] Stay tuned.
Bobby Franklin: [12:02] That’s exactly right. [laughs]
Jim: [12:04] We’ll be back.
James: [12:05] We’ll see you.
Bobby: [12:06] Absolutely.
Jim: [12:06] James, you know what I love about this conference? It just keeps going and going and going…
James: [12:10] It’s going to be a long‑form…
Jim: [12:12] and the new friends that…
James: [12:14] type podcast this time…
Jim: [12:15] It is.
James: [12:16] hour and 20‑minute long. I’m sorry, Clinton. Thank you for all your work, but it’s going to be a long form today. Monica’s joining us.
Monica Simpson: [12:23] Hi.
James: [12:24] We’re basically best friends on LinkedIn now.
Monica: [12:26]We are. We’re BFFs now.
Jim: [12:28] She’s following the show, “Coffee with Jim & James,” and got to meet her yesterday. Monica, would you please introduce yourself to the audience?
Monica: [12:35] Hi. I’m Monica Simpson, business development manager with Texas Utility Engineering.
Jim: [12:40] Texas Utility Engineering. I see you at the EN Engineering booth.
James: [12:45] Break that down.
Jim: [12:46] Break that down for us.
Monica: [12:47] We were acquired by EN Engineering in December of 2018. We are a subsidiary of EN Engineering.
Jim: [12:53] What is your focus? How does that differ from…
Monica: [12:56] This is my first gas event.
James: [12:58] Welcome.
Monica: [12:58] I do mostly electrical distribution and telecommunications.
Jim: [13:02] Ah, so you’re more on the power and the fiber side.
Monica: [13:06] Correct.
Jim: [13:06] That makes sense, where EN Engineering is more on the gas side.
Monica: [13:09] Yes.
James: [13:10] It checks out. I do a lot of damage prevention events, so I overlap with those segments as well. That’s the only way I’ve been involved. That’s why I know they exist.
[13:21] How’s it been? That’s got to be question number one.
Monica: [13:25] It’s fun. It’s a little different, but I like it. It’s good.
James: [13:28] Let’s lean in there, a little different.
Monica: [13:30] I’m enjoying meeting a whole bunch of new people.
James: [13:34] Jim’s standing right here. You can say he’s a little different.
Monica: [13:35] You guys are a lot more outgoing.
Jim: [13:37] Our industry, or James and I?
Monica: [13:39] You two.
Jim: [13:40] We’re not normal.
James: [13:42] That’s fair.
Jim: [13:43] Oh yeah. That’s absolute. The industry is very outgoing and very welcoming, though, too.
Monica: [13:48]They are, very much so.
James: [13:50] It feels like home, for sure.
Jim: [13:50] It’s a bunch of friends here, 350‑some‑odd friends.
James: [13:54] It’s cool seeing new faces. We were just talking about it earlier, people that have been here six months, four months, not necessarily in their roles but in our industry. Very cool.
Monica: [14:06]There’s lots of movement in our industry.
Jim: [14:09] They look at me, not you, as the old guy now.
James: [14:13] I’m still young here.
Jim: [14:14] I’ve got to check my pulse. I’m doing all right.
James: [14:16] Monica, how’s it been? You said this has been your first conference back out since the pandemic or stuff? You’ve been pretty busy?
Monica: [14:25] We’ve been pretty busy. We’ve had a few. We were in Oklahoma City. We were in Dallas, Shreveport. We have one coming up in Denver. Everything’s opening back up again. As a business development person, I am enjoying that. [laughs] I’ve missed it.
James: [14:42] For sure.
Monica: [14:42] I’ve missed my clients. I miss meeting new people.
Jim: [14:44] Meeting face to face?
Monica: [14:45] The face to face is big.
Jim: [14:47] It’s key to actually meeting people and building those relationships. That’s the lifeblood of this portion of the industry, for sure.
James: [14:54] We’ve been involved with the TGA ourselves, in different capacities, for a long time. How long have you been involved in TGA, 2008…
Jim: [15:03] 14 years I was a board of director member, a committee member, etc. James has done…
James: [15:09] I’ve been involved…
Jim: [15:10] a lot.
James: [15:11] quite a bit as well, and I’ve only been in this industry about six years. It’s neat to be back with those friends that we made. It has been three years for us for seeing some of these people that we spent a long time with back in the day.
Monica: [15:27] Many people have gotten married and had babies since we’ve been…
James: [15:31] Changed jobs, retired…
James: [15:33] came back.
Jim: [15:34] One of our friends right over there, Brian, not only got married, his wife is ready to give birth in the next four weeks, I think.
Monica: [15:41] All within three years. I’m like, “What?”
Jim: [15:43] Things have gone crazy.
James: [15:45] Love it. Monica, thanks for stopping by.
Monica: [15:47] Thank you, guys.
Jim: [15:47] Thank you so much.
Monica: [15:48] I appreciate it.
Jim: [15:50] Absolutely.
Monica: [15:50] Thank you.
James: [15:51] Let’s stay in touch. We’ll see you around. Guys, we’ll be back.
Monica: [15:52] Bye.
Jim: [15:52] We are back. You know what? One of our first…
James: [15:57] We found a friend.
Jim: [15:58] A longtime friend.
James: [15:59] Season one I call it.
Jim: [16:00] Season one, the first year.
James: [16:02] A season one guest.
Jim: [16:03] Old school. I don’t want to say that. Wait…
James: [16:06] In a new school kind of way.
Jim: [16:09] There we go, one of our first guests. Tina, welcome back. As always, great to see you. We’ve seen a lot of you lately out in the field, which is great.
James: [16:17] EWNCON.
Tina Sanders: [16:18]That was a wonderful event, by the way.
Jim: [16:20] They had a great booth there and everything. Tina, before we get too deep in it, please introduce yourself and let everybody know what you do.
James: [16:26] Sorry. We always assume that people know people the way we know people.
Tina: [16:30] My name is Tina Sanders. I’m the damage prevention manager for the Northeast Texas region. I also sit on the board for the Damage Prevention Council of Texas.
Jim: [16:40] She is a champion for safety, damage prevention, an icon in the industry, I will say.
James: [16:47] Tina, I’ve been evangelizing, I want you to know, with my own groups at this event, our folks that are here. I was like, “We need to get involved with the Damage Prevention Councils.” I’m committing right now, on camera, that some of our folks will be getting involved.
[17:08] There’s always a seat at the table I told them. We’re going to make that happen.
Jim: [17:11] Would you like some volunteers…
James: [17:12] You need some help?
Jim: [17:13] to come help out?
Tina: [17:14] Always.
Jim: [17:14] That’s good.
Tina: [17:15] Definitely. It is a grassroots organization. It is a 503(c). It’s an opportunity to get out there with other stakeholders.
[17:25] We have included into our damage prevention in‑person meetings the opportunity to find out when is a planned project taking place, all of those things. What are some of the pain points?
[17:38] I’m talking about what’s working for you, what’s not working for you, having those conversations, getting the contact information for those other stakeholders in the meeting. It’s fantastic, and it’s working well.
James: [17:48] Love that.
Jim: [17:50] Can you share with the audience what operators and/or contractors might be involved with you folks, just to give people an idea of who you deal with?
Tina: [17:58] My true‑blue ones that are almost always there, for North Texas I’ve always got CoServ that’s going to be there.
Jim: [18:06] Got friends there.
Tina: [18:07] Rodney is president of that North Texas group. I’ve got backing with Heath. I’ve got Heath, who happens to sit in as the president for the Northeast Texas group. Midcoast Energy, Shade Spencer, I can’t say enough good things about him.
[18:22] We have the Brazos River Valley, which is under the Waco area. We’ve got USIC that has a face there and supporting that particular chapter. Those are your solids.
[18:35] Then you’ve got your municipalities that are coming. We’ve got buy‑in from telecom. They’re coming to the table now.
Jim: [18:43] Oh, good.
Tina: [18:44] That hadn’t happened before.
James: [18:44] Amen.
Tina: [18:44] Kudos to Zayo, to Spectrum Charter, to AT&T, and also to Frontier, who actually showed up at my East Texas meeting the other day. I want to give them props because we’ve been begging, and they’re coming and they’re having the discussion, so yay. [laughs]
James: [18:59] Good job.
Jim: [19:00] Good job.
James: [19:00] Man, I love to hear that. Our vision is to make the world a safer place to work.
Jim: [19:05] It is.
James: [19:06] I remind our people all the time. For us, that starts with damage prevention.
Tina: [19:10] Absolutely.
James: [19:11] You’ve got our promise. We’re going to get our people involved. We hope some other people will take that lead, too.
Jim: [19:16] Please.
James: [19:17] Tina, we’re going to cross paths a lot coming up. I know it. Thanks for joining us, always good. You tell us how we can help share that message.
Jim: [19:25] Absolutely. Always.
James: [19:26] Any last words? Tell them something awesome.
Tina: [19:28] I absolutely want to say you guys make everything better. Even on the rough days, it’s just your presence. EWN has been fantastic. The new application that y’all have rolled out and the software you’ve rolled out, it peaked our…
James: [19:45] TRACER?
Tina: [19:46] Yeah.
James: [19:47] TRACER.
Jim: [19:47] a TRACER plug?
Tina: [19:49] It really peaked my interest and made us think outside of the box. We’ve been doing things the same way for so long. There are ways to make it better. We may never make it perfect but as long as we’re making it better.
Jim: [20:03] Each and every day.
James: [20:04] Be brave. Be brave.
Jim: [20:06] Wow. Jeez, I think I’m going to take Tina on the road with me.
James: [20:08] She’s a champion.
Tina: [20:10] Don’t forget about the Leading Women of Damage Prevention. [laughs]
James: [20:14] I’m telling you, we’re getting activated on that, too. I love it.
Jim: [20:17] Connect with Tina and find out more.
James: [20:20] Great resource.
Tina: [20:20] Ketha and Jennifer and…
James: [20:21] All of them.
Tina: [20:23] …all of them. Thank you so much.
Jim: [20:24] Thank you, Tina.
Tina: [20:26] Y’all are fantastic.
Jim: [20:27] Appreciate it.
James: [20:28] Awesome. All right, we’ll be right back.
Tina: [20:27] Bye, y’all.
Jim: [20:28] See y’all.
Jim: [20:28] We are back. James?
James: [20:31] We thought we were winding down, but we got another spurt of people. We’re just riding through it. We are here with somebody very special not only to us, one of our very own, but also for the show.
Jim: [20:45] For the show and for our company.
James: [20:47] I’ll tell you what. Kaylea, please introduce yourself. Welcome to the show, by the way…
Kaylea Pryor: [20:52] Thank you.
James: [20:52] after all this time.
Kaylea: [20:54] I’m Kaylea Pryor with Energy Worldnet, marketing specialist in the brand department.
James: [21:02] Marketing specialist.
Jim: [21:03] What does that mean?
James: [21:04] That sounds very basic.
James: [21:06] When you say it like that, it’s like, “I just do some special marketing projects, things of that nature. We know what really goes on. What does a marketing specialist do? It’s a day‑in‑the‑life thing.
Jim: [21:19] What’s your day in the life?
Jim: [21:20] Break it down for the people. That sounded so generic, I was even not sure what that meant.
Kaylea: [21:25] I manage all the events for Energy Worldnet, industry events that we go to, and then also wrangle Coffee with Jimmy & James.
James: [21:35] Oh, the truth comes out.
Jim: [21:36] That’s what I wanted to hear.
James: [21:38] If you have been on the show, you’ve probably dealt with Kaylea before. You’re right. When we say the conferences, we attend a lot of conferences, as you know, and Kaylea’s behind that from registrations to what furniture we have to packing the stuff.
Kaylea: [21:54] Now setting up.
James: [21:57] This time…
James: [21:58] she said, “I want to see what it’s like out there in the wild.” We were blessed to be able to bring you along. It’s pretty cool being on this side, isn’t it?
Kaylea: [22:08] For sure.
James: [22:09] It’s neat to see it come to life.
Kaylea: [22:11] Yes, it is.
Jim: [22:11] What was the best part? What was your most challenging part of this conference?
Kaylea: [22:15] The challenging part was putting together this booth…
Kaylea: [22:18] …for the first time at an event.
James: [22:20] See, that’s part…
James: [22:21] of the gig, though.
Kaylea: [22:22] That’s true.
James: [22:22] If you’re going to come out and get to go to the receptions…
Jim: [22:24] You’ve got to earn those stripes.
James: [22:26] play the role…
Kaylea: [22:27] It’s very exciting to see it put up and showing everyone what the brand department does with the booth. The most exciting part was probably going around the booths to see what everyone in the industry does, so learning…
Jim: [22:39] Did you learn?
Kaylea: [22:40] For sure.
James: [22:42] To peel the curtain back a little bit on that, our friend Jack Cordry over at Lone Star was on yesterday with us or earlier in the show, came by, was it that he initiated or you initiated, but basically took you around and showed you vendor‑to‑vendor, through the hall, where they fit in the big puzzle of our industry, which is our culture at EWN.
[23:09] When we’re idle, we like to get out, learn, network…
Jim: [23:12] Yeah, definitely.
James: [23:13] We may be able to help somebody, at some point, with the need they have with the connection we make it, one of those things. So it was neat to see you get to activate on that. I bet you learned a ton yesterday.
Kaylea: [23:23] For sure.
Jim: [23:25] That’s good. That’s exciting, because now more pieces of the puzzle are going to come together for you. So when we’re talking about things, you’re going to be like, “Oh, I remember that,” or “That makes sense.” Now it’s just, for me, when I get to get out and feel, see, touch, look at the fusion machine, look at whatever gas detectors, it makes more sense.
Kaylea: [23:45] See how it all comes together.
James: [23:48] That could help with draws a little bit, too. How many clients we have, and how broad a range, a spectrum those clients are in. You walk up and someone says, “Well, we’ve been with you for 14 years.” It’s kind of neat to see.
Kaylea: [23:58] It’s exciting to see how long people have been with Energy World Net.
James: [24:02] Very cool. Kaylee, great work.
Jim: [24:05] Yes.
James: [24:05] Both on the show and here at this show.
Jim: [24:08] Absolutely.
James: [24:09] You have been vital to our success, and we thank you so much.
Kaylea: [24:12]Thank you.
James: [24:12] Thanks for being behind the mic, finally.
Jim: [24:14] Thanks for stopping in. Did you like it? Was it easy?
Kaylea: [24:16]I did. Yes. It’s not as intimidating as it looks.
Jim: [24:20] It’s not.
James: [24:21] We’ll be back.
Jim: [24:22] Thanks, everybody. James?
James: [24:24] We did it.
Jim: [24:26] The song is over. Let’s call it a day.
James: [24:29] It’s time. We are wrapping up. This show’s winding down. It’s weird to think back. I’m thinking back. It feels like golf was six days ago.
Jim: [24:43] Oh my gosh, yeah.
James: [24:46] Sweating out there on that golf course. But, man, it’s been a whirlwind. It’s been great to see some of our friends. We said it before, when we were opening up today, just being back, seeing smiling faces. Look across, even now, in its final hours, we’re seeing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Real passionate conversations.
Jim: [25:10] Yeah. They keep going. That’s the sad part for me, to be quite honest with you. The last day is always sad. Where a lot of people are ready to get going, I don’t want it to end. The excitement that first day, I am like a kid in the candy store.
[25:26] Fortunately or unfortunately, the good part about being face‑to‑face is a lot of these relationships maybe have taken two or three days to really get together, and now they have these friendships. And these continuation of talks are going to happen down the road, which is wonderful.
James: [25:41] We’ll see a lot of these people next week. We’ve mentioned it before, but we’ve got a quick turnaround. We’re going the SGA Natural Gas Connect.
Jim: [25:51] Yep.
James: [25:51] I know you got a panel there.
Jim: [25:53] I do. LNG panel I’m sitting on, and you’re giving a presentation on…
James: [25:58] I don’t know that. That’s not confirmed yet.
Jim: [26:00] We’re hoping they do.
James: [26:01] I might slide in at the end.
Jim: [26:04] You are moderating.
James: [26:04] I’m on the waiting list. I may be moderating your panel. We’re working out some of that, but the show’s live, man. We’re looking at a good one. But we’re going to be live in St. Louis. We’re going to do our best to bring St. Louis back to everybody.
Jim: [26:18] We are.
James: [26:18] It’s going to be a blast.
Jim: [26:20] We had coffee this morning. We’re already planning.
James: [26:22] We’re brainstorming about it. We’re gonna have our A‑team out there, just like always. Traveling big. SGA’s going to be a big one this year. We’re excited to see everybody out there. I bet you we got a couple of weeks worth of content coming out of that one. Not to mention, we’re doing some recording live. I believe we’re going to be talking with Artera folks.
Jim: [26:43] Yes.
James: [26:44] Our friend Nick over there might be joining us. We’re going to be doing some live stuff there, man. Busy, busy. You know how we schedule that thing. Tight.
Jim: [26:55] I’m ready, brother.
James: [26:56] It’s good to be back in Texas.
Jim: [26:57] Absolutely.
James: [26:57] I’m going to float the river, man. I got my family down here. We’re going to go dip a toe in and then head back home.
Jim: [27:03] Go enjoy it. Enjoy it. I’m going to actually do what I do best. I am going to work.
James: [27:07] Take a nap.
Jim: [27:08] No. Take a nap.
James: [27:10] Eat some ice cream.
Jim: [27:12] I’m gonna keep talking to friends and see when we can see them again for the next time. So I’m going to go talk to people now, for the rest of the day.
James: [27:18] Thank you, TGA.
Jim: [27:20] Yeah, thanks, TGA.
James: [27:21] Jerry, everybody there. Linda, great event.
Jim: [27:24] Ford.
James: [27:25] Look forward, Ford. Thank you for your work.
Jim: [27:26] Board of Directors.
James: [27:28] Scholarship folks, BOD, Tal, all his work. Paul Kennedy, we’re wishing you luck as your new term is coming up. Hey, can’t wait to see you in St. Louis.
Jim: [27:39] Take care, everybody. See you soon.
[27:40] [music]
Transcription by WatchingWords