Live at CGA Part 2 - CWJJ Episode 155

Episode 155 cga live part 2

[0:00] [music]

James Cross: [0:14] [whispering] Hey, Jimmy.

Jim Schauer: [0:14] [whispering] Hey, James.

James: [0:16] I feel like we need to whisper.

Jim: [0:18] I don't...

[0:19] [crosstalk]

James: [0:19] It's so quiet in here.

Jim: [0:20] I feel like I have to whisper, too. I lost my voice last night. I was on the phone at 7:30.

James: [0:25] Screaming?

Jim: [0:25] No, not screaming. Just when you talk all day to friends, new friends and such like that. Literally, I was on the phone at 10:30 last night and Tammy's like, "Are you sick?" I'm like, "No, I lost my voice."

James: [0:37] I was like, [inaudible :41]. I didn't even check things, Jimmy. We even have audio, testing. I'm just kidding.

Jim: [0:46] This is a well‑oiled machine.

James: [0:48] We are.

[0:49] [crosstalk]

James: [0:49] We are. We're three days into it. I feel like I'm 10 days into Orlando. Still on the fence whether I'm staying or not. I should probably check into that.

[0:58] [laughter]

James: [1:00] I feel like I'm leaving Thursday night, which is tomorrow. We're in day three, live from a quiet exhibit hall.

Jim: [1:10] Enjoy it while it's here because it will be a madhouse till six o'clock tonight, I think 6:30.

James: [1:18] Does the hall shut down tonight?

Jim: [1:21] Yes, sir.

James: [1:22] Do we come back in the morning?

Jim: [1:23] Oh.

James: [1:23] TBD on that. We don't know. As we've talked about plenty of time, Thursday is the field trip day for a lot of folks.

Jim: [1:35] Huge networking night too.

James: [1:37] I don't know how that's going to play out with me if I fly out tomorrow. That may be on you, Jimmy.

Jim: [1:42] That's fine.

James: [1:42] We'll see what Jimmy come up with on his Motorola flip phone.

Jim: [1:48] James and I say this all the time that when we go to events and conferences, we're the first to arrive and the last to leave. That doesn't necessarily meaning us specifically, but us as an entity or a team.

James: [2:00] Like I had to come three days early. [laughs]

Jim: [2:02] He came early. If I run all the way to the very 12‑hour, so to speak, that's fine. That's what we do.

James: [2:10] Jimmy is local here. That makes the most sense. I can get back to the family. We'll work it out, for sure. Either way, we're going to be capturing some more today. A lot of interviews already lined up for today.

[2:23] We hope to get some different folks from CGA on, hopefully, today, to talk about the events. I had a blast yesterday. I looked at you at one point when we were out there for the grand opening, and I was like, "Man, this is my kind of jam."

Jim: [2:40] To talk about a well‑oiled machine, this is from A to Z. Remember we mentioned that just some of the little detail that you don't even notice, that you know took, like seven hours to do. CGA is running an incredible machine here, and it is machine.

James: [2:58] The A/V here has been awesome. The little elements, they've got those big LCD or LED screens, I don't know what the...LCD? There's some cool tech everywhere, and they're using those in the hall and in different, on the stages, to show data, just an information, in a new way.

James: [3:14] The little pockets of...

Jim: [3:15] Did we get shots of that?

James: [3:16] What?

Jim: [3:17] The LED screens.

James: [3:18] Yeah, I've got them somewhere in my phone, I don't know. Some folder somewhere.

Jim: [3:22] I was enamored, because it looks almost a old‑fashioned, high‑tech, but remember the old stand‑up mirrors you used to put in your bedrooms or whatever? They'd be 6 feet tall, this wide. It looks like a TV set now. All of a sudden, you can either group them together, put them separately, and all these graphics and it's just like...

James: [3:41] That's right.

Jim: [3:41] I'm like, poof. Very good.

James: [3:43] It's so cool. Kudos to the CGA. Khrysanne and her group have been great hosts.

Jim: [3:48] Yeah, fantastic.

James: [3:51] We're right here in their booth, just crashing the party.

[3:53] [laughter]

James: [3:53] They've put with Jim all week. They didn't even get paid for that.

Jim: [3:58] [laughs] They might need counseling, is what they might need.

James: [4:01] Jimmy, we have to address the elephant in the room.

[4:05] [laughter]

Jim: [4:05] Easy now.

James: [4:06] I told you I was in conferencing. That's we're wearing a different shirt today. No, don't worry. Don't worry.

Jim: [4:18] I'm shaking already because it's not a white shirt, but that's OK. I'm embracing it.

James: [4:22] This is a little bit of a uniform.

[4:25] Last night, we had our good friends, Jay Stevens and Carolyn Barless from Damage Prevention Academy, come in from Canada, and met up with us. Last night, we recorded a special episode that we are sharing as we speak, as we record this publicly, the acquisition of Damage Prevention Academy. We're proud, we're all DPA today.

Jim: [4:53] We are.

James: [4:55] Jimmy, it's only fitting, as we have been asking people over and over so far, and we will today, throughout this show is, how are we going to move that needle? As MG said, we're all talking about needles, but how do we move the needle when it comes to the 50 in 5? It was almost an aha moment for all of us last night. I think that we realized that this is our commitment today.

Jim: [5:24] I would absolutely agree. When you look at Energy Worldnet, we talk about us being in the industry for 30 years, three decades. Starting off with education training, wanting...

James: [5:36] Before there was OQ.

Jim: [5:38] Before, yeah. We're talking...

James: [5:40] Everybody was, "Oh yeah, I've been doing OQ for 30 years." I'm like, "No, there wasn't OQ for 30 years."

[5:48] [laughter]

Jim: [5:48] No, there wasn't. We've been doing the...

James: [5:45] Maybe half of it.

Jim: [5:45] We've been wanting to make the world a safer place to work for three decades. We want safety and we want best practices in our industry. Really, when you think of the acquisition of Damage Prevention Academy, it goes to show the heart and the spirit of the core of Energy Worldnet, that we want to do that. We're not just walking the talk, we're living it.

[6:06] We're getting deeper and deeper into embracing this community right here. There's over a thousand people here. When you just hear the commitment in people's voices to try to make things safer and better, reduce damages and let the practices help people do it right.

James: [6:27] Such a great group. Feels at home here.

Jim: [6:29] It does.

James: [6:30] I mean, it really does. I've met so many people. It's easy to talk to these folks because honestly, they're used to talking to people about this. A big part of damage prevention, obviously, is awareness. We've talked about that ourselves, as this is a commitment we give to. [laughs] A neat day for us.

Jim: [6:48] One of our Louisiana regulators, good friends...

James: [6:51] No big deal.

Jim: [6:52] just came in.

James: [6:53] A big day for us. Long time coming. Big day for DPA. I'm sure we'll have Jay and Carolyn on a little bit later to talk about it. It's always...

Jim: [7:04] I think so.

James: [7:06] Yeah, we're turning around. How about that double‑down with Steve Allen?

Jim: [7:09] Oh.

James: [7:10] If you don't know, we've also...Look, I know sometimes when people think about acquisition, they think, "Oh, you can write your check in anywhere" type of thing, but I want people to understand the synergy with this group and how committed we are at what we're doing.

[7:29] To show that commitment, we've doubled down and we put our own Steve Allen, our Executive Director of Pipeline Safety at Energy Worldnet as Senior Advisor to Damage Prevention Academy. I was with that group last night, the full group. They were like school kids on the first day.

Jim: [7:49] [laughs] Giddy?

James: [7:50] They've waited so long to tell all their friends, that we've all been living by these NDAs and being nice. Today is a big day for all of us. Today we're DPA, my friend.

Jim: [8:01] I love it. Yeah, I love it. The joy for me, and you know that I love journeys and I talk about journeys all the time, I'm excited to watch the journey of DPA, EWN, the melding, the synergies and coming together, and understanding each other's strengths and helping each other. Then taking that to the industries, where it'll be welcomed. It'll be exciting, James.

James: [8:31] Already great response, and we got all day today to talk to folks.

Jim: [8:35] Oh, my gosh!

James: [8:36] Hey, I'm not going to beat a dead horse today.

Jim: [8:39] Let's do it.

James: [8:39] Let's get to some actual...

[8:41] [crosstalk]

Jim: [8:39] You did a good job though, brother. He has a lot of passion in this. He has a lot of passion.

James: [8:44] It's a big day.

[8:45] All right. Hey, we'll be back.

[8:46] [pause]

[8:46] [laughter]

James: [8:48] That was a highlight right there, Jimmy.

Jim: [8:51] I just can't. The interaction...

James: [8:54] You never know what joy you're going to bring the someone's life...

Jim: [8:57] The interaction...

James: [8:58] until you get there. It looks different to every person.

Jim: [9:00] The joy that Adam just had doing that was...It was inspirational.

[9:05] [laughter]

Jim: [9:05] That's our takeaway from it.

[9:07] Steve Mumm: MVP.

James: [9:08] New fast friends.

Jim: [9:08] I'm telling you what...

James: [9:09] Just like that.

[9:11] Steve, welcome to the show.

Jim: [9:13] Great to meet you.

[9:14] Steve: Good to see you guys.

James: [9:15] Please, very quickly, introduce yourself, who you're with.

[9:18] Steve: Hey, I'm Steve Mumm from GPRS.

James: [9:21] Awesome. A little bit about GPRS, let us know what you guys do.

[9:25] Steve: Yeah, we're a mapping and modeling company. We do private locating, but then also deploy other sensors and location and put together a customer deliverable so they know what's underground. Completely under their facility.

James: [9:40] I got you.

Jim: [9:40] Completely.

[9:41] Steve: This often happens in the private space. We're adjacent to the folks here this week, that we're mostly in the public right‑of‑way.

Jim: [9:51] That makes sense. If I have a yard that has a whole bunch of LNG tankers in it, I own that yard, but I want to do something. I would bring you, folks, in, and you guys would take care of me, show me where everything is.

[10:02] Steve: Any kind of construction. A 40‑story building, a wind turbine, a gas compressor station, we help them understand better so that they can plan and...

James: [10:11] Large facilities, got you.

Jim: [10:13] Interesting. Worldwide? Globally? United States? North America?

[10:17] Steve: We're across the nation. We're in every major metropolitan area in the US.

Jim: [10:20] Outstanding. Fantastic.

James: [10:21] That's perfect. First CGA? Have you been here before?

[10:24] Steve: I've been attending for about two years.

Jim: [10:26] Were you in Anaheim last year?

[10:28] Steve: Yes.

Jim: [10:29] I was too. Sorry, missed you.

[10:31] Steve: It's always a good one for us because I believe that the data of the public and private space are going to come together in the short term, and we want to help guide that.

[10:42] We've been collecting data for the last five years, and are getting pretty good at it. We learned a lot from everyone at CGA, and we think we can bring a couple of best practices.

James: [10:54] You know who I'm going to hook them up with?

Jim: [10:55] I do.

James: [10:56] Monique Roberts at PODS.

Jim: [10:58] Absolutely.

James: [10:58] No doubt about it.

Jim: [11:00] I don't know if you know her yet, but...

James: [11:03] When we leave, we're going to do that. Monique, get ready. We're sending some folks.

Jim: [11:02] Yeah, get ready.

[11:03] At CGA this year, a big topic has been 50 in 5, reducing damage incidents by 50 percent in five years. Thoughts on that? Attainable? It's a lofty goal. I'll tell you, it's a lofty goal.

James: [11:13] Big, hairy, audacious goal.

Jim: [11:15] What do you think are some steps that can help to achieve that? We have to have a goal, so let's go and...

[11:20] [crosstalk]

James: [11:20] What do we got to do to get there?

[11:21] Steve: No, I like big goals, because I think that's the way that we start moving.

James: [11:24] No doubt.

[11:25] Steve: We take one step forward, and that's the way that we get there. Big goal drives us. What I was just talking about, that mapping of the public and private space, that's going to be critical in this journey, to really drive the number down.

James: [11:37] Absolutely.

[11:38] Steve: That's a step that allows us to work better together. It's about communication, then it's also about harnessing technology and driving the impossible.

Jim: [11:46] You're speaking his love language.

James: [11:48] That's my love language. We'll talk data later.

[11:50] Steve: [laughs]

Jim: [11:50] Great to meet you. Thanks for stopping by.

James: [11:53] Steve, thank you for the work you do in this space. Man, we'll have to have you back on to talk about some more data stuff, technology. We'll leave Jim out.

Jim: [12:00] I'll be out of that one. You guys can have it. We'll see you.

James: [12:05] Hey, we'll be back.

[12:07] [pause]

James: [12:04] Still buzzing here, Jimmy.

Jim: [12:05] Non‑stop, Mr. Cross, non‑Stop. I love it. Our new friend, Jemmie Wang has just stopped by.

James: [12:12] We've heard Jemmie Wang's name already at least once or twice today. I hope it was good.

[12:17] Jemmie Wang: I'm podcast‑infamous.

Jim: [12:19] Wow. You're CGA‑infamous or famous, it has come up.

James: [12:22] Infamous.

[12:23] Jemmie: I'm both.

Jim: [12:24] Jemmie, please introduce yourself and tell them the organization that you're with.

[12:26] Jemmie: I'm Jemmie Wang with acretivPartners. We're a management consulting company, both inside and outside the damage prevention space.

Jim: [12:33] How long have you been involved in the CGA?

[12:36] Jemmie: In the CGA, almost 20 years.

James: [12:39] Wow! See, I knew he was about to hit us with something.

[12:43] Jemmie: Yeah, I'm old‑timer. I just look young because of my Asian background. I'm really 80 years old.

[12:47] [laughter]

James: [12:49] So is Jimmy.

Jim: [12:51] Yeah, but I look it.

[12:52] Jemmie: He's 25.

[12:53] [laughter]

Jim: [12:53] Yeah, right, and I look like I'm 80.

James: [12:56] Divided by...No.

Jim: [12:57] Jeez, with friends like you guys...

[13:00] Jemmie: [laughs]

James: [13:00] It's like Coffee With Jim & Jemmie & James, I don't know.

Jim: [13:04] Jim, James, and Jemmie.

[13:05] Jemmie: You're confusing yourself, we're confusing each...

James: [13:08] We're going to get back on track here. Obviously, you know about 50 in 5. How are we going to get there, Jemmie?

[13:21] Jemmie: I would say, it's a great aspirational goal. I hope we get there. The fundamental thing to get there is, we have to do things differently than what we've been doing. That doesn't necessarily mean what we've been doing has not been working. In fact, in some ways it means, what we've been doing has been working well to get us to this point.

[13:37] To get us to next level, we need to do some things differently. I'll give two specific examples. I was listening to the "Freakonomics" podcast, talking about how airline safety got to be so safe. Right now, it's about 800 times safer per mile than driving.

[13:54] When you drive 5 or 10 miles to the airport to take your flight, you're more likely to die in a car accident driving to the airport than in your flight.

James: [14:03] It's more than 10.

[14:05] Jemmie: The two key things that took them there was, one, leveraging technology, data, and technology, in the planes and elsewhere. Just tons of sensors and analysis of that data, if there was even a near‑miss. The second is extensive transparent sharing of safety data between the airlines, who are competitors, and between the airlines and the FAA.

[14:30] I will say this, we've got to be honest with ourselves, we don't do those two things in this industry enough.

James: [14:35] Not enough.

[14:35] Jemmie: We don't do it.

Jim: [14:37] We're starting, not starting, but we're...

[14:39] Jemmie: We're doing more of it.

Jim: [14:40] CGA is an example of that because I see a lot of the walls being down here, where people are cross‑collaborating, knowledge sharing.

James: [14:47] TPI.

[14:47] Jemmie: We need to do more of it. We need to challenge ourselves and do more of it. Because you have a lot of frenemies here. They're friends when they're here and they're eating dinner and stuff, but they're competitors‑enemies also.

[15:03] They hold their data close to their chest. Sometimes for legitimate reasons, but a lot of times, sharing the data doesn't harm their business. It's just a change of mentality. We need to challenge ourselves to do that in order to achieve the 50 in 5.

Jim: [15:20] You're ready? You're ready to take that challenge?

James: [15:23] Jemmie knows his stuff.

[15:24] Jemmie: I'm dropping the gauntlet here.

Jim: [15:27] Jemmie, are you on LinkedIn?

[15:28] Jemmie: Yeah.

Jim: [15:29] All right.

James: [15:31] Hook up with Jemmie. We'll be back.

[15:33] Jemmie: Thanks, guys.

[15:33] [pause]

James: [15:34] Steve, welcome to the show.

Jim: [15:36] Welcome.

James: [15:36] Sent over by our good friend...

Jim: [15:38] Ryan White.

James: [15:39] We tell everybody when they come on...Just FYI, we didn't tell you this part till you came on, but when you leave here, you've got to go find somebody else.

[15:47] Steve Cleaver: That's why Ryan me down?

James: [15:49] Yeah.

Jim: [15:49] He thought you were an easy pick.

James: [15:50] You thought you were cool, huh?

[15:51] Steve: I didn't.

James: [15:53] No, we requested you.

[15:53] Steve: There's been no redhead in the history of history that's ever been cool.

Jim: [15:57] [laughs]

James: [15:57] Wow. Today's the day. [laughs]

Jim: [15:59] Today.

James: [16:00] Steve, I'm sorry for those that don't know you, please introduce yourself to our audience and who you're with.

[16:07] Steve: My name's Steve Cleaver. I'm the Damager...

[16:08] [laughter]

James: [16:08] Damager? That's the wrong show. No, I'm just kidding.

[16:13] Steve: I'm the Manager of PG&E, Pacific Gas and Electric's Damage Prevention and Compliance Team.

Jim: [16:18] Damager?

James: [16:19] How could you make a dam? The Manager? We're going to workshop that. Stick around.

[16:26] Steve: Please, take some T‑shirts, stickers, stuff like that.

James: [16:28] We'll start that.

Jim: [16:28] It would be a good little T‑shirt.

James: [16:31] PG&E, I've heard about that.

[16:34] [laughter]

Jim: [16:34] We know those fellows. We know those folks.

James: [16:37] Lot of operation. No, that's great.

[16:39] We're at CGA. Have you ever been to a CGA before, my friend?

[16:44] Steve: I have.

James: [16:46] It seemed like somebody's been there.

Jim: [16:48] Were you in Anaheim last year?

[16:50] Steve: I was in Anaheim. In 2016, my first one, I was able to present on our 811 Ambassador program in Vegas.

James: [16:47] Awesome.

[16:47] Steve: Then, attended Tampa, was scheduled for Palm Springs before it was canceled.

Jim: [16:54] That's right.

[16:55] Steve: Had an opportunity to come to a few.

James: [16:59] This is my first one.

Jim: [17:01] His first.

James: [17:01] Any tips for me?

[17:02] [laughter]

James: [17:02] Now that it's almost over, I wish I could run in...

[17:06] Steve: Happened to be a party first.

James: [17:05] Yeah. [laughs] No, it's been awesome, seeing all the knowledge sharing.

[17:09] We talk about in the pipeline industry and the natural gas a lot. There's some events you go to and sessions turn into, "Hey, I've got this friend with a pipeline." [laughs] It's great sessions, where people are, to the point that we can be, vulnerable, and getting lessons learned out there. It's great to see that stuff in action here. CGA has been awesome.

Jim: [17:31] It's robust. Absolutely robust here. One of the things that Sarah brought up yesterday was the goal of 50 in 5, so a 50 percent reduction in damage incidents in five years. Everybody says it's a lofty goal, but it's a goal. Your thoughts on that, and what can we help do to move the needle to achieve that 50 in 5?

[17:50] Steve: Setting a goal is super important, regardless of what it is. If we set aggressive goals for ourselves, we have something to shoot for.

[17:59] I can tell you that we have set some pretty aggressive goals for ourselves where I come from. We've achieved things that we didn't think were going to be possible by setting those goals for ourselves.

[18:11] Last year, we had a target of less than one for our damages per 1,000 tickets, and I'm like, "There's no way. Last year we hit .98. There's no way that we're going to hit that again. We couldn't possibly do that." We walked away from the end of the year at .94...

James: [18:27] Wow.

[18:28] Steve: ...and a reduction of 154 damages from the previous year.

James: [18:32] That's huge.

[18:33] Steve: I kept telling people. I'm like, "Hey, these things are going to come up, and they're going to hit us the end of the year. We're going to have this influx of work." I was the negative Nelly of the group saying, "We need to temper expectations."

[18:46] At the end of the year, it was fantastic. The beginning of this year, there's no way that we can achieve what we did last year. It was getting the best fuel mileage I've ever gotten in my car in the best conditions ever. We can't do that again. We're down 127 damages this point in the year.

James: [19:04] That's awesome.

Jim: [19:06] Real quick, let's share. What is the secret sauce? What are you doing? Is it just slowing down? Is it technology?

James: [19:11] Is it a scoreboard? Having that goal that everyone is laser‑focused on?

[19:17] Steve: The answer to all of those is yes.

James: [19:20] I love that.

[19:21] Steve: Visual management, knowing where we're at, knowing what our target is, knowing what our RAG status is against our target. Everybody knows what it is. Everybody knows where we're at. Everybody knows how we're performing. Have daily huddles that we talk about our performance. What worked well yesterday? What didn't work well? What are we going to do differently today, next week?

Jim: [19:43] I love that.

James: [19:44] It's a blend of all of it.

[19:45] Steve: Has been hugely helpful. In 2015, when I came on, it was to start our dig and reduction team. We called it our dirt team. We investigate 100 percent of our damages to gas and electric. We do a causal evaluation. Then we share lessons learned with the involved parties.

[20:04] If it was an at‑fault damage, something that we failed to locate properly, we have a weekly call scheduled on the books. We can cancel it, but we have a weekly call. What happened last week? What damages did we have that were our fault? What should we have done differently?

James: [20:17] Working on the right stuff.

[20:19] Steve: We trend that data to know, should we have caught this, should we have done something differently, is it a gap in our training, what should we be...From an at‑fault damages perspective, we're constantly looking at how can we get better, what changes can we make to get better.

[20:35] We do primarily in‑house locates, but for our vendors that locate for us, to help us with staff OG, we hold them accountable for quality. We hold them accountable for miss‑marks, and we've built a relationship with them. We've provided training. These are our assets, we know them better than anybody.

James: [20:57] That's awesome.

[20:57] Steve: Instead of just saying, "Hey, come locate this for us," we have a training module come to our training. They're invested, they pay for the training, they put their people through it. Having mutual investment for all of this has been super helpful. There's so many things that I'm so proud of them we're doing.

James: [21:14] Save it, because it sounds like an episode.

[21:17] Steve: [laughs]

James: [21:17] I mean, really...

Jim: [21:17] It really does. There's best practices, knowledge sharing, all of my key triggers.

James: [21:23] We want to dive into this one.

Jim: [21:23] We're going to have you on for a full episode.

[21:25] Steve: Sounds good.

Jim: [21:26] The industry needs this. The industries.

James: [21:27] If you'll allow us, Steve. This is your invite. [laughs]

[21:30] Steve: Sometimes when you talk to people, you can tell that they go through the motions because this is my job, this is what I do. I landed into this spot. I'll be honest, I'm kind of the same way to an extent. Started off in law enforcement when I was 21, and then made this switch at 36, after 15 years.

[21:51] I came here and I have a sense of public service and we're still having an impact on public safety. It's fun what I do.

Jim: [21:58] [laughs]

[21:58] Steve: I love it, I'm passionate about it. Coming here, with like‑minded people to talk about this stuff, what we're doing, lessons that we've learned, I just had the opportunity to present at a session here.

James: [22:10] Awesome.

[22:11] Steve: The conversations that I'm having in the hallway afterwards about, "Hey, how did you guys do that? Will you come out and talk to our folks?" This stuff's important. To be able to share lessons learned and not have this closed loop, but to be able to go out and...

James: [22:28] Give it all away.

[22:28] Steve: I get something from it every single time. There is somebody that says, "We've been doing this," and I'm like, "You know what, I hadn't thought about that. We can integrate that."

Jim: [22:39] I've got to ask a question. You said you get something, and that hit a little chord in my heart, because every time that I give a presentation, or I'm out, or whatever it is, I get something too. When I see somebody's face go, "Oh, I get it," is that what you get? Is that you're getting back to you? What drives you?

[22:59] Steve: Yes and no. It's twofold. Yes, I love seeing that spark in somebody that says, "My people need this story too. It's more than just me, and I don't know that I can deliver this same message about why we do what we do, or why we've made some of the changes," because sometimes our frontline folks feel like we make changes for the sake of making changes.

[23:26] If they can give the why to their teams, and I can help them give that why, and why we do it, that changes behavior on the field. That's what I get from it.

[23:35] The other part is...

James: [23:36] [laughs]

[23:36] Steve: Have you heard the term, an extroverted introvert? It's somebody who's an introvert by nature but they can flip the switch. I get to have...

[23:49] [laughter]

Jim: [23:50] I didn't say anything.

James: [23:51] Yes, I've heard of it. [laughs]

[23:52] Steve: These times create the opportunities for me to flip that switch and have that fun and engagement with people.

James: [24:01] Same.

[24:01] Steve: I can't tell you how many text messages I've sent during sessions to my counterparts, to go, "We need to talk about this when we get home."

James: [24:11] Check out this Slack. We'll talk about it Monday." [laughs]

[24:14] Steve: Some of that, but some of the things that they talk about aren't necessarily on the slides, it's just a little nugget.

James: [24:19] It's a story.

[24:20] Steve: I'll give you an example of one of those. It was, we were talking about the why on no 811 damages. We know that they happen, we know that they get a ticket, but why didn't they get a ticket? That's part of the stuff that we collect, as a team, during our damage investigations, but there's more to it.

[24:39] I'm like, "We need to build a survey that's individual to the people that we contact about why they didn't call in a ticket." I create some smart workflows that's not a mass email like, "Hey, why didn't you do it?" But for a person. Even if we get 50 percent return rate on those surveys, that's 50 percent more information, detailed information.

[25:00] It's just one little thing. I'm like, "How can we do it?" That may not be the best execution, but it's the ideas and the conversation about how can we build on that, and I get that kind of stuff.

James: [25:08] That's awesome. Literal takeaway is, you can go home, plug into your teams and make a difference. I love it.

[25:14] Steve: Absolutely.

James: [25:15] Man, we could talk all day, Steve. Thank you so much for stopping by.

[25:18] Steve: [laughs] No, thank you for the opportunity.

Jim: [25:21] Thank you, brother. Appreciate you. We appreciate you and what you're doing.

James: [25:26] I invite you to come back on and we'll full up, so we have 30, 40 minutes. You weren't joking, we needed that much.

[25:35] Steve: [laughs]

James: [25:36] I love it.

[25:37] Hey, we'll be back.

Jim: [25:38] See you in a bit.

[25:40] [pause]

Jim: [25:40] All right, James.

James: [25:42] We're back.

Jim: [25:31] As you can see behind us, things are heating up.

James: [25:34] It's popping [inaudible].

Jim: [25:35] We had a session come out. Dr. Paul came by and said he had some fascinating information about the fiber optic technology that can be used to prevent damages. We said we got to have you on. Dr. Paul, would you please introduce yourself? I say that because he is a PhD, and so...

[25:51] Dr.

Paul Dickinson: [25:53] Don't ask any medical questions, please.

Jim: [25:54] I told him about my sciatic nerve and he said, "Nope, that ain't my area."

James: [25:59] That ain't a sciatic, my friend."

Jim: [25:59] Please introduce yourself and your organization.

[26:01] Dr. Dickinson: I'm Paul Dickinson. I'm the Chairman of the Board of the Fiber Optic Sensing Association.

[26:05] We're a non‑profit formed out of Washington, DC, 2017. We have a large variety of member companies, over 20‑something member companies. We're all about creating awareness and education for a technology that we're excited about, here at CGA, that we believe is going to benefit tremendously, utility industry.

James: [26:24] Let's talk about CGA just real quick. Is this your first CGA, Paul?

[26:27] Dr. Dickinson: My first annual meeting, but I've been at the Technology Committee meetings this past year, and I've been talking to their leadership now for about a year‑and‑a‑half.

James: [26:35] Got you. Cool. Lots to learn here, lots of great folks. I don't know how much you've been able to interact.

[26:40] Dr. Dickinson: I love the sessions. They're fantastic. I've learned so much. Best Practices Committee, the One Call Committee, all fantastic stuff. It's been very impressive.

James: [26:49] You spoke this week, or today, was it?

[26:52] Dr. Dickinson: I'm speaking on Thursday at 11:15.

James: [26:55] Tomorrow.

[26:55] Dr. Dickinson: We're hosting a panel session from our nonprofit organization, Fiber Optic Sensing, otherwise called FOSA, where we're bringing three member companies. There are four who are exhibiting here with the same technology. We're showing use cases for gas and electric, so people understand how the technology works.

Jim: [27:13] Let me jump in here because, Paul, I know...

[27:15] Dr. Dickinson: I know where you're going with this.

Jim: [27:16] Yeah, we could spend a lot...It's fascinating technology. What I would like to do, can you give the audience a sneak peek into this technology and what it does. Then, let's give them an action item because there's so much to learn about this technology. It's in place right now in a lot of places that they can utilize this.

[27:35] Dr. Dickinson: Yeah. Absolutely. It's more time than I have here to explain in detail, so I'll give you the link where you can check it after the fact.

[27:42] [laughter]

[27:42] Dr. Dickinson: The bottom line is that right‑of‑ways right now, in many cases, already have optical fiber in them, along with the gas utilities, electric utilities, water, and such. There exists right now the capability to proactively monitor and protect your right‑of‑ways in a live way that's never been done before.

[28:03] The reason I get excited about this is that CGA has a wonderful program with the 811 technique system, getting the adherence. They have this new program, the 5 for 50 program, where they're trying to reduce the damages by 50 percent in five years.

[28:16] I came here and I've been talking to CGA for a while about this. Super excited, because this could be a missing link, with respect to the toolkit that they have, so that they can reduce the damages by proactively monitoring for damages before they occur.

Jim: [28:33] Again, using the existing optical fibers that are in the ground already, as a medium to understand when digging is happening around there?

[28:41] Dr. Dickinson: The way the technology works, in a nutshell, is the same way that technology works for a broadcom and datacom, telecom communication, except you're not using the fiber to transmit data anymore. You using it in creating a long, continuous, essentially like a microphone under the ground.

[28:58] That fiber is so sensitive under the ground when you're putting these laser pulses in and monitoring with the software, you can detect when an excavator is hitting the ground above it, when someone's sliding open a manhole. You can even detect when people are walking across or cars are driving by soon.

[29:14] The magic that enables you to do, is coupled with the 811 system, where you can identify where you have tickets and where you don't, either a utility operator or one call center operator to basically say, "Wow, I have activity going on over here. I don't have an 811 ticket. I'm going to try to stop it," and stop the damage before it happens.

James: [29:32] Whoa, what's happening?"

Jim: [29:33] That's proactive. How can folks get a hold of you and/or this technology see it? What's the best way?

[29:39] Dr. Dickinson: Learn more, find me on LinkedIn, Paul Dickinson. I'd be happy to speak to you personally and even correspond by email.

[29:46] It may be even better yet, go to our organization, fiberopticsensing.org. It's the Fiber Optic Sensing Association, where you can learn more about the organization. There's lots of videos, training materials on there. If you're a gas or electric utility or water utility, you need to hear about this.

[30:04] Pleasure speaking with you today.

James: [30:05] You reach out to us, we'll get you in contact were it the case. Paul, thanks for joining us.

Jim: [30:09] Absolutely. Thank you for bringing this to us.

James: [30:12] That sounds awesome. Thanks for what you're doing for the industry.

[30:13] Dr. Dickinson: Thank you. Appreciate it.

James: [30:13] Hey, we'll be back.

[30:14] [pause]

James: [30:14] That was the best part of my lunch, was the mustard.

Laura Arnold: [30:18] I'm so upset I didn't go back for it.

James: [30:21] I was so upset for the pickles, though, because they were a bit bitter.

Jim: [30:23] As opposed to what? Spicy?

Laura: [30:23] Yeah.

James: [30:24] Dill. Yeah, dill.

Jim: [30:24] or dill.

Laura: [30:27] or when it got to the crunch.

[30:29] [crosstalk]

James: [30:29] We can. Me and my wife have a garden, and we pickle everything. We eat are own pickles year‑round because we make so much. They're so good and so [inaudible].

Jim: [30:44] You're going to be. That make sense.

Laura: [30:46] You're going to. Could you make those out of cucumbers? Is that what you...?

James: [30:52] Yeah.

Laura: [30:52] Little baby cucumbers?

James: [30:51] We have different types, but yeah. Absolutely. Kosher dills. This isn't what the show's about, though.

Jim: [30:58] It can be.

James: [30:59] It is right now.

Jim: [31:02] We met Laura the other morning, talking about overnight oatmeal.

James: [31:05] I talked about you earlier and mentioned all those things. I recalled it all. Who came on? Your colleague?

Jim: [31:14] Eric. Eric did.

James: [31:16] We talked about that.

Jim: [31:16] We met Eric, and we were like, "Wait a minute, you know Laura is like..." "Yeah," so then we connected the dots. We were like, "We have to have Laura back on."

James: [31:23] Laura, tell everybody who you are and who you're with.

Jim: [31:26] Please.

Laura: [31:26] Yeah, I'm Laura Arnold. I'm with MISS DIG 811. Not to be confused with Mississippi, we're out of Michigan. Hence the Midwestern accent.

James: [31:34] Can you break that down? Because we talked about this the other day, Jimmy and I, after we met you at breakfast, and it was like, "I'm really confused." Break down MISS DIG for us.

Laura: [31:44] MISS DIG is the first notification center in the US. We started in 1970, it was just a small group. Not me personally, obviously.

James: [31:52] Just a little in front.

Jim: [31:52] I'm sorry.

Laura: [31:53] I'm much too young to have been working in 1970.

James: [31:56] Of course.

Laura: [31:57] In 1970, a small group of utilities in the Metro Detroit area got together and formed MISS DIG. Back then, when you would hit a line, you'd say, "Oh, I missed a dug," so it's where the term comes from.

James: [32:09] I got you.

Laura: [32:10] It was part of our first phone number.

James: [32:13] I thought that I was crazy. I went back and then I start Googling, I was like, "I've been liking posts and doing things, and thinking it was Mississippi the whole time."

Jim: [32:24] It was Michigan.

James: [32:25] When I met you, I was like, "No, I think I misheard her," and then I saw Michigan again. Anyway, that clears up a lot for me. [laughs]

Jim: [32:32] We're better now, we're better.

James: [32:33] I can't be the only one, right?

Laura: [32:35] Probably not.

James: [32:36] How many times have you been to CGA?

Laura: [32:37] Four or five.

Jim: [32:38] You were in Anaheim last year, we talked about that, and then you probably missed a little bit during COVID [inaudible].

Laura: [32:45] During COVID, and during just some transitions within my organization, depending on your role and what you're working on.

Jim: [32:51] Laura, at the CGA conversation, a goal, a topic has come up, about 50 in 5. Reducing damage incidents by 50 percent in five years. Your thoughts on that, is it a lofty goal? Can we attain that, or can we at least move the needle in that right direction?

James: [33:12] Are we going to get there?

Laura: [33:13] Are we going to get there? To have a true goal, it's got to be something worth achieving. Oftentimes, when you set things to just be mediocre, that's all you're ever going to achieve. While it might very well be a lofty goal, we're in a position to achieve it.

[33:29] Technology, we've talked in these sessions about AI, and how much it's come from just being algorithms two years ago to true AI today. How are we able to employ that? We don't know that yet. Over the next five years, were probably going to figure it out.

[33:43] I sat in a session earlier today, specifically around the design process. How can we take that design process to cultivate better dig tickets, to provide information around who's digging and when, and all these benefits that go along with that? We're turning the page here, where we're at a point to revisit some of these things.

[34:04] 2017‑ish, MISS DIG tried to roll out a program to do this. The intent wasn't just from a design ticket facility owner to excavator or designer, it was designers able to communicate. "I'm starting to design something. Who else is planning stuff in that same area or at that same time? What facilities are in that area or potentially planning projects? How can we reduce opening roads?"

[34:30] There was a lot of hype around that, but people weren't in a position yet to buy in. We've had so much grant funding, our maps have increased, quality of data has increase. They're in a much better position to share that information and collaborate on it.

James: [34:44] That's how we're going to get there.

Laura: [34:46] That's how we're...A little bit from everywhere.

James: [34:49] We went from talking about El Salvador on what, Monday?

Laura: [34:53] Yeah.

James: [34:53] Pupusas?

Laura: [34:53] Pupusas.

Jim: [34:54] Pupusas and overnight oatmeal.

James: [34:58] To conquering 50 and 5 by Wednesday.

Jim: [35:01] Go like this.

James: [35:01] That's quite the progression, my friend. I love it.

Laura: [35:05] Maybe we can take it down to El Salvador and help them with their underground infrastructure when we're done.

James: [35:09] I'll tell you what, if we don't come back to CGA and next year and you don't show up with a bunch of Pupusas...

Jim: [35:13] We're going to be disappointed.

Laura: [35:14] Disappointed.

Jim: [35:15] We're not friends.

James: [35:16] Thank you for all you do, all the work you all do at MISS DIG.

Laura: [35:20] Thank you.

Jim: [35:21] We are great friends. Thank you for all you do, absolutely.

Laura: [35:21] Thank you, guys. Thank you.

James: [35:22] Hey, we'll be back.

[35:23] [pause]

Jim: [35:23] We are coming back with one of our dear friends.

James: [35:26] We're having good mic etiquette. It's for Clinton. Clinton's our spencer, so let's have good mic etiquette.

Nick Temple: [35:34] Clinton wants people...OK.

Jim: [35:34] Talk close to the mic, like this, and not to move.

James: [35:37] There's only a few people you can talk just freely, man.

Jim: [35:39] Welcome to the show.

James: [35:40] Nick is one of them.

Jim: [35:42] Can I move?

Nick: [35:43] You're in a safe space with me.

James: [35:44] I like that.

Jim: [35:44] We're always in a safe space with you because you're a long‑term friend.

James: [35:49] Listen, we're live at CGA, but really, we had Nick on because going to talk about barbecue for a few minutes.

Nick: [35:59] Let's talk some barbecue.

James: [36:01] We need some input from the industry on whether we, us three, including one other friend of ours...

Jim: [36:01] Who? Matt?

James: [36:02] Matt Purchatzke.

Jim: [36:04] From?

James: [36:04] From Minnesota.

Jim: [36:07] No, Wisconsin.

James: [36:08] Oh, Matt, sorry, man.

Jim: [36:10] He's a Sconnie boy.

James: [36:11] He's our Big Green Egg guy. He wants us to create a super team of Big Green Egg champions to go to Atlanta and whoop everybody's butt on the amateur circuit...

Jim: [36:25] Are you in?

Nick: [36:25] I'm so in.

James: [36:26] The EGGtoberfest. We're going to workshop that for October. Let us know what you think.

Nick: [36:31] Love it.

Jim: [36:32] Is that it?

James: [36:33] Hey, man. It was good seeing you. Just kidding.

[36:35] [laughter]

James: [36:35] Nick, how's it going, man?

Jim: [36:37] I'm like, "What is happening here?"

James: [36:38] We're doing that too.

Jim: [36:40] OK, I'm in.

James: [36:41] That's what I came for.

Nick: [36:42] It's going really well.

James: [36:43] This is your world, man.

Nick: [36:44] This is my world. This is my Super Bowl, as we say.

Jim: [36:48] How many years have you been coming here?

Nick: [36:49] This is my 10th. It's been fantastic.

James: [36:55] He started when he was 10.

Nick: [36:57] [laughs] It's been a great event. Had a lot of fun. So far, it's been fantastic. Happy to be here. I love talking barbecue. When we do...

James: [37:13] Let's talk about that some more.

Nick: [37:14] Let's get back to the barbecue for a second.

James: [37:16] It's what's important.

Nick: [37:16] When we do the barbecue thing, what I want to focus on is my mesquite‑smoked tri‑tip tacos.

James: [37:23] Oh, my gosh. We're going to have a taco trio, I think. I'm doing barbacoa. There's no doubt. My wife says she wants to do slaw for it.

Jim: [37:30] When I grill the hot dogs, do I turn the hotdogs?

[37:34] [laughter]

James: [37:34] Get the grill marks on. I'm with you, dude. Tell us more about those tacos. Tri‑tip. That's a West Coast thing.

Nick: [37:43] It's a Texas thing.

James: [37:44] I know, but brisket.

Nick: [37:48] Mesquite is a Texas thing too. The tri‑tip takes the mesquite smoke really well. The key with that is the tri‑tip, as compared to your barbacoa I'm sure, which is pretty juicy and wet, the tri‑tip can get a little dry. It's important to have a good coleslaw, like you're talking about.

James: [38:11] See what I mean?

Jim: [38:13] What am I doing here?

Nick: [38:14] [laughs]

James: [38:14] What are you going to cook?

Jim: [38:16] I'm going to go talk to...

James: [38:19] What's your bite?

Jim: [38:20] What?

James: [38:20] Three bites. It can be hot dog bites.

Jim: [38:23] What do I want to cook?

James: [38:26] What would you cook?

Jim: [38:27] I'm going to cook ribs.

James: [38:29] Remember, you've got to do it on air.

Jim: [38:33] Yeah, I'm going to do ribs. I got an egg, Tammy bought me an egg for Father's Day last year.

James: [38:41] Everyone gets one rib.

Jim: [38:42] The thing that I've done, and done well, are ribs. I'm going to do baby back ribs.

[38:49] Steve: Ooh! Good.

James: [38:35] You're so basic. I love it, though.

Nick: [38:38] I'm going to say something right now, that in the natural gas industry, you're going to know this name, the best ribs I've ever had in my life, made by Vinny Vickers.

James: [38:47] Of course, we know Vinny Vickers.

Jim: [38:47] Yeah, CenterPoint. Arkansas.

Nick: [38:51] Summit.

Jim: [38:51] Or Summit now, yes. Summit now.

James: [38:53] Yeah, for sure.

Jim: [38:55] Out of Arkansas.

Nick: [38:54] I used to go down and help with the Arkansas Gas Association annual meeting, and he invited me down. They have all these trailers, and they're smoking barbecue like you wouldn't believe.

James: [39:06] Of course. I know we've eaten...Oh, I bet I ate it last year at Oklahoma Gas Association's annual. They do it. You all should come to that. They do a barbecue cook‑off in it.

Nick: [39:15] That's awesome.

James: [39:16] One of the teams is CenterPoint. One of them is Summit, and...Well, it was CenterPoint.

Jim: [39:23] Yeah, was CenterPoint, now Summit.

James: [39:25] I'm sorry. Sorry, everybody.

Jim: [39:26] We got it. We're good.

James: [39:28] We know how the industry works.

Nick: [39:31] Best rib I ever had. Right, there you go. Vinny Vickers.

James: [39:35] Are you like fall‑off‑the‑bones ribs? In competition, they say it shouldn't. You should be able to tear it.

Jim: [39:43] I've not perfected it, I'm still an amateur. I did it one time, they were so overdone that I picked them up and they fell apart.

James: [39:54] Just pull it off.

Jim: [39:14] The next time I...

James: [39:15] They were fantastic, though, weren't they?

Jim: [39:18] They were delicious.

Nick: [39:19] [laughs]

James: [39:19] Like everybody goes, "Oh, I would never do that."

Jim: [39:47] I toned it back to where the point they're still being held in place. I do know how to remove the silver membrane.

Nick: [39:55] Nice.

Jim: [39:56] I might have allegedly forgot that the first time or didn't realize that.

Nick: [40:00] There's a lot of people that talk about cooking ribs in crock pots. Don't talk to me about cooking your ribs in crock pots.

Jim: [40:06] No. [inaudible] dish.

James: [40:07] We're not the same.

Nick: [40:08] If it's not cooked on a Big Green Egg, I don't want to hear about it.

Jim: [40:12] In another episode, not now, I'm going to tell you how I tried a pizza one time and an epic fail. Another episode.

James: [40:15] We've all done that.

Nick: [40:16] [laughs]

James: [40:17] We all did pizzas the first time, and then took it out of the...Boom!

Nick: [40:20] That's easy to screw up. Hey, let me ask you all a question. Actually, I want to ask you a couple of questions.

James: [40:23] Do it. Let's go.

Jim: [40:24] Please.

James: [40:24] I mean, why not?

Nick: [40:25] First question. How has this conference been for you all?

Jim: [40:28] I'll say, fantastic. For many different reasons. One, for us, living in the OQ world and the state gas association world for so long, this has opened up our eyes to the extent of where the damage prevention community, as I'll call it, is reaching. We're looking and talking to people with telecom, with fiber, with power, everything. That's great.

James: [40:53] All the stakeholders.

Jim: [40:53] Every single one.

James: [40:55] This is my first one, which is weird. A lot of people are like, really? I just got here, remember? I know, you think it back, but I haven't. I didn't have expectations for the event other than what I knew about Jim and other people.

[41:12] I knew it would be large. I knew they took it serious. For me, the biggest part is the community itself. I've been in them, I've seen you have plenty events. We go to summits and stuff, but they're more regional or state specific.

[41:24] Seeing the collective together. Like damage prevention I told you this earlier, damage prevention makes sense to me. I can inverse the words and it makes sense.

[41:35] It doesn't take a lot for me to understand why it's important, but seeing so many people passionate about it together and not like...We compete a lot natural gas. That's the truth, we do.

[41:49] To see so many people chasing the exact same thing at the end of the day, is spectacular today, because that's what we're driving for. Whether it's in our orgs, with our people, or our inner circles, or whatever.

[42:02] We're trying to get that synergy, and I know there's still people that are guarded and whatnot, but this group gets it.

Nick: [42:08] They get it, they absolutely get it.

Jim: [42:10] The walls are down.

James: [42:11] That, you can't replace getting it, period.

Jim: [42:12] Not all the way down, but a lot of the walls are down.

James: [42:14] I love natural gas. I love, all of you know that. I'm a champion, but we're not as open as damage prevention as a whole in my opinion. I know that we're part of that, but I mean, I see the sessions here.

[42:28] We joked about it with several people is that we always talk about a friend with a pipeline. You have to go into that mode to be able to talk in our industry, we're here, we're out there, lessons learned, everything's out there. I love it, man. It's my jam.

Nick: [42:45] I feel you. I was scrolling through their app today, looking at all the sessions and every one of these sessions looked really good. I was like, "Man, these sessions are happening at the same time," and it's like, how do you pick the one? Yeah, because there's so many good ones.

[42:59] That's a great thing and I've heard a lot of great feedback. Oh man, learning a lot. I have another question for you guys. I listen to a lot of the sports podcast, "Bussin' With The Boys," whatever. No say. I'm going to give you three choices. Start, bench, and cut.

James: [43:18] Oh no.

Nick: [43:19] Here we go. Tri‑tip. Let's do this. Brisket, pork shoulder, and ribs. If you had to barbecue one, put those in order. Which one are you going to start? Which one are you going to cut? Which one are you going to bench?

[43:39] Go ahead, James.

James: [43:44] Pork shoulder was tough for me at first. I don't know why, I could never understand it. Then one day I think I was undercooking. It seemed odd to put something on as long as a brisket, but I wasn't realizing how large, especially when you have a bone in it, and how much that took.

[44:01] I'm a thermometer guy. I'm not dumb, but it never made sense. Here lately though, not here lately, last two or three years, man, there's almost nothing. That's what I judge barbecue restaurants on.

[44:17] Somebody said it the other day, "Oh, the burger's a staple" or whatever. When I go to barbecue place, if you can't make a pulled pork sandwich, anyone can make ribs. How's that?

[44:26] If you can't make a pulled pork sandwich that you don't put down and go, then I don't want to try anything else. For me, that's my starter.

Nick: [44:35] You're starting pork shoulder...

James: [44:36] What's my other two options?

Nick: [44:39] who are you benching and who are you cutting?

James: [44:42] Cutting in what way? Like eating it?

Nick: [44:45] No.

James: [44:45] Cutting it up and eating it.

Nick: [44:47] If you were playing on a sports team, you got three players. You can start one...

[44:51] [crosstalk]

James: [44:51] I got you. I got it. I was just trying to be funny. I would cut the brisket and eat it. No, I would bench the brisket because I'm from Texas, and there's something special about it.

Nick: [45:02] You're cutting this.

James: [45:02] Even if I chop it up and make it into tacos for later, it's still the best thing on the table.

Nick: [45:07] Agree.

James: [45:07] I hate to say it, but I don't cook enough. Tri‑tip, I would divorce that one.

Jim: [45:14] Ribs, you're starting ribs. Just because I'm an amateur, I love...

James: [45:19] I cut ribs, right?

[45:20] [crosstalk]

Nick: [45:20] You cut ribs.

Jim: [45:20] I'm keeping ribs.

Nick: [45:26] You're starting ribs.

Jim: [45:27] I'm starting ribs. I'm going to bench pork, and I'm going to cut brisket because I don't think I'm there yet.

Nick: [45:33] Ooh, your Texas friends are not going to be happy with you.

James: [45:37] Gosh! I can't wait for you. I already know the answer. Go ahead, boys.

Nick: [45:37] [laughs] I am starting brisket, I am benching pork shoulder, and I'm cutting ribs.

James: [45:45] That was not what I expected. Oh, there was four.

Jim: [45:50] No, there wasn't four, there was three.

James: [45:52] There were four options in there.

Nick: [45:53] Three.

Jim: [45:53] Three. Ribs, pork, and brisket.

James: [45:56] I like all those choices. We can hang out.

Jim: [46:01] Thank you, brother.

Nick: [46:02] OK, good. Good to see you guys.

Jim: [46:03] Thank you.

James: [46:03] I need to try to, that's for sure. After all this banquet food this week, I need a break.

Nick: [46:04] [laughs]

Jim: [46:04] This episode of the Food Network's Barbecue with Nick and James has been brought to you by the Big Green Egg.

[46:14] [laughter]

James: [46:14] It's been nice bringing it back. Come see us in October at Oktoberfest.

Nick: [46:16] 811 before you dig.

James: [46:18] We're on the booth.

Jim: [46:19] I'll be the one doing all the talking, they'll be doing all the cooking.

James: [46:21] Call before you dig in. See what I did there?

Jim: [46:24] Oh, I see what you did there.

Nick: [46:25] It's good.

James: [46:26] Nah, it's not that good.

Nick: [46:28] [laughs]

Jim: [46:28] Thanks, brother.

James: [46:29] We'll be back.

[46:30] [pause]

[46:30] Jordan Ponizhaylo: I was having a hard time.

James: [46:31] Well, we are live.

Jim: [46:32] Oh, we are?

James: [46:33] I'm just kidding.

[46:34] Jordan: [laughs]

James: [46:34] We're back here at the CGA with one of our good friends. Where do we see you? At Spring Gas? SGA?

[46:39] Jordan: Yep, SGA in Charlotte.

James: [46:41] Not too long ago.

[46:42] Jordan: Yep, two weeks.

James: [46:44] Soon we'll see you at AGA.

[46:46] Jordan: Yep, see you in another two weeks.

James: [46:45] A couple of weeks, and then in two weeks, we'll probably be...I'm kidding.

[46:47] Jordan: Natural Gas Connect.

James: [46:48] Oh, you are? Gosh! [laughs]

Jim: [46:49] We are.

[46:49] Jordan: Yeah, we'll see you there. [laughs]

Jim: [46:51] We got to get in there.

James: [46:54] Two weeks after that, we'll be at APGA, and then LGA, and then we'll be back here.

[47:00] Jordan: Going to see a lot of each other.

James: [47:04] We're on the horn. Where are we?

Jim: [47:02] Right now? We're in Orlando, CGA.

James: [47:05] We're in CGA, or where are we?

[47:07] Jordan: Orlando.

James: [47:08] All right, we're back.

Jim: [47:07] All right, please introduce yourselves one at a time. Take turns. I'll do the mic.

[47:13] Jordan: Sounds good. Hello, I'm Jordan Ponizhaylo. I'm the Marketing Manager at Sparus Holdings.

[47:19] Justin Smith: My name is Justin Smith. I'm the Compliance Manager with United Locating Services.

Jim: [47:26] I see what's going on here.

James: [47:27] I got this. I'm glad you said your last name and not me. I don't think I could've made it through.

[47:36] Jordan: [laughs] It's a tough one.

James: [47:38] First CGA? Second? How many times have you been here?

[47:42] Jordan: Our company has been here probably 8, 10 times, but this is my second time.

James: [47:42] I like them.

[47:43] Justin: This is my first time at a CGA.

James: [47:45] What do you think?

[47:46] Justin: I mean, it's better now that I'm here.

[47:48] [laughter]

James: [47:49] It's a lot better when I was back home. Lots of knowledge sharing. You all make it to any sessions today, or have you all been [inaudible]?

[47:55] Jordan: The pool session.

James: [47:57] That's OK.

Jim: [47:59] That's an important session.

[48:00] Jordan: That is. [laughs]

James: [48:01] I did that on Saturday and Sunday. I came in early and knocked out a pool session.

[48:08] [laughter]

Jim: [48:05] Both of you wanted to be on at the same time, explain that. Give us a little...What are we...?

James: [48:08] Yeah, break it down for us.

[48:09] Jordan: Sparus Holdings is the holding, it's the umbrella company for seven different entities. ULS is one of our newest acquisitions, and they are a...Well, you tell a little bit about ULS.

[48:21] Justin: They purchased us, what, back in November?

[48:23] Jordan: Yes.

[48:24] Justin: We were a new acquisition for them. We're just a utility contract locating company. We work around Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, we got stuff working in Cincinnati now, with Duke Energy. We mainly work...We started probably 25 years ago, and the first big contract we got was CenterPoint Energy in Houston. Since then, we're based out of...

James: [48:43] Was that you?

Jim: [48:43] What year was it?

James: [48:44] Were you there? [laughs]

Jim: [48:44] No, I wasn't, but I was at CenterPoint. When you said Texas, and you said...Then you had Minnesota, I'm like, "That's a CenterPoint contract."

[48:50] Justin: Originally, there was a CenterPoint contract in Minnesota, and my dad started that and ran that a long time ago. Scott Smith out of Missoula, Montana. Shout out if you ever hear me, Scott.

[49:00] [laughter]

[49:00] Justin: You call your dad Scott?

James: [49:03] We're going to pretend, like your dad and you made that deal.

Jim: [49:04] There's a good chance...Never mind.

[49:08] [laughter]

James: [49:09] That's great. Awesome.

Jim: [49:11] Your dad's a young man, right? I mean, he's very young, right?

[49:14] Justin: Sure.

[49:16] [laughter]

James: [49:16] Oh, shut up.

[49:17] Jordan: Ouch!

Jim: [49:18] I'm not feeling any love.

James: [49:22] While we're at CGA, at CGA, it's been brought out, 50...

Jim: [49:26] in 5.

James: [49:27] 50 in 5. Everybody's talking about it. How are we going to get there? How are we going to get to 50 in five? Any ideas?

Jim: [49:35] A 50 percent reduction.

[49:36] Justin: That's cutting in half, right?

James: [49:38] Mm‑hmm, in five years.

[49:40] Justin: What ULS does is we give every technician their true ownership of their locates. The ticket is theirs. We pay them in a way, and we build our system in a way, where they're proud to own their ticket and have responsibility. It feels like it's their ownership, not the company's. That way, they gain a lot of pride to do their job every day.

Jim: [50:00] To do it well and to do it precise.

[50:02] Justin: Yes, exactly.

James: [50:03] I love that.

[50:04] One of our colleagues, Steve Allen. I don't know if you all know him. State of Indiana, he built that program over there, back in the day. He was telling us, he was like, "Man, locators are some bad dudes. They've got the world in their hands," right?

[50:20] Jordan: [laughs]

Jim: [50:20] Oh, yeah.

James: [50:21] He ain't lying. I love to see folks here. I've seen so many people that do so much work for our industry. Thank you so much. Ma'am, see you in a couple of weeks, I guess.

[50:13] Jordan: Sounds great.

Jim: [50:14] We'll see you at AGA.

[50:16] Jordan: All right. Sounds good.

James: [50:18] Good to have you, brother. Then again, and again, and again.

[50:23] Jordan: ...and again, and again. [laughs]

James: [50:39] Big things at AGA.

[50:41] Justin: Sorry for coming on with her. I know you wanted to see her the whole time.

Jim: [50:45] No, no.

[50:46] Jordan: It's OK.

James: [50:47] We'll see Jordan in a couple of weeks. We'll see you in a couple of weeks, maybe?

[50:52] Justin: We'll see. I'll at least come to another one, and when I see you, I'll stop by.

James: [50:52] AGA is a good one.

[50:53] Hey, we'll be back.

[50:54] [pause]

James: [50:54] End of day three.

Jim: [50:58] Fantastic day, James.

James: [50:59] Packed day. It was cool to get the announcement out about DPA, and finally get to tell all of our friends, and to see the excitement and Steve Allen's face.

Jim: [51:10] All day long.

James: [51:10] This morning, it was like the first day of school for everyone, and to get to go out and get to tell all of our friends in this industry, how excited we were. I don't want to be lying.

Jim: [51:19] We had a bevy of fun, but Steve Allen was literally bouncing all around the convention center, having conversations, "Hey, have you heard? I got some news for you. I got this."

James: [51:28] All the new business cards.

Jim: [51:29] He ran out of business cards today, Steve did.

James: [51:34] It was a good day.

Jim: [51:35] Yeah, it was a fantastic...

James: [51:36] Steve's right behind the camera, he's giggling. No, it was a good day. Man, I don't even know the number of guests we got on this so far. I know that post‑production is going to hate us, because there are a lot.

Jim: [51:51] Oh, they're going to hate us.

James: [51:52] Icon after icon, talking to Jimmy Wang earlier. I didn't even know who we were talking with and he goes, "Yeah, I've been with the CGA for 20 years before there was CGA."

Jim: [52:06] We're like, "Huh?"

James: [52:06] Then, Dr. Paul...Gosh! Sorry.

Jim: [52:09] I can't remember the last name.

James: [52:11] Sorry. Great initiative there.

Jim: [52:13] Our friend, Steve, from PG&E today.

James: [52:15] Seeing Nick Temple, seeing so many. Go on and on.

Jim: [52:22] Too many to even talk about, but again...

James: [52:24] I petted a puppy. I got paid the whole time.

Jim: [52:30] You did, you had a dog in your arms today.

James: [52:32] I'm basically like a sponsored puppy holder. I mean, basically.

Jim: [52:37] [laughs] James, a take‑away from today, I made every attempt to go to a session and I couldn't do it. I couldn't break away.

James: [52:45] No, didn't leave.

Jim: [52:45] No, I couldn't break away.

James: [52:46] Between this and the scholarship stuff. We did record several scholarships today, which was amazing.

Jim: [52:51] Three. Yep, three today.

James: [52:53] Our kitty continues to grow.

Jim: [52:55] A quick shout‑out to ULC, LineQuest, and our friends at Cortera and Heath Consultants.

James: [53:03] Doubled it down.

Jim: [53:05] It was fantastic.

James: [53:06] A thousand dollars in the kitty already, just from the show. We've got one more chunk left tomorrow, it sounds like.

Jim: [53:14] We do.

James: [53:14] Jimmy, I hate to say it, but I am flying home tomorrow. I will not be around for everything tomorrow. I'm going to catch all the major stuff, but I'm not going to get to do any of the fun stuff.

Jim: [53:25] We have a huge, as we like to say, knowledge‑sharing event tomorrow night. CGA does it up right. It's always been the final night, generally from 6:00 to 10:00. That is really where everybody gets together to say goodbye but also to reconfirm the commitments that are made here.

[53:42] Many people are talking officially and unofficially about things that they're going to do together within the space to make things better with the initiative of 50 in 5, reducing damage incidents by 50 percent in five years. There's so many things. Tomorrow night's going to be...

James: [54:00] It was neat to see all the answers today of that question about how we're...

Jim: [54:01] We're going to miss you tomorrow night, though, just so you know, but well deserved to get home, well deserved.

James: [54:05] I'll be happy to get home.

Jim: [54:06] Absolutely.

James: [54:07] Somebody's got to work. Day four tomorrow?

Jim: [54:11] Yes.

James: [54:11] It's hard to keep count. We'll get up here bright and early. We hope to finish it off with some CGA folks as well if we're lucky. We'll see.

Jim: [54:19] I believe that we've already been slated for some of that. I had an inside track today.

James: [54:25] Oh, so we'll see. Hopefully, when we're back. Hey, appreciate it. Appreciate you, sir.

Jim: [54:30] Always, brother. Great day.

James: [54:31] What a great day to be live. Man, I don't have my shirt on anymore, but we were all DPAed all day.

Jim: [54:37] You know why we don't anymore? We sweat through them today.

James: [54:40] Steve is. Come on, Steve.

Jim: [54:41] Come on, brother. Get in here.

James: [54:43] Get over here. Show us that shirt. Give us a business card, something.

[54:45] Steve Allen: All right.

James: [54:47] Look, see. We love Steve.

[54:48] Steve: Dah dah‑dah‑dah.

James: [54:50] He's so happy. Whoo, get ready, guys.

Jim: [54:53] He reminds me...

James: [54:54] What did you say last night?

[54:55] Steve: Game on.

James: [54:55] Game on.

Jim: [54:57] Can we get that on a shirt?

James: [54:58] I will pay for it myself.

[55:01] Steve: [laughs]

James: [55:01] We'll see you tomorrow.

Jim: [55:02] Have a good night.

[55:03] [background music]