CWJJ Episode 39: A Look at 2021

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] [background music]

Jim Schauer:  [0:07] Good morning, LinkedIn community. Welcome to 2021. I will guarantee you that this will be the best episode of “Coffee with Jim & James” all this year so far.

James Cross:  [0:23] True story.

Jim:  [0:25] True story. James, am I right?

James:  [0:27] Yes you are.

Jim:  [0:28] I normally start off with a very wacky intro. Today’s is going to be one of the shortest ones I’ve ever done and the wackiest. Ready for this? 2020, that’s it.

James:  [0:41] I though you were going to say never speak of it again.

Jim:  [0:47] Never speak of it again, seriously. James, how are you this fine and beautiful morning? I’m sure I can live again.

James:  [0:53] I’m good. I am recharged back from vacation finished 2020 off strong sharpening the saw and the ready to put in some work for 2021.

[1:09] But what Jim was kind of referencing a second ago was in the pre‑show we were talking about how we didn’t want this episode to be a reflection on the pandemic or on the coronavirus but more on you know, like any year kind of talk a little bit.

[1:29] Yeah, it’s what happened. It spurred a lot of what went on and our actions and reactions, but there was a lot more to 2020.

[1:40] We’re hoping to kind of jump into that a little bit today and then honestly talk about the future of the show future of our industry. You name it. Just kind of dabble around talk a bit go down some, you know, some killer tangents or rabbit holes, whatever you’re into today Jimmy. It’s pretty freestyle show.

Jim:  [2:04] I like that it. Again, for our viewers welcome to this episode again. We wanted to kind of decompress and And I guess really kind of get inflated for this year, you know James. Let me throw this at you real quick, you know 2020 is what it was but a lot of great things a lot of blessings came out of 2020.

[2:25] I think that sometimes we can you know, maybe lose sight of those with all the other stuff. You know, what’s what’s a what’s a great thing that happened to you in 2020 in 20 words or less than I’m just kidding you.

James:  [2:40] 20 words or less. You know, I think. The show really was something else.

Jim:  [2:51] Agreed.

James:  [2:52] It consumed a lot of what went on. Obviously. We also had an awesome project internally to Rebrand this company and and sing it come to life was also another huge part of 2020, you know, the pandemic was a was a big part forced us into some of this and I think we’re seeing seeing the results.

[3:17] It’s been a blast that part man. I hate the circumstances. I wish we were out there but I don’t know that we ever would have done this Jimmy, you know, I don’t know that we were there ever would have been a Coffee with Jim & James without the situation we found ourselves into so that I take that for what it is and being a blessing. I know it changed your world.

Jim:  [3:39] Absolutely.

James:  [3:41] I think your transformation has been one that’s you know been pretty pretty impressive to watch as the for those of us that knew Jimmy before Coffee with Jim & James. Whatever that means sounds prolific, before Coffee with Jim & James for know that you know how you are in person and how engaging and inspiring you are in the industry to see that kind of transition and transform into this show and really a beacon in the industry. So kudos to you, Jimmy.

[4:24] You know for those that don’t know. I don’t know if Jimmy’s even talked about it a lot but he won the Blue Star Award internally this year at Energy Worldnet which is for really high performance and doing brave things out there in this world. And so Jimmy pushed himself this year and I was really proud of that. But what are your thoughts, Jim, on 2020? How did it change you?

Jim:  [4:53] Well, I’ll build on that because for years I walk into a conference trade show put my arms up and say hey we’re here. Let’s get this going and get it started and it was easy to do. Then all of a sudden I feel like this last year was like the cell phones back in whatever year.

[5:13] Let’s just go 1998 or 1997 where you know, I’m excited for this industry and I’m excited for this medium and and doing things, we’ll call it virtual, because it’s a view that you know, in three four five years we’re going to look back at this time and say, “Gosh, remember how awkward we were then or how clumsy it was?” and all those things.

[5:35] In the future. You and I are going to be at some show together and all of a sudden hey, this is a great time to do an episode and pull out a widget or whatever it is and set it here and do a whole episode without even thinking about it. And I think that’s exciting, you know to think about that we’re really on the cutting edge of the industry right now.

James:  [5:59] Jim, I don’t know if you remember it. It doesn’t matter who it was or what happened, but there was a day we were planning to record one afternoon. It was a busy week. It was we were getting ready for the holidays the first Thanksgiving holiday and Jim get married and so we’re recording a lot.

[6:21] One afternoon someone had something come up. I had to cancel and we I mean rolled with the punches we are pros at this point. So we just rescheduled we lined somebody else up and kept cranking through it.

[6:36] I remember calling you, Jim, later that that day and saying could you imagine this last year? You had a virtual meeting with these folks and we were going to record it and do a webinar and all this, how much anxiety and stress you would have had leading up to that moment? Then for it to get cancelled, how crushing it would have been on top of that?

[7:04] That wasn’t our situation. We rolled with the punches. We went right back to work. Well, I’m sure we recorded the episode the next week like it was just the world we lived in but to think back of last year thinking about that last year, it would have wrecked our world like we would have trained for that moment. [laughs]

Jim:  [7:26] What a steep road we say we’re going to record on Thursday. I’m like, huh? We are? OK, the night before? OK. Like even today, you ready to go? Yeah, I’m ready to go. Let’s do it, you know getting on and I think though that that’s what why people are have gravitated towards us and stick with us is that we try to keep it real.

[7:48] It’s like conversations that we have had and will eventually have at trade shows and you know, just the banter and people like that they want to be included and I look forward to the time when we can have things like this ready.

[8:00] This is the crystal ball. Where all of a sudden, you know, somebody somebody pops on and you know spends, you know a minute with us and pops off and somebody else pops on and we can go back and forth and the technology is growing that way. But like I said, it’s exciting to be in this place. You know, it really is.

James:  [8:20] 20/20 definitely pushes us into this in this world a little quicker maybe than some of us wanted but these are the byproducts and I think that’s cool. Jim, let’s talk just I don’t know about you. Well, I do because I approved it, but I had a lot of time off this this holiday season. Probably a lot like everybody else.

[8:46] I’ve not use my time throughout the year because I was working from home. I didn’t have anywhere to go and so I had a little bit of extra roll into the end of the year.

[8:54] And so I made it a point. We surprised the kids and and with a trip to Colorado we had our we had reserved a place there and were able to take them on sleigh rides and sledding and you name it really enjoyed some snow and still be safe and socially distant and you know, and that’s the glory of Colorado.

[9:18] Isn’t that just only Colorado can put a fence around something call it a park, open open space park. In Texas we call it pasture but in Colorado, I’m just walking and it snows and it’s pretty and we love it. So that that was kind of my holiday.

Jim:  [9:39] Let me ask you a quick question, knowing Colorado, where it is. Probably a 50 minute maybe 45 minute plane ride for you. You guys went up and down and were there in a way.

James:  [9:49] 12 hour‑long car ride with you know, my 9, soon‑to‑be‑10, year‑old, son, Liam. Shout‑out old‑school guests there for the from your show last year if you remember that one and then my daughter who’s four.

[10:06] All of 12 hours solid they were troopers, but man that’s a long long ride and it was really long coming back when you don’t have Colorado on the other side. It was fun. Funny enough. We went in search of snow we found it.

[10:25] But while we were gone it actually we caught some snow here in the Metroplex here in Texas. So that was kind of funny that we drove 12 hours to find snow, but I’ll promise you I think everybody the agreement that we made the right choice.

[10:42] It was beautiful up there tons of snow really safe. But anyway, Jimmy, what about your break, man? I saw some pictures. I guess your family, man, leaning into the Coffee with Jim & James, you know, it’s real when it starts, you know bearing into your family and the gifts that you got so I thought it would be a funny thing to talk about.

Jim:  [11:09] It was fun. And thank goodness to my wife, Tammy, who helped out giving some ideas for some really cool signs. If I could hold that upward shows up. James has one up over there.

[11:25] I got a really cool and I can’t figure out how to work it yet, but a microphone that’s supposed to be really awesome and you know, just living in the virtual world with Tammy and the pipeline side of things. You know, we’re doing video calls conference calls all the time.

[11:41] So we got now door placards, you know recording and progress for both of us to use. So it’s just some fun stuff. We didn’t go anywhere we hung around here. I mean all like so many people save the PTO that because we’re going to travel at the end of the year.

[11:55] Well that didn’t work but we try to do a home base here where people came and went small people socially distancing disinfecting the whole bit, but it was a good holiday good time to sharpen the saw getting to know some of the seven habits that we’ve talked about.

[12:13] I thought about it every day, you know again sharpening the saw getting ready for 2021 getting you know, looking back at the seven habits and looking forward to them. It was it was good time. It was really, I’ll say, relaxing.

James:  [12:29] For those that maybe were unaware didn’t catch “The 7 Habits” episode last week is we at the end of 2020 and I don’t know about you, Jim, but I was really happy with how it turned out as far as the timing of it because we had an internal book study on “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” from Stephen Covey, rest in peace.

[13:01] He really inspired us rolling into this new year, you know picking up that book. We had an awesome group. I mean just super awesome group shout‑out to all those folks that were involved in that study this time, very safe, very open very respectful and, man, just walking into 2021 for me having that as a foundation with something incredible that I haven’t had. I don’t know in my life, you know.

Jim:  [13:32] It was incredibly let me just give a little more details. I think we did it over a seven week period seven or eight weeks, right?

James:  [13:39] Yeah, even with the holiday in there. I think we still got it in in seven weeks.

Jim:  [13:44] It was really that you know, the same group of people did it virtually all the way through. James is a master of it. He’s a student of it. Even though he’s a master, he’s still a student because you learn every day from it. You pick up more things.

[13:59] I’m learning from James on this and other mentors. We brought it to Coffee with Jim & James have been doing some episodes to try to get folks to be sparked on it. It’s a wonderful journey and it really does. It really does beautiful thing.

[14:12] It impacts so much of the life not just professional life but it’s personal, community family, church, all of it. I mean you could use it all and there’s so much.

[14:22] It’s like you have to keep going back and saying OK, wait a minute. I just want to touch up on this because you know, this doesn’t work well. It’s something you can keep referring to a reference. It was wonderful. It was a great way to start 2021 and a great way to kind of bring together 2020 in you know, the positive things about it. So it was wonderful.

James:  [14:46] It was fun again. Awesome group that we had in there and really a high note of 2020, man, and right at the end where people I think needed it more than we even realized how much they needed it. So that was that was an awesome an awesome thing to see to close 2020 on.

[15:10] As we kind of look into the future, Jim. I was going to say one other thing. I’m just I looked over and saw it. Also, my wife got me a brand new Victrola record player.

Jim:  [15:25] Is there a crank on it?

James:  [15:28] No, it’s not a crank. My son just sits over there. But so I’ve been buying old records and I just got this one in “Beatles” solid man. So I’ve been on this kick of buying old records and I’d mentioned to to you earlier.

[15:46] Think about records as you’ve got to there’s very few records from start to finish that you you know, you don’t want to be over there moving the needle all the time, you know, and and and working the record player. You just want to you want to records from start to finish. There’s only there’s only so many out there that you feel comfortable. Making that commitment to you know?

Jim:  [16:13] Yeah. All the records that I threw away.

James:  [16:20] I probably just bought them.

Jim:  [16:23] When that thing called the CD came out. I thought oh the world has now changed. I never need vinyl again. I’m talking, James, I mean first Queen, The Who, I’m dating myself, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, wonderful ones, Johnny Cash from San Quentin.

James:  [16:46] That’s been a fun thing to start the new year off with I told my wife I’m going to spend about a hundred bucks a month on records just buying real quality stuff.

Jim:  [17:00] What do records cost these days? I don’t even know.

James:  [17:02] They’re super expensive.

Jim:  [17:05] Are they?

James:  [17:06] Don’t talk about it.

Jim:  [17:07] 40, 50 bucks?

James:  [17:08] Yeah, probably. Well, it depends, you know. Probably a little all over the place. I think I bought some for 20 or 30 but there were some that were 50. I’m going for greatest hits. That’s where it’s the smart move. And those are more expensive. They know what they’re doing.

[17:30] Jimmy, 2021, man. We’ll let 2020 go. I know everybody’s ready to send it to pasture. 2021, what does it look like? What are you thinking? What’s in your crystal ball? What are you what are you pushing? What are we what are we shooting for?

Jim:  [17:51] Well, I think we you and I are going to be pushing for taking this Coffee series and I would say amping it up a few notches. You’re taking it up to the next level and I think the key is that we learned enough in this industry that virtual will not go away.

[18:11] Even when we get back to whatever the new normal is and I just see this virtual being such a great conduit going through everything. And you know me, I’m excited for conferences. I’m excited to get back and shake people’s hands or do whatever I can do. Put my arms up when I walk in the exhibit hall and say let’s get going.

[18:36] I just see a lot of positive grassroots momentum with with that whole world. That’s kind of where I’m looking at you and I’m really excited about the Coffee series. Is there any knows we do this Coffee series to bring positivity into the industry to bring awareness to bring good topics.

[18:54] I think we’re really going to look at a very interesting year this year of I don’t want to say blow it out of the water. But you know, that’s that’s going to be my term. Yourself, James, what’s your thoughts?

James:  [19:08] Yeah, I want to take this thing on the road a little bit too. I pray just like everybody that we’re back the some capacity by the end of the year. I don’t know where that first one’s going to happen. Jimmy has mic, will travel.

[19:25] I think this thing is going to be fun translating it to a live audience to some degree. I hope we’re able to try that this year. If if not, I think we’re going to turn it up a notch and hopefully have the guests to back it up and the folks that are as passionate as we are to keep pushing and building this audience and open the scroll.

[19:53] We’re so blessed. I say it all the time. We’re worried about you know, how we’re going to change what we’re doing and other people are worried about you know, you name it their health their safety their livelihood, their lack of a job and to be able to be creative and not be, you know not have our hand slapped and told no and situations like this, man.

[20:19] We are so so so blessed, can’t say it enough, and the roll into to 2021 eyes wide open really not scared of anything like we were, you know, I mean, we’re scare, you know, we’re going to be safe doesn’t mean we’re scared.

[20:35] We’re mindful, we’re cautious but man as far as creating content, getting out there, talking to people there’s still a means and I hope and I pray that we can help as many people as possible do the same. That’s my 2021, give it all the way. Let’s give it all away.

Jim:  [20:55] Because it’ll come back. It’ll come back three, five, tenfold, you know.

James:  [21:02] That’s what we learn. I feel like that’s all we did this year was give it all the way.

Jim:  [21:07] Well, you know, that’s that’s you know, we’re in the energy industry. A lot of our emphasis is and that’s really when you think about the energy industry. That’s kind of a mantra. You know, what can we do for the industry, what could we do for our our fellow industries and even outside of the industry, too.

[21:25] So I agree with you 2021 is going to be an exciting year. It’s going to be expanded. It’s going to be what do they say on Star Trek, bold, new horizons where nobody’s gone before. You like that?

James:  [21:39] It seems like a Coleman question or a Lauren question. I don’t have that skill.

Jim:  [21:50] Give me some give me a final thought that’s in your head that you want to get through to the audience today. Just as we kick off this year and look upon things. What’s in your head?

James:  [22:05] I thought a lot while I was on break about. our industry and how we’re all itching to get back, you know, and but then I always come back to almost every company every person I talk to is always safety first or safety always even more so, safety first or safety always you hear that just non‑stop.

[22:33] I think we’re going to do it right and lean again on safety. I think we will be back this year. It may take us a little bit longer because usually when we do things we do it right we may walk around that truck twice, you know, before we get in and take off and we back into those parking spots for a reason and we put that cone out.

[22:58] I think when we’re putting these situations like this that we might find that we want to take a little bit more time and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s gonna hurt We’re going to still be itching but we’ll find ways in between now and then to do it safely and effectively.

[23:17] That’s what’s on my heart is I know we all want to get out there. But what good is all this if we you know, jump the gun at this last bit. So I pray we can be patient God willing we’ll be back out there by soon man. I hope we’re all surprised when we’re out there running around and hating those you know that Chex Mix at Embassy Suites and those little tiny beers again.

Jim:  [23:44] I’ll be having Diet Cokes. You can have the beers.

James:  [23:47] That’s that’s it. What about you, Jimmy?

Jim:  [23:53] I’m just I’m looking forward to it all I mean, you know, I’ve been living in golf shorts and and you know as one picture, yeah, don’t well actually no, they’re pressed their pressed slacks. Don’t anybody think I got my boots on, you know starched jeans. We’re OK. It’s weird, you know, putting on real shoes, you know getting out and but you know talking about this medium.

[24:17] I mentioned it before I view as 2020 as the old Motorola flip phone and now guess what we’re going to in 2021 we’re going to go to this thing called a iPhone, you know, that’s an analogy folks. But remember how our life changed with that, you know, we went to the BlackBerries and went to the iPhones.

[24:33] I view that this year’s going to be and it’s not just a technology and talk about it’s the delivery and the depth and the breadth of the information that we’re going to bring to the industry. That’s what I’m excited about.

[24:44] I really want to open up this can and really get it going. I know James does too. To take off the take off the whatever they’re called the shackles. Let’s get going with it. So that’s kind of where my head is.

James:  [25:02] We’re on the right track, man.

Jim:  [25:04] James, if you don’t have anything else, I think we should wrap this up so we can get you know our viewers back to work now stay with us a little bit longer. This is this is almost considered like personal development listening to us every day.

James:  [25:19] I will say this, Jimmy. For those that stuck around and heard this, please drop your favorite album in the comments. If I need to pick up a vinyl that that is a must‑have item. I will add it to my my library just on your on your recommendation alone in the comments. You heard it.

Jim:  [25:47] I like it. I’m going to give you my recommendation. I’ll tell you that much. I’ve already given you a few.

[25:52] LinkedIn community, you know, we can’t thank you enough. We’re honored blessed touched humbled by everybody’s participation and looking watching following us. We look forward to a great 2021.

[26:10] If you want to be on the show has some cool ideas some thoughts. whatever hit James or myself up. We already have some guests that reached out over the holidays that were getting lined up already for the next couple weeks. And that’s exciting to see so stay tuned.

[26:26] And in the first episode I said as nervously as possible we’ll see you sometime in the future not knowing what it is, but we’re going to see you next week because we have a commitment to you. We want to help you all out there.

[26:39] So we will see you next week on Coffee with Jim & James. Until then, please stay safe. Have a great week. James, my friend, wait, somebody used to say this, I will see you on the radio. I don’t know what that means. Casey Kasem.

James:  [26:57] There it is.

Jim:  [27:13] Take care, everybody.