Friday, October 15- JIll Adams and Kevin Miller stop by the Energy Worldnet booth LIVE at the American Gas Association Operations Conference.
Quick Links:
Jill Adams on Linkedin
Kevin Miller on Linkedin
Episode Transcript
[0:00] background music] [0:00]
Jim Schauer: [0:20] : Welcome back. James, it’s a bevy. I mean, it’s, it’s a plethora of people coming to and from. [0:00]
James Cross: [0:27] Everywhere we look, we find another guest. [0:00]
Jim: [0:30] And a repeat guest, a superstar, Jill Adams from the USA. Welcome back, Jill. [0:00]
Jill Adams: [1:00] It is such a pleasure to be here, gentlemen. [0:00]
James: [1:00] One of our champions of all champions. [0:00]
Jim: [1:00] She’s a true champion. Absolutely. [0:00]
Jill: [1:00] Oh, well, that is…you guys are just so kind to have me back. I absolutely love being here. That is just a privilege to be seeing you live and in person… [0:00]
James: [1:01] AGA week. [0:00]
Jill: [1:02] Like live and in person. Last time we were over the cameras and now we’re here. [0:00]
James: [1:09] So wow. So wow. [0:00]
Jim: [1:11] Yeah. [0:00]
James: [1:03] That was probably a year ago. [0:00]
Jill: [1:05] Yeah. Yes. [0:00]
Jim: [1:06] That we did the, that we did the… [0:00] [[1:09] crosstalk] [0:00] [0:00] [
James: [1:10] xx] was on [xx] with this as well. [0:00]
Jim: [1:14] We need to do one of those, I think. [0:00]
James: [1:16] Oh, I think it [xx] . [0:00]
Jim: [1:17] I think [xx] . [0:00]
Jill: [1:18] Yes. [0:00]
James: [1:19] I think we also need, I think [xx] out there. What about women’s limbs on mental health? [0:00] [[1:26] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jim: [1:26] Jill and I actually talked about that. [0:00]
Jill: [1:29] Yes. [0:00]
Jim: [1:30] We actually talked about that. [0:00]
James: [1:31] Great idea. [0:00]
Jill: [1:38] And, if you can [?} combine it with the men’s [xx] , both are important. [0:00]
James: [1:39] Two views. [0:00]
Jill: [1:39] Two views. [0:00]
Jim: [1:40] And we’ve talked about that, actually, offline on a [xx] , you know, like a no, like… [0:00] [[1:42] crosstalk] [0:00]
James: [1:43] Fine, thanks for cluing me. [0:00]
Jim: [1:44] Well, we were…people are struggling right now, or have been struggling. And she told some great stories of, you know, actually of helping some people and I was like, “This is great.” So, we’re gonna do that, but as far as right now, give us your…Go ahead. [0:00]
James: [2:01] I would say [xx] week. [0:00]
Jim: [2:04] Yeah. [0:00]
Jill: [2:04] So, what you got? [0:00] [[2:06] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jim: [2:06] Yeah. What’s your biggest, what’s your biggest takeaway from this so far? [0:00]
Jill: [2:11] You know, um, one, it’s just so great to be out with the same people again. [0:00]
Jim: [2:14] Yes. [0:00]
Jill: [2:14] Right. [0:00]
Jim: [2:19] Yes. [0:00]
Jill: [2:20] I mean, aren’t we, aren’t we blessed? [0:00]
Jim: [2:23] Yes. [0:00]
James: [2:24] So blessed. What an industry? [0:00]
Jill: [2:21] What a beautiful industry? And you know, it doesn’t matter if this feels like, I don’t think this has been the repeat of…I’m gonna sound like a broken record… [0:00]
James: [2:30] It’s OK. [0:00] [0:00] …
Jill: [2:31] probably from what you have heard from everybody else. [0:00]
James: [2:33] Hey, probably anyone who listens. Probably anyone listens. [0:00] [[2:36] crosstalk] [0:00]
James: [2:39] My mom won’t mind. [0:00]
Jill: [2:41] One viewer, but [laughs] it’s like a family reunion. [0:00] [[2:45] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jim: [2:45] Seven. [0:00]
James: [2:46] We’re up to seven. [0:00]
Jim: [2:48] Yeah, it is like a, you know what? It is like a family reunion. [0:00] [[2:50] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jill: [2:51] It is a family reunion. [0:00]
Jim: [2:53] Yeah. Yeah. [0:00]
James: [2:53] We go to that over and over. That’s why we all wear the same shirts. [0:00] [[2:55] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jill: [2:56] Yeah. It is a family reunion. When you work in an industry that everybody here is all about service. [0:00]
Jim: [3:05] Yes. It is. [0:00]
Jill: [3:06] It’s the common theme, no matter who it is that you end up stopping and talking with. Whether it would be a customer, a vendor [xx] . Like whoever it is, we’re all in the same business of service. [0:00]
Jim: [3:20] Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. It’s, it’s a good way of putting it that way, and I, I’ll tell you, I have seen it on the faces, I hear it in the voices. I see it in the expressions, the mannerisms. Everything is… [0:00]
James: [3:31] Look across, look across right now. [0:00]
Jill: [3:33] Yes, yes. [0:00]
James: [3:33] Look how many smile there are, and how many people are enjoying, and…We’re at reception, Tom. Full disclosure. Reception, Tom. So there are [xx] for those to make a few people smile more, but I’ve seen it all day. [0:00]
Jim: [3:47] Yeah. [0:00]
James: [3:47] We’ve seen, I…we’ve mentioned it over and over, this… [0:00]
Jim: [3:51] It’s a great vibe. [0:00]
James: [3:52] So many people, so many innovative ideas that came out of this. I mean, everyone is pushing the envelope. We see it in the booth. We, in the booths. We see it in the products. [0:00]
Jim: [4:04] In the people walking by waving at us. [0:00] [[4:06] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jill: [4:06] I know. [0:00]
Jim: [4:09] Jill, thank you so much. [0:00] [[4:10] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jim: [4:10] We will have you back on. [0:00]
James: [4:13] Thank you so much. [0:00]
Jill: [4:13] It’s a pleasure. You guys are so wonderful. [0:00] [0:00] [
James: [4:16] xx] such a great friend. [0:00]
Jim: [4:18] Appreciate you. Thank you. [0:00]
Jill: [4:19] I appreciate the entire team. Like your entire team is wonderful. [0:00]
James: [4:23] Say that again. [0:00]
Jill: [4:24] Your entire team is wonderful. [0:00]
James: [4:27] You hear that, team? [0:00] [[4:29] crosstalk] [0:00]
James: [4:30] She doesn’t get paid to say this. Jim and I do. But Jill will call me. She’ll text me randomly. [0:00]
Jill: [4:37] Yeah,. [0:00]
James: [4:38] And just be like, “I was just talking to one of my friends,” and, and then she’ll talk for about an hour. [0:00] [[4:44] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jim: [4:44] Like Steve Allen. [0:00] [0:00] [
Jill: [4:45] laughs] [0:00]
James: [4:46] Yeah. Like you and Steve Allen, but I hear those stories… [0:00] [[4:51] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jim: [4:51] Are you saying I… [0:00] [[4:51] crosstalk] [0:00] [0:00] …
James: [4:52] people back home don’t if they’re here all the time. And so, for them to, really, they’ll see this video and know, that they’re going to get [xx] . [0:00] [0:00] [
Jill: [5:02] xx] . [0:00]
James: [5:04] Thank you so much. [0:00]
Jim: [5:06] Thank you Jill. [0:00]
Jill: [5:06] Thank you. [0:00]
James: [5:07] We’ll see you around. [0:00] [[5:06] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jim: [5:07] For Team USA, Jill Adams, [xx] . Good night. [0:00] [0:00] [
Jill: [5:10] xx] [0:00]
James: [5:10] You too. [0:00]
Jim: [5:14] Thanks, everybody. [0:00]
James: [5:15] Bye‑bye. [0:00]
Jim: [5:16] We’re back, again. I mean, I, I can’t keep up, James, and this guest… [0:00]
James: [5:21] Blistering schedule, but. [0:00]
Jim: [5:23] But, when you have Kevin Miller from Miller Pipeline, in our booth meeting with us, I give homage. Thank you for joining us, sir. [0:00]
Kevin Miller: [5:32] My pleasure. [0:00]
James: [5:33] Jeff Isabel has said your name more than, probably, most people should. [0:00]
Jim: [5:38] Yeah. [0:00]
James: [5:38] I don’t know how that makes you feel, but you’re one of the first people I heard about in our industry along several others, Steve, of course, but so nice to meet you in person and get to be here. [0:00]
Kevin: [5:53] Well, you know, that’s the advantage. That’s the one advantage of being old, your name is heard a lot. [0:00] [[5:58] laughter] [0:00]
Kevin: [6:00] Yeah. I’m familiar with Jeff. You know, Brad Heck runs our compliance department and he… [0:00]
James: [6:05] Love Brad. He’s been on the show. [0:00] [[6:09] crosstalk] [0:00]
Kevin: [6:09] He thinks the world of Jeff and… [0:00]
James: [6:12] The work they do. [0:00]
Kevin: [6:12] We’re really excited about the things that we do with you guys. You guys, you guys bring a great tool to the industry, and uh… [0:00]
Jim: [6:20] Thank you. [0:00]
Kevin: [6:20] You guys are filling a big need, and, you know, the times that we’re in, regulations are changing, compliance is getting tougher and tighter, and we’re all having to up our game. [0:00]
Jim: [6:35] Yup. [0:00]
Kevin: [6:36] And, uh, we as, I’m sure all contractors will tell you, we appreciate the service you guys provide, the way you help us. So… [0:00] [[6:44] crosstalk] [0:00]
James: [6:44] Well, I’ll tell you. Jim and I do hardly anything, man. But, I bet a lot of people back home are really happy to hear that. [0:00]
Kevin: [6:53] Yeah, absolutely. [0:00]
James: [6:55] Kevin, it’s AGA week, so we’re back out here in the wild. And it’s wild… [0:00] [[7:01] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jim: [7:01] There’s 2000 people here, which is small for AGA, but still, 2000 people, that’s a lot. [0:00]
Kevin: [7:10] This has, this has been the, almost the best week I’ve had in a couple of years. [0:00]
Jim: [7:15] I agree. [0:00] [[7:16] crosstalk] [0:00] [0:00] [
James: [7:16] xx] said it’s the best two days… [0:00]
Kevin: [7:20] Two days and two months of the last two years, or something. [0:00]
James: [7:22] It’s really profound. [0:00]
Kevin: [7:24] You know, we, we’ve all gotten by being isolated in our little pockets. [0:00]
Jim: [7:29] Yup. [0:00]
James: [7:30] Uncomfortable. [0:00]
Kevin: [7:29] Partmentalized for a year and a half and not getting the chance to be with customers, associates, fellow employees, suppliers, people in the industry. It’s, there’s this pin up demand. [0:00]
James: [7:46] Yeah,. [0:00]
Jim: [7:47] I, I, I would agree with that. [0:00]
James: [7:48] That’s a good way to put it. [0:00]
Jim: [7:49] And I think it shows, I have not seen, I have never seen this many smiling faces… [0:00] [0:00] [
James: [7:54] xx] just look at the crowd. [0:00] [0:00] …
Jim: [7:57] throughout the day… [0:00] [[7:58] crosstalk] [0:00]
James: [7:57] And we don’t know if it’s [xx] , because we are in the reception, and that’s fine too. [0:00] [[8:02] crosstalk] [0:00]
James: [8:02] We need smiles… [0:00] [[8:03] crosstalk] [0:00]
Jim: [8:04] All day long [xx] . [0:00]
Kevin: [8:06] I told somebody, jokingly, that I’m even enjoying seeing people I don’t like. [laughs] [0:00]
James: [8:11] Amen. I went and high fived my competitor and gave him a beer. [0:00]
Jim: [8:16] Well, why not? It’s good. [0:00]
James: [8:18] It’s good. [0:00]
Kevin: [8:20] I actually had the chance to have dinner with a couple of customers last night… [0:00]
Jim: [8:26] Good for you. [0:00] [0:00] …
Kevin: [8:27] so I’m doing the same tonight. I haven’t been able to do that for a year and a half. [0:00]
Jim: [8:35] I know. [0:00]
Kevin: [8:36] I can’t remember the last time I sat face to face with a customer and had a meal. [0:00]
Jim: [8:44] Like literally I was traveling in Tennessee, it was on March, 13th. He called me goes, “Get out of there. They’re going to start shutting down airports.” I haven’t travelled since. [0:00]
Kevin: [8:57] I was the same thing, we had a staff meeting [xx] March 17th, and all the VPs had come in. And as soon as that meeting was over, I went to the airport, got on a plane, flew back here. My wife was in California watching our grand daughter. I said, “Baby, get on the plane, because they’re getting ready to shut down San Francisco Airport.” [0:00]
Jim: [9:06] Yeah. [0:00]
Kevin: [9:03] And she came back and we spent nine weeks and didn’t go anywhere. [0:00]
Jim: [9:07] Yeah. [0:00]
Kevin: [9:07] And I gotta go back to when I was 20 years old that I’ve spent nine weeks in one place, and not going to an airport and travel. So it’s been life‑changing. [0:00]
Jim: [9:16] Yeah, and the mental aspect has, you know, been challenging. [0:00]
Kevin: [9:18] Yeah. [0:00] [0:00] [
Jim: [9:19] xx] [0:00]
James: [9:20] Talk about it really being like a roller coaster. Ebbs and flows. [0:00]
Jim: [9:22] Oh, it has been. Yeah. Yeah. [0:00]
James: [9:25] I’m not built for it. [0:00]
Kevin: [9:26] Well, you know, the technology with Zoom, and WebEx, Teams, it’s allowed us to keep the business going, and I got to say, I’m really, really impressed about business that you can still do over these calls and still getting some face time to key people, some customers. But, you know, you get out a year or two, you still miss that human contact. [0:00]
Jim: [9:48] Absolutely. [0:00]
Kevin: [9:49] It was never like FaceTime. [0:00]
Jim: [9:50] Absolutely. [0:00]
James: [9:51] We’re, we’re, you know, our vision is to make the world a safer place for work, but our industry, safety always, safety first. So, it wasn’t surprising to me as we went into the pandemic how quickly we transitioned. We got to work. We were going to be safe. We knew people that had to be out there and doing the work [xx], you know. Luckily we were able to do that. [0:00]
Kevin: [10:12] Well, you know, for our people, the vast majority of our people out in the field, there was no safer place than to be out on the streets, laying pipe, doing construction work out in the open. [0:00]
Jim: [10:23] Yes. Absolutely. [0:00]
Kevin: [10:25] I mean, we, uh, we had a very low positivity rate through our company. [0:00]
James: [10:29] True. [0:00]
Kevin: [10:30] And, uh, you know, we put in all the safety procedures and protocols, and, and I truly believe the only positives we had was due to the fact that people go home to families, friends on the weekends, family… [0:00] [[10:43] crosstalk] [0:00]
James: [10:43] They could do whatever they want. [0:00] [0:00] …
Kevin: [10:43] bring it. [0:00]
James: [10:45] Sure. [0:00]
Kevin: [10:45] That’s how it happens. So, um. [0:00]
James: [10:46] Kids going back to school, you know, there’s a little bit of everything. [0:00]
Kevin: [10:49] Absolutely. [0:00]
James: [10:49] That, that was really what we dealt with a little bit more was like, the amount of quarantine we ended up having to do forced our hand more than a lot of things, you know, so. [0:00]
Kevin: [10:59] And you know for work, we, we had, uh, one area that we shut down for about four‑‑five weeks didn’t do anything. We had another region that shut down and didn’t do anything for about two months. And other than that, we had a handful of crews that were affected. Uh, we, the customers kind of changed the focus on the work. [0:00]
Jim: [11:23] Sure. [0:00]
Kevin: [11:23] Let’s stay away from the house, let’s do the main work out in the street. Let’s not get face‑to‑face with customers. Let’s save that for later on [0:00]
James: [11:30] Sure. [0:00]
Kevin: [11:31] I was really shocked that the minimal impact for our business, for this, for this thing to happen. [0:00]
Jim: [11:38] Yeah. [0:00]
James: [11:38] We’re blessed. [0:00]
Jim: [11:40] We are. [xx] what we deserved. [0:00]
Kevin: [11:42] True that. [0:00]
James: [11:43] This, this, this conference out here tells us how blessed we are. Somebody said it earlier just, we are blessed in this industry. [0:00]
Kevin: [11:52] Yeah. Yeah. And it’s a, you know it’s a, it’s a huge industry. I mean, when you think about mileage and customers served and the pipe infrastructure, but the people that manage it run things. Contractors, suppliers, and owners. It’s really a pretty small network. [0:00]
Jim: [12:10] Pretty tight. [0:00]
Kevin: [12:11] It really is. [0:00]
James: [12:12] It’s really tight. [0:00]
Kevin: [12:14] You know, I think this industry is, is really solidified by the relationships that we have. [0:00]
Jim: [12:22] 100 percent. [0:00]
Kevin: [12:23] Up the food chain and down the food chain. [0:00]
Jim: [12:25] It drives us. I mean, every day. [0:00]
Kevin: [12:27] Yeah. [0:00]
James: [12:28] Kevin, it’s been great talking to you. [0:00] [0:00] [
Kevin: [12:30] xx] man. Guys, pleasure, I enjoyed it. [0:00]
James: [12:31] Can I shake your hand in person. [0:00]
Jim: [12:41] Absolutely. [0:00]
James: [12:42] Man, we appreciate, you have a good [xx] . [0:00]
Kevin: [12:45] All right. [0:00]
James: [12:46] Thank you, man. Yeah. Legend. [0:00]
Jim: [12:48] Truly a legend. [0:00]
James: [12:49] Legendary. [0:00]
Jim: [12:49] Absolutely a legend. [0:00]
James: [12:42] Kudos to Steve Allen. He’s out there hustling bringing people to the booth. So talk to us, man. [0:00]
Jim: [12:49] Yeah. [0:00]
James: [12:49] Who are we? How do we do we fool guests like Kevin Miller? [0:00]
Jim: [12:53] Unbelievable. [0:00]
James: [12:53] Unbelievable. [0:00]
Jim: [12:54] Fantastic. [0:00]
James: [12:54] I will not lie that he’s one of the first names I heard in the industry. [0:00]
Jim: [12:59] Yeah. [0:00] [[12:59] crosstalk] [0:00] [0:00] [
James: [13:00] xx] sitting in Jeff’s office and he was like, “You know a Kevin Miller, Kevin Miller, Kevin Millar?” He’s got problems, man. [0:00]
Jim: [13:09] Yup. [0:00]
James: [13:09] We are blessed. [0:00]
Jim: [13:10] We are. All right. [0:00]
James: [13:12] Let’s take a break. [0:00]
Jim: [13:13] We’ll be back. [0:00]