Thursday, August 26- Ryan Ellis from GROEBNER joins the show to share how they are expanding their #training services.
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Episode Transcript
James: Awesome. Jim. [0:00] [0:08]
Jim: Good morning everyone. Welcome to this riveting episode of Coffee with Jim and James. James, I got to tell you a couple words come to my mind today when I see Groebner joining us and Ryan Ellis, I just think, er, great, er, friendships, great camaraderies in the industry and such, and I got to tell a quick story, you know. [0:00] [0:28]
James: Uooh. [0:00] [0:28]
Jim: Something really wacky. This is kind, kinda true. TGA, few years back, I’m rolling into town. We have to get our booth set up in 58 minutes, right? And me, I’m sweating. I’m like we have opening reception. You know, what am I going to do? All of a sudden Ryan pulls up. He’s got a dually, he’s got like four, five, six, Enduro motocross bikes on the back, he steps out, he’s got dirt all over them. I’m like Ryan, we have 58 minutes. He’s like, “Not a problem, all the time in the world.” [0:00] [0:59] I’m like, “We’re never going to make it now.” All of a sudden, it’s like one minute before the opening reception, I’m still sweating and I look over, and I see the Groebner booth, beautiful immaculate, and then Ryan comes walking in the hall, showered, starched jeans. I’m like, “How did you do that?” He’s like, “Just the way we roll at Groebner, professionals all the time, down to a science,” huh? [0:00] [1:22]
James: I gotcha. [0:00] [1:23]
Jim: So, anyways. [0:00] [1:24]
James: He is calm, cool and collected. Ryan Ellis, joining us today. We’re excited to talk to him. Talk about what Groebner’s got going on. Ryan, how you doing? Welcome to the show. [0:00] [1:37]
Ryan Ellis: I’m great. Thank you guys for having us. Looking forward to telling you about all the cool things we got going on at the office right now. [0:00] [1:47]
Jim: Well, let me, let me lead in with that, Ryan. I was, had a little fun with the intro, but you know, we’ve been friends for many years, known each other in the industry. And again, have a really good friendship, and, um, have a lot of things going on in the industry. Very similar, um, you know, we both belong to the Texas Gas Association. We do a lot of… [0:00] [2:10]
James: Jim, it kind of feels like we’re at a TGA meeting, right now. [0:00] [2:13]
Jim: It almost does, doesn’t it? [0:00] [2:13]
James: It almost doesn’t like Daryl Cherry is going to barge in at any time and yell something about us, you know? [0:00] [2:20]
Jim: Wait a minute. [0:00] [2:21]
James: It’s, it’s terrifying. [0:00] [2:22]
Jim: Wait a minute. It wouldn’t be right if I just didn’t do, “Alright, everybody, it’s time to get ready for the scholarship commit‑…” [0:00] [2:32]
James: Sure enough. [0:00] [2:33]
Jim: Wait a minute, I got a little laugh, on a ride on that one. [0:00] [2:35]
James: If you know, you know, right? [0:00] [2:37]
Jim: Yeah, yep, abso‑, absolutely. If you know Daryl, and we do that with love and affection, Daryl is a great, great leader of the TGA, but, you know, with the TGA, we have a lot of alliances, Ryan, and we do a lot, you know, together, and we’ll go deeper into that too. But Groebner has been in the news a lot lately, you know. Can you just bring us up to speed as to what’s going on with Groebner, some of the highlights, and bring the industry up to, as to where we are today? [0:00] [3:06]
Ryan: Well, you’re right, Jim. Groebner does have a lot going on and that’s why you’re hearing a lot of things happening. So, I guess, the easiest thing to do is start at the top and work our way down, um. For anybody that doesn’t know yet, within the last month, Groebner is kinda started moving into the next generation. [0:00] [3:28] This is actually our 45th anniversary this year, and on the 45th anniversary the third generation is stepping into running the company. So, Joe Groebner has stepped into a CEO position, and his daughter Carissa and his son Kurt have stepped up into the President and CFO rolls. So, for our day‑to‑day were moving into Groebner of the future. [0:00] [4:01] So, that’s a, and as you well know, with any changes like that, that brings about, you know, moving into a forward looking type program with any company in planning for the future. So, we’ve been doing a lot of that. And that brings us into things like, about a year ago we moved our headquarters building, and we’ve got a great building up in Minnesota, and within the last year in the middle of COVID we opened a new warehouse in Georgetown Texas. [0:00] [4:39]
Jim: Yep. [0:00] [4:40]
Ryan: So, trying to get to where we can service our customers better, and we just added some additional yard space there. And, with all of these new warehouses, new additions, etc., as also comes additional inventory, which right now, as you guys well know, is a hot topic. If you’ve got it in place, you can really help people. So, um, we are constantly growing inventory. [0:00] [5:10] We’ve also been adding sales staff, adding sister companies. So, we’ve just added in the last year a Groebner Technical Training that I’m sure we’ll get into later, that we’re partnering with Energy Worldnet on. But, even with the addition of our new warehouse we’ve got our Technical Services Group put up a station in that warehouse. So, our, you know, our main values are quality, integrity, and service, and we truly believe in those. [0:00] [5:44] So, we want to be everybody’s easy button, but it’s, it’s service after the sale. Sometimes it’s service before the sale. You know, the things we… [0:00] [5:54]
James: Prize run, sometimes it’s service without the sale. [0:00] [5:58]
Ryan: Exactly. That is very true, um. You know, we really have put pride in the people that we’ve hired. So, one of the things we say is everybody that works for Groebner is a subject matter expert in something. So, our internal network is amazing and we like to say we got a guy, even if your local salesman may or may not have the answer within a matter of minutes, we got a guy inside our organization that they can get you an answer. [0:00] [6:31]
James: Ryan, I’ve got a question, just you talking about opening up the new yards and and warehouses, was that something that was in the works pre‑COVID, and, and just happened to come at the right time, or was that kind of reactionary to, you know, the supply chain issues we had during? [0:00] [6:48]
Ryan: If anything, James, it was almost the opposite. It was already in the works and it was almost, oh, no. ‘Cause we, we took ownership of our Georgetown warehouse the month COVID hit. And, we actually, it took us a little bit of time and actually had to sublease for just a little bit to get through, because you wouldn’t believe how hard it is at the beginning of a pandemic to do things like, you know, get your plumbing, and internet, and alarm companies, and everybody out to do those installs and get you ready to even open your building. [0:00] [7:28] We’ve been in that warehouse a year now and we still haven’t been able to do our grand opening. So, stay tuned everybody, that one’s still coming as soon as we can get the warehouse full of product and get it where we’re really ready to present, but we have started doing business out of there. We actually hosted a Texas damage prevention council meeting this last month there. So, we’re getting there, but it’s not as fast as we would like for it to be. [0:00] [7:59]
Jim: I can’t wait to see it. Do we get an invite to the grand opening. [0:00] [8:03]
Ryan: Absolutely. [0:00] [8:04]
Jim: James. How… [0:00] [8:04]
James: I’m sorry, we did a show live from there. [0:00] [8:07]
Jim: Yeah. [0:00] [8:08]
Ryan: I’ll do you one better, do the show, but we’ve already had a, some of our manufacturers talking we do it right when we do a Groebner open house. You guys need to bring down the VR trailer. [0:00] [8:19]
James: Will do. [0:00] [8:19]
Ryan: We’ll do the whole thing. [0:00] [8:22] James; Well, we’ll make it happen. Well, Ryan, lots, lots of positive momentum over there Groebner. And, you know, one thing, if you don’t watch the show, which we won’t judge you, but, you know, we have tens of listeners. You might be one of them Ryan, if you haven’t watch some, I’m kind of a nerd man. I am always looking at new products and solutions and gad‑, I used to be a gadget guy, now I’m a phone, you know, I have kids, so my screens cracked and, but, you know, I’d say I’m an early adopter. I know you guys do a lot of things, a lot of innovation, stuff like that. [0:00] [9:00] Is there anything going on over at Groebner that we need to know about, or the world needs to know about? Maybe you can pull a curtain back for us over there. [0:00] [9:09]
Ryan: You know, I mentioned the quality piece, one of the things that Groebner does a lot is bring new innovative technology into the marketplace. We get approached a lot by different manufacturers, even by people like GTI to start new projects and come to market. So, we have several things. [0:00] [9:32] Three come to mind very quickly. The older one would be our inflatable shoring, as innovative as it is most people haven’t heard of it. So, we’re still trying to get the word out. It’s an amazing product. The next is ALPHA‑TAPE. Anybody that hasn’t heard of that, it’s a super polymer compression leak tape, um. When we go to the shows everybody likes to see it because we’re the ones making noise in our booth. You know, shutting off stuff up to 150 pounds of pressure, wrapping it live, pretty cool material. [0:00] [10:10] But, probably our biggest one right now, James, is we are actually working with United Poly and Evonik, and we are in the process of launching PA12 pipe and fittings into the natural gas marketplace. [0:00] [10:29]
Jim: Ryan, take us further. Some of our listeners, and, and audience will understand some of that. Some, may be consciously incompetent. Bring us a little bit deeper into that. That sounds, er, very, er, on the forefront. [0:00] [10:48]
Ryan: It’s on the forefront and old at the same time, Jim, because the PA or polyamides products have been around for 20 plus years. They started out in the oilfields in the offshore rigs as umbilical cords, um. They’ve got a lot of play in Australia, and things that have proven themselves out through major earthquakes, etc. So, there it’s a time‑tested material, but, and, and it’s been used other places, as well, but it is just now getting into the US natural gas market and our regulated fields. [0:00] [11:34] As most people might know with the recent passing of the Mega rule, the polyamides family got it’s full approval that we’ve been working on for years, and it is now approved to be put in the ground with an MAOP of 250 pounds with no waiver. [0:00] [11:59]
Jim: Nice. [0:00] [12:00]
Ryan: So, you now have an option for a poly type material that functions like you deal with, with your polyethylene coils, sticks, all the same fusion equipment, etc., squeezable. All of the things that we love about our poly at double the pressure. So, think City Gate to City Gate applications. Those things that are high pressure distribution, low pressure transmission, type projects. [0:00] [12:34]
Jim: Yep. [0:00] [12:34]
Ryan: That we’re taking things like 80 percent savings over steel that you can’t do with your poly right now, you know, directional boring, all of those possibilities. And, then on top of that, it’s also hydrocarbon permeation resistant. So, anybody that has those issues, even if you don’t have the pressure needed, you can put that in, into service lines, into across that whole system that you’ve got those permeation problems. [0:00] [13:07] Guys, it’s the easy button that fills a huge gap in the middle. The, we’ve been getting along with the products we’ve had for years and it can really solve some of those, those issues. [0:00] [13:21]
Jim: Let me, let me ask a question for you, again, for our audience members. So, City Gate is where town, border, station, whatever you want to call it, that’s where the pipeline transfers gas to, let’s say a small city or a big city, doesn’t matter. And, typically when it goes through that City Gate it might go into steel pipe and run right down Main Street or right through the middle of town at 200 PSI. [0:00] [13:44] But, then there’s offshoots that take the gas down to pressures to feed a home. If I’m hearing you right, and then just to clarify, instead of running steel all the way through there from The City Gate through, because they might be running 175, 200 PSI, they can run this PA all the way through and all the way through their grid within that City. That, I, did I surmise that right, Ryan? [0:00] [14:07]
Ryan: To some degree, you can even go a little further than that, Jim. So, when I say City Gate to City Gate, maybe part of the main trunk line loop between cities going into that City Gate, as well, so… [0:00] [14:20]
Jim: I get, so… [0:00] [14:20]
Ryan: Exam line at that 250 pounds into your City Gate and then depending on what happens when you hit that City Gate and how you step down, or the hydrocarbon, in theory you could run total PA other than your above ground works, right? However, yes, you can mix and match because you can do your transitions. The beauty though, is talk cathodic protection for a minute, you have none. So, if you do things like transitioning to stainless and then coming above ground or, you know, there’s a host of different ways to do that, that fit each individual system, but you can really reduce down the lifetime cost by getting rid of things like that. [0:00] [15:17] It’s really an amazing proposition and it’s Evonik has got a great program that we’re happy to present to anybody that wants to talk. They actually have a job calculator that they can go through. If you have a plan job and we can enter all of your details of your job and it will spit out all your percentages of savings from the actual job all the way through the life of the pipe. [0:00] [15:46]
James: And, Ryan, er, I know, I know Jim’s thinking it too, but we’re actually having Terry McConnell and Doug. [0:00] [15:57]
Jim: Mike, Mike. [0:00] [15:57]
James: Oh, I’m sorry. [0:00] [15:59]
Jim: That’s alright. [0:00] [16:00]
James: Someone from Evonik can be on later. I think here in a few episodes too, we’re going to talk specifically about PA12 so, er, people can learn a little bit more about that. Sounds awesome. And man, I love those chunks because for somebody who didn’t, you know, hasn’t spent 10, 20 years in this industry, every time I get to hear those things, that just helps me, you know, grow my knowledge too, and I know there’s a bunch of us out there that are somewhat newcomer. So, I appreciate you all geeking out about. [0:00] [16:33]
Jim: We were geeking out, weren’t we, on that. [0:00] [16:35]
James: I like it. That’s how I learn, that’s all, and then I’ll go to a show and then I’ll be able to get my hands on stuff with Ryan, and, and, you know, other people and that’s, that’s how I learned, so. [0:00] [16:48]
Ryan: You know, James, we’ve got it, providing our next round of Corona doesn’t shut things down, we do have all of our big regional shows and stuff coming up that were all rescheduled. So, your SGA’s, your AGA’s, and we’re going to be there with PA12, Evonik, United Poly, we’re all going to be around. So, be happy to educate anybody on this stuff and help plan some projects. [0:00] [17:16]
James: We’ll be there too. So, um, let’s, let’s make it a date for everybody. We’ll bring, we’ll just bring groups by. If they stop in to watch the show, Jim, we can just make that part of our road trip over to Groebner’s booth and check it out. [0:00] [17:32]
Jim: I like it. Let me, let me circle back, Ryan, a little bit before when you’re going through a lot of the Groebner depth and breadth, and, and again, people explore Groebner as a company, you’ll be amazed at the companies that are underneath the umbrella. But, one thing, it was about a year ago, or so year and a half ago, Groebner became a authorized training and an, an assessment center for Energy World, and that’s a mouthful. [0:00] [18:02] In essence, training and evaluation evaluator program partner is what you are, and that’s been a lot of fun for us and, you know, the synergy on that is something that we hold near and dear to our heart, is training and making the world a safer place to be. We’ve talked about that a little bit, give a little glimpse, you want to dive a little bit deeper into what Groebner’s doing in the in the training realm and some of the things that, er, and I know that you specifically have your hands on, Ryan, so. [0:00] [18:34]
Ryan: Yes, absolutely, as you said, Jim, training’s becoming more important to everyone, especially with the generational gap issues that we have that we’ve been talking about the last few years around the shows are groups of folks that are retiring. Our continued increase in regulation of what we’ve got to have done. So, Groebner felt like it was time to spin off and start a training company. So, we created a totally separate company, but it is a sister company. We work together, Groebner Technical Training, and our goal in that is not to just have people that can run around and talk about stuff. Our salesmen can already do that. This is quality at its best. [0:00] [19:31] You know, you guys talk Coffee with Jim and James, and the example I always give, like it or not, Starbucks is a phenomenon. Right? Y’all know that. So, this is kind of that philosophy. We’re not always going to be the cheapest,, but the quality that we’re going to bring to you the level of preparedness we’re going to bring, our goal is to have that second to none. So, to start off with, we started out with full‑time trainers that are salaried, you know, that’s not normal in the training world. We see a lot of folks that are 1099, part‑time folks, and we’ll have those, as well. [0:00] [20:20] Don’t get me wrong, nothing against that, but we have a dedicated full‑time force that when they’re not training they’re working on improving our programs. So, we literally, one of our current full‑time trainers is literally a Doctorate in Education college professor that we pulled out of the classroom to help us design and develop our curriculum. So, when we start talking about training, it’s not just regurgitating what has been in a brochure or whatever, we actually look at learning styles. We look at how to get retention of that training, and then, not only do we do that, we work with folks like Energy Worldnet. [0:00] [21:08]
Jim: Yep. [0:00] [21:08]
Ryan: And, use your programs and your curriculums, and then we try to even add to that as best we can. We’ve got our, one of our other time, full‑time guys has been in the industry working for a utility and came up through the utility from meter reader, all the way up. So, he brings the ditch knowledge in, as well. And then, we go another level higher than that. It’s not just us showing up and talking to you, we actually put mobile labs on the road. We’re talking, you know, quarter of a million dollar rig. [0:00] [21:49] The, we come to you to do training. We’ve got crush machines. We’ve got bandsaws. We have all the things we need to do, to do destructive testing on site. So, you know, when we roll in and do, say, electric fusion training, for an example, and let’s say that the end user hopefully is a member of Energy Worldnet, we can roll in, we can do the training right there. When the training is done, we can do the destructive testing. The customer has an answer before we leave that day. And, usually my trainers leave there, go work with our partners at Energy Worldnet have that information in and usually the next morning by noonish, it’s posted. [0:00] [22:44]
Jim: Yep. [0:00] [22:45]
Ryan: We have their OQ card, everything’s ready to go. [0:00] [22:48]
Jim: Yep. [0:00] [22:49]
Ryan: So, you know, and they’re not having to put their folks on the road. They’re not having to pay for extra hotels, etc. Then, we go even another step further into, into general OQ stuff. Um, and, that’s where our 1099 folks come in. That’s where our full‑time folks, it all depends on, on what training you need, but we’ll create custom solutions for anybody, and that even includes managing your Energy Worldnet accounts for you. [0:00] [23:20] We’ve got, as you mentioned, Jim, we’ve got a partnership set up that if the customer so desires, we will actually be the main administrators and help them track their OQ’s and make sure that they keep their folks on a timely fashion. So, like we said earlier, to kind of put a bow on it, it’s all about the quality, the service and begin that easy button and making your life easy. [0:00] [23:48]
Jim: Yep, and act as state, you know, we being a global cloud‑based LMS platform that has done training and education and, you know, over 20 something years. We, we, you know, we hit so many folks in that qualification world where they come on, do the CBT’s, the computer‑based trainings, and then the hands on or the performance evaluations, where the Groebner’s will come in and actually watch people do it, and give them a passing, or not passing, based on criteria. [0:00] [24:22] And, with the cloud‑base, like you said, Ryan, the next morning could even be that night, where they’re green‑lighted so they can get to a job site and people have the assurance that these people have had their training, and evaluations, and their knowledge skills, and ability, are there to keep our world a safer place to be. And, I tell you about, it’s exciting. [0:00] [24:44]
Ryan: Jim, to add to that, we can even go a step further and do that true turn key, all of our trainers are master trainers, master evaluators. [0:00] [24:52]
Jim: Yep. [0:00] [24:52]
Ryan: So, they can actually come in and proctor the CBT’s, as well, from start to finish, So, we can literally cover the entire gamut. [0:00] [25:01]
Jim: And, one other thing I want to hit on, a big thing, Ryan, you and I have talked about for months, and months, and months, Groebner, the reach of Groebner within the continental United States, I’m going to say from corner to corner, corner to corner, you guys have pretty much blanketed the United States. [0:00] [25:19]
Ryan: The only thing… [0:00] [25:19]
Jim: Maybe beyond. [0:00] [25:22]
Ryan: We have, the only two states to the West that aren’t officially in our map is California and Nevada. Although, we do sell stuff into those states, we just don’t have any staff that live there. On the east side, basically the Eastern Seaboard, but we sell stuff and service stuff into Florida all the time. So, really the, the northeast corner and those couple of states out west, but we have sold stuff overseas. We have sold stuff, you know, to places like Hawaii that we all love to go. So, absolutely. [0:00] [26:01]
James: I was going to bring something up that Ryan mentioned, you know, you guys went out and got, you know, a Doctorate in Education guy, sounds very familiar to us. Our VP of Education is actually the pretty much same story. We went out and poached him from a college, brought him in and, you know, we’ve always taught our methodologies and learning styles and all that, but does bring that next level of instructional design and everything to it. So, that’s really refreshing to see somebody else doing the same thing. I mean, I’m sure we did about the same time, but group definitely has legs in our industry. [0:00] [26:43] Ryan, we, we close almost every show with a question and you’re lucky, you get the old question because we thought up some new questions today. But, so, if you watch the show, maybe you cheat a little bit. That’s okay. We won’t judge you. Ryan, to just something we ask everybody, do you love what you do? [0:00] [27:03]
Ryan: Absolutely. Without a shadow of a doubt. [0:00] [27:07]
James: Why? [0:00] [27:08]
Ryan: You know, coming from my other backgrounds, I spent time in the military, I was a high school AG teacher, and I also worked with Central Plastics, and the one thing that working with Groebner does is, it allows me to help my customers and my friends with every question they have. Not just a small section of whatever I’m allowed to talk about or anything like that. [0:00] [27:45] Like we said that, I got a guy, Groebner, the way they believe in family, the way they believe in their values, I’ll go, if I don’t have the product or I don’t have the knowledge, we’ll go help you find someone, even if it’s at a competitor, you know, it’s the ability to help you solve problems. And, and being able to know that my friends and my customers are taken care of, that’s our important thing. [0:00] [28:14]
Jim: Wow. [0:00] [28:15]
James: And, we did have one other question, Ryan. Which office specifically are you at currently recording from? [0:00] [28:22]
Jim: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [0:00] [28:24]
Ryan: Currently recording from the office of F450. [0:00] [28:31]
James: [laughs] Early on the pre‑show Ryan said, just full disclosure guys, “I’m recording from the back of my truck,” like. [0:00] [28:37]
Ryan: Yeah. [0:00] [28:38]
James: You would never know it, right? But, it, it, what a better way to personify, you know, you all scooping up and Ryan’s out in the field. I’m sure getting ready to go talk to clients and do some training. And, here he is hopping on the show from the back seat of his truck. So, thank you, Ryan. [0:00] [28:56]
Jim: It doesn’t seem the… [0:00] [28:58]
James: Signing away. No, it look like, if he would have never told us, I’d never would have known. I’m scared the way it comes that, you know. [0:00] [29:05]
Ryan: In my defense, guys, I will say the background just to give you a little bit of a teaser, the background is our new Georgetown warehouse. [0:00] [29:14]
Jim: Interesting. [0:00] [29:14]
James: That’s where Jim’s at. No, I’m just kidding. Jim, lets… [0:00] [29:18]
Jim: It will be soon. [0:00] [29:18]
James: Jim’s at the kitchen table or something. [0:00] [29:21]
Jim: I’m at a, I’m at a nightstand right now. Come on. It’s cold, guys. I mean, we do what we have to do first, damn it. [0:00] [29:28]
James: The best we can. [0:00] [29:28]
Jim: Ryan is a great example of that. You know, he could have easily said, “We need to reschedule, I’m on the road near San Antone,” or whatever, and he’s like, “Nope, I got it.” Got a hotspot and away he goes. Again, much kudos to you and the Groebner family of companies, you guys are a mark of excellence in the industry, Ryan. We appreciate you. We appreciate you taking the time to come on the show today. [0:00] [29:50] For the audience members, if you’re on the LinkedIn platform, please connect with Ryan, please follow Groebner. Take a look, you’ll learn something. Ask Ryan some questions, he’s a great guy and as he said, he likes to help people and that is absolutely true. I will definitely attest to that. And again, Ryan one last thing, thank you for your service to our country too, in your past. So, thank you for that, sir. [0:00] [30:12]
Ryan: Thank you guys for having us on the show, er, and an opportunity, er, to get the word out for everybody, er, to come talk to us. [0:00] [30:21]
Jim: Absolutely. [0:00] [30:22]
James: So, yeah, AGA, it sounds like. [0:00] [30:24]
Ryan: Absolutely. [0:00] [30:25]
Jim: Absolutely is right. Until next week, Coffee with Jim and James, on behalf of James and I, we want to say thank you. And, as I always say, please stay safe, and we’ll see you next time on Coffee with Jim and James. Again, Ryan, thanks, brother. Appreciate you, having you on. [0:00] [30:40]
Ryan: Thanks guys. [0:00] [30:41]
Jim: Okay, take care. [0:00] [30:43]
James: From the back of this truck. [0:00] [30:44]
Jim: I love it. [0:00] [30:45]
James: Such dedication. [0:00]