00:00
Hi, welcome to Power the Network. I'm Marla Sparks with CBM, filling in for 10 Locker today. We tell our folks at CBM that relationships are the key. And our guest today is a shining example of that. Dirk Schwartkopf has been a friend of CBM for many years. I'm looking forward to our conversation with Dirk. He is the Director of Plant Operations for GRM Networks. And so let's get into this conversation.
00:30
Dirk, it's so nice to have you here with us today. Thank you so much for joining us here on the podcast. I'm sorry you got the B team, the B team host here. But as I was preparing for the questions that we were things to talk about, I realized you've been there 28 years. 29 years. 29 years. I've been a CBM almost 32, but I never had you as a customer.
00:59
Of all the people, I mean, I feel like I've known you forever. Right. But never called on, that was always just outside of my Salus territory for CBM. Alongside state line. Yeah. So, you know, because I was in St. Louis and so, you know, I'm preparing, I thought, well, I feel like I've worked on a lot of your quotes and worked with distributors on products for your company and, of course, trade shows and all the fun stuff. But...
01:29
Yeah, never had you as a customer, so there's a lot about GRM that I don't know. So I'm looking forward to this. Well, thank you for asking me to be here. This is kind of a new time, first time adventure for me. we'll see where we go. First time for both of us on this side of it. The industry has just been a little crazy the last, well, really since COVID. The supply chain, if you needed cable or a doctor.
01:58
probably electronics or you name it, 52 weeks or a year and a half, lead times and just crazy pricing and all of that kind of stuff. You guys seem to navigate that really well though. Can you kind of let me know what your secret is for that? Well, we really got fortunate and we all kind of saw some of this coming, kind of started in COVID and
02:27
We got with our board of directors and kind of explained what we were thinking about, asked them if they'd give us an okay, go ahead and purchase some material ahead of time. And they approved that, so we went down, sat down, and estimated how much product we were going to need for the next couple years in order to finish out our build of our 48 exchanges. And they gave us probably about two-thirds of the material we needed.
02:55
we did that and we were fortunate enough that we were able to do that. And so we kind sat there and had material when all the shortages went on and the price hikes went up on a lot of material. that's how we kind of made it through. And we were just fortunate in guessing that's what we needed to do. When I started in distribution, back working with telephone companies before CBM even, I remember that the phone companies used to do a yearly bid.
03:25
I don't know if you were ever involved in those. And they would do this yearly buy of a whole bunch of products. I don't see anyone doing that anymore. Are people more so if you're not planning ahead like you are, but on a normal thing, are you building for your each and every day requirements? Are you just buying it as you go? Yes. mean, if we aren't doing a big overbuilder of one of our exchanges, we're kind looking on
03:54
kind of estimating what we're going to need throughout the year for annual maintenance type thing. Yeah, that was before my time on doing that on annual net. The only thing we did really bid-wise when we got into doing contracts with RUS on builds. That was the only time we really did that. So, other than that, it's just kind of annual, as we go along the annual maintenance. What do you think, since we went from lead times, like I said, crazy long lead times on some of our products
04:24
stock on the shelves. So what does it look like for you now? Right now, like you say, the lead times are great. We've had a lot of calls here after first year. Let's see if we're looking for anything to buy. Everybody's got material inventory on hand. And just with all the projects kind of limbo, I think we're probably going talk about Bead and some of these other
04:51
projects coming up that everybody was kind of holding off on really diving into big projects, kind of waiting to see if they would receive any funding not. But lead times are starting to stretch construction seasons here. we've been going on some of our existing projects. It's been a good spring, so we started here in early April. And so we're starting to need a little more material to just kind of finish out our projects for the year. You started on a path there, you know,
05:20
distributors, factories, we all have product on the shelf. I know you have a purchasing team that works with you to secure all your materials. You guys have to get so many phone calls every day. mean, from just the people that have been around a long time, from the CBMs of the world, and then there's so many new...
05:47
There's so many new manufacturers, there's so many new, the supply chain being tough brought out a lot more people in the industry. How do you navigate that? Do you have a really good receptionist? What's the litmus test to get an appointment with Dirk? Well, truthfully, with COVID, it really changed how like CBM and
06:16
other manufacturers or distributors approached us. I mean, used to be we, I mean, we would see somebody, you know, once a month from different, different entities. And with COVID, you know, everybody shut down, nobody went anywhere. And it was all phone calls and emails. And it's just now really loosened up a little bit. And there's some people coming back out and, and visiting and, but really,
06:44
Sadie who does her personning, she winds up getting a lot of the phone calls right now. I get a few, but we see a lot of emails come in, some mailings, but it's changed more to reaching out over a phone or email right now than face-to-face way it was, which is too bad because that's how we establish connections. mean, that's how you get that relationship established with somebody like CBM that we've had for 20 years.
07:13
20 plus years I've been doing this and it makes a big difference and it's hard to make that connection over the phone or email. So your predecessor would have been Tom, correct? Am I right? Jack Gooden. Jack, okay. Yep. And like I said, I'm trying to fit the right people in the right place. So it's changed a lot in those years. The whole dynamics of
07:42
you know, we're not calling a telephone company anymore. It's a network company and we're not talking about POTS lines anymore. We're talking about internet. if someone is, they didn't lose their phone service, they lost their internet service. That's a whole, that's a whole different animal. So how does that change what you guys do? I mean, yeah. So like I say, I've been doing this for 29 years. I really expect to be in the
08:11
telephone industry. wasn't really one of my, that wasn't one my career moves when I graduated high school, but was blessed and landed in this job. And I started out as a guy going in the houses and doing repair and installs and that, and went to the switching side. And then when I, and we was all copper based, got into DSL. We got into DSL in the 98.
08:36
getting that out to our customers and a little bit of high speed internet there and all on copper plant and using cabinets. And I got into this job on the construction side and Jack retired and we were still a copper plant. Had just kind of talked about fiber. And when I took that position in 2008, by 2009, 2010, we were doing our first fiber of the home. And so we went from doing maintenance and repairing
09:06
some copper plant to jumping in and figuring out what's going to take to do a fiber at home build and how that's going to work and what's I can do for our customers. And since we started that in late 2009, we expect to be done with all 48 exchanges fiber at home the end of this year. And that's going to push about 6,000 miles of fiber that we'll put in in that time span. And it's just it's a different world. It's timing is different. It's not an easy fix when you go to do repair.
09:35
It takes time. But with technology changing and the new tools and everything's out there, it's gotten easier. It just takes time now. I'm sitting in my home office one day and I'm on my computer and they're working outside. I can hear them working. I can hear them working and suddenly I lose all my internet. And I'm thinking, what's the likelihood that this is an accident, a coincidence? So I go outside.
10:05
and they got the hand hole open, all that. But they don't know that they've cut the fiber. They don't realize it. And so I went over and I said, I think you guys have cut the fiber. No, ma'am. No, ma'am. And they're not willing to talk to me at all. So I call. I go in and I call my provider. They've cut the fiber. don't know. Nobody's cut the fiber. And I said,
10:32
I've got a splicer in my garage. I know how to fix it. I'm telling you, you've got a fiber cut and you need to send a crew out to splice those fiber. And it took them about a while to figure out that they had a fiber cut. But that's got to be so common. That's got to be so common with people digging up yards and people, and they're burying. Some of the, well, you guys control that.
11:02
But a lot of the other companies are burying it this deep. So it's easy to get cut. Oh, yes is. In our rural areas, here in North Missouri and southern Iowa, we are too bad as far as getting cuts there, other than maybe somebody building fence or sometimes somebody doing field tile may miss things.
11:28
do that kind of stuff, but in our urban areas that like what you're talking a lot, there's so many things going on. The utility space is so full with old plant, old copper plus fiber from multiple entities now that in there's a lot of different contractors. And if some are good contractors, some are not. And you can see when you were going to work around some of these things, you can tell who's good and who's bad.
11:56
These poor guys didn't have a clue what they had done. And I left it with, you probably need to call your supervisor because this is going to be expensive for you. This is going to roll right back to you guys. So you better be watching that. Let me back up a little bit. You have something in common with Brett Cooper, our communication manager, VP.
12:26
And your military background. know, Brad's very proud of that, understandably. I think it really shapes the kind of manager that he is and the kind of employee he is and stuff. And CBM has always been very supportive of that, you know, until he retired. Although you're Marines, he's Army. You want to go with what's better? Which It's Marine Corps. It's Marines.
12:52
Since he's not here, I'm going to agree with you. He's just out. Yeah, I'm going to agree with you. How do you think that shaped what you do today? Because I really see that in Brett, know, working hand in hand with Brett all these years. I really see where that military service... Well, mean, coming up through the military, I was just in four years.
13:22
and got out. But that time, that's where I kind of got electronic background. That's how I kind of went to school. I repaired radios when I was in the Corps. that's what kind of got me into on the electronic side and wound up being in the telephone industry. But what it does, I mean, you learn to, there's going to be
13:45
problems in front you, you're going learn that you're going to evaluate them and what it's going to take to overcome them. And you're going to sit down, you learn how to work with people, you learn how to, whether it's good or bad people, you learn how to work with them, and you learn how to lead. And you see a lot of that in there's good leaders and bad leaders. And that gives you a good example of who you want to grow up and be, really, and how you deal with people you work with.
14:13
people who you provide service to, or to somebody on the street. It kind of drives you going forward on your expectations on how you should do things. So your military training really is what kind of facilitated your job right into the fall company. Yes. Yeah. mean, like I say, growing up as a kid, I grew up rural. We had small acreage to work for farmers. That was I wanted to do.
14:43
had no clue that there was a job in the telecommunications industry. Until I moved from Illinois to Missouri and worked for couple years job opening and it's like, yeah, I could go do that. here we are, two and a years later into a field that had no expectations. But it is a great field to be in. It's always different. It's a different project every day, seems like. And the people that you work with are people you love to work with.
15:13
I always tell people that when I graduated from college, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn't want anything to do with sales, which just shows at that age, don't know what you want. And that's what I ended up doing as a career. But sales into the independent telephone company market, which was the core of our communications business, just some great people.
15:43
and just dealing with some great, just salt of the earth guys out there that were a pleasure to call on and a pleasure to work with. I don't know what it would be like to have a sales job where they were bunch of jerks as your customers or something. It wasn't always fun every day and everything didn't always go right and you didn't win every job. But just a great group of people.
16:12
You've got to have a lot of those relationships with different vendors. I mean, I'm assuming you just don't like CBM. I mean, we're not the only ones you I'm assuming that there's other ones out there. There's also got to be vendors that call on you that you're like, yeah, I'm going to be screening that call the next time they call me to come.
16:38
If you had some people out there listening that was going to call on and GRM, what's the best advice you can give them? If you want to be a vendor for us, this is what you do right and this is what you don't do. What's the things? What's the bad things? Like you say, the relationship that we've established over the years, a lot of that's because we can sit and have conversation, not pushing, have good projects that actually are a value to
17:08
what we're looking to do, whether it's an existing project that's got a new model or if it's something completely new coming into the industry that would make it easier for us to do the job. But that's the good thing and the bad thing is when maybe you have somebody that's really pushing, we sometimes have, we'll send out requests for quotes for pricing or material and
17:36
Sometimes you have people that, mean, just keep coming back, keep coming back. like, do you have the answer or what you do? Can we do anything different? And don't even give you time for, because sometimes we got, go through maybe a couple of people, you know, say you may get a prize. I'm out of the office or doing something else, can't always look at it right away. And in the meantime, there's three calls and trying to know where we at, know, did we get this or, and.
18:05
Then the other thing I think, what we try to do, we try to be upfront with whoever we're working with, who we're doing the quest for, we will just ask for your price. And our expectation is, if we're going send it out to multiple people, we expect for, you're going to give us your best price. And then...
18:28
we'll pick somebody out of that, whatever low quote is, if it's the product that we want and where it's coming from, we'll pick that price. then sometimes we'll people come back, it's like, well, I want to give you a better price. we don't want to two days to work something out that we could be done in a half a day. And so that's kind of our turnoffs that we see as being pushy and just being upfront and straightforward with us from the get go.
18:57
and we'll do that with you.
19:03
What's different about CBM? First and foremost, it's our ESOP. Employee owners have more control and more ability to make decisions that are right for our customers and right for our company and right for our manufacturers. We've got the flexibility to put people where they need to be and use our experts wisely. If you need help with a project or need representation from an excellent sales force here in the Midwest, look no further than CBM.
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dot com.
19:37
You know, the other things that we see, or maybe it's longevity, or maybe it's, is I look at, we have some products at CBM on our line card that are pretty tried and true for a long time. Long-term customers, using, you you've used that same thing for years and years and years. And then there's new technology that comes out, you whether it's ours or whether it's somebody else's or another product or whatever.
20:06
Do you struggle with that as far as the tried and true products that you guys are comfortable with, your technicians are comfortable with, versus the new technology that's coming out that, you know, this might save us money down the road and be good, but the guys are going to hate it? I was always surprised when I started out how passionate.
20:33
people are over some of the stuff that they use in the field. I'm like, holy cow, this doesn't that make a deal, guys? And no, we have to use this. Where does that play in today with all the new technology? Because technology, just as I've been out of the field, technology has passed me way by. Yeah, I think what we get, mean, everybody's comfortable in the things that they know.
21:01
Like you say, things are tried and true. That's just like Splice kits right now. We've been using now preformer Splice kits now since we started in Fiber of the Home. since 2010 we've been using them. are the best. Yeah, they are good kits. And we've been using them. Tim was actually down in
21:27
did some training with our guys on splice kits and there's some new kits come out that are smaller and that's, and we're looking at it and there may be some of those that we may use just in certain areas. But like you say, our splicers and our installers, everybody's comfortable with one kit. When we change things up, there is some questions and a lot of times if we sit down, if it makes sense in what we're doing,
21:57
new products, you know, cost savings is always great. Sometimes it comes down to maybe efficiencies in our time and labor costs on doing things will drive something, change into something new. And the employees we have now, a lot of times if we can sit down, have a conversation, say, hey, this is what we got, this is what's going on, this is what's going do for us, you know, everybody's pretty receptive anymore on something new.
22:25
15 years ago when we're all used to stuff and this, was a little tough on doing change, but it's just, there's been so much change over the last five, six years. Everybody's kind of grown more accustomed to it. It's not as big of issue as it used to be. guess it'd be an easy way to say that. You know, when it was copper closures, people were pretty, pretty passionate about their brand, you know? And, you know, I'll just say it.
22:52
I still think I can put one of those on better than anybody at CBM. Oh, probably. There's never been many copper people out there anymore. I think you just called me old. I'm right there with you, Marla. Yeah, so if you run across one of those preformed copper, you need to call me. I still can beat Tim and Brett. So let's talk about bead vending. I don't know where you guys are at with that.
23:21
Are you trying to get some? Are you not playing in that field? Do think it's going to go through? What you got field? That's the topic we've been talking about for six months now. For three years? years, wherever you want to go with it. Since we're in Missouri and Iowa, we did apply. We've applied for beat funding in round one.
23:50
and then they came back with sub round one and we did application there. They have sent some stuff out this week on, kind of, Missouri has on some areas that the
24:02
Some areas that have been awarded or areas that have not been awarded, they are giving me information who it is or what it is. They're kind waiting for decisions to come back down now, Washington and NTIA, on what changes are maybe coming forward on the BEAT program. And then they were talking about round two starting here in Missouri, also coming up. So we're kind waiting to sort through that and see where we want to, I mean, we're interested in...
24:31
in the funding and expanding because this would be expanding actually outside our areas of our, our telephone cooperative has exchanges. But it's one of those things that, you know, if we get funded, If not, it's not a deal breaker on anything.
24:53
that we're doing. I mean, we'll continue to serve our customers and look for opportunities to kind of expand our business as needed. So I don't know how, it's not common in our territory, but it's, I don't know how common or uncommon it is throughout the country, but you guys actually expanded into Iowa. Yes. So, you know, a multi-state situation. So like for a funding issue,
25:21
Do you get, is it because you're a Missouri company, is it all through Missouri or can you hit Iowa as well or how does that work? Iowa hasn't brought anything out yet as far as what they're doing on BEAT on receiving applications and when they come out with it and what they're doing, we'll take a look at the areas and see if there's any areas up there that makes sense for us to be interested in. I mean, we're looking at areas that are close.
25:50
nothing that's way far away where we've got to stretch our personnel to take care of customers or anything like that. If it makes sense, we'll pull an application in. Yes, we can do Missouri and Iowa. It'll just be two different programs, something else to keep track of within the company, which state we're working in. we're waiting to see. We'll be interested, I'm sure, and see if it's worthwhile putting an application in.
26:19
people are putting fiber rings around things and down highways and all that stuff, we thought, what are they going do with all this fiber? I mean, there's no way all that fiber is going to get used. And some of it hasn't. Some of it has been dark since the day it was plowed in and has never been hooked up to anything, depending on who the company was. But what goes into your decision to expand? You guys have done a lot of expansion over the last few years. do you see that?
26:48
continuing, what makes the decision, know, every build's not a good one, know, hindsight's 20-20, but you guys have done really well. Yeah. So you're referring to our SELEC build we did up in the Des Moines area, I'm guessing where we expanded out, Fiber the Home, and it was just one of those that we were looking for area where there were people, you know, as we know in our small rural areas.
27:17
Our population keeps going down, so our customer base is shrinking. And with the possibility with funding of coming from out of the government, maybe change a little bit, we're looking for a way to support our cooperative customers going on into the future and the life of the co-op. we went where the people were, and we're fortunate at landing up in an area that is
27:41
just booming. mean, they're still building houses and just continuing to grow. And we were very fortunate in that. We just, we looked at several different areas sat down with our management team and some consultants kind came up with the idea and landed there. it's, you know, like we've been very fortunate in the how it's grown. And, and we'll kind of look at those areas and as this beat goes on, if there's something that makes sense to us, it's not a, not a stretch for us to provide service.
28:12
What services are you providing there? Are you providing just Internet? Are you doing TV as well? We're just doing, on our cooperative, of course, it's phone and Internet. We've stepped away from video sites. Everything's transitioned to streaming. then when up in our C-Lac, it's just Internet and doing some IP phone is all the services. And that's what everybody's looking for.
28:39
that utility service, which is now internet service. When somebody moves into new home, their new internet connection is as critical as having power anymore. Absolutely. You know, over COVID, people would say, well, how's your company going to be? you going to... I said, hey, we're providing the stuff that sells electricity and internet. You're going to be cool. That's a pretty simplistic explanation.
29:08
you know, we're not selling cruise ship cabins, you know, we're not trying to do that kind of stuff. So, you know, it doesn't get any more basic than that. We also didn't close down. I know you guys didn't. No, it was... Yeah, we had those letters that, you know, saying we were a necessary service and, you know, never had... We had letters with us. I never got stopped or anything, huh? But it was a unique experience because you get on the interstate and there's basically...
29:37
semi trucks and a few other people are kind of working and it was great traffic wise if you had to get around and whether it was interstate or in a city. I mean you're like, wow, this is nice. But... We had guys out there as well that had to do battery work or you had some people with some systems down and stuff and they took cuts in state and central offices more than one night, you because you're not going to go to hotel. What are you going to do?
30:05
That's a learning experience for everybody. We had changed our practices on going to customers' homes and all that. So was something that was worked through, and everybody survived fine. What do you see ahead for you guys?
30:24
Any big secrets you want to divulge right now? No, no big secrets. You'll have 49 vendors calling Sadie tomorrow saying, know, Dirk. Come talk to us, right? Yeah. Yeah, no big secrets. mean, I guess the biggest thing we've got coming up probably next year is we're going to be celebrating, Co-op's going to be celebrating 75 years. that's great. Yeah. mean, that's kind of a cool thing. We'll have all of our exchanges.
30:52
fiber at home by the end of this year, customers cut in. So all our cooperative now will be fiber at home, which will be a great thing for our customers and just easing what we're doing. And there's no big thing out there. I think we'll just continue to look at opportunities if there's something out there to.
31:13
where we can grow our company and still provide the good service that we take pride in doing of being able to deal with our customers and their issues and actually being able to talk to them. So Dirk, like I said, we've known each other more through other people. I wasn't even going to bring this up, but there's one memory that I have of working with you. I don't know if you remember this or not. We were sitting in Booneville.
31:42
at a CBM after hours. And we were with a mutual distributor friend. And that distributor friend decided like at 11 o'clock at night to switch to straight sipping tequila. Do you remember that night? Yes, I do. And he tried everything he could get to get Dirk and Marla to join him.
32:07
We denied. We denied and you and I laughed so hard because we could see the effect of all of that. Do you remember that? Oh, yes, I do. I think you ended up helping that individual back to their... We walked back to the hotel together. Yeah, but that was a fun and when I think of working with you, I always think of that and how fun that was sitting there. Yeah, I mean, it's a good social time and it's...
32:34
It's sometimes, like you say, it's fun being on the other side and watching this like, hmm, no. Yeah, I ain't touching that. I can see what that's doing to you. What assumption do people make about Dirk? What's something that people would be surprised to know about you? I guess the biggest one I see sometimes, and Brett will do this too, and gives me a hard time.
33:00
He says, you are a big deal in what you do. I never look at it that way because I'm just doing my job and working for the company that has hired me and looking to provide service those around me. I never look at it that way because we're we're cooperative doing our job. I suppose that's probably that. And just because we're talking and we know Brett, I thought I'd throw that one out there.
33:25
He thinks you're a big deal. I think he really does and you should capitalize on that. really should. You should really capitalize on that. No, think people look at your position in a phone company and they think, well, he has the ability just to do whatever he wants. He can buy whatever he wants. can pick the products he wants to pick. He has all of the control and the power.
33:52
you know, for people that are out there trying to be that end-all for you, you know, I I could see where he comes up with that because people in your position, that matters to us, you know, but dealing at CBM, we just really, we really push to the young people.
34:17
you need to just build the relationships because it is relationships. is, you know, we're all sitting around the match show and we're all, you know, joking around and talking and catching up on family and those type of things. can't, it's not, that doesn't become about business then. That doesn't become about how many orders you get. I mean, that's important. We all have to make a living, but...
34:46
But to be able to have the privilege to work in an industry where people really care and where it's not fake and it's not pushed, like you said, not a high pressure, what's in your sales funnel today, you know. But out there helping people, if you have a fiber cut, if you have battery services down or whatever, if you call us, we're going to be there. We're going to come help you.
35:17
because you are you are. I think that, I think the industry is so great for that reason. I hope it doesn't get away from that. Yeah, and I agree. I mean, that's the big thing, know, and the key part in doing the relationships is those things like when you are in an emergency, when it's like, like, hey, I got this going on, I need a supplies kit or I need help on this and the capability of having somebody respond back to you and say, hey, this is what I got.
35:44
hey, I can have something to you tomorrow. There's been times that we've had calls from on the other side, like, hey, we got this material sitting here, it's been here for a while, we got a good price on it, are you interested in it? And sometimes, if we can, it's something we go, mean, sometimes we've picked up material, it's a good deal for us, and it's helping out our suppliers and vendors. And it goes very much back and forth in the build.
36:14
The ability to call someone that has talked to you and you know they're family members and you ask each other about them and see what's going on in their life and you have the opportunity to reach out to them and say, hey, I'm going to bind. What can you do for me?
36:36
And we help each other out. And that's a cool thing in our relationship and especially in our business. Because it's not only just with our providers and suppliers, it's within our industry as far as other phone companies. There's been times somebody will call us like, hey, we got an emergency. Do you have cable? Do you have a generator? Do you like that? And somebody will take off and swap material and swap generators and bail them out of a bad situation. And that's another neat thing about our industry. There's a lot of that that goes on within the small phone companies.
37:06
We know each other. We call them about ideas off each other. like, hey, do you know so and so? Have you used this? What are you guys doing for that? It's just good resource all the way around. it's pretty neat. Absolutely. So we've got some younger guys on our team now at CBM. It's exciting. It's exciting to see their perspectives and the great work ethics and are doing a great job. But trying to instill in them
37:35
Relationship, relationship, relationship. Well, they look at rut and dirk. I mean, that's hard to achieve overnight. you how, you have any words of wisdom for our younger folks? How do you, how these relationships get cultivated? Are you working with that at your end of the company as well? You know,
37:59
I hope to not be there someday, you know? And want the younger folks to be able to carry on and hope that we can still have the same kind of thing. The key thing with the younger people come through is taking the time to have face time. Stop and be personable and go be in person.
38:29
Just talk about who you are and ask questions. Big thing is, and because we can learn so much from each other, whether it's, you know, unless it's been in the industry for years or somebody's news, we ask questions. It's like, so what is this? You know, how does this work? You know, get an understanding in what you're doing and talk to those people that have the experience. you know, within our company, we're...
38:52
You know, we're small cooperative, you know, and a lot of people come and work and they're there for, you know, 30 years. And so as we're looking to transition, the biggest thing is, is, you know, I'm kind like you here in some time here in the future, plan on retiring. And we've been talking about that, it's like how we fill our spot, my spot, and the guy that works with me directly underneath me is how do we, where do we get these people to, is there people within our staff?
39:21
that we come through and how we do that. A lot of times, I tend to do it by modeling more than anything. Just show how we deal with the day-to-day, how we deal with people. Are we personal? Are we asking questions? Do we check on people? Or are we mean and rude and don't talk to anybody? And so it's a process that I think we'll be learning our part.
39:51
as we're bringing people in and what's going to work best. mean, because I, you know, like say within our company, a lot of times, you know, we're in that group where there are most of the people now are, you know, they're anywhere from 40s to 50s and is the most of the workforce. And so we'll be transitioning new ones here soon. And it's different. I mean, they have a different perspective on how they live their lives.
40:18
I can see that you would be a very good mentor. I could see where somebody younger would look up to you and look to see how you did it and to model after your demeanor and the way you treat people. Was there someone who did that for you? Is there a mentor or somebody that stands out that filled that role for you?
40:49
Probably going up through life, I probably had a couple people. One was a Ag instructor I went to in college and I knew through FFA and everything that, and his name was Bud Oparley, and just how to be a young man and how to do things. Then I think within the company is probably Wendell Myers that I worked under for numerous years before he passed away and the opportunity to just watch how he did things. And yeah, I mean.
41:18
A lot of times I think that's how we learn, we observe and ask a few questions. A lot times we just observe and see how people do things, how they treat people and how people respond to them. I remind our guys that are closer to my age, the best way that you can mentor these guys is to model good behavior. If they're seeing you, have great ideas, great attitudes.
41:46
And they're seeing you build relationships with people. seeing you do, you know, is it easier with the longer you work a territory? Absolutely. you're comfortable. Yeah, you know.
41:59
But, and the people know, you're going to spend more time with people you have relationships with, you know. And those relationships are hard to make, but that mental relationship is huge. I think the other part of that is people's personalities. And looking at people and who you're bringing in is, the personalities, do they fit within them? Do they fit the personalities of the group? Because a bad personality can, I mean, run in people's days.
42:27
And that's biggest thing I've learned in working with people and hiring people through my time with the company is what's the person ought to like? What's their attitude like? Like you say, a negative attitude not only affects that person, but affects everybody around them. creating a positive attitude, I don't know if that's something that you can teach anybody sometimes if they're really negative.
42:53
You know, hiring character, hiring personality, you can teach product and procedures all day long, but some of the other stuff is hard to do. Well, Dirk, I thank you so much. I thank you so much for coming in and putting up with me as the host instead of Mr. Locker, who really wanted to be here today. we enjoyed our conversation.
43:23
It takes me right back to calling on the independents and those were happy, happy days for me and in my career. really enjoyed the conversation. Thank you so much. I appreciate you asking me. I'd like to say this is kind of out of my comfort zone. And thank you for thinking that this would be worthwhile conversation. And actually, I appreciate you being here, Tim or Brett, because it's probably little less hard time that I was...
43:51
would receive on this end. Yeah, I didn't ask some of these questions. That's none of my business. No, I'm just teasing. They both wanted to be here. But we appreciate the years of friendship, the years of being a great customer to CBM, the working relationship that our two companies have had, and look forward to it going forward. Yes, I do too. And like I say, thank you again.
44:22
Just wanted to say thank you for joining us today, Dirk. Remember, if you need help with a project or if you're looking for representation, look no further than the sales team at CBM. You can contact us at CBMRep.com. Please like, comment, and subscribe and let us know what you'd like to hear more of. Again, thanks for joining us on Power of the Network.
