00:00
Hi, and welcome to Power of the Network. I'm your host, Tim Locker, Vice President of Broadband here at CBM. You know, this year is a big year for us at CBM. We are celebrating our 65th anniversary in business. To celebrate that, we've got Ms. Marla Sparks, CEO and President of CBM. And we're going to have a conversation, try to bring some light to what we do here at CBM, what makes us different, what we do for our manufacturers.
00:29
just talk a little bit more about us and what we do. So let's bring her in and I hope you enjoy the conversation.
00:38
Marla, thank you so much for joining us today. Great to have you here. And if I'm correct, I believe this podcast was actually your idea, wasn't it? It was. It was, kind of. I got an email from just a spam email one day from somebody I didn't know saying they could do a podcast for our company. We wouldn't have to do a thing, nothing. They were going to just come in and do a podcast about us. Don't know how that would work.
01:06
And we were already working with Tim Stone, Solar Flare, and our other marketing staff. And so I knew that he and his business partner, Jaren Myers, had a podcast of their own. Things I learned last night. A little different from our podcast. So we called them and said, I sent them the email and said, is this something that you guys are thinking about doing?
01:34
He hits me right back and said, we had a meeting about this this morning, let's talk. And from there we just kind of brainstormed and here we are. Here we are. Yeah, it's been what, a little over a year? It has. Already and... I get asked a lot, why are you doing, why a podcast? What's your goal? My biggest question is why me? I could answer that one too. It's a question.
02:02
Our goal isn't sponsorship, I guess we'd take the money, maybe, I don't know. with everything we do at CBM, it's all about adding value for our manufacturers. this was just another way to get our manufacturers out there, to our customer base, to the market, to brand our company. When we had our first meetings, I asked Tim and Darren, I said,
02:32
You've met my managers, you know, which one? And they both looked at me and said, Tim Locker. So I guess... I must not have had enough to do as my... You have the stick, I don't know. guess, yeah. No, it's been great. And for me, you know, there's... When you start at CBM, you're in one group or another and you kind of live in that world. And so it's been great for me to be able to meet so many different factories that we work for.
03:02
in the other markets that I didn't grow up in. So that's been great for me, just expanding our reach and building more relationships, which has been fun for me. So I appreciate it. Speaking of anniversaries though, we've got a big one this year. CBM turned 65 this year. I think we kind of highlighted that on the last episode when Duff was in. But what does 65 years mean to Marla?
03:31
I mean, I obviously haven't been here for all of those 65 years. But, you know, it's a huge milestone. A lot of rep firms come and go and change names and get bought and get sold and rebrand themselves. really, we've been doing the same thing for 65 years. It's, you know, it's longevity of excellence.
03:55
We spend a lot of the time in the same market. Now we've expanded a little bit here and there and we've changed our line card obviously. We started as a completely just electrical and now we're in three or four different markets. But I think just the longevity of staying in business and doing what you say you're going to do, some of our manufacturers have been with us.
04:20
a long time. I'm not going to... 60 plus years? Yeah, I'm not going to get in trouble by name and names and numbers because I'll get them wrong. But some really long relationships with some premier manufacturers. So it's something to be celebrated. That says a lot too. It's nice to reflect and look back at where we came from, but what does the future look like for CBM? That's a good question.
04:48
We always say when we're doing our budgeting for the year, if I had that crystal ball and I could see what's into the future, I think what we have to do is just to keep doing what we've been doing. Keep our eye on the ball as far as seeing our customer base, providing the good, excellent service that we do for our manufacturers. And then the opportunities come.
05:14
If you do the job, if you do the work, you're a great example of that, stuck you in a territory where we didn't have much and they started calling me saying, I want Tim Locker, I want CBM. And so I don't know that we have a, no, I know we don't have a plan to do another 10 states in 10 years or anything like that. we are looking at some sort of growth.
05:42
Absolutely. Obviously, we're not going to turn down a good opportunity. We're going to think long and hard about those opportunities. Oh, absolutely. I'm a firm believer that when you're doing the job, the opportunities will come to you. And they do. And some of them are great opportunities, and some of them that we have to take a pass on. But yeah, for the right opportunity, that makes sense for our company.
06:11
Absolutely. you know, one of the challenges I see frequently now, it seems to be kind of more common, is just all, you know, lot of the manufacturers not necessarily staying in their lanes. You know, everybody wants to do everything. And, you know, as a rep, you know, the right thing to do is obviously not have competing lines. But as manufacturers start stepping out of their lane, you know, that begins to be more of a challenge.
06:40
What are your thoughts? It's definitely becoming more difficult because like you said, everybody wants to grow. And so, you know, the way that some of our manufacturers are growing is they're going to acquire some money, they're going to merge with another company, or they're going to start making a whole new product that we already have one on the line card. You know, we've lost lines because of that. We've lost those opportunities. also, sometimes we can just manage it.
07:10
We've looked at manufacturers and said, hey, I know you're making this widget now, but this isn't your core business. We're really good at representing you and your core business. I can't sell that. Just take it off my contract. If one sells in my territory, you don't have to pay me for it. But we can't go there with that product. And usually we can manage those conflicts because everyone has them, not just CBN.
07:40
You know being an employee owned company Talk about the value of an eSOP in terms of how it relates to the manufacturer You know, that's something that a selling point that I think we've we didn't capitalize on for a long time But as we see in in our world out there a rep world out there right now, there's lots of consolidations There's lots of moving around the reps are changing and if
08:08
And if you're the manufacturer and that's your rep, you have to wonder who's calling on the customers today, you know, and who's going to be calling on the customers tomorrow. I give this analogy when we interview potential employees that, you know, if Marla gets hit by that proverbial bus tomorrow, that the employees might take the afternoon off to go to my funeral, maybe. But the next day they're going to be back at work.
08:36
and the company just keeps rolling along as if nothing else happened. There's a built-in legacy plan. Absolutely. And there's no ownership, legal problems with the ownership. That's all taken care of. And for those manufacturers, that's continuity in their representation that they don't get from a one-man man. Two guys in a truck or whatever.
09:07
You know, another thing that makes us a little bit different, you know, we're seeing the the rep model, you know, we're seeing a lot of these super reps, if you will, and, folks covering the whole nation, etc. But, you know, I think we're a little different in the fact that we've got not only ample feed on the streets, you know, we've got plenty of, you know, smaller territories, plenty of manpower in in the field, but we also have
09:35
lots of folks inside supporting us. Absolutely. Reps come in all shapes and sizes and there's some great things being done out there by a lot of people that are different from us. But for us, we're big enough that we have the three major divisions and a dedicated sales force to all three divisions. A lot of reps don't have that.
10:04
and then you look at their website and it's, oh, that guy's in all three divisions, or whatever like that. But we do have a dedicated, we also have a dedicated inside salespeople. And a lot of people don't do that. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes there that. Our inside people are the core of our business. They're the who the customer's talking to day in and day out.
10:30
I started my career as an inside salesperson. I believe in that model so greatly. Our inside people aren't inferior to anyone else at our company. It's a partnership. When we talk to our distributors and customers, we hear so many great things about the folks on the inside. Absolutely. And a lot of times they can save a step. Don't call me, call Carla or call Phil or any of them inside.
10:59
I don't know how many times I've heard someone say, I can't keep track of the names, I just call your inside salesperson, I just call Carla and say, give me that whatever it is that you're selling today. So you said you started in inside sales. What's the story of Marla Sparks? The story of Marla Sparks, well, I graduated from college with business degree and didn't really know what to do with it.
11:28
I knew the only thing I knew for a fact is that I had nothing to do with sales. Which shows that when you graduate from college sometimes you don't have it all figured out. But after a couple missteps, my first sales job was Kodak microfilm equipment. I mean, what could go wrong there? But I went to a headhunter.
11:53
found me this job at TWComCorp. TWComCorp was, they're not in business anymore, an outside plant distributor out of New York. And they dealt with all the independent telephone companies. And I went there knowing nothing about what they did. And I was working as sales assistant for the vice president. So I had his account and then did all the purchasing and quotes and stuff for the other guys as well.
12:23
learned a lot there. A lot about the industry, a lot about the products. Yeah, let's talk, let me stop you right there, I guess. know, one of the big challenges, I think, for inside folks is learning the products. You you're dealing with part numbers all day, but not knowing or necessarily understanding what the things do has got to be a big challenge. It is.
12:49
Because you don't, especially like at our company, don't warehouse. T.W. I could go out in the warehouse and say, show me what a ground rod looks like. We don't have, well, we have samples, but we don't have all of that there. It's tough. We try to take, at CBN, try to take the guys out in the field and show them and stuff. if our distribution partners...
13:15
It's even worse because, you know, whereas our guys have 11, 12 lines to learn, you know, they have 50 or 60 on their distribution line cards. So you don't know as much as you probably need to. learned a lot about, then it was copper cable back in the day, you know, and I just had a bad day at TW one day. I don't remember what was going on, but a bad day and...
13:43
Larry Robinson, my future boss at CBM, comes in. He was our CBM rep. And I said, you hiring Larry? And you know, Marla, we should talk. Larry always started everything. We should talk. And a whole bunch of talking later, I was on a moving truck to Kansas City. So not really sure what a rep even did, where our place in the food chain was.
14:12
Well, it's funny you say that because oftentimes you're with the customer, you may be calling on them with a distributor, but it's confusing, I think, to the end user what a rep does. in your mind, what's the best explanation to that customer? What does a rep do? You have to explain it to a customer in a way that they do not think that what we do adds cost to their product.
14:42
We're not an additional markup. So I always say, instead of pre-formed line products, I'll give them a... Instead of them hiring a guy in Missouri, a person in Missouri, and having to pay all of the loaded costs for that, they can hire CBM and only pay me a commission to what ships into the territory.
15:12
So we're a deal. So the customer gets a good feeling that, like I said, we're not adding another markup like they do as a distributor. And then there's more, obviously, that we add in terms of, obviously, we're the expert. We can't expect our distribution partners to be the expert because they've got thousands of products they're
15:40
you name it, all those things kind of built under that. Absolutely. So, okay, let's keep going down the path. Where does that take us now after? So I'm at CBM. I was hired to live in Kansas City and I called on Wichita and Iowa and Nebraska. So I don't want hear anybody gripe about their territories. And for the premise wire, we did a lot of premise wire back then. And I hadn't been there very long when we did a whole...
16:08
management shift change at CBM and Larry Robinson was now going to come over and run our group and he lived in St. Louis and so they needed somebody to go back to St. Louis area and so I did that. I went back to St. Louis and took his market then for the next 20 years. So how long were you in Kansas City before you went back to St. Louis? About a year. Okay. I learned something new today. I thought you just started right in the St. Louis market. Yeah.
16:38
Moved to Kansas City thing twice. Yeah, so it was interesting I moved to Kansas say the first time when Joe Montana on the season that Joe Montana came to be with the Chiefs and so I'm looking at apartments I never even been to Kansas City before I was looking for an apartment and People would ask me are you are you coming to Kansas City because of Joe Montana and I and I didn't know who Joe Montana was Surprisingly, but I'm like
17:06
No. Why would I move to, you know, what's he ever done for me? Well, why would I do that? So it's crazy. Why do you think there's a chance, Sorry, Ron. No, it's crazy. But we are chiefs fans at CBM. So yeah, next 20 years or so, at some point, I became the leader of that group, VP of that group, the communications group.
17:34
Then I got the call saying, we need to talk about maybe you being president. after a lot of, it was a long call and a lot of prayer and a lot of talking at home with my family and stuff. And so we made the move in 15, 2015. 15. Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? Absolutely, yeah. 10 years. Yeah, because so looking back for me, Larry also hired me.
18:04
And so he was the VP of Communications at that time. And then after my first year, then that's when you took over the group. so that's been... You know, Larry was a force. I remember taking... He had on this napkin all this written about profit sharing and ESOP and all this money I was going to make down the road. And I remember taking it home to my dad and saying, you what do you think? My dad's like, well...
18:34
Salespeople lie. But if half of this is true, it's better than what you're doing now. just go with it. But it was all true. Well, it's worked out so far.
18:52
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. You can reach out to us here at CBM rep.
19:21
dot com.
19:26
What do you think some of the biggest challenges are that you've seen over, 30 plus years now? You know, everyone thinks that the season they're in is the worst, you know. But we've had lots of highs and lows with, you know, the economy. You know, now everybody's worried about the tariffs and what is that going to do to our business. Different things. But we seem to ride those out just fine.
19:57
Because I always say during the pandemic, I always said that we're not selling cruise ship cabins, we're selling broadband, internet, and electricity. Things people need. So, you know, we're kind of a necessity out there. So, you know, the challenges, I think one of biggest challenges we're seeing today is finding people to come to work. You know, there's a labor shortage out there. Yeah, that's been a big
20:25
Big theme, I think, for everyone, for sure. Yeah. So I think that's the biggest challenge that we face right now. That and just the unknown. Keeping everybody calm during turbulent times and just focused on what we're doing and we do just fine. And I think, you know, I see that in you. You do a good job of taking a second, thinking about things and not just reacting, you know.
20:54
And I guess over the years, you you've learned to, you know, it's going to work out. You know, so we don't have to freak out when something blows up. You know, if you look at a graph of the world and all of its ups and downs and economies and everything, and then you look at our numbers, you laid that over that, you know, we really don't seem to react. It's hard when you're going through it, because you think you are, but...
21:24
Yeah, for sure. You know, obviously I love to talk about leadership, you know, on this show. You know, you've been president now for what, 10 years. What would you say is your style? Well, you could probably answer that better than I could. We may have different answers. I don't know, style. I try to empower people.
21:50
to try not to be in their face telling them every move to make. Try to step back and let people make decisions for themselves. Sometimes that works out great. Sometimes you wish you would have leaned in a little bit more. Being an employee-owned company, I feel like we owe that to the employees to have a say, to have a voice. So I try to be big on that and not run it as a dictatorship.
22:20
someone has to be in charge, someone has to make the final decision. We don't get to vote on everything at CBM. Otherwise you just get in the weeds. You would never get anything done because everybody doesn't like the same brand coffee. You stole that from my head. But try to respect people, listen to people, care about people.
22:48
If you do those things and you've got the place there where they can succeed and they can be profitable, then I think that they will. I think they'll work hard for you. Yeah. We've got the opportunity now, I guess, just what would your message to our team be, moving into what's left of 25? 25 has started off a little rocky for us.
23:18
And so I would say, know, we're big on planning at CBM. We had a great planning session in December where we all come up with goals and dreams and all the things that work, a list of things to do. Just stay focused. Just to stay focused. Get out there and see the customers and do what we do best and don't let all of the noise around us distract us from what our purpose is. Yeah. Oh, that's great.
23:48
What comes to mind when you hear the term women in leadership? You know, I kind of hate it, to be honest. You know, I kind of hate it. You know, we've had several women on this show. know, Heather, Sethi, and Julie Fitzgerald. You know, and they are, and I would never want to speak for them, but they are highly accomplished, you know, women in our industries.
24:18
And I don't think, you you didn't hear them saying, you know, it's just hard for me. You know, kind of a whiny, you know, whatever. No, they want to be known as good leaders and they want to be known as good at what they do. Same way, I don't want to be the best woman president CBM ever had. You know, I want to, I just want to be known to doing a good job and leaving things better than what I found them. So,
24:45
I guess I just don't get hung up on the woman thing. Yeah. Well, you've been with us over 30 years now. Certainly there's been some changes in how women in the workforce have been treated or managed. It's been really interesting. I was hired in to do an outside position 32 years ago now, June 1st.
25:12
by John Marietti. And John had three daughters, has three daughters, who were a little older than me and were starting their careers. And I have to think, I don't know that, I don't want put words in John's mouth, but I have to think that that might have played a part in that because there just wasn't many of us out there 32 years ago, even in the communications world, which is a little more open to that kind of thing. I still get...
25:42
You go to a meeting and if they don't know who you are, oh, did Tim bring the receptionist with him or whatever. And then you get introduced as the president. they think we're married. Or one of your customers thought we were married. Or I've gotten before, I didn't know CBN was a family-owned company.
26:10
You know, because how else would you be president if you didn't inherit it? You know, that kind of thing. So, but CBM, I have to say, you know, we talk about how old school CBM can be, but I got to say that from day one, I was pretty much welcomed as one of the guys and been treated very well and very respectfully. You know, I don't have, I'm sure other people have other...
26:40
stories at other companies. um... No, that's great. You know, customers had a little bit of difficulty with it at first. I remember going to see one of my old T.W. customers. Great guy. I'll just say it was Tom Young at Kingdom Telephone Company. go out, Tom was going to lunch. And he sits there and he's just stewing over something. Tom, what's wrong? Marla? I have everybody respect for you. He's great guy. Respect for you.
27:09
I can't let you buy me lunch. I just can't do it. I just can't do it. And so you got, know, people, took the industry a little bit to get used to having, especially out in the country. I remember one time, know, some guys want to mess with you a little bit. One guy, we were doing splice case on top of the roof at Anheuser-Busch and it was leaking. And so I, you know, I had to go fix it and I knew how to do that.
27:38
So we get there with the contractor and he says, well, we got to climb up that ladder and it's about 10 feet up but it's one of those like ladders on the on the brick. Okay, you know, and so he helps me with the tools and we get him up there and we do what we have to do and about a week later I'm at the contractor who had put the case on incorrectly and I said, hey listen, I was there we need some training for your guys. They forgot us to happen.
28:06
And I said, yeah, that's kind of a tricky place to get to. And he said, why don't you just take the elevator? And I'm thinking, OK, you got me. You're climbing me up the wall. But for the most part, people just want someone who knows what they're talking about. And when they figure out that you're the real deal and you know what you're doing. Yeah. I think you just.
28:32
If I remember correctly, you just recently had a call that, you know, come into the main line and you answered the phone and somebody was looking for. They were looking for kind an older product. Yeah. One of our pipe products. And I'm like, you know, it's your lucky day. know, I'm the one here at the company that knows the most about that. When we started, PreForm Line Products had a stainless steel closure that I think I probably still am the best at CBM of putting that closure on.
29:02
We had to do it in front of all of our peers. And so I went through cases of end plates practicing, because I was not, maybe a little bit stubborn, but wasn't going to let the guys see me not know how to do that. And I'm working with a guy named Charlie Fair, who was one of the leaders there in our group. And he's teaching me early on, and he's getting frustrated. He's just getting frustrated. Finally, what?
29:30
why are you holding that torque wrench like a girl? And I screamed back at him, I am a girl. And I didn't even know what a torque wrench was 20 minutes ago. So you get some of that. But good stories. it's been good. It's been good. Whether you're male or female, you just got to do the job. And I think one of the points that I just took out of that is you have to know what you're talking about. Absolutely. You need to be the expert.
29:57
I'll get on my soapbox a little bit. if I had one thing to say to our team would be just know the product as well as you possibly can. with reps, you got people in territories and they're good at certain things. Everybody's got something they're really, really good at.
30:22
But you can't stay in that comfort zone. You have to get out and learn the stuff that you're not good at. Practice, practice, practice. That's what's going to make us all better. to our CBM folks, take something you're not good at and learn that and be an expert on that. And just one thing at a time, one step at a time, and we all get better. Sell the package. And we've to be experts on all of that. Good stuff,
30:48
I don't get to jerk very often, but I figured I might as well. No, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. Who are some of your biggest mentors? You know, I hear you ask that question a lot on here, and I always think of how I would answer that. You know, there's lots. I've been really blessed in my life to have a lot of amazing people around me at different stages. You know, my parents and people growing, teachers growing up and stuff.
31:17
You know, at CBM, John Marietti stands out first and foremost. I find myself quoting John Marietti. He was just such a great leader at CBM. I took him to a meeting, an EERA meeting a few years ago, and literally would have people coming up to me, like with tears in their eyes, grown men saying,
31:45
you know, thank you so much for bringing him. He helped me so much and tell me a story of how, you know. So, you know, being able to work under John's leadership was very instrumental. And everybody at CBN, I could go through the, know, Larry Robinson, John Caulfield, Duff Greenwood, you all of the people that I work with. We've had a history of just investing in that and I want to be sure that I do the same thing for somebody.
32:15
The other name that comes up is, I had two ladies at TW Comm Corp that called on me from AT &T. And kind of going back to the women thing and the whole thing, that was real uncommon. Real uncommon. And they were older and their career, they're probably not even around anymore. But they were so professional and so classy. And so, and I always thought, you know what, if I ever get the opportunity,
32:43
I don't know that I've achieved what they did, but that's how I would want to portray myself. Because you see the other. You see the wild masses out there, you know, and they come in all forms and all. Nancy Combs comes to mind too. You know, as you've worked with her since you've been president. We've got to have Nancy on here because Nancy is an amazing mentor. She's an HR consultant.
33:12
I always tell her I'm surprised she answers my phone calls because she's amazing out there. does amazing things for this nation, really. But yeah, that would be another one for everything HR. You've got to call Nancy. mentioned investing in our folks. I think we do a great job of investing in our folks, whether it's different trainings, whether it's ESOP contributions, those kinds of things. talk a little...
33:42
little about CPSP, CPMR, and what that means to us as a firm, and then also some of the things that you're doing working with Merph. So we send all of our folks that we think will someday be in management potential at CPM. To CPMR, it's a three-year certification course.
34:10
on basically how to run a rep firm. They have a sales program that goes in conjunction with that called CPSC. And we've sent most of our salespeople through that, and I'm sure we'll get to everybody. And it's a one-week certification program, just quality training. The CPMR is really master's level training in business development and everything that you need to know.
34:40
And that was great timing for me because I took college later. I think somebody made me do it. I think I started when I was 40, started doing it online. And so when I went through CPMR, was right in the midst of while I was in my college classes. it was amazing to me how it all laid together. And I got so much out of CPMR.
35:10
that time that it was almost like a crash course to my business degree that I was going to get after. But I saw lot of similarities there. It's a great program and I would encourage every rep to send your people to it because I serve on the board now. I guess I should say that for disclosure purposes. It's a volunteer position.
35:37
The people that you meet and the networking that you do, it's the things that you learn at the bar when you're just talking to some folks afterwards. How do you do that? How do you treat your people with this? It's been good. It's been a really good thing. We try to invest in training. We did a lot of training last year. I pulled in some more professional training courses. There never seems to be enough time.
36:06
There never seems to be enough resources to do everything that you want to do. I feel like I'm singing a song. that's our goal. That's our goal is to equip people to have what they need to get out there. We also equip them in ways like with Salesforce and computers and all the new technology and the software and stuff to make their lives a little easier.
36:36
Road Warriors on the show, I always like to ask and give a shout out to their spouses, you know, because behind every great salesperson is a spouse at home that makes everything work. So I wanted to give Ron a shout out. Absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't do this job without him. You know, when we got married, he was in sales. So he kind of got that for the first half of our, really for the half of our marriage.
37:04
in the sales world and then switched over to education. yeah, I couldn't do it without them. We have two kids. If I've been here 32 years, my oldest is 25 and my youngest is 20. So that, I've literally raised my kids the whole time I've been at CBM or most of it. And you have to have that support.
37:32
We look back at it and think, how in world did we do that? Do you think it's tougher for a mom being on the road than a dad? Well, yeah, because the moms do everything. Moms feel like they have to, I think, orchestrate the whole family. You feel this ingrain. So even when you're on the road, you're barking orders, this has to be done and that has to be done.
38:01
saying that, Ron doesn't really need me to do that. He's a great dad and as we recognized early in our marriage that CBM, the company he was with, CBM, CBM is the one that we want to go the distance with. So whatever happened, we were going to put the CBM career first. know, yeah.
38:30
We were talking last night and I said, do you remember when, you know, I remember being on the road having to go to a conference and it was Ryan's, my son's first birthday. And I'm all upset. You know, how could I be a mom and miss my son's first birthday? And Ryan looks at me and says, he has no idea what day his birthday is. You know, we will tell him his birthday is Saturday and we'll have a party and cake on Saturday and we'll say happy birthday on Saturday.
38:57
you know, a day late and he'll never know the difference, you know, and so, you know. Well, now he knows. Now he, yeah. If he watches Powered the Network, which I'm sure he does. But, you know, so that kind of, Ron's just always been very logical, very, you know, I'm just going to jump in and do what needs to be done and he's a great dad, so it's been a good partnership. He, you know, he had to give up a lot being a
39:26
in the class professor at a university there in town in St. Louis when we moved. And that was a huge sacrifice to come over here to Kansas City. We've, you a of talking, a lot of prayer. And it's been great for our whole family. It's been a great move, but it definitely, we also had, I need to give some shout out, we also had a lot of support from grandparents. you know, somebody had to pick.
39:55
and childcare givers and all that kind of stuff. But they didn't get left on the straight too many times. I think your kids, they turned out fine. They're a work in progress. Awesome. Well, let's wrap this up. Thanks again. We've tried to have you on here for a little while now. We finally got you coaxed into it. It felt like we had more important stories to tell first.
40:21
Well, thank you, not for just being on here, but for everything you do for us at CBM. And let's keep moving the battle forward. Absolutely. Make it a good year. Thank you, Tim. Thanks.
40:38
Thanks again to Marla for joining us. That was great. Learn something new about her today. And I hope you all enjoyed that conversation. Learn a little bit more about what we do here at CBM. Remember if you need help on a project or looking for representation from a great sales team here in the Midwest, look no further than CBM. You can find us right here at cbmrep.com.
41:04
Take a minute, like, share, subscribe, give us a comment. Let's hear some feedback, what you'd like to see next on the show. Thanks again for joining us on Power of the Network. And until next time, we'll see you next time.
