00:00
Hi, welcome to Power of the Network. I'm your host, Tim Locker, Vice President of Broadband here at CBM. This week, we're taking the opportunity to introduce the new regional manager that we have with Preform Line Products, or PLP, Mr. Eric Lage. We're gonna kind of get into his career path, how he got into the industry, leadership tactics, and what his goals are here with PLP. So follow along, we'll get into it.
00:28
Eric, thank you so much for joining us today. I appreciate you coming into town and being with us and congratulations on your new role at PLP. Thank you. Thanks for having me and excited to be here. Yeah, absolutely. Let's start with your background. ah So I see you went to community college, come out with a two year associate's degree in engineering. Yeah. What was it that kind of drew you? What was it you liked about engineering? What drew you that way? I've always kind of been drawn to
00:58
Like, so it was a civil engineering technology uh degree and like I've always liked math. So like, you know, engineering is very heavy in math, science, stuff like that. So I actually right out of high school did a semester at UNI and I didn't kind of know what I wanted to do at that time, taking electives and nothing really, really interested me at that time. So took a few years off and then went back to community college a little bit later uh in my twenties.
01:27
when I decided like engineering is kind of what I want to go into. Yeah. Okay. So what drew you out of that and into the telecom space? um So out of college, I went to work for a civil engineering firm. um And it was, it was great, but it was, I don't know, it was a lot of travel at that time. And um
01:50
So I'm from Rhinebeck, Iowa, and there was a position opening in my hometown of Rhinebeck where I had lived for my whole life. So I kind of went in and talked to the people there, and it was just a great opportunity to kind of work in my hometown. um But I had no telecom experience at that time. So I went into Rhinebeck as a technician, just totally green. So learning like phone.
02:16
uh linear video, was an HFC plant, so it was fiber and coax, so I went in totally green. it was a learning curve. how long did it take once you kind of started there at Rhinebeck to realize that the telecom or broadband industry was a good fit for you? I liked it right away. I've always liked kind technology and stuff like that. um
02:43
Originally, before I went into engineering, my thought was that I would go into either IT or network engineering um and then decided to go into civil engineering at that time. But it kind of brought me back to the technology part of it that was really interesting to me. um So, in Reinbeck, I started out as a technician and um I was the second employee. before I came in, they only had a general manager who was doing everything. So, I came in as a technician.
03:12
worked there for a few months and then um the general manager who was there, his employment ended at the time and then I kind of became de facto general manager. So I was completely green to the industry, um the technical part of it, running a business, everything, and I was kind of thrown into it. So it was kind of trial by fire, I guess. was sink or swim. I had to learn.
03:36
not only all the technical aspects of it, but like accounting and there's a ton of regulatory stuff that comes into working at a utility, um working in like the public sector, you know, it's a municipal utility. So there's a lot of stuff there. So for a couple of years, it was just pretty much all learning on the go. Yeah. What was one of the biggest challenges you had to tackle there when you were thrown into that fire? Oh boy, there were a lot. um
04:06
So at the time when I came in as general manager, we also got a new board of trustees. We had like a big turnover of board members. So there was a lot of vision coming from the board on how we can kind of like retool the utility. we did, um like we were still offering linear like pots um telephone service. So we revamped all of our phone service and switched over to voiceover IP. There was a ton of stuff on the video side where we had to like revamp our channel lineup.
04:35
and all of the head-end stuff with video, a bunch of HFC plant upgrades, like CMTS upgrades, stuff like that. So there was like a huge transformation on the technical side. And then on kind of the administrative side, there was also a lot of stuff that we did to cut costs, increase revenue. So there was a ton of challenges there. But we turned it around. Another thing we did was we launched fixed wireless service.
05:04
in the rural area surrounding Rhinebeck. So that was a huge success and also a huge undertaking. just learning literally everything on the fly as a green, totally new to the industry person was uh challenging for sure. What was uh your preference? Where would you rather be in that technical uh network side or?
05:29
uh learning all that management and how to run a business side. The technical side, for sure. Running the business was fun and it was like we had a great mentorship from like our board chair in Ryan Beck who was he owned his own business. He was very entrepreneurial. So I had kind of some mentorship there which really helped a lot. I and maybe that like comes out of my engineering background, right? Just kind of I lean towards the technical side of it. Yeah, that makes sense.
05:57
So you put a lot of time in there and then you moved again, went and built another fiber network there. Yeah. So Waterloo, Iowa, which is like 20 minutes up the road from Reinbeck. They actually voted in a municipal utility, municipal broadband utility back in 02. um And as we know, like municipal or broadband or utility projects are capital intensive by their nature. So there's a lot of funding challenges kind of up until COVID. um
06:26
There was some funding opportunities that kind of came out of COVID with ARPA dollars. There was some geo bond funding. So finally in like 2022, 2023, I came on in 23. All that funding stuff kind of fell into place and then the utility moved forward. So I came on in 2023 as like the first employee and the general manager for Waterloo fiber. Okay. I was going to ask that. I wasn't sure the timing, if you were like from day one or a few, if it was started already you got there.
06:55
The board had done a lot of the, like the feasibility study was already done. The RFPs for like the construction was already done. So I actually, I think I got appointed the same night that they approved the contract for outside plant construction. So. Okay. So you didn't actually have much to do with the decisions, you know, in terms of what the network was going to look like. Up until that point. Yeah. Up until that point. Okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. Years ago,
07:25
I was back when I was covering that territory, I was working with the city up there on their, with their traffic department. Oh yeah. And, you know, they really didn't know fiber that well. So, you know, I helped the guy kind of lay it out and, uh you know, actually spec'd, you know, PLP closures at the time. They were actually running future path too, as well for, for all the traffic network. uh The challenge was trying to getting, trying to get all of the groups within the city.
07:56
to like buy into it. So the traffic department puts this future path in and then nobody else would use it. they would still design, the other group would design a fiber plant and it would be totally separate. So they kind of fought the medicine a little bit in those terms. And one thing they did when they did our utility project is the city also in parallel did a smart city.
08:23
fiber project. So they ended up running fiber to like all of the water towers, lift stations, signalized intersections, stuff like that. Yeah. remember that. So uh I don't want to spend too much time, uh you know, delving into Waterloo, but what was one big thing you learned uh with your time there in terms of, you know, laying out a fiber network? um I guess
08:52
What are the key takeaways, I guess? I guess one thing I would, I guess, recommend, like if other communities are looking at a municipal project, is to get, probably put your team together very early on so that the people who are actually operating the network can make some of those decisions. And like I was able to get on in time to do a lot of that, fortunately. Not all of it, like the outside plant, but I think it really helps if the staff or the people who are running the network
09:21
have some ownership in that decision making process. Yeah. Well, if it comes from a board per se, mean, we don't, you know, how much do they really know about a network? Where are they getting their information? So if you've got somebody with some technical knowledge and experience, it definitely helps, uh you know, make it go smoothly. And they used a consultant who was great at engineering everything, but... um
09:49
Yeah, I think if uh your staff can take some ownership in some of that, then it's very beneficial. Yeah. Awesome. Let's move on a little bit, change the subject here. uh Leadership. Yes. ah Talk about some of the lessons that you learned from both those positions, uh from a leadership aspect. I think the biggest thing for me was, I don't like to micromanage.
10:19
I don't want to be the person who is holding back decision making or holding back, how do I want to say it? You don't want to be the funnel. Yes, I don't want to be the bottleneck for sure. So really empowering your team to be able to have some autonomy to make decisions or if they're bringing ideas or something to you, listen to those wholeheartedly and honestly and consider them because your team,
10:48
your technicians, your managers are the ones with boots on the ground who are actually seeing what's going on. But yeah, I've never wanted to be the person who's holding back progress. Well, that's always a challenge. You know, one of my struggles still, and I've said this before, but it is not doing the things that, you know, the team should be doing. Yes. ah It's, I'm trying to learn to, you know, maybe I've got to show you one time, but like,
11:16
You gotta let them do it because otherwise you grab everything and hold on to it. And nobody's doing anything unless it goes through you. So that's Yeah, that's the to let it go. Yeah. um So what do you do if you have somebody that's, you you've given the reins and you've empowered people to make decisions and do those things. But what do do if you've got somebody that's maybe still not confident in
11:46
making a decision, how would you coach somebody that struggles with that? Everybody's different, everybody behaves different. Some people are super confident, maybe overconfident, other people have their doubts, but you've given somebody the range to do what they need to do, but they still have their doubts or don't do it. How do we get those people over the hump?
12:14
How do you build confidence in somebody, I guess? Yeah, I think one thing that I've tried to always do is if somebody has a win, really celebrate it. If they have a good idea or if they did something and it was very successful, make them feel like that was a big win. Whatever that is, we've had a lot of wins and a lot of, I don't know, I don't want to say failures, but things that didn't pan out the way we wanted to.
12:44
um you know, giving honest feedback on like kind of where things went wrong or maybe like what uh needs to be improved is important. But then I think it gets overlooked. Like if somebody has a big success, like that needs to be really acknowledged and really celebrated. Yeah. Yeah. How do you keep people accountable, but still be, you know, compassionate? Yeah, that's a good question. Like, like I said, I don't like to micromanage.
13:12
And I like to give people autonomy, like with that autonomy also comes accountability. Like if you're responsible for making the decisions, you're also responsible for the outcome. So, you know, I think everybody's allowed to like make mistakes. all human. like just giving honest feedback and the way you deliver the feedback, you know, it doesn't have to be a bad conversation. It's like, Hey, what, like, what do we need to improve? Give your, I don't know, just give your honest feedback.
13:41
in positive way. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so when you think about the skills that matter most in leadership, what would be the number one skill that sticks out to you? I think being, not only being empathetic and compassionate, but also trying to lead as a servant to your employees or to whoever is reporting to you. I'm trying to not...
14:09
bottleneck progress. And so I'm trying to basically like support everybody else in their decision making. Like if you have different departments, different elements of the business, like I don't want to be the person making decisions in all of those things. You know what I mean? Like getting at the minutia of it. So just being like supportive and like, I guess like servant leadership. Yeah. Awesome. How do you, how do you maintain your calendar? How do you prioritize from things like you feel you need to do as part of your job, but also
14:38
uh support those people on your team? There's, I had somebody show me, I can't remember what you call it, but it's like, it's like a quadrant of like, important, not important, and then there's uh important, not important, and then there's urgent and not urgent. I might be messing that up. That sounds right. I can't remember what you, it's like a Truman, maybe quadrant, I don't know.
15:01
But basically, prioritize Give it a rating, maybe one to five or one to ten on each. like things that are important and urgent need to happen right now. Things are important but not urgent, you can do later. If something's not important and not urgent, you don't need to do it. So that's kind of how I like internally kind of like prioritize like what I need to do now, what do I not need to do. Yeah. How often do you think people make that mistake of doing the not important and not urgent?
15:29
And still all the time, you know, and like early in my career I did for sure. Like, and that's how you get into working like 80 hours a week and like not seeing much progress. You know what mean? So, um, like as a leader, you need to decide like what, like, what do I need to do and what do I not need to do as a leader? Like your time as a leader is valuable. um, um like shedding the fat and not the fat shedding the excess, the excess. There we go. Um,
15:58
I think is important for your own sanity and for just your own time. Like there's only so many hours in a week that you have to do stuff.
16:09
CBM is a manufacturer's rep based right here in Kansas City. We've got territory where we cover from Iowa all the way down to Texas. We cover specifically three different market segments, uh utility, commercial industrial, and broadband communications. CBM is structured differently. We're an employee-owned company. We're ran as an ESOP. That allows us to do business differently. We can cross lines of markets. We can put our people where they need to be.
16:38
and really have expertise in the right place. That's what makes a difference uh for our customers and for our manufacturers. If you think we can help you uh with the product line in the Midwest, look no further than CBM. Find us right here at cbmrep.com.
16:59
Well, one thing I've kind of battled with lately is like, you you don't want to be the bottleneck, like you said. Um, and I, you know, I'm very much trying to let go of so many different things and, and allow people to do what they need to do. But on the flip side of it, it almost makes me feel selfish. Like, you know, you need to go and do what you need to do so I can do these other things, but that doesn't mean.
17:26
that don't want to help you. It's just like more of an efficiency aspect than of what I want to do. I want everybody to be able to do what they should be able to do. So I know, I kind of struggle with that balance in my head of what's the right answer. Yeah, I do too. And I think people in general crave a little bit of um freedom and stuff like that. So I don't know.
17:55
Yeah, I struggle with that too all the time. I uh don't want to seem like I'm not being supportive, but also I have my own priorities. So, I try to stay accessible if somebody really needs something, but em also, yeah, you need to do what's important first. So let's transition again here a little bit. Let's get to the meat of it here. So what was it about PLP that was interesting to you? What kind of caught your attention there? So like I said before, I'm
18:25
kind of attracted to the engineering and outside plant uh part of the business. So I was really looking at positions that kind of fulfilled all of the things that really motivate me or really kind of energize me. So it was like outside plant, uh engineering, sales. so- Have you done much sales in the past? Was there any sales involved with- So in Rheinbeck- positions? um
18:53
to a certain extent, but it was sales like selling telecom services to businesses, stuff like that. So there's a little bit of sales, not like at PLP where you're selling equipment to end users or anything like that. the elements are kind of the same. And we had spec'd out PLP in Rainbeck, so all of our fiber infrastructure in Rainbeck, used PLP. So I was familiar with kind of the Coyote line, uh
19:22
When I saw the opening for a territory manager in my area, I had to go for it. So, yeah. What was that process like? Was it arduous or, you know, how many interviews did you have It wasn't bad. I had a couple of interviews um with some of the management team at PLP, but it was, yeah, it wasn't bad at all. I think it's probably pretty easy when you're the right
19:47
guy for the job. guess so. Yeah. That's my take on it. So let's talk about sales. What are your thoughts on sales? You know, what do you think, what do you believe makes someone successful, you know, in the, in the broadband industry? I think, I think for sure, like integrity and trust, like, so I've been in manage, like managing a utility for 12 years and you have to realize that like I would get
20:15
I don't know how many sales calls per day. And it becomes white noise. um And there's definitely good salespeople, bad salespeople. And I think you can't underestimate people's intuition to someone they can trust versus someone they can't trust. If somebody's calling you and you can just kind of tell that they're just there to sell their product no matter what, whether they believe in it or not. I wanted to sell something that
20:42
I knew was a good product that I knew I could believe in, that I could be proud to sell. um And you can, like, I could tell that with the salespeople who I would meet with. So I think- That's a great uh perspective and I want to expand on that a little bit. So from that side, if you're managing a network, you're in that seat, what is it that you wish the salespeople knew or-
21:12
did or what is it that they're missing? Ooh, that's a good question. I think most salespeople are, they're knowledgeable on the product, like the technical aspects of their product. They're not as knowledgeable on like how it fits into your operation, if that makes sense. So like if I have somebody who's coming in and trying to sell me fiber, like SFPs, just something random. um
21:39
a lot of people will come in and not have knowledge of our business and like what we actually need ahead of time. So they're trying to sell me something that I have no use for whatsoever. And that's like at that point it becomes a waste of time. I hate to say it, but like on both sides, like that person's wasting my time. They're also wasting their own time trying to sell me something that I don't need. you know, like I always try to like very nicely say like, sorry, we don't really need that. But I think just knowledge of like,
22:08
the homework of like, what does this business need right now? Yeah. So as a sales guy and a brand new company that maybe I've not met with and I'm going to come try to sell you something, how do I know what you need without talking and asking questions? Yeah. What are some things I can do ahead of time to at least be closer when...
22:37
when and if we meet. And then the other question is, what's the best way to get your attention as a cold caller, a new customer? How do I get past the sniff test and actually in front of you? So like for me, it was probably much different for me than other utilities or other providers because we a public entity. So like all of our stuff was public knowledge. I could go read our meeting minutes, our RFPs, all of that stuff.
23:06
It's probably much harder for um a private company, end user, to know what they need. As far as getting past the... Did you have a gatekeeper? I did, yeah. So if somebody dropped in in person, I would always try to see them. They made the trip there. So would say that's probably going to be much more successful than calling on the phone or sending an email. Sending an email is too easy. It's too easy to ignore that.
23:34
um And calling in, it's too easy for your receptionist to forward it to your voicemail. oh I mean, like in-person drop-ins, like I would always take them 100 % of the time. And come with cookies or donuts. know, a lot of people, you know, don't like that interruption of a drop-in, you know, but sometimes that's the only way to get through. Yeah. You know, so one of our guys uh was David Edwards. We always say the 13th time's the charm.
24:04
because he was that deliberate that many times when he stopped in and finally the guy's like, okay, crime and he'll go up, we'll chat, you know. It's hard to turn somebody away when they show up in person and you're taking a gamble too, like the person you need to talk to might not be there that day unless you've scheduled it. um Sometimes it works out. remember a day we were uh over in Lincoln, Nebraska and I was traveling with the Duraline rep and we happened to drive by the
24:34
uh State DOT office. So we just walked in and there's a security guard at the desk. We talked to him and said, we're just trying to talk to somebody about uh fiber and duct. And 20 minutes later, we're in the director's office. It just worked out. And he gives us all the names of all the people and all the stations where we need to meet everybody. was, sometimes it just works. But there's other times that you can't get past the front desk.
25:03
It's always a struggle. It's labor intensive. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. So what is your tactic moving forward now on the other side, sitting in the other chair, trying to, em you know, trying to get in to see these people. What's your, what's your strategy, if you will, for making these cold calls? think leveraging whatever contacts I have, but also, you know, I can kind of use my own knowledge of like operations to kind of figure out who do I need to talk to? you know, who's the
25:31
who's the gatekeeper, so to speak, get past, how do I get past that to who I need to speak to? So. Yeah. Well, you do have, uh you probably a leg up in terms of, you know, most people, like you said, they understand the product, uh but knowing where it fits in the network is a gift that most people don't have. ah You know, for me, I was a fiber splicer, so I know the ins and outs of
25:58
of that side of the business very well and it helps me, especially selling PLP. But yeah, if you don't know where the SFP fits, it's pretty tough to sell, Yeah. moving into sales, you're responsible for your territory as well, uh but now you're working with a rep firm, with us. Talk about that structure and the dynamics, leadership. uh
26:29
in that direction versus a direct employee to dealing with us ornery reps. Talk about the strategy moving forward and how to handle that. And that's one thing, like coming into the manufacturer side is like those dynamics are still something I need to learn a little bit more about. And I've been with PLP for a little bit, so I'm kind of starting to understand that.
26:56
like the dynamics with like the rep firms, the distributors, the end users, uh is a whole other world that like coming from the other side, I never even thought about, know, how the rep firms, manufacturers, distributors all kind of work together. So I'm lucky that I have CBM for my entire territory. So I kind of have one place to go. you know, I've always known that CBM has been a great rep firm um and a very productive rep firm. So. um
27:25
you know, I'm hoping to, you know, really do a lot of ride-alongs with like the, the CBM reps who are in my territory. And, um, I think I can probably learn a lot from them. No, for sure. Yeah. I mean, that's the one thing we, we offer as a rep firm is obviously the relationships. Um, you know, we've got some great folks out there in the field. Um, it's really good for us. Um, you know, we've been without a regional manager for a while. We're, you know, we're
27:54
Been with PLP so long, we're pretty self-proficient. know what's going on, but it is nice to have that layer of chain of command, if you will, back in place. it's good for us. um We've got a new sales guy up in your neck of the woods in Iowa and Nebraska, so it's good. uh It's really good for him that he's in close proximity so you guys will get to work together a lot more. So that's all great for us. uh
28:21
What's your priority, I guess, as a manager now? Managing your territory, managing your reps, what's your priorities, what's your goals? I think my first priority is that I just need to go out and meet clients in my territory. I've done a little bit of that in trade shows and stuff so far, but going out and actually meeting with customers and learning the territory. So that's probably my number one top priority.
28:48
You feel pretty confident with the products already? I do, For the most part. the most part, yeah. Yeah, you seem pretty technical and you strike me as the kind of person that's going to dive in and learn it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that'll be an issue, And I'm always learning, like, you know, we were at Fiber Connect a couple, two, three weeks ago and like people were asking questions that I still like, oh, I never thought of that. Like, you know, like there's still a lot of things that.
29:16
Like I've had my use case for what we've used an outside plant, like in my specific instance, but there's like so many different ways that people are deploying that equipment that there's like stuff I've never thought of. So. Yeah. That's, that's one thing that's, that's interesting about this industry is like, I mean, there's a hundred ways to do it. Yeah. You know, yeah, you have to keep an open mind, um, and ask questions, know, that's, uh, probably the biggest advice I would have is, you know, you
29:45
newer into sales is just ask the questions. You know, can't piece together a solution if you're not asking the right questions. And sometimes you gotta ask tough questions, but uh you know, was reading a new book, I'm not all the way through it, but it was talking about, you know, your first call, uh changing it from a discovery meeting to a consultation.
30:14
And I like the thought process behind that. It's still kind of a discovery meeting, but put yourself back in that uh manager seat. Do you appreciate if somebody comes in and they're just uh like, I'd like to come in because I'd like to understand your network. And so I'm just going to sit here and ask you a million questions. That's all about me.
30:40
it doesn't really do anything to you. So you've got to kind of spin that to where there's value. Consultive selling. Yeah. I would hate it when somebody would just come in and attack me with questions that did nothing for me. And that sounds kind of selfish. It's It's one sided. So in your mind then, how would you ask questions and dig that information out of somebody ah where they do appreciate it, where they feel like it's
31:10
going to benefit them. Like if you're framing those questions in a way of like, let me learn about your network or your operations so that I can help you. Like that's a different conversation rather than just like, what do you use here? What do you do there? What do you do here? Like, you know, I'm just giving information about my network at that point. But if like, hey, if you can tell me about this part of your network, then maybe I can help you do this better.
31:37
That's a different conversation that benefits both of us. Yeah. So that's an interesting perspective that I've tried to keep in mind here recently. Time is so valuable, whether it's yours or whether it's your customers, you've got to make it a mutual agreement. It's got to be good for both sides of the coin. What are your goals? What do you want to get done in the first year?
32:06
Like I said, meeting everybody in my territory, but there's also like bead, which is a big thing. there's a lot of money coming down the line and there's a lot of projects coming down the line and trying to manage all of the non-bead projects, but then all of this bead funding coming down. So I think that's going to be- I you're a little early.
32:32
you know, into your days with PLP, but I think you've got a pretty good understanding already, but you know, how is that bead going to impact the company? Oh boy, that's... I feel like we're doing a pretty good job of staying abreast on it and, you know, identifying the targets. course, everybody knows the targets, so the same thing. ah You've got every salesperson out there's got the list of people that are, you know, the targets. So those...
33:02
Those poor managers are just getting bombarded. But you've still got to offer the solution. So you've to kind of go with the flow and join the crowd, if you will. Yeah. And I think PLP is very well positioned in that everything is public compliant. And it has been, even before Bead came out. So yeah.
33:28
Well, you know, I think you've you've you know, we've worked for for PLP for over 60 years You know, obviously our longest lasting relationship And we just adore our relationship with PLP and I think you've joined a great great organization We're excited to have you on board. You know, we're here to help you we work for you And we want to see you succeed if you succeed we succeed so that's how I see it. Yeah. Yeah, so we look forward to
33:58
growing that relationship with you and continuing to push PLB. Yeah, likewise, very much. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Awesome.
34:10
Just wanted to say thanks again for Eric for joining us today on the show. It's great to get to know him a little bit better. It was fun to kind of learn his perspective from sitting in the other chair, you know, having salespeople call on him to, you know, now being that guy that's out making those sales visits. So uh hope everybody, you know, out in our territory gets an opportunity to meet Eric. Great dude. We're happy to have him on board with PLB and look forward to uh building that relationship with him. So uh thanks again, Eric.
34:39
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