00:00
Hi, welcome to Power of the Network. I'm your host, Tim Locker, Vice President of Broadband here at CBM. You know, I've always said, you one of my biggest pleasures of doing this podcast is getting to meet new people, some of the folks that we work with, and today's no exception. So we've got Mr. Matt Webster, uh Vice President, Utility Channel Sales for Acuity Brands. ah It's a great opportunity for him to come in and me to get to know him a little bit better on a personal level.
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I hope you guys enjoy this conversation. Let's get right into it with Matt.
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Matt, thank you so much for joining us. It's great to have you in. We appreciate you flying in for this. Glad to be here, Tim. Thanks for the invitation. Yeah, no, it's awesome. So Acuity encompasses so many different brands and does so many different things. What is your area of responsibility? What's your little piece of the pie? Yeah, our little piece of the pie is we call on utilities directly, all different types of utilities from the investor-owned utilities to the municipalities.
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and the cooperatives. So there's a wide variety of sizes and the number of different sockets that those utilities potentially own and manage can be a wide range. So that's our little niche. And we sell a wide variety of different products into those utilities that we serve. Okay. And I noticed one of the slogans for Acuity, it's uh innovative light and empowering spaces. What does that mean to you?
01:34
Well, when you look at Acuity, innovation is critical to us. That's how we differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. We're not just lighting the space, but we're putting technology in that space, really. We want to control the environment. And we want to have sensors in the environment, too. But it's good to have sensors in the space that do different things. If you're looking at outdoor lighting, we can uh look at pedestrian counts using sensors, potentially on the streets that
02:03
that we're lighting. We can do bicycle counts and we use all different types of technology to do that. So we use a Zaga port. If you look at our roadway fixtures, there's a Zaga port on the bottom of the fixture and there's all different manufacturers. It's kind of like your Apple phone. So if you have an Apple phone, you can put an app on your phone. On a light fixture, you can put an application on a light fixture as well. So it's similar to your Apple phone from that perspective.
02:33
What is that information uh transported on? Is that fiber or is it Wi-Fi or Bluetooth? How does that work? uh It is done through a cellular backhaul, typically. If you look at our partners that manufacture the sensors that go on our fixtures, they collect the data at the source. So they're collecting it at the fixture, and then we use a cellular backhaul to get it into the cloud. And that's where that data is stored.
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And you can use that data for a wide variety of purposes. Okay. Is that then considered your Auto Connect? Or is that different? Auto Connect is a type of housing, right? But you can add um embedded devices to an Auto Connect fixture. You can add a Zaga port to an Auto Connect fixture. So some of the embedded devices we partner with Ubiquia.
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um and Ubiquia will do the stuff that is the asset management piece. So monitoring the fixture, dimming the fixture, that's Ubiquia. And then we also have the Zaga port, and there's a wide variety of manufacturers that put sensors in that port. So it's a standard port um that you would utilize to be able to do all different types of applications. You can do gunshot detection.
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You can do parking applications. You can do pedestrian counts, bicycle counts. There's all different types of applications. Environmental sensing, is there a fire that's in place? Are you trying to have an egress for evacuation in the case there's a hurricane or some type of weather that would cause for So all kind of different services that either a utility or a municipal or even a private company would?
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would be able to utilize. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. There's so much just in lights. it's amazing. You think that we're just lighting a space, but you look at Acuity, I mean, they're a $5 billion company and it's not just about lighting. It's about intelligent spaces too. What are we doing with that space that we're lighting? The light fixture itself is just the envelope that holds the sensors that we utilize in our spaces. And the indoor...
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uh piece is something that's not even in my realm of expertise. I'm an outdoor lighting specialist. The indoor space is a whole other animal. So we have a whole separate division that covers the indoor space. Okay. I would think though, you know, just the common public probably wouldn't have any idea that there's so much going on just in a street light. Yeah. I mean, you look at what was going on uh out in Arizona, in Tucson with uh
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with Nancy Guthrie and when she got, they had the ring cameras all on the front door space. Well, they also went to the streetlights to see if there was any video footage that was taken from the streetlights. And you don't realize it, but there's sensors in those streetlights that are looking over the streets that they serve. So. You're pretty much on camera everywhere you go now. Pretty much. If you're in a public space, there's a good chance somebody's videotaping what you're doing. Yeah.
05:52
That's incredible. So a couple of buzzwords in the industry that we definitely want to touch on. the first one, what would the role of AI be ah for Acuity? AI is starting to become a lot more prevalent at Acuity. There's a lot of different providers. We use AI in our daily work. So when we're on Microsoft, when we're on Teams, we're on Outlook, we always have Co-Pilot on there.
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that assists us with what we do. And it's a part of our day-to-day work. Now, what we're going to do with AI in the space, I don't know. I'm not privy to where we're going directionally on that, but it is a part of our daily life, similar to what chat GPT, you a lot of folks are using chat GPT. And it really streamlines our work and what we do today. I mean, the capabilities are endless when it comes to AI. Obviously, it sounds like a bunch
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as much technology as you have in all the products, that's going to have to play a role somewhere. I would think so too. There is definitely a roadmap for AI. I just don't know what it is. I think um AI is going to be more of a managerial tool. There's companies out there that are building platforms that you can put customer service on. So inside sales support, cross-reference guides, um order entry, order management.
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That's all going to be at some point in time handled by AI within the framework of our industry. No question about it. it should speed up the process for sure. Yeah. I mean, how we work today and how we work five years from now is going to be extremely different. Is that going to be a challenge for, I know for me, I call myself an old guy, but is that going to be a challenge to accept that new way of doing things? Or are you open to...
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Well, I'm open to it. I would say I'm a slow adopter. But I'm a reluctant adopter. But if you don't come on board with technology, you're going to become a dinosaur. You're going to become obsolete pretty quick. um It's a new way of working. And if you don't adapt to the technology, you're going to be looking for something else to do. I got suckered into a deal on Instagram or something, one of the ads.
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you know, but it was learning, learn about AI. And so was this, I think it was, the app was called Cursive maybe. And uh so it's basically like a study course on all these different AI programs. And it's been okay, but it's kind of like a slideshow of walking through what each one will do. You know, maybe this app will help you make videos or this app will help you make a website. ah But for me, it was a little...
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I would rather see it a little more hands-on, like, okay, get the app and then actually try to do something with it rather than be like just a PowerPoint kind of thing. oh But you don't want to go buy all these different apps either if you don't have a purpose for it. So, I kind of uh took a stab at it trying to learn a little bit about something, but I kind of fell a little bit short of what I expected. It's funny. I'll be on a Teams call or Microsoft Teams call, and we'll have 20 people on there.
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people will be out in the field doing their job. They're out selling. Instead of being on a team's call, they have their AI assistant sit in on the call. And it's taking notes for them while they're out in the field. So they're multitasking. They're using that technology so they can go do something to drive value for the company that they work I can understand taking notes with it, but it'd be pretty hard to have input.
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If, you know, depending on the type of meeting, if I needed to put input, that'd be a challenge. your input's not there, but it can capture what was going on, so you can capture at least the information while you're not present. Yeah. That's a good point. So, we had Sean on the show early on. You know, we've been doing this a couple of years. He was, you probably within the first 10 episodes or so, if I remember right.
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So a couple years back, the big move was transition all lighting over to LED. Is that still a focus or where are we at in that progression? Yeah, mean, it's absolutely still a focus. I mean, there's still a really, really good payback to converting HID lighting to LED. Where we are in the utility space, I would say we're probably 60 % converted. There's still 40 % of the sockets that we have out there.
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in the utility space that have yet to be converted to LED. And the challenge that those utilities have is HID lamps are no longer being manufactured. So as those lamps fail, they have to adopt to the new technology. And if you look at some of the early adopters, like somebody like a Seattle City Light that's out on the West Coast.
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They were an early adopter of LED technology. So they installed their LEDs somewhere around 2013, 2014, and the technology has improved drastically from that time when they started the installation process to where we are now. So you see those early adopters and it was coastal. It started on the coast. It started on the East Coast and the West Coast. That's where the early adoption started.
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Those opportunities are coming back around in the utility space and they're going to do an LED to LED type of retrofit. And there's still a payback to that too if you look at the early LEDs. They're not nearly as efficient as the new ones that we have in place currently. Well, it's interesting too because typically what I've seen in the utility space is, know, utilities are, you know, they want to be the first to convert as long as it's been proven for 20 years. Right.
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Are we seeing some of that there? I would say the utilities are some of the hardest. It's like turning the Titanic around. They're slower to adopt to new technology. I would say some of the early adopters uh would be like the city of Chicago was an early adopter. The city of Seattle was an early adopter. The utilities are a little bit slower to adopt, I would say. They want a proven.
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They want to prove and track record. want to get a return on their investment. uh It's a regulated industry. So you got to be extremely careful from that perspective. They're risk adverse is what I would say. OK. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your background. What's your story? How did you get where you're at today? Well, I mean, I have a love of sport.
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um I truly enjoy sports. I'm an extremely competitive person. I went to Indiana University and studied uh sport marketing and marketing and business at Indiana University. And I absolutely love college basketball. So born in the breadbasket, played high school basketball, played every sport I possibly could when I was growing up.
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And I thought I was going to go into the sporting industry, but it just, it wasn't in the cards. So I got into the lighting industry really early in my career. I started out working for an Esco and that's how I got a background. And Esco is an energy service company. So I started working for them and that's how I got interested in lighting. And when I was putting together the jobs for the energy service company, lighting was what interests me.
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It captivated me and I enjoyed it. So I kind of migrated towards the lighting space. And in my career, I've moved around to multiple cities. I've lived in Colorado. They took me to Tampa. I went up to Atlanta, back to Colorado and then to Nashville. And now I'm back in my homeland, back in the state I was born and raised in. But the lighting industry is a great place. I love it. And the people that you meet are fantastic in the lighting industry.
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specifically in the utility space. Because when you go into a utility, there's people there, the tenure of the people that you work with, they've been there for a long time. And they have great experience and you have the ability to build a relationship with those folks. And it's like you're doing business with your friends. Absolutely. And it makes a difference. From a sales perspective, I love the ability to be able to...
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establish long-term relationships. And I don't like the quick hitter where you go and sell something and then you move out and you move on to the next job. I like the ability to be able to establish a long-term relationship with the people that you work with. And I've met some of my best friends who are in the lighting industry and I love it. And I'll even go far to say is the agents that we work with are amazing people, extremely capable people.
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And we have, I would say Acuity has the best agents in the country when it comes to calling on the utilities space. we work with some very educated, very good people. So it's a blessing to work in the industry that I work in. I would agree. You you see a lot of people, you know, and I kind of grew up in the telecom industry, but very similar in, you know, it's a small group of people. It's a small...
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tight-knit industry, everybody's quite wonderful, frankly. uh But there's a difference. I see people that want to kind of get ahead and work here a couple years and jump to the next one and work here a couple years and jump to the next one. uh I've just celebrated my 18th anniversary here at CBM. And uh I think that longevity and that consistency, uh I can see it now. I didn't see it back then, but now having that,
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truly an advantage long-term down the road. And like you said, your customers end up being your friends. We've got one of our regional managers we work for, for Light Terra, Mike Lamb. I believe he's, if I get this right, but I believe he's 77, still working, loves it. All of his customers are his friends and why would he stop? But that's, yeah, that's...
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Truly the way it feels. I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, when I get up every day, I'm excited. I'm invigorated to get up every day and go to work. uh It's fun to, I love the products that we represent. I feel strongly that we manufacture a really good quality product and I love the people that I work with, both internally at Acuity, the agents that we work with and the customers that we serve. So you got to have a servant heart uh when it's that way.
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And the way you differentiate yourself is to take care of the customer. If they have a need, you do what you need to do to try to fill that need and solve problems for them. So I look at us as our sales force as, you know, they're problem solvers when they're out working with our customers. I was in a uh distributor office here just last week and they had a sign on the wall, uh top three rules. Number one, take care of the customer.
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Number two, take care of the customer, and number three, take care of the customer. I said, I love that sign, because that's really what it's all about. You have to be customer-centric. And the one thing that I love about Acuity is the way we go to market is we have an agency network that's extremely capable, but we also have a direct sales force that's out there. They're employees of the Acuity Brands Lighting Company.
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They represent us and they're out in the marketplace. So we outnumber our competition with feet on the street. And when everything's working smoothly, the agents work really, really well with our direct sellers in the marketplace. We surround the customer and make sure we're taking care of all their needs with all the technical expertise that we bring to the table. So that's how Acuity differentiates themselves in the marketplace. What does your team look like from the
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direct folks to the reps, et cetera. What does that team look like? Okay, yeah, as far as direct reports, I have five direct reports that report to me, and we cover the continental United States, we cover North America. um We have, they're called regional utility sales managers, and I have four of those individuals that are geographically located throughout the United States.
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and they'll break down the United States and quadrants and call on the key utilities in those trade areas. And they manage the agents that go to market for us. And then I have one strategic account director that calls on five of the top IOUs in the country. When I say IOU, that's an investor-owned utility. So that individual calls on our key customers, some of our larger brands that we service. Which the top five, that's...
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That's a lot to manage. That's a lot to manage. It's a big number. in our territory and I know they're... It's a big number to manage. Yeah. It really is. It's a good size number and we have a very capable individual that calls on those top five IOUs in the country. um
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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.
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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.
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And I know you mentioned the rep network or the agents, you know, and obviously we're one of them and we appreciate this relationship. But what would you, what advice would you give to reps? ah What would be one of your biggest pain points? And then what advice would you give to those agents? You got to make sure you're with the right agent in the geography. Acuity is, uh their goal is to be with the number one agent in every trade area. If you're not number one or you're not number two in the trade area,
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We're with the wrong partner. So when you're the thousand pound gorilla out in the marketplace, you expect the best and we expect the best of the folks that represent us. We want to make sure that when we go to work with you guys, you put your best foot forward and you represent Acuity the way we expect you to represent Acuity. And when you look at the line card, capturing mind share is critical for us to be successful. We want to be
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the top brand on your line card. We want to capture your mind share. So when you're out there selling, you're thinking about Acuity Brands lighting. And it's important to us that we capture that mind share that you guys. Yeah, no, for sure. And one of the things, I guess, to answer my own question, think uh from my position, I think communication is everything. When I look at maybe
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failures of ours in the past, it's usually been a communication issue, you know, perception is really everything. You know, if we're, we might be out there busting our tail off working, but if we're not letting you know what we're doing, your perception might be, geez, these guys aren't doing anything, right? So, I think that communication is key. Yeah, I mean, we have a great process that we have in place. We put together a strategic
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plan at the beginning of every fiscal year, we come in and we sit down with our agencies and we put together a roadmap on how we're going to attack the customers that are in your trade area. you know, we're paid as salespeople at Acuity Brands Lighting to grow sales. And if we're not growing sales, we're not doing our job. So we have to grow sales and that's how we're judged.
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You know, there's only one way to grow sales in the utility space. It's a defined marketplace. It's not an expanding marketplace. It's defined. So for us to grow, there's only several ways to do that. You have to gain new customers, so customers you're not currently serving. Or you have to expand your footprint inside the existing customers that you service. For example, we have a lot of different products that we represent. We do decorative post-tops.
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We do the Holophane brand, we do floods, we do controls. You may have all the roadway fixtures inside a utility, but you don't have the floods or you don't have the security lights. So our goal is to constantly get with the standards engineering group and making sure we're on standards and try to pick up share wherever we can inside existing customers and picking up new logos. We call that selling the package.
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You know, you can't just be, you can't have the blinders on to this one thing. This one thing's good and it's a good win, but you got a bunch of other things in your pocket that you got to sell to. Absolutely. We got a brand new product that we just rolled out that we're really excited about. And I think our utilities across the country are going to be really excited about it. It's Holabin. It's a sports lighting product. And it's going to go to serve
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all the different sizes of stadiums across the country or park and rec. So your municipal owned baseball field, this hollow beam product is state of the art and it's extremely competitive both from a design standpoint and from its capabilities. So we're excited about that product that just launched. awesome. So I'm from Iowa and up there we've got Musco Lighting. Would that be a...
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a of yours or a competitor of Musco would be a direct competitor of what we do. And the way Musco goes to market is a little bit different than how we go to market. And the types of customer that Musco services would be different. oh It seems like they do a lot of the sports related stuff. Yeah, they do more high-end stuff, I would say. I would say we're looking for the municipal-owned utility, park and rec, the local
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ball field that's down the street that you need a simple lighting for or a high school football field, that's a really, really good application for Hollaby. And that's the applications that we're looking for. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. How would you describe your leadership style? I feel like I'm an inclusive leader. uh I feel like I'm a servant leader where my job is to knock down barriers for the people that I work with. ah
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You know, I try to be as positive as I possibly can be. I feel like coming to work every day, you have to have a positive frame of mind to get the most out of your employees. They want, they need to want to work for you. They need to want to get up every day and be motivated. um That's my leadership style. And I try to serve them. If they have a problem, I try to help resolve the problem um and then try to break down barriers for them and just
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try to make their job a little bit easier. One of the challenges that I'm having is, and I'm aware of it, but trying to not be a roadblock or a funnel. know, trying to remove, you know, if somebody sends something and they need a quote out right away and they send it to me and I'm out traveling with one of the guys or whatever, it's like, you might wait a day or two for me to get to that. So I'm trying to figure out processes where I can.
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you know, alleviate the slowdowns. don't want to be what they're waiting, you know, waiting on. So that's one thing I've been trying to work on. Yeah. I mean, at Acuity Brands Lighting, we have an exceptional inside sales team. We really do. We've got great people that are there that have been there for a lot of years, and ah they drive our numbers, and they are exceptional support for our outside sellers, the people that are out.
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face-to-face with the customer. Without them, we're not successful. And they do all the little things internally that make the outside sellers successful. So having great support on the inside is the key to being successful on the outside. And at Acuity Brands Lighting, we have phenomenal people doing that job for us on the inside. And customer service is another piece. We call them our CX team. So we have great support from the
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people that are serving the customer. know, they're tracking orders, they're working with the factory to expedite stuff, they're monitoring shipments, working with the shippers to make sure everything's shipped on time and palletized the way it's supposed to be. So uh customer support is really, really critical to being successful. So all those different matrix partners that help us. Yeah, that's awesome.
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Who's had the biggest impact on you as a mentor? I would say my grandpa on my mom's side was a big influence in my life. He was a larger than life personality. uh He was a phenomenal, he grew up in education uh and he was a teacher, became a principal, and then was elected the mayor of Kokomo, Indiana. So he was a politician.
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But some of the stories that he told me and some of the guidance that he gave me, uh he would probably be one of the people that I would uh probably classify as somebody that influenced my behavior and made me want to be a better person and made me want to be successful. So he spent a lot of time with me when I was a kid. um And he was a great person to emulate. So probably my grandfather on my mother's side. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, he helped desegregate.
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Kokomo, Indiana. So he grew up, he was the mayor of Kokomo from 1958 to 1961. He was the mayor of Kokomo, Indiana. And during that time, there was a lot of political unrest and he helped desegregate some of the municipal facilities in Kokomo, Indiana. And he took a lot of political whiplash when he did that. But I feel like he was kind of a pioneer in that aspect.
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He had bricks thrown through his window and it was a time of unrest, but he stood for what he believed in. And from that point, I respected what he did as a politician. That's awesome. What did you like to do when you were a kid? Sports? Sports. Everything I did was sports. I loved, I played little league baseball.
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grew up on a lake, so water skiing, water sports was something that I absolutely enjoyed. Played tennis in high school. I played tennis, basketball, and baseball both all on the varsity level when I was in high school and loved every minute of it. I loved the competition and I thrive on it. I still love physical activity to this day. You still play tennis?
30:14
I play a little tennis. I play a little pickleball now too. I picked up pickleball. I haven't tried that one yet, but. It is a fun. It's a fast-paced game. And it's great for people my age too. My daughter takes tennis lessons. usually while we're there, there's always pickleball tournaments going on. So I sit there and watch them. It looks like fun, but.
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Yeah, I have played a lot of tennis growing up, but as I've aged and I've slowed down a little bit, I've switched over to pickleball. I play more pickleball than I do tennis now. We didn't have a tennis team when I was in school. ah Late, I don't know, I might have been a junior. ah One of my buddies was really good at it and I started playing with him and I've kind of played it ever since on and off. But now that my daughter's taking an interest in it, it's been fun.
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She's getting to where she might could beat me. Really? I got to step it up. Uh-oh. I might be taking the lessons here soon. Yeah, I remember my dad was a tennis instructor growing up and he had a sporting goods store and a tennis shop. And he would take me to play tennis and he was always my barometer to how I was doing. So, I remember the day I beat him for the first time and it was very, it was...
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celebratory, but then when I further reflected on it, it was also a changing of the guard too. You reflect on that type of uh monumental achievement and then you see, and then your kids are going through it now. Now my kids are coming up and they play sports and activities and I'm competitive with them, the guard has changed from that perspective too. So my kids are kicking my butt now.
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One of my friends, he and his dad would play with me and my dad. Kent Thompson was his name. He would just play the ball, just hit it in the middle. His theory was let the other guy mess up. And he would just do that because of just consistency. So now with my daughter, she's trying to be a hero. I'm like, don't be a hero.
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Kent Thompson, Kent Thompson, you know. And just a reminder to just let them make the mistake. them make a mistake. Boy, it's so fun when you can just rip one into the corner and burn them, you know. you know, nine out of 10 times you miss the shot, you know, instead of make it. It's funny you say that because I feel like sports is similar to how you approach the business world, too. I think people that are consistent in the business world and are there on a regular basis, they're the ones, I mean,
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You can't go for the big swing every time. You just got to be consistent. Hit singles and just be there, be present. ah And I feel like that philosophy works in the business world too. Yeah. I would totally agree with that. My philosophy though sometimes too, like ah I may not be better, but I'll definitely out hustle you. Yeah. That's one, I will go to the mat swinging and I will out hustle.
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I might not win, but I'm going to out-hustle. You know, I'll take the guy that puts forth the effort. Not necessarily the most talented individual, but gets up and does their job and does it well on a regular basis. That person I'll take all day long on a team and uh makes our team better. Not necessarily the most talented person, but the one that's more uh persistent.
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I guess. Yeah. Yeah. So we have, last time, Sean was on the show and there's been a little touchy subject. I'm going to bring this up. Okay. So, years ago, we had a lot of blue lights, blue street lights. And I want to give you an opportunity to maybe kind of explain what that was and how...
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You guys have stepped up to the plate and taken care of the customers. Yeah, that's a really good question. And what it was, we had a chip manufacturer at AQE Brands Lighting was working with a chip manufacturer and the LEDs failed. There was a crack and the phosphor failed. And when the phosphor fails, it doesn't filter the light out the way it's supposed to. And then the part of the spectrum that you see is what you see when you see the blue light.
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the lights not being filtered out by the phosphors. So that was the issue. We worked directly with that chip manufacturer. And unfortunately for Acuity, we don't work with that specific chip manufacturer any longer. the one thing that impressed me most about Acuity is how they stood behind their product. uh That we worked with every one of our customers. And the issue from a product
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perspective was expansive. And to fix the problem was costly to Acuity Brands Lighting. But Acuity stood by their product. They worked with every single one of their manufacturers to remove those fixtures from installation. We replaced them and we paid the labor to replace it. So Acuity really stepped up and they showed that as a manufacturer, they're going to stand behind their product.
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Not all manufacturers do that when they're approached with a situation like this. So it really impressed me what Acuity did to stand behind their product and make it right with the customers that we serve. That says a lot. know, anybody's going to have an issue. You know, how they handle it says everything. Exactly. you guys took care that really well. Yeah, I mean, we have great people that were working in our engineering department.
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in our product management group that were there to solve the problem and to work with every one of our customers that experienced it. We're still cleaning it up today. We still have products that are out there that are in that certain window where we see the failure. So it's still coming in today. And as they come in, we're still standing behind our product and cleaning it up as it comes in. No manufacturer's perfect. It's how you handle your problems when they do arise that make a difference.
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And that says a lot, that says a lot for sure. So, uh okay, couple more questions here and we'll wrap this up. uh First, what else is going on in the industry, industry-wise that you're working on? Yeah, I sit on the committee for the Street and Area Lighting Conference through the IES, which is the Illuminating Engineering Society. And we have a conference that's coming up uh in November that
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will be a part of. And I just want to make sure that everybody is aware that the Street and Area Lighting Conference is out and there's a lot of great information that's exchanged. You have the ability to get uh continuing educational units uh for continuing education. So if you work in the industry, strongly consider attending the IES. It's a great show.
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All the utilities will be present. Most of the major manufacturers that work in this space will be available. You can see what's going on with technology and controls. So if you have the opportunity to attend, I highly suggest that you attend that show. It's a great show. Where will it be this It's in Phoenix, Arizona at the Sheridan downtown. Okay. Nice. oh
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What message, before we let you go, what would be the message to your team? You know, our team, uh they get up every day and they do a fantastic job serving their customers. I just want them to continue to serve the customers that we work with on a daily basis. Wake up with a smile and enjoy what you're doing. um
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You know, it's all about growth. We need to grow our business. So get out there every day. Be the first one. Be diligent about getting back to your customers and service them with the best of your ability. Yep. Yeah. Great message. Yeah. So thank you so much for joining us. Tim, it was a pleasure. I enjoyed spending the time with you today. Yeah, I appreciate it. So thank you. Yeah.
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Special thanks again to Matt for joining us. We appreciate him taking the time out of his schedule to fly in, be in studio with us. uh It was awesome getting to know you a little bit better and uh thank you again for being on the show. Remember, if you need help with a project or looking for representation here in the Midwest, look no further than CBM. You can find us right here at cbmrep.com. Give us a like, comment, subscribe. Let us know what you'd like to see on further episodes.
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Appreciate you joining us on Power of the Network and until next time, we'll see you next time.
