Latest / Aired Out / "Powerline Official" Nathan Boutwell, Northline Utilities

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"Powerline Official" Nathan Boutwell, Northline Utilities · Aired Out

0:25
Speaker 1: Defect, instating shacks defected to shutting the shaping and happen happen.
1:49
Speaker 2: Well, it is absolute pleasure to have you on board
1:52
Speaker 2: with us this morning. Welcome to the aired Out podcast,
1:56
Speaker 2: Live from North Main Street in Barry, from a where
2:00
Speaker 2: the sun is shining. It is just about seventy degrees
2:04
Speaker 2: right now. Just beautiful, beautiful day. We got some clouds
2:08
Speaker 2: coming in mixing in with sunshine this afternoon, maybe a
2:11
Speaker 2: stray shower or thunderstorm possible. Daytime highs though right around
2:16
Speaker 2: eighty five degrees. Going to be real, real hot today. Nice.
2:21
Speaker 2: That heat Dome still stalled out above America, and I
2:27
Speaker 2: think last I heard it was like thirty five million
2:30
Speaker 2: people affected by the heat, you know, for twenty nine
2:36
Speaker 2: states right now. Incredible. Let's see tonight partly cloudy, sky's
2:43
Speaker 2: around sixty one and then the weathers can be perfect,
2:48
Speaker 2: perfect for Crisp Powers in the park tonight. I'm gonna
2:51
Speaker 2: get over there and interviewing them around three three thirty
2:55
Speaker 2: or so this afternoon, But do be on watch for
2:58
Speaker 2: aired Out in about in the park Curier Park in
3:02
Speaker 2: the Granite City this afternoon. Chris Powers is he gets
3:04
Speaker 2: ready to take the stage tonight. Of course, the food
3:10
Speaker 2: trucks are going to be there cooking up the food
3:12
Speaker 2: at the Farmer's Market. It's just going to be perfect. Tomorrow, Thursday,
3:16
Speaker 2: final day of the month, cloudy sky, slight chance of
3:20
Speaker 2: a rain shower around seventy one, and we're hoping that
3:23
Speaker 2: those rain showers are going to clear out in time
3:27
Speaker 2: for all the racing and thunder road Tomorrow night. We'll
3:29
Speaker 2: get down around fifty three degrees for the low Thursday night.
3:37
Speaker 2: Last night, the weather, the whole entire experience at Recreation
3:44
Speaker 2: Field in Montpillier was absolutely amazing. To see that final
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Speaker 2: home game with the Mountaineers was just incredible. There was
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Speaker 2: some great people, enjoyed, some fantastic food and just I
4:06
Speaker 2: mean it was just literally like a dream to be
4:09
Speaker 2: in the grand stands last night watching the Mountaineers. The
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Speaker 2: grandstands were packed. I don't know if I've ever seen it, well,
4:17
Speaker 2: I have seen it that packed during the during the championships,
4:21
Speaker 2: but anyway, it was just amazing. I hope you were
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Speaker 2: one of the many that was there and got out
4:29
Speaker 2: to the ball field last night to experience the final
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Speaker 2: home game of our Vermont Mountaineers. Just amazing. It's amazing.
4:40
Speaker 2: It was just like I can still see it, I
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Speaker 2: can still smell it. It was just incredible. All the
4:45
Speaker 2: phone with us this morning. Deb Phillips from the World, Deb,
4:48
Speaker 2: good morning, How are you?
4:50
Speaker 3: Good morning? Jat doing great?
4:52
Speaker 2: Talk to me. What's happening over at the world. How
4:55
Speaker 2: are things going with your partnership now with the time, Sargus.
4:59
Speaker 3: Very good papers are here then, got distributing them right now.
5:04
Speaker 4: So that's all.
5:06
Speaker 3: That's all good.
5:07
Speaker 2: News, fantastic. What can we expect in today's copy of
5:12
Speaker 2: the World, then, well, we have.
5:14
Speaker 3: Our August coupons in this week's World. We also have
5:21
Speaker 3: a new advertiser on our business directory, the Farmers Traveling Mechanic,
5:29
Speaker 3: offering on site maintenance repair service for tractors and associated equipment.
5:34
Speaker 3: So that's somebody we've not ever had before, which is
5:38
Speaker 3: kind of exciting. Something people need. So and we are
5:44
Speaker 3: we are on the front. We're talking about the World
5:46
Speaker 3: Soccer Festival. It's going to be Saturday, August twenty third
5:51
Speaker 3: at the Mountpillier High School, and coming up the following
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Speaker 3: weekend we have the Vermont Antique and Classic Car Meet.
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Speaker 3: It's August eight, nine and ten. Next week. We will
6:06
Speaker 3: have the schedule in the paper for that. So it's
6:13
Speaker 3: very popular. People really do enjoy going to the Classic
6:17
Speaker 3: Car Meet.
6:18
Speaker 2: Is it already that time? Dev?
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Speaker 3: I know, I know, I know it doesn't, don't we
6:25
Speaker 3: just you know it's August.
6:26
Speaker 4: August is upon us.
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Speaker 2: I don't know why, but I always seem to think
6:31
Speaker 2: that that that that annual car show. It was seventy
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Speaker 2: something years now, seventy five years something like.
6:37
Speaker 4: That, six sixty eight, sixty eight.
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Speaker 2: All right, I was a little off, but I always
6:41
Speaker 2: seem to think they're they're in September. But man, it's
6:44
Speaker 2: like that's that's right in front of us.
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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, so hoping for good brother, and lots of
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Speaker 3: people can come and see the antique cars and all
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Speaker 3: the other activities that they have, a flea market and
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Speaker 3: beer garden and all that fun stuff that they have.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, amazing. Deb. I always and I always
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Speaker 2: say this, and I always mean it. I I just
7:09
Speaker 2: can't wait to get my world today and sit down
7:12
Speaker 2: and flip through the pages. Always.
7:15
Speaker 3: Wow, Chris and Joy is bringing it to you every week.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a great guy. I can't he'll be here
7:21
Speaker 2: anytime now. But Deb thank you ever so much. Remember
7:24
Speaker 2: vt dashworld dot com if you want to check out
7:28
Speaker 2: the online version sales at vtdashworld dot com if you
7:32
Speaker 2: want to get in touch and explore some advertising opportunities.
7:36
Speaker 2: Central Fromout's favorite weekly newspaper. And there's no surprise you
7:40
Speaker 2: guys have been around with fifty what years now fifty three,
7:44
Speaker 2: fifty three, amazing, four, seven, nine, twenty five, eighty two.
7:48
Speaker 2: If you want to give a jingle over there, Deb
7:50
Speaker 2: will most likely be the person to answer the phone,
7:53
Speaker 2: might be Gary, but great, great team, and we love
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Speaker 2: you guys so much. Thanks Ja, Thank you, Deb Phillips
8:02
Speaker 2: from the world this morning again Central Vermont's favorite weekly newspaper,
8:07
Speaker 2: and I just love it. We're gonna be yes talking
8:10
Speaker 2: about the Nodes Family Benefit. A lot more coming up Saturday,
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Speaker 2: August twenty third. This is gonna be huge two pm
8:17
Speaker 2: in the afternoon. Dave Keller, Jamie Lee Thurston, Shane McGrath, Heartless,
8:22
Speaker 2: Dona Thunder. It is just going to be something else.
8:26
Speaker 2: All proceeds going to the Nodes Family admission is by donation,
8:32
Speaker 2: so yeah, just there's gonna be a lot more to
8:36
Speaker 2: be said about that. And Mark Tetrow will be on
8:41
Speaker 2: the air with me. Again. I love putting that guy
8:44
Speaker 2: on the air. This guy who's well not sitting right
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Speaker 2: next to me, but he's on camera right across from me.
8:53
Speaker 2: Nathan Buttwell, good morning, my friend. How are you.
8:56
Speaker 4: I'm good, how are you?
8:57
Speaker 2: Listen? Man, it's like every Wednesday we get into sweethearts
9:02
Speaker 2: and heroes. We talk about all the great work they're doing.
9:06
Speaker 2: And this morning I'm speaking with someone in the electrical
9:13
Speaker 2: contractors business. When Tom Murphy tells me, hey, man, you
9:21
Speaker 2: got to get this guy on. It's got to happen.
9:25
Speaker 2: I trust him immensely. You guys have a partnership here.
9:31
Speaker 3: That is.
9:34
Speaker 2: Pretty intense, am I right?
9:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean we started working with Tom around
9:39
Speaker 4: a year ago. But you know, he's bringing a topic
9:43
Speaker 4: kind of into the light in our industry that really
9:47
Speaker 4: needs to be talked about.
9:48
Speaker 3: You know.
9:48
Speaker 4: It's just it's some work that has to be done
9:51
Speaker 4: because for years, you know, this topic of suicide and
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Speaker 4: suicide and construction really you know, hasn't been at the surface.
9:59
Speaker 1: No.
10:00
Speaker 2: Oh. As a matter of fact, Tom has some pretty
10:04
Speaker 2: alarming statistics that he's pretty much got pinned on his
10:09
Speaker 2: shirt sleeve that he and I know you know what
10:12
Speaker 2: they are as well that he pretty much pushes every
10:17
Speaker 2: opportunity he can get in front of a microphone or
10:21
Speaker 2: in social media to bring attention to exactly what's going
10:26
Speaker 2: on in the electrical contractor field, which is a dare
10:32
Speaker 2: I say, a massive misconception of what's happening.
10:37
Speaker 4: It is when you look at the rates, right, and
10:39
Speaker 4: I mean Tom's got great data and stats on like
10:43
Speaker 4: middle schoolers, and then he's got it on the military.
10:46
Speaker 4: But then when he started looking at the construction industry
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Speaker 4: for us, he's like, well, you know, these rates are
10:50
Speaker 4: just way worse than they are in all of the
10:53
Speaker 4: other sectors that I work in. And it's just staggering, right,
10:57
Speaker 4: And and the numbers, you know, he's got it as
11:00
Speaker 4: where you know, between five and seven times more likely
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Speaker 4: for someone in the electrical trade to take their own
11:08
Speaker 4: life than they are to be hurt in one of
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Speaker 4: our top four hazards, the focus four areas, you know,
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Speaker 4: And that's it's just sad, right, And it's kind of
11:16
Speaker 4: staggering when you think about it, that this is out
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Speaker 4: there and we spend so much time and so much
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Speaker 4: effort focusing on preventing injuries and focusing on you know,
11:27
Speaker 4: we have a term called sticky right, stuff that kills
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Speaker 4: you And never before now really did this idea that
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Speaker 4: suicide in alignment taking their own life or an electrician
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Speaker 4: taking their own life is in there as part of
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Speaker 4: that list.
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Speaker 2: You just had just what a couple of days ago,
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Speaker 2: your fourteenth Annual Safety and Leadership Summit. Is that still
11:52
Speaker 2: going on? Is that still underway?
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Speaker 3: No?
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Speaker 4: So we wrap the summit up Friday, we do we
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Speaker 4: do as kind of our educational segment where we have
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Speaker 4: the tracks where people come in and they learn various topics,
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Speaker 4: and then Friday we actually do a charity golf event.
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Speaker 4: We raised funds this year for the Suicide Prevention Foundation.
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Speaker 4: So that the summit is over for this year, but
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Speaker 4: planning actually starts this afternoon for the twenty twenty sixth summit.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, already yeah point no time wasting. Huh.
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Speaker 2: You are described as a safety nerd.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, correct? I mean, you know, why not lean in
12:36
Speaker 4: and embrace a bit of the stigma of the profession, right.
12:38
Speaker 4: You know, there's this big debate that lives around safety
12:41
Speaker 4: folks that says, you know, the best safety person and
12:44
Speaker 4: there's two schools of thought, right that they come from
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Speaker 4: the craft, they come from the tools and they know
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Speaker 4: the job really well, or that they come through more
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Speaker 4: of an academic path and they know the regulations and
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Speaker 4: the rules and the theories. Aka the nerd well. I'm
13:01
Speaker 4: kind of a hybrid, right. I used to work for
13:02
Speaker 4: a living. I actually grew up in Central Vermont, southern
13:07
Speaker 4: central Vermont. I worked for a company called Hubbard and
13:10
Speaker 4: Forged and worked for Ge and Rutland as a as
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Speaker 4: a machinist. Right, So I had some time in the tools,
13:16
Speaker 4: but then I in different tools that I'm in today.
13:20
Speaker 4: But then I went out and I worked on a
13:22
Speaker 4: formal education in safety, and I got hearing about all
13:25
Speaker 4: of this. This I'll call it the nerd stigma, Like, hey,
13:28
Speaker 4: why not lean into it? Embrace it? Yep, I'm a nerd.
13:30
Speaker 4: I can I can layer on the chapter and verse
13:33
Speaker 4: and regulation, but can can we get past that? I'll
13:37
Speaker 4: just tell you, yeah, I'm nerdy. Now let's now let's
13:39
Speaker 4: talk about how we're actually gonna make safety a little
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Speaker 4: bit better.
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Speaker 2: You're the vice president of EHS and Training at North
13:48
Speaker 2: Line Utilities. Where is North Line Utilities? And what does
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Speaker 2: EHS what does this all mean?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, so ehs. You know, my my trade loves acronyms.
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Speaker 4: It's in oron mental health and safety. Sometimes we also
14:03
Speaker 4: get into the security quality. You know, we work kind
14:07
Speaker 4: of in all of those compliance driven disciplines. So Northland
14:11
Speaker 4: Utilities I just celebrated its twentieth anniversary. It's headquartered in
14:16
Speaker 4: as Able Forks, New York. And you know, the owner
14:19
Speaker 4: will tell you we're just your nice local line contractor. Now,
14:24
Speaker 4: now that's a humble statement. Truth is, we're active throughout
14:29
Speaker 4: the greater Northeast. We have a cruise working in Maine,
14:33
Speaker 4: across all of New York, We're down into Maryland. And
14:37
Speaker 4: we also will work, you know, virtually up and down
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Speaker 4: the East coast into the South during the storm season,
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Speaker 4: you know, helping these like major restoration efforts from hurricanes.
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Speaker 2: And you just acquired Northern Line Construction in Maine, right.
14:53
Speaker 4: We did, Yeah, we just acquired Northern Line. It's nice
14:55
Speaker 4: to have a brick and mortar operation here in Maine.
14:59
Speaker 4: That happens to be where I live now. So it's yeah,
15:01
Speaker 4: our footprint continues to expand.
15:04
Speaker 2: Congratulations on that. How many employees are you over overseeing?
15:11
Speaker 4: So day to day, we run right around four hundred
15:14
Speaker 4: on a kind of our stable operation.
15:16
Speaker 3: Wow.
15:18
Speaker 4: Now now in storm that can scale up right. Storm
15:20
Speaker 4: is kind of a really interesting thing that happens where
15:23
Speaker 4: you just you know, grab a lot of people and
15:26
Speaker 4: you go and you deploy on these major efforts and
15:28
Speaker 4: that can scale up to around one thousand with our partners.
15:31
Speaker 2: How long? Yeah, how long have you been at this post.
15:36
Speaker 4: I've been with Northline just over three years.
15:38
Speaker 2: Okay, So you missed the big ice storm in ninety eight, correct.
15:44
Speaker 4: I was still a Vermont resident in ninety eight, working
15:47
Speaker 4: for a ge at the time.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, So you know, four hundred employees, You've got
15:57
Speaker 2: this this seminar that's that's going on. You're bringing in Tom,
16:03
Speaker 2: You're bringing in Rick as two of the keynotes. How
16:09
Speaker 2: many people are we talking about? How many employees are
16:11
Speaker 2: we talking about that are that are part of this
16:16
Speaker 2: this this big summit summit.
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Speaker 4: So our summit, we run it around two hundred people.
16:20
Speaker 4: I think we have you know, two twenty five is
16:22
Speaker 4: that usually accept and then with a little bit of
16:24
Speaker 4: attrition about two hundred show. So it's a combination of employees,
16:28
Speaker 4: industry partners, the people that we work things like storm
16:31
Speaker 4: with and actually some of our customers, but around two
16:34
Speaker 4: hundred every year.
16:37
Speaker 2: I you know, I always love talking talking with Tom
16:40
Speaker 2: and Rick. But I wonder if when those boys are
16:49
Speaker 2: on stage, they're looking out at right around two hundred
16:55
Speaker 2: employees that are looking back at them. I wonder how
17:01
Speaker 2: many folks are in the crowd. And I'm maybe you've
17:06
Speaker 2: wondered this too, that are for whatever reason, not happy
17:16
Speaker 2: in life, maybe even deeply troubled, maybe absorbing some of
17:27
Speaker 2: the words that are spoken, that are intensely resonating. Do
17:34
Speaker 2: you wonder the same thing I do?
17:37
Speaker 4: And and I think it's it's not so much that
17:40
Speaker 4: I wonder if they're there. We know they're there, you know,
17:45
Speaker 4: And it's beyond the data that tells us they're there.
17:48
Speaker 3: You know.
17:48
Speaker 4: We look at the the number of suicides this year
17:52
Speaker 4: just in the New York state outside line local and
17:55
Speaker 4: it's it's staggering.
17:56
Speaker 2: So we know they're there.
17:58
Speaker 4: What I wonder about is are we are we reaching them?
18:01
Speaker 4: Are we getting to them in a way that they need?
18:07
Speaker 2: Why is the the suicide rate with electrical contractors utility
18:13
Speaker 2: line lignement across America so high? We all know the
18:23
Speaker 2: d word demanding. It's a demanding job. It's demanding of everything,
18:28
Speaker 2: your attention and your focus. And no matter what the
18:33
Speaker 2: weather's doing, no matter how hot it is, cold it
18:35
Speaker 2: is windy, snowy, it doesn't matter. But why is uh,
18:43
Speaker 2: why is the suicide rate so high?
18:46
Speaker 4: I think there's a lot that influences it, right, There's
18:48
Speaker 4: not a single reason, and and I think that's important
18:53
Speaker 4: to acknowledge, right, is it's a complex issue like it
18:56
Speaker 4: is for the other the other groups that are impacted
19:00
Speaker 4: by this, like middle schoolers.
19:01
Speaker 1: Right.
19:01
Speaker 4: But if we think about the work, you know, it
19:05
Speaker 4: is tough conditions. It was high nineties yesterday, right, you know,
19:10
Speaker 4: and the guys are out there working ten hours a day,
19:14
Speaker 4: twelve hours a day, and they're going to come back
19:16
Speaker 4: and do it the next day and the next day.
19:19
Speaker 4: And now you start to dry in some of the
19:22
Speaker 4: other elements of the job, you know. We when I
19:25
Speaker 4: think about my time at the utility, there's what they
19:27
Speaker 4: call troubleshooters out there, single worker units, Right. They go
19:30
Speaker 4: out and they respond to things like carpole accidents. They
19:33
Speaker 4: see the same things our first responders see, Lineman, you know,
19:38
Speaker 4: see that that's part of their job in the construction side.
19:42
Speaker 4: You know you're going to potentially be away from home,
19:45
Speaker 4: you're going to to you know, our our superintendent in
19:50
Speaker 4: Maine lives in Maryland. So when he leaves his family,
19:54
Speaker 4: he leaves for a week or two at a time,
19:56
Speaker 4: and I mean he stays connected, right, They talk on
19:58
Speaker 4: the phone, but it's not the same. So that's part
20:00
Speaker 4: of their world. We have a lot of veterans and
20:03
Speaker 4: and we're thrilled that they're part of our community. But
20:06
Speaker 4: you know, veterans come with some challenges that also impact
20:09
Speaker 4: this so that there's some isolation by the structure of
20:14
Speaker 4: the job. There's there's parts of the culture that substance
20:20
Speaker 4: use is part of it, right, So you've got all
20:22
Speaker 4: these factors at work, and so when you when you've
20:26
Speaker 4: got a person who's down and they they don't see
20:30
Speaker 4: other possibilities that exist, it's it's pretty easy for them
20:33
Speaker 4: to fall into that spiral of not feeling supported. And
20:37
Speaker 4: then you lay on that, right, this this culture that
20:41
Speaker 4: has a history of being really rough on its apprentices,
20:44
Speaker 4: right that that you know, if you watch Landman right
20:47
Speaker 4: of pop culture stuff right now, and you see how
20:50
Speaker 4: they treat the worm, the new guy on the crew, right,
20:52
Speaker 4: how they they prank And you know, it's it's a
20:54
Speaker 4: very similar culture, so you don't necessarily have that peer
20:59
Speaker 4: support work historically in the industry. That's changing because that
21:03
Speaker 4: needs to change. But you've got all these things that
21:05
Speaker 4: kind of combine to create the environment.
21:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I'm I'm sitting here listening to you,
21:15
Speaker 2: and what's crossing my mind is how we live in
21:21
Speaker 2: a culture where we all have to be walking around
21:26
Speaker 2: fail proof. We hate the word fail. It's the other
21:29
Speaker 2: F word. And it's whether it's it's pride, ego, whether
21:37
Speaker 2: it's demand, expectations. We have a family to feed, to
21:44
Speaker 2: take care of, to provide for, whatever it may be.
21:49
Speaker 2: We just don't like to I hate to say it,
21:55
Speaker 2: but the words give up.
21:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, but we don't like to give up. And we
22:00
Speaker 4: don't like to admit right that we were not feeling
22:04
Speaker 4: the best. And then I want what I want people
22:06
Speaker 4: to think about too, is think about how alignment is
22:09
Speaker 4: kind of wired in their brain.
22:11
Speaker 2: Right is it's the fifth wire, man, it is, it
22:14
Speaker 2: is the fifth wire.
22:15
Speaker 4: And there's there's a piece of this right that I
22:16
Speaker 4: talk about with Tom and with Rick and with with
22:18
Speaker 4: a lot of people really, when I talk about risk
22:20
Speaker 4: and line work. You know, if you if you look
22:23
Speaker 4: at those photos behind me, you see the guy in
22:26
Speaker 4: the yellow suit, Yeah, he is touching and energized five
22:32
Speaker 4: hundred thousand volt wire. Right, So you're your average person now.
22:36
Speaker 4: Granted that's transmission voltage, right, That's that's high eye power stuff.
22:39
Speaker 4: The stuff running down the road beside your house is
22:42
Speaker 4: a lower voltage, but it can still kill you. So
22:44
Speaker 4: when people like you or I look at that, we're like, oh, yeah,
22:46
Speaker 4: I would never ever touch that energized wire on purpose,
22:51
Speaker 4: and the lineman is going to go up there and
22:54
Speaker 4: do that every day. So they think about that risks differently.
22:58
Speaker 4: So they have to be met to leak tough. They
23:02
Speaker 4: have to be in a spot where they can do
23:06
Speaker 4: that confidently to do their job well. That runs counter
23:10
Speaker 4: to that emotional space you and I are talking about,
23:14
Speaker 4: where if you're supposed to be this big, tough, macho person,
23:20
Speaker 4: how do you have the courage to say, man, I'm
23:24
Speaker 4: hurting and I need some help. And then if you're
23:26
Speaker 4: that crew member that buddy with them, how do you
23:30
Speaker 4: find the way to say, dude, something doesn't seem right.
23:33
Speaker 4: Are you okay, it's just it's not a skill that's
23:37
Speaker 4: natural at this point.
23:43
Speaker 2: I was chatting with somebody yesterday who was telling me,
23:52
Speaker 2: have you ever ridden your motorcycle when you're exhausted? And
23:59
Speaker 2: I said yes, And they said, have you ever been
24:07
Speaker 2: kind of dozen off while you're on your motorcycle? And
24:13
Speaker 2: I said surprisingly, And I've been riding a bike for
24:16
Speaker 2: a long time, and I said surprisingly for whatever reason. No,
24:23
Speaker 2: when I get on that bike, no matter what's going on,
24:28
Speaker 2: I can generally shake it off pretty hard and stay
24:34
Speaker 2: intensely focused on not just what I'm doing, but what
24:40
Speaker 2: others are doing and to get from a to B
24:47
Speaker 2: safely with a clear, clear mindset. I can't imagine being
24:56
Speaker 2: disengaged enough on a motorcycle where physically biologically I'm starting
25:03
Speaker 2: to doze off. It's just unfathomable to me. Driving a car,
25:08
Speaker 2: absolutely we all have, but man, there's something about when
25:14
Speaker 2: that leg swings over the motorcycle and the helmet's buckled,
25:18
Speaker 2: I am totally engaged. That's not to say that it's
25:31
Speaker 2: perfect every time. There have been sometimes where something that's
25:38
Speaker 2: stressful or troublesome to me or whatever my schedule later
25:44
Speaker 2: in the day Oh my god, I forgot about that
25:47
Speaker 2: doctor's appointment. I think it's next Thursday. I need to
25:50
Speaker 2: I hope I wrote it down in my calendar. I'm
25:54
Speaker 2: not saying that doesn't ever happen when I'm on a motorcycle,
25:59
Speaker 2: but generally, if it does, I can snap back quickly
26:05
Speaker 2: and be aware, Oh my god, Hey, hang on a second,
26:10
Speaker 2: you're getting distracted. Shake it off, think about this later.
26:17
Speaker 2: If you do that in your line of work, you
26:22
Speaker 2: could be dead instantly.
26:26
Speaker 4: Correct. You know, there are similarities between what you talk
26:29
Speaker 4: about with the motorcycle and with the risk of line work.
26:32
Speaker 1: Right, and.
26:34
Speaker 4: We see you know folks, Yes, folks get hurt right
26:37
Speaker 4: at those high risk moments, but really, most of the
26:39
Speaker 4: time things go right because there is a level of focus,
26:42
Speaker 4: a level of planning, a level of making sure it
26:45
Speaker 4: goes right that goes into those jobs because that is
26:49
Speaker 4: part of the mindset, right is I have to think
26:52
Speaker 4: differently to be able to touch that energized wire, but
26:55
Speaker 4: I also know that it can kill me, so I
26:58
Speaker 4: do those things I need to do to.
27:00
Speaker 2: Do it right.
27:01
Speaker 4: When we when we look at the suicide issue, we're
27:06
Speaker 4: seeing it. You know, it's nights, it's weekends, it's off hours, right,
27:10
Speaker 4: It's it's when we're in that alone time that we're
27:12
Speaker 4: seeing it. But you're right, the risk is is there
27:14
Speaker 4: and it's present. We we see this in storm, right.
27:17
Speaker 4: We we typically go through the first couple of days
27:20
Speaker 4: of a major storm event with with very few issues
27:23
Speaker 4: because people are so focused on that risk. Right, something
27:27
Speaker 4: is different. The system is a mess, and we're very
27:31
Speaker 4: focused on those those sticky things, the stuff that can
27:34
Speaker 4: kill you as a worker. Right, And this is something
27:37
Speaker 4: that we really reinforce all the time that we try
27:40
Speaker 4: to keep that conversation alive. Right, Let's talk about the
27:42
Speaker 4: stuff that can kill you and how you're going to
27:46
Speaker 4: make sure that that energy doesn't touch you, How how
27:50
Speaker 4: it's not going to kill you.
27:52
Speaker 2: It's it's it's remarkable to me because you know, especially
27:59
Speaker 2: during during storm and whatnot, you know, you're you're in
28:04
Speaker 2: a hotel, you're trying to get sleep, you're trying to
28:09
Speaker 2: take care of yourself, and meanwhile, life is still happening
28:13
Speaker 2: on the outside of this bubble. Your family, you got kids,
28:18
Speaker 2: you got a husband or a wife at home that's
28:25
Speaker 2: got stresses and frankly, things that need to be taken
28:29
Speaker 2: care of immediately. But you've got to be sharp and
28:35
Speaker 2: on your toes and one hundred percent, not ninety nine,
28:39
Speaker 2: but one hundred focused. It's unreal, man. There's a lot
28:45
Speaker 2: of pressure here there.
28:46
Speaker 4: There is a lot of pressure, and life continues to
28:49
Speaker 4: happen around you. You know, you're all we all have
28:53
Speaker 4: a spouse, a partner, right, and if they're having a
28:55
Speaker 4: bad day, they're probably going to reach out, right, So
28:57
Speaker 4: those things are there. And then yeah, for your average storm,
29:01
Speaker 4: you know, your two three days, you're at the hotel,
29:03
Speaker 4: you're looking you can recover some of these what they
29:06
Speaker 4: call destination storms where you go away. You know, we
29:09
Speaker 4: had crews in Pennsylvania earlier this year who were in
29:15
Speaker 4: what we call a man camp right where there there's
29:17
Speaker 4: shower trailers and there's housing trailers, and they're set up
29:21
Speaker 4: in like a parking lot by a railroad tracks. So
29:25
Speaker 4: these trains are going all night. They're not getting good sleep, right,
29:27
Speaker 4: It's just a really really rough environment.
29:30
Speaker 2: Sometimes questions here because I'm so curious, what's the guy
29:36
Speaker 2: behind you on the line stare? What are those what
29:38
Speaker 2: are those lines hanging down below him?
29:42
Speaker 4: So in that one they're they're using ropes to get
29:45
Speaker 4: up and down from the line. We call it rope access.
29:48
Speaker 4: So it's just a way to get them up without
29:50
Speaker 4: having to use a truck or to you know, you
29:54
Speaker 4: climb the tower once you set up the ropes and
29:55
Speaker 4: then zip up and down.
30:00
Speaker 2: I'm just confused, Like from a gravity standpoint, the ropes
30:06
Speaker 2: are hanging below him though, so they're not they're not
30:08
Speaker 2: pushing him up.
30:09
Speaker 4: So explain, he's got an ascender. He's got a mechanical
30:13
Speaker 4: device that helps him basically climb the rope up, so
30:16
Speaker 4: it's a power assist.
30:19
Speaker 1: Wow.
30:21
Speaker 2: Wow, these guys, I'm guessing when they get down off
30:27
Speaker 2: the pole or down off the wires that uh, they're
30:33
Speaker 2: they're wide awake and maybe even kind of coming off
30:38
Speaker 2: some euphoria.
30:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.
30:43
Speaker 4: I think there's a piece to it like that. The
30:46
Speaker 4: other piece with the the barehand liveline work, like the
30:49
Speaker 4: guy on the rope is that is very methodically planned
30:52
Speaker 4: right every step, every detail. There's often drawings, you know,
30:57
Speaker 4: there's crew brief things, there's folks looking out for each other.
31:01
Speaker 4: There is a lot of rigor and discipline that goes
31:04
Speaker 4: into that to make sure it goes right because there
31:07
Speaker 4: are no second chances there, So all those things you
31:11
Speaker 4: describe when they come down, Yeah, right, job well done.
31:15
Speaker 4: I relate it to the fire service, you know, law enforcement,
31:19
Speaker 4: there's a piece of that where when they get done
31:23
Speaker 4: with an operation, they also have that moment. Yeah, And
31:28
Speaker 4: it's similar.
31:31
Speaker 2: When an accident does happen, whether it's lethal or not.
31:40
Speaker 2: I can only imagine the residual effects it has on
31:49
Speaker 2: surrounding and supporting staff members, people that were there witnessed it,
31:56
Speaker 2: and frankly, the rest of your entire team, whether or
32:00
Speaker 2: not they were even in that that city, that town,
32:05
Speaker 2: I can only imagine.
32:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, it has far reaching effects.
32:12
Speaker 1: Right.
32:12
Speaker 4: You know, I've worked several places that have fatalities in
32:19
Speaker 4: their history, and one of the things the industry talks
32:23
Speaker 4: about is how the rules are written in blood, and
32:25
Speaker 4: that is true in some cases. You know, here here
32:29
Speaker 4: in Maine, the utilities have some very specific rules that
32:32
Speaker 4: can be tracked back to a fatality. You talk about
32:35
Speaker 4: the the ice storm of ninety eight, there's a very
32:38
Speaker 4: specific work hour rule related to stormwork that comes out
32:41
Speaker 4: of a fatality at that time, and people still talk
32:45
Speaker 4: about the fatality and the person and it makes a
32:51
Speaker 4: lasting impact on everyone involved. Right at various levels. It
33:00
Speaker 4: there's also this huge push that comes that you then
33:04
Speaker 4: have to recover from, you know, with regulators, with clients,
33:08
Speaker 4: with public perceptions. So it just it impacts a lot
33:11
Speaker 4: of families, a lot of businesses, and there's a lot
33:16
Speaker 4: of work that goes into recovering from something like that
33:20
Speaker 4: and getting back to that ability to do work again
33:25
Speaker 4: and have the right mindset to do high risk work.
33:27
Speaker 2: You've got such a huge job here, which is to
33:33
Speaker 2: do your job. But in addition to that, though, Nathan, Yeah,
33:39
Speaker 2: you've also got to be watching all of these employees
33:47
Speaker 2: with a totally different hat on your head and making
33:55
Speaker 2: sure that they're okay, not necessarily all relying on them
34:02
Speaker 2: to come to your office and knock on your door
34:05
Speaker 2: and say, hey, man, I need a break, or i'm
34:11
Speaker 2: questioning things. I'm not sure if I can do this,
34:14
Speaker 2: or I'm not sure how much longer I can do this,
34:16
Speaker 2: or I need a couple of days off. My marriage
34:21
Speaker 2: is in trouble. I'm exhausted, and I was really rattled
34:29
Speaker 2: by what I experienced. Ah, you can't always rely on
34:36
Speaker 2: on that knock on your on your office door. You've
34:41
Speaker 2: got to you've got to catch the problem before before
34:45
Speaker 2: it happens. That's a huge responsibility I can't even imagine.
34:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's interesting when we think about what
34:55
Speaker 4: what our safety teams do in the field, right, is
34:58
Speaker 4: sometimes they have to be a bit like law enforcement, right,
35:03
Speaker 4: enforcing the rules, and sometimes they're teaching and educating, and
35:06
Speaker 4: sometimes they're more like someone's pastor or therapists, right, and
35:11
Speaker 4: they're they're having to navigate through being all of these
35:17
Speaker 4: different things to people that they need in a way
35:21
Speaker 4: that kind of meets them where they are. And and
35:24
Speaker 4: I think some of the ways that Tom and Rick
35:30
Speaker 4: are helping with this, right if we're starting to build
35:33
Speaker 4: part of that fluency within the cruise, you know, we're
35:39
Speaker 4: we're starting to to use them to help some of
35:43
Speaker 4: these you know, big tough you know, Tom calls them
35:46
Speaker 4: the tattooed bearded guys, right to help help them as
35:51
Speaker 4: a group understand that they can be that person who
35:54
Speaker 4: maybe is a little bit softer today and opens up
35:56
Speaker 4: and says, hey, what's going on, talk to me about it, right,
35:58
Speaker 4: or becomes that approach person, because at the end of
36:01
Speaker 4: the day, if they don't knock on my door, but
36:04
Speaker 4: they knock on someone else's That's okay. What I want
36:07
Speaker 4: people doing is getting the help they need in that
36:11
Speaker 4: moment I need.
36:12
Speaker 2: How did you meet Tom? How did you meet Rick?
36:15
Speaker 2: Sweethearts and Heroes, which is you know, this is a
36:22
Speaker 2: student empowerment movement that is impacting so many thousands of children,
36:37
Speaker 2: but a connection with an electrical utility company. I mean,
36:43
Speaker 2: how did that happen?
36:44
Speaker 1: Yeah?
36:44
Speaker 4: So Tom's got a great story about this, and we
36:47
Speaker 4: should definitely use him at some point to tell that
36:50
Speaker 4: because he really enjoys telling it. But the beauty of
36:53
Speaker 4: being they having a company based in the North Country
36:58
Speaker 4: is are employees have kids in the school system, they
37:04
Speaker 4: have spouses who work in the school system. And our
37:08
Speaker 4: summit is planned with a group. Right, we don't do
37:11
Speaker 4: this in a vacuum. We use the power of a
37:13
Speaker 4: team to do it. And one of our team members said, hey,
37:18
Speaker 4: you got to look at these Sweethearts and Heroes and
37:23
Speaker 4: see the great stuff they're doing. This is a little
37:25
Speaker 4: bit of what they're doing in schools. We think that
37:29
Speaker 4: it might be a fit for the summit. So I
37:33
Speaker 4: cold called pom right, dropped him a note and said, hey,
37:36
Speaker 4: you know, let's talk about this. And last year, he
37:41
Speaker 4: did some circles for us. You know, it went really well,
37:46
Speaker 4: We got great feedback on it, and that kind of
37:49
Speaker 4: starts us on the journey to where we are this year,
37:53
Speaker 4: where Tom keynoted and ran more circles, and Rick did
37:56
Speaker 4: some sessions. And actually in this transition too, we've been
38:00
Speaker 4: able to get Tom involved with the National Electrical Contractors Association.
38:04
Speaker 4: He went with us to des Moin this year to
38:06
Speaker 4: our big annual safety summit that we run. Yeah, and
38:09
Speaker 4: you know, he's working heavily with IBW Local twelve forty
38:13
Speaker 4: nine in the New York area, so part of what
38:17
Speaker 4: they do really clicked with industry. But yeah, we met
38:20
Speaker 4: him basically through local connections. I guess to answer the.
38:23
Speaker 2: Question, wow, what kind of impact has he had and
38:29
Speaker 2: Brick so far?
38:33
Speaker 4: The first real impact. You know, we saw this impact
38:38
Speaker 4: in Circle right when we ran it in our own company,
38:40
Speaker 4: where we're like people are coming out, they're feeling emotionally vulnerable,
38:43
Speaker 4: they're feeling connected, you know, So we saw an impact there.
38:47
Speaker 4: But where it really really started to click was when
38:52
Speaker 4: we were in Des Moines at the national conference and
38:55
Speaker 4: they're doing their opening and they're going through the carousel
38:59
Speaker 4: of photos of linemen who had taken their own lives,
39:03
Speaker 4: and you look around and you're like, man, guys are
39:05
Speaker 4: emotionally shaken by this. Right, there's grown men who are
39:10
Speaker 4: clearly emotional. And then watching them engage with Tom and
39:14
Speaker 4: Rick afterwards to say, yeah, we get it, we understand
39:17
Speaker 4: the message, and how do we get involved, and then
39:21
Speaker 4: seeing that happen again at our summit is I think
39:27
Speaker 4: a good indication.
39:29
Speaker 2: And then you got Rick up there, the man who
39:36
Speaker 2: defines resilience and hope, where most people would look at
39:49
Speaker 2: and say, oh, hell no, if I had gone through
39:56
Speaker 2: half of that, I would want to hunch out. There
40:09
Speaker 2: are as you and I both eluded this morning, there
40:14
Speaker 2: are people, There are employees in your audience who are
40:23
Speaker 2: maybe going through hell. Maybe they are on fire, burning alive,
40:34
Speaker 2: and have frankly lost hope. You got Rick up there,
40:40
Speaker 2: who's like the epitome of the example of hang on.
40:48
Speaker 2: Possibilities exist. Not all of us are wired that way,
40:56
Speaker 2: we don't think that way.
40:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that part of Rick's message. The other
41:03
Speaker 4: part I love about Rick's message is and I didn't
41:08
Speaker 4: get here alone, right, It took a network around me.
41:13
Speaker 4: It took professionals that helped me. It took my family,
41:18
Speaker 4: it took my peers that I didn't do this alone,
41:24
Speaker 4: and one of a hard you know, you talk about
41:26
Speaker 4: those folks and are we reaching them. One of the
41:29
Speaker 4: things that a safety person kind of struggles with is
41:34
Speaker 4: you never actually see the times you win, right, You
41:39
Speaker 4: don't see what you prevent. And it's got to be
41:45
Speaker 4: the same at some level for sweethearts and heroes, right
41:49
Speaker 4: is for that person who's sitting there that their life
41:53
Speaker 4: is just a mess and they look at Rick and
41:57
Speaker 4: they go, oh, if this guy can do it, so
42:00
Speaker 4: can I. Yeah, And they go out and they get
42:03
Speaker 4: some help. But they don't do it in a way
42:06
Speaker 4: that we ever find out about. You know, they don't.
42:09
Speaker 4: They don't come through the company resources. They do it
42:11
Speaker 4: on their own, right. You know, we're never going to
42:14
Speaker 4: hear about it. But it is still a win, you know.
42:17
Speaker 4: All they have to do is reach one or two
42:19
Speaker 4: of those people and it's a win.
42:24
Speaker 2: I reached out to a couple of linemen here in Vermont,
42:32
Speaker 2: I think three of them, maybe four, I can't remember.
42:36
Speaker 2: This was within the last probably two months, and actually
42:42
Speaker 2: spoke with one of them and they all said the
42:46
Speaker 2: same thing. Would love to come on the air, just
42:52
Speaker 2: simply literally too busy going here, going there. And and
43:00
Speaker 2: the guy I spoke with was like, I'd love to, man,
43:03
Speaker 2: but Win's the show. And I'm like, we're live every
43:09
Speaker 2: morning at nine o'clock. And he's like, dude, literally impossible
43:14
Speaker 2: for me. And I'm like, you picked the day of
43:18
Speaker 2: the week and he's like, no, day of the week.
43:22
Speaker 2: And I'm like, are you serious seven days a week
43:24
Speaker 2: you're going And he said, yes, not only am I
43:28
Speaker 2: going seven days a week, but I'm getting home at
43:32
Speaker 2: eight o'clock at night if I'm lucky to have dinner
43:37
Speaker 2: and maybe see my kids before they go to bed.
43:45
Speaker 3: Yeah.
43:46
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's kind of staggering when we think
43:49
Speaker 4: about it. That's accurate. The hours are long, you know,
43:55
Speaker 4: and that's that can just be blue sky right, normal
43:57
Speaker 4: work that you're not even laying in storm.
43:58
Speaker 3: Right.
43:59
Speaker 4: Then you actually look at the work demand in the industry.
44:02
Speaker 4: And then while there is a bit of a renaissance
44:05
Speaker 4: going on with people moving into the trades and finding
44:09
Speaker 4: the trades as a great career path, which it is,
44:12
Speaker 4: the demand for electricians and line workers compared to the
44:18
Speaker 4: folks coming in. There's a big gap there, you know,
44:21
Speaker 4: there's there's you know, some numbers put it at a
44:24
Speaker 4: twenty five thirty five percent shortage of workers coming in
44:28
Speaker 4: that we need. So that challenge that they're feeling isn't
44:33
Speaker 4: going away short term.
44:34
Speaker 1: Right.
44:34
Speaker 4: We've got a lot of folks that are getting into
44:37
Speaker 4: that gray hair category, that that are aging out, that
44:40
Speaker 4: are looking forward to retirement, and we don't have as
44:43
Speaker 4: many people coming in to fill that needs as we need.
44:48
Speaker 4: It's it's going to be a challenging time for industry.
44:52
Speaker 2: Is there what kind of training might happen for so
45:00
Speaker 2: one beginning this industry outside of the wires and all
45:07
Speaker 2: of the technical stuff that they have to do as
45:10
Speaker 2: their job.
45:12
Speaker 4: So with consideration to the issues we're talking about, like
45:16
Speaker 4: exactly help. Yeah, so this is a new area, right.
45:20
Speaker 4: The apprenticeships do a fantastic job of preparing a line
45:26
Speaker 4: worker to do line work. But one of the things
45:29
Speaker 4: that I really love that I see happening at the
45:32
Speaker 4: moment with the IBW apprenticeships is they're now starting to
45:39
Speaker 4: build in some of the work with groups like Sweethearts
45:43
Speaker 4: and Heroes and other organizations like Sweethearts and heroes right
45:49
Speaker 4: and saying, hey, if we embed some of these ideas
45:52
Speaker 4: into our apprenticeship with the apprentices and we teach that
45:57
Speaker 4: skill like we do the actual skills of line work,
46:01
Speaker 4: this will stay with them for their entire career. So
46:05
Speaker 4: we are starting to see that now there's there's some
46:07
Speaker 4: great work going on, like I said with Tom and
46:10
Speaker 4: Rick at Local twelve forty nine, and then you know,
46:13
Speaker 4: another one example that comes to mind is there's a
46:17
Speaker 4: program called Deep that encourages VEUT trends to come into
46:20
Speaker 4: the trade. And the person that leads that program is
46:23
Speaker 4: a suicide attempt survivor self described and he's teaching things
46:29
Speaker 4: like you know, meditation and journaling, and they're using it
46:33
Speaker 4: in that apprenticeship as well. So I think you know
46:36
Speaker 4: now that it's kind of like building a snowman. Right
46:38
Speaker 4: now that we've kind of got that first little snowball rolling,
46:41
Speaker 4: I think we're going to see some adoption as it
46:43
Speaker 4: gets bigger and bigger and bigger in industry.
46:46
Speaker 2: How can what's the go to to not only get
46:54
Speaker 2: connected with with you, Nathan and and north line, Like,
46:59
Speaker 2: is the is there a go to website where if
47:02
Speaker 2: someone is listening right now and they want to talk
47:06
Speaker 2: with you, or they want to ask you a question,
47:09
Speaker 2: or they want to learn more about your business, or
47:11
Speaker 2: they want to apply for a job, or or there's
47:15
Speaker 2: or maybe they just want to learn about the general industry.
47:20
Speaker 2: Is there is there is there a point website to
47:23
Speaker 2: go to.
47:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, so So Northland has its own website. Our training
47:28
Speaker 4: business Powerline Training also has a website. I can be
47:31
Speaker 4: reached through any of those. For LinkedIn users, I'm pretty
47:34
Speaker 4: easy to find. Another great resource is the National Electrical
47:39
Speaker 4: Contractors Association website. And then there's always, depending on in
47:44
Speaker 4: this area where you live, your local IBW website. So
47:48
Speaker 4: New York that would be twelve forty nine and in
47:52
Speaker 4: the Greater New England area be IBW Local one one
47:56
Speaker 4: oh four is the outside line. Local one oh three
47:58
Speaker 4: would be an example of the inside. So lots of
48:01
Speaker 4: resources out there.
48:04
Speaker 2: Finally, in my notes this morning, I see that you
48:13
Speaker 2: occasionally will map out some diagrams on napkins and.
48:24
Speaker 4: That is that just.
48:27
Speaker 2: Technical stuff or is that beyond?
48:33
Speaker 4: Yes, it's it's technical and it's beyond. So often what happens,
48:38
Speaker 4: you know, a bad thing happens and someone says, well,
48:41
Speaker 4: we want to understand how it happened or why it happened.
48:44
Speaker 4: And you know what would traditionally be called a root
48:47
Speaker 4: cause analysis, right, a very linear process that's like think
48:51
Speaker 4: like a series of dominoes and say, well, how do
48:53
Speaker 4: I stop them from falling one into the next into
48:55
Speaker 4: the next. Well, the reality is life isn't like that, right.
48:59
Speaker 4: Life is just a series of things in a line
49:02
Speaker 4: that happen. There's these very complex structures around us. So
49:07
Speaker 4: if you've ever seen a mind map, it's it's very
49:09
Speaker 4: similar to a mind map where you're saying, okay, kind
49:11
Speaker 4: of here and here in the center is this thing
49:13
Speaker 4: I'm trying to understand, and we're just going to doodle
49:16
Speaker 4: around it on all these influences that we're hearing about,
49:20
Speaker 4: and eventually I'm going to be able to get them
49:22
Speaker 4: into these general areas and and now I actually understand
49:27
Speaker 4: kind of how the world looked to people at the
49:29
Speaker 4: time when the bad thing happened. And so it's it's
49:33
Speaker 4: just a way to help us kind of understand context
49:37
Speaker 4: and the and the way people see the world. So
49:40
Speaker 4: then we can say, okay, now, now, maybe how do
49:42
Speaker 4: we do something differently or better to to do our work?
49:46
Speaker 4: Either more more efficiently or safer.
49:52
Speaker 2: Fascinating.
49:53
Speaker 3: Have you.
49:55
Speaker 2: Have you ever maybe maybe this is kind of an
50:00
Speaker 2: obvious answer here, had someone sit in your office and
50:08
Speaker 2: look you square in the eye and say, I just
50:12
Speaker 2: I don't know if I can do this anymore. I
50:14
Speaker 2: think I have to hang my helmet up and shift
50:18
Speaker 2: gears in my life because this just simply might.
50:23
Speaker 3: Not be for me.
50:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, we yes, we didn't talk about it in my intro.
50:31
Speaker 4: I spent twenty four years in the fire service in
50:34
Speaker 4: Vermont and that it was probably the first time I
50:39
Speaker 4: experienced that was was related to working on the ambulance
50:42
Speaker 4: and had a person that went all the way through
50:44
Speaker 4: the classes, you know, when out went to their very
50:47
Speaker 4: first you know, multi person motor vehicle accident, got back
50:51
Speaker 4: from the call and said, I just can't do this anymore, right,
50:56
Speaker 4: And so that idea has been with me for most
50:59
Speaker 4: of my career. And yeah, you know we've when you
51:02
Speaker 4: when you get into this craft, yeah, you run into that,
51:06
Speaker 4: You run into the supervisor who says, I don't want
51:09
Speaker 4: to be a supervisor anymore. This is hard, and I
51:11
Speaker 4: just want to go back to being an individual contributor,
51:15
Speaker 4: a worker doing what I want to do, you know,
51:19
Speaker 4: as we become members of our communities. Another memory that
51:22
Speaker 4: pops into mind is, you know a dad going through
51:24
Speaker 4: a divorce who just reached out to me and said, dude,
51:27
Speaker 4: I I don't see the possibilities that exist. That's not
51:32
Speaker 4: what he said, yes, right, yes, but to put it
51:34
Speaker 4: in the words of sweethearts and ears, he didn't see
51:37
Speaker 4: those possibilities. And I said, you know, hey, there are right,
51:42
Speaker 4: a lot of people have walked this path. Tell you what,
51:46
Speaker 4: Let's get together for a drink. And I said great,
51:50
Speaker 4: And then I said where are you? And you know
51:54
Speaker 4: he's thinking, oh great, you know, I'm gonna come over.
51:56
Speaker 4: I'm going to bring a six pack of beer.
51:58
Speaker 2: You know.
51:59
Speaker 4: And I show up and I got a chocolate milk
52:01
Speaker 4: for it. I'm like, dude, you don't need to drink,
52:04
Speaker 4: you don't need any of this. What you need to
52:05
Speaker 4: do is sit down and think about in your life
52:09
Speaker 4: what possibilities are out there. You know, Yeah, you're getting
52:12
Speaker 4: a divorce, you got a couple of kids. Let's talk
52:15
Speaker 4: about what your life looks like in a couple of years.
52:17
Speaker 4: And let's talk about getting you some help that's actually
52:21
Speaker 4: a professional at this and not me. And and you know,
52:26
Speaker 4: the day, the day that makes me one of the
52:30
Speaker 4: proudest in my life is the day the phone rings
52:33
Speaker 4: in it that same guy who says, man, you were right,
52:39
Speaker 4: and I met a girl and we're getting married and
52:42
Speaker 4: my life is so much better now. And I wouldn't
52:45
Speaker 4: have come through that darkness without someone helping me. See
52:49
Speaker 4: what could happen.
52:51
Speaker 2: That my friend is to pin on your shirt right there? Okay,
52:56
Speaker 2: I think it is.
52:58
Speaker 4: Thank you, so do I I mean, I think that's
52:59
Speaker 4: you know, that's one of my favorite stories about you know,
53:03
Speaker 4: the success stories that can come out of helping people
53:07
Speaker 4: have hope and being there in that moment for them.
53:11
Speaker 4: And there's no right answer when you get that call
53:15
Speaker 4: of what you're going to do, sure, but having a
53:19
Speaker 4: couple of tools in your toolbox that you get from
53:21
Speaker 4: partnering with people like Tom and Rick can help you
53:25
Speaker 4: navigate it.
53:26
Speaker 1: Yeah.
53:28
Speaker 2: Nathan Boutwell North find Utilities my guest this morning on
53:34
Speaker 2: our Wednesday edition of Sweethearts and Heroes that we that
53:40
Speaker 2: we talk about every single Wednesday. Man, I got to
53:43
Speaker 2: tell you what an impactful episode this morning. Incredible to
53:49
Speaker 2: chat with you. I hope to get to meet you
53:52
Speaker 2: one of these days. Frankly, I hope that Tom will
53:57
Speaker 2: maybe even invite me to something like this what she
54:01
Speaker 2: hasn't done yet. But that's that's okay.
54:05
Speaker 4: Hey, I'll work with you one on one on will.
54:08
Speaker 2: You would you please? I will so if yeah, if
54:12
Speaker 2: you invite me, then yeah, we'll just go over Tom's head.
54:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's okay. You know, Rick and I have have
54:19
Speaker 4: had similar conversations about, you know, how we work with Tom.
54:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Man, I appreciate your time is so valuable,
54:32
Speaker 2: and I appreciate you given uh, not only me and
54:38
Speaker 2: sweethearts and heroes, but so many others full hour of
54:42
Speaker 2: your day here to push such an important message. This
54:47
Speaker 2: is light years beyond just the utility work. This is
54:54
Speaker 2: this is real life messaging that's going on this morning,
54:59
Speaker 2: no matter what fe your in.
55:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, agreed, and I'm I'm happy to have the opportunity.
55:05
Speaker 4: I'm thrilled to get on and talk about this stuff
55:07
Speaker 4: because I think hearing from folks that are in the
55:10
Speaker 4: trenches saying, look, there's not a single answer here. But
55:14
Speaker 4: I'm out there trying to make a difference, and I'm
55:16
Speaker 4: using the tools and I'm using the current thinking is important,
55:20
Speaker 4: right because you know, maybe someone isn't struggling with the
55:23
Speaker 4: actual topic, but they're struggling with how to help, and
55:27
Speaker 4: let's talk about ways we can do that too. And
55:28
Speaker 4: this is a great opportunity to share some of what
55:31
Speaker 4: we're doing with your group, and I genuinely appreciate that
55:36
Speaker 4: as well.
55:37
Speaker 2: Incredible, Thanks so much, Nathan, Will you appreciate you have
55:44
Speaker 2: great Have a fantastic rest of your day, my friend,
55:48
Speaker 2: and keep doing Yemen's work there amazing. You know, one
55:57
Speaker 2: of our sponsors here is Washington County Mental Health Services.
56:02
Speaker 2: If you need someone to talk to or if you
56:06
Speaker 2: think he even might, uh, I'm going to give you
56:10
Speaker 2: a number here in a second, and you can chat
56:15
Speaker 2: with them twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
56:19
Speaker 2: There's no record kept, you're not in any file as
56:22
Speaker 2: a patient of Washington County Mental Health. You can get
56:27
Speaker 2: three to five sessions at no cost to you, and
56:31
Speaker 2: if you decide you need more services, they can help
56:34
Speaker 2: you find that as well. Washington County Mental Health here's
56:38
Speaker 2: the number. It's two two nine oh five nine one
56:43
Speaker 2: two two nine oh five nine one. Give them a call,
56:47
Speaker 2: tell them you listen to this episode on aired Out
56:52
Speaker 2: and or maybe not, maybe not, but it's it's just
56:59
Speaker 2: amazing STUF. I want to thank not only Sweethearts and heroes,
57:04
Speaker 2: but also Nathan Boutwell from North Lying Utilities for being
57:08
Speaker 2: with us this morning. And of course all of our
57:11
Speaker 2: are presenting and supporting sponsors that make aired Out possible
57:16
Speaker 2: each and every morning, Monday through Friday, live at nine
57:20
Speaker 2: o'clock on both Facebook and YouTube. If there's an episode
57:23
Speaker 2: you enjoy, give it a thumbs up, give it a reaction,
57:28
Speaker 2: share it, drop a comment, put it on your wall,
57:33
Speaker 2: let others know about it. Thank you ever so much.
57:37
Speaker 2: Tomorrow morning, I believe Gee is going to be in here.
57:43
Speaker 2: We're gonna step it up. We're gonna throw some gas
57:45
Speaker 2: on the fire Thursday and Friday, and yes we are
57:49
Speaker 2: going to be talking about Rex on Friday for sure.
57:54
Speaker 2: Right here on aired Out. Stay well everyone, God bless,
57:57
Speaker 2: take good care of one another you tomorrow morning.
59:00
Speaker 1: Exact inductive conducting dictating happens expected exact fact.
1:00:00
Speaker 2: Youssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss