Hi, and welcome to Power the Network.
I'm your host, Tim Locker, vice President of Broadband for CBM.
It's great to be back in studio again.
I'm super excited about our guests today.
Mister David Johnson with Derlin.
He's the business development manager for Central US for micro Technologies.
I've known David gosh six seven years now, had the players to work with him.
Most competitive guy that I know.
I love him like a brother and we always have a good time together.
So let's get into our conversation with David.
Thanks for coming in today.
I really appreciate you taking the time to come in and visit with us.
You know, we met back in twenty seventeen where you started with Drlin.
You know, we've had an opportunity to work together over the years and really have built a great friendship.
And that's one of the things that, uh, you know that I love about this industry is is the people and the relationships.
What's your favorite part of your career so far, you know, starting with their line.
Yeah, I mean the biggest thing that I've enjoyed is every day is different, which is kind of cool and it's hard to explain that, but the amount of people in this industry, the amount of personalities that you meet, You're dealing with a lot of different things each and every day, right, And so for me, uh, the the industry is very warm and one warm, welcoming, very easy to get along with.
And everybody is curious, right, which is kind of cool, right.
And when when you have curiosity, it opens up doors for for good communication, good opportunities to to learn about people and and you know what they're going through.
And that's that's probably my favorite part.
Yeah.
I mean the relationships that I've grown in the last seven years have been pretty incredible, and in my personal I try strive to make them long lasting, right, Yeah, I don't want them transactional.
Well this, you know, the industry is such a tight knit group.
It's a very small industry, you know when you really look at it, and and you know, for longevity, obviously you have to have you know, integrity is one thing.
You know, treat people right, But those relationships, you know, people move from company to company and you know it's gonna come back full circle, you know, and some of the customers that we're able to work with, you know, traveling for me, I can't I couldn't just sit in an office job every day and you know, start at the same four walls.
I've always been in some kind of position where I've traveled and you know, you get to see stuff that you wouldn't normally normally see.
Yeah.
I mean that's when my first three or four years here, as you know, lived in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, and I was driving thousand miles a week, right.
Yeah, So you go eastern Nebraska, it's different type of people.
You go to Omaha, it's different type of people you go to you know, wherever you're at, and that radius of four states, you're you're meeting a different type of people.
And that's what I like about it is it's different every day.
Right, you get to you get to adapt.
You know.
I like the term dealing with ambiguity, dealing with change, and I love that right because it keeps me change.
It's one of the things that we're going to talk about today because that can be hard for some folks.
Yes, so we'll we'll get into that here in a little bit.
But so, I mean, I'm just gonna come out with it.
You are probably one of the most competitive people that I know, and that's great.
I mean you and I.
You know, our relationship is like like we're brothers and I'm probably better at a lot of things than you are.
And I know it's hard, but how how has that helped you professionally?
And because I know it's a value, how does that help you in a professional setting?
I mean and I I had attribute my my competitiveness to what I grew up doing, right, multi sport person Right, I played multi sports even in college, and it was something that I had to tach in order for me to be successful.
I had to get better, right every single day, had to get better, so, you know, challenging myself each and every day, that competitiveness, wanting to be the best.
Right, it can be you know, termed as arrogant or sometimes off putting, but I try, I try my best to not go that far right, but you know, it's uh, it's something that has driven me in in my life.
And you know, we hear I have kind of like an idol, someone that I look up to, a mentor.
But recently, you know, with all the podcasts and whatnot.
His name's Inky Johnson.
He had a tragic event that happened to him in his college career and and one of the things that he always says is it's not about the results.
It's about the process.
It's not about what happens at the end.
It's not about what you're striving for.
But it's the process in what you go through and when difficult times happen, what is that defining your character?
Right?
Do you keep pushing on, you keep moving forward and keep learning or do you just crumble or do you just blame?
Right?
Yeah, And so it's all about the process.
And so for me just in general, my competitiveness is mostly how can I make my process, make me grow, make me learn and whatnot.
So, No, that's that's that's a great point, a good perspective.
And one of the things I could You know, we've obviously we've built friendship over the years, and I remember, you know, several years back, I think we were talking about something was my you know, maybe one of my son's sports or something, but you talked about being coachable, and at the time we were talking about it, I could tell you like you understood that and you meant it.
And it might have even been too.
I think you've said it twice because you talked about it in a golf I know, yeah, that's a good copy of yours.
You like the golf, but to actually understand that and think about it, like I've watched you learn different things over the years because you have that mindset, and I don't think that's something people really think about.
But you know in a work environment too, that's that's obviously a good qualities.
So being being coachable, you made that very evident to me in your mind.
Then how what does that mean to you and how do you tie that in into work?
Yeah, So it's all depends on the person, right, what what's what?
Where are they at in their life?
What are they what are they trying to accomplish?
Because when you're a coachable person, that allows you to know that you're going to get told something that you need to improve on, and does that offend you?
Does that you've got some humility?
Yeah, so you've got to be able to accept that, right And a lot of times in my career it was tough, but I've always wanted to be better, right, So it's it's the want and the desire to to to overcome some of your your your weaknesses that you may not see and coachable, as your coach sees you or your your mentor or the preeople seeing you see those weaknesses and they're not trying to point them out to make you feel terrible.
They're pointing them out to let you know that this is something you can help you become better.
Right, And so that's that's where I I think it's all about the person, right, if they're willing to do that, keep the mind, to have the open mind that right and accept.
Yeah.
It doesn't happen always that way, right, No, I mean there's there's moments where you it's definitely, definitely hard to it's a tough pill to swallow at times.
But it's about the process.
It's not about, you know, the results.
No, that's that's a great perspective.
I appreciate that.
So let's talk a little bit about dua line.
You know, the big push right now is in micro technologies.
Your so your title would be Business Development Manager for micro Technologies.
Yeah, yeah, business Development Manager Central US.
And it's really just uh to help the entire industry understand really where this stuff fits into their their their play or what they're trying to accomplish.
And without getting too far into the weeds, explain a little bit what when we say micro technologies, what are what are we talking about?
Yeah, so a lot of people might confuse, you know, because we have a term microduct.
They might be like, oh, you're just talking about your product, your pathway whatnot.
But it's not just that, right, and incorporates every aspect that touches this type of product.
Right, So when we're talking about micro technology, it's it's the pathway.
It's the cable that you're placing inside the pathway.
It could be your connectivity, your your splitters, your handholes, and then also the what you do to install that product, right, placing equipment, equipment.
It's the whole process.
So when you're talking micro technology, it's it's not just jural lines, you know, microduct and future path it's the package, right.
You know, the customer has to understand what that means because they're small things that you have to adapt to and change to in order to be successful with it.
There's there's that word again.
Change.
Uh, you know, I mean, let's get into it.
So you know, we're dealing with you know, different companies, their projects, contractors, et cetera.
Contractors especially seem to either they grasp it and run with it, or they they don't understand it and don't run with it.
You know, I kind of call it fight in the medicine.
I think we both agree that, you know, micro technology makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons.
How do we how do we educate the contractors, How do we get them off center to actually kind of open their minds, be coachable if you will, and you know, try this type of technology.
I think it's there's there's a twofold situation.
You kind of have to understand your your situation, right, and we can go back to what we talked about earlier, where you know, we were talking about how this industry is so tight knit.
Yeah, right, So because it's so tight knit, some of these people are contractors or end users who haven't used it.
They've heard about it, and maybe that particular situation they heard about didn't go too well, and a lot of that has to do with not being educated or they didn't get the training necessary to be successful, and so that word of mouth goes out in the wrong way, and so we have to understand, you know, what we're dealing with.
We have to understand that although the information they're saying on the negative part of this might be very true.
We also need to let them know that, you know, there's there's a way to be trained or educated to make the successful and once you follow those steps, yeah, the majority of the time, you're gonna have a lot of great experience with this product.
Yeah.
The reality is it's not as scary as it may seem to be at first.
Yeah.
A term I absolutely hate is it's just pipe right, Yeah, but in this but in this situation, it is.
I mean it's a pathway.
It's there's not much different, it's just on a smaller level.
Yeah.
So and you mentioned training, and I know that's one thing that dual line is very big ones.
You know, whether it be uh corporately direct or whether it be through your rep firms, there's always somebody available, you know, to go out in the field and make sure your job is you know, get kicked off on the right foot so you're successful.
Yeah.
And I mean that's one thing that we want everybody to know is that you know, we we are here to train you.
We do not want you doing this by yourself.
We're not just throwing you something saying good luck, you know, but it's it's it's to me, it's shocking how much people don't take up that offer though too, because you know, whether it could be they're they're competitive, maybe they're like, I know how to do this stuff.
I'm good ego, I don't need help, right, whether it's that or or whatever it is.
But the important thing is is when you get support, when you get asked or offered support, I mean take it, take it because we want to give it to you.
And you're going to find yourself not wasting time down the road when you do do that.
So what what are some of the biggest misconceptions about micro dot.
Well, the biggest thing isn't necessarily the pathway.
I would think it's the fiber optic cable.
Right.
It's the cable, right, It's I'm I'm installing a cable that is double jacket or single armored or just has robust you know strength, and you're going to a product that is a lot smaller, right.
But the important thing for us to remember is the glasses.
The same glass.
You know, it's it's outdoor rated, right, and you know as long as you are following the recommended steps and the training of how you place your handhole, how you protect that open environment when you actually are dealing with or have fear of that fiber cable getting ruined.
If you're doing the steps that are necessary, those kind of get you know, they they they they forget about them pretty quickly.
But it's a huge pinpoint right for people at the beginning of their you know, different industries, you know, whether it's utility space or the communication space, and you know, different geographical concerns.
You know, you do see that the fiber cable can be a little bit intimidating.
But I think you know, you and I have both been around the fiber jetting process a lot yep uh and and I think you know, if anybody gets the opportunity to see that live and in person, and actually it's really impressive of how much cable you can get ground in such a hurry.
I mean, I love to say it, but that's where the magic happens, right, That's where that's where it's fun.
And I every time I'm talking about it, this is where I I tell customers, this is the cherry on the top, right, this is this is really what wraps it all together, and this is why you're doing it.
You know, we can talk great about the pathway.
We can talk great about the fiber cable, kind of get them convinced, but it's the jaw dropping moment when you see that product placed and how fast it goes into the micro ducts and and whatnot so well, and on top of that, so the first install is obviously, you know, the jaw dropping moment, like you said, but you know, talk about the benefits of having multiple pathways.
Yeah, yeah, so that's that's the that's the thing that people don't necessarily see and they don't necessarily think about.
It's always kind of been a cost deal.
It's always been how much does one pipe cost versus a seven way or a four way.
Yeah, that's not the reality right when you get into depending on where you're at and the build first mile, middlemire, a lot smile, A lot of us don't realize that in the last mile, you're not just putting in an echine a quarter, you're putting in multiple engine a quarters because you've got your distribution fiber cable.
Then you've got your drops and you're already installing that, right, So your cost to install multiple bundles of standard con too, it is significantly higher than we initially think about it.
So, you know, installing something that has seven or four pathways in less than an inch and a quarter size, the installation of that product going in the ground is a lot cheaper than doing you know, multiple echine quarters or two inch product and whatnot.
And the ability to come back later and add to it and add to it.
You know, that's one of the things that sticks out to me, you know, not even looking too far back ten fifteen years ago, some of the networks that have been built really aren't designed to last.
You know, we've got a lot of money coming from the bad funding.
You know, what do we need to do different on today's network to make sure that they last?
You know, an old copper network they built for thirty plus years.
I don't feel like we're doing that today.
It's all about cost long term, that's going to cost us more.
Yeah, And I mean it's it's all dependent on your your I guess you can say your network, right, who's your network?
Who's designing this stuff?
Because there's a lot of designers out there, networkers that you know, do a phenomenal job, but they sometimes pigeontow themselves into something that they know works right.
And when you when you know, something works, you kind of just run with it, and it's hard to change.
It's hard to change, right, And it's all about, you know, finding ways in certain situations where this might make sense a little bit more for this particular customer and what they're doing.
Maybe that neighborhood has the potential to grow, right, so we want to add something that allows that a lot of people to add fiber accounts to those situations where what's great about this solution is you don't have to do that.
You can have a pathway, a spare pathway redundancy for you to add and only use what you need now, right, use what you need now, and then you have pathways to grow down the road.
And what's great, it's a reusable pathway.
So once you've added onto that capacity, you can remove and terminate that old network and then play continue on to use that pathway reusable pathway, right, Because it's always a guessing game up you know, years ago, you know you put a six fiber cable in the ground and buy how you'll never need more than that?
You know how many times have you heard that?
So yeah, that eliminates the guessing game for sure.
Really quick, let me tell you a little bit about CBM where Manufacturers Rep firm right here in the Midwest.
What that means is we are a contracted sales organization that works for multiple different manufacturers, so we can be a resource for you on many different facets.
We were established in nineteen sixty and now are an ESOP company, so we are employee owned and what that means is we have a different mindset here.
The tagline around the office is act like an owner.
So our employees they think differently, think as owners, and we operate that way and we are inspired by that leadership.
If we can be a resource for you, please reach out to us at cbmrep dot com.
So let's take a second and just talk definitions.
So, you know, we've talked a lot about about microduct future path and you know some of our viewers may not know what we're talking about.
So real basic definitions.
What is a microduct?
Yeah, so it's let's talk about what we know, right.
So what we know is a standard conduit.
Right, So we've got you know, inch and a quarter conto it.
You got two inch conto it, three inch, four inch stuff that the entire US is very familiar with.
Right rollable pipe product that we've become notorious for making for our customers continuous rolled pipe versus the PBC pipe right stick pipe.
Sure, so you have that that product right there, inch and a quarter.
You get to a point to where with micro ducks it's so small we can't talk in inches anymore.
That's the reason why this product is somewhat new in America because this is only thing that's used in Europe, right, how small of locations they've got what they use.
They use micro ducks, and they use those in terms of millimeters.
So you get to a point to where it's so small where you got to talk in millimeters and so microduct you know, ranges from twenty seven millimeter in below microduct and those are that's what that's why we call them, you know, micro ducks because the how small they are, you know, in relative standard conduits, so microduct similar to what you're kind of seeing here.
This is a bundle of micro ducks what we call future path, and that product right there is kind of jumbling right now.
But no, so this yeah, so this is a seven way eighteen fourteen, yes, right, seven way.
So inside this pipe, I don't know if you can see on the camera.
But each one of these then is a micro duct yep.
Yep.
So when it's bundled, this overseat is put on and then that's considered a future path yep.
So that's how that's marketed.
But so each one of these eighteen milimeter outside diameter fourteen millimeter inside diameter yep.
You know that that one eighteen fourteen can take as many is So this is a four to thirty two micro cable, so four hundred and thirty two fibers that can be jetted into you know, one of those individual pipes that sometimes can get overwhelming and a little scary, and that's one of the things we've touched on.
But that's the value of this pipe, the density that you can actually get that many fibers into it and then add more, you know, as you move on.
So, and what's great about our micro ducks, right, So something that separates us from the entire industry is what we put inside of our micro ducks, right.
So they all are ribbed in, so they have less surface area for that fiber cable to touch, which eliminates friction.
So not only does the ribbed in help the product, and the installation process.
But we have a permanently extruded lining inside of that called silicore ulf.
So that silicore ulf reduces the friction quite a bit, right, It makes it so you can jet.
You know, without that product, you're jetting a few thousand feet and we're at least doubling that distance because of that silicore ulf.
So that's one thing that you know, all of our micro ducks you know, provide.
We also have the opportunity to put that inside of our standard conduit as well, but it doesn't come there, you know, that just standard it's it doesn't it's not their standard, but all of our micro DUTs have that silic or ulf.
Yeah, and so this product here just briefly, so this is a jumbo future paths that you've got actual inch in the quarter ducks that does have the silicore ulf in it combined with the micro DUTs.
So we called yeah, we call this one it's our hybrid future path.
Yeah, okay, right, and so hybrid future path is a combination of standard ducts with microducts.
And we also have a jumbo future path which you mentioned there, but that's just standard conduit in oversheath.
So and so this is what kind of replacement for a four inch duct, Yes, metro type application where you may be pulling standard cable, you may be using microduct.
It's a great replacement for any invite where you're using PVC pipe as well, right, four inch PVC pipe, stick pipe, you know, large diameter pipe if it's in the HDP world.
Four inch pipe.
Yeah, it completely replaces this.
It's a one step install.
And what I mean by that is, you know, with a four inch pipe, you're installing it and then you're putting something inside of it, whatever that is, it's multiple introducts inside of that or max L product fabric lining.
Right, this it's a one step install and you have six pathways ready to use instantly once you've installed it.
So one of the things I think is important, you know, moving forward, we talked a little bit about, you know, how do we make the network's last scalability, you know, I know that's that's one of the things I think we have to to keep in mind as we build these and obviously this product is perfectly suited for that.
Yeah, how do we how do we change that mindset to think about long term because we don't know.
We don't know what's going to happen in ten years or twenty years, but we need to get thirty years out of a network.
So you talk a little bit about how this will help.
Yeah, And I mean the industry is starting to kind of wrap their heads around how do I build for the future already.
That's why they're installing two or three inch and a quarters.
That's why they're installing multiple two inch products right they're installed.
They're building their own future path bundle with standard duct right, and so the industry is kind of adapt to that already.
The biggest thing that we have to overcome really is just understanding the big picture.
And that's something that I like to discuss about with a lot of our customers and engineering firms, is understanding the big picture of what this looks like.
Right when you get your numbers and all your product and the cost of a pathway, our pathway is less than three percent of the overall build and people are always penny crunching and really trying to get the cheapest solution with your pathway.
But your pathways your infrastructure.
Yeah, your your pathway is what you use to install your cable.
So it's less than three percent of the overall cost.
We probably should have, you know, value a smaller than that.
Really, Yeah, I'm kind of throwing it up there as you know, if the percentage goes but you know, if we short circuit that, we're short circuiting what we can do in the in the future.
Right, And so you know, you know, thinking about it more often, realizing what the overall cost of that is and the changes you can have really can set you up for success.
Yeah, and there are cheaper solutions, oh yeah, I mean it was nothing to hide there.
There.
It's a very competitive market, ye, I know, there's a lot of different companies that are you know, coming after this technology and trying to really compete with it.
What sets dural Line apart, well, I mean the one thing that I talk about all the time with us is the quality of our products.
Right.
So Derline's been around since you know, nineteen seventy one, right, it's a little over fifty years.
You know.
We started in Middlesborough, Kentucky, and we started in the gas and water industry, right, something that we're not really that specialized in anymore.
Right, So we've evolved, right, We've evolved to being a huge player, the number one HDP manufacturer in the US.
Right, so we have thirteen plants and counting in the in North America footprint.
You know, we've become a billion dollar company in the United States.
And you don't get that big with not changing, right, adapting, continuing in your process, right, And that's what we are very good at.
Right.
So we are constantly changing, trying to improve ourselves and you know what we can provide to our customers to where you know, we're not just providing pipe anymore, right, We're we're we're providing you know, opportunities for engineering support, We're providing opportunities for for training on sites, training and support.
We even have our own deural Line Academy.
You know a lot of a lot of things that we overlook as companies and even even these small tocos, right, is how do we train our team?
How do we value them enough to give them the training that they need.
And so we've done a lot of training within our own company and it's with the Duraline Academy, and we're offering that to all of our customers, right, We're offering it to every single one of them to use our our our data, our classes, our courses on micro technology even safety, installed installation tips and design and designing put it together right, how to do all of that?
And so it's it's that's that's what separates us from most of our competitors.
Right, We're not just pushing out PIPE, We're we're pushing out a solution and constant continuous support UH to our end users, which is always there.
Yeah, and we feel that as one of your reps.
You know, we've our guys have all been through the academy UH and the trainings are great.
If anybody UH is interested in that, how where they find that?
Yeah, So it's an academy dot dural line dot com and that's where you can just go in and register and it's it's all free.
You make your own account.
The courses right there are available to anybody who signs up and makes an account.
And there are some on there that do say they cost, but you know, we have ways to to give you a discount COD and we'll figure that out and and help you out so you don't have to pay for those.
No, that's great.
And you know, obviously as a manufacturer's rep, UH, you know it's important to us uh, you know, working for you know, good companies like dural Line and the relationships that you guys have with reps.
You know, talk a little bit about how how you work with your reps and you know, how we partner together in the field.
So I think a lot of times maybe people don't understand what a rep does.
Oh yeah, yeah, and you know, shame on us maybe, but talk about that relationship a little bit.
Yeah.
So I mean we we I mean we can't thank our rep firms and I mean CBM enough with you know what the what you guys do for us.
You guys are evolving as well.
You're trying to change how you go to go to market with your customers and support your customers.
And those are the kinds of REP firms that we want to you know, go to you know business with.
Right And you know, for us, a REP firm is an extension arm for our sales team, right.
They they are an extension.
We do not buy or purchase or you guys don't take product or sell to customers directly.
That's we see the customers physically, man to man, person to person, woman to woman, We see them to directly, yes, but we do not sell through a rep or whatnot.
Right, So it's important through distribution or avenues of you know who we work with.
But our rep firms are just there to to expand our reach, right and and get to those people that we may oversee, right.
And they also help us with large accounts that we may need a little additional support outside of our product that we sell fiber optic cable, right, you know handholes or uh you know jetting equipment, right, So we use you guys, and that's one of the neat things that you know, one of the neat parts about being a rep and a benefit to a company like Duraline uh is having a portfolio of all the products.
So you know, when we talk about micro solutions, micro technology.
You know, obviously we can help you with deduct but we can help you with the fiber cable, we can help you with the vaults, we can help you with the splice closures.
We can help you with this uh, you know, the splicing machines, you know, from one end to the other.
You know, it actually adds value to the manufacturer as well, because maybe we don't get in there with the dural line product.
But we talked to them about another line yep.
And then it's an opportunity, you know, to bring more people into the pictures.
So it's all about timing in this industry.
Yeah yeah, I mean how many times have we visit a customer and we're like, oh, man, if you would have been here a few months ago when I started buying my network, and you know, I wish I could have been able to know about this stuff before.
But yeah, you're right.
I mean, when you can go in there and you've you've timed it perfectly and and you get splicers, right, they're they're they're at that point they need splicers.
Right.
You start building that relationship with that customer, you start showing how good you are in the support world, which is why we have a relationship with you, And then they start saying, oh, we're starting to do this build over here, maybe we can start talking about you know what you what we missed out on the last time, right, build a little credibility.
Yep.
That goes back to those relationships that you know.
It's once again, one of the biggest, biggest things that I love about the job is just the people and the customers and the manufacturers and everybody that we get to work with.
Yeah, for the majority part of this industry, they're all great people, right, and I mean there's a reason why they stick around so long is because it's hard to leave.
So let's talk a little bit more about training.
I know, you guys just recently had kind of an internal fiber of the home type of training you run into other manufacturers, you know, to teach your internal folks.
Talk a little bit about what happened there and yeah, So we had an internal tech summit where we, uh are our subject matter was the fiber the home, right, with with the bead funding coming out with with with knowing what opportunities we have here in the new future.
You know, we wanted to make sure our entire team understood, you know, what it is that that micro technology world really consists of.
Right, So we had multiple manufacturers and part we call them partner relationships, partner manufacturer partners, where they'll come in and they would talk about their particular product that they are working with in the fiber of the home network, right, and that other piece of the micro t the other piece of micro technology.
Really understanding what each part of that build looks.
And you know, one of the terms we used is follow the light right from the CEO all the way through the huts, through the cabinets, all the way to the home right, So we followed the light.
What that consists of where the pathway fits inside of that footprint and then also where all the other uh you know, uh vendor partners you know, are are taking place in this environment.
Right.
Well, I think that's huge because obviously, uh, you know, if you guys have to understand what you know, the other manufacturers are doing, they need to understand what you're doing, and how do we collaborate all that together to make this network more viable?
You know, I think that's great.
I know, uh, you know, you had Brendan O'Boyle with Pop there and he got to talk about you know, why why a preformed don't closure is is better, you know, why to use that, And I know, uh, you know, just from personally talking to him, I know that that meeting was very important to you know, not only to him, but to pre Form and some of the other partners that we work with.
I think that's awesome what you guys did there, and and I think that goes to show the difference, you know, of what DURA line is is willing to do huh, you know for the long term versus you know some of the others.
So yeah, and when you when you have relationships with multiple you know, people in multiple partnerships, it makes it makes your job that much easier.
It just makes it easier to go out.
And you know, that's what a customer wants to know.
They want to know what all what are all their options?
Right?
What options do they have where you know, there's there's there's some solutions out there where it's just it's mine or all.
It's all our mine, yeah, right, all or nothing.
And if you don't do that, then it's not going to work out, right, So you know, our our solution allows you to you know, piece and match what makes sense for that customer and allows them to adapt and make their own, you know, their own network and piece it together, which is great.
So talk a little bit.
I know we've we've talked a lot about in the communications space today, but what other markets are you responsible for?
Where are we seeing you know, this type of solution, Yeah, I mean any of What's the easy short answer to this is this product fits in every single vertical market you can think of.
I mean that's that's the easy answer right now.
I mean, we we got this started in the independent telephone companies, the telco world.
That's where it's really kind of started out initiated.
But as things progress, as the knowledge gets out there, you know, you have you know, government entities, d O TSU, you have city ofs municipalities.
They really like this product because it allows them to install a product and not have multiple Internet service providers come in in one year and then they're digging up and making permits the next year with another is sp right, So you know it's really huge for those those government entities, city ofs municipalities.
That's a really big vertical market right now with this particular product and how it's growing.
And then we also have the power utility world, right, electrical co ops, power utilities are trying to find another source of income besides just a utility built with their with their customers, right, and so you know they are trying to find out ways to to bring Internet services to their loyal customers that they've had for a long time.
And they're they're they're they're starting to learn more about what the fiber network looks like.
Installing fiber optic cable.
But those guys are kind of the big ones right now that are really up and growing.
We're seeing a big shift in you know, in the in the broadband projects, and we're seeing a lot of R E C s UH and utility companies doing these builds and UH.
You know, some of them are very well versed in fiber and some of them are very not.
It's new to them.
So the fact that you guys UH do such a good job on training and educating the customer, I think that's huge.
No, yeah, And I mean, like we've said, you know, we we have we've done the work on building a training platform.
Right, We've we've done that work, We've put in the time, and we want to share it with our customers.
You know, we have a few situations where our Diuraline academy can be morphed into a specific customer's own training academy for themselves, right, so when they have employees come in, we'll tailor fit it to whatever that particular customer would like us to do.
Right.
We've we've done it with a few customers and they've they've been very grateful for this opportun hearny because they haven't had to spend the time to build their training facility or their training website or whatever that may be.
You know, they're able to, you know, now incorporate you know, the hard work that we've done, We've been able to incorporate into into their own training, which is awesome.
Yeah, and where do we find that again, Academy dot dural line dot com.
That's awesome, David.
Once again, I love you like a brother.
Yep, thanks for coming in and talking to us today and shedding some information on on dural line and future path.
Appreciate it.
Yeahank you, thank you, appreciate you.
Well, there you have it.
I always love talking with David.
Like I said, he's truly like a brother to me.
You can tell you know how incredibly passionate he is about what he does, and I share those same passions with him.
Always love talking to David.
If you'd like to find out more information about some of the stuff we talked about today, you can go to a dural line dot com uh or always reach out to us here at CBM CBM rep dot com.
Thanks and we'll see you on the next one.
