In this episode of Power of the Network, host Tim Locker interviews Jimmy Todd, CEO of Nex-Tech and industry leader. They discuss Jimmy's journey from wanting to be a doctor to serving in the Navy and finding his passion for technology. Jimmy took over as CEO of Nex-Tech 10 years ago and focused on learning the operations, culture and finances to determine how he could best support the strong team already in place. He believes in making changes and seeing the results rather than staying stagnant. Jimmy spends significant time advocating for legislation to get providers to contribute to infrastructure costs, especially in high-cost rural areas where streaming video is consuming more and more network capacity.
He serves on multiple industry boards to stay engaged and influence positive changes. Jimmy enjoys continuous learning and self-improvement. He discusses the importance of taking concepts from training and implementing them into habits and processes. Jimmy stresses the significance of doing what's right for customers and communities through economic development, workforce training and more. He talks about the misperception that his frequent travel is glamorous when it's truly focused on participating in board meetings and advancing his mission.
Hi, and welcome to Power of the Network.
I'm your host, Tim Locker, vice President of Broadband here at CBM.
Today, we've got a real special guest.
I'm super excited to talk to him, mister Jimmy Todd.
He's not only the CEO of next Tech, but he's also on many industry boards and spends a bunch of time working for US fighting for legislation for broadband.
I'm excited to welcome him and let's jump in and see what he's doing for us.
Jimmy, thank you so much for joining us today.
I know you've got a crazy busy schedule.
We've tried to get you on for a while, but I'm glad you finally made it.
It's great to finally meet you.
Thank you so much for being here.
Certainly, you know, I watched a YouTube video that's from about ten years ago when you were just being brought on board at next Tech, the fourth CEO there, and one of the things you'd mentioned at that point was your priority was trying to get your hands around, you know what's going on, what everybody's doing, and yet stay out of the way as well.
Uh, you know, have you been able to not micro manage your people and and you know, still be in the loop of what needs to go on.
Tell me, tell me about that.
Yeah, you know, I was very fortunate.
I inherited a fantastic team at next Tech, and you know, in those early days, it was really just trying to get a feel for how things operate, why we do what we do, and then try and figure out how can I best compliment the team that I had.
So, you know, in the early days that that really was kind of the focus.
Take a look at little tweaks here and there, and you know, then grow the comfort level working with the exact team and working with the team in general to try and find ways that we can continue to grow, diversify and and be even better.
So, you know, looking at operations, looking at culture, looking at you know, the financial aspects of the company.
And I have to say it was it was a fun transition being able to be there and see what we were already doing and then see the potential for what we could do beyond that.
So how long do you think that transit What would you say the transition took in terms of time where you really felt like, Okay, now we're gonna We're gonna do some stuff.
You know it was, it was within the first couple of years.
You know it again, it's just seeing how things work with the changes that that you start to implement, right, Because one of the things that I learned long time ago, if you don't take the effort to make changes and see how things go, then you don't change, you don't evolve.
Yeah, sometimes those changes are wonderful and go in a great direction, and sometimes they don't, and you have to adjust from that, learn from that, and learn how to be better.
So it was, you know, some of that in the beginning.
But you know, again, having a great exec team, having a great team in general at next SECT made that a lot easier.
Yeah, that's awesome, you know.
Yeah, you have to Hey, you got to wait a little while to see the results, right, but you have to also have the courage to make that commitment and do things different.
Yes, sir, you always do what you've always done.
You'll always get what you've always gotten right, exactly same old things.
So that's great.
What does it look like now for you ten years in?
I'm sure things have had to have changed.
A bunch of priorities are probably a lot different.
What is a day in the life of Jimmy Todd look like.
Now, you know the thing about it is looking to find ways to continue to grow and reach customers that are unserved from a fiber standpoint, because I still believe that, you know, regardless of where you're at in this country, you need fiber connectivity.
We look at ways to expand outside of our cooperative footprint and into the other markets that we built out.
But you know, some of the things that we started years ago providing business services, IT MSP services were needed.
Well think about today cybersecurity and the potential for data issues and things like that.
That continues to be an opportunity for us to grow.
We provide carrier services nationally.
We provide Khalia trusted third party services, so the data version of the old FBI wiretaps.
We can get a subpoena from them and you help companies provide you know that data.
That's something we do, you know, so that in addition to the core services mine frankly, yeah, as long as I've been in the industry, Yeah, yeah, And we have a knock service that you know, does a deep dive on what's going on in networks.
We provide that service, you know, to several state wide fiber networks as well.
As you don't just do that on your own network.
That's a service you offer to exactly that maybe smaller providers that don't have that yes capability, and we've we've got some pretty good sized ones too, and so you know, just building that started with what we needed to do for our company, and then we looked at ways to do that for peers and others, and so we've kind of used that as how we've grown.
Just like our medium marketing group.
Right when we started with IPTV, well we did some local generated content, right beyond that, we noticed that people needed help with advertising and marketing.
So it started as something to help our small and mid sized businesses in the areas we served and continue to grow where you know, we started helping peer telcos and broadband providers to do those same kind of things because we had built that internally and then it was an opportunity to expand that to help others.
Yeah, well that's awesome.
You know, we go to all the different trade shows and those types of things, and there's always your company, you know, you have sales guys like us at these trade shows and it's it's because you're offering so many different services.
Yes, sir, now that's that's awesome.
What other things do you do in the community community that you think sets you apart from your competition.
You know.
The thing about it is is my team is extremely dedicated to the communities we live in and we serve.
So you could find them volunteering, you at at any community event.
You can see them in the parade, you can see them at you know, the food banks whatever.
You know, that's something that I think really makes a difference when you're serving in a community, especially the small rural communities.
So and I know that's something that's important to you.
Actually you kind of started out in the with bell companies, but right the draw to community is what is what got you where you're at.
Frankly, absolutely, I'm a small town country boy and so you know, my heart is being in small towns and rural areas and I want to see them be able to have the services that they need to be successful and to thrive.
And let's face it, you know, we've learned that broadband isn't a luxury.
Broadband is a necessity.
So being able to continue to expand fiber connectivity and provide you know, state of the art broadband services across rural America is huge.
So that's that's something that I've been focused on.
I mean, think about things like precision AG.
You're not going to get that with you know better than okay connectivity.
Having a fiber last mile connection to that farm and ranch headquarters will allow you to have that last acre network where you have connectivity to the items that are out there, whether it be a combine, whether it be a drone, whether it be sensors.
You know, that connectivity to the farm and ranch headquarters is key for the success of that last acre network.
What percentage of broadband providers do you think are touching that market.
I know of a couple in Iowa that do.
I'm talking about precision AG.
Yeah, you know, it's one of those things that's different.
So we as broadband providers, we provide that last mile connectivity because that's how our networks are built.
But you are seeing some pilot projects take place between farm operations and some of the rural providers.
I'm aware of a few of them around the country in different areas.
But there's a lot of technicality to precision AG and having the connectivity that you need for the future of precision AG, you know, is different than what the traditional farm has, the small and mid sized farms.
Right when you get into the big corporate operations, it's a whole different ballgame.
But when you're looking at the small and mid sized farms, they generally don't have an IT guy on staff.
So that's where I see, you know, folks like my company and our peers being able to provide that kind of support for those last acre networks in the future.
Yeah, and that's one of those things that you know, goes back to setting yourselves apart right right.
Question on the on the precision AG does that also involve I guess the network I'm thinking of also involve some cellular spectrum?
Well is it going to be a combination of both?
There it could be.
You know, when you start thinking about the last acre network, it is going to have to be wireless because you know, if you've got a sensor on a cow, okay, you're not going to have five connected to it.
If you've got sensors remotely in soil, you know, dispersed throughout an area, you're generally going to reach those wirelessly.
You know, everything from low raw when to hype throughput type capacities for like drone where you've got video or something like that.
So you're going to have a variety of wireless connectivities that are necessary in my opinion, for the future precision ag Now, can that be done with cellular Yes.
You know you're looking at some companies that are trying to do private five G networks right or private LTE networks again reaching that last acre right.
But eventually, as the data continues to grow, having edge computing devices at the farm and ranch headquarters are going to be more and more important.
And again that fiber connectivity to get there is even that much more important.
Well, that's awesome.
I'm glad you touched on that subject because I think that's something that a lot of folks don't think about, right, you know, but there's a lot of technology that's going into pharming these yes, it is.
So one of the things you're spending a lot of time doing now is working with legislators to try to help not only your company, but you know, all the other broadband providers out there.
Tell me some of the things that you've been working on, So you know, the thing that we've been working I've been involved in for about seven years now, is trying to help people understand the impact of edge providers, primarily streaming video over the network.
My company and a lot of my peers operate in high cost rural areas and with that that means it's pretty sparsely populated, all right.
So when you think about the network that we use to connect and provide broadband services, you you have a finite capacity, right, So I'll give you an example.
Years ago, we had a ten gig core network and that core network connected all the central offices in our footprint and from that the last mile goes out from those central offices to the homes and businesses.
But you have to have that connectivity because then that's how we connect directly to the Internet.
So when you start looking at the capacity going across that, I've got a team that monitors our network, watches the throughput and the data capacity going across it.
We started seeing some pretty dramatic increases seven eight years ago.
As we did our homework, we found that it was video streaming video that was starting to make a huge impact on that network.
Well, that network is the same network that provides telehealth, public safety, education, you name it.
Everything is still going across that same core network.
Right.
The challenge is is as it continued to get more and more full for capacity, we had to be proactive and start making investments that ten gig network was going to get oversaturated.
Well, the problem is this, So you drive to work and you go down highways and such.
So if you're on that highway and there's no traffic, you can change lanes, you can exit, you can on, you know, get on the lane and there's no issues.
The more the fuller the traffic, the more traffic that you have going across that network, then you start having trouble changing lanes, exiting things like that.
An IP network is similar.
Once you hit about eighty five percent capacity, that's when you start seeing network anomalies which cause either slowing down of data or can cause data disruptions.
Right, So we knew that we needed to invest in that core network as well as our connectivity going towards like Kansas City and Denver to reach the Internet cloud.
And so we took a look at, Okay, what does it cost for us to increase our capacity from ten to forty gig?
And we looked at ten to one hundred gig.
Well at the time, the cost to go from ten to one hundred was just a little bit more than going from ten to forty, but it gave us a little more runway on that growth.
So we had to invest millions of dollars to upgrade the electronics.
Now, the fiber's already there.
Yeah, that's why I think that like slips my mind when you think about what we do and who we sell to.
You know, it's we're thinking, okay, this the last mile.
Let's we're talking fiber, but there's a bunch of operational expenses behind all that.
Yes, that we office, So we had to upgrade the electronics around that core network and of course increase our post leaving our network and going upstream what's what's called the middle mile, right, So we we spent millions of dollars to make those investments.
Now we finished that project, it was a three year project that we finished about two and a half years ago.
We are already having to start preparing for the next upgrades because of how fast the amount of data has grown on that network.
So well, it's important that my daughter's snapchat gets to her friends.
Yes, I mean that's yes, so much of it is frivolous, but it's I mean, that's just the way the world is.
So, you know, we started making people aware of that issue and and members of Congress meeting with them.
We had some early legislation several years ago to address that.
It continued to have to build awareness.
Commissioner car had come out several years ago with a Newsweek article talking about getting edge providers to contribute to So when you say edge provider, you're talking a Netflix or a YouTube Google TV, Yes, a major content right like this, and they continue to keep popping up, and so more and more of what used to be linear video has transitioned to streaming video.
Well, as you can imagine, that just continues to grow the amounted data that goes across the network.
And the thing about it is is these folks are pretty smart.
They know.
Visiting with the folks at one of the companies you just mentioned, we talked about adaptive bitrate technology, So they have the ability to sense the capacity of the network going to that device that people are viewing from.
Right as we would make investments in our network, they could send a higher quality signal to that end device.
As you can imagine, a higher quality signal has greater DATAEP so without that end user doing anything, they were sending a better quality video to that device, which only increased the use of the network that we just made investments on.
So it was saying, you know, help us make these future investments for your product in these high cost areas.
You know, back in the day, Netflix, you know, sent DVDs out in the mail, right, they paid the postage.
They put an envelope in there and paid the postage back.
So what we said, you know from the beginning, is help us pay the postage because we can take that and continue to invest in this network so that our customers and your customers get the best possible product.
But you know, when you're looking at millions of dollars of investment for the electronics and the middle mile up line connectivity, you know, the ability to pay for that in these sparsely populated areas is challenged.
So if you get anything out of this episode, you know, just remember that we work in several different markets.
We've got expertise in many areas, and if we don't, we've got the relationships to find the answers that are right for you.
We go really deep with our relationships and that's really what we value here at CBM.
If we can be of service to you, please reach out cbmrep dot com.
So I guess in my mind it would be similar to life the old days of long distance.
I will tell you that as soon as you start talking about access, that became a real challenge with a lot of the folks in Congress and at the FCC because they did not want to go back to an access regime.
Yeah.
So what we talked about was seems reasonable though for people to pay for what they're using.
Well, I mean it's no and then if you're using electricity, you pay for how much you use, right, But in our world they wanted to avoid that, so we came up with ways that it could be estimated and it could be done such that it didn't impact the smaller companies.
You know, it was really focused on the folks having the biggest impact on our networks and so limited to you know, just really a handful of customer companies.
Yeah, okay, well that makes sense.
Is it just too much to if you take it back to managed way, like long distance is just too much to manage?
Or why why are we of what's the hiccup?
Why are we avoiding that type of you know, honestly, I think a simplification was what the folks that are in charge of making those decisions wanted to keep.
And as a result, I guess I mean in the you know, we hear it all the time, you know, Internet for all, yes, and so in along with that mindset, I can see that direction maybe yeah, fitting better.
And you know, for years, you know, it took years to get traction on this concept, but now it's become a commonplace discussion.
We're hopeful that well, we've got legislation that's introduced with regarding you know, having the edge providers help participate in USF Universal Services Fund has been a mechanism that has helped rural telcos and communication companies provide services at a comparable rate to those in urban areas.
Right and because of the contribution factor things, because it was based primarily on telecom services, the contribution rate has gone out of control where it's over thirty percent now, so this was a way to reduce that and try and simplify, you know, how that is paid for going forward.
Now, personally, I think it goes above and beyond just USF support to companies.
I think if you operate a rural network, then you have those same influences affecting you, whether you're a rural wireless company, whether you're a rural cable rural cable company or rural telco or electric that's now providing broadband, right, so still facing the same challenge, same challenges.
Yeah, So to me, the USF piece is kind of a first step.
I hope that in the future they're helping with all networks in rural areas.
So how do we take that USF piece and make it more broad to be kind of a more universal club, if you will.
Yeah, So everybody's participating, and then it costs each individual person who is currently contributing, you know, because on your bill you see a us F fee that reduces it lowers the amount that the consumer is having to pay and brings in more like the edge providers to help cover some of that cost.
Yeah, so you said, so let's has been introduced.
Yep, that's where we're at where we an'll have Yeah, Senate Bill thirty three twenty one is there.
I know that you know right now there's a USF working group that is looking at ways to evolve USF.
I know that, you know, they are familiar with our you know, concepts and the things we like to see.
I'm very hopeful that when that, you know, when we hear officially from the Working Group what they have come up with ways to change USF and the contribution and the distribution, Uh, that this is a part of it.
Yeah.
And the reason I say distribution is in the telephone days, you didn't have core network and middle mile.
You had toll which is the long distance, and you had local right, So these concepts are different from the telephone world.
These are broadband types of costs and you know, so we're hoping that that's all taken in consideration as the Working Group makes their recommendation.
Really the evolution of the network absolutely help with it.
Yeah, so you're involved with I mean, I can't even list all the different boards that you're on.
What's I'm assuming there's a large tie into the legislation piece there and also all the boards that you uh work on.
What's the help me tie all that together to?
Is that how you're is that how you're moving your mission forward through these boards?
Or am I totally off my rocker?
You know, the the involvement with the different boards is is to try and be engaged, whether it's KFN, which is Kansas Fiber Network, or Next Tech Wireless which is a Tier three wireless company, or NRTC which provides services to electrics and telcos, and there they all are are ways that I can try and being involved and engaged but also try and help influence.
And so in a way it all ties together because, as you know, you create connections and through that you can share some insight on things that maybe weren't necessarily top of mind.
So it never hurts having those connections and being involved in Fiber Broadband Association helps me, you know, continue talking about Fiber First focus and you know, it all kind of works together.
But you know, it is something that if I didn't have the great team that I have at next Tech, I wouldn't have the bandwidth to be able to be involved.
So that's probably one of the one of the big changes, you know, looking back ten years ago when you started to now developing that team, trusting the team, oh absolutely, and then allowing you to take on another mission.
Yes, yeah, that's great.
So I saw in one of your interviews previously you said you wanted be a doctor when you were younger.
Yeah, you know, like I said, I grew up in a small town and my grandmother was a nurse at the doctor and you know, for the doctor in town.
And you know, I grew up going to see my grandmother at the doctor's office.
As I grew up, you know, made good grades and they're like, okay, you know, you should be a doctor.
So, you know, that's kind of what I thought I was going to be.
I went to Emory.
That's where I thought I was going to go to med school all that, and as I got there, I just started wondering, is is this really what I want to do.
I knew that I wanted to do something that helped people, but I wasn't sure so joined the Navy too.
Well, it was an interesting one to see the world you'd made.
Yeah, you'd made the comment that that that was a good place to grow up and figure it out.
Yeah, you know, thank you for your service.
When I was that age, that never crossed my mind that that would be, you know, a good place for me to grow up and figure it It probably would have been the best thing for me.
But you know what stuck out in your mind to actually have the insight at that age that I can actually, Okay, let's figure this out.
Where am I going?
I mean, that's impressive to me.
Well, you know, it's weird the path that life takes you on, right, And for me, I just needed to be sure that if I was going to commit the rest of my life to something, that it was what I really wanted to do.
And quite honestly, when I got in the Navy, I fell in love with technology, and so I still had that drive to want to do things to help my communities and such, but I started looking at from a technology perspective, and so, you know, did the Navy time got out missed the military, ended up doing an army guard and ended up spending you know, part of that time active duty.
So it was the first goal for So the Navy time was first.
Golf war Army time was second goal for And there's a big difference being on an aircraft carrier and being boots on the ground infantry, so totally different scenarios.
You can learn a lot from both situations.
Though, you know, I can imagine, well, thank you again because I look up to those that do that for us.
So, uh, so you come out of the military and go to work for you know, one of the old Bell companies.
Yeah, I had an opportunity to to get signed on to be an iron R tech at pack Bell.
So I had been, you know, in a technical field in the Navy.
I had run crews.
I was a flight deck troubleshooter and and so, you know, we had a pretty diverse group even though I was an avionics tech.
You know, we were cross trained in electrical systems, power systems, the jet engines, you know, aircraft mechanics and stuff.
And uh so it was was fun.
But you know, I finished my bachelors while I was on active duty.
I got out and I just I enjoyed being a tech.
I love going to the businesses and the homes and you know, either fixing an issue or connecting them up.
And eventually they talked me into going and becoming a supervisor.
I resisted for a while because I loved being at tech.
But when I look back through, uh just what I've tried to learn about you, the one thing that sticks out to me is you really seemed to enjoy learning.
Yes, and so I feel like you've got that in your head that that that you're never going to stop.
Now, tell me, tell me where did that develop?
You know, I would have to say even back in grade school sounds like a geeky thing, But I liked I liked school.
I liked learning things.
I liked being challenged mentally.
As I got older, I liked being challenged physically too.
But you know, for early on, it was something that you know, I liked trying to learn.
I wanted to grapple with the things that I didn't understand and make make it so that I did understand it.
So, you know, it just started early on as something that that I enjoyed pursuing understanding things.
I think, what types of books do you read?
Oh gosh, you know, I will say most of my reading is done electronically, whether it's through industry publications or newsletters magazines that are tied to either leadership or the industry.
And occasionally I'll pull a book off the shelf from from someone who i've I've seen present that really kind of clicks with me.
And you know that varies from time to time, and it's very random, to be honest with you, Yeah, you know, I get fascinated with with leadership, and you know some of the different techniques, but it seems like too you over whelm yourself with those books and they kind of at some point all give the same message.
So you kind of got to be careful what you pick.
But I've recently just kind of started on some true stories from the Native Americans, you know, way back and you know, as we were kind of conquering the west, if you will, And some of the stories are are quite interesting, sometimes gruesome and awful, and you look at at what we've done as a society kind of makes you think about things a little bit.
Absolutely, kind of a little different change in direction for what I've you know, typically would would read been a good little break.
So well, you know how you talked about a lot of times you get a lot of the same information.
Well, I'm looking for that golden nugget.
Yeah, I'm looking for that thing that I'm not expecting to find.
When I'm reading something or when I'm participating in a webinar or listening to a presentation, i want to hear something that's different and unique and say, Okay, how can that help us, you know, my company, my team be better, or how can it help me as a person be better.
Yeah, I think self improvement is is critical for everybody.
You know, I'm forty eight, I'll be forty nine here shortly.
And you know, really, I don't think that crossed my mind a lot in my younger years.
You know, probably not, you know, maybe the last ten years when it's really kind of sink in and been a priority.
So looking back, I admire people that are able to do that at a much younger age because I think they just advanced themselves that much further, that much quicker.
Well, if you ask my dad, I've made a lot of bad decisions alone the way too, but you know, I try and learn from those decisions and not make them twice.
Yeah.
And then part of that too is you know, whether it's a training or whatever type of learning, but you have to take and implement that, yes into you know, small steps create the habit and you know, whether it's for you personally or whether it's for you know, your team, uh, you know, creating that structure and creating those habits so that on the road you know you're successful.
Absolutely.
So what what's one thing about your job that people would misunderstand the most?
I guess, oh, wow, that travel is is fun and luxurious.
It's a party every day on the road.
Yes, you know, being involved in a lot of different organizations from a board level or a key committee level means that you're on the road a good bit.
And anybody who works trade shows would understand that.
You know, it's it's not that you're going there to you know, take a vacation.
I'm usually going I'm a meeting and then I'm coming back.
And on rare occasions that my wife can go with me, I'll take a vacation day just so I can spend a day with her.
But for the most part, you know, i'd say probably eighty ninety percent of the time, it's you know, traveling for a day because I live I live in northwest Kansas.
Yeah, you know, which is close to nothing.
Well, it's close to it's in the mouth.
It's in the middle of everything, right, That's what I say.
It's in the middle of everything.
But for me to get to a major airport, it's Denver, which is over well not not quite five hours, over four and a half, but Kansas City, which is over five So you know, it's it's a it's a long day of travel, but being there and being engaged is worth it.
So you know, it's it's not all fun and luxury.
O.
It seems but seems that way, but it's not.
That's that that's a common misperception.
And you have to balance that.
You've got you know, family, you've got work, all these other different aspects of life, and yeah, you know you have to maintain that balance and is constant ketch up and get ahead.
Yeah right, yeah.
Uh, you know, we've we've worked with your company for you know, as long as I've been here, and uh, it's really been a great relationship.
Uh, you know, working with your folks.
You've got some of the best people and in the industry.
I agree, and we appreciate that relationship over the years.
And and that's really what it's all about, frankly, is is you know, doing what's right for the customer.
And it doesn't matter if it's from me to you or you to your customers.
You know, do what's right, solve their issues and work on things collectively together.
Yes, what what kind of things in particular are you doing locally in the community, you know, helping your individual customers.
What's what really sets you apart?
You know, one of the things that I think is kind of unique is is we do a lot with community development and economic development.
We have someone who's dedicated, that's their entire focus is being in the community and trying to figure out how can we help support growth of a new business, or expansion of a new business, or salvaging a new business.
We've worked with the USDA Red leg Program and things like that.
We have a revolving loan fund that we manage ourselves, and we try and find ways to help businesses in our communities that need help.
In some cases, you know, is being able to provide a really low cost loan or you know, make donations to help you know, businesses or community activities happen that might not otherwise be able to happen.
So I love that part of what we do because it truly shows that engagement and the importance of the communities we serve.
You also mentioned there's a technical college out there that you work with, Yes, and you're revamping that communication program if you will.
We did Mike Pollock, who's my CEO.
This became one of his pet projects.
A few years ago.
The Technical college had basically they weren't getting students for the telecom program and so we got involved and we said, we think that there's a way to revamp it so that it focuses more on today's types of services that we provide.
So he worked with their leadership and helped revise the curriculum.
We started sponsoring some students that will go through the training and then do internships with us and hopefully become long term employees.
And so, you know, it was a mutual benefit for them being able to get that program going again and make it relevant to today.
But for us our heres having something that we knew that they were going to be able to go through the training and then come out and be productive, you know, as as a technician in the field, immediately was was a win win.
Well, that's one of the biggest challenges I think that everybody face.
You know, if you ask anybody, you know, it's hard to find good employees.
Uh.
And uh obviously with all the different funding available, uh and you know the broadband plans over the next several years, Uh, people are in a shortage.
Yes, I think that's great.
How you figure out figured out a way to help people, help the college and then back around and help yourself.
So absolutely, I think that's great.
Is there anything else you want to get off your chest before we let you go?
I think we've covered a good bit today, had a good bit.
Well, it was great to meet you.
Uh.
Like I said, I know we've worked together over the years, but you and I hadn't personally met.
And so I'm grateful that you came in and got a chance to talk to us, and and we'll let you get back to Western Kansas.
Thanks sir, thank you, thanks again for joining us today.
And thanks to Jimmy Todd for everything he does not only for us, but for everybody in the industry, you know, fighting on our behalf with legislation.
So thank you Jimmy for everything you do.
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