00:00
Hi, welcome to Power of the Network. I'm your host, Tim Locker, Vice President of Broadband here at CBM. We got a little different set today. We're coming from you from the M.A.T.S. Mid-American Telecom Seminar and Showcase here in Kansas City. It's a great place where we can get together with lots of manufacturers, see many of our customers all under one roof. So we love these types of events. Our guest today is Mr. Gene Hamilton.
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plant manager at Columbus Telephone. He's been a good customer of ours over the years. And so we're gonna get his perspective today on the broadband industry. Follow along.
00:40
Gene, we appreciate you joining us today. You know, we're here at the Mats Mid-American Telecom Seminar and Showcase this week. I know we're kind of fresh into the show today, but what have you seen so far that's really got your attention? There's a lot of different things here at the show. It's really worth coming to for all the new products and vendors. It's good to get out and see what's all in the market instead of just having sales guys come by. Yeah, these best-of-sales guys. Yeah.
01:08
You got it. Now there's a lot of neat products for all the firebombs at home to look at the future to see what we should be using. Anything in particular that you're came kind of looking for? Mainly a lot of outside plant stuff right now too. Just looking at different options. It seems like it's constantly changing. The PLP line and stuff has been great for us. And we just kind of like to see, hey, new ideas just because we've always done it that way.
01:34
and maybe better solutions and cut costs. That's one thing that, you know, over the years you hear, you know, oh, well, we've done it this way for 20 years, right? And that's always a big red flag to me because it's somebody that's very closed-minded, not necessarily looking out for what's best, but maybe just not willing to change or, you know, stubborn, if you will. So it's good to keep that open mind. And, you know, we appreciate the...
02:00
We appreciate the positivity with PLP, obviously. We appreciate your business. But yeah, they're obviously a great line for us and great customer support as well. Personally, I'm very interested in leadership, personal growth, those types of topics. I think it's important that we all continually try to better ourselves, especially those in leadership. But I think everybody can gain from that.
02:28
What's your leadership style? What do you do for your people and how do you help them maintain personal growth? My style has really changed over the years. When you first get into management, you think, oh, I've got to manage and be this micromanager. That's kind of the wrong approach. So I've changed over the years to be more laid back, try to make certain you get all your employees, the information and tools they need.
02:51
hey, bottom line, they come to work, I want to get them home safe to their families. Safety is the number one priority. Safety is no accident. Right, hopefully they will happen that's how you recover from. Just to be a supporting member for your employees, to be, hey, I want to turn them loose, come up with your own ideas sometimes. We have a lot of meetings sometimes to throw stuff at the wall as we call it, what about this idea, what about this? And then we finally come back to.
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decide, hey, this is the best solution for us to use as a company. So, yeah, it's obviously important that your people feel like they have, you know, a say in the matter, gives them ownership. Correct. They're going to want to do that, you know, a lot more. They're going to have more personally invested. Correct. You know, if they've got a piece of it. So, yeah, I always say, hey, come out and come to me if you need your help. And a lot of times I still get out in the field because I don't want to expect an employee to do something I want to be done.
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So in the last year, I've been in some attics and under crawl spaces and different things. Cause we sometimes- Good little reminders of what is right. Good reminder to me to go, Hey, this isn't always the best spot to be. So it's gotta be done. Why does this install take six hours? Well, you know, we had to do this. Right. Yeah. No, that's great. And I think your people totally appreciate that when you're willing to do those things. You know, there's been a lot of business owners that you've heard over the years that say, you know, there's,
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always willing to push the broom or do what anybody else, you know, whatever, willing to do what they ask of other people. And I think that goes a long way with the team. Yeah. What have you done in terms of personal growth recently? Try to do a lot of reading. I mean, when you got downtime, there's so many products and so many different things in our business to keep abreast, you know, what's going on. And I try to encourage the employees that way too. This is because you go to school or you've learned it.
04:46
It's a never ending learning career in this business. We got to keep abreast for all the new stuff's coming. It used to be slower 20, 30 years ago, but now you better keep on top of what's going on. Yeah, and for me, I've always been in the outside plant world, if you will, but never done a ton with the electronics, the AdTran, the K-Lix, et cetera. How tough is that side?
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to keep track of. I mean, those things are changing every day, it seems like. It is a big change. There's still a lot of repeat stuff as it goes. It's newer names, newer products, faster speeds. So yes, it keeps going. Yeah. So I want to kind of ask maybe some different questions a little bit for my own self personal growth, if you will. But you know, obviously we're a sales organization. That's what we do.
05:43
You know, in your position, you get a ton of vendors that want to come and see you got XYZ, they want to show you, et cetera. And let's, just to help salespeople in general, what can a salesperson do for you that really brings value? What makes that visit worthwhile? I'll have to kind of brag on you guys to start with for CBN. Oh, thank you. We started a new CEO a few years ago.
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and pretty well did it on a piece of paper and sketched it out, got a quote, and you guys come in, did the work, hey, we threw stuff on the wall, made some changes and stuff, and you guys have never come in over budget. And it's just always nice that sometimes- I wish I could say that was always the case, but thank you. Well, it has been for us. So it's just nice that sometimes it's kind of a handshake deal, which is kind of rare anymore. Yeah. And you guys put a lot of pride in your workmanship.
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and always laugh, you always leave a broom and a dustpan at the end, you know, because everything's got to be cleaned up and perfect. But, you know, a lot of people for sales, they only give you a part of it. And there's always the unhidden cost that they're aware of, but they don't want to tell you upfront because they want to get sold. So it's kind of nice when they price a total turnkey product for you. Yeah, no, that's great. What what does it mean to you if, you know, a salesperson comes in and.
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I mean, what's the difference if somebody really asks a lot of questions, trying to understand your needs versus, you know, here I've got this. Right. How does that feel from your perspective? It's very important because I think everybody's network is different. Everybody has different products out there, different environments, that it is important that they come in and kind of learn your network, learn the company's philosophy.
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Hey, where are you at in this? We've been lucky in a fiber home for many, many years. So we may be different than a new one or keep in mind just cause you're putting in fiber home, someday you're going to be changing it out that we've already been through. So that makes it interesting too, to keep your products instead of always doing it the cheapest way may cost you in the future. Yeah. And just because I've got this new widget doesn't mean you need it. Right? Right. No, that's great. I just try to...
08:04
More for a reminder of even our own people, some of our young guys, but just being aware of what it means to truly serve the customer, I think that's important. And how valuable is your time? Right. We don't want to waste your time if we bring no value to you if we're just in there. It's always nice seeing new products, actually kind of physically seeing them instead of just talking about them for the widget or whatever.
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That seems to sell for us quite a bit. You know, when somebody brings a new product and it may even be something small, you know, but hey, this would make your technicians easier to pull a fiber through the wall or whatever. It's sometimes just them learning your network and what you need. Yep, exactly. So you're down in kind of Southeast Kansas? Correct. What's the broadband landscape down in Southeast Kansas? Well, we've been lucky. We've been fiber the home since 2004 in our little area.
09:00
and we've continued to grow and stuff. We've picked out a lot of CenturyLink areas, to be honest with you, that just didn't have service. We picked on an AT&T area where they're actually cutting the drops off and the customers had no internet. So that was an easy one. It's really neat to meet the customers like that. They about come up and give you a hug because, hey, I've got internet today. When are we going to have service, right? Right, and we try to do same day service, you know, customer.
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experience is very important. Hey, you answer your phone call, you take care of that customer and always try to drive that home to everybody. How would you want to be treated yourself or your mom or dad or for elderly? Sometimes you have to slow down and go out to the site and actually, you know, make it work for them. I think what makes the independent telcos so successful is their service. Correct. You're always going to hands down out serve
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in your own community to the people you live with versus a Bell company, for example. Do you train your technicians and your installers on how to serve the customers, how to treat them? Because they're the people in front of your customers. Are you training them on different aspects of that? We do. I try to go on site with them at times because it gets me out of the office, which is sometimes nice.
10:24
We had one just the other week that I took one of our newer employees to. It was just visit with the customer, slow down a little bit. Even if it's not your product, you know, that, hey, they're streaming the internet over the top, you know, and you can say, hey, that's your problem. Well, try to help them out. Some of the older people, they really appreciate it when you're done. Yeah, some of this new technology for, you know, some of the older folks. I've told the story about my own dad that, you know, he got...
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Fiber the Home brought to the house. And he hooked up YouTube TV and in less than 24 hours, he's like, get rid of it, I can't even figure it out. It's not that hard, but some of those people do need, you don't kind of walk them through. And then you keep that customer as a repeat customer because, hey, they're happy. You took time to train them. Who's going to train them? And always look at it. What if it was your parents or your grandparents? Somebody's got to slow down sometimes. And...
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A lot of times we get in the mindset how fast we can do stuff. If you go through with quality of service and really slow down and do your jobs right, train your customers, train your employees, hey, you have happy customers. And without our customers, we don't have jobs. Yep. And I'm glad you said that because I'm kind of a quality over quantity. I'm a go fast guy, but quality matters. I'm glad you said that. So you mentioned you started your fiber of the home process.
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in 2004. Correct. So 20 years now under your belt. What's the biggest change, two questions I guess, what's the biggest change you've seen from then to now? And what did you think would change that's actually still the same? Well, I was blessed. I started off with mechanical switching even, and then we made it to the...
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moved down to Columbus and we had an aerial plant, unpaired drops and stuff, and dial-up come along in about 1994. I mean, it'd be too painful to test that now. Yeah. We had a lot of slow speed circuits, you know, 56K, even some analog circuits. And our plant was aging and stuff. Our city had a cable TV system that was outdated. So as a community foundation type deal, we bought the cable TV system and started looking at what kind of plant we're going to put in.
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And at that time it was a hard push. I was young, it's like, we got to put fiber in. There was a lot of challenging process. A lot of pushback, I'll bet. Yeah, to do that, or one of the hardest things to put in was a 56K circuit over fiber. But the company we worked for at that time, we made it happen. So it's been a neat change to see go from, hey, I remember when I first started off, oh, you got 24 kilobit on your fax machine. Good.
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And yeah, that works pretty good. Only takes seven minutes to download that fact. To now, hey, you've got a gig service to your house. And so it is neat to see all that stuff change. There still are some old T1s and stuff out there that I figured would be gone sooner than what they were. Yeah, they kind of hang on. They kind of hang on. Why is that? I don't know if customers just don't want to convert. One of them was in insurance. They've worried about safety over the internet.
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It's a training curve to get those last few off. Gotcha.
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What makes CBM different? They value our customers, they value our manufacturers, So they behave in a different manner.
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and also the communication market. These markets are overlapping more and more every day and the ESOP and the way we're structured actually allows us to be more flexible and cover those markets and put our expertise where they need to be. So if you're looking for a manufacturer's rep, high quality sales staff, good relationships, look no further than CBM. You can find us right here at cbmrep.com.
14:32
What does the landscape look in terms of competition for you guys? Competition, we've got some coming back in, you know, media comms, some cable subscribers, even some cellular, where the customers are just looking at the price instead of the quality. And we get a lot of those that move off and maybe come back to us later because...
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hey, they don't want to wait four hours on the phone or get something in the mail with no help. Again, customer support is probably the biggest thing because customers do have a choice. So you've got to make it different for them to support them and help them. What do you think you do differently that maintains those customers? Well, we take all of our phone calls live during business hours. And we try to get back to the customer then to get to a technician if they need that help or call them back within a few hours.
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most of the time a same day service to make it to the customer's house and in the CenturyLink, AT&T area, it just blows their mind that you came here the same day. At the time you said you're going to be here. So that just puts a big smile on your face that you can help those customers. Yeah, those things are important for sure. You kind of got an interesting story. Talk a little bit about how you got into the industry as you kind of got brought into it at a young age, correct?
15:47
I did. I grew up in Northern Nebraska, a little town called Plainview. My dad was a well digger and we did mechanical trenching was a big deal for him when he come out of World War II. I had a phone number of 111 for his business. So he was good friends with the telephone people and as a little kid, it was just amazing to go to their office and watch the mechanical switch and I'd see those guys drinking coffee over there, taking breaks going, hey, I want that job. That's easy compared to being-
16:16
being out in Northern Nebraska in February, working with water, you know, I said, hey, and then I moved down here as a lineman and found it's still cold up on a bucket, you know, during the winter, but it's been an interesting career to see the old stuff go in. And then I was very blessed to come to a company that's very proactive. I had two really good mentors that worked for North Electric. So everything was in one perfectionism. I made a few cross to lacings during, sorry, redo.
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You know, do it right the first time or don't do it. Talk a little bit more about those mentors and more specifically, like what you gain from them. I think it's great to have the older knowledge teach us, you know, why reinvent the wheel a lot of times when somebody else has done it. Yeah. I try to really ask a lot of people, you know, what would you do different? And all that, and I hope to be a mentor myself more during that, because there's so much in this industry for new kids to come along.
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and learners, I mean, from the sales to the fiber splicing to the electronics. I mean, this career is is pretty wide open for somebody wants to come in and learn. Yeah, certainly. It's a small industry, you know, seems like you see the same people maybe wearing a different shirt once in a while, but it's it's all the same folks. It's a very tight knit group. In general, I'd say everybody's.
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pretty darn nice, easy to get along with. So it's a good industry. You mentioned the young people and something I've picked up on and it's a challenge for me. I've got a 22 year old son. So sometimes we don't always see eye to eye, but it's being pointed out that our generation, a lot of times talks down to those kids, the young kids. And I do it specifically with my son, I'll admit that. But
18:09
And I think it's true. I think instead of talking down, we have to figure out how to more lift them up. And have you seen the same? I see the same thing and it's really easy after you get old and age, it's experience, and you got to think back that these people haven't seen sometimes what you have. So you have to share with them, bring them up to speed and get them encouraged. It's a constant learning curve for me. You just can't go to school or go to a fiber splicing tool.
18:39
and oh, I know I'm done. So much of it's on the job. Correct. You just have to learn. But yeah, I just think from a leadership perspective and maybe it is just getting more mature, right? Older. Older, if you will. But yeah, I think it's just interesting to be aware of how you have to treat the different generations. And part of that, I've been blessed to work for a company that's been very proactive.
19:06
They want to look at the modern stuff. It takes a good board of directors and general managers to be future thinking. You can't jump on every last thing, but you have to be looking at the future instead. Oh, we've done this this way 20 years. We're going to continue to do it. Yeah. And talk about your board a little bit. You mentioned that, and it is important that they understand some of the new stuff that's going on. Maybe the why.
19:34
the why behind the what. It sounds like you've got a great relationship there. Are they easy to get along with, totally on board with the direction you're going? They're very easy to get along with. In fact, I don't have to see them that often either. And that often, you know, that's good and bad. They just keep abreast with the network. And you know, if we give them ideas and stuff, they normally just ask, what do you want to do? Yeah. And that makes it a lot easier. Yeah. You've got their trust and they're willing to.
20:04
bank on your expertise. And we all make mistakes. It's just how you overcome them. So. Yeah. What percentage of your network is built in Fiber the Home? Are you completely done? Still growing? No, we were completely done in 2004, which was something that was kind of neat. We had no copper. Well, wait a second, I take that back. We had a six pair going to our neighbor telephone company for a backup line. That's all you'll ever need. Yeah. That's that. No, we don't need it today. So.
20:32
Now, so it's been really neat to be fiber to the home for that many years. Yeah. But one thing to keep in mind for the people that's putting in now, how are you going to replace it down the road? So be real careful on how you're laying out your fibers and stuff. If you get to change out all your equipment in the future, which as we know, equipment has to be replaced. Yeah. So you kind of leading into that, be more specific about what you maybe wished you would have done different.
20:58
We were actually really blessed at where we're at. We had nice patch panels and stuff. So when we build our new central office and stuff, we could convert by displacing two 88s with tie cables and stuff in between to new frames and stuff. Okay. I'm certain you can manage the fiber of the frame and do pigtail by pigtail, but it's going to take you a lot longer than to lay out your new equipment and have it tested to cut over. So. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Just something to keep in mind that, hey, I'm not putting it in and this is the last network. I think it's going to continue to grow.
21:27
Well, it's interesting because, you know, I mean, 2004 was early, but, you know, 2008, 2010, 2012 seemed to be really kind of the big initial, you know, buy in, if you will. And I can remember us sitting in meetings like, what are we going to do? These people are going to be done. Then what? Like, what are we going to sell them? We don't have those conversations anymore. I mean, it's, it's continually changing, continually growing. So
21:57
I got to believe it's going to be that way for a long time to come. I do too. It's going to be interesting. Like I say, in my career, it's like, hey, you got 24 kilobit and now we've got customers that have 10 gigabit for business customers and stuff. Where's the future going to go? It's going to be interesting. We're AI and everything else takes us to. There's a lot of that's unknown. Yeah, for sure. Are you guys looking at any of the bead funding? Any areas you've got your eye on that may be expanding into?
22:26
Yes, GM and our board and stuff are looking at different areas for bead funding. There's a lot of strings attached to some of it. Yeah, so I've heard a little bit. Yeah, so hopefully we're going to get it so we can expand more. Okay. We're still kind of in the waiting games and part of that down there in southeast Kansas. They've made some different maps and stuff that are strange. One example, we have a little town that kind of went by school district.
22:51
But then they come back and changed it and they split the town in half. So you'd be a provider only in half the town, which doesn't make logical sense. We'll have to see how some of that comes to play. That's some of the things that kind of went back and forth in the challenge process. Correct. Gotcha. Are you waiting? Do you have that challenge back or are we waiting on...
23:13
the results of that. I think they're still waiting on some of the results of that. It's getting close, so I'm not as involved in much as that. On that, I'm more on the technical side, so. Gotcha. Okay. Obviously, you mentioned PLP. You know, as far as the BIBA compliance that comes with that, you should be in good hands there. Do you have any other concerns with anything you've been using that's going to qualify or not qualify? Not that I can really think of. All of our vendors have been good. Hopefully.
23:41
You know, we don't get a big glut all at once when the bead funding comes out and manufacturing can't keep up with it. Yeah. Uh, that would be the only biggest concern. Yeah. And, uh, I think we'll make it through it one way or another. We always make it through it. So, yeah. Any other challenges? Um, you know, we hear labor shortage a bunch. Uh, has that been a challenge for you guys? Or have you kind of got the team established that you need?
24:06
We kind of got the team established we need, but as we continue to grow and get more funding, we are going to have to add to it. So it will just be to find the right person to fit in, wants to live in Southeast Kansas and be a team player. Right? Yep. Yeah, exactly. What are some of the biggest challenges you think you're facing? Not certain on that, 100%. Probably two-legged squirrels digging around without locate tickets. That's always a challenge, you know.
24:34
Calf testing can always be a little bit. It's pretty easy, but I'm kind of disappointed in our federal government that we have to do calf testing when we're a fiber home provider. So we're wasting all this time doing this testing that, hey, we're offering a gig service if you want it to your house. I think we could do this a lot different and not waste quarterly testing for all of us. Yeah, now that makes sense. You know, in terms of recruitment, are you guys doing anything in your area to engage high school, college?
25:03
Can somebody that's new wanting to come into the industry? We're always welcome for them to come by. We did some internships and stuff through their high school program. Sometimes it's not enough time, you know, half an hour a day or whatever. We did just put some servers in for KC Enterprise that's kind of going through Kansas City and Missouri to help cybersecurity, to teach that. So hopefully that will bring more people. I know some folks have done some,
25:33
internships and stuff over the years? Have you? We have done that in the past. A lot of times it's they're not 21. So they can't drive liability issues for some of that is disappointing. You know, yeah, but it can kind of filter out and give you a good idea of who's going to fit, who's going to work hard, who's going to be part of the team, etc. Correct. Yeah. What's one thing that you think you do different than, you know, the person that had your job before?
26:00
I don't think a whole lot. So you'll just sit around drinking coffee. Sitting around drinking coffee. No, keep pride in your work. I think that's really important. You know, I always tell my employees, if it looks good, it's probably going to work good. That's not always the case. But hey, if you do quality workmanship, take care of your customers. You know, just be polite and courteous when you show up at a customer's house. Pick up your stuff. If they need a little extra help on something, just do it. Yeah.
26:27
What's one thing that would surprise people that most people don't know about you? Well, the biggest surprise is I'm a multi-billionaire and my wife doesn't even know about it. And I don't either. I don't know. Well, that's a good answer. That's a good answer. So anything else you want to get off your chest? We really appreciate you being with us today. Well, I appreciate you guys' help. I appreciate the company I work for.
26:54
It's just been an excellent career path. And I look forward to more people getting into this career path, because it is an exciting one. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. We appreciate our relationship that we've had over the years. And like I said, just thanks so much for being part of this for us. So thank you. Thanks for putting me in the hot seat. Yep, you betcha. Yeah.
27:17
Special thanks again to Gene for joining us today. You know, it's awful nice of him to give us such high regards, but we appreciate what he's done for us and we really value those relationships over the years. Remember if you need a manufacturer's rep to support a product, we've got a specialized sales team here in the Midwest. Look no further than CBM at CBMRep.com. And until next time, thanks for joining us on Power of the Network.
