Without this Company the World Would be a Dark Place | Shawn Tafoya Ep 10

In this episode of Power the Network, host Tim Locker interviews Shawn Tafoya, a regional sales manager at Acuity Lighting, about the lighting industry and Acuity's solutions. They discuss the importance of lighting and how Acuity provides solutions across many sectors from residential to utilities. Shawn explains the benefits of transitioning to LED lighting, including 50% energy savings and reduced maintenance costs. He outlines the process of changing out old streetlights to LED fixtures and the factors municipalities must consider.

Shawn then discusses some of Acuity's newest technology like their auto connect luminaires which allow control and data collection through a mobile device without needing a full citywide network. This provides a stepping stone to networked smart city lighting. He also mentions future cellular solutions for rural areas. Throughout the conversation, Shawn emphasizes the need to listen to customers, understand their problems, and provide tailored long-term solutions. He shares an example of exceptional service he experienced at Disneyland that reflects this approach. Overall, it's clear quality lighting is vital for municipalities and utilities, and Acuity aims to be a long-term partner providing the right solutions.

Quality lighting is crucial for municipalities to provide adequate public lighting and reduce liability.
Transitioning to LED streetlights provides around 50% energy savings and reduced maintenance costs.
Retrofit kits can create issues - best to change out the whole LED streetlight fixture.
Acuity's auto connect luminaires allow basic control via mobile devices without a full smart city network.
Future cellular solutions will provide smart lighting options for rural areas.
Salespeople need to listen first to understand customers' problems before proposing solutions.
It's important to discuss all offerings to uncover new opportunities with customers.
Long term partnerships built on listening foster trust and benefit all parties.

Hi, and welcome to Power the Network.

I'm your host, Tim Locker, vice President of Broadband here at CBM.

I'm very excited about our guest today.

We've got mister Seawan Tafoya, a regional sales manager for Acuity Lighting.

We're going to talk about a lot of different things today and I'm really excited about the chance to get to know him a little bit better.

So follow along with us as we get going.

Sewan, thanks for joining us today.

I appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to come and be here with us.

Thank you, appreciate it.

I appreciate being here.

Thank you.

I would say lighting is probably not something that people think about on a daily basis, you know, common people, not something top of mind.

What would you say, like, what would be the result if you know, Acuity didn't exist, or in other words, you know, why is it so important?

Well, I mean, we'd all be in the dark at night.

Then, so Acuity as a company provides lighting not just in utilities, but across all kinds of different kind of buildings and outdoor facilities, you name it.

So from your residential recess cans and switches all the way up to you know, high mass lumina airs on freeway intersections and stuff like that.

So without acuty or lighting companies in general, we'd all be in the dark at night for sure.

So it is strange, though, You're right.

I mean I'll walk into places, buildings, go into new cities, and I'm always looking up to see what kind of lights are in in the space my kids, granted, yeah, and my kids will be there, what are you looking at?

You know, and I'm like, well, just looking at the lights, see what they have.

Yeah.

I had to just recently.

I had to pick a guy up early in the morning.

I pull into his driveway and he's got the garage doors but with the windows, and I could see he had these lights.

They're called a corn cob led light, and I was just blown away, like, those are the brightest garage lights I've ever seen.

Gott in the truck, I'm like, where did you get those?

I have to have you know.

So, uh, it turns out Amazon, Amazon, you know.

But so I've got him in my garage now.

Is they're They're wonderful, But it's certainly something you you know, you take for granted, sure, so, but your focus is on utility, right, what's the main thing you're doing there?

Street lights, you know, decorative polls, et cetera.

Yeah, Bread and Butter is going to be your everyday street lights.

The the American Electric brand is the thing where most talking with utilities about the street lights.

But we also do a lot of floodlights.

And then another big portion of our business is the Hall of Fame, the decorative traditional style post top pluiminars and also Cyclone.

So Cyclone is one of our newer brands in the acuity portfolio with as more of a modern flare for post tops and area lights.

And then we do a lot of controls, right, that's a big piece of it nowadays with the Internet of things connecting those lights together and you know, utilities be able to access those lights from the central location.

All of those things we're pushing every day.

Yeah, and I want to get into those controls a little bit, a little bit deeper.

But you know, it seems like over the last several years there's been a big push we're trying to you know, transition everything to LED Right, Explain to me what that looks like.

Are we replacing fixtures are there?

Is it just bulbs or are their kids.

How does that?

How does that work?

Yeah?

So and on top of that, then what's the what's the benefit to the to the end user.

Okay, let's let's take that last bit first.

The initial benefit, first of all, is about a fifty energy saving over the old HID.

Okay, it's high pressure sodium metal highlight, so it's a fifty percent energy savings right off the top.

On top of that, now you have a labor or maintenance savings.

So you know, the the typical street light, for instance, we rate it for one hundred hours of service, which is, you know, over twenty years of service in a normal dust to dawn application.

Okay, the you know, the old HID systems, they were about two to three years before they had to be maintained, according to the Luminating Engineering Society.

Now whether utilities did that or not another story, sure, but you know maximum about five years of service before they had to be maintained.

So that's the initial thing.

The energy savings and the maintenance savings for the utilities.

I mean, you have to think about a truck roll for instance, right, utility will tell you the truck rolls at least two hundred and fifty dollars to roll a truck to a single luminair If you don't have to do that for twenty years, that's huge savings in maintenance and operations.

So what do you think, percentage wise across the country, where are we at with that transition.

I think we're less than fifty percent?

Oh really, yeah, because we've been at it for gosh ten years any to it?

Yeah?

Yeah, I think we've still got a long way to go.

I mean we have So why if it's a fifty percent savings, why would anybody resist it?

There's lots of reasons.

It's not necessarily resistance.

The main reason that we see, particularly the big iu US slow to adopt is they have smaller municipalities inside their territories that have not that you know, they just don't have a rate case for LED.

That municipality hasn't adopted LED yet, and so the utility has to continue to service that that system, but with parts and pieces.

At this point, so last year, Acuity got completely out of the HID business altogether, so we stopped manufacturing.

So it will come as a necessity, yeah, I mean as municipalities at some point, because the i US are going to go to them and say Hey, look, we can't get this light bulb anymore.

We can't get this lumina air anymore.

We have to go to LED right.

So I think there's one company out there still making them the hid roadway fixtures.

But even there was a lamp supplier I think last year went out of business, and so it's hard for guys to even get the lumina or the lamps.

Even so, what does the process look like?

Then?

If we're changing out a changing out a streetlight, we're changing the whole light?

Are we what are we?

What are we doing?

So that's our policy.

I mean, that's what we would suggest you do.

There's a myriad of reasons for that.

We recommend changing out the lumina air because then you've got a whole UL listed, warranteed luminaire installed.

When you when you're talking about retrofit kits or lamp kits or something like that, what you're doing is you're you're altering or modifying the original design of that fixture, which automatically avoids you a listing.

Okay, so okay, But they have been fairly popular.

They have been popular, but we also have seen similar cases that there's been major issues, not to get any specifics, but you know they're there.

And then there's there's mechanical issues as well.

So one of the one of the big things that we've dealt with in the past with municipalities changing out decorative street lights on pendant style fixtures is the mechanical connection.

So you know, when when those fixtures are originally installed, they're screwed onto that that pipe thread, right, and they're not meant to come off right.

They're supposed to stay there forever.

And so when you go to change those fixtures out, what we've seen is they go to unscrew those fixtures from that pipe thread and they end up stripping the threads off that nipple and they'll leave you know, maybe a thread or a thread and a half on there, and then they'll go to screw on their brand new LED fixture and it leaks when you get the first rainstorm, and now you've got a really expensive fish bowl as it were, right, And so we've had a lot of conversations with municipalities and utilities around not only having he changed the luminaar, but the arm that goes with it.

So, yeah, there's mechanical issues, there's obviously electrical issues.

If you're gutting a fixture, you're you know, gutting the fixture, taking that old core and coil ballast out, going direct wire to some corn cob style bowl light bulb, right, and modifying that fixture altogether is just you're not only you're affecting the electrical performance of the luminaar, but you're affecting the photometry of that luminaar.

Right.

You don't know exactly how that corn cop is supposed to fit inside there and light up the street.

And that's the other issue.

For the municipalities and utilities.

They have a fiduciary responsibility to provide adequate lighting on the roadway and so we spend a lot of time going over lighting designs with our customers.

That's a big part of what we do every day is saying, Okay, here's the street, here's what we recommend that you do.

But just because we recommend it doesn't necessarily make it.

So so we go to the computer, we go to the software we provide adequate lighting on the roadway and give you documents to say this is what it's going to look like, and there's data to back it up.

And now you can make an educated decision.

So let's recap that real quick.

So, if you're going to go to a municipality and try to convince them switch to LED lighting, what are the main points you're going to focus on?

Right, So it's it's initial at least a fifty percent energy savings, the maintenance costs over the life of the LUMINAI.

You know, it's again you're not going to touch that fixture for twenty years.

And at the end of the day, the pricing has gotten to a point where it just makes sense.

Now.

Yeah, you know with most consumer electronics like TVs, right, the price comes down over time.

Yep, same things.

How with LED street lights?

Okay, so we've got to we've got to accept some of the new technologies that are you know, coming out.

I think, uh, you know, the world we live in today, things are changing rapidly.

Obviously.

What's some of the new technology that that you guys have.

I know, I've I've heard a little bit about you know, sensors and cameras and all these different things now that can be incorporated in, you know, into a lighting system.

Tell me a little bit about what's what's new with with Acuity.

The probably the newest technology that we're putting out this year particularly is UH has to do with integrating controls onto the luminair.

So they're sort of part and parcel.

Okay, So the sensor or the photo control is actually built onto the fixture and that the ability to do that stems from new driver technology.

So, oh, we have a new driver system out now.

It's it's Dolly dfour I Certified Driver Technology.

D four I means driver, Uh, Dolly for the Internet of Things and those new drivers are smart and UH.

They allow us to be able to power those on board controls with with d C power.

So the new drivers have an auxiliary bus on them that allows us to wire those on board controls like photo control, occupancy sensors, and things like that.

What's what is there a brand name to it or a marketing Yeah, it's the Acuities Optronics Drivers.

So what we did about what's going on Two years ago Acuity purchased the driver business from Osram, and over this last year and a half close to two years now, we've integrated the Acuity ELDO lead technology with Austram's technology and now we're building the Dolly d four eye drivers for our auto connect lumin Air.

That's our new auto connect.

Okay, So for a guy like me that's not as sharp on lighting, uh, you know, some of these terms are you know, over my head.

But what does that do?

Ah?

What does that do for a municipality?

What does that do for just a general public?

Explain explain the benefits of this auto connect.

Okay, So the the first step on the auto connect, it's it's sort of a layered solution.

So the first step that we're trying to do is give our customers some control over the fixture and data analytics and troubleshooting without standing up a full citywide network.

So what auto connect does is you're able to connect a phone or tablet to the luminare, download the telemetry data from the luminare, including GPS location.

You can input poll location.

But all the telemetry data loads automatically.

So the fixture attributes like wattage, lumin output, voltage, color, temperature, all those things load into the software automatically uploads into the cloud, and then you can control the fixture from your phone or tablet.

You can turn it off and on, you can set schedules, and then you can access that data from the cloud back at the office.

Okay, So you don't have to send a tech out that adjust anything.

You just simply yeah, I mean, look at what you want and exactly tell them what to do.

Yeah.

And the thing too that when we're talking about utilities, you know, if they want to make a change to that fixture, they don't have to send alignment to do it.

Yeah.

They can send a meta reader, they can send a salary person, they can send an intern go to that fixture, connect your phone to it, make your changes.

In addition to that, from the software on the cloud, you can select a group of fixtures that you want to push a change to, send that meta reader out.

He connects to those fixtures individually and pushes those changes.

So there's security levels in there to only give people certain access and all that kind of stuff.

So what it is is a step towards a full network system without having the cost of a full network system.

Are they just bluetoothing then to whoever's in the field with the tablet or whatever they're connect right, Okay, so there's like not fiber connected to them at this point.

Now do you see that coming at some point where the lighting would be tied into a city's fiber network.

So that already exists, right.

So we've had we've had mesh networks at acuity since the late two thousands.

We had a system called Rome and it was a mesh network, and so those mesh network systems have existed for a long time.

And those are full blown networks, right, So you've got to stand up a whole network.

You've got gateways which act like a router.

The fixtures talk to each other, talk back to the gateway, and that information transmits back to the central location and then from on a network system.

Now you have complete access to that fixture remotely.

So you can sit in front of the computer and say, I want pick these different fixtures and do changes, do diagnostics, figure out what's wrong with that fixture before you send somebody out.

With the system that we're putting forward with auto connect and it's called and the Bluetooth software and all that's called local connect.

It's not remote access.

You have to be at the fixture in order to connect.

So that's where you're saying.

It's so it's a stepping stone to that full blown network.

I'm assuming it probably tremendous cost savings to write.

Okay, there's a local connect to do.

Local connect system, you know, on your fixture is a twenty five to thirty five dollars adder, whereas if you're standing up a whole network, you've got you know, gateways that are a couple grand apiece.

The nodes that go on the fixture are over one hundred dollars a piece.

So and then you've got to deploy this throughout the city.

In order for that mesh to work, you have to have a pretty dense system of lighting already.

Right, So in cities it works really well.

But when you start to look at co ops and smaller utilities that have rural customers, now you're talking about fixtures that are miles away from each other, right, So the mesh network struggle.

The new thing that's sort of bridging the gap for those rural customers is cellular.

So instead of a mesh network, now you're basically putting a note on every fixture that's a cell phone basically.

Yeah.

Right, So that's something that we're coming out this later this spring with as well.

So we'll have a cellular solution coming very Oh that's awesome, Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

I mean, you've been in lighting for a long time.

The right started out with a distributor, that's right.

Yeah.

Did you spend any time working as a rep?

Yeah, I did.

I worked as an independent rep in New Mexico for a couple of I worked for an agency in Albuquerque for a couple of years as well.

Okay, or I started with acuity, Okay, So now you're with the manufacturers, you've kind of seen all facets of the job.

What really brought you into lighting, what made you fall in love with it?

So it was probably around two thousand and eight or maybe two thousand and nine when I was working at a distributor.

I was getting a lot of traction with contractors by going into all kinds of different facilities and doing what we call lighting audits.

Were you just going and basically identify and count the fixtures in the space and then make recommendations for energy saving and modernizing the technology that's in the system.

And was winning a lot of business.

And it was stuff that was you know, not bid board stuff, right.

It wasn't stuff that was up there that everybody's trying to price out and win business.

It was stuff that we were actually going out and generating ourselves.

And I really really enjoyed that and started to learn more and more.

And LED at the time was in its infancy.

I mean there was really just LED light bulbs like for you know, table lamps and stuff like that.

It was really expensive and need to be really selective about where you put it.

And I just got to a point where, you know, I was spending pretty much my whole day just doing that.

And so finally went to the boss's Boston, said can I just do this?

Like all the time, They're like, yeah, why not?

Why why don't we do that?

Let's create a position and you just go do that.

And so that's how I got started, just snowball from the Snowball.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So what what is your so your regional sales manager?

Right, what's your territory?

Uh?

So I have Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and southern Illinois below Chicago.

Okay, okay, gotcha.

So do you have any other direct people reporting to you or you just work with your repigence with the reps.

Yeah, I have four agents CBM obviously, and then the USA companies in Oklahoma Texas, USA, Oklahoma say, North Texas, USA, South Texas Okay, awesome.

What makes CBM different than other REP firms?

Really, it's got to be our eesop.

We're proud to be employee owned.

That employee ownership allows us to be different.

We're able to be more flexible.

We're able to take care of customer issues, we can take resources from one side of the company to another.

We're able to handle our manufacturers relationships differently.

It's just a really good culture.

Uh, and it allows us to be very flexible with what we do.

Uh.

If you're looking for a high quality salesforce to represent your product, or if we can help you out with an issue on a project or whatever, please reach out to us here at CBM.

It's at cbmrep dot com.

Thanks.

So you were telling me a story of an experience you had at Disney, Right, if you don't mind, could you share that story with us and and then kind of explain how that level of service, if you will, ties into you know, how you incorporate that into your world.

Sure, yeah, I mean I'm happy to share the story.

And I think if if anybody has ever gone to any kind of you know, done any business schooling, whether it's a university level or beyond.

Disney is always a major case study company, right, Yeah, just the way that they hire, the way that they train, and all that.

So we were at Disneyland.

My daughter, who's now going to be twenty two this year, she was I think seven maybe eight years old, so you know, she thinks she's a little Disney princess.

Right.

So we're on spring break, and spring break is usually around her birthday, and so we go to Disneyland.

She gets to do her birthday at Disneyland.

And before we went, we're you know, trying to figure out what to do for birthday cake, right, and so on the Disney website it said you can order a birthday cake at any restaurant.

It wasn't real specific about what any restaurant means, but it just said any restaurant.

And so we went to our typical pizza place for lunch.

We walked in and it's sort of a place where you just grab a slice and a salad or whatever, and you know, so we walked in and I'm like, well, where do we order birthday cake?

There's no place to order birthday cake here.

So we asked one of the cast members, and the first cast member we asked, she goes, yeah, we don't do that at this restaurant.

We're like, okay, well, no big deal.

We'll pick up a cake on the way home or something like that.

And so we started to select our food and a different cast member came over and said, are you guys the ones looking for the birthday cake?

And I said yeah, we are.

She goes, well, I could tell you.

The nearest restaurant to hear that has birthday cake is back on Main Street.

And I said okay, so I tell you put everything back, let's go, and we run over to that restaurant.

It had quite opened yet, but they had the menu posted outside and we started to look at the menu.

It was like, you know, French food, and the kids were like, you know, they want nuggets and pizza and stuff like that.

So I was like, eah, this isn't really going to work.

So I said, all right, well we'll figure the cake thing out later.

We go back to pizza, to the pizza place, and we walked in and that same cast member is now standing at the door and she goes, what happened?

And I go, well, the kids aren't going to eat there, right, She goes, oh okay, she goes, I'll tell you what.

I'll get you a birthday cake.

And we knew how much it costs from the website.

So my wife whips out a twenty dollars bill, hands it to her and says, here, I know it's twenty bucks.

Here, take this, right, and she runs off.

We get our pizza, we go sit down and start to have lunch.

She comes back with the birthday cake and gives us our twenty dollars back.

Oh that's awesome.

Yeah, And so, like I was telling you last night, from that point on, I was like, Disney can have all my money.

Yeah, right, so, and it's pretty It's pretty much been that way since then.

We've gone back year over year every year.

And I think to answer your question that the takeaway that I had from that was to always, number one, listen to your customer and the problem that they have, right, don't try to find a solution initially understanding the problem.

Listening first of all to what the problem is is critical, and then taking time to formulate a solution for that tailor to that customer.

Yeah, follow me.

Yeah.

And I think the other thing too, is it's a a general attitude that I think every salesperson should have just to say just to kind of take a step back without saying no, without saying yes initially, and just go, Okay, how can we make this work?

You have a problem, how can we solve it?

And how can we solve it in a way that the company's happy?

Right?

Because my I mean, if I'm being honest, my first responsibility is protect the profitability of my company.

So I have to be able to come up with solutions that take care of my customers problem and protect my company at the same time.

I think that a lot of times we we kind of lose sight of the fact that we're in a relationship business and that we we we seem shortsighted in that in the way that I think about my relationships with my customers, that I'm going to be here for a really long time and you and I are going to interact for a really and I think that gives them comfort knowing, you know, there's I mean, these industries are so small and people jump around, you know, and I get that, but there's definitely value in longevity, right, and you know, the customers understand that you're going to be there I think that's big.

I mean, I can't.

I can't come up with a solution that is short sighted.

Right again, I have to I want my customers to understand that I'm going to be here, and so I can't give you a quick answer.

I need to give you the long answer because the answer I give you today has to be the same answer I give you five years from now.

Right, So let me ask you this.

If I totally follow what you're saying in terms of understanding the problems, listening, getting the right solution, I get that.

What do you do when they don't have a problem.

You know a lot of times we go into a sales call with maybe there's somebody new, you haven't met them.

Maybe it's not, but we already assume in our heads there's something we're there to talk to them about.

Right, But what if there's no problem?

What do you do then?

And it's kind of there's a lot of customers that don't like that, right that.

You know, in the utility industry, we do we do business over over the long term, right, it'll be a one year contract or you know, we're looking at annuity business year over year.

Yeah, and things can be going great right, no effects, no issues, no quality problems and stuff like that.

And so you you know, you're making a sales call and you're like, why are you here?

Everything's going great?

Yeah.

My answer to that is something that I've only recently got my brain wrapped around.

Is it we get so hyper focused on one thing when we're in a sales call.

Yeah, that we have to kind of slow down and go we need to talk about everything.

Every time we go to a customer.

We need to talk about everything we have to offer.

Yeah, and if you do that, there's always something new.

Yeah.

We termed that.

Actually Dan Lovac with pre formed termed this phrase, but STP sell the package and yeah, because obviously there's a lot of business.

You know, we're always after new customers, but you know, we're probably not selling everything we could to every single customer we have, So there's a lot of low hanging fruit out there.

But you've got to do that discovery.

And we were on a we were on a team's call recently with a training company that's that we've looked at for doing, you know, sales training, and one of the big things there that they talked about was that discovery, Uh, how to form the right questions, et cetera.

And that really stuck with me because I think a lot of times we just run right in and we're trying to, uh, you know, make too much progress, when that discovery really ties back to that listening.

You know, what are we really going to do for this customer that's going to benefit them?

So no, I agree.

So you know, the easiest thing to do is, you know, for us, is to throw a fixture on the table and open it up and you know, go through electrical, mechanical and opticals, you know data.

Yeah, it's easy to do that.

You can just you can talk for an hour doing that stuff.

When it came recently, like I said, it's it's it's in the forefront of my mind.

On sales calls now, they say, Okay, if if we're going in to talk about this thing, we have to talk about auto connect, we have to talk about the controls.

We have to talk about Hall of Fame, we need to talk about cyclone, we need to talk floodlights, we need to talk everything that we have to offer every time we go in and formulating questions is a big part of that.

And I absolutely agree.

And I one of the things that I like to do, particularly if we're going to tsee a customer that's having an issue and we're trying to develop a solution, right, the main starter for that question is help me better understand.

Yes, that's X y Z right.

And when you when you get your customer talking, they're going to tell you exactly what they want.

They will, they will tell you what the problem is.

They'll tell you what they think the solution is, and then you can tailor your solution to that and it really does work.

Yeah, I like that.

I like that.

So, you know, life on the road, you know, you've been doing it a long time.

I'm sure you travel all over you know, I have for years.

What are some of the challenges you've had, uh, you know, trying to balance life, work, family, all of those things.

You know.

I think most people, most people think it's you know, we're traveling sales guy.

It's party every day, right.

No, yeah, it's it's one of those things that I've tried to explain to my wife.

It's not as glamorous as it looks.

Yeah, you know what I mean, you know, hotels, airports, stuff like that.

I mean, well, when you don't travel for business and you travel for pleasure.

You're always excited, right when you travel for vacation stuff, and so you put up with a lot of things you wouldn't normally put up with.

And when you travel for business, it's really just not fun.

Yeah, right, it's it's not fun travel.

I mean there's some perks, you know, when you travel, you get some some special bennies from different you know, whether it's airlines or hotels whatever.

Yeah, I've always enjoyed you know, there's places that I've been that I would never ever go to, right, you know, so that's one benefit.

You could see some things that you wouldn't get to see.

But I think balance for me is I feel I feel deeply for traveling salesmen that have younger children, like elementary school.

Yeah, my kids are a lot older now, I've got they're both graduating this year.

One is going to be eighteen, the other twenty two, and so they're you know, they're very already sort of independent, and so they're able to help more around the house and help my wife and when I'm you know, not there to cook and do stuff like that.

And so for me it's been a lot easier the last probably five or six years than it was when I first started this, and that piece of it, when you have young kids in your way and traveling for work, that's an extra level of stress, I think.

Yeah, And inevitably, you know, you get that phone call that you know, the water heater broke, you know, and you're fifteen hundred miles away, and you know, what do you want me to do about it?

You know, I can't really do anything from here, you know, So, yeah, we just had the water filter break.

We've got one of the whole house filters.

Yeah, you know, I'm two hundred miles from home, and I was actually driving home from Kansas City and my daughter calls.

She got home from school and she's like, there's water all over the basement.

Okay, so you know, she she'd went and got the neighbor.

Luckily they were able to you know, shut it off.

But literally, the like the casing of the water filter housing just cracked and fell off.

So you know, who knows how long this water's going.

But it's it's always always when you're gone, right, it never fails.

Right, you mentioned cooking.

I'd be remiss if we didn't talk a little bit about your infatuation with barbecue infatuation.

What's your favorite thing to cook?

I am an absolute rookie when it comes to I've got a wood pellet grill and I use it mostly for grilling, like I love.

You know, I can throw a dozen burgers on the thing and they're all the same, you know, I like that doesn't cook the juice out of it, and et cetera.

I did do a brisket over well, I shouldn't take full credit.

My son pressed it and then I just managed my phone and told that, you know, told of what temperature to do, but that that turned out pretty good.

But what's your you know, what's your go to?

My my go to?

Probably I think in my house the most popular things I make are ribs, and I think that's probably number two.

Number one is probably pulled pork or pork butt.

But in New Mexico we do things a little differently.

So I'll make a pork butt and then your regular barbecue sandwiches and stuff like that.

But then yeah, with the leftovers, we'll make a big batch of red chili and marinate that leftover pork overnight, and then I'll put it back in the smoker in a pan for another couple of hours and it turns into what we call carneo la lata.

It is awesome.

Yeah, and then we just make and stuff like that.

So that's probably the most popular thing at my house.

What's the most far out thing you've done?

Oh, geez, far out, far out an ext that's an old that's an old term.

A little bit, but yeah, I I honestly don't get too crazy.

My my wife and daught are pretty picky about about large cuts of meat.

I just enjoy asserting my dominance over large cuts of meat.

But so I do.

Okay, that's the other thing.

So my wife gives me a hard time because my my backyard is kind of full of stuff.

And so I've got I do a wood pellet smoker.

I have a weber and probably use the weber more than anything else.

And then I have a blackstone.

Yeah, I love the Yeah.

And then we have and then I have a what we call New Mexico called a disco.

It's basically just a burner with a big walk.

Okay, some people call them cowboy walks or disks or stuff stuff like that.

And so I've got a lot of those things in the backyard.

But the weather is actually my favorite.

Okay, that's awesome, So real quick before we wrap up, let's circle back.

You'd mentioned that municipalities have a fudiciary responsibility to ensure uh, you know, proper lighting.

Touch on that a little bit more.

Why is that important, Well, I mean simply for you know, protecting their own skin from litigation.

And you know, if there's an accident, crimes committed in that area, sure, you know, lawyers want to go after the biggest fish, right, and so particularly we've seen, we've heard many, many stories where there was an accident or something like that, and you know, lawyers go out there and they look at the lights and well, this light wasn't on.

That's why there was an accident, right.

So it again, it's it's one of those we all as we're driving the streets or you know, walking through buildings, we all take lighting for granted, right, because we just don't think about it because it's always supposed to be there.

And when it doesn't, when it's not there, that's when we start to notice.

And the main issue is them protecting themselves, like I said, from litigation.

But now you may go from different areas of town, maybe an older part of town where you know, you may notice the lighting is really not that great and maybe they've put more into a newer subdivision or something like that.

Is that just because you know, codes have changed over the years, or you know, what's the difference.

Yeah, I mean, there's there's a lot of local municipality codes that can affect how much light, particularly in neighborhoods and residential neighborhoods.

So I'll give you a quick example.

So in Albuquerque, for instance, in the residential neighborhoods, they only allow lighting in the intersections of those neighborhood streets unless those intersections are more than five hundred feet apart.

If those intersections are five hundred feet apart, they can put a light halfway between them.

So on a five hundred foot long block, there might be only three lights there, and that's a city ordinance.

And that's so the residents in that area just don't have light blind in them all night.

That's the that's the reason behind it, you know.

And you know, in New Mexico particularly, we have dark you know, we do dark Sky compliance, So any lumina above fifteen feet has to be zero uplights, so it's full cut off so at the one hundred and eighty degree level, there's no uplight, right, that's not always the case in Texas doesn't have that, Oklahoma, as far as I know, I don't think Missouri has that as well.

Okay, so there's those sorts of ordinances too that can affect the utility or municipality's ability to provide adequate lighting.

So it's kind of like a double edged sword.

Yeah, they want to, they know, they want to to protect themselves.

They can't always interesting.

Okay, that's awesome.

Thanks again.

You know, I appreciate you being here, taking time to come in and sit down and visit with us.

You know, I really enjoy getting to meet new people and getting to learn about what they do, and that's it's been great.

Thanks.

I appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

I really enjoyed our conversation with Sean.

Such a great opportunity to get to know him a little bit better.

If you're in need of expert advice for a project, or needing a high quality represent representation from a great salesforce, reach out to us here at CBM.

You can find us anywhere online at cbmrep dot com.

Thanks again and join us next time on Power the Network.

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