CWJJ Episode 112: CFL Mashup

Thursday, April 28- This week is the mashup you didn’t know you needed. The guys from UPSCO- Connections. For. Life. join the show this week to reflect on the 2nd year anniversary of both shows.

Quick Links:

Ted Peet on Linkedin
Joe Serrett on Linkedin
Chad Cuvo on Linkedin

Episode Transcript

 [0:00] [music]

Jim Schauer:  [0:24] Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this episode of “Connections. For Life.” mashed up with “Coffee with Jim & James.” That’s how, Ted, we welcome our audience to the show.

James Cross:  [0:34] Wow.

Ted Peet:  [0:34] Normally, that would be the case, but we wouldn’t say something like good morning on Connections For Life because we don’t know when our viewers are watching.

Chad Cuvo:  [0:40] My video might come out at 9:30 at night. [laughs]

Ted:  [0:43] On a Wednesday.

Jim:  [0:44] We are morning people here. James, help me, brother, as I…

Joe:  [0:47] It is Coffee with Jim & James. It’s not steak.

James:  [0:46] I drink coffee all day, just for the record.

Ted:  [0:50] coffee in the morning only. I drink coffee all day long.

Jim:  [0:54] Good morning, gentlemen, and I use that term with love and affection.

James:  [0:59] Obviously, or afternoon.

Joe:  [1:00] Most people drink coffee in the morning. If we’re going to be like…Let’s be honest. You don’t get up at midnight, have a cup of coffee. If you do, you got bigger problems…

Joe:  [1:08] Or you’re working third shift

Jim:  [1:10] I got the coffee bottle loaded over there. Loaded. How is everybody today? James, help me, brother. Bring us on track. The pre‑show.

James:  [1:16] There’s no track. We had agreement on the pre‑show that we just abandoned script.

Chad:  [1:21] There was no track.

James:  [1:22] There wasn’t one. If there was one metaphorically, we abandoned it.

Jim:  [1:26] Did we rip it up?

James:  [1:27] Just going live. We’re just doing it.

Ted:  [1:29] Just talking.

Jim:  [1:30] I like it.

Joe:  [1:33] I got something we can do.

Jim:  [1:34] Go on.

James:  [1:34] Cool. I’m in.

Joe:  [1:36] Is there any…

James:  [1:37] Or not. I don’t know, I’ll either be in and out.

Ted:  [1:39] Joe? That would be amazing. I wanted Jim and James to try to guess an idiom like Chad and I do every week.

Joe:  [1:45] I can do that. I actually have the sheet with all of the gas fact questions on it from the show, from SGA that we did. We can see how many of you guys actually remember any of them.

Chad:  [2:00] You mean our live show?

Joe:  [2:02] Yeah.

James:  [2:03] I thought we weren’t going to talk about that anymore.

Joe:  [2:07] I wasn’t really. I just said the show. You guys doubled down on it. I wouldn’t do that. I think it’s been two, what, three years now, right? Almost?

Jim:  [2:17] Guys, we’re both right around our two‑year anniversary of doing…

Joe:  [2:21] Can you believe that it’s been two years? Do you guys remember a year ago, and we’re like, “Can you believe it’s been a year?” Now, it’s been two. I don’t know. It’s amazing that people still watch it. It’s amazing that people still…

Chad:  [2:38] You think so? I don’t know if they started watching us.

Joe:  [2:40] Or, they’re watching them.

Chad:  [2:42] You have a point.

Ted:  [2:43] They got an award

Joe:  [2:44] The award‑winning show.

Ted:  [2:45] The award‑winning dynamic duo.

Joe:  [2:48] I don’t know. I just think it’s crazy. We’re still getting followers every like week that keep popping up, and I don’t know. It’s just bizarre that this is still going on.

[3:01] I actually was just on the phone with a woman right before this, actually. We were talking about some things that were working on for SGA and then this thing that’s coming up. She was like, “Well, how are you guys going to market some of this?”

[3:18] And I was like, “Well, I’ll probably do some on our webcast show.” And she’s like, “Oh, what’s that?” And I gave her the website, and she was like, “This is awesome. How come I didn’t know about this?” And I was like, “I don’t know.”

[3:31] I mean, so it’s just kind of neat that people find some value in anything that we’re doing. I don’t think we ever thought that when we started this. Glad I do.

Jim:  [3:41] I would agree. Also recently, I think James saw the other day Rhino is now doing a podcast. Our friends at Rhino Markers.

Joe:  [3:49] McElroy, A.Y. McDonald?

Jim:  [3:50] A.Y. McDonald, we were at. Actually, James and I were on A.Y. McDonald’s.

James:  [3:56] Yeah.

Jim:  [3:57] I mean it’s nice to see that it’s spread around. I think that people are naturally, organically going to a hybrid model. Things that we would normally do at a conference or an event like that that we’re now doing in this type of mode.

[4:10] And I think that also brings up the idea and I’ll just bring up here. We should also look at giving a presentation at some conferences about the podcast, and if the goods they have is indifferent.

James:  [4:22] Yeah, I’ve thought about that same thing.

Joe:  [4:24] That’s what I’m doing…

James:  [4:25] Telling that story.

Joe:  [4:26] at APGA when I go to New Orleans in…

Ted:  [4:31] Early May.

Joe:  [4:31] May.

James:  [4:32] It’s the same week as I’m in Morgantown, I believe, for…

Joe:  [4:38] It’s a marketing conference and that’s what that I’m going to be talking about some of the highs and lows and what we’ve done. I don’t know guys. Like I just…

James:  [4:49] Man, do you need a team for that, Joe?

Ted:  [4:51] talking point.

Joe:  [4:52] Yeah, I would love for you to come down if you would like to.

James:  [4:57] Combo or tag‑team it, that would be…

Joe:  [4:57] Would you like to do that?

Jim:  [4:58] No, he doesn’t want to do it.

James:  [5:00] I hate speaking.

Joe:  [5:02] I’ll speak. You could just write the thing.

James:  [5:04] I don’t know, it’s like a producer.

Joe:  [5:09] You do all the work, and I’ll just say it.

James:  [5:11] I’ll mentor you for that.

Ted:  [5:13] That’s how the SGA show went, too.

Joe:  [5:15] No, I did all the questions.

James:  [5:17] All right. Jimmy and I have worked together for a long time. I’m very good at that.

Joe:  [5:21] Expert level.

Jim:  [5:25] His back hurts from carrying me.

James:  [5:27] Joey, we’ve seen you out. We were just at SGA in Colombia, but I know you’re probably feeling it. I know all of us have been out, but what I mean is it felt like the kickoff to the year in a way, you know, the travel season and being out there and still hearing people come up, and I always joke.

[5:47] I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a reception bar line, and someone just finally turns around and goes, “So you’re the dude from LinkedIn, right?” I’m like, “Yeah.” Then, we talk and we’re connected or whatever. We’re from the podcast. It’s new that keeps you grounded. They’re like, “OK, it is worth out there going.”

Joe:  [6:14] One of the unique things that’s come about from all this is now that some of us are on some different committees and we plan to start doing some different things…

Chad:  [6:22] It is everybody but me for that.

James:  [6:25] So sorry. There is a sit at the table, I promise, for you too.

Joe:  [6:30] It is all on teams.

Ted:  [6:33] Oh, you got jokes.

James:  [6:36] That’s too soon.

Joe:  [6:37] No, what I was going to say was I was putting in charge of doing some stuff for the SJ Connect, the new technology committee. I was like, “Man, I don’t really know right where do I start with this.”

[6:50] I reached out to some of the people that I got to know because of the show. They’ve been absolutely tremendous in helping me getting in touch with people or helping me with trying to do this or accomplish this, and it’s like I would have never been able to.

[7:07] As much as we talk about Connections For Life, from our angle, we like to connect with other people. It’s really nice to also be able to connect yourself with other people. I don’t think that that was a conclusion that I thought was going to happen from what we’re doing.

[7:22] I do not know. We have just made a lot of new cool friends, and that’s to me…Still, we talked about this six months in and probably a year. That was just the thing that getting to meet so many cool new people that we would have never had an opportunity to ever engage with has been phenomenal.

[7:41] It’s a big win for me personally and professionally to be able to say that. It’s cool. I can’t believe it’s been two years. Man, I look back in the episodes, and my hair and my beards a little grayer. You can see time elapsed.

Ted:  [7:58] That is one of the biggest things that I was so sensitive about. Even looking over Chad’s shoulder right now, I’m like, “Oh, hey, there’s, early in the show, in the gray shirt.” Then I was running a bunch in the pink shirt. Then, in the white shirt, I’m in the middle.

Chad:  [8:11] We did always tease that over the last two years. You could see where you like go through your exercise, like kicks just by one. If you just, it goes like, you’re like this.

Joe:  [8:20] Yeah. You can fall off just by it.

Chad:  [8:21] I just wore a T‑shirt, and yesterday they were like, “Hey, you lost weight,” and I just had a T‑shirt on.

Jim:  [8:25] Yeah, you were.

Joe:  [8:25] Instead of…

Joe:  [8:27] Because Chad actually went from a large T‑shirt to an extra‑large T‑shirt. So, he actually looks thinner because of the size of his clothing.

Ted:  [8:32] Hey man, that’s creative. That’s creative on his part. You’re not going to do the work in the gym or in the kitchen, do it in the clothing rack.

Jim:  [8:40] Yeah, but he also loses height when he does that, too. Because if that shirt goes down to his knees, he…

Chad:  [8:46] I’m still here.

Jim:  [8:47] Oh.

Jim:  [8:50] Oh.

Ted:  [8:50] I thought he was muted, Jim. You didn’t do that?

James:  [8:52] Mm.

Jim:  [8:53] Hi, Chad.

Ted:  [8:56] Joe, you said this and maybe you guys are just glossing over it because you think it’s a terrible idea, but like you said, the highs and the lows of it. I think that’s something really cool that we could talk about right now is like, what are some of the highs? What are some of the lows that you experience?

Joe:  [9:08] Oh, that’s good.

Ted:  [9:09] We always say the highs, like, “Oh, I was making friends and doing this and blah, blah.” But what are some of the lows, so that those who watch know like, “Man, this was hard.” Is it really hard?

Chad:  [9:20] I’ll go first. Going back to work really…I mean, that sounds weird. But going back to what we did for work normally before has really like made it much, much, much, much harder to do this, especially as our schedules go completely in different directions, on top of that, trying to. Our normal routine as a throuple.

James:  [9:41] Throuple? Word‑shopping now?

Chad:  [9:43] I’m sorry. Our normal…I’ve been waiting to use that all day. Our normal routine would be to talk to somebody is to talk to someone before we actually interview them on the show. I mean, that’s an extra 15, 20 minutes and schedule everything. It’s been really tough.

[10:00] That’s been probably the hardest thing for us, is getting back to traveling and trying to keep the schedule. I can really say that that’s been tough for me. It’s not easy, and finding people now, too, that have time to talk to you as well, because they’re back to being running all over the place, gets even harder

Jim:  [10:18] Yeah.

James:  [10:19] It is a delicate balance, and I…Are you done, Chad? I don’t want to cut you up.

Chad:  [10:24] I think so, yeah. I mean, that’s…

Chad:  [10:26] Right away.

James:  [10:26] I’m going to piggyback on that a little bit because mine’s in the same realm, was some of the lows for us, and are still happening, is that balance of, “OK, now we got to travel. Now we got to do business. We got to do our real jobs.” Right, and the show?

[10:46] As we crept back out again to do that, and y’all know we’ve been very transparent, we record in batches now so it doesn’t affect us as much.

[11:00] What we’re running into now is that’s great in theory, but when Jim’s gone and I’m gone and we’re in two different directions and we simply don’t have the time, now we could go to zero [laughs] for a while, until we can record again. We don’t want to just check a box…

James:  [11:19] So the mental anguish of going, “Crap, man. We’ve got to grab a little bit of time together and make this happen, or we’re going to get ourselves in a bind, and you have this added mental anguish of your real job.

[11:37] I go back, I think about us talking about that on one of the mashups that we did when we brought each other on each other’s show, when y’all said somebody thought you just traveled around with the show. That was your job.

James:  [11:51] Maybe it was Joe or Chad saw them out in public and was like, “Are you going there for your show?” like you’re in LA just waiting for your next gig…

James:  [12:00] In between shows.

Joe:  [12:02] I’m counting all the money coming in from the show.

James:  [12:07] That’s been definitely a low for me, personally. I know you guys well now. I think we’re all high performers in what we do, and so we judge ourself based on getting it done.

Ted:  [12:20] We’re critical of our performance, even in the aspect of doing this in addition to our jobs.

Chad:  [12:26] Regardless of what we do.

Ted:  [12:29] Basically, whatever it is…

Ted:  [12:32] We’re critical of it.

Joe:  [12:33] I’m really just more critical you guys.

Ted:  [12:34] That’s also a valid point.

Chad:  [12:36] Also true. Thanks for keeping me in check.

Joe:  [12:41] James, just to jump on there, one of the things that’s been a struggle for me is, and these guys will definitely agree with this, I’m never satisfied with anything. I get really frustrated when I want to do something and it’s either too far out in the future, just not possible. I get a little grumpy. I can be a little bit difficult to deal with.

[13:07] There’s definitely been times where we’ve been on a recording and I was like, “I don’t even want to be doing this right now. This isn’t the idea that I had. This is the framework that I like and I don’t want to do this.”

[13:20] It’s pushing through that because you have to realize it’s not about just yourself. You two, that’s where you are on my screens.

Ted:  [13:28] That’s where they are in mine.

Joe:  [13:32] You two are just two. We’re three. It gets that much more difficult with all three of us having positions that require travel. That’s why we’ve been a little quiet lately because we’ve just got buried.

[13:49] That’s when I start to get mad. [laughs] I’m on set, no bad word. That’s when I get mad. I get mad when somebody’s not available for the week because they’re traveling. I’m mad at them because you should be here.

Ted:  [14:04] He’s talking talk about me. Just so we all know.

Chad:  [14:08] No, it could be me. It’s me because I’m was home for nine days.

Joe:  [14:11] It’s all of us. I even done it. I don’t want to lose momentum. Whether it’s like…

Ted:  [14:15] There were those moments, Joe. I don’t want to interrupt you, but there were those moments where you’re like, “Hey, do you really have to go to that wing? We need to get this done right now.”

[14:24] You feel that you’re torn. Like, “What do I do? Do I take a week and block it off for this? Then, leave everything else that’s happening right now over there?” You’re torn and that’s because…

Joe:  [14:38] The weird thing is, because we have again jobs to do. We all have jobs. That’s not like this is our job. We make zero…Look, for everybody who’s watching it, you want to start doing webcast, specifically in the natural gas industry, you will make zero dollars. Just so you would know.

Chad:  [14:53] It’s going to cost you.

Ted:  [14:54] It’s going to cost you money.

Joe:  [14:55] You’ll go backwards, and then to have the added pressure of you want to do this thing because it feeds your soul. It makes you zero dollars, versus what you actually do to feed your family and keep a roof above your head. It starts to get a little long [inaudible] in the rain.

James:  [15:10] Yeah, 100 percent.

Jim:  [15:12] But on the flip side, because even Tamie says I’m the eternal optimist, right?

James:  [15:18] That’s why you keep doing this.

Jim:  [15:20] Why do you keep doing this? You’ve been doing it for two years. Why? Because that one person that sends you a text or call or whatever…

Jim:  [15:27] on the livelihood and says, “Wow, that was cool.”

Joe:  [15:32] I guess what I meant is, and James, I think you and I are probably the most symbiotic as we’ve talked about this a little bit…

James:  [15:42] It’s scary untrue.

Joe:  [15:43] No, I mean in this concept that I see an end ‑‑ I don’t see us doing this forever. I think it makes me feel a little bad because I want to keep going with it, but I don’t know if it’s going to be sustainable for another 3 years.

[16:03] In this context, the way that we’re doing things, it’s either do we do something different ‑‑ Do we change the format? Do we try something unique? Or, do we keep plugging along doing the same thing with knowing that there’s probably a logical end date to it.

[16:16] That bugs me and it makes me sad.

[16:19] I am not going to lie, it makes me a little sad because I enjoy this. The people I enjoy with, that these guys I enjoyed with you guys. I enjoy all of the pieces of it, but I feel like there’s an expiration date on it.

James:  [16:32] It’s hard. It’s very hard.

Joe:  [16:33] Yeah. I have to do this. I’m going to be right back. Just keep going.

James:  [16:37] That’s aggressive.

James:  [16:38] We’re amongst friends?

Jim:  [16:43] It’s real life right there. Isn’t it?

Ted:  [16:46] What’s the thing that was so crazy when that all started? Think about it. Do you remember being afraid of your door opening.

Chad:  [16:53] Or to just put yourself out there, right?

Ted:  [16:56] Yeah, like you’re in our homes, it can look like my home. It can look like everybody was still getting dressed at the beginning.

James:  [17:03] That is exactly what my home looks like all the time.

James:  [17:08] This is not perfectly spaced.

Ted:  [17:09] Chad’s is the funniest.

James:  [17:13] Frequent marketing messages. That’s just my kitchen. The fridge is right there.

Ted:  [17:19] green screen the longest for us, It will only one in the green string for it. If you’ve been to his house, which Joe and I have, you would know where it takes place at and you’re like, “It’s hilarious.” it’s really just a desk with a green…

James:  [17:37] Like, Jim hasn’t always been in the Coffee with Jim & James sponsored kitchen.

Jim:  [17:42] Yeah, I was on [inaudible] of Jim & James.

Ted:  [17:43] I’m just going to say you better take that down before Tammy gets home.

James:  [17:49] It stays up here around.

Jim:  [17:53] you guys saw me.

Ted:  [17:54] You’ll end up in the pool.

Jim:  [17:53] I got the flower…

Ted:  [17:55] So will Jim.

James:  [17:52] I want to come back around to the hives because I feel like we all told our sob stories of our tough lives on a podcast.

Jim:  [18:09] We’re blessed to be doing this.

James:  [18:11] For sure. Right?

Jim:  [18:12] Right.

James:  [18:12] And I’m going to say for myself. This is those moments you can be super selfish, I think. For myself, the content that we’re putting out now is content that I would consume. When we started and somewhere along the way, it went different directions. At times, it felt like we were just putting out content and that’s it. It was just content.

Jim:  [18:42] It was.

James:  [18:44] Super content, we have really put together over the last, and I’ll date it three months or so. It felt like content that I’m very proud of. I’ve began listening to our own thing, which I didn’t do before.

Joe:  [19:01] I know what you mean.

James:  [19:03] I’m proud of it now. Hearing people and talking about it, it’s helped validate a lot of the work. Jim will tell you. I am looking at this thing to see if it’s valuable. Probably the biggest questioner of it is are we bringing value out there? If we’re not, then we need to be…

Joe:  [19:27] Why are we doing it?

James:  [19:27] Putting our energy somewhere, right?

Ted:  [19:29] Yeah.

James:  [19:31] These past two or three months, looking around I feel like it’s answered that question for me. I’m covering content that I never thought I’d get chance to cover. It doesn’t even have to be industry specific, but it’s still hitting the same audience.

[19:48] I’m telling you, going and talking about mental health and talking about some of the vulnerabilities and leadership and things like that. That’s stuff I want to talk about. It isn’t airing an agenda to it. There is no, “We’re getting this person on.” It’s awesome stuff that we’re proud of.

Joe:  [20:10] I think that that’s a cool thing that you guys do. We don’t do that. We don’t really dig deep into…Our shows obviously run a little bit more, I don’t know what the word is, maybe loose or more comedic. We do more goof around stuff than you guys.

[20:26] You guys seem to be a little bit more structured and straight forward. Which is cool, that’s your way. Jim is not, but you kind of are.

James:  [20:32] That’s why we have to be structured and straight forward, because we have to manage Jim.

Joe:  [20:37] We’re literally a little bit more fly by the seat of our pants. We get on and hit record and whatever comes out comes out. That’s just what we do.

James:  [20:48] Obviously by our intro.

Joe:  [20:51] Right, exactly. That was a Connections For Life sponsored intro right there.

Chad:  [20:53] [laughs] I didn’t have a custom on though.

Joe:  [20:56] One of the things that we’ve done is we’ve added more segments to our show. Before it was just us, guest, us. Now we’re trying to fold in some current events and trying to fold in. We’ve always had the gas backed thing, but…

Ted:  [21:13] The articles and whatnot.

Chad:  [21:16] Just so you know, those are all Joe’s idea. That’s because his mind is constantly going. He’s like, “We should do this” and then he…

Joe:  [21:23] I’m like, “OK, do it.”

Chad:  [21:24] No, you pretty much just make it happen. You do. That’s usually your creative side.

Ted:  [21:28] Here’s the article we’re going to discuss. You two idiots read this please, so that you have something valuable to say.

Chad:  [21:34] [laughs] You get the email, “Read this.”

Joe:  [21:36] Literally, I do. I send them messages like, “Read this article, we’re going to talk about it.”

James:  [21:43] That’s awesome.

Chad:  [21:44] Those things that we have done, every single one of them really. From gas tax in the beginning, to the idiom stuff, which is hilarious and funny and fun every week to reviewing the articles.

Chad:  [21:33] Those are all literally Joe’s creations internally on the show.

Joe:  [21:54] I don’t know if I want to take credit for that. [laughs]

Chad:  [21:56] I don’t think that anyone is great. [laughs]

Joe:  [21:58] I’m running out of them. I’m going to switch off idioms and do something different.

James:  [22:02] We just added, it feels like ads, but it’s not ads. Like we’re not charging anything for it.

Joe:  [22:11] I just try to help really segue into that.

James:  [22:13] Sponsor? I don’t know what you want to call it. Here’s our view.

Joe:  [22:17] Public service announcement.

James:  [22:19] Kind of, yeah.

Jim:  [22:20] We’ve modeled that before.

James:  [22:21] Because here’s where we came into this year. We informally said we’ve kicked off season three, which sounds really funny. Really, in a way…

James:  [22:33] we’ve come back though, and we’re on our next one. Part of what we wanted to do was how are we going to make a bigger impact? That was really our question to ourself. I don’t know about y’all, but I can’t throw around the money that big operating partners and stuff like that can.

Joe:  [22:50] We can.

James:  [22:51] At sponsorships, these giant sponsorships.

Chad:  [22:53] I can’t even get a computer, watch the video. You’ll see that…

Joe:  [22:57] My coffee mug is your mug.

James:  [22:59] Stop. We can donate our time, and we can donate portions of our show and our audience. That may sound bad, but we’re being very selective in what we’re doing. We’re not selling ads. It’s not going to be fill in the blank vendor, hawking wares on there.

[23:22] I’m talking about the first one if you saw it, Stewart came on and talked about the money that’s available from PHMSA and how public utilities can go submit grants to get that money. That’s the kind of messages I want to get out there.

[23:38] I know we talked to y’all recently about, “Hey, we want to promote other podcasts that are on there as well,” and do it with gas tax, do it with the all‑special angle on it. We’re looking more into opportunities to make impact.

[23:53] The show is growing, the following is growing. We have a lot of lookers out there just like we thought, and so our eyes are open to that. It’s how do we put that to work for a better cause? That’s where we’re at. Like you said Joe, if this thing does expire, I’m going to try everything while I have the moment.

Joe:  [24:13] Audience.

James:  [24:14] To try to convert people into passionate subscribers

Joe:  [24:20] I have to ask though, and we have talked about this. You are going to get to a point, at least, I think. That you’re going to get to a point where your followers are going to…We’re spinning off into a different conversation, but that’s going to allow you, if you would like to charge for advertising space you could.

[24:43] You have to come to the conclusion of, “Do we want to be those people? Because that will allow us the money to be able to expand our show.”

James:  [24:49] I’m sure y’all have been approached. We’ve had people that have asked the question. We’re in that catch. I get it, I would ask the question too. I’m in a marketing…

Chad:  [25:01] My biggest problem with that is if you do take it to that level, once again…

Joe:  [25:07] It becomes a business.

Chad:  [25:07] Yeah, but it’s not even that. On our side, we just don’t have the support right now to even begin to do that.

James:  [25:14] I understand.

Chad:  [25:14] If we were going to make some type of ad or something of the sort, it would be us making the ad read and us trying to figure out how to fill it. That’s really challenging, but I don’t think sometimes, probably either of us take our platforms and use it for our own company even. We don’t really even advertise for ourselves for the most part.

Joe:  [25:36] Intentionally.

Chad:  [25:37] We go out of our way not to. You know what I mean? Pretty much, because that’s how you get there.

James:  [25:41] I feel like any time something about our…because we don’t either. We always state our company name when we can and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, there’s no pointed checks to here as we go through. There is a lot of awareness out there. I can see why people would be attracted to it.

Joe:  [26:03] I think that’s the logical conclusion.

James:  [26:04] To want to put ads on it. I don’t.

Joe:  [26:06] The logical conclusion is you’re going to have to get to a point where you’re going to have to sell ad space if you want to expand.

Jim:  [26:12] It depends on your sponsor though too. We have a very good sponsor, Energy Worldnet.

Joe:  [26:17] No, I get that, but what I’m saying is…

Ted:  [26:20] Brand ambassador there, I heard the master.

James:  [26:23] That’s pretty good.

Ted:  [26:23] I heard that guy is pretty intuitive.

Joe:  [26:24] I get it. I look at it a little differently.

James:  [26:27] I don’t like it.

Joe:  [26:28] I look at it a little differently.

James:  [26:31] Do you want to sell ads, Joe?

Joe:  [26:32] No, I don’t, but I want our show to grow and I don’t know if that’s…

James:  [26:36] You think that’s the catch‑22?

Joe:  [26:38] I don’t know if it is or isn’t?

James:  [26:38] For a successful podcast, you start getting sponsors, whether they’re formal, informal.

Joe:  [26:43] Because that money allows you to do more things to record the show.

James:  [26:47] I understand.

Joe:  [26:47] Whereas we come from an organization, and this isn’t bad on UPSCO, but this was our thing. It’s just the same thing that Chad just said.

James:  [26:54] Understood.

Joe:  [26:54] We created it, we own it, we’ve done all of that. For us to get to the next level, is that where we go? We’ve tossed the idea around, but I don’t know if I’m comfortable with it. I don’t know, but I want the show to grow.

[27:11] I’m caught in that myriad of feelings of do we do it, do we not do it? Should we try it? If we try it, are we going to go down a path that we can’t get back from? I don’t know.

Ted:  [27:22] I think that’s where the rest of our entire experience and everything. We’ve just winged everything to this point. We’re either going to fail…

James:  [27:32] You mean today or?

Chad:  [27:33] No, the three of us.

Joe:  [27:35] That’s what I’m saying, literally the three of us.

James:  [27:36] I agree. I was just qualifying…

Ted:  [27:41] Let’s just figure it out. If we fail, we fail. That’s what makes you successful, is the fact that you’re willing to take calculated risks. That you’re willing to step out on to something that previously thought of in our industry, nobody. It’s crazy.

Chad:  [27:57] Teddy. A month before our show came out, on April 17th, which is Logan’s birthday, 2020, we couldn’t figure out how to have a meeting on the computer.

Ted:  [28:06] Exactly.

Jim:  [28:07] That’s true. When James first brought up this idea, I’m like, “How are we going to do it?” He’s like “On Zoom.” I’m like, “What does that mean?”

James:  [28:16] Jim, I don’t know if you remember it. I think it Rob Darden actually, but I’m not going to throw him under the bus but I think he rescheduled on us. It was a day and…

Joe:  [28:26] Is that why you postponed the show from…

Chad:  [28:28] Yeah, is that why you didn’t release…

James:  [28:49] Then I took it out on him.

Chad:  [28:51] until last month and you…

James:  [28:53] I’ll show you.

Joe:  [28:51] There’s no secret here boys.

Jim:  [28:53] That’s just between the five of us. It’s all right. It won’t be out.

James:  [28:59] Let’s say it was a Thursday. This was really early into our shows. Let’s say we were 15 episodes in, so we didn’t know what we were doing, obviously.

Jim:  [29:02] No, we didn’t. I didn’t.

James:  [29:04] Jim, it was a miracle just seeing him on a Zoom call at that time, every time that we scheduled it. One day we had Internet issues locally, and so I wasn’t available. We had to cancel the recording.

[29:09] In a normal day, if you would have had a Zoom call, three months before that, you would have been practicing and you would have had your background all together. You would have nailed it. You had an online meeting. Anyway, that day we bumped it, we rescheduled it for the afternoon like it was no big deal.

[29:37] I remember calling Jimmy and going, “Jimmy, three months ago you would have to take a mental health day. Because you would have built up to this online meeting that you had.” This crazy idea. I go, “Look at us, we just rolled with it.” That’s been how we did the show. Y’all know. You got best laid plans.

Joe:  [29:59] That’s what you do now on every call. How many phone calls do you have anymore?

Chad:  [30:01] I don’t.

Jim:  [30:02] I’m still a little old school. I like to talk.

Joe:  [30:06] I’m just saying, everybody that I talk that’s new it’s like, “I’ll send you a Teams invite, or I’ll send you a Zoom invite.” That’s how we communicate now.

James:  [30:11] We don’t talk about Teams.

Jim:  [30:13] It’s nice to see people.

Chad:  [30:12] What really weirds me out is when you [laughs] get on a call with the utilities and nobody turns their camera on.

Jim:  [30:20] Yeah.

James:  [30:20] I know.

Joe:  [30:21] You get on with customers.

James:  [30:21] Same way.

Chad:  [30:23] I’m like, “Hey guys. I’m just sitting here myself.”

Joe:  [30:25] There’s eight people on the screen or black boxes looking at you. They’ll be like, “Hi.”

Jim:  [30:31] I’ll call them out. I’ll be like, “Mike, this is the best I’ve ever seen you look.”

James:  [30:37] I want to ask y’all a funny question, because it actually happens internally a lot within our organization. Has y’all’s show permeated in the company internally? In other words, Jim and I host a lot of things inside the company now and it’s so as Coffee with Jim & James, we’re on a show.

Joe:  [30:59] No, we don’t do that.

James:  [31:01] To accomplish some normal meetings that we would have had like, “You’re going to meet the executive leadership.” We just take it on ourself and we turn it into a show and we do the meeting like a show, but it’s wild.

Joe:  [31:14] I think we’re different in that regard, because we’re not engaged with the inner workings of our office in any way. All of our responsibilities and everything we do fall outside of those four walls. We don’t…

Ted:  [31:27] The external of the inner workings of the organization.

Joe:  [31:29] I do know that there’s people that work at the facility that watch our show frequently. We don’t know.

Ted:  [31:39] I met a guy in our warehouse yesterday that I had never met, and that’s how he knew me.

James:  [31:45] That’s funny.

Ted:  [31:46] It wasn’t that I was the contractor’s sales guy or the upstate sales guy. It was, “You’re the guy who does that show for us. You are that guy.”

James:  [31:55] That’s me.

Ted:  [31:56] I’m like, “Hi Parker. Nice to meet you.”

James:  [31:57] We’ve had a few new people that started here in the last couple of weeks, and I shook their hand for the first time saying “That was really nice to get to meet new family.” They were like, “I feel like I know you from a show.”

Joe:  [32:10] I think that’s nice.

James:  [32:11] Quite a cool onboarding tool.

Joe:  [32:13] We’ve talked about that from an onboarding perspective like, could we use this show. I don’t know. It’s pretty cool. It’s been a long but short ride. Does that make sense?

Jim:  [32:28] You know what the beautiful thing though is? Each of our show’s platforms, connections for Coffee with Jim & James is unique. It’s extenuation of our culture. We’re bringing, not just James and I let’s speak about us, who we are to the industry every week, but we’re also bringing that inner workings from Tracer, from Energy Worldnet, from all of our folks.

[32:54] That’s the fun part, and I tell you, it feels to me very satisfying, and we talked about at the beginning. A lot of people think, “They get on there for 20 minutes, boom. One and done and they’re good, they’re back.” They don’t know all the scheduling, all the shuffling.

Joe:  [33:09] That’s the hardest part.

Jim:  [33:11] It is the hardest part.

Joe:  [33:12] Scheduling is impossible.

Jim:  [33:14] The passions and the purposes that I feel are fulfilled for me, personally, I know for James too, far outweigh any of those. Honestly, it’s almost like my happy place and I’ve said this many times, when we were at SGA and I can get up and speak in front of 50 people live, which I love.

[33:33] A lot of people will be like, “Wait. I have 10 minutes or so to speak in front of people.” Me, I’m like, “Sounds good. Let’s go.”

Chad:  [33:39] I’m in. Let’s go.

Jim:  [33:38] My blood pressure goes down.

James:  [33:40] That’s for sure.

Jim:  [33:40] The pulse is at 48. It’s the same thing here with…

Chad:  [33:45] 48, I don’t know if it’s…

James:  [33:46] Catatonic. I don’t think that’s good thing Jimmy.

Jim:  [33:49] I’m mellow. It’s like Zen.

Chad:  [33:51] 48 is not good though.

Joe:  [33:54] No, listen to me. Stop it. Your resting heart rate normally is 140.

James:  [33:59] It’s like a humming bird.

Chad:  [33:59] That’s when you’re sleeping.

Joe:  [34:02] You’re like a humming bird. You might get down to about 110.

Joe:  [34:07] When you’re calm, 48.

James:  [34:10] We were in Columbia.

Jim:  [34:12] I’m an adult.

James:  [34:13] I was leaving for the day. I was on the fifth floor. I knew Jim was in the floor below me, because he’d been getting off the elevator. It’s, no lie, 6:00 in the morning and I’m headed down the elevator. I push the button. Elevator comes up and Jim is in it dying laughing. It’s 6:00 in the morning.

Jim:  [34:32] By myself.

James:  [34:36] He hadn’t even seen me. Just pops up and opens up and he’s dying laughing looking at me.

Joe:  [34:43] Mental illness is real.

James:  [34:43] I’m like, “Why are you on my floor?”

Jim:  [34:47] That was the big question. Why am I on your floor? That’s the other thing.

James:  [34:49] That was what I’m saying.

Joe:  [34:49] He probably hadn’t gone to bed. Was he wearing the same clothes?

James:  [34:53] He’s probably been riding the elevator the whole time.

Chad:  [34:55] New Orleans, September of 2008.

James:  [34:57] That’s pretty cool.

Joe:  [34:59] Columbia was a cool place. I liked it there. It was always good to see you guys and your team. Ashley was there with her husband and he’s a really neat guy, and Rob and…

Jim:  [35:09] Karley.

James:  [35:09] Got to meet my wife.

Joe:  [35:11] Karley. I was getting there. I got to meet your wife who is a pretty cool lady. You did a good job. You got lucky there, buddy.

James:  [35:22] I kicked my coverage there, for sure.

Chad:  [35:25] Kicked the coverage.

Joe:  [35:26] A hundred percent. It was always…

James:  [35:28] in a club, I don’t really…

Ted:  [35:31] Listen, I’ve never met your wife, and I knew you had kicked your coverage.

James:  [35:36] I kicked it.

James:  [35:37] I will say it was weird having my wife and my work wife both there at the same time, Jim, but we worked it out.

Joe:  [35:47] Is she going to be coming to more shows or is that a one and done type of deal?

James:  [35:51] That was actually her working through SGA. SGA asked her to come to headshot. I think as other associations realized that’s a pretty good role…

Joe:  [36:04] It’s a good idea.

James:  [36:03] Yeah. Then I think she’ll probably book some more. Now booking, but no free sponsors.

Joe:  [36:09] No free ads.

Joe:  [36:10] Chad, no free ads.

James:  [36:11] Not today.

Joe:  [36:14] Guys, just because we do it on our show, I’m going to ask. We do an idiom. Do you guys know of the idiom forum that we do?

Ted:  [36:20] I want to hear Jim say what an idiom is?

James:  [36:21] Yes, please.

Jim:  [36:23] We don’t like to use the term.

James:  [36:24] That’s what he calls me.

Jim:  [36:25] We like to say…

Joe:  [36:25] That’s idiot.

Jim:  [36:26] Burning challenge.

Ted:  [36:27] No. That’s an idiot. No, an idiom.

Joe:  [36:30] Idioms are terms like…

Joe:  [36:35] It’s raining cats and dogs.

Jim:  [36:37] Got you. I am an idiom fanatic.

James:  [36:40] He’s really into it.

Ted:  [36:42] We’re going to find out.

Chad:  [36:43] Is this a new one, Joe, or an old one?

Joe:  [36:45] This is a new one, but it’s not necessarily that cool, but you’ll understand what I mean. This one is a dish fit for the gods. Do you guys know what that means, first of all, dish fit for the gods?

Joe:  [36:57] Probably just really good food, right?

James:  [36:59] Right.

Joe:  [36:59] A dish fit for the gods. Meaning a very scrumptious delectable yummy meal. Where do you guys think that that term comes from, dish fit for the gods? I’m going to start with Jim, because everybody goes in circles.

Jim:  [37:15] You’re starting with me?

Joe:  [37:17] Yeah.

James:  [37:17] Do we Google this?

Joe:  [37:17] No, you can’t Google.

James:  [37:19] OK, I’ll be doing that. Totally.

Jim:  [37:22] I’m going to say ancient Greece is where it began.

Ted:  [37:29] Don’t make up a story of how it’s going to be.

Joe:  [37:32] You don’t have to do anything. You could just say ancient Greece. That’s fine.

Jim:  [37:36] I can go on. It was actually Caesar.

Joe:  [37:39] I don’t want him to tell a story. It will be 45 minutes. The next thing I know we’ll be on the moon. We’ll be elevated.

James:  [37:43] This is a long form.

Ted:  [37:45] You got to let him go and then come off.

Jim:  [37:49] Did I ever tell you when Moses went to the salt mines in 1492? I told that story and…

Chad:  [37:38] 1492?

Joe:  [37:38] That’s when Columbus…

Chad:  [37:39] Yeah.

Joe:  [37:57] You’re done. Mute him.

Joe:  [37:58] James, what you got?

Chad:  [38:00] He’s almost as bad as me.

James:  [38:01] I’m in that same area though, the Parthenon comes to…

Joe:  [38:06] You’re thinking Greek mythology?

James:  [38:08] Yeah. Maybe somebody’s mom cooked really well in that time in the Parthenon.

Joe:  [38:16] Chad, you go ahead. Actually, no Chad.

Chad:  [38:17] I want to go first. I actually think I have a real guess for once. I think it might be from the last supper or something of the sort and Jesus being fed. I don’t know. I could come up with something ridiculous as well, like throwing plates against things.

Joe:  [38:30] Chad comes up with the worst ones ever.

Chad:  [38:33] That might be my best guess ever.

Joe:  [38:35] That isn’t a bad one.

Jim:  [38:36] If this comes back as Popeye’s chicken, I’m just going to blow my mind.

James:  [38:40] Some advertising.

Ted:  [38:42] I think it came from Shakespeare “Et tu, Brute.” I think that’s where it came from, because I remember studying something like this in high school. For some reason, that’s all I remember about that, “Et tu, Brute.”

Joe:  [38:58] Teddy is correct, it does come from Shakespeare.

Chad:  [39:00] Yeah.

Ted:  [39:00] Let’s go. I learned something in high school.

Chad:  [39:02] Also a first.

Joe:  [39:03] Wait minute. The reason I picked this one wasn’t because it come from Shakespeare. The reason I brought this one to the table is because of all the other ones that Shakespeare came up with that are listed. We can also thank Shakespeare.

Jim:  [39:18] Inquiring mind is what I know.

Joe:  [39:18] We can thank Shakespeare for “Foaming at the Mouth” from Julius Caesar. We can thank him for hot blooded from “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. We can thank him for in stitches from the “Twelfth Night”. Green‑eyed monster from “Othello” and my favorite, wearing your heart on your sleeve also from “Othello”.

Jim:  [39:39] Wow.

James:  [39:39] Wow.

Joe:  [39:41] There you go.

Ted:  [39:41] Those are all the future ones, because I’ll start looking now so I can forget them by the time we get to them.

Joe:  [39:45] No. That’s what we do with the idioms.

Jim:  [39:48] I love idiot tales. This is great, Joe.

Chad:  [39:51] Et tu, Brute.

James:  [39:53] That’s too much jokes.

Joe:  [39:54] That was good Teddy. I’m proud of you, man. That’s a full‑first idioms.

Chad:  [39:58] Teddy always does really good.

James:  [39:57] I like that one.

Chad:  [39:59] Ted does really good.

James:  [39:59] That was good, Ted. I thought you perform like this all the time.

Ted:  [40:04] I do better than Chad, so it’s compared to who I’m going with.

James:  [40:08] That’s not saying a lot.

Joe:  [40:11] If you’re the second worst player on a bad team, you’re still the best. [laughs] You’re still better than the other guy. Ted does really good. Chad is normally really disastrous.

Jim:  [40:20] Can I just bring up an observation here? What we just did, we do organically and we have fun when we’re at SGA or any LGA, FNGA, whatever.

Joe:  [40:30] I think at the grocery store.

Jim:  [40:31] At the grocery store and this…

Ted:  [40:33] Joe and I were doing this in the lobby of a double train.

James:  [40:34] I do have teams.

James:  [40:35] Sorry, Ted.

Ted:  [40:36] Mute me now James.

James:  [40:37] I am.

Joe:  [40:38] Sorry, Jim. Go ahead.

Ted:  [40:40] Story, and how funny it is.

Jim:  [40:42] Like I’m saying, this is what we do. I was at FNGA committee and board meeting this week and I can’t…

Chad:  [40:50] Do you know what that stands for? I got to ask, I’m sorry.

Joe:  [40:56] Florida Natural Gas.

James:  [40:57] They don’t like to be called FNGA.

Joe:  [41:00] FNGA?

Jim:  [41:00] I call it FNGA, F‑N…

Joe:  [40:57] Please don’t call it FNGA.

James:  [40:58] They don’t…

Chad:  [40:59] They don’t like that. Adding James over here for me, they don’t like that.

Jim:  [41:06] F‑N‑G‑A. Say that. I definitely go with FNGA.

James:  [41:11] I think FNGA is better.

Chad:  [41:13] Jimmy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cut you.

James:  [41:14] Jimmy was there. He was there all weak.

Jim:  [41:15] When you’re there and you take a step back and you look and everybody is just having fun telling stories and the stories then go to like, “What about that regulator set? What that meter set? What about your eyers?”

[41:28] All of a sudden, somebody will bring up something about an idiom, and I’ll use the correct term now Joe with much respect and reference.

Chad:  [41:38] What did you use before?

Ted:  [41:17] He would just make things up.

Jim:  [41:38] I would. I do it my…

Ted:  [41:38] Like FNGA.

James:  [41:41] That’s right. Turn off slang words, Jim. We don’t use that.

Jim:  [41:46] We don’t?

James:  [41:47] No. Florida Natural Gas Association.

Joe:  [41:49] All right.

James:  [41:54] Guys, I know. We’re over time.

Chad:  [41:58] About 40 minutes, I think.

Joe:  [41:59] Would you lunch with Jim and James?

James:  [42:03] Next.

Chad:  [42:04] Good afternoon.

Ted:  [42:06] Chad, I can’t take it anymore.

Joe:  [42:08] Just one parting shot. I just want to say thank you about the show Jim. I’ve said that a million times, but thanks for always walking through this with us and being…We look up to you guys a lot for what you do. Also, I want to say thank you for anybody whoever has tuned in to once a second of our show.

[42:28] To take your time to watch any of this and all the things that we do, truly means a lot. At least to me, I don’t want to speak for the group. Like James had mentioned before, being at a restaurant or a bar, or even at a show and somebody come up to you and recognizing you.

[42:46] I don’t know if it’s the recognition that you care about so much as they actually took time out of their day to watch something that you put together that meant something and it was worthwhile for them. That, to me, is a win.

[43:00] I love you guys all, every one of you guys and especially the guys in my show. You guys, we have our bad days and our good days and we have our arguments and our fights and we pick on each other, but I wouldn’t pick a different group of people to do this with.

Jim:  [43:14] We’re not doing this mashup for any other reason other than we’re friends, first and foremost, right?

Joe:  [43:23] We don’t have any guest book to flip.

James:  [43:25] Ted needs to go. Can Ted go next, real quick? Any final shots?

Ted:  [43:27] I’ll say this. You used a phrase earlier about your work wife being there with you, in reference to Jim. In regards to these shows, it’s almost like we’re each other’s work wives with these webcasts.

[43:43] Where we complain about trying to balance stuff in our normal jobs and our day to days, and our personal life outside of work, and blending this all together, and there’s somebody who understands what you’re going through that’s not…

Joe:  [43:58] It keeps you sane.

Ted:  [44:00] A direct member of your show. That is something I’ll say thank you to gentlemen for, as well as my two compadres here. We’ve been through the ringer and back to every aspect of this thing trying to make it work, and put out something that’s quality that people are enjoying.

[44:19] I’ll thank everybody on this call and then I’ll give James a shout for not sending me the invite to this meeting.

James:  [44:25] We’re not talking about that. It’s the after‑show.

Joe:  [44:28] Ted, you would think that after not getting the invites and that’s still like you…

James:  [44:31] Three weeks in a row.

Joe:  [44:33] You’ve got to realize.

James:  [44:35] Chad.

Chad:  [44:35] You could view the basement.

Ted:  [44:39] I got fired a month ago.

Chad:  [44:43] I’m lucky enough to always typically go last on thee thank you things, so I don’t have to say a whole lot, which is awesome.

Joe:  [44:50] That is totally planned.

Chad:  [44:52] Yeah, I’m not that creative and I don’t talk a lot.

Joe:  [44:57] That’s put the plan in training.

Chad:  [44:59] What Joe said, anybody that’s ever watched it, even if it was for 15 seconds, thank you. I think we started out doing it for ourselves and we probably still selfishly do it for ourselves a little bit. To know those people like you guys just said, coming up to you and saying, “Hey, I saw you.”

[45:17] That’s what makes it worth it, as weird as that sounds. Every time we meet somebody new, that does it too. I could say all the things we’ve been talking about for the last 45 minutes over and over again, but…

James:  [45:27] Let’s do that.

Chad:  [45:27] Thank you guys. Thanks for being good partners to us too and helping push us along.

Joe:  [45:33] Great.

James:  [45:33] Jimmy, I’m going to jump in just real quick and always go…

James:  [45:38] The same things. I won’t do it. I promise. I do want to thank our audience for the grace through this whole thing because we didn’t know what we were doing. We still don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re really honest about it. I think that may have been why we landed, how we did.

[45:55] Also, just you three and Jimmy, you count too. Having that informal support group that I could just, it’s superficial and first‑world problem as it is, whine about a podcast with a group. Shoot an email on a Friday ad be like, “I don’t know about y’all but I can’t record another moment of this, or plan for another live.”

Joe:  [46:21] [laughs] Pull my hair out.

James:  [46:22] When we were planning for live AGA, those moments. We needed each other for that and we’re thankful for this group to be that group.

Joe:  [46:34] Yeah, definitely.

Jim:  [46:37] I’m not going to add any more other than saying, take the…

Joe:  [46:41] But you are.

Chad:  [46:41] You just did.

Jim:  [46:41] No. I’m going to be quiet today. Everything that each one of you have said, I feel. All those things are in me. With that, I will just say, I appreciate each and every one of you as well as anybody that ever tunes in. that’s it. With that I’m going to end this episode. Thank you for tuning in, and we will see you next week on our shows and out in the industry.

James:  [47:05] Bye‑bye, everybody.

Transcription by WatchingWords