Powering the Future: Leadership, Communication, and Safety | Quanta Services CEO Duke Austin | Ep119

Started with Quanta in 2010. Obviously, you know the story. I came over when my father and mother sold their company. When I came to Quanta Services, the world of line work, the door got kicked wide open for me. We were just a small company, small town, grinding it up in BC. When I came to Quanta, I got the door kicked open. All of a sudden, I got access to world travel. Whether it was a major storm or hurricane, I got to travel around. I went for two hurricanes on the East Coast almost right away, which was super cool, never thought that would happen. And then barehand trained, hung under helicopters. It's special. It's fun. I mean, I think we see 350 or so family businesses. I knew your dad well. The characteristics are all the same for the most part: hardworking, we're all underdogs. It's great, it's fun to be here, and glad we can make a difference in people's lives.

Yeah, I'm Duke Austin, CEO of Quanta Services. Four children. I care deeply about three boys that are in the business here, twins. They're all in the field. And then I have my daughter that's a senior in high school, she's about to graduate. Hopefully she'll get in the business as well. I try to keep them from getting... I think what you leave behind is important, and so you want your children to be better than you are. So hopefully they get after it and work hard at it.

Sure. For me, I think from humble beginnings. My dad was a lineman for HL&P. My granddad... and I still live by that today. It doesn't matter. When I think about me and where I sit and what I'm able to do, I can do a lot more behind the scenes. If I have to get out in front, I will. I've done it in Puerto Rico, I've done it in places where it's needed. But I do believe we serve the customer, and I serve every single employee of Quanta Services and for that matter, the trade. If we can impact safety, if I can do things like that, and sometimes being in the back is much better than being in the front. You can do a lot more back there. But the company's getting bigger, and I've got to do more and get in front of it. It's not because I'm concerned with it, it's because it's by design. I do believe we are a humble company for what we do, and we serve the... I'm yelling about how great we are. It's just not impactful. I can do it much better in the background.

Yeah, so I think anytime you're a son and your dad's a lineman, you just grew up a little different. I would tell you, my dad had his best friends in the trade. When he started Northeastern Pole Line, there were 10 people that left HL&P that came with him to ultimately run Northeastern Pole Line and eventually acquire it. Those 10 were very close to our family, and I was with them every weekend. So I learned what you need to do. I think the more work you put in, the farther you can go. When I think about my life and my kids and everything else and how they're raised, the impacts that you can make when they're young, you can do so much more. The impacts on me was my father taught me young how to work and how not to be scared. I can tell you story after story. He was kind of to me like Red Adair of the oilfield business and the line business. He came up with his hands. It's tough. The trade was much tougher generationally back then. We were a contractor at that point. I think we're a solution provider today, but back then we had... I think when you grow up in that, nothing really... everything we've done today to try to make sure that we're better and the trade's thought of differently than it used to be, but it was all done early by the people. I like my dad, your dad, all the families that are in here. I think all of us as kids can look back and go, that was tough. It was tougher than it is today. Not to say it's easy today, but it was damn tough. Just different, right? Just different.

For sure. I mean, every summer since I was probably 14, I worked the summers. It would be anywhere from cleaning shops to whatever it may be. I just stayed with it, stayed with my father. We did a lot of things together, obviously trying to make ends meet. Ultimately, I ended up playing football at Sam Houston, and then I came right back into the business with my dad. But it was something that I knew I was going to do my whole life. I value those experiences. I think they make you who you are.

I mean, I think we've seen that degrade a bit. Part of it is the work itself, and part of it is the way we are as an industry. We're in a shortage of people. When I think about it, the difference between a journeyman and the last step apprentice is the ability to train. I mean, I think at some point we should say it and be happy and be proud. Be proud of that, and be proud of the person, because really the future of the industry is the person that's the craftsman today and their ability to train. Always, if you think about it like a tree trunk and how it gets bigger, where the roots go deeper. I think I can go back to North Houston and think about the three people that were there, and now all the people that are there today somehow are tied to those three. I hopefully in Quanta, I really want to create that. I think it's important, and we're starting some things there on that which I believe will ultimately help us to identify that lineage and how we continue to make sure that we train better and better.

I think we all get busy in life. If you go back and look at what you taught your kid, did you teach them to change the oil? Did we show them how to start a mower? No, because lots of times we were too busy, or we were on a job, or we were working seven days a week. So I think about it like that. It's on us. We have to think different. I think these pre-apprentice programs will certainly help the trade. The kids that come through there on our pre-apprenticeship...

I mean, I think I go back to my father, and I would say anything's possible. We really want to take craftsmen and move them all the way through, and they can have my job. I want that. I watched... one of the reasons my father left the power company is because they decided that if you didn't have a college education, you could only get to an operations director. You couldn't go to a VP anymore, you couldn't go to a COO anymore, you couldn't be a CEO. I disagree firmly with that. I think we give you every opportunity as a craftsman to be every bit as good as a guy from Harvard. They're treated probably better than the guy from... We want to move up, and we want to make sure you can either go to Energize Services and be a Fortune 500 if you want, or you can be the CEO if you want. It's a choice. If we say our nucleus is built around craft skill labor, then is it or not? We got to put our money where our mouth is. I'm not up here just saying it because it looks good. It's fun. We're just going to pay lip service to craft and say, 'Oh yeah, no, no, no.' It's very serious. We want to make sure that the craft of this country is the nucleus of Quanta.

Yeah, so back in the early days of Quanta, let's call it 1999, some would say '98. I think there was a vision that the jobs were getting bigger. As a local company, you couldn't really handle them. So John, our founder, Colson, had the foresight to look at it and say, 'Hey, we're going to consolidate.' Ended up doing a roll-up as a $198 million company at the time. That was really to serve the people. When I look at a valuation of a company any given day, I always look at the people. Everyone has a reason for selling. I think with my family, we would have probably... we were in Houston. Quanta wanted to come into Houston, and we were doing great. We were about to get in the transmission business. We were just distribution and gas, and primarily we did a lot of things but very light transmission. I got cancer when I was 31. I was part of the business at that point in time. I'm with my dad, and I was the only son. I was an only child. I had three babies in diapers. So that's a whole other story. I would just say, when you have to face death, it's real. You look back on that. I fought it for about five years, had a transplant 18 years ago, 17 years ago. I'm here every day. It's a blessing. I wake up, I'm happy. I want to do something good for someone. It's hard to get a smile off my face. It makes reality set in. There's a bigger purpose than just anything you can think of when you face death. Anyone that has cancer out there, you can beat it. You just have to have a mindset. Don't let them tell you you've got days to live, because that's just a stat. You can be an outlier in the stat. I got told all that. I'm well past dead, so according to stats.

That is amazing. Yeah, thought about that. Yeah, that is really cool. It makes you feel good. That's super neat.

Yeah, I mean, I just had a lot of people. I put my head down for one thing and worked at it. But I think you learn a lot about the business, right time, right place. People today, you have two kinds. You have people that get in front too fast and they're not patient, and they want your job tomorrow. That's probably not going to happen. I mean, I spent 20 years getting mentored. My father, we were a small company. I grew bigger, so I had 20 years of experience of just kind of growing things and doing stuff. I've taken the same principles through every role. I started at North Houston, my dad stayed and ran it. I came over here in '09, I ran gas pipeline and the Houston Electric Ops, and then went to COO, and now here. But in every single role, I looked at it and just tried to do my best. It never changed how I was. I don't fight with everyone and not be like sitting up here in these glass windows. They do nothing. There's only 400 people here at corporate. It's a great place, I love what we do here. But where it's at is in the field. Where I prefer to be is out in the field, fighting the fight. It's something that I think if you want to move up, anyone can do it here. It's just work and wanting to. I tell my sons the same thing because I don't think they should be given nothing. They got to come early, stay late, and learn every day. The more they learn, the more invaluable they become. It's the guy that gets the coffee the fastest every morning... I was always taught to come in early, learn as much as I could. I think those lessons and the mentors I had, John, my dad, many others that have helped me along the way, learn the business, learn the public side of the business. They did it because we were there. I wanted to learn, and they were willing to teach. I really try to make sure I'm doing the same, and I ask all of our people to get someone under you that wants to learn and teach them. Because your legacy is not what you do, it's what you leave behind. I firmly believe that.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, it is faster. I don't know, look at what we're doing and how much you can broadcast out really fast with all the things that are going on. But for young people getting into the trade, it's invaluable to get that experience. I can't say it enough. Take the time to get the experience. The fruits of your labor will come if you just take the time to learn. It's hard. You can YouTube how to do line work, right? Just go try it. You can probably figure it out until you don't know what the hell you're doing, until you have to stand there tie a knot, turn around, tie the same knot exactly. So you can't just YouTube everything. We really have to think about how we teach. Do we teach a little different? We're also talking about computer-based things and things like that that I don't know where I'm at on it. We're working on different things to try to...

Well, I mean, that's who we are. The numbers are the numbers, but the people underneath, they're driving. At the center, we sell craft skill labor and equipment. Equipment's easy. So really, it boils down to how effective are we generationally in creating talent and craft talent. When a client calls and asks us if we can build something, if craft's not behind us, we can't build it. One of the reasons that construction, engineering, the things that we're doing from a solution perspective... people can't. If you're an engineering firm and you say I can build... not so great. We really want to value our craft and make sure that we show up and deliver. That's a two-way street. We have to work with our unions, we have to work with our non-unions, we have to work with everyone to make sure that we're all on the same page and that it's give and take. We want to pay at the high end of the wage scales. We want to make sure we incentivize in a proper way. I think it's important to me to not do these things on a whim. We don't want to build a thing off someone's back. We want everyone to get more. But it is a balance, and there are times where things get tough. But if we treat people the right way, I do believe it's a partnership.

Yeah, that's a good point. But I always say, the second you can find someone to do your job, it frees you up to do a bigger job. I think we all need to think through that. If I can find someone to do my job, then I can probably move up to the next level. That's how I look at it.

I mean, I look back on it and say that you're valuable. We built it together. We built the company into something much different than it was 10 years ago. We're solution providers. We're doing things that are smart, and it should allow everyone to hopefully get better wages, and we're safer. I feel like we made huge strides in it. I watch it every day. I do think the strides that we made over the last 10, we can make the same strides over the next 10. Set a pole in the backyard yet? I'm not sure I've seen anything that can wire a three-pot bank up yet. So until I see that, I think we got a long way to go. Craft is going to be valued, continue to be valued more and more. We just got to be patient with it. I always say, 'Greedy hog chokes.' Stay right down the middle. We'll treat everybody right. As long as we do that, the runway is long and everyone's going to do very well.

Look, I mean, safety to me is my job, to get everyone home every day. I feel it. It's no different than driving your car or anything else. I mean, if we have incidents, we're leaving children without a dad. I'm not doing that. I don't want to do that. I want to make sure that's what we do as a company. We don't take chances, shortcuts. There's nothing more important than getting home to those families every day. Nothing. Having fought cancer and everything else, thinking about leaving my children, I just can't say it enough. We value that, and we should always invest in it. I think the investments we've made, and I know we're doing some things with driving where it'll be controversial. I'm fine with that. We're not trying to fire anybody. We're going to get 60, 70% safer. I'm sorry, that's what it says. If we get 60, 70% safer without cameras, I'm happy to take them out. I don't care. But anything that we can do as a company to make sure... it's an investment. It's not cheap. We probably put $40 million into AEDs, and we didn't have to do that. But if I'm not going to invest in my people, and we're not going to invest in AEDs, we've saved 35 lives internally and more on the public. What's that worth? I get asked that all the time. 'Well, how much?' I don't even know. It doesn't matter. That investment in our people has to be done. I want them home every day. I think it wears on you. Normally it's not bad. Not saying I don't see it, but normally it's not bad. So you can sleep a lot better every day. That's what we want to make sure. There's no value... but I had a fellow on the podcast a couple weeks ago, Noah Edmonds, a veteran, two tours in Afghanistan. Second tour messed up his head pretty bad. He came back, ended up buying a bread route off his uncle. But for a messed up vet, spending 8 to 10 hours in a truck by himself every day, he found himself on the edge of his bed alone one night, gun to his head, and he had started...

Listening to this podcast that's awesome and had a baby boy on the way. He said those two things, thinking about his son, like you just can't put a price on it. You can't. It's worth all we've seen quite a bit of uptick after COVID and everything in suicide. I, you know, we're working with a group out of Australia, working with that come in states for the trade for the industry, not just us. I like we have that happen in hotel rooms, people are alone. I would ask like those crews know, they know something's not right. And then you know, it's all of our jobs if we see it. We see it here. I see people that you know that day they're down about something and I would don't be scared to say what's wrong, you're okay.

About Canada too, you could probably tell me a little bit. The incident rate in Canada is so much less than the US. We've done all kinds of data analysis on it because I want to know why are we safer in Canada and the conditions are sometimes rougher than we are in the US. So if you go back and look at fatality rates and incident rates in Canada, it's minimal compared to the rates here. People don't have fatalities very often in Canada, people don't get hurt very often in Canada. And I think a lot of it has to do with the camps. You become closer, you talk about the work every day, you plan your work a little better. It's remote but still the remoteness also causes you know your own ice, your own all kinds of things.

Cultural difference even within the industry, Canada versus United States. I spent enough time in both just in the trade in the industry. There's definitely a culture difference. I don't know if I have any answers. Do things like this, talking about it. One thing I've always really thought was amazing about line work is like more than any of the other trades, it's so transient. So I thought it advanced our trade. I don't know if this is fact or not, but how you could take somebody from northern Canada and all of a sudden they're working in Georgia the next day or Florida or something. You get to transfer that knowledge and skills and pass something on. But that's happening all the time. You know next to like a plumber or a carpenter, you don't really see that.

Support safety change safety. Yeah, I mean, I you know we've invested in colleges and I do think military into those colleges. When if you're coming out of military, I've said this before, you're fighting that same fight that we fight every day. It's the same one and we're in those trenches and the things that we're doing are very very similar. You got a battalion or you've got the people that you work with every day in the military come back in and you're saying here. So I do think it resonates with someone coming out of military. So those colleges are important to you know get apprenticeships, do scholarships. We're doing things out the Lazy Q.

Want to go and energize services, you've got to go work on and practice, not practice but train on energized conductor. And if you could never do it in a format so that that facility, I'm real proud of that and all the people that are out there and what they've done. I do think they are the brain surgeons of line work and I think we can teach as far as you want to go in the trade up. We can get you there and then from there like where can you go? You can take my job but wherever you want to go. Those facilities and how we get people in the trade, you know I it's not cast test. You know you hear about aptitude test and things like that. I we know characteristics of of kids in inner...

It's, I'm sorry, I like it just doesn't work that way and I think we all have to realize it. There's a few things that are important and if you can do those things you can get in the trade and go as far as you want and it pays pretty damn good too. Yeah yeah, there's like 12 formulas you can write on the back of your hand, make it right. I have, I don't know much about NLC, I haven't been around NLC very much but what I can speak to is Lazy Q and how amazing that facility is. So when you talk about training and training the workforce, we've really done an amazing job there. Like you said, all of the people right from the instructors to the upper level, it's just a bang up job.

Learn and wanting to learn for the most part right, not so much the lineman, the old crusty linemen that already know everything and you can't teach him anything right. Speak to like bringing in the youth into this and training right, getting them right from the start what impact they can have. I mean I think one of the reasons I'm on this podcast is because I want the youth to see what's possible and also hear from us. Social media is big. I was always against social media 10 years ago. I thought like we're going to get on there and somebody's going to say something to a client and I want you know I think we've changed a lot and for us it this helps...

Out to want to be in the trade and say it's not the same trade as it was. I mean you can come here in two, three years you're making $100,000 and you also can make a lot more and you've got a path and you have pensions and you have 401ks and you're going to take care of your family. I don't think many people can do that. I mean, I you know my son, one of them started out and working for private equity and you know look he could stay there and do a lot but he could come here real quick and get in the business and do very very well. So we've got to offer for those things and show the youth.

Important. I mean the stats say 80% of the people don't like their job. I love my damn job. I get up every day, I can't wait to get in here. I think about it every day. I love it. I love what I do. I don't know anything else. I wouldn't know what the hell I was going to do. You know I'm hopefully one day I'll retire and go do something fun with the trade but I'll always be in my heart. And I do think us being able to do what we love is fun and I think people have to really think about what they want to do. But when they see it and if you're from like I said the military, really resonates. But it doesn't really matter. Sports, the team, the whole thing about getting something accomplished every day and you can look...

I've been able to witness firsthand just through social media, had people reach out. One guy comes to mind, the Air Force was overseas. He reached out he said hey Ryan, I got a year left. I was trying to figure out what to do with my life after the military. He's like I came across your podcast, came across your content, been following it. I think this would really fit for me, it seems like a good fit. So I introduced him to Madison Jefferson and the veteran electrical entry program with David Ball and the Lazy Q and they ended up getting him in there, come through the program. He's out you know working as an apprentice in the field and it's just like his whole life's changed. Like he had no idea what he wanted to do. This job just career fits. But it's getting that work out there to people that these...

If you see someone really hustling, it don't matter. Like to me that's us saying we see someone that's working hard and we want to better then let's see if we can better his life yeah or her life yeah. As an industry we have to do that or you... it's hard because I think it this used to be a generational trade where everyone generationally want to be in the trade and you just kind of perpetuates. And a lot of it is like you didn't want your son or daughter in the trade. You go oh no, we want them to go get an education. Okay, but how many people are educated that get in the trade? A lot. We have a lot more people with degrees today than we've ever had that want to...

Lot safer today. I think the upside of it, it's great. They get their education income in trade, it's even better. We got to be proud of who we are and like what we've done and what the industry's done and just be proud of it. And I think as I see it turning, you know 10 years ago I would say h, today I see it turning. And I think as an industry and as a company we just continue to do the things we've done and getting solar, some of things like that it resonates with the youth. And I think all those things matter when you start to recruit or start to think about your career. We work with colleges, I sit on...

Think you need to spend time in the field and the more you can spend the more you're going to learn and the faster you'll move. So it's worth the time to get out there. That's another great thing that Quanta can provide that opportunity as well is if you want to try. I talk about this actually quite a bit about how when we're kids we're so willing to try things, pick up a skateboard one day, go play baseball the next, drop it, go play football whatever and try try try. But as adults we kind of let that go. And I like to be a tryer, I'm that type of person, like just try new things all the time, drop it. But so many people are scared to drop something like oh since I got a degree I have to stay with this thing. It's like you don't, it's yours, you didn't lose it. That's right, go try something else.

Left on a strike, worked in a feed mill and never went back there. You go like and then you start to think about it. Well I thought we were going to be you know I didn't know we were changing lights out in B fields and doing all kinds of stuff to make ends meet. And I was on a strike and he left and so I you go back and you go well how many times is trying something different or trying a new location or trying a new part of the trade? It's not you know you just don't know what it'll lead you to. Very cool. What does good leadership look like to you when people follow you? Good point, explain that a little bit. I say it all the time. So I just think when you look behind you and if you're doing the right things, people want to be around you and they...

Something and you left, would anyone go with you? And if they don't, why? Is it because of your leadership? So look a path, you have to have good characteristics and care. People that lead here are genuine and you want to feel some genuineness and some heart. I think a big heart matters and they're always good leaders because they lead with their hands or they lead on their heart. I mean they lead with their heart and they don't lead sometimes you got to have wrong and right. And I you know I never have once in my career blame something on someone else. Just own it. And if you own the things and ultimately anything that...

Every day and try to make their life easier. Our kids are grown for the most part and I know people under me have young ones and it matters if I say look, I'll take that, go with your kids that day, I got this. Because someone did that for me. Yeah and I those kind of characteristics will ultimately make people follow you. And so when I say follow you, it's because of the things you do. You pay people properly and you don't make them come to you to ask for something. You don't come to me and say I need a raise, I'm already beat you to it. Heck yeah. I don't think people, I don't think we have anyone leave this company about money. It's more about something different.

People some people want to be P, I think everyone's different and the way people think are different and so you adapt. I adapt. I wake up and have to reinvent myself every day because I'm adapting to something. Heck yeah. The world, the transition from coal, you know who knows what it is but as long as you can adapt to it and don't lose who you are, I think you can lead. I love the hockey reference. That special wasn't it? It's a great one. Yeah it is good. I met Gretzky one day. Yeah when I was, I had the opportunity a few times. He's a great guy. He was kind of funny. I actually shorts side out. I was in a mall shopping mall. I was like nine years old. I was dressed head to toe in Vancouver Canucks and Gretzky playing for the LA Kings in town. He was...

Lady's like oh you can only take two things up there for him to sign and don't touch them. And my dad's just like go just go just go. So I just walked up there with this stack of... he signed everything and I had my arm around him just kid. Yeah he's a super guy. Gretzky is cool.

Right from the crew level, if we scaled this down to right at the crew level, what's some advice for the young leaders or the young people that want to be leaders right at that crew level? Foreman. Yeah I mean I think listening is you know learn as much as you can learn, listen. I think how you line your work out...

Lot more and I do think it takes time. You got to remember someone may be really smart, they maybe 20 years old, they're not confident yet. And when you get confidence in someone that leads to leadership, it leads to a lot of different things. And it takes a while. I mean some kids get in there and they're confident and they're also the ones that get hurt. Yeah yeah yeah. There's difference between confidence and cocky. Is that yeah and it's a fine line. And I think those fine lines are you know how do you learn when you're young and how do you these crews and crew makeup's important. And I know that's I might as well not even say it because I understand there shortages...

Know trying to fill in the gaps with people and things. And you know I think in general learning on webcast, learning on different things and reading and things like that are important and if you want to move up for sure. Just taking all the knowledge. I've seen Quanta recently make some strides. I know you guys have been doing this for a while but really seen recently making strides to better leadership in the company. And I'm assuming it's because of the scaling of the companies growing so fast sort and it must be something to, must be a struggle. What are some things that Quanta is doing to better the leadership? I think you know you go back and you say...

Adds up. But in saying that, if you don't have leadership you don't have the for it goes. It really goes bottom up honestly. It's kind of bottom up leadership but at the top you understand what it takes at the bottom and so it's vice versa. But creating those good path and good mentorships, apprentice programs, all those things it just adds up to your ability to add. And you've seen us regionalize. We were very much like at the operating unit, that's how it was led for a long time. And we felt like I moved out of the COO role and when I did that I thought well in order to stay close to it I needed to have a regional structure so I...

Get closer to the client but also to our people and make sure that we're giving them opportunities to not only at their local level but to move up through the organization. And you've seen that expansion. I mean I think we're very young. I'm 53, hell I'm old. Like I used to be the youngest guy in the ring for 10 years, now I'm old. And like I love it. I think that vibrance and you can feel it in this organization. They're young, they're ready to go. And Reggie, Crawford, the people that are under me, they're just doing a fantastic job on the electric side, a renewable side same thing. And it's just the culmination of a really good family that's pulling together and pulling that rope the same way. No fighting internally. Well a little bit, I call it healthy tension. Yeah got a little healthy tension, run it's okay.

Would you say that's a great question. Probably recognizing people and where they're at in life and if something's going on. I think I recognize when someone's hurting, I recognize when they're doing great. And I would tell you that I think it's really important to be able to see that coming and also like I said you got to skate where they're going and stay in front of them. I mean we have all walks of life. We have guys from Harvard and guys that were in prison. I treat them all the same. My dad always said you treat the janitor like you treat the CEO. The janitor might be the CEO one day. Yeah I've seen that come true many times.

Moved this building, he comes over here once a week and so we help him. I just and he goes back over there and tells everybody how great we are and we didn't even try to do it. No I have people come in here and say hey this guy you know so I do it matters. And I think they would say you know probably unfair. And look I have a day and accountability to yourself and to the people. I think holding people accountable matters too. And whether you think I'm wrong or right sometimes it's okay. I feel like I'm going to give you everything I got every day and this company everything I got every day.

And ourselves and we'll be fine. But I look, I worry generationally that we continue to build what we've done and not let people down and make sure that we honor the toughness that it was while we continue to grow farther up. And that's a balance these days. Holy cow. And stay in front, making sure that as a company we're well respected and that we provide opportunity for the next generation, kids, grandkids. Yeah just had a grandkid, he's four months. It's probably the coolest thing in my life is now I can give them back to my son. But that'll be fun for me. So just...

The more I can talk about the things that have impacted me and the things that we've done wrong and right. I ain't wrong too. I think it's more talk about what you're doing wrong honestly. I do. And you know I can't say I'm proud of everything I've done. I've drank too much many times and I've done things I'm not proud of. But I will say I've done a lot right too. And just balancing that and making sure the youth that we teach them properly. And I look back at my kids and we'll see how they turn out. If they turn out better than me, I'm really happy. I hope so. I know I've taught them right from wrong. And that is really the company too. Like what is...

They listening? I don't know. Like that's the key. Are they listening to you when you're talking? Because if you talk too much they not listening. And I short burst of anything. People most people these days have ADD and they just don't listen much. And I don't blame them, I tune out too. So you got to be you know you got to talk and you got to have something that people want to hear. And that legacy that you leave behind is teaching all those things and making sure that the people underneath you or your family that you've instilled in them the proper ways to get ahead. And I it's everything I mean what I do hell I'm going to die and I'm not going to know like but I hope to God like everything that I've done and taught like it resonates and...

Hard as I work and they're better than me, I know they are. What are they going to do with it? Yeah it's up to them. I mean they have every opportunity just like you know everyone's family. Like you want to give them the best way path forward, wrong or right. Yeah yeah wrong or right and you have to be okay with that. Yeah because what's unique and what's cool is like you don't know what comes out of that. Like you don't know what's wrong or right. So you could call them wrong but then the next generation they did something to make the next generation right. So I don't know it's cool. Yeah I mean you know when you face death was my wife and know and I was thinking about it. I thought about it for a long time and I was just looking at her and I was going you know I'm...

About what you're doing every day and that apprentice that you're teaching. When you go up in the air and you decide you don't need a safety and you decide you don't need a ground because you're that good, you just taught the guy that is something wrong. And when he goes up and does it and he dies, think about it. Yeah because that's what you're leaving behind. I'm not wrong. And so I think I look at it like that and what I'm doing here is the same thing. Yeah because I've seen it happen and I you know I've just seen it and it's someone taught someone wrong. It's easy to do 'cause you're that good. You're that good.

Need to clip in, you don't need to do this, you just go ahead and move that phase with your hand, the bucket's rated for it. You know it's like seen it all. But it's not about you right. It's not about like you're going to get away with it. Yeah nine times out of 10, who saw it? Who saw it? Yeah saw you do that. Now figures he can do it or she can do it. I mean it's like do you let your kids stick your finger in a light socket? No. I mean come on. I've got a couple good stories on that way. Well I mean we all but you made a plastic screwdriver and then they'll stick the metal one in. Like I mean you know we owe it to ourselves and really generationally into this trade to get it right. And I would say you know at the highest leadership of the...

How do you want to be the person on the other side of that argument? So those things, these decisions that we make today are really about you know 10 years from now what's going to happen. I love it. Okay couple lighter questions just to finish this off for sure. Yeah these are a couple questions that I kind of ask everybody so answer them in one word or one sentence or one paragraph whatever you want. So if you could go back to your 18-year-old self, what's a piece of advice you'd give him? Slow down. Value my family a little more. When I was young I think I thought I had to get everything today and I didn't put the time in. Probably until I had cancer to my family and I would say value that family time as much as possible.

Matters. Text your kids matters. Stay in touch. FaceTime. I think that's the beauty of the internet and some of the things we can do with social media is you can stay in touch and the more you stay in touch the stronger your family is. And I think just make sure that you lean on people that you need to lean on and that's what families are for, even your crew, even your people. So in hard times you lean back and give back. And there's a great book called The Go-Giver and I always think about it a lot. It's like the more you give you get back three times. So just kind of live my life by that and I think the more you can give you'll get it back and that goes with family and everything else.

Param. Self-study, reading books, listening to podcasts. Any recommendations? I mean I think that you know you got your trade with lineman handbook, those kind of things. I think are really important, they're awesome. There's great, I just said The Go-Giver, I think is a super book. I would tell everybody, any sport, anybody, any kid that comes through, any read it. It's a short book, you'll love it. I mean I think it teaches you how to get back and I think you got to get back to the trade. And then if you're going to be in the trade, you got to get back to the trade. Yeah if we all do that it's that old hang you know 1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 8, 8 to 16. All of a sudden...

Into something is what you get out of it. And I think that's there's a lot of people smarter than me. I'm not see one that'll outwork me. So I mean I live by it every day and I think you have to. I always had to work harder than the next guy no matter what it was. And if you're Tiger Woods or you're Tom Brady, I saw the other day about Brady. He was talking to Sanders' kid and he said quit worrying about driving that car and get your ass in the film room. I mean I think he's absolutely right. I mean people have talents and they're very very smart and they can do a lot of great things but if you don't...

Certainly having your voice out there and I watch the podcast all the time. Fantastic not only for the trade but just in general in life. And not anything we can do like this. We're happy to be here and thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Yeah all right guys, I hope you got a ton of value and you really enjoyed that conversation with Duke Austin. I know I got tons out of it, tons of takeaways from it and really a good look into the future of our industry. So if you can ask for one favor from you guys, it's go to the YouTube channel, go to whatever audio podcast platform you listen to this podcast on and make sure you're subscribed. Leave us a like, leave us a comment, five star rating would be dope. All right guys, I appreciate you. Play safe. Peace.