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As Told By C.S. Beaty

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by C.S. Beaty

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Podcast Overview

My name is Chris Beaty and I like to tell stories. Some of my stories are funny. Some of them are dumb But if I do it right, they're all entertaining. This is stuff that happened to me, I think you might like it. <a href="https://www.chrisbeaty.com/s/talking?utm_medium=podcast">www.chrisbeaty.com</a>

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Recent Episodes

July 7, 2026

Interesting People: Story Expert and Ex-Pastor Raj Lulla

If you thought Raj was interesting, well… you’re right! Subscribe to meet some more of my friends!Check out all this awesome stuff:<a target="_blank" href="https://www.lullaconsulting.com/">Lulla Consulting</a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CN7C9CSS?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback">The Caring House</a><a target="_blank" href="https://rajlulla.substack.com/?utm_source=homepage_recommendations&utm_campaign=2376831">Raj's Substack</a> This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.chrisbeaty.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">www.chrisbeaty.com</a>

June 30, 2026

Letters to Haywood Fudd: Book Reports

When I sent Haywood Fudd a copy of my collected essays of 2024, it included one titled Hunting, Or Lack Thereof. It was about my attempts at competitive trapshooting and the time my dad shot a deer and gave me credit for it. That essay was split into parts and became a running storyline in my memoir about high school and growing up in Grand Island, Nebraska.Writing is a feedback loop. You observe something, and then you think about it. Then you think about it, and your brain tells you what you think about it—but not all the way. So you attempt to vomit that primordial soup of words out of your head in the hopes that they’ll form on the page and reach the next stage of evolution—but the first draft is usually just a slug with one arm, three eyes, and an overbite. So you put those words back into your brain, microwave them in your subconscious, and vomit again. If you’re lucky, the creature will sprout another arm.But as any parent knows, at a certain point, you get sick of your child. So, very, very, f*****g sick of them. You need a break. You’ve exhausted your patience of their bed wetting and constant b******g about the injustice of their ice cream portions in comparison to those ice cream portions of their sibling. You’re convinced that whatever beast is crawling around in your living room isn’t anything resembling a sentient being worthy of your pride and respect. They are just some offspring that bastardized all your hard work and best intentions. Your masterpiece is not before you. You don’t know what that thing is, really.So, out of ideas of your own, you push the amorphous blob onto someone else. You can’t just give up on it, whatever the end state of this experiment is, you have to see it through. But you need someone else to watch it for a little bit, while you go off and question your worth as a creative and wonder why you ever thought you were worthy of attempting to make a meaningful creation.But sometimes, when the babysitter reports back, you get a little bit of encouragement. They kind of enjoyed their time with your child. All those traits that drive you nuts because you spend so much time living with them without any break—well when this other person interacted with them for the first time, they thought they were kind of fun. It wasn’t a bad way to spend their afternoon.And then you realize, you kind of missed your creature.And you get back to work, hoping it sprouts a leg this time.January 18th, 2025Dear Mr. Beaty,Having slayed some other books first, I have begun slaying your book. My first book report regarding your inviting tome:I’m a hunter, too (or was), though I hunted with my trusty bow and arrows instead of scatter gun and, like you, I froze and froze—for decades. I recall being perched up in a tree one particularly wicked December morning and began wondering what all the sane people in Nebraska were doing. Though I’m not smart and you can’t make me, I arrived at the conclusion that all the sane people in Nebraska were tucked in their warm beds while I was freezing 15 feet up in a tree with the north wind howling in my face and questioning my limited sanity.One time a large buck walked by me at 10 yards. I was much too cold to draw my bow and just barely sane enough to realize that if I killed him I would have to clean him which required getting my hands wet with his blood. I thought the best of it and let him live. He sauntered away as though he was enjoying the clobbering northwest wind that was busy lashing, punishing, and freezing me.Those were the good old days of freezing. Now I’m old and can’t do cold like I used to be able to do when I was a much younger and much dumber guy who convinced my dumb self that if I dressed warm enough that I could conquer the bitter cold, the biting northwest wind. I, of course, was dumber than an old cedar fence post when I was a younger man. One does not ever conquer the Nebraska cold; conquers you.Lady luck shone on me a few times and I let the air out of a couple large box whose stuffed heads adored my living room walls. When I stare at them like I’m doing right now (and typing blindly), I’m reminded how lucky I was and am: I have an understanding wife who permits those heads to stare down at her while she plays solitaire on her Googler-enabled device. Think of it this way: how many homes have you been in with deer heads perched on the living room wall and not perched on the garage wall?Sadly, I lost my deer hunting honey hole a few years ago. Some guy pays thousands and thousands of dollars each year to hunt my old stomping grounds. When I think about him, I hope he’s getting every freezing dollar bill worth of enjoyment. While he’s freezing and hoping a giant buck will saunter by looking for a hot doe, I’m home tucked snugly in a warm bed. When I wake up, I pour myself a hot cup of coffee, sit in my recliner, and then watch YouTube videos of other guys sitting in freezing in trees. That’s what old people do: live vicariously through young dumb people.Much obliged,Haywood This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.chrisbeaty.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">www.chrisbeaty.com</a>

June 23, 2026

Interesting People: Corporate Executive and World's Biggest Husker Fan Guenther Dziuvenis

Your email needs more than just Amazon delivery notifications. Today’s guest is a mentor and hero of mine who convinced me to give up on a career(00:00:36):as a structural engineer in order to follow him to the dark side of sales.(00:00:41):We talk about that along with a bunch of his favorite stories from a three-decade(00:00:44):career in corporate leadership,(00:00:46):including his interactions with Walter Scott,(00:00:49):Tommy Frazier,(00:00:50):Indomitian Sioux,(00:00:51):Warren Sapp,(00:00:52):Donald Trump,(00:00:53):and King Kong.(00:00:55):I’m very excited to present Gunther DeVanus.(00:01:01):So you can do like,(00:01:04):if you just wanted this particular type of mic,(00:01:06):you can plug straight into your laptop.(00:01:08):So you could like get started for like a couple hundred bucks.(00:01:12):How do you find time to do all this crap?(00:01:14):Seriously.(00:01:15):I don’t know.(00:01:16):I just, well, I don’t go into the office anymore.(00:01:18):Yeah, that’s nice.(00:01:20):Yeah.(00:01:20):So before I forget, so I was at Prep Today yesterday and today, and I’m coming back in the fall.(00:01:29):And I’m bringing Dean Perez and Tony Villan, do you know who that is?(00:01:33):Tony Villan’s on our board.(00:01:35):He’s an ex-Husker player, was on the 94-95 championship team, so he wears a big championship.(00:01:43):So I took my grandson to the Colorado-Nebraska game two years ago when we beat them in Lincoln.(00:01:50):My grandson lives in the shadow of Boulder.(00:01:53):He’s taking basketball camps on campus.(00:01:55):So he was kind of a Colorado fan.(00:01:58):So I said, I got to fix this.(00:02:00):It was a night game.(00:02:01):Before the night game, I toured him through the new Keywood Hall building.(00:02:05):I haven’t been in that yet, but I saw it under construction.(00:02:10):Dean Perez’s office is on the top floor of that thing.(00:02:12):I forget how many stories it is.(00:02:14):He’s got a balcony.(00:02:16):By C.S.(00:02:16):Beaty(00:02:46):But he’s got this big ring on it.(00:02:48):I see Owen staring at his ring.(00:02:50):Yeah.(00:02:51):Because he’s got to be what?(00:02:52):Is he 18 yet?(00:02:52):No, no.(00:02:53):He’s like, he just turned 13.(00:02:56):13.(00:02:56):Okay.(00:02:56):Yeah.(00:02:57):Okay.(00:02:57):So he was, and at that time he was 11.(00:03:00):Okay.(00:03:01):So he’s staring at Belen’s ring and I said, it’s a pretty cool ring, huh?(00:03:05):Owen?(00:03:05):And he goes, yeah, that’s really cool.(00:03:08):He said, what is, what kind of ring is it?(00:03:10):And so Tony takes it off and Tony’s got big fingers so he gives it to Owen.(00:03:13):He says, put it on.(00:03:14):So Owen puts it on.(00:03:15):Big red(00:03:16):Yeah.(00:03:17):Jewel in there.(00:03:18):National Championship.(00:03:19):And Owen goes, wow, how did you get this?(00:03:21):And he explained it to him.(00:03:23):He goes, I have two of those.(00:03:25):And then Owen goes like, wow.(00:03:26):And he goes, you know what else I have?(00:03:29):And he says, no.(00:03:30):He says, I have a Super Bowl ring, too.(00:03:32):Oh, wow.(00:03:33):But anyway, I’m bringing him, Tony Villan, and Perez to prep.(00:03:40):But I’d love to have you come because I’m pitching Nebraska Engineering.(00:03:44):And(00:03:45):Most of the kids that go to prep, 99.9% of them all go to college.(00:03:50):You can’t go to, I mean, it’s called Creighton Prep, prep you for college.(00:03:53):And you have to take an entrance exam and all this other crap.(00:03:56):But,(00:03:57):so,(00:03:58):a bunch,(00:03:58):and they’re really,(00:04:00):their robotics team,(00:04:01):their high school robotics team came in fourth in the world.(00:04:04):Did they go to the, they have like a national competition in Iowa.(00:04:08):This was international.(00:04:08):Oh, international, yeah.(00:04:09):They came in fourth in the world.(00:04:10):That’s crazy, yeah.(00:04:11):And the kid that leads the team is,(00:04:15):He’s been offered to go to Harvard and all these other places.(00:04:21):And a lot of those kids that graduate from there,(00:04:23):their parents have money,(00:04:24):which my parents never had.(00:04:26):I had to take a bus up there.(00:04:27):But anyway, so a lot of them go to Ivy League schools or Notre Dame.(00:04:33):And Perez graduated from Notre Dame.(00:04:35):Did you know that?(00:04:36):No.(00:04:36):So Dean Perez has got his undergraduate and his Ph.D. from University of Notre Dame.(00:04:40):Okay.(00:04:41):He has Notre Dame football tickets, season tickets.(00:04:43):Oh, come on.(00:04:44):No, and he goes to the games.(00:04:45):I mean, he’s a huge Notre Dame fan.(00:04:47):Well, there’s more to root for than Nebraska at the moment.(00:04:49):Yeah, yeah.(00:04:50):So,(00:04:50):but anyway,(00:04:51):so my pitch to these kids is going to be,(00:04:54):so I know a lot of you have parents that can afford to go to these great schools(00:04:59):like Notre Dame and Carnegie Mellon and places like that.(00:05:03):I said, but in my case, when I went to school, my parents didn’t have that kind of money.(00:05:08):And maybe some of your parents don’t have that kind of money.(00:05:11):And there’s a golden, there’s a gem of a school right here in Omaha and also in Lincoln.(00:05:18):And so(00:05:19):I’d like to pitch Nebraska engineering in general,(00:05:23):and I’d like to have you talk about going to school here.(00:05:26):Sure.(00:05:26):I mean, you’re not from Omaha.(00:05:28):No.(00:05:29):Right?(00:05:29):And how your career’s just launched off.(00:05:33):Tell them some of the cool things you’ve done.(00:05:34):I’ve been to Guam, this and that, you know.(00:05:36):Because we’re just not getting our fair share of those kids.(00:05:38):What put the icing on the cake for me is, you know, I was a kid from Grand Island.(00:05:43):I knew about the engineering program here.(00:05:45):I didn’t know much, but I met, if you remember...(00:05:49):You recorded?(00:05:50):Yeah, we’ve been recording for a while.(00:05:51):This is good grade A content, if I can get my microphone to stop moving.(00:05:55):If you remember Alma Ramirez,(00:05:57):she was the main recruiter at,(00:06:00):for Peter Kiewen Institute,(00:06:01):for all the College of Engineering in Omaha.(00:06:03):Her father-in-law is actually Johnny Rogers.(00:06:06):She’s Alma Ramirez Rogers.(00:06:07):Oh, really?(00:06:08):So the Rogers is her, Johnny Rogers is her father-in-law.(00:06:11):But she was the first person who told me about the AE program,(00:06:14):the architectural engineering program.(00:06:15):And the way she sold it was,(00:06:17):She’s like, what do you want to go to school for?(00:06:18):I’m like, well, I’m leaning towards engineering, but I don’t really know what.(00:06:21):She’s like,(00:06:21):oh,(00:06:22):you go to architecture engineering,(00:06:23):you don’t have to know what you’re going to do.(00:06:24):I’m like, really?(00:06:25):And so she kind of explained how it works.(00:06:26):And I was like, we don’t want you to declare until your junior year.(00:06:29):So then I went to the visit at PKI, the Peter Keywood Institute Open House.(00:06:33):And then I was like, I was sold.(00:06:35):It was fairly new then.(00:06:36):Yeah, it was.(00:06:38):So I think the building opened around, it was less than 10 years old.(00:06:41):So my freshman year was the 10-year anniversary of the architecture engineering program.(00:06:46):And I think it was the first year,(00:06:48):I don’t know if the building was built yet or not,(00:06:50):but it might have been.(00:06:51):But yeah, I was about 10 years old.(00:06:53):I mean,(00:06:53):and I will say I did a visit at Lincoln and part of the main reason I didn’t go to(00:06:56):Lincoln is because I thought their engineering building was terrible.(00:06:58):I mean, compared to the two.(00:06:59):You should see this new one.(00:07:00):Yeah, but I’m sure the new one would have been, you know, it’s completely different.(00:07:04):And that program has grown because of that new building.(00:07:08):Yeah, I bet.(00:07:09):So did you ever hear the story about how that school was started up, PKI started?(00:07:14):I mean, vaguely, you hear rumors about it.(00:07:17):So I was on the board, worked at Johnson Controls.(00:07:21):One day I’m in Kansas City and I get a call.(00:07:24):It’s from a lady named Winnie Callahan.(00:07:26):I knew who she was.(00:07:27):So she was the outgoing director when I came in.(00:07:31):So people talked about Winnie, but I never met her.(00:07:33):So Winnie,(00:07:34):very aggressively energetic,(00:07:37):aggressive energy about trying to make that school happen because it was in its(00:07:41):infancy.(00:07:42):Sure.(00:07:43):And so I get a call from her.(00:07:44):I’m at my desk in Kansas City and she says, hey, Walter Scott would like to talk to you.(00:07:50):I said, really?(00:07:51):He said, yeah.(00:07:52):Wouldn’t it be a good time?(00:07:52):So we set up a time and Walter calls me and he says, hey, I’d like to go to Milwaukee.(00:07:58):Can you set up a meeting with your CEO?(00:08:02):And the CEO at that time was Alex Mulneroli, a personal friend of mine.(00:08:05):We grew up together in the company.(00:08:07):Well,(00:08:07):and this is back when Johnson Controls was like,(00:08:10):I would always tell people that had never heard of us,(00:08:12):we are one ahead of the Disney Corporation on the Fortune 500 list.(00:08:16):And we were actually at Fortune 100.(00:08:17):Yeah, it was.(00:08:19):Well, yeah, Disney was like 76 and we were like 77 or 75.(00:08:23):It was, you look at the list and I’d always point out like, look where Disney is.(00:08:27):Oh yeah, we’re ahead of Disney.(00:08:29):Yeah.(00:08:29):We’ve spun off a lot of those companies.(00:08:31):But anyway, so(00:08:32):So Walter says, can you set up a meeting with your CEO?(00:08:36):And I said, yeah, I suppose.(00:08:38):I said, what do you want to talk to me about?(00:08:41):And he goes,(00:08:42):I’d like to talk to him about naming rights for our new architectural engineering(00:08:46):school.(00:08:47):I said, really?(00:08:48):And I was on the board.(00:08:50):And he said, yeah.(00:08:51):He said, do you think they’d be interested?(00:08:52):I said, I don’t know.(00:08:55):I said, if we can position something in it for Johnson, it might be.(00:09:00):So long story short, they set up the meeting.(00:09:03):I set up the meeting with Alex and we fly up there.(00:09:07):So I’m in Kansas City.(00:09:09):Walter picks me up in his corporate, in his jet, in Kansas City.(00:09:12):Because he was the, was he the CEO of Keywood at the time?(00:09:16):He probably just retired.(00:09:17):I can’t remember if he either just recently retired or was still the CEO.(00:09:21):But he’s a billionaire.(00:09:21):I mean, he owns half, his name was on half the things in Omaha.(00:09:24):Were you a Scott Scholar?(00:09:25):Yeah, I was a Scott Scholar.(00:09:26):Yeah, so he paid for all my school.(00:09:29):He paid for Ryan’s school.(00:09:30):Yeah,(00:09:31):I met him a couple of times and it was just,(00:09:32):you know,(00:09:33):I have a picture of me with him and his(00:09:36):His wife,(00:09:36):who both of them have since passed away in my office,(00:09:38):my home office,(00:09:39):a picture of the three of us.(00:09:40):Yeah, it was just, it was a, it was an honor.(00:09:43):Yeah, just being an affiliate with the guy.(00:09:45):So they picked me up in Kansas City and fly on his jet to Milwaukee.(00:09:49):Now, as we’re, as we, and on that jet was Ken West from DLR, Dr.(00:09:56):Waters, Winnie Callahan, and a couple other Nebraska dignitaries.(00:10:01):There’s a small group of us, like six or eight of us.(00:10:03):And so Ronald Walters flying to Milwaukee.(00:10:06):And Walter was kind of saying, you know, bragging about his plane, how nice it is.(00:10:10):And I had just flown a bunch of customers like a couple months earlier on Johnson’s(00:10:15):plane,(00:10:15):which goes to China.(00:10:19):And I didn’t want to tell him that.(00:10:24):But it was still nice.(00:10:25):So we fly into Milwaukee and meet with Alex and other dignitaries at Johnson Controls.(00:10:35):When he does a pitch about...(00:10:37):It was going to be called the Johnson Controls School of Architectural Engineering(00:10:41):and Construction.(00:10:42):Did you know that?(00:10:43):I think you told me this story before.(00:10:44):But yeah,(00:10:45):it’s just so funny because it’s now the Durham School and it’s just like,(00:10:48):how different.(00:10:49):Yeah.(00:10:51):So long story short, they...(00:10:54):We leave and a couple days go by and I get a call from Max.(00:10:58):He says, Gunther, you know, we’re really impressed with that school.(00:11:02):We don’t really want to spend the money to have naming rights, but we will donate.(00:11:06):They donated like $100,000 to PKI and then within a few months of that it became(00:11:13):the Durham School of Architectural Engineering.(00:11:16):I don’t know what it is.(00:11:17):I remember somebody telling me the Durham School endowment before and it’s insane.(00:11:21):It’s something like(00:11:23):I don’t know the exact figures,(00:11:24):but I remember they said like the endowment sheds like a million dollars a year.(00:11:27):It’s just crazy.(00:11:28):You know, whatever it is.(00:11:29):So Ryan’s told me that as a Scott scholar, he got to visit Walter’s party house.(00:11:36):Yeah.(00:11:36):Hunting lodge or whatever.(00:11:37):Yeah.(00:11:38):So they call it the bar.(00:11:39):I went there four times.(00:11:40):He would have a party every year and it’s just this party house.(00:11:43):They call it the barn and he had his own like embossed napkins that just say the(00:11:47):bar and like stamped on the bottom.(00:11:49):But yeah,(00:11:50):he didn’t live there,(00:11:50):but it was a functional,(00:11:52):I mean,(00:11:52):relatively a functional barn,(00:11:54):but like he had a giant horse showing like track in the middle of it.(00:11:58):And so like you would go in and there’s,(00:12:00):you know,(00:12:00):it’s in the middle of kind of,(00:12:01):it feels like the middle of North,(00:12:02):but far North Omaha.(00:12:04):So if you go like 72nd Street North,(00:12:06):eventually you kind of run into this area where there’s not really kind of almost(00:12:09):up towards Blair and you,(00:12:11):there’s this long meandering driveway and you see horses like fields with horses(00:12:14):and those are all his,(00:12:15):but then this house,(00:12:16):it’s just this giant property.(00:12:19):Like a lodge?(00:12:19):Yeah, kind of, but it’s a little more modern.(00:12:21):It doesn’t really have a rustic vibe.(00:12:23):It’s fairly modern looking.(00:12:26):But like you walk in the first thing you see is this giant bar and he hires a(00:12:29):bartender so he would have all the Scott Scholars for all four years there once a(00:12:32):year and at that point it’s probably about 80 of us or so each Scott Scholar class(00:12:37):had about 25 of us and then they would always you know you get it’s a four year(00:12:40):renewed scholarship so he’d invite all of us and so there’s probably about I think(00:12:45):about 80 of us there and then you’d have the first thing you do when you walk in(00:12:50):you see this giant open bar and it has a bartender they’re making you I mean all(00:12:53):non-alcoholic drinks because we’re all college students but(00:12:55):One of my favorite memories of that was they had a shoe, just a big old shoe.(00:12:59):And it was a Shaquille O’Neal shoe that was autographed by Shaquille O’Neal.(00:13:03):And they took a linen napkin and shoved it in there and kind of forced it in there.(00:13:07):And they filled it up with pretzels.(00:13:09):So we’re all eating out of Shaquille O’Neal’s shoe while waiting for our Roy Rogers(00:13:14):or Shirley Temple or whatever it was.(00:13:16):Walter Scott was so iconic.(00:13:17):I mean, what a great guy.(00:13:19):And then he would take every single,(00:13:20):so like I said,(00:13:20):there’s about 80 of us,(00:13:21):but if you’re a freshman,(00:13:23):he made sure that you got a one-on-one picture with him and his wife for every(00:13:26):single one.(00:13:27):So it was about,(00:13:27):you know,(00:13:28):and you take about a minute to two minutes with each individual person.(00:13:31):So, you know, he would spend probably about half an hour, 45 minutes.(00:13:34):Just in a photo line.(00:13:35):And then after that, he would take a group photo with everyone.(00:13:38):So every single Scott Scholar got a personalized photo with him with this really(00:13:42):nice,(00:13:42):I still have mine too,(00:13:43):a gold leaf certificate autographed by him.(00:13:46):And then, you know, he shook his hand and everything.(00:13:47):And then we got this group photo.(00:13:49):So yeah, I still have mine in my office.(00:13:51):I’ll show it to you later.(00:13:52):And then you would have a(00:13:54):This big barn would have all this random memorabilia like he had this picture of(00:13:58):like they went and saw Elton John just like his autograph like whatever was poster(00:14:01):of Elton John and their ticket stubs and random stuff he just kind of accumulated(00:14:06):and then he the same meal every single year he would have tacos because he said he(00:14:11):quotes likes Mexican food he’d like get this little speech and dilly bars(00:14:15):Yeah.(00:14:16):And I think it’s good.(00:14:16):Dairy Queen.(00:14:17):Yeah.(00:14:17):Yeah.(00:14:18):I mean, he was on the board for Berkshire Hathaway, which was the own Dairy Queen.(00:14:21):Yeah.(00:14:21):Yeah.(00:14:21):So I feel like maybe he’s just, you know, inflating a stock price buying dilly bars.(00:14:24):But yeah,(00:14:24):they would walk around with a thing of dilly bars,(00:14:26):just like at the,(00:14:27):if you ever go to the Berkshire Hathaway meeting,(00:14:28):they have dilly bars everywhere because Warren likes them.(00:14:31):But Walter liked them too.(00:14:32):So you just hand out just,(00:14:33):they would have these people,(00:14:35):these caterers and tuxedos walking around with things of dilly bars.(00:14:38):We’d all be eating dilly bars.(00:14:39):Yeah.(00:14:40):So two stories I want to share with you that resonate in my mind as we’ve been talking.(00:14:46):So on the flight on Walter’s jet from Kansas City to Milwaukee,(00:14:51):in that time period,(00:14:52):Frank Solich had just become the head coach at Nebraska within a year or two.(00:14:57):So this would have been like, because 99 is when they won the Big 12 Championships.(00:15:01):So probably around early 2000s or so.(00:15:03):Yeah, somewhere in that time frame.(00:15:05):But Solich was on the hot seat because we’d lost a couple games.(00:15:08):So...(00:15:09):I’m a huge Husker fan, so I’m trying to create conversation with Walter.(00:15:15):A bit multi-billionaire, right?(00:15:16):Yeah, what do you talk about?(00:15:18):Exactly.(00:15:19):And I’m sitting across from him on his jet.(00:15:21):I said, so Walter, are you a Husker fan?(00:15:23):He goes, oh, I’m an absolute Husker fan.(00:15:26):And at that time, Solich was on the hot seat.(00:15:28):I said, so what are your impressions of Frank Solich?(00:15:32):And his comment to me was, Frank needs to learn how to become more of a CEO.(00:15:37):Coming from one of the best CEOs in the... Yeah.(00:15:40):At least in the construction industry, yeah.(00:15:42):They were actually shipping Frank in from Lincoln to Omaha to meet with...(00:15:46):I can’t remember who the CEO of ConAgro was.(00:15:49):Oh, wow.(00:15:49):At that time?(00:15:50):Yeah, I don’t remember.(00:15:50):Because if you remember, Frank was the running backs coach.(00:15:55):Well, he was a fullback as a player.(00:15:57):Yeah.(00:15:57):And then, yeah, he became the running backs coach.(00:15:59):Under Osborne, but had never been the head coach.(00:16:02):He’d never even been a coordinator because Osborne called all the plays.(00:16:05):Exactly.(00:16:06):Yeah.(00:16:06):So...(00:16:08):So Walter tells me that we’re working on making Frank more of a CEO,(00:16:14):but we’re not sure he’s going to make it.(00:16:16):And I’m like, whoa.(00:16:18):And he says, but we’re not giving up yet, right?(00:16:21):So fast forward like four months, Frank gets fired.(00:16:26):And I’m convinced that Walter Scott and those that he hung around with had(00:16:34):something to do with Frank getting eliminated.(00:16:37):But can you imagine Chip and Frank from Lincoln, Omaha to meet with the ConAgra CEO?(00:16:42):No.(00:16:43):To learn how to be more all-encompassing in terms of your leadership.(00:16:47):Yeah,(00:16:48):and I mean,(00:16:48):I don’t know if Frank sold each other any more than anybody else,(00:16:50):but just thinking about his personality,(00:16:52):it’s like,(00:16:53):yeah,(00:16:53):you’re not really a CEO.(00:16:55):You’re more of a football guy, you know?(00:16:56):But I think Tom Osborne was the same way.(00:16:58):I thought he was just kind of a good old football guy, but... Yeah, it was interesting.(00:17:01):I mean, literally, I’ll never forget that conversation.(00:17:06):He shared with me that they were shipping Frank in to Omaha to meet him.(00:17:12):He needs to be more of a CEO and not the running backs coach.(00:17:14):Yeah, which he’d never been.(00:17:16):Like I said, he wasn’t even a play caller until he got the head coaching job.(00:17:19):And what that said to me was the political influences that money has on that(00:17:24):football program is incredible.(00:17:26):Yeah.(00:17:27):There’s got to be stuff like that where you just...(00:17:30):when they fired Frost and all of a sudden he had this five million dollar buyout(00:17:33):and people are saying just don’t worry about it you know like we’ll figure we’ll(00:17:36):take care of it if they had waited three more weeks they would yeah the buyout(00:17:39):would have been less yeah it would have been at least half I think I don’t remember(00:17:42):I don’t remember the numbers either but three more weeks yeah and they could have(00:17:46):they could have saved millions yeah and Trev Albers is just like I don’t worry(00:17:49):about it you know like they so you know if somebody was in his ear saying we’ll(00:17:53):take care of that we just he’s got to go you know(00:17:55):Yeah, so I’ll never forget that.(00:17:57):You know, I specifically asked Walter, so what’s your view on Frank?(00:18:03):I mean, do you think he’s a good coach or a bad coach?(00:18:07):And he went in this whole discussion about Frank Solich.(00:18:11):I thought, whoa, he’s obviously in the know, right?(00:18:15):It was really interesting.(00:18:17):So that was an unbelievable opportunity.(00:18:20):What a great man, you know?(00:18:21):I mean, just a great man.(00:18:22):I met him a few times at his thing.(00:18:24):There was one...(00:18:25):it was probably two years his wife had already passed so it was between his wife(00:18:28):passing and him passing he was at some event at the school and I was there as an(00:18:32):alum just probably doing a recruiting thing he’s just walking around you know he’s(00:18:35):got this posse you know just probably bodyguards but just people kind of handlers(00:18:40):and I just went up to him I mean he’s just walking I just went straight to him not(00:18:43):through his people and I just all these people just got like on edge like what’s(00:18:46):this guy doing approaching Walter Scott and I just(00:18:49):I very simply said hey I was a Scott scholar I just want to personally say thank(00:18:52):you I mean the impact you had I mean it literally changed my life so I just want to(00:18:56):shake your hand and he you know he’s like oh so we shook shook his hands and I(00:18:59):didn’t stick around I got in and got out but it was just it was it was such a cool(00:19:04):opportunity to give him a personal thanks and he passed away a couple years later(00:19:07):but I just I’ll never forget just seeing all these faces like why is this guy(00:19:12):coming up to him and talking to him and then they saw you know I gave my little(00:19:15):thank you and they(00:19:18):He was on the Durham School Board when I was on there for a number of years when he(00:19:22):retired from that.(00:19:24):The whole demeanor of our board changed because Walter was super aggressive when it(00:19:31):came to the financials.(00:19:34):Being a board member, we review the financials every quarter.(00:19:38):I felt sorry for the people that managed our accounting system.(00:19:42):Because Walter would invariably find some issue with some number in the data that(00:19:49):was presented to us.(00:19:50):And he’s now long since been off the board and several of us had tried to pick that up, right?(00:19:57):But, I mean, the guy has such a keen mind.(00:20:00):And,(00:20:00):you know,(00:20:00):he was always one to not shy away from challenging the state of Nebraska because we(00:20:05):would see the financials and why does the state drop their coverage of our costs by(00:20:11):X number of dollars and(00:20:13):Walter jump in there and say, we need to go see so-and-so because he was so connected.(00:20:18):And my sense was a lot of times he would make a call.(00:20:21):Oh, I bet he would.(00:20:22):Right to legislators and say, hey, you can’t cut these finances for engineering.(00:20:27):You’re killing the state of Nebraska.(00:20:29):You’re probably tuned in to,(00:20:30):because I’ve been on the board for over 20 years and universities have gone through(00:20:34):a lot of cuts.(00:20:36):Last year,(00:20:37):we’ve got to eliminate faculty and they were going to eliminate the School of(00:20:42):Architecture.(00:20:43):Just shut it down.(00:20:44):Thank God it didn’t happen because somebody jumped in and helped finance that.(00:20:48):But the university is under a lot of pressure right now because of state funding.(00:20:53):It’s been cut.(00:20:54):So speaking of talking to billionaires,(00:20:56):I remember you told me once you negotiated with Donald Trump and worked at Tampa?(00:21:00):Not directly with him.(00:21:01):What was that story?(00:21:02):So I was living in Tampa.(00:21:04):Johnson Controls did a project somewhere on the east coast of Florida.(00:21:08):And I(00:21:09):We finished the project.(00:21:10):The project was done.(00:21:13):To my knowledge, there were no issues.(00:21:15):But Trump was the developer.(00:21:17):Okay.(00:21:18):And we were looking to get our retainage.(00:21:21):I’ve heard stories about Trump’s negotiations.(00:21:23):Yeah.(00:21:24):So we’re trying to get it closed out on the project, get our final money retainage.(00:21:29):And the offer that came back from the developer,(00:21:33):that’s like 50 cents on the dollar or something.(00:21:35):Might be even less.(00:21:36):I don’t know.(00:21:38):And so immediately we responded and said, so what have we done wrong?(00:21:42):I mean, why would you take money away from us?(00:21:45):And the response was, we have no beef with your performance.(00:21:50):We just don’t think we should have paid so much to begin with.(00:21:55):And Trump was never in these project meetings to my knowledge.(00:21:58):And I personally was never, but my guys that worked for me were.(00:22:03):And Trump always had lawyers there.(00:22:06):So they kept wanting to negotiate for something less than a dollar for a dollar.(00:22:12):And we stood strong.(00:22:13):And if you continue to do this and hold our attention, we’ll disable the JC 8540 system.(00:22:20):So you won’t have any temperature controls in your building anymore.(00:22:22):No, exactly.(00:22:24):So, but that was really interesting.(00:22:26):The other place that,(00:22:26):that’s the only time I can remember where we had construction meetings where(00:22:30):lawyers were present.(00:22:32):Trump had lawyers there.(00:22:33):And then the other place was Disney.(00:22:36):We did a lot.(00:22:37):Yeah,(00:22:37):Disney always had,(00:22:39):my recollection was Disney had lawyers sit in on our project meetings,(00:22:44):right?(00:22:44):Where normally there’s construction people,(00:22:46):but Disney had a construction manager or two there,(00:22:49):but they always had a lawyer there.(00:22:50):Interesting.(00:22:51):And so it was, they were another really difficult client.(00:22:54):I think at Disney,(00:22:55):like all the secretive for like their intellectual property,(00:22:58):and I had friends that worked at Disneyland,(00:22:59):and I had,(00:23:00):when I was in high school,(00:23:02):our band went and played at Disneyland,(00:23:04):and you know,(00:23:04):so we had to go.(00:23:04):You were a band guy?(00:23:05):Oh, yeah.(00:23:08):Did you ever think about playing for NU?(00:23:10):I thought about it, yeah.(00:23:12):I thought about it.(00:23:12):Honestly, if I wouldn’t have gone to engineering in Omaha, I would have at least tried out.(00:23:17):But at the time, UNO’s band just wasn’t.(00:23:21):The time commitment for the perks of being involved in the band just weren’t there.(00:23:26):I remember my first day going to the dorms and seeing the band out practicing, whatever it was.(00:23:30):Early in the morning.(00:23:31):Yeah, I’m like, I’m done with this.(00:23:33):Now,(00:23:33):if I was in Lincoln,(00:23:34):it would have been worth it just to go to the games and have that experience,(00:23:37):but(00:23:38):I yeah that was that was a big factor in choosing to go to Omaha over Lincoln it’s(00:23:43):like well I can’t try out for the band but uh I had a I had some friends that were(00:23:47):in the band actually did you ever see the Jim Carrey movie Yes Man yeah or know(00:23:50):what it is so he goes to Jim Carrey the whole premise is he just has to say yes to(00:23:55):everyone so he has this girlfriend that like is real outgoing and adventurous(00:23:59):they’re like we’re gonna go to the very first plane that’s you know the very first(00:24:02):flight out that’s where we’re going it was to Lincoln Nebraska so we’re like all(00:24:05):right let’s go to Lincoln and(00:24:06):There’s a shot with Jim Carrey going to a Husker game.(00:24:09):And then they like pan across the crowd.(00:24:11):There’s one shot of the marching band and front and center.(00:24:14):Like,(00:24:14):you know,(00:24:14):for me to you,(00:24:15):there’s a guy playing the snare drum and that’s one of my best friends.(00:24:18):Oh, really?(00:24:18):He was our section leader in Grand Island.(00:24:20):And so, I mean, it’s a shot of the whole band, but he’s right there in this movie.(00:24:23):So I remember going, I knew they had a camp.(00:24:25):I didn’t know he was in the movie, but I knew they went to Lincoln in the movie.(00:24:28):And I’m at this theater going, that’s Andy!(00:24:31):Did you go to the same high school that Scott Frost went to?(00:24:33):No, he went to Wood River.(00:24:35):But the Disneyland thing, I remember when our high school band went, they call it backstage.(00:24:40):So it’s like they kind of treat everything at Disneyland like the outside of the(00:24:44):park is on stage and then you go backstage,(00:24:46):kind of like a theater type of environment.(00:24:48):And the underground environment there, do you know about that?(00:24:51):Very little.(00:24:51):But I just remember that was the only, we weren’t allowed to take pictures.(00:24:53):And I mean, it was, like you said, security wise, like we just(00:24:57):We got like ushered into one little room and that was it.(00:25:00):We couldn’t take pictures.(00:25:01):They’re real hardcore about that.(00:25:03):We got dressed.(00:25:03):They shipped us off there and just like everything was so tight knit.(00:25:07):And I have friends that worked at the park just for a summer gig,(00:25:11):you know,(00:25:11):and they still won’t,(00:25:12):you know,(00:25:13):they can’t talk about certain things.(00:25:14):I think they’re under NDAs and whatnot.(00:25:15):And there’s things like they coach them on how to answer certain questions.(00:25:18):Like if you ever ask anybody how many Mickeys there are,(00:25:21):they always say,(00:25:21):oh,(00:25:21):there’s only one Mickey.(00:25:22):Because they coordinate the person, the Mickey Mouse outfit.(00:25:25):There can only ever be one Mickey Mouse outfit out of the park at any given part in time.(00:25:29):And so the question is if he’s in a whatever, an Uncle Sam outfit or a jungle, whatever theme.(00:25:35):It’s just that there’s always ever one.(00:25:37):And if somebody asks you how many Mickeys are there,(00:25:38):they always say,(00:25:39):their coach just said,(00:25:39):oh,(00:25:40):there’s only one Mickey.(00:25:41):When I was in Florida, we did the Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.(00:25:46):That park’s awesome.(00:25:47):It was seven different venues within Universal.(00:25:50):It was being built in Florida.(00:25:52):And we were the constant.(00:25:54):So there were seven different general contractors.(00:25:57):We were those constant HVAC.(00:26:00):So each park had its own general.(00:26:01):They just contracted separately.(00:26:03):And that was like managing that was very difficult because each GC had a different(00:26:09):Well, yeah.(00:26:10):I’m sure they had different schedules and different, you know.(00:26:13):One of the cool things was,(00:26:14):so one of them was the King Kong Pavilion or whatever they called it.(00:26:20):And I can remember we put in the fire alarm system in all the pavilions,(00:26:25):but that one was a real challenge because if you’ve ever been in that facility,(00:26:29):King Kong is there.(00:26:30):He’s like,(00:26:32):You know, three stories tall.(00:26:33):He’s fighting airplanes, fires everywhere.(00:26:36):We had to put a fire alarm system in that looked for temperature and CO detection.(00:26:40):And so we ended up,(00:26:43):we couldn’t find a place to put the temperature,(00:26:45):fire temperature sensor in that venue because it kept setting it off because there(00:26:51):wasn’t really no fire other than the fires that were there for the exhibit,(00:26:54):right?(00:26:54):Yeah, of course.(00:26:55):So I can remember we decided to put the fire sensor under King Kong’s left armpit.(00:27:03):That was the only place we could put it where fires wouldn’t set the damn thing off.(00:27:07):You’re worried about body odor.(00:27:09):Exactly.(00:27:10):So it’s left armpit.(00:27:11):We put the fire sensor.(00:27:13):It was crazy.(00:27:15):Man,(00:27:15):I can’t imagine that coordination meeting trying to figure out where to...(00:27:19):We were the constant between all seven venues.(00:27:22):Universal Studios.(00:27:23):Well, that park is crazy because one was Dr. Seuss, another one was like...(00:27:27):They’re all different.(00:27:28):Yeah, they’re all different.(00:27:29):The King Kong venue because of the flames and fires that happened with that.(00:27:33):As he’s fighting these airplanes.(00:27:34):Yeah.(00:27:35):So, all right.(00:27:35):So you’re from, you’re born of South Omaha, right?(00:27:37):You always made the distinction, not Omaha, South Omaha.(00:27:40):Was it a different city when you were a kid still?(00:27:42):No, it was at one point in time in its history.(00:27:44):Yeah.(00:27:45):I remember Warren Buffett.(00:27:46):That was his thing.(00:27:47):He was from,(00:27:48):if he wasn’t from South Omaha,(00:27:49):he at least got to start like selling newspapers to the people at South Omaha.(00:27:54):That could be.(00:27:54):I’m not familiar with that.(00:27:56):But at one point in time, South Omaha was its own city.(00:27:59):But, uh,(00:28:00):I’m not exactly sure when it became integrated into Omaha, kind of like Elkhorn now.(00:28:05):But yeah, it was basic.(00:28:07):Basically, when I when I grew up was meatpacking plant.(00:28:10):We’re the world’s largest stockyards.(00:28:12):I laugh and kid my wife’s wife and I’ve been married 52 years.(00:28:16):Right.(00:28:17):Dated her in high school at Creighton Prep and she went to Mercy, which is the all girls.(00:28:21):I was going to say, how’d you meet your wife in high school?(00:28:23):Go to all boys school.(00:28:25):And I dated some other girls in high school.(00:28:27):And we lived within, we lived on 33rd and T Street, six or eight blocks from the stockyards.(00:28:32):And when the wind blows south, the whole neighborhood smelled like the stockyards.(00:28:36):Manure.(00:28:37):Yeah.(00:28:37):So I would bring home dates from,(00:28:40):I dated a girl from Benson High School and bring her home to meet my folks.(00:28:45):And she’d go, man, it really smells bad here.(00:28:50):And I go, yeah, that’s just part of living here.(00:28:53):My dad worked in a meatpacking plant.(00:28:55):So that dating didn’t work out, right?(00:28:58):You had to go to their place, huh?(00:28:59):Yeah.(00:28:59):My wife, Judy, she’s a Polish descent.(00:29:02):So her grandparents were Polish immigrants.(00:29:05):My parents were Lithuanian German immigrants.(00:29:08):So I’ll never forget bringing her home to meet my folks and never complained about(00:29:13):the smell because she was from South Omaha.(00:29:15):This is the one.(00:29:16):Yeah.(00:29:16):Well, and the other thing was my father never spoke English.(00:29:19):He spoke Lithuanian because our entire family(00:29:22):St. Anthony’s Parish Community was all Lithuanian.(00:29:25):St.(00:29:25):Anthony’s would sponsor people from refugee camps in Europe after World War II to(00:29:30):come to the U.S.(00:29:31):You had to have a sponsor to come.(00:29:33):And so our whole neighborhood was Lithuanian.(00:29:36):We did Catholic Mass in Lithuanian.(00:29:39):I went to grade school at St.(00:29:40):Anthony’s and we did,(00:29:41):we’d sing the U.S.(00:29:43):National Anthem and we sing the Lithuanian National Anthem.(00:29:45):Can you speak Lithuanian?(00:29:47):I was really fluent because my dad, that’s the only way I could speak to him.(00:29:50):But my father has passed away like 25 years ago, so I haven’t spoken it.(00:29:55):Now, I’m actually taking an online course to refresh my Lithuanian.(00:30:00):It’s coming back really quick.(00:30:01):That’s the thing about language I’ve learned even just having kids that spoke Spanish.(00:30:06):It’s all in there somewhere.(00:30:07):You just have to refresh it.(00:30:10):My mother was German.(00:30:12):So my father fled the Soviet Union(00:30:15):I mean, fled Lithuania when the Soviet Union invaded Lithuania and took it over.(00:30:20):And he was in his 20s at the time.(00:30:22):And men in their 20s in Lithuania at that time tried to resist the Soviet invasion.(00:30:28):And the Soviets had tanks and armament.(00:30:31):Lithuanians had sticks and they didn’t have much ammunition.(00:30:35):So when it became obvious that the Soviets were going to succeed in taking over(00:30:41):Lithuania,(00:30:42):my grandfather said to my father,(00:30:45):You need to leave.(00:30:45):Because if they capture you, you’re going to be put in a prison in Siberia.(00:30:50):So my father fled Lithuania and went to a refugee camp in Germany.(00:30:55):This is right after World War II.(00:30:57):And the refugee camp was managed by the United States Army.(00:31:01):And my father lived in that refugee camp for four years.(00:31:04):He met my mother.(00:31:05):My mother was a cook in this refugee camp.(00:31:08):She was German.(00:31:09):So that explains my name, right?(00:31:10):My first name is German.(00:31:11):My last name is Lithuania.(00:31:13):And so...(00:31:14):So they met there and they waited three years to immigrate to the United States.(00:31:19):You had to have a sponsor to immigrate to the U.S. after World War II.(00:31:23):And St. Anthony’s Parish here in South Omaha sponsored Lithuanians to come to the U.S.(00:31:29):So our whole neighborhood is Lithuanian.(00:31:31):So that’s how they got here and was born in South Omaha.(00:31:34):And so I make the distinction only because the culture in South Omaha,(00:31:38):there’s like a four-mile square area of South Omaha that’s Catholic.(00:31:44):St.(00:31:44):Anthony was Lithuanian,(00:31:45):St.(00:31:45):Stanislaus within flocks was Polish,(00:31:48):St.(00:31:49):Peter Paul was Croatian,(00:31:51):St.(00:31:51):Mary’s was Irish.(00:31:52):There’s like 10 Catholic churches within some small square mile area,(00:31:57):all ethnic,(00:31:58):that primarily were made up of immigrants.(00:32:02):Was it all around like the same kind of thing post-World War II?(00:32:06):I believe so, yeah.(00:32:06):Sponsoring just different parts of the country?(00:32:08):My recollection.(00:32:09):Different, I guess, countries.(00:32:11):Now today,(00:32:11):if you went to,(00:32:12):so the dioceses of the Catholic Church here in Omaha has since shut down St.(00:32:18):Anthony’s.(00:32:19):It’s the parish I grew up in.(00:32:20):As president of the Altar Boys, I mean, just gave me a great education.(00:32:23):And so today that neighborhood is mostly Hispanic.(00:32:26):Yeah, we go there.(00:32:27):There’s an amazing ice cream place.(00:32:30):I take my kids there all the time.(00:32:31):If you want great Mexican food, South Belmont is a place to go.(00:32:34):Oh, yeah.(00:32:35):You can’t compete.(00:32:35):Yeah, so it’s just amazing how that’s all changed.(00:32:38):And the Lithuanian Bakery, have you ever heard of that?(00:32:41):It’s on Pacific Street.(00:32:44):So that’s the Muscavich’s family that when I was a kid,(00:32:47):they started to make bread in the basement,(00:32:50):their basement.(00:32:50):When you go into their house, the whole house smelled like yeast.(00:32:54):But they started to make bread in the basement and they sell it to the neighborhood.(00:32:59):And from that,(00:33:00):it became so popular,(00:33:01):they decided to open up their own bakery,(00:33:03):which is on 33rd Avenue and Q Street,(00:33:06):the original one.(00:33:08):And now they’re out on Pacific Street.(00:33:10):But they ship their torts all over the world.(00:33:14):I’ve had them, yeah.(00:33:14):I think I’ve had them in like, I’m pretty sure I’ve gone to like Minnesota.(00:33:19):My sister lives up there and(00:33:20):had a tort there from the Lithuanian bakery in Omaha.(00:33:23):It started in their basement.(00:33:24):That’s crazy.(00:33:26):And so Miscavich’s family started that.(00:33:30):Within the Lithuanian community of St. Anthony’s, they were pretty prominent.(00:33:34):So did everyone go to Creighton Prep then?(00:33:37):No.(00:33:38):So when it came time to graduate St.(00:33:41):Anthony’s grade school,(00:33:42):eighth grade,(00:33:42):I’m leaving to go to high school.(00:33:44):And most of my friends went to either South High School(00:33:49):Or Ryan High School, which doesn’t exist anymore.(00:33:51):Not Brian.(00:33:52):Not Brian.(00:33:53):It was a Catholic school, and it has since closed down.(00:33:57):And so I did not want to go to Creighton Prep.(00:34:00):So Al Muscavages, the senior boy in that family, went to Creighton Prep.(00:34:07):And the Muscavages family, and he played for Nebraska.(00:34:11):He played for Prep.(00:34:12):He played for Nebraska.(00:34:13):He was a great football lineman.(00:34:16):Just awesome.(00:34:17):And I don’t know how many years he played for Nebraska,(00:34:19):but he was like all state and all that stuff.(00:34:22):So the word had gotten through our community that the best place to get a Catholic(00:34:26):education for boys was Creighton Prep.(00:34:30):And it was expensive back then.(00:34:33):I just asked today, what’s the tuition here?(00:34:36):$18,000 a year.(00:34:38):That’s more expensive than UNO.(00:34:40):Exactly.(00:34:40):You go to college for less.(00:34:41):Yeah.(00:34:43):When I went, it was $450 a semester, so $900 a year.(00:34:48):And I used to have to work the switchboard in a Jesuit priest residency to reduce(00:34:54):some of my tuition.(00:34:56):That was like a student job that they had?(00:35:00):Yeah, to help relieve some of the costs.(00:35:04):So I wanted to either go to Ryan or South because that’s where all my friends were going.(00:35:08):And my parents said,(00:35:09):no,(00:35:09):you’re going to get the best education we can provide,(00:35:12):even though they couldn’t afford it.(00:35:14):And you’re going to prep.(00:35:15):And so we didn’t have a car.(00:35:17):And I would take a city bus from South Omaha to downtown Omaha and then transfer(00:35:23):from a bus there to the crossroads.(00:35:25):Crossroads was 72nd and Dodge.(00:35:27):And then I would walk like the three-quarters of a mile from 72nd and Dodge to(00:35:32):72nd,(00:35:33):came around the street up to prep.(00:35:35):And my freshman year, that’s how I got to school.(00:35:38):How long did that take?(00:35:40):It was a few hours.(00:35:41):I mean, yeah.(00:35:43):My sophomore year,(00:35:46):I had a friend,(00:35:47):St.(00:35:47):Anthony’s grade school graduate,(00:35:50):that had his driver’s license and a car.(00:35:52):So my sophomore year on, I got rights because he had a license.(00:35:56):And our first car, my family’s first car came when I was 17.(00:36:02):My parents scrounged up enough money to help me get a driver’s license.(00:36:05):They bought a 1963 Chevrolet Impala.(00:36:10):It had rusted through the floorboard.(00:36:15):I put some floor mats in so you couldn’t see the road.(00:36:19):And it didn’t have air conditioning.(00:36:20):And no power steering.(00:36:22):Well, my first car didn’t have power steering, but it did have everything.(00:36:25):It had a floor.(00:36:27):But the exterior of it, I polished that thing like it was gold.(00:36:32):I waxed it.(00:36:34):Our neighbors used to tell me, Gunther, you’re going to rub off the paint.(00:36:39):You got to make up for the smell of cow s**t when you’re taking a girl on a day.(00:36:42):Exactly.(00:36:44):Our family was so proud of that car, but that was our first car.(00:36:48):Did you always want to be a Husker then?(00:36:50):You didn’t go to Creighton, obviously.(00:36:52):Graduated in 71 from high school, and Nebraska won our first tournament.(00:36:55):So that’s a good year for a Husker fan.(00:36:57):First National Championship in 70 and 71.(00:37:00):So I became hooked.(00:37:01):And what’s interesting,(00:37:03):so my father,(00:37:03):who never spoke English and was Lithuanian,(00:37:07):became a huge Husker fan.(00:37:09):I mean, he could understand English, but he couldn’t speak it.(00:37:11):And so, I mean, he was glued to the TV.(00:37:14):And so I became that too over time.(00:37:17):People at John’s Controls would swear I have a Husker tattoo somewhere in my body.(00:37:22):And a John’s Controls tattoo, right?(00:37:23):Yeah, well, I could believe it.(00:37:25):But I don’t.(00:37:26):I look back on getting you to come to Johnson Controls.(00:37:29):I still can’t believe we pulled that out.(00:37:31):I can’t either most days.(00:37:32):Because you were kind of a civil focus.(00:37:34):I was structural engineer.(00:37:35):Structural, yeah.(00:37:36):So what I remember,(00:37:37):and I don’t know if I’ve ever talked you through my perspective,(00:37:39):or maybe if you could compare notes.(00:37:41):So I was a structural engineering emphasis.(00:37:44):So we have structural.(00:37:45):Which really fits with Johnson.(00:37:46):No, yeah.(00:37:48):So there’s mechanical,(00:37:49):electrical,(00:37:50):acoustics,(00:37:51):and really like any of those would make a better fit.(00:37:54):More sense.(00:37:55):More sense working for an HVAC manufacturer or low voltage company.(00:37:59):But I was structural, but I wasn’t really like a passionate structural person.(00:38:02):It’s just we,(00:38:03):the faculty at that time was very,(00:38:05):the quality of faculty and structures was not the same as it was in all the other(00:38:09):disciplines,(00:38:09):especially like mechanicals kind of at a little(00:38:11):So, there’s this professor, Dr. Gary Krause, who is this icon, and I took every single class.(00:38:18):He retired about three or four years ago, too.(00:38:20):But he was like,(00:38:21):him and Clarence Waters were my two guys,(00:38:24):and Waters didn’t teach as much as,(00:38:26):at the time,(00:38:26):he was the director of the Durham School,(00:38:27):so he had a very low teaching load,(00:38:29):because he was doing a lot of administrative things.(00:38:31):So, I took a couple classes, but not a lot.(00:38:34):But I took every single Gary Krause class,(00:38:36):and I just felt like I understood it better,(00:38:38):because he was such a great teacher.(00:38:39):Well,(00:38:40):I started to take a couple of other classes from other professors,(00:38:42):realized I didn’t actually like structural engineering that much.(00:38:45):It was just kind of the professor was that good.(00:38:47):I got to my senior year of the program,(00:38:49):not really sure what I wanted to do with it,(00:38:51):and just assumed,(00:38:52):all right,(00:38:52):I’ll become a structural engineer.(00:38:53):And we started that Architectural Engineering National Conference.(00:38:57):And I had known you for a while from just doing... Because I was on the board.(00:39:00):You were on the board and as a student I would do... You were super active.(00:39:03):Yeah, so we had like a student advisory board and I was the chair of that.(00:39:07):ASLAC?(00:39:07):Yeah, ASLAC.(00:39:08):Yeah, still around.(00:39:09):Architectural Engineering Student Leadership Advisory Committee I think is what it stands for.(00:39:14):ASLAC, yeah.(00:39:15):I had been involved for all four or five years I was in the engineering program.(00:39:19):I was on that,(00:39:19):but I was the chair for one year and different committee leads at different points(00:39:24):in time.(00:39:24):And so I remember going like presenting to that board and(00:39:27):Doing the student update, whatever.(00:39:28):So I got to know you.(00:39:29):I got to know a lot of people, but I got to know you pretty well.(00:39:31):And I remember going to that, we started an engineering conference, a national conference.(00:39:35):We got Johnson Controls through you to sponsor a bunch of stuff.(00:39:38):You guys did some tech sessions.(00:39:40):I remember you pulling me out in the hallway.(00:39:42):I was just walking around trying to make sure everybody’s like,(00:39:44):hey,(00:39:44):you got everything you need kind of thing.(00:39:46):And you just stopped me and said, hey, what are you gonna do when you graduate?(00:39:48):And I said, well, I don’t know.(00:39:50):And he’s like, you’d be a great fit for our company.(00:39:52):And put that idea out there, just kind of left it alone.(00:39:54):Well, you were so extroverted and so energetic.(00:39:58):And I knew you were structurally focused.(00:40:01):I thought, man, we need this kid.(00:40:03):Now that you’re with Johnson Controls, I mean, that’s what you need to be, right?(00:40:07):Energetic and outgoing and that type of thing to do the job you do.(00:40:11):And I thought it was a long shot, but we’ll give it a whirl.(00:40:13):Well, you had the benefit of...(00:40:15):So 2008 was my freshman year.(00:40:19):So the economy was in the tank.(00:40:21):And so when I took my tour to PKI...(00:40:24):Just the year before as a senior,(00:40:26):they had an entire third floor of PKI just to deal with all the internship requests(00:40:30):they had.(00:40:31):A guy’s full-time job was placing people in internships and entry-level jobs,(00:40:35):and they hired him,(00:40:35):and that’s all he did.(00:40:36):My freshman year, they fired him.(00:40:37):They laid off that entire group because there wasn’t that much demand anymore,(00:40:41):and just the market fell out,(00:40:43):especially construction,(00:40:44):right?(00:40:45):And so by the time I was graduating in 2013,(00:40:48):five years later,(00:40:50):the jobs were just starting,(00:40:51):and so I had(00:40:53):You know,(00:40:53):you would hear stories about people that came before us have five job offers,(00:40:56):they’d be comparing benefits.(00:40:57):I had an internship at DLR Group as a structural intern,(00:41:01):but no commitment to not only just,(00:41:04):I didn’t even have commitment to work during the school year because they didn’t(00:41:06):have enough work.(00:41:08):And now it’s like they hire a freshman and they have to work all year round for the(00:41:11):five years that they’re in school.(00:41:12):But I couldn’t get an internship in engineering proper until my senior year or(00:41:17):between my senior and grad school year.(00:41:19):And then during the school year,(00:41:20):they couldn’t justify keeping me on because they didn’t have enough projects.(00:41:24):And then you at a career fair,(00:41:28):I was writing an article that got published in the Journal of Architectural(00:41:31):Engineering.(00:41:32):We wanted you to be a(00:41:34):By C.S.(00:41:34):Beaty(00:41:43):And so we interviewed, so Clarence and I wrote, really I wrote it, but it was Clarence’s idea.(00:41:47):He said, here’s just kind of what I want.(00:41:49):You go ahead and write it.(00:41:50):I actually got some, I got college credit for writing this paper.(00:41:54):But we interviewed you and we interviewed Todd Feldman because you had- HDR.(00:41:57):From HDR, yeah.(00:41:58):So Todd was, he was a part-time faculty member.(00:42:01):So we want to talk a little bit about that experience of being a part-time faculty member.(00:42:03):We want to talk to you about the board and kind of how that works.(00:42:07):And I remember going up to you at the career fair because we’re going to pull you(00:42:11):aside and do an interview while you’re in town for the career fair.(00:42:14):And I were saying, hey, we still on for tomorrow?(00:42:16):And you go, yeah, yeah, yeah.(00:42:17):Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?(00:42:18):I’m like, well, I don’t know.(00:42:19):You’re like, take an interview.(00:42:21):And so you had a sign-up sheet.(00:42:22):And I couldn’t tell you no because I just asked you to do an interview for me.(00:42:26):And you’re like, well, take an interview for me.(00:42:27):I’m like, well, I can’t tell him no because he just said yes to me.(00:42:29):So I signed up.(00:42:31):And you had already put that idea in my head of coming to work for you,(00:42:33):which it’s not that I ignored it,(00:42:35):but it’s like,(00:42:35):yeah,(00:42:36):you know,(00:42:36):whatever.(00:42:37):And then it really was in that first interview where you started talking about the job.(00:42:41):That’s when you told me about negotiating with Donald Trump.(00:42:43):I remember that.(00:42:45):And then talking about the job, talking about what it was.(00:42:48):And just like you laid out the timeline for the hiring decisions.(00:42:52):Just like I could have a job and have it figured out by Thanksgiving.(00:42:57):And going into my final semester of college, just have that done with it.(00:43:00):You didn’t have to worry about it.(00:43:01):You didn’t have to worry about it.(00:43:02):And so I ended up going, getting the interview.(00:43:04):The interview event at that time, they flew us all into Milwaukee.(00:43:07):We had this reception at Miller Park is what it was called with the Brewers.(00:43:10):Yeah, getting a tour.(00:43:11):I was a Brewers fan.(00:43:13):Oh, you were?(00:43:13):Yeah, I still am, but I’m not a diehard.(00:43:15):But that was my height of my fandom.(00:43:17):So super impressive.(00:43:18):Just seeing John’s Controls everywhere at Miller Park and getting a tour of the(00:43:21):dugout and everything.(00:43:22):The back, you know, the clubhouse and just this amazing show.(00:43:26):This kid that’s living off of ramen noodles now being treated like a celebrity and took the job.(00:43:32):You offered the job, took the job.(00:43:33):And I didn’t get another job offer until...(00:43:36):There’s three different engineering firms I was really courting.(00:43:39):HDR?(00:43:40):HDR was not on my list because they just, they never showed an interest.(00:43:43):Really?(00:43:44):I applied several times for an internship and they always had,(00:43:46):they would take one intern a year kind of thing.(00:43:50):Today, that’s not the case.(00:43:51):I know, I know.(00:43:52):It’s crazy because they would take like one and I would get the interview but not(00:43:56):the job kind of thing.(00:43:57):And that happened to me all the time.(00:43:59):But I interned at DLR and(00:44:01):And I was told after the fact they had every intention to offer me a job,(00:44:05):but they didn’t have a job yet.(00:44:07):I tried very aggressively to court HGA.(00:44:11):They had an office in Milwaukee, an office in Lincoln, or not in Lincoln, in Minneapolis.(00:44:15):In their headquarter, Minneapolis.(00:44:16):Yeah, and I actually went to their office, my family in Minneapolis.(00:44:21):And so we were up for Thanksgiving to visit family.(00:44:23):And I reached out to HGA and said, hey, can you give me a tour while I’m here?(00:44:25):And they were on our board.(00:44:27):Yeah, and that’s how I got to know them.(00:44:28):So they gave me a tour.(00:44:29):They interviewed me.(00:44:30):They(00:44:31):Laid out the spread.(00:44:32):I was very impressed, but they just didn’t have a job.(00:44:34):And then Leo A.(00:44:35):Daly at the time,(00:44:36):Ryan Curtis,(00:44:36):who’s actually the chair of the board now,(00:44:38):him and I got to know each other really well.(00:44:41):And he sent me an email.(00:44:42):I think it was six months into my job at Johnson saying, hey,(00:44:45):By C.S.(00:44:46):Beaty(00:45:11):I had all the mentors that I needed,(00:45:14):even though I didn’t know anything about mechanical engineering or anything at the(00:45:17):time,(00:45:17):really in construction.(00:45:18):It’s like I had everything I needed.(00:45:20):I remember going to the first...(00:45:22):Husker game with Tommy Frazier in our Nebraska suite yeah and you were there(00:45:28):obviously but Tommy Frazier’s in there not even paying attention to the game(00:45:31):flirting with the hostess or whatever he was doing and being like it was a it was a(00:45:35):pinch me self moment I’m like here I am this diehard Husker fan with Tommy Frazier(00:45:39):the greatest quarterback of all time in a Nebraska uniform just hanging out and I’m(00:45:43):watching this game and I’m eight you know I was eight I’m 22 years old you know(00:45:47):doing this kind of stuff and it was just a surreal thing(00:45:50):Johnson made me the executive in charge of the African American Affinity Network.(00:45:55):I would meet quarterly with 50 to 100 African American Johnson employees to be a(00:46:02):resource to help them advance their career.(00:46:04):And so once a year at that time,(00:46:07):we would hold like a conference and bring all these African American employees in,(00:46:11):try and help them(00:46:13):advanced in the company so because I was in charge of that I brought Tommy Frazier(00:46:17):in to speak he just authored his book about his career and I mean he came from(00:46:22):pretty tough beginnings his brother was in prison group in Florida right Bradenton(00:46:27):Florida yeah and so uh brought him in to speak to the to the group and it was all(00:46:32):about you know don’t worry about where you came from focus on where you’re going(00:46:36):right(00:46:36):Actually,(00:46:37):do you ever heard that when Nebraska played Miami in the Orange Bowl in Tom(00:46:42):Osborne’s first national championship,(00:46:44):who was the big tackle for Miami?(00:46:46):Warren Sapp.(00:46:47):Warren Sapp, yeah.(00:46:48):Warren Sapp, yeah.(00:46:49):So at that time, Brooke Berenger and Frazier were sharing time as quarterback.(00:46:56):Yeah, the blood clot issues.(00:46:57):Yeah.(00:46:57):Or Tommy did, yeah.(00:46:59):So because Tommy hadn’t played much, Berenger started the game.(00:47:03):And then later, we weren’t doing so well, so later...(00:47:06):Osborne brought in Tommy Frazier and so when Tommy stepped up to take snap from(00:47:12):center for the first time in the game Warren Sapp said so where you been dude or(00:47:17):something to that effect and Tommy’s response he’s told me this personally he said(00:47:22):Tommy’s response was hey badass it’s not where I’ve been it’s where I’m going I’m(00:47:27):going to the end zone(00:47:29):And he scored, right?(00:47:31):Yeah, of course.(00:47:32):But it was those exact words that Tommy shared.(00:47:35):He goes, hey, fat ass, it’s not where I’ve been, it’s where I’m going.(00:47:39):Yeah.(00:47:39):And we’re going to the end zone.(00:47:40):Yeah.(00:47:41):And we ended up winning the game.(00:47:42):Oh, yeah.(00:47:43):So I had him speak at that African-American affinity that we did in Oklahoma City(00:47:47):and flew a bunch of people in.(00:47:49):And Tommy gave them all signed copies.(00:47:51):He personally signed copies for like 50 or 80.(00:47:54):Oh, that’s so cool.(00:47:54):Pretty cool.(00:47:55):So that’s how I got him in the suit.(00:47:57):You would fly in from Kansas City on a small private jet with your friend that(00:48:02):shared the suite with us every morning.(00:48:04):And they would have crockpots of little Smokies or whatever in the jet.(00:48:08):And you guys would cook them in Kansas City, fly up for the game.(00:48:11):And we’d hang out at the tailgate and then go up to the suite.(00:48:15):One of my favorite stories that I tell all the time was Adi Kanolic and Zach Lee(00:48:20):were at the tailgate.(00:48:21):Frequently.(00:48:21):Yeah,(00:48:22):but there’s one specific time,(00:48:24):so Zach Lee,(00:48:24):who was the Husker quarterback back in the early Bo days,(00:48:28):I think,(00:48:28):or during Bo Pelini days,(00:48:30):and Adi Kanolik was the,(00:48:31):he was the kickoff specialist,(00:48:32):the guy that always put it through the uprights,(00:48:34):you know.(00:48:35):Personality-wise,(00:48:36):my audio is kind of a,(00:48:37):he thought a lot of himself,(00:48:38):you know,(00:48:39):very confident,(00:48:40):very outspoken.(00:48:40):And Zach was a lot more laid back, very humble kind of thing, but Adi Kanolik wasn’t.(00:48:45):He was telling this story about(00:48:47):Oh yeah,(00:48:47):I’d always,(00:48:48):I’d go into the huddles,(00:48:49):but I’m putting this one through the uprights,(00:48:51):and you know,(00:48:51):I’m F this and F that.(00:48:52):These go through the uprights.(00:48:53):And then your friend,(00:48:55):Bob Eckhold,(00:48:56):he looked at him and he goes,(00:48:57):so what happened to the Big Ten Championship game?(00:48:59):Everybody always talks about how they put the one second back on the clock,(00:49:03):you know,(00:49:03):so Texas kicks it.(00:49:04):This kickoff went out of bounds.(00:49:05):That’s the reason why they’re in a field goal position to begin with,(00:49:08):because they always talk about how they put one second back on the clock,(00:49:10):because Indomitian Sioux is pass rush,(00:49:12):Colt McCoy gets it off,(00:49:13):it should have been zero,(00:49:13):Nebraska should have won.(00:49:14):By C.S.(00:49:15):Beaty(00:49:33):Bob,(00:49:33):who is the suite owner who just isn’t intimidated by anybody,(00:49:36):goes,(00:49:37):so what happened to that game?(00:49:38):And you just see Simon just go, oh, like just shrunk down to nothing.(00:49:43):It was so great.(00:49:44):Audie was very much a fan favorite, right?(00:49:46):Yeah, I know.(00:49:47):He was the first, that’s the first time I can remember students taking off their shoes.(00:49:51):Yeah, that started with him.(00:49:52):They’d take off their shoes and hold it up.(00:49:53):That was all because of Audie.(00:49:54):Yeah, Audie Canolic.(00:49:55):I loved him,(00:49:56):but yeah,(00:49:56):it was such a weird,(00:49:58):you know,(00:49:58):five years later,(00:49:59):I hear the story at the tailgate and stuff.(00:50:01):So my friend Bob Eckholt, did I ever tell you the Indomicon Sioux story?(00:50:05):Told me you interacted with him a little bit.(00:50:07):So my friend Bob Eckholt,(00:50:09):living in Kansas City,(00:50:10):and he said,(00:50:10):hey,(00:50:11):would you like to go see a summer workout,(00:50:14):Husker summer workout?(00:50:15):And this is just after Indomicon’s last season, so he’s working out to get into the NFL.(00:50:21):When he was about ready to be the number two overall pick,(00:50:24):but people thought he would have got number one,(00:50:25):yeah.(00:50:26):Yeah,(00:50:26):so he’s working out with the Nebraska team who’s working out to get ready for the(00:50:30):next season.(00:50:31):Bob and I go into Lincoln,(00:50:33):we watch the workout,(00:50:35):and that day we watched them run 40-40,(00:50:39):the team,(00:50:39):the entire Nebraska team,(00:50:41):all the way across the field,(00:50:42):like 100 guys,(00:50:43):running 40-40 yard wind sprints.(00:50:47):40, one after another.(00:50:49):And Indomicon won every...(00:50:52):He’s the biggest guy on the field.(00:50:54):One of the biggest.(00:50:54):And he won every heat.(00:50:56):Well, that’s the thing that I don’t think people understood.(00:50:58):So he was a soccer player before he was a football player,(00:51:00):which means he had this insane cardio.(00:51:02):Yes.(00:51:03):Playing soccer, you’re just running the whole time.(00:51:04):But he just got too big for soccer, so he switched to football.(00:51:07):Yep.(00:51:08):So anyway,(00:51:08):we watched all that,(00:51:09):and we watched him work out,(00:51:10):and then they went in the locker room.(00:51:13):Bob said, hey, let’s go in the locker room.(00:51:15):And so we go in there, and Bob was Damakon’s tax attorney.(00:51:21):Well, he was like the taxidermy for like Sergio Garcia and CBA to the stars.(00:51:25):So he said, let’s, I’ll introduce you to Indomicon.(00:51:29):So we go in there, you know, and this is before the NFL.(00:51:31):In the NFL, he had this really bad reputation.(00:51:33):He hit people and shouldn’t have.(00:51:35):But, so we go in the locker room and he’s toweling off.(00:51:39):He’s got,(00:51:40):I mean,(00:51:40):so when he’s running these wind sprints,(00:51:42):he’s got just gym shorts on and his socks and tennis shoes.(00:51:45):Just built like a brick house, you know.(00:51:47):And so we walk up and Bob says, hey, I want you to meet my friend Gunther.(00:51:51):And Domicon shakes my hand and Bob says, Gunther works for Johnson Controls.(00:51:57):And Domicon asks Bob, so what’s Johnson Controls?(00:52:00):He goes, well, they do a lot of HVAC type stuff.(00:52:04):And so it happened,(00:52:05):I didn’t know this at the time,(00:52:06):and Domicon’s dad was a mechanical contractor in Portland,(00:52:10):Oregon.(00:52:10):Well, he was, and he was an engineering, well, a construction engineering.(00:52:13):Yeah, he got(00:52:14):Yeah, graduated from the Durham School.(00:52:15):Yeah, construction management, I think.(00:52:17):Yeah, construction management.(00:52:18):Bob, my friend, explains in Dominicon, Gunther Company has a lot of HVAC business.(00:52:23):He’s a, in Dominicon says, oh, my dad’s a mechanical contractor in Portland, Oregon.(00:52:27):He said, do you, do you work in Oregon?(00:52:29):I go, in fact, Oregon, part of my responsibility for Johnson Controls.(00:52:32):And he said, wow.(00:52:33):He goes, do you have a business card?(00:52:35):I said, sure.(00:52:36):He said, my wallet gave him a business card.(00:52:38):And he said, would you mind if I give this to my dad to, uh,(00:52:42):Maybe you guys can connect and do some business.(00:52:46):Have at it, man.(00:52:46):So I gave him the card.(00:52:47):I think nothing’s going to happen with us, right?(00:52:49):A few days go by and I get a call and it’s his dad.(00:52:52):It’s Adomicon Su’s dad.(00:52:54):What was, do you know his name?(00:52:55):I can’t remember his name.(00:52:56):Because they all have these crazy first names because they’re from, you know, African descent.(00:53:00):Yeah, I honestly don’t remember his first name.(00:53:02):But he calls me and he says who he is, you know, whatever his first name was.(00:53:06):Sue.(00:53:06):And he says, hey, is this Gunther?(00:53:09):I go, yes.(00:53:09):He goes, my name is such and such, Sue.(00:53:13):I’m Adomicon’s father.(00:53:16):Don’t know if you... You met with Indomicon recently.(00:53:19):Don’t know if you remember him or know who he is.(00:53:22):Yeah, he leaves an impression.(00:53:25):I said, Mr. Sue, there’s nobody in the state of Nebraska that doesn’t know your son.(00:53:31):Right?(00:53:32):He’s very popular.(00:53:33):He goes, oh, I’m glad to hear that.(00:53:35):I mean, he was so...(00:53:36):Both Indomicon and his father were so humble.(00:53:39):I mean, literally he said to me, I don’t know if you remember him.(00:53:43):There was no bigger name.(00:53:44):He was just a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, you know.(00:53:47):Came in second.(00:53:47):Yeah, whatever.(00:53:48):Yeah.(00:53:49):And so I was like flabbergasted.(00:53:51):So long story short, I met him in Portland.(00:53:53):He did mostly residential, so we never did much with him.(00:53:57):But how cool was that?(00:53:58):And Indomicon,(00:53:59):when I talked to him for those 15 minutes in the locker room,(00:54:02):it was yes,(00:54:03):sir,(00:54:03):no,(00:54:03):so polite.(00:54:04):Then he goes to the NFL and he becomes the bad boy of the NFL.(00:54:07):And I heard those stories too,(00:54:09):but I mean,(00:54:09):you’re not the only person I ever talk to that’s interacted with him in person.(00:54:12):They always say the same thing.(00:54:13):It’s just very humble,(00:54:14):very soft-spoken,(00:54:15):you know,(00:54:16):but I think part of what made him so great was he was able to flip that switch on(00:54:21):the field and became this other person,(00:54:23):which I feel like to be that good,(00:54:25):you got to kind of play with that edge.(00:54:26):But I mean,(00:54:26):I know some people have thought he was a dirty player or whatever,(00:54:29):but I mean,(00:54:30):I’ve heard a lot of people have similar stories about how kind he was,(00:54:33):you know,(00:54:33):in person and whatnot.(00:54:34):Hey, I really enjoyed it.(00:54:35):I love you.(00:54:36):You know that.(00:54:36):I was thinking about this the other day.(00:54:38):With the exception of my wife,(00:54:40):I don’t know if there’s anybody that changed the trajectory of my life more than(00:54:43):you.(00:54:43):Like just going into- Steve Hitts.(00:54:45):Well, Steve, I know, but I’m saying like where it started, right?(00:54:48):Like just even thinking about what my life would have looked like if I hadn’t met(00:54:50):you,(00:54:51):going from even just being an engineer,(00:54:53):but the career I have,(00:54:55):the career path,(00:54:55):all those things.(00:54:56):I mean, you were such a big impact, especially from a professional career standpoint.(00:54:59):Yeah.(00:55:00):I think it was our career was interesting in that like five years in a lot of weird(00:55:05):stuff happened and the company completely changed.(00:55:08):Yeah,(00:55:08):you and I personally but even just like I think that it was heartbreaking because(00:55:13):There was a lot of stress in that period of time on both sides.(00:55:16):On both sides for you and I but also like(00:55:19):The company changed and you went on to different roles.(00:55:22):And so we never,(00:55:22):I think I learned as a young person and I have the perspective that I do now where(00:55:26):like these big jobs,(00:55:27):just stuff just goes wrong.(00:55:29):You get upset with people.(00:55:30):People get sideways.(00:55:32):And you just make it up later.(00:55:34):You patch things up.(00:55:35):It’s like family, right?(00:55:36):Yeah.(00:55:36):So you get crossways with family, but you still love them.(00:55:38):Yeah.(00:55:39):But you may not talk to them for a while because you’re upset.(00:55:41):And we didn’t get the opportunity, though, because you went on and did something else.(00:55:45):And I don’t think it wasn’t on your terms, which is heartbreaking to me.(00:55:48):And it took us a while to do it.(00:55:50):In my mind,(00:55:52):Dawson smoothed my head over and got me back on the right track that,(00:55:56):hey,(00:55:56):Chris is a good guy.(00:55:57):Yeah.(00:55:57):Well, I need to say, I remember texting with Dawson, so I go to work for him.(00:56:01):I remember having a comment like you know I just I need to make things right with(00:56:05):Gunther and then he goes you know what he said the exact same thing about me to you(00:56:09):not even a month ago he’s like I’ve never had this experience where both people(00:56:13):said the same thing where they didn’t make like so I finally remember one day I had(00:56:16):a real rough running with the guy that I was working for at the time and you know(00:56:20):it’s just it was it was a bad situation and I remember just calling you and saying(00:56:23):you know what Gunther I’ve seen what a bad boss looks like now I just saw I(00:56:27):witnessed it in my own career(00:56:29):That was never you.(00:56:30):Even when you and I weren’t on the best of terms, that was never you.(00:56:33):You always acted with character.(00:56:34):And I always knew you were on my side, even if we disagreed.(00:56:36):And I think that that conversation ever since then has been a little different.(00:56:40):That got patched over.(00:56:41):I mean, I don’t even think about it anymore.(00:56:44):But Steve was a big part of that.(00:56:45):Because I didn’t know how to patch it up with you.(00:56:48):And Steve was kind of the intermediary.(00:56:51):And I love him like a son.(00:56:53):I love him like a brother.(00:56:55):And he’s told me that I’m kind of the father he never had.(00:56:58):Well, that’s true.(00:57:00):That’s true.(00:57:00):Because him and his mom are so close.(00:57:03):He does everything for his mom.(00:57:05):He never knew his dad.(00:57:06):His dad died right after he was born or before or something.(00:57:10):What a great guy.(00:57:12):He’s a character, too.(00:57:14):Makes me laugh.(00:57:15):He’s so much fun.(00:57:16):That’s the thing.(00:57:17):You and him have the same quality where there’s different styles of leadership.(00:57:21):Some people are the smartest person in the room.(00:57:23):Some people are this or that.(00:57:25):But for you and him, I think it was always just like, I always felt I knew who you were.(00:57:29):First and foremost, there’s nothing fake about you.(00:57:31):If you said something you believed,(00:57:32):if you said the YK chiller with an open drive is the best chiller in the market,(00:57:36):I might not agree with it.(00:57:37):But if you say it, at least I know you believe it because you’re such a genuine person.(00:57:42):And in a sales role, I think that’s why both of you had such successful careers.(00:57:46):But I...(00:57:47):I just felt like I could be myself with you and me as this young kid and like I(00:57:50):could just hang out with these people not feel odd or awkward have to suck up or(00:57:54):kiss ass or be somebody else and you just put me at ease always and it’s just such(00:57:57):a fun even the hang out with you and him and the three of us it’s just some of my(00:58:01):favorite moments working with you.(00:58:03):I was so I mean you know I got pretty high up in Johnson Controls and it was only(00:58:07):it wasn’t me it was guys like you and Dawson and others that Sean Maher people(00:58:14):Tommy Anderson(00:58:15):I just had such a great team.(00:58:17):I used to get criticized at JCI because they would do this data analysis that(00:58:25):people on my team were paid more than the average Johnson Controls guy.(00:58:30):HR would come in and go, here’s some data I want to show your people are making X percent more.(00:58:35):I go, how’s our profitability compared to other regions?(00:58:38):They go, well, you’re generally number one or two.(00:58:43):I go, so what’s your point?(00:58:44):They go,(00:58:45):Well,(00:58:46):you know,(00:58:46):we just,(00:58:47):you know,(00:58:47):you’re giving out two big of raises because they give us a budget and I would spend(00:58:50):the whole budget.(00:58:51):I didn’t, whereas a lot of my colleagues that were vice presidents would hold back some money.(00:58:57):Like to, I don’t know why.(00:58:58):I mean, I never wanted people to leave for money, right?(00:59:03):If they left because of a better opportunity,(00:59:05):because Johnson wasn’t paying them,(00:59:07):that made sense to me.(00:59:10):Or because maybe their boss was an idiot or something.(00:59:13):But I always try to make sure(00:59:16):Everybody that worked for me was paid really well, and they were treated well.(00:59:19):I remember when I started working for Steve,(00:59:22):it was my first big promotion,(00:59:24):and so I was going for whatever my entry-level salary,(00:59:26):which was already,(00:59:27):in my opinion,(00:59:28):great.(00:59:29):I always told people my first paycheck working for Johnson Controls multiplied my(00:59:34):bank account,(00:59:35):I think it was 2.6.(00:59:37):There’s a little signing bonus in there in a couple grand, but(00:59:40):It was whatever I had in savings.(00:59:41):My entire net worth was multiplied by 2.6 in my first paycheck.(00:59:47):So I always felt I was treated well.(00:59:49):And then I go to work for Steve,(00:59:52):and it was a promotion,(00:59:54):but it was a little bit of a lateral move.(00:59:56):And I remember talking to him about the new offer, and I remember trying to talk him down.(01:00:00):I’m like, that seems like way too much, not what I’m worth.(01:00:02):And Steve made a comment like,(01:00:05):You got to take it but also you got to understand the reason why we’re doing this(01:00:07):because we want you to feel like you know we’re taking care of you and that’s(01:00:11):starts at Gunther you know includes me and everything take this you know and know(01:00:16):the reason why we’re doing this because we care about we believe in you we think(01:00:19):this is what you’re worth we don’t want to pay you less just because you’ll accept(01:00:21):less yeah exactly I mean the last thing I want to do is people feel like I need to(01:00:26):look elsewhere because I’m not being paid and that philosophy did well for me I had(01:00:31):less turnover than any other region because we treated our people(01:00:35):And even those that we couldn’t pay more because maybe they weren’t performing as(01:00:37):well,(01:00:37):we always treated them very civilly,(01:00:39):right?(01:00:40):And never made it personal, tried not to.(01:00:42):Well, I was, I remember being told this story.(01:00:44):I went to the office in, was it Bozeman, Montana?(01:00:47):One of the Montana offices, not even the big one, just one of the small ones.(01:00:51):And I was just there on a sales call and I made some comment about who I was, where I was from.(01:00:55):I think I said, I work out of Omaha.(01:00:56):I’m like, oh, you know Gunther?(01:00:57):I’m like, yeah.(01:00:58):She said, well, I got laid off.(01:01:00):I don’t know when, you know, it was a down, it was a layoff thing.(01:01:02):One of the,(01:01:03):one of the secretaries or I might’ve been a COA or somebody,(01:01:05):an admin type of person,(01:01:07):an older lady.(01:01:09):And they, and it was, you know, after a while they, and then they brought me back.(01:01:13):The first person to call me was Gunther thanking me or making sure that I was treated well.(01:01:17):I was just like,(01:01:18):you know,(01:01:18):that was to have the regional vice president at that time,(01:01:21):you know,(01:01:21):you’re what two seats below the CEO.(01:01:23):Yeah.(01:01:24):You know,(01:01:25):the first phone call she got when she got rehired as a,(01:01:27):whatever it was,(01:01:28):a secretary or whatever.(01:01:29):I actually remember that.(01:01:30):In a small Montana office.(01:01:32):And she’d been there for like ever.(01:01:33):Yeah.(01:01:34):She’s the mother of the branch.(01:01:35):And we decided to let her go.(01:01:37):And I was able to get that reversed somehow.(01:01:39):I remember how I did that.(01:01:41):First thing she said when I said it was from Omaha.(01:01:42):And she’s like, oh, you know.(01:01:44):Everywhere I went, I’d hear a Gunther story like that.(01:01:46):You know, everywhere.(01:01:47):I was there for 40 years.(01:01:49):Oh, yeah, but still.(01:01:50):I knew a lot of people that had been there for a long time that didn’t have good stories.(01:01:53):Yeah.(01:01:55):Johnson was really good to me and I’ve said this multiple times in my life that it(01:02:00):was like family to me and I didn’t ever want to leave there but the politics of(01:02:04):after we acquired Tyco was so bad that it just became my Judy my wife of 50 some(01:02:09):years now so I was at Johnson 46 years but married to my wife at that time like 48(01:02:15):years or something and Judy would always remind me dude I knew you before you knew(01:02:19):Johnson Controls because I got married when I was in college joined Johnson and uh(01:02:25):And I thought I’d work there,(01:02:26):the last job I ever had,(01:02:27):but the politics got so bad that I’d come home and not be happy and say,(01:02:32):you need to do something because it’s affecting your health.(01:02:35):She thought she was afraid of that.(01:02:36):Yeah, well, and you had survived cancer not long ago.(01:02:39):So Judy, it was interesting.(01:02:40):She said, we need to talk.(01:02:43):We’ve been married a long time, and I’m thinking, oh, this sounds good.(01:02:47):It’s never a good way to start.(01:02:48):Yeah, so I said, what’s up?(01:02:49):She goes, you know, you come home, you’re not happy anymore.(01:02:53):And she said,(01:02:55):You got like three choices here.(01:02:57):She said you can suck it up buttercup and shut up and just it is what it is and(01:03:03):maybe you outlast whatever the problems are or you can find something else to do(01:03:09):that maybe you’ll be happy again.(01:03:11):Or you can retire.(01:03:12):Because he said, you don’t have to be working.(01:03:14):You don’t need to work anymore.(01:03:15):We have a financial advisor.(01:03:17):He told us that a couple years prior to that.(01:03:20):But I did it because I enjoyed it.(01:03:22):And I liked the people I was working with, right?(01:03:24):So I ended up taking a job with AVI Systems after that.(01:03:29):Did that for three years.(01:03:30):And then COVID hit.(01:03:31):And I just had enough after that.(01:03:35):They were so good.(01:03:36):My brother was there for 30 some years.(01:03:39):Tommy Anderson was there for...(01:03:40):I mean, a lot of the people I hired were there for... Well, and your brother, that was always...(01:03:44):He was a tech technician.(01:03:45):People didn’t believe we were brothers, right?(01:03:47):Well,(01:03:47):because you were the guy in the sports coat running the show,(01:03:51):and then Werner,(01:03:52):your brother,(01:03:53):was the guy in the scruffy beard and the earring wearing literally the blue-collar(01:03:57):Johnson Controls tech shirts.(01:04:01):Once you figured it out, you could see the family resemblance, but I mean, just...(01:04:05):But you’re both seems perfectly happy and at like where you wanted to be,(01:04:09):you know,(01:04:09):like personality wise.(01:04:11):So there would be like LSS positions.(01:04:13):So he was a tech, right?(01:04:14):Like a senior tech.(01:04:16):It elevated to that point.(01:04:17):But there were positions that opened up that where he could get promoted.(01:04:20):And I would know about him before he did.(01:04:22):Right.(01:04:22):And so I’d call him and say, hey, there’s an LSS position open up in Omar Lincoln.(01:04:26):You should apply for it.(01:04:27):He’d say, brother.(01:04:29):I don’t want to manage people.(01:04:31):I work eight to whatever and I get on call sometimes,(01:04:34):but I’m home with my family and I don’t have all these headaches about having to(01:04:38):manage people like you do.(01:04:40):And actually,(01:04:42):I told him this,(01:04:43):he was a better father than I ever was because he was home with his kids all the(01:04:47):time and he was doing things with them that I was either traveling or busy or(01:04:51):working late or something.(01:04:53):Not that I was a bad father, but he was a better father.(01:04:57):He just never wanted to do that.(01:04:59):I could have helped him big time.(01:05:01):I just never wanted to do it.(01:05:02):People would go, I met your brother.(01:05:05):I didn’t believe it was your brother at first.(01:05:07):I said, yeah.(01:05:09):My mom used to say this.(01:05:10):My mom used to say that I was her pride and my brother was her joy.(01:05:16):My brother was a character.(01:05:18):Telling jokes.(01:05:20):I was her pride and my brother was her joy.(01:05:22):So that’s just the way it is.(01:05:24):It’s not bad to have both of those.(01:05:27):So I told Judy this.(01:05:32):Someday I’m going to read about you winning an Academy Award.(01:05:36):I’m dead serious.(01:05:37):You’ve got so much freaking potential.(01:05:39):You’re so freaking talented.(01:05:41):Between being an author,(01:05:42):podcaster,(01:05:44):sales engineer,(01:05:45):father,(01:05:46):all these things,(01:05:47):you’re freaking amazing.(01:05:49):I’m just restless more than anything, but thank you.(01:05:51):No, but seriously, I’m blown away.(01:05:53):Just totally blown away.(01:05:55):That means a lot coming from you.(01:05:56):I appreciate that.(01:05:57):I know that, I don’t know.(01:05:59):I try to do everything.(01:06:00):You have an intellect and a personality that not many people have.(01:06:04):Thank you.(01:06:04):I’m dead serious.(01:06:05):I know you are.(01:06:07):I thought you were a long shot.(01:06:09):Probably has no interest in Jordan Johnson Controls, but somehow we pulled that out.(01:06:14):Yeah, well, you asked, and that’s all it took.(01:06:18):All right, man.(01:06:19):I’m going to get out of here.(01:06:20):Interesting People is produced by Chris Beaty in his basement.(01:06:24):Thank you to Gunther DeVanis for being such a big part of my life and for spending(01:06:28):some time chatting.(01:06:29):If you want to read that article Gunther and I co-authored,(01:06:32):it’s on my website csbeaty.com under the tab titled Boring Nerd Stuff.(01:06:38):Signing off from the greatest city and the greatest state on earth, Omaha, Nebraska. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.chrisbeaty.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">www.chrisbeaty.com</a>

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What is As Told By C.S. Beaty?: My name is Chris Beaty and I like to tell stories. Some of my stories are funny. Some of them are dumb But if I do it right, they're all entertaining. This is stuff that happened to me, I think you might like it. <a href="https://www.chrisbeaty.com/s/talking?utm_medium=podcast">www.chrisbeaty.com</a>
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates daily.
Where can I listen to this podcast?: This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Does this podcast accept guests?: Information about guest appearances is not available.

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