ENB Podcast with Tracey Woods, VP, The American Association of Blacks in Energy – We talk “What’s goin on”

"So my first job in the energy space was running from dogs and reading people's meters,..."

 

There are some real benefits to having a podcast. One of them is getting to visit with energy leaders like Tracey Woods, Vice President, The American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE). It has been a real pleasure to work with the entire team at AABE and what a great team! The AABE podcast series is around what’s going on at AABE. Tracey and I are working on a regular update for Energy Policy and news. This will be a regular series you don’t want to miss.

We have worked on big projects with their far-reaching impact on the key issues surrounding Blacks in Energy. Tracey has been right in the middle of the action and fun to watch his experience and leadership. We visit about his beginning in the energy market and even some real-world work on some big disasters.

Sit down, grab some popcorn and see a fun podcast! The entire automatic transcript is below, and we will only claim the errors in transcription if they make us funnier!

Traecy can be reached by his LinkedIn contacts, and connect with him.

The American Association of Blacks in Energy Website

 

 

The American Association of Blacks in Energy Website

 

ENB Podcast with Tracy Woods, VP, The American Association of Blacks in Energy – We talk “What’s goin on”

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:00:06] Good morning, everybody. Today, we are absolutely ready to have a fun podcast, the Energy Newsbeat podcast. My name is Stewart Turley, president of Sanshin Group, and we have Tracy Woods. He is the vice president of operations at the American Association of Blacks in Energy. And I’ll tell you what, if he was a guard dog, he would be a pedigree. There are some cool things that Tracy has done over the years. He’s gotten his degree in electrical engineering at Drexel University. He has been a facility supervisor at Peko. Excellent company. And I hope I said that right, Tracy. So you laugh at me later. You’ve been a manager at New Business Solutions, a general manager at operations at FirstEnergy, general manager, and Constructions at Con Ed. And now you’re the VP at Operations at AVE. And I’ll tell you what, Tracy, welcome to the podcast. And I just have really enjoyed getting to know you over this past year. So thank you very much for stopping by.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:01:22] Hey, I appreciate the invitation to hang out with you still. And yeah, this is going to be fun. Yeah. You know, many jobs in my energy career used to be a running joke at one company. I said, well, you can’t keep a job. But that was just, you know, this is you can’t keep a job every couple of years and do something different. And at this point, looking back in the career, a lot of things that I learned, a lot of people. So it was exciting. I mean, I’ve learned a lot about this business. And one thing about energy, I got into it quite by accident, but it’s been a thrill ride for more than three decades. So, yeah, about that.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:02:04] Tell us about that accident, because you trip and fall into energy.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:02:08] Well, you know, my life, we didn’t like it. Yeah, well, when I was alive, I got into the business. I was at church and a Sunday school teacher, a former Sunday school teacher came up. I was hanging out with a couple of buddies of mine and he said, hey, you guys do a job at the electric company. And at that point, I was selling paints. I can’t even tell you, you know, the low minimum wage. And so I said, yeah, sure. You know, it seems steady.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:02:37] Sorry, you cut out selling paint.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:02:40] Yeah, I was. Believe it or not, I used to work at a place called Use Paint, and we had a little jingle Beutner’s the paint and pay for people, and that’s how I had to answer the phone stook. And so, you know, I get this offer to take, you know, take a test for a meter reader job. And I started at Peko in nineteen eighty-four. You know, as a meter reader, I go down there and take the test.

 

And so my first job in the energy space was running from dogs and reading people’s meters, you know. But the great thing was it was utility and I had started an engineering degree and they would pay for that. And in fact, I told them, hey, I’ll sweep the floor if you paid for my college. And, you know, that was our deal early on. And so I went from being a meter reader and then I saw the money that Limón made and I thought that was a cool job. So I went to line school and, you know, I got, you know, and ended up climbing poles for a living, which I never imagined doing, you know, this kind of a cowboy lifestyle. But it was fun.

 

You know, it was fun for a while. Then I went to Substation’s, probably spent half my career in substations. And those are like, you know, facilities that everybody drives by on the highway. And we don’t think twice about it. But yeah, man, I learned to operate those and maintain the first day I walked into a substation. Still, I was scared to death in our guide. He said, keep your hands in your pockets. I mean, because it just switches in, you know, equipment all over the place.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:04:08] Oh, you could be fried up like a crispy critter. Remember those crispy critters?

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:04:13] Yeah, I’ve cleared a lot of those, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah. We’ve gotten calls for, you know, hey, we got animal inclusion was call and a cleanup.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:04:26] Oh no, that’s not good. What was the biggest animal you had to clean up?

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:04:30] Well, believe it or not, the worst one we actually had a person, a person get into a substation in Philadelphia and we got to the top. We saw clothing throughout the substation, but his sneakers were melted to the top of a transformer. Just gives you some idea of the amount of current that went through his body. So that’s probably the worst thing that we had. But yeah.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:04:57] Yeah, I. I’m sorry. I was being. Smart-aleck.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:05:04] Yeah, we

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:05:05] are just not ready for Bernabe sneakers.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:05:07] Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ve had some pretty tough stuff. But yeah, we used to say we have a saying, particularly in the field part of this business, we call the current electricity the wizard and we say the wizard does not forgive. So if you get between the wizard and the wrong places, the wizard does not forget.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:05:27] So yeah, neither, neither does my wife.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:05:30] But I do that

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:05:36] one so that at tripping from pain to energy, getting your degree, tell me some of the most fun things that you learn. I mean, you’ve got some big names on there. You got Con Ed, you got first energy. What were those like? Because you’re a who’s who here? I mean, that’s kind of some cool stuff there.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:05:55] Yeah. I tell you, kind of, you know, kind of it was the last utility job I had before coming to eight. And some of the things that happened in Con Ed, you just can’t make this stuff up. But I remember Sandy, Superstorm Sandy. So, you know, we actually had to meteorologists on staff at Con Edison. And so we got to report. And, you know, you’ve seen, though, those weather reports where the track of the storm and the track of the storm was altogether wrong. And so when it got to the New York state area, more often than not. Ninety-eight percent of the time, it turns out to sea and we breathe a sigh of relief because we’ve got wind and rain, but, you know, not the storm coming inland. So now we see this in.

The meteorologist said, you know, they use several services and they said four out of five say that the storm turns into New York City. And we’re talking to the meteorologists kind of like, no, that can’t happen, because if that doesn’t have this much water in New York and that can happen because we you know, and he’s listening to us saying prepare like prepare for the worst.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:06:57] I’ve been in one second. Your accent went to New Yorker real heavy and you went to New York right away. All right. Let’s get back to your story.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:07:12] I’m sorry. That was funny, but I’m just, you know, those conversations and, you know, we knew we ended up having to shut down steam for a lot of people don’t realize is the steam that powers a good bit of New York in the Empire State Building is on steam. The Museum of Modern Art is in the state. And a number of these structures are on steam in New York.

 

And in order to protect the steam, we had to shut it down because we have seawater coming in. It’s called the pipes are superheated and that collision causes water hammer a lot of damage that is. And it had been a while since we cut down. We didn’t really have all the ways to restore it. We just knew we had to take it out of service until we did that. And it was really crazy. And the steam plants in New York or on the rivers. So we got the Hudson River on one side and then the East River on the other. And we had water inundation so quickly when the water came in, all our pumps and motors, many of them are in the basement and they quickly corroded overnight. Still, I haven’t seen that kind of corrosion. It happens that quickly. So, I mean,

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:08:23] yeah, it’s like a science fiction kind.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:08:25] It was my team. I had a recall. We went we maintain steam plant, so we had to pull the motors, but then we had to refurbish them and get them back in. Sandy, you know, what do you say? Murphy’s Law happened just before the heating season in New York. So we wondered really tight schedule. There’s a plan and I maintain one of my shops was called Vannett Shot in the Bronx. So we pulled these pumps and motors. We had to refurbish them in a quick turnaround to get this team moves back into service. So I’m happy to say really a credit to my team. These guys were like the Marines and they called them the can-do gang.

 

So these are just some of the same people to help get New York back after 9/11, some of the same guys had the pleasure to lead and in short order, record time, we were able to get the same loopback. But it was long days and nights, you know. So, Sandy, I remember Sandy well because there was water everywhere. The night that Sandy hit. I was checking crews and only Time Square headlights. So you got the city. Manhattan is in the dark and stayed in the dark for a number of days. But Times Square was still long. But, yeah, for

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:09:41] our listeners and viewers, those pumps, if I remember which ones those are big pumps and they’re old pumps. Yes, they are. So those were a nightmare. If I’m thinking of the same one that

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:09:55] you’re spot on, they are all an illusion in many cases, No manufacturers are no longer around sell, and the refurbishment meant taking them apart, cleaning them all, drying them out. There’s a huge oven. In fact, there’s a video on YouTube about some of our restorations. So it was a process that was not for the Vannett shops at Connett. We would not have made the deadline. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was fun. I mean, you know, looking back, it was fun. But it’s really about that is the

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:10:33] definition of fun,

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:10:37] you know. You know, when the going gets tough, I love to be part of, you know, the same thing I learned is alignment. You know, when I got the line call for linemen, typically restoration is when, you know, it was raining, misleading, sideways, and everybody else is hunkering down. That’s when you get the call to put it all back. And so, yeah, that’s my

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:11:00] my hat is off to the linemen. They are cowboys. No matter where they are in the country, they’re cowboys like nomads. And you see them coming from all over the country that each other out. Your brother, I mean, those are a band of brothers. Oh, no doubt they’re bonded in that.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:11:18] It was really a pleasure to work with them because you know when power is out when utilities are out and that’s when your customer really needs you. Other than that, they see you on a bill every month and that’s probably not the way you want to be known. And so we and the services had an opportunity to saw and people think about you don’t think about the light switch till the lights come on when you switch and then you have to be able to restore that. That’s fun stuff.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:11:48] Yeah, man. All right. So you’ve had your career all the way from Wineman to up and working in with the big energy companies. Right. And then you get your opportunity to tell me about how you got started at the American Association of Blacks.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:12:04] Yes. You know, I at the after Sandy and a couple of things in New York, I ended up bumping into Paula Glover, who was a former president, CEO of Avon. While I have and I had been friends for years throughout AA. And it was really important to me. In fact, the members at ABC were like a network for me. I remember my first aid conference. You know, you have a whole bunch of folks who in many ways we’re doing some of the same work that I was doing. But they always want to help you out life with an extended well beyond the conferences. And so but before then, I hadn’t really had a chance in and I was thinking about a career change. I see Paula, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, October twenty thirteen.

 

And so we were doing Philadelphia was doing a beam of Black Energy Awareness Month and Paula was the keynote speaker at GW, so she’s leaving. And I said, hey, great to see you. We’re catching up. And she said, So what are you doing these days? Because, you know, there in Philadelphia, just left New York, have been in New Jersey, had been in Chicago. And she said, what? Where are you and what are you doing? So I said, hey, you know, I’m actually considering doing some new things. And she said, well, interesting you should mention that because I need a vice president of operations at the national office. And I said, you know, I’d be willing to take a look at that.

 

But she and I had been friends for years and I never forget me. Are you sure you want to work for me? She says you look great. He says, you know, we’re friends and we cut up and have a great time as friends. And she said, But, you know, this is work. I said, No, no, I’d like to do that. So it was a competitive process. In fact, took a little while. And, you know, I was entertaining some other things and I, you know, send it out late in twenty thirteen and said, hey, you know, if it’s still open, you know, I’d love to come to check it out. So it was an interview process and you know, I was successful. Thank God. You know, some of the other competitors. It’s funny, I’m there and you know, they’re scheduling an interview. So I’m bumping into some of the people who came down. And I was worried because we had some heavyweight folks who had been in the industry vying for the job. So thank God I was successful.

 

And it’s been a little ever since because the policy was something, you know, as an electrical engineer, you know, I, you know, operate, maintain repair equipment, install equipment. But the policy side, an impact on communities was not something that I ever had done. So that was a great opportunity. Yeah.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:14:45] You know, I’ve had the ability to visit with Paul a few times and just what wonderful, wonderful skills and everything. She knows so many people and what a great story is. A friendship on that, Tracy. You just hit on a couple of things as the vice president of operations and you’re working with she brings in and says you just nailed it and said Abe is more than just a conference. Can you kind of give me a little bit about what you just meant by that?

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:15:16] Yes. Yeah. You know, I. In talking to the potential of potential members today and even members at Live, I share with them the value of a conference and then what that tells about a business formation. So many of our members, certainly not only members, are very active in their chapters and they have a view that is parochial in their chapter in their state very often, and they do great work.

 

And when we get to conference one, because we structure conferences, has been consistent even before I was on staff where it is a professional development opportunity for our network. And so folks leave the conference equipped to inform not only the places where they work but the communities where they live. Here is the energy policy and more importantly, here is how it impacts you. So we find it that that’s what we bring. But then the power of networking, as I said early on for me as I went to a conference on bumping into people, is a networking opportunity.

 

So you meet people from all over the country. Many of them are working in the energy space. And so, for example, when I was a project engineer and I had a heavy underground project and I knew other folks who did underground because I met them at the conference, you know, and I got had your business card. So I dial them up and say, hey, listen, I just got this heavy underground project and, you know, it’s you of those growth opportunities, meaning if you did well, you could be a promotion. If you did poorly, you know, not so good, but they were resource combest. I’m calling folks that I met and, you know, that were beneficial to me throughout my career. So, you know, it was so many things more than just a networking opportunity.

 

So I got connected to age, learn to love the organization even as a chapter member. And so to be able to be on the inside of contributing to help make that happen for me, which is a godsend. So when I was successful in an interview, you know, it’s been a labor love for the last one to seven years.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:17:32] Yeah. That’s kind of frightening. You don’t look like you’re old enough to have been here that long. I don’t know that. Maybe I just because I’m so old. So, you know, I have really gotten really into it, getting to know you and everybody at a bar. I think it’s just a phenomenal group at the conference. When you talk about on-site networking, that’s one thing. How did this last conference change and how do you feel the feedback was? Because then we’re going to go right on into some of the key bullet points.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:18:10] OK, yeah. You know, it the networking became significant feedback for from our members about this recent conference because it’s our second virtual conference. You know, we did it last year and, you know, we’re able to do a conference in August. There were questions about whether we be in person or virtual when we decide to be virtual. Our members right away through the chapter presence mainly said, what about the networking opportunities?

 

And so one of the things we brought in, we made sure that the platform allowed for networking. So it was a community piece to the platform. And I had been there last year, too. But when we mentioned it this year, a lot of our members, I saw some activity there because it was just such a need to have some sort of connection. If it wasn’t face-to-face, then they would leverage that. We also put on change the program a little bit. And so in two of the three mornings, we have what we call coffee talks, surprisingly positive. You know that.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:19:16] I know somebody that was there.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:19:20] Yeah. You know, surprisingly popular. Wednesday morning, I was one of the co-hosts with Molly Hardy, who’s a board member and just fun, you know, phenomenal in terms of having your finger on the pulse with things that people want to talk about. So both ways were both of the coffee shops were different in terms of topics, but a lot of activity. And so folks got a chance to connect

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:19:45] on the one really important thing. And I know I’m not supposed to give you kudos because you know that just our relationship. But you get some great reviews. You had people let us know that man, you hit it out of the park. So well done, Tracy.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:20:02] Hey, I appreciate that. You know the feedback. I always loved the good and you constructive, you know, but I don’t we don’t change program without the feedback. So for me, I’m all you know, we try, you know, in our planning. But it’s the feedback that lets us know how we do.

 

But those things are. Great man, you know, when you have the opportunity to let the employer, you know, that the members will hear what’s on their minds, what they want to talk about, what’s gone on for them. So the coffee talks were great and then, you know, Q&A. So we try to strive to do and, you know, as we plan the various sessions within the conference, we’ve shared that with our panelists and they’ve been really gracious to prepare and accommodate Q&A from the audience.

 

Because, you know, it’s one thing to listen to panelists and they’re very informative, you know, for the major part of the session where we give feedback when we’ve done the webinars and even in the conference, hey, you know, this panelist answered my question. And so folks are really excited when that occurs. So, yeah, the feedback

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:21:13] moving to some of the key events. I mean, the events were just like home runs with the hit parade of people in them. The legislative crossfire. We had Michael Steele, Eddie Galion and Rick Thigpen. I mean, unbelievable. Can you tell us about the legislative CROSSFIRE section?

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:21:34] Yeah, certainly. You know, we always we’ve got some history with legislative crossfire and significant expectations from the audience. So for folks who’ve been with us for several years, you know, we see Michael Steele once before, you know, with Donna Brazile. And we were in person at that point sort of back and forth on stage. And folks weren’t ready for, you know, what goes on with them. So and it was exciting.

 

So so CROSSFIRE has these expectations and this year did not disappoint. So we’re fortunate enough to get Michael Steele back again. Eddie Glaude, who are figures that our networks, they see them on TV. And so the buzz is, wait a minute, we’ve got to see them, you know, with Rick at 8:00, you know, which gets names that tune in and then, you know, just just, you know, they were grassroots. There are always areas that but they are open know both of them are open to really share their view of what’s going on in the broader landscape.

 

Very outspoken in many ways about the impacts on our communities. And that’s always a focus for a and we don’t always get that in all the settings. So to have these two thought leaders speaking very frankly about energy policy, what they thought was important in that policy, and then impact and suggestions for our communities that we tend to advocate for was really a coup. And, you know, when we’re doing things virtually and we know some things that we can’t give in a virtual city to be able to deliver that kind of things, virtually, we were excited to do that.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:23:25] So, yeah, I’ll tell you what, it seems like a broken broke the code on trying to get this virtual feel of integration with the coffee talk, bringing in the big hitters. We got Tampa twenty to twenty twenty-two coming up. Tell us about what’s coming around the corner for that.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:23:46] Indeed. So, you know, there’s a part of it. You know, when you are in this space and you’re doing programming, you want to deliver the goods and certainly satisfy your audience if you want to leave them wanting more to, you know, they have to come back for some more. And so for all the things that have transpired since we last met, we met in twenty nineteen and ended. And still when we were in the planning and early twenty eighteen, I remember some of our folks who are close to Abe and we said Abe and Indy in twenty nineteen and folks said, what’s there to do in Indiana, what’s it to do in Indianapolis and

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:24:29] our last network. I believe you’ve already said that network. Right.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:24:33] Yeah, but it was fun. I mean, you know what we did got to ride in the Indy race car through the streets of Indiana, Indianapolis, and get the venues and the things that were there. And we were able to take Quada folks who live in Indianapolis saying if you didn’t make it, you missed something. So for us, we had Tampa in twenty-two. We’ll be able or willing to be back together face to face. There’s a stoked-up demand for that. Folks said, hey, I just want to see people and be able to talk to them face to face so will be able to do that. Coming out of pandemic, Tampa, the hotel that we were in was built for the Super Bowl, those brand new. Yeah, it was built for the Super Bowl. That was our intent, you know. Be, you know, got to push it off twenty-two, but a fairly, fairly new facility, so

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:25:26] that is really cool. Yeah. And do you think they’ll have a digital aspect of it for those that can’t travel still?

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:25:32] Well, you know, we’re in the early stages of planning, but I think that’s not something. Stuart, you said early Studi, you know you know, digital will be with us for a while. I think that’s very true. And we had talked about hybrid even in the planning for twenty-one. I think that we are going to need to be digital now. We’ll see how it plays out because

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:25:58] it makes me get there. I’ll be face to face.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:26:02] So yes,

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:26:03] I am excited to see what’s going on with a and can you tell us a little bit what you got going on right now? We’ve got about five more minutes to roll into this. Knowing Tracy, really tell us what’s going on with them right now. I know the chapter is important. Membership is important. I’ll tell you, Ralph, and everybody’s leadership, your leadership is phenomenal. Tell us what’s going on with them.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:26:32] Yeah. So, you know, we as you’ve talked about membership for us, staying connected with our chapters, new challenges certainly with the pandemic. And so I suppose they meet locally. And, you know, much of what we do is local. And so we gave them some ways to stay connected.

 

Zoom, zoom, zoom platform, and other things like that. And so they’re starting to you know, they’ve been doing this for a while. They’re trying to merge and meet face to face. So we have a membership drive that’s coming up again beginning in early July. We’ve done this for several years. And we have one to give our existing members an opportunity to really go out and formally recruit new members to behave experiences.

 

So and then we incentivize that in a lot of the incentives have to do with twenty twenty-two. So for the highest for the person that recruits the most members, new members to they’ll be able to attend the conference, which folks get really energized to be able and with Tampa in twenty to being now the first time we’re back together since twenty nineteen, there’s a lot of energy and we’ve seen it, you know the sort of asking when is the, when does the campaign start. We want to do that. So that’s one of the things that’s coming up for our members. You’re where you know the Jedi. So we have a Jedi framework and the acronym aside from the Star Wars link, it’s really about

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:28:11] my lightsaber on my bike.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:28:13] That’s it. That’s it. You know. Yeah. Wow, says Jedi. And I said, you know, you’re giving a new meaning to the term, but the acronym for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and so nice. We were all aware of the racial unrest from the summer of twenty. We got a lot of calls from our partners in the energy space saying what are we going to collectively do? And you know, a lot of it was advisory in nature of us. The solution collectively if someone was an invitation. So, you know, we took all of that and Ralph talked about it at the conference where we were building partnerships. So we had some early adopters who have come on and others who have reached out to us. And we’ve got to respond and work through what those partnerships mean. But yeah, Jedi is huge for a

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:29:13] so you’ve also got a business career center that we’ll put in the show notes in that kind of thing, which is phenomenal. The whole team at eight is fabulous, absolutely fabulous. But also your sponsors for the conference are year-round in corporations that see this should get a hold of you so that they can be involved with a game on a year-round basis. The value is there, Tracy, how would they get a hold or see what value they can bring?

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:29:46] Yes, indeed. So getting a hold, you know, for me, I’m there. I’m on the website, certainly contacting me as operations. I get to get involved with everything so

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:29:57] you can follow them in the right way,

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:29:59] right? That’s exactly right. So you mentioned the career center. Krista Smith Smith on our staff built the career center. And, you know, folks have opportunities. I see in my reading, a lot of opportunities are out there and what we can provide for. Them is a platform for us over two thousand members, but then our network stretches in the thousands, seven thousand showed in the last count. And so for us, you know, out of visibility on our career center so I can get that, get them to Christly with the partnerships, Ralph is directly helping to negotiate because for the partnerships, you know, the knees are varying. So it is not one size fits all, but for interest, we can get the parties. So Ralph and I collectively work with any inquiries around handling the Energy and Equity Initiative is what we’ll see formally on our website about the partnership.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:31:02] Fantastic. Well, you know, Tracy, I am so excited about everything that I have seen going on with them. And some of the best things are trying to spread the word about energy inequality in the disproportionately impacted communities. That, to me, is some of the best stories that are out there. You, Ralph. Everybody has a great story to tell. And if I can make any recommendation to any of our listening corporations and people wanting to get involved, I am absolutely thrilled. And all of the contact information will be in there. You’re going to have one last shot at to throw me anything you want. Tracy, tell me what’s on your mind.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:31:46] Well, you know, I appreciate the supports for it. You know, when you talk about those communities, one of the things in recruiting me to Paula’s distress, she says, you know, if we get it right for the least of these, I if we get the policy right for the least of the week, everybody else will probably be OK. And so, you know, I appreciate that you’re of the same mind. You know that because it affects how we approach the work that we do. So having you as a partner has been phenomenal. You know, as I said. Thank you. Yeah. So, I mean, it’s really because it makes a difference. Some folks do the work and, you know, it doesn’t mean they’re any less qualified but passionate about it, that that’s what brings results. So appreciate you.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:32:35] Well, you know what? I think we need to make this and I’m going to put you on the spot. We’re going to have to make this like a regular occurrence. And so we’ll work that out because I had an absolute blast. And I know that you’re an industry leader. You know things. You’ve got the pedigree that I call you a pedigree that’s, you

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:32:54] know, where I live. You know where that’s how I approach work. Right. OK, you know where I am.

 

Stu Turley, Sandstone [00:33:01] So excited. And thank you very much for being a leader and a leader in the industry and a guest on the podcast. Thank you.

 

Tracy Woods, AABE [00:33:10] And I appreciate the time. Is great to be with you, Steve.

 

Unidentified [00:33:13] Thanks. All right.

 

About Stu Turley 3230 Articles
Stuart Turley is President and CEO of Sandstone Group, a top energy data, and finance consultancy working with companies all throughout the energy value chain. Sandstone helps both small and large-cap energy companies to develop customized applications and manage data workflows/integration throughout the entire business. With experience implementing enterprise networks, supercomputers, and cellular tower solutions, Sandstone has become a trusted source and advisor.   He is also the Executive Publisher of www.energynewsbeat.com, the best source for 24/7 energy news coverage, and is the Co-Host of the energy news video and Podcast Energy News Beat. Energy should be used to elevate humanity out of poverty. Let's use all forms of energy with the least impact on the environment while being sustainable without printing money. Stu is also a co-host on the 3 Podcasters Walk into A Bar podcast with David Blackmon, and Rey Trevino. Stuart is guided by over 30 years of business management experience, having successfully built and help sell multiple small and medium businesses while consulting for numerous Fortune 500 companies. He holds a B.A in Business Administration from Oklahoma State and an MBA from Oklahoma City University.