Keywords: 
OSHA, Oil and Gas, Safety and Health, EHS, Kathy Trahan, Sheldon Primus, Primus, Sheldon, Alliance Safety Council, Safety Council, COSS, COSM, ASP, CSP, Corporate Culture, Culture, Safety Consultant, Consultant, Marketing, Sales, Sales and Marketing, Entrepreneur, Party Supplies, Franchise, SafetyFM, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, LSU, McNeese, Adjunct Professor, Instructional Design, Courses, Safety Courses, Customer Service,Social Media, LinkedIn

[00:00:14] spk_1: this episode is powered by Safety FM. Welcome

[00:00:22] spk_0: to another episode of the safety consultant podcast. I Am Your host, Sheldon Prima's Thistles. The podcast where I show you the business of being a safety consultant. E wanna thank you for joining with me today. Who, listening to the podcast I got a special episode for you. E Call it special because I'm going to be interviewing Kathy Trey hand on Kathy's with the Alliance Safety Council. So if you haven't heard Episode one or any of my episodes, you probably don't know that I am one of the instructors for the certified Occupational Safety Specialist program and then also the Certificate of Occupational Safety Manager program, which are both from Theologian Safety Council. And that's where Kathy is president and CEO. So I started with working with the council roughly around 2013 as a contract and instructor. So that means Cathy's my boss. Whenever I work with Alliance, she is of the boss, So it was really great Thio to talk to her. Get understanding. I'm going to split this episode into two episodes because it's we spent a lot of time together, and Episode one today we'll be really talking about her history and talking a little bit about how she got to where she was and just all the things that kind of lead her to where she is currently in mindset behind culture and a few other things that has been really a driving force for her. So that is going to be the first episode. And truly, I had a blast talking to her and getting acquainted with her, even on a deeper scale, Because again, like I told you, I've been around with her since 2013. And this is now 2020 So it's been a little while, but we haven't really got Thio to communicate a such a deeper level as we do now. And they've been excellent to me. So this'll is very special me having Kathy on and I really appreciate your being on so strapped back in, you're gonna hear from Kathy, right after the words from the

[00:02:41] spk_1: sponsors. 00 Oh!

[00:02:53] spk_0: What just happened? Oh, my To be Just have an accident. Way had to. What do we do now? Hey, you're Sheldon. Promise? This is what I'm thinking I'm going to do. I'm going to help you guys do, uh, incident causation class. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna learn why that big blow up that we just heard can be just one little thing that is symptomatic of the organization. So what I'm gonna do is a three day course for you guys. Day one. We're gonna talk about behavior based safety. We're also gonna talk about human and organizations performance. Yes, I said that we're gonna have two of those things that people think Don't go together. I think I could make this thing work on Day two. We're also gonna talk a little bit more about the incidents themselves. Causation theories. We'll talk about incident teams learning teams, if you will. E, we'll also talk about investigation plans. How to do that? How thio go through an investigation process and the mindset behind all the different factors of an incident. You will do this in a workshop format as well. Day three. What we're gonna do on Day three is we're gonna actually start doing mawr break out workshops with all the students, so they're gonna be in this virtual event. And in this virtual event where you're going, Thio go through some of the, uh, principles of safety incident investigations such as the Five Wise, the Swiss cheese model, the three cause factor and many other more. And the function of this theory idea behind it is to give you a comprehensive understanding of incidents. Why they happen, how they could be avoided. And then what do you do after you get to root cause and how do you now incorporate changes in your organization? So come join me. I'm gonna do this three day event starting at November 17th, 18th and 19th, and this is going to be open to the public. So anybody that wants to take this course what you're gonna do is go to Sheldon prima's dot com backslash event. Sheldon prime is dot com backslash events, E v e N T s. And just go ahead, get your tickets for this three day event. It's gonna be 9 a.m. Eastern standard time to 2 p.m. Eastern standard time each day. So you, too you can't learn about accident cause ations preventions what to do and how to make sure that your organization can learn from even the thing that can cause you harm you switching around. Make it a learning experience. And now you could get some good quality information from it that will protect your workers in the future. So join me again. Sheldon. Prime is for the incident. Investigation Course, November 17th, 18th and 19th. Go to sheldon primers dot com. Backslash events s Yes. That's a couple.

[00:06:18] spk_1: Kathy Trahan, the president CEO of Alliance Safety Council in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And, uh, that's my title. I tried to get Lord High Empress of the Moon, but that was table.

[00:06:33] spk_0: Yeah, that's right. That's right. That'd be a great teacher, wouldn't it? Or at least I imagine that on a desk or a

[00:06:38] spk_1: door. Yeah, you are. We are. Doesn't matter what your title says so, e I was

[00:06:46] spk_0: looking through your LinkedIn. So when you're looking Lincoln, you're gonna see me Is one of the stalker's, you know? How does that where you could see who was looking at

[00:06:52] spk_1: you? That's all right. I

[00:06:56] spk_0: was kind of I got started with with you guys. I believe when I completed my program to be a cost instructor first was 2013 ish and looking at the time. I think you were roughly around 11 years in by then, am I? Am I right in my?

[00:07:15] spk_1: Well, I'm my 16th year starting my 16th year right now. Okay, so I was I came in at about four.

[00:07:24] spk_0: About a four. Okay, so that kind of, you know, matches up a little. There s o right around the nine year mark. I guess it was It was when you're you're in there. What was life before Alliance

[00:07:36] spk_1: You? Well, I was a serial entrepreneur until, um, my kids got today just where they didn't want to come to work with me anymore. So I had to get a different job and, you know, being self employed on if your safety consultant, you probably have that same issue. It's very expensive to carry insurance and have insurance for your family and your Children. And so at that time, it was very expensive. Um, toe have had three small Children, and they were starting to get to the ages where they were going to need braces and different things like that. So starting it really pricey to be self employed. In addition to that, um, I had gone through some a divorce, life changes, and so I decided after I had run a franchise, a carpet cleaning and die company, and I had a balloon business where I was clown delivering balloon Bo case and we dio pony parties and male strippers. And you know, any type of belly dancers. It was any type of singing telegram eso we did that service business we decorated for holidays and for New Year's Eve. And so that was kind of, Ah, a trendy thing at the time, everybody and their brother got into it all the grocery stores. So it's the first year it was like $250,000 worth of bling sales. But as more and more people entered the market, um, it started thio decrease. So I it was called Balloon Works Get a bang out of inflation, and, uh, we sold it to a florist and they moved it over to Kinder's. And then we had a paint body shop. There were a lot of health concerns around that. So basically I've run a franchise service business, a retail business and, uh, small manufacturing. At that point, um, I decided to go back to school because when I went and looked on the open market when my kids to try to get benefits and health benefits, I'm realized that, um, nobody wanted to pay me what I was worth. I mean, who who are they going to call for a recommendation? Me. So what ended up happening as I decided to go back to school. So we've been 10 years since I've been in school, and unfortunately, I was able to use my A C T scores. At that time, I get a scholarship toe to Magnetic State University for electron ICS, electricity instrumentation, eso I went back to school, worked in the financial aid office, coaching soccer with my kids. And when I graduated from McNeese, I realized that there were no jobs in Lake Charles, so I would have had to go into Dallas, the work for General Dynamics, or go to the east Coast of the Carolinas in order to utilize my degree. So I started looking around and applied to the unemployment office, took their testing. They called me for a plant job and they said, Would you be interested in operations? I said, what do they dio? I had no idea. So they told me i e no it was PPG and Lake Charles, Louisiana. Okay, so, uh, petrochemical? Yeah, it was a chemical plant. That was P. P. G's largest investment. It was a chemical plant. And so, um, I got hired in in the per try production unit as an auxiliary operator. So I was doing all the grunt work, and I, you know, caught samples, ran samples on GCS. Um, Rand Ph is, uh, any type in all types of testing to verify that the production was going as planned on then. You know, E Yes. 01 of the things that was really interesting was that every single unit of every single plant had a different culture and different personality. So you could dio I was ableto one side been there for about 3.5 years. I was in a fire squad accident and the the 4.5 inch hose I was on because I was an auxiliary operator. I was required to be part of the voluntary voluntary fire squad. So, um, we got called every Friday once a month. Not every Friday, but once a month. On Friday, we would have eight hours of training. We got over time for that. And so we were down at the docks doing training and the E had someone on a backboard with with three other operators. And we had all our bunker gear on and helmet everything. And as we were walking towards the ambulance we had been injured in the document is we're working, walking toward the ambulance all of a sudden, the pumper truck, the brass fitting sheared off of it and started whipping around, you know, like a water wiggle. I don't know if you remember what the water wiggle was when you were a kid, but it started whipping around. Well, nobody realizes that, you know, velocity coming out of that. Um you know, fitting. It was very constricted. So we took cover. Someone had not put the quick shut off valve on the hydrant. So one of our operators do Gaber He went and started closing in, closing in closing it. So it took him a lot longer and he put his actually put his life at risk trying toe Stop it! And it went underneath. We tried to get behind the ambulance, Thio protect ourselves and the person that was basically, you know, unable to protect themselves. They were on the backboard strapped down. So we went to go behind the ambulance to take cover and that water came up under the ambulance and literally cut our feet out from under us. Just like a golf club hitting the ball. I mean, we all our feet went up in the air. We all came down on our heads. And so because of that injury, um, I had, uh, difficulty, uh, doing things overhead damaged some nerves of my neck. And so I was basically a couple of days away from They wouldn't allow me to return to work because I couldn't pass Cem Cem neurological and weightlifting test because Esso, they allowed me to go Thio go home. And until the neurologist could figure out what to do toe fix me. So during that process, a zit luck would have it on electron ICS electricity instrumentation job came up. And so in the transfer

[00:14:25] spk_0: that you had a degree.

[00:14:26] spk_1: That's right. So, in the final hours, I applied for that job, and I was there were some other people that had two degrees, but I had a four year degree and e one and electronic technology one in instrumentation technology and won an electrical technology at 22 years before you. So I'd used all my electives to get those other degrees because I didn't know where the opportunities for gonna be. Eso eso. Anyway, I got the got the job fortunately, and there were only five people in that specialist team and I worked really hard to improve processes I took. Everybody had small Children at home, so ah volunteered for all the overtime. And I had people that were probably 20 years my senior that wanted to fish and take it easy. And so they were willing to give up their overtime. So I took all their overtime work nights and weekends and learn ah, lot about the safety culture and about the dynamics, the group dynamics where you could essentially have every single person, um, at every single facility. I mean it, every single unit when there would be a different culture. And they they all have their own unique culture. And that was very enlightening to me because, you know, you think that in one facility with 1200 people that the culture would be disseminated very similarly, but it was not. I mean, the dynamics of the group ended up creating the culture. How how interested they were in safety, whether they cut corners, whether they, you know, followed S O P. Did they like their job? Did they enjoy working with each other? It just was amazing. So I got to be in every unit of every a BNC plant and the powerhouses. And so it was a really good learning experience for people and culture. It was really cool.

[00:16:19] spk_0: So here's the question I had. Well, one of the questions that just popped in my mind is you're telling me the different types of cultures that they have and knowing you now and knowing the alliance did that spark anything in you to find out why there was all these different perceived and actual cultural differences from each one of those departments you worked on that made you try toe Fix

[00:16:47] spk_1: it? Yes. What city are you talking about? Fix it when I was still there

[00:16:52] spk_0: when you're still there, or at least understand what was

[00:16:55] spk_1: happening. Well, the important thing about when I was there was understanding that, you know, I had always worked with customers and, um, I would you know, sometimes when you work with people all the time, you can kind of get a little jaded or a little cynical about, you know, the human condition. And so that's why I moved into equipment. So I thought, Okay, I'm gonna work on equipment when I fix this piece of equipment is gonna be fixed. So with people, you can't do that, you know? But I was just a little bit tired. And I'm like, Okay, you know, I've had all these employees. I've had all these different experiences and, you know, mentally I needed a break. So that's why I started working on people. But lo and behold, when I started fixing equipment, most of the issues with the people that we're working on, that we're using the equipment. So I was, like, back to square, you know, back to square one. So, um, one of the things that was really important was trust and my job was so much easier if people knew that I had their back, that I wasn't trying to throw him under the bus. So if I go out there to fix a piece of equipment and I find out somebody accidentally spilled their coffee on top of a 45 $100 integrator. Then you know they're gonna be concerned that they're gonna get written up or get in trouble. And so my job was always thio DOAs much trouble shooting as I could before I got there, um, to build trust, to let them know that I was gonna fix it up, that my job was to support them and that I was gonna take care of whatever the issue waas And that, um, you know, they could trust me. So I knew trust was a major component of that to know that, um, if you're if you want people, uh, to share things with you, then you have to give them a safe place in which to do that. So that was one of the main things that I learned. But because I learned that, uh, each culture and each individual unit of each individual plant was different, I learned that I could not approach everyone in the same way. Uh, every individual in the same way. So it had to be. What I would do is while my G C. Was running, which would be 2030 40 minutes. It depended on the product that we were analyzing. I would go and wait while it was running. And after I'd done my preventive maintenance on the rest of machines, I go sit down with them and just talk to them about their job and about what they did. And I was also teaching at the university, teaching night classes at McNeese and P Tech process operations and technical, uh, math and, uh, some other courses that were part of the P Tech program equipment and other courses. And I learned that when they talked about their job, they swelled with pride. All the things they do I'd ask him about Well, tell me about this and how how you got into this And so, you know, persons experiences in their name is is the sweetest sound to them. So to let people share with me their experiences, what they learned. And I found that the more I was interested in their journey and their success, the more they helped me on mine. So it became, um, you know, sort of ah, symbiotic relationship. And as long as trust was there, it really, uh blossomed and I was able Thio, call on the phone. Talk to him, Get his much information, get their fix it. I got four hours. Every time I got called out, I'd have it fixed in 15 or 20 minutes unless it was a GC. And I had to stay till the the graph came out and I'd go home and I might get another call out. So the quicker I could, you know, turn around those call outs. Um, the better it was for May. Unfortunately, through continuous process improvement, I worked myself out of all my over time. And that's why I had to get we no longer. We went from getting a call tonight to call a week to call a month toe call every six months. So that's why I looked for night work teaching at the university. So that was a lot of fun. But I find when people teach what they know, uh, they get very reinvigorated. And so, by talking about that, it made them feel actually better about their job and better about their team. So that was that was and I have some stories to share about culture here because the worst called the worst behavior that you tolerate set your culture. And so that's what I found out there. And and so we've actively worked to, um, making sure people understand what behaviors support our culture. And we have a program to keep that top of mind here. So I'm happy to talk about that a little later because I think safety folks could benefit from that.

[00:21:52] spk_0: Yeah, absolutely. And it seemed like, uh, like in in your activities, you actually created your own culture bubble, if you will, meaning that when someone was dealing with you at that time, they they were giving you what you needed. And the performance was different because they had that trust, as you said. But then also, I would imagine there was also an expectation that they had knowing that the trust is both ways that Kathy's hair we're going to get things done and it's going to be right, and she cares about me as well, so that may actually have caused them. To treat you differently were in effect, no matter how dysfunctional or functional. Any culture that you interacted with was different from one to the other in the same organization you. Actually, it seems to me in the conversation kept consistency with people who were actually dealing with you That would affect be your own culture bubble that you walked around it. Is that fair to say,

[00:22:55] spk_1: Yeah, I think that doing it right the first time. There is a lot of our, um our behaviors that are part of our fundamentals running their light safety council that come from my experiences there. And, you know, one is do the right thing and the other is do it right the first time. So, uh, yes, I would agree with that.

[00:23:14] spk_0: And for when you're you're you're progressing into the actual safety council side. What got you to think? Or at least was it a job opening or did you say, like, I really want to get into helping people on a mass scale because you're already training as a adjunct instructor? And I used to be an adjunct for Florida Gateway College. So it's a little rough as being an adjunct sometimes. But sometimes it's really good, because then your students come back and to get it, and you really hear it in their voice that they get it and and they now are working professionals that you helped them through that process. It's really cool seeing that. And I still keep in touch with some of my students When I was a ni junk. Aziz. Well, what got you when you you'd said, Well, I am going to try to get into this. And you Did You start with Alliance? I remember It's a different name. When you started, right, it wasn't alliance,

[00:24:08] spk_1: right? It was Safety council of Louisiana Capital Area. So when I was working those multiple jobs, I had a daughter that was getting ready to start Master. She's now O b g y n and Alexandra Louisiana. So she's a doctor now. So I was trying Thio needed multiple sources of income. I actually loved working shift work at the plant because it allowed me to spend so much more time with the kids. I mean, I've worked 14 days a Canadian ship. I worked 14 days a month, seven days, seven nights. So the nights they really didn't miss me, and three days, you know, they were in school half the time, so it really gave me a lot of time to spend with the kids and attend their functions and all. And I worked the additional jobs because I was trying to get Children ready to go to college. So one of the things that, um, happened waas that as I when I went back to school, uh, and then went to work at PBG and needed to make additional money, there was a group that was formed the Gulf Coast Process Technology Alliance, that we're looking for subject matter experts in those subject matter experts. They wanted to come from industry. So PPG gave me a one day a month released time to go spend in, uh, Texas City at the college of the Mainland and to participate to the subject matter expert in all of the process operations and when I've gone through. And we developed all eight of the courses that now are taught across the country as the eight core courses for process operations degrees. So, as part of working at PPG, I also learned about developing curriculums and education. Uh, and that's what set me up. Thio actually start teaching night classes. So when I realized I needed to make more money than instrumentation, uh, person was making at the time, I went to make niece and said, Look, I think I need to get a chemical engineering degree because I'm not gonna get promoted within the organization without that. And, uh, they said they showed me how long it was gonna take me to get there and I said, Well, I don't have that kind of time. You know, my daughter starting college, I said, I need a I need to make money now. So when you speak to the universe, sometimes magic happens. Eso they said, Well, why don't you teach in the program? And I said, Well, I'm not. I can't I'm not qualified to teach you the program They said You have a four year degree and I said, Yeah, they said You can teach in any of the two year programs eso I was able to start teaching the night classes. So through my interaction with that uh, with Magnuson with teaching as an adjunct, I became part of the state P Tech Advisory Board coming to Baton Rouge. All the folks that were teaching and representing the different colleges with me once a month in Baton Rouge and so I started participating in that. And as a result, I got a lot of interaction with the Baton Rouge Community College. And when they were looking for a dean of their department, they thought of me because I had worked in industry. So I had the experience. I also had been teaching and developing the courses, so they felt like I was a natural fit because I understood industry. And then I had caught it and I was part. So they offered me a position after a very stringent. It was one of the most comprehensive interviews. There was probably 20 people interviewing me for the position at the at the college. Eso I accepted that position, and after several years, uh, and while I was about community college, I had visited the safety Council and I saw the cost course, and we had a 45 hours safety, health and environmental course that was part of P Tech, and I just thought cost would be a great program toe offer the industry members who are already in a job and or we're thinking about going into a job. So I tried to get the school to, um, bring costs on board Well, they weren't receptive to it because it was not invented here. They wanted Thio, you know, build their own courses on dso understood that, uh, you know, education is a whole different cultural in and of itself, and so they have experts and they build their own courses. But I did tell Catherine Cloy at the time who was the CEO? I said, if you ever leave this job, let me know, because this is what I want to be when I grow up. So I'd like the autonomy of not being within the hierarchy of the education system and having all the constraints that you often have in that type of environment. And so she remembered that comment and that was the only time I ever spoke with her. And when she decided to take a job with a Realtors board in Nevada, um, she called me and said, Hey, you remember when you told me that this is what you wanted to be when you grow up? And I said, absolutely. And she said, Well, we have, I'm leaving and we're gonna have that position available. I said, Great, what I do, she said, Well, she said, You need to come up with a plan on where you would take the organization if you became the President CEO and presented as your interview is part of your interview processes said Awesome. How long do I have? She said Well, the interviews close in two days, so I said, Okay, so no problem. So I got on the internet and I studied, and I don't even know anything about nonprofits and how they were running other than being part of the gcpd a where I was an officer in that nonprofit a za volunteer unpaid, you know, volunteer so virtually hard. And I, uh, interviewed for the position, and they apparently liked what I had to say because they offered between the position and when I got here, um, 15 years ago, they had around 11 to 12 employees, maybe 14. I don't always remember the exact number, but we had a million dollar budget and a $5000 loss, so I said okay, because I didn't see all of that prior to accepting the job. So I'm like, OK, I got some work to dio, so we, uh, e kind of listened down the hall and I just heard a lot of nose on the phone, and I So I went and asked. I said, What are you telling people? No about? And they would say, Well, I told him we couldn't do this because I said, We need to start saying yes, uh, to our members. So we it was required a culture shift at that point. And, uh, we started bringing on some people that were very good at projects and project management, and we started making improvements in the system, and we started offering additional training and growing

[00:31:20] spk_0: kind of improvement. Was it like a the system? Meaning the technology at that point? Because I know you guys were very technically advanced, but at that point, was it the technology or it was just the operating system between communication and departments and how paperwork roles, what you always

[00:31:38] spk_1: everything There was very little automation. Uh, at the time, we did have a system to deliver the training, but it was it was the best that was available at the time. But we needed like our check in system, for instance, it took people three minutes to check in, so that's the first thing we worked on. We got that down to 30 seconds. So we started working on what kind of technology solutions can we used to be an enabler, you know, to enable us to to be more efficient, effective to make the experience better for the folks coming in. So we did everything we could to honor the hard work that they do and to provide them with a clean and efficient and a good environment in which to train. So it just became, uh, you know, a constant improvement. And we started out expanding and taking what we have learned about petrochemical, standardization and reciprocity. And we migrated that into the power industry and into the pulp and paper industry. And today, more than 50% of our revenue comes from out of state. And we get to bring that all back here and invest 100 cents of every dollar back into better programs that air processes better technology. We're able to educate the folks, you know that we have, and also higher, uh, folks that maybe have higher technology skills than when we started. So we've grown our content department, our programming and technology department. Incredibly. So now we have over 100 team members, and we have four bricks and mortar facilities. We train more than 300,000 people across the country, so we've grown a lot. But it's been it's been a journey of asking what's next. What else can we do? How else can we meet people where they are? So it's been a constant journey.

[00:33:46] spk_0: Yeah, and I am When you say, especially in the beginning, that you had to really change the outlook and Thea approach. Usually change comes with with resistance, if you will. Eso not Thio not to get into the weeds, as in how you, as a leader in a young organization, had to take on to grow it to what you just told us you're doing right now. It was being tremendous. How did you go through that? And then another thought was, Did you develop your courses or did you partner with people? So first, the first thought was when when you had to bring in the change and basically start, it's asserting yourself in different ways, as the president and CEO, what kind of resistance did you need or where people just like please, let's do this

[00:34:38] spk_1: Well, first of all, constant changes exhausting. And so you you have toe and we had to be in constant change. I mean, we've been in hockey stick growth since we started, and we're continuing to grow. And I have no, you know, plans of stopping. So the change, Um, if someone can't handle the constant change and you know, continually being more self aware and improving themselves and, you know, joining us for the journey, they generally we'd themselves out because it's not for everybody. I mean, constant change is hard. Some people just want to go and put their eight hours in and go home. And so, you know, I always tell people I work to live. I don't live toe work. My journey is more about what can we do to help? Not just our industry, because it's been so good to me. And it helped me support my Children is a single mother, and, um, I love our industry. I never one day felt unsafe. I knew what kind of interlock circuitry programs they had in place to prevent things I felt great about. I was actually the one catching the samples at the at the docks when, you know, before we let water out. And so we had a purge in trap. You know, tech, more dormant purge and trap equipment. And we knew, you know how many parts per billion. And when not release anything, we get a back truck out there. So I knew everything that was going into making our facility a safe environment s Oh, I love our industry. It absolutely does amazing things, not just for the people that air in it, but for, you know, all the products they create. And there's a lot of that information out there, you know, they'll see steam coming out of a facility and they'll automatically assume that that's pollution. And our system at PPG was so integrated that it was fed, you know, byproducts were fed to the next unit and made it into products. And by the time it was finished and had been through the bat unit and, uh, incinerator, there was just such a small fraction. Uh, that was of carbon monoxide that was actually released to the environment. So it wasn't even, you know, it was carbon monoxide. Eso your barbecue pit puts out more than that So it was just really I felt great about the industry. I knew how much it had changed the quality of my life in my Children's lives. And I really wanted to give people the opportunity to up skill, to help raise themselves up, to raise all the ships in the harbor, to create new opportunities and to give back to the industry that have given back given so much to me. So you're never gonna get like if if anybody starts talking bad about our industry, I get on my soapbox like right away. But I am just passionately protective of all that we do as an industry. And and they're the 8 to 10 other people that air supported by our industry and other jobs and vendors and suppliers supply those supply chain is just amazing. And in an article that just, you know, came out the business report recently, I reiterate that Point said that they're the reason they asked They were trying to figure out why are numbers were so low in terms of incidents and accidents, said it's because so much of our communities are tied to the industry and the more attention you pay to safety and, uh, the more focus. I mean, our plants even make low numbers in terms of your incident. Accent rates a prerequisite for working. So there's a carrot and a stick. You know, if you can't come work in our plant if you don't have a great safety record and you know the stick, the stick is that. And the carrot is you get to work and you get the job and you get to be successful. E

[00:39:02] spk_0: welcome back. Okay, So hopefully had a good time listening in with my interview with Kathy. It was awesome talking to her and being the president and CEO of the Lions Safety Council. You could just see how down to earth she really is. And it's just awesome. Her approach to life. I just love the Alliance Safety Council and just what they have done for my career. Definitely. And I'm very grateful for that. But then I'm also just at a some of the things that they just do just offhand the technology that they have for students, then also a few other things, meaning the way instructors, air treated and just taking care of you kind of get you spoiled e mean, like go anywhere else. And like all that, it's not a alliance. I appreciate it. And I love every one of my clients and people I work with, but the Alliance has a special place in my heart. So if you are listening really closely to Cathy's backstory or superwoman origin story, get to really hear a theme and the theme that just kept coming through my mind. Everything that I just kept hearing from her. One of the themes is, or at least the impression I got was a mother who loved herself and her Children so much that she was ready and prepared and just kept progressing in her life. Kept doing things just to make sure that when opportunity came, she was prepared. So this tip of the week that I'm going thio do would be a Kathy theme. Uh, just letting you know that if you if you want to advance in your life, no matter what kids, you just throwing at you. If you get 2020 I'm gonna make that one of those phrases. Now, if you get 2020 in your life, then truly you wanna make sure that you are going to be ready preparation and opportunity when they collide. Theune It's not like happenstance. There is not mystical that all of a sudden you get this great job. You know, Cathy when she wanted to be the the in charge of the alliance and she told the person, You know, Hey, do you ever leave this job? I love it and you know, she had to be prepared for that. And then when the person left the job, they remembered her. She was still in her mind and they got a hold of her and she got together an interview and, you know, 23 days and actually nailed it. That is preparation and opportunity meeting. So that means it must be up to you to constantly think of How can I improve myself and not just thinking about it, doing it, doing it in some way from my own life. I had Thio get my bachelor's degree when I was doing my wastewater operation job, because when we start our operations, whether we need a bachelor's degree, I had a career already, but I decided I wanted to do that, and then I chose marketing, marketing you know, what am I gonna do with marketing and wastewater? Right. But now I'm using it. And then when I decided to become my path was to be utility director. And I thought my masters of public administration, with a concentration of environmental policy, will help me with that. However, I got burnt out with government works. I decided that, you know, let me go out and bring it out of my own. And truly, I had the education at that time to branch out on my own. I still needed a little bit extra, so I had just, like, two years prior, taken the certificate. Occupational safety specialist class. The cost class. You go to cost dot net. You could pick your class. Uh, they're also doing virtual costs. Is I'm gonna be mostly the virtual cost instructor for next year. I know they're gonna probably develop form or instructors, but I was the first to do it, so it was awesome. But truly when I took that class back in 2011 maybe 2012 roughly. Uh, no, no. Maybe like 2010 2011. Because I left my my full time job at 2012 when I was like, I'm done going out on my own. So by then I already had my costs and I needed also to have my to OSHA outreach training. I needed the general industry and construction so I could be a cost instructor. So I went ahead and started the process of first getting my 10 and 30 our authorization through all the OT ice, which is OSHA Training Institute. Education Center is the complete name to it. And then I decided, All right, I got this. Let's go ahead and do this cost thing. And I got a hold of alliance. They helped me out, got me through the process. I started, uh, training and just loved it. It's helped me as an individual. It helped me professionally, but preparation men opportunity. So getting the master's degree helped me getting my ocean certifications or authorizations. Excuse me? Help me as well. When alliance needed some money and I was one of the candidates to go through this process. Ah, preparation that opportunity. So that's a theme here. So I'm gonna give you guys a couple of things to help you preparation. When you're thinking preparation, education is a great route to start. Now there's diverse ways of getting education, especially if you're in the safety field. Uh, Columbia University. They've got a whole program where you could get an online degree for safety. Just by going through that, if you're really get a testing, then you know, maybe you want toe test into the, uh, CSP or or something similar to that. There's a bunch of them out there, but I'm pay used to cost, and I'll just say it straight out. I took a week and learned so much in a week by practically physically go doing things and understanding the code of regulations so that when I did get the opportunity to be a constant structure, I had a great foundation, even by taking the class. And that's one of the pre RECs to be an instructor. But students that I've met Ah, lot of them were doing this with their own dime so that they can also be ready when opportunity not so go to cost dot net. And this isn't actually a paid thing. I'm not getting there, not one of my sponsors. Hmm. Not that I'm not opposed to it. Thought just hit me hold on, they could be up to sponsor. So you guys caught me like like, mid thought, But yeah, if they're sponsor. Hey, Cathy, if you want to sponsor Rico for us, But not at this time. We have no agreement, but get a cost dot Net. Look up your state. If your international then you wanna look up the virtual costs and get that training, it's a week long training. I might be in your instructor. I might not be, but still it's worth it. And then you will be ready, especially if you need to know general industry and construction that will help you. So when opportunity hits, you will have been prepared. Another thing is I I used to be, uh, with a South Florida o t I. And that's just a short name that again that we use for the institutes that train you in OSHA when Alliance got their own mid South o t i e. I was like, Alright, I'm done like alliance their their excellence to me when I think of safety and health training in any way and I'm thinking excellence, they're my they're my benchmark. So anything that I look for with excellence is going to come from the alliance. So when they were approved to be an unauthorized OSHA training center, I switched my accreditation from Florida and I went to a different region because you could go to any region you want to get your o. T. I. And now I'm part of Mid South. So because their bio t I, that's where I go and I do my refresher. So if you currently have someone and you're ready to do a refresher and you want to switch, you know, then go ahead and go thio mid South o t i dot orig that's that's where you find them. And truly they have all the OSHA courses out there, all the number, of course that you could do those. And for those of you that are not in the US, you can't be unauthorized OSHA instructor because of OSHA's rules. But it doesn't hurt to get the training. It doesn't hurt to get, uh, the understanding of what that is, and therefore you could just do an equivalent course in your country. That's really what it boils down to. You just can't give out. The card is really what you can't do. But at that point, truly you're giving out information and the information is the most important. So those were ways that opportunity. You get your preparation when the opportunity arises. You don't have to wait for anything. You can nail it because you've already done your preparation. Sometimes it's how to pocket, like several of my things. I had to just go ahead and pony up and pay for. That's okay, You got to do it. Just get ready. Uh, in that first half of her interview, you'll see that on Thursday we'll talk to Kathy a little bit more, but, ah, lot of her driving factors with her Children and therefore you parents that are listening to me, you know that you'll do anything for them. So as much as you can, you may actually have to work midnights go to class during day like I did or something similar to that. So that preparation meets opportunity. You get a better paying job, you go out on your own. You be your own consultant, you are ready. So that is my tip of the week. I want to thank everybody again for listening to me and uh, truly if you haven't subscribed to the podcast. Yeah. Please go ahead and hit that subscribe button. Whatever you're listening to me on right now or if you're on the Sheldon prime ms dot com website, there's a podcast player that you're listening to me on. Go ahead and click that link Thio. Get Thio the actual, um, whatever service you use most. And then you can subscribe that way. Or you could just keep listening on Children primes dot com I'm good with that. That's that's good, too. And if you want to do more as faras, your own podcast, reach out to me. You could email me at Sheldon at Sheldon Prima's dot com, and I've got a couple opportunities available for people who want to do their own podcast. I have, ah, hosting service that I could put you on. Just reach out to me and we'll work out the details. You know, devils in the details as well. One person told May. So I'm good with that. Uh, if you can share this with a friend, uh, love when you could share the episodes with a friend and truly I am going Teoh, do my best to keep you engaged if you didn't hear. I'm doing an event so good to Sheldon. Primacy, com backslash events. And I am also doing that event. It's a three day incident. Causation, of course. All right, so I am at the end of the tip of the week. You're gonna hear me again on Thursday when I'm gonna finish up the interview with Kathy. So join me again then. But until then, go get him. Yeah. Okay. Please. Episode has been powered by safety FM.