The events of the past 14 months are unprecedented in the past century of global business history.
The pandemic has had has been devastating to many industries and a boon to others. The workplace changes it has created have been enormous, with impacts on commercial real estate and knowledge worker migration that we are just beginning to fully appreciate.
But what about the future? What’s next and how can we as business owners and executives best prepare for it?
My guest this week, Scott Crawford, president and CEO of VA811, argues that we are not at the beginning of the end of this transformation, but rather at the end of the beginning.
And he is uniquely qualified to share his perspective, being both a business executive and a historian.
Join us this week as Scott takes us back to previous plagues and pandemics and describes how we can use the lessons of history can guide our business planning into the future.
What follows is a computer-generated transcription of our entire conversation. Please excuse any typos!
Frank Felker 00:23
Thank you, Dude Walker yesterday. I am Frank Felker. Welcome back to Radio Free Enterprise. My guest today is Scott Crawford. Scott is a historian and educator and a business executive who currently serves as president and CEO of a company called Virginia 811, located in Roanoke, Virginia, Scott Crawford, welcome to the program.
Scott Crawford 00:47
Well, thank you. It’s great to be here.
Frank Felker 00:50
Scott, we have some very meaty stuff to cover today very important stuff about planning for a post pandemic future as business owners and executives. But I want to create a frame of reference to begin with. First off, I want to let people know that Scott and I actually first met in the early 1980s. And I because I met he and his family in Blacksburg, Virginia, where they lived in your parents work, and your brother, West Crawford is one of my oldest and dearest friends. So I’ve had the blessing of being able to observe Scott success journey from afar, mostly through social media over these many years. But as I mentioned, Scott, today, you are the president and CEO of Virginia 811. And I’d like to start with that. What is that company? Tell us what you do? Who’s your customer? And what problem do you solve for them?
Scott Crawford 01:45
Yeah, I’d love to Virginia 811 is basically a company that is available to any and everyone who is going to be digging excavating in any way in the state of Virginia. So we always need to keep in mind that underneath the ground in the soil, there is a vast network and infrastructure of underground utilities ranging from sewer and water to gas, electricity, and communications. And so we are there to serve the individuals in Virginia who are digging, whether it be homeowners or professional contractors, so that they can through us be able to notify any and all of the potentially affected utilities at their dig site. So that then in turn, those utilities can send locators out to mark up the soil to indicate where those underground utilities are, are located so that they can be avoided when digging.
Frank Felker 02:42
Okay. And I think we’ve all had some personal experience with this, seeing people out painting on sidewalks and painting on front yards and that kind of thing, marking where underground cable television is or gas line. So that kind of thing. And so obviously, this was a critical function that you guys serve. And this is part of this plays into the whole thing with COVID pandemic, which we’ll talk about in a minute. Now. How long has the company been in business? And how many employees do you have? Scott?
Scott Crawford 03:14
Yeah, well, Virginia 811 is a company has been in, in operations for about almost 20 years. And we have currently 75 employees, team members who work to protect those unhealth protect the underground utilities. We are currently hiring a few more because we’ve been quite busy the past several months. And so we’re taking care of that, by interesting folks that come join the team.
Frank Felker 03:40
It is funny to me that you just never know which companies which industries, which products and services are doing better today, and which are doing more poorly. And we’ll get to that again, going forward. Now, I think you have a great story to tell about the impact of the COVID pandemic, on you know, the best laid plans Of Mice and Men. And it has to do with a brand spanking new headquarters building that you guys moved into. Was that in 2019, or when did you move in?
Scott Crawford 04:13
That’s correct. Yeah. November of 2019.
Frank Felker 04:16
Perfect. Okay. So you brought all your associates in, and you’re also I’ll let you tell the story, but you’re sharing the building with another organization. And everything’s brand new, and it’s sort of straight. And then what happened?
Scott Crawford 04:29
Well, I think we all remember what happened next was a little thing called COVID. made its appearance there and basically by March of 2020, so roughly four months after occupation of the brand-new headquarters, we did start looking at dispersing our workforce and sending everyone home. And that’s basically how we’ve been operating since roughly march of 2020. So now over a year, working from home remotely Because we are an essential service, we must remain operational. And we could not afford the risk of COVID being introduced into our population and us being gathered in a central location. Oh, running through the company.
Frank Felker 05:14
Yeah. I hadn’t thought about that Michael Scott. So here you are Mr. President and CEO of 75 people, and suddenly you’re thrust into this situation. And before we get to how it’s worked out the remote management and working and that kind of thing. Tell us about your emotional state when you realized this is what you were going to have to do. What sort of fears and trepidations Did you have about your ability to operate as normally as possible under these circumstances? Well,
Scott Crawford 05:47
again, in all honesty, the first and foremost concern, I think, of everyone on our team, at the executive level, in particular, as we were working on a strategy to ensure the safety of everyone was just that, that everyone remains safe. We did, you know, lots of different information was coming in about COVID, not understanding exactly how dangerous this was, how contagious and so forth, hearing a lot of different reports. And we just wanted to make sure that every team member was sick, as safe as possible. And that meant remote work. And then, of course, along those same lines in the spirit of safety, it’s ensuring that we were operational so that those excavating in Virginia remain safe, that we did not have occurring along with in a pandemic, any kind of, you know, damage to an undergrad utility that could result in someone being hurt, or worse, being even killed. And so it again, essential that we had operations up and running. So those are the primary concerns, it all comes back to safety, and being able to continue to serve our stakeholders.
Frank Felker 06:49
I really appreciate what you had to say there. But I want to ask sort of the same question again. What about you as a manager? I don’t I understand you had these concerns about safety. But what if somehow, due to this new way of doing things, you weren’t able to keep your customers and citizens safe? Did you have any fears about that?
Scott Crawford 07:13
I mean, yeah, I think that was on everybody’s mind. You know, it’s, it’s again, how could this unfold in a way that would prevent us from being able to fulfill our goals related to safety and service. And as far as me personally, you know, in looking back, I don’t think there was ever a time when you’re sitting there, you know, overwhelmed with fear or concern, we had a structure in place that helped us in the sense that our damage prevention specialists, who are those on the front lines within our company, those are the ones that you’re talking to, when you call 811, those are the ones auditing tickets coming to us through the web, they are the ones that are first and foremost, keeping everyone safe, who’s digging, they we already had a good number of them with a with a remote work plan in place. And so roughly 60% of those DPS were working in some capacity at home and were had been set up to do so they were still coming into the office. But the infrastructure was there. And so this was now a matter of expanding this remote work model to include all of our DPS. And then also now the back office, folks, those that are behind the scenes, making sure that the DPS can do what they need to do to keep everyone safe.
Frank Felker 08:33
Great. Okay. So, you know, obviously, you had your hands full. But we’re not alone. So many management people, executives, business owners, this has been a tremendous challenge coming seemingly out of nowhere. And it is impacted people literally in every line of work. So I want to I don’t know whether I shared the title of the presentation, I saw you get on zoom call or zoom meeting earlier this week was called from epidemic to endemic, preparing businesses for the end of the pandemic. And that’s, you know, the meat and potatoes of what we want to talk about today. I want to start just with a couple of definitions of terms. For example, what’s the difference between an epidemic and an endemic?
Scott Crawford 09:23
Yeah, it’s great question, you know, what we’ve been experiencing is an epidemic and it’s been in a pandemic level, meaning it goes global, has an incredibly, you know, notable spike in increase in an infection of a particular contagious disease, in this case COVID. Adding to that, just you know, to show the danger of this is that it was considered a virgin soil epidemic, meaning that this was something relatively new, that there was not a generally built-up immunity in order to be able to adequately handle it. and such. And that’s why there’s been such a concern about the hospitals being overwhelmed and so forth. It’s a virgin soil epidemic. Now, what we’re witnessing is currently with the introduction of these vaccines, individuals that are surviving, of course, COVID, which is not like 98%, roughly, they’re building up antibodies, the vaccines are helping to protect us. Slowly, we’re seeing things begin to open up a little more than what they were, and so forth. And so what we’re going to probably in all likelihood witness is this transition from epidemic to endemic meaning that now COVID becomes an infection that we live with for the foreseeable future, unless science can come along and somehow entirely eradicate it. This thing is proving to have the ability, of course, to evolve, to mutate to have variants that then pose new challenges to vaccines. And what we might want to start thinking of it as is is, you know, similar to the flu, how the flu is endemic to our society and culture, that now we’ll be continually facing COVID booster shots, new shots, and so forth.
Frank Felker 11:12
Great, thank you, that was a very clear explanation and differentiation of those terms. Now, you are a historian, you’ve taught his you have a master’s in history, you’ve taught history in high school and college levels, you were the Director of Education at an art museum. And I remember seeing some of your lectures on art and so forth. So you take, if I may say, so the long view of things. And you have, you know, really researched this, as I learned watching your presentation. And I don’t we can’t go into all the detail that you did with all of these different plagues. But I want our listeners and viewers to understand that this is not the first time this type of thing has happened. But it’s been so long since it happened. It never happened to us before. We feel like it’s something that never happened before. But I do believe and you’ve made this clear, it’s God. And that’s why I really am appreciative of you being here today, that there are analogies to past plagues and and epidemics. And that we can draw inferences from and lessons from that we can use going forward. So I want to start this by talking about the bubonic plague. That’s the plague we all think of when we think of the plague. And that went on for decades, isn’t that correct?
Scott Crawford 12:36
Well, even centuries, yeah, when it when it first introduced itself to Western Europe, Eastern and Western Europe in 1347 4849 50. And by 53, it is spread all across Western Europe. That was the first real hit of the plague, the bubonic plague on Western Europe, and witnessed around 30 33% of fit mortality rate, horrific impact on culture and society. But what we need to remember is that then after that initial epidemic, and as it flowed and went into an endemic kind of status, it remained endemic in Western Europe for 400 years, then, the Europeans had confront that every now and then Oh, here it comes. Again. It’s spiking, it’s reaching an epidemic proportion, and then it would subside. On average, during much of that period, London experienced the plague on average, every roughly 10 to 20 years, an epidemic portion would hit.
Frank Felker 13:37
Yeah, and don’t worry, folks, they didn’t have any sort of thing like a vaccine. So that was part of why it stuck around for so long. But again, Scott’s just making the point that these things happen, and the waves come, and the waves go, and, and there are things that we as individuals can do now, to help keep it from being more than it needs to be. Let’s talk about the reaction of government and business to this. In your presentation. You talked about the government closed theatres, and that sounds familiar, and that they even would do such a thing as if a family had one or more members, that they would board them up in their house. Is that right?
Scott Crawford 14:21
That’s correct. Yeah. For the bubonic plague, and particularly James I, King of England, you know, during the Age of Shakespeare, and so forth, you follow it Elizabeth is the monarch of England. You know, he put forth orders that did just what you’re saying, you know, in trying to allow government to step in and try to protect the masses, the population, took some actions that follow just what you said. I mean, theaters would be closed, Shakespeare might have a production coming up, he might not know if it’s going to actually be performed because the plague could spike.
Frank Felker 14:55
Yeah, and you know, and that’s, we’re talking just before starting our live interview. Have you hear about, think about somebody who had put hundreds of 1000s or more into building out a brand new restaurant concept? And, you know, just like happened you guys with your building? Now, I just want to touch on one other analogy, if you will, that there were punishments meted out to people who didn’t follow the rules. And what sort of things might happen to you, if you, I guess it was more than not wearing a mask. But what could you go afoul of? And what would happen next?
Scott Crawford 15:30
Yeah, well, he in those orders for in particular, for James, the first for example, if you were, if you were showing evidence of being sick, you were supposed to, if you left your home, which you weren’t supposed to do, but you were still supposed to wear something that identified you as being sick. And if you were and they had watchmen that would patrol and look for individuals. And if someone were showing signs of being sick, and were not appropriately identifying themselves, they were putting the stocks and you know, in the courtyard inside Republic humiliation, and also to some extent to prevent them from moving around. You know, HIPAA was not a thing in the age of Shakespeare. So yeah,
Frank Felker 16:09
right. You had to wear your red shirt out there. So guarded. Everybody knew that you had the plague. Okay, well, and so, you know, today, people are complaining about having to wear a mask, and that the government’s taking away their rights and making them do it. And, you know, as a historian, you understand that, from his earliest days, when people began to gather in groups, you gave up certain behaviors that you could have done, if you were by yourself that now in the group, you know, you’re expected to conform. And we as Americans don’t like conforming, we think of ourselves as essentially nonconformists. But as you and I are trying to make clear here, it’s important that we work together as a group as a giant organism to try to kill this thing. So let’s move forward now to the cholera epidemic of the 19th century. And this went on for 15 years or more, starting in the middle of the century. And I remember you saying that, in your presentation, the increasing urbanization of society impacted this. Can you speak to that a little bit?
Scott Crawford 17:15
Yeah, what you’re seeing there, you know, forces coming together, you have the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century, starting in England and spreading. And with industrialization and the movement away from more of an agrarian based economy toward an industrial economy witnessed then the rise of urban areas and these urban areas as they were developing fairly quickly. You know, in Please keep in mind, at this time, there was not an understanding of germs and all of that as far as how one got sick. But these, these places were incredibly lacking in sanitation. And, you know, you’re not going to have the full implementation, for example, if you know, flushable, toilets, indoor plumbing until later in the 19th century. And so that means human waste is being disposed of out in the streets. And that’s just as we know, now, that’s just, you know, the proper environment for disease to grow. And cholera in particular was one that would affect cities. It was endemic, it was something that would occasionally rise to epidemic proportions, but it was something that everyone needed to always be aware of.
Frank Felker 18:17
Now, were there any requirements now? It’s I don’t remember, but I take it, it was not contagious. It was caused by the waste products out in the street.
Scott Crawford 18:26
Well, the waste products, and then it would get into the water supply. And I said, you know,
18:30
it wasn’t right.
18:34
Yeah.
Frank Felker 18:37
Sure, you have a medical degree as well, isn’t that correct? Yeah. Okay, well, let’s move on to the most recent epidemic, if you will, and the one that I believe we can drink a draw the most analogies and learnings from, which is the influenza epidemic of 1918. Um, very similar in terms of government reaction, business impact, and so forth. So can you speak to that for a moment?
Scott Crawford 19:05
Oh, of course. Yeah. That’s the one that hits closest to home I think, in many ways, but and for those reasons, I you know, when this thing here, first of all, please keep in mind too, it’s a double whammy that’s hitting the world in the sense that you’ve just had world war one from 1914 through 1918. And then as World War One is ending, entering its last year, boom, the Spanish influenza hits, and starts to cause more death than World War One worldwide. And so the governments of course needed to step in. Now by this point, they have a better understanding of germs. And so one of the more notable requirements would be wearing masks and you see wonderful pictures from 1918 1919 1920 of individuals out in baseball games are gathering and they’re wearing their masks. Much like what we’re doing except we’ve come along and made ours a little more stylish in some ways. They were wearing their masks on. And then and the same kind of deal though. theaters closing public spaces closing schools closing, very similar to what we’ve been through.
Frank Felker 20:12
Now that and how about pushback from the public? Did the public react in the way that we’re seeing today where people are, some people refuse to wear masks, but other people do it completely under protest, and they’re not happy about it? Some people are saying they’re not going to be inoculated and so forth. What was the reaction of the American public at that time?
Scott Crawford 20:36
Yeah, you know, it’s interesting, because we too, now currently, as you know, in the news, and so forth, have other factors that are playing into some of this, you know, societal unrest and such in some of the rides and, and it’s just, again, sort of a perfect storm. But Similarly, at this time, there’s a major women’s rights movement. So there’s protests and marches there for the women to get the right to vote in the car guaranteed in the Constitution, which results in the 19th amendment. But yes, there was pushback, there’s one wonderful article where an individual is clearly frustrated about the requirements and so forth. And he, he makes a wonderful argument, that it’s prohibition that is causing the flu. It’s prohibition that needs to be taken away, because the government is, you know, controlling alcohol, because what do you do when you have a sore throat, you take a swig of hard liquor, and it’ll make it go away, but now they can’t get the liquor. So therefore, the sore throats developing into the Spanish flu, according to this individual. Yeah, so you did have some colorful commentary on some of the restrictions and said, Well, I
Frank Felker 21:45
haven’t heard that one. In this sounds like something that a meme, it could take legs and stick with us. Okay, now, you know, so the similar government actions, closing, you know, public gatherings and this kind of thing, there’s pushback, there’s, I’m sure, very difficult impacts on businesses of all sizes. But as you argue, relative to the most recent plague, there is a transformational impact that’s occurring as a result of what’s going on now. And we’ll get to that right next as far as what your suggestions are, and so forth. But was there a transformational impact coming out of the 1918? pandemic? Yeah,
Scott Crawford 22:33
yeah. I mean, it’s, you know, again, it, there are other variables. But nonetheless, with the with the flu, and businesses reacting in such there were developments and changes. As a result of this, you know, the shift to industrial economies with coinciding with this the rise of cities yet again, in this period with this playing out, I mean, the 1920 census is going to be the first US Census where more Americans are living in cities than in rural areas. There’s, you know, all sorts of business reaction to this. You see the progressives gaining strength during this period and implementing child labor laws on the eight-hour workday, some of the things that we still celebrate today and Pratt interesting business, you know, so it’s, again, it’s multiple variables coming together and the flu fueling this as part of these variables that are coming together.
Frank Felker 23:26
Great, well, we have spent a pretty good period of time here, Scott laying the foundation for what I really want to share, for you to share regarding how we can take these lessons from the past and apply them to the present day and to the near future. Now, I’m going to just kind of tick off things, checkboxes where I wrote down notes of what you had said, and I don’t have them in any particular order. But let’s start with this one. I love your expression, that you need to build your DQ. Could you tell us what DQ stands for? And as I know, it’s not Dairy Queen, and why it’s important that we develop that.
Scott Crawford 24:11
Yeah, it’s oil. It’s an emerging quotient insights. We all know IQ, of course, the intellectual quotient. And then then, you know, in the past few decades, there’s been discussion about EQ, your emotional quotient being so important, and that still is it’s incredibly important. But now we’re starting to see especially as we have gone into overdrive, on an embracing the technology that is not entirely new here. This is this has been a digital age that we have been coming of age in business for, you know, since 1994, really when the internet really became public. And so your DQ is your digital quotient. And that’s your familiarity you’re comfortable level at level of comfort with technology. And being able to take an application and work through it that’s new and not be intimidated by it and be able to figure it out, it’s when someone sends you that document for a DocuSign, you know how to do it, is when we’re now having to, you’re understanding the technology behind it, and you’re able to, to work within it in a successful way for business?
Frank Felker 25:25
Well, and I want to make sure I understand, you’re saying each of us, personally has to take responsibility for our own digital quotient. By that I mean, you know, some people will say, Oh, well, you know, I can find somebody who can do that, or I don’t need to learn that, or I whatever. Are you emphasizing that as a business owner or executive, we need to take personal charge of our DQ?
Scott Crawford 25:50
We do I think, I think two things personal accountability is important. But then I firmly believe you know, a business should be creating an environment where the professional development is available and accessible so that individuals can get the exposure, they need the training they need. And I like to see it more as professional development than training is just teaching you XYZ how to do something professional development is about growth, and individuals being able to grow so that they, you know, really have that level of comfort with this new environment, I say new, it’s not new, it’s just COVID has brought it to the forefront. But this, this ties into another piece of the business literature that’s out there now. And that’s the importance of being a lifelong learner, we all need to do that the age of going to work for a company at 18, or 21. And then retiring 39 years later with the gold watch, and the pair of golf clubs set of golf clubs and such. That just doesn’t happen anymore. You know, it’s the average personnel moves to, you know, major career changes seven or eight times. And part of that means you need to now be better versed in a wider area of content and knowledge. So lifelong learning is important. And a big part of that would be this DQ and developing your technology, technological prowess, and ability.
Frank Felker 27:09
That’s great. Well, naturally, I am completely in favor of what you’re saying there. And I, I try to stay on top of technology as best I can. Now, also, I like the fact that you said that not only do executives and business owners need to take responsibility for their own DQ, but that they should be investing in professional development resources for their employees as well. And I like that. Now, one, another thing that you talked about, I thought was great, had to do with Don’t try to keep one foot in the past and one foot in the future. The past, the world we knew before, in many ways, is behind us. And we need to accept that fact. Is that am I hearing you? Right?
Scott Crawford 27:54
Yeah, and I’ve been, you know, saying this for some time, actually, I mean, you know, since at least 2009, is when I remember, this is going to end that it was evident we have as a country, we’ve moved from an industrial economy to a service-based economy and as such, that requires some different management skills, different leadership skills, we need to talk more about leadership and less about management. We’re not managing factories where we’re leading people. And at this level, everyone can be a leader, I love what one individual said at one Comcast thing about, you know, a leader, you know, everyone’s a leader, if anybody sees you at any point during the day titles, make managers, your actions make leaders. And that’s what we really need to concentrate on and not be focused on past skill sets. We need to take what worked and keep it. But we need to also recognize the playing field has shifted under our feet, literally, in the past 2025 years, this digital transformation, the digital revolution, the shift of the economy toward a service-based economy, it is a different model than what many of us grew up in, in the 70s and 80s. And early 90s. And
Frank Felker 29:11
COVID was, as you put up like a time machine, that it’s so vastly accelerated this change over a things that would have continued to go like working from home and zoom meetings and this kind of thing. But we had no choice but to implement these things. And now it’s, you know, moving like bullet train. I want to touch on a couple more things. You had talked about, that the impact on the workforce, and that managers and executives and owners need to understand that a lot of even their very best people are not interested in coming back to the office. So wondering if you could share the conversation, you had think it was with your chief financial officer on this topic? Yeah, well, yeah, we
Scott Crawford 29:55
had one us you know, in wonderful employee, team member you know, and it’s, you know, just basically the reality. We’ve been doing this now for over a year. And we have done well, we have, we have begun new projects that we hadn’t even thought of prior to COVID and completed some of those product projects, we have developed and created a brand-new department in San Francisco, just a list of things that we’ve been able to accomplish in this environment. And in some ways our communication is better. And the realization is, you know, what, why come back five days a week, you know, there needs to be still some personal interaction, that’s still important. But I think one of the things that those in business need to recognize is, if it is this sort of vision that that company is going to go entirely back to what it was like prior to COVID, I think they’re going to find that some team members are in their company are going to recognize, well, you know, it, it’s not going to work for me for various reasons, and I can’t do it, and they’re going to have opportunities elsewhere, because other companies are hiring remote workers. And so I think the reality is going to be that the expectations of the workforce are going to sort of force businesses hand to adapt and evolve somewhat To what degree that’s up to the company, what works for the company.
Frank Felker 31:15
Yeah, there are no rules for every industry or individual company, I want to read a couple of quotes, that just I think you said these just right off the top of your head, but even if you had memorized and they were still good, nonetheless, you said, we have a unique opportunity in business to define what the new business operating model is going to be. The leaders will rise and lead, and those that are looking backward will probably go to the wayside. That was pretty strong. So
Scott Crawford 31:48
yes, sir.
31:49
That’s right.
Frank Felker 31:49
Absolutely. So what kind of things do we as owners, managers and executives need to do in order to be that leader and not the person who’s going to the wayside? Well, I
Scott Crawford 32:01
think the biggest thing is, is open mindedness is being open to the ideas and listening to what your team wants, and it doesn’t mean, you know, in some sort of ultra-democratic way that you know, you get a vote, and this is what we’re going to do, there’s, there still may be some other things that then again, the leader needs to step up and make some unpopular decisions. But I think the leader needs to recognize that there’s a lot of opportunity here. And that’s the beauty of of those of us in business that at this time, is that we have a unique opportunity to be able to shape the future in a way that’s a little different than the past in this sense, because we’ve been confronting this major event. And so you know, it’s, it’s looking ahead, and it’s trying to take advantage of what we’ve learned the past year, being open to new operational models, and how we can utilize our resources in more efficient ways. You know, as for us, you know, this new building, maybe we’re not sitting in it every day, but for the love of goodness, it is an amazing facility, as a data center, it is highly resilient, there are redundancies in place that that building helps ensure that we can remain operational. And so it’s now envisioning With that in mind, okay, then how do we use it for the human occupation? You know, what’s that gonna look like? And it will look like something that we will be there, we will be using this space. But it’s not going to be the way it was prior to COVID. It just simply can’t
Frank Felker 33:32
be? Well, and this another one, I’m not asking you to respond to this. But you said, Don’t say we can’t do that due to COVID, say, due to COVID. We can do that by doing this. And I think that’s great. I’d also if I could paraphrase, to sort of summarize what you just said is, if we can let go of the past, we can create our own future. And you seem to be proposing that we do just that that we take charge and I think that’s a very strong message. Now Scott, we’re just about out of time. Have someone’s been watching or listening. They’re interested in what you’ve said about this or they’re interested in learning more about Virginia 811 What’s the best way for them to reach out to you through LinkedIn or
34:24
what?
Scott Crawford 34:25
Oh, I’m on LinkedIn definitely. Um, you know, my email if anybody would like to reach out it’s s Crawford, some Scott Crawford. So it’s by essence, Scott, then Crawford at VA 811 dot com. And of course, I encourage everybody to visit our website. And check it out and learn more about 811. And what we do to help ensure that this digital age can actually unfold because we are protecting through the Notification Center fiber lines as well and we know what can happen if a Fiber line gets cut.
Frank Felker 35:02
Wow. So that’s amazing. I have not made that connection, that what you guys do is so critical to us being able to elevate our DQ. Scott, I always like to ask my guests one question before we sign off, which is, is there a question I haven’t asked you, or a point that’s come to your mind that you’d like to share before we go.
Scott Crawford 35:28
And that’s wonderful. And yeah, you know, I think it’s, it’s mainly just to underscore everything we’ve said that it’s, it’s, you know, we need to take adversity and see opportunity within it. And I know that sounds cliche, but this is when leaders are tested when this kind of adversity rises. And I hope everyone in business no matter what your title, but that you rise as a leader, and you identify what’s best for your particular business, as we have this very unique opportunity to reshape what we do, how we do it. And then most importantly, understand why you do what you do. So that you can leverage this opportunity to the best of your ability in order to better do what you’re intending to do. And for us, it’s ensuring that the underground utilities remain protected so that this underground infrastructure remains in place, and that those digging in Virginia get to go home to their families at the end of each day.
Frank Felker 36:26
Scott Crawford, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, your long-term perspective, and your guidance with us today on Radio Free Enterprise.
Scott Crawford 36:35
Well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Frank Felker 36:39
Thanks again to Scott and thank you for joining us. Until next time, I’m Frank Felker sand, I’ll see you on the radio
Dude Walker 36:47
Forgiving your entrepreneurial sins with a gentle wave of his microphone, here’s Frank Felker.
