134. Hero - Dan Carnovale, Power System Experience Center Manager at Eaton

Dan: 00:00 

My personal passion is really like learning, teaching, helping others succeed, like being part of a team that, that wants to grow and be creative and all that kind of stuff. We have a blast here. You know, I want to leave a legacy, you know, of knowledge for kids that want to learn about stuff. I have a great time working with the interns and the co-ops and stuff that, that we hire through different universities and places, you know, close to here and even mentoring some of the kids that are still in high school and younger. I want everybody that comes through here to laugh and learn and really have the same passion, and I want them to, to basically love their job like I do. 

Chris: 00:36 

Welcome to EECO Asks Why a podcast that dives into industrial manufacturing topics, spotlights the heroes that keep America running. I'm your host, Chris Grainger. And on this podcast, we do not cover the latest features and benefits on products that come to market, instead, we focus on advice and insight from the top minds of industry because people and ideas will be how America remains number one in manufacturing in the world. 

Welcome to EECO Asks Why today we have a hero conversation and we have with this Dan Carnovale, who is the Power System Experience Center manager at Eaton. So welcome Dan. 

Dan: 01:17 

Hey, thanks Chris. 

Chris: 01:20 

Oh, it's a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to having you here. I've met you a few years ago when I got a chance to actually come to the experience center and for those who haven't, we'll make sure we had the links in the show notes because it is, a trip worthwhile. I had so much fun. I always remember that lightning strike and the tree breaking. 

Dan: 01:38 

Yeah that's definitely a popular one here on the Disneyland for engineers kind of thing. People always remember those kinds of things. 

Chris: 01:45 

It was awesome. It was a ton of fun, but you know, in this conversation, man, we just want to get to know you and we'd love to start these hero conversations off by just giving you a chance to share about your journey.

Dan: 01:56 

Sure. Well, so I went through undergrad and masters in power systems. And I interviewed with Westinghouse. So I was excited to come to Pittsburgh, the center for all things Westinghouse. And right before I started ABB had bought that division. So I worked for them for awhile and it was great.

I did a lot of utility work, mostly utility power, quality work, trying to understand when, large substation transformers or capacitors and stuff blow up. And then I actually moved down with ABB to your area down there And I lived there for a little bit, when I got married and moved back to Pittsburgh and worked for a different part of Westinghouse, which was the industrial and commercial kind of power systems group.

 And then that group in 1998 went away and we ended up going to a group with Eaton, which had previously bought some of the other parts of Westinghouse. So it all has Westinghouse roots in it and it's been a fun journey. So I worked in the parts in the industrial and commercial part to troubleshoot power quality stuff for a long time.

And then in about 2001, I got drafted into a group and I say, drafted, they put me in a group that was marketing. And I was like here, I'm a power systems engineer. I don't know what marketing is. I don't understand that, so I pushed back a little bit, but actually if you're honest with you, Chris, like I had a lot of fun transitioning from there and ended up basically starting with the Power System Experience Center based on the fact that I had a lot of leeway in, in what I was allowed to do. And it's been just a blast ever since. 

Chris: 03:22 

And that is awesome. So just for the listeners, where'd you go to school at? 

Dan: 03:26 

So I went to Gannon in Erie. There was a professor there that was awesome. He was in power systems Jerry Savadra and he lead a path to Rensselaer, RPI up in Troy, New York. And so we went right from there to a master's program at RPI and having a power system background was key to pull me into the kind of things that I've learned and done over the years, but it gave me a real good, I had start on these things.

Chris: 03:49 

That's fun. I mean, I guess, that chance where you got to work with marketing, you know, I'm doing more and marketing myself these days. I'll say it has stretched me just to new areas in my thoughts and just the way that I looked at the world. And I mean, I'm sure you had very similar experiences with your time in the marketing group. 

Dan: 04:05 

I did. I actually went and got an MBA after I started in the group to really understand a little bit more about, the business side of it. It really helped tie things together for me. I think that's really, the key is, you know, having the technical background and then the business background, and then being able to talk to customers and really helping people understand and solve problems, you know, it was a natural fit for me. So even though I pushed back on it, it probably was the right thing for me to do. 

Chris: 04:29 

No doubt. I know you guys have, I forget the stats on how many people come through the experience center on a typical year. Obviously last year was not a very typical year, but you know, you get a lot of feedback from the industry. So what are you hearing? What are you hearing out there that the industry is challenged with the most? 

Dan: 04:46 

Yeah. So Chris, we get probably seven or 8,000 visitors a year that come through here. It's almost like a destination. People come on an electrical vacation here, but when they come through, I think the biggest thing that we're seeing is sort of a loss of industry experts. I think that the fact that a lot of the people that I met along the way, the people that I've worked with that were those key, people in Westinghouse or Eaton, that were like the leaders in the industry they're retired. They're retiring or retired.

And passing on the information from them is a really a difficult thing. And then really the other part of it is we have this digital transformation. I mean, we're moving from, everything that's kind of, you know, loaders and transformers and traditional kind of equipment in the electrical industry.

And now we're going to variable frequency drives and, power converters and things like that are doing solar and wind. And you know, this whole energy transition thing. I mean, that's a source of multiple power, micro grids, all that stuff. That's the stuff that people really need to understand and get familiar with.

And I think that's the major trends, that with energy storage and all this stuff with electric vehicles. It's a huge kind of transition in our business, but it's really a fun one as well. 

Chris: 05:55 

And we're hearing the same thing. Dan, we talked to a lot of people that loss of those experts and that's a real deal. And you got to get ahead of it and industry. I love your approach, what you guys are doing with videos to help bring the education up for that next generation, but it definitely not surprised to hear that. 

Everybody's talking digital transformation. The question is like, where do you start? How do you get it going? And how can we actually make money with it? And as a business, and not just be this, fluff actually improve my process. So it sounds like you're having a lot of the conversations that are helping people that we're hearing the same stuff here on, on the show.

Dan: 06:30 

Absolutely. And I think some of the larger customers and some of the people even within Eaton and we've, changed sort of how we do things in some of our plants. So that's a really key thing to really think ahead of how does this affect us, in our own facilities and how are we going to make, do with the electricity available to us today.

Chris: 06:46 

Right. Now for the people that, we're trying to reach this Dan too, for the next generation. They're trying to encourage them about industry and to come in. Any advice you have or that you typically share with people when they're considering a career in industry. 

Dan: 07:00 Well, I mean, I think, and I've heard this from some of the new hires that we have at Eaton, which is reinforcing it, but they get super excited about it. But I think power is the lifeblood of every business. If you think about it, it's almost like even of our lives. It's almost like food, water, and electricity. It's not far behind those other necessities for life. And I think what we're seeing is, that we're so reliant on it.

That we need to have a better handle on how it's transmitted and distributed and, handled locally, you know, micro grid type stuff, or stored energy storage type things. With that digitalization, we talked about and the energy transition things and all those other industry trends. 

I mean, understanding like power systems as a whole, and again, not just individual devices, but the actual system. I think it's super important. So if you have a good understanding of power systems, and, you know, the electrical field in general. I mean, either electrician, engineer, anybody that works in that field, I mean, you'll have a job forever, and I think that's a great thing that, people can think about coming into the industry, is it's a field that really needs people to help support that.

Chris: 08:08 

No doubt. Great advice because you're right. If you learn some of these concepts and some of the things that you're teaching job security is pretty high. And that's important. So we love to also talk about mentors and the people who've helped us along the way. Does anybody stand out to you when you look back that has been influential to you and your team? 

Dan: 08:30 

Yeah. I mean, I, think so, you know, obviously, my parents. My dad was a teacher and then kind of worked his way through the school system. So I think there is some evidence of that in some of the videos and the training and stuff that I do.

But there was one guy that I started out with at ABB that I did a lot of the field work with and we traveled together for years and he taught me a ton and it was funny because he would always say that, "I'm just a technician, you're not gonna learn anything from me. You're an engineer." And his name was David Malone and I'll tell you, he knew more as a non formally trained engineer than any engineer. He built his own system to monitor high frequency and high voltage measurements set of 3 45 KV substation and done safely.

We would troubleshoot these things and find issues and solve problems for people. And to me, that was a huge deal. And, even though he didn't put himself on a pedestal, I certainly did. And I thought it was great. And the other guy that I worked with here at Westinghouse, and then at Eaton was Dave Shipp. And I don't know if you know that name, but he's also one of these industry experts that he's just phenomenal as far as stuff. And I'll tell you a funny story. When I first started at Westinghouse, I moved back from Raleigh to Pittsburgh, and here's me, I'm getting married in a few weeks.

And I told my soon to be wife. I went into work today and she goes, how was it? I said I met this guy named Dave Shipp and he walked right up to me and he stood up. And he shook my hand and said, "Hi, new guy, young guy." I forget what he said, but he said something to the effect of, "I'm David Shipp."

And he goes, "you'll probably come across stuff that you don't know," and he goes, "before you go look it up in a book or something like that, just come ask me. I probably already know." And I thought, wow. I mean, I went home and I told my wife for that. And I said, what an arrogant son of a gun, but then I learned that he was right.

He knows so much about everything. And I'll tell you, I really respect the guy. He knows so much and just was a really great mentor to me and helped me kind of learn about power quality, and some of the really crazy stuff with harmonics and, transients and mutual coupling, and crazy kind of situations that we would do troubleshooting on oil fields and stuff like that. So those are the kind of people that I really thank looking back.

Chris: 10:41 

It sounds like he was more than willing to share that information with you as well. 

Dan: 10:45 

Yeah. And it was funny cause I teased my wife from like, you know, he's like real arrogant, but he wasn't arrogant at all. And if anybody's ever met Dave, he's like the opposite of arrogant.

He just is super helpful, but he just wants you to learn and know and that's kinda what I try to aspire to be as like somebody that can help other people without having to anything in it for me because at this point, it's more about trying to help other people succeed.

Chris: 11:06 

No doubt, man. That's great. How about for the young person who may be thinking about engineering and thinking about that field and they have this perception in their mind about what it really is. Are there any myths out there that you'd like to just destroy right now about what this actually is?

Dan: 11:23 

Yeah. First of all, not all engineers are nerds, just some of us. That's the big thing is it's just one of those things where people are like, really engineering, but honestly, like I think the electrical gets a bad rap because it's like, you have to have a strange sense of things to really get it and understand it.

But once you do, you're like, this is actually really cool. And we had a president in Eaton here that used to tell the story that he had two daughters. He said, "I don't care what you want to become, but you're going to be an engineer first." And they were like why? And he said, because if you become an engineer, you can do a lot of other things after that, but the opposite is not always true. 

And if you think about it what engineers do is they learn how to learn. And so I think it really is a great statement and it helps you, if you can do that, you can pretty much do anything. And then you have an open mind and you be creative and things like that.

So I think. It's a great field plus, financially you can do well. That's the other thing that I think is important when people are guiding their kids or when people are guiding each other into what fields they should go into and try to pick something that you're going to be able to make a living at because, everybody says, oh, have fun at your job, but you'll have a lot more fun if you make a little bit of money at it and don't have to struggle through things. 

Chris: 12:34 

Financial security means a lot, but I love are you saying, you're just learning how to learn in that engineering field. That's it. You're doing a lot with videos, marketing, and now you can do that because you learned how to adapt, how to change. And that's just great stuff. Great way to debunk some things. 

Dan: 12:51 

Thanks Chris. 

Chris: 12:53 

So how about when you're the happiest? If you look at the work that you're doing, Dan, when are you getting that most fulfillment? What's bringing you the most joy. 

Dan: 13:00 

Yeah. Everybody would tell you I'm super passionate when you're here. And you probably saw that. I get super excited about having fun here and everything, but I really love it when the light bulb goes off in somebody's head and you can see that they get it. I really want to be able to help people understand this complicated thing called electricity, right?

The more people that I can draw into that field. I think the more sense of success that I feel. So I think that's really the key is just seeing that light bulb go off in their head. 

Chris: 13:28 

That's it, man. That's it. Now, when you look back over to things you've done in career, does anything stand out as a highlight that you'd like to share?

Dan: 13:35 

I mean, I think the Power System Experience Center here in Pittsburgh. That's definitely the highlight. I did a ton of field work in the first part of my career, at ABB it was utility power, quality work at Westinghouse. And then early at Eaton was, industrial commercial power, quality stuff, and field investigations and trying to do all that.

And that was very gratifying, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I think it was a springboard to do what I was meant to do, which is the experience center here. So what started as a skunkworks project in roughly 2004, 2005 has become really kind of a world-class thing. It's really benefited a lot of people within Eaton, outside of Eaton.

And I think the fact that I have the full support of our management team and everything, and, you know, when we hire a new executive, a lot of times they'll come through here to learn about, what Eaton does and the electrical group and stuff like that. And so to me that's very gratifying to see what, we've created.

And I say, we as much as I'd like to say, I did it, obviously it's team effort for these kinds of things, but it's a great learning experience too. So when I say, the highlight of my career, I would really think that this allows me to continue to learn. And as long as I'm learning and having fun, what could be wrong with it?

Chris: 14:44 

That's right. And again, if you've never had a chance to go and you're listening, check it out, please. It's worth the trip you will not be disappointed and I learned so much. So man, Dan we thank you for sharing about that highlight and we also, we love these hero conversations, man, to get a little bit outside of work. Learn about you away from the experience center. And so any hobbies, anything you enjoy doing?

Dan: 15:05 

I mean, I love to hunt and fish. I've always done that. I grew up in north central Pennsylvania, which is, there's really not a whole lot else to do there. So I've always done that, but I find right now when I sit in a tree stand or even just walking along the stream or, sitting in a boat or something like that, I just clear my head.

And I think, with the kind of fast pace that we have at work lately, and with all the craziness in life, I think it, to me, it's super relaxing and I need that, to get recharged, but beyond that, I've coached hockey for 14 years, with my boys. So I have four boys that all played hockey.

I think it made me a better parent, a better teacher, honestly, a better employee because I learned the importance of leadership from a whole different perspective, but I coached hockey without ever having played hockey. So that was kind of a little bit of a fun challenge, but I used to ice skate.

I'll give you a little secret. I'm sure you won't tell anybody, when I first started skating, I told my wife, I said, I never skated, except on figure skates because I had four sisters and a brother and we didn't have hockey skates. So she's like, "You cannot skate with figure skates. You have to use hockey skates."

So I had to learn as an adult, how to do a hockey stop and anybody that's ever done a hockey stop could show you a thousand times over how to do it. So I would go to the rink and I'd say, "Hey, how do you do a hockey stop?" I'd ask the rink guard. And he'd be like, "just like this." And he would do it. I was like, "but no, how do you actually do it? Like how to break it down." So as an engineer, I'm thinking, how do you physically do this? Cause it seems awkward to me, and I don't have a toe pick to drag to stop myself. 

I figured out that the action of starting your lawnmower is almost the same action as doing a hockey stop. When I started teaching kids how to do hockey stops, I was like, "you ever see your dad start a lawnmower? And he pulls the thing and he twists his body and it's like that." And so I was a little unconventional in my training, but, all these things blend together to make you the person that you are, but it's been fun. 

Chris: 16:56 

That's cool, man. That's awesome. I mean myself, I coach, but I've coached basketball and I'd never played basketball growing up. So it's the same thing. I have to learn the sport, figuring out different analogies to help, I was a baseball person, so I'm always trying to figure out how to make some baseball drills work in basketball. But it definitely helps you for sure. I just enjoy that piece. I'm with you about being outside now, you're a deer hunter, or what do you hunt?

Dan: 17:21 

Yeah, a little bit of everything. We mostly hunt deer and for small game we use, I have a dog, a Brittany and I've, done bird hunting with him for. I had a Brittany for 12 years and then he died and we just recently got another one bought a year and a half ago.

They're just awesome dogs and so much fun. So it's more about this kind of going out and do it. We do a lot of archery hunting and you know, I still go back up to north-central part of the state and hunt with my brother and, all the cousins get together and stuff like that, but sitting in Pittsburgh here, we have some of the best deer hunting right in the backyard. We have a lot of fun with archery hunting and stuff like that as well. 

Chris: 17:54 

That's awesome. That's awesome. Now you mentioned some about your family early. What would you like to share with us about it? 

Dan: 17:59 

My wife actually went to Penn state is a EE. We actually met back when we were both at ABB and that, that's how, we got together, but she actually teaches our field service engineers So if you saw the Jurassic Park video, the dinosaur one. So that's her in that video with Eric Heard and they were talking about doing training and she actually does the training for the field service people to do high pot, mega doctor, all that kind of stuff. So we tied her into that one.

But I have five kids and, you know, I've mentioned the four boys. So my oldest one actually works. He went to Penn state also, and now works in the oil field in west Texas. So he's a petroleum and natural gas engineer. So he actually was going to do electrical and decided to do petroleum and he loves it.

So he, does two weeks on two weeks off, he comes home. Again, we can do some deer hunting stuff together when he's off and when he's out there he just has a blast, with his team. And then I have two at Pitt right now. So there's the Penn state Pitt match there. The two Pitt one's in the master's program and he's finishing up and then the other one is a freshman. They're both EE though.

And the older ones doing power and the younger one will probably do power. And then I have a senior in high school, who he's also going to do electrical. And so as you can imagine, there's this Pitt and Penn state rivalry, and he's like, I might not go to either, I might go to Virginia Tech or some other colleges like that.

So he's just all over the place and thinking about what he's going to do. And then Kendall do I mentioned. And talk, maybe, I don't know if I've talked to you before about her, but she's the one that's in the couple of the videos that we've done in the water analogy one and stuff like that.

She's a blast. And so having four boys and all of a sudden a girl was a super change in the way that we handle life. And I used to tell her, because we did all this hockey, I said "Kendall, when do you want to start playing hockey?" And she said, you know, she's like three years old.

She was like, "I hate hockey." I'm like," you don't hate hockey. You just hate going to the rink. It's fun." She was like, "I don't want to do hockey." So she does gymnastics. And now I think it's maybe a little bit of payback for me, but so I love to go to watch her, but the problem is it's like four minutes of extreme tense, kind of thing to watch her do one minute, one minute, one minute, one minute for the four things.

And then it's all on her. If anything goes bad, like oh God. So hockey was a lot easier to watch. Somebody screws up. Somebody else helps out, it's a team thing but gymnastics has been out in a whole new world for me. And having a girl has been a whole new world for me, but she'll probably end up being an engineer too. She's very curious and methodical and stuff like that. And so it's been a blast.

Chris: 20:26 

That is awesome. Sounds like you have a wonderful family, Dan. That's awesome. 

Dan: 20:29 

Thank you.

Tim: 20:30 

Thank you for sharing. How about anything that you enjoy that you find helpful? It could be podcasts, YouTube stuff, books. Just, it could be personal stuff, professional. Just anything you'd like to share?

Dan: 20:42 

Well with COVID and stuff like that. I think the one that I think I'd point out to people that they might not know about, or a lot of people have been finding is Thomas Domitrovich, has been doing a great job on YouTube and doing his live technical sessions.

So he'll just say let's do short circuit calculations today. Every Thursday at 5:00 PM. Some kind of calculations or some kind of a review. And so he's, done a really good job of stuff like that. And he also talks about the NEC stuff and, things that people can learn from.

Mike Holtz has always been good. I mean he's always doing some good training stuff and has some really good material online and also the stuff that you can go through to learn about the NEC stuff. But one of my recent finds that I think is hilarious is ElectroBOOM. It's hard not to be entertained by him, but this is off the wall, but I mean, he's brilliant.

He comes up with some really interesting ways to explain different electrical things, but he's one of these guys that gets millions and millions of views and it probably deserves it. He's funny. And he also is actually really very intelligent guy and it talks about some pretty cool stuff.

As far as books like Empires of Light is the one. The AC/DC story. The you know, Westinghouse, Edison kind of, Tesla story. And I think that's a good one. And they made the movie about it. Kind of a little bit off the wall as far as books go, one of my favorite authors of all times is like a short story guy that used to write for Outdoor Life.

His name's Pat McManus. I don't know if you've ever heard of him or, heard the stories of him or whatever, but he would write. Stories of hunting and fishing or just being a goofy kid. And I would literally laugh out loud when I would read some of this stuff. So to me that was fun.

And I think that's how it kinda maybe influenced me a little bit in some sort of the way I do some of the seminars I do, or maybe do some of the videos and stuff that I do. And one of my favorite stories that he did was again, just short story, maybe five, six pages long, but it was like the thoery and application of old men.

He would go through and he'd hang around with all these old woodsmen and he goes, you have to treat them like, they're loaded, just like a gun, and they could go off at any time. And if you accidentally ask them the wrong question, they will tell you, thousands of different things and go around and tell you the whole history of the world and come back maybe to your original point or maybe not.

And I know a couple of retired engineers that literally are exactly that kind of situation. Like if you accidentally asked them about fair residence or if you ask them about, how a surge protector works, man, they would just go on and on. And it, so it just makes me crack up when I think about that story and all this stuff that McManus wrote. It just a good kind of heart warming thing to read those things. 

Chris: 23:11 

That's awesome. Well, thank you for those resources and it sounds like you got some fun ones out there and we'll try to link up some of those in our show notes too. So people want to check them out. They can go source that for themselves.

And we started doing a lightning round, Dan and that's been fun. It's random stuff, man. If you're willing to play we'll have some fun with it. 

Dan: 23:29 

Anything you want to ask. I don't know what I'll say.

Chris: 23:32 

Well that's the best part of it. We'll always start easy. Just your favorite food.

Dan: 23:37 

Oh, everything. I love food. I don't have a favorite, literally everything. 

Chris: 23:43 

Okay. How about a adult beverage? 

Dan: 23:45 

Miller Lite. 

Chris: 23:47 

Okay. So Miller Lite, man. I hear you. Okay. Let's go here with music. 

Dan: 23:51 

You know, eighties rock kind of stuff. That's the era I grew up in. And it's funny because the kids are now coming back to that. So I'm like, "Hey, I can listen to them." 

Chris: 23:58 

So what's your favorite eighties rock band? 

Dan: 24:00 

Probably Scorpions. Although again, I'll say again to qualify that I listen a lot of country today too. So it's a little bit of everything, but it's funny going through having kids, you ended up with a lot of these different kind of scenarios with songs 

Chris: 24:13 

I'm with you. So how about, I'm probably going to be able to guess this, but your favorite sports teams? I'm assuming it's Pittsburgh-related stuff. 

Dan: 24:22 

Yeah. It's the penguins for sure for hockey and the Steelers for football. When I first moved to Pittsburgh, I used to like the Oakland Raiders and apparently you're not allowed to do that in Pittsburgh. So I like the Steelers now for the last, however many years, 30 years. 

Chris: 24:35 

Right. Now, are you a Pirates fan? 

Dan: 24:39 

I mean I like the Pirates. It's just we've just not had a lot of success, so it's kinda hard to get too excited about it. Kind of cautiously optimistic every year and then you get a little disappointed.

Chris: 24:49 

I hear you buddy. How about somewhere you've never been, but you'd loved to go one day.

Dan: 24:52 

You know, I've been overseas, but not to like Italy or Australia. I think those would be awesome to go. Awesome. 

Chris: 24:58 

How about a favorite place you have been? 

Dan: 25:01 

We love to go to Siesta Key, the Western part of the Gulf side of Florida. And we go to Disney every year. It's great. It's inspirational stuff to think about how that place has come together and all the cool stuff they have there. 

Chris: 25:13 

That's awesome. How about pets now. You mentioned your Brittany dog, any other pets? 

Dan: 25:17 

Yeah, actually. Jinx is the dog. And then we actually have a turtle here at work that my kids caught when it was probably like this like silver dollar size, probably like 15, 18 years ago. And then. No, he lived for about 15 years and then one day he died and I felt horrible. And so about three years ago, we ended up getting another one.

That's about the size of how big he was. So his name's Snappy, he's a snapping turtle. We're not very creative for other stuff we are, but not for that. But anyway, it's a snapping turtle. So he's here and he's awesome to go hang out with and just look at feed and stuff. 

Chris: 25:52 

Now is that the turtle that's at the experience center? 

Dan: 25:55 

Yeah. My wife kicked him out of the house. He smells. 

Chris: 26:00 

Did you tell me a story while we were there about like he get out the cage or something? 

Dan: 26:04 

Yeah, that new one. So we didn't have a lid on the new cage and apparently I was at my daughter's like, Christmas recital thing or whatever.

And now I keep getting this phone call from a guy from work. And I'm like, why is he calling me? I pick up, I'm like, what's up? And he goes up the turtle escaped. I'm like turtles, don't escape like that. They're not really like, they're not going to run away or whatever. Well, here it pushed the light off of the top of the tank and like literally crawled out of the tank. 

If you remember seeing it, it's five feet off the ground. So it like fell to the ground and it crawled over to the door and the poor cleaning lady was there. She comes in the door to take out the garbage and that thing surprised her. And I was like, oh my gosh, it was funny but I had to bolt down the top of the cage. 

Chris: 26:50 

I remember that turtle story, man. So, you did a great job in a lightning round. That was fun. We got to learn a little bit more about you, Dan. So, this has been a fun conversation. You're just a great guy. I love what you're doing up there. A good partner with EECO and we call it EECO Asks Why and we save the why towards the end. And really this is about your passion, man. So what would be your personal why? 

Dan: 27:15 

Chris, my personal passion is really like learning, teaching, helping others succeed, like being part of a team that, that wants to grow and be creative and all that kind of stuff. We have a blast here. You know, I want to leave a legacy, you know, of knowledge for kids that want to learn about stuff. I have a great time working with the interns and the co-ops and stuff that, that we hire through different universities and places, you know, close to here and even mentoring some of the kids that are still in high school and younger. I want everybody that comes through here to laugh and learn and really have the same passion, and I want them to, to basically love their job like I do. 

You know, I want them to kind of go to the point, you know, when they're in their career and say, I love my job and I have the best job in the company, and that's what I would tell people. That's, my passion is to really, live life, love doing what you're doing, have fun and just help others and do that kind of thing and talk to people like you, Chris. It's, this has been fun. I enjoy that kind of thing. And you guys are doing a great job down there so keep it up.

Chris: 28:15 

We really appreciate it, man. You're definitely, this has been a very fun conversation for me. It brought back a lot of memories of going to Pittsburgh and Dan, thank you for sharing so much with our listeners. Just really enjoy this time with you. 

Dan: 28:26 

Thanks a lot, Chris. I really look forward to talking to you again and come back when you can. We got some new demos here for you. 

Chris: 28:32 

That would be awesome. I look forward to it. 

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