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Hello and welcome to Make It Clear, a conversational podcast about all things related to water and wastewater. I'm your host, Angela Bounds, and I'm joined by my co-host, Shawn Rapp. In each episode, we'll tackle a relevant topic with facts and expert opinions and make things clear.
Shawn: I'm going to preempt Angela before she gets going. Welcome everybody. Thanks for joining us today.
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This is going to be a very special episode and one I'm not sure that I'm going to get through without at least half a box of Kleenex, but we're going to be talking to Angela today. She is going to be retiring from the company and she's going to be pursuing some new things and we are all very happy for her, but we are going to miss her greatly. In bringing this episode together, I thought it would be a lot of fun to bring back Jeff Ball and have him be our guest host for today. And so
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Jeff, thanks for joining us today. Sure appreciate you being here.
Jeff: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Shawn: You bet. And Angela?
Angela: Yes?
Shawn: I know this is, this is… might seem a little bit weird because you're not-
Angela: It is a little bit weird.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: I was sitting here like, wait, am I like, I'm usually on the other end of this.
Shawn: I know. But today you get to sit back and answer some questions and hear some fun stories.
Angela: Oh gosh. Now I'm scared.
Shawn: So Jeff, I'm just gonna hand this over to you and let you just take it away.
01:34
Jeff: Oh gosh.
Angela: Jeff’s like, wait, I'm the one that gets interviewed here.
Jeff: Okay. Well, so I had a similar interview, what a year ago?
Angela: Yeah.
Jeff: And there were some, some really good questions that Shawn asked me. I brought back some memories that were both sad and some very good memories.
Angela: Yeah.
Jeff: So let me prompt you with this question. So,
02:03
You've been at Orenco since you were..
Angela: born.
Jeff: Born. Yeah, I know. Officially.
Angela: Officially. Officially, I think my start date is 1996. Cause Tim, at some point it was either ‘94 or ‘96, but I started working when I was, I think I was 12.
Jeff: That sounds about right.
Angela: Maybe 12. I told the story before. My dad
02:33
taught me how to solder and cut heat shrink. We used to get in a lot of trouble making heat shrink packets. So we would get long tubes of heat shrink and you'd have to put the connectors in there as well. And we had a dog. And so when you're putting them in the packet, sometimes dog hair would get in there and then we'd have to take it apart. And then that was wasting plastic. But yeah, we would do that watching Scooby-Doo.
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in the family room of our house. And even the other day, Sebastian, my youngest, and Nathan, my daughter's boyfriend, were talking about needing to fix a speaker in the house. And they said, oh, Nathan says, oh, we can go out and Terry can solder it for us. And I looked at them. I was like, excuse me?
03:32
My dad can solder it. I'm like, you understand that I soldered for like 10 years. That was my job. That's what I did. Like through high school, we would get, I would get home from either dance or tennis and have orders for sentinels. And Tristan and I would have to sit down and solder sentinels to put together
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packages to send out, right? That's what we did in high school and college. That's how I worked. I was like, I think I can solder something. Thanks guys.
Jeff: First life skill.
Angela: I know. Counting and soldering.
Jeff: So you had a lot, you had a lot of interesting things happen. Learned a lot in your career.
Angela: Yeah.
Jeff: What was the hardest thing that you ever had to do here at Orenco?
Angela: So there were probably
04:30
two things that come to mind, the riff was very emotional, right?
Jeff: That was in ‘08, ‘09?
Angela: ‘09. We ended up letting literally one of my best friends go. Shawn was wrapped up in part of the riff.
Jeff: Pardon of the pun.
Shawn and Angela: Yeah. Yeah.
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Angela: When you have a small family-owned business and we always consider ourselves to be small, it becomes a family. It really does. And so when we let people go, like you're not, I'll never forget like Jeff coming to my desk and like he couldn't even handle how emotional I was. Cause I was just like, I can't talk about this right now. I'm like bawling at my desk. I know what's just happened. And he comes to check on me and I'm just like, no.
05:24
No. And he's just like, okay. And like walks away because it was an extremely emotional day. I think that we cut 54 people that day. If I'm remembering the numbers right.
Jeff: That sounds about right. And we had two rounds.
Angela: Two rounds. So the first round was only like 10 or 15. It was smaller. We were hoping that things would turn around. And a few months later things had not turned around.
Shawn: Yeah.
05:53
Angela: It was looking pretty dire and we were like, we need to do a deeper cut. And it was just hard. I mean, that was really hard. And it was also really hard deciding to sell the business. That came with a lot of emotions and a lot of emotional sweat and tears. It was really hard to make the decision for us to sit down and really decide like, Hey, in order for this organization to
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go to the level that we believe it can achieve, we need to let it go. But this has been our lives. Most… you know, the owners, most of us were defined by this business. It really was a part of us and defined who we were. Like if somebody said, who are you? What do you do? Well, I am part owner in Orenco. I help run
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this organization and it was who we were. So making a decision to let go of part of who you are is a really hard thing to do.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: And they, they tell you when you make that decision or when you're trying to make that decision, how hard it's going to be to actually make that come to fruition. But you have no idea.
Shawn: No.
Angela: You have no idea what that's really going to be like until you go through it. So…
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Shawn: Yeah, and just watching secondhand. I mean, I remember when the announcement was made and I remember all the emotion that was going through, not just everybody for the company, but you guys as well. I mean, I knew that was a hard decision for you guys. So…
Angela: Yeah.
Jeff: For sure.
Angela: And everybody felt it before they knew what was happening. Right. So we're under an inordinate amount of stress trying to make this decision and get everything together and make it all happen. And everyone around us is feeling it, but have no
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idea why like things are slipping through the crack for us and why like we're under so much stress. They know something's up, they don't know what's up. Everyone after what was word was like, oh, oh, that's why.
Shawn: Now it makes sense.
Angela: That's why. Yeah. So that's what's been the hardest.
Jeff: So on a brighter note, what's the most fun you've had on this job?
Angela: Oh my gosh.
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I love the events that we throw. the picnics and the parties we used to have and all that stuff, seeing the kids come to the picnics and seeing our employees bring their families and know that you're not only affecting the employee, but you're affecting their entire family and seeing that in real time. And I love trade shows.
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I do. I love trade shows. I love going to trade shows. I love talking to people in the booths. I like watching the guys work. I like watching them nerd out on wastewater. And I love when somebody comes up and it clicks. And I love the podcast.
Shawn: Oh, yeah.
Angela: Somebody asked me the other day, a friend of mine asked me like, so do you like doing the podcast?
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And I was like, are you kidding? I would podcast every day of my life if I could. I just think it's fun sitting here, just talking with people, having conversations with my friends, and then like putting it out there for people to listen to. Like, I think it's a blast. Yeah.
Jeff: You've created some, some great memories.
Shawn: And I know I've had an inordinate amount of fun just doing this with you.
Angela: Right, right. We get to interview…
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we get to have cool conversations.
Shawn: Yeah, we've talked to a lot of really interesting people.
Angela: Yeah.
Jeff: Yes, you have.
Angela: Yeah.
Jeff: What's your favorite Orenco memory?
Angela; Oh my gosh. Oh, I don't know if I have one. I have a lot of stressful memories.
Jeff: Yes, we have.
Shawn: Those don't count.
Angela: I know. I like, I think, when things click. So...
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That's probably it. Like my favorite memories come from when things, when people question if something's really going to work and then you do it and they're like, oh, wait, that is, that's actually working. Like webinars were like that, right? So people are like, you think that people are going to sit at their computers and do a training? And I was like, yeah, I actually think they might.
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And next thing you know, oh, wait, we don't have to send anybody on the road. People can do this at their leisure. Like they can just sit down and it's turned into this thing where thousands of people a year are going through webinars now, listening to it. Same thing with the podcast, right? It was like, hey, maybe people would want to listen to us. Maybe they'd like to hear what we have to say.
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And so we're like, Hey, let's just record this. And Jeff and I sat down to record what was supposed to be about a 20-minute podcast. we talked for an hour and a half and split it into three podcasts because it was so long. And now we're in the top percentile in our niche. Right. We're one of the most listened to podcasts in our niche. And we're in.
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a rather high percentile for all podcasts across the board. Shawn likes to send me the statistics. And the way this works is he'll send me the number of people that have downloaded it, or he'll send me another milestone that we've hit, or where we're at with people listening. And then I simply respond with a puking emoji. And that is how this works.
Shawn: And then I laugh.
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Angela: And then he laughs at me because he knows what he's doing and he knows that it's weird that people want to listen to me talk to my friends, but you so he'll show me and I'll puke. So I do think it's around education. My favorite memories are around education. When people come in here for a training and you see them actually learning and engaged in what they're doing. And that's another thing like, Oh, you think a bunch of people are going to come here
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to get trained by us, they're gonna fly out to Oregon? Yep.
Jeff: Yes, they will.
Angela: Yes, they will.
Shawn: They do it every year.
Angela: Yeah.
Jeff: Yeah, that's part of the roots of company.
Shawn: Matter of fact, we've got that training coming up next week and we're deep in getting everything ready for it happen.
Jeff: It was very fortunate that the company was founded by a couple of...
Angela: Educators?
Jeff: Educators.
Shawn: Made a big difference.
Angela: Yeah.
Jeff: So what are you most proud of?
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Angela: I think I'm most proud of… I'm most proud of being part of something that goes so far beyond me. Our fathers started this and had no idea where it was going to go, right? Those two yahoos just, they're like, I can hear them. My dad being like, I can't find what I need. And Hal being like, it's so ridiculous.
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Why can't we find this? Right? Like, why don't people make this? And it just kind of took off.
Shawn: They were just trying to solve a need.
Angela: But Jeff and I were just kids. One of us was definitely a kid.
Jeff: I still consider myself a kid…
Angela: You were.
Jeff: when the company was founded.
Angela: Yeah. we were just children watching this and watching our dads
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build things and think about stuff and like try to make things better. And then we got to be a part of it. We got to be a huge part of it, of a catalyst really. And most people don't get to do that. The predominance of people don't get to be involved in building something that is greater than themselves from the inside.
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Right. So I'm really proud of what we did. I'm proud of what we provided for the community. I'm proud of where we took the company and the contribution that I was able to make to the world of wastewater.
Jeff: Excellent. You must be proud of the team that you built.
Angela: Oh yeah.
Jeff: You had a phenomenal team.
Angela: Yeah.
Jeff: HAVE a phenomenal team here.
Angela: Yeah. Our…
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It's always kind of crazy to me when I think about it. It's just, it's kind of, it's a very surreal thing because to me, it's just my life, right? Being part of a company like this, having a father who was an entrepreneur and wanted to build something. Like it's just, it's all I've ever known. Right? And…
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But I have this full realization that it's not just what everybody else has ever known. And I feel the same way about my team. And that's not just the marketing team, right? That's the entire team. It's the sales team, the engineering team, manufacturing team, all of it. We are a team of people. And I hear from outside that it doesn't always work like that.
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I do not have a frame of reference though, because fortunately, I've always worked in this environment where you are a team. You work together with care for each other. Like even, you know, I worked in the control shop when I was a kid and Jerry, now that Rob is back, right, Rob's back. So.,
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Jerry, Darren, Rob and I all work together, putting together control panels. You know, we all tell stories from back then, but we're all still close. Like we all still know each other and we all care for each other just like we cared for each other back then. My team now is the same way. You know, some people have said, well, what's going to happen when you're gone? And I was like, well, it's not going to, it's not going to change
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the fact that I care about you, that doesn't stop. know some people will leave a job and they leave it and that's that. And I was like, well, no, I'm gonna text Shawn and talk to him when I go to Disney and be like, guess what I saw? Tammy and I are going to golf. Glenn and I are going to do what Glenn and I do. know, Michelle and I, it's, she's still going to be one of my people. She's not going anywhere.
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You know, Jeff's been gone for almost a year. He and I still talk.
Shawn: Yep.
Angela: I still text him. I'm like, what the heck are you doing?
Shawn: Not that we don't miss him like crazy.
Angela: Not to say that I don't miss him, but yeah, I don't have to miss him. That's the thing. I don't have to, because I can just text him
Jeff: Or see me at the tennis courts.
Angela: Or see you at the tennis courts.
Jeff: I get to coach your son now.
Angela: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff: I think Shawn asked me a question. What am I going to miss most? I think my answer was
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the people that I get to work with. And that's absolutely the case. That's what I miss most about working at Orenco and daily interaction with a whole bunch of really cool people.
Angela: That will be what I miss the most.
Jeff: Yeah. My question to you is what do you think you're going to miss the most?
Angela: Yeah, I will miss the people. I will miss the ability to come in and just see people. My interactions with the people that I care about
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here will have to be much more intentional. There is something to be said for being able to walk in the back door and just have a conversation or to go hug somebody when something's going on in their life or, you know, give them a high five if something good is happening. I think I said that about my dad too. Like I still don't really walk down that hall that my dad's office used to be in because it's still weird to me.
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If I walk by Jeff's office and it's not Jeff in there, or when I walk by my dad's office and it's not my dad in there. That's very odd to me. But it will be the people that I miss the most. Not getting to just have those conversations just on a regular basis. I'm going to have to call and be like, Hey, how's your back doing? Hey, did you ever go get that MRI?
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Hey, have you gotten your yearly checkup? Like I am that person that's constantly like, have you had your skin checked? You make that appointment with the dermatologist? Have you had your mammogram? You need to have that yearly. I, Jeff knows he's like, she is, she will… Prevention is key people.
Jeff: She’s a mom.
Angela: I am a mom. I'm a mom and I will mom anybody who will let me. But I'm gonna miss that.
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I'm going to miss those interactions and
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talking to people and creating memories. There are so many memories that I still laugh about, right? Still, Jerry talks about work ethic at 17. Let's call it that. And I have to remind him, you're the one who would have me run down to the corner store and get the paper so that I could read it to you. And if you think that, yes, Jerry Snyder,
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Rob and Darren would have me go down and buy a paper at the little market that was right down the street and then come and read them the articles they cared about. See, I was reading.
Shawn: Oddly enough, that sounds very on point.
Angela: It was. It was. But you don't get to create those. I don't get to create those memories.
Jeff: Yeah.
Angela: Right. I'll be creating other memories of my kids and my family and spending tons of time
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with my children as my youngest is 15 now.
Shawn: Hard to believe.
Angela: Yeah. I have to teach him how to drive. I don't know how that's going to go. He's a little crazy. It's like raising my brother. If you know my brother, which is frightening, especially in a driver's seat, but I'm not good to create those memories, but not with people here. Yeah. Yeah.
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Shawn: Yeah, for sure. Hey, Jeff, did you have any stories you want to share about Angela or any memories?
Angela: For those of you that don't remember, Jeff is actually in my baby book from when I was born.
Jeff: Angela was the first baby I ever held.
Angela: Yep.
Jeff: I was 10, I think.
Angela: You were 10. Yeah, because we were exactly, you were almost 10.
Jeff: Yeah.
Angela: We were 10 years apart.
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Jeff: You know, no specific memories, it was really, it was cool watching Angela progress through her career. You know, as she mentioned, she started much like I did in dad’s shop, putting stuff together to the point where she's an executive, you know, not a small organization.
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The skills that she acquired and self-developed were really impressive.
Angela: When you start in a business like this, that means that you make all of your working errors in that business. All of your missteps. All of your… I'm in my 20s and I went out on a Thursday night and I have to go to work on Friday.
Jeff: That happened a time or two.
Angela: That happened a time or two. That happened a time or two.
Jeff: I too am guilty of partaking.
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Yes, but you do. You, you make all of your…
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: all of your work mistakes in the same place and people know it.
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah. So I think Angela has a lot to be proud of.
Shawn: Oh, absolutely.
Angela: Yeah.
Shawn: Yeah. It's funny. I've known Angela longer than actually I've been working at the company. I used to work at a retailer that was a Pacific Northwest retailer and we sold concert tickets.
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And Angela and her mom and her sister used to come in and buy tickets.
Angela: I do still love concerts.
Shawn: I know. And I would be usually the one that would be there selling the tickets to them. And so I've known Angela for a long time.
Angela: Yeah.
Shawn: And when I started working here, we didn't interact a whole lot to begin with, but once I moved over to the office and was working on customer service, we started interacting a little more. And then when I joined the training team, that's when we really started to
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become friends and yeah, it's been, we've been friends for quite a while. I think the one thing that's going to be hard on me is going to be walking by that office and there won't be a name plaque on that wall. And there's nobody sitting in that chair. I think that's going to hit me the hardest.
Angela: I won't be here to see it.
Shawn: I know you won't. It doesn't mean that you can't text though.
Angela: You have to take care of Michelle.
Shaw: That's a tall order.
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Angela: I know she's going to be a wreck. She's going to have to go through the other office down the other hall.
Shawn: Right. So I know that I certainly wish you well in everything that you do from here on out. Thank you. Now, just a note to our listeners, this is not the last episode that you will hear with Angela. We've been recording several episodes and we'll be releasing them as time approaches over the summer, but, or toward the summer. But yeah, it's just, just a note that
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Angela won't be doing this with me anymore and that makes me very sad.
Angela: Makes me very sad. We might do other things together.
Shawn: Yeah, I certainly hope so because I don't want to lose this friendship.
Jeff: I bet you can get her to jump in as a guest on a podcast.
Shawn: I would love to have her come back. The one thing I really love about Angela is her passion for this industry. And I know that she's said this over and over again, but to me it's very evident that she is very passionate about the
25:17
World’s water and keeping it clean and the work that we do in this industry. And I don't think that's ever going to go away for her. It's just a part of who she is as part of the fabric that makes up Angela.
Angela: I like water too much.
Shawn: And I'm certainly going to miss your passion here on the podcast as well.
Angela: Yeah.
Shawn: And so we'll see how that plays out. But yeah, you were definitely a
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one of the foundations. I honestly, I did not think I would be at this company this long. I didn't know what the future was going to be like.
Angela: It's been a long time. It's been over two decades hasn't it?
Shawn: I’m in my 23rd year.
Angela: Yeah.
Shawn: And it's to the point now where I'm almost, I'm one of the old timers.
Angela: You're an OG.
Shawn: And I, yeah, I've kind of fallen into that category. And when people talk about things, Oh, you remember when? Yep. I was there.
Angela: I do actually remember when.
Shawn: I remember when that happened. I remember when
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we used to work with the RXs and I actually went down to Arizona one time and saw an RX in action and we opened it up and yeah, that was something else. But you know, it's a lot of good memories with Angela here at the company.
Angela: It's been a wild ride.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: When I think of everything that, well, you know, your hand touches everything and you can look back and even
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the approvals that we still operate under. Right? That was Bill and I, for the most part. NSF was my dad and then him handing it off to Bill and I. You know?
Shawn: I remember those days too. You were working in government relations?
Angela: Yep. Yeah. When Bill and I were doing government relations training and OEM accounts.
Shawn: Yep.
Angela: Everything all at once.
Shawn: Yep.
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Jeff: Yes, we wore many a hat.
Angela: But we had the sales line, the original customer service line, where we took in all of the calls.
Jeff: Yep. Any and every.
Angela: All of them. You’d get the contractor or regulator or a dealer. We used to have spiral notebooks that we wrote in and we'd literally write their order down.
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some, a lot of people didn't want to fax it in.
Jeff: Oh yeah.
Shawn: Oh yeah. We used to take orders over the phone and have that order sheet and just hand write everything. I remember.
Angela: Yep. Back in the day. Gosh. Do you remember that board that we had where you could see who was at work?
Shawn: Yeah. Who was in, who was out for lunch.
Angela: It had little red lights that would light up. So you had a thing on your desk where you would have to turn it on or off.
28:13
And hope you didn't forget. Cause I always forgot. Why isn't Angela on? I've been taking calls. What are you talking about? That's it. Someone will say that 30 calls is a lot. I'm like, is it?
Shawn: I'm sorry. I remember those days.
Angela: Yeah. Is 30 a lot? Cause I remember taking 50 plus.
Shawn: Yep.
Angela: During the busy season.
Jeff: Oh yeah.
Shawn: Yep.
Angela: Yeah.
Shawn: Easily.
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Angela: When there were very few of us on the phones. We're not as many. I remember Darren and I getting separated. He was my Google.
Shawn: oh yeah.
Angela: So instead of looking up answers for things that I didn't know the answer to, I was 20. I was a child. I was literally a child. And I politely, I would never give an answer that wasn't right. And I
29:13
I just can't like pull something out of my posterior and not have it be truthful. So I'd say, you know, I don't know the answer to that, but if you hold on just one second, I can get you some information. I'd put it on hold. Hey Darren. And Grant heard that one too many times. And he's like, you're never going to learn if you just turn to Darren all the time.
29:42
Shawn: But we did learn, we?
Angela: We did, yeah. Yeah, so he separated Darren and I and I had to figure out how to fish. So they're just asking for the food.
Shawn: Right?
Angela: Yeah.
Shawn: Awesome.
Angela: Good times.
Angela: Yeah.
Shawn: Thank you, Angela.
Angela: Yes, thank you.
Shawn: From the bottom of my heart, I really mean thank you.
Angela: Thank you.
And thank you everybody for listening. Thank you, Jeff, for coming back and being our guest host for today.
30:10
I sure appreciate having you come back and enjoyed having you in here.
Angela: I'm glad you came back. You got to do something.
Jeff: Retirement, it's been low stress.
Angela: Very low from what I hear.
Jeff: Golf course treats me well.
Shawn: All right. Well, thank you folks for listening. We're going to talk to you again real soon.
Jeff: Thank you.
30:36
Angela: So the best part about being the one who records the podcast and being in charge of the podcast is that if you forget something or if you want to add to the podcast or to things you wanted to say later, you can absolutely record more. It's also the benefit of not being live. So...
31:04
Jeff and I recorded the podcast yesterday with Shawn for announcing that I'm leaving the organization. And as I was thinking last night, I was like, there are some things that I didn't say, I don't think. I don't remember saying. That I have control over.
Shawn: Yeah, absolutely.
Angela: I can say them.
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So I texted Shawn and I was like, hey, I want to record an addendum to my podcast.
Shawn: And so here we are.
Angela: And so here we are recording an addendum to the podcast. And what I really wanted to take time to do, it was one of the things that my dad wanted to do afterwards. I also received an email from him after his recording of his retirement podcast saying, oh my gosh, I forgot to thank this person and I forgot to thank that person.
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I felt like yesterday that I, in my head, when I was thinking about it, I'm like, you pulled an Angela. Like I, I went all business, answer the questions, keep it together. Cause that's what I have to do. And one of the things that I forgot to do was… that I wanted to do was to thank people. I have been in this industry.
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since I was a child, literally. I grew up here. We talked a little bit about that yesterday, but there have been so many people, some are still here, some are not. There have been a lot of people who have helped me along the way.
Shawn: Touched your life in some way?
Angela: Touched my life in some way, helped me become the person that I am...
Shawn: Sure.
32:59
Angela: today and handle things. And I wanted to take the time to thank them.
Shawn: Yeah, you should.
Angela: and talk a little bit about it. When you start out at a very young age, I touched on the fact that you make a lot of your errors, your…the things that you do, right? You get fired from McDonald's for.
Shawn: Those learning moments.
Angela: Those learning moments. And I was so fortunate that…
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I always call them the guys, that they would just come along and treat me like a little sister.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Really. I am the oldest of four kids. I never had older brothers.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: I had a brother who was very protective and acts like an older brother to this day, who I love very dearly.
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And sisters who also act like older brothers sometimes. I saw a meme the other day that said, you shouldn't be scared of me. I told my sister what you did. I had to send it to Alicia, but I, the guys would come along and be like, Hey, you did this. Like, Hey, you did that. You need to change this. You need to be better here. And Grant
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and Darren and Bill were always hard on me. But it was for my betterment. And I can't thank them enough. I think all three of them at some point in my early career sat me down and said, you're better than this. And I know that we're expecting a lot out of you, but it's because
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we know what you're capable of.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: And I can't thank them enough for that. You know, it, it could have been, I was an owner's daughter.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: Right? I was an owner's kid and it could have been a situation where I was allowed to skate by.
Shawn: Right. Yeah.
Angela: Right? I could have continued poor behaviors showing up late,
35:19
not putting in the work, not reaching my potential. And they could have let it skate. They could have let it go and just said, well, that's Angela, that's Terry's daughter. Like you just kind of let her do it. Instead of calling me in or giving me NIs on performance evaluations, which for anybody who's out there that doesn't know, that's a Needs Improvement. I was a child. I was like… I was
35:49
like 19, 20 years old, give me a break. But, they never gave me a break.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Well, at least not in my head. They held my feet to the fire and I can't thank them enough for that. You know, Darren is still… Darren and Bill both are, you know…
Shawn: They’re mentors.
Angela: They are. And they're part of what I call my people.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: Like I am very fortunate in my life to have a large support group.
36:18
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: That you don't necessarily know is there. Bill and I just talked about it yesterday. We were talking about something else in my life and I said, well, I didn't tell anybody. And he goes, you should have at least told me.
Shawn: Cause that's what he's there for.
Angela: Yeah. And Darren has said the same thing to me. Like, I wish you'd have confided in me. I know. I know. But in the work setting, they've always held my feet to the fire.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: And I love them for that. I was
36:47
a young female in this industry. And that was, you know, I mean, we're talking 30 years ago, not yesterday. Not that I'm…
Shawn: Just a few years.
Angela: Just a few years ago. I mean, I'm not that old yet. I'm not my dad's age. But there were various people throughout the industry that also just treated me like I was one of them.
37:16
And as I was thinking about it last night, I don't, I don't know that I could have been successful had they not. Right. Jerry Stonebridge just always treated me like one of them.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Right? Bob Rubin. was just, would, they all, spoke to me as if I was one of them.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: Not a child. And looking back, I was young.
37:45
Right? I was young. I was inexperienced. I had a knowledge set because of editing my dad's papers.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: I edited all of his papers. I read through all of them, added the commas that he didn't know how to add, broke up the sentences that were continual run-ons for those of you that know, you know, but there were people outside the industry. There were regulators and engineers and
38:14
other manufacturers and contractors that just treated me like I was one of them.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: When in retrospect, I, I wasn't just one of them, right? But that's how they treated me and they spoke to me like that. And I can't thank them enough for being those mentors and giving me a chance to find my way in this industry.
38:43
I mean, there were, we won't name names. There were people that would speak down.
Shawn: Oh, sure.
Angela: Of course. And especially you get a young girl on the phone and sometimes people behave in ways that are unbecoming. But for the most part, that wasn't the experience that I had fortunately.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Because everyone was just kind.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Everyone was kind…
39:13
they gave me a chance to prove myself. And then the rest was up to me. And then as I've worked longer here, there were some really, really pivotal things that happened. Like even in other departments, like I can remember going and just talking things through with Rhonda...
39:40
Shawn: Oh, sure.
Angela: at times. Cause it was so difficult and I would just go in and sit down and talk with her about it. And she and Mary both held me to a different standard. I can remember the first time that I was, I was in a position where I needed to let someone go.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: And I had never done that before. I had only ever worked here. I'd never.
40:07
had to do that before.
Shawn: Right. And it's difficult to do.
Angela: It's a really difficult thing to do. Mary was like, okay, you're going to do this yourself. And I'm like, other people haven't had to do this themselves. What do you mean I have to do this myself? She's like, no, you're going to learn how to do this. This is difficult, but you need to be this person. And she held my feet to the fire and held me to a higher standard that she knew I could achieve. I got through it. It sucks.
40:37
I don't like doing it.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: I don't ever want to do it. Nobody does. If you have a heart, you don't want to, but, but she held me to that standard and it made me a better person. Rhonda has made me a better person. I've also had the good fortune of working with some of my best friends or people who became some of my best friends. My best friend. Yes. I still call them my best friends at 51.
41:06
What about it?
Shawn: No judgment.
Angela: No judgment. This is kind of a judgment free zone. Judgment starts after microphones go off. But my best friend Katrina, she's been one of my best friends since I was like 20 years old. Because her and I knew each other. She was kind of a brat in high school and she's not here to defend herself. So I get to say that.
41:31
So we weren't friends in high school. We knew of each other because she coached my sister in gymnastics. And then she came to work here and she is still one of my dearest friends who I love deeply. Michelle is now one of my best friends. She is one of my people and her and I have worked together for the better part of the past couple of decades.
41:58
Shawn: Yeah, and you guys make a great team.
Angela: And we make a great team. We are very yin and yang. She yells and I calm down. If you know, know. I also, I can't thank my team enough. Our team, our marketing team specifically is amazing. I get compliments all the time across the industry on the content that we put out.
42:29
The look, feel, raising the bar in the industry for our marketing efforts. And it's not me.
Shawn: Yeah. We have some great people.
Angela: Yeah. I'm not…It's the people that surround me that allow me to those compliments and make the company look great. You know, Michael was here for a long time. Tammy
42:58
is an amazing graphic artist. Right? We've got amazing writers on staff. What we've done with training and webinars and everything that you and Michelle do for education and on that side from trainings to webinars to this podcast. Shawn makes us sound good.
Shawn: I try.
Angela: Shawn goes through and takes out all of the space because I do
43:28
talk and pause often if you listen to it. Just know that some of the pauses are taken out. But you guys have raised our outward facing materials and our inward facing materials. But what everybody sees is the outward facing stuff. You guys have set the bar for the industry and you guys have all raised us up as an organization to where we are
43:59
extremely professional looking, right? Things look great. Things are presented in a manner that people can understand while seeming elevated. I couldn't be more proud of the work that we've done. And the thing is for the most part, we kind of have fun doing it.
Shawn: Oh yeah.
Angela: Our team is fun. We don't… some of us have to mute
44:27
our team chat. We have a team chat and that team chat gets muted by some people and or when we're on vacation sometimes because it can go off. It can go off. Cat memes, AC/DC jokes, all kinds of things flow through that chat because I think that we like each other as people.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Which is so important. And…
Shawn: We have fun together.
Angela: We have fun together.
44:58
We have fun together. And so I guess that's really, that's what I wanted to drive home that I don't know that I drove home yesterday is that I think the thing that I'm going to miss the most, although I have told them they can't kick me out of the group chat, we're going to keep an OG group chat going just so that I can send memes occasionally or photos of, you know,
45:26
beaches or something while they're at work. And then they can get mad at me for torturing them. I'll send Shawn photos of Disneyland.
Shawn: Of course.
Angela: But the thing that has made this whole journey what it is, which is amazing, has been the people.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: I don't know how you do this without good people around you.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: I hear stories about it.
45:55
Right? I hear stories about work environments where people aren't fun.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Or where they just don't enjoy their jobs. And I would say if you don't enjoy your job, you should probably find another one. Because you can enjoy your job.
Shawn: Absolutely, you can.
Angela: And things change and sometimes that can ebb and flow and you'll enjoy it and then something will change and you won't. And then
46:24
you should probably look for something else because there are places where you can enjoy your job
Shawn: And thrive
Angela: and thrive. Yeah. We've created that in a sense, or we created it. That was the environment that, that I think we all strived for, right? Jeff and I talked a little bit about it yesterday. And I guess when we were off mic, Jeff was talking about one of his best friends that
46:54
currently is going through a medical issue. And when he mentioned the person's name, Shawn was like, oh yeah, I've heard that name. Well, Shawn's heard that name because that gentleman worked here at one point. Most of Jeff and Eric's friends have cycled through the company or still work here. You know, I think Tim, who runs our accounting department, I was 14?
47:24
Maybe when Tim got hired, I wasn't driving. I know that for sure. I showed up at home one day. I might've been 12. I got home from tennis and my mom was showing a guy the books.
Shawn: Oh, right.
Angela: And how to do the books. Oh, who's this? Oh, that's Tim.
Shawn: There's Tim.
Angela: Tim just graduated from college and he's going to handle the books now.
47:52
But that was how it was. You hire your friends, you work with your friends. The part that wasn't there and that was there in the end that wasn't there in the beginning was that the people that you work with turn into your friends. And that is what I will miss most about being here is getting to see my friends every morning, even if sometimes I'm rolling my eyes at them.
48:24
but I just want to thank everybody. I mean everybody. I can't name them all. My dad went through after his podcast and was like, what about this person and what about that person? And I remember saying, you can't name everybody. Everybody can't be in there. You can't remember everything in this short window, right? We're giving people a glimpse into
48:53
us like this podcast will probably be 30, 45 minutes.
Shawn: Something like that.
Angela: And we're giving you a 45-minute glimpse into what was essentially a 38-year career, right? I mean, if you think about the fact that I started when I was 12, you can sum up 38 years and 35 minutes, but you can't, you can't cover it all.
49:23
Shawn: No, no, you can't.
Angela: And you can't cover all the emotion that goes along with it.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: I'm holding it together pretty well. You are. I think I cried in my dad's podcast, but the relationships that I'm, I have formed are lifelong.
Shawn: Yes.
Angela: Right. You and I will never not be friends.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: I mean, I guess we could not be friends if, but I don't even…
Shawn: I can't imagine a world where you and I would not be friends anymore.
Angela: Right.
49:51
Right. can't imagine what either of us would have to do.
Shawn: Yeah.
Angela: Knowing that, you know, we already know the things we disagree on and we respect each other's opinions. Sooo… okay. What's next? And I do, anybody who's leaving a job, you don't have to lose those friendships.
Sahwn: Yeah.
Angela: Right. It's like I said yesterday, Jeff and I still..
50:20
I'll text him or I'll text Barb and be like, what's going on? Are you going to come see me? Like, when are you going to be back? What's going on? Are you going to come to this tennis match? And you just have to be intentional about things. And I plan to be intentional because the relationships that we've built are real. These are not just work friendships. Like people talk about work friendships and I think that this is definitely…
50:49
for me at least, it has surpassed, oh, the only thing we have in common is work. I mean, think you and I, when we text, it's beyond, it's predominantly non-work related.
Shawn: Right.
Angela: Right. We'll talk about like, hey, can you schedule this? Or, hey, I want to cover this in the podcast or, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or, hey, we got to clean the cooler out.
51:15
Shawn: Yeah. But otherwise it's me sending you stuff like, hey, Starbucks has this new Disney mug out.
Angela: Yes. I did buy the Park Days and Lattes mug last week. I couldn't leave the park without it. I was like, Oh, that's so cute. Right. Or, you know, the blossoming trees, the beautiful…
Shawn: The cherry blossoms.
Angela: Cherry blossoms. Yes. Things like that. Shawn and I are both Disney adults. Do not judge us.
51:44
Actually, we don't care if you judge us because it's not going to change anything.
Shawn: We’re very unapologetic about it.
Angela: Very unapologetic. We will continue to love Disney. And so we send that to each other all the time. That's not going to change.
Shawn: And you know you're going to get invitations to lunches we have.
Angela: Right. Are you going to come to group lunch today? Yes, sir. I'll be there. What else am I going to do? Oh, but... So for those of you listening who may or may not have been named.
52:13
Thank you for touching my life. Thank you for being part of my life. Thank you for being part of what Orenco became, whether you were inside the company or outside the company. Thank you for those outside the company believing in our mission and believing in what our fathers set out to do and what we continue to do.
52:42
And thank you to everybody who helped us get to this point and who truly cares about the world's water and protecting it. I appreciate you. And even if I'm not here anymore, I hope that we all continue that mission.
We want to thank you again for joining us today.
53:09
Before you go, don't forget to subscribe where you listen to podcasts so you're notified when new episodes are posted. Also, you can leave your comments or suggestions through the contact link on our website, www.orenco.com. Until next time, have a great day.