Mini-cast 264: Jesse Tyler's Reflections on The NCEO 2024 Annual Conference

Bret Keisling is joined by Jesse Tyler, Hypertherm Associate and host of the Owner to Owner podcast, to share brief highlights from the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO)'s 2024 Annual Conference, held April 29-May 1 in Tampa Florida. Jesse describes two panels he presented on, one on inspiring newer employee owners and another with Sargent Corp of Maine about EO podcasting.

Jesse notes how employee ownership conferences have evolved in the last decade by including more forms of employee ownerships than just ESOPs and worker co-ops to include EOTs, ESOP acquisition and holding companies, and even private equity. Jesse also applauds two inspiring quotes Jennifer Briggs made at the conference.

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Mini-cast 264 Transcript

[00:00:00] Bret Keisling: Welcome to the EsOp Mini-cast. Thank you so much for listening. My name is Bret Keisling, and as it says on my business cards, I'm a passionate advocate for employee ownership. From April 29th to May 1st, 2024, the NCEO had a sold-out conference in Tampa, Florida. Our friend, Jesse Tyler of Hypertherm and the Owner to Owner podcast attended the conference, presented at the conference, and loved the conference!

[00:00:36] Bret Keisling: Jesse, welcome to the Mini-cast.

[00:00:37] Jesse Tyler: Hey, thanks for having me. Good to see you.

[00:00:39] Bret Keisling: Good to see you. Thank you for everything you're doing for employee ownership and for the Owner to Owner podcast, available at www.OwnertoOwnerPodcast com.

[00:00:48] Jesse, we're going to take just a couple of minutes today. Can you give us your highlights? I understand you presented at a couple of sessions.

[00:00:54] Jesse Tyler: Yeah, I had a total blast, had a wonderful time at the conference. It was sold out, full of positive energy. The usual cast of characters were there and presenting and learning and we had a lot of folks that were EO curious, which is really exciting.

[00:01:07] Some of the sessions had, like, a dozen or more folks that were here to learn and explore that potential. Yeah, it was it was great to get to do a couple sessions again this year at the National Conference.

[00:01:16] They had one with crowdsourcing: How do you help workers appreciate ownership? How do you make it real to them if they've got two or three years of tenure or less? And I'm passionate about this because I work at a manufacturer and I have coworkers that are very open about having a hard time seeing around corners, seeing around calendars to next month, next year. And they come in and we talk about something, if you hang on for three to five years, it could be amazing.

[00:01:42] So, we did some loud, guided, chaotic crowdsourcing and had a lot of fun. I'll share those ideas back with the community. So that was a, that was a fun session. A lot of great questions, a lot of examples shared out from companies that are being successful.

[00:01:57] And the other session was a lot of fun was with Sargent out of Maine. I interviewed them about their podcast as a podcast. So, it was like a Seinfeld episode, a podcast about a podcast. And we had good attendance and great participation and questions.

[00:02:12] Herb Sargent started a podcast to share company information, how do I reach people at our heavy construction sites and been doing it for four years and just a remarkable success and a wonderful recipe for the employee ownership community. And he and Sebastian were a lot of fun. So, we have their permission to share that episode as an Owner to Owner episode after they share it out. So, we're looking forward to that.

[00:02:34] A couple of key takeaways. I'm a big fan of Jennifer Briggs and her wisdom and calm perspective in the land of ownership. And two quotes that really stuck with me were accomplishment builds dignity." Work doesn't build dignity. Accomplishment does." And I guess just from a values family, working at a values-based company, " The words we speak build the house that we live in." I just love that. I was thinking of, I don't know, framing that one. I just think that's, that was just beautiful.

[00:03:05] I guess a key thing to add as well is the, it was fascinating how open the discussion was of different forms of ownership. And so, first started going to conferences years ago, ESOPs, maybe the occasional co-op mention, and there was just, it's becoming more of the common vernacular to talk about the EO trusts, different formats.

[00:03:27] And a lot of discussion around acquisition, went to a couple of great sessions around that. And private equity. So, that was, that was interesting and for me, it was exciting.

[00:03:36] Bret Keisling: Jesse, I'm glad you had a great experience. Congratulations to the NCEO, sold out 1,900 plus people in Tampa, Florida. Great conference. And final question for you. You have last couple of years on the Owner and Owner podcast, you have shared your reflections more fully than we had in the time today. Do you expect to, give us an episode in the coming month or so on your reflections from the conference?

[00:04:00] Jesse Tyler: Yes, I will. And then we're going to supersize it with a little bit of Technicolor. I went with three awesome teammates to their first, from Hypertherm, to their first NCEO conference. And so, we're going to do a joint episode of Owner to Owner to share out both internally and externally for the curious of what were the highlights of our experience with that. So, that's coming soon.

[00:04:20] And just in closing, got to give a big high five and a shout out to Jamie, Megan, Lindsay, Lauren, and the crew. Just an awesome conference. I can see why it sells out and people there for the first time thought this is what an ownership conference normal would be. And it was great because it's built over the years and, and just a closing thing, it was really wonderful. Corey Rosen, I had to leave right at the end of it to catch a flight, but he gave an amazing history of employee ownership from Kelso forward. And it was just amazing. You could hear a pin drop in the room. People were just so, so, fascinated and inspired by it. So yeah, a big high five to the NCEO crew. Very, very well done. A great value of the conferences and the supporting resources.

[00:05:08] Bret Keisling: Well, we also appreciate that the NCEO has been very supportive of your podcast. They've come on and talked about it in The EsOp Podcast that I host. So, well done, the NCEO. We look forward to you continuing to break records with your conferences.

[00:05:21] Jesse, my friend, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today.

[00:05:24] Jesse Tyler: Thanks for amplifying ownership, Bret.

[00:05:26] Bret Keisling: All right and thank you so much for listening. This is Bret Keisling. Be well.

[00:05:32] Bitsy McCann: We'd love to hear from you! You can find us on Facebook at EO Podcast Network and on Twitter [X] @EsOpPodcast. This podcast has been produced by Bret Keisling for the EO Podcast Network. Original music composed by Max Keisling. Branding and marketing by BitsyPlus Design. And I'm Bitsy McCann.

Standard Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are my own and don't represent those of my own firms or the organizations to which I belong. Nothing in the podcast should be construed as guidance or advice of any kind in any field and the fact that I mentioned an organizational website or an advocate or a company on a podcast does not reflect an endorsement, but if you've heard your name or your group's name mentioned on this podcast, I'd love to have you come on and talk about it yourself.

A note on the transcript: This transcript was produced by Descript, an automated transcription service. While it has been reviewed by The EsOp Podcast, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the transcription. Please refer to the original audio when citing sources.