Issue 3: Rescuing the Arkansas Delta With Randy Zook

If you’ve ever wondered why smart, capable people still struggle to land or keep good jobs, the answer often isn’t technical knowledge. It’s the basics employers can’t hire without: showing up, communicating clearly, listening, following instructions, and finishing what you start. We talk with Randy Zook, President and CEO of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, about the durable skills that companies across Arkansas keep asking for and why schools, colleges, and communities have to treat work experience like part of the curriculum, not an optional add-on. 

From there, we zoom out to the bigger system shaping opportunity. Randy breaks down Issue 3 on the November ballot and explains how tools like tax increment financing and economic development districts can help communities pay for the infrastructure that makes housing, retail, and redevelopment possible. Arkansas is competing with states that already use these tools, and the challenge is making sure growth reaches more than a few hot spots, especially in the Delta and the eastern third of the state. 

We also get practical about workforce development and the “workforce continuum” industries are demanding: short, targeted training that can move wages fast, plus upskilling in AI, automation, and cybersecurity that fits specific sectors like healthcare and manufacturing. We dig into Be Pro Be Proud’s mobile career exploration labs, why data literacy and statistics show up everywhere from quality to safety, and even why the next census count matters more than most people realize. 

If you care about career readiness, skilled trades, higher education partnerships, or Arkansas economic development, hit subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave us a review so more people can find the conversation. What durable skill do you think matters most right now? @Arkansasstatemedianetwork.com.

0:00 Welcome and The Catalyst Idea
2:28 Durable Skills Employers Need Most
7:42 Safety, Attention, and Digital Habits
10:34 Issue 3 and Tax Financing Tools
16:11 Short Training That Changes Pay
28:06 Be Pro Be Proud and Technical Trades
33:05 Chambers, Healthcare Costs, and Policy
35:54 Statistics, Data Literacy, and Census
43:18 Regional Growth and Career Advice

Transcript

Welcome And The Catalyst Idea

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hello, I'm Todd Shields and I'm Chancellor here at Arkansas State University. Welcome to Built at A State. Today we are very fortunate to have with us Randy Zook, who's president and CEO of Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce. Randy, thank you so much for being here today. Appreciate it. Appreciate you so be here to talk. So our you know, title of the show is Built with A State, and there's probably nobody that knows more about building things and what the industries need than you do.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Um I'm a I'm a student still.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Yeah, well, you live it and hear it every day, don't you? All day. Well, and we've known each other for a long time, but we got to reconnect again recently at an event that we took a risk on and put together called Catalyst, where we were really bringing in industry from around this region and then making sure that high schools and two years and four years and we're all involved so that industries are talking to each other and the high and that higher ed's talking to them too. And we really think that that's kind of a great place to start getting ideas going and relationships going. And wanted to know what you thought about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Well, first of all, it long overdue, but but uh gosh, it's a it's exciting to see it begin and and get off the ground. It's exactly what we need to be doing in other parts of the state as well. Um get the people who can make decisions, who have who have control of resources, who can stroke a check, right, who can change direction on on learning something, get those thought leaders and decision makers in the same room, and good things are gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

So many things have happened, even but between industries and then with the higher education and what they need. I learned so much. Um, and we were talking a little earlier about traditionally higher education, you know, we'd listen to what the accreditation body would tell us that you knew the classes you need to have. We'd launch a student and go, well, good luck, right? Um, and now we're really hearing from industry, well, what are the gaps that students are having? They may have these skills or they may have these assets, but they don't have this. And what can we do with you so that we can fill those gaps up? And I feel like that's what higher education should be doing, but I'd love to hear from your perspective since you hear it from industry all the time.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Well, I'm I hear that,

Durable Skills Employers Need Most

SPEAKER_00 2:30

you know, there's a pretty short list of must-haves. Um somebody willing to show up, hopefully dressed appropriately, right, clear-headed, uh, willing to listen, uh, able to learn, able to communicate with coworkers, yes, willing to take instructions, uh, those, you know, the basics. There's probably eight or ten of the basics that are just must-haves. And a lot of times those things aren't just self-evident to a kid. If a kid uh has not had a family experience where they've seen people work through a career, um, they're they're they're kind of, you know, starting from scratch. Right. So you gotta help those kids, and you got and every kid needs some kind of work experience prior to hitting the big wide world. Right. So they understand how it works, what's expected of them, uh, what's reasonable, what's what's right and what's wrong, and and how they ought to be treated. Right. Um, so those are those are basics that that are important. Uh summer jobs work for a lot of kids, but internships, apprenticeships, whatever you want to call them, right, are just golden opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Well, and that's something that we're trying to do here at A-State is not just say, here's what's accredited, and we're okay, the degree's accredited, but then let's get the students some internships, some apprenticeships, some fellowships and working in the healthcare industry or the steel mills or manufacturing or wherever it is they want to go so that they do have that experience and they're not just coming into something brand new, but they've can hit the ground running. Um, we're hearing the same type of thing. So I'm glad to hear that. You know, and you mentioned there's maybe 10 things that everybody's really looking for and an event, you know, that we tended mostly, you introduced me to the idea of durable skills. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I wish you'd maybe talk a little bit about those.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Well, first, again, not original with me. I picked it up from an outfit called America Succeeds. And they've been working in this area for, gosh, 10 or 12 years at least. Right. And have developed a robust curriculum for everywhere from K through college for teachers to help them understand how to embed development of durable skills like persistence, um, showing up on time, uh, completing work, you know, just the really fundamental behaviors that will do you well and will stand you well wherever you do go and whatever you do. It doesn't matter whether whether you're going to be a doctor and a medical doctor or a mechanical engineer or a welder or a truck driver. The basics of behavior like that. It's sort of like the Boy Scout oath, in my view. Right. It's just that basic. Uh, and unfortunately, a lot of kids get a short straw on on some of those things. But family situations are complicated. Uh, there are all kinds of challenges that the kids run into in just their normal life that we got to figure out how to compensate for if we're gonna help them become as productive as they possibly can.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

And if we're really committed to helping them succeed, if we're not just we're not just gonna give you a degree. Yeah. And when I meet a parent and I want to say, not only are we gonna keep your kids safe, but we're gonna give them a degree and set them up for success. I remember when we were first talking about it and I went and looked up a lot of the things you're telling me about, and I was a little, can we teach these skills? Are these the things we can teach? And then I was seeing what they can do, and I'm like, wow, this is really incredible. We absolutely can teach and we should be teaching them. Um, you know, a lot of our students are first generation students, and so they're not thinking about what kinds of communication skills and teamwork skills do I need to have. Um, and they're certainly not going to take it unless we prevent provide it for them. Right. Right. And so we've started seeing this happen and we've seen some great results with it. And industries are telling us similar things too, that they need these durable skills and they need some internships and some apprenticeships and some experiences before they get out there. So I'm really glad to hear that industry is telling you the same thing that we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Oh, it it's you know, it's so frustrating. Like HR, if you talk with HR people, I remember I went to their state meeting last Friday and spoke to them. If you talk to them for five minutes and just say, what what are your biggest challenges? Right. The first thing you hear in just about every case is somebody who will show up. Back to that, you know, just ba show up on time, right? Maybe act interested, even you know, at least until you are. Yeah. Uh that that that kind of thing. Just just basic interpersonal skills, right? Communication skills, able to understand and pay attention to instructions, yeah. Uh especially in certain types of environments like manufacturing plants. That's just critical, you know. Right. Right. Or transportation. Um, any any depends on the business, but sure. Some are a lot more uh uh fundamental than than others.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Right. You were telling me a little bit about safety

Safety, Attention, And Digital Habits

SPEAKER_01 7:45

uh a little bit ago. And you know, tell me a little bit more about that and uh, you know, well, uh uh going back to the steel mill.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Yeah, we're in steel country up here. Um a meeting, I don't know, several months ago. The the guy that was giving the safety briefing, he was the I guess he was the manager, safety manager for the plant, for the mill. He was giving a briefing to this group for before we took a tour, and he said, let me make something real clear to you. This is not a dangerous environment, but it is an unforgiving environment. Wow. So if you do what we ask you to do and tell you to do, I mean stay where you're supposed to stay and listen and look and pay attention, you're perfectly safe. If you fail to do any of those things, you can get in trouble pretty quickly, physically. I mean, you know, it's right. And that's true. Look, that's true of a lot of environments, especially again, manufacturing, whether it's a process plant or mill, right, like a steel mill or a lot manufacturing um uh different type of product or a transportation, sure, like a trucking line or a railroad or whatever. There are all kinds of environments where it's not dangerous, it's just unforgiving. So you gotta you gotta play by the rules. Absolutely. And if you're somebody who doesn't know how to play by the rules, you can be a problem.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Well, and you know, I'll tell you then, and you know, a lot of the students and younger generation I see today, they're much more familiar with technology than I am. In fact, you know, they're native and they can just fly through things. I'm like, how did you do that? Yeah, but then you know, I'll go over to the cafeteria and they're eating together, but they're just texting each other, which they're more comfortable with. You know, we recently put a chat bot into the campus environment. And I was like, I are they gonna really use that? And oh my goodness, I mean, hundreds of thousands of interactions in there. They're they'll often feel more comfortable talking to the chat bot than they will a person. So those kinds of skills are not necessarily available to them because there's so much time is being consumed in other. We didn't have that.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Yeah, you know, uh funny you say that, mentioned that this this new rule for K-12 now, where you can't have your phone out, right? Can't use it. Right. The teachers say that number one, between classes, the hallways are just noisy now. Prior to that rule, if every kid was walking along, yeah, yeah, uh-huh doing that. And likewise, the like the lunch room or uh lunch period. Um kids are talking to each other. I love it. Magic. I love it. Golly, here we go.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Yeah, that's fantastic. We need a lot more of that, don't we? We need both.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Yeah, we've got to have both, we've got to figure out how to live in a digital world. We do but with people.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

We do, we do.

Issue 3 And Tax Financing Tools

SPEAKER_01 10:35

You know, we I'm gonna shift gears just a little bit here. I hear a lot about issue number three. Um, but honestly, I don't know a lot about it. I wonder if you could tell me a little bit more about it and how important that is.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

I appreciate it. My my favorite topic right now. Issue three is on the ballot this fall in the general election in November. If we pass it, and we're highly confident we're gonna we're gonna be able to make the sale to the people of Arkansas and then that they will pass it. If we pass it, we will then have available to us the ability for communities, cities, towns, counties, regions to establish what's called economic development districts, which would then facilitate the use of newly created tax revenue from whatever development is done in an area in one of those districts to be used to help underwrite the cost of the development itself. Wow. Take, for instance, a piece of just raw ground sitting somewhere, no development, uh, no access, uh, and a developer wants to put a um uh multifamily housing unit in in that property. Well, they're looking for financial support for the project just to help finish the what's called the capital stack or whatever it takes to finance that. Right. So what what this would allow is develop that, which would generate property taxes. Those new property taxes could be committed to help in the fund or finance the investment.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

And it's negotiable. It's not forever, it's for a fixed period of time. Yeah. It can be half the tax new new taxes generated or all of the taxes for a period like three, five, ten years. Right. But it helps a community attract investment capital. Sure. Because this is going on in 48 of the 50 states.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

48.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

We are one of two, Arkansas and Arizona, that do not have this type of what's called tax increment financing or TIFF. Uh, Texas is beating our brains out. And if you the best way to see the difference in how it plays out is to go to Texas, Canada. Yeah, stand on the Arkansas side, look around, step across the line and look around and see the retail development, the housing development.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

And it's all done through these things are there on one side and not the other.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

It it's the tools we need to rescue the Delta and the eastern third of Arkansas in terms of the communities that are really struggling and we're hemorrhaging population in that eastern third of the state. Craighead County and Green Counties are the exceptions to that rule. Every other county between Mississippi County, including Mississippi County, really, and Texacana is losing population. Wow.

unknown 13:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

And this is this is the tool to turn around and be able to facilitate the development and the investment that we need in things like uh restaurants and grocery stores and uh housing availability, all those fundamentals that we're just not able to help underwrite now with with the restrictions we've got. Right. We're wonderful in our incentives for industrial development, like the steel mills, like the manufacturing plants in Jonesboro.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

So those fall under a different category.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Different category. We've got great incentives, and look at look at the success we're enjoying. Right. We're in a literal boom in Arkansas right now. Every sign indicates it's going to continue. We're attracting people at a rate we can manage. Our problem is most of the attraction is to a limited part of the state. We need the rest of the state, the eastern third, yeah, to be able to enjoy some more growth like those the rest of the state is enjoying.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

But we're look, we're we're the six, we're rated the sixth strongest economy outlook, economic outlook is that right in the country.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Absolutely. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

We're our our personal income for the last, I think, seven, maybe six or seven, either six or seven years, has been fifty percent faster than the growth in personal income for the rest of the country. Wow. That's the way you close the gap. You have to absolutely outdo the average. It's statistics. Yeah. Um I mean, it's just really wonderful that that you see this kind of economic improvement, economic gain uh becoming more available to more and more folks across the world.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

That's fantastic. That'll help school districts and communities and healthcare, everything, right? A rising tide of this all oh man, that's fantastic. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Wow. And that's coming up on the ballot this November.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

One, two, three, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

One and two are good. I love it. Are gonna be layups. Okay. Uh, one is uh right to own a gun, okay, uh bare arms, and the other one is uh registered to vote, uh an ID for vote.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

So I'll keep that in mind. I'll tell everybody that I can everyone I know. Yeah, exactly. Let us know how we can help with that.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

We'll do vote, vote early, vote often.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

There we go. That's great. I love it. So I'll shift gears just a little

Short Training That Changes Pay

SPEAKER_01 16:16

bit. Um, you know, we hear a lot about workforce development, and you know, we're doing a lot with Crest, our Crest Center, yeah, career readiness education skill development. Um, and we're partnering with ASU Newport and ANC. Um, and we want other partners to come help with that too. Um, but I also hear a lot from the industries about what they this is not my term, but they call it a workforce continuum. Um, and they need a lot of that type of training. And then they're saying to me, well, hey, we need accountants too, but we need accountants that know the industry and we need supply chain people that know the industry, we need marketing, we need everything that a business would need, but we need some training. And that's a gap that higher education hasn't always filled. Um, but there's no reason we can't. I'm wondering if you're hearing the same type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

No question about it, Todd. All over the state, uh, industries are screaming saying, look, I need somebody, particular pieces of equipment.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

I need to be able to get somebody trained up for a couple of weeks. This is one of the quarrels in the slow on the funding formula for higher ed. I know it's a challenge for y'all because the way we allot money from the state and and the way academic um uh the academy has always financed it. So it's around degrees and it's around numbers of hours, classroom hours. Right. But a lot of the learning and the opportunity for some of the, especially like ASU note Newport and and uh Arkansas Northeastern in the other two years, right, is industry specific, skill specific, technology specific, short-term courses. You know, you can learn a lot in a couple of weeks. You can eight hours a day. Yep, you you can cover a lot of ground.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

You can.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

You can learn a whole lot in 30 days. Yep. Um so a lot of those very specific skills lend themselves to that sort of short-term courses. I know ASU Newport is great about it. Y'all they've got a really robust offering. It's got to sell it and push it. Right. Um and you'll find that industry will pay for or businesses will pay for that training. I mean, we're in a situation in a different part of the state. Um, up in northwest Arkansas, the uh what's called NWTI, Northwest Technical Institute, is one of four institutions in the country that treat that teaches ammonia refrigeration technology. Interesting. It's a very specific technology. Yeah, that makes sense. Every food processor plant in the country uses ammonia-based refrigeration equipment. Right. And it's highly technical. Right. So you gotta know what you're doing. You can go boom pretty quick if you don't know what you're up to. Wow. Um but it's taken forever to get them to market it as look, here is a there's a one-week course for operator one, there's a second course for operator two, and there's a third course for operator three. Right. Right. You can take operator one and get if you're let's say you're making $20 an hour working at a poultry plant in Northwest Arsenal. Right. You're on the line, you're right processing chickens. They call it demanufacturing the bird. Yeah. Talk about a euphemism. That's a euphemism from HR. You can go from making $20 an hour to $30 an hour if you'll take operator one on refrigeration.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Ammonia refrigeration. Go back and take operator two and you go to $35 an hour. Go back and take operator three and you go to $40 an hour. You're making $75,000, $80,000 a year. You might have a high school diploma. Hopefully, you've at least got a GED and you've taken and you've shown up for work and demonstrated that, gosh, you can be counted on. Right. So the company will send you and pay you for the truck to get the training and pay the institution for the training. Right. So the world, the the manufacturing world is filled with opportunities like that. And that's where getting everybody in the same room back to catalyst starts to create these magic opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Moy, that is the that's the magic sauce that we've been seeing. The people saying, you know, industries, different industries are saying, we really need this. Can you do that? We'll help you build it. And we're like, let's partner. Um, and and you know, I don't mean a partnership like a brochure where a partner, but like really embedded in and helping them make the curriculum and helping make exactly this what they need to have. And you're right, it can be it can be over weekends, it can be over a seven-week period, it can be a month, it can be that kind of training, and it can really change a family and their kids' lives.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

I it just has stuck in my mind for like 15 years now, walking through a training area in a two-year. And there was a kid over in the corner messing around with a device, a training device. And I walked over and I said, I asked him, I said, What are you doing? And he said, I'm learning how to program a PLC. And I said, Well, what's a PLC? And I knew what it was. He said, It's a program logic controller. Right. There are about 3,000 of these things in our plant. And if I learn how to program one, I'll get A $5 an hour bump in pay. I said, How long is it taking you to learn how to do it? He said, Well, it's a two-week deal. I come at night from six to eight. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Love it.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

That's that's yeah, that's economic development, belly. Right. That kid's gonna make, you know, another couple hundred dollars a week. Right. Because he's gonna go off the line and become a maintenance tech rather than just uh grunt on the line.

AI Upskilling And Industry Partnerships

SPEAKER_01 22:25

So we're hearing a lot. Um, just elaborate on that more. We're hearing a lot about, hey, can we add some courses here and there? And like you're saying, they're not necessarily a degree, they're a certificate or their level of proficiency, but in automation or in AI or in cybersecurity, because a lot of the people in the areas that they need, they can become so much more efficient if they understand how to use AI efficiently and safely with cybersecurity, that kind of thing. And we're having a lot of industries come and say, Would you put this together for us? And absolutely we will. And putting an AI together in a healthcare industry is a little bit different than in a steel mill or in a manufacturing plant. But we're tailoring it toward those industries, and then they're like, This is helpful. This is really help not only for the kids that are coming out, but for the people that for me that go, well, you know, I need to take this because I need to figure out how to do that as well.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

How do you ask the right question?

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. But you're hearing the same type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Everywhere. We're we're we're doing little AI things, and it's mainly just to sort of knock down the fear barrier, you know. People are scared to death to punch a button, you know. Yeah. Those of us who are right a little slow coming to all of us are right. Anyway, yeah, AI is that's what's driving a lot of the productivity improvements. Sure. Already. I mean a lot of people are scared of it, but you know, people were scared of the wheel. People were scared of a fire. Right. People were scared to death of manner.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

You know, we're absolutely I still remember that. I still remember the first time they introduced email and I'm going, am I going to use this? Why don't you swallow somebody? Right, yeah. Now you can sit up and keep it right. Right, yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. Well, I'm fortunate enough that I've got people around me that are pushing me pretty hard on it. I've taken several classes on it now. And um, you know, I keep telling people if I can build agents that can do things for us here at campus, then anybody can if I can do it.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Hey, it's it's a brave new world. It's exciting to see how and look at look at what is driving with these data centers and the capital investment. Right. Here's a note for you the Google data center in West Memphis will throw off property taxes even with the abatements they were given, which is normal for that what is it, a four billion dollar capital investment. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Even with the abatements, it will generate tax revenue for the West Memphis School District triple current triple their current income. That's fantastic. It's a transformational opportunity for, I mean, it's it's just gonna change the world in these areas that are fortunate enough to land these major investments.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Right, right. So we're we're seeing a lot of people that traditionally, you know, we're definitely focused on our 18 to 22 year olds at a traditional college, but we're seeing that that demand at early as high school. But then, you know, people in our, don't quote me on these numbers, Randy, but you know, um, people that are coming back for these types of skill sets are often in their late 20s or 30s. Um, and then even people in the 40s and 50s coming in, you know, higher ed, we've talked about lifelong learning for a long time, but we didn't really offer it to the degree we're doing it now. It's here now, it's here. Um, and we see that. So my definition of a student is really changing quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

You know, I mean, it's just like I look at uh a steel mill or a hospital, or I look at anything that is have a great talent, but things are changing so quickly. How do we help them upskill and keep up so that they're doing really well and being efficient?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

And uh look, I'm just sitting here visualizing the your professors, first of all, doing all that incredible research that they're doing, right? And taking that to these companies, taking it to these settings. Right, absolutely. Instead of everybody's got to come to campus, you know, maybe you're maybe a guy goes into a Kia plant or a Toyota plant for two or three weeks to teach some specific and and you know, we're being asked not only just to teach things there, but to actually help them with some research.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

So helped a company here locally that had some sound issues, that the decibels were rising. How do we fix that so that doesn't it long term affect people's hearing? Um, and the steel mills have been asking, you know, hey, you know, we do we don't we don't use combustion engines and coal anymore. You know, they use the electric arc furnaces, which are fantastic. And Mississippi comes out cleaner than it goes in, and the air comes out cleaner than it goes in, and they're recycling steel from all over the place. They're saying, hey, we really want you to come in here, help us make sure that the steel we're making is the high quality, test it, get students involved in that testing, uh, and then help us do research so that that electric arc is thing at the cutting edge, keeping American steel production and quality at the cutting level. But we're doing it at the mills or at the hospitals or at the industry, it's not necessarily on campus. It's making a big difference. Fantastic. It's making a big difference. No kidding.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

It's fun to think about the it is what it's gonna look, what everything's gonna look like 20 years from now.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Exactly. I mean, I'm excited about it too, because you know, it's not just really helping the industry, but it's helping the professors become more expert in an area that's really highly needed. But then it's giving students the skills they need right there. So the people that are there in the industry can go, hey, I really want to hire Randy Zook. Todd Shields, they're they're doing great. Let's get them in here right now. Yeah, and that's that's just a win-win for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

That's a lot of what we get to do with our Be Pro Be Proud effort.

Be Pro Be Proud Career Simulators

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Why don't you talk a little bit about that? Because I think you're you're you're you're you're you're you should be applauded for all that you've done for all of that.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Well, it I I just kind of nudge them and we've got a great team doing this. Look, we're in nine states now. That's amazing. We've got uh let me think a minute. I think we've got 13 trucks on the road. Is that right? That's about $20 million worth of rolling equipment, including the simulators. Wow. We'll we will see on a during a school year, we will have about 1,700 kids every day come through one of those. 700? 1700. Oh, 1700. Every day. We get a you can you know, you do the math. You can you can handle about 25 kids for about an hour, hour and a half. So so for people that are watching are not familiar with that, tell them a little bit about what it's a 53-foot trailer to start with the rolling style with custom built with slides so that you can when you park it, you can create about a thousand square feet of of uh space, right? Workshop space, whatever you want to call it. And within that space, we've got 14 or 15 virtual reality simulators or screen-based simulators. That's fantastic for 14 or 15 different technical occupations. That's fantastic. Everything from truck drivers, you you get in it, you're driving a truck.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Uh locomotive engineers, you are driving a train. Wow. Uh I'd like to do that. Yeah, it's fun. Uh, I'll tell you a funny story about then Governor Hutchinson. Um, you're you're welding electronic welds. Yeah, right. Um electric uh utility linemen, you're up at a bucket truck, oh my goodness, working with the wires. I mean, it's just fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Get used to working up high without being up high, huh?

SPEAKER_00 30:02

And and understand what it looks like and what it feels like. Right. Um, and they're about in robotics. Um you can program and play with a little miniature ABB robot.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Um, so there's about 15 total occupations, tradesmen, uh, carpentry, plumbing, uh, electricians. By the way, electricians rule the world right now. No kidding. Um it's just crazy the demand for them. But anyway, we we we get this is all privately, and some of it's funded by uh the workforce development people. Uh, but we've like I say, we've got 13 trucks on the road in nine states. Wow. We've got our annual meeting coming up in Nashville, Tennessee. Um, we're hoping to add another four or five states this coming year because it's kind of getting some momentum. Sure. Sort of, you know, we we started from scroll. We started with a little old toe behind a pickup truck trailer. Yeah, we literally did. We thought maybe we can take some of this stuff out to kids and let them, because we were trying to just sell the idea. Think about there are other opportunities that we don't know about, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:14

That you've never had experience. If it's not on TikTok or Instagram, it's hard to you don't know about it, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

And the sad thing, Todd, or the challenge, I shouldn't say that, the challenging thing is that teachers just don't have any understanding of what it's like to work in a steel mill.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

So one of the things we do is get the teachers, even the even the the CTE teachers. Sure, they've been they've been students and teachers all their lives. Well, man, I think of them.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

I encourage everybody to do that because uh that was one of the funnest days. You know, going through a steel mill, a modern steel mill now is just even it, yeah, you know, in the manufacturing is just so different than what I knew of it as a young man.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Look, there's no back breaking labor in very many in very many places. Right. Um there'll be a thing over in Blytheville in a couple of weeks. Um Lexicon is investing $150 million in a device that I just can't wait to see. Patrick Schick was telling me. Yeah. And it's it's it's it's just magic. And it's all computer driven, computer control. That's true. But there's only three of them in the country, you know. So it's fixing to have a huge competitive opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

And all that and all that is being driven by those huge capital investments and those steel mills, right? The spillover, the the add-on, right, and the small businesses that thrive with them and because of them. Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Right. That's something we really don't think about or talk about a lot, but as these industries really grow, they don't just grow in isolation. There's a whole ecosystem that shows up around them that does help everybody.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Absolutely. And downstream, their customers are moving in there to be closer to eliminate freight and handling costs, right? Or reduce them. So it just, you know, success builds on success. It really does, doesn't it? You get the most get the wheel turning. Yeah. It doesn't take as much to turn

Chambers, Healthcare Costs, And Policy

SPEAKER_00 33:25

it.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Well, from an A state standpoint, and even from our Crest Center standpoint, how do we reach the industries that are in chambers and commerce and and how do we get them interested in these types of things? And how do we how do we better say these are the opportunities that are available to you that would be really helpful?

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Well, you know, that's a two-way street. That's on us as well as on you. Um so uh that I mean that's really what chambers do. Chambers are basically conveners. Whether you're a the Jonesboro Regional Chamber or the state chamber, our our job is a little different from Jonesboro because we're not focused on specific development projects. We're focused on policy at the state level mainly. Makes sense. But also national.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Uh but the community guys are focused on specific development opportunities. So it's it's getting everybody in the same room back to the press thing.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Uh it's just convening people and and defining a topic. Right now, one of the biggest challenges in Arkansas is the cost of health care and and the vulnerability of a lot of our rural hospitals, especially. Right. The from the formulas, the reimbursement rates, the all of that stuff is incredibly complicated and complex. Right. And we're trying to to just get everybody, including legislators, into the room to hear from the people who are the providers. Everybody wants to do right. Everybody wants to be um relevant, and everybody needs to be heard in an issue that complex. Right. And then you start picking at little incremental improvements, and pretty soon you kind of get some momentum and good things can happen. So that's that's what one of the big issues we're focused on right now. Yeah is that whole healthcare complex financing issue. And it's a heck, it's a national issue.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

It is, right.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Uh but we're also generating a unified, uh, amplified voice uh with our delegation and through our delegation in DC. They're all aware of it. Everybody up there is trying to figure out how do you pick the lock. Right. Um most of them are well intended, a few of them are off the track, but you know, we just gotta work around them. But not our guys. Our guys are all laser focused and on the right stuff. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

So I love it. Well, whatever we can do to help, you know, get the industries involved and get, you know, students and incumbent workers aware of what can be available to them to upskill into careers that they may not be able to let us know because that that's definitely, you know, my my mission, my goal is to make sure we can tell families that, you know, we're not just gonna give you a degree, we're gonna help you make sure that your

Statistics, Data Literacy, And Census

SPEAKER_01 36:20

student finds the area that they want to go into and then we prep them for success.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

You know, I look back on my business career and you know, it started in Fayetteville. Actually, it started in Russellville, and then I transferred to Fayetteville. Uh-huh. Uh, but it was a formative period, and you know, very, frankly, very little of what I actually gained out of a textbook was vital. But it was the whole experience, the whole preparation, the whole just figuring out how to set goals and finish a degree and all those things.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Uh but my favorite course, if I have a max to grind, yeah, statistics.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

I'm I, you know, I I laugh. I've I've I've preached to my grandchildren so incessantly that they finally, a couple of three of them actually took a STAT course. But when I look around manufacturing plants and businesses, a fundamental understanding of statistics is is just critical.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

You're preaching the choir on that one. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Uh look, it you know, this that lies, damn lies, and statistics.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Statistics. But knowing it's really important. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

How to display and interpret, and it's just so important. It's crucial. Quality management it's statistics.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

It is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Safety management, it's statistics. Yeah, it is. Finance, 90% of it. Yep. Statistical analysis. Supply chain and supply chain.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

How many, how fast, right? You know, it's all about stat.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Right. Well, I love that. I'm gonna take that little clip and run with it all over the place because I love that, you know. Um, I don't know if you know that, but when I went to graduate school, um, I was engineering for three years before I changed majors. Okay. Um, and when I went to graduate school, you know, people were reading like three books and four books a week. They're a thousand pages long. And I'm going, man, can I can I just have a statistical side instead of having all these other reading classes there? Like, well, we've never had anybody want to do that before. And I'm like, well, I need, I want to do that. They let me do it. But uh cool, yeah, I was I didn't realize how important it was at the time. I just knew I could do it better than I could keep up with all the reading, you know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

It just it's just no, there's no substitute for a understanding how to interpret data.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

It's really true because we're getting more and more data on everything all the time. You're buried in it. Yes, we're buried in the data. So, how do you make sense of it? Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

Hey, by the way, the governor put me on a I started bugging her and asked actually bugged Governor Hudson about it. We messed up in the 2020 census, Arkansas. We had the worst undercount of all 50 states. Oh, wow. We missed 5% of our population. Oh, wow. That's 150,000 people. Yeah. It's costing us in the 2020 to 2030 decade about six billion dollars in federal distributions that are governed by and determined by headcounts in cities and counties. And you talk to mayors and county judges, and I say, Yep, we messed up.

unknown 39:40

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

So big opportunity. So we got a bill passed. So wow. And we got a 20, what is it called? 2030 complete census count committee.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Is being formed. We need somebody if you want to want to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

Uh yeah, count me in because yeah, I might get you theme to that. Yeah, no, I'd love to be do that. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

It's just vital that we do a better job in 30. And that's that's right around the corner.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

Absolutely. You know, yeah, it'll be here faster than we know.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

Hey, right. But again, the good news in Arkansas right now is our population is growing. People are discovering Arkansas. They really are for a lot of different reasons. They really are. Some people find low-cost property, some people are chasing low cost of living and retirement. Some people are looking for in finding jobs. Right. Uh, but you look at the the areas around the state where we're healthy and growing, Northeast Arkansas is one of them.

SPEAKER_01 40:36

Yeah. Opportunities just I blow my mind up here. And then, but it seems like that's opportunities all over the state.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

No question about it. I mean, I can walk you around the state and show you about $40 billion worth of capital investment underway right now. Wow. And that doesn't count highways. It does count bridges. You got one big bridge in Fort Smith, yes, and the new bridge in Memphis on 55. Yes. But none of the highway construction, but just just capital investment in manufacturing uh and distribution data centers.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Data centers too, yeah. Again, more data, right? Yeah. I mean, so you're very optimistic about where Arkansas's future's going.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

We oh we're we are we are on a roll. Yeah. I mean, we're we're doing better. We got more people working than ever before in our history. That's fantastic. And we still got room for and need for about 30 or 40,000 people to get off the sideline and and get some skills and get themselves back in the game.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Do you have any advice for um a chancellor of a state here to say, what can I do to help reach those people and help upskill them and give them the the tools they need? Um any any advice that you have that you might want to say, consider doing this, that maybe traditionally we in higher ed wouldn't have done. Because I love to do things that we have never done before.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

You ask. I know, I mean I want to hear. Take a little basic go-to-work skills workshop on the road. Yeah. In northeast Arkansas. Interesting, yeah. There's a thing called future fit. Okay. It's a little two-week curriculum. It can be done in a week. Yeah. Um talk to AEDC. They they've got it. And look, Arkansas Northeastern. Yeah, two of your guys know all about it because it's been offered through them. Right. But we've never found, we've never picked the lock on exactly how best to do it.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

And and some tweaking around the time of day offering, uh-huh. How many days it takes.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

And so future fit, what uh what type of things are they teaching? What kinds of things are the skills are they teaching?

SPEAKER_00 43:00

Um hand tools, OSHA 10. Right. Um, just just fundamentals. Yeah. Show up, yeah, be here on time.

unknown 43:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

And then give you a little certificate, and nine times out of ten, they can go to work in an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

That's fantastic. Or back to durable skills in the in this in any ways, right? But that that little somebody's gonna figure out how to pick that lock. Yeah. Well, we will look, I'll look into that.

Regional Growth And Career Advice

SPEAKER_01 43:30

That'd be fun. I'll look into that. That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

I would really like to have the trip to Jonesboro.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

I th that we need to do that, right? So, one of the things that I like to talk about too is regionalism. I mean, you were talking about the different areas in the state, and I like to talk about regionalism and that how you know, if if it's one county and they're wanting one thing, another county wanting another, and another county wanting another, it's pretty difficult to get things going. But it seems to me like when a region is working together and it's so much easier to get A lot of things going. And I wanted to see if you think similarly or you disagree.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

Your experience. Right. I mean, it's just now it's very specific to that region. Right. But the principles are the same. Sure. Exactly what you're doing with Crest. Yeah. Get the people from the region. We're trying to get something going in southwest Arkansas down, I don't know, three weeks ago. We had a big confab down there. People just were really excited. And you know, and basically it was just get them all in a room. That's the reason why. County judges, mayors, business leaders, chamber folks, community leaders, just get them in a room and say, what do you want this place to look like 10 years from now? Right. Well, and if you don't, if you don't start thinking about it and putting it on paper, the conversation doesn't happen. It ain't gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 44:57

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

But once you've started, the momentum is typically if you got some good leaders, yeah, and you and you gotta be careful about that you include and make sure you have the spark plugs in the room. Right, right. Because it takes them. You know, you can you can do a contrast and look at other places where it just all best intentions, all best efforts, and it just doesn't catch it up. Doesn't it all doesn't fill it up. Right. But Northwest, Northeast, I mean this Green County, Craig Ed County, Mississippi County. Right. I mean, you've got Lawrence County, you've got plenty of really good, smart, sharp, amazing people, ambitious people who want to create a better environment, who want to make it make a place that's worth living in.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

And opportunities of a generation. I was gonna say lifetime, but generations. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I mean, it's it's gonna shape everything for a long time. Yeah, and going back to what you were saying, this I'm with you that I'm so excited about the future of Arkansas. I didn't know we were number six. Oh um, but that makes me even more excited. And exactly, right? I mean, we we need to help make sure we get that message out there too. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

Yeah, and and we've look, we've had a string of really good governors. I mean, a long string. Yeah. We've not driven up in the ditch like a lot of states have, just with lousy leadership at the top. And our legislators have been have been, for the most generally speaking, we've been kept our eye on the ball.

SPEAKER_01 46:35

I'll make a shout out to our federal and you know, senators and representatives and our state senators and representatives right now. I mean, they've they they they have been so helpful. They'll call me with an opportunity, they'll call me and saying, hey, steer this way, this is gonna be more productive, go this way. They've been so helpful. I mean, I can't even tell you how I could name them all, um, but they're just fantastic. Yeah, and so helpful.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

And our federal delegation right now, six members, all six have a major gabble. They do. No other delegation. They do. No other delegation in the country comes close. Is that right? Amazing. It's that right.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

I love that. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 47:18

You know, the gang of eight they talk about on the national intelligence stuff.

SPEAKER_01 47:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

Two of them are Arkansans.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

Yes, they are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

Rick Crawford and Tom Cotton.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

That's right. Yep. Yep. Representative Cotton and Senator Cotton and Representative Crawford call me and give me texts and send me in opportunities and introduce me to people pretty regularly. Yeah. In fact, we just welcomed uh Representative Crawford's uh DC staff to campus today. Cool. Uh earlier this morning, I welcomed them, and many of them are from you know DC area, so they saw a state's campus and they were like, how big is this campus in terms of acres? You know, I'm like, well, 1500, 1600 acres. I mean, it's yeah, it's a space is not our problem. We've never seen so many trees, and you know, I'm sure coming from DC, it's a it's a it's a big shock. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:08

Well, it's great. Yeah, we had our fly-in just uh a couple of weeks ago, took about a hundred people to DC. That's fantastic. They were all great.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

I'll bet. I bet they are.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

But it's a great time to be in Arkansas. It's a great time to be at Arkansas State.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

It is. I love it, absolutely. I mean, every time I turn around another week, every week there's some new opportunity. You're making a big difference. Well, I want to make a big difference. I mean, that's the thing we're here for. If we're really, if we're really being honest, I mean, let's change lives, let's change families, let's change generations, make the trip worth having. Absolutely right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, look, let's let's wrap this up with, you know, something that, you know, I taught a class this last semester uh where we had industry leaders come in and almost all the students, and then even we'd obviously have guests come in. Patrick Schick was one of our people that came in to speak, and people come in to listen to what he's have to say. He's such a great speaker, too, by the way. Um great, absolutely. Um, man, after his talk, I was ready to run through walls. I was, you know, point me in the direction, you know. Right. Um, but you know, one of the things that the people in the audience are coming in to see the speaker, and the students always asked is, you know, hey, if if if you have some advice for somebody who's starting out or changing careers or something like that, and then in some way new starting out, if you could go back and say, you know, find Randy's hook when he's 20 years old and say, what would you what would you tell you? You're pretty dumb. I mean, I'm in the same boat. I'm in the I I It's a miracle. I'm with you, Randy. I I had a job as a lifeguard in Atlantic City, and then that's about all I experienced I had, you know, other than being in college and working. I'm still here.

SPEAKER_00 49:53

I'd worked in a family grocery store, and that was it. Uh-huh. And learned a lot of lessons. Just didn't realize it at the time. Absolutely right. Yeah. Didn't have sense enough to realize what I'd learned.

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Right. Well, is there anything that you would tell the um younger self? Work on your why q.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

Interesting. Yeah. Gotta understand why things are, why things work the way they do. That's great advice. Where wherever you are and whatever you're doing, work on your why q. Right. Ask better questions, ask more questions. There aren't any dumb ones.

SPEAKER_01 50:26

There really aren't. There really aren't. Yeah. You know, I I always say that if I could go back, I'd tell my younger self, you're not going to be able to plan it out. Do the best you can with what's right in front of you. And then, like you just said, ask all the questions you can, learn as much as you can about that, and see what happens next. Because trying to plan it out, you plan this way, and something will open up that way.

SPEAKER_00 50:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:48

Learn, realize that life is not determined by what you want, it's determined by the choices you make. That's every day you make choices. You make a J and choices every day. Some of them are really important. Yeah. Occasionally. Most of them are pretty minor. Yeah. Right. And, you know, you can always make better ones.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Absolutely. Yeah, that's great advice. Great advice. Randy, thank you so much for being here today. We appreciate it. We'll have you back again really soon. Yeah, we'll have you back again. You know, the way things change nowadays in six months, we'll be talking about something new.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

We'll have some big things to talk about.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

Exactly. Yeah. We'll plan it. We'll absolutely plan it. Thank you. Appreciate it. You bet. And thanks for everybody that was watching today. And don't forget to like and subscribe to our webpage where all the materials for this show, built with A State, and all the other shows are located. Thank you so much for joining us. Randy, thank you again.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

You bet. My pleasure. Thanks, man. Yes.