The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software.
Joe Coldebella:
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Broadband Bunch. I’m Joe Coldebella, and joining me is the Principal at the Pivot Group, Bernie Arnason. Bernie, welcome to the Broadband Bunch.
Bernie Arnason:
Thanks for having me. Great to be here.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome to have you here. We’re at the Calix event, ConneXions 2022. Before we sort of dig into why I’m having you on the show, I would love it if you could just give the listeners a little bit of background about yourself. You’ve got a lot of different projects and I would love for you to share that with the audience.
Bernie Arnason:
Yeah. Sure. I’ve been in the telecom industry for 25-plus years. Most of that has been with Pivot Group, where I’m a principal. Pivot is a marketing and customer experience agency, serving the broadband industry with a laser focus, if you will, on the rural broadband industry. Part of what we do there is also publishing Telecompetitor, which is an online publication that covers the broadband industry and gives folks a really good snapshot of what’s going on there. I am the Editor in Chief of that, as well. Just have the great pleasure of being in the rural broadband industry and working with a lot of companies who are doing great things in their communities and building broadband. It’s just been a fantastic run, over the past 25 years, and looking forward to more.
Joe Coldebella:
It is amazing. I’ve had an opportunity to interview a bunch of folks, here, who have been in the industry for 15, 20, or 25 years. Just wondering if you could give your perspective on how much it’s changed, just in the last five years. It’s been pretty incredible.
Bernie Arnason:
Yeah. It’s a dynamic industry, and the only thing constant in this industry is change, which makes it fun, makes it challenging, but I think the primary driver of that change is… Well, it’s actually twofold. I think it’s the technology, obviously, is just ever-changing, and having to adapt to that, and deploy new technologies, and all of that. It sets up a lot of change. Then, it’s also, I think, the culture in the industry, and particularly, with a lot of these providers, is changing significantly and having to be much more market-focused. It’s a much more competitive environment and requires reimagining how they’ve historically done business. That drives a lot of change, too. If you only had to deal with one of those change factors, it’d be a lot, but this industry’s dealing with both. That can make it pretty frenetic.
Joe Coldebella:
It’s one of those things, as well, is I think that we are entering, sort of, a new dawn, where the digital economy is going to be front and center. I think that connectivity is going to become more important tenfold. It’s one of those things where it’s been a tough journey, these last few years, but I think that those tough years have put a spotlight on the importance of connectivity, and making sure that everyone is served because we’re moving forward as a country, and a lot of things are going to be happening in the next few years.
Bernie Arnason:
Yeah, particularly, in the rural space. The pandemic of the past couple of years really exposed an issue that most people in this industry already knew, and that is the importance of broadband and the value that brings, all the benefits it brings to people. The pandemic exposed that there are just still too many people in the country that don’t have that benefit. Again, that’s a story that’s been well known in the rural broadband landscape, but it opened the eyes of many more people, policymakers, particularly. That’s led to all of this once-in-a-generation funding that’s taken place, now, that’s going to make the next… Do you think the past five years have been busy and exciting? Just wait. The next five years, the next decade, really, we’re going through something that’s just, quite frankly, has never happened before.
Joe Coldebella:
No. It’s funny because I try to think of what sort of metaphor I can use. Is it an avalanche? Is it a tidal wave? It’s going to be amazing. It’s also going to be exciting, but there are also going to be some challenges. There are going to be some huge successes. There are going to be failures. It’s going to be crazy.
Bernie Arnason:
It is. I think “crazy” is probably the best term.
Joe Coldebella:
But, exciting.
Bernie Arnason:
Exciting. Listen, my wife is in the dental industry. I don’t know if it gets any more boring than that, so I feel blessed to be in such a dynamic industry and it definitely keeps you on your toes, and keeps you motivated.
Joe Coldebella:
It’s one of those things, as well, is that, obviously, you’re here at the Calix event because you just won an award, correct?
Bernie Arnason:
Yes, we did.
Joe Coldebella:
That was for the Pivot Group, correct?
Bernie Arnason:
Pivot. Yeah. We won their Market Activation Award this year, which is a great honor. We appreciate it and-
Joe Coldebella:
Congratulations!
Bernie Arnason:
Thank you. We’ve been partnered with Calix for many years, working in their Market Activation program and working… We, as an organization, Pivot Group, have many, many clients that are also Calix customers, so we’ve been working together, as I said, for many years to collaborate, and help those clients and customers be more successful, be more effective with their marketing. Calix has a great toolset that they make available to their customers, and it just offers a really deep program to support customers on the marketing side. We come alongside them and help implement that for the benefit of our mutual customers. It’s been really good.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah. This has been a great event. Are there any highlights that you saw, that you’d love to share with the listeners? It’s one of those things where I think that, from what I understand, last year, the event started up again, and then, this year’s even bigger. It’s one of those things where… If there’s anything you could share with us, that would be awesome.
Bernie Arnason:
Well, I think just one is just the energy, right? This conference has just been electric, in the sense of… I don’t know how many people there are, here, but I would guess 3,000 people, maybe more, and you can just feel the energy. People are just excited and energized to take on the challenges that we just outlined before. I think Calix had a great message, here, about how to position yourself as a service provider for the future, and the importance of providing the right experience to your subscribers and to your community. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s really about, is the experience you offer. That was a message I felt was very appropriate.
Joe Coldebella:
Most definitely. Hey, so as we start to wind down, here, Bernie, we like to ask all our guests two questions. One, sort of a reflective question, and one that looks forward. Since you’ve been in the industry for 25 years, we like to ask a Back to the Future question. If I were to give you the keys to the DeLorean, and you were able to travel back in time to when you first entered the industry, and you were able to whisper something in your ear, what would you tell yourself to make the journey a little bit easier, a little more fun, and a little more whatever?
Bernie Arnason:
Whoa! That’s a deep question, huh? What would I tell myself several years ago? I would say, probably, “Buckle up!” When I first started in the business, it was a little more, I guess, sleepy. This was kind of pre-broadband when I first started in telecom. We were in the dial-up era. I came in when dial-up was… That’s how you did the internet. I just could not have imagined the progress that would happen over that time, so I probably would have told myself to buckle up and really try to take in more quickly than I have, I guess, over that time period, trying to understand what all these changes mean. I probably took that for granted and didn’t realize how important that was.
Joe Coldebella:
Then, the opposite, the crystal ball question, obviously, we’ve been talking about… There are a lot of things coming down the pike, but what do you see happening in the next two to four years? What’s something that no one’s talking about now, that everyone’s going to be talking about a year or two from now? Is there anything you can think of?
Bernie Arnason:
Well, I think it’s… God, a couple of years from now… It’s one of those questions, you’d say, “If I really knew the answer to that question, then I’d be going and investing in the companies that…” I want to almost revisit your last question, now that I think about that. I think I would’ve whispered in my ear, “Buy Google,” right? That crystal ball stuff, future stuff, I’m not sure I have a really informed, eloquent answer. The pace is… I joked a little bit. I think that the pace of this industry already moves fast, and I just think we’re going to be surprised by how faster it gets if you can believe that. If you just look at just the activity, alone, from the funding that’s coming down the pike, we’re talking, if you combine government-sponsored programs, but with private financing and equity, you’re north of $200 billion, maybe. That’s a fifth of a trillion dollars that’s going to be spent-
Joe Coldebella:
It really is staggering, isn’t it?
Bernie Arnason:
… in the next 10 years. As I say, the pace is already fast. Layer that on top of it, and it’s just kind of hard to imagine what the future’s going to look like-
Joe Coldebella:
It’s incredible. Right. The thing is, though, I think, the technology, as well, we have no idea what’s coming down, as well, in terms of technology, how we’re going to be using all the different opportunities that we have. It’s going to be fun and fascinating.
Bernie Arnason:
Absolutely.
Joe Coldebella:
Hey, Bernie, this has been awesome. Where can folks go to get to consume your content?
Bernie Arnason:
Yeah. Well, if you have any need or interest in marketing and customer experience support, please go to askpivot.com. If you’re looking for great content around the industry and getting a snapshot of broadband on a daily basis, visit telecompetitor.com.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Thank you. What you do is invaluable. Truly appreciate the visit. Thank you so very much-
Bernie Arnason:
Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.
Joe Coldebella:
All right. That’s going to end it for this episode of the Broadband Bunch. Until next time, we’ll see you later.
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