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Holiday Episode | End of Year, ISP America & WAV's Bikes for Tikes
61 Plays15 days ago
Liz Creekmore and Spencer Pous talk end of year as a small business owner, ISP America location and agenda & spotlight WAV's Bikes for Tikes.
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Transcript
Holiday Introductions and Personal Stories
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi everyone, i'm Liz Creekmore, and this is my co-host Spencer Pose, and welcome to another episode of Beyond the Bandwidth. And this is our holiday episode, so I just want to say happy holidays to everyone.
00:00:15
Speaker
Spencer, happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas, Liz. Thank you. How was your Christmas? um It was good. So um this year i was an empty nester. You know, my daughter is off at college.
00:00:30
Speaker
My son is wrapping up his ah last year at a military academy. um So it's quite a treat to have them both under my roof at the same time.
00:00:42
Speaker
And definitely it's more quality time than quantity now. So it was kind of an adjustment for me this year. um But I loved having them back. um Right now they're in Argentina with their dad, but they'll be back um tomorrow, actually tomorrow evening. so Fantastic. And you look so yeah festive.
00:01:02
Speaker
Thank you. For my holiday, i actually went on a Hanukkah and Christmas cruise this year. Okay. So i went I went on a cruise with Celebrity, and they actually had a rabbi on site that did Hanukkah services every night. Okay. And then went on Royal Caribbean for...
00:01:25
Speaker
Christmas and did the whole Christmas thing. So um I had a blast this holiday just by myself. And ah yeah, you'll have to share with us some of your cruise adventures. And I think I've seen you have another separate podcast where you kind of highlight your adventures. um Yes, yes.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah. My yeah personal channel. So yeah, we'll definitely share some of that in the future. Mm-hmm.
Year-End Financial and Regulatory Preparations
00:01:56
Speaker
So it's the end of the year. what are you doing to prepare?
00:02:01
Speaker
um yeah So like, you know, I think for any small business owner, we try to clean up our books and close things out. um I certainly try to, you know, look at, you know, from a cash flow perspective, how much, you know, working capital I have towards the end of the year and maybe if I can make some year-end purchases. So i kind of carefully take a look at my books.
00:02:24
Speaker
So this year, like i everyone's talking about um the next conference, ISP America in March. So um I know for certain I'm going to be there. i try to be there every single year. um So I had some extra working capital and went ahead, purchased my flight, hotel, and tickets for that show just so I could kind of book it as 2025 year-end expense. So just working on um you know cleaning up the books and um work-wise um in terms of you know FCC regulatory um um items, we're seeing a lot of ah mergers and acquisitions and handling a lot of the FCC-related paperwork um that we tend to see. We tend to see that more towards the end of each year. There are a lot of acquisitions that are that go through um prior to January one
00:03:20
Speaker
and just handling all the FCC paperwork. um Because certainly if you have licenses with the FCC, those need to be transferred over to to the new entity. um
ISP America Event Excitement and Agenda
00:03:32
Speaker
And it's um pretty quick and simple. um You do kind of have to... You know, get your ducks in a row, submit the paperwork, try to submit it prior to closing, get the FCC approval.
00:03:46
Speaker
And then you might wait you might wait a few weeks on the FCC to move the actual call call signs over. But um it's a pretty straightforward process, but we tend to see a lot of those towards the end of the year. So we've been busy with that. Yeah.
00:04:03
Speaker
We also try to look at you know what's going on um in terms of FCC licensing. And you know we're always pulling database reports, certainly looking at you know what what did people buy this year? How much are they buying? Were they deploying? Just just like industry industry trends that helped kind of predict um you know the growth of my company, where things are heading, that sort of thing. So that kind of wraps up my year end in a nutshell. um
00:04:35
Speaker
What about you um What are you doing for the end of your year? year do you see any? i think that we you and I both follow a lot of the um lot of the same manufacturers and distributors and stuff.
00:04:49
Speaker
Are you seeing anything interesting towards the end of the year being advertised? Yeah. Um, advertised why, I mean, why is it just kind of like the sales? There's a lot of sales going on. um as an ISP, you know, at least for me in this area, we're very seasonal. So this is our slow period.
00:05:11
Speaker
um people take off for the holidays, Um, so for us, typically end of year looks like trying to follow those sales, try to spend as much as we can on equipment for the next year to get the tax benefits of using it this year, much like, um, purchasing the show tickets now.
00:05:34
Speaker
Um, it's kind of a mad dash of like, how much can we spend to even the year out? Mm-hmm. So we've got a lot of that going on. um And kind of like I said, it's just kind of slow this period for us.
00:05:52
Speaker
I know some ISPs are running a mad dash to get as much as they can done. Others are shut down because of snow and winter. um it really just depends on your graphical graphological Mm-hmm, geographical. Geographical area.
00:06:09
Speaker
Yeah, well, you're out in Florida and occasionally i yeah even hear you complain about the cold weather. um Oh, what the heck is going on The North needs to take the weather back. It's like 40 degrees right now.
00:06:26
Speaker
I don't need this. Like if I knew was going to be this cold, I would have stayed in the Caribbean another week. But no, as soon as I get home, the freaking cold comes out.
00:06:38
Speaker
This is ridiculous. Take your cold back, Chicago. sort of Right? yes I would. You know, i've I've lived in Chicago now more than half of my life. And i still, you know, people say, well, you should be used to it by now. And I i don't think I'll ever get used to it. I'm not a cold weather person.
00:06:58
Speaker
Yeah, I seem to move warmer and warmer every 10 years. And then everyone's like, well, that should be nothing for you. And I'm like, no, no, no, my body adapts. I just, I need warm weather. so Yeah. that's That's what makes the Caribbean so nice. It's like 70 and 80 degrees year round.
00:07:19
Speaker
um You mentioned you've got your show tickets for ISP America. Um, that's awesome. So are you excited for Atlanta?
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah, so i'm I'm totally excited. It's been years since I've actually been out in in Atlanta, um but I think it's you know it's great. i I like to tell people because of ISP America, it used to be WISP America, I've gotten to see a lot of cities that I normally wouldn't have ventured out to, um such as like Birmingham or maybe Oklahoma City. um The whole of Kentucky.
00:07:55
Speaker
Right,
Wave's Community Initiatives and Events
00:07:56
Speaker
yeah. um Yeah, exactly. So yeah, this time it's gonna be in Atlanta. I think it's gonna be a great show. um you and I were chatting a little bit earlier, I guess the the agenda, has it been finalized yet or is there like a simple sketch? the agenda is at the agenda is out as of earlier this week.
00:08:18
Speaker
ah And I was going over the agenda and I'm really excited for some of these changes. we're, they're trying to push this show as the technical show. And that's what they've always said, but we haven't really had like technical training.
00:08:35
Speaker
and And so starting on Tuesday, no no, I apologize. Starting Wednesday, you have um thrown in the schedule, a wave training, a wincom training.
00:08:49
Speaker
um
00:08:53
Speaker
Then Thursday you have ISP advisor training. Um, so these vendors are going to put on a training, and actual technical training during, sessions.
00:09:09
Speaker
Um, this, this is included with your ticket from what I understand. So you like, it's an added value to the show than we've had before. Um, Also, what looks like is back is the Monday night event will be in the exhibit hall like they did last year in Oklahoma. I personally really like this because you get to get in, you get to see some sneak peek of some booths. Vendors are at their booths.
00:09:38
Speaker
um This gives us a little bit more opportunity to get into booths because in my opinion, the exhibit hall is never open long enough. um Like Tuesday, the well, Tuesday is the opening day, but we'll use Wednesday as an example.
00:09:58
Speaker
ah Looks like the exhibit hall opens at noon and closes 415, opens back at 430 and closes at 6 p.m. Yeah.
00:10:11
Speaker
yeah And it looks like. Yeah. I was just going say, it looks like no exhibit hall on Thursday. Oh, okay. So basically you get,
00:10:23
Speaker
ah
00:10:26
Speaker
Tarana also has a training on Tuesday. um But you you get three hours of exhibit hall, four hours exhibit hall on Tuesday, and then a whole day on Wednesday. Mm-hmm.
00:10:44
Speaker
I don't think that's enough exhibit hall time, but. Right. i was going to say like, um you know, when I was at Wispapalooza in Vegas, there were so many new vendors.
00:10:56
Speaker
um And, you know, I was in the exhibit hall every single day, but still felt like I didn't have enough time to really meet with people, see exactly what their yeah their business had to offer. And,
00:11:10
Speaker
Um, yeah, so it'll be interesting. Vegas was a little complicated for both of us because we started this new venture called Beyond the Bandwidth Podcast.
00:11:22
Speaker
And so you're trying to take meetings with customers. I'm making, it you know, taking high level meetings with, ah you know, various members, um as well as we're trying to meet with people taoo ah do podcast sessions.
00:11:41
Speaker
um Right. So yeah, it's, I felt very overwhelmed on ah during Vegas. Yeah. um Yeah. It's certainly, I felt like we were drinking from a fire hose and yeah just trying to capture um as much information as possible. But yeah, in general, that's how I feel when I go to the exhibit hall. There's just so much information there.
00:12:05
Speaker
You got to really pick and choose what vendors you're going to go to, like look at the list and make a list because it's so easy to get caught up and not get what you need to get done. Right.
00:12:19
Speaker
Which then just means you're going to have a lot of meetings when you get home, which I try to avoid, but it seems like I get more and more every year. um Yeah.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah. But, um you know, as a vendor, obviously your goal is to line up the meetings. So um that's probably good for you. Right. Yeah. No, certainly, you know, those four days fly by Wispapalooza, I think we came in a day early just to kind of get everything set up and situate and maybe take some early meetings. But yeah, yeah the time time flies by. And then, you know what? A month after the show, people are talking about the next one.
00:13:01
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it it really is. Yeah. It's it's turn and burn. um As soon as WSPA gets done with one show, they're planning not the one in six months from now. they're planning it well They're planning that. They're also finding the venue and signing the contracts for the one a year from now.
00:13:21
Speaker
um So there's a lot involved with the staff and WSPA and the agenda committee. ah and really want to shout out that they've like changed the agenda committee, like the the people on it, the way it runs, like WISPA has really done a lot of focus on making changes to adapt the show um from maybe the same stale show every year to something different.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah, and they also, I mean, they certainly circulate a call for for topics um to the member to the members. So they ah they definitely engage a lot and request feedback. Well, I'm really excited for these trainings, right?
00:14:10
Speaker
Mm-hmm. They're not like, it's kind of...
00:14:16
Speaker
We don't know what the topics of the trainings are yet, except for Tarana. We can assume the topic of their training is Tarana and CBRS. Yeah.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah. And Com, not sure what their trainings are, but they're going to, they should be technical. They should be very valuable. um I'm excited to kind of see what they're going to be.
00:14:40
Speaker
Um, but I, overall, I think it's going to be a good show.
00:15:19
Speaker
I was lucky, you know before right before Christmas, um me being in the Chicagoland area, I was lucky to to get an invite and venture out of my office to Waves headquarters in Aurora, which is about 35 minutes from me, and participate in one of their their Bikes for Tykes event.
00:15:43
Speaker
um So this is something that they... Yeah, it was actually, yeah, it it was really cool. um i'm I'm glad I went there because I i do see the invite um every year. They're ah really generous to send it out to to people and invite people into their space. um But yeah, i showed up. There were a lot of lot of vendors there. I want to say Toronto was there too. um But yeah, basically they converted their warehouse into this um really organized, huge um bike assembly event. um In Aurora, they put together 300
00:16:23
Speaker
um In their college station, the ISP Supplies headquarters, they put together 100 bikes. And then in their warehouse um up, I believe, in Washington State, they put together another 100 bikes. um So it's something that they do every single year. it was my first time participating.
00:16:42
Speaker
i was a little hesitant because I'm not... I don't know, I'm not like really a ah tool kind of person. And, you know, you're assembling something, a little kid's going to end up riding and you want to make it safe. But um the the bike kits were, they're almost kind of like you snap them together, twist a few screws. Right, right.
00:17:04
Speaker
um We took a lot of footage of of me putting together a couple of bikes and it was pretty straightforward. And then it was so well organized. You know, once you assemble a bike, they put it in another room where they have a quality assurance team check it out and make sure it's safe before they, you know, get it ready to to be picked up by the truck. Yeah. So was just a great friendly event. A lot of local ah vendors came to support.
00:17:35
Speaker
It's affiliated that their charity ah that they that they do is affiliated with the Marines, um the Toys for Tots. ah So there was a Marine there. Santa Claus was there. a lot of people brought their kids. So I think that might be something I do next year is just... a bring my two teenagers there.
00:17:54
Speaker
But yeah, that was, that was a lot of fun. We, yeah, we took some video coverage and. um Yeah. Not only do we have ah Jonathan from College Station showing us around their warehouse.
00:18:09
Speaker
We have you building bikes at the yeah Chicago warehouse. And I believe you built the very last bike. I believe I did only because I think um at the very end, ah they get on the intercom and they're like, you know, there are like 10 bikes left and 10 people still here. If you each just do one more bike, we'll... Yeah, they're like, we'll be done. And um it was really cool. They actually had a DJ. I don't know if you know Brian Vargas. um Oh, yes. Yeah, he was and he was the DJ there. So he put on like the last music. He was mixing the ones and twos. Okay.
00:18:49
Speaker
Yeah. And, um, I think I was a little slow, so I, yeah, my, my bike was the last little bike to, to, to be assembled. Um, but yeah, it was so much fun. They had like cookies and treats and, um, it was just a great thing to to do their organization. Um, we, we actually chatted with, with Zach Hubick. Um, he's the president of, of wave cares. So we were able to chat with him a little bit about it afterwards. Um, But it's it's great, you know, to see what they're doing. Yeah.
00:19:21
Speaker
yeah Well, let's ah let's cut over to you and Jonathan live during the event.
00:19:31
Speaker
Hey, Jonathan. How are you? I'm good. Great to see you. I see you're at the Wave location. the but Yeah, so I'm at the Wave location in Aurora.
00:19:41
Speaker
But where are you? I'm in College Station. We're building 100 bikes here. So we have a good crew. And we're about halfway through it right now. So we're yeah we're bustling through it. It's going good.
00:19:55
Speaker
Yeah, we're about an hour and a half in. a lot of people here, lot of bikes that have already been built. So tonight we're we're putting together 300 bikes with the Wave team in Aurora.
00:20:10
Speaker
We also have 100 bikes being put together up at our Kalama, Washington location. So we have 100 here, 100 in Washington, and then 300 in Aurora. Excellent.
00:20:23
Speaker
And we have some some kids running around. I guess some people brought their kids. It's a really festive atmosphere here. A lot of people volunteering. It's awesome. We need those bike testers, you know?
00:20:35
Speaker
We made sure that everybody brought in their kids because I'm like, we need testers. We need them to ride these bikes, make sure they're legit. We send them off to the kids.
00:20:44
Speaker
Right, so that's one thing I read. I guess you guys do have ah quality assurance. You guys test each bike before you cut it up onto the truck. Yes, so we have a... Here, I'll take you on a little tour of every station here.
00:20:59
Speaker
So we have our unpacking station here. We have four stations for that. Here they take all the paper and everything off the bikes. Then we have assembly stations here where everybody's working diligently getting these bikes together and making sure they're right.
00:21:13
Speaker
And then we have our QA section here where they basically check the bikes, make sure everything's tight, nothing's loose, nothing's going to fall off. They inflate the tires with air. And then we have our bike testers that are riding the bikes around the warehouse here, ensuring that, ah you know, that they're 100% legit, giving them a final test. Here's one of our testers, Manuel here, Shelly's boy. Aw, so cute.
00:21:38
Speaker
And today, a little- Do you have a Santa Claus? I'm checking the bikes out. testing the bike so yeah. Oh nice. Today rode his first bike without training wheels. He actually just grabbed one and rode and we're like uh he rides without training wheels and we're like I guess he does now. Wow. So pretty awesome.
00:21:56
Speaker
Yeah that's incredible. yeah that's one thing to mention I guess a lot of the bikes have built-in training wheels that pop off if you don't need them. Yes 100%. hundred percent So and there are sizes for all ages too.
00:22:10
Speaker
Yes, all the way up from toddler all the way up to teenager. So yeah, it's a beautiful thing. We're having a lot of fun here. We have some good food also that we're going to eat after we're done building here.
00:22:21
Speaker
Hunter Smith came in and he cooked a big big old pot of gumbo for everybody. So we're looking forward to that. Oh, wow. Well, that's very cool. It's so awesome that you guys can put this on every year.
00:22:37
Speaker
That's the plan. And get all three of your teams together. That's that's great that you guys do this. Yeah, we have a have a few customers here, some employees. We have spouses. We have a few vendors here. Massellini from UCL Swift came in also.
00:22:52
Speaker
And yeah, so we have a really good crew here. Kicking butt and taking names. Great.
00:23:01
Speaker
Well, very cool. Yeah, no, thanks for hopping on and sharing this ah sharing this with Spencer. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. i've been ah I've been meaning to get on your ah your podcast for a while, so I'm excited.
00:23:13
Speaker
Today, we are privileged to have Zach Hubick. Zach is VP of Marketing at Wave, and he's also president of an organization called Wave Cares. So we're here to ask Zach um a little bit about how your organization was founded and and its mission and recently what you guys have been up to. Awesome, love it.
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, Zach, so how long have you had Wave Cares and and um what made you guys decide to found the organization? Yeah, so Wave Cares is a 501C3 and we were officially formed in late 2024. So we're fairly new, we're about a year old, and we're all about our communities. So how we got started is a much longer story. I'll try to make it very brief, but we started building bikes for children in the community right around 2011. And we started when I buddied up with a friend of mine named Sean Lucas from Ruckus. And so he was building bikes in Virginia and Florida and donating them to the community. I said, I can do that. Let's do that in Aurora, Illinois. So we started our first year in 2011, doing about 50 bikes. The next year we did 100, then 150, then 300. In the last probably 10 or 11 years, we've done 500 bikes every
00:24:33
Speaker
then hundred fifty then three hundred in the last probably ten or eleven years we've done about five hundred bikes every year with helmets. And so um we did that predating WAVE CARES, but then we said, you know what, let's make this thing official. Let's make it a 501c3 and let's call it WAVE CARES and allow people to have tax deductible donations. So that's ah really our origins.
00:24:59
Speaker
ah Oh, excellent. Yeah. And so um just a couple days ago, i had the privilege of going to Waves Aurora facility and participating in some of the bike build, which we'll showcase um on our podcast. um But Spencer and i were able to dial in with um ah with ISP supplies down in Texas as well. And then you have a third warehouse, um ah that you were building bikes at as well.
00:25:29
Speaker
We do. So we've got, we did 300 bikes in Aurora, Illinois at at Waves headquarters. And then we had um in Kalama, Washington, we did a hundred bikes there where we have a warehouse. And then of course you guys just spoke about a college station as well. We did a hundred bikes there and I'm fresh off of delivering all those bikes over to Toys for Tots. We take all of those bikes, um bring them them, bring that at least in Aurora over to Toys for Tots. And then they donate them to the community church. both or other groups that need toys for their children at at Christmas time. It's really cool.
00:26:05
Speaker
Oh, that's amazing. And so... Awesome what you guys are doing. Yeah. And then Spencer and I were chatting. Um, I mean, obviously like we were, we are very aware of the, the bikes that you guys build every year. Cause there's a lot of social media behind it. Do you think that you'll expand beyond, um, the holiday season? Do you think wave cares will expand, um, and have events throughout the year? um Yeah, so one of the things that is always a challenge every year is just the fundraising aspect of it. There's a lot of effort around that. And we are talking and a very preliminary way about next year and following years. you know ah Let's do ah a Wave Cares 5K and let's invite people come out to some fundraisers. We also do little things like in Aurora here, there's called a place called the Hesed House. And what we do is we have all of our employees that travel come back to the office with their unused toiletries and we donate that to the Hesed House. And their mission is getting people from homelessness back on the streets and back into working in the workforce. And we all deserve the dignity of a clean shower and a clean body every day, something we
00:27:17
Speaker
folks that just take for granted all the time. And we like to do little things like that. So if there are future initiatives, we do have big plans for Wave Cares. It's all centrally focused around taking care of the community and what the community needs. And we really started it with bikes, but we do want to grow and expand that in the future here for sure.
00:27:36
Speaker
Okay, excellent. That's great. So yeah, I find it interesting. you know I know you guys have been doing the bikes forever. um And so it's to forming the 503C makes a big difference.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, and what I liked about the bike activity, I was talking to Spencer about it, it's ah you know it's not a monetary donation, so you can donate your time as well and and have an impact.
00:27:59
Speaker
Absolutely. I see a lot of folks come out and donate things as well. So Brian Vargas is a name in the wired and wireless industry that we know for many years. He donated his time and he actually enjoys being a DJ. as a hobby. And so he donated his time and ah and had the music for our event here. We have a Santa come out every year as well and hang out and play with kids and do all that cool Santa Claus stuff. So a lot of people step up to help out the community. It's really, it's really humbling to see.
00:28:34
Speaker
Yeah. Well, if someone wants to reach you guys at WAVE or at WAVE Cares, um what's the best way for them to reach out to you? Yeah, absolutely. You can hit our website at wavecares.org. We spell wave without an E, so it's wavcares.org. You can donate your time, you can donate to the cause. And like you said, again, folks, it is um tax deductible 501c3 and would love any support you guys can offer. So thank you guys so much.
00:29:02
Speaker
Yeah, thank you, Zach. Great, Zach. Well, thank you so much for coming on and telling us about Wave Cares. We're really excited to kind of spotlight this initiative for our holiday episode.