Bryan Garza 34:21
it’s a Kickstarter but four cylinder bike you know it’s a sleeper is actually a 550 motor from 74 but um but it you know you could technically I’ve written home before three cylinders. Not to be loud but to is like I felt so bad to tell my my wife my fiancee at the time say and I hate to say this but can you get off the bike I’m gonna have to it can’t carry us both up the hill with only two
Greg Owens 34:46
so can you since you can’t ride continues you can drive this can you walk?
Bryan Garza 34:51
Yeah, it was hard so I just started doing was I would carry some extra spark plugs because you know they’re not expensive but they’re hard to come by those that era at midnight, you know, outside of a bar. And so I would just, I would take them underneath my seat. And sometimes I’d even leave a sparkplug on top of the seat. They say three, you know, just don’t take the spark plugs on my engine, please, because it’s such a heavy thing, but you know, like motorcycles, no fun to get towed. And I live near Twin Peaks. And so I’ve tried pushing it up the road before and I’ve never had so much wet. You know, I’m a sweaty guy, but boy, that was a variance.
Greg Owens 35:28
Yeah, and I just, I just, I was sitting down with a friend in San Francisco. I live in Moran, and she lives in San Francisco. And she was saying that it’s because I showed up and I had my backpack on right. And another friend from Israel was there and, and, and I put it down. I’m like, Oh, I have to take my backpack out of the truck. Every doesn’t matter where I parked anymore. Right? It’s, it’s, it used to be like certain sections of the city, I would do it but not broad daylight in Union Square. Right? Yeah. Like, you know, I’m in a commercial zone outside of a Starbucks. I don’t leave it in there. And so he said, he had such a shame. It’s like so many things getting stolen. And and she was telling me and it made sense is that they’re they work in, they’re working in packs of three. And so what they’re doing is, is one person breaks the window, another person grabs the thing and brings it out and drop but then drops it on the ground. And the third person runs by and picks it up, right? Do you think about like the complexity? I mean, this is complex, right? It’s actually brilliant. It’s a brilliant, creative way. Because now it’s like, well, one person could get in trouble for breaking and entering. Gotcha. One person could get like, death to property, right, like, and then the third person is like, Oh, I saw a bag laying on the ground. So it’s not nobody, nobody gets the full sentence of like breaking and entering and stealing something.
Bryan Garza 36:53
You know, there’s been profitable businesses created with blessed creative energy put into it than that alone, right there, see hope that they pivot, you know, in, in the career path, but I, I want to actually film somebody who broke into a box, I wasn’t a car. So install the girls iPad right out of her hand walking, and took off running. And I was on my bicycle. And so I chase after the person and pull up my camera and just videoed it. And I said, Hey, this is your chance to do the right thing. You know, like, like, you know, do you want your mom to see this video and see you doing this? Or do you want to put it down and you know, and have a second chance? And it was funny. Usually, I don’t know why I was in this mood to discuss things that way. But I, I just kept talking, like in a calm fashion. This person has a cycling among them sprinting at full speed. And eventually the person stopped and said, What do I do? I said, Okay, I think you’re gonna do is go back that direction, give her back the iPad, apologize. And you’re going to, like, you know, and you’re going to remember that that’s, you know, learning moment and like, but giving the person out, rather than saying you’re going to jail forever. And the person actually took her up, you know, did that is because as a kid, Oh, really? I was like, I felt so strange. Because like, I know, I wasn’t intending to fight this pit or anything. I just wanted to kind of like, see if this might be a helpful way to you know,
Greg Owens 38:09
that’s, that’s brilliant. That’s a brilliant way to deal with something like that. Right? Like because you’re given like you said need people needed out, right? I need some redemption.
Bryan Garza 38:18
You’re like, look, you’re in the moment. This could still turn around what if we, you know, what if it’s not so absolute, you know? And yeah, and imagine if like we had a you know, window repair company and you know, on the on the ready and so on broken window, they get caught and they say okay, let’s have you installed that window. Right, an apology. And you know, but I don’t know if that’s a different program, probably outside of my scope,
Greg Owens 38:41
but I know but what I love about that is like so I studied the martial art Aikido in Aikido is a defensive martial art, right? And there’s much better martial arts out there if you want to take somebody out, right? What I really appreciated about a Keto is like how do you calm the situation down, right, and the way to calm it down, is you have to calm yourself way down. Right? So by you asking those questions and being coming from a calm place, that person just gets to like, start thinking about this and and then making a different decision right and that’s that’s such a wonderful outcome from that
Bryan Garza 39:18
that’s the you know, in the facilities world I think why I think it’s my calling is that I usually don’t takes quite a bit for me to get riled up I can to my sense of urgency, maybe he’s a little slower than others because I think I’m okay to saying okay, well, we got here all right, and by I’ll take 510 more seconds to kind of think of a rational solution rather than just you know, breakneck speed and using your back and stuff to solve things you know, I am because I think I’ve just seen those instances where it went wrong and you’re embarrassed and and you’d want to be able to do it in the future a little more calm.
Greg Owens 39:51
And is that is that how you think you got to that place?
Bryan Garza 39:55
i Oh, I do. I do think so actually, because it’s I think maybe Leaving in my interview just describing that I really, you know, I don’t usually under pressure, I think I usually handled things fairly well. And only because of experience, you know, I think it’s having moments in time in the past where you recognize it wasn’t yourself, maybe you’re inspired by somebody else, like you see a first responder and you go, wow, how are they able to be so calm rather than, you know, losing it themselves. And so I guess that’s all of our journey, right is to try to find out how we can kind of that that role model in the future, because I, you know, I’m starting a little bit older these days, and I recognize that, you know, I want my team to do the same thing. And it’s just gonna come from by example, we had a guy who would always just be so Johnny on the spot to help soon as he could, but he was also the guy who just, like, just go and just, like, try to lift a car, you know, without thinking about how much is this way, you know, and like, hey, you know, what if we, if we got the tractor and put some straps around that, and then we just let that do the work instead? And, you know, instead of you report back, you know, luckily, he’s okay. But there’s so many instances where I’ve watched his energy, trying to help, but it wasn’t wasn’t actually also coupled with a little bit of that kind of, you know, alternatives. Yeah, it’s great, it’s great if you could see someone not get injured. And that’s, that’s a thing in the facilities world, like, I know, in your world to like, claim matters, like, just like, maybe we just, you know, just think about the PPE, you know, and the extra couple steps I know, for in the hospital one day, you know, you don’t want to save yourself, I could have avoided this, I would have just, you know, you know, put on some eye protection or something, you know, something,
Greg Owens 41:33
it’s so true. I mean, I, I find one way I can get to my employees to really follow safety is like, look, I don’t want to tell your wife that your bind, yeah. I don’t want him to tell your kids, you can’t play with them anymore, right? And make them like, really think about that future. And it’s like, just put the glasses on.
Bryan Garza 41:50
Yeah, as you know, and it’s in the thing is, most time, a lot of us get away with things that we forget that maybe nine times in the past, nothing happened. But then if you realize the odds are one in 10. And now you’re 10 times coming up, you know, like, it’s important to remember that you can’t just use past experience of like, well, nothing happened and moving forward, because there’s always those quirky things like drill bits that break and, you know, and just things that especially when it comes to, like you said, whether it be your eyes, or you know, or your lungs being long term
Greg Owens 42:17
ears. I mean, the the young guys don’t understand the ears, like they’re using grinders, and they don’t put the ear protection on. And I’m like, you have to put the ear protection on. It’s not right now. It’s no big deal. But like, when you’re my age, you want your hearing.
Bryan Garza 42:31
Yeah, and if just for the sake of people out there in the karaoke audience, man, like, you know, gotta stay in pitch.
Greg Owens 42:40
Right? Yes.
Bryan Garza 42:41
Coming from a band world, I always, you know, I would take my earplugs out for my show, and sometimes I’ll even leave them in for the first half of my show. And I know it’s better to probably leave in the entire time, but I would always have them on all night soundcheck other bands, though, saving my hearing for you know, damage, just be at least for my performance. And in now, there’s better technologies out there now that can right evenly drop the volume without actually reducing the frequencies but but I was always cognizant next, I was like, Look, I ruined my hearing. This is like, a key part of my, you know, ability to connect with people is actually being key.
Greg Owens 43:21
Yeah, and I like what you said mean, like, so often I’m trying to teach my employees to go, almost everything doesn’t need a response right away, you can kind of go you can, you can kind of sit back a little bit, you can think about it, you can, you know, you don’t have to rush in, to put out whatever it is, whatever is happening most of the time, you can like, sit back a little bit and delay. Right, right. And, you know, same with, even with like, when it comes to like if they’re working on a building, and they need some kind of special safety equipment. It’s like, we’ve got time, there’s other things you could do before we need to get to that part. We can plan it out better we can all think about it, get the right equipment there. Right, make sure everything else is done until we can get that stuff there.
Bryan Garza 44:09
Yeah, and then hopefully, you know, invest in like equipment that sometimes takes away the risk altogether. Like there’s like SawStop so you know, you know people saw is that right? It’s won’t cut your finger off. Yes, it costs whatever $100 To replace the blade or drops but you know, that’s cheap compared to last finger. Right? And
Greg Owens 44:28
yeah, they have those portable now too, which is really nice. I think Bosch has him on there.
Bryan Garza 44:33
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, that’s and I think the same thing with even hand tools like we have, you know, grinders where it’s so easy to carry all your tools back to the cart for example, but the grinders it’s easy to actually turn it on and if it’s your you know, cradling in your armpit or something like oh boy so you know just slide that battery pack out you know, and then you know, de energize it right and so
Greg Owens 44:54
and grinders, grinders are super dangerous. It’s crazy.
Bryan Garza 44:57
Yeah, fun, though. Super fun, but a good photo op. Good boy, you can get sparks
Greg Owens 45:01
sparks going. Right, right. Yeah,
Bryan Garza 45:03
I think lockout tagout is the one program we’re really trying to bring here too, because I in a big place like UCSF, it’s totally understood. It’s like locking.
Greg Owens 45:12
Tell me a little more about your facility and stuff. We went all kinds of places here. Yeah. Because it’s like, it’s fascinating to hear you live on the property. It’s got 606 154 acres 54. Like, where did they come from? Is somebody’s personal residence? Right.
Bryan Garza 45:31
Very good question. Yes. So, William born in the early 1900s, you know, he moved, he had a place in San Francisco and built this estate out in Woodside. And started, I believe in 1911. I’m still junior and a lot of ways. So I’m not the I’m not the person to speak all the factual history as well, as well. But around that timeframe, and in 1917, you know, the building was completed. And then it was a private residence for the next, you know, 2030 years, where it then moved to the Roth family and Roth families know, and also for like their shipping company Matson shipping. And in the 70s, it went to the public as a nonprofit organization, to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. And so at that point, it was a nonprofit. And now it was open to the public. But the distance between that time and now there has been pretty big change in how much public actually comes to Filoli. So you can really think just, you know, our new leadership and open open seven days a week now and more hours. And also like Instagram, and things of that nature to really bring people in. And so the pandemic took, you know, it was so hard on so many businesses, and fortunately for Filoli, which is one of those businesses that people wanted to come and be in nature and get outside. So our numbers is really went up quite a bit. And so, you know, it’d between, you know, 1000 in 2000 people a day, come there, and just walk the gardens there. 16 acres of the gardens that people want to explore. And then they also see the house the mansion, which a lot of movies have been, you’re seeing dynasty, you’ve seen this house and the opening credits. Oh, interesting. Yeah, yeah, War of the Roses and a bunch of films and, and so this 55 bedroom, you know, 54,000 square foot Georgian Revival style mansion, is kind of the heart of, you know, at the entrance that people see. And there’s, you know, a lot of different reasons people go, a lot of times people want to see the house, they want to really kind of see all the various types of store collection pieces there. And the times people were just really want to see the garden. And, you know, this wonderful experience, this has been secured and has different aspects to it. And it’s surrounded by really gorgeous walls, brick walls, and that is where most people go each day, then there’s also a nature trail, that’s like a mile loop. And then there’s also a nature center with like a small little taxidermy Museum, I love to bring my friends in in the evening, and have them close their eyes not knowing where they’re going. And then I lead them to the mountain lion and open their eyes. And they’re always like, Oh, it has that red barn, it’s like another kind of room that’s used a lot for like, Reiki is is a kind of nature kid groups that are led by these instructors that all these little, you know, little kids are running around and getting introduced to nature. And so there’s the primary amount of visitations to the garden, but the property itself is 654 acres. But the majority of that really is going straight up the mountain, it’s like a really narrow slice going way up the mountain. And in the other than there’s a cemetery up there, and there’s our domestic tanks and our well water tanks. That’s not really at least at the time right now. It’s not open to the public. Because at one point before the pandemic, we had a large volunteer program like 150 people helping do things like weeding and trail maintenance, and that that was offline and it’s coming back in different kinds of waves on now but with our staff sizes, can’t you know, clear all these trails that are that big of a property, but the primary ones that people take are just fantastic for people to explore and this is great. Yeah, you know,
Greg Owens 49:15
the kids are there any is there any functions they’re like weddings or? Or oh
Bryan Garza 49:21
yeah, that’s outcomes my job right so the so generally, you know, we’re maintaining trying to do predictive preventative maintenance and keep you know, the system is in control and intact and then if anything, I love to do new projects and add something to Filoli whether it be you know, something as simple as like a twisted Nila rope, you know, four by four fence or something or, or maybe adding an interesting project. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dropping four by fours in the ground or that or you know, I’d really love to expand the electrical and I have been working on a lot electrical projects because our holiday lights there are 16 acres of lights and if you ever want to know what it’s like to feel like? Clark Rosewall and you know National Lampoon’s Vacation, trying to keep those lights on and the rain, you know, 2000 people there every night, you know, and 40 firepits with propane tanks and mushrooms. With a staff of two people, it’s like, you know, you have to get to know the electrical really intimately. But a to your point about weddings and events, there’s absolutely, those are booked all the time. And so people they’ll transform are called the woodland courts, it used to be a tennis court, which just very modest size, kind of you know, asphalt, and a tennis court area, there’ll be like a cathedral built by a team of 50 people on a Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. And then Friday night, there’s a wedding there with a the courts not even visible anymore, they built a really, you know, a separate floor and hot pink, a dance floor with, you know, just amazing lighting and whatnot. And they’re like, they’re
Greg Owens 50:58
building an entire set, like, yeah. And then they take it down, get it ready for Sunday, just coming just to normal,
Bryan Garza 51:06
right, and then we’ll do it again, again, as we have these events, you know, companies come in and build these things that are just mind blowing. And then there’s also the more modest weddings, just like these micro weddings, we have this place called the high place up on the upper edge of the garden, where, you know, there might be 12 people and some nice kind of bar by literally kind of golden little chairs that we have on the lawn there and a really nice setting. And that will take an hour and a half, and it’ll be out of there. And then there’s a lot of like, sometimes it’d be corporate type of events and whatnot. So
Greg Owens 51:38
there’s, there’s typically at least every great events like like something like one of the tech giants hosting their event there or having some kind of, yes, yeah, it’s the fundraisers, that kind of thing. And
Bryan Garza 51:49
yeah, and a lot of Filoli also has a lot of times, like other partnerships with like, you know, some kind of community based, you know, like awareness of some kind of, like, whether it relates to horticulture, you know, or, you know, some kind of process that people are going over the latest tips and tricks in like, you know, caring for flowers and such. And so, these things for our team, we definitely have to kind of plan our setups and our tear downs, too, for our in house furniture, you know, tables and chairs, and then providing power and various types of drops and stuff. And so we we do it, we have a handle a lot of that. But when it gets really big, they tend to kind of bring their own muscle and bring their own for sure. And, and I’m really glad because it’s, you know, it’s less work for us, because sometimes it’s too many running parallel or anyone’s sick, you know, or something, right. I’m just so impressed that my team for the past two years, considering there was a pandemic, I mean, I know how so many other places people are home, and they’re working remote, and they’re just, or they unfortunately had someone they know that was sick, and they couldn’t come in, and how reliably my tiny team was always there every single morning. And I really wish we were only open six days a week and close at 330 Like in the old days in the 70s. But just for my own selfish reasons, but I really appreciate how how well the business is run right now and being open seven days. The good news is is right after five o’clock, the pool there which I have to show you some time off to have you come by Yeah, that’s gorgeous pool. It’s like you know, 75 by 25 feet, you know, eight, nine feet deep.
Greg Owens 53:24
And that’s my it’s a working pool pool.
Bryan Garza 53:27
It’s not for the public. Unless there’s a special like event there’s there’s parties and stuff that sometimes uses that and have a lifeguard and they make dance floors over it and stuff like that. Gotcha. But any typical day after five o’clock once we get it’s not heated but once we get this time of year I’m in that pool swimmin from five to six by can it’s like such a way I sent her myself I have to be in water and it’s my thing.
Greg Owens 53:51
So yeah, so so many such a great so many perks to the to the job, right? I mean, there’s a downside to you mean, you’re living on property, you get woken up at three o’clock in the morning is a tree down in the driveway, right? Like, you’re getting to change. You have
Bryan Garza 54:03
to love it. Yeah. And yeah, you have to roll with the punches. And then I really, really appreciate having, you know, like Alex Fernandez, who is there has been for 27 years because he’s you know, he’s young at heart young guy still, who he knows all the institutional knowledge, you know, so much of it that be able to pass on to me rather than coming in cold and be like, Oh my gosh, but he we go mountain biking, and he’s such a good mountain biker. And take advantage of nature in the area. But it is hard to get away. And so the beauty is having him and as well as the director of horticulture. Jim Salyards live on site is that I was wondering
Greg Owens 54:40
about that. You must have a director of horticulture there. Yeah. So yeah, too much going on. It’s one person to have that knowledge, right.
Bryan Garza 54:49
Yeah. And I would have to you’d have to have such a, they’re just such different beasts. You know, like, we don’t cover organics. They do but we have a lot of overlap, and we really support their team. inevitably is what we do, right. But I still have that little app. I have a couple of apps on my phone, like picture this, you know, like to help the visitors when they asked me like, what type of tree is this and I go, Oh, that’s a London plane. That’s a Camperdown elm. And over there, you know, and I’m only one step ahead of them, because I’m typically pulling the phone out and like scanning it and be like, that’s what it’s called. Because I, you know, you I didn’t specialize in that as a kid. And so there’s a lot of exotic stuff there. To learn about. Wow, yeah. And so it’s a it’s, I love it. But it definitely is all encompassing, and you have to know how to disconnect and just really get that disconnect vacation, if possible. But in the meantime, you know, I got a little kid growing up, we got another one on the way and so we are taken advantage of being somewhere gorgeous. And I feel like I’m in a time machine. That’s the strangest thing is because all of our vehicles are from like the 80s and 90s. And they’re always tuned to like one Oh, 3.7, which is like the 80s throwback state. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. And like Jesse’s girls on the radio, and I’m, like, blown down the road and an old board from 1988 or something. And it’s a kind of hilarious how I with the tape deck that many ways I forgot what time I you know, I live in. And it’s kind of a magical thing, typically. But it is funny to leave and then go somewhere modern. Like, Oh, that’s right, you know, and I used to manage 150 iPhones, you know, and do all the programming setup for the mobile device management stuff. And, and now I’m on a computer less than an hour a day, because I’m usually out, you know, wrenching myself half the time.
Greg Owens 56:31
Right, right. Because there’s always something to be wrenching on property, like,
Bryan Garza 56:35
yeah, and I, you know, I really appreciate now having contractors like, you know, like, knowing when you can count on a company like yours, where it’s like, I know, this is the team that knows our place through and through, they have the history of the pink codes, and they know what type of sheen you’d be putting on here. Like, yeah, it’s just so nice to rely on, on getting that kind of support. Because we you know, there’s a lot of things you just can’t you know, one person always do or break away and do and, like, right now my biggest focus is getting the domestic water system reliable, because the like brilliant kind of older analog relay based controls put in 50 years ago, finally went kaput after like that big lightning storm we had a couple of years ago. And so we have to mainly Believe it or not call for water from bogus water temple because our two pumps are in there we have oh wow, other pumps and move the water, we have to move the water then drive up the mountain look at the tank, find out where the level is turn it off. And then and if we don’t it floods the hill and floods my boss’s backyard and I’m really in deep you know what and like, no wasted water. Yeah, and a lot of waste of water and so it’s very rare we do it but the other downside is now our controls even our the wiring between those two places is has Gremlins in it, we could turn it off and the pumps won’t shut off. And I can’t go into bogus it’s a you know, secure water station so I have to call them and it takes them 45 minutes to meet me if they’re available to you know to do this and so this is silly to spend this much time every day just getting potable water available. And so I’m having a really cool company put in some radios to communicate directly there and bypass the wiring and just go to a cloud based system where I can have a transducer telling me the amount of water in the tank and I could sleep at night because I tell you it’s like it’s a we use 90,000 gallons of water a day for heavy irrigation times like in the summer and that will wipe out 150,000 gallon tank in just less than a day and a half. And so you don’t have a lot of time to stay on top of that. And it’s uh usually most places is take that for granted you just say like turn the water on water on the ground Yeah, we don’t even have natural gas either. And you know, we have to use propane and diesel and, and so there’s it’s rife for I guess the next you know, for the five year plan to really kind of see how we can modernize and take away these kinds of risks and move much more green solutions you know, and so I’ll be so happy to say that
Greg Owens 59:05
great because you get to use a lot of your creativity and figuring that stuff out. Right because there’s lots of different directions you can go but it’s like well which vendor which company and under what how much money can we get this done and what kind of what kind of return can we have on the investment right?
Bryan Garza 59:20
That’s it hit the nail on the head Greg if you know me what you do is you pilot it Yeah. So I’ll do the stuff on my own environment you know, like my own home place and then say Look how well this is working you know and but luckily they are very very supportive, eating us whatever we need to make this place last for another century or two, but it is you have to get to know it first. And so I have to admit it’s been a very different pace because I didn’t wasn’t I didn’t come from systems and controls have that complexity before you know and so ended and all those things work and in a perfect world. I just wish I could, you know, angle our wells a little bit more 45 degrees. is north because we’re adjacent to Crystal Springs are well, it’s just happened to drink from the lake, we’d be no problem, but we’re just enough distance away that we have to rely on, like everybody else out there the amount of water available in your water table, and then pay for it, and then think of ways to reduce it. And so definitely trying to put plans out there to find more, like, just better, maybe some hardscapes instead of having lawns in some areas and or like moving towards things that are more just kind of indigenous, you know, they need less water. Right? Good news, this is Filoli. We even though we feel like we use a lot of water a day, if you take our whole acreage into account 654 acres, we’re actually using a lot less, you know, gallon per acre than average, average, residential suburban home.
Greg Owens 59:22
Yeah. Nice. Yeah. And you will probably just with technology, you probably just continually improve that, right, like figure out ways. I mean, the technology for for watering has changed dramatically, especially here in California, because it’s so needed, right, like watering just the amount of water that each plant needs kind of thing rather than splitting systems that sprinkler an entire area. Right?
Bryan Garza 1:01:08
Yeah, it’s, it’s worth that investment of when you think about how much you spend, you know, on water, it’s only gonna get more expensive. And so, I’ve been making that recommendation saying, hey, you know, I know I have a certain dollar cap, I’m able to approve, but now that gas and diesel have gone up a lot you hate to say this, I’m gonna need a higher threshold to approve, because, you know, the cost of fuel has gone up that much more. And so
Greg Owens 1:01:30
maybe we should implement that solar idea, or something else?
Bryan Garza 1:01:33
Oh, I’m so excited about that. You know, like it uh, there’s so many ways to go about solar to you know, like, like solar on every you know, every type of device that could use it, utilize it, or you have solar be further out where you have much more, yeah, you know, non non shaded areas, no canopies of trees. And then, and then also, there’s the idea of like, well, you could just add to the grid and buy plenty of solar out in Arizona, and you are just offsetting your you know, put us That’s true. That’s so funny. In a perfect world. I like to think that we could one day have solar out it’s out of our atmosphere where it’s really intense of the planet moving down. Yeah, it down.
Greg Owens 1:02:10
Yeah, yeah. And I’ve even like played with like, you’re at my house. And like whenever they just does that was in a rented a van, one of those bands that had solar and a solar and had a heater, right. And I was like, blown away at how good the heater works, right. And it was just like a little electric heater that blew out hot air, right. But it was bad off the battery or off the soul in a solar would charge the batteries. And I was like, Man, if I just had those, like, from my home office here, when I needed it, I wouldn’t be having to use like, the electric heat from the grid. Then it would be just alone, I’m talking about like, just a few panels on my deck, right? Not like a whole solar array on my roof.
Bryan Garza 1:02:49
There’s, you know, I love it when you see like sea changes where there’s like a museum of like, petroleum industry in Texas. And at the museum, right, where the main signage is, is all these solar panels on top of the roof, you know, it’s like even those industries recognize, well, hey, this is kind of a no brainer here. You know it right? Or that there’s, I think there’s another example something like that, where IBM, for example, I heard that they outfitted all their staff with Apple Macs instead of PCs, because they found that they saved like $730 per year and it cost per employee. And well, that’s ironic, you know, I think IBM is usually a PC company, you know, right. You know, sometimes they’re smarter solutions, you know, and it everyone has to the mainstream adopt them. And so I can’t wait to see how the new Ford lightning truck how well that check, because I love the other ones out there. And they’re all especially if they’re American industries, you know, I’m happy to see them succeed. But um, I think that one’s going to be one that the mass is like a warm up to better than maybe some of the other options out there.
Greg Owens 1:03:58
But I’ve seen the rivian driving around here lately, and it’s a beautiful looking truck, but it’s also very expensive and different. Right? And you can’t bring it to a Ford dealer that happens to be right right down the street. Yeah.
Bryan Garza 1:04:09
Lucky, we’re gonna get one has my friend who’s on the waiting list forever, forgot to take into account the depth of his garage in North Beach.
Greg Owens 1:04:19
To get a rivian or to the left, we’ll see he because he’s like,
Bryan Garza 1:04:22
You know what, I didn’t think about this. I put you on the waiting list for rivian but he’s like, I can’t fit in my garage. I forgot about that. He’s like, I’m not going to leave it on the street. It’s too difficult to park in that area. So we were like, well, maybe we can make it worth your while and you know what if you left it in Filoli and you know wandering into me want to drive it’s yours. You know what we’ll see if that comes to fruition but I guess what excites me about that truck is like I I love trucks. Now I’m quite a truck guy. But for my wife, especially I don’t think she’s interested in the width of a full size truck like the third grade in urban settings and stuff. It’s like, it’s hard to park and yeah, that most trucks are pretty functional with the bed that aren’t even that wide, you know, because usually you’re just dealing, you know, moving somebody’s refrigerator like, you know, or you can you can angle your sheets of plywood or something. So, I don’t know, I think I’m hoping they all succeed in their own ways and that there’s not, you know, there’s no animosity against any of these American companies trying something fresh, you know, because nothing, none of its organic, you know, transportation doesn’t grow off of trees, like ones, ones evil ones, good. But, um, I’d like to see, I’d like to see any of these kinds of work. And then hopefully, people just also discover the joy of bicycling. Once you get on a bike, you feel like how young and wonderful you feel, you know, it’s like, it’s so freeing to not have to be in a car, you know, in
Greg Owens 1:05:46
the craziness. Like my neighborhood, the electric bikes are just off the hook lately, right? Like, you know, just a little electric assist, right? You just see these like, like this little old lady who just like, blow past me on a on an electric bike, I’m on my mountain bike. But I’m like, This is great, because she’s getting out and she’s getting out in nature and enjoying it, but doesn’t have to put it in the same amount of hours that I’m having to put in like, definite
Bryan Garza 1:06:13
if it reminds somebody of the joy of riding a bicycle, because I don’t care how many people who like, you know, there’s a lot of guys in Dodge trucks who want to blow coal on some for cyclists because they, whatever reason, I know if those guys get on a bicycle with their friends, they’re gonna have a good time they enjoy that, like, I heard something that hopefully this is true that a lot of our major roads in the United States were actually originally built, sponsored by, like, local cycling groups, because the horse drawn kind of, you know, trails and stuff are too rough for those bicycles to be on. Oh, interesting. So a lot of our original rows were actually in
Greg Owens 1:06:53
bicycle and like, funded. Yeah, funny.
Bryan Garza 1:06:57
So you know, teach the road, but I think people get on bikes great. And the electric bikes probably do get more people to go farther distances and get out there. And that’s, that’s good, too. I, I want to avoid the electric bicycle as long as I can just because I need to burn the calories. And, you know, my waistline is battling, you know? Yeah,
Greg Owens 1:07:16
me too. I mean, I as long as I can, I mean, I’ve rented them. And it’s been wonderful. Like, especially in Japan, I rented them there, because the bikes are too small. For me, I’m pretty big. And, you know, until the electric bike, I can actually ride drop ride it. Yeah. And but I was enjoying it. Because it was it was it was a fun experience to do that.
Bryan Garza 1:07:36
Well, the best part is, if you show up to a meeting, you know, and you just, you know, I don’t know if people ever get the chance to exercise on their lunch hour or something. But if you go for a jog or you go for a quick bike ride or something in that half hour to guarantee when you show up for a meeting at one o’clock, I mean, such a good mood, you know that the petty things tend to, you know, fall away, and, you know, maybe get more done at work and
Greg Owens 1:07:56
also access more creativity and that kind of thing in that mindset, right? Yeah. And you feel
Bryan Garza 1:08:01
like you got away with something to you, even if you didn’t use any more than 30 minutes, I tell you that like, you know, like, when I used to work at UCSF, I can go for a swim and be out of the pool, back in my clothes in a meeting and less than a half hour. If I had all my stuff ready in the right locker and everything. And I when I was at those meetings felt like, like, it just was a joy to be like how did is do that. And now I’m right back here and right back at it. You know, that’s, that’s a cool thing. So I guess I’m a proponent for anything is like, try to find ways to reduce your commute out there. And you’ll just be happier, you know, because
Greg Owens 1:08:35
they can make an enjoyable and
Bryan Garza 1:08:38
yeah, and then go for a road trip once in a while and really love driving new cars for the you know, long road trip.
Greg Owens 1:08:43
So true. Bryan, I wanted to wrap up here because I know we’re going over time. It’s it’s great having this conversation with you. But two last questions, though. One is I’m always trying to figure out find ways to introduce people to the facilities management as a career and asking you that have gotten to this place in time, like what kind of suggestions you would share with somebody that’s new, or somebody that’s looking at trying to get a career in facilities? Facilities? Man?
Bryan Garza 1:09:12
Oh, that’s a great question. I mean, I would almost say I’d recommend going to, you know, when there’s conferences, and you see a lot of professionals coming from all over, just getting a pulse and seen, you realize that it’s a word I want to say I think it’s a second, the professionalism being added to that a field is growing and growing exponentially, because historically, it was, you know, you have more or less someone who’s kind of like the super and they’re just trying to fix things as they break. But now you’re seeing so many aspects of things that are not just the maintenance aspect, but sometimes the predictive parts and and the technology side and the customer service side. And so I think it’s it also pays pretty well typically too because it’s you know, they need to find really competent folks. And so, I’ve if anything I’d say that would explore going to conferences, is,
Greg Owens 1:10:00
it’s a good idea because then they can actually see meet somebody like you that’s doing, you know, that has this, this preserve that you’re being a facilities manager, but they might be like, You know what, I better be in something more high tech, what does that look like? Right?
Bryan Garza 1:10:13
Yeah, and those people that go in there, because they usually need to hire people, and they’re looking for talent, right. And there’s a lot of the beauty of the field is also that you could start in relatively like tech one position, and really get your feet wet and see if it’s for you. And then and a lot of people just out there, just, you know, when it comes to when you’re hiring, the beauty is, if someone’s already proven that they come in on time, they’re reliable, they understand where all of your, your, whether your furniture, your systems controls are all located, you know, teaching someone those next steps to add professionalism to them, or to give them more credentials and put them in a project management certification or whatever it could be, is worth investment. You know, because it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s hard to find good employees or, and I just imagined, it’s so tough, you know, and I’ve had a hard time and I think it’s a magical place to work. And so I feel for folks out there who I imagine there’s quite a bit of people wanting to find ways how to modernize and use even like, as you’re gonna laughing, but even using AI to help with the facilities experience. I think that actually, it’s not terribly far away, but it can help reduce some of the administrative things. Oh, man, you
Greg Owens 1:11:22
should listen to I’ve, I’ve done a couple of podcasts now with AI companies orally so he’s Yeah, the biggest the biggest one was just crazy is is hot cold, as you know, from your experience inside. Yeah. Inside a big facility, a building that that’s constant, like people are too hot, too cold, right? The AI and like, they can slack it and the AI picks the Slack message. And the person that just slack that hears the ventilation go on or off? Right, based on like, oh, it’s um, two colds and then it shuts off. Right. And, and the condition is shuts off right then and they feel like something, you know, can you imagine the behavioral science there, they feel like,
Bryan Garza 1:12:02
wow, that work? I love it. I think that one of my dream products to make you’re going to try to work on before took this job, the wife and I is for like, we want to make some software that your custodial team doesn’t need to have complicated software to do their job. Like if you had something that says, hey, it looks like you’ve been in this location for 15 minutes. So when you open up your phone, and it says, are you done, you know, with with the queen of room 124 Only say is yes. And you didn’t have to go like login, go through all these different menus and stuff to try to put that in there. It’s
Greg Owens 1:12:38
like it. Wow, that’s learned, you know, genius. Learn that, like, do ya learn what the algorithm is for your day of work?
Bryan Garza 1:12:45
Yeah. And just all you have to do is reply you have to say, Yep. Greg, that’s right. And keep on wrenching and you’re in the area that you wanted to work in, rather than getting too deep into some software, you know, one day, one day one day. That’s the long winded question, but I’d say is if you’re interested, you know, reach out to me anytime. I’d love to give anybody out there perspective of working in facilities.
Greg Owens 1:13:07
Oh, that’d be great. Yeah, it was so and the best way for that would be on LinkedIn. Yes. That’d be okay. Yeah. And then I’m going to mess this up again, Filoli only where does that name come from? Ah,
Bryan Garza 1:13:21
well, William Born had a motto. And that was fight for Just Cause. Love your fellow man and live a great life. And so it’s like a three part, you know, saying that game be Filoli. So fight Love Live as
Greg Owens 1:13:38
I love live.
Bryan Garza 1:13:40
I like Yeah. And so I thought it was a good credo.
Greg Owens 1:13:41
And it’s awesome. Yeah, yeah. And then to name the whole the whole estate property that
Bryan Garza 1:13:47
Exactly, yeah. So I will anyone out there wants to come by. It’s a real gorgeous place. And, Greg, anytime you just found me, I’ll buy your ticket for you. The Have you come out there and check it
Greg Owens 1:13:58
out. I’d like to come out and see like, yeah, a little bit like the behind the scenes. It’s always interesting to see like your little mini houses and all the things that you’ve put up would be phenomenal. It’s my
Bryan Garza 1:14:09
favorite part. It’s the orbit that I’m usually in. And if you pick the right time, maybe I’ll even have my pool party, my annual Pool Party and hop on in.
Greg Owens 1:14:19
Let me know for sure. Thank you so much for being on the Watching Paint Dry podcast.
Bryan Garza 1:14:24
It was a pleasure talking to you. Thanks for putting up with this wacky guy.
Intro 1:14:32
Thanks for listening to the watching paint dry podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
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