Did you know ECS launched a podcast? Coffee Talk: From the Ground Up is meant to be educational, entertaining and encouraging with practical advice you can apply directly in your work and life. Listen and subscribe now on Anchor, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts.
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Introduction
Steve Gosselin:
Welcome to Coffee Talk: From the Ground Up, an ECS podcast, where we strive to provide a more personable way to communicate with employees. I’m Steve Gosselin, but you can call me Goose, and I’m part of our Senior Leadership Team. And I’m joined here by Julie Smith, who is part of the Marketing Communications Team and our resident chocoholic. Say hi, Julie.
Julie Smith:
Thanks Steve. Hey, everyone. I’m glad you’re joining us today. So, Steve, what are we doing here?
Steve Gosselin:
Great question, Julie. One of the struggles with a company our size is getting a message to the masses, without it being diluted along the way. From projects and people to services and career insight, we hope this podcast helps provide an avenue to communicate the stories that are worth sharing. It’s to learn about our culture and feel more connected, and to have some fun along the way.
Julie Smith:
So what you’re saying is, we hope this podcast is educational, entertaining, and encouraging, with practical advice you can apply directly to your work and life.
Steve Gosselin:
Well said, Julie, and that’s why you’re in marketing.
Julie Smith:
So, grab a cup and settle in.
Our attorney makes us say this. This podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only. Nothing herein shall be construed as providing professional engineering services or used to establish the standard of care. This podcast and the comments contained therein, represent only the personal views of the participants and do not reflect those of ECS. While we make every effort to ensure that the information we are sharing is accurate, we welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors.
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Steve Gosselin:
Hey, good morning everyone, welcome to Coffee Talk. Today we’re going to be talking with Shannon Priester and I’m really, really excited about this one because I’ve worked with Shannon since day one, off and on, either directly or remotely and she’s got a great story to tell, so I’m looking forward to this. And Shannon being the local Safety Director has agreed to share the Safety Minute with us this morning. So Shannon, I’m going to turn it over to you.
Shannon Priester:
Well, good morning. Thank you very much. So as we head into fall and when most of us come to work, it’s dark in the morning, it’s dark when we go home at the end of the day and the majority of our incidents across ECS seem to be driving related. Please remember that headlights on, your car is functioning properly. You get stopped in the middle of the night, it’s hard to see your car out there. So look at your car during the daylight, make sure you have all your functioning equipment in your car. A flashlight would be a good idea, a reflective vest in case you have to get out along the side of the road and change a tire. Gosh forbid, I wouldn’t know how to do that, but make sure you are prepared so that others can see you, while you can see them, they don’t necessarily have the ability in the dark to see you and your safety is essential.
Steve Gosselin:
Excellent, that’s a good one. Early on, when I first learned how to do drive, a long, long time ago, my dad actually showed me how to change a tire, but nowadays, I would encourage everybody who can’t change a tire, one thing I guarantee you, there’s a YouTube video somewhere to show you how to do it. The other is, make sure you’ve got AAA or something equivalent, available on your phone or on speed dial to call in case of that emergency because whenever it happens, it’s extremely random and never convenient. So that’s a great Safety Minute Shannon, thank you.
Steve Gosselin:
So good morning again, everyone. Today, we’re going to be speaking with Shannon Priester. Shannon has been with ECS since 2004 and currently she serves as a project manager in the Southeast Environmental Group and is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She also serves as the Southeast Environmental Regional Safety Manager. Shannon’s had a very storied, and excellent career with ECS. She’s done many, many great things for us, as you’ll hear on the call and hopefully, we can dive into some of that. But before we get started, we’ll start with rapid fire. So you ready Shannon?
Shannon Priester:
I am.
Steve Gosselin:
Okay. What’s your favorite food?
Shannon Priester:
Pizza.
Steve Gosselin:
Nice. Favorite movie?
Shannon Priester:
Devil Wears Prada.
Steve Gosselin:
Oh, wow. Good one. All right. Best vacation spot or favorite place in the world?
Shannon Priester:
There is nothing like returning home. So I would say, if I have the opportunity to vacation, it’s going back home to Western New York.
Steve Gosselin:
Oh, very nice. Okay. And believe me, Shannon is one of the most passionate people that I know, so we couldn’t miss this question. So Shannon, I have to say, what are you most passionate about, because you’re passionate about everything?
Shannon Priester:
I am. High school wrestling is probably the thing I am most passionate about.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. What job would you be terrible at?
Shannon Priester:
A waitress.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. I guess I could agree with that. That’s a great answer. Okay. What are you addicted to?
Shannon Priester:
Coffee.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. Welcome to the club and how appropriate for Coffee Talk. And what is something most people don’t know about you?
Shannon Priester:
Growing up, I always wanted to be a nurse.
Steve Gosselin:
Oh, wow. So you couldn’t be a waitress, but you could be a nurse? That’s very interesting.
Shannon Priester:
I think I would have gone into nursing administration so I could tell others how to do things.
Steve Gosselin:
All right. Shannon, what is your ECS story?
Shannon Priester:
I started as a administrative assistant in the Greensboro Geotech Department when I got hired in the spring of 2004. And was in Greensboro six years, then transferred to the Raleigh office, to stay in the Geotech Department here but working with a structural engineer, predominantly. Did that for a few years, helped with collections, just did lots of administrative related things. And then was given an opportunity in 2014, when the person doing Phase I’s, went to pharmacy school to move into the environmental world and do Phase I’s. And so here I am, seven plus years later, with over a thousand reports written doing Phase I’s.
Steve Gosselin:
Okay. We’ll stay on the subject and talk a little bit more and I’ll share a little bit of my personal experience with Shannon, which is all excellent. When she came to work in Greensboro, I was actually managing the Greensboro office and working closely with Steve Neece, Brian Moss and others. And almost immediately, Shannon whipped our Geotechnical Department in shape. She would hold everybody accountable, make sure that she had copies of a proposal and report deliverables on every Monday morning meeting. She would constantly, I would say, encourage her team to get things out on time and remind them respectfully. And in fact, there was more than one occasion, where I suggested to Steve Neece who was our Regional Manager at the time, that maybe we should make Shannon, the Geotechnical Department Manager.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. She was that good at running the show and making sure things got out and got out on time. She wouldn’t accept any excuse and was excellent at motivating her people to get things out. When she moved to Raleigh, to me, it was a bit of a shock and surprise and I actually called her about it. I think at the time, I was a regional manager and she had an excellent response and reason why she was moving and I trusted Shannon and suspected that it was a good move for her, as it turned out to be. And she’s being a little bit modest about just jumping into learning to do Phase I’s.
Steve Gosselin:
It wasn’t like something all of a sudden. You went back to school while working full time, raising a family, things like that. Tell us a little bit more about that? And like I said, I know that you’re modest, but it’s a great story to share with our folks, so they can realize, not only what kind of person you are, what you did to get there, but also as an inspiration everybody about, “Well, you know what? I can do that too.” So, please just let everybody know, after you moved to Raleigh, decided to do the Phase I’s, what you did to get to where you are now?
Shannon Priester:
Absolutely. So, I realized through the ASTM that I would have to as a non-degree person, do them for 10 years before I could be considered an environmental professional and that wasn’t acceptable to me. I realized the only way I would be happy, would be moving up the career chain and that meant going back to school and getting my degree. So I was very fortunate and found out that ECS has a wonderful TAP, which is the Tuition Assistance Program, that allowed me to have funding based on my grades to go back to school and get my degree. So I did, I started back at UNCG in the spring of 2017, in their Environmental Studies and Sustainability Program and graduated two and a half years later with my four-year degree with honors.
Steve Gosselin:
Yes.
Shannon Priester:
Working 40 hours a week.
Steve Gosselin:
Yes. And we are honored to have you as part of the team, your hard work, your dedication, your commitment, your passion, over the last 17 years is really unparalleled in the company. And I’ll tell you another quick story about Shannon and she’ll appreciate this one and I hope everybody listening does as well too. Being a regional manager, I spent a lot of time on the road going to offices and I had reason to go to Raleigh on many occasions.
Steve Gosselin:
And so I would be in the office checking in and speaking with the folks and the staff, the branch manager, the department managers, the principals, and just kind of checking the pulse of the office. And then all of a sudden, you would hear Shannon hurrying down the hallway, in her shoes, clop, clop, clop, clop, clop, and going to get a copy report, check in with somebody, do something that was urgent and needed to be done and then all of a sudden, clop, clop, clop, back to her office. So you knew when Shannon was there and she was on a rampage and she had to get something out because she was up and down the hallway, clopping those shoes.
Shannon Priester:
That is very true.
Steve Gosselin:
Okay. Let’s get back to your career, your career transition and your training and getting back to school and the tuition assistance program. Just tell us a little bit about some of the best resources, experiences and opportunities in your development? So, not only the resources, but some of the folks you got to work with, some of the experiences you’ve had, tell us a little bit more about your journey and your story?
Shannon Priester:
Oh, absolutely. So I’ve been very fortunate being in two different offices and multiple departments now, to have worked with really great engineers and geologists, additional wetland folks. I really, I’ve gotten a variety of training from various levels within ECS. It gave me a better opportunity to do what I do now, because I’ve had that opportunity. I’d never seen a drill rig. I mean, I knew nothing about what we do when I got hired, other than the fact that I could edit somebody else’s reports. And so being able to move up through ranks, go in the field, assist people with things that weren’t necessarily my job, but ways that I could be a positive impact and a positive help for them, has really helped me develop.
Shannon Priester:
I’ve had great managers that have helped train me. When I started doing Phase I’s, it was like, “Here, they’re yours now, figure it out.” But I knew that if I had a question, I had such a wealth of people to call on when I didn’t understand something. Justin Roth was a huge part of my Phase I beginning training. Dave Valentine is now my manager and is a great resource for me. I can pick up the phone and call these guys at any time. Scott Werley, I’m fortunate, in Raleigh, he is a Phase II guy who sits across the hall.
Shannon Priester:
And when I run into something, when I’m reviewing and I’m like, “I don’t even know what this means?” In a report that was Phase II related, I can go over and ask him and be like, “Hey, what do you think about this?” And they’re just great people, great sources of knowledge. I’m the sixth one in Environmental Standings Committee Chair, so I have an opportunity. I’m probably the bottom of the totem pole in that group with so many years of experience there, across and I just learn so much sitting in on those calls, just from people with 10 and 15 years more in this field than I do. It’s just been such a wealth of knowledge to me.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. Great answer. Thanks for that. And you’re a living testament to not only your positive mental outlook to everything, but the ability to start every day with the commitment to improve yourself, excellence and to start out each day as a learner. You don’t start out each day like, “I know everything, or there’s nothing left for me to learn.” Every day for you is a new day to learn something new. I know working with you, that’s the experience I’ve always had.
Steve Gosselin:
And you’re right. I mean, the people that you mentioned about being your mentors, your coaches, your trainers, your leaders, your managers, we are, we’re lucky to have them. And you’re right, you’re lucky to have had them in your career, you have, you’ve had some great experience and great training. And so speaking about your experience, you might say, “Well, I’ve only been doing this just for a few years.” But experience-wise, you’ve done well over 1,000 Phase I’s in that period of time. So you’ve got a great depth of experience and that has exposed you to many different clients. And I’ve seen a lot of your feedback from the quality assurance questionnaires, but I’m sure that you’ve got at least one or two good stories, good client interaction stories, you can share with us along the way. So is there anything you can add to about some of your interactions with some of our clients?
Shannon Priester:
Yeah, absolutely. So I think because my background was more administrative or not on the highest technical level, well, I can converse with clients, not all of our clients have the knowledge in the field that we do. Some of them, you send them a report and they read it and they’re like, “I don’t even know what this means?” It’s above their understanding and that’s where our job of being able to explain the technical side, in a layman’s terms, is helpful. And because I am that layman, that’s how I look at me. I’m able to have a very honest conversation with our clients and we do have quite a few who call me and say, “You did such an awesome job on one that was very simple for them. Can you take on this absolutely crazy one or vice versa?”
Shannon Priester:
I’m doing some not exciting ones for these mobile home parks in Fayetteville and some of those places aren’t the best, but the client has been so appreciative. We started with just a desktop review form on one. And his bank said, “No, we don’t want them in desktop. We want Phase I’s for all five of these properties.” And he called me in a panic because, “How can we do this and can we make it work?” And we turned them around in less than three weeks for him and he was able to close on the deal. And he was just so grateful that we were willing to jump in and turn the stuff around. And his deadline, he paid the progress invoices, called Donna and paid them the day he got them and wanted to pay out the whole balance before I’d even finished invoicing, because he just appreciated how fast ECS was able to turn stuff around for him.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah, that’s a great story and a great example and a great example of one of the things that we’re really pushing hard in our core values and who we are. And our culture is delivering an excellent customer experience and your explanation about explaining things or delivering information in layman’s terms. What I used to say was, when I talked to some of our technical experts, I said, “Just pretend like you’re Denzel Washington in the Philadelphia Story, explain it to me like I’m a two year old.” And really, you’re very good at that. People appreciate when you deliver information in terms that they can understand.
Shannon Priester:
Absolutely.
Steve Gosselin:
Being technical experts, we have a lot of jargon, a lot of acronyms we use and things like that, and people get lost and they get confused quickly. So that’s great for our folks and a great example of how to treat our clients. And delivering an excellent customer experience is, lose the jargon and explain it to them in simple terms that they can understand.
Shannon Priester:
Absolutely.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. Thanks for that. Knowing what you’ve learned along the way, would you have changed anything?
Shannon Priester:
I wish I’d have had the opportunity and had a manager maybe 10 or 15 years ago, push me into this. I’m so grateful for those who, when I joined and came into the Environmental Department, who said, “You can do more than just type somebody else’s report or collect somebody else’s money.” Because I’m not sure I believed it at that point. You know what I mean? I was just very accustomed to doing those things at that point. And somebody else had to kick me in the butt and say, “You are worth more.” And I wish 10 years before that, somebody would’ve said, “Okay, that’s great. You’ve done our reports, but now you need to do for yourself.” That’s about the only thing in my ECS journey I would’ve changed.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. And I hear you, and I agree with you and everything in due time. You’re an incredible inspiration and I hope you’re inspiring a lot of the folks on this call to think about that and to really stretch themselves. For you, what you described and it’s true, is sometimes it takes someone to push you out of your comfort zone.
Shannon Priester:
Yes.
Steve Gosselin:
You were excellent at what you do. You were very good at it. You were comfortable at it. And one day somebody said that, “You might of think about a technical track and start doing this stuff.” And in most cases, “Oh, no, I’m not cut out for that or I’m not good enough, or I’m not smart enough.” Or whatever, but you did, you took the bull by the horns, you took advantage of the opportunity and said, “You know what? It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be tough on me and my family.”
Steve Gosselin:
But you sat down and you talked with everybody and you charted a path. And you said, “I think I can do this.” And so once you made that declaration, we all rallied around you and said, “Okay, well, we’re going to help you get there.” And that’s the beauty of working for this company and working as a team, is that when you make that public declaration and say, “Hey, man, I need some help and support here. I’m going to do this.” We made sure you got there.
Shannon Priester:
Absolutely.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah, and I want to acknowledge you for doing that good work. So what were some of the setbacks you’ve overcome along the way and how did you get through it?
Shannon Priester:
I think my biggest setback here came right before I moved into environmental. The Raleigh office was creating a position for an admin manager, we called it the A-Team. And I thought with all my experience at ECS and all I had done, I was the shoo-in for that and it was a wakeup call for me when I didn’t get that position. And I think that was just divine intervention saying, “We have a different path for you that you just haven’t figured out yet.” It came super close for me like, “Do I leave ECS? Do I follow a different role?” And had a few people here who said, “No, there’s a reason this is happening. Just hang in there.” And it was very shortly later that the opportunity to join environmental and pursue what I’m doing now, which is where I should have been. It is what should have happened to me, happened. Because it was the motivating factor that I need to do something different to better myself and this career path was it.
Steve Gosselin:
We’re glad you did and thanks for taking it as a wake-up call and not a rejection.
Shannon Priester:
Absolutely. Some things just are meant to happen. It’s kind of like becoming the safety manager. The previous one went back to military training and so I volunteered to do it. And it has developed into a huge passion for me. I spend a lot of time helping Mingo with subsidiary safety, which I’m very grateful for and I think that is something, we as a company are improving on every day and I enjoy interacting with that group of people.
Steve Gosselin:
Speaking of motivation and I can’t imagine that it’s that hard, but we’ve got to ask you this question. How do you create motivation for yourself?
Shannon Priester:
I look to my dad, he told everybody, he was a teacher and so he was the hard driver at school. He taught PE, which everybody nowadays thinks is the easy thing. Back when I was in school, you couldn’t graduate unless you made up all your PE classes. So to him, it was just as important as your history class. And I heard him tell everybody, it didn’t matter if you were the A student or the D student, you just had to work hard and you could be successful at everything. You didn’t have to be an athlete to go to college. You didn’t have to be an A student to have a good job and be successful in life.
Shannon Priester:
And he taught and coached for almost 40 years and he’s still involved in leading and inspiring young people. And to me, at my age, I want to be that inspiration for maybe our younger staff who see my journey at ECS and the ability to move up the chain or change jobs, you’re a CMT technician, well, maybe you don’t want to be a CMT technician forever, you want to go back and get your engineering degree. That potential is there, you just have to be willing to work, to achieve that dream. But my dad inspires me every day.
Steve Gosselin:
Awesome. That’s great. So what advice do you have for someone new to the industry?
Shannon Priester:
Take time to listen to those around you. I have learned so much from the people I work with and they don’t have to be in your department. I probably have learned just as much from people in other departments and other realms of ECS. You just have to be willing to listen. Bits and pieces you may not think of today, but six months from now, you’ll be like, “Hey, I remember I was talking to X, Y, Z, and they mentioned this.” And you really have to be willing to go outside your comfort zone. I would never have wanted to present in front of people, that terrified me, but listening to my managers, my colleagues who do it, getting pointers from them, made a huge difference that I could go and talk to clients and present things. And I actually volunteered when I was at school to give presentations when other kids wanted to turn in just hard copy reports. I was the one, “Hey, I’ll give that presentation.” And it happened slowly over time, but you have to be willing to take that chance.
Steve Gosselin:
So, you started alluding to some skills that you’ve learned along the way and how you’ve exercised some things that weren’t strengths for you. What skills have you found vital to your job?
Shannon Priester:
Time management. Phase I’s are a quick term thing. You don’t have six months maybe to work on a project like you would maybe with a wetland project. Time management is key and I think I learned that early in my career, having to balance work and family, with three kids, all school, all sports, and still being in the office, running back and forth. If I hadn’t figured out how to balance that, I would never have figured out how to get to this point. It helped me then with college, “How do I balance my college classes with full-time work?” And right now, I have 25 Phase I’s going. If I didn’t have that time management skill, I’d be sunk.
Steve Gosselin:
Only 25 Phase I’s, Shannon? Are you cutting back? Are you working part-time now?
Shannon Priester:
It’s busy in this market. That’s for sure, right now.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah, it is everywhere, you’re right about that. So we’ll shift a little bit and we’ll start asking some things about what our listeners want to know if about you. How would you answer the question, what does ECS do?
Shannon Priester:
I’ve always looked at ECS as a one stop shop. So any client who wants to develop a site can take us from beginning to end and beyond. So not only can we do all the due diligence work for them, we can do all the geotechnical work that will allow them to know how to design their building, their construction materials testing. And once that building is built, the facility side of our company, can come in and make sure that building’s functioning properly into the future.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah.
Shannon Priester:
They don’t need another consultant, we can do it all.
Steve Gosselin:
That’s right. Excellent. So what is the funniest memory from your time at ECS and it cannot include me?
Shannon Priester:
Let’s see. Funniest memory, has to be many moons ago, environmental trip out of Greensboro. We had two really great trips. One of them was whitewater rafting and another was the complete opposite. We had so much water there, it was crazy and people falling out of boats. And then, we went kayaking instead, two years later, to be a little less stressful on the heart and it was so dry we were pulling our kayaks through the water. But that group of people that we worked with, it was a good let out of the stress from your work days to be able to go and enjoy some time outside of it. I had a great time doing that.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. Yeah. Those were good times. What is the one piece of advice you want to leave us with?
Shannon Priester:
Never stop learning, never, ever, ever. There isn’t a position here at ECS where you don’t have something to learn. From the ground up when you’ve come in the first week to Henry and Tony sitting at the very top, there’s always something every day you can learn from somebody to better yourself and better the company.
Steve Gosselin:
Well said. Great advice. I couldn’t agree more. Okay, well, we’ll go ahead and start wrapping this up. Ask you one final question and then leave it with you for some parting shots. But what fills your cup? What makes you happy or brings you joy?
Shannon Priester:
My family. I have three wonderful children and four grandchildren, and seeing them be successful in the paths that they take in life, which are all very different, brings me joy. Because I know as a parent, I’ve left a positive impact on their life and that’s really important to me.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is to me too and I would expect that’s what your answer would be. I can remember early on, you and I sitting around and sharing stories about our kids and our family and things like that and I know how important that is to you. Any final parting shots or final things you want to share with us before we sign off?
Shannon Priester:
Well, just thank you to you for taking the time to learn about my journey and sharing it with others. Thank you for considering my time here at ECS to be of value, to inspire others. That is a huge part of my life and I’m truly grateful for the people here who’ve given me opportunities to be at ECS.
Steve Gosselin:
Yeah. Well really, we’re the ones you should be thanking you. Thanks for all you do for us. Thanks for taking time out today of your busy schedule. I know that you’ve always got something on your plate, so we appreciate you carving some time out for us. And I’ll just mention this to everybody listening today, that if you’re ever feeling like you need a little motivation, inspiration, maybe feeling down, you’re stuck in a rut or anything like that, call Shannon. Shannon will whip you right out of it in a heartbeat and not only that, you call Shannon and you have that conversation with her, you have a friend for life. So she’s like I said, very passionate about what she does, but she’s also obviously very loyal. She’s very loyal to her family. She’s loyal to the company. She’s loyal to her friends. We’re lucky to have you as part of the team and certainly honored to be able to have this conversation with you today. So again, thank you for all you do for us.
Julie Smith:
Thank you, sir.
Steve Gosselin:
Hey, Julie, anything final you want to add or say before we sign off?
Julie Smith:
No, I think you covered it all. Shannon, your story is incredible. I mean, you just briefly, breezed over the fact that you finished your four-year degree in two and a half years, while working full-time, while raising a family, while doing all these other things. I mean, wow. If people can’t take away anything from your story, they need to get checked by the doctor because you’ve definitely been an encouragement and an inspiration, so thank you. And yeah, I’m thankful that I get to know and work with you. You’re awesome.
Shannon Priester:
Thank you guys. Both of you, I appreciate it.
Steve Gosselin:
You’re welcome.
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Outro
Steve Gosselin:
Thank you for listening to Coffee Talk: From the Ground Up. We hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you have an idea on future topics, guests, or up for a round of call, you can call me, text me, email me, just get in touch with me and I’ll get it to Julie and we’ll get it set up.
Julie Smith:
And for those of you that don’t want to play golf and you may hate talking on the phone, that’s good, you can send us an email at ecsmarketing@ecslimited.com. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to this podcast, so you never miss an episode.
Steve Gosselin:
Thanks, Julie. Here’s to having a great day.