70: Bridging Innovation with Environmental Responsibility- with Angela Thurman

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[00:00:52] Lori Highby: Running and me are not friends. I ran cross country when I was in high school.

Oh, I will admit that I joined it because there was a boy on the, a guy on the cross country team. I did it for one year and I'm never doing it again. I tried to train my brain to like running, like I would run and I'd like to run. I like to run like have this repeat to like, right. And I never was able to trick myself into it. So, I love bike riding. I don't like running.

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My daughter is in it and they needed some volunteer coaches. So I'm in the funny position of encouraging people to run when my relationship with running is precarious at best. But as part of this new activity, I did buy myself some fancy shoes. I don't know if you can see them. They're those Hokas that everybody's wearing.

And I do think that they are fantastic. They're, they're great shoes. And I kind of do feel like I want to move a little faster when I'm wearing them. So, yeah, me and running, we're, we're sort of. We're trying it out again. So anyway, but even better than that.

We have an awesome guest today. Today We have Angela Thurman with us. Angela holds a BS in Electrical Engineering. She's a certified Project Management Professional, and that's trademarked folks. She serves her she served for more than 10 years as a Subcontractors Program Manager at Collins Aerospace, managing complex third party products for their large customers such as Boeing and Airbus.

since leaving Collins in late: 2020

Thurman provides its clients with customized project management solutions. So thank you so much for joining us, Angela.

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[00:03:06] Erin Courtenay: Well, I was just so delighted to be introduced to you and to your organization because there's a ton of overlap in the things that you're an expert at, and that I just happen to be interested in.

And one of those is in green technology. I, I just, I have been in the conservation environmental space for a long, long time, and I feel like green technology is somewhere where we can still feel a lot of optimism. Tell me about your work with green technology.

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So, the first one I want to talk about is my work this year with the NYSERDA funded Green Technology Incubator Scale for Climate Tech. So that's obviously in New York and this is a, a DOE funded organization. So NYSERDA receives funds from the DOE.

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[00:04:10] Angela Thurman: Yes.

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[00:04:12] Lori Highby: Good job.

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And then I served as a mentor for 3 of those startups to give them guidance on project management, quality, supplier management, and, and so forth. Those are sort of my three areas of expertise. And so I provided them guidance. The program started in about April, and it runs through the beginning of November.

So this was a way that I could help give back to the manufacturing community. I've also made some great relationships with other subject matter experts. And also with the screen technology or organizations, these companies. So, you know, I've met some really brilliant innovators, entrepreneurs.

Help them put some guardrails around what they're doing with their companies. I've seen 1 of them be recognized by the state of New York as an up and coming company in this space and they've been awarded some excellent funding because of that. And it's just been very rewarding. To work with these startups.

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[00:05:59] Angela Thurman: Yeah, their, their technology is great. And I think that they have the potential to really impact the global space. Everything from how we, we, we grow our food to how we live in our home spaces, how we conserve energy in our homes.

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And I've never really thought about like green technology as a space to really focus and put some emphasis on. But for you to be in that startup phase and involved in that community, wow, I can't even imagine some of the cool stuff that you're, you're...

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[00:06:54] Lori Highby: Awesome.

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And this is this is a great technology because when hydrogen is used as the fuel for aircraft, there, there are no carbon emissions. The only emission is water, so, it has the potential to really revolutionize how we travel. And, and it's it's, it's, it's better than electric it's, it's so much better than fossil fuels, and so it really is very rewarding to work for it this nonprofit organization, and to help manage projects for them, and this can be all I mean, I've done all sorts of projects helping to introduce the aviation community to the seven again, DOE funded hydrogen hubs across the United States. They have recently, the DOE, recently awarded nine billion dollars to hydrogen technology.

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[00:08:29] Angela Thurman: I live in Houston, and Houston is, is the location of one of the hubs, so that's really great for us.

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[00:08:36] Angela Thurman: But they are all across the United States.

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[00:08:40] Angela Thurman: And then hydrogen is going to impact so many different areas manufacturing, definitely going to impact manufacturing, and will create a number of different kinds of jobs.

So that's been very rewarding.

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[00:09:06] Angela Thurman: Yeah, I support two AI strategists, thought leaders. And so having them as customers as well keeps me on the forefront of what's happening with AI.

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[00:09:40] Angela Thurman: Yeah. So Tech Talk Tuesday is a short form video that I post every Tuesday, usually three minutes or less where I provide some sort of productivity hack, productivity or efficiency. Frequently it does involve some form of AI. But sometimes it's just a simple, gee, did you know you could do this in Microsoft?

Or a Google app. And it started out with, it started out with you know, I'm getting a little bit older. My, my best friend, who is one of these AI strategists I mentioned earlier. And she and I were on a zoom meeting one day and she's like, where did my cursor go? And she's got like this gigantic screen.

I'm like, change your cursor, make your cursor bigger. She's like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, my cursor is gigantic. And this is a big blue arrow so that I can find it. Because as our screens get bigger, our cursors ought to also get bigger.

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[00:10:55] Angela Thurman: You ought to make a video about that. You know.

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[00:11:04] Erin Courtenay: Yeah, all the bigger things. Yeah, my Kindle, I've got blown up to the, to the Mac. Well, I did, I watched a few of your videos, Angela, and There are two things I really liked.

One is just, you're, you're very friendly and you're very approachable, which a lot of this tech stuff is, it's sort of hard to find that tone. You know, it can, people can be a little bit patronizing. And the other thing is the length is nice and short and very specific to how to do a very particular thing that we all are going to need at some point here or there.

So I would just encourage anyone to go, we'll put it in the show notes cause I know you, you have that video catalog on your website. So in it, and you have a really nicely organized, so you can just. scan through and find something that would be of interest to you. I noticed that you're sort of platform agnostic.

You'll talk about lots of different platforms. So, I just want to encourage our readers to take a look at what Angela has to offer because you're also doing it from a perspective of knowing what manufacturers need. So I think our audience will be extra interested in checking out Tech Talk Tuesdays.

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[00:12:28] Angela Thurman: So, about a year ago, almost a year and a half ago, I was approached by another PMP who owns a company that has a training platform, and she has a whole catalog of all different kinds of training available.

And she said, would you like to become a partner so that you can sell this training? And I loved the platform. I did not like the training modules. So, we entered into a partnership so that I could access the platform. And then I created my own training modules using Synthesia. So I wanted to offer project management training.

So I have this content that I created. And so right now, I've got a whole series of courses available. It takes about a half an hour to complete a particular course. And I did that intentionally because you need to have a half an hour of activity to earn a professional development unit credit with PMI.

So my thought was, this would be really good for anyone who wants to learn about project management, especially if they are working toward becoming a PMP, or some other certification. Or if you already have a PMP, you still have to maintain continuing education to maintain your certification. .

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[00:14:21] Erin Courtenay: That makes, yeah, that makes me perfect sense and kind of fits right in with the Tech Talk Tuesday. Sorry to talk over you there, Lori, but it just sounds like you love giving people that vital information so that they can be more effective and efficient in their jobs.

Mm-hmm . And that is awesome. This, we just kind of like to ask our guests sometimes to have them tell us something, something surprising, something that other people might not know about you. What would you like to share with our audience today?

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And while I was there, I learned that the missionaries needed a switching power supply, which then became my senior design project. So I worked on that project my entire senior year, and that was like the capstone course before graduation. Now, That design project drew the interest of NASA Lewis Research Center's International Space Station Power Management Systems Power Management and Distribution Branch Chief, James Soder.

Now, NASA Lewis is now known as NASA Glenn, and it's in Cleveland, Ohio. And Jim hired me and he became my first real job. I mean, he came out boss, my first real job. And so I eventually became an electrical engineer with NASA straight out of school. That was my very first job.

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[00:16:11] Angela Thurman: Yeah. So, I can remember I was talking to a friend when I got, when I got the interview, one of my engineering buddies was from Kansas and I asked him, I said, I'm I said, Warren, I got an interview.

I got an interview and he's like, where I'm like, what would be the ultimate engineering job? And he goes, John Deer.

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[00:17:03] Lori Highby: So I'm just gonna, just going to just say it, say it. I started following some like random facts and weird facts on social media channels so that I can keep learning, bring it to the show. This one was really interesting. I didn't know this and I kind of peeled the onion back a little bit. But we all know that like bees are critical to pollination, right?

And so, that is like embedded in my head. There's lots of conversation around save the bees, you know. But did you know that bats are major pollinators as well?

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[00:17:41] Lori Highby: Bats are in charge of pollinating agave plants, which you may or may not know is what tequila is made out of. Hello, bats! So, be nice to bats. Be nice to bats. They also are responsible for pollinating mangoes, bananas, peaches, guava. I mean, there's a ton of them. And I guess, as I was doing some Googling, like 300 different plants that they are responsible for pollinating. So it's not just the bees, it's the bats and the bees.

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[00:18:19] Lori Highby: Erin, what did you learn?

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[00:18:30] Lori Highby: Your home projects? Yeah.

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So, that's what I just learned. A little tip for anybody out there. If you're looking at beach, get on your horse, because it's going to take a while to get it. Angela, tell us something you've just learned.

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And I love the specificity of our language. And here are some examples. So ameliorate is to make a bad situation better.

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[00:19:32] Angela Thurman: And tarantism is the uncontrollable urge to dance.

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[00:19:38] Angela Thurman: Tarantism. I love to say these, right? Because I've only ever seen them in print. I've never heard anybody say them.

And Cozen is to trick or deceive.

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[00:19:56] Angela Thurman: And Anodyne is anything that relieves distress or pain.

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[00:20:09] Lori Highby: And I know you're in Texas, but there's a coffee shop chain in Wisconsin called Anodyne. And that's fascinating. I never knew why.

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[00:20:20] Lori Highby: Yes, I love it.

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[00:20:28] Angela Thurman: And then, then finally, there's a Japanese word called Yūgen, or Yūgen, maybe. It's the profound awareness of the universe that triggers feelings too deep and mysterious for word. And that just gives me goosebumps.

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[00:20:56] Erin Courtenay: I do. I love, I love that. We could, we could have a whole nother show about all the, all the, the cool aspects of Japanese culture.

Maybe we'll go, we should go there and record a show. Oh, let's go there. That's it. Japan. Japan is a manufacturing powerhouse or has been in history. Well, Angela, this has been a wonderful conversation. But you should, you should give Angela a call. She's amazing. Angela, people are going to want to get in touch with you. How do they do that?

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And then also you can just email me Angela at thurmanco. com.

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[00:21:42] Angela Thurman: Of course. Thank you for having me. I really had fun.

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