FIBER CONNECT, NASHVILLE – Sean Evans — famous for interviewing celebrities under extreme, hot-sauce-induced distress — brought his well-researched interviewing skills to the broadband industry today, where he sat down with Tak Broadband CEO Trent Edwards and Nokia VP David Eckard.
Edwards, who spoke with us last year, took the ‘hot seat’ with Evans — answering questions while eating increasingly spicy hot wings.
While sweating through ‘Da Bomb’ — the most infamous of the sauces in the lineup — Edwards answered what he considered the professional achievement he was most proud of. Grimacing through 135,600 Scoville heat units, he said:
“I never even believed in myself when I was younger.” Growing up in Arkansas with no college degree, he didn’t imagine much of a career for himself. At which point, Emmy-nominated show host Sean Evans cheered, “but look at you now,” and the hall erupted in applause.
“When I look at my professional life... I’ve been blessed,” said Edwards.
After the hot-sauce heat subsided, Edwards sat down with Broadband Nation at Fiber Connect to elaborate more on his time in the industry.
“I didn't have a family unit that cared a lot about school. We were in a small town, Arkansas. We worked. That's what we did," he reflected.
Though he never imagined himself leading an organization like Tak — the "largest construction company you've never heard of," as he put it — Edwards reveres his relationship to work as the foundation of who he's become. "It made me who I am today. I'm a better husband. I'm a better father, better employee, better employer," he detailed. "Where I am today... it's unbelievable."
As much of the industry's workforce ages out, Edwards stressed how folks like himself who don't know what they want to do should give the work a try. "There's many days I wish I was still out working in the field rather than doing conference calls and answering emails," he reflected.
Despite the satisfaction of working in the field, he has found the most rewarding aspect of the industry in the people. Quoting one of his mentors he said, "This is not a recurring revenue business; this is a recurring relationship business," noting that while here in Nashville he saw someone he had hired out of a technical school years back and is now CEO of his own business.
"Whether you have a master's degree or you have a GED, this is an industry [where] everybody can have the chance,” Edwards told us. “I’m surrounded by people that are extremely successful with education and no education."