92. Tammy Miller (Former CEO) Reveals What Most Politicians Miss About Public Service

Karthik Chidambaram: Hello everyone. Welcome to a new episode of the Driven
by DCKAP podcast. I'm very excited today, because this is gonna be a great
episode. We have with us Tammy Miller, former Lieutenant Governor of the
State of North Dakota, and also the former CEO of Border States.

Tammy, I wanna say thank you. Thanks so much for flying down to Minneapolis
to do this, and it's an honor to see you and to chat with you.

Tammy Miller: Well, it's my pleasure to be here and so great to finally meet
you in person.

Karthik Chidambaram: Yeah. I know we did this like a year and a half ago, we
did this over Zoom. When you were the Lieutenant Governor of the state and
then you also ran for governor.

So congratulations on that for running for governor. But then, you dropped
out of the race in 2024. So tell us about that experience.

Tammy Miller: Absolutely. Well, you're right, a lot has happened since we
last met, which was almost two years ago now. So since then, I did run for
governor and was beaten in the primary.

I also worked for a governor who ran for president, which was so exciting. I
mean, so many kids think about being president growing up, but I worked for
someone. Knew someone who ran for president and was out at, uh, some of the
events, like the first debate. So that was awesome. So then we finished our
term and went back to Fargo full-time on December 14th of 2024.

And you know, even though I would've loved to have been the governor of
North Dakota, things have a way of working out for the best. My sister had
cancer and she was living with us, so we were able to be home with her
full-time during her last, uh, uh, nine months. So we had hospice in our
home in March, with her and her two boys moved in with us and my one
nephew's wife and we were all together to support my sister through that
really sad time.

Karthik Chidambaram: What were some of your biggest learnings running for
governor?

Tammy Miller: Well, it was so interesting because maybe I was a little
naive, you know, jumping into my first campaign and that being for governor
and I didn't do it to be a politician.

I really did it to continue to work on a lot of the great things. We
started, I felt when Governor Bergham decided not to seek reelection, there
was still so many opportunities and so much unfinished business. I wanted to
continue that work with the amazing cabinet team that we built, and, um, it
would've been awesome, but it didn't work out.

I know the voters did their voting in Jan in June for the primary.
Coincidentally, my sister was in the hospital on the primary day. And, uh,
it all, it all worked.

Karthik Chidambaram: You call yourself an accidental politician. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. So I can relate to that. And you know, when you were the CEO of board
states and then you become the written governor and then you run for
governor, obviously you have to have thick skin.

Right? So people say a lot of different things. And how do you take that?

Tammy Miller: Well, you know, I believe I have thick skin, you know, I know
who I am and it people say things about me that are not right. Or our lies
are made up. It doesn't really hurt me, but it was really hurtful for my
parents and for my husband.

Uh, it's unfortunate that we have that in politics because I like to think
of myself as being a public servant, not a politician. I really enjoyed the
work of serving people. But I didn't like that side politics where um,
sometimes it does go negative.

Karthik Chidambaram: You have been very busy after 2024. You have been on
different boards.

I was reading about this and when we were chatting as well, you talked to me
about semiconductor in this, in Minneapolis. Mm-hmm. Right. So you are
serving on a board of a company. Yes. Which is trying to do 100%
semiconductor manufacturing in the us. Which is much needed. What is going
on there and uh, at what stages are you guys?

Tammy Miller: Yeah, so for me, you know, I've done a lot of things and had a
lot of leadership roles, uh, with a lot of different companies, but I had
never worked with a publicly traded company, so that was something I wanted
to do in my retirement. I wanted to get on a couple of publicly traded
boards, so. I ended up being contacted by one of the large owners or
shareholders in this semiconductor business who was also on the board.

We had quite a bit of conversation how to tour the facility and was asked to
serve on the board, and it is. An amazing industry that I'm super passionate
about because we've talked about my passion for the military and you know,
how important semiconductors are to national security. So excited to be on
that board.

Uh, they just did an acquisition in June, so double the size of the company
and will continue to grow to keep more of this manufacturing. In America for
national security reasons. And which company is this? Uh, it's called
SkyWater Technologies.

Karthik Chidambaram: SkyWater Technologies? Mm-hmm. Awesome. And you talked
about military as well.

One amazing thing you're doing at Bismarck is you are raising funds for a
military museum. Yeah. Why is that important to you?

Tammy Miller: I think many of us take the military, our Freedom, national
Defense for granted. We don't think of people who are getting up every day
and putting on the uniform. I saw that firsthand in state government.

I joined the governor's office on April 1st, 2020. We know what was going on
in 2020. Uh, that was a Wednesday. On Monday, I was embedded with a National
Guard, uh, co-leading the COVID mission for the state of North Dakota. So I
wi witnessed firsthand. The amazing resources and skills that the National
Guard had for that mission.

But we also see what they do to help with fighting fires, uh, fighting
floods, and all the other good work that they do in addition to their other
big jobs if they get deployed. I also, uh, did a lot of send offs in welcome
homes, and it is. Really sad doing a sendoff when you see all the family in
the audience and their loved one is leaving soon.

But on the other hand, it's always really fun to do the welcome homes too.
We would always give them a North Dakota state flag, and when they all came
back, uh, unharmed, they would return the flag to us. So that was super fun
doing those se doing the welcome homes. But when they came home, we
recognized every single soldier.

They marched across the stage and we, uh, read their name and gave them a
certificate. And we would do first the, the men and women who were deployed
for the first time, and then the second time, and then the third time, and
then the fourth time. And then the fifth time. Oftentimes we had people who
had been deployed six times or more.

That's a huge sacrifice. For our country and we need to honor and respect
that service. So that's why I'm working with the state on the military
museum. And the other piece is the military has the same recruiting
challenges that every business has. They're trying to recruit people and
have some gaps in their recruiting.

So we're hoping to that this military museum will inspire some young people
to think about military service.

Karthik Chidambaram: And when is the schedule to. Open,

Tammy Miller: um, it will open, um, in probably in 27, 20 17. Yeah. Because
we ha we have to raise about half of the money before we can really get into
a lot of the work. They, they have done some of the groundwork, but.

We can't do a lot of work until we have a good part of the funds raised,

Karthik Chidambaram: and the cost of it

Tammy Miller: is almost, it'll be almost 75 million. We have to raise. Half
of that, half of the funding will come from the state of North Dakota.

Karthik Chidambaram: Very exciting. I'm just, uh, trying to understand,
right, so what goes on, have to raise over $30 million.

It's a lot of money. What goes on into a fundraising exercise like that?

Tammy Miller: Oh, well. I have done fundraising throughout my career. That's
what I like to do as a volunteer, and it's kind of like a challenge to go
out and raise that money. And if someone says no, in my mind it means just
not now. So what it, you know, boils down to is I am working in two areas
with banks and with utilities.

And so, you know, north Dakota's a relatively small state. We put together
lists of, you know, the banks, the utilities who you know, the key people
are that we know and just call and see if they will be, um, interested in
having a meeting and really. The military plays such an important role in
the state.

Plus I didn't mention, um, they're such good employees when people come back
from the military service or even if they're in the National Guard and just
doing drills. They, they have such good operating skills. They are so
organized and they have really good leadership skills too. So most
businesses love to hire folks that have had military experience.

Karthik Chidambaram: A military experience is greater, especially for
corporates hiring people who serve in the armed forces. It also adds to the
diversity of the company. Mm-hmm. So that is also exactly. And another thing
which I really love, what you do is you worked at Border States for over 25,
20 years. 29. 49 years. You're short?

Yeah. The US CEO for 15 years. 14. 14, 14.

Tammy Miller: 14 and a half. Yeah.

Karthik Chidambaram: Four and a half. And you are an employee owner, right?
Border states is 100 person employee owned. Taking from that experience, you
are advocating for a lot more companies to be employee owned in Bismarck,
right? So you're running a campaign there as well.

So tell us about that, you know, what exactly is going on. Yeah, and it,
it's

Tammy Miller: kind of, it's statewide, it's for the whole state. We have
some events coming up in Bismarck. I'll get to that in a minute. You're
right. I worked at Border Stage for 29 years and saw the benefit of employee
ownership. I mean, during my time as CEO, we, we created hundreds of
millionaires.

And these were not management people. These are truck drivers, people
working at the city desk inside salespeople, quotations. Any employee had
the opportunity to amass significant wealth in their ESOP account if they
wanted to do the work, help the company succeed and stick around. And lots
of reasons to stick around.

So saw that model and, um, loved it. So after I finished my time in state
government, uh, Rutgers and the Aspen Institute reached out to me to speak
at one of their events in DC in April. So I did that, and while I was
standing in line to get into the Dirksen Senate building, I ran into an
individual named Steve Storin.

He said, you know, would you like to talk a little bit about the
opportunities to set up a center for employee ownership in North Dakota? So
that kind of started it, and that's just a piece of it. You know, a center
would help individuals learn more about employee ownership, but I also think
others in the state need to be engaged, like higher education, they can
help, um, inform students about the business model of employee ownership.

I don't think that's, you know. I don't think they're learning that in
accounting and management and business classes. And then I think too, you
know, how can we promote internships with great companies like Border States
and DSG that are 100% employee owned through ESOPs? And the data will tell
you that ESOP companies are more successful.

On average. Their sales go faster than other companies. They're much more
resilient in downturns. Their turnover rate is 30 to 50% lower than other
companies. For the employees, their retirement accounts are usually two to
three times higher than retirement accounts in non-ESOP companies, so it's a
great model.

And in North Dakota alone, we have over 7,000 companies that we call are
facing the silver tsunami. So their owners are baby boomers. What is their
succession plan going to be? We're hoping many of them will think about ESOP
as a transition.

Karthik Chidambaram: I was chatting with Paul Kennedy at dsg. Mm-hmm. Shared
the same excitement as well.

And I can relate to what you're saying because otherwise you let the company
die. Right. So what happens? What is the succession plan? Yeah. You let the
company die. Instead you bring in employee owners. It makes a lot of sense.
Well, and.

Tammy Miller: In a lot of cases too, especially in our industry, these
companies are being sold to foreign companies, so this keeps these companies
American owned too.

Karthik Chidambaram: You guys sharing a story of your sister, is it okay to
share that here?

Tammy Miller: Oh yeah. I shared this in DC just because it really
punctuates. The value of an esop. I mean, we talk about it and I can't talk
specifically about border state's numbers, uh, border state's employees, but
I can use their numbers to relate to my sister.

So my sister passed away in March. She worked in another state as a state
employee, had a defined pension plan, uh, and she paid into that too. When
she passed away, she was still working. She wasn't retired and she didn't
have a surviving spouse, and her children were not minors. So when she
passed, all she received out of her pension was what she paid in plus
interest.

So it was like a little bit over $100,000, but that was all her money if she
would've worked at border states. I did the math. I went back and looked at
her annual comp because I was doing her tax returns, and then I, um, applied
the contribution rate. The change in stock value, if she would've passed
away at border states, her two adult sons would've shared $3.4 million.

Karthik Chidambaram: Wow. And you're still a CPA?

Tammy Miller: Yes. Yes, I am. I, I started my career in public accounting
and, you know, you work really hard to get a CPA license, so I continue to
keep up my CPA. It's really good now that I'm on public boards too, because
on both of the boards I serve on the audit committee. And then too, to
maintain a CPA license, you have to have so much continuing ed every year.

So I really like, you know, that learning too, that you need to do to keep
up the license.

Karthik Chidambaram: You served at States private company, employee owned,
you also worked at government, you know, you served as the new governor. So
what do you think companies can do? How can they work better with the
government? What advice would you give companies out there and what advice
would you give communities out there?

Tammy Miller: Well, you know, a lot of companies don't work a lot with the
government. Government, yeah. Because the government does a lot of work
that. I really wasn't aware of until I joined Governor Bergham, and I think
people don't really know what the state does until they need it. So the
state is like a huge conglomerate.

I mean, they, they're building roads and rest areas with DOT, we have
Department of higher Education, we have K 12. We had health and human
services, parks and rec game and fish, you know, the water department. The
list goes on, and most people don't think about these agencies until they
need them. So. You know, people like doing business in the state of North
Dakota because we're a small state and usually from what I hear, uh, the
state is pretty responsive.

So if you need a permit for environmental from Department of Environmental
Quality, if you need a water permit for your. New project, dairy Farm,
whatever it might be, or if you need a road to connect your new business to
the interstate or whatever, uh, the state is pretty easy to do business
with. I would say though, if you're looking for money and some people think
they can just come to the state and we're gonna dump a truckload of money
onto them, it's generally the best If there is a one-to-one or two to one
match from the business.

And frankly, there's a lot of areas where I don't think the government
should be involved. We should just let the capital markets work, but
sometimes. People aren't willing to take the risk. So it makes sense for the
government to jumpstart it, but then kind of get out of the way I think, and
leave it to capitalism to let the free markets work.

Karthik Chidambaram: You are working on a lot of different things. So what's
next, Tammy?

Tammy Miller: Well, my plate is pretty full right now, you know, between,
um, public boards. I'm also serving on the board for the Plains Art Museum.
Maybe people don't think the other side of the brain works for most people
who have an accounting background.

But I do like art and before I joined the governor's office, I had just
joined the Plains Art Museum board, but they get most of their funding from
charitable gaming. That's regulated by the state. So when I joined the
governor's office, I thought just to avoid any appearance of conflict of
interest, I should resign.

So I did resign, but now, now that I'm not part of state government, it's
uh, fun to be back on that board.

Karthik Chidambaram: How do you keep yourself updated on a lot of different
things? You serve on different. One is a museum. The other is semiconductor.
So you need knowledge in different areas, right? Yeah. So how do you keep
yourself updated or how do you learn?

Tammy Miller: Well, uh, I ask a ton of questions and it frustrates me
because I go to a lot of meetings and it seems like I'm the only one asking
the questions. But I do, I'm very curious. I ask a lot of questions and if
there's something that comes up and I don't know the answer or something
that I wanna know, I use, um, AI for a lot of research.

I do, and then I read a lot. So, you know, recently I, well actually just a
couple days ago I finished reading a book called Chip War. Chip War. I
haven't had chip war. Yeah, I think, you know, we talk about AI and
automation, but nobody thinks about all the chips that are needed to do this
and all the chips that are needed for, uh, national security.

All of that innovation started in the US but now it's all offshore because
someone else can manufacture it cheaper. Uh, we have to be really concerned
about where the chips are coming from.

Karthik Chidambaram: I think that's a great book to read, especially if you
wanna understand the semiconductor industry. Yes. I didn't know much, or I
didn't know anything about the semiconductor industry, but then once I read
the book, it was more like reading a novel.

Right. So it's like a movie. Yeah. In a way.

Tammy Miller: Yeah. I, when, when, uh, well, it was the board president at
SkyWater that had mentioned it. Because I, well, you said, how do I learn? I
said, Tim, you know, what can I be doing to get more up to speed on the
semiconductor industry? And he said, well, why don't you read this book?

You know? And I thought with the, with the title, I thought, this is going
to be so dry. Yeah. But it was just a great book. It was hard to put down.

Karthik Chidambaram: What advice would you give for young kids out there, or
people who are aspiring to be like Tammy Miller?

Tammy Miller: It would be scary if there was another Tammy Mill around
there, but well, there's, you know, I, I say it kind of goes back to the Cs,
so individuals need to be curious.

You need to be asking a lot of questions and learning all the time. You need
to be confident. If you're not confident, if you don't believe in yourself,
who else is gonna believe in you? You need to have courage. Take a lot of
risks. I like to say. Say yes, figure it out later. I've done a lot of that
in my career When I moved down to Phoenix to be the general manager for
border states of Southwest region, I never worked in a brand, I was always
in the corporate office and generally on kind of finance and admin.

So that was a big risk, uh, when I went to the governor's office. Never
worked in government when I ran a campaign. Never did that. Not that that
was the most successful, but anyway. So have some courage, uh, communication
skills too. Uh, individuals need to have really good communication skills
and so many people are afraid of public speaking.

You know, I was too at one time. Practice, practice, practice, practice, and
say yes to every opportunity you get to do public speaking. Uh, with that
communication though, you need to have good writing skills too. Concise
writing skills, I think. And then you need to listen. I mean, so many
people, uh, just like to talk if there is silence, they just can't stand it.

And listening and silence is fine, especially if you're negotiating. And
then the last thing, and this is a big, uh, motto that I live by, it's
choice, not chance, determines destiny. Uh, when I was young, I went through
a leadership program in Fargo, and when I graduated. And it was a time of
letters. We didn't have email.

A guy sent me a letter and there was that quote, choice not chance
determines destiny. And it was so impactful because you can't just leave
your life to chance. You really need to take control, make good choices, and
be happy with your choices. And if you're not. Make different choices. You
know, life is too short to be at a job in a relationship, doing something
that you don't like.

So make good choices and be happy with them.

Karthik Chidambaram: Everyone in life deserves a second chance. Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation. You did a lot of work as the lieutenant
governor. When are serving, what exactly is happening there and what have
been your learnings? Yeah.

Tammy Miller: Well, for me, I think like most people.

When I joined the governor's office, I thought folks that were in prison
were bad people that need needed to be punished. But so many people in
prison are people who maybe at a young age made a really bad decision. Uh,
lots of people in prison are young men who did just that, and most of them
are good people.

I would. Say, not all of them deserve a second chance, but 80 to 85% of them
do. And when they're in prison, they should be getting an education,
learning skills, uh, being prepared to reenter society. And if you are a
felon, it is so hard when you leave prison to get a job, to get housing, to
have transportation, and to get your medication and healthcare that you
need.

If you can't do that, you're not gonna be successful. So, um, I was in, I
was at the prison a lot. A lot of the guys knew me, uh, by name. I did a
podcast with two murderers in a cell, uh, in, in the state penitentiary, and
have a whole new awareness and respect for those individuals. And I think
most of them deserve a second chance.

After I left office, um, I changed my driver's license back to a Fargo
address and I was at the DOT with my husband getting a driver's license. And
on the way out, this really handsome young man was coming in and he said,
aren't you Tammy Miller? And I said, yes, I am. I said, I'm sorry, I
recognize you, but I don't remember your name.

And he. I'm Derek. Remember we talked at the state pen about six months ago?
He was out. He got a CDL when he was at the state pen, so he was able to get
a driving job. He learned how to operate a crane and he was successfully.
Reintegrated in society. And I said, well, what are you doing here, Derek?
He goes, I'm getting my real ID so I can start traveling.

And so as soon as I got in the car, I sent a text to our Department of
Corrections, uh, director and said, this is what second chances are all
about. And I think most of those people do deserve a second chance. We need
to make it easier to reenter society because rather than paying lots of
money to keep them incarcerated every year, why not help them be.

Healthy, productive, safe neighbors versus better prisoners.

Karthik Chidambaram: Most of them deserve a second chance.

Tammy Miller: Most of them do. I mean, there are a few that are really evil,
bad people, but most of them deserve a second chance

Karthik Chidambaram: in preparation to this conversation. Uh, we had a chat
prior to this. You made me feel very comfortable.

How are you so grounded?

Tammy Miller: Well, I have really humble beginnings, and at the end of the
day, I'm no different than anyone else. You know, I've had different
experiences that have accumulated to something really good and I've had some
big titles, but I'm still the same person and I'm reminded of it every day
because my parents live next door to us in Fargo.

And uh, we grew up, as I mentioned in our previous podcast in a very small
town, and it's all about, you know, serving others and staying humble.

Karthik Chidambaram: You're still the small town girl.

Tammy Miller: I am. Yes.

Karthik Chidambaram: When you were at border states and even serving. The
state of North Dakota, you need to have a really, really smart team.

They say you hire people smarter than you and leave them alone. How do you
find smart people? Do you have any hacks for that?

Tammy Miller: Yes, I do, and it's casting a, a broader net. I think too many
times when you need to hire, and in my case it was usually executives, you
would go to the same resources. When David White joined us at Border States,
he, uh, ended up being my replacement for CEO.

He always said, you know, hire up three or four times and that is such a
great thing to live and deliver because you always need to be hiring up
versus just replacing the body. And I was so pleased the way we did that in
state government and we ended up going, um, you know, to other states
looking for those resources.

But a lot of what we did was use LinkedIn. Because people, those best people
aren't looking for jobs. So we have to find them and give them a compelling
reason to come and work for us. And I look at electrical distribution and
people think it's moving boxes. That's not the story to tell. We need to
tell people that in electrical distribution we light and power the world and
show employees, you know, the hospital and the materials that are in that
hospital or the airport and think about what life would be if those
materials weren't there on time or didn't work.

That's a compelling purpose. That's a great mission. People wanna be part of
it. And then at border states too, we, um, with the strategic plan, we
always try to. Have something in it for everyone. So no matter what role you
played in the organization, you could look at the plan and the vision and
see how you fit and how you could play a part in accomplishing those goals
and that vision

Karthik Chidambaram: so you have a broader, bigger purpose and everybody
contributes to that goal.

And Absolutely.

Tammy Miller: And I think when you have that broader purpose, you can really
cast a broad net, tell that story to people who are already. Working, but
maybe not fulfilled in their current role and they wanna be a part of it.

Karthik Chidambaram: And how do you groom talent from within? You know, you
look for talent outside, but within how do you groom talent?

Tammy Miller: I stretch their goals and hold 'em accountable. And I tell
you, accountability is a big piece to that. Can you share an example? Sure.
Um, so when I was in, um, Arizona running the Southwest region, I went down
there because we were growing like crazy, but we weren't profitable. The
culture was not where it needed to be.

And so I started bringing in the branch managers, um, every month and every
month they would put their goals in writing. And the next meeting, it was
either done or not done. There were no excuses. It's not 50%, 90%, it's
either done or not done. And if it's not done, you know, are there some
barriers? You need some resources, but I tell you, people got.

So much done when they were held accountable to discuss it in front of their
peers at the next meeting. And it's not a consequence. I mean, it's helping
them. And when I left Phoenix to come back to Fargo, one of the branch
managers said, you help me accomplish more than I ever thought possible. And
it's because of accountability.

People like to stretch, but if, if you don't hold 'em accountable, things
just

Karthik Chidambaram: might not kick on. And you hold yourself accountable
too.

Tammy Miller: Oh yeah. And

Karthik Chidambaram: you share that with others, Hey, this is what I'm going
after and this is our company goal.

Tammy Miller: Well, you know, that's such a great point because telling
others really helps motivate you and it, it's helps in business especially,
but it also helps personally.

So like I like to run and I like to run half marathons. And so if I'm gonna
run a half marathon, I tell everybody because. Then at the last minute, you
can't say, oh, I'm tired or lazy, I'm gonna stay in bed. And that happened
in October. One time in Fargo, it was raining and cold, and I'm like, oh my
gosh, I just wanna stay in bed or turn on the TV and drink coffee.

But it's like, there's no way I could go to work on Monday until my friends,
I was just too cold and lazy, so I didn't run. So yeah, I mean, any, any
goal you have, if it's going back to school, if it's, if it's losing weight,
if it's a fitness goal, if it's your goals at work. Socialize it, tell
others they will support you and help hold you accountable.

Karthik Chidambaram: You still run a lot of miles about a thousand miles a
year. Yeah. You still do that. And I, I work

Tammy Miller: out pretty much every day. Every day. I lift weights too,
because if you just run, you kind of get scrawny and Yeah. Little to begin
with. So I lift weights every day too.

Karthik Chidambaram: I see a lot of people struggle with that, you know?

So what keeps them very busy, but then they don't find time to work out. Oh,

Tammy Miller: that I think is such a cr, I mean, everybody is busy. It's
busy. And I say, who can't find 30 minutes? If you watch the news, if you
watch anything on your phone or iPad or tv, get on a treadmill and watch it
there. Go for a walk, listen to it.

There's ways to move and it's so important, I say, to be fit for duty. It's
not just check the box to work out, but it's being healthy and being fit for
work every day. And like you said, everybody is busy so you can get through
that so much easier if you're working out and eating healthy.

Karthik Chidambaram: Fit for duty.

Exactly.

Tammy Miller: It's funny story, when I was working with the National Guard,
I challenged the um, Adant general. Who is a, a major general to the, to do
the physical fitness test with him. He would never do it. He thought I might
beat him running, so

Karthik Chidambaram: that's fine. So tell me, you're also serving on the
board of Solarity?

Tammy Miller: Yeah, actually I'm not on the board. I'm, I'm working with
Megan as a, as a strategic advisor. So, um, when I was in electrical
distribution working at border states, was very active with N-A-E-D-N four.
Probably 20 years during my career at Border States, we were trying to solve
this problem with spas, special pricing agreements.

I mean, there is so much manual work that goes into those and so many missed
opportunities. We made some progress, uh, using EDI, but Megan tells me. 30%
of the distributors are using EDI and there really is no one in the middle
matching things up to make sure that they flow through accurately,
seamlessly.

Uh, Megan has put together a team of 14 people in Kansas City and they have,
uh, put together some software that. Solves this. So really excited to be
working with her to help her scale the business and to help her make some
connections to in the industry. So I think it is the solution that we have
been looking for for decades in electrical distribution.

And once we can get the adoption with the electrical distribution
distributors and manufacturers, then we will be looking at other, uh,
markets as well, like, um, healthcare, automotive, et cetera.

Karthik Chidambaram: I would love to look at that solution as well. And how
often do you meet with Megan on this?

Tammy Miller: Oh, at least once a week.

Uh, sometimes twice a week. We have, um, strategy sessions with her senior
leadership team, and then her senior leadership team meets, uh, once a month
that I, where I join the meeting and there they go through all of their
goals and have all of that accountability. So, you know, helping her to
scale and also to stay focused.

Karthik Chidambaram: And how does a typical strategy session look like?

Tammy Miller: Well, you know it, the, the ones that we're working on now
really focus on growing the revenue base and how do we get to the
distributors and the manufacturers to close those deals. And then also we
talk a lot about what are the barriers, what are the blockers?

What do we need to add or get out of the way to accelerate the revenue?

Karthik Chidambaram: And how are you looking at AI with respect to the work
workforce and distribution? Oh my goodness.

Tammy Miller: Ai. I love it. And it makes me so angry when people are so
cautious about it. It's like, get out and try it. And you know what? You've
been using it for probably decades already.

But for me, I mean, I don't have staff anymore, so AI is my free in, I mean,
all of my research, all of my writing, everything starts with ai and I look
at distribution and manufacturing. We have to harness AI and automation. To
do what we call these mind numbing, soul sucking jobs. These jobs that are
just mundane and repeatable.

Let's automate 'em. Let's make these jobs more interesting. Plus how can we
make them more accessible? Some of these jobs are kind of physical, you
know, how can we make them, uh, more accessible for other people? You know,
are there robots? Are there exoskeleton? I think they call 'em exoskeletons
or something like that.

You know, how can you make it more accessible to more people?

Karthik Chidambaram: And are you mostly using chat, GPT publicity or what
are you using?

Tammy Miller: Um, I use a lot of chat. GPT. Mm-hmm. I do. And then I then I
think robotics too, you know, in North Dakota. Who wants to go to a rest
area and clean a rest area or mow the lawn? Why aren't we using robotics to
do all of that?

Karthik Chidambaram: You do you write a journal? You write journals or no?
Mm-hmm. No. Okay. I

Tammy Miller: wish I would because I mean, we had such, well, it was a crazy
experience during COVID. Mm-hmm. But looking back, it was like an awesome
experience. I mean, everybody worked like we were on around the clock. For
two years, you know, and even to this day, a funny story.

My nephews came over on the 4th of July and they arrived late. They came in
the house, you know, parked their car in the garage, came in the house, went
upstairs, you know, put their stuff away. We didn't hear any of it, but my
nephew sends me a text. Just wanted to let you know, we're here, we're going
to bed.

I woke up for a text because, you know, we, we always would wake up for a
text. During COVID and I wish I wished I would've kept a journal during
COVID because in hindsight, it was a once in no lifetime experience to be
part of the state response.

Karthik Chidambaram: I write a journal, you know, I write every day and it
helps me a lot, you know, at least looking back

Tammy Miller: and

Karthik Chidambaram: looking back at the day and recording movements.

Yeah.

Tammy Miller: So do you actually hand write or do you type?

Karthik Chidambaram: No, I type. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it helps. Yeah.
But I think maybe I need a better way to organize it. Mm-hmm. Let's say what
happened two years ago, same day.

Tammy Miller: Yeah.

Karthik Chidambaram: I still have to search. Maybe I need to get better at
organizing it a little better.

Tammy Miller: What we did do is, um, you know, our whole life is
photographed and every photograph we take, we print.

Karthik Chidambaram: Print.

Tammy Miller: So we have literally thousands of photo albums. Because who
knows? You know, when we get older, how are people gonna find these photos?
Mm-hmm. So our life is documented with photographs.

Karthik Chidambaram: That's awesome. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you so much, Tammy. Great chatting with you. Thank you. Thanks for
your time here.

Tammy Miller: It's a pleasure. Great to see you as well. Thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome.