Safer Stations, More Riders: How St. Louis Cut Transit Crime by 50%

400 episodes.

That's what we're celebrating today on Transit Unplugged.

I'm Paul Comfort host and producer of the show, and when we started this show

now almost 10 years ago, I never had any idea it was gonna grow to become what

it has become, which is the number one podcast in the world for transit leaders.

And now, you know, we featured CEOs, agency heads, policy makers, uh,

private sector innovators from around the world, documenting the ideas,

shaping the future of mobility.

And today we celebrate that uh, we're gonna do a 10 year retrospective

on how public transportation and the podcast itself has evolved.

The discussion between me and our producer, Chris O'Keeffe, also showing

some of the behind the scenes look at the show's expansion into on location

recordings, the television show.

Global industry coverage and live events.

We'll do a listener mailbag conversation with Executive Producer Julie Gates.

We'll play a few clips from some of our favorite episodes of the past, uh, almost

10 years now, but we kick it off with an exclusive interview with Mark Miller.

Mark is president of Constellation Software, and that is a parent company

of Modaxo, the company that I work with.

Uh, and, but he was there from the beginning, so I wanted to go back and talk

to someone who was there at the beginning.

He was part of the reason why this all got started almost 10 years ago when he

was the co-founder and CEO of Trapeze Group, and he saw the vision and saw

the value of promoting the industry, you know, best practices and, uh, talking

to leaders not about software, but about the industry and what was working,

what wasn't working, and do kind of a shared process where people could

learn from each other in the industry.

And so it's a great conversation where he talks about, uh, how we

got started, what he sees the value of the show has been, and, and the

impact that's had on the industry.

Hopefully you'll be able to stay with us for the whole episode today.

We kick it off with that.

It's a great way I want to end this, uh, opening by thanking you, our listeners,

for making us so successful and sharing this podcast with those you work with.

It's a great way where we can learn.

Remember, in our industry, we don't compete with one another.

We actually try to help each other because every transit agency serves their

own region and so we can learn from one another, and that's what I hope you'll

do going forward if you haven't done that yet, is share this podcast with those you

know that work in the industry who could benefit from some of the lessons learned

from these leaders who really are talking to us unplugged in that they are sharing

with us not just the good things, but also the challenges and things that haven't

worked the way they wanted them to.

And they open up and are honest with us and talk about what they've learned from

that and how we could do things better.

It's a great way to share knowledge within the industry.

And today we celebrate 400 episodes.

We're in rarefied air.

Less than 1% of podcasts ever make it to 400 episodes.

And, uh, we're excited about the next hundred that are coming.

Enjoy this great retrospective and look to the future on our 400th

anniversary episode of Transit Unplugged.

And thank you for being with us today.

And always

Super great to have with me, my friend, and somewhat of a mentor to me too.

Mark Miller, who was the founder of Trapeze and is now CEO of Constellation

Software, one of the largest software companies in the world.

Hey Mark, thanks for being on the show.

Hey Paul, thanks for having me.

400 episodes in one of the top, you know, fraction, 1% of podcasts go that many.

And it's because of your all support.

And I wonder, I wonder, Paul, how many miles you've flown to these,

to places around the world, right?

How many, how many words you've spoken and how many leaders in the

transit world you have listened to.

Yeah.

So many different countries and cities and

yeah,

it's really amazing.

Thanks.

I think at one time I calculated, but I, I have a feeling that I may have visited

more transit systems around the world.

In their garages

mm-hmm.

Than anybody else.

Totally.

Yeah.

So pretty exciting.

But you were there from the beginning.

Yeah.

And you were involved in starting it all.

What are your memories of back then, and why, why did you all wanna start

a podcast and, you know, what do you remember about the early days?

You know, like, like I, I involved was a co-founder actually of Trapeze and

Okay.

And two other founders.

And one of the things we did is we really believed in like

listening to our customers.

And, and when we developed the software, our first product, I remember we

developed it talking to schedulers.

Schedulers because they were the first users of our system.

And, and I think one of the concerns you get as any business gets bigger as any, as

any business grows, as you get further and further away from your customers and you

actually start taking things for granted.

So your ability to listen to them, help them, and give them some ideas as

well, made it all seem to make sense.

But I, I guess I never would've.

Assumed it would've been so successful, Paul.

And that's a credit to you.

I never would've imagined we had thought initially about

it just doing North America.

Like it's a big enough place.

Yeah.

And then you went global with it and, and it wasn't like we

said here, Paul, go global.

You actually made it go global.

You pushed, you pushed to do that and made it great,

Anyways, I think that's, that's sort of how I remember it.

Yeah.

And maybe that's a quick evolution of it.

Um, but that's how I remember it.

Yeah.

No, thank you for that.

And I think that's exactly what happened.

Yeah.

It was, uh, it's been a ball, you know, I'm a people person as you know.

Yeah.

And so I love connecting with them.

And since I was CEO of a transit system, I can relate to these

guys and gals in a, in a real way.

but it's almost become like a family of people that try to help each other.

Right?

We do this annual event now.

We've got one coming up at the end of this month called the

Think Transit Executive Summit.

When you were back at Trapeze, you set up this annual conference, uh,

called Think Transit, and it's become more than a user's conference now.

It's like, like we had, we'll have 60 leaders.

CEOs, COOs all in a room under Chatham House rules, and they're all talking

to each other about the hot topic, safety, security, all that stuff.

Yeah.

What do you think of that?

How, what, how do you think this, this kind of conversation

has helped the industry?

I think it's good.

Well, first of all, I think, just to underline one thing you said,

like if you hadn't run a transit agency, you wouldn't have been

as successful as you are at this.

I think that's, that's really, really important, uh, because

you, you're, you have instant credibility because you've done it.

You can talk to them as a peer.

Um, not just as someone who, you know, wants information or

has ideas, you talk to 'em as a peer, but you shared their pain.

And I think that's, that helps and that creates a platform for,

you know, you be able to bring people together and communicate.

So I think it's ma- making a big difference.

I remember the first time I went to see you speak Paul, that was an event.

I was at probably at an APTA conference somewhere in, in the U.S. It's hard

to remember what city it was, and I remember like you got there before you

were speaking and you went and you shook the hand of pretty much everybody in

the first row and introduced yourself and you say you're a people person.

But that, that to me is something I'll never forget.

Uh, and it's something actually I, I even try to do now when I'm, we're at

one of our events try to go around.

I did that at the, the last Quadrants.

So, and I shook everybody in the first row's hand.

And that's something I actually picked up from you, Paul.

And I think it, it just makes the audience feel that, you know, they're,

they're actually, uh, they're there with you, uh, not just to listen to you.

And I think, I think that that just creates lines of communication.

Plus you're also your ability now to, to span the globe with this, what

you'd call, you called it a family.

Um, people have different challenges around the world depending

on what cities they're in.

Some are more privatized, some are more government run you know, agencies and some

are, um, have different modes of transit going on inside of their organization.

Your ability to let them learn about new things they're trying to do before

they do them is pretty important.

Thank you.

That's, that's really good.

Um, and, uh, you know, it's, it's been the platform that your companies

have allowed this to grow that way.

So like you said, now Modaxo, the company, I started out with Trapeze and then you

created this, we had all these software companies around the world and we said,

why don't we put 'em all into one roof?

People who are doing with people mobility, and now it's aviation,

parking, and transit, everything.

But it's this platform now.

And as you know, the hallmark of our show, and you and I talked about this

early on, is that I don't sell anything.

My job there is not to sell our software.

My job is to connect with them and promote these best practices.

and I think that also became a hallmark of why we're now the number

one transit podcast in the world because people know they can trust.

I'm not there to sell anything.

I'm just there to elevate you.

Your thoughts on that.

You've created an environment where yourself as a leader

brings leaders together.

And I think everybody wants to learn.

And I think if you're humble enough to learn, you're gonna do better.

And I bet you the people who are the closest family members in your

community are those humble people who, you know, wanna learn, even

sometimes they have to have a strong public persona to look strong and

tough for the, the, you know, for, for their, for their board members and

representing their agencies and have you.

So I think, you know, I think you, you create a community that feels that

sharing and learning is important.

And I really wish that every leader I work with had those

abilities because they tend to.

They tend be, it doesn't matter how many decades they've been

working, Paul, it isn't like, you know, you can ever be wise enough.

You need to always be learning and getting wiser.

And I think, I think you, you, you know, you espouse that so in what you do with

your podcast, so congratulations to you.

I was honored that you'd asked me to speak to actually, so

thank you.

Yeah, my dad taught me that.

Mark, you know, my dad was a minister and

yeah,

one of his main quotes in my head has always been, Paul,

always be improving yourself.

Always be improving yourself.

Yeah.

And that's, that's what we have to do.

And I love the heart that you've instilled.

You know, the, the way you know if you're a real father of an organization

or a child is do they carry your heart?

And our organization still carries your heart of humility mark.

Uh, leaders like Rod Jones and Bill, these guys, you know, they exhibit humility.

They're over multimillion dollar organizations with thousands of

employees, but they still have your heart, which is phenomenal, man.

So

Well, you've got that.

I wonder, I wonder if your father had a major influence on you,

Paul, because you've spoken about him a lot when you speak, and I

think that's, that's wonderful.

Yeah.

And uh, he had a big influence on how you are, and I'm sure you're,

that for your, your grandkids, right?

You're, you're gonna be that calm center of, you know, learning wisdom

and, and humble ability and Wow.

What a what a story like seeing all these places you've been to

and all these people you've met.

In a way I'm jealous because, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I love the

thought of getting out and having the ability to sit down and talk to these

people and, and they're proud people.

They really, they really do something that, the thing that everybody forgets

sometimes about this business of moving people is you're moving people, you're

getting them from home to school.

You're getting 'em to the doctors, you're getting them to work.

They need to go visit their friends.

It's amazing.

I, I don't know, I, I just, I think it's a great industry too.

Yeah.

And they're actually having a massive impact on this, on this

planet, in all of these cities.

Just, just think if you, if you could sum together, of all the

podcasts you've done, the number of people that are moved per day.

Yeah.

Because of the leaders that you're bringing together.

And they want it to be in a safe environment where they can feel

that they're getting on, whether it's the a bus or a train or a

subway, and they're gonna feel safe.

And these, these things matter.

These people really matter.

And, and what they're doing is, I don't think is, they even get the credit they

deserve for the difference they make.

So you making them more successful and allowing 'em to tell their stories to each

other and learn from each other is, it's just pretty, it's a very special thing.

So to do that,

wonderful.

Thank you, mark.

I know you're a busy man.

I appreciate you spending even these few minutes with us today.

It's always great to connect with you.

I wanna extend my appreciation to you how, how kind and generous

you've been to me over the years.

I remember early on, you must know my love language is words of affirmation because

you would call me every couple months and just say, Paul, you're doing amazing.

And that would just fill my heart up.

I felt good for another three.

You got me going for three more months with that.

So,

well, Paul, we're we're, you know, the feeling is mutual.

You've made a big difference to our organization and again, beyond our

organization because our organization serves, serves our, our customers,

and listens to our customers.

So congratulations on what you've done.

There's only one Paul Comfort out there and, uh, we're so lucky that

you, you, you, we, we connected whether it was at, at the CN Tower over Yeah.

Yeah.

For whatever meal we had or what have you.

Congratulations on what you've done, and you know, I'll give you

like a hand of applause for your, uh, your efforts for the company.

And thank you so much.

And keep on rolling.

There's another 400 at least to do, so.

There you go, brother.

Let's keep them going.

That's what, that would be a Mark thing to say too.

That's right Paul.

And by throwing, casting the vision, right?

That's good.

Yeah.

You've gotta, you gotta go.

Let's go.

Let's make another great 400 and, uh, maybe, maybe maybe Mars will be another

destination on the list at some point.

And so there you go.

Hopefully not in the near future though.

Maybe the moon I heard we're going there first.

The moon, let's be the moon.

Transportation to the moon.

Sure.

That'll be a, someone will get that job some at some point.

I'm sure that'll be heck of a transit agency.

Right.

So

that's great.

So, uh,

thank you.

Interstellar Transit Agency or something.

I-T-A-I-T-A.

Hey, welcome back.

This is our 400th episode of the Transit Unplugged Podcast, and I'm excited

to bring out on camera and behind the microphone, um, someone who you may not

have seen before or heard from unless you watch the credits at the very end.

And that's Chris O'Keeffe.

Chris came to us a little over a year ago.

He is our producer and editor.

And, uh, works from LA and I'm completely on the other side of the

country near Annapolis, Maryland.

So we're bicoastal guys and uh, he helps this thing sound and look great.

So, Chris, thanks for coming on screen with us today.

You're very welcome, Paul.

As you know, it's tough to lure me out from behind the scenes,

but today is a milestone.

Today is your 400th episode.

Uh, and so I'm here to celebrate it with you.

Thank you, man, and you've been a big part of it, especially for this last year.

Um, so today we wanna, I wanna spend some time talking with you

about, uh, the industry a little bit where we fit into the industry as a

podcast and what we've got coming up.

Um, but you've got an amazing background.

It's one of the reasons we were excited to have you come join

us a little over a year ago.

Uh, tell us a little about your background in podcasting.

Yeah, so I've, uh, had a long and storied career in the industry at this point.

Uh, I've been a, a company founder with Podcation, which does live

podcast, uh, creation Hackathon events.

I helped launch, uh, Disgraceland, which became the number one

music podcast in the world.

have done another number of, uh, narrative shows besides that, I've

helped places like MIT or British Columbia Institute of Technology or

Royal Bank of Canada, articulate.

Uh, their complex value propositions into clear, compelling, persuasive language.

and that brought me to transit, which is something I've always

been incredibly passionate about.

And so meeting you and the team, uh, has been a really

transformative last year of my life.

Well, as I said, it's been awesome to have you a true professional, and

I think some of what you're going to help us develop in this next year,

uh, is gonna make our show even more compelling for our, our listeners.

Let's talk about what 400 means.

Uh, I was looking the other day online, you know, everything is its

own industry and podcasting is its own industry, has its own conferences

and, and Enewsletters and all that.

And I was, uh, reading the eNewsletter and was talking about.

How many shows get to 400?

And it's not very many, is it?

It's not.

In fact, the, you know, you can, you can look around the, the

everyone from Edelman to Pod Chaser.

Everyone has different sort of stats for it, but it really comes down to most shows

don't get past a handful of episodes.

Um, you can find a lot of data that says, uh, it's a single

digit percentage that gets to 10.

Getting to 100 episodes.

I think if you were to look across all the data, you're, you're under 1%.

And so getting to 400, you're really in rarefied air there.

So, uh, you have a lot to be proud of for your tenacity.

And I imagine, uh, in the early days it wasn't as glamorous as it is now.

Yeah, I don't know if it still is glamorous, but, but, uh, one of the, I

mean, one of the reasons we're able to get to 400 is obviously the support of, of,

you know, a company that supported this.

I had already had a background in radio.

I had 16 years doing my own radio show, Comfort's Corner, a talk

show, uh, and they asked me, would you like to start a podcast?

I was like, sure.

It's like, you know, it's basically the new talk radio, uh, whatever, what

all of us grew up with, talk radio.

And so, and I knew exactly who I wanted to interview, which

was CEOs of transit systems.

And, uh, that's how we really started out.

Uh, we went, you know, our very first show was in Rochester, New York, and we

interviewed, uh, the CEO there, and we basically have primarily focused on CEOs,

but over the last year or so, Chris, we've expanded and we're starting to bring in

more people kind of into the portfolio.

Like you and I just went to Washington, DC.

Did an event at TRB where we interviewed researchers and people to do that.

So the show is expanding its reach.

we're heard all over the world and, uh, it's been exciting to have

somebody like Modaxo and prior to that Trapeze sponsor the show without

us ever really mentioning them.

You know, we're not here to sell software.

Our goal is to do thought leadership content and connect with the

C-suite of our industry and allow them to share best practices.

'cause we don't compete.

That's the cool thing about transit.

It's not like we're, uh, all hardware stores and we're competing

against each other in the same city.

We are, you know, independent agencies and government agencies.

Quasi-governmental agencies in cities all over the world helping each other

and with our goal to improve mobility.

Uh, and I think, um, you know, you and I had that moment when we were in

Washington, DC a couple weeks ago where we recorded that, where I got very passionate

at the end of that podcast just to remind everybody, all this research, all this

technology, those are all great tools.

Never let it, you know, blind you to the fact that our ultimate goal

is to serve our fellow human beings.

And so that's what this podcast is ultimately about.

Uh, and through the power of production, we're gonna go to that clip right now.

You know, I'm gonna close by talking about why we do what we do.

So I've spent 38 years of my life working in public

transportation and local government.

I started out right outta college, running a small bus system an hour from here on

the eastern shore of Maryland, just over the Bay Bridge in Queen Anne's County.

And I can tell you that every day for those first seven years when I was

working, uh, transporting elderly people with disabilities, and then eventually

we started a public transit system.

Every day I was in direct contact with our passengers.

I rode the bus with them.

I got a commercial driver's license so I could drive.

I was only 22.

All of my drivers could have been my parents or grandparents and

all the employees there, you know?

So I wanted to have their respect and the way to do it was to

be able to do what they do.

But every day I went home with my heart feeling full.

I felt warm inside because I knew the impact I was having on their

lives because I was actually involved with them on a day-to-day basis.

And the further I moved up in the industry, I made sure that I wanted to

stay connected with what we're really doing this for, which is our passengers.

We're really here to serve them.

We're not here about the trains, the type of trucks underneath of it.

The AI, uh, the software, the technology, those are all great tools, but they're

all tools in service of a greater good, which is the mobility of people.

Not only those who need it, but also those who want it, who wanna have a

positive impact on the environment and don't wanna drive their own car,

wanna be able to ride in mass transit.

The, the impact that we have, the 500,000 people in this, in this

country of America, and the hundreds of thousands of more around the world

on the actual structure of how society works, is kind of hard to fathom.

Uh, if you were to pull transit out of a city for one day.

Think about how that city would operate.

It wouldn't.

It is we are the veins that transport the blood, the people that work in that city,

the impact we have on an economic value.

But in my life, even more importantly, um, on the, the people who use it,

I spent a lot of my career working with people with disabilities.

Um.

I feel like they deserve the very best we can give because they

need it more than almost anyone.

And without us they may not have access to almost any of the

opportunities that life offers them.

They may be home bound and not be able to get out.

So when you leave this place and all the research that's done just keep in

mind, you know, like, um, Stephen Covey said, with one of the seven habits of

highly effective people, begin with the end in mind, our end is to improve the

lives of people through public mobility.

And the work you do makes that happen every day, and you really do make

a difference in people's lives.

There's not a higher calling we can have than to serve people

through what we're doing.

And when we were listening to that clip, Paul, when we were cutting the

episode, uh, both myself and our, uh, executive producer Julie Gates pointed

out that, Hey, maybe that's something that we should make its own thing.

And so we're gonna find ways to get that, that moment out there.

Uh, you know, I think you have a little bit of that in your, in your

upbringing, in your background.

your, your uncle was a pastor, is that true?

And my dad, yeah, they, they both instilled in me kind

of desire to serve people.

Uh, and um, I always, it's crazy.

I know, but I always felt like I could do it through local government.

And so all of my career has basically been either in local or state

government in one fashion or another.

Even if I'm in the private sector as a contractor, there.

And I really am one of those guys that feels like I'm from the

government and I'm here to help you.

And I know it's kind of a joke to people, but I really think local

government, especially, I've been a county commissioner, county

administrator, as well as running local county government transit systems.

That's where the rubber hits the road, literally.

Right?

The roads are paved, the parks, the schools, you know, the everything.

Planning and zoning.

And so we're in that ecosphere.

But transit has a special place there because transit really moves people to all

of those locations I just talked about.

The schools, the parks, the shopping, all that stuff we're the

connective tissue that does that.

And that's what this show talks about.

And speaking of movement, a challenge that we put our put to ourselves last

year was, let's get some places, let's do primarily this has been, um, uh,

a remote recording, , capability, at least when I, when I came aboard.

last year we went to Kansas City.

We went to Boston, we went to DC at least a couple of times.

What do you think the difference is between a Zoom recording

or a Riverside recording?

Which, you know, we're lucky if we can get it.

We'd rather have the conversation than not, but actually being there with someone

sitting across the table with them, handing 'em a glass of water, you know,

what's the, what's the difference there?

Yeah, I think it is the, uh, connection and vulnerability

you get when you're in person.

Uh, a lot of us have, you know, we spent a pandemic and now years after that,

you know, long zoom calls and all that kind of stuff, and teams calls, uh,

and our, our, our guests are usually very excited to be on the podcast.

I just recorded one this morning with a guest who was just,

you know, super thrilled to be there even though it's here.

But when you're live and in person, you can shake hands, you can, you

know, go to lunch together or whatever.

The really connective tissue, again, to use that terminology,

uh, is stronger there.

And I think you get a better response and it's more exciting.

And I think you get the buzz.

You can feel the buzz when you're listening to it.

Because like for instance, we just recorded an episode with, um.

You know, the, the, the head of WTS, right?

Bridget Beatto.

We did it in person at a table in the hallway at at TRB, at a private spot

of the, and the connection you get and the hand movements, the gestures, the

communication cues that you can pick up easier than you can when you're

just talking to someone on screen.

I think it's all there.

And I know that you're a believer in serendipity and energy and there's

been like a couple of moments where you've gotten on the right elevator.

Or you've gone, you know, you've taken a left instead of a right.

And you've met the person that you were trying to, to meet.

Can you tell, uh, the listeners a about a couple of those moments?

Sure.

Yeah.

I think I've talked about this in some of my talks, speeches I do at conferences

around the country, uh, when you get a chance to be a little more philosophical.

But yeah, I, I believe I'm in the river of life and the way I know

personally, the way I gauge whether or not I'm, I'm, you know, in the

flow, in the zone, uh, is timing.

Timing doesn't, you know, the timing of meeting someone at the

right place at the right time, the exact person you wanted to talk to?

Uh, I don't think that happens too often by coincidence.

I think it happens by design.

And so, yeah, there's been a number of occasions that have been life altering

for me where I've, you know, walking out of a big room with thousands of

people and I need to meet one guy.

It's the end of the night.

And I, like you said, I just feel drawn to walk out the door on the right and I

literally bump right into him and we have the conversation we need to have, and

my life was changed as a result of that.

I ended up getting the position as county administrator in Charles

County, Maryland and moving my family and a whole new career and a whole

new kind of all because I went to the right place at the right time.

And to be honest with you, Chris, that's how I get a lot of the guests on the show.

It is, I'm talking with someone at a conference and I'm like, something

clicks in me and they say, you know, they, they have a story to tell or, or.

For instance, I was recently, um, talking with the head of MV Transportation,

Harry Wilson, who was one of the guys that did the turnaround at General

Motors, uh, for the federal government.

And, uh, we were talking by phone because I forget why, but we were talking and

I told him, you know, Hey, I'm working on a book called Find Your X Factor.

And I told him what it's about.

It's about the intersection of your interest and abilities.

And, um, you know, because he asked me what I was working on and he said, Paul,

I just talked to my daughter this morning about that, that exact concept of she

needs to find something for her career where she, I hope he won't mind me saying

this story, but, uh, but you know where the interest and abilities intersect.

And I said, dude, you gotta be in the book.

You gotta give us a story about that.

And so he became one of the seven vignettes in the book.

So that kind of shows you how the flow works, uh, for me.

And I get a lot of guests that way.

Someone may leave a comment on one of my LinkedIn posts.

We have a lot of people that I'm connected with, like almost, I dunno, 27,000 people.

So every day I'm engaging with lots of people and somebody might say something

and I'll be like, that's interesting.

Lemme look at their background.

Oh, they're this.

Or.

You know, they're a director of planning at a transit agency, you know, in

Iowa, and I wanna talk to them and find out more about them, and that

could turn into them being a guest.

We have so many platforms now, Chris, that we have available to us not just

the podcast, but the TV show, live events, blog posts, books, magazine

articles, all this stuff we're, I'm working on to create content.

And so the way I create that content is through connection with other people.

And I wanna make them shine and have their best ideas shine.

And that's what really we're doing.

I want to get to the book in a second, but I wanna go back to the,

the idea of the river of life first.

Um, we talked about some of the places that we traveled to last year and that

sense of serendipity, which as a producer, hey, it's really, uh, convenient for

me to do remote recordings, but you don't have that same opportunity to

get on the right elevator or to take the left instead of the right that,

uh, that you do when you're in person.

Next year we're gonna be in places like Boston, we're gonna be in Chicago.

I know you've got a full schedule.

What, what places are you headed to that you're, you're excited about or any

places that you've never been before?

Yeah.

Well the one that sticks out to me, uh, right now that I'm excited

about being at, and it's, uh, it's happening the month that people are

listening to This is I'll be going to San Antonio, Texas, uh, and filming

with VIA Transportation, San Antonio.

Nashville and San Antonio are two of my very favorite cities in the country.

For, you know, a lot of the obvious reasons, right?

Uh, San Antonio has, you know, the River Walk, it has the Alamo.

My dad was stationed there, uh, when he was in the Air Force

in Korea and the Korean War.

And, um, you know, he worked there.

And so I have family connections.

I went and found the place where he worked my last visit there

and the history that's there.

It's also one of the gastronomical, you know, big cities in the country

that people maybe aren't aware of.

So we're excited about filming an episode of our TV show there.

We also then normally we'll have a podcast that comes out of that.

So that's a big one.

And I think another one that I'm excited about, uh, a little bit

later in April we'll be going to is the Rocky Mountaineer.

Rocky Mountaineer is an excursion train.

Uh, and it's one, you know, it's one of the wonders of

transportation in North America.

We've ridden, uh, both their line in Canada and the one here, and we filmed

a television show and the one in Canada that's won many, many awards.

That episode has very cinematic, and we're gonna film another episode

there and talk to them about you know, transportation, basically for

transportation's sake, enjoying the ride, looking out the window, slowing down.

Wifi doesn't work.

They don't have connections on the train for a reason.

They want you to enjoy the journey.

The trip is about the journey.

And so that's a whole nother side of transportation that,

you know, we're always like, oh, commuters are going into work.

You know, we were just in Boston, we're filming the MBTA.

You know, Keolis runs their commuter trains, people are getting to work.

It's a rush.

And Ryan Han, the COO there drives the train sometimes himself

and all this interesting stuff.

But people are always on the go, go, go.

And then you have times when you slow down, like you did this last summer,

Chris, when you did a car free summer in Boston and or on this train ride

where it's more about the journey even than it is the destination.

I'd like to move on to the book now.

Do you can, can you show what you just showed me?

Yeah, so just today as we're recording this, I put the final touches

on my book, Find Your X-Factor.

I finalized the back cover I'm showing on video now.

If you can see it, that's the front cover, that's the back cover.

This has been basically a nine month journey to write this book

and now to get it published.

It's the first time I've had a book agent.

Uh, to help me develop the book and then pitch it to multiple

publishers, major publishers.

So thankful to Morgan James, one of America's top book publishers,

uh, for believing in the vision.

I just was recently with them in Orlando at a big event and got to walk across

the stage of the red carpet and shake the publisher's hand, David Hancock

and, and, uh, and announced the book that it's gonna come out this year on

August 11th is when it'll be published.

And, uh, I have a website, findyourxfactor.ai where I've developed.

Kind of an assessment where you can do an assessment on your own

and see, hey, is this my X factor?

Uh, and what is it and what can I do?

So yeah, I'm excited about the concept.

It's something I've talked about for years.

And it's basically this and that is, if you wanna have real success,

be happy and find your purpose in life, which I think most of us do.

I believe there's a way to do it.

And it's not about having to blow up your life and start over again.

It's about uncovering the clues that you already have in your life.

Taking some time to analyze what are my strengths, what are my passions, what

are my interests, what energizes me?

Uh, and then you think about all the things in your life that you're like, um.

Yeah.

You know, for me it's been public communication, right?

As I go back and look at my life, every job I've been in, I've always tried to,

you know, work toward either teaching a class or putting out a newsletter

or starting a radio station or, you know, whatever, uh, something public

communication wise, and then intersect that with what you're good at or what

you're capable of getting good at.

For me, really the thing I'm best at is public transportation

and local government.

That's where I spent 38 years of my career.

So when you intersect those you wake up every morning, like Thomas Edison said,

he said, I never worked a day in my life.

I loved what I did.

And so it didn't feel like work.

And that's the way it feels for people who are operating in their X Factor.

And the book helps you figure that out.

Unfortunately, too many people are just working for the paycheck

or they work for the weekend.

They try to get their money on their main jobs so they can have fun on the weekend.

So this is about figuring a way to integrate that.

So yeah, the book comes out August 11th.

We'll be giving away copies of it at our Think Transit Executive Summit.

Which comes up at the, uh, end of this month on March 30th in

Boston, back to Boston again.

It's been, uh, a cornerstone of what's been going on this year.

Uh, we'll, we'll hopefully have 60 or more, uh, CEOs there and they're gonna

be the very first ones I give a copy of this book to, uh, and I want them to have

it help improve their lives so they can bring into their fullest capacity what

they do for their work and serving people.

That's the idea behind the book, how to become more full of

yourself, be more fully alive, be self-actualized, use Maslow's terms.

Um, and so anyway, yeah, that's the game plan and people can, uh, pre-order

now at Barnes and Noble, if we get 300 copies sold at 300 different addresses

around the world, what they tell me as a publisher says Barnes and Noble will

then most likely stock it in their bricks and mortar bookstores, which will mean

the message gets out to more people.

And that's what I want.

You used to actually manage one of the largest transit systems in the country,

and you've been on the inside as, uh, as an operator and as an administrator.

Um, and now you've, you've got this other job that you work very hard

at as a, as a transit evangelist.

And it kind of reminds me of like when you see, you know, a Super Bowl

winning coach, go into broadcasting.

And they're like, is, you know, is this hard work?

It's like, yeah, well it's hard work, but it's not the same kind

of toll daily 24 7, you know, kind of putting out fires and whatnot.

Can you talk about the comparison between being the head, you know,

being the top guy at a major transit agency and doing what you're doing now?

Sure.

Yeah.

It is very different.

Uh, and it's part of the reason why I do the podcast and when, when Mark Miller

and, uh, all the guys at, at Trapeze asked me that question many years ago, what do

you want to do if you come work for us and I said, I know exactly what I wanna do.

I wanna write, I wanna speak, I want to travel, and I want to help my fellow

CEOs improve their transit system.

That was my exact quote, and I'm still able to do that eight years

later as the company has great integrity that they've let me do that.

The difference is, and I knew coming from it, like you said,

it is a soul sucking job.

Uh, it drains everything out of you, but it's also an amazing job where you're able

to use every facet of your capacities.

You know, if you're a technical guy, um, you you can use it there.

And if you're not a technical guy or a gal, you're gonna have to become some

technical, 'cause you're gonna have to review procurements when it comes to

your software, when it comes to your new vehicles, your new hydrogen vehicles.

There's so much technical stuff there.

And then you've got, um.

You know, all the politics of it.

I often say that being the CEO of one of the top 50 transit systems in the

country is kinda like being a mayor.

You've got a city council, you've gotta work with, you've got the public, you've

got all, you've got the internal staff you're working with, so the CEOs are in,

um, you know, high pressure situations.

I remember my wife, I'd be laying in bed, you know, at 11 or 12

at night, texting on my phone.

She'd say, Paul, put the phone down.

I'm like, I, I can't, I've gotta get back to them.

There's, you know, we've got water coming in the subway station here, and they're

looking to me for a decision right now about what to do, um, or whatever,

you know, there's a hundred things.

And basically this is the life of a CEO.

I can tell you.

'cause it was my life.

You drive in in the morning for me, I had an hour drive.

I on the phone.

I would call all my direct reports and say, and I wouldn't necessarily get

through all of them 'cause I had a bunch of them, but what's going on today?

What's the game plan?

Blah, blah, blah.

Then you get in and it's meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting,

meeting, meeting, meeting all day long till around six at night.

And oftentimes you have night meetings at least once or twice a week.

Uh, then your, your administrative assistant brings in a big stack

of mail and stuff you have to review and sign and approve.

And some of them are big, long documents that need action,

you know, almost immediately.

And, uh, and then when are you gonna do your emails?

'cause you get a hundred, 200, 300 emails a day.

And when are you gonna return all your phone calls?

Well, oftentimes I return all my phone calls on the drive home

and I do my emails after dinner.

Uh, it's the only time I do it.

And so the average CEO is working 14, 14, 15, 16 hour days nonstop.

It doesn't stop on the weekends.

And so it is a, and oftentimes it's a thankless job because, you know,

they get so much hate thrown at 'em.

You know, you try to change bus routes in a city and you'll feel

the wrath of thousands of people.

You're trying to make it more efficient, but all they know is you're

moving this route from in front of my grandmom's house and she needs that.

And so there is, um, it's a lot of stuff for them.

And so the podcast is a way, and like the Executive Summit we have coming

up in Boston are ways for them to relate to each other and talk about

what works best, what doesn't, and to share best practice and be vulnerable.

Most CEOs, when I finish interview 'em, they tell me, and most

people I interview in general say.

At the end that was so easy.

The person I interviewed today said that to me.

She said, Paul, that was so easy.

I was like, that's great.

That's the mark of a good conversation on the podcast.

You didn't feel like you were under pressure.

It's just having a conversation between two leaders and we're just taping it.

So that's the goal of the podcast, is to be less, more

conversational and less interviewee.

You know, like you get, and I want people to be real, which is why I

ask them about their personal life.

Tell us about your personal life, you know, uh, what music you listen to.

What, what books have you read lately?

You know, uh, where do you like to travel for vacation?

I want people to get to know them a little bit.

So all that personal side, when we have time for it, especially when we have

live events we do, that helps people understand and relate to our leaders.

And I want them to be relatable and respected.

Yeah, that concept of, of non-crisis comms really drew me to the, to the project.

You know, the, these folks are usually only getting a microphone

stuck in their face when something goes really, really wrong.

And just getting to know people and just the general spirit of

optimism and positivity that this project brings to things.

Obviously there are hurdles, there are problems, um, but it's, we're

finding all these different yeses, uh, through these, through these

conversations and these possibilities and, um, I find it very ener energizing.

Congratulations on 400 episodes, Paul.

Hopefully we get to do 400 more and hopefully I get to be a part of

this, uh, for, for quite some time.

thank you for having me aboard.

Thank you.

It's been an, it's been my honor and I thank Modaxo and all the leadership for

allowing me to do this, to really live my passion and to help our industry.

And Chris, I appreciate the partnership with you in making it happen.

All right.

Thanks Paul.

Well, we're rolling along now in our 400th episode, Julie, of the podcast,

and it's time to go to the mailbag.

And so Julie Gates, our executive producer is here with me to go into

the mailbag and give us some questions.

Yes.

Thank you everyone who submitted questions through info@transitunpluged.com

and on our LinkedIn page.

So Paul, 400 episodes in People wanna ask you questions now.

Are you ready?

All right, well, I'm ready.

I guess

we'll start with my favorite question.

What was your favorite meal while on the road?

Because you are basically a road warrior in your job.

Yeah, that's a good question.

You know, uh, I've had some amazing meals at places all over the world,

you know, from Singapore to Brazil, uh, paella uh, in Barcelona was

probably my favorite overall.

It was the, the whole scene where, you know, we were on the beach and all that

stuff and it was made right out there.

A close second kind of iconic moment was recently when we were

in Rome and a streetside cafe.

You know, we had carbonara and it was just, yeah, so those.

Two.

Two good recent ones.

Those are amazing.

I love that they were exotic too.

That's great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Paella in Barcelona, does it get any better than that?

I don't think so.

I know it doesn't really, that's, I think Barcelona's my new favorite global city.

Yeah.

I know.

A lot of people tell me that I haven't been yet, so I'll

put it on my bucket list.

All right.

What was your favorite podcast episode that you recorded of Transit Unplugged.

You know, um, over 400 episodes.

It goes back nine years now.

It's hard to remember every single one.

Some of them were done in person.

A lot of them, especially during the pandemic, were done, uh, virtually, but

lately, my favorite one was, and I'm being honest about it was just last week.

And that was with Geisha Ester, who's the executive director of NTI.

I sent you all a note after our, we recorded did, I said, I think

this is the perfect episode.

I mean.

She covered amazing things that this group does.

NTI, Nnational Transit Institute.

Um, and then that was the first half of the show, and then the back third

was basically her career story, which was fantastic for people.

A lot of our listeners, as you know, are people kind of in the middle of

their career and they wanna move up.

She kind of gave a great glide path on how to, how she did that in her career.

So anyway, I would have to say my most favorite recent episode

in recent memory is with Geisha.

She's fantastic.

Yeah.

And inspiring.

You know, how she moved her way up through the system and has worked all the roles.

She's a yes.

An inspiration to all of us

yeah.

Okay.

And very, very prepared as a guest.

Yes.

Very prepared.

You know, no ums and ahs, just the kind of the general thing you think about, uh, and

a great communicator with a great story.

Mm-hmm.

She's the full package.

Question four.

Uh, three of four.

Okay.

What is your favorite podcast to listen to outside of Transit

Unplugged or Modaxo podcast?

Gotcha.

Well, I'm a big survivor fan, Julie and.

Oh, yeah.

You knew, yeah.

You knew Jeff Probst from back in the day and all that.

But, uh, so I've watched the 50th season is starting right

now as we're recording this.

It's, uh, it's starting tomorrow night, the 50th season of Survivor.

And so I've been a, uh, you know, a, I've viewed every episode of, of

Survivor on TV, all 50 seasons, and I've started listening to the podcast a few

years ago when it first got started.

It great.

It's great for the producer in me, the Producers, the podcast and TV show.

It gives the producers perspective on a TV show.

Jeff Probst is the producer, and so it also gives a fan perspective,

you know, and so anyway, it's a, it's a great all around, uh, show.

Even if you didn't really watch Survivors as a fan, it helps break you

down how they, how they do everything behind the scenes, and I love it.

So I would say that's my, I have a lot of favorite podcasts, but

that's probably my favorite one.

The fun fact for today's show is Jeff Probst and I went to the same high school.

Yeah.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Yeah.

All right.

Final question of this installment of the mail bag, which city has great

transit that people might not expect?

Very good.

So I get this question a lot or, or a similar version of it, like what's your

favorite, you know, transit system?

Uh, and so I would say, you know, in Canada it's TransLink for me.

Kevin Quinn in, in, uh, he has the best transit system, I think in Canada.

Major system in America my favorite system is WMATA Washington

Metro in our nation's capital.

Randy Clark.

Uh, the work they've done, it's fantastic, um, how they've turned that system.

But the most kind of probably underrated one that I've been to

in the last few years is Tucson.

Mm-hmm.

Um, uh, Tucson, Arizona.

It is just a fantastic transit system.

Their light rail system, Julie, there, um, has had, you know, amazing

impact on the city with, uh, transit oriented development, et cetera,

and I love the transit system there.

And that show, us making the episode of Transit Unplugged TV and the podcast we

did with the CEO were some of my favorite filming, uh, experiences in a long time.

Yeah, that was a special episode.

I believe they were celebrating their 50th year.

That's right.

Yeah.

It was a big deal.

Yeah,

it's a great transit system too, and the city supports it.

They invest in it.

It's a great, great system.

Well, congratulations on 400 episodes.

It's been a complete joy to work with you for the last four years.

That's how I've been able to work with you behind the scenes.

Um, you're an amazing host, an excellent producer.

I love the show personally, so congratulations.

May you have 400 more.

Amen to that sister.

Alright, if you viewing or listening have a question for the mail bag,

we would love to hear from you.

For future episodes of the Transit Unplugged Podcast, you can either send

it by email at info@transitunplugged.com, or you can just send us a

message on our LinkedIn page.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Transit Unplugged, the world's

number one transit executive podcast.

I'm Julie Gates, executive producer of the podcast.

Many thanks to the team that makes this show happen.

Host and producer, Paul Comfort, producer Chris O'Keeffe, editor Patrick

Emil, associate producer Cyndi Raskin

Transit Unplugged is being brought to you by Modaxo.

Passionate about moving the world's people.

If you would enjoy behind the scenes insights and updates from the show,

sign up for our weekly newsletter, which has links to can't miss conversations

with the biggest names in mobility.

Head to transitunplugged.com and scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.

Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Transit Unplugged.