Falling, Failing, and Finding Success: Mentoring Young Adults in 2023

CNX Resources is getting ready to proudly mark its 160th year in Appalachia. Our legacy is built on generations of a thriving and talented workforce and our future will rely on the same.

We are staunch defenders of the region. We will work with anyone to better our communities and economy. We often throw ourselves into the fray if there is a vexing problem where we might offer a solution.

One of our team’s motivational sayings reflecting our action-based culture is, ‘see something, say something, do something.’ Admittedly, there are times we jump the gun and ‘do something’ before fully thinking through the ‘see something’ part. But most times, our proactive instincts have been fruitful for individual employees, company, and region.

A few years ago, we began to ‘see something’: a massive problem in Appalachia.

Young adults, particularly those in underserved communities, are becoming an abandoned demographic when it comes to economic and professional opportunity.
Despite pouring trillions of dollars into education, too much of the public school system is failing the next generation. Young adults not wishing to attend college after high school are often on their own to figure out what comes after high school and how to start a career.

So, we started to ‘say something.’

The company developed an Appalachia First vision for the wider region, targeting economic and career inclusiveness to revive manufacturing and transform global energy markets, with Appalachia at the epicenter. We spoke at western Pennsylvania high schools in urban and rural communities about career paths in energy, building trades, and manufacturing. We invested time and resources into organizations who shared our vision of what could and should be.

But it didn’t take long to figure out that we needed to go further.

When we ‘see something’ and then ‘say something’ without acceptable improvement, it’s time to ‘do something.’

A Simple Yet Daring Idea

That ‘something’ was endeavoring to mentor at scale young adults in urban and rural underserved communities who are exiting high school, don’t wish to immediately attend college, and desire to enter the workforce. The platform became known as the CNX Mentorship Academy, now into our third year.

The effort has provided a spectrum of experiences and emotions that come with a significant commitment to mentoring: joy, stress, failure, success, winning, losing, day-to-day grinds, the big picture, passion, and fits-and-starts. Mentoring is both the most awe inspiring and most frustrating thing a person can get involved with.

The young adults we’re supporting are a critical driver of the future of western Pennsylvania and Appalachia. These individuals intend to stay in the region and start professional journeys that develop personal skills, create opportunity to ‘do,’ provide meaningful employment, and that pay a family-sustaining wage.

A couple of points to consider.

Western Pennsylvania is a special place that offers a spectrum of urban, suburban, and rural communities all within proximity to one another. From the Steel City’s southern suburbs, a short 20-minute drive to the north lands you in the most urban-of-urban areas. And a 30-minute drive to the south places you in the most rural-of-rural areas.

It’s a notable characteristic of western Pennsylvania, and the young adults in those urban and rural zip codes face serious obstacles gaining footholds in the middle class.

Second, Academy students don’t plan to attend college right out of high school. One might argue that’s an astute move these days, considering how poor the return on investment has become for far too many students.

Yet there is little support and scant process to provide understandable and navigable pathways for such students, which is ludicrous considering the great possibilities awaiting them.

Running to Embrace Failure

The need for, and the huge potential rate of return, of an effort such as the CNX Mentorship Academy are obvious. But if it were easy, it would’ve been done by now. We quickly learned it would be far from easy.

The author Valarie Johnson says: “We fall. We break. We fail. But then, we rise. We heal. We overcome.” We’ve learned that her words epitomize mentoring young adults entering the real world.

In hindsight, I suppose we asked for some degree of failure.

Our mentorship initiative was designed from the get-go to be challenging, to the point of frustrating. We were attempting something tangible, which means measurable. We wanted it to be impactful, and we couldn’t think of anything that’s more impactful than assisting the region’s next generation. And we wanted it to be local to our home region of western Pennsylvania.

Tangible, impactful, and local sound great. And different.

But if you take those characteristics to heart in the context of the Mentorship Academy, you begin to understand that success is far from guaranteed. The world for young adults in our urban and rural communities is a constantly changing mosaic of harsh realities that are always in play, wreaking havoc on the ability to smoothly transition a young adult into promising professional career paths.

That’s tough to accept for the successful individuals and entities affiliated with this effort. Failure, or the possibility of it, is scary.

And our toiling would stand out and contrast with the norm. Because many community efforts are often designed more for public relations and optics instead of making a truly tangible, impactful, and local positive difference.

Consider the contrast of two basic approaches to community efforts these days.

The first: the entity or a company presents one of those ridiculously oversized giant posters that look like a check. Everyone has seen these photos. Cut a check, smile, snap the photo, post it to social media, move on. Feel-good, yes. But disconnected and one-time.

I admit that I’ve been guilty of this from time to time. But if it helps promote whatever cause is being supported, what the heck. Yet the impact is fleeting.

The second approach is rarer, yet much more effective: invest yourself by getting your hands dirty and personally intervening to address the challenge or to seize the opportunity. Really commit.

That’s a much more demanding route, but also stands to be hugely rewarding. That’s what we desired with the Mentorship Academy.

After a few years into the Mentorship Academy effort, I attest that the path of hands-on immersion comes with collateral damage. It often results in falling short of aspiration.

But we wouldn’t have it any other way.

The direct immersive approach has made all the difference, to paraphrase Frost’s famous poem of taking the road or path less traveled.

Awareness of Opportunity

There are core objectives to achieve with individual students in the Mentorship Academy. They are telling of the situation facing young adults’ career paths.

A base objective is introducing the careers and professions available in a region like western Pennsylvania that don’t require a college degree. The good news is there are many such pathways. They’re out there and looking for the next generation.

Fortunately, we had exceptional partners from the start. Leaders in the energy industry, manufacturing, the building trades (carpenters, steamfitters, electricians, operating engineers, and laborers), hospitality, real estate, construction, and healthcare to name the big ones.

The bad news is that the young adult typically has little clue of the opportunities or what those jobs and careers entail. This is also an opportunity, one that the Mentorship Academy has seized on behalf of students.

Not knowing what’s out there is not a failing of the student. Instead, it’s an indictment of that ‘system’ referenced earlier that’s failing to enlighten young adults on life changing career paths that don’t require college and are often just down the street.

And some responsibility must also be borne by the industries themselves. For example, the domestic energy industry must do a better job of promoting, communicating, and highlighting the awesome professional paths that exist for young adults out of public high school.

So, we dedicate a group of days through the year’s curriculum to visit various industries and job sites so students see these professions in action, real time. Hands-on activities during the tours are common.

A student quickly figures out the professions that intrigue them and their career awareness IQ skyrockets. Knowledge is power when making life/career decisions.

Assembling the Career Tool Box, One Tool at a Time

Although seeing and learning about different industries and career paths is a key Academy objective, there are other crucial goals. Two important ones are developing resumes and interview preparedness.

For resumes, it’s not only about words on paper, but also working with the individual student to strengthen and fill in the resume with activities, volunteering, references, and accomplishments.

Most high school seniors have only a slight inkling as to what a resume is, and very few know what a good resume looks like. But by the end of an Academy year, young adults have polished and, wouldn’t you know it, impressive resumes. Another challenge transformed into an opportunity.

But a resume is only a start. It gets you noticed over a 20-second look by a recruiter or hiring manager going through hundreds of resumes. That’s important, it’s how you stand out and get to the next step.

But it won’t be enough to get you a job offer. For that you’re going to need to also impress at an interview, which is the next hurdle.

We explain to young adults to think of an interview as if they were learning a language or figuring out an app. You get good at it by doing it. You can talk about it, but until you practice mock interviews, you’re not going to get comfortable performing in the real interview.

So we run each student through mock interviews with their resumes in hand. We ask the obvious questions. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? The student learns how to take a tricky question like weaknesses and answer it in a way that turns it into a positive. Something like, ‘my biggest weakness is that I’m a perfectionist’ or, ‘sometimes I try to take on too much.’

We also discuss how a good resume prompts the interviewer to ask obvious questions. Strategically placing an experience or an interest on your resume that stands out and that is different will serve as a great ice breaker and conversation item in the interview. And the student should be prepared to discuss that topic in the interview; a layup to be ready for.

Finally, students are advised to ask a good question or two during the interview. Something applicable to the job, company, or industry that demonstrates the applicant performed due diligence preparing and is genuinely interested.

And one also needs to be properly dressed for the interview to land that job.

We talk about researching the dress code of the company/location, and then dressing in attire that fits the culture. This means each student needs at least one professional outfit for interviews. Thus, we provide each student with an outfit. It’s a highlight of the year; seeing a student come into the day’s event in jeans and a hoodie and then suddenly seeing them transformed individually and as a group. Clothes prove to be quite a confidence builder.

Paperwork

There is another objective of the curriculum that we had no clue of going into the effort, but quickly emerged within a few months into the first year’s journey: paperwork.

Many young adults in underserved communities lack the necessary paperwork needed to land a meaningful job. The best example is a driver’s license. No driver’s license, no ability to fill out a job application, and thus no job. Doesn’t matter if the applicant has an awesome resume and interviews well.

The logical step is to help the student get through the driver’s license process. Easy, right? Wrong.

Because that requires more…paperwork. Birth certificates, social security cards, health physicals, consents, and so on. And everything with the paperwork needs to be just so, since the government DMV is not what you would consider to be the most flexible organization and it doesn’t exactly embrace the customer service mentality.

Most high school seniors don’t have their paperwork in any semblance of order. And getting it to that point can be complicated and time consuming. But if the student aspires to land the job that sets them on a career path, the paperwork challenge must be met. We invest the time and endure the frustration of getting all that paperwork in order, student by student.

It’s another example of how bureaucracy (and its associated paperwork) can stifle individual achievement.

There is a silver lining with the hoops we jump through with paperwork: it provides opportunities to bond with the student outside of the normal Mentorship Academy curriculum.

If you want to get to know someone, spend an hour with them waiting in line at the DMV.

Lines at the DMV, if used as social networking platforms, would render social media and apps obsolete.

Network and the Confidence Game

As important as immersion into different industries, a resume, interview skills, professional attire, and a driver’s license are, there are two even more important items of value in the Academy’s curriculum for the student. Two intangibles.

The first is that the student exits the Academy with an impressively powerful network. Over the course of the year, they meet the leaders of companies and industries across the region, including those who do the hiring and in some instances the CEOs of the businesses or entities. That’s the benefit of having great partners to participate alongside you in the effort.

That network is one to be envied by seasoned professionals, let alone by high school seniors. It’s a huge leg up that can keep paying dividends for the individual young professional to the extent that they’re willing to invest time to properly utilize it.

And the second crucial takeaway for the student is, in a word: confidence.

Confidence at the age of 18 is powerful. And lack of confidence at age 18 can be debilitating—particularly when it comes to career.

A year of the Academy builds a reservoir of confidence that manifests in resume, demeanor, first impressions, and pursuing career paths. Confidence might be, in the end, the most important ingredient that the Mentorship Academy provides.

The Glue

To succeed in this endeavor and instill that confidence, support beyond the day or so spent with students each month during the formal curriculum is vital. So what about the other 28 or 29 days in a month?

That’s where mentors come into play. The mentors are the glue that holds everything together. After spending a day or two each month diving deep into our curriculum, off the students go back into the unforgiving and difficult real world.

Finding ways to keep students tethered when life is rearing its head is the mentors’ focus. We have mentors who are community leaders alongside mentors who are within the organizations and companies that participate in the effort. Experience shows you need, and want, both.

Mentors are essential to:

  • Building personal connections to the students—important when inevitably something arises in life with the student;
  • Helping shepherd students through the curriculum and the year to get the most out of the Academy; and,
  • Establishing a close mentor-student connection to ensure a tailored path for each student that matches interests, needs, and situation.

This is far from a one size fits all effort, and flexibility and nimbleness are keys to success.

No mentors, no success. It’s that simple.

The Next Level

Success raises the topic of scale. If we are experiencing success with an individual student or a small group of students, then the quicker and the more efficiently we can scale and grow the effort, the more tangible and impactful it will be on the local region.

We talk about the Academy to raise awareness so that more people get involved.

You’re welcome to copy it. You’re welcome to join it. And you’re welcome to learn more about it. You don’t have to steal the playbook, ask and we will give it to you.

If you wish to join the effort, nominate a student, or replicate what we’ve built, find more information on the CNX Mentorship Academy at https://www.cnx.com/about-us/the_mentorship-academy.

We are scaling. Our first year was around 30 students, last year had just over 40, and the third-year class is kicking off with close to 80 students.

Unbelievably, we are now measuring our cumulative impact in the hundreds of young adults. But what if we could take that to the thousands and across regions beyond western Pennsylvania? That’s where you might come in if you want to replicate or join the effort.

Back to Reality

A sober dose of truth is in order.

Young adults course a journey of growth that comes in fits and spurts. Sometimes it’s one step forward and two steps back. And their world doesn’t make it any easier, whether urban or rural.

Not every student is going to exit the Academy exactly where we hoped at the start. And not every student is going to be prepared for ‘career primetime’ at the end of the year.

We adjusted to that reality, and we continue to do so. It’s humbling and makes you think.

But we can say without hesitation that every student who enters the Academy and shows up over the course of the year will be in a markedly better place with life skills, awareness, and confidence by the end.

It all comes down to how one defines success. It’s measured in different ways…in this thing we call life. I wish it were more ideal, but this is how it is.

Back to the author Valarie Johnson: “We fall. We break. We fail. But then, we rise. We heal. We overcome.”

That’s mentoring young adults in western Pennsylvania in 2023. But we discovered that if we stick to it, we win. And so does the region.

Insights into the Energy Industry: A Conversation with Nick Deiuliis

In the conversation below (and available here on most podcast services) Nick joins Energy Crüe Podcast host JP Warren to discuss the state of America’s energy industry.

“Our industry is just a crucial one, not only to the economy, but society and life itself,” says Nick. “We do have to live in a world of science and math and physics—that’s always helpful because it puts a lot of the emotion or ideology off to the side and focuses in on on just what is truth.”

Their discussion, a follow-up to their October 2022 interview, also addresses improving the quality of life of individuals today, the geopolitical and economic consequences of bad energy policy, the upcoming third year of the CNX Mentorship Academy, and more.

From the show’s description:

This episode is a powerful conversation with the CEO of CNX Resources, Nick Deiuliis, a luminary in the energy industry. Guaranteed to offer insights into the world of energy; we dive into topics like energy policies, climate change, emissions, and the significance of advocacy. Listen as Nick expounds on his journey leading CNX Resources, how his company is shaping the Appalachia region, and the necessity to harmonize energy expectations and realities.

Brace yourselves for a comprehensive discussion on the actual state of the energy industry. A seasoned leader, Nick clarifies the ramifications of energy policy, the effect of social media advocacy, and the potential fallout if energy policy goes awry. We also examine the media’s representation of the climate crisis and its sway over policy making. If you’re curious about the real-world implications of energy policy decisions and the true state of our climate, you won’t want to miss this.

The spotlight then shifts to CNX Resources’ Mentorship Academy. We unravel the opportunities that the energy industry and climate change initiatives present, especially for the youth. Discover how this academy is playing a critical role in introducing underserved high school students to the energy industry and setting them on the path to successful careers. A captivating blend of industry knowledge and practical guidance, this conversation will mold the next generation of energy leaders. Don’t miss the knowledge shared, and be part of an enlightening discourse about the energy industry’s future.

For daily insights and commentary from Nick Deiuliis, follow Nick on Twitter at @NickDeiuliis and on LinkedIn.

Venice: A City Connected by Canals…and Carbon

Venice is perhaps the world’s most famous island city, cut off from the mainland. Visitors arriving by plane do not land in Venice proper when disembarking at Marco Polo Airport. Instead, they land across the lagoon and must take a water taxi to get to their destination.

That is where on a recent visit we met a water taxi stand manager who struck up a conversation. The inevitable commentary about weather came up; we were lucky to have the prospect of an awesome summer forecast for the next few days.

The manager commented that climate change was altering the weather and ravaging the city. I asked how she thought Marco Polo managed climate change when he left town and traveled the world on behalf of the Republic of Venice. Her response summed up today’s ideological brainwashing of society by environmentalism: “climate change didn’t exist back then.”

The manager pointed out how Venetians have become quite sustainable when it comes to their carbon footprint. She informed me the city reached its peak carbon footprint not long ago and is on the road to zero carbon.[1] Events in the city increasingly tout how they are net-zero carbon confabs.[2] She suggested we might be visiting the planet’s lowest-carbon-footprint major city.

That got my immediate attention.

I decided while waiting for the water taxi that it was game on for our few days in town. While taking in the sights, people, and food I would also be tallying an unofficial carbon footprint audit of this most unique of cities.

As we said goodbye to the water taxi manager, she asked what we did for a living. My response was half-joke, half-serious and made her laugh: “I work in an industry you’ve been told is part of the problem. But the reality is that without my industry, Venice as you know it would cease to exist.” What I respectfully left out of my response was that the manager’s job, tied directly to tourism and carbon utilization, would also cease to exist.

If You’ve Never Been…

A little background for those who have not had the pleasure of visiting Venice (highly recommended, subject to the advice that follows). The place offers an intensely deep history; but today Venice has become a museum to itself. Everything in the town revolves around tourism and the past.

I heard the horror stories from seasoned travelers. About how crowded the city gets in summer, when a plague of tourists descends off cruise ships and planes to assault the city’s famous sites, as if the visitors were spearheading an amphibious invasion. To some extent that proved accurate, especially at and around the postcard sites of Ponte Rialto and Piazza San Marco. Tourists jam both locations, paying more attention to their smart devices to capture what was around them instead of taking in what was around them.

But there is a fabulously attractive aspect of Venice: walking a hundred yards from the most packed of sites transports you to a quiet, less populated, and unique area. A traveler can go from part of the hordes, to alone with only a few resident Venetians around in less than thirty seconds. And 90% of the city lends itself to the latter vibe, meaning if you invest an hour or so hitting the popular locations, you are then free to wander and immerse in the real Venice (or what is left of it).

I mentioned walking. That is the exclusive travel method once within the city. There are no cars in Venice. Or buses or trucks or motorcycles. Which means there are no streetlights or stop signs. Bikes, scooters, and skateboards are forbidden and, frankly, useless. The only mode of transportation other than feet are gondolas and small motorized water taxis and delivery boats. Which means the pedestrian reigns supreme. One only needs to navigate other pedestrians and the city’s hundreds of footbridges across canals when meandering about.

I mentioned meandering. That is the most accurate description of how one navigates through Venice.

There seems to be an infinite number of ways to go from point A to point B in the city. Which makes every walk an adventure and something new. Maps are nearly useless because of the countless alleys, foot bridges, and canals. One learns early that you iterate a path to the final destination through trial and error. It is not uncommon to turn a corner and see your destination close by but get lost as you turn corners trying to maneuver a path to where you’re headed. It might sound frustrating but does make for great fun.

So, at first blush, Venice appears to have one of the lowest carbon footprints of a major city on the planet. No cars and everyone walking or rowing on water. No wonder Venice and Venetians tend to brag about their sustainability credentials.

But a closer look exposes a different reality.

The Carbon of Venice

Venice is awash in two things: water and carbon utilization. The former is obvious while the latter becomes obvious after reflecting how this city attracts and supports tens of millions of people each year.

Feeding Venice consumes massive amounts of carbon.

It doesn’t hit you at first, but after a few days you realize that all the food and drink being consumed across the city in the thousands of bars and bistros is coming from somewhere off the islands. Agriculture is far from carbon free, with fertilizers and machinery utilizing copious amounts of fossil fuels. Packaging adds to the carbon tally. And the transportation of the food requires diesel and gasoline, whether the mode of transport is truck, boat, train, or plane. If Venice required a zero-carbon footprint for its food, the population would necessarily shrink drastically. And the diet would be severely pared back.

Which brings up the subject of the ‘residents’ of Venice.

In the summer, the population is heavily supplemented by tourists.[3] Those travelers got there by plane, train, boat, bus, and auto. All those modes of transport consume carbon-based fuels for power (and their manufacture). Perhaps travelers went carbon-free for transport once inside the Venetian walls, but the journey to get there and return home was hugely carbon intensive.

Venice worked hard to retain its cultural identity, including the preservation of its architecture. The orange terra cotta tiled roofs make for picturesque sight lines, bringing tourism and economic commerce into the city. Solar panels on historic roofs don’t exactly make for nice photos or appealing vistas. Thus, you don’t see solar panels on Venetian roofs despite a somewhat sunny climate and a more than accommodating regulatory regime with EU energy policy. That means much of the air conditioning, electricity, and heat will be derived from carbon-based power generation, whether it be in Venice or supplied from the Italian mainland.

Locals and tourists walk about the city wearing shoes and clothes derived from petroleum-based polymers and fabrics. Everyone drinking from water bottles and snapping photos from smart devices, with both being made from carbon. And the former being chilled and the latter being charged with carbon. The masses across Venice literally wear and hold their carbon footprints on their feet, backs, and hands.

Carbon is present and necessary for the most famous of Venetian products. Murano glass utilizes a process that is quite carbon intensive. Venetian masks, from the paper mache variety, to the paints and pigments that decorate them, require carbon as an input or feedstock. Whether a tourist buys a cheap knockoff, or the finest handmade versions, they are taking home a souvenir that carries a carbon footprint.

The Venetian Experience Relies on Carbon

The kid in The Sixth Sense memorably remarked that he ‘saw dead people.’ Spending a few days visiting Venice had me seeing carbon. Everywhere and with everyone.

Carbon remains the lifeblood of this city with the historic past that today primarily exists as a window to the past. Venice is not on a road to zero carbon emissions unless its leaders seek urban suicide. For Venice to continue to be a global tourist destination, it will likely have more attributable carbon emissions, not less.

Mandate arrivederci to carbon utilization, and the consequences for Venice and its economy will sadly be dire. As well as for its residents and those wishing to visit.

Again, if you have the opportunity to visit Venice, definitely go for the rich history, culture, and one-of-a-kind experience. Just say “no grazie” to the zero carbon claims.

[1] Similar flawed thinking can be found everywhere. Give a read to Onu Ialia’s “Venice Is One of 30 of the World’s Largest and Most Influential Cities to Have Peaked Greenhouse Gas Emissions” to see how baseless, yet feel-good, pronouncements reinforce a false premise.
[2] For a recent example: “Venice Biennale 2022 Gets Eco Accolade, Winning Carbon Neutrality Status” (James Imam, The Art Newspaper, 12/30/22). Unfortunately, as this essay will detail, a legitimate carbon accounting betrays a carbon footprint for any such event as being quite positive.
[3] The numbers don’t lie: historic central Venice has just over 50,000 permanent residents but attracts over 20 million visitors each year.

 

The Logic and Morality of Share Buybacks

The following commentary is by Nick Deiuliis and Yemi Akinkugbe.

In 1982, the SEC, under President Reagan, reinstated share repurchases to the American public corporation capital allocation tool kit with Rule 10b-18 of the Securities Exchange Act. Every year since, the criticism of this crucial capital allocation option from the anti-business Left and the populist Right has grown more strident. Yet corporate business leaders will be hard pressed to find a more effective and moralistic approach to capital allocation than share repurchases, when executed at the right times by applying clinical math.

Political Witch-Hunt

President Biden, in his 2023 State of the Union address, attacked corporate share repurchases and proposed “quadrupling the tax on corporate stock buyback” to punish the practice. President Trump was a critic of buybacks prior to President Biden. Senator Elizabeth Warren calls share repurchases “nothing but a paper manipulation” and criticizes corporate executives who utilize the tool. Senator Bernie Sanders proposed introducing a bill that will prohibit corporations from performing share buybacks unless certain conditions are met.

It seems as if the whole of government these days aims to dictate and micromanage corporate America’s capital allocation decisions. The justification proffered is the popular, yet false, premise that stock buybacks necessarily lead to significant declines in business investment. How ironic that the anti-business crowd criticizes the tactic of share buybacks because it reduces…business investment!

Unfortunately, there are more than a few influential academics and Wall Street leaders who obligingly echo politicians when attacking share repurchases. The CEO of the largest financial institution in the world once stated corporate leaders needed to be on guard against practices “to deliver immediate returns to shareholders such as buybacks…. while underinvesting in innovation, skilled workforce, or essential capital expenditures to sustain long term growth.”1

Repurchases the Right Way

Like most things in life, how one assesses share buybacks and the timing and transparency of them matter greatly. The goal of share repurchases should be to perform them in a way and during a time when the capital allocation decision increases the intrinsic per share value of the corporation for the remaining owners.

The formula for achieving such a goal is surprisingly simple.2  The board and management of a corporation should have a refined view on the intrinsic valuation of the business, one that reflects the long-term cash flow generation expectations expressed into a present value on a per share basis. That view should be methodically updated and refined as conditions and strategy change.

Publicly traded corporations can then compare that internal view of the value of the business to the current share price of the company. If the share price is at or exceeds the internal per share value view, then share buybacks do not represent a value-adding capital allocation proposition at that time and should be avoided. The time is not right.

But if the company’s view of its per share value exceeds the current share price by a significant margin, the opportunity exists to deploy free cash flow into share repurchases, and by doing so leaving more per share future value of the business to the remaining owners.3 Running this clinical math highlights periods of time when share buybacks make tremendous logical sense.

A properly executed process for assessing share repurchases means there will be times when buybacks should be declined and times when they should be eagerly pursued without risking the balance sheet. The math dictates the timing. When the process and decision filtering are consistently adhered to over the long term, share buybacks can prove to be the most effective of capital allocation tools.

The Morality of Share Buybacks

The great economist Milton Friedman succinctly stated, “there is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game…”4

There are many tactics managers must apply at different times to achieve Friedman’s view: investing capital into the assets of the business, paying top talent to incentivize performance, building a strong balance sheet, and taking the long view of local communities that are core to the business by nurturing economic and social progress. Share repurchases, when applied clinically, can be as effective as these other tactics.

Following Friedman’s view and utilizing share repurchases under the right approach is not greedy, immoral, or wrong. It is morally just because of four reasons:

  • First, note who benefits when a corporation maximizes its profits through share repurchases at the proper times: the shareholder owners. Which include pensions (and their retirees and active workers), mutual fund investors (aka 401k owners), mom and pop investors, and nonprofit foundations. Sure, executives will stand to benefit by the proper application of the share repurchase tactic. But that is the essence of pay-for-performance and it places the business leader in the same shoes as those stakeholders who own the company.
  • Second, share buybacks are the ultimate expression of the individual investor’s freedom of choice. Even though the initial decision to repurchase a share starts with the corporate management and the board, the transaction is not consummated until an owner decides to sell the share back to the company. It is the ultimate exercise of a free market transaction. Those owners not wishing to sell are free to hold on to their shares and end up owning a larger piece of the corporate pie. Owners looking to exit the investment have a willing buyer, the corporation itself, ready and able to transact on the other end.  Each owner is ‘free to choose’ (to borrow another line by Dr. Friedman).
  • Third, share repurchases when done properly do not reduce investment in business. To the contrary, they grow investment in business and the economy. Owners who decided to sell shares back to the corporation are now able to redeploy their investment into whatever venture is compelling and in need of capital. And owners who hold their shares now enjoy a larger piece of future profits from the corporation, creating higher net worth to invest and stimulate the economy further. And the corporation should realize improved valuation and investment prospects as the market begins to reflect the business’ true intrinsic value over the long term.
  • Last, a proper process for share repurchases forces management and boards of public corporations to take the long view and shun the short-termism and herd mentality that plague the public capital markets. Advocates who understand the power of effective share buybacks learn to bask in times when Mr. Market misunderstands the future prospects of the business and wrongly devalues the stock. That is not a short-term problem to an effective capital allocator; instead, it is a long-term opportunity to grow the intrinsic per share value of the business.

If you doubt the case for share repurchases under the right circumstances, consider the view of the Oracle of Omaha.

Warren Buffet in his 2023 shareholder letter pushed back on share buyback critics when he said, “When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders, to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongue demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive).” Buffet knows a thing or two about capital allocation, and investors would be well served to heed his advice.

“When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders, to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongue demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive).”

– WARREN BUFFET

Shun the Shrill Ideology and Embrace the Clinical Logic

Yes, the tactic of share buybacks can be poorly applied and end up harming a business.5 Yet that risk is present in all tactical business decisions and, frankly, most life decisions.6

A risk of getting share repurchases wrong does not make it immoral nor should it be grounds for limiting the ability of corporations to perform it or for investors to benefit from it.

Like many other religious tenants of the modern-day Left and, often, the populist Right, the attack on share buybacks is based purely on dogma bordering on an extreme religion. The belief that capitalism, business, and profit are unethical. That the individual company or investor should not be free to decide for themselves. And that meritocracy and survival of the fittest are to be avoided in the market.

Instead, too many politicians these days demand that government and the unelected, faceless bureaucrat should determine capital allocation decisions, along with selecting winners and losers in a stacked game. The individual, whether it be a company or investor, is subservient to the political and ideological whims of the elite and expert classes.

That belief system is more 1960s East Germany than the American legacy of a free market. If you wonder which is preferable, ask yourself which side of the wall Berliners risked their lives to end up on.

We should shun rigid ideology that limits the freedom of individual investors and that constrains the free market to optimally allocate capital.  Embrace the morality and rationality of share buybacks when done right.

Connect with Nick on Twitter at @NickDeiuliis and on LinkedIn, and CNX Resources consultant Yemi Akinkugbe on LinkedIn.

 

1 Larry Fink Annual Letter to CEO’s April 2015
2 A fantastic book on the topic of effective capital allocation and the power of share repurchases when done right is Will Thorndike’s The Outsiders.
3 What constitutes a ‘significant margin’, or adequate margin-of-safety, is quite subjective and will rely on the judgment of the manager or director running the corporation.  Yet such subjectivity will be present in all major business decisions for corporations, from M&A to capital expenditures into the going concern asset base.
4 Give a read online of Milton Friedman’s “A Friedman Doctrine: The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”, from New York Times Magazine in 1970.
5 The two most common mistakes when applying the tactic of share buybacks are placing too much debt stress on the balance sheet (borrowing to buy back shares instead of using free cash flow) and repurchasing shares when the stock price does not offer a substantial discount to the intrinsic value (or margin of safety). The former does not appear to be a widespread phenomenon, as the MSCI All Country World Index of Debt Issuance vs Buybacks shows little-to-no correlation between buybacks and debt issuance.  The latter is a much more common error, with Warren Buffet commenting that, “American CEOs have an embarrassing record of devoting more company funds to repurchases when prices have risen than when they have tanked.”
6 A person stuck in a bad marriage does not mean the institution of marriage should be vilified by all. A badly timed investment in a small business should not serve as justification for shuttering entrepreneurship.  The same logic should apply to corporate share repurchases.

 

 

LA County Lincoln Club • June 2023 Address

The following is a summary of Nick’s June 2, 2023, address to the Los Angeles County Lincoln Club – Downtown Chapter.

I am so happy to be here, to be with so many doers and value creators. I typically decline many of these invitations to speak and interact. It’s much more comfortable for me to write commentary on my website or discuss issues on my weekly Far Middle podcast than to take the much bolder step of interacting with fellow human beings.

And I have a day job running a publicly traded energy company, CNX Resources, with a great team who are always demanding that I focus on the next summit to climb.

But when I first connected with Nish, I didn’t hesitate for a moment; I was all in. Let me tell you why.

Since you here today are from California or the LA area, you may miss something crucial about California and the position it holds within our nation. My family, like Nish’s and most of yours depending on how far you go back, were not from America. Our people came to America. More specifically, our people aspired to come to America. Because of what it represented and offered, which was in stark contrast to the places where our people left. People from all over the world dreamt of…coming to America, to steal the title of a great 80s movie.

But within this great nation sits California. You see, people from all over America dreamt of…going to California, to borrow the title of a great Led Zeppelin song. California for decades was the dream within the dream. The next level of the American ideal.

I had that dream but never realized it. Since I was a kid. My favorite TV shows were centered in California, hello CHIPs. The first movie I ever saw in a theater was Earthquake, where my perceived ideal of a place was devastated by a natural disaster.

A self-respecting Pittsburgher, I was a Pirates fan growing up in the early 1980s. But I was also a massive Dodgers fan. I fell in love with Vin’s voice and the stadium. That crisp white uniform in the sun. Lasorda, Garvey, Dusty, and my personal favorite, third baseman Ron Cey. The Dodgers perfectly mirrored my image of California and LA.

One of life’s great mysteries to me are people, many of them smart people mind you, who say they prefer New York City to LA. What? That’s not even a fair comparison. People…escape from New York; yeah, another 80s movie title again; they don’t desire to go live there, certainly not over LA.

Although I never left Pittsburgh, I remain fond of California and LA. And I am deeply troubled about both. And America. And my hometown as well. Allow me to explain.

AN ENDANGERED AND VILIFIED COMPOSITION

Understand my makeup. Like most of us here today, I am a mosaic of things.

I am an engineer by training, which means I am passionate about the scientific method and objectivity when setting policies. I am not a fan of, and am deeply troubled by, ‘The Science’.

I am a liberal, as in the endangered species of classic liberal, when it comes to individual rights. The Constitution and our republic were structured to protect the rights of the individual. From the tyranny of the majority and certainly from the state. The individual should be free to choose.

I am most definitely a fiscal conservative. I never spent more cash than I took in, including when I was young, starting out with basically nothing, and no car. So why should our government systemically and constantly grossly outspend what it takes in?

And philosophically, I am best defined as libertarian. I recognize we need some level of government – to protect property rights, protect individual rights, and to defend from outside threats. But that level should be minimal so that the individual is optimal.

And I am a proud capitalist. And an unapologetic domestic energy producer of natural gas. And a believer in meritocracy. And free market advocate.

What’s interesting is how out of style that mosaic makeup I just listed has become. In fact, it is now beyond unpopular with the elite and expert class. It is outright vilified as something in need of silencing and eradicating.

Think about it. The Science reigns over science. Individual rights are trampled by the official views set by the elite and expert classes. Fiscal responsibility in government has been obliterated and we pretend the bill will never come due. Government has become a monster, light years away from minimal. Socialism eats away at capitalism. Zero carbon myths are used to attack domestic energy. And equal outcomes destroy meritocracy.

Why are all these things coming to bear at the same time across our great land and this awesome state? It boils down to one culprit, friends: the Left.

AMERICA’S SHALE GAS MIRACLE

Learn how CNX Resources produces natural gas.

If you could create the opposite composite of the things that I love, that I associate with, that I just listed, you would come up with today’s Left.

And not only is the Left the antithesis of all that I hold near and dear, but it also—quite astutely I might add when one considers the Left’s end game—attacks and vilifies the industry and region that are in my DNA. Those being the domestic natural gas industry and Appalachia, with Pittsburgh serving as its beating heart.

And there is much that we all stand to lose if the Left succeeds. Allow me to illustrate with my world, which seems far from here but in fact impacts everything here in Cali. It’s the greatest success story never told.

The U.S. went from being a net annual importer of natural gas as recently as 2016 to the largest global producer of natural gas and a net annual exporter today. The Appalachian basin is a big reason why; the Marcellus and Utica shale horizons underneath where I live represent cumulatively the second largest natural gas field in the world.

What catalyzed this stunning rapid transformation and dominant position? The free market bringing innovative and disruptive technology in the form of horizontal drilling and advanced completions techniques. American ingenuity allowed methane, aka natural gas, to be liberated from shale rock deposits at prolific rates and low cost.

Cumulatively, the benefits across this virtuous value chain total in the trillions of dollars. Because of capitalism and efficient market theory.

You see these benefits locally in places where the manufacturing of energy occurs, often in rural and underserved locales. Landowners have enjoyed a windfall from gas rights leasing that they’ve reinvested into family farms, homes, kids’ education, and local businesses. Communities ravaged by global “free”, but really unfair, trade now see high employment in jobs that pay family-sustaining wages. Where no hope existed not long ago for these communities, attention has now turned to a future with promise.

You see the benefits regionally. Pennsylvania retooled its power grid to feed off domestic natural gas and the state’s carbon dioxide intensity declined nearly 40 percent in just 12 years while its manufacturing sector was revived and businesses and homes enjoy lower energy bills. Old-line manufacturing, petrochemicals, and industrial products are resurrected across the Rust Belt by the jolt of cheap and reliable energy. Which means the building trades are booked solid.

Benefits are evident across America and North America. Canadian heavy industry in western Ontario is now fed by new pipeline infrastructure conveying Appalachian carbon-based molecules, making it more competitive. Mexico is the largest importer of U.S. natural gas.

The US shale industry and free market have done more for North American prosperity than the NAFTA and USMCA, combined.

America’s domestic energy industry is redrawing the geopolitical map.

We broke OPEC’s back. Domestic carbon manufacturing allows the U.S. to withdraw from endless conflicts in faraway lands since we now deliver our own energy security. U.S. natural gas is the biggest strategic lever against the growing threat of the ominous Chinese communist state and its global ambitions, as well as Russia and Putin.

There are basic underlying reasons why this miracle occurred in a very short time.

First, the free market was able to function without major government intervention. The industry innovated faster than bureaucrats and the Left could keep up to meddle. Second, the free market allocated capital across the value chain, and what were once fragmented pieces quickly become integrated and efficient.

And if left unmolested by the Left, we are just getting started. Two big opportunities are on the horizon.

First, another round of disruptive and innovative technology is coming to bear, much of it being developed and demonstrated by CNX in Appalachia, that will allow natural gas manufactured at the wellhead to be efficiently transformed from gaseous methane into compressed natural gas and liquified natural gas. Or CNG and LNG, respectively. That’s a game changer, because CNG and LNG will instantly displace massive volumes of foreign-sourced oil used in the transportation sector.

When you blend in CNG or LNG into a truck, heavy equipment, bus, or airplane in place of gasoline or diesel, a few things happen. Costs go down because the natural gas derived BTUs are less than half the cost of gasoline or diesel BTUs. Huge savings.

Supply chains shrink drastically, from tens of thousands of miles with oil currently, down to as short as dozens of miles under this development chain.

Global CO2 and local emissions plummet, because you are now using the lowest methane intensive natural gas on the planet to displace higher emission pieces of the energy portfolio.

Employment and tax base go up as workers earn family-sustaining wages and pay taxes. Trade balance improves and trade deficit shrinks as energy imports drop. And our geopolitical leverage increases as we create not just improved energy security for ourselves, but also our allies.

Allowing doers to do their thing in domestic energy has the geopolitical reach of several aircraft carrier groups, when one thinks about it.

Second, once you displace the foreign-sourced gasoline and diesel transportation markets, you can start to expand the exporting ability of domestically produced natural gas to other nations.

Liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals along the east and gulf coasts, and what should also be the west coast, liquify natural gas transported from inland basins via pipelines. The product is then shipped to places like Poland, South Korea, Spain, Japan, and India. There, the natural gas is re-gasified and utilized for home heating, electricity generation, and manufacturing. Our carbon-based molecules are being utilized globally to help spur improved quality of life for billions of people.

THE LEFT’S ENERGY BATTLE PLAN

But…the doers in domestic energy and Appalachia are not being left alone by the Left. Quite the contrary. It’s as if the success of the domestic energy industry drove the Left mad, to the point where their zealotry to destroy and appropriate the value of doers exponentially increased.

“It’s as if the success of the domestic energy industry drove the Left mad, to the point where their zealotry to destroy and appropriate the value of doers exponentially increased.”

Code Red for humanity and climate change serve as the overarching religion to destroy not just the domestic energy industry, but everything tied to it. Which is effectively the entire private sector economy and the freedom of the individual. There are three tactical prongs to the Left’s attack under the ideology of climate change.

The first prong of attack is heightened regulatory standards on domestic energy production and reduced access to natural gas reserves. You see this attack every time an administrative state bureaucrat in the EPA issues a new regulation on the industry. Although these attacks have a cumulative negative impact, the industry has become adept at meeting such onerous challenges.

The second prong of the attack targets the industry’s access to capital and looks to cut off supply of the vital lubricant for any capitalistic endeavor. This attack will be evident when major banks bow to pressure from environmental groups to stop lending to the carbon economy, when foundations or endowments of universities chest-thump about their divestment from carbon-producing companies, or when credit ratings firms assign poor credit ratings to such companies not because of quantitative metrics but instead because of subjective views of the industry’s social worthiness. The logic of this prong is simple: starve a growing industry of capital and you can slowly strangle it to death.

The third and final prong of the attack is the most insidious of all: thwarting the future demand growth for natural gas. This attack manifests through the throwing of regulatory and legal roadblocks into the paths of new pipeline projects that would convey natural gas from the producing basins to the growing demand centers.

The Left justifies the three-pronged attack with a few convenient energy myths.

The first myth being wind and solar and EVs are zero carbon. Nonsense; they have massive carbon and CO2 footprints on a life cycle basis, higher than natural gas power generation for sure. Mandating wind and solar power generation and EV adoption will increase atmospheric CO2 net-net, not decrease it.

The second myth being we can manufacture wind, solar, and EV batteries at scale here in the US. We can’t because the stuff you need sits largely in Africa and South America and China. And all the processing capacity to purify that stuff is controlled by China. A mad dash to wind, solar, and EVs necessarily creates energy dependency on the CCP, as designed.

And the murky supply chain of wind, solar, and batteries brings epic human rights abuses. It’s a new form of brutal colonialism. Brought to you by the Left, the Church of Climate, and the IRA.

Now, why aren’t these myths about wind, solar, and batteries exposed as nonsensical under the basic laws of science that a high school student should be able to posit? Well, the myths masquerade under a veneer of an effective tactic. A tactic that if done objectively is of great use, but when purposely misapplied by the Left does great harm.

The tactic I speak of is ESG screening methodology; ESG standing for environmental, social, and governance. The Left uses ESG as a blunt instrument to punish domestic energy and cover over those inconvenient myths of wind, solar, and EVs. How? By distorting the E within ESG.

I wrote a piece that you can find on nickdeiuliis.com that gained a bit of notoriety in the energy space and capital markets. Its title, and this is the last time I will borrow another movie title, is: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of ESG.

The good, or the Blondies, of ESG investing focus on tangible objective performance metrics that help filter best-in-class performers within a group from the norm or poor performers. Example: show me the safest and most compliant player in an energy or manufacturing field and it will likely be the most profitable or lowest-cost player.

The bad, or Angel Eyes, of ESG investing is the racket. Corporations making vague promises about this or that years into the future, typically after the CEO retires. Or an investment house using ESG labels to shove high-fee products down gullible throats where the ESG portfolio doesn’t look all that different than a standard one. Or pension funds preaching ESG but who don’t want to do the hard work to properly screen players and instead rely solely on third party institutions who arbitrarily judge ESG worthiness using an ideological bias wrapped within a black-box model no one can see.

The ugly, or Tucos, of ESG investing are what happens when companies get distracted from true substantive risk management by ESG gloss and optics. Exhibit A in state: PG&E. Hundreds of millions spent on charging stations, solar, and optics while starving core infrastructure, including a 90+ year old transmission line hook, of needed maintenance. The utility was celebrated as an ESG leader. Until. Then the consequences: deaths, a third-world grid, and bankruptcy.

Yes, the symptoms and consequences of the Left meddling in energy are real. It creates energy scarcity, which creates energy inflation, which then stokes general inflation. It helps create energy insecurity in the West and a dependency on places like Russia, because when wind and solar inevitably fail to perform at scale, the energy needs to come from somewhere. Putin feels emboldened and decides he can take a nation or two because of his energy stranglehold over the EU that the Left gave him.

Climate change is not the problem. It’s been happening for millions of years. Climate change policies and the myths they embody are the problem.

THE DUTY OF LEADERSHIP

Now you sense my anxiety. The Left is everything I am not. And on top of that, the Left is looking to eradicate my beloved industry and region out of existence, with serious consequences for a range of stakeholders, from the local to the global.

That realization built over time and changed me. I used to subscribe to what I referenced as ‘political quietism’. Keep your head down, ignore the babble, and do your job. But with everything I just discussed looming larger, I began to ponder if that is what good leaders do. Is it ethical to not speak in defense of the accurate, of the rational?

I began to focus on policy advocacy. I maintain a website where I’m constantly posting various thoughts and materials and commentaries; nickdeiuliis.com. I’m active on Twitter and LinkedIn. And I publish a podcast weekly titled The Far Middle, as in not the far right and not the far left.

And, yes, I wrote a book, Precipice: The Left’s Campaign to Destroy America. I encourage you to give the book a read; all the royalty proceeds go to another one of my endeavors, which is helping to fund the CNX Foundation’s Mentorship Academy – check that out on my website or on the CNX Foundation website.

CALIFORNIA & LA: SADLY INSPIRING PRECIPICE

I’d like to discuss the core themes of Precipice and tie them back to where I started: California and LA. What this epic state and great city once represented as the ideal for Americans and what they have unfortunately become: bastions of the Left.

It is uncanny how you can take the themes of Precipice and align them with what is going on here. And you know it better than me, so I will be brief. But it’s worth mentioning.

The overarching theme of the book is that our society, economy, and culture have historically broken down into two broad groups. In one category are Creators, Enablers, and Servers of value creation.

Creators are the foundation; they create wealth, and range from inventors to surgeons to construction workers to those in manufacturing. They are the embodiment of competent man or woman.

Enablers make the job of the creator easier, possible, or more efficient. They include nurses to the surgeon, accountants to the innovator businessperson, or long-haul truck drivers to get a Creator product to its destination. Without Enablers, Creators cannot do their thing, or are throttled.

Servers take the invention or service of the Creator and use it to make life more enjoyable. The Server class is large and includes obvious examples of professions such as waiter or Uber driver. But Servers also include pro athletes and musicians; although sometimes we look to define those professions into something they are not. Servers don’t make life possible like Creators or Enablers, but Servers make life better.

Those three constitute the first category. And some professions can subjectively be defined as part of two or even three of the subcategories. But what these three groups have in common is that if you let Creators, Enablers, and Servers do their thing in a free market economy with minimal government intervention, you have the success that was America. And that was California. And that was this great city that blossomed in an arid basin out of nothing.

Then there is the second category out there today. One that doesn’t create value or optimize it. Instead, this category exists to appropriate value and consume it. I refer to it as the Leech. It is perhaps more of an organism because it exhibits a set of common characteristics that I define as the ‘Leech way’. It serves as a leftist roadmap.

The Leech used its ground game to commandeer professions and regions and institutions, converting them from once manufacturers of value into present-day exporters of need. Once noble professions are subsumed.

Which professions have fallen under control of the Leech and the Left?

Certainly, much of government. The bureaucratic state is a monster. I tag it as the Deep State in the book. Not ‘deep’ as in secret; I wish. No, ‘deep’ as in rooted and entrenched everywhere and with everything. There is a historical lineage of how it came to be, from Wilson to FDR to LBJ to Obama to what we have today. The individual can do nothing today without government approval. And California is in many ways ground zero of the Deep State movement.

Public unions are another domain of the Leech. Teachers’ unions, which punish great teachers, students, parents, and taxpayers so that the union can grow its power and influence. Have you seen LA County Unified School District competency scores in math, science, and reading? Yet what have funding levels done over decades as scores have declined? What happened here with education during pandemic and who called the shots? Who benefits and who pays the price says a lot.

The media: another tragedy where a once noble profession the Founders thought of as vital to our republic and needing Constitutional protection that has morphed into the propaganda agency of the Left. Here we have Hollywood to the LA Times, serving as front and center exhibits of this crisis in journalism.

The tech industry here in Cali and across the nation should be ashamed. On one hand it surely exhibits classic Creator, Enabler, and Server traits; true, massive value creation for society. But then it looked to curry favor with the Left and supported its aims and ideology. And it made the Leech stronger. And now the tech industry is getting its just due in return as the Leech turns its attention to the industry.

Academia went from the marketplace of ideas to an Iron Curtain of ideology. From where a student expanded horizons to one where the student comes out indoctrinated with narrower horizons. The California state university system was once the envy of the world. Today it is a massive burden, fiscally and culturally, for state taxpayers and citizens.

When the Left controls government, it is only a matter of time before the policies of government feed the Leech and catalyze its growth. Consider Fed monetary policy: massively negative real interest rates and constant running of money printing presses fund a model of outspending. To punish savers and to subsidize broken business models. To manipulate capital markets and pick winners and losers.

The consequences here include inflation and real estate bubbles. And a growing spate of bank failures whose balance sheets became addicted to perpetual free money monetary policy along with making loans to risky businesses whose entire business model was premised on free money. And SVB is only the start, friends.

These tactics come to bear the heaviest in our major cities. I don’t need to lecture you about LA or San Francisco. We know exactly what Dave Chapelle meant when he referenced San Francisco and asked out loud, ‘what happened to this place?’

In The Far Middle episode 101, at approximately the 11:20 mark, Nick discusses California’s precipitous drop in personal income tax revenue—signaling difficult decisions loom for the Golden State.

I also have a few chapters at the end of the book that explore three individuals in depth. You may enjoy the chapter on Bono; I understand members of U2 had homes or owned property in Malibu. And with LA being one of the largest dioceses of the Catholic Church in America, check out the chapter on Pope Francis. I am not a fan of the current pontiff, from my perspective of being both American and Catholic.

Yes, sadly California and Los Angeles served as much of the inspiration for Precipice. And the rest of America is gravitating toward where you are. The Left and the Leech never sleep, they always are growing by consuming the value of others. Day by day. Profession by profession. State by state.

FOLLOW ALONG AND SPEAK UP

To wrap, I have just a few simple asks. First, please consider giving Precipice a read and share your thoughts on LinkedIn or in an Amazon review. Second, please follow me if you use LinkedIn or Twitter. Much of my advocacy effort flows on those platforms; they are great ways to connect with me and the content.

The Far Middle podcast is always looking for new constant listeners. Please join those growing ranks – we issue episodes weekly, and they run under half an hour. I think you will enjoy them. Prior episodes are archived and available as well.

And my website nickdeiuliis.com is the depository for all the advocacy content, from book to podcast to news. Check-in regularly. By the way, I posted a piece on LA in late 2021 you can find on the website under the Commentary section titled ‘Ode to Los Angeles from a Wary Admirer.’

Last, please speak up in defense of free enterprise, capitalism, individual rights, fiscal responsibility, value creators, and the middle class. For LA, for California, and for America.

For daily insights and commentary from Nick Deiuliis, follow Nick on Twitter at @NickDeiuliis and on LinkedIn.