All right. Hello and welcome to another episode of the construction corner podcast. I'm Dylan, I'm your host. And on today's episode, we're hopefully going to have a special guest. So we did this live, but the thing is like, everybody that we bring on is actually in construction actually runs construction companies.

 

So bear with us, right. For all of you out there, you know, that life happens, uh, projects happen and all that kind of stuff. But first before we, uh, get too much into this, Matt, my blue collar badass of a cohost, how are you doing, man?

 

I am doing great. Dylan. It's a warming up here in Michigan, which is nice.

 

Uh, the last couple of days have been kind of a sloppy mess, but we're, we're getting through that. The sun starting to shine a little bit more and. And my pipes that were frozen last week that prevented me from being on the show a have thawed out nicely without bursting. So things are good.

 

Yeah, man.

 

It's, uh, it's been like in the fifties here and then yeah, I mean, again, being in the mountains. So I'm at this interesting elevation. Right. I go 10 minutes down the Hill and it's like, it was 70 yesterday, right? 75 sunny, like beautiful blue skies go 10 minutes up the Hill. Like it's, you know, ski weather, right.

 

You're in it's, you know, 35. It's perfect for, for skiing. And, um, I think last week they got like another foot of snow.

 

Oh, wow. Yeah, we've been, we've been pretty darn cold for the last few weeks. We, we spiked up to. I think we hit 45 on Tuesday last night though, we got down to negative 17. Um, today we're back up in the, in the mid to high thirties.

 

So it's enough to get rid of some of the ice dams on my roof, which is helpful. I keep waiting for my gutters fall off.

 

It's that time of year though.

 

Yeah. I mean, this is, uh, like the beauty of, you know, construction, right. And, uh, just being across the country, everybody deals with weather in different ways. Um, and one thing like while we're talking about weather, so again, my background in electrical engineering, I did.

 

Power classes like power is my deal. What I was in school for knew that kind of going in, like lived off the grid, uh, in high school. So I, I totally understand like renewable, sustainable energy, even though the majority of our, uh, power still came from a diesel generator. Like that was, that was the backup.

 

That was the real charge. But we had, we had a windmill. We had hydro in the winter. Uh, living in Oregon, you know, we got 120 inches of rain a year, which really happened in like six months. Um, and it's being on the Oregon coast. It's you get there's really two seasons wet and dry cause you're in like a temperate rainforest effectively is what it is.

 

So with that, like we, hydro is great in the winter. You had a pretty, pretty good stream of, uh, of water and then wind was the other thing. But the other thing with wind is we got very high wind gusts. So it was not uncommon to get a hundred mile an hour winds with gusts up to like one 30. So with that, like wind can be like problematic.

 

It actually, like we had, um, the blades on our windmill weren't like huge, right. They were like three-foot blades would, they would actually, they bend, uh, Enough to where they would hit the pole and then like they snap a while or you'd get speeds high enough, where it would, you, you need to put like the brake on, um, to, to pause it.

 

What would that you would end up, uh, like they blame break the sound barrier, but all that stuff to be said, and like, Within the last couple of weeks, right? You had Texas that has like one, they have all these windmills, they got frozen up. Uh, so they had to get dis and everything. And then with Texas is power grid.

 

The other thing that most people don't know is Texas. So there's three big interconnects in North America. There's a West coast, East coast and Texas is kind of on its own like grid system. So in like when Texas has problems for power, that kind of stuff, it, uh, it isn't easy to, to connect everybody. So with like this extreme weather, it's always important to like kind of note how that happens.

 

So you had a big, uh, production problem with like windmills and all that kind of stuff. And then you had like, You know, Texas is kind of on its own grid. So then you had interconnects, which means power then has to come through these, these other big systems. So then you can have power outages, um, you know, because Texas is kind of its own Island, a lot of that's to do with like the Rockies coming through and stuff too.

 

Um, and just where Texas lays. So like geographically, it's a little different than everybody, but that's like one of the other things not only is Texas like power by a ton of windmills. Um, but also. Like there's these other kind of grid and larger like electrical system things in play. Um, so anyway, just on another topic, I wanted to bring that up.

 

Uh, since that's been in the, in the news here lately, it was really quite the perfect storm down there. It's glad, or I'm glad to see. They're finally a thought out a little bit. We, uh, you know, up here in Michigan, we, it seems like since I was a little kid, we, we haven't. Received a whole ton of snowfall annually this year.

 

However, so usually what we get is we'll get a couple inches, but then two days later it melts. And then a week later we'll get a couple inches. W well, this year we haven't had that melting. So we actually have been building and building. And, um, there was a day last week we had snowdrifts at a project of mine that we're up to the door knobs.

 

So we couldn't even get in without shoveling. And what that did. It's, it's a pre-engineered metal roof building. So on. On Tuesday when it got so warm, we had basically, what, what looks like an avalanche coming off of the roof of this, you know, 30-foot-tall structure. And we quickly found that there were some areas in our masonry control joints where the caulk didn't go all the way down to grade.

 

And I don't know if you've been following along, but we're, we're installing 15, 20,000 square feet of high-end Maplewood. Basketball court right now. And we had water literally gushing in through the control joints and it got within a foot of our brand-new unfinished maple floor. But my superintendent got it.

 

He was running around with shop vacs and it could have been a big mess, but we avoided it. Luckily,

 

Hey, Hey. Uh, our Modern Day Tradesmen and all right, so guys, we just, uh, for everyone listening on the audio here later, that's not a tune in live with us. I want to intro our Modern Day Tradesman. So Andy Aranda has been in the construction industry for 24 years, which is awesome. We've got a, a veteran of the industry and a is the CEO and owner of pure Pauling out of Las Vegas.

 

Uh, which you know, totally different weather, uh, we're dealing with here, uh, across the country and a father of three and runs his business, uh, pure plumbing again with his wife, Alexis, uh, He's also launched the brand, the modern day tradesmen that bring awareness to the trades, which you guys know that we're totally all about that thing in the trades, but you know, blue collar badass is a wonderful thing and more and more people should at least consider it.

 

The trades as a career path, as it's a great opportunity for so many people, um, you know, everyone can have a shot at the American dream by being in the trades, um, and they just need to find their purpose, their why, what they're going to do. Um, so we're super excited, Andy, to have you here on the show and, uh, and welcome man.

 

Man. Good to be here, guys. Thanks for having me on. I had to have the little complications with my computer this morning. So bear with me, but, uh, yet, uh, you know, as I listen, you guys a little, a little earlier, talk about everything going on in Texas. And you know, the funny thing is, is we've been looking and kind of following everything that's going on in Texas.

 

And I've had a lot of people call me this week, just ask me, Hey, look, man, you got crews. You can send down to Texas. We're an Austin. I can't seem to find plumbers anywhere. And so long story short, you know, we're looking into everything and licensing in Texas and it turns out right now, they're basically saying, Hey, come into Texas.

 

If you're a journeyman master plumber, or you have a business, uh, we will give you a temporary license just to get things done. So it's just interesting to see what their what's going on down there right now.

 

Wow. That's incredible, man. So are you going to send some crews down there?

 

I mean, you know, we got our license down there today, you've got to take advantage of the opportunity and you know, what we could possibly put to put together a crew to go down there.  It just, depending on the needs and stuff, I think I'm going to touch base with a few people that I know down there to see, uh, what the demand is. And of course, like moving anything or setting something up like that. I mean, it's just, it's, it's a fast. You have to move fast, right?

 

Definitely. You got to get to figure out some logistics very quickly too.

 

Yeah, definitely man. And, and, uh, one crazy thing that, uh, one crazy thing that people don't think about is right now, like, well, I mean, things were frozen in, you know, in, in, in the plumbing industry. Uh, you have to worry about when it's frozen, you gotta worry about what happens when it falls out. Because that's when you start to see, you know, versus pipes, you know, drywall, you know, you start seeing drywall damages, you were talking about the wood, the wood floors you were putting in, or, you know, for that court.

 

I mean, you're going to start to find a bunch of things once the snow melts, you know, but, uh, you know, I I've spent, yeah. I spent some time in Chicago, so, you know, I know what this snow can do in the cold weather. So, you know, something that's, uh, that I'm familiar with.

 

But I'm glad you brought that up. I actually had that jotted down in my notes.  I was poking around on one of your profiles the other day and notice you're a big cubbies fan. And I was going to ask you how, uh, how a guy from Las Vegas becomes a Cubs fan, but now it kind of makes sense.

 

Well, you know, it's, it's crazy, man. I was born in Henderson, Nevada, my mom's family is from Henderson.  And I'm not talking about the nice part of Henderson.  And for anybody who's been in Vegas, it's the older part of Henderson. And, uh, you know, not, not the most desirable place at the time, but since then, Henderson has grown into a big, beautiful place. But, uh, lived here till about five. Uh, my mother got married and we moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Um, you know, so I grew up, uh, you know, for five years old to about 21 years old there. And from there, that's when I moved to Chicago and you talk about change a culture change, big city life, you know, small time guy is small town guy moving to a city like that. It was, it was a, it was a big shock, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything because that's.

 

What really developed me into the trades? Um, not only just in, in, in plumbing itself because you know, my, my family, my background and my family, uh, you know, we're a family business in Santa Fe that I, that I learned from. So I grew up in the plumbing trade, but you know, out there in Chicago, we were building houses.

 

I mean, we were, you know, working in the big boat or in the Bucktown, Wicker park area. Sorry about that. Um, and we were, uh, knocking buildings down, building a back up, you know, friend of mine out, there's a developer, you know, back then we were young and we were young guys with, uh, with a contractor's license, you know, so it was crazy.  Cause I out there in Chicago. The application for the, for the license out there was, well, if anybody's willing to insure you, you can have a license. Right. So, I mean, it kinda makes sense. Right. So, I mean, the insurance company is going to do their due diligence to make sure they got the right guy, because obviously they don't want to take a hit, we know with somebody who's inexperienced.

 

Right. Right. So, uh, You know, we, we started doing a lot of stuff out there started with like kind of small projects, started getting into bigger projects and, uh, through all this process, man, Um, I really did learn a lot, um, you know, knocking buildings down, building a backup, you know, you're dealing with a brick and mortar, you know, you're dealing with footings, basements.

 

Um, anyone, anybody wants to know, like, you know, the importance of making sure a basement is sealed properly from the outside. Uh it's you're not having problems with like snow and moisture and water and stuff like that. That's a perfect place to learn that. So, uh, you know, my experience out there was great because I didn't know what it was like to live, obviously in a big city, um, you know, to build around structures that were so close to each other.

 

Um, and also man, everything out there has to be deep. You know, you're talking about a water line out. There is like five feet, you know? Uh, we're out here. I think we're like, 12 to 18 inches.

 

That's why I've never thought of it. That way. I actually grew up right outside of Chicago. Um, I've been in Michigan since I was in school, in middle school, but, but yeah, you know, deep foundations to me are when we have to drive piles, you know, 30 feet.

 

The four foot frost footings, and five foot water mains. It's just, it's just normal on, on this side.

 

Yeah, it's crazy. You know, there's just a lot of, a lot of different types of plumbing out there. What I, when I got out there, gosh, we were, you know, you had never even really thought about using plastic pipe anywhere.  It was all, you know, cast iron. Um, and it was all copper work. Uh, even some of the drain work was copper work. So, you know, the transition from being out there to coming to Vegas at the time I did, uh, getting back into plumbing out here, you know, in 2009, You know, um, it was completely different. I was like, man, this is so much easier out here than it is, you know, back East, you know, and, and for anybody, you know, who has ambitions moving back East, you know, that's great.

 

It's cool. You know you get a taste of the big city life. But if you're from the West coast, you will come back. You will come back, you'll come back to the nice dry hot weather.

 

Sure, sure. I don't know why I'm here sometimes when it's, you know, last night was 17 below with the wind chill.

 

Yeah. Yeah. In where exactly are you at?

 

So I'm in Southeast Michigan where the office is in Brighton. We're about 30, 40 minutes North of Detroit.

 

Oh man. So yeah, you know that, you know, you know, you, you get that Lake effect too.

 

We don't get so much Lake effect, but we just get cold. I was telling Dylan before you popped on, we, we typically get that couple inch snowstorm every, every week or so, but it melts in between everything just goes to ice.

 

Whereas this year we've actually had snow on the ground for two months now. Oh, wow. It's finally starting to melt up a bit, but that, that comes with its own challenges too.

 

Yeah. You know, I, I think the, that was the hardest. You know, and I would say, you know, the experiences, you know, when you're going in and when you're in the trades, right.

 

Uh, different facets of the trades and you go to a different region, you're learning different codes, uh, how people do things. So I always, you know, I always encourage people, go get as many experiences under your belt as you possibly can. And that was my twenties for me. My twenties for me was, you know, I knew plumbing, experience, plumbing, all my life, uh, got into construction.

 

Um, Larry construction building spec house in Santa Fe, long story behind that, but, uh, yeah, built my first spec home and, uh, me in the, in the partner I had that were building, um, the spec house. Um, I told them, Hey, you know what, we could build a spec house, but you know what? I want to work for the contractor that we hire.

 

Um, that's going to build a spec house. And then I'll hire myself and my family as the plumbing company, so I could do the plumbing in it. So my goal was, well, I could get the plumbing done cheap, cause I'm going to do it. I could also learn how to deploy my first house solo and get that experience. And then, um, I can also get the experience, uh, laying out houses, footings, um, building structurally.

 

And it's funny because the, the builder was like a very old school guy. So. Um, you know, they have like power nailers. Now we are using power nailers, man. We're hammering nails. So, uh, how many guys, you know, these days that are, uh, you know, anxious to build a house with a hammer and nails, it's much, much different, different type of experience.

 

Um, so yeah, so that's kind of a little bit of my background doing that. That's kinda how I got into construction, but I've always loved it. I don't know about you guys, man, but. Uh, in the construction field, there are a lot of facets and avenues to get into that are really fun. Um, you know, there's just so many avenues you can get into.

 

And I think, you know, with my brand, the modern day tradesmen, um, what I, what I want to do is I just want to highlight different areas, you know? Well, gosh, not even just to show everybody, but for my own personal interest, as well as just to highlight like what guys are doing out there, you know, If you're going on a job site and you're seeing some crazy spiral staircase, and you're wondering, man, how do these guys do that?

 

And you guys ever wonder that you go on a job and you're like, how did this guy, how did, how did they accomplish this? Especially

 

wood? What is always the thing that gets me like metal, I can like, see how that gets formed the wood, like, and those like big spiral banisters or anything like that. I'm just, I'm always amazed.

 

Yeah, it's wild. And the, the, the beauty of the further you go East, the more you find like really intricate woodwork and in true craftsmen. And, you know, through my experience, uh, going to Chicago, uh, you know, I met this old Irish guy and, you know, he kind of taught me like a lot about carpentry and woodwork and, uh, you know, I really learned a lot, so.

 

You know, you ever want to give her one to learn, uh, uh, woodwork or anything that's really complex, uh, being on the East coast is, is where you want to learn it, uh, because you, you don't see that stuff anymore, especially here in Vegas. You know, you see a lot of spec homes, a lot of homes that are built for profit, I call it.

 

And, uh, you know, you don't really see it unless you go into like super custom homes, but man, out there you see it everywhere.

 

You see it a ton, especially up in new England. Um, but actually one of my steel guys recently sent me a link. There is a, a college or university, I think it's in South Carolina and it's called, the American school for the building arts.  I'm butchering the name. It's something similar to that. And they're actually teaching kids, teaching people, old school building techniques, so that there's videos on there on their website of kids doing plaster work and, and, you know, welding and wood carving and stone carving. And it's. It's pretty neat to watch, man.

 

I got to look that up. If you, if you get the name of that, look that up. Let me know about it because that's something I want to share because you know, I think a lot of, uh, you know, we gotta start getting, like, we gotta start getting kids out of high school, learning some of these really intricate trades, right.

 

In order to elevate like the, the, you know, the trades itself. I mean, uh, home-building stuff because. I mean out here, if somebody wanted to, to, to mimic a house from the East coast out here, uh, you're probably shipping dudes yet, you know, you're, you're shipping dudes in, you know what I mean? But yeah, interesting stuff out there.

 

And that's, that's one of the big things too, is that, you know, you've hit on a few times is knowing that with a trade, right. With a skillset you can travel. Right. Just like traveling Texas, or if you have a very unique project that you can bring people in for it. Right. Or if you have a high enough skillset, right.

 

Carpentry and masonry and stone carving, right. That you're now able to travel to do these super unique projects for having that type of skillset. So it's something I think that often gets overlooked and like how often people travel like linemen for, you know, electricians, right. They travel all the time.

 

And in so many other fields, you have so many people that do continue to travel for work. Right. You're never going to be without it. And you might be. You know, gone for two months, but then you can always come back home to, you know, continue working wherever it's kind of a, you know, as the seasons change.

 

Yeah, no, totally. For anybody who's, you know, for anybody who needs like a variety. Right. And for anybody who requires a variety of different things like being aligned is probably the best thing. Right. I it's funny. Cause I just, uh, you know, I was just on a podcast with a buddy of mine, uh, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

 

And this guy was alignment and you know, long story short, his wife had gotten sick. He had to stop doing it because he had to be present home with his kids. So now he, he has a podcast dedicated to helping tradesmen become better fathers because what he recognizes, man, he spent a lot of days out, didn't get to spend a lot of time with his kids.

 

When he came home, the kids didn't know what to do with him, uh, because you know, they, they had never, they were never, yeah, it has been traveling. So it was kind of. It's really weird. So he kind of breaks down how a lot of a tradesman, not only Lineman, but a lot of tradesmen have that problem because you're working long hours, you may be traveling.

 

I think it's good that more people are getting out there and, and, uh, talking about this because I think it's things that tradesmen, um, you know, do have to deal with man, because, you know, I know in the service industry and, and, and what we do in the service end of the trades, Um, we don't stop to the call to the phone stopped ringing.

 

And so now, right. Plumbers probably electricians in Texas and, and even contractors like these guys are, um, they're probably working 24 seven to, to restore power, um, to restore water to homes, um, and to restore products please. Right. So, you know, it's, it's just what comes with the job, right.

 

It is, and, and there's a give and take, um, what's the name of your buddy's podcasts? I'd like to check it out.

 

So his podcast is the show up dad. Okay. Yeah. The show up dad podcast. So yeah, it's pretty good. He's, you know, he's got a real lot of really good speakers. He's interviewing a lot of people and for anybody watching this man, you guys should go check it out because. I'll tell you, like all of a sudden out of the blue, he contacts me.

 

He's like, Hey, what's happening, dude? You know, he's like, man, I got this know thing going and, and I haven't seen him since we were like in our twenties and the gosh, the last time we saw each other, it was kind of weird. We're partying, having fun. You know, I was in school. You know, he had just gotten back into town and stuff.

 

So, you know, reconnecting with him has been great because, um, he alone has helped me realize a lot of things about myself and with business because you know, with business, you know, we get so focused on what we have to do to support the family that we figured yet that what the family actually needs most.

 

Right. And that's our attention. So how do you leave the work home? Uh, and, and be a hundred percent available to your kids, uh, to give them the attention and what they require. Right. Cause we just can't buy their love, you know? And I think a lot of times we're like, Oh, I'm going to make the ultimate sacrifice for my family.

 

I'm going to go out there. I'm going to make as much money as I possibly can. I'm going to set my family up so they can do whatever they can. But then years go by your kids are teenagers and they're like, dad was never home. What, what is it for? You know, so I think a lot. I'll go for it.

 

I guess this is a, it's a good question too, because you know, like in your, in your twenties, in, you know, really anything learning, uh, learning the skill is what you need to do.

 

Right? You can work so many hours. You're typically not, uh, tied down, right? Most of us, you know, at least these days, right. Don't get married till our late twenties, but you can really, you can grind through your twenties, learn a skill, pick up. All of those things that you need to be great at what you do.

 

And then it's, uh, you know, as kids, as a family and like, I just got married last year. So kids aren't quite on the horizon. Yeah. Thank you. Uh, on the horizon yet, but for that it's. Setting yourself up to, to be in a place where you can be home, you know, that might be coming into the office or being in different roles to where you're not having to answer are those service calls at 10 o'clock at night, two in the morning.

 

Um, so I guess, how have you. Uh, maybe you looked at your guys, looked at your team into, to elevating guys into those positions, you know, as they come through or at least making them aware of like, Hey, I, you know, I did this thing, right. I was just like you, I grinded, I worked, you know, 18-hour days or more, you know, as many guys are doing right now.

 

To, to, like you said, restore power, you know, clean up everything, but how do you look to, to kind of elevate your team and, or at least show them like, hey guys, you don't have to like work that hard. Um, you know, your entire career, there are other things that are important as well. Um, I think it really, what it comes down to is I think it is at a young age, you need to find, you know, young man at a young age and need to get it.

 

You need to get them trained. Right. So really, we've got to be effective as business owners of identifying who wants to be in the trade. Who's committed. You have to let them know how important it is, whatever they do, find out what they want to do, stick to it, and commit to it. Right. That's one thing my grandfather told me, he's like, Hey, look, you need to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what you want to do.

 

Next thing you know, you lose 10 years in whatever is you decide you want to do. You're 10 years behind. Well, those first 10 years were probably your most productive, a physical trade. So what's the goal? Well, goal from business owner is to get kids in from high school that identify their, they don't want to go to college, right?

 

Give them a career, a career that they make six figures at, uh, train them how to do their job. Well, once they learn how to do their job well and how to perform the plumbing tasks, or, um, tasks as electrician alignment or whatever it need be. Once they have that solid foundation, they can start building on those skills.

 

Well, there's two different, you know, there's many different parts of the trade, right? You got the residential end, you got commercial end. Um, you got the service then, and those are three very, very different, um, facets of the trades itself. Right? So you get identify, you know, what is it that I'm good at? Am I an introvert?

 

Well, if you're a little bit of an introvert, but you love to, you know, the hard work, you know, the, the, the working into the trade, right? You could be a craftsman who just doesn't like to talk to people. Well, there's a place for those people, right? Those people just, you can't put them in front of a customer selling a job.

 

You know, you've got to get a guy who's really good at one talking to the customer, identifying the customer's needs, and then understanding the trade enough to know what they're talking about. To line the job up and set the guy who likes to do the work up on the job. So if I could recommend anything, you got to add in identify where it is, you fit in the trades and you got to roll with it.

 

Well as business owners, right? We need to discover our talents within our team. So if we're discovering the talents within our team, then we can better forecast the vision of where we see them going within our organization. And of course, you know, you guys know this best, right? You've got to. Grow the team large enough, so they can all fit inside the dream.

 

Right. I think we've heard that from ed and Andy, you know, plenty of times. Yeah, definitely. So you've got, you know, you gotta, you gotta raise the ceiling. So these guys see themselves growing within the organism organization, because if you don't cast that vision well, you know, you're gonna have a hard time growing it in, in, in getting better.

 

But, you know, I think you just gotta make the best of your years at a young age. And learn as much as he possibly can and get as much experiences in as you possibly can. Um, another thing I think that people need to think about too, is you can't be scared to try new things. You know, I think a lot of people say, Oh, I don't know how to do that.

 

Well, I can remember countless times where I didn't know how to do something, but I knew how to get the resources of how to figure it out. You know, like we're in the information age where you can look it up on Google, YouTube, you could pretty much find any resource anywhere, or you could find somebody to ask them how to get it done.

 

Right. So as long as you know where to find those resources, I think you can grow yourself, um, enough into a position of leadership. You know, if you do it right, and you won't be having to run calls at 40, 50 years old, um, you know, working 24 hours. But I think you're going to have those people to that that are comfortable doing that.

 

Like they want, you know, my dad is like, gosh, he's almost, that'd be almost like late fifties, 60 maybe. Um, and he's still plumbing. You know, he's still plumbing, man, but that's, he, he's a simple guy, you know, he can, he knows his plumbing. I mean, he's not able to do the stuff that you guys do, but you know, you can be a senior plumber and you could be showing these guys and training these guys how to be good.

 

And you can make a huge impact in doing that. Um, by just showing that these, showing these guys how to, you know, make the money they can be making in the trades.

 

Absolutely. And then you're the mentor, right? And so many young, young men and women coming into the trades. They, they need that mentor relationship because you know, it's competitive as hell out there.

 

And especially in the trades, most people don't know what they're doing. They don't know how to do what they're looking at. So you've gotta learn, you've gotta learn fast. And some of it's going to be trial by fire, you know, Daniel and your feet over the flames. But. Some of it comes from that mentor relationship.

 

And when you can find the old guy or, you know, the guy has been doing plumbing or carpentry or whatever it is for his entire career, you got to figure out how to extract that knowledge from them. But once you can do that, you can, you can set yourself up for a world of possibilities.

 

Oh yeah. A hundred percent.

 

Yeah. I think you just got to, you know, I think we, uh, we, as, uh, as leaders in our industry, right. We need to identify what it is this next generation needs. And we've got to mentor these guys in, into, uh, into areas that they're going to be successful. So, you know, I just like, just like a high school has, you know, a guidance counselor, right.

 

That's going to kind of set them up, you know, where they're going to go after high school. Um, I think you almost need to be like a construction counselor and be able to see where these guys' talents are and then guide them or the right way. So, you know, if, if, if you're a young guy getting into the trades first, you gotta identify what makes you happy, why you're doing it.

 

I mean, I, I never realized why I loved being in the trade so much. I just love talking to the people. Right? Sure. I love talking to people. I love the different scenery change. You know, that you're in a different house every day, you're meeting new people and you know, what the best part was that I loved about it was the fact that I was, I had a sense of purpose.

 

Like, you know, these people were relying on me to go in and fix. Uh, a very, you know, a problem that was, that was bad. So whether it was leaking, you know, whether it was like sewer water, all over the house, you know, drains, failing, you know, I felt like the hero coming in to save the day.

 

Sure. And you're bettering people's lives because of it.

 

You know, I, I started off building houses and you know, it wasn't an emergency situation usually, but you know, when you build something like that and you can hand over the keys to a family or to whoever, like you just built this person a home, you know, that that's, that's some powerful shit to get up in the head.  When you just made this person the place they're going to live and call home for the next 20, 30, however many years. And, and even now I've switched in the last couple of decades to the commercial side, I get the same feeling building buildings, right? Like now I'm building the place where these guys and these ladies are going to work and they're going to earn a living to provide for their families.  And, you know, it just keeps going and going and going there. And it's just, I think it goes back to what we've been hitting on. There's so many opportunities out there in, in our collective industry that it's just a world of possibilities, but it leads to a question that. You know, Dylan and I have talked about a lot.  I'm going to ask you Andy, your take on it, but what do you think is the, or what do you see as the biggest issue facing our I'm going to call it our industry, you know, so, so Dylan's on the design side, I'm on the commercial side, you're on the service side, but at the end of the day, we're all construction.  Right?  So what do you see as the biggest issue facing our industry today?

 

Well, I think it's the stigma that comes behind blue collar work. I think it's a stigma. I mean, I can remember as a kid and I talk about this in, in, in some brands for reasons like that, you know, I was a kid that the kid in the shop, you know, at work with my parents, watching these plumbers, you know, come in to this warehouse and buy stuff.

 

And I was looking at him and I was like, man, I don't want that. I don't want to look like this guy, you know, I don't want to look like this guy. He smells like I'd been drinking. He looks like crap. He looks like he's beaten up and worn down. Um, and even my dad, man, the guy would be working until like nine or 10 o'clock at night.

 

And, you know, because he was working to try to provide for us, you know, we we're a big family of five, uh, because he was trying to give us the best life possible. You know, he started getting into drinking, you know, and you know, that's a whole other, other topic, man. And you know, there's only. Uh, a couple of reasons people drink and drink a lot is they're trying to kind of drown away their sorrows and their pain man.

 

And, you know, I think we've got to get rid of that stigma, but also we got to, you know, as, as leaders and as business owners, we have got to understand that there is a limit to what we can put our guys through, you know, Um, I am a firm believer, you know, I still, to this day, I tell my team all the time, look, I want my guys not getting a call past this time, you know, and I'm not sure how you're going to have to figure it out, but you need to figure out how to make this happen, because I don't want my guys burnt out.

 

I want them to have a life outside of work, you know, and it's a very fine line. Like, especially when you're in the service businesses. You know, a lot of times you don't stop till those calls stop, but we've got to figure out how to, how to make sure that we're taking the right volume of calls to make sure that our team goes, goes home at a decent time.

 

So in turn, you know, going back to the question you're asking me is how do we change that stigma? Well, we, as leaders become better leaders recognize what's tearing people apart and we do our best to try to change that stigma in our industry. And. You know, that's the number one thing behind the brand too, is like, we're trying to bring respect back to the trades, but what is it that, that, that, uh, um, you know, what is it that, that brings respect you ever see those, uh, that, that famous picture of the guy sitting on the piece of steel, maybe it's the empire state building and it's a black and white photo.

 

The guys aren't strapped in. They're just wearing t-shirts dude. It looks just like, man, these guys were like a hundred stories up in the air. That OSHA probably didn't exist, but these dudes are just badass as up there, dude, just making it happen, you know? Um, you know, where's the sense of pride. I, I think people were so happy back then to be in a new country, you know?

 

Um, that they're willing to do whatever it took to, to, to make a career for themselves. And they really took pride in like creating what is now what the greatest nation in the world. Right. But see, now America is in a whole different stage. We're in a stage now where the top power. Right. But all of, you know, once you hit the top, what's the hardest thing to do, stay on top.

 

Right. So what is it, man? I think, I think really right now, and even in the trades, you know, we need to face the reality. And the reality is this is not enough young people are getting into the trades and right now, um, if you're, you know, what supply and demand is, is if there's a demand for people in the trades, what's going to happen, you're going to get paid.

 

Right. So I, so I think we just need to create awareness behind that if we can create awareness behind it. I, I think, uh, I think that would be a. You know, something that, that we could do to, to change it.

 

I, that's a, that's a beautiful answer. So when Dylan and I talk about this problem constantly, I kind of have this, this vision of this, this effort I'm coming up with that.

 

We're calling blue collar bad-ass and it's, but it's the very same ideal, right? It's the same thing as modern-day tradesman and actually through doing the podcast. Now I've met, um, a couple of guys who unbeknownst to me before this are kind of going down similar, but separate paths and. I think awareness is it, you know, college just isn't for everybody.

 

The trades offer a ton of fantastic opportunity where you can, you can make not just a reasonable living scraping by you can make a killing and you nailed it, especially right now. If, if you come in and you put your nose to the grindstone and you, and you learn and you work, you can set your own price tag pretty easily across the board right now.

 

Especially, if you start, if you start learning any of the specialized skills, like we touched on earlier, I mean, my God, if you, if you knew how to do plaster work right now. Oh

 

man. Forget it. And isn't that the truth because you know, in my place, well, you know, I, I grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They have this, uh, you know, they have this plaster style called diamond hard trial plastering.

 

Right? You guys ever heard of it? No, I haven't. It's like a Venetian plaster, but it's like thick. You know, it's not just, you know, real thin. Right. But you could literally see your reflection in the plaster. That's how this is like glass. Right. And it's funny because you know, out here in, uh, in Vegas, you know, everybody's doing the Venetian plaster and, you know, guys are charging like, you know, 25 to $50 a square foot to do this stuff.

 

Right. So, I mean, there’s a lot of opportunity to make money there. And if you're an artist, you know, if you're a bummed out artist, who's not selling artwork struggling to survive. Well, how are you going to, you know, what are creative outlets that you could do in the trade to help you fuel your passion?

 

Right. So, I mean, some people might like to make artwork with their plumbing. I mean, if you get online, I think now I've been more, I've been noticing more and more of what trades men are doing. So electricians like to make their line work perfect with their pipe bending. Right. And that's an art format and I've been seeing it more and more, you know, with, with, uh, you know, with what I'm doing right now.

 

And same with plumbing. I mean, I follow this plumber outside of Austin in Australia, and he's literally building, like bending his copper pipe perfectly on his tankless installations. And I'm like, man, we don't do that out here, but it looks so beautiful, man. But what's holding us back from doing it that way.

 

Like this guy, obviously he created his, you know, he, he created his artwork within his trade, right? So like the trades can be for artists for creative people, man. Um, you just got to find out what it is you have to do to make your installations unique because people pay for unique things all the time.

 

And, and if, if somebody goes into the garage and sees this bad tankless water heater, right. And this thing looks like a piece of art, you know, if somebody is interested in it, what are they going to say? They're going to be like that. Who did that work? I've never seen anything like it. You know, so there, there are ways you can express yourself in the trade.

 

So, you know, that's one, that's one other thing that I think we need to highlight here, man, is like, if you like to express yourself in a creative way, join the trades man. Perfect opportunity.

 

Yeah. That's a great answer. And it's not one we've touched on before. Um, I'm glad you brought that up. That's a good viewpoint.

 

But, you know, and another thing too is like you get a lot of iron workers out there who can weld at the, the, the, the, the most perfect welded joint. Right. They've got all kinds of different ways to, well, these joints, right. And, uh, gosh, I see that more and more now. Cause I, my, my eyes are on every single trade now.

 

So you see all these creative ways that doing these things well, man, why aren't you doing sculptures and stung pieces of work for 150 grand, a pop. You know, you already know how to master your craft and if you're creative and you like to build things, weren't you building like works of art, but there's no reason why you can't take this thing to the next level.

 

You know, people pay for that stuff. You know,

 

it's a great point. And really, to, to your point about the guys on the empire state building, right? Like I've seen some recently where they were like playing golf, right. A hundred stories or something crazy. Yeah. But it's, it's the sharing of images, right. Of, of people on a job site of sharing the beauty, the rugged, the, you know, man's man images and getting them out there.

 

Right. Everybody's familiar with the 10 iron workers sitting on an I-beam up a hundred stories having lunch. Right. That's a very iconic photo. I think that probably got a lot of people into construction. For a long time and we just need more of that. I think over the past 30 years, people have been gun shy on pictures, on images for liability and a plethora of other reasons, you know, can we share this?

 

Can we put this out there? You know, is this owner going to get mad about sharing their, their buildings? Should we get a find me? I mean, a bunch of stuff, but I think the being. And trusting your, your people that are, that are doing the right thing that are showing a good installation, not, you know, guys goofing around or whatever, but showing and not to say that you can't show and share people having fun, but you know what I mean?

 

Right. Doing it in a, in a safe, responsible manner, not, not anything crazy, but getting more awareness to your point out there of people. Actually working right. Actually showing, you know, what people do on a day-to-day basis and putting buildings together is, is a huge part of it. And making not only the guys on that job site and girls feel good about what they're doing, but knowing that Hey, like this matters, right? It's going to get seen, we're getting seen outside side of the people on the job site, right. We're bringing notoriety to what we do, bringing awareness to our, our trade, our, this project. Right. Whatever it might be. And that they have some ownership, not just to say that they did it, but like, look here, here's actually me on a job site, right.

 

Here's me actually. Doing something versus just like, yeah, I worked on that and you know, some people look at it kind of sideways and like really did you,

 

did you actually, I don't know about you guys, but you know, I'll tell you, man. I mean, every project that I've done, you know, is like a notch on my belt, the sense of pride purpose.

 

And, uh, I think that's the one thing you could get from being in the trades man is how, how, how good do you think those guys felt right. You know, those 10 guys sit on that post, you know, what do you think they told their kids, you know, that original photo, if you could say that was my dad on there without bullshit, you know, guaranteed, you know, that's something to be proud of man.

 

And every, everybody needs to feel a sense of purpose and, you know, a sense of heart being a part of something. That's great. And if you're one of those dudes sitting on top of there building the empire state building, I think that's probably the pinnacle of like coolness, you know what I mean? Look, I was up here.

 

Yeah, man. And you know, there are heroes in the trade and I think we need to highlight some of these heroes in the trade and, you know, give them the recognition, man. I don't know about you guys, but if you're on you ever see the guy with the tattoos, you know, on, on, uh, he's a, he's an iron worker, the wrench face official guy.  You ever seen him?  I know, and he's a skier. He's looks scary as hell, man. I don't know, trying to, trying to connect with that guy, but I mean, Oh, he looks scary too, but this guy's doing some bad-ass stuff, dude. And he's on there posting this stuff, man. And he takes pride in his trade. You know, obviously, I mean, he's working on these big towers, he knows his stuff, but I mean, this guy is really getting a lot of attention out there and he's doing it for the right reasons and uh, You know, it's just, it's cool to see, you know, guys out there, uh, showing that type of work, because I don't know about you, man, but I don't know what it's like to be 50 stories up in the air doing iron work.

 

But I do know if you do post those videos, man, you're going to get some like special ops Navy seal dude is getting out of the military. Who's like, dude, I'm on it. You know what I mean? Or like, or, Hey, maybe I'm going to be a, you know, Uh, getting, you know, coming out of helicopters, working on a fricking tower out in the middle of fricking nowhere, you know, to revive power to a town in the, out, in the middle of nowhere, you know, you know, there there's jobs for, for people that are, there are people that are crazy enough to do that kind of stuff.

 

So I, so I think, I didn't even know that line that I had no idea how in-depth or how hard a line job was until I talked to my buddy. Have you seen him do the helicopter work? For, yeah.

 

So for everybody out there, like if you never seen it, just like Google or YouTube, like utility lineman, a helicopter. So what they do, they're wearing a full mesh, uh, suit, right? It's all mesh metal. It's basically a Faraday cage. Realistically what it is. And they sit on this little, there's a little stand next to the helicopter. It's a little platform that the guys sit on and it's electrically isolated from the rest of the helicopter.

 

And then when they're up there, because they do live it's, it's all live. So you're working on a transmission line. That's 345,000 volts. Right? It's what it's most of those are. Some of them are like 500,000 half a million volts, seven 50, like these big, big transmission lines. And you, you have to do that work live.

 

And a lot of it's inspections, a lot of it's just like insulator work, whatever, but they have to do that live because you're on those transmission lines. Like you'd take down a state, like it's, you know, you're, you're taking down a big swath of the grid if something fails. So they have to do that work live, but in doing it.

 

So you're on this little platform on the side of a helicopter, you know, at a transmission line and then they have a little rod. That they like shoot over and it brings them up to the potential of the line. And then they, uh, again, because you have two or three like parallel conductors. So you're one arm on each you clip in to the line and then you literally like hand crawl, uh, along the conductors in this Faraday cage.

 

And. Again, you're not, you're not dying cause you're, you're up to the potential of the line, but you're out there walking and then they, they deactivate, you know, bringing the helicopter back up to potential and uh, all that stuff when they, they go back over. But it's yeah, it's totally like crazy what they do, but I mean, there's

 

a job for everybody.

 

Well, it's, what's crazy about it is, you know, imagine like these guys have to be sharp, man. They have to be smart. And that, that's what this is. This is one thing why, you know, being a tradesman doesn't mean you're stupid, man, because these dudes, like every mistake that they make has consequences, man. So these guys have to be extremely aware of their every move, which means these guys probably, I'm not sure if they're coming into work, hung over, man, because that could mean their life.

 

Right. I think there's a lot of credit that, uh, that should be due to guys like that, you know, out there in the tree that are doing that stuff because they do have to be sharpened on their toes, uh, every minute of the day. So are you guys who think that, Hey, construction is construction, is something you get stuck in when you don't go to college or because you're not smart enough.

 

Do these guys are intelligent dudes, man, and we're finding out more and more nowadays, like all these guys coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq after the Wars, you know, these guys are. Um, the perfect candidates to be getting into the trades man. And I think that's what we need to be targeting is we need to be targeted guys coming out of the military reason.

 

Number one is these guys operate on core values. They know what it's like to work in a team environment. And if they know it's like to work in a team environment, man, it's just going to be a bonus for you because that's one less thing you have to, you have to teach, right? So these are good. These guys are going to be coming onto your game, natural as, as, as leaders working under a structured organization, um, they're probably going to fit into your core values.

 

Um, so, well, I think a, a lot of what we need to focus on too, or, you know, how are we gonna get these, these guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan? How are we going to get them into the trades? You know, what are we going to do with the guys that are the perfect fit to get back into it, or the perfect fit for a career in the trades?

 

And how can we better educate these guys on what they can do coming out of the trades to make the money that they need to make, you know, number one, to support their families and to grow, you know, their life or their version of the American dream.

 

And what's so important too, in there. And you touched on it earlier is, um, Like the look there's, there's more to life than that.

 

Just being in the trades. Like everyone, you know, we love all this stuff. Everything in construction we'd love everything, but there is, you know, you've got family life and you're doing it to support, uh, others. Right? That's a big piece of why most people are doing this right. Is to provide a great living and life.

 

For, for the rest of your family. And I guess that might be one question to Andy and I don't know how much longer we've got you for here, uh, before we wrap up. But, um, you know, with your, your dad working those, those long hours being gone, um, what lessons really did that, that teach you growing up?

 

Um, man, it I'll tell you, man, it made me, uh, made me realize a lot and it made me one, it made me realize, um, Number one what he did to provide for his family.

 

So, you know, when we're teenagers, we're a little disrespectful, you know, we take things for granted. We don't understand what our parents go through to support us. Well, now, as a father, I know that, right. But it also taught me man, um, you know, going through that makes me hypersensitive towards that in my business.

 

So I'm able to identify when I, when, when guys are going through things. Right. So when I see guys going through that, you know, of course I want to, I want to make sure that they're okay. I mean, um, you know, I like to look at it as this is, my job is, uh, for my team is to help people grow, not only in the trade, but as like better individuals too, you know?

 

And because I saw my dad going through all of these things, like, I don't want to be responsible for. You know, possibly contributing to someone's downfall. Right. So, you know, I think I tried to really, uh, I think I really try to avoid that. And I think, you know, at the time I think my dad was just like, Hey, you know, I've got five kids.

 

I got to support him. I got to put into school. You know, my son wants Jordan’s. I got to buy some fucking Jordan’s. Right. Excuse my language. Um, but you know, these, these are all things that like a father is like, feels the need to do. Right. And that's his sense of purpose is like every man wants to know that they could provide for their family.

 

Right? Like if you can't provide for your family, you're like not a man. Right. I mean, I think I've always felt like that. I'm like I got to provide for my family. I got to make sure my kids have this. I got to make sure my kids have that. Um, you know, I think just being hyper aware of that, um, just maybe really analyze things and that the type of business leader, I want it to be.

 

And it made me realize that I I've, my job is to educate these guys to be efficient at what they do in a certain time. Like if I have a guy from us from this time to this time, I need to figure out how these guys can be more effective at what they do so they can make more money in a shorter period of time to get home to their families and not have to feel like they have to work till nine o'clock at night.

 

And look, guys, I don't, I don't have this thing perfected. You know, trust me, I'm very far from it. Uh, but I'm aware of it and I'm constantly working at things that I could do, you know, to, to better take care of my guys in my team.

 

And that's, that's great, man. That's why I, I suspect you're a pretty damn good leader.

 

Uh, I'm a hundred percent confident. You're a blue collar, badass. You are the Modern Day Tradesman, right? You you've got this thing figured out; perfection is not attainable. Perfection is not attainable. It's the race to keep going and going and reaching as close as you can. That, that we're all striving for.

 

So hats off to you, man.

 

Definitely, man. And I know you guys are too, man. I think we all, you know, uh, you know, thing in life is, you know, we're never gonna reach the pinnacle of where we want to go, but as long as every day, we're striving to get where we want to go and better ourselves and better our teams and, and make the world a better place for it.  Like that's all we can strive for. Right.

 

Absolutely Andy, uh, before we wrap up here, where can everybody find you?

 

So, uh, so you can find me at the, uh, www.thevmoderndaytradesman.com. That's my website. I've got videos. Um, I like to share videos to kind of help people out. Um, that's, you know, way I feel, you know, I kind of contribute.  I'm just sharing what I've learned with people. I just want to make that available to people. Um, I'm going to be sharing more content, uh, more and more content on there. Um, I also have a, uh, a line of apparel, uh, called the modern day tradesman as well. So, you know, the idea behind that is, you know, where can you go buy cool trades gear?

 

That's cool. You know what I mean? So I wanted to make cool trades gear that guys can like wear and be proud of their trade, whatever it is. So if you're a plumber, an electrician, you know, we got this modern day tradesman gear, so you can go out and rock the gear with pride. So go, you know, go check that out.

 

We're always constantly coming up with new things and new ways we can educate and kind of bring awareness around the trade as well. So that's where you can find me. Um, hopefully that kind of answers your question from that website. It'll take you to all the little facets and scenarios. So, you know, I could go with a long list of stuff, but that's the best way to find this.

 

Perfect.

 

Yeah. Guys, go, go check Andy’s stuff out. He's sharing some fantastic content on there. Um, and it's a lot of the stuff that we talk about here too, right? It's core values. It's learning how to communicate. It's learning how to be a better person. That's going to make you a better tradesman, able to communicate with, you know, the owners, the team members, the different trades that you have to work with on a job site, day in and day out.

 

So again, his stuff is fantastic. Uh, highly endorsed and, uh, yeah. Um, keep up, uh, everything that you're doing, but any, any final words that you have and want to share with the audience here?

 

Yeah, guys, you know, just, uh, whatever trade you're in. Just remember, stick with it, give it your all, become the best at your possible that you can possibly at your craft and identify what Avenue you want to go within your trade and, you know, get with a company that's going to invest in you because you know, if you get with a company that's going to invest into growing you, like you'll be able to be, you know what it is that you're striving a hundred percent, a hundred percent agree with you.

 

And ask those questions before you, before you hire on, uh, what they're doing, that's it? Yeah, a hundred, a hundred percent, man. You got to know, you got to know what makes somebody tick. You got to know what's, uh, what drives them to succeed. Uh, you want to, you know, if, if you're going, you're applying for something and somebody asks you what drives you?

 

You better know what drives you, man, because that's what they're looking for. Yep.

 

One last thing before we, before we get outta here, um, another Andrew guests, previous guest of ours, Andrew Eller shot us a note during it. It's American college of the building arts; acba.edu. And they've got a Facebook page now that I've been following, they put out some pretty cool content and they're doing some pretty neat stuff with their students.

 

So ACBA.edu.

Correct.

Awesome. Perfect. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that, Andrew. Appreciate it, man.

 

Awesome guys. Well, that is this episode of The Construction Corner podcast. Again, go out, be the best that you can be. Continue to learn, grow, develop all your skill sets again in the trades in design, in construction, in project management, whatever it is that you do in this industry, go out.

 

Be great. And until next time.