Mental Health Breaks, Switching Jobs, & Inspiring the Next Generation with Aaron Gibson

There’s a lot of room for improvement in demonstrating care and appreciation for people in the trades. Tradespeople change lives! As a tradesperson, you have the opportunity to help develop other people by sharing the knowledge you’ve gained. Though, it’s a lot harder to help others when you aren’t taking the time to help yourself.

Join me in this episode as I talk with HVAC pro, Aaron Gibson, about the importance of mental health breaks, the pains of frequently switching jobs, and how we can inspire and educate the next generation of tradespeople.

“When you are genuinely happy with yourself, then you have the ability to project that energy onto others and help start that river going for them.” – Aaron Gibson

Aaron’s biggest dream is to create a trades school to teach people the things he wishes he had known at the beginning of his career in the trades. Listen in to learn the inspiration behind this incredible dream!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

·       Ways to inspire and educate the next generation to pursue a career in the trades.

·       How do we break down the stigmas around working in construction?

·       Aaron shares his experience with PTSD and the inspiration behind the mental health breaks he promotes on social media.

·       How to gain the courage to put yourself out there on social media and build momentum, despite how uncomfortable it might be.

·       Why you shouldn’t be intimidated to join the skilled trades.

·       Aaron’s Learning and Misstep: Switching jobs to keep learning and developing… is it a good idea?

Resources Mentioned:

Just off the Cuff HVAC: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl6tFANMD7BcjJjx4XJ7D8Q/videos

Listen to the episode with Bob Baker: https://bit.ly/3RDDN8O 

Bring Back the Trades: https://bringbackthetrades.org 

 Get your loved one a copy of Lean & Love at: https://www.depthbuilder.com/5s

Transcript

0:00

They just don't know how amazing it is and how amazing the people in the industry. I said, this is what I wanna do. I wanna celebrate them. And so, bam, here we are,. And that's, that's kind of like HVAC the whole intent behind that is to open a more exclusive and in depth detailed school. Cuz. You know, as well as I do that when you get that journeyman ticket, you're, the expectation just goes right up here. Now you're expected to know it all . And that in itself can be overwhelming. And that's when I was like, you know what, like I wanna, I wanna open a school where literally, okay, you've got your journeyman ticket. You as an owner have this new journeyman on your hands and you're starving for acs. So let's send you off for two weeks to the school. We'll get you trained up from mounting brackets to the wiring to the commission. So that, that way after those two weeks, I can send you back to your boss and you can be moldable into that position where you got the knowledge, you're losing that frustration. Cause you're not being left last minute to just, Oh, well guess what? You gotta do this and you have no clue what this is, what is, what is entailed, what are the materials, What's the setup? You know? Yes. So that's where, that's where I've been pushing. That's why I've been pushing just off the cuff, is I want, I wanna get at that school open. It's gonna start just as. An HVAC school. Cause obviously that's where my, my forte is. But the, the plan with that school is not just to limit to hvac. Oh man. I just love talking to people and having that very first conversation and discovering like, Man, I gotta spend more time with that dude. Uh, that is Mr. Aaron Gibbs the creator of just off the cuff, H V A C, and I ran into him, or maybe not ran into him, but found his content on LinkedIn. Uh, he has this mental health break that he posts every so often and. Two things. One, they're funny, they're entertaining. two, his awareness and the action that he's taken about advocating for mental wellness and self care was like, Man, I gotta reach out to this dude. So we connected and he, he committed to having a conversation. So we got the chance to interview him all the way from Canada. through the conversation it was super clear that he really does care. Like he has a deep. Sentiment for the trades and for teaching people. So take some time, let this be a nice long stretch of a mental wellness break, uh, and get to know our buddy, Mr. Aaron Gibbs Oh my goodness. I almost forgot about the shout out for our patrons. I didn't almost, I actually did forget I had to come back and record this and cut it back in. shout out to all the patrons out there. Who have been supporting. I don't know if you see us on, on the YouTube, you can see I added a fancy little backlight and I learned that from my buddies over at Lion's Legacy. I think it's cool. I don't know. We'll check it out. But thank you for your contributions because the money that you're contributing helps us maintain the show also we're spreading the love with Skilled Trades Alliance. if you're interested in being a patron, go ahead and head to the website, learning to missteps.com. Hit the Become a Member button and blah, blah, blah. You already know the deal. Click the thing. And if you're feeling like super brave, head on over, like my new website, depth builder.com, which is. My website for the business that I'm running, cuz if y'all didn't know I'm a consultant coach. And while you're on that website, click on the books link. Guess what, there's a link to lean in. Love fives, love letters, Uh, and if you're new to the show, I'm kind of fancy cuz officially I'm an author, now, co-author with my really great friend, Jennifer Lacey. So check those things out and if you don't check 'em out, it's okay. I love you, man. Thank you for giving us your time to listen to this episode and here we go. If we could get plumbers, if we could get electricians into that school, then we'll have that same capability that I'm presenting with HVAC to plumbers. It's like, okay, well guess what? We're gonna send you off to the school and we're gonna teach you roughens or finals for. Yes. For, you know, the next two weeks course refreshers, stuff like that you know, companies profess that they're all about training, but they don't wanna execute that time because it costs them, it's an yes, it's an invest. They miss, they miss, they always miss that point that, you know, you're, you're gonna cost the employee. Right. And you're gonna cost that employee his, his, his career because you're not giving him or her that, that opportunity to just do without any sort of overbearing, looming evil force over top, I mean, pressure. Yes. Yeah. So yeah. That's where, So when I seen your show, I like, Yeah. This, I, I love it. This is, this is where we need to be. We as trades need to be going. power numbers, you know, that was one thing that I was always taught in the Army is, you know, you get enough people, like-minded people together, there's nothing you can't accomplish. Right? 100% like in service to others. Joined and connected with other like-minded human beings, like limitless, 100% limitless. So this school that you're working on, is it gonna be. Like, is it an in person thing? Is it a virtual thing? Is it like a hybrid? What are you thinking there? I, you know what, I'm a firm believer of hands on, it's gonna be an in person school. Obviously Covid killed that. But the thing that scares me most is what I hear is that most of these courses that are currently scale trades and were skilled trades during that covid time that it was all online stuff. And that concerns me greatly because Okay, what application have you used? It's okay to think about this and plan about this, but we need to actually apply it, practice it, and get better, right? Yeah. I mean there's value, like there's different, you know, I learned way too late, man, and I wish I knew this well, maybe not. I wouldn't have made a difference cuz I was a knockoff in school. But I learned maybe 10, 15 years ago, a buddy of mine, Louis Rodriguez here in San Antonio, he's like, Hey man, you need to check out this. I was like, What is it? He's like, It's books. Like you don't have to read 'em. They read the books. I was like, That's dumb. He's like, Try it. And I tried it. I was like, Oh my. It was the best thing that I like audio. I'm an audible learner, like mm-hmm . And then I was like flashing back to when I was in school. Like I wouldn't take notes and I rarely did homework. Cuz to me homework was practice. Like if I already got it, why am I gonna practice it But listening I would learn through, listen. And then I would learn through kind of watching, like if I need a little extra, I would watch whatever they're drawing up on the board and tactile, like I had to put my hands on things, not everything. But to your point, like there are, yes. Watching it, thinking about it, listening to learning it and applying it, applying it, the application. And that's, I think that's like the key. Is the application of the knowledge that we've digested, putting it into practice, knowing what it smells like, feels like, tastes like doing it under duress, under pressure. Like that's a whole other level of actual under understanding. oh man, I'm loving this. All right, so Mr. Aaron, I think you're in Alberta, Canada. Is that. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. All right. And that's closer to the mid or west western side of. We share a border with BC so we're not too far from the ocean, and then we share the other border with Saskatchewan. So we're not too far from the prairies, so we're kind of stuck in the middle. We got a nice kind of, we got a nice view from both sides of the fence, so. We're stuck right in the middle and it's it's, it's a beautiful province. I, I can imagine, you know, I have not been to Canada yet, but it is absolutely on my bucket and it's inter, you know, one thing that really intrigues me about Canada is, especially what I can see on like social media, on LinkedIn and stuff, is there is a huge investment. In around careers, in the trades. And when I say investment, I guess the human beings, like Bob Baker, I was able to interview him. He's got his business and he's doing his thing very very visible in social media. But it also seems like broader support from industry and government are really investing in messaging around the value of the trades. Does it feel that way? I mean, you're there, it looks like that to me. For, for me, I don't think it's so much, I, I'm kind of a different cat for me when I, when I see talent on LinkedIn. And it's not, you know, it's not exclusive. It's this sheer of human talent. I watch, I see, you know, what that person's presenting. Bob is an amazing guy. He's actually about 15 minutes away from me way. Oh, awesome cat. And I share a lot of the fact, like, you know, he's he's, he's integral. He, he sticks to his guns. He does what's right. And he doesn't deviate. He, he doesn't mind spending that time that little bit of extra time to make sure that it's done right. And there's peace of mind both not only on the customer side, but on his side too. And yeah, that's why I call the, and yeah, just amazing. But I find that the support. I think the support is coming from fellow trades. Okay. I don't feel that, I don't feel that the, the support right now is coming enough from the government. Steve Turner, who's doing the bring back the trades initiative. Great, awesome initiative and we, we are desperate right now. And that's why it's important that like individuals such as yourself and myself are getting, like, we're not gonna be around forever, but at least what we're gonna be able to do is leave a generation of knowledge to the next generation. And if we can do that, then the next generation is gonna be a little bit better. To face the new adversity. So they're gonna come their way during their generation. So, you know, if we give them, if we give these people these tools and, and give 'em the education, then you know, we can, we could probably, definitely fill those quotas a lot quicker. But we need, I feel that there needs to be a lot more promotion for skill trades right now. And it, it has to be universal. I'm a big time quarian. I, I, I like to see an equal fence on everybody's front yard. And that everybody's treating, being treated fair and equal regardless of where you come from, what you do, what color you are. You could be purple and you know from Mars, you know, if you can do the job and you've got the skills and you've got the talent, then by, by all means, come on board, let's do this. Let's get you, you know, wisen up and then the, then you can flourish just like we are. Right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's just it, There's a lot of angles, there's a lot of problems in terms of getting expanding the, the workforce in the trades. And for me, where I'm really targeting my effort is like helping people understand what is available. I was, I, I was at a high school this week on Wednesday. I got to speak to two groups of students, like 30 kids. It was so like that is, I love doing that. That's, I, if I could do that like all day, every day, I would be one happy person. Young, receptive minds. Yeah. Yeah. And, and they're just, they're just fun, right? Like they're just real. There's no, there's not a lot of The baggage that adults bring, Right? The, the calculated thinking and agenda pushing, like, they're just like, they don't know what they wanna do and, and they're interested. But one of the, one of the career counselors one of the slides that I show, kind of says, Okay, you can come into the trades at this level and installer level and become a journeyman and start your own business. That's absolutely a pathway, but it's also. All these other careers. There's marketing career, there's talent acquisition, there's hr, there's finance, there's like all of these different career pathways that are also in construction or in the trades. And she, she says, I just never, like, that was like news to me. I was like, Ah. Like, we just don't think about that. I had a friend of mine Diana Wong who amazing recruiter talent acquisition. And when she, she was working for the company I was working for back then and she was like, You know, Jess, a lot of my friends thought I was crazy for working with the construction company. Like they couldn't, like, why would you do that? But the company we were working with was like a Fortune 100 company year after year after year, top 100 company to work for, and just an amazing environment. But people don't know. And so I wanna focus on like elevating the awareness of, of the amazingness that is here and like the super cool, awesome people like you that are in Detroit because like it's a, like, I'm gonna get to the, I wanna know about the, your mindful or your, was it your wellness operate mental health break? Yes. But before I get to that, so you mentioned you were in the army. You live in a beautiful part of Canada that's between the water and the prairies. What else should the LnM Family know about you, man?, I I love to educate. I love passing along this knowledge and making life easier because, I did not have an easy time either coming through my trade and still even to this day, somewhat thrown to the wolves with no direction. But I've got the skills and capability to, you know, okay, well if they're not gonna gimme this, then I still need to stick to my, my basic fundamentals and, and get the job done using what I've learned over the past. So, you know, yeah. They may not give me the inform. But I'll find somebody else that'll get me that information, and I won't just sit stagnant and wait for somebody to hand me that information. It's like, No, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna commit to doing this. And I think it also boils down to just people who treat this rather than a job as a career. Oh, man. And the stigma that's behind construction. Like, I, I still don't get this, this, you know well, you know, Don't, don't, don't get into construction. You know, that guy, you know, he looks like bu and it's like, do you know that I make more than a mechanic, like an auto mechanic right now?. Yeah. So you gotta get rid of that stigma that there's, there is so much opportunity and just as you said, like, just because you're in, in the trades doesn't mean that you're stuck in that one position forever. There's obviously, like you and I have done, like you can do videos, you can educate when you feel that that comfortability, that knowing that the knowledge that you're passing on is good sound knowledge. I have yet to see what I, we refer to as hacks on LinkedIn. I haven't seen a hack job yet. Yeah, but, and I think that's where the benefit of LinkedIn comes in is, you know, obviously we, we get likeminded individuals that are all wanting to. To educate, and that for me is, that's the same boat that I'm in. So for me, yeah, I just about getting that education out there, getting this school up and running, and rather than spending my life twerking up 350 pound ACS onto brackets, I'd rather be talking to these kids and showing these kids how to do that stuff on their own. Like, it's like, yeah, you know, the bo it starts to take a toll after a while, I gotta start looking end. So it's like, yeah, you know, I'll do this for the next little while. But yeah, we gotta start looking to not completely get out of the field, but get a little bit more administration on, you know, go back to the administration stuff. I did do administration for a while. And I, the sad part was, is we were going through again, another struggling time out here in Alberta where, you know unfortunately the people that were coming on to work. Needed incentive to work. And it's like, well, no, we're paying you to do this. How come you're not doing it? Whereas in our generation, like, if you didn't do something right, oh, you were, you were to into the office and hold onto the seat, man, we might land afterwards, you know? Mm-hmm.. So yeah, no. Yeah, I, I'm a pretty humble guy. I don't like to talk too much about myself. Yeah. I like, I like, I like talking about other people and, and that's where I like I love inter promotion. People like Bob Baker, Sean Bidel. Donald Baker as well. Gary McReedy, Like, we've got all this talent coming on, and I'm pretty sure that you see the talent coming on for, for, and I know Bob Baker's plumbing too. But if we all get all these people together, like. Open up link school, like we could have some, some, we could create that next evolution for technicians, right? Oh man. Yes, absolutely. You know, I think what's interesting, and you're, you're in the social media space, right? Like, technically we're like influencers, bro. Like who would've thought? And that's where it's also important too, and we get enough people, Together, then we can start to push that evolution. Like, okay, yes. And, and, and it's not like it's gonna happen overnight, but simple things like, Okay, well we're in a mechanical room. Maybe we should have a light that's over top of the equipment rather than the back corner so we can actually back behind us. Right. Simple things. So, Those little, little things that just make your job go that much easier. If we get enough of us together and start, really we can power numbers and create a voice to start maybe pushing back on some of the, the treatments that you hear about out in the field and it's, some of the treatments are. Remember I was talking earlier, we might just not talk on some things and I'll be like, No, I feel you, man. It's, it. There is, it's an amazing place to be in the trades and there's a lot of room for improvement. I mean, I think that's the fairest way to say it. There's a lot of room for improvement in terms of appreciating or demonstrating appreciation for the men and women that are doing the work. Like it's, it's real. and it's freaking amazing. Like it can be amazing. You know, one of the things that's interesting about, I think that I learned, but nobody told me this is what I was learning, building my career in the trades, was you just kind of end up , developing this inherent skill to figure things out. Like whatever it is, you can just figure it out. Like now podcasting and live streaming and pushing content. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine that I've known since elementary school. She's got her own business and she was like, Hey, like I see you very active on social media. Like can you show me some of the tools? I'm like, Yeah, this, and she's like, Oh my God, this almost seems like this is has been your career. I'm like, Well, it kind of is now kind of, kind of. Because of the value in the marketing value of being visible. And then that guy's, like, I don't really understand what you're saying. It's like Jesse, like I need you to come talk to my team cuz I'm trying to get my team to get comfortable with social media. And what you just described to me is like the pathway to do that. It's like, how did you learn that? It's like, I don't know, I just look, watched some YouTube videos, tested some experimented and, and like, this is my recipe. And so obviously you've applied that same skill that you learned through installing, like learning how to figure things out and just dealing with it. It gets messy, it's funky, but with practice you get really good at it. Can you tell us a little bit about that, like making that leap. Because putting yourself out there in video or even in voice for the world to critique is not the most comfortable thing. What did that feel like for you, brother? You know what? It's funny. When I was first my first YouTube video and I was just I was just, at first I was just gonna, it was, it was my pilot. I literally set my phone up on a mattress straight across from my thermostat. It, it is on, so on YouTube, I, and I kept it because at first I was kind of like, maybe I should redo this video. And I'm like, Yeah, you know, like it wouldn't be too bad because obviously like, this is my first video, so maybe I should redo it. And then I was like, you know what, no. I wanna remember where, where I started with. It took about, I did about eight to 12 takes. But what I was trying to strive for, and that's why I called it just off the cuff, was literally, and that's what we do in scale traits, is we've, we're given a fountain of knowledge. We're expected to go into these customers and we are literally blasting them just off the cuff. So that's why I ended up. Cohen, You know what, I'm just gonna call this just off the coffee, hvac, you know? And well it was just off the cuff at first. I was like, No, we'll throw the HVAC in there. And yeah, it was it was a big step to do that first video and to literally throw my face out there and go, Oh, you know, I ain't the prettiest guy. Right , for me, it's not about the looks, it's. Having that what I that one good journey person, you know, the one mentor that you need to support you and encourage you and to drive you to do better for your career and that's where I was like, you know what? That's kind of, that's kind of where I wanna take it. Except now, rather than just having one apprentice, I've got whole social media platform to, to basically throw that education out there with, use it if you want, if you can develop a better method off of that, that system, then do it. That's if you can surpass me. Yes. All the power, right, Because that, that means that that person's gonna be that much more smarter and that much more able to deal with whatever comes their way. Hundred percent. Oh dude, there's so much in there. This, So there's another, one of the magical gifts of being a craft person or tradesperson is the opportunity to help develop other people, right? Like sharing or transferring the knowledge that we've gained and seeing them grow as individuals is like the ultimate. I mean, I remember. You know, you probably have a list of the journeymen that you worked with that totally shifted the way you saw life and like Oh yeah. Gave you confidence and momentum to go forward. So one you ex, I experienced that as an apprentice and then all of a sudden I wasn't the apprentice anymore. I'm the journeyman now, and I've been able to do that, like help people expand their, There was one guy, he was a. General labor. We had him on the project and he was, he was on a project not in the best circumstance, and the leader of that project was very shortsighted. So he kept him at the general labor level for over a year. But this, this man had skill, like he showed up every day. He was whatever you asked him to do, he was hungry to learn. And so you shared knowledge with him. He would do it. You gave him a broom to push. He would push the broom like it didn't matter. Anyways, fast forward general labor. Now, his master's license is the license that this huge company is operating under, right? He, I had a conversation, like I said, Dude, we need sheet metal mechanics, sheet metal, sheet metal leadership. I, why don't you think about getting in the sheet metal apprenticeship? He said, Nope, I'm gonna be a plumber. I said, Man, we got a lot of plumbers. He said, That's what I wanna do. I said, Okay, so get you into plumbing apprenticeship. He went through the apprenticeship, knocked that out of the park, got his med gas endorsement, got his master's license, did the schooling to become a responsible master, and now the company is functioning under his. And you know, I played a small role in it, actually. I was trying to push him to another trade, but being able to know like, man, I was a party. To that, to that growth. Like him as an individual, growing his family, like the earning potential that, that we can support and, and, and grow within the individual. Like they talk about fulfillment, right? like right. Gratifying. So gratifying. That's it. That's it. And so back to the social media piece, it is uncomfortable and there's a lot of space. For us, us craft workers, our US trade professionals, construction professionals, to. Demonstrate how awesome it is, right? Like we can make it sexy. And I'm, I think I'm doing a pretty good job of making it sexy. I, I whole, I wholeheartedly concur with that. Like I said, your, your, your messages are deep and impactful. They, they reach you. It's not, it's not what, what people Some, I think it's the words fluff. It's not fluff, you know, It's, this is, this is good meat and potatoes on the table, so. Yeah. Beautiful work. And kudos to you, my friend, because Yeah. We need more of you out there. Yeah. And we need to again, bring this energy and this excitement back to the trades because you know for me, at this phase of the game, There's no bad days. There's long days, but you never have a bad day anymore. And it's like, why couldn't I have this at the beginning? Why didn't people teach me this stuff so I could spend the next 23 years Absolutely. Living a gravy life, you know? So, but that's, yeah. Guys like you and some of the other great platforms that are on LinkedIn. Yeah. Like there's, there's so much here that you can resource off of and, and educate and inspire that next generation. Yeah, man. And you're doing it too, right? Like, and so what I want the LnM Family to take away from this is you, you, you shared how uncomfortable it was to do the first one. Yes. But since then, you've built momentum. And everybody's gonna respond to a different flavor. That's another thing like I used to get hung up on, man. I'm kind of saying the same thing other people have said, and it's true. I am. However, everybody has a different palette, right? Some people like my style. Everybody's got, Everybody's got an angle. Exactly. And so get your message out there. Doesn't matter if it's the same thing because some people really need your. Style, your message, your perspective. We can all say exactly the same thing. We're all gonna say it differently, and we're gonna tie it to our own personal experiences that other people are having. And they are just looking for somebody to connect with so it brings me to the mental wellness breaks. That was the first I saw. So it came across my feet. I said, Oh, this is interesting. And then it was, it was funny. It was cool. I was like, Man, this is awesome. I gotta connect with this guy. So how did you, like, how did you get to that subject? For me, I, I because my past military career I do live with ptsd. Okay. So it, it does have a major impact on how you function and operate. It doesn't, it doesn't make you any less capable, but it just gives you, it sometimes can be challenging. A lot more challenging on certain times than occasions to get stuff done or motivate yourself and, and stuff like that. And for me a lot of, I feel that mental health has been kind of hmm. What's the best word? A touchy subject in the skill trades industry. It's not vocalized as much and it's not recognized as much. And for me being the guy that I am I'm very protective of my connections. And it was actually one, one of my connections Veronica. She was just on there and she was doing a a post about her and her mom and celebrating her mom and, and, The, the experiences that you had with her mom and some person . Just had to get on there and say, Well, this, this belongs on Facebook. Okay. And, and I was like, negative. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Who are you? Yep. Yep. Who asked you for this opinion? Do you think that was supportive of the person that you're talking? Do you know what that person's going through right now? So when I seen that and it wasn't the first, that was the first occasion that I caught it, that I got on there right away and I said, What work doesn't have breaks? Hmm. We are entitled to a break. Yes. And more and more I started seeing these posts and some of my connections were actually afraid of posting some of their stuff. You know, they were like, you know, I, I don't know if I should post this. And I was like, You know what? That should never be a question. Yes, it's all in the eye of the beholder and a prospective view. Post it. Now obviously we've got those negative Nels out there, you know, that can't see the benefit of what that is. So, I don't know. If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it. Yeah., you know, and you're not gonna be supportive. Then scroll along. Like it's just that easy. So when it up path happening is, after I seen enough of these, I was like, Okay, that's it, you know? There's, there's no more of this. You wanna see something? Let's show exactly what a mental health break is, is literally something that is applied on a daily basis. It can be applied every hour if you need to. It's literally a three minute set. Well, however you, however long you need to basically recover. Mentally, because again, we take all these physical breaks, but we don't stop to recover our brains because when we're sitting on our breaks where our minds are still going, right, and we're, and we're not essentially taking that break, our bodies are getting the rest, but our mind is still worked up. So, Mental health break became literally taking that moment away from your work to remove yourself from all of the negativity or adversities of what your job is doing or what the weather's like, and literally giving your brain that second to go, You know what? It's okay. Yeah. To take five minutes to myself to not think about work. All right. And maybe support some people on LinkedIn or watch some videos on LinkedIn. Learn something. Remove yourself from that problem. Give your mind that break. The same way that you give your physical break, and then you can come back and tackle whatever it is generally well motivated and re-energize to do it. Yes. Whereas before, if you just take that break and then, Oh, Jesus now breaks. I gotta go back into it. Yes. Now I got that. That's, You're already defeated, right? So, Yes. Yeah, I ended up talk, I basically wanted to do it worldwide. And you know, I've got several, I, I've got, I don't know how many. Fabulous talented doctors as connections that are promoting the same thing, Positive energy promotion. I call 'em my positive energy promoters actually. Yeah. Nice, nice. And I'm always, I'm always like with my platform. Like that's why I repost this stuff because they are just as much involved in my skilled trade world as could be involved in somebody else's world. But they, they do give people that opportunity that, you know, checking me out and I've got one on the, their post up. They're insightful people and they can really re-energize you. Change your perspective, right? Yeah. Start you thinking a little bit more the same way that when we first get our tools for doing our, our work, Okay, well we've got these tools now guess what? We're gonna give you some more tools, but these are gonna be up here. Yeah. So that, you know, you're not drained by the end of that day. You can literally I had this conversation actually with a, a fellow coworker that I had worked with 10 years ago at this, this new company. I seen him and he's like, You're looking amazing. And I'm like, Well, thanks. He's like, So what? What you doing differently? I was like, Oh, I drop work soon, soon, soon. As I, I had spent. The rest of my career literally go on 18, 19 hour days. Constantly thinking about this. How can I be better? How can I make sure that the product I'm providing is good, sound quality product will last for life to make sure that, you know that person is understanding of the, the service that I've given them and understands the knowledge that I've given them and will be able to apply that knowledge I've given. I've given. Yeah, that's, that's, yeah. That's it, man. Thank you for that description and like the appreciating your, your network and highlighting other people's stuff because that's what it's about, right? It's about supporting each other. And the reason that this mental wellness break like resonated with me is I've, I've, I've got a therapist and I finally figured out how to. In my own mental wellness after 43 years, like it took me a long time and because it was never, I can't blame it, but one of the contributors was, it was never discussed, right? Yeah. Like if I had problems, if I had mental, emotional baggage, You just suck it up and deal with it. Right? That's, that was the message. That was, that was the attitude. That was, that was the way it was across the world. Right. And yes, you know, it was, it was almost just another kind of, we wanna sweep this under the carpet. We don't wanna really, We'll let you deal with that at home, because really, at that point, and to be fair, The tools weren't out there. Nobody had started unless you were a psychologist, right? Yes, Yes. What do we have in skilled traits? Well, we've got hr, but that's not a skill oncologist, , right? Yes. So, It was, again, there was, there was almost a stigma behind mental health too. You know, like, well if you have, if you have depression or anxiety, then you're, you're this mm-hmm. that's not the case, you know? Unless you've done the research and stuff like that, you know, it, it, it is a huge challenge, but it can be you overcome and me, myself, having done therapy for as long as I have I can tell you that when you. When you are genuinely happy with yourself, then you have the ability to project that energy onto others. Yes. And help start that, that river going for them. So all my friends, like, and I, I do, I, I get somewhat over worded at times, but it's because I, I, I can now see the value of where I started, where I've ended up, and the fact that I'm content being me. Okay. I, you know, You can call me all the names of the book. It's literally gonna go in one ear together, maybe under the hat, but under the hat say for later to go. Hmm. But yeah, when you have that ability to actually wake up every morning, I mean, I. You don't, it's not perfect life. You still have, you know draining days and sure times where you, you are not as fit as you'd like to be, but you're human. So cut yourself some breaks, right? We, we drive ourselves so hard over our careers that we, we do, we get complacent on forgetting to take care of ourselves and forgetting that if we don't take care of ourselves, then we can't take care of others. Oh my god. Mic drop. Like all I could say is Amen. Yeah. Like, Yes, sir. Man, I love it. Please. At LnM Family, you're listening. You're watching. Share this message. Embrace the message. Because we don't have to suffer alone. We don't have to suffer in silence. Right? And, and you, you nailed it. The we're trades people, we're craftspeople. This is a new tool to add to your toolbox and it can bring you joy. 100%. Damn it, man. I'm so glad we got to talk. Oh, I love this conversation. I love a, I, like I say, I love a great conversation and meeting new people and people with the same passions and energy. Yeah. You get enough of us together, it can be a bonfire of good time.? Yes. We'll start us a real good fire. Ten four. So here's a good, here's my favorite question. Well, I got two favorite questions. This one is, you know, you've, you've got a lot of experience, right? You've come through the trades. You were in the military. Now you're kind of, you're focused on serving others and sharing your knowledge. And so along that pathway, there was a ton of learning. And there was probably some missteps. And so, Oh yes. Is there a significant learning that you had as a result of a painful misstep? From, from one perspective view. You know what? A painful misstep for me through my career was the fact that I had Oh yeah. I gotta interrupt the flow just a little bit. Can you hear that music in the background? Little groovy music. Anyhow, this little segment of this interview exists and is only available on the YouTube. That's right. We got a YouTube channel learnings and missteps, check it out. Or you can go to learnings and missteps.com and find our YouTube channel there. And while you're. You can also click on, become a member, uh, to, to contribute some money, like funds straight up. I'm just gonna say it, 80% of that is going to be donated to the skilled trades Alliance because the skilled trades Alliance mission is very much in line with the learnings and missteps mission. Uh, and we're going to support great things and great people. And you signing up as a patron. we'll contribute to that effort. So we appreciate you deeply for doing that. Also. I dunno if y'all heard or not just in case you missed it. I'm an author now, Jennifer Lacey and I have, co-authored a book you gotta check it out. Lean in love five S love letters. It's on the Amazon. The whole goal of that book is to just help one person. And so far, we've gotten several, several people from the nobs tribe, from the LnM Family that have indicated to us that something at least one little thing in the book has helped. And so we've kind of exceeded our goals, but to exceed the goal and continue helping people that is the ultimate privilege in the world. So while you're out there on the Amazon, on the YouTube, on the LinkedIn, all the socials, leave us some reviews, leave us some comments, let us know you're out there. I know you're there. I see the statistics, the data, but I don't get to interact with John. That makes me a little bit sad. Anyhow, I'm gonna stop my whining. Appreciate. Y'all very much go to the YouTube to catch this learning and misstep backstage pass. And here we go back to the. that aren't gonna help you diversify your knowledge. And it's unfortunate that you might have to go and leave one place to another. Start all over again. Build your network, build your trust, earn that credibility. And so like, there are some companies, and maybe that's the takeaway, right? For, for the young apprentices out there, you're looking to get into the industry, find you a company that has programs that will help you develop and be very clear. You wanna, I mean, how many people have you met that have 15 years of experience? But it's 15 years of the same skill, the same single one skill. You ever come across that Right.. Right. And it's all, it's, you know exactly where we're stabbing with that one too, which is the exposure like, Great, you've had one experience for 15 years or 12 years. What other exposures have you had? How do you know that that system or method is correct? Yes. Right. If you, And how do you know if you've never explored those options? Yes. You run into a ton of companies like that, that they're literally. 20 years back from like, you know, from where we, you jump, you go, you go to one company and it's like, Oh no, we're up to speed here. But you go to another company, it's just like, well, they're doing things like we did 20 years ago. Yep. Well, why is this? We've got new pat, we've got new, Well, well this is what saves money and this is what Yep. Well, is it though, right? That's why I get into these conversations. Well, you know, oh, well this, this coil is this ac co. No, my current company, of course, but, the C Coil this was with other companies. This AC coil doesn't come with a TX valve on it, so we're saving this much money. Are you though, because now your technician who hasn't, who may not be educated as well, is most technicians is now gonna spend maybe an hour. It shouldn't take an hour, obviously, but. If you don't have that exposure, you're potentially putting your company at risk for something as little as a TX valve. Yes, right. Putting on that TX valve, you know? Well, if we've already got one on there, then we're not paying the extra labor time of somebody having to install a TX valve, which it's so much easier to put on a OTX valve onto the factory than it is when it's all encased in. Right. Oh yeah.. So, yeah. Yeah. And then obviously now with this is something that's been driving me crazy for years and I, I'm not afraid to say it is. Actually, I know. I think I've seen one furnace so far. What is with these furnaces, if you're designing furnaces, why can you not make sure that the AC ports are away from the venting of the furnaces? Why do the AC port have to be directly in behind either the PVC or the avs venting somebody? It's just making as hard, as tight as possible to get in there and do the damn work. Yep. Right. Come on. And that's the same thing like with one of my videos is, you know, we've got and it's not everyone again, but we've got people sending low voltage out with the line, which is, you know, great if you can put some distance between those line sets. But we're braising with over 400 degrees a flame. Yes. So we've. Plastic sitting on hot metal, what's gonna happen? Right. And I, I don't know. There was a company about seven years ago, that's what I ran into, and every one of them, I ended up turning around and they were looking at me to fix it. And I was like, I'm sorry. I do not run the low voltage. The low voltage is the responsibility of your electricians. We do not carry the UV resistance while you're with us. You're gonna have to get your, your electricians well, can you cut the whole. No. Yeah, not a good idea. like we're cut. Well, and there it's cutting into to the nice finished stock or steepled ceilings, right? Yep, yep. At that point, because we need to get access and, or we've gotta cut the outside of the house and it's, I know that you see it in plumbing too, with some of these outside hoses that have burst from, from freezing and stuff like that, where you've gotta get in there and it's not the easiest access to the world, and it's like, no, you know? I'll fix, I'll fix the line if the line are done. But there's some clear and obvious things that need to be thought about when we're doing this stuff. And now you see the, you see with other builders, they're starting to get, and other trades is, they're starting to get wise. It's like, okay, let's move that low voltage wire away so we don't have to spend over a thousand dollars repairing the ceiling.. Yeah, some of these repairs are like super invasive. And I honestly, I can, I can patch a Sheetrock wall, but it's gonna look like a plumber. Patch the sheetrock wall. like Right. You don't want me to do that? It's not gonna be attractive.. Oh man. This beautiful conversation. So, Yeah. And I get one thing as you're talking, right? Your trade's, H V A C, you're talking about the tx TX valve, the thermal expansion valve. Yes. You're talking about low voltage wiring. We're talking about gas, you're talking about PBC and for the drain, the condensate drain and such. And, and like we talk about it like it's just, It's a hamburger, right? Like it's nothing. Mm-hmm.. But for, for folks out there, I hope what you, what you can kind of, as you were asking yourself that question, like, when in the world are they talking about that is the complexity of systems that that's in your house. Like, we're not talking about stadiums or sky rises. We're talking about a house. And the amount of expertise and knowledge and skill it takes to be able to install these very complex systems is immense and, and like it's so easy to take it for granted. So I've, I mean, I've wanted to point that out, like you got real skill men and for folks out there listening. That may think that getting into the trades is like easy. It's not. If you think you can get into the trades and it's not gonna be like mentally taxing, you are wrong cuz you're going to have to learn a bunch of stuff and you start thinking in terms of if I do this, the next three things could go really badly. So your time horizon expands. You start understanding the implication of this decision, how that's going to impact and make your day longer or shorter or better. So I just wanna throw that out there for people that might think, you know, the trades, ah, you know, that sounds like fun. I'm gonna go do it as a hobby. Like it's a career. It's absolutely a career. It's a, it's a way of life. I mean, straight up. And it's a gratifying, rewarding career too, in the fact that. You do, you and you yourself can definitely, you come in hot water tank is leaking like a siv. Yes. Who's there with a brand new hot water tank and literally maybe worst case scenario, depending on access your an hour later, they're all warm and fuzzy. You're all warm and fuzzy. You've saved the. And, you know, you can give your own self, your, your, your own pat on the back because you know that there's peace of mind that you've done the right job. Yeah. You've done your due diligence and that you've given these people a good quality product the same way that they could go and go and get their car serviced. It's the same thing, right? Every, every field, every field has. It's always gonna have its lemons and it's bad apples. Of course. Get enough of that push, then yeah, we're gonna start to really encourage people to get it and yeah, it's, it's totally challenging. But it's doable. Hundred percent. So, so people should not be intimidated whatsoever about getting into skill trade that I've got. I don't know how many people I've encouraged over the years to, to push themselves and get into skill trades and it, it, you know, I obviously, I push'em like, you wanna come work in hvac? Like, we can get you up there and Yeah. But take some time and think about what you are passionate about and what you enjoy doing. You know, if maybe, and maybe if you like learning about all this stuff, you might want to, you know, pursue engineering or joining, you know, a major manufacturing company and, and you. Pressing to see if you can become one of those people actually designing the next line of furnace.. Or hot water tank or direct line or hydrogen cell or whatever we're doing these days. Ex. All of it. All of it. Hot air balloon. We always go back to hot air balloon. Everybody could inside a hot air balloon. Oh, yeah. It's amazing how rapidly technology evolves and, and it like trades are 100% impacted by that. So you're a pretty influential human being, Aaron. You've already had an influence on me. I think your message is one that, that a lot of people are gonna benefit from. And so on that line of thinking what footprint do you intend to leave on the world? Obviously if I can, I'd love to leave a school pardon me. Choking on coffee. I'd love to leave a school behind for those, to educate those so that again, they, they don't go to the same challenges as us. And if that school can go world, By, by all means, you know we all, we all, again, we're not just limited to one talent. If you've got other talents out there, why not explore them? Let's develop those talents. Let's not let, let's not waste talent because see that all too often. And the other thing is just to keep my angle of I grew up watching a lot of red green and Mac Iver growing up. So that's why with, with me, I think it's important that we add, you know, if we're gonna be delivering this information out there, we've got a little bit of element of humor to bo up to what we're about to receive. So it's nice to throw in a little bit of a, again, had mental health break just before you start to blossom with some knowledge. And yeah, for me I loved. Red, green, and MacGyver growing up. So I just kind of keep on running it like that. With some humor. Some, yeah. Some knowhow. And if you can't go point A to point B, maybe we should go point B to point A. Oh man. Yes, Yes, 100%. So your YouTube channel, what's the name of your YouTube channel so people can go and check this? Just off the cuff, hvac, everything from Tick Talk to, everything's called just off the cuff hvac. It is simply about opening the school. I didn't want obviously I throw out my name at the bottom just so you know who's talking to you. But it's, it's all about the education for me and getting that knowledge out there and helping individuals flourish and, and blossom into, you know, some amazing, remarkable people. didn't I tell you doesn't it just come across how clearly and deeply he cares about people, just like human beings in general, and then this idea he has around the school? I think it's fantastic, especially like his energy around. Banding all these other people out there to really make an impact, a long lasting impact on the future of the trades. As always, we're gonna give a shout out to that LnM Family member that went out of their way to leave us a comment, leave us a review. And so this one goes out to Miss Melissa, also known as Izzy. I'm gonna have to put my glasses on for this one. Miss Melissa says, Much appreciated how this breaks down. Communication on and off the job site. Applying the fives concept into our day to day conversations to build healthier relationships can be a heavy concept. Hope she wasn't talking about my belly, but the stories in playful workbook feel shifts the heavy to relatable, a quick read for an ever growing mind. Thanks, Jesus and Jennifer. Thank you Miss Izzy for living us a review and being supportive all the way through because you were also there behind the scenes asking questions and, and. Helping tinker around with my brain as we were producing the book. Uh, to the rest of y'all, love y'all very much. Be kind to yourself and we'll talk at you next time. Peace. Oh my goodness. You're either driving down the road or just so enthralled with, uh, with this whole podcast that you went all the way down to the very, very, very, very end of it. And we appreciate you and just, we're going to take this as an indication of your dedication so we got a little special request of you, a call to action, because everybody tells us that like, you need to have a call to action. So here's the call to action. Be kind to yourself, go out there and share a smile with someone