Bringing Back the Trades with Steve Turner

Wouldn’t it be great to bring back the honor in the trades and eliminate the stigma surrounding the sector? Now is the time to change the narrative about the trades and bring back the deserved honor to the industry.

In this episode, we have Steve Turner, a custom upholstery small business owner and the founder of Bring Back the Trades organization. Steve came to the realization that the closer he got to retirement, the higher the risk of him closing down his business became a reality due to the shortage of skilled trade workers, which prompted him to start the Bring Back the Trades, a nonprofit organization funding scholarships for trade school students. He’s dedicated to promoting and educating the public about the need for skilled trades professionals.

Listen in to learn the value of equipping young people with trade skills and not forcing them into the college environment, which is probably not serving them. You will also learn the importance of being authentic to who you are and telling your truth to improve communication.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

●        Having the mental capability to overcome struggles even when your physical body says NO.

●       Steve explains how and why he started the Bring Back the Trades nonprofit organization.

●       Why he’s struggling to hand out Bring Back the Trades scholarships and how he’s fixing that problem.

●        How to be sponsored or become an active sponsor with the Bring Back the Trades organization.

●        Why he wants his legacy to be about bringing honor in the trades and eliminating the stigma.

●       Steve on why he’s now working to achieve the feeling of individual accomplishment.

Connect with Bring Back the Trades
https://www.bringbackthetrades.com/

Connect with Steve 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-turner-32756037/

Connect with Us
https://www.learningsandmissteps.com/

Transcript

0:00

In September to a girl, Wisconsin that is going to be a pipe welder. She's thinking of well, yeah. Um, she loves her job and one of the reasons why I love doing what I'm doing is when I call these students, like I called her, um, she was actually crying because she couldn't make her next payment on her or her, her class. Wow. The thousand dollars I gave her is not only going to pay for it. It's gonna make her actually graduate and go into her field. So that's why I do it because people don't realize trade schools don't cost that much money compared to college. And I forget this. We're not against college at all. I keep forgetting this. That's my buddy ultra Steve Turner, not scuba Steve ultra. Steve he's the founder of bringing back the trades, a nonprofit that is committed to helping people expand their knowledge and expertise in the trades and ultra marathon, like, like 240.3 months. In the desert in the snow by himself, like talk about a gamer. he's like super easy going super laid back. He'd never guessed that this dude's got what he's got. And I'm hoping that a little bit of that rubs off on me and Renee to help us elevate our game and impact our communities the way he has. as you listen, you're going to. Here about a problem that we need your help with. He's got a whole bunch of money coming in that he needs to give away or rather award, but he needs some scholarship applications in order to award that money. So we need y'all's help, man. We need y'all to get the word out there. If, you know, people that are in a trade school right now, it doesn't matter how old they are. If they're in a trade school and looking for, some scholarship money to help with their tuition, all they gotta do is apply. So get the word out there. Hopefully we get so many people coming in that I'm going to be asking you all to volunteer, to review, scholarship applications. And Steve is just like a real human being. he's overcome some significant adversity and he shares with us about that. He imparts some good wisdom and motivation full my baby brother, brother. and I'm just, I'm just going to stop talking because all I'm going to do is brag about him. And I'm just in the way of you getting to know my buddy, Steve. And before we go there, got to remind you, shout out to all the patrons out there that have been contributing to keep us commercial free and keep the goodness coming. So here we go to Mr. Steve. What's going on L and M family. We have a superstar superhero today. Mr. Steve Turner. How you doing Steve? I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. Oh man. W we are excited. I was bragging to Renee about, about me even knowing you, uh, and, and your recent 240.3 mile ultra marathon. And he was kind of like, oh my God. I just signed up for our 257 in may. So it's going higher in Arizona. Oh my goodness. So where was the other, the last one at Moab, Utah, Utah, Moab, Utah. Okay. So in Utah, that was the desert. And I think I remember you telling me that it was a part where it snowed. Yeah. So the last 18 miles we ran through a snowstorm first day and a half, we ran through torrential downpours. There was a lot of, lot of injuries. I mean, I helped to, I help one guy with a blown up knee cap, get to the top of a, like an 8,000 foot mountain, get him up to the top. Um, just so we could get him out of the area cause he could walk anymore. But there was an audit injuries this year, a lot because the, what happens in the desert, which I didn't really realize is it's so compact when it rains, the water has nowhere to go. So it creates like rivers and the sand turns into mud. Oh, it was a tough one. Uh, 240 miles, 240.3 miles alone is a lot, 140.1 this year, for some reason. I don't know. So it was 2.2 took a shortcut. Yeah, it was an easy one. Oh my goodness. But this one I, like I told you before I did this one alone, um, compared to the last one. So I found out that, you know, um, how do I explain this last year? I did it with a crew and a patient, um, which people don't realize when you're coming, you have a crew that comes and helps you throughout the race. When you, every time you come out, they give you socks. Um, you know, shorts, they basically they're like any 500. You come in, they take your tires off. They give you fuel. They do everything for you. I mean, seriously, it's not good. And I had a pacer last year that after mile 72, you can have somebody come with. Keep you mentally in track in that then at night, they'll keep you awake. But this year I did it a hundred percent myself where they pack. So I realized that mental strength is I have a lot more mental strength than I thought I had because there was at least 10 times throughout that race that I physically wanted to give up. Just, just, you know, my mind was telling me, Steve, you've done this before. You have nothing to prove, go home. And this guy, this is the guy that told me on the side and this guy says, you know what? You didn't come here to give up, keep going. So it taught me a lot about what it actually taught me a lot about the physical body is pushed by the brain extremely. I mean, when they say it's all mental, these races are all mental. Um, and so what did you tell yourself to, to not quit? Well, I would basically just say, uh, get back up, get back up, stop, stop talking like that. The miles 70, was it 72? I came out from my first real break to take some sleep. I laid down for like, like 15 minutes and I was telling myself, physically, you know, I'm done, I'm pulling the plug. I'm going to call my wife and I'm going to fly home. And I'm physically saying no, you're, I mean, you're physically, you're talking to yourself saying, no, you're not doing that. Yes, you are doing that. No. And then you just get back up and you feel better. And then, you know, you get to, uh, another point where it's like everybody life, you have lows and you have highs. And in those four and a half days, you have a lot of lows and you have a lot of highs. And then you get to a certain point where, you know, you're a tourist as a runner. I'm sure. You know, you get to a certain point in a race where you're saying, okay, I'm almost there. Whether or not it's 120 miles, whatever it is. And you just mentally start pushing. And after about 200 miles, you know, you, you know, you're there or 180 miles, whichever it was, and you just, you get that drive in your body. You say, okay, let's go. It was a severe, especially at nighttime because it's dark from say 4 32. And in Utah, the sun doesn't come up because of the mountains until about eight o'clock in the morning. So it's 13, 14 hours of pitch dark. And I was by myself for most of that at night, looking around for miles and not seeing spotlights and just being out there by yourself and looking at your watch going, I got eight hours before I get to my next aid station. I mean, it's wow. It's hard. No, the way I look at it, and I've told I talk about this all the time. Everybody has their own struggles in life, and that was just my struggle that I had to get through to get to the next, you know, everybody looks at me saying, you know, you're, you're unbelievable, but everybody in their life has a situation that they have to get through. And I've talked about this before. And most of the writers that I even this year ran into about formal runs. Um, that we're all fighting addiction, whether or not, you know, they were fighting it or they're over it. We're all out there searching for something better, meaning our lives. We want to prove to ourselves that we're better than the person that we left. We're leaving the person behind that. We were to be a better. So we get across that finish line. We know that we're a better person. These ultra runners are a lot of them have had issues in their lives. 10, four. You know, it reminds me of, because I've shared this with you and with the L and M family out there, I've been in recovery for over five years and there was a, and this isn't my first time, right? There's been a few other attempts. And, uh, there was a phrase that, that they would say in the groups was this too shall pass, right? When, whenever I'm in a new struggle, a new failure of whatever it is, new. It was this too shall pass. You know, I've been through worse. Um, my family has sacrificed a lot for me and they've been through worse and, and so it's, it's going to be all right. Just got to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Uh, it's it. But you know, we're human, it's tough. And we have the wrestle Renee. You ever had that wrestle of. I want to quit. No, keep going. Oh yeah. All the time. All the time. Which one wins? Um, the quitting one. I'm just kidding. No, I just wouldn't keeps me going. I have, you know, like for example, uh, at my job now, that's, that's, that's really relevant now because I, uh, I'm a field utility coordinator for my water company in San Antonio saws. And. Right now there's a lot of fiber optic contractors doing boring in San Antonio. So that means the few utility and coordinators coordinators need to mark on the ground, the water utilities. So they don't bore right through them. Right. And there is so much Google fiber being installed in San Antonio that our overtime is out the roof. It's like almost unlimited overtime. And like, they need us to be at work to mark these utilities. So they don't blow up all of our water lines. So I'm working like 13, 14 hour shifts every day. And they're asking me what better days and Sundays. It's a lot. It's a lot. And our utility maps are not always the best in certain areas. And, uh, it's frustrating and you're marking and high traffic areas. You're in the middle of the street, on the highway sometimes, and it's frustrating. It's dangerous. And it's scary. And I'm like, man, you know what, sometimes I get that voice like you on the, on that left shoulder. And it's telling me like, you know what, man, it's not worth it. Just go apply, you know, for an easier job, you know, go, you know what? You have leave time, take, uh, two weeks off or, you know, do this or do that. Don't come call in today. But you know, I, I also met on my other shoulder. I was like, Hey, you have a wife, you have two kids. They're looking up to you. Are you going to be that guy that's quitting all the time? Or are you going to show your son and your daughter that it's okay to quit? Every time it gets hard. Um, so that, that always keeps me. And I will say, you know what I, you know, when I'm in that car and I, if, if I had quit and I'll tell you right now that because I would have quit mentally, not physically, because I was physically fine, it was the mentally. So if I had mentally quit, it would have destroyed me mentally. I know forever, because it's one thing to have an injury that you say, you know what? You can't do it. Right. But it's another thing to mentally quit for me. I mean, I'm just one of those, I think I've described to you a year ago. Um, when we, when bring back the trades got shut down, I was out for a run and I couldn't raise money. I couldn't do anything. And I came home to my wife was just, no. So I said, you know what I thought about bringing back the trays. And I think I'm just going to, I'm going to close it. And she looked at me and she goes, ah, you're going to quit something. Boom. That was it. So I'm just not a quitter. And I, and I am so grateful that you're not accrue quitter because the bring back the traits, it, you and I connected because of our passion and our love and appreciation for the trades. So can you tell the LNM family more about bringing back the trades? Absolutely. So bring back the trades. We started in 2017 because I own Turner's upholstery in Ryan, New Hampshire. We're a small two people person, um, upholstery shop. We do anything from high-end upholstery to any kind of car. So if you had a regular Dodge Dakota truck or something like that, and you had a cigarette burn, we fixed this, we fixed the burn, or we do convertible tops, boat seats, um, and a lot of interior stuff for cars. Uh, I've been in busy. So next month, 34, 34 years. I think it is. I don't. Wow. I think it's pretty four years. I started right out of high school when I was 19 years old because I went to work for an upholstery shop when I was 15. Cause I hated school. And that's part of my passion about the trades and what I'm doing is because I had nobody directing me in high school. Uh, my career path I was working at, um, I think Shaw's at the time was taking autobody classes because back when I was in high school, my whole high school was full of trades. They had autobody automotive machinist. It was an, we had a lot of trades in all the schools. So I was taking automotive. I was actually, uh, doing a lot of painting of cars. So that's what I was going to do. I was going to be a painter one day, there was a little card up on the wall. It said sweeping floors at an auto upholstery shop. And I'm like, you know what? I've been working at Shaw's forever. Let me try something else. So I went to work for this company. Started sweeping the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, go into the bank, doing all that stuff for the first two years. And then, um, started doing some upholstery at night, stuff like that, but pretty much not really that much. Um, and then in 1989, um, I think you're old enough. You don't look old, you probably weren't even born in 1989, but, um, what are you talking to the people at our age now? It's like, look, I go to a classroom. Like, you know, these people weren't even born when I'm talking to, but in 1989, we had a severe down, uh, climb in the economy. And, uh, pretty much everybody got laid off from my shop. And my father at the time knew this guy that had a little tiny garage. You could put one car in it. I had a little tiny office. He goes, Hey, do you think you can make it go? And I'm like 19 years old. I'm like, yeah, of course I can make this go easy. All you have to do is get a couple of cars and I'll make tons of. Well, at $3,000 in the bank, I bought a sewing machine, paid my rent. And I w I would say within a couple of weeks, I was broke. But now looking back, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because it taught me how to be a go getter. I went from door to door, did this, I did that. Um, and I built the, built the, you know, the shop, you know, built it, you know, by hand, by as far as, you know, the sh the upholstery part of it taught myself. And then in 1996, uh, I got married to my lovely wife. We bought a house and I built my shop, which is now attached to my house. And in 2006, I got, my employee has been with me, uh, 18 years this year, we built a pretty good, you know, and I have to, you know, it's not just me, this built this, my guy does fabulous work. Um, he actually drives an hour and a half every day to get here. Wow. Um, yes. So he's dedicated. So we worked very well together. To get off the track, bring back the trades was, was started because of the lack of me trying to grow my business. I have for 10 years been trying to grow my business and get more employees. And not only that, the biggest thing, what I've been trying to do is, um, there's always retirement down the road. Hopefully, you know, my guy is, you know, he's five years younger than me and he has, you know, I've asked him if he wants to buy. And he's like, Steve, when you retire, I'm done. So as a small business owner, usually our businesses, part of our retirement plan, we, you know, I own the property. I'd like to not only sell the property, like to sell the business because there's a little bit of money there. So if I don't find anybody to take overturn as upholstery, it's worth zero. So not only is it the word zero, the name doesn't keep moving and people can't get their posts. Yeah. When I started in business in 1989, the phone book, both pages were upholstery shops. Now we have one and a half meaning when I say one and a half, we have me and another shop. That's only work. They're only open 20 hours a week. So I'm the only one that wow. Now where I'm the only upholstery shop around. So there's many, many factors to that. So that's why I started bringing back the trades because you know, the lack of the carpenters, people getting into it, the plumbers, stuff like that. Yep. Um, so started in 2017 on my own with a simple hat that said, bring back the traits, uh, right here, got the merge. He's got the merge. So that's right there. It says, bring back the trades on it, but that's all it said was bring back the trades. I add a hammer and a saw guy comes by. You know, he sees it, he wants one. I start selling them to people online and Facebook starts blowing up. Um, and one of my friends comes by and says, you know, what are you doing with the hats you're selling them? I'm like, yeah, what are you doing the money? I said, well, at this point, don't really know. He goes, well, my mother just died. Let me some money. I started a scholarship plan, a scholarship program over at the local high school, which is my high school. Why don't you sell them and start your own scholarship program? That's where it started. So in 2019, uh, we became officially nonprofit. We've got, uh, 10 board members. Now we go around to different schools. We try and educate all the students of how good the trades can be. Not only just as a career. How much money you can make and love your job. This key thing is I always like to say, you'll love your job. Um, I run into a lot of people that don't work in the trades that work behind the desk and fortune 500 people that have left those jobs and have gone to the trades because they're, they want to be happy. Um, they want to work with their hands. They don't want to be sitting at a desk. Uh, one of my good friends, he was, he was on wall street. He was making tons of money. His father had a small injury repair shop, left wall street is taking that small little business to a huge business. Now. I mean, they bought out a New Hampshire. I think it was a big, huge lawnmower company, but he says, you know what? I just couldn't sit behind the desk anymore. I wanted to, I didn't love my job anymore. So a lot of the people are getting back into the trades because they love their jobs. So that's what I'm trying to explain to the kids that, you know, and not just the. The parents, it starts with the parents. We've got to really let the parents know that the trades are not of the trades that we know the trades. My father worked at a rubber manufacturing company. He would come home smelling like rubber every day. You go into a manufacturing company today. It's not the same, it's clean. I mean, they have great pay vacation time. The trades today are not, the trades are day. And so I try and get the parents to realize, um, you know, when they think of trades, they think of, you know, the plumber, the garbage guy. I mean, it's, that's what they first think of. And it's not pretty anymore. I mean, you have to be, not that you were never a highly educated, but today you have the, you know, I talk about post-secondary school because being in carpentry, being in welding, there's a lot of schooling involved have to be. Not just smart because there's a lot of safety buildings now, huge safe. So there's so many, I don't want to get lost on this, but there's so many different factors that I'm trying to get to the parents and the educators and the counselors at these schools. Um, the counselors a lot too, because they've been pushing college for so long, um, that they need to change the way they do things. Um, and in a positive note, it is changing. I mean, we're all seeing it, seeing it. It's definitely changing. I'm I'm talking to people every day. I definitely see it. Um, I'm also working on trying to get the females back into the trades. That's I hate to say it and that's, it's awful, but it's a huge, another passion of mine is getting the, the females back into the trades because there's a lot of females that can really. Like their jobs. And last year we had more females apply for our scholarships than males. Wow. Awesome. Um, we just gave out a scholarship last month, um, or actually not last month, but, um, in September to a girl, Wisconsin, that is going to be a pipe welder. She's thinking of well, yeah. Um, she loves her job and one of the reasons why I love doing what I'm doing is when I call these students, like I called her, um, she was actually crying because she couldn't make her next payment on her or her, her classes. The thousand dollars I gave her is not only going to pay for it. It's going to make her actually graduate and go into her field. So that's why I do it because people don't realize trade schools don't cost that much. Compared to college and, oh, I forget this. We're not against college at all. I keep forgetting this. A lot of people think that I'm against college and we're not because my son graduated from college two years ago. Um, and is doing very well for himself. So we're not against college. We are for the individuals that don't have a career path and don't know what's out there. So that's what my main focus. So I just want to make sure that everybody knows we're not bash college. We're not, we're just here for we're here for everybody. Steve, I love that. You said that. Um, because it's to a couple points one, I believe from, from my own personal experience coming up in the trades had I not started that summer job working as a plumber's helper back in 1996, Renee was just born like a year old, maybe. Why am I so 4 98. So you don't, what are you? 25, 26. I'm 27. I was born in 1984. Yeah. Had I not gone into the construction industry? I would not have found the appropriate environment for me to grow. The classroom environment was not a place that nurtured my skills and my way of learning. Um, and so ditto to what you said, I'm not against college. I'm against people getting pushed into an environment. That's not going to serve them for some people are going to thrive and grow in a classroom environment and an academic. And hell yeah, go do that. But some of us are going to grow with our hands, putting our hands on the work hat sweating and having the physicality and the competition and all of the things, the awesome things that are in the trades. Yep. And you know, I know you're doing this and we're doing this as well as, because how do we introduce that perspective to the education professionals? Because they're not doing it to be ugly. They just don't know. They have no idea. And like you mentioned the trades, they're not what they used to be. They're way, way, way safer. I mean, just in my time in the field, there's some stuff that I did that I didn't even think about how unsafe to go. And now I look at like my goodness, I got, I did that. Um, let's say. There's benefits. There's professional development, there's education. I mean, there's so many companies out there that do right by their people. It's not just a bunch of sweaty hardhats with no thinking. There's actually, like you said, there's a lot of skill and a lot of continuing education that is required to be, to remain marketable as a trades person. It's not like you pick up a hammer and boom, I'm a master carpenter negative. There's, there's so much that we got to learn out there and problem solving. I mean, point is I'm with you on that. It's it's not either or it's. Yes. And you know, I've gone back to Cod, gone to night school, taking a bunch of classes. You know, I finally learned how to sit in my chair for more than an hour. Well kind of right. Like it's, it's it's. You also mentioned, um, the, the women and kind of the joy you were getting out of your work. We just interviewed Lisa by buy-on who she got a degree in. Um, oh, darn accounting. And she was working as an accountant. She's a mother of three. Now she's a mother of four. And what she said was, you know, Jess, I would sit at my desk doing my work and I would find myself staring at the window say, man, I wish I could be out there. Yeah. And then due to a series of things that happened in her life, she accidentally discovered a need for her to go and start doing plumbing and started a business off of it. And now, yeah, I swear, like it's a beautiful store. Her husband's a plumber she posted, or they did, you know, they helped somebody in the neighborhood and then they posted, Hey, reach out to these people because they're all. And then they got flooded with calls and her husband, you know, he has a day job. Who's he's a good friend of mine was like, Hey, look, if you're you need to come with me because she was overselling saying, oh yeah, we could do that. Yeah. We could do that. And he's like, no, you need to come with me to see what we're doing so that you don't oversell us. And, and, and then she started learning it. She got her apprentices cards. She just took her, not just, but she got her journeymen license and, and now they're operating a plumbing business and she loves it. And she she's commented that, which the joy that she gets from helping somebody, you know, you go to somebody's house and they don't have hot water. That's not a fun thing. And she does her job, but the, the, the gratitude that comes from the client, she's like, man, that's like the best thing in the world. And it's one of the things that people really aren't aware about. I show you, I'm sure you get the same sensation when you turn over, like, here's your vehicle, here's your boat. And they're like, they think you're a magician and you feel great. Yeah. So it's, it's a beautiful place to be. Uh, so what were your, I mean, you talked about there, wasn't a lot of guidance in, in school and I'm pretty sure back then, there weren't a lot of scholarships for no trade school. Um, and I imagine, I don't even think there was trade schools back then. I seriously don't think there was. I think back then it was all on the job training. Just go get your job. I think Massachusetts I'm in New Hampshire, Massachusetts still. Way above New Hampshire, as far as trade schools and the way they do things. But I don't, I think it was pretty much, you know, of course we had less rules back then, too. Sure. Uh, there wasn't a lot of licenses. I mean, I don't, I don't know about 1989, but there probably wasn't plumbing licenses. Like there was today, we still in New Hampshire don't have construction licenses. Oh, wow. Yeah, no, you're right. I know. And like in 1995, there's a med gas endorsement that qualifies you to install piping for medical gas systems that did not exist before 95. And we're talking about the systems that provide oxygen and life saving equipment or systems. Um, so now that now there's trade schools, now there's bring back the trades, the coolest baddest. Awesome. Is nonprofit in the galaxy. I imagine that you're just struggling to hand out these scholarships, how truly. It's a hundred percent true. We're having a hard time reaching, um, and I've figured out and I've, I've actually figured out why. Um, I worked very closely with, uh, the school of it's called SST SQL school technology there, um, down the street from me, they, they have a trade school that they have four different schools that feed feed them. So it's a four, a half a day class for different schools go from bus and they go there. So one night I was asked to go to their open house because I work really close with the principal. She really loves what I'm doing. And she goes, I want you to sit in the front and I want every single parent to come meet you. So I did that and I met every parent, gave them my, my card, gave him my brochures, talked to them about my scholarship program. Um, within a week I had 10 scholarship essays. So then I figured out, now I know why I'm not getting them. It's because of. If you say I have brochures that I send out to different schools and I give them to kids and stuff like that. But if you don't reach the kids, if you don't reach the parents uh that's and I'm not saying that's true all the time, but I think I figured it out because like I said, when I gave it to that parent, I was getting scholarship essays because the parents are, the ones pays the bills, you know? Um, so I think what's happening. If I can reach the schools and figure out how I can get mailing addresses or email addresses to these parents and directly, you know, give them my scholarship program. I think it will work just telling a kid, Hey, here's here's if you want a scholarship call these guys, it's going to be, I think it's just going to be forgotten. So I think that's my way of fixing the problem, because like you said, I am not, yes, we are getting work where we're able to give out our money every second. But my inbox, because our scholarships are available in every state in the United States. Oh my God. All you have to do is be graduating obviously in 2022, this year, you have to be enrolled in a, in a trade school because we pay the school directly. Or you could be in a trade school now. So if you think about how many states there are, how many schools there are, everybody knew about it. I wouldn't be able to read all of them. I'd be volunteering. The people that would be there would be applying to these. So that's the reason why I'm not getting it out because I'm not reaching the parents. Um, you know, at first I was, I have mailers that I was sending out posts, sending 'em up to all the schools, but we've talked about if the person or the counselor that's getting it, is it energized about giving help the kid? Sure. Where does it go? Does it go in the trash can, where does it go up on the bulletins? So working with these schools, like, um, I'm working with four or five schools now that are energized. They've got, I shouldn't say new leadership, but they do. They all have new leadership that want these schools to succeed and they're energized. And if it works, we all know when it works from the top down. When you got people at the top of the company that are energized, it goes all the way down. If you have somebody at the top that has no energy, it just radiates through the whole country. But I agreed. Leadership is such a huge factor in so many things. I mean, even if you're in the middle or down closer to the work, you could still motivate and change things, but it takes a lot more energy. If that person with the most influence and the most responsibilities on board, man, you're talking about smooth sailing. So we, so two things. One, if people want to. Contribute to bring back the trades and go to the website. Is it being, bring back the trades.com? Um, we met the trades.com. Yeah, you can become a sponsor of ours. Um, and you know, you stay in what I'm trying to let people know now. And it's hard because if you're across the country to get involved with us, it's hard, but we, we do events. So what we do is we go out in the summertime, we're trying to do a winter events inside now, but we have a huge tent we're in the process right now of trying to purchase a big, huge sprinter van that we can go to schools, have it all lettered up. Um, but what I'm getting back to the sponsorship is, um, we go to different events and what you can, when you donate money, you can also come to our events and talk about what you do at our events. And so all the kids have parents come there. It's almost like. Yeah, so you can actually be involved, not just give us money. I want, if you give us money, I want you to be involved with us. I don't want, you know, I'm not saying you have to be, but I want more people, more businesses to be involved with. Bring back the trays, not just be a sponsor to be actually, if you're looking for people to work with us, come to an event, send one of your reps. TRO Timberlane pro is a huge sponsor of ours and starting next year, they're sending their, um, people, um, their, uh, what's the word I'm looking for there? Um, what's the word I'm looking for when you work for a company? Um, they're representative marketers. So they're going to send their representative to our events and they're going to do Timberland pro giveaways with us. And not only that, they're going to start, uh, putting all of our, our scholarships with. In their brochures in their apparel. Oh man, the marketing there is going to be in crutch. So just have, you're not just giving us money. You're getting involved with bringing back to trades. You're you're part of bringing, I want everybody to be part of bringing back the trays. I want this to be a huge team effort. Absolutely. And you know, there is no, um, uh, competitive, uh, compete, competing against each other. If I have two plumbers, Hey, so what let's be all friends, let's all work together because there is enough people out there to supply everybody with workers. Um, so that's what we're trying to do. And yes, if you wanna apply for a scholarship, you got to bring back the trades.com. You fill out an essay of why you're deserving of our scholarship. And also on there, if the word essay scares you, you can pick up your phone. Like this, and you can do a video of yourself talking to it and you can email it to me@steveatbringbackthetrades.com that way. So if you're not a good writer, we totally get, you don't have to, Vanessa, you can do a video and you can send it to me that we're trying to make it so that no matter what your skills are, you can apply for our scholarship man. Like that's your that's super innovative, breaking down the barriers that are keeping people from connecting. Um, uh, you're specifically targeting a specific age group. Cause if not, I'm going to send you my Tik TOK link. So you could see all my videos so I could get we're not because you can be in a trade school right now or you're graduating. So we're off. Cause we paid the school. Yup. Yup. So, you know, a lot of kids will apply. I just changed my, my, my wording because a lot of kids will be thinking about trade school and they'll apply. And I'm like, well, we're not paying you. We're paying the school. So you actually have to be enrolled because we need a number. You know, you can be a role and not be going until next year because we'll give you the scholarship next year, but you have to be enrolled because the money's got to go somewhere. So critical point, you gotta be enrolled in a trade school, submit a videos, submit an essay, whatever you want to do. And, and like, beautiful. Oh my goodness. That is a mess. W our target is bringing back the trades not age or anything. We're just trying to bring them back by. I love it. So this is a call-out to the L and M family out there. I know, you know, people. Share this message. Let's make life hard for Steve. Let's make sure he's struggling to read applications and watch videos so we can give that money away and we can bring back the traits and you can also buy the March you got. So we have, uh, t-shirts and sweatshirts. You can go to bring back to the tres.com. We have a shop page on there. You can do that. And then also you can, if you're a private person, you can just donate money. But if your business, we have three tiers of, of donation there to depends on how far you want to get involved. It's super exciting. All right, so now we're going to get, we're going to get a little personal because I want, I want, I mean, you're amazing if people haven't picked up on how amazing you are. Um, I don't know. We got, you know, let's get the AED device and make sure they're alive. Uh, but I want to, you've had a tremendous amount of experience in your, over your years, um, that have brought you to a point in life. You're, it seems like you're focused on leaving a legacy and having a huge impact on your community. Um, and so along that path, I'm wondering this is for the, for the fans only content, what is a significant learning that you've had as a result of a painful misstep Uh, it's me again, the party crasher. I do this so that I can remind you that you can sign up for three different levels, uh, on patrion.com/learnings and missteps, all three levels are going to get you backstage pass access. So you're going to get to learn the dark secrets of our guests and more importantly, you're going to help us stay commercial free. So appreciate y'all's patience. And here we go. All we have to do is ask and things get, get so much clearer, man. That's beautiful intelligence. The Kim, I used to be an offer. It all comes back to communication. She goes, you used to avoid the communication. You didn't want to talk. She goes, now you're the best care. And it's all about communicating. Yes. Yes. And you know, there's vulnerability in communication, right? You, when you're telling your truth, it sounds great. Right. And liberate it, speak truth, but there's, there's vulnerability because people. I can make fun of you. People condition, miss you, people can reject you. People can look at you like what's going on in that head of yours. So there's immense vulnerability, but my goodness, the value of just telling the truth and communicating Steve. I remember when we had the conversation on the skilled trades Alliance podcast, I was shocked when you, your wife was telling us that you used to not be good at speaking engagements. And I'm like, no way. That's the, I mean, I have a set of stairs and I'm looking at that my first, well, actually my second, but my first one was at a rotary club to get an award. And I will, I am telling you the truth that I was sitting there. The person that nominated me for the ward was up talking to me. Not only was I sweating to death, I wanted to get up. I was, my body was like, you're already going, you're running out of this building. You can't do this. And that's the other person. I was scared to. And I don't, you know, I do speeches all the time now and I basically tell myself the same thing I do with running. You're going to get up there. You're going to do the best that you can and it's going to be over. And now I don't even, I'm not saying if I got up in front of a thousand people, you know, in an auditorium, like, you know, w you know, with cameras on me, I wouldn't be nervous cause I would, but I think I still could get through it compared to, you know, we were all just, I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm going to be who I am and the outcome is going to be outcome. And people are going to always look at you and say, well, he's not a good speaker. And those people are just going to be that way. And the people are, some people are going to really say, he's passionate about what he is and that's all it matters. And this is going to be people that say, well, you know, he's not really that good of a speaker and you, nothing you can do about 10 for Renee. Did you hear what he just. Is that helpful to you? That's very helpful. I'm funny. That's so funny that you say that because like it's, I mean, I, I just had like an aha moment how I'm being like super hit hypocritical because like, there's this guy I work with, uh, he, I like been secretly mentoring him. I don't think he knows that, but there's this guy that's got promoted from, uh, uh, one of the entry level jobs in our company. And, uh, he, he must've skipped about two or three grades to get here. Uh, and he's super, like, he has a really, really good, um, work ethic. And I really believe he believes he, he deserves to be in the job that we have. Um, but he's, he kinda like he's missing. On the field experience, uh, that will be super helpful in our job, but he makes up for it in grit and perseverance and just attitude. Right. And I, and you know, I talked to him a lot, uh, and you know, one of the things I tell them is a lesson that my ex foreman used to tell me. He said, if you're scared to make a decision, you're not going to make it here. You're scared to be wrong. You're not going to make it here. And I tell them that, right. But now I'm thinking about myself when I, and when I'm speaking and stuff, and I'm scared to say something that's going to make me look stupid or make me look silly or goofy or whatever. And I'm like, man, I'm a big, giant hypocrite. It's always easier to advise others than it is to follow your own advice. I mean, I know that I'm never going to be. You know, this, some people that, you know, I admire because they're just such good speakers. I mean, I'll use micro, micro, such a good speaker. You know, my biggest problem, my wife even tells me all the time, slow down Tosh, or don't talk so fast, but I I'm just an energetic guy. And I'm like, I'm never going to be that calm guy that just, you know, and maybe it'll get better over time because it's all about being, you know, knowledge, you know? Cause my speech is just so much better now because I have more knowledge of what I'm doing, but I'm never going to be that charisma, you know, guy that sits there and just people just want to listen to. Um, so I just go up there and I do my best and you know, it's all we can do, um, is to be honest and hopefully try and get the point across well, before you lose them. That's my biggest thing I'm working on right now. I have a couple of people I'm working with. Get your mess mess gets your most important message across quickly, because if you lose them, you want that. You want that point done quickly, get it out, put it in front of them, and then you can ramble and tell stories and all the other stuff. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. No, I have a lot of practice talking. I'm good at it. It may not be good for people, but I'm pretty good at moving my damn mouth. Yup. I think it's good. I mean, I love listening to you. Thank you, man. I appreciate that, Steve. So we're sliding into home. Yup. And you've already had a tremendous impact on how the country and the trades. Uh, so I'm curious to know what footprint do you intend to leave, uh, on the world. If I can leave a footprint that brings back. The honor and respect of the skilled trades individuals. That's what I'm doing. I'm working so hard to get teachers involved and bring back the traits I'm having. I personally have a sister-in-law that's a counselor and my wife is a teacher. My wife is heavily involved in bringing back the trades, Ms. Sherry Turner, which is the love of my life and saved my life. I mean, just incredible. Um, without her, I might not be in front of this computer right now, who knows, you know, I'm very supportive, but I'm working. I mean, I've, I did a post this morning, free apparel for any counselor or school at any state. Yeah, but you know, it's awful. And this is where the, we talk about looking in the mirror and getting depressed and stuff like that. And my wife says, don't take it personally. We've talked about this. Not everybody follows what you do because you don't follow what they do. We talked about this before, right? And I work on this everyday because I have been trying to, I do multiple posts, giving free apparel to any counselor or teacher or principal to support the trades. And I've gotten zero, zero support. Actually, I take that back. The trade schools have helped me, but the trade schools and teachers have not helped me. And I, like I said, I've got five friends that are teachers that see posts that won't be apparent. So I'm going to just, my wife's like, just give it up. I'm like, Nope, I'm going to keep pushing. Because once you get that one teacher that wears it, then the other teacher where, and then the other people were. So get back to what I want. The kids, not just the kids. I want every single person in the trades to be honored for their skill and the stigma to go away. That's what I want. I want the tray, the person that comes to clean your toilet to be honored, just as much as the heart surgeon that fixes your heart to save your life. It should be, we should all be looked at the same way. No matter what we do, we've lost that. We, I mean, we have definitely lost it. I mean, you can look back in the years, you know, a hundred years ago when the skilled trades were looked at differently than they are today, that's the legacy I want is the skilled labor to be honored. Love it, Steve. And I I'd like permission Renee, and I would love permission to join you in that. Effort, uh, it's, it's a noble effort. And so shout out to all the L and M educators out there, get you some free apparel. I'm going to jump online and find that post Steve and push it out to my network and challenge folks to, to sign up for it. I mean, you're giving it away. You're doing so much for the industry and for the community. And I mean, I honestly, I feel like it's just a matter of time and it's a short time, but before, before you get flooded with the requests and the asks and the applications, and, and I hope that we'll be able to contribute to, to your mission there. So, Renee, you got any last questions, last thoughts? Um, yeah, actually do this time. This, I really appreciate that. Like I, I try to do. I try to have conversations or call out. Like for example, I had a conversation with somebody the other day, uh, and they were talking about via bus drivers and I've never worked with the, uh, or anything had anything to do via, other than taking the via bus myself. But I do know their CDL license holders as am I, and as are all the, um, entry-level employees at saws, they also are CDL holders. And this, the conversation I was having was this person said that these via bus drivers drive, like they don't care, they blow through yield signs or they blow through this and they, they drive recklessly and things like that. And I felt. Personally attacked almost. I'm like, whoa. I was like, who done? I was like, do you, have you ever thought about what challenges they're going through? Maybe they have a schedule to me. Maybe they're behind. Maybe they had a surplus of wheelchair people getting on their bus. And that takes extra time. Um, who knows, maybe there's construction on their route. I don't know. There's a whole lot of obstacles this via bus driver has to get through and they're just trying to meet their, maybe their quota or their agenda bus route. I don't know. I don't know what challenges they go through, but I felt personally attacked cause I've been, I've been there where I remember one time, uh, I was working on a main break, a water main break downtown and are super busy, uh, you know, area where there's a lot of bars and pugs. You know, social gathering places and we had the water off. Right. So all these bars and clubs don't have water and, you know, we're working on the main break and like, we're, you know, it's the time where the excavator is excavating the stuff out of the hole, so that it's safer and easier for us guys to get in there and make the repair. Right. Well, so we're naturally, we're kind of standing around, maybe shoveling some dirt over here, cleaning up the sidewalk. And like some guy passes by and he's like, oh, that's what our taxpayer money is going to, so you can send around and he just like drives off. And, you know, I feel, I felt personally attacked because it's like, there's there's no, I feel like there's. Great decline in respect and compassion for what these trades workers do. We're trying to get the water back on. You know what I mean? We're not, we don't want to stand there. You know, they don't this via bus driver. Does it want to drive aggressively? I doubt it. I doubt he does not want to be in an accident, you know, and, and I, you know, I had this conversation defending them and I just feel like it would be so much, I would be personally grateful. To see and be around, be exposed to a new, like a change of mind that people have for people that are doing, providing an essential service to everywhere that we don't think about. You know, nobody, I don't really hear people thinking the plumbers or electricians, like to keeping your power and water going. You know, we don't, we don't hear about that. It's kind of, oh, let me hear about that. When it's freezing weather and your pipes are frozen or you have no electricity, unfortunately human thing. Right. And, uh, I really appreciate what you're doing. Uh, and yes, I I'd love to be on board and help out any way that I can to get that change of mind going, but on a personal note, you know, if there's anybody out there, cause I always like to talk about, you know, the struggles of head in life, you know, you know, Everybody looks at me going, he's got, you know, he's overcome this, he's an ultra runner. He's got this, but what I'm still struggling on. So everybody knows what I'm still struggling on so that they always can feel a little bit better about themselves is I've had this discussion a million times. My chiropractor is actually my psychiatrist at the same time, because you know, I come across these finish lines after putting myself through torture. And I think I've discussed this with you before. And this is my second time. And I was behind my time six hours this year. And I actually beat my time and I mentally pushed through it. But when it come across the finish line, there is no self worth. When I come across that finish line, I tell my wife, it's the worst. It's not the worst feeling in the world, but it's like, am I by capexes someday? It will happen. You just got to keep pushing. You know, maybe you just have one of those, you know, non feeling of accomplishment or you're just a driven person, but if anybody's out there listening, it has that same issue. You know, it's, I guess it's a normal thing, but I just, that's why I keep pushing myself further and further. Um, but it would be nice to have that come across the finish line and drop on the ground and just ball my freaking eyes out, going, holy shit. You know, but it, it doesn't happen. And it's my wife's like, I don't get you. And I'm like, well, it is, it is what it is. But I also tell people it's, you know, when you're doing these things, um, it's, you're by yourself, you have nobody to really, nobody was on that journey, but me, so it's not a team effort. Like we're all here talking. We can, you know, we're all talking, but when I'm out there, it's a hundred percent by myself. So, and the only person I can talk about it with is myself. So I'm gonna come across that finish line. Everybody knows I did. Nobody was really with versus being on a hockey team where everybody's just champagne and, you know, so that's what I'm working on now is to, is to feel accomplished, I guess. Yes, yes. Which is a bad feeling because I've got a lot to be accomplished about, but that's that's, if anybody's out there and realizes that's what I'm working on his feet to feel accomplished. Um, man, loud and clear. I mean, you're just talking to meat right now. Steve, I just had a conversation about that with a couple of friends over the past few days. And the, the resounding question is what are you, what is it that you need to prove to yourself? Exactly. And, and, and I don't have the answer, but you touched on something. Steve, when I do things independently, it's like, okay, done. What's next. Well, when I do things with people. Together connected in a community. I can 100% celebrate the hell out of that. And so if it offers you any solace, I feel like you, myself, Adam Al with sta and all the other trade advocates out there in the country that may be, feel alone. Like we are doing it together. And Steve, I want to celebrate you because you have you add, you put, you put the whiskey in my tank, my wife fuel me, man. Like seeing you out there, like, okay, he's doing it. Like we're doing this together. I'm not alone anymore. So I applaud you for that, Steve. Thank you very much. And I thank you for all you do for the trades and everything for bringing back the trays. 10, four, you got it. My man, I appreciate everything. Thank you. Beautiful. Well, I think we'll wrap on that, gentlemen. What do you think? Awesome. That was good. Perfect. Oh, do you have fun, Steve? I had a great time. I always do. This is the part of bringing back the trees that I enjoy it. Yeah. This is the fun part. There's a lot of hours behind the computer and stuff like this that it's not, I wouldn't say not so enjoyable, but you know, it's the ministrative part. That's, you know, I'm trying to find out, I'm trying to get some help on that because I mean, I literally WellMed with that part of it, but without that part of it, I can't do the other part. Yes. It takes all pieces. It does, but it's, I always say they used to say it's a marathon, not a sprint. Now I say it's an ultra marathon, not a sprint. Action. What's up. LNM fam we really appreciate you listening to our interview with steveTurner@bringbackthetraits.com. I think it's about that time for our shout out. What do you think. Ten four baby. So this shout out comes from an educator who has been committed for her entire career to the youth, uh, in, in our community here in San Antonio. So shout out to Ms. Francis. actually, I think it's Dr. Francis . She shares. Thank you for sharing your podcast. It was real and relatable, great perspective from an educator standpoint. And I will add that our society drives a clear message of the haves and have not. Racism is alive. Even after 50 years of federal law, class-A keeps rasa down and parents single adoptive grandparent and siblings are the first teachers of. It is not the responsibility of schools to teach morals and beliefs. Yet educators are called mom or pops by the slip of the Babe's tongue because we teach it all beyond academics that now includes advanced technology. Teaching is a passion for some and a paycheck for others. We need individuals like you and your speakers to mentor our male and female students going into the trades because learning happens every day in an outside of classroom. So consider a mentorship program for middle school students going into high school that match a criteria for keeping them from getting lost in real-world consequences, such as juvenile penitentiary system or worse death piece to you. My friend. What do you think about that feedback, Renee? She might drop, uh, you know, a couple of points that, that she made through. This is the role that many educators play. In becoming a pseudo parent for the S for the kids. Uh, they become the example that, that the stability, the discipline that the child needs to thrive. And by default, they end up feeling a parent's role. And for various reasons, you know, there's, everybody's suffering different flavors of paying. Um, and she also pointed out that there are some educators that are doing that, and there are. But there's also that are just there for a paycheck and that's less than awesome. And in what stands out to me the most, and I think this is a shout out to all our former guests, um, future guests and the L and M family of what are we doing to help. Right. She says, put together a mentorship program for these students so that they can stay on the path. Uh, what do you think about that mentorship program? I think this challenge personally, you know, to mentor my own kids, you know, I have, I'm a young father myself, and, you know, I gotta, I gotta really, really lock in and, and really focus on mentoring my own children as well. Starting at home. Um, they're going to be becoming young adults pretty soon. And I'm, um, as excepted. Boom done. So there you go, Francis, thank you for calling us out and thank you for your meaningful and deep words. I hope it resonates and rings some people's bells out there to, to, to figure it out. Get up, stand up. Do what you can do, uh, and to the rest of the L and M family, keep that feedback coming. You are the, you are the whiskey in our tank. You can help us continue going, just like Mr. Steve Turner there. Uh, so we'll talk again soon parents.