Giggs Podcast

#63 Alex McNamara | How the Trades Saved Her Life

• Giggs • Episode 63

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Alex McNamara is a technical director, welder, rigger, and Yale School of Drama graduate who installed the turntable for the original Hamilton production, led 600 workers on a $300 million Soundstorm build in Saudi Arabia, and built her career one job site at a time as one of the only women in the room. She's also the founder of Built Pretty — which she started a year ago on a forklift at an LA art fair and has since grown to 350k+ followers.

This episode covers the tools she keeps on her belt at every festival (including the Klein 11-in-1 and a tape measure trick most people don't know), the recovery story that led her to the trades, what it actually looks like to be a woman in carpentry and rigging, and why she left Juilliard and a one-bedroom on the Upper West Side to go back to freelance.

What you'll learn:

  • The tools worth having on your belt at any live event or job site
  • How recovery led Alex to the trades — and why working with her hands changed everything
  • What Hamilton taught her about building simple, effective sets
  • How she led 600 workers in Saudi Arabia on the $300M Soundstorm build — and learned construction Arabic to do it
  • The honest reality of being a woman in carpentry and rigging
  • How a forklift video turned into a 350k-person audience in under a year
  • Why the trades are dying in America — and what Built Pretty is doing about it

Built Pretty on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/built.pretty/ 

Alex's full tool list: https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-81ff6575

Sponsor:
MOC is looking for new volunteers to help share the joys of live music. Volunteer Guides are the friendly faces who host the programs as volunteer musicians perform hopeful songs to put a smile on the faces of hospital patients, families, and caregivers. To learn more about becoming a Musicians On Call volunteer, visit https://www.musiciansoncall.org.

Alex McNamara bio:
Alex McNamara is a technical director, welder, rigger, and construction educator based in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a Yale School of Drama graduate and has worked across Broadway, large-scale music festivals, and live entertainment builds around the world.

She is also the founder of Built Pretty, where she teaches the language of the trades through construction storytelling, tool history, and jobsite education to a growing audience across social media.

Find your next Gigg and join the #1 community for the live events industry: https://www.giggs.live/

Stay up to date:
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Youtube: https://youtube.com/@giggs-live
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/giggs-llc/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@giggs.live

Host: Nikki Sanz

SPEAKER_01

Something that you are known for is educating with tools that touring specific people might use every day. There's no tool tutorials, right? There's no one sitting there in second person saying, this bit is different from this bit, and here's why. And I just want to make it as accessible to anyone because it could save their life too. What made you want to fix things? Got sober at 22, and I remember like holding on to tools helped my hands shake less. This is a girl who literally went from jail to Yale. The trades are dying in America. I want to bring back technical education so we can revitalize the trades and make them so the worker is as cool as the college graduate. Did you feel like you had to show more competence to prove you belonged there? 100%. When a woman hurts herself, she ducks behind the work table and makes sure no one sees her weakness. Because I wasn't being myself, Nikki, my work suffered. And a huge change happened when I started embracing my femininity, and my work improved dramatically.

SPEAKER_00

Through bedside and virtual programs, Musicians on Call has delivered the healing power of music to over 1.2 million people in hospitals across the country. And now, MOC is looking for new volunteers to help share the joys of live music. Volunteer guides are the friendly faces who host the programs as volunteer musicians perform hopeful songs to put a smile on the faces of hospital patients, families, and caregivers. To learn more about becoming a musicians on call volunteer, visit www.musiciansoncall.org. Welcome to the Gigs Podcast. I'm your host, Nikki Sands, founder and CEO of Gigs, the career platform for the live event industry. And today we have the coolest guest on. We got Alex McNamara. You might know her already from social media. She is a technical director, a welder, a rigger, a construction educator based in Nashville. She's a Yale School of Drama graduate and has worked across Broadway, large-scale music festivals, and live entertainment builds across the world. She's also the founder of Built Pretty, where she teaches the language of the trades through construction storytelling, tool history, and job site education to a growing audience across social media. Alex, welcome to the Giggs Podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Nikki, I'm so excited to be here. You look amazing. Look at you!

SPEAKER_00

And we're matching with our flowers and our I can't wait to get into this because you do a whole world that I know absolutely nothing about. So I want to start with something that you are known for is educating with tools that people use every day or that touring specific people might use every day. Yes. And new ways to use them or specific cool uses. Okay. Can we start with that?

SPEAKER_01

So I'm super excited to show you and your audience all these tools because they're something, they're things that help me throughout my whenever I'm on the road, whenever I'm on job sites, and I hope they may help them. And I think maybe they'll be in some tool bags already, but let's pull out the first one. Let's go. Okay. Now, if you don't know about this tool, this is the Klein 11 in one impact ratcheting. It's a ratcheting impact driver, right? And it's cool because yes, it's a multi-tool, right? But also there's 11 different types of bits in here. And like this is a bit and this and this, all different types. And I love it because I can just throw it in my bag and I know that I'm covered, right? The less weight I can have on my tool belt when I'm walking around thousands of steps a day, the better. Um, I use this on my most recent music festival all the time.

SPEAKER_00

And on like what types of things are you using it on?

SPEAKER_01

Like, for example, this 516th socket driver is great because number one, these fit into an impact driver. So they're impact rated, so they're built extra tough. So, for example, we had to drill some holes into a shipping container and we had to like take a sign off. And the sign, of course, we didn't know, had screws that needed this type of bit, and you don't know that until you're there. And you could either take a golf cart all the way back to the compound to get the bit, or you could just have it on your tool belt, right? And so I already had it on my tool belt. And what's really cool about this is that um it's highly revered, people love it, and every single bit of this is impact rated. So I just love this tool. What uh job specifically would this work for? I mean, honestly, I give these as Christmas gifts to every single person I know. I swear to you, Nikki. I mean, I wish I had an extra one so I could give one to you, but the cool thing is that, you know, I keep one of these in every single junk drawer in my house. I have one in my car, I have one in my tool bag. So, like, yes, carpenters, also electricians, also welders, wherever there is a need to screw in or unscrew a fastener or a screw of any type, you're gonna need this bit. It's just really cool. So, what does it call it? It's an 11-in-one ratcheting screwdriver. And if you go onto my social, you'll be able to see it. I'll have a whole thing for the touring technician. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And I love that you have these bomb ass nails too.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01

Is it hard to work with long nails? So I just got off a show and my nails were a little shorter than they are now. And whenever my nails are shorter than this, I feel like a homeless person. Yeah, yeah. You know, like um, and so it, you know, they weren't, they weren't all the way down. I think they were this, they were a little, actually, they were a little longer than yours, and they felt great. I was able to do my whole job in them, but as soon as I got home, I got the I got the longer ones. I got the tips.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. You said you want to feel like a girl. I want to feel like a girl.

SPEAKER_01

I got to feel like a girl, you know, like this is my touchstone. Oh, yeah, girl, absolutely. ASMR. Yeah. There it is. So if you switch it the other way, you can ratchet it tight, or you can ratchet it um, or you can unscrew it. Amazing. All right, so that's a great tool to have for any position, really. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Number two is these are really cool. I kept this on my person pretty much at all times, and it's great for load-ins and loadouts when you have to unscrew different types of things, but you only have one gun, right? So, for example, if something takes a T25 bit, if I've got a certain type of screw that has a certain type of um driver type, right? Then I could use this. But uh-oh, now I have a now signage put up, a sign with Phillips screws. Okay, well, I can pull out this one and I have this one ready to go. And it's like, oh no, I need to pull out now something that needs a socket. So I have this one. So you can just pull them out and then change them onto your gun and then put them back. So it's just a really handy way. So what is this of carrying uh what is this thing called? I think I call it a bit holder. I honestly, I don't even know. I found it, I think, at Home Depot. Just I think that they sell them everywhere. Again, it'll be on my little list that I'll make for y'all. But it's great because, you know, they're pretty robust, they hold tools, they hold bits really, really well, and you can, you know, pull these out pretty easily, which is nice because I've had them in the past where they're not, it's they're kind of flimsy. So yeah. Anything I'm not handy.

SPEAKER_00

Girl loves a gadget, okay? Girl loves a gadget. I am not handy. So, like you would be my favorite person on the road to be like, hey, can you fix this? Yeah. What gate what made you want to fix things? And what because you have to learn those skills, or did it just kind of come to you?

SPEAKER_01

You know, my mom actually taught me how to use tools back when I was a kid. Really? Um, yeah, a lot of people learned from their dad. My dad was a software salesman. You know, he was on the road and he was he's a salesman. And my mother was the one, she had four kids. She's not gonna have, and she was a homemaker, she's not gonna pay somebody to come in and fix the drywall. This one time, I had two younger brothers, okay. And I don't know if you have brothers, but they crazy. Crazy. And this one time, my brother, my mom passed by a hole in the wall that looked like head-shaped, right? So she pulled my brothers aside and she took their heads and she measured them one by one in the wall and figured out because both of them said we didn't do it. So she was like, Okay, give me your head, measured them in the wall, and she said, Okay, it was Timothy pushed Thomas's head right into the wall. That's how it happened, right? So, you know, like that's kind of where I learned all this stuff. And what's really cool about that is I started off as an actor though. I started off as an actor, and you know, I wanted to be a movie star when I was a little girl and all throughout high school, and then I was a theater major down the road at MTSU. Fabulous. Um, and I was a dance minor, and then honestly, like I got into partying way too much, and I couldn't stop drinking and I couldn't stop using drugs, and I remember being 22 years old with nowhere to go, feeling so desperate, feeling like I couldn't keep my head above water, and that I I didn't have anywhere to turn.

SPEAKER_00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

And so after that, I asked my parents to put me into rehab. And of course, they say, Honey, you're 22 years old. Do you have DTs? And I look at my mom and I'm like, I don't even know what DTs are, you know, because they're looking at their daughter, who's an acting major, who's a dance minor. She taps, you know, she was Belle in Beauty and the Beast, her senior year of high school, you know, she was Roxy Hart, and they're looking at her and they're like, There's no way that my daughter could be an alcoholic because they think of alcoholics, they think of drug addicts as people who live under the bridge, you know, people who are actually homeless and not just homeless looking when they don't have nails. Um but and I remember, but they put me into rehab anyway, which I was so grateful for.

SPEAKER_00

But also, props to you for recognizing I need help.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I mean, that takes a very strong personality. Thank you. My sis, my older sister was a huge hand in that as well. You know, she was just saying, honey, let's just like get you somewhere out. Even for a little while. You don't I remember she said she said to me, she said, You don't have to quit drinking forever. Let's just quit drinking for 30 days. And I said, Okay, great.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

And then, you know, when I got out of rehab, I was still acting a little bit. I was a senior in college.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because it took me six years to graduate because I was drinking and drugging the whole time. Damn. But um, and I remember just feeling such a sense of relief and gratification by using my hands because acting is all in the mind. And my mind was sick at the time. Yeah. When I spent time in my brain, I just couldn't. It wasn't great. So when I took it outside of my body, and when I worked with others, right, towards a common goal and physically realized my goal at the end of the day. My goal is to build a wall. Great. I see that wall at the end of the day. I see it. And everyone's working toward that common goal. There's not competition. I mean, there's always competition. I'm a very competitive human, and I think you might be too. Yes.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. But you know, there's less ego, there's less self-centeredness, in my opinion. And I just kind of fell in love with it. And I remember like holding on to tools helped my hands shake less. Whoa.

SPEAKER_00

Was that after rehab? Uh-huh. Wow. Absolutely. First of all, thank you for sharing that whole story. Of course. Something with acting, because I grew up acting and dancing and the things is you're not actually yourself. You're always becoming a different character. And so you kind of took on this new identity of who you are. Yes. Which is interesting because you went back to childhood with your mom of fixing things. You kind of went back to who's little me in a way. That's incredible. Wow. I never put that together, Nick. No, we're doing therapy. Gigs podcast. I love it. Wow. That's so why did it feel it helped your hand stop shaking? It gave you a purpose. What else? Did you feel like a natural at it? Did it feel like did I felt it just gave me realistic, realized goals that I could finish, right?

SPEAKER_01

Be better at installing molding, you know, uh, improve your sanding skills, improve your painting skills, learn how to paint a cornice really well. Um, learn how to like little tricks and tips, right? Like, and that just kind of progressed when acting, you know, learn Meisner all in the brain. Yeah, you know, um, plus I wrecked my voice through all the drinking and drugging. And so that was just not great. I know.

SPEAKER_00

But you're a performer, and so you can perform on camera. Yes, you know how to market it.

SPEAKER_01

I do.

SPEAKER_00

And so you're okay, we're not even there yet. We're like, we're still on tools. I know. Can we go back to tools? Yeah, let's go back to tools. Because that was amazing, that was a great story break. Sorry, Spencer. It was so good. Um, so what I'm holding, remind me, what am I holding?

SPEAKER_01

You are holding a bit holder, I think. Bit holder, fabulous. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, right now I've got a Phillips head in my impact driver. Okay, this is an impact driver. I got a Phillips head. All I gotta do is just take this off. And of course, this is clipped on, you know. We're we're playing fast and loose right now, but this is clipped on, we're good to go. I unclip this one, and now I can unscrew a deck screw. Oh right. And then I can just switch really quickly. Anything that is helping efficiency, anything that is helping with time saving, and anything that's kind of fun. Right? And so I think that your touring community may really love this. They probably already know about it, but I love it. So I just wanted to show that.

SPEAKER_00

No, thank you for doing that. And uh, I have to ask for the girls, what pants are you wearing to be able to like hold up all the heavy stuff. That was my hardest thing was finding good pants. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

So hard. You know what's funny is that I literally wrote my master's thesis on the inequities of women's workwear.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

I know it's it's it was a wild ride.

SPEAKER_00

We don't even we don't get pockets.

SPEAKER_01

We don't get pockets.

SPEAKER_00

I have like fake pockets in my jeans.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I don't have any pockets at all. Right.

SPEAKER_00

I have no pockets, no pockets. That's why I gotta carry around a tool bag, you know? Like, well, I gotta carry it around. Yeah, I mean, seriously, if you think about what is comfortable too, what is appropriate, um, and then what's actually like stable to work in and hold up heavy things, absolutely not menswear. So, yeah, what did you what did you find when you're a car on the road?

SPEAKER_01

I think it just depends on what you're doing. Okay, right. So, for example, I have my favorite pair of pants that I wear on job sites when I install music festivals are Fjall Ravens, F-J-A-L-L Raven. They're I think a Swedish brand, but they make the Keb pants, K-E-B. Okay, they are so expensive, they're $250, but they have a lifetime warranty. Okay. Okay. And they have space for your knees. They have vertex vents. So there's a zipper here and a zipper here, just ready to like give you it's they're vented, it's amazing. They also have different types of material depending on where it is on your body. They hold a lot. They're incredible, and they they make your booty look amazing. Girl. Which is honestly one of the most important parts, right? I mean, sure, sort of, but for me, it's it's high, it's up there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you want to feel good. That's amazing. Okay, so pants, we will be putting that out there. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

For sure. Massive. Yeah, fjall raven are my favorite sight pants, but I'm not welding in those. Okay, right. Um, I'm welding in men's carhart, original dungaroos. That's what I'm welding in.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Good to know that.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Welding, so you're a carpenter, a welder, a rigger. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Tell me all of the things you hold. So I I well, this is the thing about me getting sober, right? Is that I wanted to keep accomplishing these goals. And maybe that wasn't great because part of me, when I got sober, I got sober at 22. And I guess this is a warning for all the young people out there, maybe for anyone out there, but I thought I was so behind my peers because as soon as I got sober, basically, when you drink and when you use drugs, your frontal lobe disengages from the rest of your brain. And so you don't mature like everyone else around you. So I literally watched my younger brothers mature past me, Nikki, as I was drinking and drugging. Okay. Wow. So I got sober, my frontal lobe is starting to reconnect itself to the rest of my brain. I'm maturing and I'm looking around and I think, oh no, there is no one. Like, I am behind everyone. I need to catch up. I need to perform. I need to move forward. I need to catch up to my peers because I've spent so much time drinking and drugging. When in reality, I was only, I was a baby, right? I'm 36 right now, and I look back and I was, I was like 12. Oh my gosh. But and so through all that, I said, you know, part of my identity became what can I do? What can I accomplish? And how far can I go? How much can I work? That was became an integral part of my identity. So if I wasn't working, I remember taking, I was a freelance carpenter, and I remember taking days off and then finding work for those days off. Oh, yeah. Because I couldn't sit still. And that was identity. Identity. Yeah. And so, you know, through all that, I got some pretty cool certifications, right? Yeah, I moved to New York City and I started working on some really cool stuff. I was a freelance carpenter, and I became a welder and I started welding at Hudson Scenic, which builds a lot of the Broadway shows, a lot of the touring festivals, which is a lot of the touring shows, which is really cool. Um and one of those was Hamilton. The original.

SPEAKER_00

The original. The original. Take me through that. That was insane.

SPEAKER_01

So I just got a call. It was at the public theater on Lafayette Street, and it was 11 years ago. And I got a call saying, you know, do you want to work freelance for the public? And the public is a really good place to work freelance as a carpenter because they hire you on for a few months at a time. It's not, well, we'll hire you on this week and maybe next week, right? They hire you on for a few months at a time, which is really nice for the public. And so I got a call. I said yes, obviously. And they said, you know, we're working on this new show. And I said, okay. And everyone's really excited about it. I meet Lynn Manuel Miranda. He's really nice, but the whole time, like I remember meeting him, and he's making this long speech, and it's all of us together. And all I'm thinking about is the longer he talks, the longer I am away from the buffet that is right behind him. You know, like crazy. And I I learned on that show how to use an oscillator because there were all these little notches and all these beams and posts. And you know, um, I was part of the person, I was part of the team that installed the turntable, and I remember, you know, the candles that came in and out during the dream sequence, I think. Like I was a part of that. And everything. What's really cool about that set is that it's simple. It's a simple set. There's a turntable, there's a couple tricks. There is a staircase that moves up and down on a hinge, right? And then there's another staircase that wheels around. That's about it. Yeah. And the cool thing about that set and the brick from that set is that it matches the brick from the public. Wow. So I don't know if they changed the I don't know if and bec they did that so they could number one save money, right? And number two, make it so it, you know, feels good. But the back wall of the public theater um on Lafayette Street is the same brick that is used in every single show of Hamilton. I think I'm pretty sure because they did it to match it, and why would they change it afterwards?

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That is and to be one of the biggest shows of all time. I'm seeing it next week, actually.

SPEAKER_01

You are for the only the second time, but I've seen it, I've seen it twice. And I wasn't able to get a ticket then. Like Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't get a ticket back then. Jeez. Truly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that was yeah. But I mean, for you to be an actor and you know, a theater major. Yes. What did that experience mean to you from being on the stage to be the performer to then be the techie? Like, how did that feel?

SPEAKER_01

Honestly, like it kind of felt like another job. I didn't know if I knew the impact that Hamilton would make. I just thought everyone was super excited about this rap show. Yeah, really. You know, I didn't know what was going on. Um, but if I knew the impact, I think I would have looked around a little more. But I have one photo from that whole thing, right? And it's a photo of the cable that is all in my way that the Sparkies put there, right?

SPEAKER_00

Like that's what it is, right? And but that's the point of why someone like you is a great person to work in this industry because it isn't, it is about the job. It's not about the what it could be or the glam or any of it. It's you're good at what you do, you love the trade, the craft. And that's why you have the personality and the you're the right person for working these things.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so you're working that. How old are you at that time? 25. I'm 25 years old. Okay. Yep. You're living in New York and you had just gotten out of MTSU, out of rehab. You were learning this world up there. Yeah. What happens now?

SPEAKER_01

Three and I was three-ish years sober at that time. Okay. I moved before that. I moved to Albany, New York, and I was a carpenter up there. And then I went to Williamstown Theater Festival, which is this uh well-known summer stock in the Berkshires. Um, they teach you by fire hydrant, basically. I mean, you are working 60, 80 hour weeks and you are busting your booty because they put on what the great the great thing is is that it's you know where Broadway goes to summer. So they put on these Broadway style shows then that then may go to Broadway, right? Um, The Visit was there. Um, the other show by Lynn Manwell Miranda started there. Um, parade started there. There's just all these amazing shows. Meryl Streep summers up there a lot, you know. Her daughter Louisa summers up there a lot. They act in those shows too. I met Matthew Broderick up there while he was doing a show up there, you know, and like so they're pre-Broadway shows. Producers go up there and they say, okay, maybe this could work in Broadway if it works for this thing. So, you know, the budgets are big and we have a lot of people working on them, but that means it's a lot of long hours. So, but that's where I kind of cut my teeth. That's where I started. It's where I got a lot of the contacts that I then moved to New York City for. Um it's kind of where I started. That's where I made lifelong friends. It was amazing, but it was tough. It was hard. From there, I moved to New York City with $200 in my pocket and my guitar. And I didn't have these nails at the time, which is why I could play. And my tool bag and a suitcase. And I lived on a friend's couch for a couple months before I could afford rent for myself. Wow. And I did that. Number one, I my parents, if I failed, my parents would help me out. Now, I didn't have to ask them, but I was able, that security blanket was there. I'm just like naming my privilege at this moment. Of course. But when you are a freelance carpenter in New York City, you can't say, Hey, I'm gonna be there in September. What work do you have for me? No, you have to be able to be at the shop the very next day. Yep. So you can't really look for work beforehand. So I was a freelance carpenter and I started calling, you know, Fashion Week was during that time too. So I started building for fashion. I was, you know, building, I was in shops in New Jersey. I started building for music videos, I started building for Broadway, for off-Broadway, um, anywhere where I could. So I was just me and my little tool bag just going around.

SPEAKER_00

Who who is um the contact hiring you for these gigs? Who what's the position?

SPEAKER_01

So I called the shops themselves. So I called Hudson Scenic and I would say, is there any work available? Got it. And I would get that phone number from my contacts that I met at Williamstown. Got it. Or I would call BLT um in New Jersey and I would say, Hey, I'm a carpenter and I'm looking for work. Yep. Um I would email, email, email. But you call them. It's wild. You call them and they either and then you leave voicemails and then you leave another voicemail the very next day. There it is. You gotta call them.

SPEAKER_00

It's all about who you know, right? Of course. Yeah. But it's also that that relentless, I'm not giving up. I will work hard. But that's who you want to hire, anyways. If you keep calling me, then yeah, you you definitely are showing me you want to work. Absolutely. So you're doing that, okay, and and you're you're I I still can't get over, you know, the risk that you are taking. Really great to know, you know, your parents are there, but you took that risk because you could have failed and it could have hurt your own ego. I think that's a huge part of people. You can always say, Oh, I can't afford that. No, yeah, you you probably can't, but you can sleep on a couch. Absolutely. And then you make enough to then afford rent. But it is a risk because you can not only fail and then have to move somewhere else, or fail and and and then stop believing in yourself. And so, did you always have that belief that you were gonna do it?

SPEAKER_01

I think I knew, especially after the hell of getting sober, and not even the hell of getting sober, but the hell of drinking and drugging. And I've already done the hardest thing I've ever had to do. There it is. I've already almost died. What else could happen, right? I've already experienced the my lowest low. I am living on borrowed time already. I'm living on borrowed time, so there's no reason why I can't shoot for it, right? Yeah, act as if success is inevitable because it is. And guess what? Everything happens in my favor. And it because it does. I've been a firm believer in that. And I've always had this enthusiastic, and yes, things will absolutely work out for me. Like that's always been who I've been, but it just got reinvigorated and even more reinstated when I got sober. I've already been through the hardest thing in my life. There's there's nothing that is harder than that. Even becoming homeless in New York City, that is not harder than getting sober at 22 years old. Wow. So bring it, basically.

SPEAKER_00

Bring it. Oh, I love that spirit. Um, okay. So you're working on Hamilton set, you're um cutting your teeth in all these theaters. Absolutely. And you are you you learning that this is really what you want to continue doing? Do you ever have questions?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So I think after that, I get a call. A friend of mine who I worked at Williamstown with had a show. He was working, he was going to school at the Yale School of Drama. Now it's called the David Geffen Drama School at Yale or something like that, because yeah, he made a sizable contribution and that's what it is now. Uh, they have free tuition, which is amazing. I didn't. I'm still paying student loans, but you know, we digress. Yeah, yeah. Opportunity for growth. Here we are. Um, so he calls me and he says, We're doing this big show at Yale, and we would love for you to be an overhire carpenter for that. For a couple weeks, I said, Okay. So I go there, I meet the people there. They have staff carpenters up there, and they have a whole school building the shows, which is really cool. And I really like it. And Neil Mulligan, who is the technical director up there for the repertory theater, he's faculty. I'm pretty sure he was a Marine, but he might have been in the army. I really hope he doesn't listen to this podcast. I know it's they're very different. Yeah. Anyway, he's a very military guy, he's very intimidating. Yeah, people are scared of him. And he brings me into his office and he says, Do you want to work here? And I said, I don't know. I really like my thing in New York City. Maybe, maybe not, right? And then I come to him later and I said, Yeah, I want to work here. That sounds great. Let's do, let's try stability. Let's try only working 40 hours a week for once. Let's just try it. Okay. So I said, Yes. I move up there. I live in a house full of designers. I think there were like 14 designers living in this huge house. And I was living in the attic for $250 a month.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

It was incredible. Yeah. Shout out to Alexander Woodward for getting me that connect. Um, and I live there for a year. I'm working with these amazing carpenters, and I'm finally learning this fast and loose way of carpentry that I learned in New York City and that I learned at Williamstown Theater Festival is maybe not the way that you should be building things. Maybe you should be building them with more patience, more calmness, more intention. And I learned that from Eric Sparks, who's the foreman there, the head carpenter. And he pretty much unteaches me more than he teaches me as I become a staff carpenter there. You know, he refines my welding, he refines my rigging. They get me my ETCP um rigging certification, which is really cool. I become a certified welder, an AWS certified welder there for MIG, which is really cool. Wow. Um, and I learned the refinement. I learned pretty much what everything I was doing wrong and how to kind of do it right, right? Do you think it's because you had more time? Yes. So in freelance, you're like, just get it done as cheap as possible. Get them out. Okay. And here, you know, you have more time, more specific attention to you. Yeah. I was a freelance carpenter at a shop full of a hundred other dudes. Like, I'm not getting the attention I need there. Right. Or the attention that I got at Yale, right? And so they're looking at me and they're saying, Why are you doing it that way? And I say, because this is the way I've always done it. And they teach me how to do things better, how to move economy of movement, right? How to lay out your sticks of steel so that you can build a frame and weld a frame faster. How to jig out, which means pretty much place a frame so you could make 10 of them with jig blocks. Um, how to jig out a frame so you can make it make sure that it's as accurate as the first one and even quicker, right? How to move with economy and efficiency and also with respect, how to take care of your body. Like I'm learning all these things here. And it was incredible. Um, and then of course, Neil Mulligan, military man, brings me into his office again and he says, Alex, what are you gonna do with your life? And I look at him and I say, I have no idea. And he looks at me and he says, Well, do you want to become a student here? And I look at him and I say, Neil, people come here because they need a golden ticket. I'm already a golden ticket. Yeah, I don't need to come, I don't need to go to school here. He's he says, Okay. And then of course, two weeks later, again, I walk into his office and I say, I'm not a golden ticket, Neil. I want to come to school here.

SPEAKER_02

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

So I end up applying and I get into the program, which is amazing. So now I'm pursuing my master's in technical design and production. And this is a girl that couldn't get up off the floor at 21 years old.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

This is a girl who literally went from jail to Yale Nikki who could not see past her own elbow what was right and what was wrong. This is the girl that got all the demerits in high school, who was the least likely to succeed, but had a great attitude, was very, very talented, right?

SPEAKER_00

ADHD to the max, and now out of all of her friend group, she's the one that's going to the Ivy League. Wow. How did you feel? Did you feel like an imposter? A little bit. A little bit. Did you feel like you earned it though?

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Sometimes I didn't. You know, imposter syndrome is a is a big thing, but I think being a student there, I mean, working there as a staff carpenter for two years before I was in the program. I saw a new students. I I was able to watch their experience and move through that and see how they moved through that, right? See what imposter syndrome did to them. So I was able to look at it from fresh eyes when I was a student, saying, okay, I think I'm gonna do this a little differently. I'm gonna, I'm gonna belong here. Also pouring into yourself and your own career too. That's pretty amazing. Yeah. And I think what also helped is, you know, at the end of the day, the Yale School of Drama for technical design and production is in a basement that smells weird when it rains, right? Yeah, you're going to Yale, but the facilities at this moment, they're not great, which is crazy, Nikki, because you're learning from the man who wrote the book on technical engineering for the stage. Jeez. Do you know what I mean? Like, and it's and the radiators are clanking. You know, it's it's not great. Yeah. And so a lot of people come into Yale and they think they have all of these expectations. It's gonna change my life, it's gonna solve all my problems, but they don't remember that you're facing you when you walk in. Oof. That's what you have. And I knew that I was able to get that perspective coming in, which was nice. Wow. Now, did I waste time and maybe not do my best and um allow my romantic dalliances to, you know, mess my schooling up? Absolutely, everyone does. But I got through it sober.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

And I got through it with friends, and I was able to learn a lot, and I was able to get my freaking degree. Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

What's done is good sometimes, and that's another thing I've learned, right? Well, and you're faced with the same challenges over and over until you overcome it. Oh, and you've already overcome so man so many of those. So you just had to find some new obstacles to Oh, 100% right.

SPEAKER_01

If I don't have anything distracting me, then like I have my own brain that I have gotta this episode is brought to you by Gigs, the professional career platform for the live event industry.

SPEAKER_00

So if you're looking for jobs in the live event space or if you are hiring in this industry, go to gigs.live, become a professional, become an employer, start posting jobs and applying to jobs now. Join our community of tens of thousands of professionals in this industry. We have events around the country, we have employment opportunities, we have entertainment, we have education. So join gigs today, gigs.live. Also, please go give us a five-star review and follow us on our socials at gigs.live. One thing I want to go back on when you were first learning, and then you come to Yale and you're learning there and they're kind of properly teaching you, you were probably one of the only female carpenters in most rooms, right? Yeah. Okay. Definitely. Did you feel like you had to show more competence even when you didn't have it to prove you belonged there? 100%. Can you talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_01

I don't know if you've ever hurt yourself in front of a room full of men, but if you look at the way a man hurts himself, if he stubs his toe, he yells.

unknown

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

When a woman hurts herself, she ducks behind the work table and makes sure no one sees her weakness. And that was my experience every single time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

No one can see that I'm weak. And sometimes no one can see that I'm a girl because then they'll think that I'm weak, and all I want to do is belong, is fit in.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so I masked every single thing I was doing. I bought men's in New York. I bought men's clothing. Number one, because women's work wear is not great, but I bought clothes that were way too big for me. I changed the brand of cigarettes that I smoked. Here's some crazy things I did to fit in. Okay. I changed the brand of cigarettes I smoked. I started smoking Marlboro Reds. Gross. Um, I don't, I'm nicotine-free these days. Thank goodness. Oh, it took a lot. I started cussing like them. Yeah. I started spitting. There was a moment in time where I was spitting on the ground, which is insane. Just all these things that I did to try for them to accept me. And guess what? They knew I was a girl the entire time. They gave it away. Dang!

unknown

Dang it.

SPEAKER_01

And because I wasn't being myself, Nikki, my work suffered.

unknown

Oh.

SPEAKER_01

And maybe they didn't ask me back to these freelance gigs because they just see this girl who's not really sure of herself, trying to act harder and more tough, lifting things she had no business lifting by herself. Oh, yeah. It was so hard. It was tough. And I had to learn all of those lessons the hard way.

SPEAKER_00

But that's, I mean, I was in production, so there were definitely more women there. But I was talking to my friend who's like the same size as me, and I'm 5'4. And we talk about how if we're lifting something that's way too heavy and we really can't do it, and the guys are like, oh, can we help? It's like, no, no, no, I got it. I got it. Don't treat me differently. But also, I do need help. But I want I don't want you to think that I need help because I'm not weaker than you, but like I definitely am. And so it's um, it's such a hard balance because you feel like you need to look way more competent. Because if they have to help you, then why wouldn't they just want to replace you with a guy?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That means taking time out of their work day. It literally gives me chills. I relate so hard with what you're saying. I have chill bumps right now, but that that's my experience. And also, if somebody asked me, do you want help? I would be more able to accept their help than do you need help? I don't need anyone help. I don't need nothing. I don't need anything. But really, I actually do. No, totally, totally. And it was you only yes. And then a huge change happened when I started embracing my and it took years. Years of just trial and error, trial and error. And a huge change happened when I started embracing my femininity. I started wearing clothes that fit. I stopped cussing so much. I started getting my nails done. And I I stopped spitting, thank goodness. What they're moving discussing. Um, I can't believe I it was it was only for a few months, and it was only working with this one company. Or but I just had to, I don't know, you mirror totally. Um, and and my work improved dramatically when I was myself. And I started asking for help. And guess what? Guys want to help you. Yeah. They want to feel they want to help you. They want to feel needed. They let them, yeah, right. Let them know, and another thing too. I have a whole series about this on my Instagram. This is amazing. But another thing too is, you know, um, let guys call you pet names. I used to get so angry when they would say sweetheart, cupcake, da da da da. They're just trying to include you in any way they know how. Probably one time out of 10 they're being creepy, but usually they're not, right? Usually they just don't know what to do when there's one woman in a shop of 100 guys. Right. And so you getting angry that they're calling you sweetheart is actually putting you against them. At the end of the day, Nikki, I need to get hired again.

SPEAKER_02

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

And in order for that to happen, I need to be on the same side of the table as them. Yes. And this is a lesson that I learned the hard way. And so when guys call me sweetheart, I let them. When guys ask me if they want me to, if they want help, I absolutely let them. Yeah. And you know, when guys compliment my outfit, I say thank you with a smile. And I don't automatically assume that they're out to get me these days.

SPEAKER_00

That's a huge change. Because they're not. Yeah. The line that would piss me off was, oh, we should, we shouldn't say this because we're around a lady. And I would be like, Well, I can fucking and I would just cuss like crazy. My mouth was crazy on the road. And then I would be like, no, it's fine. You could say whatever you want around me. But I mean, deep down, it really bothered my soul what I heard them say. And so then it finally, again, embracing the femininity of like, yeah, don't say that around me, nasty. Like, I don't want to hear that. Because I think that's just being comfortable in actually who you are. But maybe it takes feeling competent. So when you don't feel like you don't know what's going on. And so I wonder if you can get there even not knowing things. Like, oh, you're still learning. Okay, well, it's probably just pride. It's probably just ego being like, no, I got it, when you totally don't got it. I don't, yeah. I wow. 100%. What do you do when they're they are like it is a creep? Like, what what do you do as a woman? Intuition, you do know when they're well-intentioned, whatever. And maybe we don't even need to go here, but if they are a creep, have you been able to go to a manager or something? Okay. Yeah, I have a I've got a foolproof method for this, actually.

SPEAKER_01

Number one, when I first get onto a job site, girls, are you listening? Are you listening, girls? When I you told me never to look at that, I'm looking straight at it. Girls. Girls, when you first get onto a job site, the very first thing that you're gonna do is you're gonna find the biggest, baddest guy on the job site. Make sure he's not a creep, and then you're gonna make him be your friend and mentor. And he's gonna become your protector. Yes. And you are going to get him candy. Okay. You're gonna get him coffee. You're going to, oh, you're so strong. Like you're gonna tell him how strong he is, how smart he is, and he's also gonna teach you a whole lot because all men wanna do is talk. That's all they want to do. They just want to brag. And they just want to tell you stories about the better days, and you're gonna sit there and you're gonna listen to them. Because in the hours of them telling you about the better days, guess what? There's a lesson or two for you. True that. And then when the creepy guy comes up, you're never gonna go to H. Don't go to HR. You're never gonna go to H. There's no HR. There's jokes on you. HR's a cat. Yeah. H is a cat. She named our cat HR, and that's that's what it is. That's awesome. You're gonna tell your protector what is happening, and then you're gonna say, and then the protector's gonna handle it. And in that moment with the creepy guy, this is my experience, okay. Again, it may not work, and it's not HR approved because again, we don't have HR. Yeah. But um, in the moment when they grab, I had a guy try to bite my arm one time. Okay, and I looked at him, doe eyes, and I looked at him and I said, Please don't do that again. I swear to you. That was weird, wasn't it? Hey, and then I complimented him. I love, you are so powerful on this site, and you are so strong, and everyone loves you. And I just, I really just need you to look out for me. Will you do that for me? Swear. Wow. Works every time.

SPEAKER_00

You bit me, and I specifically asked you not to bite me. I didn't even, I didn't even know that I had to say that, but like that's crazy. Instead, you went way into feminine. Yeah. Instead of a instead of my knee-jerk would be to like because go masculine.

SPEAKER_01

I've done that. Yeah. And then they call me a bitch. Right. And then they never hire me back because his opinion is way more important than mine. Of course. Damn. This he's been there for years and I haven't. Damn. So I gotta get him on my side somehow, right? Because you gotta remember, at the end of the day, it's not about my pride, it's not about my ego, it's about getting another freaking job. This is so fucked up.

SPEAKER_00

I know. I know, gosh. No one knows. Okay, I know. And hopefully, seriously, in like five years, this kind of conversation will be like, that's crazy that you had to do that. No, you know. It's already crazy. It is already. This is but it's crazy, but it will get better. It will. It will. This is a but that's again, so many of the different areas, audio, video, lighting, production, have gotten a lot of more women in it. Carpentry and rigging. We have not seen that yet. So you've like majorly had to, and there are a lot of amazing women in those, very few. And so you've had to go even more deep into it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you have to pander to their masculinity, pander to their intelligence, whether it's real or not, and then ask them for their protection afterwards. And then what they will usually do is they will usually double down because you the last thing that you want to do, this is so messed up. The last thing that you want to do is make them feel like a fool. Yeah. Because then they're gonna go on the defensive. And also, you need to get out of this dangerous situation that you're in. Yeah. You need to get back to your protector. He will handle it. You just need to be like, you just need to this very delicate situation where this man is close enough to you to bite you. You need to get out of it in a way that doesn't hurt you. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So fucked up that you had to experience that and all the other things, and all the other things I'm sure you've had to hear. Um, and also just all the women that yeah, that there's a probably a whole series that we can do on that, but that's yeah, not a now thing.

SPEAKER_01

And I'll just like the the last thing I'll say about this is that that is so like uh I think that a lot of young girls don't want to get into these positions because they think that that is the norm. It's not the norm. Not the norm. It is not the norm. It happens once every 50 times, once every maybe even hundred, but it does happen and you gotta be prepared. But it is not usually, yeah, the guys are super sweet and they see you as a daughter. Yes. Or a little sister.

SPEAKER_00

Usually. Yeah. So that's good. That's a good most of them are fabulous. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. It's always just a couple bad apples.

SPEAKER_01

And you take their awkwardness as them coming on to you, that's the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_00

True. Yes. I love that. That's huge. Um, so let's get into Soundstorm. This is in Saudi Arabia, $300 million budget festival. Yeah. Tell me about how you got involved and what that experience was like.

SPEAKER_01

I was working at Juilliard, the pandemic hit. I graduated from Yale, and then I moved home to literally muck horse stalls, manure out of horse stalls, because it was the job I could get. Whoa. And then I worked as a project manager for a um general, a residential general contractor company for a little while. And then I got a job at Juilliard working as an associate technical director in Lincoln Center. So I got to move back up to New York City, uh, the Upper West Side. It was amazing. Uh and I loved it. Um, and I worked there for a couple years. But at the same time, I have ADHD and I need to be in sunshine. And I was working five floors underground and there was no direct sunlight, and it actually was affecting my mental a little bit, right? Yeah. Um, and I knew that there was no way for me to go up because my boss at the time, he's a lifer, his boss is a lifer, you know. I was kind of stuck where I was. And so my best friend, Rachel Fitzgerald, um, she works for Tate, um, which I saw that you interviewed some people from there. Um I love them. Great people. So great. Um she works for Tate. And she said, Well, do you want to work music festivals? And I said, Heck yes, I do. Get me out of here. And so, again, you know, I left a full-time job with pension and benefits and a very well paying for what I was doing in a, you know, a true one-bedroom apartment in New York City and the Upper West Side, not a studio, true one bedroom, washer dryer unit in the kitchen. Yeah, I don't want to brag, but yeah, I live in a highlight. Brown stone left all that to work a freelance gig. And I, again, everything happens in my favor, right? I didn't leave it for another full-time job. I left it for a two-month contract where I didn't know if I was gonna get work after. Of course. And I was a project manager there, and I ended up working for their VIP system, um, their VIP branch of the festival. Cool. And it was my very first time overseas. No, it was my very first time in Saudi Arabia, in the Middle East, and I didn't know what to think, you know. Um, in 2000, I think, 19, women were given the ability to drive. Yeah. Right. So it was a wild going over there. When was this? This was in 2022. Okay, yeah. All right, yeah. So not very long after. And here I come with long blonde hair, I'm five foot eight, I've got light eyes, and you know, Saudi Arabia has a bunch of money to spend. Yeah. They are trying to up their tourism as much as possible. So they get money from the government, they get money from the royal family to build these huge music festivals, right? And they don't care about the bottom line. They don't care that they lose money on a music festival, right? So where Coachella is maybe, and I'm throwing spit at the mud, but maybe Coachella is maybe a $30 million build for a three-day festival, two-weekend festival, sorry. Um uh Soundstorm is like a $300 million build for, you know, a three-day festival. And they don't care because they have these government incentives and they want to boost tourism, and they also want to teach locals how to um put on big events like this, right? Yeah, cool. Which was really, really cool.

SPEAKER_00

So you were leading like 600 people. I was, yeah, that was wild. As a woman, as a leading yeah, not the language that most people spoke, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yes. So I learned construction Arabic. Oh my gosh. So it's which is funny because like I learned that like the word for the Arabic word for hammer is um, oh my gosh, shakush, okay, which is fun. Yeah. Um, like things like that's what I learned. Like kush, shakush, like hammer, drill, you know, tomorrow. Um like how do you say it'll be done tomorrow? So I know when they're lying, or you know, all this kind of stuff, or when they're trying to um exaggerate, right? Yeah. And it was a it was a huge culture shock. But it was also so my last, my most last gig, right? Yeah, I was working and we had to move this building. Okay. Moving a building. Just move a no no biggie. Let's just move a building. So we put we pulled it apart and we only moved it like 30 feet. Oh my gosh. They just wanted it moved, right? So, and they had the money for it, so let's do it. So, and and I was in charge of all of these contractors, and I would meet all of these contractors in the morning, and you know, it would be me and all of these contractors who had multiple, multiple workers for working for them. Right. And I would meet with the contractors, and you know, I would have to make sure that they understood what I was saying. So maybe I had a translator, maybe they did, you know. Um, and then you kind of hope and pray that it all works out, and it you end up just being uh a babysitter and a micromanager, right? The reason why I'm good at this job is because I'm relentless. I don't trust anyone or anything. And so, you know, they say it's done. I already checked it and I know it's not, you know, like they know how to do the job. Exactly. They say we'll finish tomorrow. And I'm like, I know that um, I know that Muhammad the crane guy is off tomorrow. So I know that that's not true, right? So you gotta like know the people, know the processes and like know everything about it so that when and it's not their fault. They're that's just kind of their culture, right? They they want to say yes and they don't take working with a women as what with a woman as seriously as they do working with a man. So maybe they'll be like, yeah, darling, like it's fine, like of course it'll be done tomorrow. Meanwhile, I've got to go to my bosses who's working with the literal royal family and say, yeah, this will be so I gotta know if it's right or wrong.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. Um had you worked with a team that large before before managing this? No, wow. So working with Tate for a little, you know, how long were you?

SPEAKER_01

I work with Tate on and off. Um, but for that, like I'm usually in Saudi Arabia uh for a couple months out of the year. Oh wow. So it's the same festival every time? Yeah. Wow. When is it this year? It's in, it's usually in December. So I'm usually there for November, December. I'm not sure how it's gonna play out this year with everything politically, but Oh yeah, golly.

SPEAKER_00

So what did that what what was like the biggest lesson that that taught you that you brought back when you came back into the States and you're back into freelance? Back into freelance.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I th what's the biggest lesson Saudi Arabia taught me? Um, being kind is the number one thing. Kindness will get you farther than anything else. But also, it's really important to understand the cultural norms of the different types of people that you're working with. Okay. Um it's really important to understand, even, you know, there might be one country and another country, and those countries were at war a hundred years ago.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But there are still remnants of mentality where one country doesn't like the other country. And maybe, you know, it's like the scaffolders are from one country and the painters are from another, but you so you really don't want them to um be working in the same place at the same time, maybe, you know, or even maybe they have to, but if you can understand that, yeah, you have to understand the cultural background of these people who you're asking to work and understand how they work, right? When they say, for example, like um the Arabic word for yes is usually inshallah, right? It means God willing. Okay. And so a lot of the Westerners who go over there, they hear inshallah, inshallah all the time, right? And um they they think of it, the Westerners, they think of it as like, no, no, I don't want you to say inshallah, I want you to say yes, I will absolutely get it done, right? But the but people who are Muslim, when they say God willing, it means yes. Because that's their devotion to God, right? But you have to understand that in order to work with different cultures, you've got to understand different cultures, and and your understanding will get you so much farther than anything. Yeah, but in order to do that, it's working with them over and over again, right?

SPEAKER_00

And I bet working in New York got you some actual exposure to different cultures too. Definitely looks a lot different than Nashville for sure. Absolutely, yeah. That's um we I can't believe we're like already an hour in, but I we have to get to built pretty. Please take me into what you built that you're now teaching to over 300,000 people. Crazy, right? What started this? Take me through it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so I was working an art fair in LA last January. Last January, it's wild. And I was on a forklift and I decided to tell, I decided to set up my camera and to talk about the different types of wrenches that were on my person. Love it. Just in case somebody wanted to know, right? And then that video, I had a lot of fun doing it. So then I and I got some positive reinforcement. So, which I love because ADHD, right? Love the um dopamine, um, love being told I'm doing a good job, and love a hyper focus. Okay. Love it. Yep. And so I'm like, I'm going to be the construction teacher that of this century. Anyway, so then I say, Yeah, and so then I talk about the different types of hammers and what they might be used for, and like hammer weights, and then I did a video on the difference between an impact driver and a drill, and people are loving it, but I only put it on TikTok and I'm growing on TikTok, I'm growing on TikTok, and then I do the history of the Phillips bit and the Robertson bit, and how it sparked, how it was like only through World War II that it was able to um create it's just there's a lot of drama there, but the the history and like and how like the the drama of it and how it involved Henry Ford and Canada and all this kind of stuff, and that popped off on TikTok. So I thought, well, why don't we just try to put it on Instagram? Instagram doesn't love what I do, but let's just try it anyway. Put it on Instagram and it immediately popped the F off, Nikki. And so then I started posting more on Instagram and about, you know, tool history, about um how your level might be lying to you, about pretty much the things that we experience every day, right? The things that, you know, a tradesperson or a production person, so easy, putting it out there in front of the lay person, and they just started eating it up.

unknown

Cool.

SPEAKER_01

So your audience is more people outside of the industry. Oh, 100%. Yeah. It's only when I started saying, I literally made a couple videos with uh it was like the Kevin Hart, like, where are you going? Uh I don't know yet, da-da-da, you know, that a lot of production people actually started following me, and that was only a few weeks ago. Yeah, well, I think that's how we found you. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, it's people who are homeowners, um, some women, but it's like 60% women, 30%, no, no, 60% men, yeah, 40% women, um, 35 to 45 mostly. And it's, you know, wanting to know about tools. So I had 1,600 followers May of last year, and now on Instagram. And now I have 327,000 followers. Girl, it's wild.

SPEAKER_00

Because no one else is doing this. Yeah. No, that's really you found a niche. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's really cool. Well, I found that, you know, all these like tool tutorials, there's no tool tutorials, right? There's build this shelf with me, and I'm gonna do a voiceover in third person, and I'm gonna show you how I build the shelf, right? But there's no one sitting there in second person saying, This is different, this bit is different from this bit, and here's why. And here's why each of these were invented the way they were invented, and here's who invented them, and this is why this is important to you. Cool. And also, this might be why your house doesn't fall over, right? So, like, let's bring that into it. And so it people are interested, and it's really exciting. And another reason why I, you know, put built pretty out there is to show women that you don't have to look like a man, you don't have to be masculine, you don't have to swear up and down in order to belong in the trades.

SPEAKER_00

Period.

SPEAKER_01

You don't have to do that, you don't have to look like a guy. You can you can be yourself, whatever that looks like. Yeah, and you can do just fine. And you can do the job.

SPEAKER_00

And you can do the job. You you're making it very approachable too. Because again, I I don't, I'm not handy, but I I bet I could be if I tried 100%. It's intimidating to me, and I I don't feel good at it, so I don't want to do it.

SPEAKER_01

But and I wonder why it's been intimidating to you, Nikki. Maybe because no one thought to teach you. Maybe because no one thought, oh, that pretty girl probably doesn't need to know that, right? I'll do it for you.

SPEAKER_00

I'll do it for you. Yeah, totally. And then I was like, oh, that's a boy job. Exactly. But damn, how yeah, I it would be nice to be able to fix stuff up around my house. I'm just saying, like, the trades saved my life.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. Yeah, the trades saved my life, and I just want to make it as accessible to anyone as possible because it could save their life too.

SPEAKER_00

You're doing it. Thank you. You are doing it. What is right now? So it's it's May of 26. What is um, I guess, a theme that people are really interested in right now that you're seeing like a lot of um comments and and interactions with your posts?

SPEAKER_01

What's kind of crazy is that what I'm experiencing from last May, I'm experiencing this May, which is reinvigorated interest in the trades, interested in tools. Um, people really love tool history. They love who invented the circsaw and why. Okay. They love um drama. They love drama. But it's just funny because like the the way that these like basically like tools made our world and we wouldn't, for example, right? Like the circsaw, the the portable circular saw. The housing, the American housing boom is not, would not happen without the portable circsaw. So let's talk about that, right? Cool. Um people love that. They love they love fasteners, they love deck screws, they love learning about those. Pretty much anything that looks anything that is common and looks like something that they see in their drawer every single day, and I can tell them something new about it, they love it. That's so cool. Secrets of the tape measure. Yeah, they love it. Do you have a secret of a tape measure you could share? Yeah, cool. Yes. Okay, so a lot of people say that you have this inside dimension, right? And you didn't, and you couldn't meant you couldn't, yeah, and you have to kind of bend your tape measure. Okay, cool. That's 24 inches, but is it 24 inches? I'm not sure. Okay. What you could do is usually on the tape measure case, there is a little thing that's usually written on the tape measure case that tells you how big the tape measure case is, right? So I this tape measure case is three inches. Okay. So now all I gotta do is this, instead of bending the tape, all I gotta do is this, and I gotta say 20 and three-quarters of an inch plus three inches is 23 and three-quarter. There it is. When really I thought it was 24 inches because I was like, oh, that kind of looks like 24. No, it's actually a quarter inch off. It's a little secret. That's a cool secret. That's what I'm saying. And this is something people use every day.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and they don't know. You should see my walls when I try to hang up pictures. There's so many holes. Um listen, I'm Nikki, I'm here for great hack. I know. I know. I know. I love these. All right, that is too cool. It's a cool hack. Thank you. Um, everyone just needs to follow you to keep learning about this stuff. There's so many things that I wanted to really get into. We'll just have to do like a part two on the site with you, maybe. That'd be so much. Where you're actually putting something together, that would be really, really cool. Yeah. I want to ask, though, with live shows, you're in you're in Broadway, you're building lots of things. What excites you about live music, though, in particular?

SPEAKER_01

The community. The patrons. For example, I just did Sonic Temple up in Columbus, Ohio. Cool. It's a metal music festival. I love country. I love Ella Langley and Lainey Wilson. Okay. I am not a metal gal. Yeah. I, but that is my favorite music festival to work because the patrons are so respectful. Wow. And they're so nice to you. And the uh Danny Wimmer Productions puts that on, and I love that company. Um and they know how to curate a community first artist driven music festival. Wow. Where some like the Live Nations and the C3s maybe are kind of too big of a corporation. To do that with, right? But Danny Wimmer and their whole family, I mean, you can just tell it's a family grown operation that they care about the people. And you can also tell throughout the music festival, it's crazy that this isn't a huge corporation. It's really, really cool. Totally. And, you know, like, for example, with Sonic Temple, um there were traces of the community all around. There was, you know, a live graffiti art battle every single day. That's cool. Two graffiti artists battling each other, and the crowd chose which one was the winner, right? Oh, that's cool. And, you know, there were um art fairs where artists were selling their wares and you know, mixed with all of the incredible music.

SPEAKER_00

And I I've heard though that like heavy metal, it's a lot of the nicest people because can you imagine you're getting your rage out with the music and then you gotta breathe a little bit afterwards? Yeah. That's like I I actually I need to probably get into that music. Maybe, yeah. Probably the people are just so lovely. Always. That's yeah, that's been my experience too. Um, as you are building your own personal brand, your own freelance career, your own success in this industry through the trials and challenges, which thank you for sharing all of that. It's amazing to hear your story. What are you excited for for the next five to 10 years?

SPEAKER_01

Oh my goodness. I want to put out books. Oh. Yeah, I really want to publish books, children's books. Okay. Children show showing children the trades, right? Um, I and showing little girls, like little boys and little girls that like showing them in print what it looks like. Um I want to build a a course, honestly. Like I want to build a course the uh had a project plan on a bigger scale for homeowners or just for people. I really want to start a school. Um, people keep saying I need to get into workwear, and yep, it's hard. I I want to partner with a workwear company. Yeah. You know, I don't think I want to build my own because it's very difficult to do that, but I want to partner with one. Yeah. Um, and honestly, what my biggest goal is is to the trades are dying in America. Yeah. The trades are dying. Everyone back in the day, we all said college is for everyone, and we're gonna defund shop class. Yeah. Okay. I want to bring back technical education. I want to support technical education to bring it back so we can revitalize the trades and um make them so that the the worker is as cool as the college graduate.

SPEAKER_00

And imagine in a time with AI right now, replacing so many of the jobs that people go get an undergrad degree for. They gotta come into the trades. So I think we're about to see that shift. And you're already up here of wanting to be like uh spearheading this. So that's incredible. Um, I mean, with gigs, we want to start a trade school because and I I bet people in May are really excited about it because they're graduating high school. What do I do? Exactly. Looking right here. This is too cool. We have way too much more to talk about and we're out of time. So I think I say in the fall, sometime we follow you on a site and just kind of watch you work. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing all of that.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. It's been such a pleasure. And I also just want to say like everything that Gigs is doing, everything that you've accomplished and everything you've done is inspiring. And I'm about to start crying right now, but it's so inspiring and it's so great to see a woman in power who's so gracious and who wants change and who's just so relatable. So I just want to say thank you for everything that you've done. Wow. And everything that you continue to do. I'm just such a huge fan.

SPEAKER_00

Gosh, well, my team is very strong. Yeah. That means the world. Thank you so much. We'll be getting you back on this show. Yeah, let's go. Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Nikki.