Blue Collar Business Podcast
Welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast with Sy Kirby. Dive deep into the world of hands-on entrepreneurship and the gritty side of making things happen. Join us for actionable tips on scaling your blue-collar business, managing teams, and staying ahead in an ever-evolving market. We'll also discuss the latest industry trends and innovations that could impact your bottom line. If you're passionate about the blue-collar world and eager to learn from those who've thrived in it, this podcast is a must-listen. Stay tuned for engaging conversations and real-world advice that can take your blue-collar business to new heights.
Blue Collar Business Podcast
Ep. 25 - Training the Next Generation of Blue-Collar Workers
Unlock the doors to the world of blue-collar education as we spotlight the remarkable Chad Burkett and his transformative work in Springdale, Arkansas. Chad joins us to share the vital role of programs like heavy equipment operation, CDL training, and welding in shaping future industry leaders, thanks in part to partnerships with giants like Caterpillar and Tyson. You’ll hear how real-world collaborations with companies such as SMG provide students with invaluable skills, seamlessly transitioning them into careers that strengthen their communities.
Experience the dedication of educators who integrate essential heavy equipment training within public schools, drawing from personal journeys and hands-on experiences in heavy machinery work. This episode uncovers how mentorship and leadership in education empower students with comprehensive skills, from operating machinery to navigating construction permits. The legacy of trade education is not just in the skills taught but in nurturing relationships between students and local businesses, creating pathways for personal and professional growth.
Join us as we celebrate the inspiring stories of young individuals like Cooper and Giselle, who have leveraged these opportunities to transition into rewarding careers. We also reflect on the critical role of mistakes as learning opportunities, the value of community involvement, and the essence of leadership in trade education. As the landscape of skilled trades evolves, our conversation underscores the enduring need for skilled professionals and the profound impact of education and mentorship in crafting a sustainable future for the blue-collar industry.
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Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast, where we discuss the realest, rawest, most relevant stories and strategies behind building every corner of a blue collar business. I'm your host, cy Kirby, and I want to help you in what it took me trial and error and a whole lot of money to learn the information that no one in this industry is willing to share. Whether you're under that shade tree or have your hard hat on, let's expand your toolbox. Welcome back to another episode of the Blue Collar Business Podcast. Guys, I had mentioned this a couple of times to y'all about the continued education program, high school level program. I am super eager to not only get to share the room and the time with the devoted teacher I'm excited to share a little bit of his insight and the things we picked up but we also have two graduating seniors I do believe both of you and fixing to walk out into the blue-collar workforce, and there's a program here in Springdale, arkansas, that needs some light shined on it and we get to actually ask a few questions to seniors that are fixing to be your employees, guys. So there are programs out there. They're a little bit harder to find and I wish I'd have found you guys sooner, but so glad we've met now.
Speaker 1:This episode is sponsored by Sycon Escavation and Utilities. We are absolutely looking for blue collar services and products to join in the investment of the blue collar community. Hit blue collar business podcast dot com and there's a become a sponsor in the menu tab and give us a holler and see if we can line up. Furthermore, we're gonna be obviously talking to both of them, but I'm very excited to bring you guys Chad Burkett yes, sir, thank you. Okay who is a continued education teacher, devoted teacher to his students. I actually got to spend a little bit of time down there shedding some light for our YouTube channel with SciCon. Go check that out at SciCon S-Y-C-O-N and you guys can actually see what I'm talking about in action.
Speaker 1:Uh, I was blown away. I had no idea they would have a heavy equipment program, a cdl school, a diesel mechanics school, robotics, welding, ammonia, like what they're doing here. Uh, tyson is very heavily involved as well. But furthermore, thank you guys for wanting me today. Appreciate you Absolutely. Chad. Let's hear from you, number one, a little insight about Chad. I watched this man after school hours in a field, 40-acre field that is owned by the district. That is their playground. They were out there tearing down a chicken house with, uh, what I believe was a 308. Uh, caterpillars obviously stepped in and helped you and tremble as well, shout out there to you guys, but they have a 308 with a thumb on it. Um, they got a d3, which is, uh, the old d4k size to us. You got your motor grader now. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, 120M, yeah 120M. Cat 299D3, forestry edition, skid steer. And then we're working with Arkansas Construction Education Foundation right now to get a CAT 320 on site. And then Edwards Excavation, design, design and springdale we're in talks with them about a you know, a hydraulic trailer so we can move our equipment around. So we're always looking for partners and we're trying to grow our program, open it up to the other folks. So we're excited that's exactly no.
Speaker 1:I thank you guys for cutting away the time and um at this beautiful studio here in rogers, arkansas. Podcastvideoscom. Give them a look and a shout, guys. But furthermore, I got to spend some time. I didn't just get to see their heavy equipment program, as you guys would know, audience, something I definitely take a lot of passion in but to watch these guys get the opportunity at the high school level to use tremble earthworks on these machines and the GPS, as we've talked on this show multiple times in the excavation realm how important it is and how you can grab a hold of it in a younger mindset that has already grown up with computers and iPads and not trying to be any way here, guys, but you guys had a lot more opportunity with electronics than, say, me or Chad did, and I'm not that much older, but, um, either way, I can remember when computers still like first initially came to school and big old giant Macintosh. That was cool.
Speaker 1:Anyways, getting a little off subject, but, chad, thank you from every little business owner that needs the employees that you're placing. Dude, you have nine SMG drivers. Shout out to SMG Standard Materials Group. We actually buy concrete from them. This was one of the coolest things, and I'll let Chad kind of take over. But this is the full circle process. We every single day pour concrete on our job sites with SMG and nine of the applicants that graduated the CDL school trained directly in with SMG and APAC and now are in the local workforce.
Speaker 2:That's exactly the full circle For sure. Go ahead, brother. I've got to shout out to Murray Klein, he leads APAC. Russ Kirkpatrick, we did a tour of the APAC tour there off of I-49. And I'm always asking for more, probably, than people should give me. But I was just like, what do I got to do to get involved in your CDL program? And Murray looks over and he asked Russ, what do we need? And Russ was like you're okay, cause Murray's like let's do it. So Murray invested in me.
Speaker 2:So I spent last spring uh, you know, put over 120 hours. I worked weekends and nights, uh, even took a little personal time. Uh, just to go in and we would start three, four and more after teaching. Absolutely, just to go in and we would start three, four and more After teaching. Absolutely, yeah, no pay. You know I volunteered to do this because I believe in, you know, trades. My dad's, you know, 53 year mechanic, jonas, truck line, pam, transport. My mom was a lunch lady, working class people. Yeah, dad's a cool guy, you know, purple heart veteran. He loves, bleeds and dies for a blue collar in America.
Speaker 2:But anyway, murray invested so they took a risk on me. We had to get the lawyers together figure out a way to do this and that's something that they were willing to do. So I become a CDL instructor. So I went through all their training. The cool thing is they recognize our training as their training. I use their model so it's a seamless transition into the workforce. If they go through our CDO program, our COLA, smg, apac, they're the same training we do, the exact curriculum they provide for their trainers why would you not? And so you know we were talking at a school board meeting back in the fall and like, their return on investment is probably 50, 60, you know, 70,000 so far.
Speaker 2:But we keep churning these guys out. We've got three in training right now. You know, do that tomorrow night. We go in, I work after hours, go, you know, 3.30 during my planning period, work till 9.30, 10.30 at night, and so you know it's a lot of long days and you know I don't know how many years I'll be able to do that. So I hope other people step up and sponsor this. Let's get some other instructors involved.
Speaker 2:But we're trying our best to provide real-world training and use tax dollars wisely. I mean it's like we want to provide a workforce and a future for these kids. I mean they're our future. You know I look in these kids' eyes every day and, you know, see so much potential and I love these guys. I'm not saying that tongue-in-cheek. Everybody uses those words. I've seen it loosely. But you, when you really love people and invest in them, dude, they rise and uh, you know I may need to work for them someday. I may need to work for you. You know, school district may send me packets, so and I'm not scared to work.
Speaker 1:That's the other part. But you, I I'm telling you, man, uh, everything you just said I got to witness, standing there, the, the admiration and the inspiration, inspiration for these kids, and that you see in them, that they don't see in themselves yet, is man. It's such an opportunity and you aren't just striking on the opportunity, you are absolutely pushing the envelope and thank you. I know each and every one of those kids. I tried to hit it home about the opportunity that they have been given to come out at 18 years old with the skills that they're obtaining through these programs is they don't even understand. I wouldn't have at that age either. I would have. Oh, we're at high school, what time is it done? I won't go fishing, or you know, senior year. I was in the workforce program so I would have bit into this hard. They didn't offer anything like that. So, um, but so take us through kind of the how the heavy equipment came into.
Speaker 2:We heard about the cdl school, but the heavy equipment, um, I don't think there's many places in the country doing what you guys are doing no, so I talk a lot of our business partners and you know there's some schools in other states uh, you know, crossland runs one out of Kansas for their entire division. There's some trade type schools in Oklahoma and some other neighboring communities, but you know, for Arkansas there's not a heavy equipment program and from a public school standpoint it's really unique. Uh, so it's a brainchild of, uh of my boss, rodney Ellis, uh, led by Dr Cleveland, our superintendent. I mean you have to have leaders that are innovative and open-minded. And then really, rodney and I just sat down and we started hammering out what was important.
Speaker 2:My background heavy equipment comes from a dear friend of mine. He actually passed, just right before Christmas, butch West. He worked for Shallow Tank and Steel and my dad was a mechanic and I'd work with dad and I'd work for Butch and he did dirt work, concrete, and that was my earliest experience. I'd go over there he's my little league coach we would dig and I've tied so much rebar. I can tell you what I didn't want to do as a child and that was to tie rebar. But we spent a lot of time in the dish but he ish. But he taught me how to operate equipment and you know precision and stuff like that, and so the passion was there. From a child I mean eight, nine, 10 years old, running a dozer was a cool thing and it was just ingrained. You know hard work and you know I've got a couple of college degrees. They're great, been beneficial for me. But I still, to this day, carve out a week or two a year to do some sort of project and I can make more in a week with my hands than I can make in three or four months at the school. Yeah and uh, but that's that's where it came from. It's like how can we get heavy equipment? Uh, you know, in public school setting.
Speaker 2:And then Roddy and I sat down started writing grants. Uh, you know, we just come up the idea and we push and push and push and, uh, we've taken advantage of, you know, some funding through federal sources. You know OSD from the state we're trying to use, you know corporate tax dollars wisely and I assure you we're not wasting any time. The kids can tell you we work from the time we get there to the time we leave. Somebody's going to be on a machine. We do a lot.
Speaker 2:Yesterday we were putting in silk fencing for our stormwater permits. Oh my, so we trenched. Oh my, so we trenched, we dug, we buried. You know, we put in several hundred feet in an hour. That's awesome. Yeah, you know, we're going back reseeding. Giselle was on the dozer yesterday, you know, back dragging before we can seed some areas. We've got to get a little better vegetative buffer. You know, cooper, he moved a lot of trees. He also put in our construction entrance, got B-stone out there, he put, he put that in.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you know, not only are we just doing like heavy equipment stuff, we went to city, springdale, city, the other day and they all got operator permits, uh, and and went through the stormwater process, the entire class. We had 60 kids. So shout out to springdale. Uh, wow, planning engineering, yeah, so everybody, we're going through these processes. They know how to permit. That is, we're not just doing this. Play, go out there, talk a toy where it's real, where the rubber meets the road. Kids are really a part of the learning process. This, this is real deal. Yeah, we're through the same.
Speaker 2:We got shut down for a small violation. We remedied the violation. They go talk to the, to the individuals. We got the right permits. We remedied our problems. A lot of it was through ignorance. We fixed it, it, we move on. But now these kids know what they have to have before they even start. Let me tell you the width, length of the construction entrance, what we've got to have on our permit signing, and so that's where we really are trying to provide a real-world, authentic experience. Where they're working, they get dirty, we're muddy, we're greasy.
Speaker 1:You know we're fixing stuff. We blow lines, tear GPS units off, and that's expensive. That goes a little different in the real world, guys. I'll just tell you that because the GPS side of things is such a costly investment. But you hit a few things that I wanted to mention before going too much further. You've got to have leaders that are willing to push the envelope in your position. Number one you've got to have an idea. Hey, can we do heavy equipment too? Somebody coming up with that idea. But you shout out to Mr Ellis sitting down with you and going, okay, yeah, let's push this, let's try that, try that.
Speaker 1:And and here you guys are, and to that real world experience, watching them, um, all of the different operators sort in compared to this metal and here's the trash, and just picking away at that chicken house, and in that house there was was crazy. But you're providing influence that I never had. Um, you, you know maybe the only father type figure, um, that a lot of these kids have, and you that mentorship is something that they'll never, ever forget in their entire life. Um, oh man, I wish I had a mentor that loved and cared about me back then, rather than threw a hard hat at me because we're not getting production done so and it's and it's real life. And and to be able to, you're not just giving them the operating experience. Now you're talking about permits. There's I've got operators that have been probably operating 10-15 years in life, had never had to deal with permit in their life, never done stormwater prevention. That's the superintendent level and above and so showing a little bit of insight to the whole concept, the whole. I mean having them do silt fencing like silt fencing is, its can be its own standalone business, set up, skid steer trencher you guys know how to do it.
Speaker 1:I mean, obviously you came from a stormwater prevention plan or a grading plan. You learned, you measured, you went out there and you put it in the ground, just like. That's exactly what I mean. You're 18, you're not 25 and you didn't have to go six, seven years through five or six different businesses or companies. As you're trying to learn that process and finally grab a hold of that mentor Because we talk on this show all the time about.
Speaker 1:I always ask about who is that mentor and that influence and my grandfather was my influence, obviously but there's always that one that just absolutely sinks the hook in you and you're doing that for so many, and it's just crazy. But uh, the other thing I wanted to shed light on is a diesel mechanic school and the welding shop. Um, that's insane, like electronics and that's stuff that my brain don't even compute like, not even a little bit way over my head for sure. But if I have guys in the field I'll lean on them. Hey, you're telling me you know how to mess with that. You know, um, and it can be a start of a flame on. Oh well, this guy maybe knows a little bit more than I thought. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:But uh, as as a business owner, I have no problem going. Wait a minute, you know more than I do. Okay, what else? What else do you know that I don't know? And lean on and yep, um, anyhow, enough of that. But, um, mr cooper, yes, miss giselle, thank you guys for being here and cutting time on. Did you guys get out of school for this?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, oh yeah, that bad.
Speaker 2:A little bit of the power we get to exert. We get them out every now and again. These are great. I just want to say it's like the epitome of two of the best people that I've ever ran across and I've gotten dozens of them. But I mean I love these guys. They're the heart and soul of what makes this country great. I mean hard workers, honest, you know. Hard workers, honest, you know. I'm so thankful. I really want you to spotlight their work because I mean they're the leaders of tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Man just coming in here preaching, ain't he? He is, he is, and.
Speaker 3:I want to add on to a little bit more of what you said about like the mentor and the leadership Honestly Burkett has showed us so much about that.
Speaker 3:He literally sees a lot in us, more than we do in ourselves. And it's like in the real world if you're coming late, if you're laying around being lazy, not doing what you're supposed to be doing, you're gonna be like fired, but with briquette he calls us out on it and he tells us like hey, you need to work on this, you need to work on that because and he literally shows us every day like how much he cares about us, how much he he like does things for us and for him to like go out of his way to stay after school to build up like this whole program going on, like we might have not known him during that, but like well, when he was like making the program, but it still shows a lot, like it shows how much he cares for us and it shows the hard work that he's done for us and Like it shows how much he cares for us and it shows the hard work that he's done for us and I really want to appreciate that.
Speaker 3:You know it's like he's done.
Speaker 2:That's the ultimate, ain't it, brother? It is. I mean, really it's like there's no, there's no gain out of it. It's hard to describe to work on a project, you know, and I just it really boils back. There's a lot of days that are tough because there's not much glory. And going out there spending hundreds of hours by yourself with kids that struggle yeah, there's nobody seeing that.
Speaker 2:I don't see my boss day to day, don't see the superintendent or school board. I appreciate their support but you know it's really I just act through faith. You know god, give me this opportunity. There's days that I want to quit because you know the efforts sometimes are futile, but we can't give up. If we don't fight for what's right and building up other people, then really what is our worth here anyway? And I mean these kids are the enemy of that.
Speaker 2:You give them an opportunity, they jump on it, they excel. That's the reward, because I mean we get on this planet. We're here with nothing and we leave with nothing. That's right. All we have is the legacies we left behind and really a lot of people are forgotten in a few generations. But you can really instill personal beliefs, drive Ambition, hard work, all the things that you're bringing to our community. Man, I got to thank you. Nobody else is doing what you're doing you're, you're a mouthpiece for, for programs, for businesses, for good people that work hard every day. That are not celebrities, but they do the work that we have to have.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that well, I appreciate you guys and then I'll appreciate the kind words. Get me all choked up here, but you know there was a community spotlight that needed to be shed here, and if we're not careful here, in the next 10 years the boomers are all going to fade out as business owners and if they don't have that son or daughter to hand this down to, they're looking at you know their 20-year employees and they've watched boss men stress for 20 years and they may not want to do with that. And so you've got all these interchanges. Who's going to be there to mend that gap? Who's going to be the plumbers? Who's going to be the steel guys? The truck drivers? Nobody's shining any light and it is costly to invest in this community, but there is no cost compared to not having a resource for them to excel. You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean One of the challenges that I challenge every business owner you can't complain if you're not part of the solution, and you can't be a part of the solution if you don't come and tell us what we need to do. And I never ask people for money. I ask for opportunity. That's right, and what I want out of businesses is an opportunity to get my kids in front of you so we can showcase what they can provide for your business. I don't need your money, that's right. I might need access to a few things. That you have a contact, you know. It's just like these kids here. They know the people at Springdale. Now they can go in there and say, hey, you remember that class? You think it's going to be hard for them to get permits? No, there's a relationship and so those are the kinds of things that I'm asking for businesses to provide. Yeah, we need opportunity.
Speaker 1:And the relationship man. You hit the nail on the head. Legacy you mentioned legacy and before we move on to more of the questionnaire round for your two minds, legacy. I read something the other day on LinkedIn Herb Sargent, shout out to Mr Sargent, I'm getting you on this show, herb. He said legacy is not what you leave behind, it's what you leave behind in people.
Speaker 1:And, dude, it almost changed my life because a lot of times I get so frustrated being as a business owner going a little off topic here but you want all this tangible things, you want everything to go right, you want all the people to understand, et cetera, et cetera. But it's the team that you're growing while you're doing the dang thing. Those relationships are key. Just wanted to share that. And what you're teaching it's the relationships to the city. I mean there's a certain way you have to talk to the city. There's a certain way you talk to engineers and um, getting some of this shown um to you guys now within high school guys, and some, some of you guys are out of high school, still in the program, correct?
Speaker 2:actually no, all these kids are in now. We do provide mentorship afterward. Right, I'm in contact with kids that graduated 15 years ago. You know it's just Of course you are. You can't not be a part of somebody's life. You know, and you know my wife taught me a long time ago the easiest way to deal with folks is you just always leave them better than you found them, and we don't have to do much other than be kind to do that. And you know you can pour into people, build people up, help them realize potential and do that's just all I do. I mean, I was taught that from a young age.
Speaker 1:People did it to me, my dad, my mom and you know my wife really taught me that key concept and you know, thank God he put her in my life. Amen, I got the same one on this side of the table or I would be absolutely shout out. Mrs Kirby, thank you so much. Let's talk about this program and we've talked about kind of the overall and what it is. Why did Cooper, why did you go? Well, that's where I want to go, that's what I want to do. Did it just sound interesting? Give us a little layout.
Speaker 4:It's just something. I've always been around, knowing that all of the blue-collar jobs, whether it's welding, electrician, uh, equipment runner, nothing's gonna go away, because I mean, even up here in rogers, everything's always expanding buildings, roads, whatever. Something that's never gonna go away, something I'll never be replaced by yeah, phones or whatever it is yeah, it's just always gonna always going to be there and I know I know Brickhead when I got into this, but he's definitely been a role model and you know he can come work for me one day.
Speaker 2:I'd love to have him. I'd definitely work for him.
Speaker 4:I'd love to have him. It just struck my mind because growing up I'm talking to trucks, dude, big boy version of him now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm big boy version of them now. Yeah, I'm ready. It's uh, it's a, it's, it's fun. Buddy, I tell people all the time where I'm like, uh, I'm one of those kids that play with tonka toys. Just never grew out of it. But affording to play with the big one sucks it's expensive it's a hobby um giselle. Why? Why'd you get involved? Why'd you choose to get involved with the program?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I always knew that there was like classes like the welding classes and like engineering or not really engineering, but just like those type of classes. And I knew Burkett like my sophomore year we like kind of got in a disagreement and that's how I met him.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Fair enough.
Speaker 3:He got mad at me. I got mad at him and I mean I'm very grateful for that day. If it were, if it wasn't for that day, then I probably wouldn't be here right now, probably wouldn't even know you. But, um, I mean, I wouldn't say I've always been around these type of things, like around, like, I mean, my dad. He, he worked in construction. I have three brothers. I've been around them my entire life.
Speaker 3:So it's like I also I would think about like, oh, where am I gonna be after high school? And it's like I would love to see myself in an office. Then, I mean, my mom, she's like oh, maybe you could be a doctor or something. But it's like I kind of like what I'm doing right now, I like operating the machines, and it's like I didn't really know about this program actually. But I did tell burkett and I told one of our other teachers. Um, I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna take those classes, I want to take one of those classes. And then, by coincidence, I got put into heavy equipment and we got there.
Speaker 3:I think the first or not the first thing, the first thing that I got there actually, um, that's when he got into like more detail about it. And that's when I actually knew, like, what it was about and I was like, okay, like this, this seems kind of cool. But it seems kind of scary because I've never been around these machines, I've never really like I don't know how to like operate one, and I'm like, okay, I don't think I'm gonna be able to do this, you know. So it's like the first day we get there, everybody's learning how to drive the machines, everybody's learning, like what to do and what we're gonna do, and I'm like, okay, this is actually kind of cool. Um, and then they like, I guess, like three weeks on, with onto, like the program, into the class. Um, that's when I started, like that's when I actually knew how to drive the three machines we had at the time, which was the dozer, the excavator and the skid steer.
Speaker 2:So, um, which is impressive in itself. Listen, she is got the makings of being a high quality fine grading dozer operator like I'm. Listen, she is my go-to out of everybody out there. She can run that d3 there. That's impressive. She's smooth, she takes care of her machine, she cleans her own tracks, she greases, she's not scared to get dirty. And people underestimate women because they think that they're going to bring all these problems. What I found is they are very detail-oriented, they take care of their equipment, they follow directions to the T and there's very little nonsense, yeah. Are very detail-oriented, they take care of their equipment, they follow directions to the tee and there's very little nonsense, yeah. And so that's been my experience with all my ladies.
Speaker 1:I've said it a hundred times, other than the bickering, I swear sometimes that the 15 guys we got, I think I would love to have 15 women out there, sometimes from the detail-oriented, but I don't know if I can deal with all the politics at that point. But uh, um, either way, um, they have to that point. I have seen a plethora, not just um cdl drivers, but there has been more heavy equipment operators um, that do take care of their machine. And you would be, guys, how much a man would pay you to learn on his machine, just to have his machine taken care of. And I have got shout out to Sambo, a dirt superintendent, who I was just talking to him on my way in here and he's struggling with one of the guys on his screw. He's more of a pipe guy and so he's trying to adjust in the dirt side of things and the thaw process isn't there. But yeah, he's just driving a rock truck on site. You know what I mean? Nothing that you guys haven't already had a little bit of experience in driving a little dumb truck around and moving material around a site. And driving a little dumb truck around and moving material around a site.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I absolutely do believe that women can run haul trucks, women can run excavators and I do believe they would be more finite with a dozer or et cetera. So I would absolutely be—I actually had two different female truck drivers over the years. One of them really didn't work out, one wasn't bad and, um, I would have absolutely no issues if one came across and audience just listen to this. They've got their Osher 30. They've got some type of SWIP. Obviously we just talked about that. We've got experience. We've got maybe a cdl, some heavy equipment seed time like msha, msha, like all of all of it together bundled up.
Speaker 1:18 years old guys, not 25, not 30. I've still got 30 year olds and I'm still trying to get. I paid for it three times and they won't take the daggum osha deal and just actually do the course. And so you guys are. I can't even remotely fathom the opportunities that you guys could see just from coming through this program. But on that, what skills have you mainly learned? That you maybe to both of you guys, and it doesn't matter who goes first, but basically what skills have you obtained that you maybe to both of you guys, and it doesn't matter who goes first, but basically what skills have you obtained that you maybe would have came into this going eh, I don't want anything to do with that and maybe have actually enjoyed it a little bit? And what skills have you really enjoyed, just in general, obtaining through the course?
Speaker 4:Definitely the semi and dump truck part of this kind of but I didn't go in my cdl, but something that I know I can do if I wanted to go do eventually. Uh, something I was eager to learn was definitely to run the equipment, and so I'm mainly in the skid steer and I've learned to get better with it. That's just any piece of equipment I'm eager to get on learn how to do. I remember that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was today's I still am. No, I, I, I absolutely love jumping out, but you didn't get. You didn't get your cdl through this through the program.
Speaker 4:No, I, I was doing it and I got everything.
Speaker 1:I just petered out right now you bet no, and trust me, I can. Um, why wouldn't you want to focus on the one thing that you have the opportunity and don't waste that?
Speaker 2:opportunity. And Cooper, he's an impressed plumber. He works for his dad's company, mountain Mechanical. Shout out to them. Shout out to Mountain Mechanical and I'll tell you we've got to shout out for sure, because Cooper's father and leadership there. You know they created a position for one of our other guys, marcos Campos. He went to work in the sheet metal shop back at Christmas. So he actually we have hybridized programs. If they're 18, I can help them with their technical math credit. We can get them through English. They see me one night a week. We put these guys to work. Nabholz hired two weeks ago. Come on, guadalupe Velasquez and Johansson Padilla are two weeks ago. Come on, yep, guadalupe Velasquez and, uh, johansson Padilla are two weeks on the job and excavation side there. So these companies are stepping up. Some people are getting out here early and grabbing, you know, some of our best candidates, but we've got opportunities. But you know, mountain stepped up, you know, took a chance, so awesome. And uh, tell a little bit about Marcos and how he's doing.
Speaker 4:Well, I think he's doing really good. Coleman likes him, Everybody in the office likes him. I talk to him when he comes in and he says he likes it. It's more of a not so much like a job site with our guys. It's more of like they've bonded, They've come close with him and they're really accepting to him. So he says it's like a family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, marcos went from Burger King to heavy equipment class in August to working in trades, and so that's the transition, how quickly it's going to occur if we invest. And so that's why businesses have got to step up, and I'm going to tell you, marcos is going to make them a lot of money. Yeah, absolutely, they're training him the way they want him to train. That's the other thing. Everybody's like I don't want an 18 year old kid, but why would you not take a kid that's motivated and make them into who you want them to be?
Speaker 1:That's right, and training is the most expensive part of implementing a new employee, a new position, a new crew, new anything. I'm training my people every single day, all day. Every time I answer the phone, it's a. Is this an education moment? Okay, it could have been basically a a terrible decision by made by one of my guys, it doesn't matter, or a lower guy, it doesn't matter, if we ended up in a good position or a bad position. Let's talk about number one. If we got here, good, let's. Let's repeat this sure, how do we not affect this? But if it's a bad, where do we go wrong? Discuss that issue with those relationships and dude the crew uh, there's nothing like it going every single day working with a crew that you enjoy, working with Dude it's not even freaking working.
Speaker 2:You spend more time with them than you do your family. Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1:But especially for the first four or five years. No kids, et cetera, in my neck of the woods man, I would love them. 60, 70 hour paycheck she know what I mean. I'd do anything I could, anyhow. But Ms Giselle, what? What skills did you enjoy? And maybe one that you didn't see yourself enjoying, that you do now?
Speaker 3:I don't think I disliked anything, honestly, when we had the dump truck, um, I loved driving that thing. I was on that thing like the whole time yeah they said, she hogged it me and sarah did.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, warm in there yeah actually it was not warm in there yeah, the only thing we have doesn't have heats the dump truck.
Speaker 3:Oh, fair enough uh, but I I love that thing, like it it was, it was nice. Um, I I guess I would say the one thing I didn't like was, um, or I don't like is that when I'm on the dozer, let's say, I go like like the other day I was trying to smooth out like the big lumps like, because you know how it was really cold and like stout and everything. There was like huge lumps that were like frozen and I was kind of trying to like, um, uh, smoothen them out. You basically like you know, and then, um, I kind of went over one, like I was backing up, and I went over one and I didn't realize and I like the whole dozer just goes like boom, like I just go like that and my friend's looking at me and I I'm just like I'm looking around making sure nobody saw that oh, that thing's scaring me.
Speaker 2:It's scaring me Like that's my biggest fear right there, yeah, your spine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your back. You can tell a guy that's ran a dozer for 30 years he's not trying to stick his arms out, but especially nowadays I've got to say with a little bit of hair right in them it helps a lot, but your spine does take a beating. So you're you're talking a lot about businesses being intertwined and I got to say from this side of the table just now, finding out about you guys, if they're a local business here or maybe not a local business in kind of the tri-state area, and they wanted to get involved. How could they get involved in investing?
Speaker 2:in these guys. Yeah, just just reach out to me. Reach out to rodney ellis, mine's real easy. It's c burkett, c-b-u-r-k-e-t-t at s dell dot org. Uh, you know, rodney dot ellis at sdellorg. Just reach out. I mean, call springdale public schools. Everybody knows me there, born and raised in Springdale, been there over 20 years. I mean I love the community, I love Northwest Arkansas. I'm not going anywhere. I mean I remember when this was a field where we're sitting right here doing a podcast right now, dove hunting out here.
Speaker 2:And so you know oh yeah, it's just, you know different times. So, and I love this place, so y'all just reach out. We want to do anything we can to help students and businesses. You know, interact Anything we can do. We're only as good as our partners and we have the resources. They're called Young Minds. We just need people to step to the table, and you know you're going to take chances on us. You know you're going to take chances on us.
Speaker 2:One thing I'll tell people, though, you know and I preach it to these kids, you know, both of these are are the best. I mean Cooper, do anything. You know. He works, uh, as a plumber, plays baseball, comes to my night class, you know, constantly trying to do better. Giselle's the same way. She's at school more nights than any other student. She works really hard.
Speaker 2:But, uh, you know, our word is our bond. If you take away everything on this planet, the only thing we have of any value is our word, and so I give anybody in this community my word. My word is better than money, because I always do what I say, and that's one of the things that I instill in these kids. It's like it does not matter what you do, you do what you say and and you got to deliver, even if you fall short. I'm not the best, I don't know everything about excavation. I'm not the smartest teacher. I'm not the smartest. Yeah, I'm a broken man, you bet. But my word's good, yeah, that's. And so you know, come see us, we will not waste your time, I'll do what I say.
Speaker 1:I got to say the time I spent with the students watching some of these kids operate and sorry for calling the old kids, but literally they're fixing to be graduating seniors and that's hard for your mind to grasp. They've been in seed time and like actual seed time and you can watch. Go out there and stand in that field and watch some of these uh folks move these machines and you're like, uh, who's that one in there? You know I was, I was, I was a little surprised. I straight up and be honest with you, um, but I'm really looking forward to coming down. We had talked about um doing some gps stuff with our um. Obviously we run top con but I happen to have a tremble guy that's very good in our office and he's eagerly ready to get involved.
Speaker 2:Well, we're interested, we're very interested. We want to get into TopCon also. I was talking to Gage Edwards at Edwards Design and that's what he uses, and we don't want to be a one-horse kind of show. We want everything. And you know, right now we're running CAT. Anybody out there that wants to get involved with us? Kamatsu, hey man, come on, where you at. It's like, come on, we want to showcase your equipment. We're not super needy, just loan us some equipment for a week at a time. Come out and do a demo, use our facilities to sell your equipment. There you go, we'll do partnerships. It's like we have ground. Come see us and and it's right there, next to the school too it's so easy, it's right off highway 412, East Springdale. You know, and you know I also want to invite parents in the community. You know, bring your kids to us. We want to take kids. We're we're working on this uh apprenticeship program right now, where we're going to accept kids from neighboring schools, and we want to get everybody involved. It's not just us and nobody else.
Speaker 1:We want to get everybody involved, that's so cool, and so they'll be able to, after their school program, essentially be able to come to you from another school district.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about the ESO program. It operates in our Adventure Career Center. We've got kids from all over Northwest Arkansas. They go to DTSOI. It's just a facility. Yeah, you know, we're breaking down these barriers of Friday night lives. We're providing services to community members. Doesn't matter where your kid goes to school. We're about educating all children, right, you know I say children also, there's young minds what are?
Speaker 1:uh. Cooper, you hit the nail on the head earlier when you said the blue collar side of things isn't going away. And you're right, buddy. And especially in our local area we have such an expanding area here in northwest Arkansas, it's blown up used to sit here and watch uh Shoe Dove in the same field, you know. So, um, what do you guys think your specific futures are? And I'd love to hear your five-year plans. Doesn't doesn't have to be nailed down to a t or anything, but what are some of the goals you guys are looking for? With the knowledge and the certifications that you've had from this program? The sky's the limit. I'll just tell you, but I'd love to hear from your, from y'all's side of things, what you think your goals are definitely add more of a dirt work side to mountain mechanical.
Speaker 4:You know right now we hire people to do it. You know the GC will hire them, but definitely add that to our business and that be advertised as a mountain thing. It would be pretty cool to do. Maybe even hopefully maybe make me the leader of it, because I'll have the experience with this class and hopefully add that to our that's a great goal, it's fantastic.
Speaker 1:so you're saying, uh, I've, I think I've dug for them actually years back when we were doing, uh, something down spring, anyways, that's beside the point. But you're saying, basically any type of geothermal lines or plumbing lines they have on site, you'd, you'd like to hopefully have a few pieces of equipment and be able to tackle that. Yes, thunder Mountain dude, that's so cool. Definitely add more to our arsenal, you bet. But I would tell you straight up just get what you need. I have overextended my knees. Oh, I need that and I need that and I need that. And oh, buddy, which sounds like you got some really good guidance in your dad and the folks over there in the leadership. But, giselle, what do you think your five-year would be?
Speaker 3:You know, I actually really like being in the machines. I love operating the machines, I love being in the field. That's something I'd always I want to stick with. But I'd also like being in the office and I actually recently found out about GPS and I was like, okay, I really want to get more into that. You know, um not, I think the other day we had somebody come in and like was kind of showing us like what it really was about and, uh, I definitely like to get more involved with that. Uh, as well as project management, it's like I also want to get into that too.
Speaker 1:it's it seems like a very interesting thing and it's like I see myself doing that too, but I also want to get into that too. It's, it seems, like a very interesting thing and it's like whole different sector on the estimating and site takeoffs and things that the estimators do up front. That is a total part of that. The whole model gets built before we actually get out there and start constructing. So the GPS side of things in the last five years has just it's. It's like you buy a computer and then six months it's obsolete, like it's just transforming so quickly and and they have autonomous haul trucks on routes that you can. It's crazy what you can do in that world Um, I'm learning as well, but it sounds like you just world.
Speaker 1:Um, I'm learning as well, but it sounds like you just you've. You've got more of a geared plan. Obviously I would too and um, but I didn't. I didn't necessarily have a uh dad or a grandfather to kind of business to fall in line with. So I know where you're sitting at and I would encourage you to work for um somebody that just 100% acknowledges your appreciation and dedication. As you're learning, you know what I mean. Life's too short to work places. You're not appreciated and that's the whole reason I started Zykon was to be able to treat you know, treat my people differently than the way I wanted to be treated. For sure, I wish it was all about the money, but it's not. And if you want to make it all about the money, but it's not. And if you want to make it all about the money, you're in for the wrong reasons.
Speaker 2:You've got to make a profit. Of course You've got to make a living, but you've got to enjoy who you're around. We can grind for long periods of time, some longer than others, but if there's no joy in what you're doing, you've got to like the people you're around.
Speaker 1:You have to, and your crew is everything absolutely. And you know, spending 50 hours a week with two, two guys that you don't like trying to get things accomplished is it's just no fun. Everybody's got to make it hard. The days become long. But once you find a crew that enjoys doing what you do every day and working as a team and wants to establish that relationship, I think that would be the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:Moving into the trades, I think so many agree or disagree with me here. I mean, it's pretty nerve wracking to just go I've got no experience. Pretty nerve-wracking to just go, hey, I've got no experience. Let me just go start with so-and-so, because I was oh petrified to start in the construction world. I was pulling cable until my buddy called me and said, hey, I think we got a spot open. You want to go? Put your app in and that's. I was at the city of Peerage and shout out to them boys, and moved my way up.
Speaker 1:But the experience that you guys are going to have, just the basics, is so key. Rather than just walking up and going, hey, I'll start the chances that you guys are going to have to succeed you're not going to have to count your failures, as you're learning through them. Yes, there's a lot of things you're going to learn. Heck, we learn every day. I have to. If you're not growing, you're learning through them. Yes, there's a lot of things you're going to learn. Heck, we learn every day, I have to. Um, if you're not growing, you're dying. So, um, I would 100% concentrate on those relationships, and there's people that you're going to come across that you're not going to like very much. Um, I would try your best not to create enemies, because, especially in my younger years I wish younger 20s I would have probably not made as many enemies, because I'm in the trade that I am and I stuck with it and made a few enemies that hurt me to this day that I wish I'd have never done. You know what I mean. So always be thinking long-term would be my other thing.
Speaker 1:For you guys, it's real easy to get caught up in the short-term goals of oh, I got to get to this point, and then I got to get to this point. It's all mundane at the end of the day. Write a five-year goal, one-year goal, six-month goal, be goal-oriented in everything that you do for your own self. And then if you start I just sent this out to my guys. I wish I'd have done this years ago. I'm really trying to transform me as a leader. I sent it out to my leadership team and said hey guys, what's your goals for 2025? What's your motivation professionally, personally? And I asked them, off the wall, if you had five grand to go spend any tool on what's important to you here at SciCon, what do we not have To? Hey, what is your family's vacation spot for this year? And, just off the wall, 15 questions. But what I got is a little bit of insight about those guys and, man, I wish I'd have started that so much sooner. It's so important, yep.
Speaker 2:Know where people are at. Yeah, you can't get maximum effort out of folks if you don't know what they're dealing with, where they want to go, what they're going through. You know it's something I. You know I love my boss, but I challenged him this past week on some stuff. You know it's like you can't take things for granted and he don't. But you know, sometimes we get so ingrained in the trenches that we forget that we're dealing with people. Yup and uh. I challenged my kids all the time. What can I do better? Yup, where have I failed you? Because I'm just a human being, that's right, and I'm going to.
Speaker 2:I want to challenge business owners. You got to get over this pride deal of saying you're sorry. You will build so many bonds with people if you make a mistake and you say I'm sorry. Kids. That's the number one way that I get kids to work for me. I fall short every day and I look them in the eye and I say I'm sorry, I let you down, I've let Cooper down, I've let Giselle down and I apologize. And I'll tell you what. These people will be my friends till the day I die, because I've treated them right. You showed them respect. Showed them respect. I admit when I'm wrong and they do the same with me. Yeah, you know, and so I applaud you for doing that because you know, if we just know where people are at, because you can pick them up if you know they're going through something. But so many employers today they don't know are always worried about the bottom line and they can take great employees and ruin great employees and you really lost somebody when you break their spirit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know what? I'll tell them myself a little bit. I lost a little bit of insight with my team last year. I had another level in between me and my culture and mass, you know, basically I had a project manager and, um, things were said one way and then, when boss is around, everybody's oh, happy, you know, everything's going good. Nobody wanted to tell me what was really going on.
Speaker 1:Yep and uh, I have swung that aircraft carrier 180 degrees and it takes some time to move the monster and culture, yep, um, but the instilled culture that you got you you guys have already received from from this man, uh, will take you a long ways, but I just wanted to share long-term goals. Don't be thinking in the short term especially. Um, it sounds like you've got a pretty easy path there. It can get really. Not easy, I shouldn't say that but a well-determined path and it's well thought out in. Hey, my dad's business has got this. I see a need. It's nonstop, always going to be a recurring thing. Dude, eat that up, go get the right equipment and I can't wait to see you in five years and you go. Hey, man, uh, I need bar track. Oh, you know, we give it a couple of years you know and to to have that um path from the basics of what you've been taught here is unbelievable Go ahead.
Speaker 2:I was going to His dad's done a good job with him. His dad works him, just like every employee. I got to applaud the way he raised Cooper. I mean, you know, it's just nice to know that some people, even though he knows that he can work there and he's going to work there it's not a give me, that's right. He's going to earn his stripes just the same as every other individual there. Yeah, I appreciate that. That's the kind of companies we want to partner with. Also, it's like we judge everybody on their merit, what they can do, and he's making his son do the same thing. That's a good man Absolutely. That's a good man Absolutely. That's a man that's going to have a business that will withstand things because it's built on a solid foundation. He's not. It's not a give me deal, that's right. And everybody has their place in the organization.
Speaker 1:So you know it's important. I'm excited I got to spend some time. There's interviews of these guys with a little bit shorter questions over on our YouTube and I encourage you to go check that out. But where do you guys see the future of skilled trades in general probably be my last question. We'll start with giselle this time. Um, yes, we've, we've mentioned it's not going anywhere, but you guys have seen things a whole world change in the last 20 years, with phones ever changing and technology ever changing. Where do you guys see the future of what we're doing?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean it could either be good or bad, you know. I just know that there will definitely. I mean, as the program is known as like, people start knowing more about it and as it gets bigger, you know more people are going to be involved and more people are going to like start finding jobs. You know things are going to get easier and it's like in some because there's a lot of like um. I want to say like, a lot of, what's the word?
Speaker 3:like uh, where you hit like um blockade like something, that kind of just like uh, what's the word? Sorry, um, you hit like, just like stops. You know, just like there's there's gonna be like a lot of people that will be looking for jobs and stuff, and there's gonna be people who will take things for advantage. You know, and it's like I think there's going to be a lot of work going on, especially here in arkansas.
Speaker 3:There's a lot, there's a lot like a lot of stuff to do and I think it's just going to get. This program is going to get known. You know a lot of people are going to be working, a lot of people are going to get more jobs and stuff, um, and definitely there might be like some jobs that will be taking over like, let's say, like ai and stuff than ours. You know it could, it could, it could get bigger. It could. You know, you never know, but, um, you know, I just know that this program is and the whole like yeah, this whole thing is just going to get bigger. You know it really is year by by year.
Speaker 1:To recap that the continued education is going to push forward more, and I couldn't agree any more with that. I think there's going to be programs like this as you're pioneering your way through this and going through the mud to get to where you've got. But it gets worse and I can't wait to see them get placed in jobs and in the local job market. But yeah, I think it's never going away. Yeah, ai is going to take over some things. There's no doubt about it. But in our world there's always going to be a need for men and women and machine seats, running wire, whatever the case may be building buildings, and this country needs you guys desperately. And to be as passionate as I know, both of you as I've spent a little bit of time with you guys are about what you're fixing to your next step in life. I applaud you very much. What do you think the future of them skilled trades is going to be, especially as much as you've seen it in the last year or lifetime?
Speaker 4:As long as we have people like Brickette, that pushes the younger generation people who just want to go home, sell on the couch, be on their phones, be on TikTok and just be comfortable with where they're at and working fast food or just living off their mom and dad. As long as we have people to him to push those people to get out and get in this heavy equipment class or anything, it's gonna be good. I'm excited to see what the future holds for blue collar.
Speaker 3:That's cool and I feel like burkett definitely shows us like it's okay if we mess up, you know, because not that long ago we had that new semi and one of our buddies got stuck.
Speaker 1:Let's hear the story.
Speaker 2:The day we roll her in. We've taken a beating in this old truck. We've been testing and I've temp gunned the floor on that old truck. It'd get 130, 140. We was right over the exhaust last year. So we did all this work. I got to thank Rodney. I mean he really put the work in, got us a nice heavy haul truck the day we rang it out there. I'll let them pick up from there.
Speaker 3:Well, the day that we brought it out, we got there. Got there for second period. First period is already like driving in. They've already put some like um.
Speaker 1:A little mud on the Little mode, on all the old Chinese stone folks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's already a lot of runs. Yeah and second period, we're there, I'm second period, and we're actually both third. So we get there and we're like all right, let's go, let's get on it. And I guess our cat had left some students in charge. And then so we go and they're like all right, you guys are in charge. And so we're like you guys are in charge, we got this. We were doing good, me and her were driving it, we were doing perfectly fine. We have one of our buddies come in.
Speaker 2:He was doing fine, he ran her off in the mud. We buried her to the frame. It created a new opportunity. They had to figure out how to get it out. That wasn't calling a wrecker.
Speaker 3:We told them don't go in the ruts. Don't go in the ruts. We told him specifically not drive into the muds. And if you drive into the muds, do not stop. So our buddy goes into the ruts.
Speaker 4:Our buddy yeah.
Speaker 3:Goes into the ruts, doesn't just stop, changes gears.
Speaker 4:That's where we messed up, see grind again. So the truck just stopped, missed a gear and slowly that truck sank and sank. And it took definitely most of the machines we have out there to finally get it off.
Speaker 1:All of them.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we had to dig it out, pull it out. It was a mess. But you know, I guarantee you they'll never forget it, because I made them hand wash and polish that truck afterward and so you know, it's one of those deals you got to lick your calf.
Speaker 3:You make a mistake, you're gonna make it right, that's right and so, uh, you know I wasn't, I wasn't real pleasant with him gave him and that's like that's and obviously our buddy he was I'm not gonna say names, but um, he was a little like he was, she was, he felt bad. You know you can obviously see it in his face and he he did not. Actually after that he never got into the dump truck. We I told briquette I was like give him another chance.
Speaker 2:He's gonna get back in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he will, he gotta get back in the saddle, old son, you just come on. You know what I mean?
Speaker 3:yeah, for sure and he forgave him. You know, we all make mistakes in life and it's, I feel, like that's a really good thing that briquette did.
Speaker 2:It's like he gave him another chance and and for you know, for our business partners, they're making these mistakes not on your dime, that's right. I guarantee you he will never do that again because I promise you, I was raised by a blue collar guy, marine, and you know there were. There were harsh words said because he's going to face that in the real world. Oh yeah, there weren't a meaning. It's not personal, but you're going to take your lumps and you've got to make it right, and so we work on that too.
Speaker 1:I'd rather have a few harsh feelings to deal with rather than a boss man just lose my income in about two and a half seconds. I've never fired anybody for getting a truck stuck or I've had equipment flipped. I've had things that you can't even write, um. But at the same time, it's not about mistakes we make, it's how we handle them. Sure, and uh, I tell my guys all the time it's that 50 to one ratio, um, in the job sense, it's the 50 good jobs we do. You'll nobody will ever talk about, nobody will ever see. But it's that one bad job man, um, that that one bad thing that happened during this class, that's all they'll ever talk about. You know, with that guy, and it's the same in the real world, it's exactly the same. And so you got to do a hundred hundred good jobs before they you get that one and make sure you finish your job, no matter what it is, whether you're getting paid, but taking your lumps.
Speaker 1:I literally uh with, uh, the entity here that we're sitting in, uh, I was at the water department. I threw a fit on my final day on this subdivision about he said a certain part some newer inspectors, and I said you're wrong and I'm going to prove it to you. I didn't really say I would prove it to you, but I'll prove myself right, because if I'm calling somebody and I'm telling them wrong, whether it's my mistake or not, it wasn't my mistake. It was my supply house's mistake and not much I could do about it. So I went out there, I hand dug it, figured it all out, got it all figured out, pulled my part out, went up to him and I said is this not what you're talking about? And he grabbed his and showed me the difference and I had to go. Hmm, okay, let me run to this fly house. Can I borrow that for just a minute? Went over there and he said, yep, those are difference and I'm talking a quarter inch of brass difference.
Speaker 1:But I had to go back to him and go dude, I'm sorry, I flat through a fit like a child and I was dead set on. I thought I knew it, but I didn't. But 15 minutes before I walked in here and it's the real world. But the respect that you gain from the mistakes that you make and how you handle them is game changer. I'll earn way more customers off of the mistakes I make in this job that went bad than I ever would. If I've done 25 great jobs for this guy, yep, it's insane. So any questions for me? I'm going to flip the script. Any questions for me before we get on out of here? Not for me.
Speaker 2:No, what's been your biggest challenge? Two part? Okay, with your business and with this podcast.
Speaker 1:That is ooh. The first thing with the challenge in business is wishing I had a resource like this to know business. It's knowing business. It's not about the machines, the debt, the people, all of that. I just wish I knew more about business before I hopped in this. I thought I knew it. I thought I knew it.
Speaker 1:I've learned a lot in the last nine years from being a. When you're your own business owner, you're a CEO, and you don't even know it. Like I'm just a dirt guy, I'm a pipe guy. That's what I know. I don't know. I didn't know what a P&L was, a balance sheet, underbilling and overbilling, all these dates, bonds, fancy terms that I'll never you know. And I had to learn all that why? Well, I had everybody counting on me to know that, and especially in the last couple of years, I have had to go to people very shamefully and embarrassing and go hey, look, look, what I screwed up. I need your help because I got 25 people up there counting on me to figure it out. And so that would probably be. And that's leading into the podcast.
Speaker 1:I started this podcast solely to help blue collar and skilled trades entrepreneurs. I don't care what you're doing, but bringing people from the white collar sector down to anything that we need to highlight and show within the blue collar sector that we may not know about, but the amount of hate that I have received for doing what I'm doing the commercial construction game is very business in general. The commercial construction game is very business in general. Nobody wants to open up and share a resource with somebody, and we were talking about that on the last podcast with Trebo. If there's a new type of glue that this supplier's got, that one contractor will be like well, hang on, nobody, I glue, nobody needs to know about that. That. Why wouldn't we tell everybody we can improve our entire you know what? What if it drives fast, drives faster in in the spec time or whatever the case may be, guys, but um it, mentally I gotta say it's. I'm running a business, my dad of three and my husband of 10 years 10 years, those two things are for sure, not in that order. Obviously it's tough.
Speaker 1:And then I was like man trying to find a resource to help me through this really wasn't. And so I was like I told my wife, I said we're going to do this YouTube thing and then a year into it, I was like I've got from the just amount of outreach that these guys were pouring, pouring, uh, emails and direct messages, and I'm like these guys need help. I'm not, and it kind of was insightful for me because I was, it was reassurance. I should say, not insightful as in oh, I'm not the only one just sitting here failing or feeling like I'm failing, yep, and so, but it is.
Speaker 1:It is challenging and just I see, though, the one star ratings or there's people that are making silly comments all through the socials and and our YouTube and stuff, the socials and and our youtube and stuff. But putting this out here in the last couple of years, um, it's been tough just on me personally, because you want to talk about somebody that, um, has imposter syndrome. I don't believe that I'm sitting here, qualified to sit here and talk about any of what I'm talking about, other than my failures and inadequacies during my experience of what I've got here. Yep, but that's what everybody needs to know.
Speaker 2:Those failures are the teachers. Well, and you know, I always say I used to be self-conscious, but I reached a point about 2018, I went through some adversities in life and I just woke up one day and I realized like I'm going to do right, and people that are hating on me are fearful of what I'm trying to accomplish, and all I'm trying to accomplish is build other people up. So I'm going to challenge you to just block that out. Dude, you're doing a good thing. Don't worry about what anybody else is saying. You got kids here that have their lives ahead of them and you're showcasing what they're doing.
Speaker 2:If that's not a service to our community and you're not doing what's right, what else is that's right? So you know haters are going to be haters. That's right. You know it's like they're going to do that and you know all I can say is hey, you know, come, help us, be a part of the solution. Let's not be a problem. Come help us solve these problems. Invest into this community that's worth investing in. We've got the best people in the world here, dude. The people here are great. I love every one of them. We've got good, wholesome families that are trying to achieve the American dream.
Speaker 1:Literally, you're setting them up for the.
Speaker 2:American dream. One other quick question for you. I always like to ask people this, because I always want to get better. What is one thing that I could do better? I know you don't know everything I do. You don't know me real well. You've seen snippets.
Speaker 1:But what is the single most important thing that I should be doing? Because I can't get kids better if I'm not working constantly to be better myself. Basically, the pioneer, the CEO, the ideation of this entire design it's something I struggle with personally letting go and trying to. You're obviously a great teacher and a trainer. You wouldn't be producing the kids into employees drastically over and over again again. But I can see it being a little bit of a struggle for you to pass it to somebody else because of the level of care and passion that you do have for this program, just like I do my business. It's really hard to start putting some of the processes and procedures that you've got to this point on paper for somebody else to start following Am.
Speaker 2:I hitting the head on that. No, I think that's a hundred percent. That's one of the conversations Rodney and I had over the past weeks is how do we get other instructors? And we got to. We got to find some people Like other people have got to step up. They got to have the same passion, you know for sure.
Speaker 1:It's hard. It's hard because employees uh, not I'm not saying for the program, but for my side of the table an employee will never care If you guys go out and start your own thing, they will never care, ever as much as your business, about your business, as you do. It's just a nature of the beast. And it takes you a long time four or five years of if you make it to that point where I almost didn't and going why don't these people care? How do they not get it? And you're going to see a lot of that moving forward in the next couple of years in whatever walk that you take. But it's just a struggle of that ownership mindset that I wish I could pass on, and so what I have done over the last couple of years is tried to build a culture of ownership mindset.
Speaker 1:But I'm I'm going to a whole different level that I don't think many folks are, and I've got people I got three different people working on me and my processes and procedures because I'm real good with ideation laying this out here. This is what we're going to do, but my execution because I'm so daggone busy in so many other areas is lacking, and that's terrible for my team, and so I want to multiply them. I want to multiply what we're doing, work-wise, everything, but I have had to take even more time that I don't have. That's non-existent and go, all right, I'm blocking this hour, this hour and this hour, those three hours a week. I've got to focus on organization of this, producing a system that I can replicate whatever the case may be. But yeah, that's—.
Speaker 2:I've got a couple quick things. I've got a person sitting across from you here that can help you do that.
Speaker 1:I know that's what I'm— we got until May, right, that's right.
Speaker 2:We had talked about it. She will love what you love, because that's who she is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got a spot for you on the Old Dirt Crew. We can probably figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she'll make you so much money. My hard worker got a heart of gold. I was scared of work, oh of scared of work, oh. And just one last thing I got a shout out to one guy. So when we first started getting kids in trades, there's one guy in springdale we have so many partners, I couldn't name them all.
Speaker 2:Everybody in this community's been so outpouring and I want more. Yeah, I mean, I named a few early on, but there's one guy that did this, has been doing this for 15 years plus. He kind of pioneered the idea. He's what got me wanting to do more and that's Kent Rogers at Mars Electric. That guy has he will hire as many as we produce. There's no cap. And the guy trust me, he takes my word and I'm going to tell you he develops. You know, he develops young men into electricians and if they don't work there, he finds them other jobs. But that man has single-handedly hired more of our students than anybody. He's probably hired 30, 40, maybe 50. And we had a meeting here back in the fall and I think all but three are still working for him.
Speaker 2:Wow, and so you know, it's just that kind of guy is the kind of guy that you know he sends buses out, like he has vans for people that live in areas. You know he hired a lot of kids from Huntsville over the years. He had a guy that lived out by Alpena. He just provided a Mars van. He would go by and pick up a whole crew, have 10 guys come in. That's an innovative approach and we're talking 15, 20 years ago, and so this guy understood where to find talent and then, you know, provide a pathway here. So I challenge these other businesses. You got to be innovative, like Kent. Yeah, I want to thank him and I want to thank you, man. It's been, you know, refreshing to have somebody interested in kids.
Speaker 3:I have another question Go ahead. So where do you and your company, where do you see you in your company?
Speaker 1:okay, in five years that is a loaded question. That's fair enough. Um, I will. Where do we start? Uh, let's keep this short and sweet.
Speaker 1:I want to have to continue to have the best team that I've ever had. I want to be the best leader that I can be. I know a lot of most folks are probably well, how many dozers and how many trackos, and that's not the measure. I want to bring something I'm already working on for the civil construction trade. That's a totally different application in how we execute a project for our customers that I want to change over the next five years. It's going to take some years to change some people's minds and the approach of how and being innovative and how you tackle a project. But over that 36, I hope the next three years, I can hopefully and we are starting to see a little bit of that not to get too far off on the answer, but it's going to take time for what I want to do and work with customers who have a vision for a project, or we can be brought in pre-designed and be more of a in-house name in the design build game.
Speaker 1:I've spent nine years building to what we've got now from a Mini-X and a Skid Steer and absolutely no money. And if we've made it to where we have, I don't even know where we're going to be in 60 months and the sky is the limit. I just want to pour back into my team. I want to help them achieve their personal goals. I want to put them in houses. I want them to because it's easy to sit here and talk about culture but it's hard and it's expensive to provide it. But if the whole team is bought in, the sky is limit. And the guys that I have right now the dirt, the pipe guys I've had guys working 24 hours, four days this week, not personally, but day shift, night shift, day shift, night shift, doing utility work around here and they are all bought in to where we're going. They're campaigners for the podcast and the YouTube. A lot of them didn't like it at first. Some of them left and I wouldn't say because of it, but just the direction that we're heading.
Speaker 1:I want to change construction a little bit and how we're perceived. There's a stigma about us and I think y'all's generation that's coming is there's going to be more of you equipped with skills, like through programs that you guys are already in, to be able to take over the world, literally five years. I don't know. That's about my roundabout answer I've got for you. Is that fair? Yeah, because, number one, I don't love labeling things because I, in my head, once you label it, you limit it, and so there's revenue goals, there's projections, there's budgeting. There's all of this that I would love to hit, but if I can still have every man that works for me right now happy and content and achieve some of their personal goals through combating everyday work, and I think that'd be my number one goal for five years from now.
Speaker 1:Of course you got to add people. If you're not growing, you're dying. It's no truer statement. And, yeah, any other questions, you've got to add people. If you're not growing, you're dying. It's no truer statement. Any other questions you guys got. I think that was fair. A little round of questions. What do you think about that, guys? Well, if you guys have loved this episode, I encourage you. There's 25 plus episodes now.
Speaker 1:Bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom Also. If you're watching on Spotify, you can uh. Or listening on Spotify, you can now watch directly from the Spotify app. Uh, every single podcast that's a new feature coming out with Spotify there, um, but uh. Lastly, guys, I just want to tell you thank you for jumping into the program, taking the chance and not wasting the opportunity, because I asked Chad. When I first got there, I said I need two of the best. I want two folks that didn't waste this opportunity and I want to shed some light on them. So you two were obvious quick picks. I mean he didn't change names since day one. So keep at it, and thank you guys for investing in the blue collar world that you're fixing to walk into Chad. You got anything else.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you, man. Thank Norvois, dark Solve, all of our construction partners. You know, hit us up, we want to help you do better, that's right.
Speaker 1:Till next time, guys. Be safe, be kind, be humble. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like. Share it with the fellers. Check out our website to send us any questions and comments about your experience in the blue collar business. Who do you want to hear from? Send them our way and we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have. Till next time, guys.