Fired Up Podcast Ep.9 | Paid to Learn: How Abt Electronics Builds Careers From the Ground Up

We have talked a lot about getting the next generation into the skilled trades. In this episode we are thrilled to hear from a young person at the start of a promising career about his journey to Abt Electronics and what it is like to be young and finding your path into the skilled trades.

Welcome to Episode 9 of the Fired Up Podcast, a production of The Trade Collective. Hosts Dr. Pete Bavis and Patrick Hughes sit down with Stefan Johnson and Josh Eddy from Abt Electronics.

Josh tells his story from high school to connecting with Stefan Johnson and finding his place working at Abt Electronics. He breaks down why the choice to go to a traditional college wasn't working for him and how he has been able to find community, excitement, and financial stability at Abt Electronics.

Meet The Guests:

🎙️ Stefan Johnson: Stefan spent 28 years as a police officer in Glenview before joining Abt Electronics, where he now leads workforce development. Stefan went into Abt as a customer, had a conversation with the owner about a six-month project, and has been there for over nine years.

🎙️ Josh Eddy: Josh grew up in Evanston and graduated from Evanston Township High School. He had plans to go to Illinois State but life had other plans. After two years of working and figuring things out, Josh was introduced to Abt Electronics through The Trade Collective. He has been employed by Abt  for over a month.   He is getting paid to learn. He rates it 10 out of 10 and is talking about staying 20 years.

In this episode, we discuss:

🔥 How do you know that the skilled trades are right for you? What unique career experiences do you get from working in the skilled trades? How do we show students all the paths available to them?

🔥 What does it mean to get paid to learn? How does Abt Electronics certify young people in HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and more while they are already working and earning a paycheck?

🔥 How do you go from feeling lost after high school to finding community, financial stability, and a career you are actually excited about?

Join the Movement: New episodes drop every other Thursday — and we just moved to Thursdays! Stay tuned and make sure you are following so you never miss an episode.

Follow our journey on social media!

Contact & Support: General Inquiries: info@thetradecollective.org

Igniting the future of the skilled trades. Let's get fired up! 🔥

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Patrick's fired up. Fired up!

SPEAKER_02 0:09

How's everybody on time? You got are we got about 40 minutes, 50 minutes for this conversation? Are we okay?

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Okay, great. Are you okay? You got a hot date?

SPEAKER_03 0:17

No.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Well, not yet, at least. Hasn't come in yet. No. Yeah, I'm good. You recognize that place up there?

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Yes, that's the warehouse.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

We're good. All right, we're rolling. My favorite day of the week. There it is. Podcast time. Let's get fired up. Uh Pete, how are you? I'm doing great, man. Good. Yeah. Yeah. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited about today. Me too. Um, what's going on over at the high school? Anything that we should know about?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Oh, yeah. We got seniors getting ready to graduate. We got prom coming up, so we're gearing up for all those kind of exciting things. All right. So, you know, it's it's it's transition time at the high school.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Which is fitting for this conversation in a way. You know, because you know, what do you do after prom and graduation?

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Right. Well, we've got an iron pour coming up here at the beginning of May, and then we're going to have an expo. We're going to have probably 150 students here, all levels of high school from freshman to senior. The seniors are obviously who are not going to go off to a four-year college, are going to be maybe looking for something. Um, are they what we call trade ready? Not yet. That's coming down the road probably a couple years from now. But these are smart kids that are going to be looking for something. And so we'll we'll have 30 to 40 different folks from the trades here. And uh it's gonna be exciting.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

It's gonna be great. So let's get to our guests because this is I'm kind of excited about today. All right. We've got uh Stefan here and uh Josh. I've known you. Well, I've known you both both about the same time. So a couple months now, maybe no longer for we've known each other, probably about a year now, I would think. About a year, yeah. Um, let's start with you, Stefan, if you don't mind. Tell us who you are. You know, how did you find yourself at apt? Um, I think it's a cool story. I think kind of like if you don't mind, just giving us a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Um, hi, Stefan Johnson. I work at Apt Electronics in Glenview. I started there about eight years ago. Uh I went in to inquire about getting some electronics or some furniture. My new house, I was moving out of state and uh had a conversation with the owner about a six-month project. And nine years later, I'm still there.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Wow. Wait, you you went in to buy something? Yes. And you ended up working there.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Yeah, I uh already knew the owner, already knew the store um uh from my previous career. Uh so I went in to talk to them and say, I'm moving out of to Florida. I was wondering if I could stay a customer. And he said, sure, what are you doing? Uh we talked about it, and uh he said, Hey, I got a project I want you to work on for me. Uh take about six months, and uh I've been there ever since. What was your previous job that you were? I was uh police officer in the village of Glenview and apt is in Glenview, so that's how I know this story.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Okay, yeah. All right. How did you get into the police work?

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Uh that's a long story, too. My mother asked me to promise her I would never be a Chicago cop. Uh my father was a Chicago cop, so uh I did. I promised her I'd never be a Chicago cop. Uh so I came out to the suburbs and signed up. Uh, did 28 years in uh Glenview and I've been in AP nine years. Wow. So uh made a career out of both, making a career out of this one and made a great career out of police work.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

I I just first need to say thank you. The the way you've welcomed us here at the Trade Collective, the way that I see I'm excited to hear more about APT because I think, you know, and and if you many, many people around this area are customers, but I don't think they know the underbelly and the beautiful culture that is at Apt. And that's what I'm hoping we can talk about today. And sort of kind of I heard the average employee stays there 17 years. Is that the right number?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

That's about right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

About right.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

We always say if you could make it one year there, because it's a tough grind of a place to work. Uh, but if you can fit into the culture uh and stay one year, usually people stay a very long time.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Josh, yes, you just started there. How long ago did you start there? Tell us your story. Where are you from?

SPEAKER_03 4:23

How'd you get over there? Okay. My name is Joshua. Uh, I grew up in Evanston all my life, and actually, you guys introduced me to um app and the app family. So yeah, that's how that's how I got in there. And um, what was the second question?

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Well, tell me you went to Evanston High School. Yeah, I did. And what happened after high school? What what was going on for you? What was going on in your life?

SPEAKER_03 4:47

I wanted to go to um four-year college. I got into like ISU, Illinois State, and I was planning on going, but some complications happened in the middle of that, and I ended up I didn't I didn't go. And so I was kind of hurt and kind of like felt some type of way about it. And I was just thinking, like, okay, what can I do? What can I do? What could I do like to figure out like what I want to do in life? And I I think my parents a lot, because they helped me, they guided me into the right direction. At first, I'm like, this is not gonna get me nowhere. I didn't I didn't want to do the route they wanted to wanted me to take, but it ended up working, and so I just I'm just grateful I could I could be here right now.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

So go go not to like I'm not a therapist or a psychologist, but you said some stuff was going on. Tell me if you don't mind, because I think you're not the only one. There's a lot of kids that that you know come out and don't go to a four-year for whatever whatever happens, life happened. What what what goes on for you at that time?

SPEAKER_03 5:50

They didn't let me go because they thought I wasn't ready for like any responsibility by myself, which now I believe it is kind of fair. But um I mean there's a lot of kids who ex like are expected to go to college, like right after high school, like that's in their family, but that's not really for everybody. So I mean for my family, like a lot of people went to college, and college was like a big thing, but it not me not going to college for real, it was like like I would feel some type of way to see, like, or to say, Oh yeah, I didn't go to college. But my my peers with like like high honors and uh graduates and they do all this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

So yes. You're not supposed to ask people their age, but how old are you now? Twenty. Twenty. So it was a couple years uh that you were going through this.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Like that's a long time. And what were you doing in that in between?

SPEAKER_03 6:45

I was working and I was taking part-time classes at Oakden to get my GED done. And so that's that's really what I was doing for like two years, and then um I got introduced into like the trades by my by my neighbor, actually. And because he was uh a carpenter and he does like stuff on his own. And I just I jumped in with him one day, he took me to his or one of his job sites, and I worked there for a damn like I can get into this. And so that's that's what really got me into the trades for.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

So before we got into this interview, Pete, I asked, you know, give me one to ten. What's it like at Apt? And you said I said ten.

SPEAKER_03 7:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Now I need a little background on that. What what what what what makes it a 10? Well, uh first of all, how long you been there now? And kind of what are you doing, and what makes it a 10?

SPEAKER_03 7:35

Well, I've been there for like a month. No, I think two weeks, a month. And for when I first started it, like everybody was so nice to me. Like it was like they said, okay, if you need help, come ask me. I got you, I got you, I got you. I'm like, okay. It was kind of overwhelming at first. But as like you started getting to know people and you get like you get more comfortable around them, like it's it was it was real crazy at first, but it was it it was also real simple to figure out because everybody was like helping me and stuff. So I got it like downpacked in like two days, take less.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

But a 10 is kind of like the best you can get. So what what makes it what's the what are the feelings that come up when you you you're you're excited to go to work? Yeah. Tell me.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

Because when I worked at Jewel, it was like, yeah, I gotta, I gotta come over here and do my little A hours. But when I go to App, I'm like, yeah, I get to see these certain people, I get to, I get to do this certain stuff, and it gets me all excited, all that all that. I'm like, yeah, I'm ready to come to work every day.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

So Stefan, you you, you know, it was probably a month and a half ago that we came over and we brought five people over to uh to apt and and you led us on a behind the scenes tour. And I I first of all, you're just an incredible um partner to us. First of all, thank you for believing in what we're doing. Absolutely. What happens on a tour like that? I mean, when you're thinking when you've got five young people who are looking for something, what goes on in your mind as you're guiding people through your world?

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Josh and I come from a very similar past. I never graduated high school. I had to go back and get my GED. I had no idea what I was gonna do until I was about 26 and I decided on police work. Um, tried a few things that weren't successful. Uh tried some bad things that weren't successful. Uh so police work kind of became the thing. I I found out that I was actually very good at it. Um the fact that I came out of my community, South Shore, all the way up to Glenview, was a little bit of culture shock on top of doing a job that was tough that I had to be perfect at all the time. I didn't have a lot of uh room for failure. Um so when I look at Josh and I looked at some of the other uh uh young people you brought through, I can relate. And the biggest thing that I needed, and I kind of like what uh Josh needed, was somebody to kind of take me under the wing and push me in a certain direction. I didn't know what I was gonna do to make money. Even when I uh became a police officer, I didn't realize how lucky I was to have uh been accepted into that profession. Uh but somebody there used to tap me on the shoulder a lot. Hey kid, don't go over there with those guys and don't don't do that sort of police work, do that sort of police work. When you go and you drive uh out here in Glenview, drive this way, not that way. And it was a lot, I mean a ton of mentoring. And at the time I didn't realize that's that's what it was. I just kind of went in, went through the motions, did the best I could, went home. Um but about three to four years in, I started to see the vision of what Clechework really was evolving into and what was good about it, uh about it, and what was bad about it. And I had to make a decision and which way uh I want to go. So when I see uh Josh and uh some of the kids come through, I I can relate. The first thing I think I tell them is about culture, about uh being friendly. You can be friendly and come in and and kind of put yourself to the side and and and be a good employee, fit into the culture, fit into the family. These are the things we can offer you. This is how much money you probably be making in four or five years. This is what we can teach you, this is what we offer. And the greatest thing about it is we're going to pay you to learn it. We're gonna pay you to take advantage of a great opportunity. Uh so if you're not interested in school, if you want to get into the trades, if you want to learn uh accounting or custom audio or HVAC or plumbing or electricity, you don't have to go to a school and learn it. Come here, we're gonna pay you a really nice salary to learn it, and before you know it, you'll be certified and able probably to open your own business. Back up.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

No. So you can you can you get paid to learn? Yes. You learn, yes. And and this isn't like just this isn't like book learning. This is like like talk to me about what what the hands-on experience is. Like, what does that entail? Do y'all have like like what is that? What's it look like? Walk us through it.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

It's pretty it's it's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

It's like a little city. And uh all these different sections of the city is all these different opportunities in the city. Um, and he's right, when you first get there, everybody is so supportive, it kind of creeps you out. But then you realize they're genuine, they really do want to see you succeed. You succeed, they succeed. Uh, if Josh succeeds at the job he's doing now, some other kid gets to advance to a different position. Uh, we are a state certified trade school. Uh we teach plumbing, we teach HVAC, we teach um uh appliance repair, we teach HVAC installation repair, we teach custom audio, uh um uh electrical uh recycling, merchandising, um uh accounts payable, accounts receivable. Uh apps, the apt family way is if we can't find enough skill labor, if we can't find enough plumbers, if we can't find enough electricians, why don't we create some?

SPEAKER_01 13:09

I was gonna ask that question. Like, what was the what was Apt University born out of?

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Years ago, uh a young person would get a job at Apt. Uh, we would stick them out on the road with a couple of veterans and a truck and say, hey, learn a job. Well, the guys who 20 years ago were put in that position are now managers. They they moved on, they moved up. And they knew what a struggle it was not to have a formal uh training process. So they created Apt University. And what it is is an area in the store where we have kitchens and garages, uh, laundry rooms, um attics, right? You have attics uh heating and cooling. We have live areas where you can actually dig and learn how to bury cable or uh live walls, live everything that you can actually go in and and with your hands learn how to run wire, how to fix electricity, how to drill successfully through a piece of glass towel without cracking it. We have ceilings and crawl spaces you have to learn how to work in to do get your job done. And so it's not just uh places where you come in and there's a TV on. We we physically train you to work on furnaces. And we feel that if you can go through a couple of weeks of app university, um, you can do about 70% of the jobs we're gonna send you out on successfully every day. And then there's the expert stuff. So we have uh we went from two electricians to 24, soon we'll be 48. Went from three plumbers to six, soon they'll be 12, and after 12, they'll be 24. Uh we take kids now from high school off the streets if they have the aptitude and the attitude. It's huge, and they can fit into our culture. And we can certify them in HVAC within two to three weeks, they're out in your home installing, repairing, and uh uh vending uh uh sheet metal. We teach all that right in the store.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

So, so I and we pay you. I was gonna say, and you pay. And why why is that investment critical from app's perspective?

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Uh apps have been around since 1936. We are constantly expanding. We have a serious growth problem. It's a good problem. That's a great problem. But we also are looking at uh we are in our fourth generation of the app family, and we want to preserve what we have now um and grow it. So when that fourth generation and then their children from the app family come, there's still a business there for them to grow, to to live off of, to, to have as uh the a basis for their family. Um and the basis for the all the families that are there. We have many families that are there, um third generation. One family I like to point them out. The dad's been there 54 years, he was there 54 years, his son has been there 27 years, and his son has been there three years. Wow. That doesn't happen by mistake. It does not. It's uh like I said, I went there for a six-month project. I've been there nine years. My kid works there now. So it's uh it's uh it's it's a family business.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

And where does that come from? I I I I I got the opportunity to spend some time with John Apton. I I can I I've felt it with him, but I I there's something about it being a family-owned business. And tell tell me how what do you what makes up that juju there? What what what makes that so good?

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Well, it's uh the the app family, of course. Uh I always say to people, you know, you see all these products, we we we sell them, we deliver them, we install them, we repair them, and when you don't want it anymore, we recycle it and turn it into another product for you six months later. But it's it's really about the culture and the customer service. That's really what we sell. If we had sucky culture and sucky uh uh customer service, people might shop once and never come back. But we've had customers that have been coming to us in third and fourth generations of customers over the last 90 years.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Oh, yeah, it's about loyalty. I mean, really, and it's it's it's a real family experience. I mean, as someone who shops there, as someone whose whose wife's family shop there, whose wife's mom shop there, it's like it you that's where you go because you get this guaranteed experience, which is pretty unique.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Well, it's not just the experience of shopping. Uh, you know, if you look on our atrium, we have the uh the transformers, we have the light boards, we have the 50,000-year-old cave bear. We have all the cook up 10,000 cookies a year we're putting out. We just brought in lemonade and and uh and uh grilled cheese sandwiches.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

What?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

And uh man, I gotta go back. It's more than a sh a place to shop, it's an experience. Yes. Uh some people are bored, they come to app just to hang out all day. Uh so it's uh we have movies in the in the in the Dave App Theater. Uh so it it's it's it's a serious experience and it's a customer service experience that you can't get anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

And that that comes out of the culture though that you've developed and created, and that's intentional. So like Josh, you said when you came in, you were like, was it kind of like, wait, wait, this is was it different than any other place you'd been?

SPEAKER_03 18:04

For sure. Yes. Because I didn't well the atrium at first was like, this is this is a store. It looked like a mall, to be honest with you. But like it was it was real cool. But uh like I had no words for real, to be honest with you, when I left. I'm like, they they've done a good job with with their company, because where they came from, it's like they came from probably like a a building like this big, and they expanded to huge, huge operations. Like that's that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

So and like as a part of that, right? So like you're you're so you started out, you spoke about how welcoming it is, how everybody's supportive. I mean, how does that feel compared to other jobs? Because I know you worked at a grocery chain, sounds like you're at uh at a grocer. How's that culture different? How's that how's the apt culture different than the previous culture?

SPEAKER_03 19:02

Um well they take care of their everybody, basically. Like they're like they don't have any favorites. Let me say that. Like they they treat everybody equally and they give the same amount of respect to each other, and they don't they will they will do anything for you basically.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

So that's great.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Where do you want to go? What do you think you want to do? When when you when you went in there, what were you thinking you wanted to do? And then now that you've been there for a month, what what is it, what's your future look like? What are you thinking? You like I mean, where are you do what are you doing now?

SPEAKER_03 19:34

And then where do you what do you hope to maybe uh right now I'm in the warehouse and I'm like helping customers with their appliances? Um, but in like a yeah, I don't know. I could be anywhere, to be honest. They could put me on truck, they could put me in app university, they could put me in customer service.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

I like is is whatever and do you have choice over that, or is they there's somebody kind of mentoring you and saying, you know what, I think you'd be good at is you know these things. I don't know how that works. And do you know yet?

SPEAKER_03 20:04

I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Uh yeah, I think maybe Stefan can help us with that. Because what we were talking before we got on here today, you were just saying you were very proud of him, and you're, you know, just he was giving you kudos. And maybe you could how does that work? What what's the process for a young person?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

What we want our newer employees to do is come in and learn the culture. Learn how we do things that the apt way, call it. Once you learn the apt way, it is everybody's job there, especially the managers and some of the senior employees, to kind of assess hey, you know, I've been watching Josh for a year. I think we ought to try him over here. Josh, what do you think about that opportunity? Uh, he also knows that he's gonna be in the warehouse uh a year, maybe two, and then at that point, he'll be a senior person. It'll be his job to teach the new people coming through the door. His success is directly uh related to people coming in after him. Uh so just as his success is directly related to the people who want to move on, but they got to teach him to do the job first before they get an opportunity to go somewhere else. So the uh the process of assessment and feedback is uh is constant. So I go through and I'll I'll ask the managers, hey, how's Josh doing today? Or um he his name came up uh in an email. He did something really great, and uh apparently one of the managers had already had a conversation with him about a few things.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Is this a true story?

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah, yeah. And so the comments were there in the emails. Oh, that he's a great kid. Who brought him in? I had it. Well, okay. Well, he makes me look really, really good. So every time he makes me look good and I see there's an opportunity somewhere, I'll come to him. Hey Josh, there's a there's an opportunity uh opportunity in HVAC, there's an opportunity in custom audio. What do you think? Is that something you think you could do? And give him a chance to try it for a while and see if he likes it. If he does it, yeah, it's always safe in the warehouse or uh uh to wait for the next opportunity. And that's all over the building. The movement there is is is constant. And as we continue to grow, um Uh we just uh expanded to 123,000 total uh square feet of cell space. Uh that won't stay uh still long. We have another seven here, another twenty there, another ten here. Uh and so we're constantly expanding and growing. And that constant expansion and growth means constant opportunity for people who are doing well.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Doing well. Let's talk about money. And most people don't like talking openly about money, but we're gonna talk about money because kids want to hear about it. Um, let's demystify what that means. Um, I I think a three-generational legacy says a lot, um, but give us some indication of price and value, and you don't have to talk, maybe Stefan could help us with this one, unless you want to share with what's going on. And are you happy with your where you're at and where you're gonna be headed? Yeah, yeah. You making more than the grocery store?

SPEAKER_03 22:57

Most definitely.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Okay. But I don't mean to be tacky about that, but I do want to hear, I I just want to know, give people a sense for what that means. If somebody's good, what what is that what does that longevity do? Uh, because because we're talking a lot about unions and versus non-union here. And you're a non-union company, but you take care of people. And what does that look like? How does that how does that structure?

SPEAKER_00 23:21

We don't want to be the sixth highest paid, uh, highest paying store. We want to be one and we want to be number two. Um course salaries have accelerated over the last eight years that I've been there. Uh, when I got there, they were paying, you know, some some I think 12 bucks an hour. I think our lowest pay now is 19 or 20. And the warehouse, it's 2021 plus bonuses. Uh, you get four bonuses a year plus overtime, um, uh extra shifts. Uh so that's you know, that comes out to about 46 a year to walk through the door. Uh I tell kids all the time, uh, tell me where are you gonna go if you're not going to college that you're gonna be in six figures, $100,000 in the next five years. And that's the opportunity we offer you. And all we ask is that you come in, you be friendly, and you work hard. Come in, be friendly, work hard. We can teach you everything else. We can make you into a plumber or an electrician. You know, these are hundred, hundred and seventy-five thousand dollar jobs. Uh these are these are jobs where uh you're actually making some money. I guess like Jared said, he leaves jewel comes to app. I think we're paying about six bucks more an hour uh average, depending on how long you were there.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

And then uh, like I said, overtime and bonuses. The bonuses are like a a report card. Every day you have a good day, we put some money on the table. Every day you have a bad day, we take a little money off. At the end of four months, whatever's on the table belongs. That's real money.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

When we were when we were doing the tour, one of the things that caught me was if people pick tell me about this little and if if you see somebody doing good, you first of all you have 1900 employees, so you're everyone's always got an eye on it, uh, you know, seeing each other and connecting with each other. Tell me about this incentive thing, or what do you what is that thing that happens there?

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Uh like I said, if I see Josh doing something great, I I I have the ability to put some money on the table. We have we call it money on the table. It's a bonus fund. I have the ability every day to put some uh some money in Josh's fund. More importantly, he has the ability every day to put more money in his fund. Every compliment he gets there, every smile that someone notices is great. Every time he goes out of his way to help a customer or a co-worker or anybody there who might need some help, um, that's an opportunity for him to get a little bit more money on the table. He would put a set amount and then you add to it for four months, and then we pay it out to you. Uh, so that's a that's a that's a great incentive.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

It's a is there a ding that happens on your phone or something? Like somebody how does that translate? Have this happened yet for you?

SPEAKER_03 26:03

Yeah, yeah. Tell me how'd it go? It happened my first week. Really? Uh I was leaving work and I was throwing away something, but I missed the trash can. And so I went behind the car, I went behind the trash can to pick it up. And apparently, um Ricky, the one of the owners, he saw me on camera. And as I was leaving, leaving the security say, Hey, come back, come back, Ricky wanna talk to you. I'm like, Ricky, want to talk to me. What? I got I ain't gonna I got scared for a second because I thought I did something wrong. But he he ended up telling me, Oh yeah, you did good for a new guy. You did you walk the walk, you talk to talk, yada yada yah. I'm like, oh, okay. Thank you, thank you, sir. I appreciate it. I'll keep doing good work. So they I mean they're always watching you. So and like this just the little things.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Do you mind being that that happened that somebody was watching you? Is that weird or was that okay?

SPEAKER_03 26:54

No.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Okay. I mean, they're their owners. Well, yeah. But I mean, did so they gave you a little bonus for that? Yeah, yeah. Seriously. Yeah. How much? Like $25. That's not nothing. So what does that remind you of? What does that what does that tell you? Um what does that do to you in your mind?

SPEAKER_03 27:15

Makes me work harder. Why? Because good things come when you work harder, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

But um But that was more about taking care of your house and taking care of each other and the place. That was what I heard when I was, you know, what do you say, take care of each other, take care of the store? What do you you have a phrase?

SPEAKER_01 27:35

I have I have a hunch though. I have a hunch you picked it up because you'd have picked it up anyway. Yeah. And that's just who you are. Yeah. And that's exactly what the employer wants. That's exactly what app wants, right? You talked about that culture, and there it is.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

We handpick every employee that walks through that door. Yeah. And Joshua's handpicked. You have to go through a very strenuous old school interview process. And if you come in, you're not, you know, smiling, you're not going to be friendly, uh, you're not going to work hard, you're going to chase our customers away. That's for sure. Uh Ricky really, really is into neatness. You can walk through our uh 680,000 square foot warehouse and you're not going to see a speck of paper on the floor. Why? It is all of our jobs to pick up that piece of paper. It's all of our jobs to provide that customer service uh experience to uh everyone that comes in the store. I'm a customer. He's a customer. So if I'm walking through and he steps over a piece of paper, I mean he's probably gonna hear directly, hey, next time you should pick that up. You know, but again, like you said, nobody had to coach him on that. That is why he got the $25 bonus.

unknown 28:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

You know, he he saw it, he saw it, he knew it wasn't right, and he fixed it without coaching. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

It's like the when he was um interviewing me. Like the first thing they say was like, oh, keep the store clean. So I'm like, okay. And they asked me all these questions, like, if you saw a piece of paper on the floor, would you pick it up? I'm like, yeah, of course. Of course I would. And he's like, that's that's a good, that's a good answer right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

If if the if it's snoring, we all shovel snow. Yep. Uh if we walking in and we some see somebody struggling with a box, we all stop and help to carry the box.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Uh paper on the floor, water in the in the on the in on the sales floor, we all stop and we make sure we we stop, we stay with the water till somebody gets them out, and uh then we we help to get it up. That's just it's pride too. The thing is earlier was our number one job is to protect the store. Protecting the store is making sure it's place where our customers want to come.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Josh, has this changed your behavior at home at all? I'm not saying you had bad behavior at home, but has it made you think differently wherever where where you go in life? A little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

Tell me. It made me more cleaner in a way. Uh I wasn't saying I'm not saying like I'm dirty, but made me like pay attention to more details and and like if I see something, uh just make sure I can I can do it 100%.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

So kind of in in a way, yeah. You think your parents would agree that something was changing? I'm not saying there was anything to change.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

Was there I mean probably I don't know, it's it's a 50-50 right now.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

One of the things that that is a common thread when we have um folks your age on or around your age is like supportive parents. It sounds like your parents have been very supportive throughout this whole journey. Yes, yes, yeah. And I think that's that's I think people need to hear how important it is to have parents who support students, support graduates, support their kids in whatever career path and journey they take and help them along the way. Um, I think that's really important. And um, because that story permissions other parents, other kids to be able to do that. So I think that's that's huge. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Yeah. So, Josh, we're I'm thinking about kids right now. I'm thinking about high school kids. Um, I don't know if they're watching this podcast, but it maybe their parents are. What what do you wish kids? Let's go back to high school. And you know, you were going to go to ISU, that didn't happen, your parents were saying maybe you weren't ready. Um it sounds like you're sort of agreeing, you know, a little with a little little distance from that. It was probably hard, but what would you say to kids who kind of you know you know kids that uh weren't gonna go to college probably starting freshman year, right? True? Yeah, yeah. And what would you what would you guide them to? What would you say to young people who are you know kind of forced down one road but but need to look at other things so that they can survive?

SPEAKER_03 31:39

Um don't do it alone. That's that's the big one. If you try to do it by yourself, you ain't gonna get nowhere. And um ask for help when you need it. I didn't really it was it was more like a pride thing for me because I didn't like asking for help for a lot of stuff. I'm like, hey, can I can I get help with this? And they gonna they're gonna help you out.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

What would you say to a freshman in high school who kind of knows their story right now? And or or what kind of permission could you give them to go down a road like that? You're you're you know, you sound happy.

SPEAKER_03 32:12

I would say start now, because you're young and you have a lot of life left. And if you if you start now, you can make your way up the ladder, it become successful in whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

So to start what I think about is is in meeting people like Stefan, meeting people like you. And as you, you know, you're in the warehouse now, and eventually you'll you'll maybe develop a skill through apt university. Or um my my hope is that you get a mentor, and that's what it sounds like happens at at apt, but you get a mentor, even as a freshman in high school, to you know, there's a young kid in town here who thinks he wants to be a plumber. So Cahill Plumbing, um, Charlie at Cahill has been awesome and introducing him and brought him to the through his place, and it's it's a game changer. We need so I would this is an invitation to people in the trades in these companies to come around and offer yourself to talk to young people.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

I agree. I like what you said, start now. Um I was very guilty of not starting now, I was hanging out with my friends a lot.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Me too.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

You know, hanging out with my friends, girls, sitting on the porch, having a good time, not really thinking about okay, where am I gonna be in five years? What was the first question I asked you when you came in? Where do you see yourself in five years? I say here. Yeah. Beautiful answer. That's what we want to hear. I'm gonna be here. Excellent. Uh I didn't have that. Uh nobody was asking me where I was gonna be in five years. Hanging out with my buddies. Um, and that's important. But there's a time and a place to get what we call on the clock. You know, uh make some money, put things aside, save something, have a plan, then hang out with your buddies. If hanging out with your buddies is all you're doing 20 hours a day, you're probably not gonna get too far. Um you change a little bit. You said something earlier, uh you said something earlier, actually, Pat, that you hope he has a mentor. And I I kind of laugh. There's a lot of mentors walking around aft. Everybody there is a mentor. Uh, and it there's a lot of this if you don't mind. Sorry. There's a lot of mentors there. It's it's I think everybody you see there is a mentor because everybody's gonna kind of give you a little guidance on what you should and shouldn't be doing. If you are not doing things the aft way, you stick out really fast and quick. And everybody there is gonna kind of turn on you a little bit and go, hey, you're not doing the right thing. And if you don't, if you continue doing that, I'm gonna let somebody know, or I'm gonna take action to get you out the door. Um, it's a like I said, it's a tough environment if you don't want to do the right thing.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Love it. Uh I I love the I love the culture, I love the the group mentoring. I also love the fact that you can get you can get this apt university piece debt-free because you know, we always talk about the most expensive college degree is the one that's unfinished. Yes. Because then you just have debt, and that's not the kind of debt that you can file bankruptcy for, it's the kind of debt that carries your whole life. You gotta you gotta pay that off. So to me, it's an amazing path. Um, and you couple that opportunity with the culture that you've developed over the over decades, over, I mean, I don't know how long, but like that culture 90 years of developing a culture, yes, it's incredible, right? And that culture is sustained. Um and that's a credit again to how do you find the right people? So, how do you do that? So, because like rigorous interview process, but how do you recruit? How do you find because it is such an amazing opportunity, and you have a longevity of about 17 years, average.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Yes. Um you find good people by you kind of first start off with good people, and then you have those good people refer more good people. Most of our hires are through referral. Most of it. Uh, we get some great people off of indeed. We get some great people who walk in. Um, right now, uh, there's some companies that kind of laid off all their workers and uh all their techs, all their installers and delivery people. So now all those people are coming to apt. And what we have to do is, you know, we put a good person at the door and say, hey, don't let anybody who doesn't belong here in. And what I mean by that, and it's not an Alita situation. What we mean is if the guy looks rude, if he looks mean, if he's coming through dirty, if he's coming through and he's not gonna smile and have that infectious kind of personality with our customers, we don't want B employees. We don't want B plus employees. We want A plus employees like Josh. He is an A plus employee. It was a no-brainer when the people started to look at him and talk to him. He just kind of lights up the room with his warmth and his personality. That's what we want. Uh we've had plumbers very, very hard to find. They didn't last a day at Apt because they were grumpy. Uh so we always say, as uh Ms. Apt would say, we want just nice, smiley, hardworking people. We can teach them everything else. Yeah. Who said that? Miss Apt? Mr. Apt, Ricky, he says that all the time.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Really?

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Bob, the father of the four uh gentlemen who run the building, uh who runs the store now, uh, was a big fan of uh the Bellagio in Vegas. And if you come into our atrium that looks like a different mall, it has the Greco-Roman uh architecture to it. It has the uh the the uh the fountain in the middle that show you know dances and it plays music, it has lights. Uh but the biggest thing he brought to Aft was the five-foot rule. The five-foot rule says that you as an employee, see another employee, a customer, a vendor, anybody walking through the store, you should stop, smile warmly, and make sure they're being helped. That is what we're looking for. Uh, you uh the five-foot rule is huge. Uh, and uh again, uh you have that bonus fund. And if you don't like the five-foot rule, we'll know. Because you'll get a negative 25 for throwing that piece of paper behind the garbage can and not getting it up.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Wow, yeah. That would have been a first, uh, a rough first week if you had gotten a negative 25.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

I guess so, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:27

Yeah. Well, I um, you know, I I uh I don't know what to say. I'm really just um I what I think about are other companies who really struggle keeping people, and and we're hearing it over and over and over right now of large systems organizations that are struggling to retain people, or you know, the indeed, nothing against indeed. I'm just I just think that what I hear in your formula is a very referral-based, you know, interviewing uh face-to-face and matches the biggest thing. And I I don't know, I'm I'm um kind of worried sometimes about our world and in using algorithms to find people. It's just I'm comparing it to dating apps, and I I have never done them, but people who are on them say they're just not great in finding a mate. People end up eventually, after a hundred dates, find somebody, but it's an expensive way to and maybe it's fun. But are you on any dating apps? Uh-huh. Huh? No. No? No. All right. Are you available? Are you single? Yes. All right. Josh is available. This is not what this is about, Josh.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

It's a great podcast, Pat. What do we do?

SPEAKER_02 39:48

Did I just embarrass you? Fired up. Are you all right? I kind of did. Sorry, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

No, but that algorithm thing is real. Like that is a I you know, just because the algorithm kicks somebody out of the system doesn't mean that they're gonna be the person who's gonna do the five foot roll, who's gonna smile, who's gonna be genuine. And I think the other thing is you can't fake it. Like you can't fake that. That's a genuine quality in a person that they have to, they're the way outside app, they're the way at app. You can't put on that mask and just show up and fake it that way. Unless, unless you're like Broadway level talent, um, in which case go to Broadway. But like, you know, there's a that's I think also part of the culture too, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:30

It it really is. It's uh, you know, we don't use algorithms, we don't use texting and emails, we don't put a hundred people in a room and see how many will stick. Uh, we take our employees one by one through a very rigorous hiring process, uh, which involves the department manager. We want to look into their background a little bit. We want to put them in front of an app family member, some general managers who've been there 35, 40 years, some people who have great personalities and who are good at assessing people. Um, I've been part of one hiring process or another for the better part of the last 30 years. Um this is a very unique hiring process. Uh there's no um there's no standards or low or high grades. It's just people walking up to you and having a chat with you to see if you're, you know, you're the type of person who can come in here and take care of the store, take care of our customers, help out.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

Do you guys have any other thoughts as we kind of bring this to a close? Do you have any things that you're thinking about? No? What are you excited about uh in your future at app?

SPEAKER_03 41:41

I'm hopefully gonna move up, so I'm just excited to see what I'm I'm gonna do in the future. Hopefully I can stay there probably like 20 years. Wow, maybe more.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

Yeah. Sounds like you might make a little bit of money. Like like a good living. Probably, yeah. Most likely. Can you see that? I yeah, I can. I could. Do people talk I don't know, I don't want to talk about money anymore, but but I think it's an important part. You can make a living, right? You can make a living, you can make a decent living. And making a good living and and working with people that are good and nice, I don't I don't think there's anything better, right, Pete?

SPEAKER_01 42:20

No, that's that's a win all around. I mean, that's that's climate and culture, and that's how many people do we know that are just just going through the grind?

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Man, plenty. Right. Come on now, right? Going through the grind just to make a couple bucks, not happy, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:38

You know, in a in attached to a computer, you know, right? No hands-on, virtual meetings, you know, a lot of blue light, a lot of like just they're dying inside. I mean, it's a slow, you know, when you get into a career, when you get into uh something you love, you can tell. And when you're part of a good culture, you can tell. And that's hard to find. I mean, I've been in education 30 years. When you find a good culture, you hang on to it and you uh you you nurture it and you recruit it and you you have to be intentional about forming it. Um you can tell, I go to schools all the time. You can tell within when you walk walk in the door, do the do the lights match? Literally, did the lights match? Does the lighting match? Is the floor clean? Um you know, whenever we interview people, I always I always look for um I look for people who will take care of our students, but I also look for people who I'd wanna I'd want to talk to, that are, that are, you know, interesting, that are thoughtful. And um, you know, I always joke about like, you know, I always call it the shopping cart. This is kind of like what you did, right? You know, if if there's a shopping cart in front of the school on the school grounds, just sitting there, because we're over by, you know, we're we're in a shopping center here. Well, what do you do? And you'd be surprised how many people were like. I mean, I don't I don't know what I do. And I'm like, seriously, you roll the damn cart into the school and you know, take care of it. You don't leave it out front because that's that tells me there's no pride in anything. So I I just I think that's a big thing. I call it the shopping cart. You're gonna take care of the shopping cart in front of the school, then you're alright. If you're not gonna take care of it, I gotta wonder. I gotta wonder.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

I uh it's kind of like the broken window theory. If you're in a neighborhood where all the windows are broken, the grass isn't growing, there's paper all over the place, you're gonna conduct yourself in the same sort of manner. When you're in Winetka, uh grass is green, everything's nice, you're gonna conduct yourself in a different manner. It's the same between maybe a warehouse where everything is robots and a warehouse where everybody is like family and friends. Um you're not gonna come in apps warehouse and do certain things or act a certain way. You're gonna get called out on it immediately. The feedback is immediate. Um the one thing I would tell people, uh, especially young people, uh one of the one of the things I hear constantly in interviews, where do you think you'll be in a year? I'm gonna be the I'm gonna be the chief, I'm gonna be the manager, I'm gonna be the head of uh okay, slow down, kid. Patience. It's about it's a process, it's not an event. Right. And so many people want to make life uh an event, but it's a process of steps that gets you there. But you gotta be patient and you gotta be realistic. Um people come in, oh, I want to make $20 an hour. Okay, here's your $20 an hour. Six weeks later, they need $42 because they're planning in other stages of life just isn't going well. Uh so if you're patient and you're realistic, uh and you realize it's a process, ad apt, you're going to be successful.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

Stefan, I just what would you say about Josh and what what impresses you about him? And what what are you seeing so far, if you don't mind just sharing with us?

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Uh to be honest, I watch him um the first couple of weeks. I can see he was a little apprehensive. I think he was a little overwhelmed. We throw a lot at you in a short period of time because we want to see uh, like everybody there, you come in, we're teaching you the culture, we're teaching you the business from the bottom up, and we try to uh give you as much as we can, but without overwhelming you. Uh now I can see that he's kind of sucking in all the information. He's getting involved. He's the first one with a smile on his hand up when there's an assignment to be given out. These are very, very important steps that all of us are managing. It's it's so much harder to push an employee than it is to hold them back a little bit. And we have to hold Josh back. That's a very, very encouraging sign. I think once he's in the warehouse a while, as we get crowded at the bottom, he's gonna be one of these employees um that we're gonna be pushing to do different things. Um I tell people all the time, you know, it's apt. Uh if you had any idea how much man, how much money the people on app sales for make uh selling washers and dryers and uh microwaves, uh, you'd be very shocked. Uh same thing with the guys who uh, you know, the backbone of the company, they're out there in the truck at 6 30 in the morning, delivering to our customers up and down the stairs, winter, summer, hot, cold. Um, and uh they're out there. They're the last, there's a last person to see our customers. So they're they're really kind of the face of aft. Um, and they're very well taken care of. Sometimes, uh in any profession, you'll I I was a police officer 28 years. There were years, months in there. I just wasn't an happy employee, but I stuck it out, and I'm very happy I did.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

Uh, any other closing thoughts as we close out here? On your first podcast ever, Josh. Um tell your mom you love her.

SPEAKER_03 47:42

I tell her every day. Okay. Um if there's like parents watching this or any like young adults, I would recommend coming here because it is a life changer. And it can help you um like figure out what you want to do in life.

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Thanks, Josh. I'm I'm let me just say I'm proud of you. I've you know, as I've gotten to know you, I'm just I'm really proud of you. I think you're awesome.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 48:09

Okay? You're a very impressive young man. And I'm I'm glad to know your mom too. She's she's pretty spectacular. She's a geometry teacher at Evanston High School, and uh, you know, she worries about her students like anybody, like any teacher would. But she came in here one time and she's like, I don't, I don't know how many, I think a hundred I don't know how many students she sees in a day. Four or five classes. She worries about people and kids. She can she can predict stuff. Teachers are really interesting people if they are tuned in, and she's a very tuned-in teacher to these kids and worries about them. So I've I've enjoyed my conversations with your mom. Um, you had a nice mom.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

Yeah, a lot of people like my mom. Yeah, yeah. He's well known around here.

SPEAKER_02 48:55

Yeah. Um, Stefan, anything as we close out here?

SPEAKER_00 48:59

Thanks for having me. Uh, look forward to doing uh business with you, yeah. Um, getting to know you and kind of growing together even more. And I look forward to uh another couple hundred guys like Josh coming through the door at appt. Yeah. Coming. Uh guys and girls. Yeah, let's talk about that real quick.

SPEAKER_02 49:16

Real quick. Tell me, what are you looking for?

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Uh as usual, we're we're looking for hardworking uh people, um happy, smart, hardworking. Um, if you can give us those those three things, we can build a future for you at App.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

Love it.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 49:35

Thank you. Sure. Pete, we got some barbecue sauce to give away. Some Heckees. So Hecke was a good friend of mine, and this is called the Sauce Studio. The studio is named after Heckey. He cared a lot about getting kids into uh workforce and and things that were good for kids and uh for young people. And uh so there you go. You like Hecke's barbecue sauce? Please say yes.

SPEAKER_03 50:00

I yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

You ever had it? I have all right, good. Well, welcome and uh thank you for being here. Thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

Thank you. I'm gonna put this to immediate work tonight. Perfect. I'm gonna give this to my dad.

SPEAKER_02 50:13

Good. Good, that's nice. Well, that's it. That's it. Thank you. Thanks a lot, of course.