NCTWC Leads Workforce Innovation

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Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh, hey.

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Speaker 4
Welcome, everyone, to Blue Collar Startup, the podcast where hard work meets big ideas. This is your home for real talk, real stories and real strategies from the frontlines of life and the business of the trades. I’m one of your hosts, Mike Nelson from Five Towers Media, and I’m your host, Derek Foster of Data Cleaning Systems. How are we doing, Mike?

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Speaker 4
We’re doing very well. It’s Halloween. So if you’re listening, we’re recording on Halloween here. We’re, After this, I’m going to carve some pumpkins and then take my five year old trick or treating. So, happy day, everybody. You were smart to wait on the pumpkin carving. We did ours two weeks ago, and they’re about ready to be tossed down the the embankment near the house.

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Speaker 4
You know, where they’re sad pumpkins. Now, at this point, I bet.

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Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 4
But, all good stuff. Got to enjoy it with the kids. Yeah, absolutely. So now we got to get to work here. We got excited about our guests today, but of course, before we do that, I want to, just give a quick shout out to our sponsors. You know, all the folks that help not only make this show possible, but also make it possible for us to donate more money to our local Boces chapters.

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Speaker 4
Hudson Valley community, college. You know, we’re because of our sponsors, we’re able to give money to those folks to help other kids with, tuition tools and, you know, all designated around supporting kids in the trades. So which we need. So, real quick, here’s our sponsors. We’ve got, of course, Nick over at people.

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Speaker 4
These we’ve got the great team over at Martin Electric, MLB construction, Pinocchio construction, of course, Luke and team over at Michaels Group. Stacy and Scott over at Catamount Consulting can’t say enough about how much support those guys help us. You know, they are so great with ideas coming on the show all the time. And then, of course, introducing us to folks to come on the show.

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Speaker 4
We’ve had a lot of guests on the show because, Scott and Stacy. So I can’t thank them enough. And then, of course, Derek’s team over at Diego Cleaning Systems and our team over at Five Towers Media for all the work they do to make this show happen. And without further ado, Pam. Doug, welcome back to the show.

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Speaker 3
Thank you for having us.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, especially on Halloween.

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Speaker 4
On Halloween, I know. Well, you know, whoever it is, we should have dressed up.

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Speaker 3
But I think we are. Yeah.

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Speaker 4
I’m in my. I’m in my grandpa Bob shirt. That’s what we call this. My grandfather. His name was Bob, and he always was wearing a red flannel. Like every day of every week. Didn’t matter what time of the year the guy was in one of these shirts. So I’m dressing up as my grandpa Bob right now. Guys.

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Speaker 1
How about a lumberjack shirt?

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Speaker 4
Yeah, a lumberjack.

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Speaker 3
Yeah, you got it.

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Speaker 2
I got a reprieve tonight. My, My three grandsons live across the street from me. I’m so fortunate. And, you know, I’ve been recruited to go trick or treating with them the last couple of years, and I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to it. Or tonight with the weather is the way it is. But they wanted to go to the hockey game, so.

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Speaker 2
Trick or treating. We’re going up to the, Thunder hockey game.

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Speaker 4
So very nice. Very wonderful.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, they do a nice job up there.

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Speaker 4
How’s that hockey team doing this year?

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Speaker 2
They’re just starting the season. They’re one and one. Okay. You know Curtis is a big sponsor of the Adirondack Thunder. So yeah. And I’m a season ticket holder, so. Oh very nice. Yeah.

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Speaker 4
Yeah. We try to get to a game every season. We don’t have the time to follow it as much as I’d like to, but it’s always a good time. And I had last few years. It’s like the hockey’s been really good.

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Speaker 2
Hey, they do a nice job up there, you know? It’s it’s younger players that are looking to, you know, move up. So they have they’re motivated.

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 4
Yeah. Motivation is the key right. And all things.

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Speaker 2
Like.

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Speaker 4
Pam and Doug. So if you guys wouldn’t mind just, you know, I know let’s see, it was actually almost two years ago, that you guys were on the show, and that was, I believe you were just kind of getting off the ground with the coalition. So would you guys just real quick, mind just telling our audience, you know, who we are and and kind of give us a rundown about the coalition and what you guys are doing?

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Speaker 3
Doug.

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Speaker 2
Sure, I can I can take that again just to, you know, a lot of people are familiar with us, but, going back eight years, I’ll give you a little bit of a history. Eight years ago, as a result of a Saratoga Builders Association board meeting, I got appointed to a task force, and I came back to Curtis Summer, and, immediately, recruited Pam.

00;04;42;19 – 00;05;23;23
Speaker 2
And since that day, we have built, a, not for profit called the Northeast Construction Trades Workforce Coalition. And over the course of the eight years we built, several programs, but we focus on educating students starting in second grade. We have a program for elementary, middle, and high school students. We also spend a lot of time working with school counselors because we’ve learned through, our research and working with them that they really don’t have the tools that they need to to really be able to talk to young people wanting to get into the trades.

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Speaker 2
So we spend a lot of time with, school counselors and school administrators. And the third leg of the school is really the parents, and you, you know, that’s one where we continue to struggle that, you know, this type of opportunity gives us, you know, a chance to to, hopefully talk to some parents that are out there and maybe listening to this, we’ve had a tremendous amount of success, and the program is growing.

00;05;50;13 – 00;06;02;07
Speaker 2
I’m retiring from a great paying job to, work at that for profit for free, starting next year, 11th April. So it’s all good.

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 4
And, you know, forgive me, I was it I know it’s been a, initiative that you guys have been working on, but was it just was it when I first went to a couple years ago, was that when you were going into turning it into a formal, not for profit, or has it been a not for profit for all those years?

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Speaker 4
And I just had that completely messed up.

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Speaker 1
No, we did for six years, Doug and I, I was at Curtis Lumber formally. I was I supported the executive staff there and we both in addition to our full time jobs, we just sort of did this on the side. You know, I had this task force and it just kept growing and growing and growing. So eventually we had to form a nonprofit.

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Speaker 1
We’re a 500 and 1C6. And that was two years ago, right about the time that you first had us on Mike. We had just formed our five oh and C six.

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Speaker 3
So okay.

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Speaker 1
So we’ve been doing this for about eight years, but just, you know, just two years as a, as a formal nonprofit. Yeah. And I and I retired from Curtis and took the role of executive director of the coalition.

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 4
It sounds like, you know, retirement for both of you is turning into, a second career.

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Speaker 3
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
Working our butts.

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Speaker 3
Off.

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Speaker 4
And, you know, I feel like we would be remiss if we didn’t just take a moment to talk about Curtis. Just for our listeners that are outside of the area, obviously, anyone that lives locally knows who Curtis Lumber is, right. But can you kind of give us just a, a quick 30,000ft view about Curtis Lumber, who they are kind of like, you know, and why they would, I think the important part of that, right, is why they would allow you guys to spend so much of your time, on their dime, right?

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Speaker 4
Focusing on this initiative.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, I, you know, I can’t thank Curtis Lumber enough. I’ve been with Curtis Lumber for, just shy of 30 years. I prior to that, I worked for Grossman’s lumber. Some of the people that looked like me with the gray hair will remember Grossman’s back.

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Speaker 4
I remember Grossman’s, I remember Grossman’s back.

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Speaker 2
They were, they were a big player in their day. And, you know, I started with them in 1977, and, when they when they closed up, I went to work for Curtis. But Curtis Lumber is like you said, it’s, you know, a strong player locally. We have 23 locations, six generations, companies, 135 years old.

00;08;18;06 – 00;08;55;06
Speaker 2
Jake Curtis, who is the fifth generation, is still actively involved. However, his daughter, Kylee Holland is really running the company, for all intents and purposes now. And, you know, we we continue to grow. We just picked up a new location out in New Hartford. The former JC lumber is now a Curtis Lumber. And, you know, the thing that, you know, I want to stress about Curtis Summer is they are so focused on the community, even though they’re a bigger player in this market, they still are very community focused.

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Speaker 2
Pam and I, you know, have been fortunate enough to be able to work on this, coalition and workforce development stuff, you know, for, for the first six years on their dime, you know, Curtis Lumber and the Saratoga Builders Association are really responsible for getting this to a point where we could, you know, take it to a not for profit.

00;09;16;13 – 00;09;41;08
Speaker 2
We have several other lumber companies that are now part of the coalition. So in fairness to Curtis, we really did need to take it out from under their umbrella. However, they continue to support me. This for us, they’re a founding member. And, you know, Kylie and Jay both, you know, have been nothing but a great fact that, you know, I went into Curtis, wanting into Jay Curtis.

00;09;41;10 – 00;09;57;27
Speaker 2
A few weeks ago. And I said, Jay, I need to talk to you about my exit strategy. And he said, I’m going to retire when you retire, and I’m not ready yet. Go back to your office. But, I went back a couple weeks later and, you know, he I said to him, I need to retire.

00;09;58;02 – 00;10;13;18
Speaker 2
So spending so much time on this workforce development, I need to be fair to Curtis. And he said, you know, you looked me in the eyes, said, am I not benefiting from the work you’re doing? I said, sure, but, you know, a lot of other companies are too. And you’re paying. He said, I don’t have a problem with it.

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Speaker 2
So but that’s, that’s, you know, that’s Curtis number. They see the value in what we’re doing and they support, you know, support this initiative.

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Speaker 4
Yeah. Yeah. And I you know I wanted to make sure we talked about that because I knew that they were, you know, even before you did the not for profit. Obviously they have, you know, people that are working there and their time, money and resources to, you know, something that.

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Speaker 1
There’s going.

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Speaker 4
Is a benefit but not a direct benefit, right. Like it’s more about the community and increase locally. And I just thought that was, very generous thing. Right. Something that should at least be acknowledged.

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Speaker 2
So and I’m so thank you for letting me do that.

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Speaker 4
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So so let’s talk about the coalition. I know you you kind of gave us an overview. You guys are doing a lot of great work. Can you can you give us an idea of some of the things that you’re doing on a daily, weekly, monthly basis to help support the trades and the work and the workforce locally for the trades?

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Speaker 1
Let me talk about the programs, Doug.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, sure. Absolutely.

00;11;20;25 – 00;11;40;27
Speaker 1
So, you know, we’re all about we’re all about awareness and our, our focus and our mission has never changed from that. There’s other organizations out there that actually work to, you know, teach kids how to do the trades. And that’s not what we do. We just want kids to know about the opportunities in their in the trades so that they can make better career decisions.

00;11;40;27 – 00;12;02;16
Speaker 1
When it comes time to think about what am I going to be when I grow up? They know that there are opportunities in the trades for them. So all of our programs, we work through the schools for everything that we do. And I want to say up front, the schools have been incredibly welcoming. I mean, they opened our their doors to us, and if it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t we wouldn’t even exist.

00;12;02;16 – 00;12;21;25
Speaker 1
We wouldn’t be able to do what we do. Quite frankly, we work with over 50 schools in the area actively. So we start at second grade. We work second grade to high school primarily, and we start with a little, toolbox kit. The kids build a little toolbox, and people say, well, why do you, you know, why do you work with little kids like that?

00;12;21;25 – 00;12;38;29
Speaker 1
And really, all we’re doing, guys, is we’re planting the seed. You know, you talk to them about would you talk to them about, you know, do you know, today you’re going to be a carpenter and you’re going to build a toolbox. Do you know what a carpenter does? And you know who built your house and you know the other people that that worked on your house and, you know, the electricians and the plumbers.

00;12;38;29 – 00;13;03;20
Speaker 1
So you just keep it at a real basic, fun level for the kids is by far our most popular program. We did over 1200 toolboxes last year. We’ll do probably the same or more this year for sure. So that’s really popular. And then we get into middle school. And in middle school we talk to the kids about, we do, we have a dodecahedron build that we do with them, which is a 12 sided shape.

00;13;03;20 – 00;13;23;09
Speaker 1
And Matt Litvak leads that up. And it’s a great exercise. It’s very hands on. It’s about planning and teamwork. There’s a lot of math in there, a little bit of science and some technology. So everything that we do with the kids, we always connect the subjects kids are learning in school, like the science and the math and the technology.

00;13;23;09 – 00;13;41;05
Speaker 1
And we always connect that to real life work in the trades so that they see that connection. What you’re doing in school really is valuable and really does apply to later life careers. So that’s a really important piece that we try to that we try to always put in there and include. And then for the high school kids, we do things offsite.

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Speaker 1
We do construction site bills. They go out and they’ll look at, you know, different homes under construction, different, phases of construction. So they get to talk to the tradespeople and they get to see and touch and feel what happens. And we also have builders that go in. It’s called Meet the Builder, and they do a presentation with the kids, but it’s very interactive because you can’t just sit there and talk to kids for 45 minutes, right.

00;14;03;06 – 00;14;19;16
Speaker 1
So they ask a lot of questions and they tell their own personal stories. And the kids love that. They love to find out how did you get to do what you do? And, you know, why are you passionate about what you do? They’re hearing it firsthand. And a lot of times we try when it’s possible to put young people in front of them.

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Speaker 1
For example, let’s say a carpenter who’s been doing it for five years, you know, he can talk to these 16 and 17 and eight year old kids and say, look, you know, I’ve been doing this for five years. I’ve got a truck, I’ve got a steady job, I’ve got insurance, you know, I have benefits, I have good pay.

00;14;33;27 – 00;14;49;27
Speaker 1
And, you know, they can relate to that. They can look at that and say, hey, in a couple of years I could be doing the same thing. So, you know, again, it’s it’s really just all about awareness and and being giving them very hands on interactive things to do to get them involved in the trades.

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Speaker 3
The you guys.

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Speaker 4
Find that there is a lack of awareness prior to you doing these things right, and the need for you to go and you know, I know that like and I think, Derek, this might be the case too. But like, I know when I grew up we had wood shop. Metal shop. Yeah. You know and you know, sixth grade, seventh grade.

00;15;08;26 – 00;15;26;07
Speaker 4
I mean there was years of these things where we were getting exposed to, I can remember welding and, you know, all sorts of fun things that are trade related and might expose you to them to get you interested in them. But to my knowledge, they don’t really do that like that anymore. So is it outside of you offering these programs?

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Speaker 4
Is there just a complete lack of that type of stuff in the schools.

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Speaker 3
Just.

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Speaker 1
Coming back? There is I mean, and also to your point, do you remember, Mike, when there was shop, there was home EC? Okay.

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Speaker 3
Well.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. If you were a girl, you couldn’t go to shop in our school. You couldn’t take shop. If you were a girl, you had to do home ec and the same thing with the guys. You know, they had to do shop. So there was that distinction as well. And that’s another thing we do is we really promote the opportunities for women in the trades.

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Speaker 1
You know, they have just as many opportunities as the men do out there. There’s no doubt about it. But yeah, I think that, I think you’re right. It’s really those things have gone away in the schools, but they’re starting to come back. There’s a lot of technology teachers now in the schools that do stuff like that, and building construction and building science, and those things didn’t exist before.

00;16;10;17 – 00;16;29;04
Speaker 1
I mean, Doug can tell you we we see it every day. You see articles, we talk to people every day and just the people we interact with. There’s definitely a change, you know, in the attitude towards the trades, without a doubt, because we spent the first several years of this. Not that we still don’t, but it’s not we don’t have to do it as much anymore.

00;16;29;04 – 00;16;48;28
Speaker 1
But we spent so much time trying to talk to people about the misconceptions in the trades. When they see when they hear trades, they think it’s backbreaking, it’s low pay, it’s going to kill you. There’s no benefits. Parents and kids don’t understand how the trades have evolved over the years. Just like other industries. They’ve had to keep up.

00;16;49;01 – 00;17;06;21
Speaker 1
They have great benefit packages. They offer good salaries and good wages. The safety standards are much, much different and better than they used to be. So, so when we first started out, the first couple of years, we really were pounding the pavement on that an awful lot. I think Doug would agree and definitely not so much anymore.

00;17;06;24 – 00;17;14;18
Speaker 1
And it’s like, you know, it’s a cultural change. You’re you’re trying to change the way that people think and stuff. But it’s definitely happening. Definitely.

00;17;14;20 – 00;17;39;24
Speaker 2
Yeah. No. And Pam, I mean, you you hit it right on the head. You know, the the going back. The trades were looked upon as a default to go to college. Yeah. You know, I want to say right on the surface we are not anti college, but college is just one of many pathways into the trades. And you know I think that that has been a big, big change.

00;17;39;24 – 00;18;08;20
Speaker 2
And you know I think in part Covid played a role in that because I think during Covid I think a lot of parents had to rethink that whole college process and the cost of college today and all the different things that that are, you know, the remote, the amount of remote learning that goes on, even if you’re a college student, you know, you you go to a campus, but you do your classes remote in a lot of cases.

00;18;08;20 – 00;18;34;01
Speaker 2
So, you know, I think there’s been a real, eye opening. Going on around the whole college thing. Like I said, you know, college is just one of the many pathways, the thing that, you know, the other thing that gets overlooked a lot of times when you say trades, people immediately go to the guy on the back call or the person on the road for that person in a ditch.

00;18;34;03 – 00;18;58;28
Speaker 2
But there’s project management, there’s logistics, there’s all these different jobs that are comprised, of the trades that, that never get talked about. Yeah. So again, we really try to work hard in helping young people understand that there’s all these jobs. It’s not just, you know, yes, the physical ones, there’s there’s a, you know, many.

00;18;59;00 – 00;18;59;26
Speaker 4
Many, many.

00;18;59;28 – 00;19;01;23
Speaker 2
Many. Yeah.

00;19;01;25 – 00;19;22;19
Speaker 4
Yeah, I second that and and Doug and Pam, you may know or not know, but I got, an early into the trades because my grandfather was a builder. So, so working with him and seeing him and my uncle work when I was probably first, second grade, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. He would set me up in the backyard with his tractor in the backhoe, right.

00;19;22;23 – 00;19;49;08
Speaker 4
Let me play around and dig holes and people would drive by in their car and be like, what the heck is this little kid doing? And, you know, I grew up, you know, working with them and then obviously going to work for a builder locally to, to build custom homes and a lot of that knowledge. And even though I’m not doing that today, I was very fortunate because now I have a lot of that knowledge that I still apply, you know, to different things, whether it’s my own house or, you know, a rental property.

00;19;49;08 – 00;20;04;09
Speaker 4
So there’s just so many different applications of those skills. And I’m just very fortunate. And a lot of kids that I grew up with didn’t have that. And, you know, it was a different path. But, I’m very fortunate for that. So thank you for what you’re doing.

00;20;04;11 – 00;20;22;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. No, we, you know, it’s it’s become a passion for both Pam and I, you know, we eat and breathe and sleep it now and it’s, you know, but I think for me and it’s, it’s for an opportunity for me to give back to an industry that’s given so much to me. I went to college, be a math teacher.

00;20;22;15 – 00;20;46;05
Speaker 2
I ran out of beer money as a as a senior in college and took a job with a lumber yard. And 49 years later, I’m still in the industry. And if I had to go back and do all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. You know, this industry is is full of great people. And I think that’s, you know, one of the big things that, you know, we talk about, it’s it’s the people.

00;20;46;08 – 00;21;10;12
Speaker 2
And, you know, you had a gentleman on the, on your program, Alex Dominguez Alex was a student. He graduated from Saratoga High School and really pressured into going to college. He, you know, he was high academic student. He was, athlete. He was an Eagle Scout. And it was it there was an expectation that he needed to go to college, and he went to Clemson.

00;21;10;14 – 00;21;36;18
Speaker 2
And at the end of his first semester, on his way home, he called his parents and said, I’m not going back. I never wanted to do this. And, you know, I’m not doing it. And Pam and I helped him up. We, created a, opportunity for him to spend a couple days with a, a remodeler, a couple of days with a home builder, a couple days for the commercial builder, and a couple days for the carpenters union.

00;21;36;21 – 00;22;04;07
Speaker 2
And at the end of that, he was offered a job by a month or enterprises, which you’ve also had on your show, and he continues to work for them today. And his father is Ramon Dominguez, a Hall of Fame jockey. And he has, that a lot of our events and has, you know, spoke to the fact that, you know, he did pressure his son to go to college, but now he says he comes home from work, he’s excited about what he accomplished.

00;22;04;09 – 00;22;27;18
Speaker 2
You know, he can step back at the end of the day and say, you know, look what I did. You know? And for some people, that’s that’s that’s important. And, you know, I think we’ve gotten over that hurdle. I think teachers now and school counselors are realizing that, you know, just because somebody’s high academic, high, high academically that they need to go to college, that’s not the case.

00;22;27;20 – 00;22;35;16
Speaker 2
You know, if you do go to college, go for a purpose. Don’t go and hope you’re going to figure it out. Once you get there. Yeah.

00;22;35;19 – 00;22;36;18
Speaker 3
You know, so is there a way.

00;22;36;21 – 00;22;49;19
Speaker 4
Is there a way Pam and Doug, for any students who may not have some of these programs offered at their school currently, is there a way for them still to get involved with some of the educational, events that you guys have going on?

00;22;49;21 – 00;22;51;08
Speaker 2
And I’ll let you take that one.

00;22;51;11 – 00;22;55;04
Speaker 1
If you’re not, that’s the question again, I’m Derek.

00;22;55;04 – 00;23;00;24
Speaker 4
So I know you’re working with a lot of the school districts currently and implementing some of the education there.

00;23;00;26 – 00;23;01;21
Speaker 3
But.

00;23;01;24 – 00;23;09;28
Speaker 4
A parent or a, student who may not have that currently offered at their school, is there still a way for them to participate in any of the events?

00;23;10;00 – 00;23;30;09
Speaker 1
They would probably. We go through the schools for everything except for like we have a girls summer camp that we offer. We did a week last year and this year, this past year we did, two weeks. So that would be something that, you know, we put that all out there on social media. But really all of our programs go through the schools.

00;23;30;09 – 00;23;48;14
Speaker 1
So what I do occasionally I’ll get parents at some of these other activities. They’ll say, gee, you know, we’ll get to talk to you about the programs and they’ll say, I don’t know if they offer that at my school, and I will get in touch with somebody from their school, like usually as a superintendent or a principal. And I can tell them, we’re not working with the school.

00;23;48;14 – 00;24;09;25
Speaker 1
I can I can reach out to the schools. I’ve done that before. I said, well, I’ll reach out to your principal and I’ll make them aware of our program and see if we can get into your school. So that does happen, you know, rather frequently. And then I just reach out to the school and individual basis to try and but we do always work through the school because we go and basically we take over a period of theirs and we come in and we just do our programs.

00;24;09;28 – 00;24;26;14
Speaker 1
So we we say the schools, you know, give us one of your class periods, give us a, you know, give us a bunch of students and we’re just going to come in. We make it very easy for the schools. We they’ve got enough to do. They don’t need any more on their plates. And I think that’s one of the reasons that we’ve been successful is because we say, just give us a class period.

00;24;26;17 – 00;24;42;15
Speaker 1
We’ll take those students to that class period and we’ll, you know, we’ll do the program according to whatever their their age limit is. But so that’s the way that we work, that when I’ve been, when I’ve been is brought to my attention that we’re not in that school or the parents are not sure that I will contact the school.

00;24;42;18 – 00;25;20;07
Speaker 2
And just, you know, to to add on to that, Deric, if any student or any parent reaches out to us, looking for an opportunity or an internship or a job shadowing opportunity, you know, we have, you know, connections with all of the builders and remodelers and in this area, and we, you know, that’s a lot of what Pam does is she creates these opportunities and sets these job shadowing or internship opportunities up and, and sometimes they’re successful and sometimes students will come away from it and say, nope, that’s not what I want to do.

00;25;20;07 – 00;25;22;10
Speaker 2
And that’s okay as well. Okay.

00;25;22;13 – 00;25;40;00
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. You’re helping them. Just, you know, you’re making them aware of things and helps them, decide what do I want to do? I think for, for me personally, I’m really, I’m gung ho on job shadowing. I think that’s one of the best experiences you can give these kids is one on one time with a professional.

00;25;40;02 – 00;25;56;12
Speaker 1
They say if they’re in that environment, they get exposed to, you know, the clients and the customer conversations and all that. And I just think that I think it’s invaluable. I really do, and I try and do as much of that as we possibly can. So when a kid comes to me and they say, you know, I think I’m interested in doing this, you know, just start somewhere.

00;25;56;12 – 00;26;10;01
Speaker 1
What do you think you’re interested in doing? You know, are you there? They might say, oh, I don’t I don’t want to sit at a desk or I want to be outside or I do want to sit at a desk. So because sometimes they have no idea, but they’ll know stuff like that. So I can start with that kind of basic stuff.

00;26;10;01 – 00;26;26;29
Speaker 1
And then go from there. If they like creativity, we’ve set people up to do, kitchen and bath designs, for example, with 2020 software, you know, they hop on there and, and in no time to design the kitchen. That’s pretty cool. But, but I love I love setting up kids with job shadowing opportunities.

00;26;28;13 – 00;26;39;06
Speaker 1
And our businesses are always our business partners are always willing to, you know, take kids in people are people are so good about about helping the students and wanting wanting to give them that experience.

00;26;39;16 – 00;26;59;22
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah. Pam, you mentioned the girls summer camp and I think that’s something that, you know, I’d like to, you know, talk about for a little bit. We’re on our, you know we’ve done, we’ve had two years now. And I want to give a shout out to Assemblywoman Carrie Warner. She actually came to us and encouraged us to do this.

00;26;59;24 – 00;27;27;12
Speaker 2
And the first year, we we did a week long program, for fifth, sixth and seventh grade girls and we had 20 some girls year one, and they showed up every day. Every girl that started the program, started the camp, finished the camp, and they had a great experience. And, this year or two, you know, we went back to Carrie and said, we want to do this again.

00;27;27;12 – 00;27;48;26
Speaker 2
And she absolutely said, yes. And I want you guys to do it for two weeks. We want to, you know, we want to repeat what we did last year, but we want to advance camp. So this year we did two weeks and the second week was an advanced camp. So the girls that went last year and the girls that went to week one this year could actually go to the second week.

00;27;48;28 – 00;28;10;15
Speaker 2
And was an absolute home run. And I think kind of the, the real true test to this is we forgot to tell the girls at the beginning of the camp that they could, you know, be on their cell phones. And we can tell you honestly, we never had to speak to a young lady. The whole two weeks about putting the phones away.

00;28;10;15 – 00;28;35;09
Speaker 2
They were that engaged with what we were doing. They love it. You know, they come together and, that went back, yeah. With that builders that went back as a building science instructor as well as a builder. And this guy is phenomenal with his students. And, you know, he puts together an amazing program for them. They are engaged from the time they get there in the morning to the time they leave in the afternoon, and.

00;28;35;11 – 00;28;36;24
Speaker 1
They build stuff that they take.

00;28;36;24 – 00;28;37;23
Speaker 3
Home. Yeah.

00;28;37;24 – 00;28;38;24
Speaker 1
Great.

00;28;38;26 – 00;28;39;14
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah.

00;28;39;15 – 00;28;46;24
Speaker 1
He gone over the top. The parents I would say yes, I, I’ve never, I’ve never seen a camp like this where they build so many things and get to take it home.

00;28;47;03 – 00;28;49;18
Speaker 1
Yeah. It’s it’s great. It really is.

00;28;49;20 – 00;28;52;13
Speaker 3
For where’s the camp hosted.

00;28;52;15 – 00;28;55;22
Speaker 1
At mass property out there at his conception site. It has.

00;28;55;24 – 00;28;58;03
Speaker 3
Access. Yeah God knows where.

00;28;58;05 – 00;29;00;12
Speaker 1
Yeah. Route 50.

00;29;00;15 – 00;29;21;07
Speaker 2
It’s it’s funny you know day one we put a power screwdriver in their hand and they’re scared to death. But the last day they’re using pneumatic nailers and they, you know, they, you know, their final project and week one was a vertical garden that, they they all did. And then the vans camp, they actually built the six by eight shed, 3 or 4 of them.

00;29;21;07 – 00;29;46;28
Speaker 2
So, you know, they really it’s it’s his hands on, they use the tools, obviously they’re supervised and we have a lot of great volunteers from the coalition that they come and help out. And, you know, we wrap up and well on the last day with kind of a media event and, you know, we had, you know, obviously Kari Warner and Mary Beth Walsh and a lot of the local, political people are there.

00;29;47;00 – 00;30;04;13
Speaker 2
We do have legislative component to our coalition as well. But, you know, this camp is, you know, them all run for us. And we just every year, we we, you know, we know we got to expand it. But it’s, you know, it’s it’s a lot of work.

00;30;04;15 – 00;30;05;10
Speaker 4
I bet it is.

00;30;05;10 – 00;30;06;03
Speaker 2
But yeah.

00;30;06;10 – 00;30;15;05
Speaker 4
I bet it is. And I got to say to, I, you know, we had Matt on the show, what do you think it was like maybe 6 or 8 months ago we had Matt in the show.

00;30;15;07 – 00;30;18;21
Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah. He did a great job. Yeah.

00;30;18;28 – 00;30;40;20
Speaker 4
That’s my only exposure to Matt. I never met him before then. I’ve never talked to him since then. But I have to tell you that multiple times a month since then, I have run into a situation where someone was talking about the community driven work that Matt was doing. I mean, every time I turn around, I’m hearing his name attached to just things out in the community.

00;30;40;20 – 00;30;54;16
Speaker 4
And I wanted to just to say that because you you mentioned his name twice. He sounds like an amazing guy. And, and just very, very giving and involved in the community. So I just, I think that’s amazing. I think we need more people like that. Everywhere.

00;30;54;18 – 00;31;10;19
Speaker 1
He. Mike. And he’s so he’s so busy with his own, you know, his own business, he and his brother. But he always, always makes time to make things happen for these kids. He has helped drive our programs, every single one of them. And it wouldn’t be the same without him.

00;31;10;23 – 00;31;11;07
Speaker 2
He’s a.

00;31;11;09 – 00;31;13;08
Speaker 3
You know, builder.

00;31;13;11 – 00;31;16;12
Speaker 2
Gifted builder, but he’s also a gifted teacher. You know.

00;31;16;12 – 00;31;17;28
Speaker 1
He’s just a great human being.

00;31;18;01 – 00;31;19;12
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.

00;31;19;14 – 00;31;20;10
Speaker 1
Give her back her.

00;31;20;11 – 00;31;21;15
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.

00;31;21;18 – 00;31;43;07
Speaker 2
You touch on, you know, you touch on a a good topic. You know, these builders are so busy and they, they there’s such a lack of labor. But I tell you, they love getting in front of the kids and doing the programs that we’re doing. You know, John. Well, you know, I think I don’t know if he’s been on the show, but I yeah, a very high end builder.

00;31;43;10 – 00;32;00;27
Speaker 2
But you put him in front of the kids and he sits down on the floor and has a great time with them. And you know, and he he never tells us no. And that’s, you know, there’s many of these cases where, you know, these builders, are more than willing to go in and, work with the kids.

00;32;00;27 – 00;32;02;02
Speaker 2
They love it.

00;32;02;04 – 00;32;16;22
Speaker 1
And they all have their own story. And the kids love to hear the stories. Daniel flashy, you know, he’s he lives a big life. He does a big, beautiful homes and he lives he lives a big life. And he loves to tell them all about that. So it’s kind of a little fun background and they just eat that right up.

00;32;16;22 – 00;32;19;11
Speaker 1
You know, that’s what I could be when I grow up someday. So.

00;32;19;11 – 00;32;20;21
Speaker 3
Yeah. Well, I.

00;32;20;22 – 00;32;43;28
Speaker 4
Do think that’s the important thing, right? Is showing them different models in the trades for what you can achieve. And I, I know that’s a big thing for Derek and I on the show and why we try to interview folks like that, that Sonny Benazzi knows of the world. You know, because we want kids to understand that. To your point, earlier, the the stigma of the trades, like, that’s not it doesn’t have to be a fallback option.

00;32;43;28 – 00;33;05;07
Speaker 4
There are so many very successful people that like, again, just because we just interviewed Sonny a couple of weeks ago, that started with a pickup truck and a couple of guys, and now, you know, he I think he said they’re doing $100 million a year in revenue. And that’s just, you know, like that is achievable for every single person that wants to go in the trades.

00;33;05;09 – 00;33;22;22
Speaker 4
And it’s just a simple matter of realizing that, you know, again, we’re not anti college either. College is great for a lot of things, but you can build a $100 million company without having to go to college. You can go to a trade school. You can start as an apprentice and do so many great things. So.

00;33;22;25 – 00;33;48;14
Speaker 2
I think, you know, Sonny did an amazing job. I listened to the interview, and Sonny really did a great job helping, you know, people to to see that, you know, his path, which, you know, he’s not unlike a lot of different people, but he’s become very successful. And, you know, I remember Sonny coming in, I, I’ve helped him load his pickup truck more than once when he was, you know, starting up, but, you know, but he is down to earth.

00;33;48;14 – 00;34;06;21
Speaker 2
He’ll talk to anybody, you know, he he’ll tell you the, you know, he made a lot of mistakes along the way, but he persevered. He he stuck with it and get it. And, you know, he’s a great teacher now. You know, he works with a lot of young people helping them get their start.

00;34;06;23 – 00;34;29;19
Speaker 1
And, you know, our organization is different. And, in a lot of ways because our members I always say to them, you know, write the check, we gotta have the money, obviously. But when they get out there, if they can, if I can just get them out there, you know, to be with the students and spend some time with the kids, building the toolbox or doing a presentation, whatever the whatever that might be, that’s when they really see the value of their money.

00;34;29;19 – 00;34;53;05
Speaker 1
That’s when they really see what’s happening with the dollars that they’re giving. And they and then they really get it. You get it by being out in the field, you know. And I know the same thing when I used to give money to charities and be on boards and stuff. And I remember years ago, one lady saying to our board, she said, you know, if I just beg you to get out there and do one project so you can see where all the money goes, you can see what you’re the impact that you’re really having.

00;34;53;07 – 00;35;09;11
Speaker 1
And and our members are great about doing that. And like Doug said, everybody’s so busy. But they, you know, they get it done. I mean, they’re all they’re all taking time out of their full time jobs to volunteer to get out there and be with the kids. And it’s always, you know, at school hours, it’s Monday through Friday prime time, right?

00;35;09;14 – 00;35;17;23
Speaker 1
Eight to 8 to 2 or whatever. So but they make it happen for us. So it’s it’s a unique it’s kind of unique in that way.

00;35;17;25 – 00;35;19;14
Speaker 3
Yeah. What.

00;35;19;17 – 00;35;36;15
Speaker 4
So I know you know, you guys are obviously with a lot of what you’re doing your work, you’re working on a lot of problems. Right. One problem is you’re working on getting kids exposure to the trades and just being able to get their hands on something and be able to do it and, and evaluate if they like that work and if it’s going to be for them later on.

00;35;36;17 – 00;36;03;10
Speaker 4
And there’s also the problem of the stigma, right, of the trades and people not realizing that you know, like Alex, great, great story. I love Alex’s story. I, you know, like what, what a good kid. I mean, I know Derek and I were both very, very impressed with with Alex. He was very smart, very good kid. And, you know, for the Alex’s of the world, realizing that you don’t have to go to, you know, a D1 school.

00;36;03;10 – 00;36;25;18
Speaker 4
I’m sure you know, it wasn’t, an inexpensive school, and you can still do a lot of things and be fulfilled and be successful. So I know that’s a problem that we’ve got to work on, right? With parents and with students of understanding, what their kind of issues do you guys see as far as trying to get kids to look at the trades as an option when they’re starting to leave school?

00;36;25;21 – 00;36;48;00
Speaker 2
So I, you know, I think, you know, from my perspective, the students are not the problem. I think, you know, when you paint an accurate picture of what the opportunities are in the trades, I think they they, they get it. You know, especially with, you know, this I, you know, that’s coming into play that’s not going to replace the trades.

00;36;48;00 – 00;37;15;00
Speaker 2
It may change the way some of the things happen behind the scenes. But you still need that that that physical component to, you know, to build and do that, you know, to do the trades. So I think, you know, young people, and there’s several there’s several different stories written about it. They are connecting the dots and they are getting to see that there are, you know, the trades present an opportunity for them that may not be available.

00;37;15;06 – 00;37;44;05
Speaker 2
Well, with some of the other career paths that you know currently are out there. So, I think the the parent piece continues to be a challenge, but I think that’s changing. But I think where we’re really making a difference is in the schools. I think the counselors are really getting, you know, getting a hold of the fact that, you know, college isn’t isn’t necessarily the path for everybody.

00;37;44;08 – 00;38;06;24
Speaker 2
You know, and Pam can speak to this as well when we went, you know, in the early days when we were going into the schools, the counselors would would tell you very quickly that they’re evaluated based on how many students go on secondary ed, how many kids, you know, and, you know, the Albany Business Review. You know, a lot of times the schools are ranked based on that percentage.

00;38;06;24 – 00;38;28;02
Speaker 2
So, you know, they were not long the superintendents would tell you that wasn’t the case, but the counselors really felt like they, you know, were being evaluated that way. The other thing, school counselors go to college to be a school counselor. So unless they got a family member, they really don’t know that, you know, the ins and outs of the trades.

00;38;28;02 – 00;38;50;12
Speaker 2
And they were in belief of a lot of the misconceptions. So, you know, early on, we got some resistance from the school counselors today. They welcome us. You know, we do workshops every year with us counselors. And, you know, they were getting 60 and 70 counselors to an event because they want to know they want to learn how to talk to, you know, the students.

00;38;50;14 – 00;39;16;29
Speaker 2
We give them a lot of resources. You know, this past year, we took, a group of counselors down to the new, hockey rink that’s being built in Schenectady with Chase. Construction is doing that. And we took, you know, we’ll split the group up. Half of them went, to an active commercial job site and were able to engage with all the different trades that were on that job site.

00;39;17;02 – 00;39;43;27
Speaker 2
The other half were in with Chase’s, office building, which was very close to that. They got to see the different jobs that go on behind, you know, in a in a commercial office. And then we, we switched in in the afternoon. So, you know, we, we spent a lot of time with school counselors. We, you know, last year we did a, we called it speed trading, but basically it was a spin off of speed dating.

00;39;44;02 – 00;40;10;13
Speaker 2
You know, we brought in several trades people, and we tried to really target younger trades people and female trades people. And we brought the counselors in and they spent, you know, six, seven minutes with each trade. And they could ask whatever question they wanted to ask. And, you know, they came away from that. And we still get, you know, feedback on these workshops about how valuable they are, but they make connections.

00;40;10;16 – 00;40;24;10
Speaker 2
You know, the counselors are reaching out to them and saying, hey, I got a student that wants to know about this. Can you help? And that, I think is really what’s making a difference is the counselors, you know, and, you know, it’s.

00;40;24;12 – 00;40;45;15
Speaker 1
That’s been a completely ground that’s been and have been a huge win for us, really and truly, you know, they when we started winning, we decided we were going to do something annually just for the counselors, some type of workshop. We said it has to be something that gives them tools that they can walk away with. You’re not going to stand up there and just lecture them, and then they walk out of the room and forget it all.

00;40;45;22 – 00;41;08;24
Speaker 1
We need to give them tools, and we need to give them resources, and we need to be there for them. And I think it’s it’s made. I know a huge difference. We have a wonderful school counselor following. We really do. And we get I’m even told by this guy at New York State School Counselors Association that we get better representation at our at our workshops, and they do at some of theirs.

00;41;08;27 – 00;41;09;29
Speaker 3
So,

00;41;10;02 – 00;41;28;12
Speaker 2
And they, you know, they have the connection with the parents, you know, counselors today do more than just, you know, what what they did back when I was in school. They have a full schedule and, you know, but they they have that parent connection piece that we struggled to to get, you know, how do you connect with parents today?

00;41;28;15 – 00;41;48;05
Speaker 2
It’s very difficult. You know, they’re on the go. You know, most families have you know, both parents work. We try to connect with them at school events, but they’re there for, you know, a sporting event. They’re not there to hear about the trades. So, the counselors kind of fill that gap for us. And, you know, they’re doing an amazing job.

00;41;48;05 – 00;42;19;06
Speaker 2
And, you know, again, you know, there’s the automatic assumption that if a student is, you know, high academically that they absolutely have to go on to college, and the counselors are able to have that conversation with parents and say, no, that’s not necessarily true. You know, if they’re inclined to want to do, you know, a hands on type job or whatever, they can have that that conversation with the parent now and reassure them that, you know, college is not necessarily the right path for everybody.

00;42;19;09 – 00;42;29;08
Speaker 2
And again, I want to say it again, we’re not anti college. But you know it’s got to be it’s got to be part of the bigger plan. Yeah.

00;42;29;11 – 00;42;47;09
Speaker 4
It sounds like you guys have a really good model that’s working locally right. I’m sure it’s not without its you know bumps and bruises and hiccups and things, but it sounds like you are, you know, and from what I’ve seen, it sounds like you’re having a real impact on things locally here. So how do you how do you scale that up?

00;42;47;09 – 00;42;52;22
Speaker 4
How do you take that into other markets? How do you grow that messaging and platform?

00;42;52;24 – 00;43;12;22
Speaker 2
Well, I’m going to kick this off and then I’m going to turn it over to Pam. But you know we you know, being in this industry, as long as I have I have a lot of connections. And there’s a group called the LPM Executive Council, and it’s made up of independent lumber dealers like Curtis Lumber across the whole United States.

00;43;12;25 – 00;43;45;07
Speaker 2
And each year they do a big event. They go someplace, a destination for 2 or 3 days. And they, you know, do a lot of, networking amongst themselves and training and that kind of stuff. And they reached out to Pam and I and said, we want to come to, you know, your area and we want to learn more about what you’re doing with it, with the Workforce Coalition, we’ve got a lot of exposure, through the different organizations that I’m involved in and through Curtis Lumber.

00;43;45;07 – 00;44;25;03
Speaker 2
And so they came to the Sagamore in September. There was 111 lumber dealers from all over the United States came here specifically to learn about what we were doing. And as a result of that, we’re, looking to expand, you know, our our area. We have three dealers right now that are, you know, in the mid, mid part of the country and, you know, we’re looking to take the model that we’ve built and franchise it or make chapters of it, and we’ll support them from the back end and let them go out and replicate what we’re doing.

00;44;25;03 – 00;44;44;25
Speaker 2
And, and you know, take what we’ve learned through trial and error and use it in their areas. So, you know, we never expected this to, to grow the way that as it was really kind of a Saratoga focused initiative, you know, in the very beginning and that it became kind of a regional thing and then it became a state thing.

00;44;44;25 – 00;44;51;20
Speaker 2
And now, you know, we’re looking to grow it beyond the northeast. So been it’s been a great journey.

00;44;51;23 – 00;44;52;14
Speaker 3
Yeah. You know.

00;44;52;16 – 00;45;07;11
Speaker 1
People that ask us, you know, we want to do what you do. How do we do that. And it’s not something you can just sit down and spend a few hours with somebody. So we really do need to package it. And we will be working with a company called 1080. It’s an education company to ladies that are here locally.

00;45;07;11 – 00;45;25;07
Speaker 1
And this is what they do all all over the world. They help people take what you take what you’ve built and, and offered in into other areas. And they’re amazing women. So they will probably be working with us on this endeavor because it’s a it’s a huge you know, it’s a it’s a big task. We don’t what we do is not rocket science by any means.

00;45;25;07 – 00;45;40;08
Speaker 1
But you got to package it, right. And, you know, it would be under our umbrella. So you want to make sure that you still have those, those standards and that recognition, you know, and that branding, that’s all very important to to put out there. So but it’s exciting.

00;45;40;11 – 00;45;47;11
Speaker 3
Yeah it is. Yeah. Yeah I know right. That’s for sure.

00;45;47;14 – 00;45;55;20
Speaker 4
You start out trying to fill some job vacancies and the next thing you know, you’re, you know, you’re a whole national nationwide.

00;45;55;23 – 00;45;57;17
Speaker 3
I think it’s amazing. Yeah.

00;45;57;19 – 00;46;01;03
Speaker 4
It’s fun to watch you guys grow up.

00;46;01;06 – 00;46;07;27
Speaker 4
And, I know we’re getting short on time, and, but I. You know, of course we got to talk about November mixer.

00;46;08;00 – 00;46;09;13
Speaker 3
Yeah, for annual event.

00;46;09;13 – 00;46;14;07
Speaker 4
So, Pam, do you want to give us the rundown on, what we got going on in November?

00;46;14;09 – 00;46;14;28
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;46;14;29 – 00;46;21;04
Speaker 1
November 19th, at the Rivers casino. We have an awesome emcee. His name is Mr. Mike Nelson.

00;46;21;06 – 00;46;24;17
Speaker 3
Oh. Yeah.

00;46;24;24 – 00;46;40;09
Speaker 1
Anyway, so it’s going to be a lot of fun. The focus really is on socializing and networking, because we find that when this group of people get together, that’s what they want to do. You know, they’re there to hang out with each other. So, that’s definitely going to be the major part of the evening. We’re probably going to do it.

00;46;40;10 – 00;46;58;28
Speaker 1
We’re going to try and keep the program part of it to about 40 minutes. We do want to talk about, you know, what we’re doing and how we’ve expanded our programs and, and what we’re going to try to do nationally and whatnot. So we want to get people our updates because we’re going to have people there who are currently members and people who are hopefully potential members, and we’ll and we’ll join us.

00;46;59;00 – 00;47;12;20
Speaker 1
But it’s going to be a lot of fun. We get we got a last year was a first year we did it. We had a really big crowd. So we’re this is why we’re doing it at Rivers Casinos. We have a lot of space to expand even more. We have a great raffle. I got to tell you about the raffle.

00;47;12;25 – 00;47;13;12
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;47;13;14 – 00;47;31;11
Speaker 1
Yes. We’re selling only 200 tickets for $100 each. And 10,000 will go to our organization, and the other ten is going to be the winners will be 5000, 3002 thousand. So, you know, your odds are three out of 100. I think that’s pretty good. And you can you can win some bucks.

00;47;31;17 – 00;47;31;22
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;47;31;24 – 00;47;36;10
Speaker 1
So you can’t purchase those online though. You have to do those at the event. You have to purchase them.

00;47;36;10 – 00;47;40;00
Speaker 4
But I’m there. Can I do it ahead of time? I want to make sure I get my ticket.

00;47;40;02 – 00;47;57;07
Speaker 1
Yeah, you can do that for me. But we, we, I just forgot my thought, but anyway. So that’ll be good. Oh, but we have to sell all the tickets. If we don’t sell them all them, we got to keep selling them. And then the drawing will be after that. So hopefully be nice if we could get them all sold to be able to announce the winners at night.

00;47;57;07 – 00;47;58;07
Speaker 1
That would be fun.

00;47;58;09 – 00;48;01;04
Speaker 4
Well, I’m sure the MC will help out with that at the event. Yeah.

00;48;01;05 – 00;48;04;01
Speaker 3
Thank you. You know. Okay, we’ll put pressure.

00;48;04;01 – 00;48;09;05
Speaker 1
On the side. Who’s going to help out your mic? Oh, yeah. We’re counting on him.

00;48;09;05 – 00;48;10;01
Speaker 3
We’re the.

00;48;10;02 – 00;48;11;17
Speaker 1
Money here. So he better.

00;48;11;17 – 00;48;13;07
Speaker 3
He’s not sure you know.

00;48;13;08 – 00;48;21;08
Speaker 4
All right I don’t I well I’m going to put pressure on the audience. I’ll just start calling people out. I’ll look right out. Did you buy your ticket right.

00;48;21;10 – 00;48;22;05
Speaker 1
Especially people you.

00;48;22;05 – 00;48;25;00
Speaker 3
Know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it’s.

00;48;25;06 – 00;48;27;10
Speaker 1
I think it’ll be a great time. I really.

00;48;27;13 – 00;48;27;19
Speaker 4
I’m.

00;48;27;20 – 00;48;28;01
Speaker 1
Excited.

00;48;28;08 – 00;48;29;12
Speaker 4
We’re looking forward to it.

00;48;29;17 – 00;48;30;21
Speaker 3
Yeah, it’ll be fun.

00;48;30;28 – 00;48;42;01
Speaker 4
Last year’s event we had a great time. Kristen and I had to leave early, but, no, I remember. Yeah, but we were. We. It was great. It was a packed venue. Everybody had a great time. Food was great.

00;48;42;03 – 00;48;43;14
Speaker 3
Yeah, well.

00;48;43;16 – 00;48;45;16
Speaker 1
Hopefully it’s even bigger and better this year.

00;48;45;18 – 00;48;46;06
Speaker 3
I’m sure we’ll.

00;48;46;07 – 00;48;47;13
Speaker 1
Be up in the ante.

00;48;47;15 – 00;48;50;05
Speaker 4
Up in the got. You got to keep up in the ante, right. Yeah.

00;48;50;05 – 00;49;06;27
Speaker 1
You do. You have to you have to keep changing up Mike. You gotta you know you can’t be doing the same. And I think that’s something we’re very good about, whether it’s our programs or anything. We’re always trying to offer something new and something different. And, you know, you got to keep that interest going. And the only way you can do that is if you if you just keep raising the bar.

00;49;07;00 – 00;49;08;10
Speaker 3
Yeah. Absolutely.

00;49;08;13 – 00;49;17;08
Speaker 1
Yep. So we’re good about that I hate to same old same old I get bored same same. It’s all about me. Mike comes down.

00;49;17;12 – 00;49;35;17
Speaker 4
Hey, you know, hey, Dan, you’re doing all the good work. It’s got to be about, you know? No, seriously, though, I like. I think what you guys are doing is amazing. Of course. Apps, you know, obviously, it’s, it’s impactful. You can see the impact in the community, which I do. To your point, I think that’s a great thing is trying to get people to see it right.

00;49;35;17 – 00;49;43;22
Speaker 4
If they can see it, they want to be a part of it. And so it’s no, no mystery why you guys are growing and being so successful.

00;49;43;29 – 00;50;05;09
Speaker 2
So you guys, you guys have helped us. You know, this is our second or third time that we’ve been on. And, you know, you have your audience is growing as well. And, you know, whenever we we have the opportunity, you know, we get feedback that, you know, I wish I’d heard about this before. Yeah. You provided a forum for us to get our get our message out.

00;50;05;11 – 00;50;10;03
Speaker 4
Well, we’re happy to help. But, you know, rising tide raises all ships, right? So we’re all about.

00;50;10;03 – 00;50;12;07
Speaker 1
Now everybody about Five Towers Media.

00;50;12;10 – 00;50;13;15
Speaker 3
Thanks. We appreciate.

00;50;13;15 – 00;50;22;06
Speaker 1
That. Really I think it’s a world of, that that group of employees, they’re they’re awesome. And Kelsey Sherman is just top of the line.

00;50;22;06 – 00;50;26;06
Speaker 4
But he is I listen, we would be lost without Kelsey Sherman.

00;50;26;09 – 00;50;46;26
Speaker 1
Or Patience if she deals with me. So she’s just a delight, but I do I, I advertise to people all the time. So website is a really tough undertaking, you know, just so everybody knows, your audience knows. The Five Towers Media developed our website for us. And, you know, I, I dreaded it, Mike. You know, you have to do it early on.

00;50;46;26 – 00;51;03;04
Speaker 1
There’s so much to do with a new with a new organization. Everything. I said, oh my God, I don’t want to do this. And I dreaded it. But because it has to be, it has to be something. It’s got to reflect who you are. It’s got to reflect how you want the organization or organization to look and to feel.

00;51;03;04 – 00;51;19;16
Speaker 1
It’s got to have some personality to it. And, you know, we deal with kids, so you want it to be fun and you want it to be colorful and interactive. It and she just she made all of that happen. She brought all that together so that it really and truly represents us. And I think that’s I think that’s the gold with your staff, honestly.

00;51;19;16 – 00;51;36;20
Speaker 1
You know, you can’t just it’s one thing to just put that in for me. And you see a lot of websites all the time. It’s just a list of information. And it’s so boring to me, you know? And I think ours is fun. I get compliments on it all the time, really. It’s very interactive. And that’s that’s all because of you folks, so.

00;51;36;23 – 00;51;38;17
Speaker 1
Well, I’m indebted to you.

00;51;38;19 – 00;51;50;00
Speaker 4
Well, you’re not we’re grateful to be a part of it and begin to help. So, speaking of the website, Pam, if people want to learn more about the coalition and the work you’re doing or what you have coming up, where do they find you guys?

00;51;50;03 – 00;51;56;15
Speaker 1
NC twc.org, TWC dawg.

00;51;56;17 – 00;51;59;22
Speaker 4
And are you guys on any social medias or anything like that, or is it primarily we’re.

00;51;59;22 – 00;52;04;13
Speaker 1
Out there on LinkedIn and Twitter and all those things. Yeah, we’re out there.

00;52;04;16 – 00;52;08;27
Speaker 3
All right. We’re so.

00;52;08;29 – 00;52;12;10
Speaker 1
Thanks so much for having us, boy. It’s always fun with you guys. Yeah.

00;52;12;13 – 00;52;13;11
Speaker 4
Thanks for coming on the show.

00;52;13;11 – 00;52;14;13
Speaker 3
We appreciate it.

00;52;14;16 – 00;52;23;19
Speaker 4
And we should be going to talk to our audience and tell them about what you’re doing. And, you know, hopefully, hopefully some people, more people will reach out and we’ll, you know, keep keep growing, keep building.

00;52;23;19 – 00;52;24;02
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00;52;24;04 – 00;52;27;26
Speaker 2
I yeah we hope to see him on the 19th.

00;52;27;26 – 00;52;29;03
Speaker 3
Yeah yeah.

00;52;29;05 – 00;52;32;07
Speaker 4
Yeah. So if you’re listening tickets you can

00;52;32;10 – 00;52;32;22
Speaker 3
Line.

00;52;32;28 – 00;52;47;18
Speaker 4
Email us. You can go online to the website. You can email us. We’ll make sure you get the information, whatever it takes to if you’re interested in going to the event, just reach out to to Pam and Doug or reach out to us and we’ll make sure they get the info and that you get signed up. You don’t want.

00;52;47;18 – 00;52;48;22
Speaker 2
To miss it, right?

00;52;48;24 – 00;52;54;27
Speaker 4
Yeah. I’m. I’m on my funny jokes that I’ll tell as the emcee.

00;52;55;00 – 00;52;56;00
Speaker 3
So.

00;52;56;02 – 00;52;57;15
Speaker 4
Thanks, guys. Thanks so much.

00;52;57;15 – 00;53;01;02
Speaker 3
Yeah, I probably yeah, yeah, we got

00;53;01;02 – 00;53;29;04
Speaker 1
And that wraps up another episode of Blue Collar Startup. A big thank you to our sponsors, Five Towers Media, Daigle Cleaning Systems, Daigle Fire Solutions, The Michaels Group, Martin Electric, MLB construction, Pinocchio Construction People, and Catamount Consulting for making this podcast possible. And thank you for tuning in. If you learned something or felt inspired. Connect with us on our website at Blue Collar Startup Bio or email us at hardhat Dot CSU at gmail.com.

00;53;29;04 – 00;53;41;12
Speaker 1
We’d love to hear your questions and topic ideas. Help us spread the word by sharing the show and following us on social media for updates. Until next time, keep on building. Keep on dreaming and keep hustling like your future depends on it.

00;53;41;12 – 00;53;56;22
Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh, hey.