Why Wrestlers Make Amazing Trade Workers

00;00;00;23 – 00;00;09;26
Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh!

00;00;09;28 – 00;00;15;06
Unknown
Oh!

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Speaker 2
Welcome, everybody to the blue Collar. Start out 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.

00;00;28;23 – 00;00;33;21
Speaker 1
And now I’m your co-host, foster of DBL Cleaning Systems. What’s up.

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Speaker 2
What’s up D what’s shakin? What’s going on out there?

00;00;37;10 – 00;00;56;29
Speaker 1
It’s been, I don’t know, it’s been, a busy now that we’re out in the first half of the year, things are, I really rolling along, man, we’re, got pumped up. We just had, No, a new client, no existing client, but added on a bunch of work for us, which means, you know, our operations team is taking care of business out in the field.

00;00;56;29 – 00;01;14;16
Speaker 1
So, you know, I’m proud of our team. And, we’ve got a lot of stuff we’ve been working on and and implementing. So, exciting stuff on on ring. And then, you know, I don’t know if you caught it, but, you know, I share your message the other day about, Mike Rowe on Sean Ryan’s podcast.

00;01;14;21 – 00;01;34;01
Speaker 1
Yeah. And, you know, talking about exactly what we’re doing here and just providing a platform for, you know, business owners in the trades and, and blue collar industries to come share their story, you know, and get their 15 minutes of fame and hopefully share the story and inspire people to, to take that path. So I was really pumped to hear that.

00;01;34;03 – 00;01;50;15
Speaker 1
I did shoot Mike a, a note. We’ll see about that sting. Know, by the way, a well worded note that was yes, man, he’s got it. He’s doing a lot of good. And, you know, hopefully, you know, at some point we can we can connect and, and really push this out there. So.

00;01;50;15 – 00;02;05;28
Speaker 2
Yeah. And for the record, he didn’t mention us by name, just the kind of stuff that we’re doing and the need for it. But, we would like Mike Rowe to mention us by name though. So, Mike, if you are anyone that knows Mike is listening, feel free to mention us by name.

00;02;06;01 – 00;02;09;16
Speaker 1
And go watch that podcast with Sean, because it was fantastic.

00;02;09;19 – 00;02;15;09
Speaker 2
Yeah, it’s actually it’s on my list, for this weekend. I was just getting through the Candace Owens.

00;02;15;09 – 00;02;17;27
Speaker 1
Interview with Sean, and, now I’ve.

00;02;17;27 – 00;02;28;29
Speaker 2
Got to move to the Mike Rowe interview, so I’m excited about it there. So what could you imagine you were doing for our podcast? Like, I don’t even know what that would look like for lucky.

00;02;28;29 – 00;02;33;12
Speaker 1
For Scotty, this is going to be our first one, so I hope. Yeah.

00;02;33;14 – 00;02;56;09
Speaker 2
But if you’re free the rest of the day, Scott, I’m ready. I’m ready for anything. Don’t worry. That’s a great segue. Let’s, introduce our guests here, Scotty. And is it centers? Yep. Centers? Yep. Scotty. Centers from. Well, Scotty. What? You go ahead. So I don’t butcher. Go ahead and tell us a little bit about who you are and about your organization and what you guys do.

00;02;56;11 – 00;03;17;21
Speaker 2
Yeah. So a little bit different than then probably what you guys have had on in the past, but, I’m part of what’s called Wrestlers in Business Network. And what we do is we line anyone who’s ever wrestled high school, college, you know, tenured person up with their next match. Right. So that that being career, a position in the trades, helping them get to college and internship Marines.

00;03;17;21 – 00;03;45;11
Speaker 2
We have a long standing connection with the Marines. And that’s what we do. We’re part of we’re like, under the umbrella of what’s called the National Wrestling Coaches Association. It’s a 501 C3 nonprofit. And they’re actually it’s a 98 year old organization, and they’re responsible for 16,000 active members. So high school and college coaches. So that’s programing for 350,000 student wrestlers annually.

00;03;45;13 – 00;04;06;09
Speaker 2
And a big part of what we do is, is, is, is just looking after, former wrestlers and what’s the best way of preparing them for life and helping line them up with careers. And, there’s just been a surge where blue collar sport wrestling, as you know, is just it’s just blue collar. And what we’re seeing is, is we call it the gold rush of 2026.

00;04;06;09 – 00;04;32;22
Speaker 2
You’re just seeing all these college coaches, you know, getting into roofing, into the trades. And, we have a platform, where we actually line wrestlers up with, like again, we say their their next match, but with career opportunities and the amount of interest we’ve had in the trades has really blown my mind. And this is from current college, you know, student athletes, they’re saying I want to be contacted by the trades.

00;04;32;22 – 00;04;50;17
Speaker 2
I want companies, blue collar companies to reach out to me. I want to work for them. And, I’ve been taken back by that. Another thing we do is, is we do a thing called Spartan Fitness Challenge, and, we go around and it’s kind of like, it’s a good gauge of where you’re at, to start the season.

00;04;50;19 – 00;05;08;19
Speaker 2
And we always ask them, like, what are you interested in? Are you interested in the Marines, or are you interested in the trades and being contacted by the trades? Are you interested in college? And we had over 2200 last summer. We just did a few camps. High school kids, juniors or senior say they want to be contacted by the trades.

00;05;08;21 – 00;05;25;20
Speaker 2
And and so I’ve just been really trying to learn more about it. I had no idea. When I grew up it wasn’t, you know, we were all told to go to college, go to college, and then we graduate and don’t know what the heck we’re doing. And so seeing kids start to look at this differently then than how I grew up, really has me interested in it.

00;05;25;20 – 00;05;45;27
Speaker 2
And I’m seeing a lot of my peers, former college coaches, leave college coaching. Right? John Reeder, who is the associate head coach of Wisconsin, left, in order to be get into roofing. You know, John Rhoden, who was in college coaching head coach and then at Oregon State for 20 some years, it is is is now with the trade.

00;05;46;00 – 00;06;07;17
Speaker 2
And and so, yeah, I just and I’m really interested in learning more about it. And I just, I just think it’s a huge opportunity for people right now. Yeah. Well, you know, it’s when, you know, shout out to, Scott McKenna over at Catamount Consulting. He, originally, mentioned you and connected us. And he speaks very highly of you and your organization.

00;06;07;19 – 00;06;27;03
Speaker 2
But, you know, Scott is even though there’s it’s not a, there’s no money in it for him, but he’s very actively engaged in workforce development, in the trades in a lot of ways. Obviously he was a wrestling coach for a long time, big, you know, still a big advocate and proponent of of the sport in and of itself.

00;06;27;03 – 00;06;54;00
Speaker 2
And, you know, what we talk a lot of we talk to a lot of trades owners on this show. And one problem every single one of them has is finding talent, finding workforce, finding their next hire, and finding people that want to work in or discipline and have a work ethic. And, you know, that was one of the things with with bringing you on the show today was to kind of showcase what your organization does.

00;06;54;01 – 00;07;14;06
Speaker 2
Because while our conversations may be hyper focused on the trades and blue collar workers, this is a problem everybody has. And there’s, you know, obviously through organizations like yours, there’s a big talent pool out there. Right. And, with that interest in the trades growing super excited to hear that because we talk about that a lot. So,

00;07;14;08 – 00;07;16;19
Speaker 1
Yeah, excited to have you on, man.

00;07;16;22 – 00;07;37;20
Speaker 2
Yeah, I’m excited to you know, we started this thing I really got on board about a year ago, and we created a technology. Yeah. It’s a career platform. And we went from having zero people on it to 14,000 kids, former wrestlers looking for jobs. And I would say, realistically, there’s probably 750 plus on there with their resumes looking.

00;07;37;22 – 00;08;00;04
Speaker 2
And just the amount of interest in trades has, has blown my mind. Right? Yeah. And and so, you know, we really just want to be there to help make those connections. We deal with all kinds of companies. We have ten companies that we we deal with and try to line kids up. And what I’ve learned, it doesn’t matter if it’s blue collar or white collar, whatever it is, it’s not hard to find hires like you can plug the roll.

00;08;00;04 – 00;08;15;16
Speaker 2
It’s just hard to find people that stick. And when I think of trades, I think of wrestling. Because in our sport, if you don’t know much about it, you could spend a whole year hitting the same move over and over and over again, and you’ll do it if you see the carrot at the end of the stick, right?

00;08;15;16 – 00;08;35;24
Speaker 2
Like what you can do. And one company to work with is 84 lumber and some of the opportunities they have, of, of when you, you know, you know, you know, manager and trainee program where it’s really hard. They put you on the line for a whole year. You’re, you’re banging two pieces of wood together. But then after a year, this is the plan for you.

00;08;35;29 – 00;08;58;01
Speaker 2
And that’s the carrot. And wrestlers are like, yeah, I’ll bring two pieces of wood together with a great attitude. Be on time. You know, it doesn’t bother them. And so I just always I’ve, I’ve been really amazed at the opportunities in all different types of trades. That that carrots like there’s a, a clear path to success and it just seems like athletes are built for that.

00;08;58;01 – 00;09;23;13
Speaker 2
We don’t mind putting in the work if we can see the future and, and sort of the path and I what I’ve learned and and you guys can probably speak on this in your own personal businesses is there’s generally a pretty clear path to success if you come in and do the work and do it right. And you can’t say that about every type of industry, but I do think it’s, it’s black and white when it comes to trades from, from what I’ve learned.

00;09;23;15 – 00;09;43;15
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I, I definitely want to get in deeper and unpack the characteristics of wrestlers and why it makes them such a great hire. But before we do that, though, I do. I want to just spend a couple minutes, though, on the technology that you guys have built. It almost seems like it’s, it’s kind of like an indie, but for wrestlers.

00;09;43;15 – 00;10;05;15
Speaker 2
Right. Is they close? I mean, yeah, sort of. So we use a lot of I so obviously when we started building it, a, you know, we knew we had if it was going to be relevant, we had to have AI. So what we’ll do is a little log on or it could be anyone. I’ve had people that have been in the workforce for 20 years jumping on there, and they’ll plug in their resume, and then it uses AI to match them for the best.

00;10;05;18 – 00;10;24;03
Speaker 2
That’s potential job in terms of what their interests are. And so it’ll say for this position, shaft worker. This kid’s a 97% match. This kid’s at 84, and it has all of them in order in terms of what, percent match. And then you can actually use it and like a compare button ranked the top ten.

00;10;24;03 – 00;10;47;23
Speaker 2
Give me the reasoning why they’re the best match. Make sure it’s geographical within 30 miles from where we’re at. This is the type of training, that I would be most interested in or certifications, and it’ll spit it out and do it all for you. So it’s very AI driven. I’ve just been amazed at kids who went to school for, you know, five years, and they want to get right into a trade.

00;10;47;23 – 00;11;10;24
Speaker 2
Obviously, they could have bypassed that. So where my brains, that is, I’m looking at, you know, I started to look at what type of colleges offer trades, you know, and opportunities. And there’s 70 plus two year schools with wrestling that offer the trades. And so if you’re a kid who’s not ready to go into a trade right away, they just want to wrestle for another, you don’t have to do it for five years and waste your time.

00;11;10;24 – 00;11;31;10
Speaker 2
Go get the training to join a trade, whether that’s an HVAC electrician, carpentry and you can still compete. So you still get that. And and I’ve just as a college coach and I don’t want to throw colleges under the bus, but I used to recruit and I had 55, 60 guys on my team. I was a Division one coach for for the last decade.

00;11;31;12 – 00;11;49;24
Speaker 2
And I just remember, like, there was so many kids that were paying $55,000 a year. And then so what I did as a coach is I was always scrambling like, I gotta make sure this education’s worth it. And and I just know there’s a lot of opportunities in the trades. Well, they’ll pay for you to go get your education, you know, similar to the military.

00;11;49;27 – 00;12;09;20
Speaker 2
And so, yeah, I’ve just been really learning a lot about it. And I just think it’s it’s something that I wish more kids learned about it earlier. So I’ve been trying to find ways of, again, working with McKenna in terms of educating, you know, people on opportunities. You know, you no longer just have to go to college because that’s what people are doing.

00;12;09;20 – 00;12;31;03
Speaker 2
I think there’s just people are understanding. There’s there’s better routes and better opportunities out there. Yeah, yeah, we talk about it a lot on the show actually, and I’m offline as well. Just the the sheer amount of opportunity there is in the trades, the ability to earn while you learn. And so, you know, you got a two year trade school, you get done, you got no debt.

00;12;31;11 – 00;12;56;22
Speaker 2
You know, you’re maybe you’re making 100 grand, 90 grand. I mean, you know, HVAC techs in our area are making like 150 grand a year right now. Like, Ed is a solid living. So, yeah, it’s, Yeah, there’s so much opportunity and, you know, a big objective, a part of this show. And when Derek first came up with the idea for this podcast, it was really around building awareness and young people about the opportunities that there are in the trades.

00;12;56;22 – 00;13;18;14
Speaker 2
You know, first and foremost. So, we’re stoked that there’s organizations like yours that are that are also making those connections. And, you know, you get enough of enough people in the country, right, making those connections. And, it turns into a pretty powerful force real fast. Yeah. I think it’s heading that way. So I have, a son, he’s a ninth grader going into 10th, and and we’ve talked about it.

00;13;18;20 – 00;13;35;10
Speaker 2
I think you’re seeing it more and more, especially with I like nothing. It’s not that’s not going to be that there’s always going to be some changes with AI, but I just feel like the trades are very safe place to go right now. And, I do think that there’s been a shift in how people are looking at the trades.

00;13;35;10 – 00;13;57;06
Speaker 2
When I came up, you know, everything was about going to college. It didn’t matter what you did. The degree was worthless if you were going to college, that that’s what was respected. And I don’t think that’s the case anymore. When I talk to people about the trades, whether no matter what it is plumber, you know, electrician, roofer, carpentry, it doesn’t matter.

00;13;57;08 – 00;14;31;00
Speaker 2
I think the perception now has shifted. I think people really respect those positions. And I, I don’t know if that’s coming from groups like, like yours, but, I’ve been seeing it and, I think other people have been seeing it, and I think it’s a it’s a great thing. I agree 100%. And, you know, I think part of it, to be fair, I think that tradespeople have become some of the most valuable people in society at this point because they know how to fix things and make and build things, and most people don’t know how to do that stuff anymore.

00;14;31;00 – 00;14;56;05
Speaker 2
So it’s like they have a skill set that no one else has and that adds value. Whereas to your point, and we’ve talked about this many times on the show, the the old school stigma, you know, from 20, 30 years ago, was that like, you need to go to college, get a good job. And, you know, if you’re not smart enough to go to college, then you go into the trade, you go, you go because, you know, you go work for a roofer, a contractor.

00;14;56;05 – 00;15;17;12
Speaker 2
And it’s just that’s just not the case anymore. Not to mention the fact that the, intelligence you need to be able to use a many of the tools in, in today’s trades is, you know, some of it’s not for the faint of heart. You’re in no slouches allowed from that standpoint. So, so, you know, with the technology that you guys have.

00;15;17;14 – 00;15;38;29
Speaker 2
So you have it, you’re attacking this market from both fronts, right? You’re attacking it from the athlete side with the wrestlers being able to go and find employers, but you’re also attacking it from the employer side of them being able to find potential, new hires. Exactly. We want to make sure anyone that’s ever wrestled, you know, they’re set up for life, right?

00;15;38;29 – 00;15;59;28
Speaker 2
We want to help them with find a career in the trades, military, whatever it might be. And then another thing we do is we’re, you know, we we match wrestlers with wrestlers. I own a roofing business. You’re in real estate, you end up in a gym. You hire for me. I heard from you. So it’s really this ecosystem of of of just with wrestling to make sure, you know, it’s one thing to prepare them.

00;15;59;28 – 00;16;24;16
Speaker 2
It’s another thing to really, really take care of them after they graduate and give them sort of that network and pipeline to do business with each other, get business from each other, hire each other. And again, I just have been shocked and positively it just that the amount of interest in in blue collar work and it just like I said, it’s really been mind blowing the numbers.

00;16;24;16 – 00;16;41;22
Speaker 2
You know, I think when we put it up, we created that, that technology. I could see how many kids and we just put it up just to know, like, you know, Trey, I just like to collect data. I mean, in the first month, we had like 150 kids who were current college students going for five years and wrestling.

00;16;41;24 – 00;17;08;08
Speaker 2
You generally take five years because of a red shirt. That might change with some new NCAA rules, but you have these kids going to school where they only really needed to go for two years or go to, you know, a create a trade program. And so that that to me has been kind of shocking. And so, you know, being a part of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, I’m just trying to find, you know, the best paths for, for each kid.

00;17;08;08 – 00;17;36;07
Speaker 2
You know, we talk with a lot of kids were in charge of really overseeing how 350,000 student athletes, you know, create their future, right? That’s that’s that’s part of what we do. So, yeah, it’s really been interesting. I have to ask, mainly just because I’m super curious and I’m impressed by the facts, and and you were humble about it and minimized that a little bit.

00;17;36;07 – 00;18;01;06
Speaker 2
But you have over 14,000 users on your site, on your technology. Right. And I know you said some of them are a little more active and but still am. I like being in that space, getting 14,000 users into your system. That’s pretty impressive. Like that’s not a small number. And I don’t know if people understand how hard it is to even get a thousand, you know?

00;18;01;06 – 00;18;24;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. And you guys, I mean, it’s not like you’ve been at this for 20 years. I mean, you guys are relatively new, in Missouri. Yeah. So there’s some things we did to. So, so we we do have, student profiles for people to join the wrestlers and business network. So it’s a network, again, doing business with getting business from hiring, and students can, can, can do that.

00;18;24;15 – 00;18;45;09
Speaker 2
So we already had access. So our access points and we’re in charge of the education of 16,000 active high school and college coaches. So we had access to the leaders. In fact, we have a coaches convention, in Maryland in about two weeks. And so we just had these really great access points to drive, people on. You know, we’re, you know, we’re often part of the hiring process.

00;18;45;12 – 00;19;07;08
Speaker 2
My boss, Mike Moyer, who’s the executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association Association, is dealing with the college coaches, helping them get hired, dealing with the 80s and the presidents. He’s in Washington, D.C., so there’s just a lot of influence. And these coaches know that we’re we’re we’re doing what’s best for them. So that was an easy lift.

00;19;07;11 – 00;19;32;02
Speaker 2
We also run a career fair. So our last career fair, we had 1200, you know, 1200 kids. Log in and try to find careers online. Virtual career fair. So that was pretty neat, too. And and so in our sport, a negative has been and again this we we continue to improve is a negative has been you’re so busy wrestling and training and doing these things.

00;19;32;02 – 00;19;50;15
Speaker 2
So a lot of our athletes, they’re learning the traits that employers want hard work, toughness, knowing how to deal with pressure. You know, there’s nothing like pressure of going and having to stand on a mat and and tights and, and and lose in front of everybody or win in front of that. There’s a lot of pressure to our sport.

00;19;50;17 – 00;20;08;14
Speaker 2
And so we’re learning all these great traits, but we’re not getting the career experience right. So we’re graduating and it’s taken in the past it had taken about five years because you redshirt in our sport and compete for four. So it’s taking you an extra year longer, but you have five years less experience in a lot of these fields.

00;20;08;17 – 00;20;29;08
Speaker 2
But you’re learning the characteristics and traits. Well, we want to change that. You know, we want we really want to try to encourage our coaches to to have their kids get internships, to try different things. If, if, if you’re going to school to get an English degree, but you plan to, to do a blue collar, blue collar work after, well, let’s get you in some blue collar work in the summer.

00;20;29;08 – 00;20;44;17
Speaker 2
Right. And so that’s what we want to do, is we want to just change how things have been done in the past. You know, it’s really about lifelong experience and preparing them for the world. And part of that’s just throwing them out to the wolves. Let them figure out what they like to do or don’t don’t like to do.

00;20;44;17 – 00;21;14;12
Speaker 2
Right. So, that’s a work in progress. I don’t think we’ll get there overnight. I think we continue to improve. But, you know, some of us just having good relationships with companies that that, we can make some deals with to, provide that opportunity. One, for instance, clear defense, which is pest control. They have an internship program, and they have those guys in there, you know, doing the spraying, doing the doing the sales, and, giving these kids an opportunity to see what the real world is like.

00;21;14;12 – 00;21;41;17
Speaker 2
And we just need more opportunities for these kids around the country to experience that. I’m curious to know. And and then finally, we’ll get into, you know what? What makes wrestler special? We’ll say, but I’m curious to know we’ve we’ve had conversations and had some of them on the show, with, you know, larger contractors that are doing, you know, $100 million a year or something along those lines.

00;21;41;17 – 00;22;00;11
Speaker 2
And, and one of the things that they do is they recruit hires out of college, similar to, like, how colleges recruit athletes right out of high school where they’re, they’re going they’re visiting with them. They’re spending time with them trying to see if they’re a good fit, you know, etc..

00;22;00;13 – 00;22;02;14
Speaker 2
Do you guys get involved in that kind of activity?

00;22;02;14 – 00;22;07;13
Speaker 2
Like is that’s something that you see with some of the wrestlers that are coming through?

00;22;07;15 – 00;22;34;11
Speaker 1
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00;22;34;13 – 00;22;36;14
Speaker 2
Do you guys get involved in that kind of activity?

00;22;36;14 – 00;22;39;23
Speaker 2
Like is that’s something that you see with some of the wrestlers that are coming through?

00;22;39;28 – 00;23;01;09
Speaker 2
Well, can you explain like what do you mean by recruitment. Yeah. So like, I don’t want I don’t want to say the company’s name, but like, they will go out to, engineering colleges and essentially wine and dine, it’s that are going to be graduating from college with certain kinds of degrees to, you know, try to hire them into their organization.

00;23;01;09 – 00;23;36;13
Speaker 2
So which to me just sounds exactly like what athletics programs do with high school, right? They go in there, get getting the know, trying to see if they’d be a good fit for the program. They’re obviously they’re, they’re studs, and then trying to entice them to come to that at that college for athletics. But we are also seeing it with contractors of doing a very similar recruiting process, going after, what Scott would call that industrial athlete, or it’s going to be that that person graduating from a specific type of college program and then trying to get them to come to their company when they when they graduate.

00;23;36;16 – 00;23;58;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, there’s always a little bit of that. I would say more. So it’s just really educating. They they want to get in front of them and share the good and the bad of what their position is. And so creating that relationship is huge, especially if you’re asking a college kid to move across the country or are did and you get a lot of that because in our sport, a lot of kids go to go to college out of state.

00;23;58;13 – 00;24;14;26
Speaker 2
So they’re pretty wide open and where they want to live and you know, where they’re willing to move to. So there is a lot of, you know, companies that will work with us to get access, but really, it’s more to just educate, less to wine and dine. You know, one, one, you know, again, I’ll say this over and over.

00;24;14;26 – 00;24;32;15
Speaker 2
It’s, it’s it’s less about finding the hires and more about finding the hires that stick. And so I always say, what are the elephants in the room like? Show them those. Because if if you don’t and you wine and dine them, then you bring them out and you didn’t share that and they’re surprised you’re less likely to get them.

00;24;32;15 – 00;24;48;27
Speaker 2
But if you’re up front, hey, this is going to be really hard. And these are the hard parts of it, but this is the reward. A wrestler is not afraid of hard work. One thing we say is wrestlers are built to do tough things. And so yeah, I mean, you know, we’ll help them get in front of them will help educate.

00;24;48;29 – 00;25;09;00
Speaker 2
You know, we’ll try to create those connections with our anchor partners, which are big partners. We put them on everything. They come out and they’re meeting the coaches. You know, if they’re in town, they’ll go and have coffee with the different coaches around the country. They’re talking to the athletes, after practice about opportunities, and they’re creating those relationships.

00;25;09;00 – 00;25;26;27
Speaker 2
And the one thing we provide, and this is what we do, this is the most important thing we provide. And what makes us different than LinkedIn is we don’t just look at a resume. If I send you a resume, it’s only going to have the the people I want you to reach out to, and they’re all going to say something nice about me.

00;25;26;29 – 00;25;43;04
Speaker 2
Yeah, any anchor partner I have and they can’t ask me about a kid, I’ll talk to the kid directly. I’ll talk to the kids coach. I’ll say, hey, is he the first one in last to leave? Is he tough? How’s he handle pressure? What’s. What’s the truth? And these these coaches are honest, and I could I, you know, I’ll tell our anchor partners.

00;25;43;04 – 00;25;59;24
Speaker 2
Hey, you know, he said don’t hire him. You know, he might have the credentials. You might call, but he’s saying he’s not the first one in last late. Now, most wrestlers aren’t like that. Most of the time it’s. Hey, I can’t speak to his his, you know, his knowledge of that industry, but I can tell you this.

00;26;00;03 – 00;26;24;01
Speaker 2
He’s going to figure it out. He’s going to be there before anyone’s there. He’s going to leave. He’s going to be loyal. When you leave the room, he’s going to say good things about you. Because you gave an opportunity. And. And if I hear those things, I mean, recruit them. Don’t worry about it, you know? And so just having that access point, and we’re not like some of these big football programs and, and basketball programs you can’t get Ahold of.

00;26;24;06 – 00;26;43;23
Speaker 2
I mean, these coaches are our friends, like, we call them on their cell phone. No answer on a Saturday night, you know, during dinner. Right. So, we’ve created a really good relationship, with our coaches, and and nobody knows the coaches or nobody knows the athletes like the coaches do. And so we really try to leverage that.

00;26;43;26 – 00;27;22;20
Speaker 2
So to kind of and you keep setting me up with these great ways, Scotty. So thank you. So to get into some of those characteristics and why wrestlers I mean, obviously from your standpoint, you know, that that’s been a big part of your life for a lot, for almost your whole life, it sounds like. Right. Yeah. And but from someone who who maybe isn’t, isn’t familiar with wrestling, they don’t know, what it does for individuals and, and can you just kind of speak to some of that and you touched on it earlier, but let’s really get into what makes wrestlers so great from a hiring standpoint.

00;27;22;22 – 00;27;41;19
Speaker 2
Yeah. So one, there was actually an article in Forbes magazine about wrestlers making the best hires. So there’s this was some years back and and really just our sport is difficult and there’s not a lot of glory in it. You don’t make money. It’s not like our athletes aren’t chasing money. It’s it’s it requires a lot of discipline.

00;27;41;19 – 00;28;02;16
Speaker 2
You have weight management. You have to train. A lot of MMA fighters are wrestlers because it is so extreme, just that the learning how to be uncomfortable. Our sport is uncomfortable. You have another human being trying to to to beat you up. And you’re it’s just you and them out there. It’s not like football where you know you can blame it on a quarterback.

00;28;02;16 – 00;28;19;26
Speaker 2
You can blame it on, you know, the defense. It’s you. If you don’t get the job done, it’s you. And if you didn’t put in the work in the time, if you didn’t do things right, if you didn’t live the right lifestyle, it’s because you didn’t. Right. Not because your team made it. And I can you know my teammate can make all the mistakes that he wants.

00;28;19;26 – 00;28;39;21
Speaker 2
But at the end of the day I’m going to, I’m going to, I’m going to, I’m going to know it’s because of me. And that’s really unique. There’s not many sports like that. And and again that again that that not having to have the glory. It’s not about you. There’s the team aspect as well. I just think it’s a great mix for any company in any organization.

00;28;39;21 – 00;29;00;15
Speaker 2
And it’s it’s why companies all around the country are trying to hire wrestlers. Because. Because it is difficult. Yeah, yeah. It’s when I think about it and as I was thinking about this interview, one of the things that kept playing back my mind was the fact that wrestling, to your point, very unique. Not a lot of sports like it.

00;29;00;15 – 00;29;23;11
Speaker 2
Like you said that you are a part of a team, right? So you’re all trying to help each other get better. You’re you’re working with each other just like a business. But then there’s also the individual performance of where you, you know, the rubber really meets the road, where you really do step up and be able to perform on your own, which is most, businesses kind of have that atmosphere.

00;29;23;11 – 00;29;42;29
Speaker 2
Like, yeah, you might have ten people or 20 people or 100 people and and yeah, maybe you’re working towards a common goal, but in a lot of cases it comes down to individual efforts and yeah, ability to to do that. And it’s under extreme duress. Like there’s nothing comfortable about it. Even if you don’t know wrestling you know, it’s uncomfortable.

00;29;43;01 – 00;30;04;17
Speaker 2
Right? It’s it’s having to make weight, having to be disciplined enough. Like you go and be hungry for a week and then have to go and compete like that. Like, who does that? Like that’s crazy. And and just loyalty like I I’ve wrestlers are loyal and that’s why our group is so tight. You know, it’s it’s, they’re just people you can trust, right?

00;30;04;17 – 00;30;25;19
Speaker 2
I mean, like I said, again, we’re a sport. You don’t do it because you want attention. You just do it because it’s the right thing to do, and you like to push yourself, and you’re mentally tough. And, Yeah, I mean, I, I trust any wrestler if I have a choice in no matter what the industry is, if I can hire a wrestler, I know I’ll get a lot more out of that guy.

00;30;25;19 – 00;30;28;11
Speaker 2
And that’s just how we see things. Scott.

00;30;28;18 – 00;30;33;26
Speaker 1
And what age do kids start wrestling? Typically?

00;30;33;29 – 00;31;03;07
Speaker 2
I mean, there’s a mix. You have guys that do it their whole life. You have some that just start in high school. But yeah, there’s a big mix. Yeah, I know we’ve got we’ve got wrestling programs, in our area, where some of these kids are seven, eight, nine years old, getting into wrestling. And then obviously, like with just with grappling in general, I mean, we see kids four and five years old doing jujitsu and things like that, and then movie and wrestling programs.

00;31;03;13 – 00;31;25;19
Speaker 2
What state are you guys in located in or in New York? Oh, nice. Okay. In New York’s great one Division. Yeah. They have great wrestling in New York. Yep. Yeah. Shout out to, Well, I think 518 grapplers is the one that’s around us up here that, it’s like a youth program, so it’s not I, I don’t believe it’s necessarily through the schools, but it, helps to augment it, so it’s pretty cool.

00;31;25;26 – 00;31;30;15
Speaker 1
And the, NCAA tournament here a couple of years, I think right. In Ireland.

00;31;30;17 – 00;31;34;16
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah, I remember that. Yep.

00;31;34;19 – 00;32;05;28
Speaker 2
So as you’re growing, your organization and, and and you guys are nonprofit, right, as well. We’re nonprofit. We’re technically under the same, you know, we share a bank account with the NWC. So yeah, we’re just kind of a tier of that. Yeah. So you guys are looking to grow this and get out there. Like what? What’s the the message to the business owners in the trades looking for hires or for the, the the students, the wrestlers that are, you know, try to think about their career?

00;32;06;00 – 00;32;32;01
Speaker 2
Well, yeah. So if I’m talking to an employer, I mean, it’s a no brainer. Wrestlers are built to do tough things. And I think every employer will say they want somebody that’s loyal, that’s willing to put in the work and keep their mouth shut. Right. And so, you know, anybody that’s interested in getting a hold of wrestlers you can reach out through, you know, to me, I’ll always give you an honest scoop and, and, you know, try to help make some of those connections and do everything I can to learn about your business, from wrestlers.

00;32;32;01 – 00;32;56;29
Speaker 2
I mean, you’re built for it, you know, put in the work and you get the carrot, you know? And, you know, my biggest thing is, is, is is don’t wait till you graduate. Like, really think about what your opportunities are and get the experience as early as you can and blue collar and like, I mean go out there and and learn there’s there’s, there’s, there’s there’s there’s incredible opportunities right in front of you.

00;32;57;00 – 00;33;14;10
Speaker 2
You just have to go and experience it. Like, you know, the trades. It’s the gold rush of 2026. You know that’s. And I just keep keep saying there’s you see in a lot of college coaches go that way like open your eyes. You don’t have to go to school to get have have a phenomenal profession and a great teacher.

00;33;14;12 – 00;33;42;14
Speaker 2
Well and I’ll give you a stat that I, I regurgitate over and over and over again. But so the the trades are losing roughly 2.2 million skilled workers every year. For every five they lose their only getting two back. Well, it’s not like when you when you’re talking to coaches and recruiters and trying to help these kids figure out where they want to go, like just simple supply and demand tells you there’s so much opportunity in the trades.

00;33;42;14 – 00;34;03;09
Speaker 2
And just because you’re going in the trades, you know, for the folks out there like, well, I don’t want to be up on a roof. I get it neither. But, you know, there’s there’s a lot of other roles inside trades organizations other than just the throwing in a hammer or welding or, you know, whatever it is, it’s some of it’s rough and tumble stuff and some of it’s pretty white collar from it.

00;34;03;09 – 00;34;26;27
Speaker 2
Sales, administration, management, all those things. So but yeah, that every for every five you lose, you get two back. Man. That’s, that’s wildly math. Easy. Yeah. I always say, like, you want to save money. Fine, fine kids that’ll stick. Yeah. You know, find workers that are going to stick, find the right ones. And that’s that’s how we differentiate ourselves, is we’re going to where we place the right ones.

00;34;26;27 – 00;34;46;13
Speaker 2
And we we do our work. And wrestlers are built for blue collar. There’s there’s no doubt about it. Everything about us is blue collar. So, I think they’re great. Like I said, I wish I had known about it coming out of college, like, or even before. I mean, it just just an incredible pathway for for a great future.

00;34;46;15 – 00;35;06;06
Speaker 2
Yeah. Scotty, if people want to learn more about your organization, how do they find you guys? As scientists at wrestlers and business, that’ll work. You can shoot me an email. We also have a website. You know, wrestlers in business.org. So, you know, I can message that to you. And if you ever put a post out or anything, you can just include my email.

00;35;06;06 – 00;35;22;07
Speaker 2
Feel free to reach out to me and. Okay. And, yeah, I appreciate you having me on. It’s it’s great. Like I said, I think, what you’re doing is, is phenomenal. I think it’s important. And, and, I’m thankful that you’re educating people on just the opportunities that are out there. I think it’s great. Yeah. Thank you so much.

00;35;22;07 – 00;35;40;11
Speaker 2
And likewise, man, you know, we’re all kind of working on the same problem from different people than, you know, hopefully, we can we can get it to the tipping point, really push things back over the other side. So awesome. So great, man. You guys. Thanks, Derek and Mike Lupo. Yeah. Thanks, Scotty. Thanks for coming on. Of course, everybody.

00;35;40;11 – 00;36;03;16
Speaker 2
Thanks for listening. You can find this episode, all of our episodes at Blue Collar startup.io. You know, you can also, if you’re a, Rumble YouTube, Spotify or Apple, listener slash viewer, you can find those episodes there as well. And, thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks to, of course, to our sponsors that help us, you know, raise money for kids for tools and tuition and, yeah.

00;36;03;16 – 00;36;04;13
Speaker 2
Hear from us next week.

00;36;04;19 – 00;36;32;17
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;36;32;17 – 00;36;45;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;36;45;15 – 00;36;54;18
Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh!

00;36;54;20 – 00;36;55;26
Unknown
Oh!