March 13, 2025
Greg Crumpton on Busted Knuckles, Big Dreams, and Kaizen Tattoos
When Greg Crumpton pulls up his sleeve to reveal his Kaizen tattoo, you understand immediately this isn't just another trades professional – this is someone who has infused continuous improvement into every fiber of his being. The veteran HVAC expert, author, and industry advocate shares a career journey that spans from scribbling notes in a black book while running service calls in the 1980s to building and selling a successful mission-critical air conditioning company.
His perspective cuts through today's workforce challenges with laser precision. "Our inability to take care of our country from a skilled trades aspect is a national security issue," Greg asserts, reframing trade careers as essential to American infrastructure security. This isn't hyperbole – it's the conviction of someone who has witnessed firsthand how skilled labor shortages threaten our fundamental systems.
The conversation explores why today's trades landscape looks so different from decades past. As baby boomers retire and Gen Z enters the workforce, Greg identifies a troubling 30-year experience gap created partly by removing trades education from high schools. His solution emphasizes personal responsibility: "If you're a tradesperson or craftsperson, grab a couple of youngsters and walk with them." His own mentorship approach balances classroom theory with immediate hands-on application, creating what he calls "learning on steroids."
Most powerfully, Greg recasts skilled trades as careers of choice rather than last resort: "We're not the people who had to go to shop class because that's all we could do. We're the people who chose to go to shop class because there's plenty of lawyers and doctors." With 24-year-olds in his company earning $100,000+ and advancement paths leading in countless directions, his message to young people couldn't be clearer – the trades offer not just work, but meaningful, financially rewarding careers building America's future.
Ready to explore the trades with fresh eyes? Listen now and discover why Greg believes his most important mission is helping the next generation become "smarter, more available, more open-minded" than previous generations of tradespeople were allowed to be.
Get the Deep Knowledge at:
http://www.deepknowledge.com/
Connect with Greg at:
http://www.gregcrumpton.com/
Make yourself a priority and get more done: https://www.depthbuilder.com/do-the-damn-thing
Download a PDF copy of Becoming the Promise You are Intended to Be
https://www.depthbuilder.com/books
Chapters
00:00 - Skilled Trades as National Security
02:43 - Meet Greg Crumpton: Author and Advocate
06:02 - Documenting Industry Insights Since the 80s
09:58 - The Podcast Connection During Pandemic
14:16 - Teaching and Developing the Next Generation
19:09 - Finding the Path Through the Fog
30:44 - Excellence Beyond the Desk
38:24 - Building Skills Through Rotation and Exposure
43:42 - The Entrepreneurial Journey and Battle Scars
50:38 - The 5% Price Reduction Story
56:09 - Deep Knowledge: The Book and Future Work
58:52 - Skilled Trades as a Career Choice
Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:07.873
Our inability to take care of our country from a skilled trades aspect is a national security issue.
00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:11.039
I had no idea that I was going to have a career in construction.
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I was convinced that I was either going to be playing for the Houston Astros or I was going to be an engineer.
00:00:15.832 --> 00:00:16.681
And I don't even know.
00:00:16.681 --> 00:00:18.568
I don't even know what the hell an engineer looked like.
00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:23.292
We're not the people who had to go to shop class because that's all we could do.
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We're the people who chose to go to shop class because that's all we could do.
00:00:33.265 --> 00:00:39.137
We're the people who chose to go to shop class because there's plenty of lawyers and doctors.
00:00:39.137 --> 00:00:39.978
What is going on?
00:00:39.978 --> 00:00:47.804
L&m family, I have an ultra special treat for you, but I think it's a bigger treat for me.
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Today, I get to talk and you get to meet with an HVAC industry and skilled trades advocate, which I think is an understatement, because he's a monster in the industry, someone I look up to because I hope to have the similar impact on the industry and the world at large, or at least a degree of what he's done to date.
00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:09.527
His name is Mr Greg Crumpton.
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He is a friend, tour of mine and a fellow author, which is something that we just kind of happened upon.
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Never did I expect a plumber and an HVAC guy who wrote a book having a conversation, but here we are On a podcast On a podcast.
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He's also a podcaster.
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Oh my God, straight out of Crumpton.
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It just keeps getting better.
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He is the author of Deep Knowledge and you'll get to know a little bit more about him here shortly.
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And, if you're new here, this is the Learnings and Missteps podcast, where you get to see how real people just like you are sharing their gifts and talents to leave this world better than they found it.
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I'm Jesse, your selfish servant, and we're going to get to know Mr Greg Crumpton.
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Mr.
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Greg, straight out of Crumpton.
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How are you doing, sir?
00:02:02.542 --> 00:02:13.628
Jesse, first of all, that introduction of my impact on the HVAC and social media world was very glowing and I hope to be able to live up to that.
00:02:13.628 --> 00:02:19.667
But I really do appreciate the time you've carved out to be with me today and let's just talk a little bit.
00:02:19.667 --> 00:02:22.149
And we do share so many things.
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We're both tradespeople, we both wound up with a podcast, we've both written a book and we both like to help in our own way.
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Who's coming with us and behind us and ahead of us, so it's just really cool.
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God, Like we're on a podcast right now.
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You have your own podcast.
00:02:43.473 --> 00:03:01.866
I know for me five years ago, those things that you just mentioned were nowhere near anywhere near my vision or horizon of things that I would be doing or would have done, much less speaking to you.
00:03:01.866 --> 00:03:12.330
When did you see that path of podcasting and serving the industry and writing a book, and did you have that listed out on your to-do list?
00:03:13.659 --> 00:03:16.829
Yeah, yeah, when I was taking my SAT in kindergarten.
00:03:16.829 --> 00:03:22.122
No, obviously, I've had a lot of really good fortune.
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I've met a lot of great people that have helped shape what I do and how I do it.
00:03:27.353 --> 00:03:32.852
Really, jesse, this started for me back in gosh, I don't know the late 80s.
00:03:32.852 --> 00:03:48.131
I was running around Atlanta, georgia, running service calls for a great company and I was just starting to make notes on a book of things that I would do differently if I ever got into a position to do things differently.
00:03:48.131 --> 00:03:50.356
And they were really simple things.
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Man, like I would pass my coworkers on the interstate, like I would be going toward where they just came from.
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And I'm sitting here wondering why, what are we missing in dispatching?
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Or what are we missing in efficiency?
00:04:04.471 --> 00:04:09.512
And there's a million reasons why we could have been passing on the road, but just the spark.
00:04:09.512 --> 00:04:26.216
And so, literally, I had a little black book and I was making little notes and little questions and just digging into the science of air conditioning business, not just the science of vapor compression and cold air.
00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:32.312
So it started early and there were many, many naive statements written.
00:04:33.884 --> 00:05:28.961
But because I simply didn't know and yeah, so you still have this book, I've got remnants of it, yeah, yeah, and I think that as I matured as a technician and as a human and as a husband and as a family member and eventually, and as a boss and as a co-worker, all those ands Right Right up and it never has been, and I would think a lot of people probably have this is there's no one clear mission, but there's a vision, with some haze floating around, and I think inquisitive people like you and I are, we're always trying to see around the cloud or through the haze, to see what's just beyond where we are or maybe even where we should be at this moment.
00:05:30.985 --> 00:05:40.887
There's plenty of room to dig in and keep peeling back the layers, but we're all where we're supposed to be at the right time.
00:05:40.887 --> 00:05:45.934
But I would say it's just been a continuous learning journey.
00:05:45.934 --> 00:05:52.769
And then five years ago I started straight out of Crumpton During the pandemic.
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I couldn't travel much and I like to get out and go, so we started it just as a way to connect with people during the pandemic and now we've done like 150 episodes and just it's a great way to connect, which is how you and I wound up together yeah, you gave me the privilege of being interviewed by you and hanging out with y'all on your show and very similar story.
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Covid hit.
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I was in lockdown.
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I couldn't go and talk about careers in the industry at the CTE the local high schools and I said, man, I need an outlet.
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Let me start a podcast to interview cool people from the industry.
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And it stuck.
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I still enjoy it.
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It's a great way to connect with people and it's a great way to spend time when you're doing something maybe walking or exercising or even driving to occupy that wicked brain of ours so that we're thinking about the right stuff and the good stuff rather than letting the lizard brain take control and spin us up over BS.
00:07:03.194 --> 00:07:04.055
It doesn't really matter.
00:07:05.201 --> 00:07:08.050
Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, yes and yes.
00:07:08.050 --> 00:07:14.497
Now, so you talked about I think maybe we're afflicted, I call it.
00:07:14.497 --> 00:07:20.552
The affliction is when we see these patterns and we can't ignore them, just like you talked about.
00:07:20.552 --> 00:07:27.084
You're driving one way and you see your partner driving the opposite direction where you just came from, like why is that happening?
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Why doesn't that make sense?
00:07:28.509 --> 00:07:56.771
And then there's the other affliction of the curious, like the ravenous appetite to learn and understand things which, like you said, with podcasts and like the different type of media that's out now, we can choose to nourish our brain and our interest and our curiosity, or we can consume the garbage that's readily available for everybody.
00:07:56.810 --> 00:08:30.550
That really is more of a distraction, yeah it is, and but some of that's OK no-transcript habits that I keep going and which ones I need to break.
00:08:32.059 --> 00:08:33.383
Oh, a hundred percent.
00:08:33.383 --> 00:08:51.845
So you already touched on one of the things that stood out to me from your book is, in the later chapters, the quote that you wrote you can't truly know where to go until you've started down the path, and so that was kind of earlier.
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You're referencing the fog and kind of seeing the thing, trying to distill what's back there.
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When, would you say, that became, I'm going to say, mode of operation, became obvious to you, like I just need to keep doing it this way.
00:09:06.419 --> 00:09:10.291
And so the early thoughts around that occurred.
00:09:12.621 --> 00:09:17.787
And I want to give the L&M family member shout out, and this one goes to Miss Rocio.
00:09:17.787 --> 00:09:30.470
Luna Rocio took the time to send me this super awesome note she says I want to thank Jesse for putting this amazing workshop together for us and showing us how to manage time efficiently.
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We are all consumed by work, but how much of that is productive?
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How much of that work is generating revenue?
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What can be leveraged, outsourced?
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What are we leaving behind?
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When we really get into the weeds, we will see all the white gaps and you visually see time.
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Rocio, thank you for that.
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And, folks, if you don't know, we have the Do the Damn Thing time management workshop that's kicking off again in March.
00:10:00.169 --> 00:10:04.231
We'll leave a link down there in the show notes for you to access if you're interested in it.
00:10:04.231 --> 00:10:07.374
But, more importantly, send me a note, send me a review.
00:10:07.374 --> 00:10:27.019
It doesn't have to be a beautiful, glowing review like that, just something to let me know you're out there so that I can have the opportunity to celebrate you in the future school.
00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:28.981
When I got out of the apprenticeship program, I immediately went in as an instructor.
00:10:28.981 --> 00:10:29.702
Wow, well, I loved it.
00:10:29.702 --> 00:10:37.969
I love the industry and I really understand the science of air conditioning, the science of electricity.
00:10:37.969 --> 00:10:40.671
I just those things click for me really easily.
00:10:40.671 --> 00:10:56.724
So once I started teaching, you really have to know your poop because if you don't, you're going to get called out in a hurry.
00:10:56.744 --> 00:11:22.765
I think that when I started digging deeper to be prepared to teach and I was probably a horrible teacher but because I was so young I didn't if I went and I do a class now for people, it's a totally different experience than 25 year old greg gave, I'm sure, um sure, but there were certain things I learned in that evolution about digging deeper and not settling for the status quo answer but like a two-year-old why and always asking why.
00:11:22.765 --> 00:11:36.471
And as annoying as it is for me to hear a two-year-old why and always asking why, and as annoying as it is for me to hear a two-year-old these days because I'm 61, that's some really relevant questions.
00:11:36.471 --> 00:11:44.010
They ask because they simply don't know and to me that's what keeps me digging of why.
00:11:44.010 --> 00:11:45.643
And you get called up.
00:11:45.643 --> 00:11:48.191
People talk about what's your why and all this.
00:11:48.191 --> 00:11:50.147
I mean that's cool for some people.
00:11:50.147 --> 00:11:51.184
That's not my gig.
00:11:51.184 --> 00:11:56.509
It's just why I needed to know more and why I needed to dig deeper.
00:11:56.509 --> 00:12:00.067
So yeah, and it's changed over time.
00:12:00.408 --> 00:12:07.533
Yeah, what's the mechanisms, what are all the bolts and gears that make a certain thing happen.
00:12:07.533 --> 00:12:10.466
Another one of my addictions is like evaluating.
00:12:10.466 --> 00:12:11.830
Why did I respond that way?
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Why did I say that?
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Why am I interested in that?
00:12:14.043 --> 00:12:15.085
Why does that bug me?
00:12:15.085 --> 00:12:18.572
And it's like an endless pit.
00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:31.307
Now, the important part is I can usually identify one or two buttons to push so that I can serve, so I can show up better and serve better in the future.
00:12:31.307 --> 00:12:33.231
And it's the same thing with systems.
00:12:33.231 --> 00:12:54.567
And you know, it's almost like I really have to focus on turning it off the why, because I drive people crazy and maybe don't totally appreciate the moment for what it is, but it is absolutely fundamental in the way I function.
00:12:54.567 --> 00:12:54.746
Now, why?
00:12:54.746 --> 00:12:56.192
So you finished apprenticeship, and was it a four-year apprenticeship?
00:12:56.192 --> 00:12:58.360
I'm assuming yeah, it was Yep, four years of apprenticeship.
00:12:58.360 --> 00:12:59.962
And then you said, okay, I'm going to go teach.
00:12:59.962 --> 00:13:10.216
And so, again, one of the many reasons I look up to you is you, early on, were giving back to the industry and helping other people.
00:13:10.216 --> 00:13:22.176
Why are there so few folks in the industry that do make that investment in teaching and developing the next generation of craft workers and trades professionals?
00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:24.104
For me, jesse.
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I watched my dad and saw he did a similar.
00:13:28.201 --> 00:13:44.976
He went through the army, went to work for the Atlanta Gas Company, which is now part of Duke Power, I think but he went to school at night, put himself through a technical program and then he became a teacher and you may have read this in the book.
00:13:44.976 --> 00:13:50.927
He was my teacher for two of my years of apprenticeship, and my boss and my father.
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So we learned a lot about each other, I promise you that, in a lot of different levels.
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So I think seeing that modeled was one thing.
00:14:03.303 --> 00:14:18.673
And this still bothers me to this day is to hear our craftsmen and trade workers talk about how crappy they think the industry is, instead of helping solve what they think is crappy.
00:14:18.673 --> 00:14:27.457
Everybody would take both arms, at least one, and grab the kid and hug them and walk them through.
00:14:27.457 --> 00:14:34.620
We wouldn't be in such a poop show that we're in with labor.
00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:41.783
I agree, I remember the first journeyman I worked with that wasn't my dad, and I understand working with my dad.
00:14:41.783 --> 00:14:46.568
We did that for about six months and said heck with that in the professional setting.
00:14:46.568 --> 00:14:53.101
Um, anyways, and that guy, he said hey, man, I need you to cut me that piece of cast iron.
00:14:53.101 --> 00:14:56.389
Now this is like the week out of high school.
00:14:56.389 --> 00:15:03.941
I've never seen cast iron pipe in my life, but I've seen clay pipe hub and spigot, but not no hub, right, and he said I need you to cut that pipe.
00:15:03.941 --> 00:15:05.845
I was like I, how do I cut it?
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And he grabbed the snap cutters, the chain cutters, and threw them at my feet.
00:15:09.393 --> 00:15:16.033
So I'm ready to fight, right, and I'm like I don't even know how to like, how do I use this?
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He said you know what?
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Grab your plumb bob, go upstairs, drop it down that hole right there and hold it till I call you.
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I said, yes, sir, I ran upstairs.
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I dropped the plumb bob.
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He left me up there all morning.
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Foreman walks in and says hey, where's the new guy?
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And he says, man, he was getting in the damn way.
00:15:38.307 --> 00:15:40.047
I sent him upstairs to hold the plumb bob.
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He didn't need me to hold the plumb bob, he just didn't want to deal with it.
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He didn't need me to hold the plumb bob, he just didn't want to deal with it and talk about deflated kicking the guts.
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Just I.
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I was this close to quitting but I wasn't gonna quit and so that's branded my brain okay.
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This is one thing I will never do.
00:16:01.169 --> 00:16:11.681
But there was a lot of people like eventually I found a really great company to work with, with a lot of leaders that understood the value of investing and passing on the knowledge.
00:16:11.681 --> 00:16:18.422
But I agree with you it's like come on, just pick one person, your whole career, just pick one and develop them.
00:16:18.422 --> 00:16:24.971
Let me ask you this I know you've invested probably in thousands of people by now.
00:16:24.971 --> 00:16:36.225
What does it feel like to see them excel in their craft, start their business, take on more responsibility, transform their earning potential?
00:16:36.606 --> 00:16:37.650
What does that feel like Greg?
00:16:37.650 --> 00:17:20.923
It makes me want to cry in a really sweet way, because I've had the pleasure of helping people buy their first car, people buy their first home, have two weeks off with pay to sit with their wife when they had a baby Just some special stuff that happened that I never put on LinkedIn or something that was my special day, because it's their special day and I don't want to override their joy or what have you, but I think when I get to see them excelling at work yes, but because they're excelling at work, they get to excel at home.
00:17:20.923 --> 00:17:26.713
I think that's even equal, or maybe even better than understanding how to use snap cutters.
00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:30.002
Ten four.
00:17:30.002 --> 00:17:31.307
I mean, that's the thing is.
00:17:31.307 --> 00:17:38.688
I remember saying, man, I can't wait to be a foreman because then I'll get to eat tacos and chill out in my truck all day.
00:17:38.688 --> 00:17:39.830
And I got it.
00:17:39.830 --> 00:17:41.080
And that's not what it was about.
00:17:41.080 --> 00:17:45.451
And I said, man, I can't wait to be a superintendent because then I could just drive around all day.
00:17:45.451 --> 00:17:46.432
And I got it.
00:17:46.432 --> 00:17:48.579
And it was a lot more than just driving around.
00:17:48.579 --> 00:18:09.376
But it finally dawned on me like, man, you're a lead, you got your crew leader, your foreman, your superintendent, you have the livelihoods and careers of people in your hands, which is like the ultimate gift and requires huge responsibility.
00:18:09.376 --> 00:18:11.787
But I don't know that everybody sees it that way.
00:18:12.461 --> 00:18:16.289
They don't, Jesse, and there's different categories of folks.
00:18:16.289 --> 00:18:19.865
There's people that show up and do their job in a poor way.
00:18:19.865 --> 00:18:33.030
There's people that show up and do their work in a spectacular way, and then there's a next level of person who always wants to do more, and of course that's the ones that you want to help do more.
00:18:33.030 --> 00:18:41.810
But I think one of the missing pieces and you touched on a little bit is and I thought about this a lot when I was getting ready to sell my company.
00:18:42.260 --> 00:18:43.920
I didn't have 40 employees.
00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:45.243
I had 40 families.
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I had Girl Scouts and Little League and babies and mamas in school and sick parents.
00:18:53.893 --> 00:19:17.957
If you do the mathematics on it, it's about 130 people that my decision affected and that's not a big company, but it was our company and I really tried to make decisions based on what was good for that group, not just the folks who showed up and wore a uniform or did our invoicing or what have you.
00:19:17.957 --> 00:19:37.683
It was the entire circumference of everything we touched, and my wife and I she was my partner we made a lot of decisions, thinking about Chad's kid or Linda's retirement or what have you, rather than just about making cold air that day.
00:19:38.023 --> 00:19:43.432
Oh, beautiful and amazing.
00:19:43.432 --> 00:19:55.972
You know another thing that popped into my head and I'm like ultra grateful for LinkedIn, because that's where we connect and being able to be connected with leaders like you and so many other leaders.
00:19:55.972 --> 00:20:22.951
Now, I'm not saying everybody that posts on LinkedIn is this type of leader, because they're not, but there's a good, beautiful handful of leaders that are people-centered and understand the impact they have beyond their business KPIs and delivering the core service that's branded on the side of the truck and you have a career or a life of walking in that path.
00:20:22.951 --> 00:20:30.131
One of the things that popped out of me in your book here it is deep knowledge Y'all need to get a copy of it.
00:20:30.200 --> 00:20:32.628
All right, I got a hat to show too Deep knowledge.
00:20:33.643 --> 00:20:36.730
Oh that's the deep knowledge hat and the straight out of crunk.
00:20:36.730 --> 00:20:48.259
So there's a point in there you make that excellence isn't created behind the desk.
00:20:48.259 --> 00:20:48.420
Yeah.
00:20:49.080 --> 00:20:49.401
What does?
00:20:49.441 --> 00:20:55.233
that mean, and how can people use that to shift their game?
00:20:57.142 --> 00:20:58.686
A get out from behind your desk.
00:20:58.686 --> 00:20:59.890
That's the start.
00:20:59.890 --> 00:21:01.721
That's how crafty I am.
00:21:01.721 --> 00:21:02.320
You like that?
00:21:02.320 --> 00:21:02.641
Yeah, I love it.
00:21:02.641 --> 00:21:03.162
That's how crafty I am.
00:21:03.162 --> 00:21:04.522
You like that, I love it.
00:21:04.623 --> 00:21:22.294
I think the intent of that it really stemmed from one conversation that I had with a guy who was my boss one time not my father and he had fielded a complaint from a customer of ours and it was one of my accounts.
00:21:22.294 --> 00:21:28.698
And the guy called in and said hey, y'all been out here a couple of times, problems still exist.
00:21:28.698 --> 00:21:31.542
We got to get this resolved.
00:21:31.542 --> 00:21:37.392
So this guy calls me, he's deceased now, or I would call his name, but I won't for a lot of reasons.
00:21:37.392 --> 00:21:39.367
But he said what's the deal?
00:21:39.367 --> 00:21:45.019
And I said, well, here's what happened the first day, and then here's what happened the second day, and then here's what happened the second time.
00:21:45.019 --> 00:21:48.790
And then the third day this happened and he said stop.
00:21:48.790 --> 00:21:51.693
He said the damn building's still hot, right.
00:21:53.661 --> 00:22:14.345
And I thought, wow, as weird as that sounds, that hit me like a bolt of lightning, because I then immediately shifted over into the consumer's position and I saw people coming and going and hear them on the roof, hear them in the basement, whatever, I'm still hot.
00:22:14.345 --> 00:22:28.554
So I learned that you got to go out and see what was going on and the problem turned out to be something rather benign and not a difficult fix, but a unique fix.
00:22:28.554 --> 00:22:40.471
But it took a couple of us going out there, meeting with the customer, understanding what had transpired, talking with the technician, to put all that together.
00:22:40.471 --> 00:22:44.151
I never would have gotten that had I sat in there and played keyboard warrior.
00:22:44.151 --> 00:22:55.426
I had to go, and so I tell people now we got airplanes, we got subway, we got cars, we got trucks, you got a credit card.
00:22:55.426 --> 00:22:59.871
Get the hell out of the office and go where the action is.
00:23:02.820 --> 00:23:04.605
Yeah, the keyboard warriors.
00:23:04.605 --> 00:23:08.032
I have a special name for them, I call them carpet dwellers.
00:23:08.032 --> 00:23:16.801
And when I was in the field I had one particular awesome guy the guy's amazing, but I caught him right out of college and I don't know why.
00:23:16.801 --> 00:23:37.455
They paired him up with me and of course I tortured him Not as bad as I was tortured, but I still tortured him and one of the biggest problems we had was his overreaction to emails and his just reluctance to go and see what the hell was actually happening.
00:23:37.455 --> 00:23:43.871
And through a few iterations we finally got to cussed each other a bunch, but we finally got on the same page.
00:23:43.871 --> 00:23:53.988
Man, I'm not trying to be ugly, but I need you to come out here so that you understand that what Mr GC over there is saying isn't entirely true.
00:23:53.988 --> 00:24:09.943
There's another truth that he's leaving out, and so do you think it's this idea or perception of what a manager or an executive is that lends itself to camping out behind a keyboard.
00:24:10.566 --> 00:24:26.451
Yeah, I think it's a culture that the company has built for themselves, because some places I've worked where it was almost the inverse, where, no, you need to go back to the office and handle that and let me do the field work.
00:24:27.173 --> 00:24:34.134
So I think and a lot of it is the founder or whomever is at the highest post can set the tone.
00:24:34.134 --> 00:24:41.731
I worked for some really good companies and I worked for a couple of crappy companies, and I'm thankful for both honestly.
00:24:41.731 --> 00:24:54.795
And it starts with the leadership, and that can be, as many people listening know, is not always the manager by title.
00:24:54.795 --> 00:25:03.449
I've had some great field leaders who would go to battle with the managers because the managers weren't leading the field well.
00:25:03.449 --> 00:25:33.054
And then I've seen some field people who should be leading just sit there and take whatever came down the old highway and not do what was best for the company and mainly insofar as training and exposure, they just kind of let some young people get stuck on crappy jobs rather than making sure the apprenticeship or the helper roles were really as robust as they should be.
00:25:33.054 --> 00:25:43.795
When you're a first year, second year, third year, you're going through these stages and you're getting the theoretical knowledge but you need to be able to apply it.
00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:45.019
Yes.
00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:55.487
And I've seen companies that are paying for apprenticeship but they've got third year people changing air filters for three years in a row For three years in a row.
00:25:55.487 --> 00:26:10.155
And I've seen some opportunities where some experienced field leadership should have said guys, we've got to get these young people immersed in the real life or we're going to be hurting come two or three more years.
00:26:10.155 --> 00:26:12.916
And we're seeing that on a grand scale.
00:26:12.916 --> 00:26:21.912
Yeah, as my peers, the baby boomers are retiring and we've got a 30-year gap in our window.
00:26:21.912 --> 00:26:30.400
We've got some really smart Gen Zs coming that are really hard workers when you can find them, pluck them and groom them.
00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:34.590
And then you've got some really good Xers that are on the way out.
00:26:34.590 --> 00:26:41.049
But, dan, we've got a gap in between and that gap was created by taking trades out of high schools.
00:26:42.051 --> 00:26:42.252
Yes.
00:26:42.881 --> 00:26:50.386
I wrote a piece this morning Until we get our 13-year-olds to the time that they're 33, we have got uphill battle.
00:26:50.386 --> 00:27:01.272
And that's where I say if you're a tradesperson or a craftsperson or a surgical tech or whatever you are, grab a couple of youngsters and walk with them.
00:27:03.142 --> 00:27:21.320
Yes, yes, I think this gap that we're, that we think it's tough now, but I feel in the next seven to 15, it's really going to hurt and everybody in that value stream can contribute, needs to contribute, to closing that gap.
00:27:21.320 --> 00:27:30.946
Now I know that you're a Kaizen, continuous improvement, prefab minded, like efficiency optimist I know.
00:27:30.946 --> 00:27:32.593
Oh, you got the Kaizen.
00:27:32.593 --> 00:27:33.636
Is that a real tattoo?
00:27:33.636 --> 00:27:33.877
It is.
00:27:33.877 --> 00:27:34.400
Is that a real tattoo?
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:36.625
It is?
00:27:36.625 --> 00:27:41.701
Please tell me what's the story behind the tattoo.
00:27:41.701 --> 00:27:41.781
I?
00:27:41.842 --> 00:27:56.250
started learning about Kaizen and Dr G Edwards Deming a long time ago and I took it half-heartedly and I understood it and practiced it.
00:27:56.250 --> 00:27:59.278
And I understood it and practiced it.
00:27:59.278 --> 00:28:25.211
But when I started my company in 1999, I saw that continuous improvement was how we were going to survive as a small company in a niche market, which was the mission critical air conditioning side of the industry, and to be able to go from one guy in the garage to 40 people and selling the business at a really nice price.
00:28:25.211 --> 00:28:34.231
That was a pretty big uphill battle in the data center service world against some of the people we were competing with.
00:28:34.231 --> 00:28:38.770
But having that mindset, I think, really helped us.
00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:56.213
And Kaizen is simply doing something do the damn thing, measure it, tweak it, do it again until you start making micro changes instead of things you can measure with a yardstick.
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