Insights From 30+ Years as a Journeyman Carpenter with Clyde King

I worked close to16years non-union.Oh,okay.I didn't join the union till2007and I was living in pa I had moved back in with mom and dad after I got out.My whole career being interested in building,started when I was little.Dad was a designer for an architectural firm.He didn't have his stamp,but he did all the drawings and detailed everything.And when I was six,we built my parents'house.So I learned how to use a hand saw and a hammer from a good friend who was a union carpenter at that time.And then through the eighties after I got outta the Marines up in PA and everything,the unions were still having trouble getting to work.So I had went.To one of the subs for dad's company,cuz when the principal passed away,he had left the architectural firm Ah.And went to at that time it was a union contractor.Okay.But they ended up having to close the union side down and opened up as a non-union open shop and then one of the sub interior subs.I went to work for them and was doing metal frame,stud framing,drywall,acoustical ceilings all the exterior framing,so on and so forth.So yeah,I've been around it for a lot longer than30years,but I've actually,getting paid in the trade since91.

Oh,yeah,that is my friend,Mr.Clyde king,who happens to be like only the second carpenter that we've had on the show,which.Didn't occur to me until I was like prepping for the show notes.Got to do better with that.Anyhow.I was like ultra excited that Clyde accepted my request to interview him on the show.For a couple of reasons.One,he's got a ton of experience.I mean,he's been in the industry for a very long time.and he's tinkering around quite a bit with social media technology,video content creation.Uh,which,which to me is just a special mix,especially,you know,the generation that he comes from,uh,and in our conversation.We talk about that generation,which generation.The boomer generation.Specifically the work ethic around it.He kind of helped me go back in time.On the little memory I had about my dad.Uh,working with them out there as long time ago.And you know,those,there's just a different depth of grit,I think,with,with some folks.And it seems to be that there's a concentration of that in the boomer generation.And like I said,He's comes from a time that some people now in the industry may not be aware of.And that time that was a different type of tools,when I say different types of tools,I mean like an electric tool with a cord.Was a premium price in difficult to get your hands on.So you had hand powered tools and I only remember messing around with my dad's stuff.And so we got to talk about Clyde's collection back there.And of course like that transition or his experience of working like.His day-to-day was hand tools to now.Creating content and producing video and editing all the digital release type magically whizzbang stuff.Uh,it was,it was an awesome conversation and yep.This is only half of the conversation you're going to get the next half here in a few days.And before we go back to the future with Clyde king,I got a shout out for C R M consultant CRM consultant.Left.The nice,awesome.Uh,review that made me smile on the inside and out on the apple podcasts,the thing,and guess what?You can do the same and it would make me smile just the same.So CRM consultant says.Just listened to episode number three.Loving the conversation about masculinity traits and normalizing treating people like a human.More topics like these are needed in the world.Thank you.CRM consultant in that episode,number three,that is being referenced is the conversation that Thomas lamina and I had on the goal.It was a collaborative session on the goal.And like that whole series of conversations,we talk a lot about mental health,mental wellness,masculinity,and some of these things that,uh,maybe don't provide the optimal conditions for us to thrive.Long-term physically and mentally.So go check those out.I'll put a link in the comments for you.Um,and also there's a bunch of links in the comments.There's one ultra special link.It's an emotional bungee jumpers link.We got grouped to open up.First one is going to be happening on June9th.Uh,and that group is going to be meeting the second Friday of every month at2:00PM central.So check it out,hit it up.And he would go to Mr.Claude king.

what's going on?LnM?Family.I'm here with fellow Creator Construction professional extraordinaire.Mr.Clyde,how you doing today,Mr.Clyde?We're doing good.

It's been a long day of work,but we're doing good.So

we were just talking about that behind the scenes.Long day at work.I think for as construction professionals,that's a different meaning.

Yeah.

Sometimes you're bent over for six hours working on something that ain't waste high and it just tears your body apart,huh?

Yes.Especially being at59.Oh man.

You know there's something there.You're similar to my father's generation that just don't stop.No,

you can't,you gotta keep,

where does that come from,sir?

I guess it was the way I was brought up,dad was a Marine as well.Okay.So it's instilled from.Un tail end of the baby boomers there yep.It's instilled into you.Believe me,there's times that I wanna just say,you know what,it can wait a tomorrow.

Yeah.I remember one time my dad and I were working together for the same outfit.And we had to hike,cast iron pipe up the stairs because we got kicked out of the elevator.The emergency elevator that had like medical gas equipment?Yeah.And connections and stuff because it was the only one that we could fit10foot joints in.And.One of the runs we're making up there,we dinged the wall and they said,okay,that's it.Y'all are out.So now we had to carry'em up the damn stairs,four floors worth of stairs.There was this one guy who was little,I was23,maybe the guy may have been in his late twenties,early thirties,and he had just got his journeyman's license,his plumber license,and he said I ain't carrying pipe up the stairs.I'm a journeyman.

And

my dad's master plumber went and grabbed himself a,joined a four inch pipe and another stick of two inch pipe.Held that one kind of on the floor and on his shoulder,and showed him his master's license.You're a journeyman,I'm a master.Put it on his shoulder and took him up the damn stairs.And I said,man,I was proud of my dad.I was impressed.And then I was like,damn it.Now I gotta do the same thing.

Yep.Oh,there was a couple jobs years ago,back,probably92.The boom truck.And screwed up,and we were carrying drywall up around stairs.Oh God,

no.Oh man.Hey just your body.Don't forget that.For a couple days,huh?Mr.Clyde what I understand so far is went to high school,joined the Marines.You were there for about eight years,and then you come out and joined the carpenter apprenticeship Carpenter Union.Is that the timeline?

No,actually I worked close to16years non-union.Oh,okay.I didn't join the union till2007and I was living in pa I had moved back in with mom and dad after I got out.My whole career being interested in building,started when I was little.Dad was a designer for an architectural firm.He didn't have his stamp,but he did all the drawings and detailed everything.And when I was six,we built my parents'house.So I learned how to use a hand saw and a hammer from a good friend who was a union carpenter at that time.And then through the eighties after I got outta the Marines up in PA and everything,the unions were still having trouble getting to work.So I had went.To one of the subs for dad's company,cuz when the principal passed away,he had left the architectural firm Ah.And went to at that time it was a union contractor.Okay.But they ended up having to close the union side down and opened up as a non-union open shop and then one of the sub interior subs.I went to work for them and was doing metal frame,stud framing,drywall,acoustical ceilings all the exterior framing,so on and so forth.So yeah,I've been around it for a lot longer than30years,but I've actually,getting paid in the trade since91.

Nice.So you know it's interesting you say you got introduced To a hammer and a handsaw.Yes.And like that You really mean a

handsaw?Handsaw,yes.Not a circular.

I'm laughing cuz I remember as

a kid with

my dad.He was primarily,I guess for like when I was young elementary,middle school,he spent most of his career working in like residential,multi-family type work.Yeah.It wasn't until later that I remember him getting into commercial construction.And I remember the hand saw,the keyhole saw that we had to use to do different things.And that damn hand saw man,whenever it would hang up,it would just You had to get in a groove.And let that thing just gut smooth.Yeah.You gotta

let this all do the work.,Yeah.I've still got a couple workshop.

Do you remember the drill

that you have?Those brace?Yes.You got some?Yeah,I got one of them out there too.

Oh man.Those are the coolest.How about it was a ruler,like a folding ruler.Wooden,yep.

Yeah.I carry one of them with me a lot.No way it makes it nice for if and when at the time,like right now,I'm back in my tools working a small crew.But a lot of times if we'd be setting bolts on piers and that we built.I run the robot.I was quality control officer for a couple years on a few huge gas processing plants.Okay.We were building three at a time and these things are close to15,000yards of concrete apiece.But when we set the bolts,having the folding ruler,you can get the projection of the bolt a lot easier to read than having to.Deal with a tape measure that keeps

flopping around.Yeah.Yep.Wow.Okay,so you started six years old kind of family,introduction to the trades and then you decided to this is what I'm gonna do,make a living as

a carpenter yeah I love designing And I was taught that I had my own little drawing table right beside his,in the house,drafted table.So I still do a lot of my drawings.Like you can see architect's role and Oh yeah,I've got=all my squares and everything back here for sitting here doing designs for things that I built in the wood shop.I still do a lot of it by hand.I do have sketch up and add on my laptop that I'll put most of my designs that I do.I still do the old-fashioned way by hand.Yeah.Same way.When I first learned how to estimate,I did it the old fashioned way with it,taking off the drawings with the roller,writing a notebook and

line item by line.Item by line.Oh yeah.So in your career you've been able to see like the evolution of technology.We're joking about the hands up and the power saw.Now you got24volt cordless,everything.Yeah.How shocking was it as those technologies evolved within the industry?

The one that really.Made the big impact on the Carpenters early was the little plum Bob laser.Yes.Because when I started with that interior company,they weren't out yet.We plumbed our top track up with a plumb bob,with your thumb up against the ceiling going down to that pencil mark on the floor or that chalk line on the floor.Now that laser,when we did our exterior walls too,there was times when we'd have a guy standing there if it was a little breezy,we'd literally dropped the plumb bob down through a piece of PVC pipe to keep the wind off the string.He'd be standing there holding that tube and you're up.Hold it steady.

Yeah.Oh.Yes,I've been there with the wind kicking that dang plum bob off just enough to be off.And if it's off a little here,it can be a whole hell of a lot off down the line.Oh

yeah.When you're dealing with14foot floors normally in between,structure.You're up there with a14foot or a20ounce plum bob hanging on your string.On your thumb.Yeah.Yes.It gets a little old.So yeah,the plum laser,that and then the rotating lasers and the technology,how they changed and the green beams compared to the red beam laser

and Yeah.That red beam's good when you don't have a ton of light.But if you got daylight coming in,it makes it very difficult to see that red beam.

And the red beam lasers,they're maxed out on as far as what the capacity they're putting out.They can't go any higher now.Oh,really?They're okay.They're at the max that they're allowed to be putting out.And if you've got a hundred foot room,By the time you get,when you aim that thing down at that wall,you're looking at a dot that's three quarters of an inch in diameter or better.Oh,so the

accuracy's blown.Yep.

And the green beams.Just a little tiny dot still.

ten four.And I feel like,so as you were coming through,I'm sure you worked with a bunch of folks that maybe embraced.Technology and also a bunch of folks that didn't want to change.Oh,yeah.how'd you deal with that?

It was a lot of companies back in,throughout the nineties a lot of'em would still run corded,screw guns,corded,circular saws,and you're tripping over cords.You're doing this and finally they had no choice but to,it's like either jump ahead and jump on the bandwagon with the battery stuff or you're gonna get left behind.

There's a safety element.I worked with the guy who he blew my mind cause I didn't see it that way.I just liked cordless tools.I was reluctant with some cordless tools because it was like,don't be lazy.I always did it with cord.I was pretty good at rolling up for cord.So it just depended on what the work was,right?Hammer drill,yeah.Cordless band,so I don't know,because it's a little cut slot it's not big enough.Anyhow,a guy I worked with us,like Jess,if we just went cordless our risk,like our safety will go up.What do you mean?He's because there's no cords for trip hazards.Yeah.And I said,oh,

I didn't think of it that way.There was a lot of times on jobs that we had to make cord trees when the cords get'em up off the floor.Yeah.And that could be a painted a butt too.Oh my goodness.

Yes.Totally.Totally.There's a ton of benefit to the evolution of technology.It's just,the adoption rate is different for,I think a bunch of us.What's really interesting to me is knowing that you've spent a good chunk of your years on this world with your hands on an actual hand saw.And then fast forward to today where you're posting regularly on LinkedIn and posting videos and editing stuff and drones.And where did your appetite for embracing new technologies come from,Mr.Clyde?

Like I said I'd love to design and build.That's the reason I went into the carpenters where I'm using my hands is,Yes.I love to design,but I can't sit behind a desk all day.It drives me nuts.I'm too used to being hands on,so I started embracing some of the technology.My little brother actually got me into with AutoCAD and that.He's a mechanical engineer.Ah,he went to WVU and graduated in95and now has his own powder coating business up in pa,but he went to mechanical engineering route so we could design our race car chassis.We've designed to build our own racing go-kart frames that we ran for years than what they call micro sprint,which.Now a lot of the micro sprints are like600cc street bike motors on them.Back when we ran'em,they were two50cc,dirt bike,two strokes,so where you can get the weight and everything else.And he started bringing me into the technology on that design aspect as far as the chassis.And then I just went and ran with it.I got into the camera,the video I've got,I think,six GoPros that we stick on both the race cars at different times.I was working with a team here in by Canada after I moved down here in2006and two years ago,my brother decided to come outta retirement and get back into it up there.Now we're gonna try to run two cars.Last year we didn't get either one.He ran about six races and got clobbered and he was so busy at the shop,we just never got his car back out.And we never had mine finished cuz we're waiting on parts and money for motor.Third late models get quite expensive if we're both running what they call a crate late.Okay.Which is a.A sealed GM motor.We can't do anything to the motors.They're all the same horsepower,roughly.And then it all gets into chassis and shocks.And so I started embracing learning about the technology there.I could sit there and design how the front end geometry comes up,the weight transfer,

So you got into the racing and the designing piece,that's a common thread is what I'm hearing so far.Yeah.Designing by hand and you learn how to do some of the stuff on the computery fancy stuff video.Because of the racing video editing

just I was watching different things about.Attracted sponsors in that for the race car and that's when I got into a little bit of that more to say,okay,we can showcase you this way and I'll with LinkedIn just okay,I could do the same type thing and promote my personal brand.And also pass my knowledge on,oh,

that Clyde,that is like the inspiring thing is you're on what,212,213

days now?Two15or post Friday.

Okay,so two15is Friday,so it's215consecutive days that you've been posting about.

For probably the first hundred.It was daily.Daily.Even Saturday and Sunday.Okay.And then somewhere in the one50range I went to just let's go Monday through Friday.Okay.So

workdays.Yeah.Yeah.Okay.And the purpose is for you to share your knowledge,right?That's what I'm taking away from you.You're sharing your knowledge so that other people can have access to that.Yep.What was it like when you first started doing that?

It was interesting.The first ones were literally random.I would pull into the job site sitting in the car,pull up my phone and just start typing,okay,it's whatever hit my head that morning or something we might have been dealing with on that job.And then,Now I've got into where I can schedule'em now that LinkedIn has the scheduling thing so I can do a week's worth over the weekend with can at and then schedule'em for that following week.

Was it uncomfortable for you when you first started in terms of what you were gonna put out there and how people were gonna respond?

Yeah,to a point.Like I said,the first ones were literally just random thought and then maybe a picture or so off the phone,from the job site or how things were going.But now I'm at that age.It's if we don't get these younger people involved and pass our knowledge on the trades are in trouble.So with my30plus years,and from project management to superintendent to general foreman,the foreman,the worker,it's okay,let's take little bits and let's pass his knowledge on.Oh man.

Amen.Is what I gotta say to that.There's a lot of knowledge out there,and I'm sure you've worked with folks,come across some folks in your years that hoard the knowledge and hoard the Oh yeah.They're afraid to teach the next generation because they're afraid of losing their job.I wanna say the last10years that I was out there playing in the Wild,I didn't see a whole bunch of that,but early like in95,I'll say95to oh two,man,it felt every project I was on,there was a,at least a few plumbers that were hoarding that information and didn't want to pass on any knowledge.It was the same with the

carpenters.

Was it?Really?Yeah.Okay.It's not just a plumber

thing?No.It's across all the trades.

Ah,okay.So have you seen it get better over

the years?Yeah,it has definitely changed,but you still got some old school pains in the ass that they'll tell you the basic way to do it.But they won't show you the little tricks that they've developed

That make it better for them and for everybody around them.They keep those in their back pocket.Yeah.

That's still happening.Yeah.

I probably do the same thing with content.

Oh yeah.There's different little things.I showed the apprentice this poor kid he.Is a new apprentice.Okay.He had been working in the trades a little bit with an non-union company.Yep.And came down and I happened to the day I met the gentleman with the company I'm with right now.Like I said,they're a non-union company,but we're in there.They signed a project agreement to have us do all their form work and then whatever else they need done.So we're doing a little bit of everything,but that day I happened to go down to our hall to talk with our business agent or our organizer to make sure all the paperwork was ready for when they said we can get up to the airport that we were going.He wasn't there,but they happened to be doing an orientation test.For a bunch of new apprentices.So I sat in to help the instructors,just talking to'em,watching their work.This kid aced everything.He's gonna be a real good apprentice.After he's done with his four years,he's gonna make a hell of a journeyman.Nice.

So you seen him and you scooped him up.Huh?You said,Hey,you

yeah.I kinda lucked into him.He was going to give his company,a couple week notice when they called him and he was looking to get,a couple week notice on when he could start.A rep called him and he happened to talk him into starting that next day.

Oh man.Right.When it was getting juicy,if you've ever been on the hunt for getting a good,an apprentice with like solid skills that you want to pour into,you know,the excitement that Clyde was feeling,what he,and what he was just telling us.Uh,so that's the end of the first part.The neck part two was going to be coming out real quickly because I slacked off last week.Anyhow,you can get,check it out here in a few days.And while you're waiting for part two to come up,there's a whole library of episodes that you can go out there and consume and comment and leave reviews about.And also just,uh,made a little tweak to the learnings and missteps blog.And that tweak is specifically.giving some behind the scenes detail,uh,maybe some facts.And in thoughts that I left out of the book,becoming the promise you are intended to be that book is going to be hitting June23rd.Uh,but every week now I'm going to be releasing just a little,you know,some behind the scenes stuff,kind of what I was thinking,what I'm uncomfortable about and give people a little more insight as to the purpose of it.And,and where it's coming from.Go to depth,builder.com forward slash blog.And there's a whole bunch of entries in there.I'd love to get your feedback.actually like a little sign up thing.If you want to get like a sneak peek of the audio version of the book,I have some clips available.In exchange for your email address,you'll get,uh,the audio version of me reading the dedication.And the foreword written by my friend Lee Krump.Who's the dude who like inspired me to write the darn book.So that's enough of me talking,appreciate your time and we'll see you soon.Oh my goodness.You're either driving down the road or just so enthralled with,uh,with this whole podcast that you went all the way down to the very,very,very,very end of it.And we appreciate you and just,we're going to take this as an indication of your dedication so we got a little special request of you,a call to action,because everybody tells us that like,you need to have a call to action.So here's the call to action.Be kind to yourself,go out there and share a smile with someone