Episode 2060
Why Your Kids Should Skip College and Join the Trades (Seriously!)
Kicking off the show with a bang, Eric G. and guest co-host John Dudley dive into the wild world of home improvement and the trades. With over 30 years of experience, Eric shares a hilariously cringy flashback to his past television adventures, including a cringe-worthy moment involving producers trying to squeeze drama out of unsuspecting contestants. But the laughs don’t stop there; they take a sharp turn to a serious topic: the lack of emphasis on trades in education. Eric points out that while kids are funneled into college with hefty debts, they could be earning six figures as electricians or plumbers if they’d just learned a skill instead of racking up student loans. It’s a reality check and a call to arms for parents and educators everywhere to rethink how we guide our youth. John chimes in with his own experiences, highlighting the importance of hands-on skills and how they shape personal growth. They explore the stigma around blue-collar jobs and why breaking that barrier is crucial for future generations.
Takeaways:
- In this episode, we dive deep into how the trades are often overlooked by schools pushing traditional college routes, which is just absurd if you ask me.
- John Dudley shares his wild journey from being a scrawny roofer to a successful contractor, proving that hard work pays off way better than a humanities degree.
- We chat about the crazy misconceptions around cabinet colors in home design, which can cost you a fortune if you don't get it right – talk about a recipe for disaster!
- The conversation shifts to the urgent need for tradespeople as the industry faces a massive shortage – seriously, if you can hold a hammer, you're golden!
- We reflect on the importance of teaching kids practical skills early on, because honestly, who wouldn't want to know how to change a light bulb instead of just scrolling through TikTok?
- Finally, we emphasize that getting into the trades isn't just about making money – it's about pride, craftsmanship, and the satisfaction of building something with your own two hands.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Paramount Loss
- HDTV
- Designer Finals
- Eagle Hardware and Garden
- Lowe's
- Aerobroom
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome to around the House with Eric G. Your trusted source for all things home improvement.
Speaker B:Whether you're tackling a DIY project, hiring it out, or just trying to keep your home running smoothly, you're in the right place.
Speaker B:With over 30 years of remodeling experience, certified kitchen designer Eric G takes you behind the scenes with expert advice, industry trends and the latest innovations for your home.
Speaker A:Home.
Speaker B:It's everything you need to know without the fluff.
Speaker B:Now here's your host, Eric G. Welcome.
Speaker A:To the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker A:We have got back in the studio today, John Dudley co hosting a little bit here.
Speaker A:Thanks for coming back on, brother.
Speaker C:Yeah, man, thanks for having me.
Speaker A:Always a good time, man.
Speaker A:You and I go way back.
Speaker A:And funny story, this last week I was on and I sent you the message, Johnny.
Speaker A:And you probably know what I'm going to talk about here.
Speaker A:I was back on Paramount Loss, right.
Speaker A:The streaming service.
Speaker A:And I went, I wonder if that HDTV show I did 20 plus years ago is on there.
Speaker A:And I'm like, I hope not, but it is.
Speaker A:And yeah, it's on there.
Speaker A:And me and Kevin, you were working and trying to get through an HDTV show called Designer Finals.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And we were in Denver.
Speaker A:We had the people from MTV Real World that were the producers, so they were trying to like make up all this magic.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Just from Real World, it's just the producers, the producers.
Speaker A:And so they had just left that whole thing and showed up there.
Speaker A:There was like six of them because they were trying to, okay, we're going to put all these people on doing this across the country.
Speaker A:And so they were trying to do that.
Speaker A:And the funny part was I've been following Pen Holderness on social media for five years laughing at what him and his wife do.
Speaker A:And I forgot that he was the host of the show.
Speaker A:And I'm like, ah, that's why I liked him.
Speaker A:I worked with him.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Shows you how long ago that was.
Speaker A:And he looks like a little kid and so do I.
Speaker A:But pretty funny going back on the way back machine there and seeing what I was doing 20 years ago.
Speaker A:And as my friends and social media posted, oh, it's baby Eric.
Speaker A:Cute.
Speaker C:Yeah, man, it was a trip.
Speaker C:I see you every day pretty much.
Speaker C:So yeah, that wasn't a shock.
Speaker C:But seeing Kevin in that shot, I was like, oh, wow, that was a time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:They had tried to produce this show and my friend Brianne, who I'd worked with for years, she was the designer going through the program.
Speaker A:And the crazy part was that when they went through that, they were trying to get me to make her cry because they wanted to make her the weak new designer.
Speaker A:And I'm like, no, I'm not making my friend cry.
Speaker A:Sorry.
Speaker A:And if you want me to leave, I can go.
Speaker A:But guess what?
Speaker A:I'm not getting paid for this.
Speaker A:So I.
Speaker C:Production.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Make somebody look bad, make somebody cry.
Speaker C:We need the drama.
Speaker C:Come on.
Speaker A:No way.
Speaker A:No way.
Speaker A:So not doing it.
Speaker A:Not doing it.
Speaker A:And yeah, it's one of those things that I stuck my foot in the sand.
Speaker A:I went, no.
Speaker A:And they set it up.
Speaker A:They called the tile guy and made him show up a week, a day late, and you're supposed to be there on a one day and they held him off.
Speaker A:So a lot of cool stuff going on there.
Speaker C:So gross.
Speaker A:It's just tv.
Speaker A:It's what it is on that stuff.
Speaker A:That was a long time ago, too.
Speaker A:That's 20 plus years ago today.
Speaker A:I wanted to talk about getting people into the trades.
Speaker A:I think it's a great conversation because we've got so many issues out there with people that are really having some issues.
Speaker A:You've got these kids going into college, getting their humanities degrees and spending six figures.
Speaker A:And then I see them working Starbucks drive through and they're 100 grand in the hole because they paid for a college education that they can't use.
Speaker A:And if they would have turned around and joined the electricians union and they'd already be a licensed electrician and making six figures and not have the college debt.
Speaker A:It's crazy.
Speaker A:It's crazy.
Speaker A:And of course, all of our school districts, there's some great ones out there, but all of our school districts have really done such a poor job of getting kids ready to not go to college to go into the trades.
Speaker A:They've all been the big business of the college education.
Speaker A:They've been really pushing them into that.
Speaker A:But they shut down all the wood shops, the metal shops, the welding.
Speaker A:Are there plenty of school districts out there that are on the right path?
Speaker A:Yeah, we had Chris Higglemotham on the show, oh, a month and a half ago, and they've been for 50 years they've been teaching kids how to build homes.
Speaker A:And every year they build one home.
Speaker A:And that's over here in Forest Grove, Oregon.
Speaker A:But at the same time, you look in at Portland public schools in my area here, and guess what?
Speaker A:They've pretty much taken all the wood shop classes out.
Speaker A:And so all those things are gone.
Speaker C:It's just insane that to fault that piece of education.
Speaker C:And I'll bring up my little brother, who's a great example.
Speaker C:The kid's a brilliant genius software engineer, programmer.
Speaker C:Kid could put rockets on the moon.
Speaker C:But ask him to get you a Phillips screwdriver and he doesn't know which one that is.
Speaker C:Ask him to change the light bulb.
Speaker C:He's like, how do you do that?
Speaker C:Like, seriously.
Speaker C:Now he's grown up, he's 40 now, but when he was 15, 16, he didn't know even up till into his 30s, he'd be like, I don't know how to do that.
Speaker C:There's so many life skills you learn within the trades.
Speaker C:And also just being around, especially when you're young, being around grown men, that you can find a lot of good examples of integrity and pride in your work and just some foundational things that I think we need as human beings.
Speaker C:Let's get back to building fires almost.
Speaker C:It doesn't.
Speaker C:You don't have to stick there, but man.
Speaker A:Yeah, just the basics.
Speaker C:For example, here in Columbia, they require you go to two years in the military at least.
Speaker C:Okay, cool.
Speaker C:Send them to two years of trade school or give them a choice or something.
Speaker C:Go to a VO tech and learn how to roof or learn how to carpenter or something, man.
Speaker C:It's so invaluable.
Speaker C:And the sense of, of pride is the reward.
Speaker C:Like when you complete something, you build something with your own two hands.
Speaker C:Like it changes you as a person instead of just pushing buttons and letting the computer do it for you.
Speaker C:Or.
Speaker C:No, no, you get my point.
Speaker C:Yeah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:Yeah, no question, man.
Speaker A:And that's the awesome thing is you look at it and there's so many places that are doing great.
Speaker A:There's school districts around here, you know, that, that really do a great job.
Speaker A:But then I look at these other big ones and you know, down in south of here in a little town called Sweet Home, these guys have a self sustaining shop program.
Speaker A:So they have kids that are learning how to be loggers.
Speaker A:They have logging companies donating wood trees to the wood shop.
Speaker A:They have their own mill, so they cut their own wood.
Speaker A:So there's no cost to entry for the kids getting into the wood shop program to learn how to build something.
Speaker C:So cool.
Speaker A:It's so cool.
Speaker A:I was over there one time with Blake Manley and he was the guy that was running this.
Speaker A:It was so cool to watch this happen.
Speaker A:I'm watching these kids walking across.
Speaker A:What are they doing?
Speaker A:They're teaching them how to climb trees and Power poles.
Speaker C:Nice.
Speaker A:And they've got their rigs and they're running across and they're next to the football stadium.
Speaker A:I'm like, okay, super cool.
Speaker A:I love this.
Speaker A:And we just need to be doing this in every single school district instead of worried about getting kids into these degrees that unfortunately they're just going to be working at Chipotle or Starbucks with them.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:My little brother went to four years of college through anthropology.
Speaker C:Told me the last time he dug up a bone.
Speaker A:Yeah, maybe chasing the dog out in the yard, but that's about it, right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now getting into the trade saved my life, man.
Speaker C:Like I was a disaster as a teenager.
Speaker C:We won't get into details, but I joined the roofers union as what?
Speaker C:Probably 100 pound, long haired, ponytail, little scrawny dude.
Speaker C:And you pack 100 pound, roll a cap sheet up a 40 foot ladder and it grows you up.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Like, oh, this is the real deal.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:This is what men do.
Speaker C:And man, I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Speaker C:Granted I, my stepfather was in the roofers waterproofers union and he's.
Speaker C:You start out at 14 bucks an hour.
Speaker C: In: Speaker C:I was like, frickin sign me up, dude.
Speaker C:Can't be that bad.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was.
Speaker A:As soon as that 40 foot ladder starts getting that spring in it halfway up, that's where it starts really getting your attention.
Speaker C:But I bought my first house at 20 years old, so do the math.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C:Instead of sitting in college wasting my money on booze or whatever.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:I tell you what, some of the, before we go out to break here, some of the women out there that are in the trades, I tell you what, I have friends that are female woodworkers that run circles around me in their skill.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's just insane out there.
Speaker A:And the diversity now is so cool to watch.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's nice, it's super cool.
Speaker A:Hey, when we come back, we're going to talk more about getting kids in the trades and what we can do to make that change.
Speaker A:And that way things are more affordable for you out there.
Speaker A:Because I tell you what, right now those wages are going up and up and that means every time that you hire them for your house, that's getting more expensive.
Speaker A:We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.
Speaker A:Don't change that dial.
Speaker B:To find out more information, head to aroundthehouse online dot com.
Speaker B:Don't change that dial around the house.
Speaker B:We'll be Right back after these important messages.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the around the House show.
Speaker A:The next generation of home improvement.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. And then here we got Johnny D.
Speaker C:I need a little bell to ring or something.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker C:I want a kazoo.
Speaker A:Okay, we got sound effects.
Speaker A:We'll see what we can do for you here.
Speaker A:And Johnny and I, we go back 20 something years.
Speaker A:We played in a band together.
Speaker A:We've.
Speaker A:I was his kitchen a bath designer when he was a contractor.
Speaker A:So we've been through the trenches on this stuff.
Speaker C:Yeah, man.
Speaker C:And what got you sucked into the trades in the first place?
Speaker A:You know, it's funny.
Speaker A:So I grew up working with my dad on stuff.
Speaker A:I watched this old house as a kid, first season, probably eight.
Speaker A:My dad was cool.
Speaker A:He got a hold of the TV station there in Boston and had out the plan shipped out so I could follow him on the.
Speaker A:Sitting on the floor in front of the tv, front of that big wood console tv, watching stuff.
Speaker A:And I got away through that and we had a great time working on projects.
Speaker A:You know, we did a lot of stuff.
Speaker A:So what we did is we did a lot of remodeling, worked on cars.
Speaker A:My dad and I were just super cool that way.
Speaker A:But my jam was playing music or working on radio.
Speaker A:And so I took radio TV production and didn't get back into the trades until after taking some community college.
Speaker A:And I actually busted my knee up and they went, hey, you want to be a kitchen designer over there in the kitchen design department since you're in a wheelchair and you're going to be in that for a bit with your ACL surgery?
Speaker A:And I'm like, sure.
Speaker A:I took architectural classes in college and high school.
Speaker A:It sounds fun.
Speaker A:So sure enough, started doing that.
Speaker A:And I made a killing in the early 90s working for this chain called Eagle Hardware and Garden.
Speaker A:I was making in the 90s with commissions.
Speaker A:I was making 70, 80,000 bucks a year in the Tri Cities in eastern Washington.
Speaker A:Lowe's ended up buying them out.
Speaker A:But you made commission.
Speaker A:And so I was out there selling cabinet packages to, like, schools that were getting remodeled and was cranking out stuff, made a ton of money.
Speaker A:And that's the road that I went down.
Speaker A:And it worked out really well.
Speaker A:And I would have been just.
Speaker A:I don't know what I would have.
Speaker A:What kind of trouble I would have gotten into if I hadn't learned all that stuff.
Speaker A:I took welding, I took all the different trade stuff.
Speaker A:I technically have my degree in autobody, so I could learn how to work on hot rods.
Speaker A:But that was not what I was trying to do.
Speaker A:I just wanted to do radio.
Speaker A: And then I figured out in: Speaker A:I could make a dollar more at McDonald's cooking fries than I could working on radio in eastern Washington.
Speaker A:So I was like, okay, is not the career for living.
Speaker A:I've lived a great life so far.
Speaker A:And halfway through it with all the cool things that you could do as a kitchen and bath designer.
Speaker A:And 35 years later after that, I'm happy I did.
Speaker A:But man, I tell you what, I'm watching kids now that are starting to get into H VAC and electrical and framing and plumbing and tile setting and concrete work.
Speaker A:And if I'd have done that back then, I'd probably have even more money in my back pocket right now.
Speaker A:Probably made some better decisions along the way because I'd had the money to do it.
Speaker C:Yeah, My little brother Joey.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:So one's a genius software engineer.
Speaker C:And then Joey gets into the insulators union.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Wrapping pipes at Sea Tac airport and things like that.
Speaker C:And he's just a hustler.
Speaker C:This little kid used to wake me up when he was.
Speaker C:He must have been 10 when he started to go.
Speaker C:Going to work with me on remodels.
Speaker C:Yeah, he was just jacked up every day, man, he'd come wake me up, he's, I got the lunches packed, let's go, let's rock.
Speaker C:I'm like, this kid is in.
Speaker C:Where does this come from?
Speaker C:From a 10 year old.
Speaker C:And yeah, man, he got into the trades.
Speaker C:And at 35 years.
Speaker C:He's been running crews since he was 27 now.
Speaker C:Yeah, got his own work truck, got an RV, got a big farms worth a million bucks.
Speaker C:Got two kids and a wife, not a care in the world.
Speaker C:Fully vested, gonna have a decent pension, like at 35 years old.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker C:You're just getting out of med school.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker A:And living a good life.
Speaker A:And so I just feel bad for the kids out there.
Speaker A:And really there's such a great program, especially with the unions that you've got out there.
Speaker A:There's trade schools out there you can do as well.
Speaker A:There's so many great programs out there for people to get into this stuff.
Speaker A:And I remember Handyman Bob, who was the precursor to me on this show.
Speaker A:He was the one of the OGs of around the house here.
Speaker A:And he.
Speaker A:For a year it was.
Speaker A:Or year plus, about a decade ago, it was around the house with Handyman Bob and Eric G. And he handed the torch to me.
Speaker A:And 37 years later, the show's still going on.
Speaker A:But he was at a trades thing and in the Portland public schools here in Oregon, where we are, showed up and the.
Speaker A:It was a trades day at the high school in.
Speaker A:The principal introduced the plumber and said, all right, kids, if you don't do great in school, you're not gonna be.
Speaker A:You could always be a plumber like this guy.
Speaker A:And introduced him that way.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:Oh, you son of a gun.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Actually, the guy gets up on stage, from what I was told, principal's making.
Speaker C:A third of what that plumber's making, by the way.
Speaker A:He comes up and goes, hey, I got a boat, I got a big house.
Speaker A:I got all this stuff.
Speaker A:I make twice as much as your principal.
Speaker A:So if you want to get into education, you don't really want to do much.
Speaker A:You can always be a principal at high school and deal with kids like this.
Speaker A:Or you could go out on the river and go skiing with me.
Speaker C:Sweet.
Speaker A:It just tore him right back down again.
Speaker C:But it was way to own it, man.
Speaker C:That's awesome.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's how you and I would have handled it, too.
Speaker A:I'd have been like, oh, really?
Speaker A:All right, game on.
Speaker A:Here we go.
Speaker C:Let's talk principal.
Speaker C:Ah, geez.
Speaker A:I'd have schooled that principal.
Speaker A:That have been good.
Speaker A:That have been good.
Speaker A:But that's our problem that we have in so many of these schools is the.
Speaker A:I always call it the big business of a college education.
Speaker A:We gotta have doctors, we gotta have all the stuff out there.
Speaker A:We gotta have scientists.
Speaker A:Totally get it.
Speaker A:But every kid does not need to go to College.
Speaker A:Yeah, there's 30 or 40% of those people.
Speaker A:I like what they do in Europe.
Speaker A:I know some kids in Europe over there.
Speaker A:And I'm not going to get into the countries and the politics and all that stuff because we don't do that here.
Speaker A:But in some of those European countries, they come up and they look at your test scores and go, you're not going to be a scientist, you're not going to be a brain surgeon.
Speaker A:So why don't we put that effort into you being just an amazing tradesperson and make as much as they do.
Speaker C:How do you feel about welding, son?
Speaker A:How do you feel about welding?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And nothing wrong with that, but I think that they're actually way ahead of where we are.
Speaker A:Because in today's age, and I'm hopeful with our Gen Z kids out there, you younger guys out there that are listening to the show right now.
Speaker A:I tell you what, you got something going good here.
Speaker A:But you see it, these kids are now listening to vinyl records or listening to the radio again and they're really staying focused.
Speaker A:They're not getting into.
Speaker A:Some of them are having landline phones and not using their cell phone as much.
Speaker A:And I'm like, wow, we're going back to the 80s and the early 90s.
Speaker A:Kind of cool to see that happening.
Speaker A:Which means these are also the kids that are probably going to learn how to use their hands.
Speaker C:And that's.
Speaker C:I think part of the issue is part of it's geographical.
Speaker C:Let's get down to that for a second, right?
Speaker C:You grew up in Issaquah and you tell your classmates you want to be a hot roofer.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:They're like, oh, I'm going to be a Boeing exec or I'm going to be an engineer or an architect.
Speaker C:And there's always been a bit of that stigma.
Speaker C:I'll never forget one of my good friends, Carrie was.
Speaker C:We went to junior high school together.
Speaker C:He became a hedge fund guy and capital management and we bought some rentals together and worked on these rentals together.
Speaker C:He was one of the hard workingest son of a ever met because he was raised that way in Louisiana.
Speaker C:But I never forget, man, one day his wife said to me, I can't believe he's out there doing that stuff with you.
Speaker C:It's just, it's so blue collar.
Speaker C:What does that make me?
Speaker C:Woman?
Speaker C:What a up there blondie.
Speaker C:But that's the stigma, right?
Speaker C:This whole like.
Speaker C:And he went to Notre Dame and.
Speaker C:But he came from a working class family.
Speaker C:He had a benefactor that helped him get through Notre Dame.
Speaker C:Kid was sharp as attack and was meant for that kind of business.
Speaker C:He would have shorted himself being a carpenter.
Speaker C:Yeah, but like you say, there's those kids, man.
Speaker C:Some of us are just made to go paint a house.
Speaker A:And when we come back, we'll be talking more about the trades and really just dive into how to get your kids in there or how to get you started.
Speaker A:We'll do that just as soon as a round dash returns.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker A:If you want to find out more about us, if this is the first time you're catching us on the podcast for the radio, head over to aroundthehouse online.com you can see what Johnny Dudley here did to our website.
Speaker A:Johnny's also site Hype Design.
Speaker A:So take a Look at what he does.
Speaker A:He's a great web designer.
Speaker A:Works with contractors, with the works with the trades he has.
Speaker A:Well, I've swung a hammer with him a few times as well, jamming on projects.
Speaker A:Nice to have him here on the show.
Speaker A:And he's also great helping contractors out there.
Speaker A:So you might hear him over there if we get that the around the house.
Speaker A:Our pro insider going back again here soon, which we're going to.
Speaker A:So you can catch that over there.
Speaker A:One thing at a time, though.
Speaker A:One thing at a time.
Speaker A:So, Johnny, hey, before we get going on this subject here, let's go out to our cleaning tip, which is our around the house nugget.
Speaker A:Let's knock this one out real quick.
Speaker C:Cool.
Speaker A:Time for an around the house nugget brought to you by Aerobroom.
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Speaker A:Now here's your quick tip.
Speaker A:You have probably seen people online using those magic erasers to clean, clean just about anything.
Speaker A:But don't use them on your cabinetry, furniture, or any other delicate finished surface.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A: s basically the same as using: Speaker A:Sure, it'll take off the dirt, but it'll also take off the finish, leaving you with dull spots that are tough and expensive to fix.
Speaker A:Save that magic eraser for old tubs, sinks and walls, but keep it away from wood finishes or anything else you don't want to scratch.
Speaker A:That's today's around the house nugget.
Speaker A:All right, guys.
Speaker A:That's how you clean things without ruining them.
Speaker A:And that's a key right there.
Speaker A:Because I tell you what, I had a lady that had her.
Speaker A:This was crazy, Johnny.
Speaker A:She put in a brand new kitchen.
Speaker A:Like nine months later, I get this call.
Speaker A:My cabinet finishes failing.
Speaker A:What's going on?
Speaker A:And I walk in there and her white beautiful painted kitchen.
Speaker A:You could see it was through the primer into the wood.
Speaker A:And I'm like, what are you doing?
Speaker C:Don't clean with gas.
Speaker A:Yeah, what are you doing?
Speaker A:I get underneath there.
Speaker A:I well, I said, can we look at your cleaning stuff?
Speaker A:I go, do you clean this?
Speaker A:She goes, no, my cleaning lady.
Speaker A:I said, where's her stuff?
Speaker A:Oh, I bought her stuff over here.
Speaker A:They were using the magic eraser, a little foam, Mr. Clean kind of thing.
Speaker C:Fantastic.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A: But that's: Speaker A:So you're cutting and buffing that kitchen so many times, you're going to go through the edges pretty quick.
Speaker A:There's not that much paint on there.
Speaker A:This isn't a 57 Chevy.
Speaker A:You should be puffing out every year.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, be careful those things.
Speaker A:Be careful those things, man.
Speaker A:I tell you what, you know, I want to ask you, how did you get into.
Speaker A:When I met you, you were ASM construction, which was another starving musician, which really led us down a road.
Speaker A:But that was a whole other starving musician road.
Speaker C:I'll tell you, man, I got into the roofers union at 17, 18 because of my stepdad, partly out of spite and then obviously because the money was good and I wanted to buy a house and I wanted to work hard, make a bunch of money so that I could just sit around and play music all the time.
Speaker C:Let's be honest.
Speaker C:So by the time I was 20, maybe 21, I woke up one morning at 4:30am to face my hour and a half to two hour drive from Tacoma to Ballard.
Speaker C:And I watched the sunrise and I said, nope, I can't do this anymore.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Couldn't get off the floor in the morning.
Speaker C:So I drove in, gave him a notice and was going to become a big real estate investor.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Had to have money for that, brother.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I had a partner that was a realtor and he's, yeah, we can do this.
Speaker C:You can remodel and I'll sit on my ass and be the realtor guy.
Speaker C:Which we did.
Speaker C:We bought a laundromat at 21 years old and we remodeled that and sold it and I made 20 grand or something.
Speaker C:I thought I was a hot shot.
Speaker C:But in the meantime, yes, you're right.
Speaker C:I had to go, hey, friend of my parents, need a fence built.
Speaker C:Hey, friend of another friend need your house painted and legit.
Speaker C:I think I told you the other day, like, I used to have to go to Home Depot and sit on the floor and read books about how to do some of this crap.
Speaker A:It's when they sold books at Home Depot.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker C:But I never said no.
Speaker C:You know how to tuck point a chimney?
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, of course I do.
Speaker C:Oh, you know how to.
Speaker C:You know what?
Speaker C:Whatever.
Speaker C:I just said yes.
Speaker C:And it just kept getting work.
Speaker C:And I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I never.
Speaker C:I fight till I'm dead.
Speaker C:So if I can't get it done right or figure it out.
Speaker C:I will just keep going until I do.
Speaker C:And little by little, those little odd jobs turned into advertising, turned into hiring people, turned into bigger jobs.
Speaker C:And then it fell out because I went on Tour for about six years with 50 paces.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:But I was still, like, painting the neighbor's house and scrapping together some work.
Speaker C:But it got real serious at 27, 28.
Speaker C:And got married.
Speaker C:So that was some impetus to keep my act together.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And, yeah, man, just slowly but surely started in an 85 Chevy Suburban that was red and beige and horrible.
Speaker C:And my buddy Carrie that I mentioned, we.
Speaker C:We bought a house out in Bremerton, and I gutted that whole thing down to two walls and rebuilt that whole place.
Speaker C:And so that put some capital in my pocket to start growing my bizarre.
Speaker C:And, yeah, next thing, we're on HGTV with you and Kevin Cook.
Speaker C:And, yeah, we were doing a million bucks a year by the end of the deal.
Speaker C:And, yeah.
Speaker C:And then I got sick of Seattle and wanted to move to the sun, so I moved to Arizona.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:And I was helping you promote your band.
Speaker A:And I'll never forget, I was helping you with Dudley with your last band there in Tacoma.
Speaker A:And you're like, hey, man, you play bass, right?
Speaker A:I'm like, it's been 15 years.
Speaker A:You're like, cool.
Speaker A:You're playing on a show in two weeks.
Speaker A:And I'm like, dude, I'm going to.
Speaker A:I have a work trip.
Speaker A:I'm going to Alabama to Wellborn Cabins for the week.
Speaker A:And you're like, you know the songs.
Speaker A:Go learn them.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker C:That's how we do.
Speaker A:That's how we do it.
Speaker A:So I literally took my base with me to the hotel room in Alabama so I could practice all week.
Speaker C:God bless you for it, man.
Speaker C:So many kids won't do that today.
Speaker C:It's incredible.
Speaker A:I showed up and I had people picking up, like, why are you bringing a base for?
Speaker A:I'm like, I got a show in a week.
Speaker A:I got to figure this out.
Speaker A:So everybody's out partying, and I was going back to the room to make sure that I go through and listen to the set list again and make sure I had it.
Speaker C:And I learned that the hard way as well.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Like that you just get thrown in the fire, and you're like, I don't.
Speaker C:I never.
Speaker C:When I was 20, playing a band of Scotty.
Speaker C:And I was like, yeah, he's.
Speaker C:Yeah, you can.
Speaker C:There's a door.
Speaker C:You just walk through it and decide you are.
Speaker C:And I did.
Speaker C:And I was like, wow.
Speaker C:I Did it.
Speaker C:Okay, cool.
Speaker C:Same thing with construction, man.
Speaker C:I don't know how.
Speaker C:I don't know how I'm gonna point this chimney, but I'll be damned if I'm not.
Speaker C:I'm gonna fail.
Speaker C:Like, I'll get it.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:That's the way I was playing bass.
Speaker A:I was like, all right, I've got.
Speaker A:We had Raphael there, who was just.
Speaker A:He was just.
Speaker A:It still is still killing it still love that man.
Speaker A:He's.
Speaker A:Every time he comes down here, he says hello, but it's one of those things that it's wow, okay?
Speaker A:And I remember looking at him with my eyes wide going, all right, I haven't played bass in 15 years live.
Speaker A:Let's do this and just get on the bike and get a couple skin knees.
Speaker A:But you'll be okay.
Speaker C:We got it.
Speaker C:Fine.
Speaker C:I'll tell you.
Speaker C:It's that again.
Speaker C:Back to the reward, man.
Speaker C:I don't know how to tuck point a chimney, but I'm going to decide that.
Speaker C:I'm going to figure it out.
Speaker C:This is like working on a car, whatever.
Speaker C:Rebuilding the carburetor.
Speaker C:When you finish that, you grow as a person, as a human.
Speaker C:You're like, it does so much for self esteem and self confidence and the awareness that you're capable and.
Speaker C:Yeah, that just leads to bigger and better things versus sitting in an office where you're just pushing papers and taking orders.
Speaker C:I'm so glad that I spent all those years building stuff with my own hands and figuring stuff, facing those challenges, facing those fears where, oh, man, we screw this up.
Speaker C:That's a $2,700 range hood.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, totally.
Speaker C:And you pull it off and you're like, I rule.
Speaker C:Like, he totally Kevin spaces.
Speaker A:Oh, man, totally.
Speaker A:And we come back, guys, we're gonna give a couple other.
Speaker A:Let's talk a couple horror stories.
Speaker A:I've got a few on the kitchen side that you love it that I had to power through, and some funny follies and disasters.
Speaker A:But house returns don't change that.
Speaker B:If you are new to the show, make sure and head to our website, aroundthehouse online.com.
Speaker B:make sure you follow us on social media, especially on YouTube.
Speaker B:If you want to catch the podcast commercial free.
Speaker B:And before it airs to everyone else, make sure and join the around the house insider program.
Speaker B:We're heading to break, folks.
Speaker B:Time to fix that leaky faucet or just put a bucket under it and call it modern art.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. We Got Dudley here in the studio, and we've been talking about the trades and then some of the things that got us going when we got into working on homes and things like that.
Speaker A:And if you want to find out more information, make sure you follow us over to aroundthehouse online.com.
Speaker A: full podcast, which is about: Speaker A:Then, of course, make sure you follow us on YouTube.
Speaker A:All that can be found on the website around the House online dot com.
Speaker A:Johnny when we were going out to break, I was talking about some disasters that I had, and we've all had those disasters at job sites.
Speaker A:But I tell you what, I've had them where the semi truck delivering cabinets to my warehouse from the manufacturer in the ice rolled over on its side and destroyed the cabinets.
Speaker A:So I got that.
Speaker C:That only sets you back six or eight weeks.
Speaker A:And it was just like, oh.
Speaker A:And then they wanted me to go through and try to inventory it.
Speaker A:I'm like, nah, you guys got to deal with that.
Speaker A:You deal with that.
Speaker A:I've had my favorite one, though my favorite one was actually not really my fault.
Speaker A:It was the manufacturer.
Speaker A:And I'm not going to sit here and hammer on a brand, because that's not what this is about.
Speaker A:But cabinet companies, at times when they get bigger, don't plan ahead when they're naming for colors.
Speaker A:So, for instance, the lightest color on.
Speaker A:Let's go.
Speaker A:Cherry, the lightest color, cherry would be natural.
Speaker A:The next one, which had just a little tint to it, they called light.
Speaker A:Then they had a bunch of different color names.
Speaker A:Then they had dark, and then they had espresso, which was almost black.
Speaker A:So if you want to see what miscommunication is, it's when Mrs. Smith walks in with Mr. Smith and I'm making names up and oh, yeah, cherry.
Speaker A:I want the light one.
Speaker A:They're talking to you.
Speaker A:They want the natural one.
Speaker A:Natural light is the stain color.
Speaker A:So we had that happen a couple times where.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, the dark one, the dark one, the dark one.
Speaker A:If you want the dark stain, that's its own color name, even though the darkest is espresso.
Speaker C:And those are, in the cabinet world, very costly mistakes, because you're talking $40,000 worth of cabinets, Bubba.
Speaker C:That is not something that's easily fixed.
Speaker A:You can't just fix that.
Speaker A:So I learned that one early on after having to order a kitchen that was light.
Speaker A:That was light, but not that light, luckily, was cherry.
Speaker A:And so we got them to.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We talked about darkening and how it evened it up, and we got through that.
Speaker A:But from then on, as the cabinet designer and as a showroom owner, I made sure that we had a sample color that every single client from there on out, before we'd order anything, that designer had to hand me the sample with their initial on the back of it.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker A:So we knew what it was.
Speaker A:But oh my gosh, that was horrible.
Speaker A:And then I had my favorite delivery.
Speaker A:This was a good one.
Speaker A:Guy was doing a kind of a mother in law apartment on the second floor.
Speaker A:So I walk over to the house, measured up, order the cabinets, walk in the door.
Speaker A:There's that staircase that goes out, right?
Speaker A: Simple, older: Speaker A:Similar to what, you know, your house over in Tacoma was.
Speaker A:So my delivery driver calls me six weeks later and he's dropping every swear word in the book at me.
Speaker A:There's no way I'm getting these in here.
Speaker A:Why did you do this to me?
Speaker A:And I'm like, dude, walk in the front door, go up to goes.
Speaker A:That's a.
Speaker A:No, there's no staircase.
Speaker A:When you go in the front door, I'm like, is the homeowner there contractor?
Speaker A:Because it was a DIY project.
Speaker A:Yeah, hold on.
Speaker A:I go, hey, man, what happened to the stairs?
Speaker A:Oh, I decided we needed some more room downstairs, so I put a spiral staircase on the.
Speaker A:Ah, sorry.
Speaker A:You're not carrying a lazy Susan and a refrigerator up a spiral staircase, let alone mattresses, entertainment centers, televisions, whatever.
Speaker C:What a genius.
Speaker A:And so I made him pull his cars out of the garage and said, hey, man, they're going in there.
Speaker A:You're gonna have to figure that out.
Speaker C:Yep, that's on you, buddy.
Speaker C:Sorry, change of plans.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's your own change order.
Speaker A:Figure it out.
Speaker C:So just made me think of us lugging that 2 inch tape machine up the stairs to get into the studio.
Speaker C:And the carriage house, dude thing is heavier than a piano.
Speaker A:That thing was heavy.
Speaker A:You'd carry your mic bag and your guitar up there, and I had to carry that.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, the fridge.
Speaker A:The fridge, the full stack up there.
Speaker C:That's what you get for playing bass.
Speaker A:I know I should have been a drummer and had less equipment, but that's the fun part of that.
Speaker A:That's the fun part of that.
Speaker A:And by the way, if you guys are listening to the show right now and you're like, oh, what's this band?
Speaker A:You'll hear it in the show.
Speaker A:So this is something that these little Stories are stuff that we've had.
Speaker A:Stories that's a song anyway.
Speaker A:That's the things that we've been going through.
Speaker A:And these are the backstories for all of this.
Speaker A:But it's so fun.
Speaker A:And again, back to getting people into the trades.
Speaker A:And just to put a full circle wrap as we wrap up this year in a few minutes, really, I think that if you're trying to get into the trades, now is the time out there.
Speaker A:Because it doesn't matter if you want to be a tile setter or if you want to be a brick mason or, or do concrete flat work or whatever.
Speaker A:There are people out there that are willing to show you the ropes.
Speaker A:And there's unions out there if you want to go that route.
Speaker A:There's a lot of different ways to get into the trades.
Speaker A:But go out there, get a job, get into it.
Speaker A:Because there is such a shortage, we got millions of jobs out there that are open and as soon as they drop the interest rates down here a little bit, we're going to see housing construction, even get more of it.
Speaker A:Even in today's economy, which isn't great for building right now, not too many contractors are out of business out there right now.
Speaker A:Things are tight.
Speaker A:It just never stops.
Speaker C:Everybody needs a place to live.
Speaker C:Everybody's always going to work on their house.
Speaker C:And I can tell you, as a contractor of 30 years, like I mentioned, my little brother Joey.
Speaker C:And over the course, as those kids grew up, man, I ended up hiring half a dozen of his friends.
Speaker C:They might just come work for the summer, they might whatever.
Speaker C:But man, they got some good change in their pocket and they learned some skills.
Speaker C:And I was always cool and easy going.
Speaker C:They dug it.
Speaker C:It was like hanging out with another brother.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker C:And I will tell you that it's hard to find good help.
Speaker C:So it's not like this competitive field like, oh, I can't be a good enough carpenter.
Speaker C:Man, if you just show up and be teachable, you are gold to a general contractor or a lead carpenter or a boss, or if you're willing to learn, willing to show up on time, pay attention, follow directions.
Speaker C:That doesn't mean you have to put up with some prick screaming at you all day.
Speaker C:Yeah, stand your own.
Speaker C:But man, you can learn so much and pretty quickly in a couple of years, you're knocking down 100k.
Speaker C:If you're paying attention.
Speaker C:It's not that difficult.
Speaker C:The first few weeks is, it's gonna suck, your body's gonna hurt, you're gonna be, I'm dying.
Speaker C:You'll live.
Speaker C:You'll be okay.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:Absolutely, man.
Speaker A:And it's so true, because you know everything.
Speaker A:You do that and you can't start people early enough.
Speaker A:It's so funny.
Speaker A:You can literally start your kids by going into the Home Depot on a Saturday morning with your kids and having them build birdhouses in there at the Home Depot stores and still do it.
Speaker A:Get them excited.
Speaker A:Get the kids out there helping along.
Speaker A:Get them out in front of those video games and get them out there.
Speaker C:But Joey's two little kids are five and three and they're down in the workshop with them all the time pounding on wood sawing stuff at five years old.
Speaker C:They love it.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker A:Oh, that's what's great too.
Speaker A:Elisa, my amazing girlfriend, she sits there and she was watching.
Speaker A:We were watching a Blacktail studio video the other day.
Speaker A:We're watching from Cam Anderson, my buddy, and she's.
Speaker A:He's finishing.
Speaker A:She goes, oh, I'd used a tack cloth right there.
Speaker A:In 10 seconds, I'm gonna grab the tack cloth.
Speaker A:And I'm like, okay, that was hot.
Speaker C:Nice.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:It was like she could run a lathe probably better than I can, which I think is hot.
Speaker A:So a little blonde girl running the tools.
Speaker A:I like it.
Speaker A:I like it.
Speaker A:But that's the fun part.
Speaker A:And again, this is something that, you know, I know amazing women electricians out there.
Speaker A:They're making the clothes, they're making the workwear for everybody now, which is really cool.
Speaker A:And I tell you what, there was something that I learned early on when I was going down to El Salvador working.
Speaker A:We were having to put in this water system and I was digging this ditch and I was volunteering.
Speaker A:And that was about the time that you and I were working together.
Speaker A:Early on, I'd go down there for 10 days and we were working in a village.
Speaker A:Those kids can dig ditches way faster than I could.
Speaker C:Oh, dude.
Speaker C:You see the workers in Columbia here?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And then.
Speaker C:And they go work at construction site.
Speaker C:Never mind, they'll stop.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Just the difference in tenacity and the.
Speaker C:I went and watered plants on a mountain.
Speaker C:Like a goat mountain.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:With 10 gallon Hudson's Frayer on my back, which is heavy.
Speaker C:That's two five gallon buckets of paint on my back.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C:I weigh a buck 40.
Speaker C:I'm not the biggest guy with a.
Speaker A:20 pound pack on.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I spent a day standing sideways on this mountain watering little plants with a Hudson sprayer man in rubber boots and slipping in the mud.
Speaker C:And there's everybody from 15 year old kids up there to 70 year old granddads, man.
Speaker C:And they are balls tough.
Speaker C:Like woof.
Speaker C:How does this guy show up at 6am every day and do this for 12 hours?
Speaker A:It's amazing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And they and see them in the.
Speaker C:Sienna and they're happy as hell.
Speaker C:They're like, oh yeah.
Speaker C:And they make 300 bucks a month.
Speaker C:Like it's crazy.
Speaker A:It's crazy.
Speaker A:All right, brother, we're running out of time.
Speaker A:Hey guys, if you want to find out more about us or send a message or a comment, send it over at us over@aroundthehouse online.com this ends our number one.
Speaker A:Thanks brother.
Speaker A:Appreciate it for coming on today on this episode.
Speaker C:Yeah, man, thanks for having me excited for to do more of this.
Speaker A:We'll keep it going.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. And you've been listening to around the House.
