Gain insights into the future of skilled trades with Ty Branaman.

Learn about the skilled trades industry with Ty Branaman in this podcast interview.

https://skilledtraderescue.com/

#TyBranaman,#SkilledTrades,#CareerOpportunities,#FutureOfWork,#ExpertInsights,#TradesIndustry,#SkilledTradeRescue,#TradesEducation,#TradeJobs,#TradesTraining.

Transcript

Martin King: 0:00

If I'm trying something new on this podcast, I'm going to be starting to put in initial impressions at the front end of my podcast interviews. Just to kind of give the audience an idea as to what my initial impressions were on the amazing people I get a chance to interview. So this week we're interviewing Ty Brennaman and he is a an HVAC instructor, a cheerleader. This guy's just a lot of fun just to be around. And he has a really unique teaching style. If you happen to be an HVAC contractor that does in house training, or you're an HVAC, or any type of instructor for that matter, or a lead tech that's relied upon by management to train the new guys coming up. I think this will be really interesting, because the unique style that Ty has, is that he has the ability to adapt his presentation to his audience. And it's all about connection, right? So it's all about humans. So Ty's got a unique style. And he's real, well read on how to make those connections in order to make the exchange of information from instructor to students smoother and more interesting and more exciting. So I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you like me doing these initial impressions at the front end of the podcast, please hit like and put your comments in YouTube. Because the content that we provide on these podcast is really all about you guys. And we always, always want to figure out a way to do a little bit better. Well, without further ado, let's enjoy this podcast with Ty Brennaman. Hey, so I've been I've been following you for a while. Tie on LinkedIn and my buddy Greg Crumpton. You know him? Yep. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Anyway, so he was over at my house, I don't know, a couple of weeks back. And, and we were just kind of brainstorming, and I don't know how you came up. And I see Yeah, you know, I gotta call that guy or get a hold of him and see if I can get him on the show. So and you're here, poof, it's like magic. Yeah, so I was kind of checking out your background. And I really like I was just looking at a video the other day, and I pulled it up again. You did a heat pump, oh, to refrigeration cycle, little class and I kind of had a tear running down my cheek because nobody teaches, you know, the refrigeration cycle or not? Nobody but very few. And so I love to see that stuff. For sure. So hey, give us a little tie. Give us a little background on you know what, how you ended up. I read it all, but I want to I want to hear it from you looks like you've been doing a lot of stuff around, bringing up the next, the next generation of solid tax.

Ty Branaman: 3:20

I am all about bringing up the next generation. You know, when I started I was I grew up on a ranch, my dad had a sheet metal shop. And I learned a lot about doing sheet metal and building ductwork early on. But I knew that that's not what I want to do. I love my dad, but I couldn't work with the man. And so I started doing installations. And I remember this guy drove up several times a day in this in this day and his big old Slurpee cup and he was drinking, he didn't even get out of the van, everybody to go out and talk to him except for me. I had to continue to you know, run that duck work. And I was like, man, is that one of the owners? Is it Oh, no, that's just a service guy. It's like, well, how do I get that job and it's an all you got to learn stuff. And you got to read and I didn't like reading but if they could get me in that service, then I can drive around the big Slurpee cup that I was all for it. So I started I started learning and learning and reading and I have some learning disabilities and so for me reading something after read it seven or eight or nine times before it finally soaks in. And, and but I was determined like this is what I'm going to get. And then people you know, didn't have the answers anymore. So I had to keep reading more to find that more of the answers and and then I was just curious and I just kept wanting to learn more and do more things. And because of ADHD I get bored very easily. So learning more stuff and how more things happen and work and just become interesting. And then I started training more and more people and then I got into teaching and just learning how to break things down so people could understand it just the way that I would like to understand it. And from there I've been all over the country all over the world and sharing the trade. One thing I love about this trade is no matter what happens no the economy or your personal life no matter what happens. It can Ever take away your skills, and I've had everything taken away from me. And I started over and I've been able to travel and go anywhere I want because of these skills that I, I love this trait.

Martin King: 5:10

Yeah, that's awesome. Maybe we were separated at birth? I don't know. Because because I had the same thing. I I'm dyslexic, I probably have a little ADHD type thing, because I get you know, I get my wife says restless? I don't know. But yeah, I had a lot of difficulties in school. And, you know, the other thing I noticed that was very similar your background is, you know, you had the you saw the guy in the truck with the Slurpee, and I want to do that, right. You know, that just that that pivotal moment when the right thing shows up at the right time, I had a similar situation happened with me. I was in my my high school automotive class learn how to break down a Briggs and Stratton lawnmower engine, right, which I could care less about. But anyway, they had a they had a rep from Universal tack down in Phoenix come in, right. And he gave us this thing on, you know, gotta go to our automotive school. That's the awesome that gotta learn trucks, you got to fix cars and trucks. That's it. So we sat there for like, you know, 45 minutes and want want want one. And then at the very end of it, the guy says, Oh, by the way, we have this little HVAC refrigeration heating course. You know, you can check it out if you want to, here's a brochure on it, you know. So the next thing I knew I was in, I was in tech school back in the early 80s. So hey, so tell me about, you know, kind of the day in the life. So you're, you're a full time instructor now. Right? It looks like you were, you were part time.

Ty Branaman: 6:54

Yeah, still part time, I can do multiple things. I do part time teaching, I do content creation. I do consulting for companies, actually, this week, I'm out doing service calls and maintenance because nothing pays like build work. And then I worked for some part time for some manufacturers doing training for them. And do consulting for instructors. And I do some online training as well. So it's just just all over the place.

Martin King: 7:17

Yeah, that's all so but your preference is teaching. That's that's what you like to do. Right?

Ty Branaman: 7:23

I love that. I love it to where when you can get a piece of information or a concept across to somebody, you know, they don't even have to say anything, you can see it in their eyes, you can see it in their face when they finally get something. And then when they call you back either when they get their first job, or maybe it's even 10 years later. And they say, oh, Ty, you know, I'm starting my own business or, you know, I get this certification. I'm running this company now. And they they're so happy with what they do. And they remembered you from you know, all those years ago. I mean, nothing pays like that, you know, HVAC training doesn't pay very well at all. But when you get people coming back and you realize you made a difference in their life. I mean, that is that is a true pay. I mean, that's that's just that nothing touches that.

Martin King: 8:08

Right? Right. Now you're out in Nevada, correct?

Ty Branaman: 8:12

Well, right now I'm in Texas. I lived in Nevada, we actually my my wife's family's there, that's where we kind of want to live, but we're all over the place. We travel a lot.

Martin King: 8:20

Okay. Okay. So what what are, what are some of the things you're hearing from the newbies, you know, like, like, you get these young men and hopefully women to that, or, you know, they're exploring skilled trades? What's the what's the common story? Why these individuals? Did they? Did they? Did they try College? Did they kind of hang out after high school? And then, you know, go, what's, what's the, what's the track for a lot of these students that are getting into trades these days? I'm curious.

Ty Branaman: 9:01

It's, I've seen things from all over the place from people that did a career that they didn't like they didn't enjoy to, they wanted to do something that had like more purpose. So they wanted to learn a new career, all the way down to people. It's like, you know, I want to I want to try trades I want to do you know, work with my hands. And I don't want to get a huge college debt. I want to learn the some of the basics from people that's, you know, going through a trade school or people that are learning on their own in the field. I'm getting a ton of feedback from people. And one of the things that I see the most is Generation Z as some of the most driven people of the last several generations. And right now in the workplace. We have like four different generations of people in our in our workplace. And so there's some misconceptions and things going on. But Generation Z, they're some of the hardworking people, they have drive more than a lot of the other generations naturals out there. Now we're talking about people, there's always going to be people that you know, what we consider lazy or whatever. But one thing I find interesting is I hear companies coming laning Oh, nobody wants to work anymore. And they they hire somebody at such a low wage? Well, you're thinking, you're already hiring somebody that's made poor life choices, and they can make more money working for fast food without having to buy any tools or have any education at all. I mean, financially, they can return an investment. You can work fast food and invest that money in the stock market and make more money in the long term and short term. So when people are saying, well, nobody wants to work, I first go to Hey, well, what's your onboarding salary always start low, because eventually they'll make more in the long run. And I was thinking back because like, you know, I remember when I was a kid, I wanted gas money, you know, that was like, the end of the week, the gas money, you know, making that car payment, I didn't have these long term. You know, if I worked hard enough, I didn't ever think you know, I'm gonna be an instructor one day, I just really wanted to have a job that I enjoyed for the most part and, and paid the bills. And so we have to make that change of saying, if we want good talent, we want to recruit good talent, we're gonna have to be willing to put some of that pay up front. And then the second thing is training, I have a lot of people that come back, they either they spend all their time learning, whether it's a community college or a for profit, trade, school or learning on their own. There's been all this time learning, and they get out into the field. And then you'll hear the first thing that somebody will say is, forget all that stuff you learned. And it's just a huge hit to him. And then the other thing is how people are treated.

Martin King: 11:27

Quick shout out to our skilled trade professionals out there, we are going to be putting on our very first BST workshop, if you have not heard of BST before, this is a proven process that I've used for the last 30 years, and created a lot of millionaires out of this. And I'd like to do that for you as well. We'll be covering work life balance, every dollar which is wealth management, wealth, building, solid work ethic, as well as how to develop technical excellence in skilled trades. So check this workshop out, I think it'll be definitely worth your time. It is a free workshop limited space, though, we're only allowing 50 people in, because we're going to break those 50 people into small workgroups, and I will be presenting the workshop live to the small groups myself. So I hope you check it out, go to skilled trade rescue.com In the navigation, click on the BTS T link, it'll take you to the page that's dedicated to this, that'll give you all the information that you need. Thanks again, and let's get back to our podcast.

Ty Branaman: 12:35

So in the trades, you know, we've always known as being rough and you know, gotta have tough skin. But times do change and some of the ways that that I was trained, doesn't work for people today. And really, I wouldn't want anybody to be trained some of the ways that I was trained. And we have to be thinking that the people today grew up in a different generation different time, you know, they have electronic computers, we you would meet, we've adapted to this. And I use this as a tool, we're talking right now we've adapted that, but the newer generation, they've grown up with this, they have grown up with video games instant, you know, changes you, you went to a game level, and then you've, you've completed it, you get unlocked the next level, right. So we can apply some of this in our everyday stuff to be able to unlock other levels of the new technicians to make it to where they're continuously learning and growing. I don't know about you, but I remember, we'd get a raise, like every year to be evaluated for a yearly raise. And then so like, you know, a few weeks before your raise, you'd be working really hard. And then after you get your raise you to work a little harder, and then you would kind of drop back off and wait for the next year, which wasn't productive for anybody with the newer generation, think about it. So use that quick turnaround. So if you give them a task that's either a week or two weeks, or even a month, hey, I want you to do this or complete this. And they do that. And then you give them a smaller raise, hey, congratulations, acknowledge that. And then they're now doing more. And now it's continual growth. And the the companies that are doing this are having great response from the newer generation, and their people are loving it. I've had on the other hand students that were so excited, I want to get in this trade I love this is what I want to do. And I had an employer that hired like 15 different people that said, Yeah, every time we get somebody new in they're all excited at first, but after a few months, they just get into the the boring pace and they quit. I was like, Well, if you've had that many people come through, maybe it's not a problem with the person you're hiring. Maybe it's time to make some changes, and how we we motivate those people.

Martin King: 14:32

Interesting. You know? Yeah, I Well, that was a lot to soak up Ty, let me think. No, no, no, no, I can tell that's great. You know, it's I was thinking when you were talking about my my three sons, I have three boys, right? And they range from, you know, 29 to, you know, going past 30. So yeah, I'm old. Anyway. So you're You're exactly right, the these the Gen Z's they are so technically savvy, that they, they process things much differently because of their environment. Right? You know, we've been playing with smartphones and whatever for quite a while. And what's really interesting is guys like me, or you know, maybe the generation just behind me. They're, you know, they've adapted just like you said, but they aren't going to be around much longer, right? So and then add add into the, the acceleration of technology. So like, you look at some of these new VRF systems, and they're pretty high tech. Right? You know, I've talked to a few techs that on this podcast, and they're, you know, the, they start nerding out on me, and they start telling me about, yeah, we actually do troubleshooting with a laptop. Right? That stuff that I was talking about, you know, 15 years ago, like, someday, you're gonna do troubleshooting with a laptop? And everybody's like, no, no. Oh, so anyway, it's really interesting, because if we don't figure out a way pretty quickly to attract this Gen Z. What are these manufacturers gonna do? Like, like, I was a manufacturer for a while, right? And that's a problem, right? If you don't have people that are technically savvy enough to fix this stuff, what are you gonna get? Well, I'll tell you what you're gonna get, you're gonna get people that want to sit on the phone, and talk to tech support. Until you know, you better have tech support ramped up to the point where they can diagnose stuff for the text over the phone. Tonight was in a rant, I think that was a radio. That's the new way. Yeah. That's cool. So hey, give me give me a couple of like, success stories. I'm intrigued by that. So like, you know, you've been teaching for a while. And you lit up when you talked about that, although, as you guys are listening in, you got to check out the video he lit up when he talked about this. So tell me some, some people you've you've trained. And then, you know, give me a couple of success stories like people that you know, that just stick out in your brain, like I trained them, and then they might have come back and talk to you and told you some some stuff, right?

Ty Branaman: 17:36

Have students that I've trained or that I, you know, part of their training, I can't say I trained them entirely, but they're now teaching themselves. And that's, that's awesome. But I have my very first class, I had a female student in my class, and she has her own business now. And she's a company. Just, just recently, I had a one of my students, I've stayed in really close contact with him, and he moved to Texas, and that's a Texas contractor's license, and I'm helping him to get a business started. And, and he's calling it his name and sons. So it's not just him, he's looking at, you know, his family, his kids, Being a family business. And it's so nice seeing that family business, you know, happening. And he's, he's fulfilling his dreams. He's loving it had another student that he got an H back, didn't like it, but he liked computer stuff. So went into the building automation, the IT side of building automation. So understanding H vac and he applied what he loved to it, I got another friend of mine that was a student is a friend now. And he moved to another state and he's working for a very large maintenance company, and he's has his own service van, has great pay, gets continued to education and has a great life for him and his wife and his kids. And we stay in touch all the time. And he's talking about how he's teaching other texts and he's using the information that I shared to help teach other people and I think that is it's awesome to see people succeed but then when you see those people also helping other people succeed. I mean, that's that's when you know that you're doing something right I make a lot of mistakes. But when I'm helping somebody learn and and now they're helping other people learn to me that's like, that's the best like that's

Martin King: 19:11

Yeah, yeah. What about women in the trade are you see you're starting to see some more women coming into your classes and stuff?

Ty Branaman: 19:20

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I've seen tons of different women in the trades. My wife actually now does she want to work with my dad. And so she really ladders up on roofs and even before that, she did marketing and she started to work with my dad because this is much more fun. I like this and she's up on like they were hanging there hanging a copper duck work and copper downspouts today up on a two story house and so it's windy and freezing and here I am in the studio. So yes, she's She's loving it and I've had a lot of lot of women's third they're doing great and how they think about stuff is a little different. They're able to think on that deeper level. And also a lot of homeowners are more comfortable to a another female and their house so Yeah, lots and lots of opportunities. I'm a big supporter of women and HVAC and, and their movement, and there's so much there's so much opportunity. And there's a lot of things that I didn't know, I just took for granted not thinking about, you know, some of the things that women have to adapt to and understanding and being a part of the organization and hearing and learning, knowing that I can better prepare my students and also people to trade is so important, a big part of life, is just simply understanding where somebody else comes from.

Martin King: 20:33

Like to announce that we have a new eBook out, it's called technical excellence, which is the foundation of my BST process that I blog and talk about a lot on the podcast. So check it out, just go to skilled trade rescue.com. Look for the Learn slash ebooks link in the menu. And it'll take you to the web page that has a lot of information, there's a video at the top of this page that will offer you a discount code at the very end. So I hope you check that out. This ebook is also available on Amazon Kindle, as well as the Google Play bookstore. So check it out, and the proceeds go to help us continue to run the website, pay our contractors and keep the content flowing out there. So I really appreciate your consideration and purchasing a copy of the book. Well, let's get back to our podcast. Yeah, that's really good. I've noticed on you know, LinkedIn, there's a couple of there's a couple of women that are doing quite

Ty Branaman: 21:43

well. There was way more than a couple

Martin King: 21:47

months. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's they're trending really highly now. And they're doing, they're doing well. And I think what's happening is the, again, there's a generational change, that always happens in any any workplace. And I think they're the women are finally, you know, they're in the same situation that men are in that, you know, they may have done some college and they may have gotten their marketing degree, or they may have gotten, you know, a communications degree. And they went to work in an office, and they're like, No, this isn't for me, you know, and then they jump over into HVAC or plumbing or electrical or whatever. And they find out that the stereotype has changed quite a bit. You know, it used to be, well, skilled trades is a man's world, right? You know, all these men? Well, I got a feeling that they're a lot of them are being pleasantly surprised that it's a lot of fun, right?

Ty Branaman: 22:51

It's funny, I took my students up on the roof one day and said, Let's look around and what do you see. And so they saw all these office buildings and parking lots. And I said, that's, that's great, notable. Now, if we think about a lot of people, and it's okay, it's part of their life, but they work every day, they get in their car, drive to this spot, go to the same office the same building every single day. And as they work harder in life, they can get closer and closer to a window. And if they really hit it big, they can get an office with a window or even really big a corner office with two windows. And that said, for us, we have an office with three windows, we get the front window and the side windows, we get three windows every single day, and we get to see different stuff every single day. So we start off hitting it big.

Martin King: 23:35

Yeah, that's a good point that you mentioned wages a little bit. I want to talk about that for a minute Thai. So. So you're in Texas now. How long? Have you been there a while now?

Ty Branaman: 23:47

About two years. Okay. I'm from my business licenses in Texas.

Martin King: 23:52

Okay, but you, you travel around teaching and talking to people quite a bit. So you mentioned a couple times that wages are kind of low is that? What it let's expand on that a little bit for me.

Ty Branaman: 24:06

So I had a in Las Vegas had a student that graduated he went through a 10 and a half month program owed$16,000 invested money and tools additional what the school got him, and he was top of the class. I mean, he was sharp. He was there every day working hard. He was there before class eight after class, all the things everybody says we need in the trades. He was that guy helping other students never hesitated to get his hands dirty. When he graduated. The job offers were like $12 An hour$13 An hour and things like that. And they said, Well, if you do this for long enough, then we'll you know you'll be making we can put you up to like 15 or even 18. And he was making$17 an hour as a security guard to sit on his butt not doing anything. And that's a big point is everywhere is different. But there's some warehouse jobs that start people off at $23 an hour. So you're telling me we're gonna get good people if we're paying them less than what a competition is paying, paying, hey, you're gonna make less money. And you're also gonna have to learn and buy tools and work in a hot attic and be able to deal with, you know, me yelling at you. And be here 15 minutes early, you know, you're already starting out is really a low pool of people that you can pull from. And then we say, well, nobody wants to work. Well, if we adapt a little bit, I don't know, you know, pay is always a hot topic. But at some point, we're gonna have to realize it's not that people don't want to work. They don't want to work for you, or for the low wages. They people still have to live and everything that was so expensive. Yeah. And I get hung up on that sometimes, like, time has changed. I think, well, that used to be half that price a few years ago. Brian Chang,

Martin King: 25:44

what was this a while ago, this happened before? COVID. With this was before COVID. Yep. Interesting. How is it in Texas? Are you seeing the same trending there for your graduating students?

Ty Branaman: 25:57

I haven't taught a class here in Texas, mostly remote remote. But I did have somebody I have two companies that I worked with here. One company has been working with Gen Z. I don't. I'm not promoting her. I don't know her. But this book, unlocking Gen Z is a great book. And I recommend it to a lot of contractors. It's written for business, but you can change it easily. And so they have a waiting list of people that want to come work for their company. They love their culture, how they grow, how they learn, they have a waiting list of people to go. And then recently, I talked to another company that said nobody wants to work. He hired everybody that came to the door. Nobody showed up and says okay, well, let's, let's talk about that. And so we looked through his advertising, they advertised in the newspaper. Okay, generations aren't looking. They're

Martin King: 26:44

not. They're not looking. Yeah, right. And then we got into the

Ty Branaman: 26:47

hot topic of how much are you paying? And I pulled up local ads, and a plumbing company with no experience at all was starting people off in the same town at$23 an hour. Yeah, it was offering 15. And he thought, Well, 15 is a good wage. I'm like it it is, you know, you know, 1015 years ago. So and we just sometimes forget that we get disconnected. And then the next question is, yeah, but I have other expenses. And I find that interesting, because the cost of everything has gone up. If I need a blower motor, I don't go to the supplier and say, you know, you need to sell me that motor for less money. I'm not going to spend that money. No, we complain, but we buy the motor, and we buy the expensive equipment, and we buy the more expensive fuel and we pay for everything else and the price goes up. But when it comes to a person's wages, like Ah, no, this is where we draw the line, we're not going to pay anymore. And yes, the trades do pay well, once you get past that, you know, the entry level. My point is companies aren't having trouble finding people, when they do raise that entry level. And they are and they also work with them to continuously train them as they go. So they're the people thought they're growing. And they're doing that are not having issues of nobody wants to work anymore. They're not.

Martin King: 28:02

Yeah, hey, Ty, hold that book up again and tell the audience what the name of the book and who the author is. That was real quick.

Ty Branaman: 28:09

It's Generation Z with Hannah Grady Williams.

Martin King: 28:13

Okay. Awesome. Okay, I'll admit that will be in the show notes. So that's great. I appreciate that referral. That's really great.

Ty Branaman: 28:20

But the last year researching Generation Z in these different communication apps and talking with tons of different people, it was a heavy lift. But it's simplified. This book is simplified everything that I learned, I should have just read the book and saved a ton of time. I don't I can say I don't I don't have any connection with her. I'm, I'm not even connected to her on LinkedIn, I finished a great book. She's got some other information and digital stuff that's connected with this will test your businesses. Really well. Does.

Martin King: 28:51

She here? Is she located here in the US? Yes. Yep. Well, maybe we need to get her on the podcast. Do you have questions? Okay. Well, you know, maybe what I'll do, I'll reach out to her and see, and maybe I can get her on the podcast with you. Because you're you're way ahead of me. You've done a lot of studying on this stuff. And maybe that sounds like a, that sounds like a great conversation in the waiting. Yeah,

Ty Branaman: 29:21

that's good, big part of its understanding. I've traveled the world. And it's amazing every time I go to a new city or a new place, the people and how they think they're the same people, but they think little differently. They have a different viewpoint of things. And sometimes just simply understanding someone else's viewpoint. You don't have to agree with it. But understanding somebody else's viewpoint is so beneficial. And so for me understanding, not understanding I think anybody can understand an entire generation but having an insight to Generation Z and the workers has made me a better instructor, a better trainer. And it's also I've been able to use that to help businesses be more successful, because really, we don't we're not Selling boxes or parts, we're selling our skills, the skill of trade. So we need to be focusing on the skills of the people that we're bringing in, because that's the magic of trades. Right?

Martin King: 30:09

So let me ask you the million dollar question then Ty. So all the studying that you've done on Generation Z that we're training right now, what are like the what are like the top three top adjustments that you had to make in your teaching style in order to more effectively instruct Gen Z, what what would what would be the top things that you've tried, that have worked and maybe went down in flames.

Ty Branaman: 30:39

So definitely constant feedback. And sometimes it's difficult for me to constantly thinking about feedback, but they don't just want positive feedback. You know, we've heard before everybody wants a trophy, they don't want, you know, the fluff, they want constant feedback of what they're doing right, and also what they're doing wrong. They don't want have to wait a long time to know if something doing wrong is wrong. They also want constant growth, you know, the constant improvement, constant changes. So mixing things up, you know, you and me can sit and watch a video that's 30 minutes long. And my YouTube videos are typically around that. But now we have tick tock, everything's in a minute. And I'll tell you, I'm not a fan of tick tock or the one minute stuff. But this is where people are learning. So I'm trying to get content down to that time, so that I can train them where they're at, if this is where they're at. And that's our future, then I'm going to make changes and how I can reach these people that hopefully I can get a hook at them, and then realize I want to learn more, and they'll watch the longer videos and truly learn. But we have to go to where they're at understanding and adapting to them. And that's one of the things that I learned and I, I changed my class up instead of teaching, we move it back and forth, we take, we go out to the lab and spend 15 minutes in the lab, then we come back to the classroom, 15 minutes in the classroom, and just constantly moving. And I've done with all PowerPoints, I've thrown all the PowerPoints out the window, and help them understand tell a story and let it be about them. I've learned that let students have their phones in class. It's a tool. There's apps, there's calculators, and then they want to take pictures and do selfies, embrace it, because they're proud of what they're doing. And when they're showing off what they're doing. And they're proud of it. They're sharing it with their friends and family and other people. The only promoter trades people like wow, look at what that person is doing. That's cool. Look at that. air handler they're working. I want to do that. Yeah, helps everybody. But we got stigma, get off your phone. I remember the guy back the newspaper and sit in the newspaper for 30 minutes. But what's the difference between that and these little five or 10 minute you know, a little clips.

Martin King: 32:44

Right? Right. That's good. Have you ever heard of a YouTuber named his handle is beluga

Ty Branaman: 32:55

and doesn't ring a bell?

Martin King: 32:56

Okay, so this guy, he's probably I don't know how old he is. He's really young. He's probably maybe just out of high school. And he does these the short two to three minute little videos of of discord chats, right? And normally, you know, whatever I'm like, but I did a lot of research on this this guy. And he's, he's, he's got over 10 million followers on YouTube. Right? Yeah. And, and I'm, I was like, so I started watching these darn things, right? They're very entertaining. And I got to thinking a little bit about, you know, the audience. So his audience is probably Gen z's. Right. And so I'm started experimenting a little bit with, you know, I've, I've done some chat sessions with some different technicians. And, and I call it my beluga project, and I get their permission. And it's taking on problems, right. And anyway, it's really it's really interesting to see, you know, what, what trends and us as professionals because I teach to kind of, you know, I'm teaching people about skilled trades. And, and I'm just constantly looking for things that I can do to connect right, and not come off like, just some old guy telling me what to do. Yeah, so anyway, yeah. Well, that's really interesting. So what's your plans, man, so So you're splitting your time working in the field? Do you want to get back to full time teaching? Is that is that your ultimate goal, or are you just kind of have you got any kind of getting the best of both worlds right now.

Ty Branaman: 35:02

I love the teaching, I think it's my gift. I think I can take complicated information and I can break it down and make it fun. And I'm really good at adapting. And classes are constantly adapting. I talked to an instructor just last week, and he had this presentation, it was spot on. But he was suggested some things to do differently. So well, I've been doing it this way for 20 years, and it's worked. I'm like, Okay, well, with education, I'm always changing my classes up, I can put good information out and people can look at it on the internet. But when it comes to teaching in person, changing it up how you can connect to that student. And if I see somebody falling asleep, to me, it's not their fault. They have, you know, late nights and work, who knows? How can I make it more interesting to where that's not even going to be an option, let's get the class, let's get them moving. And so I think that's my, where I shine. And hopefully, I'll be able to get, you know, in a position to where I can actually teach and help the industry full time. Without having had a low pay. I've worked for many for profit trade schools that make a lot of money. But unfortunately, they don't pay their instructors or promote instructor education, generally speaking, not all of them. Right, I've had a lot of experience with that. And, and we need, we need the education, we need the training. But not just with the trade school, we need continuing training, I've been talking to trade school said hey, instead of just focusing only on new people coming in, we didn't have continuing education classes for these variable speed compressors for these, all this new technologies out there so that people already existing can go and learn it, we're just focusing on one part of the industry and we need to be looking at education is all of us have these classes, to where everybody can attend. I think that would be huge beneficial. So I've been talking with Brian, or about the possibilities of a destination Training Center. And that's my, I'm super excited. But it's just an A talking process now, right? We're just talking about it. But I think we can help a lot of people doing that. And I think what the industry support and education, fingers crossed that, that we can really make some big changes and do some good stuff.

Martin King: 37:13

What's the what's the position of the manufacturers these days, I mean, it used to be they sort of had a I don't know when I when I was a contractor. And even when I was a manufacturer, I tried to do my best. But ultimately, what you're in business to do is move the boxes off the assembly line, right. And you know that you need to get skilled people out there. But a lot of manufacturers really didn't, didn't want to make any big investments has that changed at all, or they're pretty much kind of hands off, or what's what's the trending in that area.

Ty Branaman: 37:49

There's there's several different points. There's some companies that are doing great stuff with some manufacturers doing some really great stuff with training and really promoting training, there's a few points some of it is, is disconnected. By the time they get all their information through their lawyers, through their engineers through everything, it ends up being these really dry PowerPoints and, and even when there's really great instructors that want to teach it in a fun way, the legal team and the engineers, you know, keep it dry, I worked for a very large compression manufacturer who I love working for. But even we taught we didn't sell anything, but we taught all these details. And I had to go slide by slide by slide. And I tried to like okay, I'm just going to cover all this information without the slides. And it's like, oh, no, we got to go back and go through these individual slides, one of the videos wouldn't play and I talked about everything the video said, we had to stop and go back and play the actual video with the audio because that's how it's supposed to be done. So manufacturers, a lot of them have the idea of hey, let's put money into into training. But at some point in time, we have to be open to Okay, we're gonna have to make some changes in how we do education, we're gonna need to speak with people that actually do teaching that make a class fun. We're bringing technicians from the field in are used to work in every day. And then we want them to sit in this eight hour class watch and PowerPoint to the lights Half Dome. And hopefully, we'll put out enough lame jokes that keep them awake. And we could do that same information, get it to make it fun, interesting, and maybe not cover as much detailed information. But more importantly, have them where to find that information when they need it. Cover those main points and make the class interactive and fun and learning. And then they'd want to come back for more stuff. They're remembering the information so they're not having as many callbacks everybody wins. But it's difficult making changes. I'm trying to make changes in the school side. I'm trying to make changes with the manufacturer side I'm trying to make changes with the you know, the companies in the field doing the work and as well as the people sorry, as well as the people in the field to want to continue to learn and train so you know, I got this big world that I want to change and and people say I'm I can't do it and maybe I yet, but I'm gonna die try. A mosquito in a room can make a big difference, and I'll be that mosquito

Martin King: 40:09

is good. Yeah, you know, I think that the track that I'm on with with skilled trade rescue is is I'm kind of trying to do the same thing in what I'm finding, because I know a lot of the decision makers in the manufacturing in the manufacturing suppliers, and I know the particular supplier that you were talking about, because they were one of our biggest suppliers of stuff for our chillers. I think that if guys like us could produce quality training that the manufacturers can be connected to, but loosely enough to keep the lawyers at bay. That's that's the challenge. Then I think that's the type of partnership that I think would would work. So what I'm trying and I'm in the same boat, you are, I'm trying to come up with things I'm, I'm going at it from the technician side. So you're teaching a probably the most important component of day to day life of a technician is, are they going to how to be technically proficient? Right, that that's a that's a huge thing that that impacts your money making capabilities, the opportunities, all that stuff, key building block, what I'm trying to do is teach some of the other skills like, you know, what is technical excellence? Well, technical excellence is yes, skills training, for sure. So ties your guy, but it's also the, like mentors, like finding mentors that how to how to, you know how to interview a mentor that will help you as a technician. I'm talking about stuff like, well, what are habits? All right? Well, you know, if you're, if you've got a habit of doing something at night, and I'm not going to be specific, but you're doing things at night, that's impacting how you wake up in the morning, and your ability to perform all this stuff that ties just stuffed in your brain for technical ability. How, how are those habits impacting your career trajectory, there's habits that are getting in your way, and there's habits that are, you know, there that are going to help you right. And then there's other aspects like the other one I hear big about, I did a big survey on LinkedIn, a while back and money management is a big problem. Because as these technicians start making a lot of money, they are not getting the old home EQ stuff in school. So they don't understand investing, they don't understand a lot of stuff about that, or, you know, anyway, I'm off on a little bit of a rant again, I tend to do that. So what I'm hoping someday is these manufacturers may get behind some of this type of training, which ultimately will help them do better, right, as a manufacturer.

Ty Branaman: 43:21

That's great. And that's one of things I love about the women in HVAC, they have a mentorship program, where they have people sign up to be mentors, and then you have other people in that either same area, or in the same topic that they work together and train. And I'm still learning every day, I don't have enough the training. There's some great training material out there. There's amazing content from manufacturers from everybody. But it really doesn't do any good if it's not being delivered. And that's the mentorship is so important. Because having that person, I can teach stuff on YouTube, and people can see it. But when I'm in the classroom, I can talk to that student and I can find out hey, if they're if they're coming in late, what's happening, you can mentor to that person, something I can't do online, that Trevor Matthews does a great job of that when he does a class. He doesn't just teach the class. He does that remotely online talking about, you know, the budgets and stuff. And for me, I can do that in a classroom. I haven't mastered that remotely yet. I talked to tons of people, but you're right. And making sure you have somebody to talk to somebody that you can ask a question to somebody just to be responsible, too, is a big part of that. And we need more mentors. And if you're watching this, you already have a desire for the trade, start trading somebody, you're sure I make mistakes. I make mistakes every day. But the fact that you're sharing information, and a teacher is the best learner because once you're having a transparent probation, you realize you know what? I may not know that, like I thought I did. And then you have to go and research more. So you're learning 10 times more than you're actually teaching. So yes, the mentorship is so important. And I wish somebody would have told me about finances when I first started because that first summer I was like yeah, and In that first winter, like, oh, and I made money over the whole year, but

Martin King: 45:05

yeah, that's right. Well, I've actually modeled it out because I'm a nerd right in. So you know, I've done the financial modeling for a high school graduates going the college route. And then I've done the financial modeling for the technician, going into the trades, and with limited debt to no debt. And I've projected it all out. And what I found is that if you if you give me a, a Thai train tech, and they know, they know how they've got good habits, they've got basic, basic money management skills, I'm not talking about Charles Schwab kind of brain, I'm talking about just habits of making regular installments in your financial future, right. And I don't even have to get into what to invest in. It's just a matter of just getting in the habit of investing and doing it. The financial future of a HVAC tech or a plumber, whatever, they can become a millionaire as fast if not faster than a four year college graduate. And it's it blows people, everybody says now, no, that's not true.

Ty Branaman: 46:38

I was most of my friends with the college and I was the trades guy was the black sheep of the friend group. But you know, when they were all going to college and barely making money, I was the one sponsoring the parties, because I had the actual cash. I didn't have to wait, you know, for four years and then start at that bottom pay before I started making money. I was already making it. You know, I had the nice tools. And I bought my first house at a young age. Once I you know, learn some of the finance side of it. And that's the great thing about trades is yeah, there's your unlimited what you can do. I've had students before that didn't like H back. But they did it to support their music career. One person did it to support his skateboard shop. They did it to support other things they wanted to do. And for me, I love this trade. But really, it's it can be a stepping stone, another friend of mine, he recently made enough money in H back to go pursue his acting career and New York. And it was because of H back that, you know, really got him there to that step. He's like, I have a great job. I love what I did. But this is my passion. Even though it's, you know, or a trade is, you know, I love it. And so many of us do, it can also be a great stepping stone for people. Yeah,

Martin King: 47:52

I think even I think Harrison Ford, if I remember correctly, he was a carpenter. I didn't know that. Yeah, I read that somewhere. He he I don't know if it was a carpenter. I could have that wrong. But he was he was definitely in some type of skilled trade before he became an actor. But interesting. I'm sure I'm sure the Gen Z is the Gen Z user out there going is that true?

Ty Branaman: 48:19

Doug gory, who invented the ice machine, the first refrigeration cycle to make ice before Willis carrier. He ended up dying of poverty. So he had this great idea brilliant. But without having a business sense of things. It didn't mean that he was I still consider him successful because he left the legacy but in his own mind, he he died heartbroken. So understanding Yeah, understanding how to manage your money and how to do business, even if you're not running your own business understanding business. I mean, it benefits everybody.

Martin King: 48:48

Well, the other the other one that's big that came up on my survey was even bigger than than money. Understanding is work life balance. Because, you know, when I was coming up in the trades, it was like, shut up, get to work. Just, you know, get to it. Right. And one of the things I've noticed and this is back to my, my sons, is they want to, they want to understand they want to what's the right word of

Ty Branaman: 49:22

why the why behind it?

Martin King: 49:24

Yes, that's That's it, they want to understand the relevance to what they're doing to the, you know, how is this how is this good for me, and how is this good, what is this and I you know, it may be relevant See, I the word escapes me right now, but they want to understand that and their prospect or their perspective, excuse me of work life balance is much much different than that. Then, then from our generation, and you mentioned, you know, a lot of the folks are saying these, these individuals don't want to work these days. I don't think that's true. I think what it is, is they need to understand the relevance to that work to their lives. That's really what they want to. And if they understand that they're just as hard working as everybody, you know, is anybody any generation from nine

Ty Branaman: 50:25

to five saying that nobody wants to work anymore? It's been been said, for generations? It's yeah.

Martin King: 50:31

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and so work life balance is a big deal. And I think part of the problem that's happening now, is there's so many shortages with skilled trade people, there's not, you can't train enough Thai, I hate to say it, well, maybe you can, I don't know. But it's gonna be really difficult for people like you to train enough technicians, to replace the generation that's exiting right now. It's, I don't know how we're going to do it, I just don't. And one of the things that I'm concerned about is the ones that are here, the ones that are working right now, you look at their top challenge with their skilled trades profession, is problems at home because of work like that work life balance. I don't know if you're hearing that.

Ty Branaman: 51:16

So there's two points of that generation, the millennials typically want a more of a work life balance. So now have famous people talking about millennials, like they're the new generation Millennials are already running businesses, they're, you know, they're they have their own company, their managers, they're the people have already been around. But they're the ones that really want the work life balance, because they have the family, they've understand the struggles, from what I've found, as Gen Z is less likely to want to work life balance, they want to be part of what they work, they want their work to be their identity, which is very similar to Generation X. But what they do want is more ways. So instead of being locked into, hey, you're only going to be an installer, spend four days a week installing, and then spin on Friday, have them go learn service, or learn dispatch, or learn some other part of that now they feel like they're growing, as well, as they're learning it now their identity becomes part of who they are, they see that a lot of Gen Z's are actually working super long, hard hours, because they believe in what they're doing. And that's a big part of it. I had somebody say, Oh, well, they're just a maintenance person. I'm like, never say that. Maintenance is critical to an HVAC system to any system, any building. So we have to change some of the vocabulary, Hey, you are a filter changer, which is essential to the life of the filter, eventually, we're going to move up to being a maintenance person, but showing that that Job has importance. And it because it does have importance, then that gives that the generations D the identity of hey, I can connect to that. And this is important to me. Generation Z also has that fear of missing out. So instead of it being, hey, if you work hard enough today, will you come back and do it again tomorrow. Versus Hey, tomorrow with this really awesome install, we got this two story house as customers had nothing but problems. We're gonna go in and solve all these problems, we're gonna put in this top of line, whatever system, are you ready to be able to do this? You're like, yeah, that's a that's an event. That's something I don't want to miss out on. And it's the same job. But now it changes it. Now people are excited to connect with that job. So how we manage that Gen Z is important. Now eventually Gen Z will be old enough. And they will then want a work life balance that will have the kids and that will eventually change. But right now, from what I'm reading, is that Gen Z is less likely to want a work life balance, but the millennial generation absolutely wants to work life balance. Right?

Martin King: 53:40

Yeah, that's a good point. Wow, that's a lot to think about. Ty, can you believe we've been at it for we're coming up on an hour now my friend. I was just in 15 minutes. Yeah, well, so what? How can people get in touch with you? I noticed you have you have a YouTube channel. So if business owners out there you know that HVAC business owners need some help in the training or consulting department on how to better connect and better change their labor situation? I assume that this type of consulting you offer, right? Yep.

Ty Branaman: 54:20

And just it's t y et L O V E, the number two HVAC, that's my email. My left H back as most of my social media my YouTube is its type regimen but the ad is loved HVAC. I didn't know I was going to be on social media. I just recorded some of my classes because the students were like, Hey, can I Can you repeat that again? So I started recording it so they could see it as many times as they wanted. And then it it got out and then so that's that's why I have a YouTube it's not because I was trying to be a social media person. So it's just my name which is an Elaine but I'm trying to make everything love H back because it's not about me at all. My name doesn't matter. If it's all about a love for my trade, whether it's it's electrician, a plumber, Carpenter, having a love what you do work with your hands, being professional learning more, that's what's important. So yeah, it's not about my name other than my YouTube channel is that kind of cringe. But it's about our trade. It's about learning. It's about growing and helping other people.

Martin King: 55:20

Well, that's awesome. Well, I'll put your contact your email, and whatever other contact information you want me to share, I'll put that in the show notes. And, gosh, I could probably talk to you for another hour. Every time you start saying something I got all these things are running around in my head.

Ty Branaman: 55:40

Me too. I love it. You're you're addressing this, though, because so many people want the generation to change to their way of doing it. And I'm like, well, that's you have to go back to in time with every kindergarteners and change the entire world to make that happen. So I love the fact that you're, you've looked at all these different things, you're, you've talked about so many important things, and we don't have time to cover everything. But you've hit so many important topics that I talk about all the time and you see it, you get it. This is a great, great conversation. Love ya.

Martin King: 56:14

Well, that's another wrap of the skilled trade rescue.com podcast. I hope you enjoyed this content. Hope you got some great information and I hope you listen to it safely while you're driving around your service truck and doing what you do every day to make America great. Check out skilled trade rescue.com for new blog posts and content we are adding literally every day and we are here for you. If there's anything that you think we should be covering on skilled trade rescue.com Please do let us know by sending us comments through YouTube, LinkedIn or email my email address is m King at skilled trade rescue.com Have a great day and we'll talk to you again soon.