Motocross & High Finish Gloss

Todays episode: Gary from Demand Electric in Paramus NJ. We discuss starting out, growth, thriving in north jersey in this competitive time. Is college the way to go, or should young people try the workforce before making a degree decision? Gary has been in business for over a decade, and shares stories from the field, and also some tidbits of wisdom from experience.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Since 1961, Court's plumbing has offered friendly, reliable service to residences all over Bergen County, New Jersey.

(00:09):
We are a fourth generation family-owned business, unnotched in customer satisfaction and professionalism while working in your home.
We are the hydronic heating and water filtration specialists, with a workmanship guarantee to put you at ease so you can rest comfortably.
We offer financing for those big projects that catch you off guard, and we have a network of excellent contractors in all fields for any project you wish to tackle.

(00:37):
Call our responsive office team, and we'll dispatch a handsome and educated technician to lay the smackdown on all your plumbing issues.
You can also find us at courtsplumbing.com, search us on Google, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, T-Talk, and YouTube.
Like, subscribe, and share, please.

(01:27):
We've been talking about doing this little set for quite some time.
It's just kind of more interactive with the audience, but we built this the last couple of weeks.
I'm not going to look at the camera, I don't want them to see. I don't want to be too close to the people.
Your lifeless, murderous eyes.
The people.

(01:49):
We just started doing video, we set up a set for this whole thing so we can get guests on, and we're actually really pumped about it.
This is our maiden voyage, so we'll see how this goes.
The stress test didn't go very well, the setup for this was...
Can I ask Gary how the stress test went?
Very stressful.

(02:11):
Gary just sat back and watched the whole thing.
Bring the mic a little bit closer to you.
Talk a little bit closer in the mic, there you go, perfect.
Can you hear me now?
Good.
How does my voice sound?
Sounds great.
You sound like a Gary.
What does Gary sound like?
Exactly like you.
So what we're talking about?

(02:32):
Cameras.
So here we are, live Plumb Bumps show.
So we'll see how this goes.
This is our maiden voyage, but welcome to Plumb Bumps podcast, the blue collar tradesman show where we talk about small business entrepreneurship,
glorify the entrepreneur, everything small business, focusing on the trades, and today we have our electrician, Gary, from Demand Electric, out of Paramus.

(02:55):
Out of Paramus, yes.
All right, how long you been in business?
I would say 12 years.
12 years on your own?
12 years on my own, 26 years in the trade.
Doing electrical?
Yes.
Why'd you pick electrical?
Because it's clean.
It's clean.
It's definitely not like plumbing, but I wish I had the plumbing pay.

(03:16):
But I got introduced to it and the rest is history.
So you started at 20, 21?
I started at 19.
19 years and I'm 45.
How'd you get into it?
Was your father in the trades?
No, I had a friend that was in the trades.
And they thought it would be a good opportunity and I took that opportunity.

(03:38):
No college?
No college.
You talk about that all the time?
Straight out of high school.
Right out of high school?
Right out of high school.
Just start working to figure out what you want to do instead of locking yourself into college?
Yep, exactly.
I agree.
But listen, we've been using you for what, two years?
About?
About three.
Gary is the happiest blue collar worker I've ever met in my life.

(04:02):
You're always in a good mood.
Thank you.
I don't like it, it's weird.
You're always in a good mood.
Thank you.
It's like he's not from New Jersey.
Sometimes.
I'm not from the same.
Always in a good mood.
You're super responsive, which is very important to customers.
I try to.
Which we've been finding.
We get a lot of complaints from customers who say, you're the only plumbers that call
this back.
You're the only ones that picked up the phone.

(04:23):
But you're getting great reviews from our customers, which is awesome.
Excellent.
Yeah, I appreciate it.
But so we've been working alongside together, I'd say for about two years.
We were using another guy, still really close with him, but he had to get off the field
and he was getting too old for it.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
But I still got a lot of years left.
You look like a pretty healthy guy.

(04:43):
Thank you.
I'll give you that.
Young and healthy.
Yep.
I think you need a helper though.
Yeah.
I'd borrow one of the dogs.
They're useless.
They're not good.
And they're expensive.
These guys are absolutely useless.
They actually inhibit the work on the field.
But they're good for customers.
You took this moment to plow the courts plumbing.

(05:04):
I'm sorry to interrupt.
Oh yeah.
But look at this.
We dressed the set with courts plumbing mugs like Jimmy Kimmel or Jay Leno.
What it does in the courts lives.
Courts live.
Beautiful.
But no, so two years we've been working together.
A lot of positive feedback.
You've been working alone.

(05:25):
Alone?
Since you started?
No.
I had someone else.
Did you?
Yeah.
Just one other guy.
Just one other guy.
But you never expanded to something like four or five trucks or anything like that.
No, not yet.
Also that is the plan.
Possibly.
Really?
Yes.
Keeping it open.
Keeping it open.
What would be your plan to get there?

(05:48):
That's an interesting question.
That's a tough one.
Yeah.
Do you have a plan?
I do have a plan.
Within probably a couple years.
Yeah.
What are the few trucks?
A few guys?
I would start slow.
Possibly like you guys, maybe one or two.
And then move from there.
I mean, it can happen really fast or it can happen at the snail's pace.

(06:08):
Yeah.
You know?
I'm taking it all in.
I'm enjoying the journey.
Our biggest issue is finding people with work ethic.
Well, that's a hard one.
Can't find them.
I cannot find people with work ethic.
Can't buy them on Amazon either.
No.
You can buy everything else as you can see.
It's a beautiful set.

(06:30):
But as far as growth goes, it's tough right now and I'll tell you why it's tough is because
there's no confidence in growth right now.
Everyone's nervous.
Everyone's nervous to lay out money.
Everyone's nervous to get a loan because it's just astronomical right now.
Everything's just through the roof.
Yep.
That's what I'm finding too.

(06:51):
But you're comfortable working by yourself.
Very comfortable.
See, plumbing is not an industry that you can just be by yourself.
Well, he's got his own business.
Plus, he works for the school district for the town.
That's right.
Yeah.
So it's kind of a switch.
Are you allowed to talk about that?
Yeah.
I can talk about anything.
All right.

(07:11):
I have no gag order on that.
Very difficult though that you work from what, 8 in the morning till 3 o'clock in the
evening for the school district and then after that is when you run your own business.
Yep.
6 to 230.
He's like, you must be killing it.
Yeah, definitely.
Little by little.
I mean, that's as soon as the work day is done for me, I'm done.
No, I'm not done.

(07:32):
I can't.
I mean.
Full of energy.
He tries to get me to go to the gym after work.
You should.
Well, I'll go before.
I'll go at 5 30 in the morning before I go after work.
I want my sleep.
Yeah, I'm up before.
No, I can't do it after work.
After work, I'm done.
Yeah.
So this is going to get interesting that the dog is just toting around.

(07:54):
Just ignore them.
He's looking for somewhere to mark.
Just ignore them.
He's probably looking at that cookie.
The coaster, the massive coaster, the massive cookie with no Chulka chips in it.
Oh, geez.
But so doing the school, are you you're you would be, I guess, an independent contractor

(08:15):
for them?
No, I'm an employee for the school.
Ah, OK, so they're not they're not hiring demand electric.
No.
So you have conflict of interest, right?
You can't.
We can edit that.
I feel what?
Oh, the school part.
It's up to you.
I don't know.
Either way.
No, I'm just but I wonder if that so the dogs are fighting in front of us right now, vying

(08:40):
for attention.
I'm wondering if they're if their fight is going to show up in the audio or something,
but we'll figure we'll have to play those cards as they lie.
Is the camera on them?
No, but we should have a camera on them.
That would actually be good.
The the pub camp.
Yeah, that'll.
Maybe we'll do something about that during the intermission or something.
Yeah.

(09:00):
I want to give him up anyway.
Oh, geez.
I'm scared.
That's why.
Where's your dog?
Huh?
That is his dog.
That's your dog.
That's my new.
Oh, I don't want him.
You want him?
No, no, no.
Little floof.
Yeah, little floof.
I got him for a bargain.
He was he was one of the he was in the clearance aisle at the Amazon.

(09:22):
But nobody wanted one of those shows.
Yeah.
Ali Baba.
He was a dog.
He was that tiny little that tiny little raggedy.
He was ugly and smelly.
Yeah.
He's ugly and smelly.
And then like once he finally got groomed, you're like, oh, it's kind of cute.
Yeah.
But so these guys, so I'll tell you one thing of dog is a great marketing tool or a branding

(09:47):
tool.
Yeah, 100%.
First of all, look at look at the Pugs face.
Yes.
It's a big plumber.
Yeah, it definitely does.
Absolutely.
It definitely does.
And the grunting does.
And the grunting and the annoyance of when it's hot out or too cold.
The other day I was the other day I was in the I was in a sewage pit and and I'm trying
to pull out this like 150 pounds sump pump.

(10:11):
Oh, God, I might be exaggerating.
But it was like a little pit in the office building.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, you went there.
Were you there?
They were going to you were going to call me.
Yeah, he used to see had another guy.
All right.
Yeah, we dropped you.
That's not a problem.
Nothing personal.
I didn't want to go in there anyway.
But I was in that pit and I was pulling out the pump and I make it like I'm I'm grunting

(10:33):
because it's awkward position and it's like only this tiny space to pull out this pump
and he starts laughing out and I got angry.
I was like, what are you laughing at?
Oh, Jesus.
And he goes, you sound like Frankie right now.
Oh, God.
What do I have?
We're going to see what Frankie's making.
He's a perfect plumbing dog, I'm telling you.
It's the face, the attitude, the body type.

(10:54):
I mean, same with the bulldog.
Me and Frankie can share share wardrobe.
We get the same body.
So where did where did the name come from on demand?
Um, demand, but I I always like the name.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, I always like the name.
I have a couple other names.
Why do we keep calling it on demand?
I think it's optimal.
Is that optimum?
Maybe she calls, but I thought I was going to meet Nancy today.

(11:17):
I guess I can't.
I mean, we can FaceTime her if you want.
Oh, that would be it.
It's nothing interesting.
No, no, no, but where did it come from?
Where'd the name come from?
I just thought of it.
You know, it just it just came up and I think it's right to the point.
You're very simple.
You're very simple man, Gary.
Yeah, very clean.
Very simple, very clean.
Yeah, very clean.
Very well mannered.

(11:38):
Right to the point.
Yeah.
I want to know about the school system a little bit.
So you're in the school district or just for like one school building, the district.
So you're running all over the place in a school van that they provide you.
And one guy and a guy.
I mean, it's crazy to me.

(11:58):
That's crazy to me that they got one guy for the entire.
The benefits are probably great.
The benefits are good.
I named the town.
How did you get in that?
Can I name the town?
Yeah, I guess.
Yeah.
I mean, I grew up at Primus.
Yeah, Primus.
All right.
So you do all the schools in Primus?
All the schools in Primus.
Yeah.
One guy.
It's ridiculous.
One plumber.
Really?

(12:19):
Just one plumber?
One air conditioning guy.
No.
So what if you have to change as far as, listen, electrical is one thing.
You're running wires and stuff like that, but plumbing with like four inch cast and getting
it up there.
Yeah, but that's easy.
You probably, we've already said that if we had to, if we had to like actually carry

(12:40):
cast into houses, cast iron pipe and these giant lengths, 20 foot lengths of cast iron
pipe and sweat.
Or if you were in the city doing that.
Oh my God.
Everything's cast.
Yeah.
It has to be.
That's crazy.
But they cast, they use cast and no hubs.
They cast and use like.
It's not threaded like it used to be.
It's not threaded or it's not lead and oak them.

(13:00):
You're closer to the mic.
Oh, sorry.
No problem.
You want to be kissing the mic, Gary?
I'll edit all those bangs out.
Don't worry.
It's loud.
That's better.
That's better.
Sounds better.
So I have your headphones up higher.
Gotcha.
All right.
I guess kind of throws people off because they think they're talking too loud.
I think I'm talking way too loud.
No, you're good.

(13:21):
And I think I'm hard of hearing.
Get closer.
But so the school system has to be demanding because of course, demand.
That's how it comes.
See, that's that's it.
Mad corny.
Hold on.
I got it.

(13:42):
Oh, but my uncle.
So you remember my uncle?
So he runs do not school system.
Yeah, I heard that.
But he's not like the contrary.
He's hiring all the contractors.
So he's getting people in.
So I don't know.
He's a good talker.
That's how he got.
I don't know.
I don't know how if he has like a set staff for it or what, but he's bringing guys in

(14:05):
all the time and big companies like large HVAC companies and stuff.
They probably don't have their own.
Their own guys for each field, right?
Some towns might not be able to afford like somebody like you that's on call and everything
at the time.
You just have to contract when you have an issue.

(14:26):
Yeah.
The bigger stuff you saw about.
Yeah.
Definitely.
So as you as a single man operation, because numbers have become very important to us doing
our numbers, knowing our numbers, knowing our costs and stuff like that.
Yeah, very hard.
And it took me a couple of years to get there.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
We when I came in, we kind of, we talked about learning the numbers, doing this whole thing,

(14:48):
but it took a couple of years to actually hunker down and do it.
Yeah, it definitely does.
You trying to stay in business in Bergen County in 2023.
It's very hard.
How are you running your numbers?
How are you, how are you like watching material or are you really just trying to?
It's only one person.
So it's a little easier.

(15:09):
I guess it's only two people.
But you do answer your phones too.
Oh, answer the phone.
You do, you do office work.
Yeah, that's too much.
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
Taxes.
See, you look at me like, how do you do and all this stuff?
But I look at you.
I, oh yeah.
And I'm like, how do you do all that stuff?
I pull maybe 16 hour days.

(15:31):
I mean, but only only six days at a week.
Not not seven.
Okay, well, seven sometimes.
I don't work on Saturdays.
Oh, I work on Saturday.
Yeah, I don't work on Sundays, but only emergencies.
I mean, I guess you would have to because, you know, you're doing everything off hours
after three o'clock.
Yeah.
Yep.

(15:52):
So how long you been married?
Did you know?
Yeah, we have to edit this one out.
What a transition.
You do have to.
I have a goal.
I know where we're going to go, but so how you've been, you don't know.
Oh, 2007.
All right.
We got to edit this one out.
What is 2000?
So, wow, you're almost two years.

(16:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Long time.
And you got a couple kids.
Two kids.
Does your wife work?
My wife is home.
Stay at home.
See, that's good for you.
Yeah.
That's the way to do it.
That's the way to do it.
Yeah, exactly.
That's a man.
Yeah, that's a man.
We're trying to, we're really trying to get kids interested in this kind of stuff.

(16:36):
Of course.
Electrical, plumbing, mechanic, all that stuff.
And no one, the general mindset of young people is to go the complete opposite of that.
Of course.
You too.
But everything's getting automated out.
Of course.
And all these, even these entry level jobs are getting automated out.

(16:57):
Yeah.
And one thing that's great about the blue collar industry, any blue collar industry,
you can't automate it out.
No.
There's no way.
Not at all.
Unless we're like a thousand years into the future.
Exactly.
But at this point, for you to be able to live in Bergen County, have a wife, a couple kids.
Yeah.
On one salary.
One salary.
I mean, come on.

(17:19):
You guys got to get into the trades.
Hats off.
Yeah.
Trades is where it's at.
Hats off.
Definitely.
Definitely worth it.
Are there?
Go ahead.
I mean, it's kind of like you said, staring away from it.
They're floundering.
Yeah.
I find.
Yeah.
They're really just floundering.
Well, here's the question.
Would you, when your son gets older, would you encourage him to go to college or would

(17:41):
you encourage him to work?
So to be honest with you, it's up to him.
Okay.
It's totally up to him.
What if he was like, listen, I don't know what to do.
I am asking for your recommendation.
I'm curious because everybody talks like this.
They go, oh, we, you know, we all need, we all need tradesmen.
We need plumbers.
We need electricians.
We need mechanics.

(18:02):
And then when it comes to their kids, they go, now he needs to go to college.
Yeah.
I always talk to people like that.
I think, I think it's up to him, but you can steer him in that direction.
But if you force it, it goes the other way.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm going to go out on the limb here and say at this point, college is useless.
And I don't care who disagrees with me.
No.
I don't.
Unless you're going to be a doctor or a lawyer.

(18:24):
Yeah.
Like.
And even they got online degrees during COVID.
Of course.
They got, they all worked.
They always nice, you know, continue education.
We do it online now.
It's even better.
You know what they're going to start doing online is permits.
Oh yeah.
That's a hot mess.
Then you don't have to stamp anymore.
Well, that's what they're trying to figure out.
How to do that.
Yeah.

(18:44):
The stamp is hard.
Yeah.
How to figure out how to do that.
Cause then you're going to get a bunch of like frauds and stuff.
Of course.
I mean, you already get ready.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You already get fraud.
You already get a bunch of code scanners like you get on the $100 bills now.
Oh jeez.
Remember that story?
QR code.
Remember that story Ronnie told us?
He said, so Ronnie, our teacher from Pasek, he's, he's, he's the inspector and Pasek.

(19:09):
Pasek.
Yeah.
No.
He's, I think he's, no he is the inspector.
He's the Pasek inspector.
Okay.
Really funny guy.
But he told us he was in the office and he got this permit that came in from a plumber
who he knows.
Was dead for like 10 years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That happens a lot.
He got his stamp stolen.
Yeah.
And the guy stamped a bunch of permits.

(19:30):
Oh my God.
So Ronnie calls him and he goes, listen, can I speak to so and so?
And the guy's like, oh, he's not here right now.
He's on the, he's like, yeah, something like that.
He's on vacation.
And Ronnie goes, listen, you have three hours to return that stamp to this office or I'm
calling the police.
We know he's been dead.
Like, oh, that's crazy.
Do you?
And within three hours, the stamp was back.
Yeah.

(19:50):
Oh wow.
Do you own your stamp?
Yes.
Do you own your license?
I have my own stamp.
Because my Ronnie, the teacher, told us that my Ronnie, our teacher told us that you technically
don't own that stamp.
The state owns it.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.

(20:11):
The state owns your license.
Yes.
Okay.
They're on your insurance together.
It's like a marriage.
A marriage with the state.
Yeah, with the state.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's tough.
It's definitely tough.
Yeah, I remember here and there was a guy in Florida that was handicapped and someone
was using his stamp here and they went back and they saw all the numbers on the permits

(20:31):
and they hit him with taxes on it.
Wow, really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's the perfect way of putting it in a marriage with the state.
Yeah.
It is a marriage with the state.
The problem is there's such incompetence when it comes to the state.
Remember I had you drop off that permit and we type it out.

(20:52):
So I type out my permits because I can print three copies and I don't have to hand write
three copies.
Otherwise I have to go to the freaking town and get the carbon copies every time.
But they're going away from that.
They're trying to go away from it but you took it to one town.
I don't even say the town.
Yeah, I don't remember which town it was.
It was like two or three towns over.

(21:14):
She goes, you can't type this.
She told me, like, you can't have it typed.
It's got to be written out.
I was like, are you kidding?
It's a small town in the back streets.
Yes.
They asked for your driver's license?
They did ask for my driver's license.
I know what you're trying to talk about.
Why did they ask for your driver's license?
They needed everything.

(21:34):
She wanted to know if I was the guy, if I worked for the company or if I owned the company.
And I was like, no, I'm just like a runner for the company.
I'm bringing you the permit.
I didn't write this up.
I didn't type this up or anything.
The signature is not mine.
The signature is the owner of the company's.
And she wanted to get into this whole thing where he's got to be here.

(21:54):
I was like, listen, I don't know what your rules are, but every other town that I've
been to doesn't work like that.
You want me to tell him that he can't type it up?
You're going to have to deal with him because he's already not in a good mood.
So there you go.
He hasn't been in a good mood for the last 20 years.
That's ridiculous.

(22:15):
That's when you deal with the state, you know what?
This is what pisses me off when you deal with anyone who has a little bit of authority.
Oh, big time.
They abuse it.
But here's the other problem.
The people around them don't call them out.
Yeah.
Like it's the same thing with, listen, I don't have anything against cops.

(22:36):
Cops is a necessity.
But there's departments out there where there's a lot of bad apples.
Oh, big time.
And nobody in the freaking department will say anything.
No, they'll actually defend the bad apple.
And the problem with the state is they have so much power.
Like if they don't like the way you're looking at them, or if they don't like the way you

(22:57):
say something, they'll hold it.
They'll hold it.
They'll hold it.
So when I go to hand in the permits, I crawl on my hands and knees.
Oh, geez.
And I'm just like, yes, here's the permit.
Don't look at them in the eye.
Have you ever gone to Newark?
To the headquarters?
No, I've never been to, we haven't done work down there, but I've been down to Newark
a lot.

(23:17):
I went down there when I had my home improvement license too.
And I went down there, you know, filling out the home improvement.
I had a couple of questions.
So the lady pulled out a form and said, this is the form you need to fill out.
So she took it out of a folder and then she put it onto a different pile and then I left.
So that guy's application probably got lost.

(23:39):
And there's nothing.
I can't imagine how bad Newark is.
You got to go through metal detectors?
You got to empty your pockets out?
I used to go through the schools in Newark.
The schools in Newark, I used to play soccer over there.
And every single school that I went to over in Newark, metal detectors, empty your pockets,
security card in the front.

(23:59):
It's a shame that's where we're at right now.
I mean, there's towns that I want.
We would get calls into Patterson and North Hale and stuff like that.
And not going to happen.
I used to go there, we used to have to go there at night.
And it's like, listen, everything to do with the atmosphere and the fact that you can hear

(24:19):
gunshots when you go out to your truck.
It's starting to get to a point where I don't even know where I'm going with this, but there's
such a neglect on the important stuff and there's such a focus on stupid stuff like
a handwritten versus typed permit.
The priorities with the state are so backwards and guys like us have to deal with them all

(24:44):
the time.
Like we're forced to.
It's part of our industry.
Listen, there's an aspect I think, I'm sure you know this too.
There's an aspect to every business, to every form of life where you have to kind of kiss
ass a little bit.
I hate it.
And you have to suck it up and you have to shut your mouth sometimes and just do, just
get along to move along.
Oh yeah.

(25:05):
You probably know that with the school district that you work for, you know?
Politics.
Exactly.
I do that.
I'm saying I don't.
I feel like your words are very targeted.
There's no, there's not an instance.
You would never be able to do what he's doing.
He worked for the school district from.

(25:27):
I didn't think my uncle would be able to do it, but then my uncle was on town council
for a while.
Oh wow.
And he would tell horror stories.
He would tell the story of town council, like literally people foaming at the mouth, screaming.
And he's just like, listen, we don't have a million dollars for this tricked out fire
truck.
I don't know what you people are screaming at me for.
You know what I mean?

(25:48):
Exactly.
People are, what's that men and black quote?
Like the person is intelligent and smart, but people are stupid and high strong.
I don't know.
I don't know that movie like that.
I've been watching the movie a lot too.
I forgot that part.
The black.
Yeah.
The first one.
Oh, the first one.
Or he's like, he's like the person is intelligent.

(26:08):
How about that car?
They were driving.
Jay.
That's where, that's where she's, what she's named after.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Frankie.
Yeah.
Frankie, you're right.
I couldn't think of anything.
So I named her Frankie.
Wow.
And then after I named her and it was established with everyone, like a hundred new names came
through that I was like, yeah.
That's all right.
You could always change it.
They won't know.
But she knows by now.
It's been a while.
Yeah, you're right.

(26:29):
You never know.
But, uh, yeah, definitely.
What about the change in inspectors?
What about it?
How do you like the quality of inspections?
To be honest, lately, it's going to, well, it's a lot of younger guys with a lot of authority
that's becoming, I don't, it hasn't become like a big problem with us yet, but we've

(26:51):
heard a lot of people say it's become a problem.
It's starting to, because this young guys that don't, that when you're young and an
inspector, it's a problem because you haven't worked enough in the field to understand that
certain things can't be done.
You know, certain, you can't get everything by the book.
You can't do everything to the letter of the law.
Right.

(27:12):
And they want it done to the letter of the law because that's what they studied.
But they don't understand that.
In our code book, there are tons of contradictions.
Oh, big tons.
Tons.
Big tons.
And the inspectors will admit that, the older guys.
But the younger guys, they come in and they're busy bodies.

(27:33):
I'm the new man on the totem pole and like they want to make an impact.
You want a badge.
You want to arrest you.
Exactly.
And then it gets to a point where you're like, listen, what you're asking for, first of all,
it's clear that you've never done plumbing in your life.
You have no idea about this.
Like it's great that your father got you into this job.
But let me tell you why what you're asking for is impossible.

(27:56):
And that attitude will get you put on the back burner.
Like you can't even debate with these guys.
Everyone's high strung, sensitive and not knowledgeable.
No, big time.
They like that red sticker.
Yeah, they do.
And have you noticed that you might not call for inspections as much?
Like in our field, you might not call for inspections as much.

(28:19):
Because you don't even want to deal with the inspector.
You don't want to pay the fees.
You don't want to deal with the inspector.
You do everything right.
You do everything up to code and the way that you know that it should be done.
But you're like, forget even dealing with the inspector because that can delay this
whole job for weeks.
Well, I do.
We do that.
I talk to the customers all the time.
I'm like, listen, I'm going to leave it up to you if you want to call for inspection

(28:41):
on this.
I'm going to tell you when you go to sell the house, you may have a problem.
Because you're going to need stickers on stuff.
But we will put everything into code.
But it gets to a point where some of these towns are becoming so...
What's the word?
Demanding and obnoxious that it's like no wonder nobody wants to call for a permit.

(29:05):
You're making it impossible.
Big time.
And not only that, your residents are paying so much in taxes.
And then you demand that they make a...
They pick out a permit for this and pay for a permit fee for that.
So more money on top of that.
And then when you come out to their house to inspect, you bust their chops.
Or you say something ridiculous.

(29:27):
It's getting to the point where people don't even want to do it the right way because the
towns are such ballbusters at this point.
They take forever.
They drag.
Oh, yeah.
Well, ever since COVID, it has been the excuse.
It's gone a different way.
It's completely changed the nature of polling permits, getting inspections and all this

(29:49):
stuff.
And I'll tell you this much, I'm tired of seeing plastic still up in every government
building.
Yeah.
Come on, people.
Come on, take it down.
Take it down.
Okay.
Like, enough is enough.
Yeah.
Did you have a chance to go through any video inspections?
With the FaceTime?
I never did FaceTime, but I had to post videos on YouTube and send them the link.

(30:14):
But I did that because we have a YouTube channel.
So I was like, listen.
I don't have FaceTime because I refuse to get an iPhone.
I can post it on YouTube.
Here's the link and I'll walk through the whole job.
So we did a couple like that.
And that lasted what?
That was about six to eight months, right?
That was a long time.
A little long time.
It was very interesting.

(30:34):
It's annoying.
It's annoying.
And then here's the tough thing about, I understand scheduling is tough.
You got to get a guy from your office to go out there and inspect it.
You can give a time block.
Can I have a better time block than eight to three?
So I have to like a guy sit on, pay that guy to sit there from eight to three to wait

(30:57):
for you.
Yeah.
You know, like...
Exactly.
And then they don't show up.
And then they don't show up.
I had that a couple of times.
It's like, no wonder why nobody wants to do things the right way anymore.
Exactly.
So...
I had one fail because it was raining.
What?
I had a job fail because it was raining out.
What does that have to do with your job?

(31:18):
It was an outside job.
It was a pool.
But...
Why'd they fail it?
Because it was raining too hard as the inspector put it.
Well, can't he just reschedule?
No, he failed it and I rescheduled it, but I had it be on the job.
Are you serious?
I'm not kidding you.
Yep.
Not mentioned in any towns.
Don't say any towns or anything like that.

(31:39):
No, no.
Do it.
No, no.
He's a very famous inspector.
Famous.
But now he's...
Let's ruin his career.
He's a mayor.
He's a mayor?
Yes.
He's a busybody.
Nice.
It doesn't pay in the long run to bust the chops of your residents.
No.
It doesn't.
No, it costs them money.
That's not true.
Crime pays.

(32:00):
Yeah.
Let's be honest.
Crime pays.
Exactly.
Right?
They catch maybe...
They catch maybe like 20% of the people.
So 80% of the time crime pays.
Exactly.
So, okay.
You can't buy with it, you know?
Exactly.
You take the silver dollar.
The criminal podcast.
You rub it on the permit.
If you can live with yourself, fine.
Be a criminal.
Be a criminal.
Exactly.
I...

(32:21):
Probably not.
No.
Let's say it's just financial crimes.
No violent crimes.
I would actually probably be able to find myself better.
You talking about like Bernie Madoff?
That's a little cool.
That's a little cool.
No, he didn't off himself.
No, he did.
His son.
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't think I could do that either.
Yeah.
You're ruining your legacy.
I couldn't...

(32:41):
To be honest, I probably couldn't live with myself.
Small scale, maybe.
Yeah, I mean, there's a moral code with a lot of blue collar guys.
I mean, we come home smelling to high heaven.
Clean hands, clean money.
Clean dirty...
No, dirty hands, clean money.
Yeah, you're right.
Yeah, you're right.
In your case, clean hands.
Clean hands, clean money.
Lazy.
Well, we have clean hands, we wear gloves.

(33:03):
Oh, see?
I would wear gloves, but I can't find them that fit men.
You know?
No, I bow.
No, I put them on and they just don't fit.
But like the latex nitrile gloves?
Yeah, people, Gary's got big hands.
I'll never forget the time he said this.
I'm checking out your hands.
He says small.

(33:23):
You do have a little alligator paws.
They're small.
We went to...
There was a time at Ace where they didn't have...
Oh, that was during COVID.
I think it was where they didn't have like XL gloves.
Yeah.
Which he usually gets.
Gotcha.
And he asked the guy, he goes, do you guys have any gloves?
And he goes, yeah, we have the one size fits all gloves over there.

(33:45):
And he goes, one size doesn't fit me.
So you need to get me like double XL.
Something else like...
All right, big man.
That's one size fits all is such a lie.
Big time.
So I was going to ask you for some advice for some people out there in their own homes.
Gotcha.
What are...
It doesn't have to be five, but if you can think of it, what are the top five things

(34:08):
that homeowners should know how to do themselves before they call you?
I would say call me.
Just call you, no matter what.
Don't touch electricity.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's...
Maybe even a breaker or something?
Yeah, usually turn...
You could pop a breaker.
Yeah, you could pop a breaker.
Maybe turn it off all the way and then put it back on, you know, not just click it.

(34:28):
You know what?
I guess you're right.
With electrical, you don't want to mess with anything.
I think it's probably the scariest of all of the...
I would say pulmonous.
For injury?
So you flood the whole house out?
Okay, so for liability, yes, but for injury...
Even when I'm in my own house and I know up to like 120 volts, I'm like sweating when

(34:49):
I'm...
120 isn't bad.
No, that's easy.
120 is not bad.
I know it's not.
I'm not talking about hurting me bad.
I'm talking about like, oh my God, I don't want to get a short where I get some bad...
Like I cut something and down the line, nothing else works.
I'm this side of the house anymore and I'm like, oh no.
Oh jeez.
I'm going to deal with this.
Gary's not cheap.

(35:09):
Oh, see?
I see him better.
See, we did it.
We're trying to do...
I'm trying to make a video series of like top five lists.
Top five things customers shouldn't touch.
So you just killed it.
You just killed our top five for electric.
Oh, but I could work on it.
I was going to bring you in and everything.
Oh, I could work on it?
Sure.
Okay, sleep on it tonight.
Sleep on it tonight.

(35:30):
Think of the top five things.
Yeah, I don't write it.
Changing a light bulb, Gary.
Oh, light bulb.
Light bulb?
Changing a light bulb.
Yeah, you can get that way changed.
Plug in a hair dryer.
Come on.
Plug in a hair dryer.
Reset in a GFI.
There we go.
Yeah, that's two.
All right.
Listen, if you're going to unplug your toaster, just give me a call.
I don't unplug your toaster without a licensed electrician.

(35:51):
We have our top five lists.
I don't think we got to five.
I think we have four.
But we wanted to show everyone should know how to change a toilet valve, a fill valve.
How do you do that?
Easy.
Easy.
Just call me.
Just call us.
Just call.
Just know how to, what was the other ones?
Well, we have certain ways like to clear your drains because there's a lot of like drain

(36:14):
cleaners that I don't want to mention until they sponsor us to sponsor us, please.
Okay.
But should I say the name?
Maybe get some instaflow.
You guys are the best.
Instaflow is the best.
Instaflow is good stuff.
The best.
You can put them down almost any drain as long as it's not like caked up for decades.

(36:36):
Gotcha.
If you have a clog, you put them in that situation.
It does work.
And even in that situation, they do help out a lot.
It's good.
They'll siphon your drains.
It's not too aggressive.
It's not aggressive on your drains yet.
So we have, we have everyone should know how to change a toilet valve.
Everyone should know how to unclog a simple drain.
Yeah.

(36:57):
Like don't use drain O and stuff like that.
Oh, yeah.
No drain O.
No.
It's no good.
No.
It's awful.
It'll eat your pipes.
It'll, unless you have bad drain O.
I got cast iron.
If you have cast iron, definitely.
It's even worse.
That's even worse.
Yeah.
If you had PVC, that's one thing.
Gotcha.
Drain O's just really, really aggressive.
And then plus once it hits your, your main sewer from your house to your street, it's

(37:18):
just going to erode it.
Wow.
I don't know that.
Use something organic if you're going to go or Instaflow.
Gotcha.
But we had everyone should know how to service their boiler.
Yeah.
There's like shower cartridges or like, you know, faucet cartridges.
Those things are technically easy, but they're very, they can become a nightmare.

(37:38):
They're really not actually on paper.
They're easy.
Exactly.
That's what I mean.
Like, so like when you watch like this whole house or something, you know, the guy is teaching
the woman how to like just change out her shower cartridges and it's like you unscrew
a couple of screws and oh my God, it popped out so easy.
Now I could just put in the new one, but it's like, so they're on a close set.

(37:59):
Yeah.
And I just came from a house where I had to cut up the guy's tile.
Oh my God, get to the cartridge.
And I was like, listen, dude, I'm a butcher.
Wow.
Your tile is getting demolished if I cut it.
So you're going to have to redo this tile.
Yeah.
All right.
And he was fine with it because he had such a bad.
Oh, wow.
They have no choice.
He had such a bad leak that I was like, and they put the shower on the outside wall.

(38:20):
Oh God.
So that's the worst thing.
What about the rain heads in the attic?
I mean, it's cold.
Even I know that one's good.
People are going, people are, um, they're, here's, here's the problem.
And this is the one thing.
And I know that they're doing a lot of limits on like electrical as far as like output and

(38:44):
stuff because of climate change and all that stuff, whatever.
It's fake.
Exactly.
I mean, I'm sorry.
We don't apologize.
Trust me.
Do not apologize.
But here's, and we were laughing about this the other day because we go into a lot of
houses and I see climate action now on their front door or, or climate action, stop, stop

(39:06):
climate change on their lawn and they're buying.
My toilet has no flush.
My toilet can.
I have no flow out of my shower.
I was like, yeah, well, this is the green new deal in the fact starting to limit your
flow now.
Well, I don't like it.
Can you pop the flow?
It's like, hold on a second.
What about that billboard on your front lawn about stop climate change?

(39:28):
Don't you?
Yeah.
Are we going to stop it or not?
Are we going to start it again?
And that's what that's what like, why do I have to flush twice when I pee?
Well, there you go.
But the flushable wipes don't go down fast.
Don't flush.
There's no such thing as a flushable wipe.
What do you mean?
I use them all the time.
First of all, you got to get on the bidet game.

(39:49):
You got to get a bit with the seat.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Toilet paper is like it's barbaric.
Yeah.
This one.
I can't.
That's why I use the flushable wipes.
It's better.
Well, if you're on septic, it works.
You're a caveman who discovered fire.
You're still, you're still.
That's why I have the septic.
Are you on septic?
No.
Okay.

(40:09):
If you're on septic, don't use the flushable wipes.
No.
Because they'll just destroy it.
Sewer is okay, but you'll still get, they don't dissolve.
No, they don't dissolve.
They don't dissolve.
Yeah.
I'm telling you, you have to get a bidet.
Gotcha.
The bidet is where it's at.
Really?
100%.
I got one over there.
You can use it after you're done recording.
Oh, geez.
I'll sit here with the remote and I'll show you what we got.
Does it play music?

(40:31):
No, but it has a dry light.
Oh, wow.
What about lighting?
It's good.
Some of them do.
Really?
Some of them have lights.
Change colors.
You know why?
So when you, when you go to the toilet at night, it opens up and it lights up.
Yeah.
It'll light up your bathroom.
So that's nice.
So you, and it has a blue light.
So it's not like waking you up.
Oh, got you.
You can take a dump like while you're half asleep.
So it's a considerate.

(40:51):
Is it water power?
Yeah.
Yeah.
With warm water.
There's a little heater in there.
Is it 120?
Gary, me and Max will leave the shop.
You can go, you can go use it.
Heavy and nice.
I'll make you a cup of coffee.
And a cookie.
And a cookie.
You want, you've been wanting a cookie since you saw the coaster.
So I used to, we had to, I used to work for, I used to build swimming pools.

(41:14):
Oh, nice.
And we kind of had to know like pretty much all the trades.
Got you.
Masonry, a little bit of electrical.
We used to pull electric through the conduit.
We delayed the conduit, which is the worst.
Yeah, definitely.
The worst.
Yeah.
I do a lot of swimming pools.
There has to be some kind of trick to pulling.
Yeah, don't do it.
Sorry.

(41:35):
No.
All right.
So I figured out that trick.
Have the pool guy do it.
But we had to learn a whole bunch of different types of trades.
Had to learn plumbing.
And then I had to sit in electrical classes.
Wow.
I don't get it, man.
I don't, once you, I understand a point with circuits, closed circuits, open, closed.
I get that.

(41:56):
Got you.
But then like the measure of ohms and all that stuff.
That's tricky.
And we had to know that on the test.
Yeah.
I failed it.
Oh, wow.
So I couldn't pull lights anymore.
Oh, gee.
So it's a win-win for me.
Oh, nice.
Was it on purpose?
No.
I mean, I tried to be like, you know, I tried to do good.
But once it, when it comes to electrical, first of all, I pull out, we have to do boiler

(42:19):
switches all the time.
That was a hard.
Boiler's a harder.
Got a little confusing.
Well, as far as a low voltage?
Yeah, low voltage.
We have that down to a science.
Wow.
But here's the thing about, wow.
Here's the thing about.
Where you failed the class.
But I felt, well, I learned in the field eventually.
When with a, with, this is what annoys me about electrical.
They don't tell you, they don't give you simple instructions like a switch, like, which is

(42:43):
the wire that's supposed to come in and which is supposed to go out.
Like they don't say anything.
No, because it's written by engineers.
There you go.
There you go.
There you go.
Engineers.
I don't necessarily have a beef with engineers because I don't deal with them.
The two of you do.
Yeah.
And he always like, he hates loaths.
Yeah.

(43:03):
He goes, anytime an engineer designed something, he goes throw it out.
Yeah.
Now.
Exactly.
Now.
Maybe we had, we had this huge, I know we're talking a lot about plumbing and barely any
electrical, but we'll get back on it.
So we had this big job that this, this lady's gutters were just flooding out her basement
and the engineer came in and he's like, all right, we're going to design this.

(43:26):
He designed 12 inch trains, 12 inch trains.
That's what he calls for.
Yeah, but it works.
Just complete overkill.
And I find out that they make their money the bigger the design is.
Of course.
So he's over and the more options.
So he's over designing it.
Of course.
Banking.
Yeah.
It was insane.

(43:46):
It was like, I'm down to eight inches.
Oh, it's a strange.
We knocked him down a couple feet.
But eight inch trains.
Where do you get an eight inch train from?
Special order.
Special order.
Wow.
I was going to say Amazon.
But even that was ridiculous.
That's crazy.
You know, you could have done that entire job off of two inch.
It's too much.
They don't design.
Yeah.
And I haven't, you know what, I think I'm going to make a point to start looking at

(44:07):
electrical plans, the next set of plans I have to look at, because I never really
checked them out.
Yeah, we definitely check it out.
So.
But here's the thing.
I don't even have to.
Every time, anytime we have something, you just call Gary.
Yeah.
To be honest, I probably won't.
I just don't just call Gary.
It's just one thing that you even have to deal with.
That's stage five.
I always say, let's learn this.
Let's try to figure this out and then we get to it.

(44:28):
I'm like, yeah.
There's a reason why the trades are separate because there's so much to know in each one,
you just go, I don't even like my mind is not even going here.
Like a lot of people used to be a jack of all trades.
Yeah.
You know, like my uncle is a jack of all trades.
You can do electrical plumbing, HVAC, construction, but when you start becoming, when you start

(44:50):
like narrowing it down to running a business in that trade, you're like, I don't even want
to touch electrical anymore.
I don't even want to touch plumbing anymore.
I don't want to touch VHVAC anymore.
You're just like, I don't have to think about that.
No.
Exactly.
So, these are just called Gary.
Definitely.
Definitely.
So let me ask you a couple of things about like running your own business.
Running your own business is a single man operation.

(45:12):
And this is going to be a learning experience for both of us here.
Of course.
But so we started plugging in heavily into like email marketing, text message marketing,
stuff like that.
And it goes through our dispatching program.
Do you use any type of calendar program?
No.
Nothing.

(45:32):
How do you get your name out there then?
Nothing.
Word of mouth.
All referrals?
Yeah, referrals.
You don't even have a website.
You got to sit down and talk.
I know.
Unless you're not.
So you said you were interested in growth?
At the time.
Yes.
20 minutes ago.
20 minutes ago.
20 minutes ago I was into growth and now it's like, okay, I got a headache.
Now this email marketing, I'm out.

(45:54):
Now I might do plumbing.
Don't do it.
It sounds interesting.
You have to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts.
Yeah, I could do that.
Not long sleeve shirts.
But the Hawaiian shirt.
Yeah, definitely.
Listen, that is not allowed at courts plumbing in here.
Why?
It's trash.
It's classy trash.
I didn't know why you went with that because you did go home and take a shower.
What did you do?

(46:14):
You open up your closet and be like, okay, here we go.
Because it says, it's casual, but I like to party.
I'll say.
Stuff for the dogs.
They're sleeping.
You heard you.
I'll say.
So let's talk about, if you don't mind, we'll touch base a little bit on your desire to

(46:36):
grow.
Okay.
Definitely.
We're not professionals, but, and we're still trying to grow.
Yeah.
And we're kind of like shooting in the dark with a lot of things.
Got you.
But doing research and stuff.
Having grown since like middle school.
Yeah.
I'll tell you.
That happens.
That's unfortunate.
I haven't grown since middle school either.

(46:57):
I'll say.
Which is it.
Yeah.
You eat soy?
Huh?
You eat soy?
No, I've cut soy out of my, cut soy out of my diet.
That he knows of.
Oh, dear.
I'm not a professional.
Yeah.
But we had, as far as you said, you get a lot of calls from referrals.
Google and social media are huge for us.

(47:19):
And you're on, you're on Facebook and Instagram.
Yeah.
Facebook and Instagram.
Every other call we get is from Google.
We searched you on Google and you have five stars.
That's what we called you.
You got a yada yada.
Gotcha.
So as far as I know, as a one man operation to try to do the social media reels and posts
and stuff like that, you should at least, and I don't want to tell you what to do.
No, definitely.

(47:40):
You're doing fine.
Yeah.
But if you.
I want to tell you what to do, but proceeds to tell you what to do.
Hey.
But if you're going to.
I'm an open ear.
We tried, we had to, first of all, I can't run the, I can't do this without an office
person.
Gotcha.
If you're answering calls, forget about it.
I'm out.
Yeah.
There's no way.
It's a lot.
Answering the calls a lot.

(48:01):
What?
I just, I'm just picturing you answering calls.
I answered calls for a while.
I know.
Yeah.
When I left, right?
Well, and you were here for a while.
No, I don't think I was here when you were doing that.
I think it was when I had left because I, I just know.
It was tough.
Yeah.
Definitely.
We're doing a, we're doing a job over in Paramus Park and, uh, and I'm trying, and I've,

(48:25):
I've been on the same sink for, for three days now because the phone rings.
You know, you know, I laugh.
Summer calls, you know, I laugh because when the office calls you about a call that they
received, it's like, like if he's got channel locks in his hand and he sees a call from
the office, he's breaking a light fixture.

(48:46):
Oh geez.
That's good for you.
Yeah, definitely.
Keep calling.
Keep calling.
He answers the phone.
He goes, what do you want?
And give Gary a call.
Oh geez.
I just broke something.
But yeah, it's, it's definitely hard.
You know, it is hard.
Yeah.
And I say this, we said, we talked about this before.
I don't have a wife and kids.
No.
You have a wife and kids.

(49:07):
Exactly.
But I do talk to myself a lot.
I find that sometimes that helps.
I hate working alone, man.
No, you know what?
Let me take that back.
I do like working.
I don't mind it on.
I don't either.
Reasonable jobs, but when we have big jobs and then we get overwhelmed and we both have
to separate, I have to put you on a full boiler and me on a full renovation.
It's miserable.

(49:27):
It is.
I mean, how do I just, so a renovation for us.
Let's say we're doing a kitchen renovation.
Yeah.
Not consecutively, but we're there for like six, seven days.
How long is it going to take you to rough out?
To be honest with you, I work fast.
Yeah.
I hustle and yeah, I don't leave.
Are you organized?
Is your truck clean?
Very clean.
Is it?

(49:48):
No.
Not at all.
I'm working on that now.
That one's a work in progress.
I mean, ours is ours.
Our trucks are pretty rough right now because we've been so busy.
Yeah.
And I'll say this is that there have been instances where I've actually opened up my
truck and customers have seen it and they go, wow, truck looks great.
Trucks clean.
Not now.
Not now.

(50:09):
Yes.
But you try.
You try as best as you can at the end of the day or at the beginning, like early on
in the day or when you have free time to just kind of like quickly organize.
But again, when you're, when you're solo, I've seen other solo guys with their trucks
and it's just, it's hard.
It's, it's, it's the last thing you want to do with it.
It's the last thing you want to do.
Exactly.
So it's easy for you, who's doing your books, you're doing all your numbers, you're doing

(50:31):
everything on your own.
What do you use?
QuickBooks?
No, I use invoices to go.
And that'll track everything.
Oh, so you bill out from that too.
Yes.
So that makes everything a lot easier.
Yes.
Because we use a program similar.
Yes.
Yeah.
And you can invoice and schedule and everything.
What do you use?
Titan?
We use a house call.
House call.
Got you.

(50:52):
House call, pro.
Yeah.
Gotcha.
And that's where we do my email marketing right.
And you can do all your customers right through there.
It's crazy.
There's so many programs out there.
Probably be great for you to use that, you know, with the way that you work.
Yeah.
Because it does everything.
It does everything for you.
Yeah.
And you could do everything scheduling and all that.

(51:12):
Absolutely.
Now they have like a flat rate pricing system where you just point and click and build
estimates and invoices right on the field.
How's that?
Hashtag house call, pro.
Yeah, house call.
Let's go.
We've been using you for five years, five, six years now.
We're waiting.
We're not going to use them anymore.
We're going to get a season to sys letter.
Yeah.
Just one episode.
Yeah.

(51:32):
But so let's do this.
I want to take a break.
Gotcha.
All right.
We'll recoup.
Give a break to the cameras.
Take the dogs out.
Get the cameras.
Get the machines.
Because they get warm in here.
Let's send them off.
We just got an air conditioning.
So we'll take a quick break and come back and we'll discuss a little bit more about

(52:02):
the electric, the world of electric and go from there.
Perfect.
All right, folks.
We'll come back when we get it done.

(52:27):
Call courts plumbing and heating for top rated service in Bergen County, New Jersey.
And don't forget to keep treats for Frankie on hand.

(52:49):
For over a decade, Demand Electric has served North Jersey residents with pride.
We are highly rated by our customers and are ready to deal with all issues related to your
electrical system in your home.
Check us out on social media and when your next renovation or service issue rises.
Demand the best.
Demand Electric.

(53:09):
Serving Paramus and the greater Bergen County area.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

(53:29):
Alright you guys ready?
Yeah.
You guys ready?
It's ready as I've never been.
Double fisting over here on a Thursday night.
How dare you?
How dare I what?
How dare you?
I'm just gonna get out.
There's water in there.
That's piss water.
Yeah.
Sure looks like it.
It's water in there.
You're dehydrated it looks like.
Yeah.
Just from the color.

(53:50):
I'm just saying more water.
I'm just thinking about that.
I do Celtic sea salt.
Do you guys remember when you were 28?
Yeah.
Yeah, well were you guys doing a 28?
Gary how about you tell us what you were doing a 28?
That's the problem.
I don't know.
I don't remember.
Alright folks we're back Plum Bums podcast with Gary from Demand Electric.

(54:13):
Piramis, New Jersey.
Just kind of shooting the shiz over here.
Max and his Hawaiian shirt nice and comfy.
How does that feel?
So you get that from Target.
This is what annoys me when you walked in with that.
I go, what are you gonna wear?
I can tell he got super angry.
He goes, what are you mean?
You said this, what are you mean what are we gonna wear?
We're gonna wear our courts plumbing shirts.
Our button downs.

(54:34):
Why are we gonna wear that?
I'm like okay.
Yeah, why are we wearing that?
Alright no problem.
But he goes, he goes, I wanna wear something cool.
We'll wear something cool.
We'll wear something cool, why are we wearing our courts plumbing shirts?
Okay, no problem.
And here he walks in like, like he's at that, like, what's his name?
Miami Vice, what's the name for Miami Vice?

(54:57):
Don Johnson.
Don Johnson.
Where'd you get the shirt from Target?
It's actually a hand me down.
I don't, I don't buy clothes.
Why?
Because I don't believe, I don't believe in buying clothes.
I think hand me downs.
I think hand me downs are the best thing.
He's got a lot of rich family members.
It's just hand down clothes.
Yeah.
Why would I, why would I ever turn that down?

(55:19):
Just privilege.
Yeah.
Privileged.
As long as it doesn't come from your sister.
This is true.
This is true, I agree.
I might have one thing.
The whole time.
I made it into the closet.
Oh Jesus.
But no, we've been here talking about, talking about small business and both of us are small
business.
We've got two guys, you got one.

(55:41):
Yeah.
I wanted to ask you, when you, you said you started at 19.
Yes.
What was everyone around you doing at 19 at that time?
What were they, what were they planning?
Were they,
Tell us how old you are.
When did you graduate?
So 97.
Okay.
Oh no, two years after I was born.
I'm younger than you.
Oh 45.

(56:02):
43.
Oh so that's, yeah.
78.
I think we look good for our age.
Yeah.
1978.
78.
How was, how was, oh I'm only 42, never mind.
I was born in 81.
Oh, my wife's 81 too.
I lose track.
Your wife's not 81.
No, my wife was born in 1981, yeah.

(56:23):
Not to say.
Yeah, 1981.
Did you imagine, did you imagine Gary's wife was 81 years old?
She's younger than half.
You wonder why she stays home?
She's like what?
She can't work anymore.
Okay.
He's like I'm into that.
Everyone's got their thing.
You never know.
She's really got the money.
Yeah.
We used to.
Especially at 81.

(56:44):
At the pool place I used to work with this guy.
He was maybe 38, 39 and he loved Granny's.
Oh nice.
Loved him.
Yeah.
Live or dead.
Oh nice.
Oh live.
Still breathing.
But we would go to customers' houses and I remember it was maybe the first two weeks.
Don't get into details.

(57:07):
But he goes, it was three of us that were on the job including him.
We had to acid wash and clean a pool and everything.
And the homeowner, she was like 78, 79 and looked every bit of it.
Wow.
And she walks out and she's like.
Was it a care one?
Huh?
Was a care one?
I don't know.

(57:28):
She walks out and he goes and she's like, oh hi guys.
Listen, I just want to let you know I have bottled water up here.
And she like turns around and walks back inside and he's like, oh yeah.
I know she's not getting what she deserves at home.
I know that for a fact.
We're all like, oh dude.
Because the husband's dead.
Yeah.
We're like, are you kidding?
He's like, yeah, it's my thing man.

(57:50):
Like how, what happens to you as a kid to get into that?
It's got to be electric.
Like he's like, he was like a good looking guy.
37, 38 somewhere around there.
Yeah.
But just like, love.
He's had some weird, weird tick.
I don't know if I've ever showed you pictures of my grandmother.

(58:11):
I've showed, people have seen my grandmother.
Like she used to stay over at our house sometimes.
Like my friends used to stay over at the same time.
Like when we would go out, we would all crash in my house, my parents house.
Wow.
And they would see my grandmother like, why is your grandmother like good looking like
that?
I'm like, don't talk about my grandma.
It's weird.

(58:32):
Yeah.
Like she's 83 years old and she still looks good.
I'm like, grandma, can you start looking your age a little bit?
Oh geez.
You know, it's starting to get weird with my friends.
Yeah.
Maybe it's the apricot oil.
I don't know what it is.
It's going to be something.
Yeah.
I mean, my grandmother always looked good for their age, but my grandmother was always
into apple cider vinegar and all this natural stuff.
Yeah.

(58:53):
Well, they believe in it.
Yeah.
I mean, there's got to be something to it.
Yeah, definitely.
It was, I mean, you know.
My grandfather drank until he was 80 years old, 82 years old.
Yeah.
And he probably looked every bit of it.
Why did he stop drinking?
Alzheimer's.
Oh.
What does it have to do with that?
The Alzheimer's.
Oh geez.
This cord keeps falling.
It's annoying.
So listen, this is our first time filming and we're going to, we're going to try to work

(59:16):
out most of the kinks of the first time.
To figure out what to do about the, about these things that are just kind of like.
What's wrong with them?
They add to the atmosphere.
Mookie, come here.
No, don't.
I won't.
I won't.
What?
I can't push his head on camera.
No.
I can't scrunch his face.
We need to get into what Gary's, what Gary's doing.
Are you going to get yourself a helper?

(59:38):
Yeah, why not?
Sometime soon.
Yeah.
I know you said you had one.
I'm not talking about these things.
I'm talking about, I'm talking about like a real helper, like somebody who's like, can
take the pressure off you.
Do you think that maybe if you got a helper, you could have them not run the show, but kind
of take a lot of the workload during the day?
Yeah.

(59:59):
You know, while you're at.
He's very neat.
I hope you don't mind that.
No, no.
He just bonked his head on the microphone.
Did you see that?
I couldn't.
I couldn't, I did this for a year and a half.
And listen, my uncle did it for a long time too solo.
Yeah.

(01:00:20):
But I'm to the point where are you kidding me right now?
Frankie, come here.
All right.
Let's just sort this out.
Come here.
This is unprofessional.
Oh, geez.
Unprofessional.
It is what it is.
We have dogs.
They're going to make it on camera.
I got to a point where I can't with with one person, I just get too overwhelmed.

(01:00:45):
Yeah.
I get way too overwhelmed and the business suffers and I can't have that.
No, I couldn't do you must.
You must love electrical.
I'll tell you.
I don't love plumbing.
I don't either.
I tolerate.
Okay.
I don't love either.
You know what's funny is that I've I was thinking about this for a long time when you know,

(01:01:08):
when people don't diminish what I'm saying, I'm listening.
I'm listening.
When people say, just find something that you love and you'll never work a day in your
life.
Yeah.
In my opinion, it's nonsense.
Why?
It's nonsense.
If you find it because you haven't found it yet.
Yeah.
Because he loves nothing.
Yeah.

(01:01:29):
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
You got to love the journey.
No, I just that's a little bit different.
But I'm saying that when people say find something that you love to do and you'll never work a
day in your life, it's nonsense because everything is work.
Yeah.
You know, everything becomes work.
Let's say you're a professional athlete or you're an actor.
Yeah.
What do they always complain about their work?
They always say, oh, it's so hard.
It's so difficult.

(01:01:49):
You might love it.
Yes.
But it's everything becomes work.
Yeah.
Exactly.
It's like when you love your wife, right?
Yeah.
You love your wife, but it's work, right?
Yeah.
Every day it's work.
Well, love is work.
Love is a verb.
Yeah.
Okay.
It is.
You can philosophize.
Well, I mean, they only say that because I used it in a wedding, in a best man's speech

(01:02:10):
one time.
Oh, wow.
But I was just saying, I think it's ridiculous.
Everything becomes work.
You have to try to find things that get you through the day, that get you through your
week.
Yeah.
Exactly.
But you might love your work, but it's not like that what people think.
It's true.
All you love what you do.

(01:02:30):
You know?
Yeah.
And while I would make those little videos for small business, other guys who would want
Facebook ads and stuff.
And I like editing.
Yeah, you should do that more too.
But the thing is, when someone hires you to do it, it becomes, you lose it.
Yes.
After a couple, I'm like, ugh, I don't want to sit here and do that.

(01:02:52):
Even though I love to do it, I love to draw, but when someone hires you to do it, it immediately
becomes work.
Yeah.
Do you have any hobbies outside of electrical?
No.
No?
Not right now.
Really?
No.
Yeah, not right now.
Were you an athlete?
No, just work.
No, I just work.
No, I just been this guy.

(01:03:13):
This is fascinating.
I've just been this guy.
I raced motocross.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's cool.
That was one.
So that is cool.
A couple things, you know?
You raced motocross.
Wow.
You still do that at all?
No, not right now.
Well, I'm talking like, do you do, are you into ATVs, dirt bikes?
I only have one quad.
My son has a quad.
What do you got?
Just a 90 Kawasaki.

(01:03:34):
Oh, that's still a little few.
It's a fun one.
Yeah, I'm going to get a pit bike.
You have to get something.
My uncle has a property of state.
Get something.
Yeah, definitely.
It's a lot of fun.
It's a lot of fun.
I'm trying to clean the van out.
I can't fit anything in there.
No, I have a trailer to tell things.
No, no, definitely.

(01:03:54):
I got, you know, there's a lot of cool ATV parks.
Have you ever been to Lost Trails in Pennsylvania?
No.
This place is awesome.
I think Walden, I raced at Walden.
I did race by Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, but I forget the name of that track.
How long has it been since you started, since you were doing that?
Long time.

(01:04:15):
Really?
Yeah.
We've been talking decades.
Decades.
That's why you got to get back into ATVs.
I started three.
Did you really?
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Everybody's got something.
Everybody's got something.
You just got to find it.
I think my hobby is now it's like the family.
That's good.
I enjoy the family.
You know?
That's good.
I know.

(01:04:35):
I know.
I know.
But it is enjoyable.
You know?
No, you have, like, who's your son going to ride with?
He's got to ride with you.
That's what I'm saying.
You got to get something to ride with him.
Yeah, I got to do that.
You know?
That's coming up next.
100%.
Yeah, definitely.
Like I said, you make trips out of it.
I should have been a plumber.
Just to hump telling you.
If I was a plumber, I could definitely do it.
Such a crock.
To be honest with you, I looked at a job recently and the plumbing was actually harder than

(01:05:00):
the electric.
I could have told you that.
No, I could have told you that.
I always look at it.
You guys look like it's a breeze.
And then I look at this and I'm like, oh my God.
Wow.
I would not want to be the plumber on this job.
I mean, it was a module.
There's always a modular home.
Yes.
We've done all those.
No stub outs.
Nope.

(01:05:20):
What do you mean no stub outs?
They didn't pay for the stub outs of the plumbing.
Oh my God.
Yes.
I guess you pay extra for the stub out.
That's a thousand times worse than even what we dealt with.
Even with the stub outs, it's terrible.
The plumbing is in the wall and they sheet rocked it.
Okay.
So, okay.
Well, they did that on our job too.
Everything is in the wall and you still have to cut holes in the wall to open everything.

(01:05:42):
We still had stub outs, but none of the stub outs match.
Yeah, they don't match.
They don't match up.
Yeah.
They didn't get that up on yet.
They don't match.
So the puzzle, it's like having puzzle pieces where the puzzle piece fits together, but
you're not matching it.
It's not matching.
Oh my God.
It's, you know.
It was obnoxious.
It looked intense.
We're not big enough to do full renovations anyway.
No.
We're really not.

(01:06:03):
No.
And I took a couple modular home jobs because they're like, oh, it's already assembled.
No.
No.
No.
No, it's not.
No, it's not.
It's cool the way they do it.
It's cool the way they put the roof on.
Great concept.
Exactly.
But you're roughing out the house.
Yeah, but it's already sheet rocked.
So you're roughing it out.
It's already sheet, yeah.
And cutting it up backwards.
Exactly.
Yeah.

(01:06:24):
Yeah.
And you have to hope that everything's together and it was just, it sucked.
But I would say if we, if I had a bigger staff, we could probably take more full renovations,
but.
No, I don't think it pays to do a little.
I don't think so either.
I think the smaller service work is a lot better.
Yeah.
100%.
Yeah.
I agree.
But I do do a bigger job.

(01:06:44):
So it's, see, it'll pay if you have the staff, like it takes us maybe two, two and a half
days to rough out an entire house.
Wow.
If you can get a staff in there to do it in one day, then you're making money.
Yeah.
Then you're making money, but we don't, I'm not big enough.
No.
And then you run into problems and you got to stop and you, and then, oh, we can't do
the shower because they have to build a plumber's box.

(01:07:06):
So then we have to figure out what to do in spite of that.
And it's, it's just, I don't have the manpower.
No.
I don't have the manpower, the patient services where it's at.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Get in, get out, get paid.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I have a question to go to my father's field, which is cars, automobiles.

(01:07:26):
There's a huge market now for electric vehicles.
Wow.
Tesla's.
That's beautiful.
Wow.
What, what, what's the loudest floor?
That's beautiful.
No, but you know that these charging stations are going up.
Oh yeah.
Everywhere.
Are they everywhere though?
I only see a few here and there.
And I know that they're building them.

(01:07:48):
They're putting them like in people's like residential homes.
Yes.
Right.
Are you doing any of that?
Are you putting these stations up?
A little bit of it, but not a lot.
No.
Yeah.
Not a lot.
Putting them in people's houses, not the stations like I've seen Tesla stations.
Yeah.
You don't, you don't deal with that.
They're overestimating the popularity of electric vehicles.
Yeah.
They're not, they're not there.
I know.

(01:08:08):
I don't think so.
It's crazy.
It's, it's a super high overestimated number for these electric vehicles.
Like they, I read something where even by like 2050, they're only going to be like 15%
of the entire market.
And to be honest with you, I think a hybrid is a better option.
That's what my father says.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, because you have both, both units working in tandem.

(01:08:29):
Yes.
And I think so.
I don't think they estimated the mileage and stuff on the electric.
They're trying to force a lot of stuff.
Yes.
And, and they're trying to market it like it's the, it's the brand new thing, but the
technology is there.
We even have an issue with wall hung units, well-mounted units like on demand.
The technology is just not, it's a cool concept.

(01:08:50):
Exactly.
But the technology is just not there.
No.
If you have more than two bathrooms, yeah, don't do a wall hung unit.
No, no.
If you have more than, one will be fine.
One will be fine.
Apartments are fine.
Yes.
It's good for apartments, good for trailers, stuff like that.
Gotcha.
But they're making these like two 99 BTUs and one 99 BTUs and then just not there.

(01:09:10):
Like you'll take a shower and all of a sudden you'll get blasted with ice cold.
Cold water and then it'll go hot again.
That's crazy.
Like you don't want that.
No, and the amperage is so high.
I had to do a pool heater the other day, a couple months ago.
Remember you sent me the other heater?
Yeah.
That you looked at it was like two 30 amps.
This one was a 350 amp for a pool heater.

(01:09:31):
350 amps.
And the thing was only this big.
Well we had a similar water heater like that.
It was a basement.
Remember a wall hung?
We had called for 240 volts for a water heater that was.
It was this small.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Same thing.
But they're trying to heat it up real quick.
Yeah, yeah, but a small.
But you're not.
What are we going to put a stop to this wrestling?

(01:09:52):
Come here.
Forget them.
Maybe they want a cookie.
I want a cookie.
Gary's hungry.
We should have gotten food for Gary.
Yeah, why don't you get the cookies?
What's this?
We're going to put food.
Just so you guys know, it probably looks great behind us, but to get this and.
Can we talk a little bit about that, you know, because this is the first podcast.
What do you think about the studio?
I like it a lot.

(01:10:13):
I like it a lot.
You were here.
No, no, you were here before, right?
Yeah.
You were here.
No, never before this.
You were?
No.
I've been trying to get you here to do some electrical.
I'd like an outlet on the outside.
Yeah.
Like that.
But you were going to schedule.
I know.
I'm terrible at it.
No, Nancy called me and she said, we got a schedule.
I said, OK.
Well, at least Nancy's holding up her end of the bargain.

(01:10:36):
Yes.
But that's all right.
Whenever you want.
The whole thing was, was, I like it was not fun to put up because I'll say this, me and
him went shopping.
Got you.
We went shopping together.
Yeah.
OK.
We went to IKEA.
IKEA.
I don't like IKEA.
It's cheap.
No, I get anxiety.

(01:10:57):
To be honest with you.
Because you can't get out of there.
It's like a maze.
You can't get out of there.
It's amazing.
You're not getting out of until you walk through the entire thing.
Yeah.
You're going to walk through the whole thing.
They have you and that's it.
Yeah.
All right.
I'm going to get a lot.
Whether you want to or not.
Exactly.
Unless the sweetest meatballs.
We should get those.
I did get those.
Those are good.
I did stop to get the Swedish meatballs.

(01:11:17):
Cooked or pre-cooked or are you just frozen?
Cooked.
Out of the cafeteria.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
But did you find it?
I did.
We finally got there.
I'm just going through the process of building this whole thing.
Me and him when he got the wallpaper, the first of all when he was getting the wallpaper.
Because this is wallpaper, folks.
No, it's not.
Really?
It looks real brick.

(01:11:38):
It's not.
We're going to tell them it's wallpaper.
What's this?
Weakwrap.
Yeah.
Why are you taking the magic out of our set?
It looks great.
Why do you suck the magic out of everything?
Who did the picture?
My mother always says that.
Why do you get up to two dogs?
Why don't you get excited?
Yeah.
So this is, I designed that logo.

(01:12:00):
That's nice.
And I just put on a piece of foam board.
I sent it out.
Yeah.
They sent it back and then I cut it out.
Why don't you backlight it?
I wanted to do that too.
Yeah, he's getting artistic.
Why don't you backlight it?
Yeah, why don't you backlight it?
Well, we got a call to man electric to backlight it.
Yeah, you got a schedule.
But I found, there they go.

(01:12:22):
But I found, I was going to just throw like those fairy lights that you can find that
you can just string the, yeah.
I just want to say the entire, the fairy lights.
I just want to say this whole thing was, it was, when we were putting this together,
we were fighting so much where he just goes, all right, you can go home now.

(01:12:43):
And I said, fine, I don't care.
And he sent, you can go home now.
No, I didn't.
Yeah, you did.
This is exactly what happened.
That's why he's laughing.
You can go home now because we're fighting about where to put things and what to buy and
chairs and couch and all this kind of stuff.
And he was asking my opinion, but it was such a, such a way that he's like, I'm just asking

(01:13:04):
him and I know in my head what I'm going to get.
We're just making him feel better.
And so when I would tell him something, he would just go, no.
Oh, geez.
And it looks good.
Eventually it got to a point where we were trying to put all this stuff up and we were
fighting so much that he just goes, okay, you can go home now.
And I was like, fine, I go home.
It's a Friday.

(01:13:24):
Yeah.
Okay.
And then on Sunday, sends me a picture of this, what he had done pretty much by himself
because most, we just kind of based it out.
Most of it he did himself and he just goes, I'm sorry for being so nasty.
Wow.
Was that on the Sunday that you texted me?
Yeah.
Did I text you?
Yeah.

(01:13:45):
I think so.
What, like the week ago?
No, that was a while ago.
No, that was a while ago.
Okay.
No, this was like a week ago.
This was a week ago.
Oh, geez.
And he just goes, I'm sorry for being nasty.
No, I said, how do you like this?
I set up without you when we were fighting.
And I was just like, all right, fine.
See here's the thing about having a helper that you've only worked with for five years.
You become a married, bickering couple.

(01:14:07):
Yeah.
Actually, one of your customers called it.
We went to Ikea together.
Did they?
Yes.
Don't say a name, but what they say.
Okay.
So it was, no way.
I'm going to love this.
It was in Ridgwood.
Okay.
So the customer goes, because I had the other couple with me and he's, she said, she goes,
what a difference between them and you guys.

(01:14:29):
Because you guys were arguing the whole time.
And you guys are dying, laughing the whole time.
Like we were singing and dying, laughing.
She goes, wow, that's a wake up call.
That's a wake up call.
That we were fighting the entire time.
And you guys were laughing the entire time.
So we're fighting the entire time on the job, but we're laughing the entire time.
It was a small kitchen.

(01:14:50):
It was only an island.
You'll know this one.
From Ridgwood?
It was a little island.
Oh yeah.
And we, we shorted something out and the lady said, you guys do crazy shit.
Oh, sorry.
Crazy stuff.
And she walked out.
Oh, you'll tell me off camera, but we got to watch that.

(01:15:12):
I would love to tell you, but I don't know her name.
Yeah.
Don't worry about it.
Cause we do do that.
I mean, we, we, we'll fight and pick her like a married couple.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you why, because you spend the majority of your life with the person you
work with.
Yeah, of course.
And not only that, we'll take trips out to Virginia and all this.
Like we'll take like a road trip.
We'll go back, going back to your, your, your son's ATV interest.

(01:15:40):
Me and him went out to lost trails in West Virginia.
Oh wow.
Not lost trails.
I feel the McCoys.
Where you can just like drive it.
Cause I don't have friends who do that kind of stuff.
Who do like very outdoorsy stuff.
Wow.
He does that stuff.
So I was like, we were like, let's go to Hatfields and McCoys out in West Virginia,
where you just drive ATVs through the towns and through.

(01:16:01):
Oh yeah.
Oh, that's nice.
Yeah.
Like you, you're literally on the road and you're, you're in the middle of traffic on
your ATV.
That's crazy.
Everybody is there.
Everybody is.
Yeah.
So check this out.
So I could tell this story.
Yeah.
Everything's legal about it.
So I go down there and we stop at this gun store.
Okay.
And he had just gotten this AR shotgun.

(01:16:22):
Nice.
Okay.
And it was legal for New Jersey and everything.
And I had my, I even had my firearms ID and we were, we were riding quads through the
town.
We stopped to get dinner.
You literally park your quad in a parking spot.
We asked the guy, he goes, we went inside cause we didn't know what to do with the ATVs
cause you ride up to the diner and the ATV and we're like, can we just leave our stuff
there and he goes, nobody's going to touch it.

(01:16:44):
Don't worry.
Yeah.
He's like, don't worry about it.
So.
Not like here.
It's gone.
It's gone.
It's on bricks with all the wheels missing.
These guys left their ATV.
I would do it.
I would do it.
I would call my friends and tell them to steal it.
Yeah.
But we got here in New Jersey.
We stopped at this gun store and he like, he had just gotten it in and I go, what is

(01:17:04):
that?
How much is that?
Yeah.
He's like, it's like 600 bucks.
I'm like, get out of here.
Wow.
Beautiful.
Fresh out the box.
Yeah.
I was like, I was like, can I check it out?
So I checked it.
Huh?
Was it clean?
Clean.
I thought it was brand new.
Brand new.
So I stick everything.
I end up buying the gun.
Okay.
And then I'm like, wait a second.

(01:17:26):
I'm on a quad.
Yeah.
How am I supposed to take this thing?
He's like, dude, throw it over your shoulder and just ride through the town.
Wow.
This is West Virginia.
There's a lawless down here.
They don't care.
Yeah.
Yeah.
At all.
That's nice.
I was like, all right.
So I took it.
I bought a strap from the guy.
I literally throw it over my back shoulder.

(01:17:46):
Just ripping quads.
You feel it in Mad Max.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In the end of the day.
Yeah.
West Virginia, you didn't like it that much, but I loved it.
I thought the landscape was beautiful, but when you get into the cities, what I said
was is that when you get into the cities, especially the ones that we drove through,
you can see how decimated America has become.
Yeah.

(01:18:07):
It's not that I didn't like it.
It's being hollowed out.
It's not that I didn't like it.
It's just that I said, West Virginia is one of the most beautiful states that I drove
through, like landscape-wise.
Wow.
Mountains are.
Yeah.
Exactly.
When you're driving through these coal mining towns and you're like, wow, this is sad because
it's a dead industry.
Yeah.
He was like, I don't know.

(01:18:28):
He was like a candy shop where he didn't even see the dead town.
He was just like, oh my God, this is amazing.
Gun shops.
Well, he had a gun on his back.
Yeah.
And he was like Mad Max all the way.
And I was like, wow, this is sad.
This town used to be booming.
There's a couple spots that are, you know, they're still nice and they're still like
good business and commercial and stuff.

(01:18:49):
But I mean, West Virginia is the poorest state.
Yeah.
It's the cheapest state overall to your lifetime to live in.
Appalachia is one of the most beautiful areas.
Yeah.
Wow.
Appalachia mostly encompasses, I think, West Virginia, right?
Geez.
Yeah.
Virginia, West Virginia, the Appalachians go from the Northeast down to Georgia.
Yeah.

(01:19:09):
But I think West Virginia is the biggest part of it.
What I was interested in doing was the house behind the shop was for sale a while ago.
Yeah.
I wanted to buy it and have guys from the Midwest who are hurting for work come and
work here.
Gotcha.
Make their money.
You know what I mean?

(01:19:30):
Help her with the plumber.
Yeah.
Take them on a stab.
It's going to happen.
Yeah.
Not going to happen.
What?
You're not replacing me.
Yeah.
No, I mean, you'll have your own helper and stuff.
But I mean, it would get guys who are from the poorer areas of the United States and
get them out.
They don't want to come out here.
They don't want to come out here.
What even to even like, let's say you do money doesn't do your thing.

(01:19:51):
Huh?
You do the two year thing you have your lodging taken care of.
And that's it.
What I did notice too about those areas is that even the poor, even the poor areas, they're
not like begging you for money.
Yeah.
They are here.
Yeah.
Like you go to New York City.
They're satisfied.

(01:20:12):
And they're begging.
But there's guys out there that have like one arm.
We saw guys with like single limbs.
Yeah.
Okay.
That we're still working in the factories that were still available out there.
Oh, wow.
They're going there and they're making their money.
I lost a limb there.
Yeah.
And they're poor, but they're not on the streets like begging you for money.
You can tell.
Yeah.
That's nice.
You know, it's and they're not stealing your stuff.

(01:20:32):
It's totally different atmosphere.
It's weird.
It's like, well, there is a there is a lot of opiates down there.
That's yeah.
There is a lot of, yeah, there's a lot of, which is sad.
But you know what?
That's like, that's like nationwide.
Yeah.
All right, the dogs are going into a cage for the next episode.
Wow.
Wow.
He says cage with like barbed wire.
So that's like, we're going to do a cage match electric fence.

(01:20:54):
Hey, demand electric with the demand electric, like a little, like a little neon sign right
above it.
Geez.
Would you ever take the business?
Let's say New Jersey gets intolerable to live because we're starting to get there.
Yeah.
Would you ever take the business and uproot and if so, where would you go?
No, I would say you would.
You would just just all the way.

(01:21:15):
I think so.
Everyone and you and everyone in parameters like they're never going to leave.
Why?
Well, same thing with River Edge.
Yeah.
They're lifers around here.
Certain areas like our area, when you grow up here, you realize how there's nothing
that like you realize that even though we're not fans of New York City, like I'm not a
fan of New York City.
I don't like going into the city.

(01:21:36):
I think the, you know, I think there's a negative connotation to New York City, but
there's also a positive one, you know, like the entire world wants to come to New York
City.
Yeah.
The entire world, you realize when you realize that you live next to the most popular city
in the world.
Gotcha.
You know, it's the hub of the world.

(01:21:57):
It is the hub of the world.
That it's very hard to leave.
It is very hard to leave this area.
I'll tell you why this area is hard to leave because you have New York City.
Money.
You have money.
Money is the biggest thing.
You have the mountains.
You have the ocean.
You have farmland.
You have everything within an hour.
Within an hour.

(01:22:17):
Yeah.
Everything.
Exactly.
And not only do you have a city close to you, you have the city.
Yeah.
The biggest city.
You have the big apple.
Yeah.
I mean, you have the, you have the New York.
No singing.
Please don't.
Wait, is that allowed?
Can you sing?
Is that one of your hidden towns?
No, not today.
You don't play any instruments?
Only on Fridays.

(01:22:38):
Where?
What lounge?
Where are we going?
He's like Duke Silver.
Duke Silver.
You ever watch Parks and Rec?
No.
You don't watch Parks and Rec?
I don't watch TV.
I don't have time.
Gary, you're like this anomaly, bro.
Yeah, that's it.
I don't watch it.
I need to start taking a circuit.
Like a dry toast.
Oh, yeah.
No, do you know the character Ron Swanson, though?

(01:22:58):
He's a pretty popular meme.
No.
He's this really stone-faced.
Pyramid of greatness over there.
Yeah, there's this, we got his pyramid of greatness.
Oh, that guy?
But he's not.
He kills all that guy.
Like, he's going to know him and then he's like, nah, I don't even know him.
He works in City Hall.
Oh, nice.
And he has this whole alter ego that nobody knows about.

(01:23:20):
He's this famous jazz player.
Oh, wow.
And it's this ongoing joke through the whole show.
That's pretty good.
What show is it?
Parks and Rec.
You know, it's funny too, because I know the longer this episode goes, the more he's
kind of tortured.
He's going to ball bust?
No.
And at the break, he goes, this couch, I don't know, this couch.
I think I'm going to have to sit on that couch to test it.

(01:23:43):
I think it's on purpose.
This couch feels like it was only like $25.
That looks good.
Those seats look good.
These are all right.
If you think that you're coming here, it's not going to happen, all right?
You know what I saw on Facebook Marketplace, and we actually drove by to get him.
They had these, like, someone put two nice chairs out by their yard.
And they're like, come pick him up.

(01:24:03):
And no one liked it.
Nobody commented.
No one over there, but they were gone.
It would have been perfect for there.
Yeah, I think you would have been over there bitching.
No, this is nice, but not too nice.
It looks good.
The looks great.
And to be honest, everything here is fake.
If you touch anything, it's going to fall like that.
Beauty is pain.
Yeah.
Where'd you get this one from?
Amazon.

(01:24:23):
Oh, OK.
I mean, I don't want to plug Amazon too much, because it's one of those evil corporations.
Exactly.
But what can you do at this point?
No, everything's through.
Everything was cheap.
It's one of those evil corporations every single, every other day.
I'm not exaggerating.
I have to take cardboard out once a week.
Every week it's Amazon packages that I'm taking to the store.

(01:24:45):
OK, I'll tell you why.
I don't, evil corporation, yes, but what I hate more is shopping.
I know.
Especially IKEA.
Especially IKEA.
Especially those stores that you get locked into.
Fridge people don't shop at IKEA.
No, but intelligent people do.
But intelligent people do.
I hate driving to the mall.

(01:25:06):
I hate parking.
I hate walking.
I hate looking for your thing.
I hate walking to the line to check out.
I hate every...
This man hates life.
Yeah, he hates life.
I don't hate life.
I love life, but there's things about life that I despise.
Yeah.
We're going to go there.
Let's talk about the things that Max hates.
Oh, geez.
No, I can't.
Dude, I'll even order my groceries online.

(01:25:28):
You really?
Yeah.
Because I don't like to walk through the grocery store.
Wow.
It's annoying.
Well, actually, we walk through the grocery store.
I'll go now because our ad is playing on the TV.
Oh, nice.
There's a Quartz plumbing ad playing there.
Where is that?
Right in Shop Right.
Which one?
Frams?
New Milford.
New Milford.
Yeah.
You can go to Amazon's grocery store now.
Yeah, Amazon has grocery stores.
Amazon has grocery stores.
I've never been there and I'll never go there.

(01:25:50):
Jeff Bezos is the Antichrist.
He's got all these black things hanging from the wall.
They scan you?
Yeah.
It's pretty wild.
The cameras in the ceiling.
Black.
And you know what the thing is that, what the problem is with that?
My parents went there and they go.
Wait, where?
To the Amazon grocery store.
Amazon's not fresh.
Yeah.
Wait, wait, wait.
You're not joking?

(01:26:11):
No, it's not.
My parents went there.
There's an Amazon grocery store.
Yeah.
Where?
Paramus.
Yeah.
They went there to see what it is.
Fairway, where Fairway was.
Yeah.
There's like robots driving around.
Yeah, yeah.
Security robots or whatever.
What?
Everything is scanning you all the time.
My parents will never go back.
They went there one time to see it.
They're never going to go back.
But in the ceiling they have cameras, scanners.

(01:26:32):
Like EasyPass.
A lot.
You know?
So they're scanning.
So when you have an Amazon account, you pull something off the shelf.
It locks you.
Put it in the car, it locks you in.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah.
Have you put these in?
Yeah.
You put those in?
No, I don't.
What do you mean?
Like installed anything like that?
No, no, I never installed them.
Yeah, yeah.

(01:26:52):
But I put things in my car.
Okay, fair enough.
That's what I thought they were going.
So you went to this Amazon store?
Yeah, once.
Okay, so when you put it in your cart, it scans it automatically.
You have an Amazon account, it charges your account now.
So you just walk out of the store with this stuff.
But the problem is, let's say you put something in your cart.

(01:27:13):
And then you take it out, all right?
You take it out, you're like, ah, you know what?
Maybe I don't want this.
You charge your account and you get a return.
They still charge your, like they still charge my parents' account.
And then you say they get a return.
Yeah, you get a return.
Oh, okay.
So they had to call and deal with all that.
Yeah, I don't like that.
I mean, I don't like any of that.
Every step toward the future is looking terrifying and grim at this point.

(01:27:35):
Exactly.
I mean, there's people who are willingly putting chips in there.
They're like, yeah, we got the new Microsoft chip.
I don't have to bring my wallet anywhere.
It's nice.
Like, Gary's the guy.
You're the guy I saw on Dateline.
No, wait, Gary's the guy.
It's demand electric going, okay, just hold still one second.
Let me just.
I think it's the guy.
I think I can do it myself.

(01:27:57):
That's number five.
My list of things homework.
No, I look at things coming out.
Now they're putting like ARs on top of those robot dogs that Boston Dynamics has designed.
It's nice.
It's nice for some people.
Yeah, it's nice for the elite.
But I look, it's nerve-wracking.

(01:28:19):
Yeah, what's going on?
Definitely.
You know, what about the lasers?
What about?
We're not allowed to talk about the laser.
What do you mean laser?
What kind of lasers?
Airplane lasers?
You ever see that one?
Are you talking about people like with who have like no, no, no, they can hit the lasers
on the airplane.
Just scan like now.
Yeah.
I mean, what?

(01:28:40):
I keep looking at like these people who are, we talked about the whole climate change
thing and I look at these celebrities who were like stop climate change now who all
have private jets and who are all buying beachfront property.
Yeah.
It's like wait a second.
They paint their roof blue.
Paint their roof blue.
That's a huge conspiracy theory going around.
I think so.
But you look at it like okay, well if the ocean's rising, why are you buying beachfront property?

(01:29:05):
Aren't you going to be smothered in it?
No.
It's not rising.
Why are you flying around a private jet?
Isn't that like worse than like 10,000 cars?
Exactly.
Yeah.
And you know what?
The people are such sheep.
Yeah.
That they're like oh no, we have to help.
We have to stop.
We got to do our part.

(01:29:26):
I'm watching like videos on Reddit and stuff where people are like approaching and vandalizing
others with large vehicles.
They pop their tires and stuff to stop climate change.
What about your box truck?
Oh, I'll slow it down.
I'm about to put cameras on that.
That's why I got a Prius.
Yeah.
You have a Prius?
Well, I had a Prius for a while.

(01:29:48):
You did for a while and no one wanted to go.
I only had a Prius.
I don't do anything because of the environmental or economic.
It's all economic reasons.
What about a spark?
No, because it's garbage.
Oh, who makes the spark?
Chevy.
They make garbage.
All right.
He's about to jump in his spark.
Do you have a spark?

(01:30:08):
Do you have a spark?
You do?
No, I don't have a spark.
I only have a Prius because I know that the Prius is like one of the best cars.
The most movie with that is?
A lot of movies.
The other guys?
The other guys.
It feels like you're driving around in a tampon.
It does.
It does.
I'm not going to lie.
With a string on the back.

(01:30:30):
But I only...
Can you travel with that?
No, I can't.
I have my truck, but I only drive my truck when I need to.
How many cylinders is the Prius?
Three?
Four.
Four?
Yeah.
Well, all this...
I will say in our industry, as much as this whole climate change thing, like I roll my
eyes at, there's a lot of niche stuff coming up that we need to jump on because customers

(01:30:56):
are...
It's a lot of money to be made in it.
That works.
Geothermal...
Well, yeah, geothermal heating works.
I mean, in your industry, what are people pushing towards?
Electric cars.
Electric cars.
You got a...
Solar, but we're...
You don't do anything solar?
No, no one does anything solar.
What do you mean?
Only the solar companies, they're all set up with the government.

(01:31:19):
So are you not allowed?
You think they get kickbacks, right?
Yeah, they get all the paperwork.
It's a lot of paperwork.
You got to have some...
So it's all just crony capitalism there?
It goes...
Yeah, exactly.
That's all it is.
Yep, big time.
You're allowed to say that?
Yeah.
Okay.
Listen, we speak the truth here.
I know.
I mean, I'm not...
It's not a cat's got political.
I'm not even trying to be political, left or right or whatever, but like, if you're...

(01:31:40):
If you see like some BS going on, I don't see what...
That's just prefaces by saying that we're not experts in any way, shape or form.
But you can point out the obvious.
Gotcha.
It doesn't make sense.
The common man type obvious.
Pushing solar when all the companies that you invest in are the only ones that are allowed

(01:32:03):
to do solar...
Exactly.
...is...
They're spraying the clouds.
Yeah.
Chemtrails.
Yeah.
So now you're spraying it.
I haven't jumped on that conspiracy theory yet.
I have to look more into it.
Gotcha.
Are you a flat earther?
Uh-oh.
Are you a flat earther?
It's a globe.

(01:32:23):
That's not a globe.
So I actually got this because I know a couple flat earthers.
Yeah.
I'm not a flat earther.
No.
I think it's ridiculous, but I got this because...
Does it spin like that?
Does it spin like that?
Yes, it does.
This is the direction it spins.
Yeah.
It's on its tilted axis.
Let's not do this.
I don't want to do this now.

(01:32:44):
Let's talk about electrical imploring.
All right.
Fine.
All right.
Go back.
What about ShopRate?
Let's talk about ShopRate.
What about ShopRate?
ShopRate for Amazon Fresh.
Now you have your video playing on ShopRate.
So we found this ad that it plays every four minutes.
It's 15 seconds long.
So they wanted to do just some...
They wanted to take a picture of our business card and just put it up there.

(01:33:04):
I'm like, no, no, no.
I'm going to design a video.
Wow.
So all the other videos are just people's business cards.
Yeah.
But I designed a video with the truck driving and Frankie pops up out of the corner and
then the text comes up.
I'll pull it up for you.
Yeah.
I think I did a good job.
Do you think I did a good job?
I think you do a great job when it comes out of marketing.

(01:33:25):
I like the marketing.
But you know what it is.
Yeah.
It's not like people are going to call and say, oh, I saw your ad in ShopRate.
But it's just constantly seeing the logo, seeing the name over and over.
Exactly.
Like brainwashing.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Like the news.
We got to take some pointers from our enemies, you know?

(01:33:45):
Okay.
Why not?
Yeah.
Someone's got to do it.
Exactly.
But listen.
It's like the cookies hanging over my head.
Well, we do that for everyone.
He's been hungry.
Don't feel targeted.
We're going to get food for the next guest.
Yeah.
We got to get something.
Of course.
Of course, the next guest.
Maybe we'll get like a little charcuterie platter for that.
It's all right.
It's always for the first one through the door, it's always bloodiest.

(01:34:10):
Yeah.
You're the guinea pig, Matt.
God.
You're the guinea pig.
You're the guinea pig.
You came in saying, whoa, where's the food?
Where's the dish?
I feel it.
I feel it.
The couch is uncomfortable.
All right.
Fine.
We're going to, we're taking that into consideration, but you're going to have to deal with it.
All right.
I need you to fill out this, how was your experience card?
Oh.
And drop that in the box outside.
Gotcha.

(01:34:30):
If I could get outside.
Everything fell aside.
I can't go to work.
Can't go to work tomorrow.
Everything fell asleep.
I'm going to, we're going to, we're going to put this to a halt right now.
Okay.
I thank you so much for coming.
No problem.
I thank you for having me.
I saw you at Home Depot.
Plug anything.
Months ago.
And I told you before we even started.

(01:34:50):
Yeah.
I think you were one of the first persons I mentioned.
I was like, listen, we're starting a podcast.
Yeah.
Would you be interested in being on it?
Yeah.
Plug anything.
We finally got you on.
Plug it.
Time to plug anything that you have plugged.
Yeah.
Listen, plug the business.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Look at one of the cameras.
That's your camera right there.
That's your camera right there, bud.
Talk about on demand electric.
It's not on demand, dude.

(01:35:12):
It's not on demand.
Yeah.
Give demand.
That's what I didn't know what you were talking about.
No, that's all right.
That's all right.
Phone number, email, how people can get you, what you're on.
My phone number, 201-888-4810.
Instagram.
Instagram.
Yeah.
Facebook.
It's just demand electric.
Demand electric, LLC.
Yep.
Facebook.

(01:35:33):
Yeah.
9 years in the business.
12.
12 years in the business.
What are you doing?
You don't even listen.
Yeah.
He's 26 years in business.
I have a lot of stuff running through my mind.
Yeah, yeah.
12 years in his own business.
I will continue to plug you right now, Gary.
You're one of our most responsive, cleanest, kindest contractors.
You're nothing but good things about Gary.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.

(01:35:54):
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
No problem.
All right, folks.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for bearing with us on this first episode that we tried to film.
We're going to be back with a new episode of Plumb Bums.
Can't wait for the hate mail.
Trash.
I can't wait to see this on a shop right.
You got to go check it out.
I got to check it out.
I'm proud of it.
I got to.

(01:36:15):
I stood there in my work shirt and I sat there for the full four minutes to get the full
video with my camera.
People were walking by me in carts and stuff like, move you jerk.
That's me.
That's my dog.
Yeah, but I like the marketing part.
I like that.
You got to do it.
I might need your help.
I'll help you.
No problem.
Yeah, that's nice.
No problem.
But not this cat.
Maybe that couch.
All right.
That couch is staying.

(01:36:36):
Yeah.
Like we might little maybe we'll maybe we'll fluff it up a bit.
Yeah.
I could put some cotton in here.
Well, you're multi-talented.
Say that's it.
You're an upholsterer and an electorate.
You do upholstery.
Yeah, I do it all.
All right.
Well, before we go, I do want to apologize for saying on demand over them.
What?
Are you guys joking?
You do upholstery?

(01:36:57):
No, he's joking.
I'm joking.
Oh my gosh.
It's like the Prius.
He doesn't drive a Prius.
Come on.
All right.
Demand electric.
I apologize for saying on demand this whole time.
No, that's all right.
But most people do it.
Because we work with on demand water heaters and boilers.
That's why.
That's why.
Right.
That makes sense.
That makes sense.
Thanks for listening and we'll see you here next week.