February 26, 2024 • 59 mins
Join us as we sit side by side with Tim Welcher, a former Special Forces soldier who bravely navigated the world of military conflicts and has now carved out a significant niche as a safety savant in the construction industry. His story is not just about the change of uniform but a profound transformation of purpose, harnessing discipline and leadership developed in the trenches to elevate safety standards on the job site. We traverse his military journey—from the Army Reserves to the rigorous life of an airborne Ranger and the demanding role of a Special Forces combatant—and discuss how these experiences have seamlessly translated into his civilian role, particularly emphasizing leadership and safety within the frame of construction.
Imagine building a base on a mountain top in Afghanistan under fire—now that's an operational challenge that demands more than just a hard hat. In today's episode, we unpack how the unique construction experience of Special Forces personnel, like Tim, translates into the civilian sphere, where leadership in high-risk environments becomes an asset in ensuring safety and efficiency. We delve into the importance of Lean Six Sigma in the construction industry, Tim's role in promoting operational excellence at EDA Contractors, and how military precision parallels the meticulous nature of safety management. We also discuss the importance of programs like Helmets to Hardhats and SkillBridge, which assist veterans in making the formidable leap into the construction ind
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If you're a military veteran in the construction industry, or you're in the construction industry and support our military vets, and you'd like to be a guest on the podcast you can find me at constructionvetpodcast@gmail.com , or send me a message on LinkedIn. You can find me there at Scott Friend. Let's share the stories and motivate others!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I know that they're willing to like work hard and
give it their all.
Like I can train you how toshoot, I can train you how to
like where to stand, where topoint.
The rest, you can't teach hard.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the Construction Veteran Podcast.
Construction Veteran PodcastConnecting and celebrating
veterans in construction.
Now here's your host, scottFriend.
Welcome back to theConstruction Veteran Podcast.
I'm Scott Friend.
Today I'm excited to bring toyou guys Tim Welcher, a former
(00:35):
Special Forces soldier who nowleads the way in the industry in
safety.
Let's dig into it.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Hey Tim, what's going on man?
Hi Scott, how are?
You doing?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm good.
So Tim and I haven't had thepleasure of meeting in person
yet, but we do have a goodmutual acquaintance in Adam
Hoots who's real big in the leanconstruction side of the
industry, and we'll talk aboutthat here in a little bit.
But I did a podcast episodewith the lean builder which Adam
hosts, and Adam teamed Tim andI up together thought it'd be a
(01:14):
good idea to meet.
So glad to finally get you onhere, man.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Absolutely.
We've been going back and forth.
We're going to finally make theconnection.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, man, it's every guest I have.
I have to keep kicking the candown the road because you know I
don't do this full time, notgoing wood yet.
But yeah, things are busy inthe industry, which is good.
Things are booming.
So, tim, let's talk about you.
Know this, being theConstruction Veteran.
Let's talk about your servicebackground, what you did, where
you're from and what you didthroughout your career.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Sure, obviously you got a minute, so let's go.
I joined the Army Reserves in1997.
And I never knew anybody in themilitary.
I just kind of thought it wouldbe a fun thing to do but wasn't
ready to jump right in.
And sure enough, I found out Iloved it.
So as soon as I got throughlike basic and AIT, it's like
(02:05):
sign me up, I want to go activeduty, I want to be an airborne
Ranger.
And that took several years tofinally break the contract.
But about four years in I wasable to go active duty and my
wish is airborne Ranger contract.
And I went back to basictraining in August of 2001.
And obviously, if you do themath from the next month,
(02:28):
september 11th happened and wewere in, we were on the machine
gun range in basic training.
9-11 happened and you know,basically an airborne school of
recruiters came by and said, hey, if you have a Ranger contract
you can trap for special forces.
So I raised my hands and signedme up and went on to the
(02:50):
Q-course, graduated with theQ-course, went to third special
forces group.
I started off as a 18 Charlie,which is a special forces
engineer sergeant, basicallyresponsible for, you know, light
construction and demolitions,did three combat deployments to
Afghanistan during that time.
Then I became an instructor atthe NCO Academy non-commissioned
(03:14):
officers academy, and specialforces has their own academy
there at Camp McCall where wecombined.
Well then it was PLDC and BNOC,our primary leadership
development course basicnon-commissioned officers course
, I think, then the change to awarrior leaders course and
advanced leaders course.
Regardless, I was a NCO Academyinstructor for three years.
(03:38):
Then I made the rank of E-8,master sergeant and was able to
be in charge of a freefall team,better known as a halo team.
I've done a couple ofdeployments then and then, after
my team sergeant time, I wasblessed with the opportunity to
(03:59):
do my hobby inside of the Army.
So I ran the third specialforces group combatives program
where I got trained grim,braised Brazilian Jiu Jitsu,
muay Thai and a lot of you knowCQB tactics and how to have a
better force, continue themusing their hands instead of
just always, you know, going tothe gun.
Then I retired about two yearsago and now I'm in the
(04:23):
construction industry.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, so it's funny.
So I haven't talked about thison episodes yet.
I posted it on my social media.
But I recently got intoBrazilian Jiu Jitsu Did not know
you did that, which was kind offunny and you reached out.
So we've been kind of nerdenout together and chit-chatting
about the journey and I believeyour son got involved.
You got to promote him to BrownBelt, is that correct?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No, no, no, I'm a Brown Belt.
My son is a gray and white belt.
Gotcha, he's a wrestler.
Now we're in Pennsylvania andit's okay.
He's a freshman in high school.
I'm like you are going towrestle, you can hit the pause
button on Jiu Jitsu.
That'll always be there for you, but be a wrestler.
That's smart.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I want to ask so the combatives you got to teach Jiu
Jitsu and Muay Thai?
You said, yeah, I mean there'ssome in the combatives program.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So basically, army has the modern Army combatives
program which incorporates a lotof Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, ground
fighting techniques and it alsohas a lot of Muay Thai as far as
fighting from a clench, knees,elbows, punches, kicks et cetera
and that bleeds over into theSpecial Operations Embattance
Program where we do a lot of thesimilar things.
But we also incorporatedfighting with weapon systems,
(05:38):
both rifle and pistol, from kitand a lot of it's focused around
clearing rooms and how to dealwith compliant personnel in the
rooms or even non-compliant.
So that's a big aspect of it.
When you look into, like CQB isroom clearing right, everybody
thinks of putting the targets upand you just go in all sexy,
(05:59):
blow the door down, just takeout the targets.
But in reality there are a lotof people that are innocent,
hands are up, women, children etcetera and you just have to be
able to manage all this.
Sometimes you can have somebodywith their hands up and he
turns out as you're trying tomove them to the center of the
room.
You have to become combativeand be able to deal with that
(06:20):
without unnecessarily takingsomebody's life.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, I think that's wise, Using it as kind of a
non-lethal way to subdue them.
Well, man, if we're ever in thesame area, it'd be an honor to
roll with you.
I'm still a lowly little whitebelt, but I could learn a lot
from you.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Oh, that's the best time is grabbing a white belt,
especially when that's motivated, knows that they want to learn
and don't think they knoweverything yet.
Yeah, it'd be my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I wouldn't say I got humbled real quick.
I came in at knowing.
You know, hey, I'm a lot olderthan most of these guys, the
dudes in their young 20s thatare just ready to get after it.
I got to be careful, you know.
I was in a motorcycle wreck andI don't want to hurt myself too
bad.
I did tweak my back a littlebit, not terrible, but yeah, I'm
just taking it easy, takingslow, really enjoying the
journey and learning as much asI can.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, that's a smart tap, early tap off.
And I had my neck fused when Iwas a white belt, like so my
first year training jujitsu notnecessarily a jujitsu injury, it
could have been from jumpingout of planes with night vision
goggles on and all that type ofstuff running around a turret.
So I'm sure there was a lot ofwear and tear already.
But my neck was fused as awhite belt and the the doctor
(07:32):
told me I'd never be able to dojujitsu again.
And here I am, 15, 15 yearslater, still training.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, yeah, man, I was talking about humbling, let
me tell you.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Since you brought up the humble story, let me tell
you about my first day ofjujitsu, knowing that I was
about to be an instructor andthe special forces cute course.
I knew I was going to be homefor about three years, so I've
always wanted to try this.
Let me, let me give it a try.
So I go in and they pair me up.
You know I'll get a couplepeople for practice and then I
(08:03):
go against this other, this kidand I have three common
deployments.
I was an E seven green beret,like I was.
You know, I was a stunt.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, You're like I'm going to destroy this guy.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Hey, granny, didn't I like striking him or anything
but this.
This 17 year old kid submittedme and I had to go home.
And they're like man, babe, Igot submitted by the 17 year old
kid.
You tapped me out like threetimes in five minutes.
And then I go back for my nextclass a couple of classes later
and then I come back and tellher like hey, that 17 year old
that tapped me out and I'm like,oh, wow, so I'm like you know
(08:39):
what.
There's a magic to this.
I am never quitting.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, it's really cool to me to see guys like
there was a dude, I want to sayhe's a purple belt at our school
and, man, I probably outweighthis guy by at least 50 pounds.
I mean I'm 220 and I'm not likejacked, but I'm a pretty bigger
guy and he just tossed mearound like a rag doll and it
was humbling for sure.
(09:04):
And then I also saw we had aguy a few weeks ago that he had
to have been his late 60s, early70s, coming in and it was like
his second class and it wasreally cool to see that Starting
at that age is just really coolto see, a very humbling
experience.
And I said, hey, don't takethis the wrong way.
I mean I'm really honored tosee you here.
(09:24):
I look up to you, man, I meanthat's neat, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
No, I mean, that's what one of the beauties of
Jujitsu is is everybody in thatroom has gone through that same
experience.
Like I still get humble andit's what you do with it, right?
Some people get that taste,that humble, and they say, screw
that, I'm never coming back.
And others say, all right, I'mnever quitting.
So I think that, like mindsetin that room or that dojo,
(09:53):
whatever you call it, we allshare a common bond and all my
friends do Jujitsu or have themdo Jujitsu.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, very cool.
I want to ask you a questionabout your service real quick.
Is there any chance you were inAfghanistan like late 2009 to
early 2010?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
No 2008 to 2011, I was an instructor.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Man, we just missed each other because third group
was out there when we did JSOCsupport.
So I was curious if we ranacross each other and didn't
even realize it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, if their group doesn't stop, they're always out
there.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, it seems like a man.
Yeah, and that's specialoperations community.
It seems like everybody's justgo, go, go, and have you seen
that slow down a little bit herelately in the last couple years
?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Well, honestly, like I've been out for two years, so
I've been away from it, and thelast five years of my career I
was in the dojo.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So yeah, but everybody was going.
That's really cool, man.
It sounds like you had a goodrun.
So what are you doing now inthe industry?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
So in the construction industry right now
I work for a company called EDAContractors where I'm the
director of safety andoperational excellence.
I know it's a bit of a mouthful, but it's an awesome job.
I gotta say I love it.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, so we know what safety is.
Talk to me about operationalexcellence.
What does that mean at yourcompany?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Sure.
So it's interesting.
How I got into this company wasbased off of my Lean Six Sigma
Black background.
I have a Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt and it was always a passion
of mine.
I think it ties to the specialforces training or even
jiu-jitsu, where you're lookingfor efficient, effective
(11:36):
processes.
I worked for Amazon as anoperation manager for a year and
it was a little rough.
You know, two o'clock in themorning till noon we're in a
site, at a delivery station, andI was like, okay, I'm retired,
let me look for something else.
And I saw this post on Indeedthat was looking for Lean Six
(11:59):
Sigma.
They wanted to do Lean trainingin this construction company
and at EDA we're a subcontractorlevel or a trade partner, and
to me it just sounded reallycool because Lean is primarily
targeted for the manufacturingindustry and you can recognize
improvements really fast,whether it's like an Amazon
(12:20):
packages or a Toyota factory,right, but construction, that's
a challenge.
So I hopped right in, eventhough I'm not, like, a complete
expert.
I'm just school trained as faras Lean Six Sigma, so not a ton
of real world experience beingshortly retired from the Army,
(12:41):
unfortunately.
At EDA, at DeAngeles the owner,he's got a great vision and at a
subcontractor level to supportit the way he does.
I think this is going to begood for my company, good to
reach that next level.
I was bought in.
So basically all I really tryand do is help improve their
(13:01):
processes if I can, and I thinkthere's a lot of bleed over from
the military to theconstruction industry.
I see it every day, with justthe volatility or the
uncertainty on the different jobsites, all the different
situations that guys have todeal with.
It's not the same as a factorywhere it's every day moving this
(13:22):
package, where you can shaveseconds off.
There's always some new problem.
And if I could help by eitherbringing a Lean principle or
something from my experience inthe military, where it's
leadership or justorganizational skills, anything
I could do for these guys is abenefit.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So you mentioned it's used typically in manufacturing
.
So for those folks who don'treally know what Lean is, what
would you say a Leanpractitioner does in the
construction industry?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So that's an interesting question, right,
because there's different layersin the construction industry.
You said with Adam Hoots, right, and the Lean builder, it seems
like a lot of it is reallyfocused on the general
contractor's perspective of Lean, where you're doing pool
planning and trying to do thetrain of trades and make sure
everybody's all meeting thecommitments and you're removing
(14:15):
some of the ways to making surethat people are finishing on
time so the next trade can, andit's a whole scheduling exercise
.
For a subcontractor level it'sa little different because we're
kind of impacted by those GCs.
If the GC doesn't want to dothat, obviously that impacts us.
Or if there's a GC or generalcontractor that does, we have to
follow suit there.
So how do we do it on our ownand our focus?
(14:39):
We just want to be the leader,we want to make sure that we're
the best subcontractor out there.
So if we're already doing ourdaily huddles and we're already
planning the certain way, we'remaking sure that we could be on
the front of these daily huddlesor the pool planning exercises
and activities and basicallylead by example for the other
(15:01):
trades, then maybe it'll be evenmore successful.
There's little things.
So we also kind of basicallymanufacture some of the panels.
The EDA handles the wholeexterior facade, whether it's
metal panel facade or roofing ormasonry.
So in our shop, though, we makethe panels or deliver them out
(15:22):
to the sites, and basicallywhat's called hubs and spokes.
So you have our main hub, wehave all the supplies, materials
, and you get to deliver that toall the different job sites.
So if we could shave off someof the time there, make sure
that's an effective, efficientprocess, we could impact more of
our sites, make sure they getthe deliveries on time, in the
(15:45):
right quantity, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I'd say there's another layer to it.
Also, what do you think fromthe personnel and the people
side?
Has lean had an impact on ourindustry with?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So the lean journey for the subcontractor level is
still kind of new.
You could see it a lot in thegeneral contractor level, where
they're kind of bought in.
They understand the respect forpeople and they understand that
people make the processes work.
So I could see a lot ofbenefits in there.
I think there's a misconceptionwith the word lean.
(16:20):
When people hear it they thinkit's a reduction in manpower and
I think it's not the case.
I think if you respect thepeople and you do a thing called
a Gemba like a Gemba walk iswhere you go see where the work
happens.
So the vice presidents in thecompany, the superintendents,
and make sure they go out to thesite to hear from the foreman
(16:42):
and the journeyman out there.
They want to see what they'reexperiencing in the field and by
showing that level of respectthey're able to gain some of the
knowledge.
Instead of just that, oh,bosses here, make sure it looks
good, or oh, safety's here, putyour gloves and glasses on, they
actually feel more connectedand it's a better culture and it
aids in the improvement ofprocesses.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, very well put.
So I want to back up too.
So you first got out, you wentto work for Amazon.
How did you stumble upon whatyou're doing now?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah, that was again basically just off of a LinkedIn
ad or an Indeed ad, I think itwas both from the company.
I didn't really wasn't like,hey, I really want to work for a
construction company.
It didn't cross my mind as faras that was the goal.
Honestly, the initial goal wasto get out of Amazon, as bad as
that sounds.
(17:39):
But, having a tiny bit ofconstruction experience as a
Special Forces Engineer Sergeant, it was an easy transition
because I understood some of theprojects.
So, for example, in Afghanistan, one of the main construction
projects we ran was about fiveto $7 million, if I remember
(18:01):
correctly, and we had tonegotiate for a mountain top.
So, speaking with the districtgovernor and the chief of police
and all the different villageelders in the tribe, negotiated
for a mountain.
We brought in a lot of heavyequipment, shaved the top of the
mountain off, pushed it out andcreated a base on top of the
mountain and on that base we hada restroom, a fuel point,
(18:23):
helicopter pad, kitchen, gym,enough space to have 77 people
and that was a big thing andthat was a bit of a construction
effort, considering we've beenrocketed in the middle of trying
to build it and in firefightsand etc.
So it's funny to say yeah it'sjust an engineer Sergeant or
(18:44):
just some of the Special Forcesteam.
But yeah, there's someconstruction experience involved
with that.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, I had a guy come on.
He was man.
You would have been my firstengineer if I'd gotten you on
earlier, but I did a show withanother 18 Charlie series guy
that retired out and it's reallyneat to see all the different
things that you guys get tolearn.
I mean, obviously there'sdemolition involved, but then
you have the skills basically tobuild a house, which is kind of
(19:11):
like the CBs.
You know, you learn the basicsof the trade.
So there is that opportunity toget out and get involved in the
industry.
But given your experience ofleadership, you had that awesome
opportunity to kind of stepinto a leadership role.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah, I was very fortunate and, honestly, had the
timing been different, maybe ifI got out at the year 10 mark
instead of doing 24 years ofservice, I could have been a
different state, differentmental state or experience level
.
And they have great programsout.
I don't know if it's in yourarea.
As far as the helmets to hardhats, have you ever heard of
(19:47):
that?
Yeah, yeah, very familiar withthat?
Yep, yeah, like I know, we havea former Marine.
That's one of our second handson a crew and that's how he got
in and it sounds like an amazingprogram.
But I think that would havebeen a great route and I
recommend it to any servicemember getting out trying to go
into construction and if theyhaven't considered construction,
(20:09):
I strongly recommend themconsidering it.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, the tough thing about helmets to hard hats.
It's a union company and soit's not going to be available
everywhere Like here in Texaswe're not very, we don't have
too many unions, we do have some, but I would say definitely up
kind of northeast where you'reat, pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So we have all stays for sure.
Yeah, exactly, so we only useunion.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah, yeah.
And then they've got a reallyheavy Canadian presence as well.
How much the hard hat does?
I do have some listeners inCanada, so that's really cool.
So if you guys are up there,check that out.
And there's other programs thatare newer.
I'm sure they were there whenyou got out the skill bridge.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So skill bridge is a huge one, so construction.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
They.
So skill bridge they they're,to the best of my knowledge.
I mean they'll welcome any kindof companies, and I have had
some companies down here thathave started to get involved in
it.
I don't know the ins and outsof it.
We do have a company down herecalled Forge now which was
started by a couple West Pointguys, so don't hold that against
them, but that was started bytwo former Army officers and
(21:18):
they take folks out and teachthem the trade and they're one
of the few schools I don't knowif that's this is just locally
or us why but they're one of thefew schools that you can use
your GI bill to learn that trade.
And they just started teamingup skill bridge and they
actually provide a facilitiesmanager class too.
So there's certainly optionsout there through the bridge.
(21:40):
The company here is called Forge, now Nice, and they're based
here in Dallas Trying to team upwith them on some stuff.
It's just really cool to seeguys out and they have this
opportunity to step into a tradethat could pay pretty well.
So I know they do electrical.
I want to say they do HVAC.
I'm not sure if they doplumbing, but they just started
(22:01):
a facilities manager class,which I have not heard of
somebody doing that before, andthat's a pretty good career path
for someone.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
That's phenomenal, I tell you.
Skill bridge, or where I was inspecial forces, we had the
connection to the SOCOMS CareCoalition and they actually
provided me with a they calledit a fellowship, I believe where
I did in three months withCampbell soup.
So you know, again, they didn'thave it already set up, I had a
(22:31):
coordinated make it all happen.
But Campbell soup factory islocated nearby Fort Bragg right
now I think it's called FortLiberty, but coordinated for
that fellowship I did threemonths with Campbell soup is in
the continuous improvementsection.
Again, that kind of helpedfocus my lean background a bit.
(22:53):
But anytime any soldier gettingout has an opportunity to take
a skill bridge opportunity orfellowship, internship, work
with swords now do it.
There's so many benefits outthere that are designed to help
people in that transitioningphase which is difficult for a
(23:13):
lot of people.
And then there's a lot ofpeople that just don't, you know
, take any of the help.
That's often sad to see.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, and sometimes so.
One of my former guests, trevorMurray.
He was a 10th group guy.
He basically had to create hisown skill bridge, as he called
it.
So sometimes you have to godown that path if it's not
readily available to find acompany you want to work for.
I just did another interviewwhere we talked about shadowing
people if that's an opportunity.
So I think the hardest part isjust taking the first step and
(23:44):
we really have no excuse now,with the whole world at our
fingertips, to find anopportunity.
And if you're a young soldiergetting out, you've got an even
better opportunity.
If you don't, you know, let'ssay you don't have a family, you
know you're not married, youdon't have kids, you really have
the opportunity to go anywhere.
Or if you want to go home,there might be something back
there, but there's really.
You know not to sound harsh oranything, but there's not an
(24:07):
excuse for you not to findsomething that's available.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Absolutely, and that's not harsh at all, it's
reality.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yeah.
So let's talk about and this isgoing to be broad how is your
service specifically in the SFpath?
How do you think that that isbest trained you to do what
you're doing now or in this, theindustry as a whole?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah, it's definitely a very broad question, right?
There's so many differentlessons learned throughout the
military career.
You get 24 years of service andtry to narrow down just a
couple lessons.
Let's see.
Let's focus on the part ofsafety right now.
So I recently took over thesafety department.
(24:52):
I don't have a safety backgroundper se, I don't have the
certifications yet, but when youjump out of planes for a living
and you know several hundredcombat missions into your belt,
you tend to have an eye for it.
You tend to understand what arisk assessment is and how to
identify hazards.
You know, implement thecontrols.
(25:13):
So I would say, if anybody'slike in that in the military,
where they maybe airborne ormaybe they do high-risk events
like, look into that safety role.
It's a very easy transitionbecause you understand it.
Whether you're running a rangeor you're running a double
missions range, jumping out ofplanes, like you have to have
(25:36):
extreme attention to detail andbe meticulous with people's
lives.
Lives are at stake.
So I would definitely say thatthose experiences and
understanding what risk reallyis and understanding where
danger lies and how, how fast,something bad could happen,
right, even when you're doingeverything right, bad things
(25:59):
happen sometimes but you have tohave your primary, alternate,
contingency and emergency plans.
Get it all together and that'sa I think that's probably a huge
benefit that service memberscan bring over to the
construction industry.
Is that keen eyesight?
Now, when it comes to theoperational excellence side of
things, trying to look forefficiencies, trying to look for
(26:23):
you know how to better thatprocess, that's something that
we we do all the time, right?
I usually equate it totransitioning from the rifle to
your pistol.
Right, if your rifle goes down,you have to transition, draw
your secondary and your pistolout.
So fractions of a second iswhat you need to shave off in
(26:44):
order to be successful in thatengagement, right?
So, minimizing the waste ofmotion, right, cutting out all
the waste out and I will seeguys spend so much time
configuring their kit ordrilling, you know, dropping the
rifle, drawing the pistol, likejust drilling it over and over
(27:04):
and over again.
It's like, wow, that's that'swhat we do, right?
Like, okay, let's analyze this,let's define what the problem
is.
It's kind of all right, here weare.
Where do we need to be?
We need to be this fast.
This is my gap.
Do you need assessment and thenexecute?
Right, and that's the samething in Jiu-Jitsu.
So it's not just alone inmilitary, like I'm sure I know
(27:25):
you only have a little bit ofJiu-Jitsu, but you're gonna find
it's like, oh man, I was usinga lot of muscle using that
technique and some people arejust, you know, smiling their
face, choking you outeffortlessly.
You'll get there, but it takesa lot of time and a lot of
dedication and I think that themilitary kind of brings that
that level of dedication andeffort into making things better
(27:47):
.
Even if it is just a fractionof a second, it matters.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, and that's not something you picked up right
away.
So the humility, whether it'sin Jiu-Jitsu or in the service,
it took you a while to get tothat point right.
So I keep seeing a lot of thesememes lately of guys looking up
to like green berets and oh, Icould never be that.
But you know these guys, likeyourself, didn't start out as a
green beret.
You started out as a kid thatdecided to join up and had an
opportunity and just stuck withit and went with it.
(28:14):
It wasn't an overnight success.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Definitely not.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I want to talk about the safety thing real quick too.
I mean, I'll just say I havenot met a single veteran that's
gotten into that role thatdoesn't enjoy it on the safety
side of things because, like yousaid, you have these people's
lives at stake there in theservice and here in this
industry as well.
I mean, we're working on Idon't care if you're working on
a $2 million job, there's goingto be something that's unsafe,
(28:43):
and then on a $200 million job,obviously there's a lot more
hazards there.
You're talking cranes, heavyequipment, large panels, like
you guys do.
I think that fits really wellbecause, especially from like an
NCO to senior NCO standpoint,those guys transition really
well, in my opinion, becausethey're already used to taking
care of their troops.
(29:03):
They're used to watching outfor every individual, regardless
of what their stance is right.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I think that's a very accurate statement.
I will say just a littleexperience that I've had with my
company now recently takingover the role of safety.
We do a lot of leading edgework on the rooftops and pretty
much every building inPhiladelphia.
We've had our hands on as I'mdoing the transition.
(29:30):
I asked one of the roofers okay, well, what's your plan if you
fall off the edge and you'rehanging by your SRL or your
self-attracting lifeline orminor excuse me, edit that out
too.
See, I'm new with safety, soI'm a nomenclature, basically.
So I asked one of the guys whathappens if you're doing this
(29:51):
leading edge work and you fallover the edge and you're
suspended there because you'reconnected, as you're supposed,
to your fall arrest system andall that, and now you're in your
harness.
How do you get back up?
What's your plan?
Typically, the plan is to call911.
Okay, that makes sense.
And then obviously they focuson the orthostatic shock.
What we have, the leg strapsmake sure your arteries are
(30:13):
getting cut off and you can sitthere, but you're gonna wait for
rescue.
To me that wasn't an option, soI challenged the guys and we
were doing better at it.
We actually developed a planthat has sections for if they're
conscious or if they'reunconscious.
Again, like I said, the owner ofthe company is bought in and
purchased new equipment so thatwe have an actionable plan for
(30:38):
worst-case scenario.
Somebody fall off the edge.
How are we gonna retrieve them?
We're gonna be the firstresponders to help lower that
rescue ladder down so they canclimb back up or attach a winch
to them and reel back in.
I think going to that level ofdetail and having the full
support of the company to be theleader in the industry.
(30:58):
Make sure that we have allthese things and then make sure
that we're training the people.
That comes at a cost.
You're training union tradesmen.
Hey, this is how you climb aladder and you're hanging up the
side of the building.
We're putting our money whereour mouth is and making sure
it's happening because we careabout our guys.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I love that you said you guys are striving to be the
best in the industry too at that, and it's so important.
Man, I can see a little bit ofyour background and what you're
doing too.
You've got that primary,secondary and tertiary plan.
If something goes wrong, right.
If the guy's unconsciousbecause it's great to think of
it one way perfect case scenario.
He falls off, he's conscious,you can reach him easily, get
(31:42):
him back in.
But that's not always going tobe the case, right?
I love that you're looking atit from all those different
angles and poking holes in theplan.
Not that the plan was bad, butyou're poking holes in it.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Exactly.
I tell you it's not.
The plan was bad, it wasdefinitely.
It was adequate and it was madesense.
You look at a civilian mindsetversus a military and those are
the things you have to look atbeing a static line jump master
or a freefall jump master.
Well, freefall jump master, youdon't typically have a total
(32:16):
parachutist, but a static linejump master.
If airborne trooper jumps outand he's hanging there, you have
to treat him back in.
There's simple systems to dothat, but the amount of training
that goes into it is remarkable.
You're always drilling it.
You're always.
You know, I spent most of mytime on a freefall team, but
(32:38):
every time, every day we werejumping, we had to read a half
hour sustained airborne trainingto make sure you cover the
emergency procedures.
So I believe in the detail andI believe in the training.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, so I'm sneaky.
I just got you to answer thatother question.
You weren't sure how to answer.
How about that?
Which one is that that's howyour services helped you.
I think I mean you have thisvery unique look at how we do
things in the industry and Ithink what I value about getting
different veterans into theindustry from all different
backgrounds is that one.
(33:11):
We have so many aspects of thisindustry that people don't even
think of because I mean I knewbefore I got into it.
All I thought of was like aproject manager or
superintendent, not eventhinking of safety as a role,
quality control, administration,finance, tech all these
different things, yeah, so yougot all these different things
(33:31):
and yeah, there's so much thatpeople can bring to the industry
and they don't necessarily haveto have an engineering
background.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Absolutely, and you know that was very eye-opening.
I know, during the transitionprocess for retirement you do
the mandatory briefings andsomebody came in and said hey,
have you ever thought aboutmanufacturing?
I was like no, well, there'sother jobs instead of just
sitting on the line.
They have all the differentroles, and so that kind of made
(34:00):
me think, and I think that's howI got into Amazon.
I wish there were somebody fromconstruction there saying, hey,
there's more to it than justthis.
Now, don't get me wrong, likethe trades, that's beautiful
I'll get to that in a second butit doesn't necessarily reach
out to every soldier.
Right, if you could telleverybody in the retiring
(34:21):
process.
Every MOS is getting out like,hey, there's an HR department
here, there's a safetydepartment, there's project
managers, there's estimators.
There's so many differentthings.
It might open their eyes versuswhen they look at the trades
you look at starting over again.
Oh well, in order to do that Ihave to be trained and I have to
get XYZ.
In order to get to here, youalways have to start at the
(34:42):
bottom.
I think the military does adisservice by making people
think that it just kind of goesalong with the nature.
But I will say, having moved tothe construction industry, one
of the I'm trying to word thisproperly, but one of the best
(35:02):
parts about my job is when Ilook at the guys.
Like every time I go out to thefield one, it reminds me of
being on a deployment justself-constructing equipment
walking the gravel and whatnot.
It's pretty cool to see.
Or even if I get to the top ofa high-rise building.
I'm like, oh yeah, this feelslike I'm under canopy, but
working with the crews, theyremind me so much of Special
(35:24):
Forces Team and I look around tomy left and right.
I'm like you guys, you make itall worth it.
You were the hard-workingAmericans that I was fighting
for and it makes my 24 years ofservice that service just feel
worth it, and I'm soappreciative of what they do and
they just don't realize thesimilarities between the two
worlds.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I love that, Tim.
That's so cool to hear,especially from a guy of your
caliber.
There are a lot of similaritiesbetween the trades folks and
guys that served.
I think there's a lot of mutualrespect there, because
typically I'm not going to sayeverybody, but typically those
who served, regardless of role,and people in the trades,
regardless of what their trademight be, there's that
(36:07):
hard-working, good, moral valuetype of people that are out
there just getting it, gettingafter it.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, no, there's.
I would take so many of them ona deployment, no problem,
there's no questions asked.
Hop in the truck, let's go.
There's so many good people,that's cool.
I know that they're willing tolike work hard and give it their
all.
Like I could train you how toshoot.
I could train you how to like,where to stand, where to point.
The rest you can't teach heart.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Yeah, man, when I was an operations manager hiring
folks, one thing I used to saywas I can't train integrity.
I got to have the people at theright mindset and just the
heart to do it the skills we cantrain.
It's going to take you time,but I want to make sure I have
the right person on my teamthat's willing to get it done.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, and I like that .
You also kind of shine somelight on the support elements.
I would say it's similar tolike a team so you got the ODA,
but then you've got all thesefolks that are back supporting
them.
So you have to have a logisticsteam, you have to get some sort
of supplies out there to youguys.
You have to have mechanicsfixing your vehicles.
(37:14):
I would say the meat andpotatoes of the construction
industry is the trades but atthe same time we need people
that are making sure these guysget paid, making sure they have
health care, all that stuff tosupport the building efforts.
So I think that's where I seethe parallel between the veteran
community.
Specific to you guys, likespecial operations into
construction, is there's theboots on ground, but those boots
(37:37):
wouldn't be on ground withoutsomebody supplying those boots.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Yeah, it's interesting and I'm glad that
you bring it up because I'veseen both sides of it, right,
obviously being the main effortbeing on a team out in the, you
know, in Afghanistan or whatever.
Like you rely on your supportand I could see I've definitely
seen a lot of team guys takingit for granted.
Someone would get egotisticalyou know there's a lot of
(38:03):
different things or baggage thatgoes along with it, right, like
they should be supporting me,or it's because of us.
You know it goes back and forth.
And then a supporting elementwould typically look like well,
you need us to get your stuffdone, and it's.
I see it in the constructionindustry too, where you know
like, oh, we have to put theroof on or we have to hang the
panels in order to pay for you.
(38:23):
It's like, yeah, but you knowwe print your paycheck.
Like it goes back and forth.
So it is kind of funny to seethat same, not necessarily like
conflict, but just the samepoints of view from both
perspectives.
And I think one of the thingsthat made me successful as a
Special Forces team sergeant wasbeing able to work that
(38:44):
relationship and respect thesupporting staff that we had,
because if you recognize thatyou need them and you recognize
them for the hard-working peoplethey are and like, hey, you're
supporting me, I appreciate it,thank you.
They do it even better.
They don't feel like they'regetting beat up about it or you
(39:07):
know, like obviously it has tobe genuine.
You can't just say, oh, thankyou.
Like you have to mean it andyou have to really believe it.
But I see that on both sidesit's same for a supporting
soldier or a supporting orshared service role within any
organization.
It's like, yeah, you're asupporting guy, but know your
(39:27):
role, know you're there to helpthem and there to help you.
It would make the world a lotbetter if people kind of just
get over their positions.
You know, just be a littlehumble.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, it's got to be that symbiotic relationship,
absolutely.
It's super cliche to say, butyou know, the change in chain is
only as strong as its weakestlink.
And I've been in those shoestoo, was like that.
I was the angry superintendent,like man, why aren't they
getting the submittals in so Ican get my product, but at the
same time, not realizing maybe,something that they were dealing
with in the office that wasinhibiting that from getting
(39:59):
done.
So why don't I jump in and helpso we can all accomplish this
as one team?
Because, to relate it back toyour background, you know if
you're just sitting therecomplaining about the guy you
know back in Garrison orwhatever, not getting something
done, what good are you doing?
You're just complaining, you'renot helping the situation.
And the same thing applies tous in the field.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
That's a great, great point that you bring up.
So at Amazon they have a saying.
It says attack the process andengage the people, right.
So don't just blame thepeople's people first, like,
okay, you're not getting thesupplies that you needed, right?
So what's the process?
Maybe there's something thatyou were missing, right.
(40:41):
So if you, you know, reach out,say, hey, I'm noticing there's
a delay in this process here.
Obviously that's a defect.
We got waste here, like that'swhat we're going to get.
But let me see it through yourlens.
Let me you know, let me seewhat is actually going on in
your process and then you couldidentify oh man, you're getting
bogged down here and here andhere because a lot of mistakes
(41:02):
from the other superintendentsin your company, I don't know,
just making stuff up.
But by attacking their processyou could understand how to make
it easier for them and then, inturn, it just takes away that
choke point.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah, I would relate it to safety.
You know, when an incident doeshappen, you have that report.
Let's get to the bottom of whatreally happened.
Are the guys tired?
Are they working too many hoursLike?
Let's talk about really what'sgoing on.
It's not just that incidentthat occurred.
What led up to that incident?
Speaker 1 (41:35):
It's interesting you said that too, because that's
where I think operationalexcellence and safety go hand in
hand.
You know, root cause analysisis a standard tool, and so the
Lean Six Sigma tool they'll doin the five Ys or the fishbone
diagram, trying to find out whythat happened.
Not, oh, you were doing this,or you know, typically people do
(41:58):
their root cause analysis andblame it on training, and they
just stop right there.
Oh, he wasn't trained.
It's like well, why wasn't hetrained?
Why did you not provide him thetraining?
Let's keep on digging further.
Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
So let me kind of switch gearshere.
So I'm not trying to like makeyou regret any of your former
decisions, but if you were to goback and maybe tweak some
things along your journey towhere you got today you don't
have to, but is there anything?
Maybe you would have changed tokind of become more streamlined
(42:30):
, more successful.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Yes.
So and then with it, hopefullyI can give a little advice if
anybody's in the same position,right?
So, while retiring from theArmy, obviously in the
transition process, I'm sure youknow people talk about how
difficult it is to translateyour military resume to civilian
(42:55):
time.
So one of the ways that I gotout of that was to try and get a
lot of certifications to makesure it made sense.
Right so, you know, leadingmissions, leading airborne
operations to me that kind ofresonated with project
management.
So I got the PMP certification.
I had a passion for clean, sixsigma and process improvement,
(43:16):
so I got the green belt.
Before retiring I even wantedto make sure I showed that I had
an understanding of personnelmanagement.
So I got the associateprofessional and human resources
certifications of the APHR.
And then I was like, okay, Iwant to make sure they know that
I could translate safetyexperiences.
So I did the OSHA 30 in thegeneral industry.
(43:39):
I wish I would have done theconstruction one though, because
I just had to do that one noweven though I had the general
one.
But I think, with the safety, Ithink there are a lot of areas
where you could really focus inon it.
I think, like doing, liketrying to chase like an ASP,
like the associate safetyprofessional, or trying to like
(44:01):
get some of those certificationsand really lean in onto the
safety training that militaryprovided you would have been
helpful.
I've been the only able tochange as far as, like you know,
getting those different skillsets.
Right now I'm taking a master'sdegree, doing a master's degree
program at Penn State fororganization development and
(44:22):
change management Probably wouldhave started that sooner if I
could have.
So you know I've got one moreyear left, but the education is
huge.
I was fortunate enough tofinish my undergrad, like just a
few years before retiring inbusiness management.
But I would say to any soldier,like, continue on that civilian
education path.
I know I gave myself the excusethat I was focusing on
(44:46):
life-saving skills and, you know, survivability and lethality
skills, like, let me do all ofthese cool guy schools just to
make sure that I'm effective onthe battlefield and I can come
home.
And maybe that's what it tookto make sure I came home.
But I probably wouldn't haveneglected some of those civilian
trainings throughout that longperiod right Like 20 years.
(45:08):
Of course I knocked some of itout, but I probably would have
done it sooner.
And then I guess you know,obviously I was lucky, I was
fortunate to go retire all theway through.
But, um, had I gotten outsooner, I would have been more
open to the constructionindustry and you know, starting
over would have been fine, likedoing the apprentice program.
(45:29):
Look into the journeyman, theroute like it is.
It is an impressive field.
There's so much opportunity.
I wish I would have been moreaware of it than to prepare for
it.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, I think the education piece of it is a lot
more accessible now than it hasbeen.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
In every base or post has some sort of educational
assistance that you can go talkto.
And, like you know, I saidearlier, there's really no
excuse not to take the firststep.
It's a challenging one but andI think from your position it's
tough.
When you retire out, in myopinion, is like a master
sardine to that senior nco levelto humble yourself enough to
(46:12):
say, hey, you might be yourtitle, might be assistant, your
title might be bottom of thebarrel, but you're more than
likely going to climb thatladder a little quicker than
your peers.
And yeah, you might be a littleolder than them, but you bring
a lot of skills to the tablethat these guys don't.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Yeah, and even if it's a level playing field with
skills and or even if they havemore education away, you're
going to bring a lot of heart inthere and a lot of intestinal
fortitude.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
Yeah, it's like a good way to put it.
So I want to take not a darkturn, but the industry is tough,
man, and the service is tough.
The industry is tough and wehave some very similar struggles
.
Suicide is very prevalent inthe service as well as this
industry, as is alcoholism, drugabuse.
If you've got someone that'sjust struggling, that is a vet,
(47:07):
that's in the industry, becauseI know firsthand it can really
beat you down a lot of the longdays and you're not
accomplishing the goals you wantto.
What would you say to try tomotivate that individual?
Speaker 1 (47:18):
No, that's definitely an interesting question, right?
So initially my head went towhat we do at EDA.
Like every year, we have what'scalled a packed event and
basically those struggles thatyou're talking about manifest in
different ways.
So I would say that throughoutthe construction industry,
(47:42):
suicide, drug use all the badthings that happen in the army
it's prevalent in there.
So, again, our owner is a bigproponent in making sure people
get the help and need the helpand care that they need.
To the fact that they come upand say, hey, I need help, he'll
(48:02):
make sure they have a jobafterwards, so they'll get the
help and get the services needed, whether it's for depression or
narcotic abuse.
Whatever the case, they stillhave a place when they come back
.
The questions asked, as long asthey commit to it, I think
that's phenomenal.
So when you see people in thisindustry actually care, that
(48:24):
also allows other people tosoften up and recognize, see
life through a different lensand show empathy and say, oh,
it's okay to care for your buddy, it's okay to just be there for
somebody.
Now, in the military, I've knownquite a few people who
(48:46):
committed suicide and it'salways a case right Like oh,
hindsight 2020, like oh, yeah,these signs were there.
These signs were there.
So being able to recognize thesigns sooner is always a help to
training is good.
As far as helping anybodythrough any difficult times,
(49:07):
like, honestly, I haven't hadany calls from any friends
saying like, hey, I'm at thatpoint.
But what I always typicallykeep myself open to, obviously
that like anybody calls themthere, but helping service
members transition, it's likehey, if you, I don't need to
know who you are.
If you're going through thesituation, I'm here to help.
If somebody is into consideringconstruction or they are
(49:32):
dealing with any difficulties,like they can reach out.
That's the hardest part, thoughit's like you said several
times in this discussion, likethat first steps hard.
I don't know if I quiteanswered that.
I know it's such a good topic,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
I don't think there's really ever a perfect or right
answer for that, and I think Iselfishly asked that question of
my guests because there's beentimes in my career that I need
to hear what do I do?
And there's been times, I meanI'll be honest, that I've just
wanted to give up because it's atough industry.
So, veteran or not, it's a hardindustry sometimes.
(50:11):
And what I've said earlierepisodes is that the I think the
beauty of this and I'm nottelling everybody to just quit
their job, but you have a lotmore freedom now on the civilian
side than you certainly didbeing tied into a contract in
the service.
So if things just aren'tworking out, it's not the end of
the road.
I mean, I've switched companiesa few times because maybe there
(50:35):
was just a difference ofopinion or maybe the culture
went downhill and it just wasn'ta right fit for both of us.
So I think that's what I try toget people to focus on is that,
look, you're not done yet,there's, there's something there
for you, but let's find outwhat that is.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Oh, absolutely, and I think I came across that when I
was at an Amazon doing the postretirement and hopping that job
where it's it was.
It was a grind and I was like Iput the little step counter on.
I was doing like 15 miles a dayand the little safety shoes on
the concrete floors, from two inthe morning, you know, noon,
(51:11):
sometimes even two in theafternoon, and I was like, ok,
it's a little bit much and itwas a great paying job.
It was hard to leave but Ifound a home with EDA, just one
to the, the culture and thevalues that they actually have
and the people that are there.
And I see a lot of other.
You know some contractors outthere.
I see some of the generalcontractors and you can see big
(51:34):
name general contractors or youknow, and some people would
probably say, oh, wow, this is,this is the name, you go to
their huge brand.
But I would highly advisepeople to consider that family
business, right.
So EDA is a family run businessand they have a family run feel
to it and you're part of thatfamily and it's pretty cool to
(51:55):
see I probably you know thewhole Amazon that the big name
captured me trying to get out.
You're trying to tie yourself tosomething bigger than you are.
But I thought, ok, I'm going tobe a part of this mission, part
of this and as a you know agood thing like get the packages
delivered, that helps out somany people, especially during
COVID, and like life waspregnant, like, oh good, I don't
(52:17):
have to worry about this.
So that's kind of a good thingto tie yourself to.
But I'll tell you, there'snothing like the family business
and it's pretty amazing to seewhat they do and the level of
care that they give to theirguys, and I don't see that
everywhere.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
Yeah, I would agree and I've worked with some pretty
big companies that maybe at thetop they're really good at it,
but when it gets down to the midlevel leadership, maybe that
changes.
I think the company I work fornow we've been around 136 years
I think and it's been tweakedover that long time and we've
(52:54):
got a small team here in Dallasthat it still kind of has that
family feel here locally.
But it boils down to the teamyou're working with.
Like you said earlier, you walkout in the field and you're
like man, these are like guysthat I had downrange with me,
that were on my team.
So I think it really does boildown to that.
But I would agree with you onthe family run company aspect.
(53:17):
I had the wrong mindset.
I'm thinking, man, I want towork for this massive company,
huge firm that has a gorgeousoffice and all that and I have
worked at some companies thatwere great, that did have that.
But does that really meanthey're going to treat you right
?
Does that really mean thatthey're going to really care for
you and your family like amember of their family?
(53:38):
So look at a company that doesthat, regardless of size.
Speaker 1 (53:43):
Absolutely.
Don't write it out just becauseit doesn't have a huge name.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Yeah, Well, let me ask this what the big issue
we're having right now in theindustry is people and just
getting people in the industry,and that's why I started this
whole thing.
So if you've got folks that arelistening, that are about to
transition out or they'repreparing to get out and they're
(54:08):
looking for something to do inkind of the world's their oyster
, what would you say to them totry to convince them to join the
construction industry?
Speaker 1 (54:17):
Well, you know, Scott , this, Tony, this is, believe
it or not, actually a very hardthing for me to do is a podcast
like this.
This is a first for me.
I've been asked several timesto be on other people's podcasts
and I was like no, no, can't doit.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
Yeah, suckers, I got him.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Right, even at work we do a, so our mascot is Ernie
the duck right.
So we have the whole exteriorfacade and everything is
waterproof, so that's where theduck comes from Watertight.
We do this thing called adocumentary right, where it's
(54:57):
essentially a documentary or asimple few questions.
Just write a little bit aboutyourself and the company shares
it.
It's been almost two years andthe marketing team is like hey,
tim, will you do it?
I'm like, yeah, I'll get to it.
It's literally the hardest thingfor me to do, for whatever
reason.
And same with this.
You said that you pushed me offor like your schedules, but I
(55:22):
kind of neglected it a bit.
But to answer your question,like this whole um and every
year, if you're with this wholepodcast, I think the reason
behind it is to try and getthose you know people that are,
you know, transitioning from themilitary to consider
construction and you know thatto me maybe suck it up and just
(55:44):
get over it because it's worthit.
And sharing this on LinkedIn,sharing it with people that are
in that stage of their life,hopefully it'll help them at
least expose them to otheropportunities or have them talk
to other people.
Maybe they recognize anotherindividual who might benefit
from it.
So hopefully something thatI've said in this hour long
(56:05):
discussion might resonate withsomebody and help improve their
life.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
Tim, I appreciate your time, man, and I'm really
glad that we finally got to linkup and I don't think this is
the last of our long distancerelationship, if you will and
we'll have to figure out a time,if you're down here, to roll
together here in Texas, or I'llfind an excuse to go back up
Northman.
So I really appreciate yourinsight and I love getting to
(56:31):
talk to guys from your communitythat have transitioned into the
industry.
If folks want to get a hold ofyou, what's the best way to do
that?
Speaker 1 (56:40):
I would say LinkedIn is probably the best way.
It's just Tim Welcher onLinkedIn.
I don't have a huge presence onthere, obviously, but that's an
easier way to kind of letpeople Well one.
I want to encourage militarypeople to get on that platform
because it does work.
That's how I found you isLinkedIn through with Adam, so
(57:01):
it's effective.
I'm not going to give them aphone number right off the bat
when I got on the podcast, butI'm pretty call-so.
And then if they're in the arealike EDA contractors is the
company I work with.
They want to join the team,happy to take a resume, talk to
them or help them out along theway, or finally, at a jujitsu
(57:25):
gym.
There you go See what they'rereally made of.
After this podcast is over, wecan stop and hop on and we'll
talk to you.
Jitsu, all you want, all right.
Speaker 2 (57:36):
I love it All.
Right, tim.
Thanks again, man.
Speaker 1 (57:39):
Thanks, scott, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
Yes, sir, if you're a military veteran in the
construction industry or you'rein the construction industry and
support our military vets andyou'd like to be a guest on the
podcast, you can find me atconstruction vet podcast at
gmailcom, or send me a messageon LinkedIn.
You can find me there atscottfriend.
Let's share the stories andmotivate others.
I know that they're willing to like work hard and
give it their all.
Like I can train you how toshoot, I can train you how to
like where to stand, where topoint.
The rest, you can't teach hard.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the Construction Veteran Podcast.
Construction Veteran PodcastConnecting and celebrating
veterans in construction.
Now here's your host, scottFriend.
Welcome back to theConstruction Veteran Podcast.
I'm Scott Friend.
Today I'm excited to bring toyou guys Tim Welcher, a former
(00:35):
Special Forces soldier who nowleads the way in the industry in
safety.
Let's dig into it.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Hey Tim, what's going on man?
Hi Scott, how are?
You doing?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm good.
So Tim and I haven't had thepleasure of meeting in person
yet, but we do have a goodmutual acquaintance in Adam
Hoots who's real big in the leanconstruction side of the
industry, and we'll talk aboutthat here in a little bit.
But I did a podcast episodewith the lean builder which Adam
hosts, and Adam teamed Tim andI up together thought it'd be a
(01:14):
good idea to meet.
So glad to finally get you onhere, man.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Absolutely.
We've been going back and forth.
We're going to finally make theconnection.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, man, it's every guest I have.
I have to keep kicking the candown the road because you know I
don't do this full time, notgoing wood yet.
But yeah, things are busy inthe industry, which is good.
Things are booming.
So, tim, let's talk about you.
Know this, being theConstruction Veteran.
Let's talk about your servicebackground, what you did, where
you're from and what you didthroughout your career.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Sure, obviously you got a minute, so let's go.
I joined the Army Reserves in1997.
And I never knew anybody in themilitary.
I just kind of thought it wouldbe a fun thing to do but wasn't
ready to jump right in.
And sure enough, I found out Iloved it.
So as soon as I got throughlike basic and AIT, it's like
(02:05):
sign me up, I want to go activeduty, I want to be an airborne
Ranger.
And that took several years tofinally break the contract.
But about four years in I wasable to go active duty and my
wish is airborne Ranger contract.
And I went back to basictraining in August of 2001.
And obviously, if you do themath from the next month,
(02:28):
september 11th happened and wewere in, we were on the machine
gun range in basic training.
9-11 happened and you know,basically an airborne school of
recruiters came by and said, hey, if you have a Ranger contract
you can trap for special forces.
So I raised my hands and signedme up and went on to the
(02:50):
Q-course, graduated with theQ-course, went to third special
forces group.
I started off as a 18 Charlie,which is a special forces
engineer sergeant, basicallyresponsible for, you know, light
construction and demolitions,did three combat deployments to
Afghanistan during that time.
Then I became an instructor atthe NCO Academy non-commissioned
(03:14):
officers academy, and specialforces has their own academy
there at Camp McCall where wecombined.
Well then it was PLDC and BNOC,our primary leadership
development course basicnon-commissioned officers course
, I think, then the change to awarrior leaders course and
advanced leaders course.
Regardless, I was a NCO Academyinstructor for three years.
(03:38):
Then I made the rank of E-8,master sergeant and was able to
be in charge of a freefall team,better known as a halo team.
I've done a couple ofdeployments then and then, after
my team sergeant time, I wasblessed with the opportunity to
(03:59):
do my hobby inside of the Army.
So I ran the third specialforces group combatives program
where I got trained grim,braised Brazilian Jiu Jitsu,
muay Thai and a lot of you knowCQB tactics and how to have a
better force, continue themusing their hands instead of
just always, you know, going tothe gun.
Then I retired about two yearsago and now I'm in the
(04:23):
construction industry.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, so it's funny.
So I haven't talked about thison episodes yet.
I posted it on my social media.
But I recently got intoBrazilian Jiu Jitsu Did not know
you did that, which was kind offunny and you reached out.
So we've been kind of nerdenout together and chit-chatting
about the journey and I believeyour son got involved.
You got to promote him to BrownBelt, is that correct?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No, no, no, I'm a Brown Belt.
My son is a gray and white belt.
Gotcha, he's a wrestler.
Now we're in Pennsylvania andit's okay.
He's a freshman in high school.
I'm like you are going towrestle, you can hit the pause
button on Jiu Jitsu.
That'll always be there for you, but be a wrestler.
That's smart.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I want to ask so the combatives you got to teach Jiu
Jitsu and Muay Thai?
You said, yeah, I mean there'ssome in the combatives program.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So basically, army has the modern Army combatives
program which incorporates a lotof Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, ground
fighting techniques and it alsohas a lot of Muay Thai as far as
fighting from a clench, knees,elbows, punches, kicks et cetera
and that bleeds over into theSpecial Operations Embattance
Program where we do a lot of thesimilar things.
But we also incorporatedfighting with weapon systems,
(05:38):
both rifle and pistol, from kitand a lot of it's focused around
clearing rooms and how to dealwith compliant personnel in the
rooms or even non-compliant.
So that's a big aspect of it.
When you look into, like CQB isroom clearing right, everybody
thinks of putting the targets upand you just go in all sexy,
(05:59):
blow the door down, just takeout the targets.
But in reality there are a lotof people that are innocent,
hands are up, women, children etcetera and you just have to be
able to manage all this.
Sometimes you can have somebodywith their hands up and he
turns out as you're trying tomove them to the center of the
room.
You have to become combativeand be able to deal with that
(06:20):
without unnecessarily takingsomebody's life.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, I think that's wise, Using it as kind of a
non-lethal way to subdue them.
Well, man, if we're ever in thesame area, it'd be an honor to
roll with you.
I'm still a lowly little whitebelt, but I could learn a lot
from you.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Oh, that's the best time is grabbing a white belt,
especially when that's motivated, knows that they want to learn
and don't think they knoweverything yet.
Yeah, it'd be my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I wouldn't say I got humbled real quick.
I came in at knowing.
You know, hey, I'm a lot olderthan most of these guys, the
dudes in their young 20s thatare just ready to get after it.
I got to be careful, you know.
I was in a motorcycle wreck andI don't want to hurt myself too
bad.
I did tweak my back a littlebit, not terrible, but yeah, I'm
just taking it easy, takingslow, really enjoying the
journey and learning as much asI can.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, that's a smart tap, early tap off.
And I had my neck fused when Iwas a white belt, like so my
first year training jujitsu notnecessarily a jujitsu injury, it
could have been from jumpingout of planes with night vision
goggles on and all that type ofstuff running around a turret.
So I'm sure there was a lot ofwear and tear already.
But my neck was fused as awhite belt and the the doctor
(07:32):
told me I'd never be able to dojujitsu again.
And here I am, 15, 15 yearslater, still training.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, yeah, man, I was talking about humbling, let
me tell you.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Since you brought up the humble story, let me tell
you about my first day ofjujitsu, knowing that I was
about to be an instructor andthe special forces cute course.
I knew I was going to be homefor about three years, so I've
always wanted to try this.
Let me, let me give it a try.
So I go in and they pair me up.
You know I'll get a couplepeople for practice and then I
(08:03):
go against this other, this kidand I have three common
deployments.
I was an E seven green beret,like I was.
You know, I was a stunt.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, You're like I'm going to destroy this guy.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Hey, granny, didn't I like striking him or anything
but this.
This 17 year old kid submittedme and I had to go home.
And they're like man, babe, Igot submitted by the 17 year old
kid.
You tapped me out like threetimes in five minutes.
And then I go back for my nextclass a couple of classes later
and then I come back and tellher like hey, that 17 year old
that tapped me out and I'm like,oh, wow, so I'm like you know
(08:39):
what.
There's a magic to this.
I am never quitting.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, it's really cool to me to see guys like
there was a dude, I want to sayhe's a purple belt at our school
and, man, I probably outweighthis guy by at least 50 pounds.
I mean I'm 220 and I'm not likejacked, but I'm a pretty bigger
guy and he just tossed mearound like a rag doll and it
was humbling for sure.
(09:04):
And then I also saw we had aguy a few weeks ago that he had
to have been his late 60s, early70s, coming in and it was like
his second class and it wasreally cool to see that Starting
at that age is just really coolto see, a very humbling
experience.
And I said, hey, don't takethis the wrong way.
I mean I'm really honored tosee you here.
(09:24):
I look up to you, man, I meanthat's neat, okay.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
No, I mean, that's what one of the beauties of
Jujitsu is is everybody in thatroom has gone through that same
experience.
Like I still get humble andit's what you do with it, right?
Some people get that taste,that humble, and they say, screw
that, I'm never coming back.
And others say, all right, I'mnever quitting.
So I think that, like mindsetin that room or that dojo,
(09:53):
whatever you call it, we allshare a common bond and all my
friends do Jujitsu or have themdo Jujitsu.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, very cool.
I want to ask you a questionabout your service real quick.
Is there any chance you were inAfghanistan like late 2009 to
early 2010?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
No 2008 to 2011, I was an instructor.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Man, we just missed each other because third group
was out there when we did JSOCsupport.
So I was curious if we ranacross each other and didn't
even realize it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, if their group doesn't stop, they're always out
there.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, it seems like a man.
Yeah, and that's specialoperations community.
It seems like everybody's justgo, go, go, and have you seen
that slow down a little bit herelately in the last couple years
?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Well, honestly, like I've been out for two years, so
I've been away from it, and thelast five years of my career I
was in the dojo.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So yeah, but everybody was going.
That's really cool, man.
It sounds like you had a goodrun.
So what are you doing now inthe industry?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
So in the construction industry right now
I work for a company called EDAContractors where I'm the
director of safety andoperational excellence.
I know it's a bit of a mouthful, but it's an awesome job.
I gotta say I love it.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, so we know what safety is.
Talk to me about operationalexcellence.
What does that mean at yourcompany?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Sure.
So it's interesting.
How I got into this company wasbased off of my Lean Six Sigma
Black background.
I have a Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt and it was always a passion
of mine.
I think it ties to the specialforces training or even
jiu-jitsu, where you're lookingfor efficient, effective
(11:36):
processes.
I worked for Amazon as anoperation manager for a year and
it was a little rough.
You know, two o'clock in themorning till noon we're in a
site, at a delivery station, andI was like, okay, I'm retired,
let me look for something else.
And I saw this post on Indeedthat was looking for Lean Six
(11:59):
Sigma.
They wanted to do Lean trainingin this construction company
and at EDA we're a subcontractorlevel or a trade partner, and
to me it just sounded reallycool because Lean is primarily
targeted for the manufacturingindustry and you can recognize
improvements really fast,whether it's like an Amazon
(12:20):
packages or a Toyota factory,right, but construction, that's
a challenge.
So I hopped right in, eventhough I'm not, like, a complete
expert.
I'm just school trained as faras Lean Six Sigma, so not a ton
of real world experience beingshortly retired from the Army,
(12:41):
unfortunately.
At EDA, at DeAngeles the owner,he's got a great vision and at a
subcontractor level to supportit the way he does.
I think this is going to begood for my company, good to
reach that next level.
I was bought in.
So basically all I really tryand do is help improve their
(13:01):
processes if I can, and I thinkthere's a lot of bleed over from
the military to theconstruction industry.
I see it every day, with justthe volatility or the
uncertainty on the different jobsites, all the different
situations that guys have todeal with.
It's not the same as a factorywhere it's every day moving this
(13:22):
package, where you can shaveseconds off.
There's always some new problem.
And if I could help by eitherbringing a Lean principle or
something from my experience inthe military, where it's
leadership or justorganizational skills, anything
I could do for these guys is abenefit.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So you mentioned it's used typically in manufacturing
.
So for those folks who don'treally know what Lean is, what
would you say a Leanpractitioner does in the
construction industry?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So that's an interesting question, right,
because there's different layersin the construction industry.
You said with Adam Hoots, right, and the Lean builder, it seems
like a lot of it is reallyfocused on the general
contractor's perspective of Lean, where you're doing pool
planning and trying to do thetrain of trades and make sure
everybody's all meeting thecommitments and you're removing
(14:15):
some of the ways to making surethat people are finishing on
time so the next trade can, andit's a whole scheduling exercise
.
For a subcontractor level it'sa little different because we're
kind of impacted by those GCs.
If the GC doesn't want to dothat, obviously that impacts us.
Or if there's a GC or generalcontractor that does, we have to
follow suit there.
So how do we do it on our ownand our focus?
(14:39):
We just want to be the leader,we want to make sure that we're
the best subcontractor out there.
So if we're already doing ourdaily huddles and we're already
planning the certain way, we'remaking sure that we could be on
the front of these daily huddlesor the pool planning exercises
and activities and basicallylead by example for the other
(15:01):
trades, then maybe it'll be evenmore successful.
There's little things.
So we also kind of basicallymanufacture some of the panels.
The EDA handles the wholeexterior facade, whether it's
metal panel facade or roofing ormasonry.
So in our shop, though, we makethe panels or deliver them out
(15:22):
to the sites, and basicallywhat's called hubs and spokes.
So you have our main hub, wehave all the supplies, materials
, and you get to deliver that toall the different job sites.
So if we could shave off someof the time there, make sure
that's an effective, efficientprocess, we could impact more of
our sites, make sure they getthe deliveries on time, in the
(15:45):
right quantity, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I'd say there's another layer to it.
Also, what do you think fromthe personnel and the people
side?
Has lean had an impact on ourindustry with?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So the lean journey for the subcontractor level is
still kind of new.
You could see it a lot in thegeneral contractor level, where
they're kind of bought in.
They understand the respect forpeople and they understand that
people make the processes work.
So I could see a lot ofbenefits in there.
I think there's a misconceptionwith the word lean.
(16:20):
When people hear it they thinkit's a reduction in manpower and
I think it's not the case.
I think if you respect thepeople and you do a thing called
a Gemba like a Gemba walk iswhere you go see where the work
happens.
So the vice presidents in thecompany, the superintendents,
and make sure they go out to thesite to hear from the foreman
(16:42):
and the journeyman out there.
They want to see what they'reexperiencing in the field and by
showing that level of respectthey're able to gain some of the
knowledge.
Instead of just that, oh,bosses here, make sure it looks
good, or oh, safety's here, putyour gloves and glasses on, they
actually feel more connectedand it's a better culture and it
aids in the improvement ofprocesses.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, very well put.
So I want to back up too.
So you first got out, you wentto work for Amazon.
How did you stumble upon whatyou're doing now?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah, that was again basically just off of a LinkedIn
ad or an Indeed ad, I think itwas both from the company.
I didn't really wasn't like,hey, I really want to work for a
construction company.
It didn't cross my mind as faras that was the goal.
Honestly, the initial goal wasto get out of Amazon, as bad as
that sounds.
(17:39):
But, having a tiny bit ofconstruction experience as a
Special Forces Engineer Sergeant, it was an easy transition
because I understood some of theprojects.
So, for example, in Afghanistan, one of the main construction
projects we ran was about fiveto $7 million, if I remember
(18:01):
correctly, and we had tonegotiate for a mountain top.
So, speaking with the districtgovernor and the chief of police
and all the different villageelders in the tribe, negotiated
for a mountain.
We brought in a lot of heavyequipment, shaved the top of the
mountain off, pushed it out andcreated a base on top of the
mountain and on that base we hada restroom, a fuel point,
(18:23):
helicopter pad, kitchen, gym,enough space to have 77 people
and that was a big thing andthat was a bit of a construction
effort, considering we've beenrocketed in the middle of trying
to build it and in firefightsand etc.
So it's funny to say yeah it'sjust an engineer Sergeant or
(18:44):
just some of the Special Forcesteam.
But yeah, there's someconstruction experience involved
with that.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, I had a guy come on.
He was man.
You would have been my firstengineer if I'd gotten you on
earlier, but I did a show withanother 18 Charlie series guy
that retired out and it's reallyneat to see all the different
things that you guys get tolearn.
I mean, obviously there'sdemolition involved, but then
you have the skills basically tobuild a house, which is kind of
(19:11):
like the CBs.
You know, you learn the basicsof the trade.
So there is that opportunity toget out and get involved in the
industry.
But given your experience ofleadership, you had that awesome
opportunity to kind of stepinto a leadership role.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah, I was very fortunate and, honestly, had the
timing been different, maybe ifI got out at the year 10 mark
instead of doing 24 years ofservice, I could have been a
different state, differentmental state or experience level
.
And they have great programsout.
I don't know if it's in yourarea.
As far as the helmets to hardhats, have you ever heard of
(19:47):
that?
Yeah, yeah, very familiar withthat?
Yep, yeah, like I know, we havea former Marine.
That's one of our second handson a crew and that's how he got
in and it sounds like an amazingprogram.
But I think that would havebeen a great route and I
recommend it to any servicemember getting out trying to go
into construction and if theyhaven't considered construction,
(20:09):
I strongly recommend themconsidering it.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, the tough thing about helmets to hard hats.
It's a union company and soit's not going to be available
everywhere Like here in Texaswe're not very, we don't have
too many unions, we do have some, but I would say definitely up
kind of northeast where you'reat, pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So we have all stays for sure.
Yeah, exactly, so we only useunion.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah, yeah.
And then they've got a reallyheavy Canadian presence as well.
How much the hard hat does?
I do have some listeners inCanada, so that's really cool.
So if you guys are up there,check that out.
And there's other programs thatare newer.
I'm sure they were there whenyou got out the skill bridge.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So skill bridge is a huge one, so construction.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
They.
So skill bridge they they're,to the best of my knowledge.
I mean they'll welcome any kindof companies, and I have had
some companies down here thathave started to get involved in
it.
I don't know the ins and outsof it.
We do have a company down herecalled Forge now which was
started by a couple West Pointguys, so don't hold that against
them, but that was started bytwo former Army officers and
(21:18):
they take folks out and teachthem the trade and they're one
of the few schools I don't knowif that's this is just locally
or us why but they're one of thefew schools that you can use
your GI bill to learn that trade.
And they just started teamingup skill bridge and they
actually provide a facilitiesmanager class too.
So there's certainly optionsout there through the bridge.
(21:40):
The company here is called Forge, now Nice, and they're based
here in Dallas Trying to team upwith them on some stuff.
It's just really cool to seeguys out and they have this
opportunity to step into a tradethat could pay pretty well.
So I know they do electrical.
I want to say they do HVAC.
I'm not sure if they doplumbing, but they just started
(22:01):
a facilities manager class,which I have not heard of
somebody doing that before, andthat's a pretty good career path
for someone.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
That's phenomenal, I tell you.
Skill bridge, or where I was inspecial forces, we had the
connection to the SOCOMS CareCoalition and they actually
provided me with a they calledit a fellowship, I believe where
I did in three months withCampbell soup.
So you know, again, they didn'thave it already set up, I had a
(22:31):
coordinated make it all happen.
But Campbell soup factory islocated nearby Fort Bragg right
now I think it's called FortLiberty, but coordinated for
that fellowship I did threemonths with Campbell soup is in
the continuous improvementsection.
Again, that kind of helpedfocus my lean background a bit.
(22:53):
But anytime any soldier gettingout has an opportunity to take
a skill bridge opportunity orfellowship, internship, work
with swords now do it.
There's so many benefits outthere that are designed to help
people in that transitioningphase which is difficult for a
(23:13):
lot of people.
And then there's a lot ofpeople that just don't, you know
, take any of the help.
That's often sad to see.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, and sometimes so.
One of my former guests, trevorMurray.
He was a 10th group guy.
He basically had to create hisown skill bridge, as he called
it.
So sometimes you have to godown that path if it's not
readily available to find acompany you want to work for.
I just did another interviewwhere we talked about shadowing
people if that's an opportunity.
So I think the hardest part isjust taking the first step and
(23:44):
we really have no excuse now,with the whole world at our
fingertips, to find anopportunity.
And if you're a young soldiergetting out, you've got an even
better opportunity.
If you don't, you know, let'ssay you don't have a family, you
know you're not married, youdon't have kids, you really have
the opportunity to go anywhere.
Or if you want to go home,there might be something back
there, but there's really.
You know not to sound harsh oranything, but there's not an
(24:07):
excuse for you not to findsomething that's available.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Absolutely, and that's not harsh at all, it's
reality.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yeah.
So let's talk about and this isgoing to be broad how is your
service specifically in the SFpath?
How do you think that that isbest trained you to do what
you're doing now or in this, theindustry as a whole?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah, it's definitely a very broad question, right?
There's so many differentlessons learned throughout the
military career.
You get 24 years of service andtry to narrow down just a
couple lessons.
Let's see.
Let's focus on the part ofsafety right now.
So I recently took over thesafety department.
(24:52):
I don't have a safety backgroundper se, I don't have the
certifications yet, but when youjump out of planes for a living
and you know several hundredcombat missions into your belt,
you tend to have an eye for it.
You tend to understand what arisk assessment is and how to
identify hazards.
You know, implement thecontrols.
(25:13):
So I would say, if anybody'slike in that in the military,
where they maybe airborne ormaybe they do high-risk events
like, look into that safety role.
It's a very easy transitionbecause you understand it.
Whether you're running a rangeor you're running a double
missions range, jumping out ofplanes, like you have to have
(25:36):
extreme attention to detail andbe meticulous with people's
lives.
Lives are at stake.
So I would definitely say thatthose experiences and
understanding what risk reallyis and understanding where
danger lies and how, how fast,something bad could happen,
right, even when you're doingeverything right, bad things
(25:59):
happen sometimes but you have tohave your primary, alternate,
contingency and emergency plans.
Get it all together and that'sa I think that's probably a huge
benefit that service memberscan bring over to the
construction industry.
Is that keen eyesight?
Now, when it comes to theoperational excellence side of
things, trying to look forefficiencies, trying to look for
(26:23):
you know how to better thatprocess, that's something that
we we do all the time, right?
I usually equate it totransitioning from the rifle to
your pistol.
Right, if your rifle goes down,you have to transition, draw
your secondary and your pistolout.
So fractions of a second iswhat you need to shave off in
(26:44):
order to be successful in thatengagement, right?
So, minimizing the waste ofmotion, right, cutting out all
the waste out and I will seeguys spend so much time
configuring their kit ordrilling, you know, dropping the
rifle, drawing the pistol, likejust drilling it over and over
(27:04):
and over again.
It's like, wow, that's that'swhat we do, right?
Like, okay, let's analyze this,let's define what the problem
is.
It's kind of all right, here weare.
Where do we need to be?
We need to be this fast.
This is my gap.
Do you need assessment and thenexecute?
Right, and that's the samething in Jiu-Jitsu.
So it's not just alone inmilitary, like I'm sure I know
(27:25):
you only have a little bit ofJiu-Jitsu, but you're gonna find
it's like, oh man, I was usinga lot of muscle using that
technique and some people arejust, you know, smiling their
face, choking you outeffortlessly.
You'll get there, but it takesa lot of time and a lot of
dedication and I think that themilitary kind of brings that
that level of dedication andeffort into making things better
(27:47):
.
Even if it is just a fractionof a second, it matters.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, and that's not something you picked up right
away.
So the humility, whether it'sin Jiu-Jitsu or in the service,
it took you a while to get tothat point right.
So I keep seeing a lot of thesememes lately of guys looking up
to like green berets and oh, Icould never be that.
But you know these guys, likeyourself, didn't start out as a
green beret.
You started out as a kid thatdecided to join up and had an
opportunity and just stuck withit and went with it.
(28:14):
It wasn't an overnight success.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Definitely not.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I want to talk about the safety thing real quick too.
I mean, I'll just say I havenot met a single veteran that's
gotten into that role thatdoesn't enjoy it on the safety
side of things because, like yousaid, you have these people's
lives at stake there in theservice and here in this
industry as well.
I mean, we're working on Idon't care if you're working on
a $2 million job, there's goingto be something that's unsafe,
(28:43):
and then on a $200 million job,obviously there's a lot more
hazards there.
You're talking cranes, heavyequipment, large panels, like
you guys do.
I think that fits really wellbecause, especially from like an
NCO to senior NCO standpoint,those guys transition really
well, in my opinion, becausethey're already used to taking
care of their troops.
(29:03):
They're used to watching outfor every individual, regardless
of what their stance is right.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I think that's a very accurate statement.
I will say just a littleexperience that I've had with my
company now recently takingover the role of safety.
We do a lot of leading edgework on the rooftops and pretty
much every building inPhiladelphia.
We've had our hands on as I'mdoing the transition.
(29:30):
I asked one of the roofers okay, well, what's your plan if you
fall off the edge and you'rehanging by your SRL or your
self-attracting lifeline orminor excuse me, edit that out
too.
See, I'm new with safety, soI'm a nomenclature, basically.
So I asked one of the guys whathappens if you're doing this
(29:51):
leading edge work and you fallover the edge and you're
suspended there because you'reconnected, as you're supposed,
to your fall arrest system andall that, and now you're in your
harness.
How do you get back up?
What's your plan?
Typically, the plan is to call911.
Okay, that makes sense.
And then obviously they focuson the orthostatic shock.
What we have, the leg strapsmake sure your arteries are
(30:13):
getting cut off and you can sitthere, but you're gonna wait for
rescue.
To me that wasn't an option, soI challenged the guys and we
were doing better at it.
We actually developed a planthat has sections for if they're
conscious or if they'reunconscious.
Again, like I said, the owner ofthe company is bought in and
purchased new equipment so thatwe have an actionable plan for
(30:38):
worst-case scenario.
Somebody fall off the edge.
How are we gonna retrieve them?
We're gonna be the firstresponders to help lower that
rescue ladder down so they canclimb back up or attach a winch
to them and reel back in.
I think going to that level ofdetail and having the full
support of the company to be theleader in the industry.
(30:58):
Make sure that we have allthese things and then make sure
that we're training the people.
That comes at a cost.
You're training union tradesmen.
Hey, this is how you climb aladder and you're hanging up the
side of the building.
We're putting our money whereour mouth is and making sure
it's happening because we careabout our guys.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I love that you said you guys are striving to be the
best in the industry too at that, and it's so important.
Man, I can see a little bit ofyour background and what you're
doing too.
You've got that primary,secondary and tertiary plan.
If something goes wrong, right.
If the guy's unconsciousbecause it's great to think of
it one way perfect case scenario.
He falls off, he's conscious,you can reach him easily, get
(31:42):
him back in.
But that's not always going tobe the case, right?
I love that you're looking atit from all those different
angles and poking holes in theplan.
Not that the plan was bad, butyou're poking holes in it.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Exactly.
I tell you it's not.
The plan was bad, it wasdefinitely.
It was adequate and it was madesense.
You look at a civilian mindsetversus a military and those are
the things you have to look atbeing a static line jump master
or a freefall jump master.
Well, freefall jump master, youdon't typically have a total
(32:16):
parachutist, but a static linejump master.
If airborne trooper jumps outand he's hanging there, you have
to treat him back in.
There's simple systems to dothat, but the amount of training
that goes into it is remarkable.
You're always drilling it.
You're always.
You know, I spent most of mytime on a freefall team, but
(32:38):
every time, every day we werejumping, we had to read a half
hour sustained airborne trainingto make sure you cover the
emergency procedures.
So I believe in the detail andI believe in the training.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, so I'm sneaky.
I just got you to answer thatother question.
You weren't sure how to answer.
How about that?
Which one is that that's howyour services helped you.
I think I mean you have thisvery unique look at how we do
things in the industry and Ithink what I value about getting
different veterans into theindustry from all different
backgrounds is that one.
(33:11):
We have so many aspects of thisindustry that people don't even
think of because I mean I knewbefore I got into it.
All I thought of was like aproject manager or
superintendent, not eventhinking of safety as a role,
quality control, administration,finance, tech all these
different things, yeah, so yougot all these different things
(33:31):
and yeah, there's so much thatpeople can bring to the industry
and they don't necessarily haveto have an engineering
background.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Absolutely, and you know that was very eye-opening.
I know, during the transitionprocess for retirement you do
the mandatory briefings andsomebody came in and said hey,
have you ever thought aboutmanufacturing?
I was like no, well, there'sother jobs instead of just
sitting on the line.
They have all the differentroles, and so that kind of made
(34:00):
me think, and I think that's howI got into Amazon.
I wish there were somebody fromconstruction there saying, hey,
there's more to it than justthis.
Now, don't get me wrong, likethe trades, that's beautiful
I'll get to that in a second butit doesn't necessarily reach
out to every soldier.
Right, if you could telleverybody in the retiring
(34:21):
process.
Every MOS is getting out like,hey, there's an HR department
here, there's a safetydepartment, there's project
managers, there's estimators.
There's so many differentthings.
It might open their eyes versuswhen they look at the trades
you look at starting over again.
Oh well, in order to do that Ihave to be trained and I have to
get XYZ.
In order to get to here, youalways have to start at the
(34:42):
bottom.
I think the military does adisservice by making people
think that it just kind of goesalong with the nature.
But I will say, having moved tothe construction industry, one
of the I'm trying to word thisproperly, but one of the best
(35:02):
parts about my job is when Ilook at the guys.
Like every time I go out to thefield one, it reminds me of
being on a deployment justself-constructing equipment
walking the gravel and whatnot.
It's pretty cool to see.
Or even if I get to the top ofa high-rise building.
I'm like, oh yeah, this feelslike I'm under canopy, but
working with the crews, theyremind me so much of Special
(35:24):
Forces Team and I look around tomy left and right.
I'm like you guys, you make itall worth it.
You were the hard-workingAmericans that I was fighting
for and it makes my 24 years ofservice that service just feel
worth it, and I'm soappreciative of what they do and
they just don't realize thesimilarities between the two
worlds.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I love that, Tim.
That's so cool to hear,especially from a guy of your
caliber.
There are a lot of similaritiesbetween the trades folks and
guys that served.
I think there's a lot of mutualrespect there, because
typically I'm not going to sayeverybody, but typically those
who served, regardless of role,and people in the trades,
regardless of what their trademight be, there's that
(36:07):
hard-working, good, moral valuetype of people that are out
there just getting it, gettingafter it.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, no, there's.
I would take so many of them ona deployment, no problem,
there's no questions asked.
Hop in the truck, let's go.
There's so many good people,that's cool.
I know that they're willing tolike work hard and give it their
all.
Like I could train you how toshoot.
I could train you how to like,where to stand, where to point.
The rest you can't teach heart.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Yeah, man, when I was an operations manager hiring
folks, one thing I used to saywas I can't train integrity.
I got to have the people at theright mindset and just the
heart to do it the skills we cantrain.
It's going to take you time,but I want to make sure I have
the right person on my teamthat's willing to get it done.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, and I like that .
You also kind of shine somelight on the support elements.
I would say it's similar tolike a team so you got the ODA,
but then you've got all thesefolks that are back supporting
them.
So you have to have a logisticsteam, you have to get some sort
of supplies out there to youguys.
You have to have mechanicsfixing your vehicles.
(37:14):
I would say the meat andpotatoes of the construction
industry is the trades but atthe same time we need people
that are making sure these guysget paid, making sure they have
health care, all that stuff tosupport the building efforts.
So I think that's where I seethe parallel between the veteran
community.
Specific to you guys, likespecial operations into
construction, is there's theboots on ground, but those boots
(37:37):
wouldn't be on ground withoutsomebody supplying those boots.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Yeah, it's interesting and I'm glad that
you bring it up because I'veseen both sides of it, right,
obviously being the main effortbeing on a team out in the, you
know, in Afghanistan or whatever.
Like you rely on your supportand I could see I've definitely
seen a lot of team guys takingit for granted.
Someone would get egotisticalyou know there's a lot of
(38:03):
different things or baggage thatgoes along with it, right, like
they should be supporting me,or it's because of us.
You know it goes back and forth.
And then a supporting elementwould typically look like well,
you need us to get your stuffdone, and it's.
I see it in the constructionindustry too, where you know
like, oh, we have to put theroof on or we have to hang the
panels in order to pay for you.
(38:23):
It's like, yeah, but you knowwe print your paycheck.
Like it goes back and forth.
So it is kind of funny to seethat same, not necessarily like
conflict, but just the samepoints of view from both
perspectives.
And I think one of the thingsthat made me successful as a
Special Forces team sergeant wasbeing able to work that
(38:44):
relationship and respect thesupporting staff that we had,
because if you recognize thatyou need them and you recognize
them for the hard-working peoplethey are and like, hey, you're
supporting me, I appreciate it,thank you.
They do it even better.
They don't feel like they'regetting beat up about it or you
(39:07):
know, like obviously it has tobe genuine.
You can't just say, oh, thankyou.
Like you have to mean it andyou have to really believe it.
But I see that on both sidesit's same for a supporting
soldier or a supporting orshared service role within any
organization.
It's like, yeah, you're asupporting guy, but know your
(39:27):
role, know you're there to helpthem and there to help you.
It would make the world a lotbetter if people kind of just
get over their positions.
You know, just be a littlehumble.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, it's got to be that symbiotic relationship,
absolutely.
It's super cliche to say, butyou know, the change in chain is
only as strong as its weakestlink.
And I've been in those shoestoo, was like that.
I was the angry superintendent,like man, why aren't they
getting the submittals in so Ican get my product, but at the
same time, not realizing maybe,something that they were dealing
with in the office that wasinhibiting that from getting
(39:59):
done.
So why don't I jump in and helpso we can all accomplish this
as one team?
Because, to relate it back toyour background, you know if
you're just sitting therecomplaining about the guy you
know back in Garrison orwhatever, not getting something
done, what good are you doing?
You're just complaining, you'renot helping the situation.
And the same thing applies tous in the field.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
That's a great, great point that you bring up.
So at Amazon they have a saying.
It says attack the process andengage the people, right.
So don't just blame thepeople's people first, like,
okay, you're not getting thesupplies that you needed, right?
So what's the process?
Maybe there's something thatyou were missing, right.
(40:41):
So if you, you know, reach out,say, hey, I'm noticing there's
a delay in this process here.
Obviously that's a defect.
We got waste here, like that'swhat we're going to get.
But let me see it through yourlens.
Let me you know, let me seewhat is actually going on in
your process and then you couldidentify oh man, you're getting
bogged down here and here andhere because a lot of mistakes
(41:02):
from the other superintendentsin your company, I don't know,
just making stuff up.
But by attacking their processyou could understand how to make
it easier for them and then, inturn, it just takes away that
choke point.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah, I would relate it to safety.
You know, when an incident doeshappen, you have that report.
Let's get to the bottom of whatreally happened.
Are the guys tired?
Are they working too many hoursLike?
Let's talk about really what'sgoing on.
It's not just that incidentthat occurred.
What led up to that incident?
Speaker 1 (41:35):
It's interesting you said that too, because that's
where I think operationalexcellence and safety go hand in
hand.
You know, root cause analysisis a standard tool, and so the
Lean Six Sigma tool they'll doin the five Ys or the fishbone
diagram, trying to find out whythat happened.
Not, oh, you were doing this,or you know, typically people do
(41:58):
their root cause analysis andblame it on training, and they
just stop right there.
Oh, he wasn't trained.
It's like well, why wasn't hetrained?
Why did you not provide him thetraining?
Let's keep on digging further.
Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
So let me kind of switch gearshere.
So I'm not trying to like makeyou regret any of your former
decisions, but if you were to goback and maybe tweak some
things along your journey towhere you got today you don't
have to, but is there anything?
Maybe you would have changed tokind of become more streamlined
(42:30):
, more successful.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Yes.
So and then with it, hopefullyI can give a little advice if
anybody's in the same position,right?
So, while retiring from theArmy, obviously in the
transition process, I'm sure youknow people talk about how
difficult it is to translateyour military resume to civilian
(42:55):
time.
So one of the ways that I gotout of that was to try and get a
lot of certifications to makesure it made sense.
Right so, you know, leadingmissions, leading airborne
operations to me that kind ofresonated with project
management.
So I got the PMP certification.
I had a passion for clean, sixsigma and process improvement,
(43:16):
so I got the green belt.
Before retiring I even wantedto make sure I showed that I had
an understanding of personnelmanagement.
So I got the associateprofessional and human resources
certifications of the APHR.
And then I was like, okay, Iwant to make sure they know that
I could translate safetyexperiences.
So I did the OSHA 30 in thegeneral industry.
(43:39):
I wish I would have done theconstruction one though, because
I just had to do that one noweven though I had the general
one.
But I think, with the safety, Ithink there are a lot of areas
where you could really focus inon it.
I think, like doing, liketrying to chase like an ASP,
like the associate safetyprofessional, or trying to like
(44:01):
get some of those certificationsand really lean in onto the
safety training that militaryprovided you would have been
helpful.
I've been the only able tochange as far as, like you know,
getting those different skillsets.
Right now I'm taking a master'sdegree, doing a master's degree
program at Penn State fororganization development and
(44:22):
change management Probably wouldhave started that sooner if I
could have.
So you know I've got one moreyear left, but the education is
huge.
I was fortunate enough tofinish my undergrad, like just a
few years before retiring inbusiness management.
But I would say to any soldier,like, continue on that civilian
education path.
I know I gave myself the excusethat I was focusing on
(44:46):
life-saving skills and, you know, survivability and lethality
skills, like, let me do all ofthese cool guy schools just to
make sure that I'm effective onthe battlefield and I can come
home.
And maybe that's what it tookto make sure I came home.
But I probably wouldn't haveneglected some of those civilian
trainings throughout that longperiod right Like 20 years.
(45:08):
Of course I knocked some of itout, but I probably would have
done it sooner.
And then I guess you know,obviously I was lucky, I was
fortunate to go retire all theway through.
But, um, had I gotten outsooner, I would have been more
open to the constructionindustry and you know, starting
over would have been fine, likedoing the apprentice program.
(45:29):
Look into the journeyman, theroute like it is.
It is an impressive field.
There's so much opportunity.
I wish I would have been moreaware of it than to prepare for
it.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, I think the education piece of it is a lot
more accessible now than it hasbeen.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
In every base or post has some sort of educational
assistance that you can go talkto.
And, like you know, I saidearlier, there's really no
excuse not to take the firststep.
It's a challenging one but andI think from your position it's
tough.
When you retire out, in myopinion, is like a master
sardine to that senior nco levelto humble yourself enough to
(46:12):
say, hey, you might be yourtitle, might be assistant, your
title might be bottom of thebarrel, but you're more than
likely going to climb thatladder a little quicker than
your peers.
And yeah, you might be a littleolder than them, but you bring
a lot of skills to the tablethat these guys don't.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Yeah, and even if it's a level playing field with
skills and or even if they havemore education away, you're
going to bring a lot of heart inthere and a lot of intestinal
fortitude.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
Yeah, it's like a good way to put it.
So I want to take not a darkturn, but the industry is tough,
man, and the service is tough.
The industry is tough and wehave some very similar struggles
.
Suicide is very prevalent inthe service as well as this
industry, as is alcoholism, drugabuse.
If you've got someone that'sjust struggling, that is a vet,
(47:07):
that's in the industry, becauseI know firsthand it can really
beat you down a lot of the longdays and you're not
accomplishing the goals you wantto.
What would you say to try tomotivate that individual?
Speaker 1 (47:18):
No, that's definitely an interesting question, right?
So initially my head went towhat we do at EDA.
Like every year, we have what'scalled a packed event and
basically those struggles thatyou're talking about manifest in
different ways.
So I would say that throughoutthe construction industry,
(47:42):
suicide, drug use all the badthings that happen in the army
it's prevalent in there.
So, again, our owner is a bigproponent in making sure people
get the help and need the helpand care that they need.
To the fact that they come upand say, hey, I need help, he'll
(48:02):
make sure they have a jobafterwards, so they'll get the
help and get the services needed, whether it's for depression or
narcotic abuse.
Whatever the case, they stillhave a place when they come back
.
The questions asked, as long asthey commit to it, I think
that's phenomenal.
So when you see people in thisindustry actually care, that
(48:24):
also allows other people tosoften up and recognize, see
life through a different lensand show empathy and say, oh,
it's okay to care for your buddy, it's okay to just be there for
somebody.
Now, in the military, I've knownquite a few people who
(48:46):
committed suicide and it'salways a case right Like oh,
hindsight 2020, like oh, yeah,these signs were there.
These signs were there.
So being able to recognize thesigns sooner is always a help to
training is good.
As far as helping anybodythrough any difficult times,
(49:07):
like, honestly, I haven't hadany calls from any friends
saying like, hey, I'm at thatpoint.
But what I always typicallykeep myself open to, obviously
that like anybody calls themthere, but helping service
members transition, it's likehey, if you, I don't need to
know who you are.
If you're going through thesituation, I'm here to help.
If somebody is into consideringconstruction or they are
(49:32):
dealing with any difficulties,like they can reach out.
That's the hardest part, thoughit's like you said several
times in this discussion, likethat first steps hard.
I don't know if I quiteanswered that.
I know it's such a good topic,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
I don't think there's really ever a perfect or right
answer for that, and I think Iselfishly asked that question of
my guests because there's beentimes in my career that I need
to hear what do I do?
And there's been times, I meanI'll be honest, that I've just
wanted to give up because it's atough industry.
So, veteran or not, it's a hardindustry sometimes.
(50:11):
And what I've said earlierepisodes is that the I think the
beauty of this and I'm nottelling everybody to just quit
their job, but you have a lotmore freedom now on the civilian
side than you certainly didbeing tied into a contract in
the service.
So if things just aren'tworking out, it's not the end of
the road.
I mean, I've switched companiesa few times because maybe there
(50:35):
was just a difference ofopinion or maybe the culture
went downhill and it just wasn'ta right fit for both of us.
So I think that's what I try toget people to focus on is that,
look, you're not done yet,there's, there's something there
for you, but let's find outwhat that is.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Oh, absolutely, and I think I came across that when I
was at an Amazon doing the postretirement and hopping that job
where it's it was.
It was a grind and I was like Iput the little step counter on.
I was doing like 15 miles a dayand the little safety shoes on
the concrete floors, from two inthe morning, you know, noon,
(51:11):
sometimes even two in theafternoon, and I was like, ok,
it's a little bit much and itwas a great paying job.
It was hard to leave but Ifound a home with EDA, just one
to the, the culture and thevalues that they actually have
and the people that are there.
And I see a lot of other.
You know some contractors outthere.
I see some of the generalcontractors and you can see big
(51:34):
name general contractors or youknow, and some people would
probably say, oh, wow, this is,this is the name, you go to
their huge brand.
But I would highly advisepeople to consider that family
business, right.
So EDA is a family run businessand they have a family run feel
to it and you're part of thatfamily and it's pretty cool to
(51:55):
see I probably you know thewhole Amazon that the big name
captured me trying to get out.
You're trying to tie yourself tosomething bigger than you are.
But I thought, ok, I'm going tobe a part of this mission, part
of this and as a you know agood thing like get the packages
delivered, that helps out somany people, especially during
COVID, and like life waspregnant, like, oh good, I don't
(52:17):
have to worry about this.
So that's kind of a good thingto tie yourself to.
But I'll tell you, there'snothing like the family business
and it's pretty amazing to seewhat they do and the level of
care that they give to theirguys, and I don't see that
everywhere.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
Yeah, I would agree and I've worked with some pretty
big companies that maybe at thetop they're really good at it,
but when it gets down to the midlevel leadership, maybe that
changes.
I think the company I work fornow we've been around 136 years
I think and it's been tweakedover that long time and we've
(52:54):
got a small team here in Dallasthat it still kind of has that
family feel here locally.
But it boils down to the teamyou're working with.
Like you said earlier, you walkout in the field and you're
like man, these are like guysthat I had downrange with me,
that were on my team.
So I think it really does boildown to that.
But I would agree with you onthe family run company aspect.
(53:17):
I had the wrong mindset.
I'm thinking, man, I want towork for this massive company,
huge firm that has a gorgeousoffice and all that and I have
worked at some companies thatwere great, that did have that.
But does that really meanthey're going to treat you right
?
Does that really mean thatthey're going to really care for
you and your family like amember of their family?
(53:38):
So look at a company that doesthat, regardless of size.
Speaker 1 (53:43):
Absolutely.
Don't write it out just becauseit doesn't have a huge name.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Yeah, Well, let me ask this what the big issue
we're having right now in theindustry is people and just
getting people in the industry,and that's why I started this
whole thing.
So if you've got folks that arelistening, that are about to
transition out or they'repreparing to get out and they're
(54:08):
looking for something to do inkind of the world's their oyster
, what would you say to them totry to convince them to join the
construction industry?
Speaker 1 (54:17):
Well, you know, Scott , this, Tony, this is, believe
it or not, actually a very hardthing for me to do is a podcast
like this.
This is a first for me.
I've been asked several timesto be on other people's podcasts
and I was like no, no, can't doit.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
Yeah, suckers, I got him.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Right, even at work we do a, so our mascot is Ernie
the duck right.
So we have the whole exteriorfacade and everything is
waterproof, so that's where theduck comes from Watertight.
We do this thing called adocumentary right, where it's
(54:57):
essentially a documentary or asimple few questions.
Just write a little bit aboutyourself and the company shares
it.
It's been almost two years andthe marketing team is like hey,
tim, will you do it?
I'm like, yeah, I'll get to it.
It's literally the hardest thingfor me to do, for whatever
reason.
And same with this.
You said that you pushed me offor like your schedules, but I
(55:22):
kind of neglected it a bit.
But to answer your question,like this whole um and every
year, if you're with this wholepodcast, I think the reason
behind it is to try and getthose you know people that are,
you know, transitioning from themilitary to consider
construction and you know thatto me maybe suck it up and just
(55:44):
get over it because it's worthit.
And sharing this on LinkedIn,sharing it with people that are
in that stage of their life,hopefully it'll help them at
least expose them to otheropportunities or have them talk
to other people.
Maybe they recognize anotherindividual who might benefit
from it.
So hopefully something thatI've said in this hour long
(56:05):
discussion might resonate withsomebody and help improve their
life.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
Tim, I appreciate your time, man, and I'm really
glad that we finally got to linkup and I don't think this is
the last of our long distancerelationship, if you will and
we'll have to figure out a time,if you're down here, to roll
together here in Texas, or I'llfind an excuse to go back up
Northman.
So I really appreciate yourinsight and I love getting to
(56:31):
talk to guys from your communitythat have transitioned into the
industry.
If folks want to get a hold ofyou, what's the best way to do
that?
Speaker 1 (56:40):
I would say LinkedIn is probably the best way.
It's just Tim Welcher onLinkedIn.
I don't have a huge presence onthere, obviously, but that's an
easier way to kind of letpeople Well one.
I want to encourage militarypeople to get on that platform
because it does work.
That's how I found you isLinkedIn through with Adam, so
(57:01):
it's effective.
I'm not going to give them aphone number right off the bat
when I got on the podcast, butI'm pretty call-so.
And then if they're in the arealike EDA contractors is the
company I work with.
They want to join the team,happy to take a resume, talk to
them or help them out along theway, or finally, at a jujitsu
(57:25):
gym.
There you go See what they'rereally made of.
After this podcast is over, wecan stop and hop on and we'll
talk to you.
Jitsu, all you want, all right.
Speaker 2 (57:36):
I love it All.
Right, tim.
Thanks again, man.
Speaker 1 (57:39):
Thanks, scott, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
Yes, sir, if you're a military veteran in the
construction industry or you'rein the construction industry and
support our military vets andyou'd like to be a guest on the
podcast, you can find me atconstruction vet podcast at
gmailcom, or send me a messageon LinkedIn.
You can find me there atscottfriend.
Let's share the stories andmotivate others.
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