Women in Welding: Breaking Barriers in Skilled Trades Careers with Shanen Aranmor

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If you're good with your hands, we needto encourage the crap outta that so that
you are gonna be a builder, whether you'regonna be an engineer or you're gonna be
a welder or an electrician, whatever.
But like we need to encourage,I mean, there's a school
in Illinois I am aware of.
They are required to take a quarterof home ec or take a quarter of
electrical, a quarter of welding.
You know what I mean?
Just, just.

(00:20):
Open the world to the kids.
Let them know what there is out there.
'cause most kids don't know.
Hi, I'm Andrew Brown.
You're listening to The Lost Artof the Skilled Trades Podcast.
A show that shines the spotlighton careers in the skilled trades
that are high paying, honorable,rewarding, and fulfilling.

(00:42):
The trades are the backbone of theeconomy that keep us running, and without
them, our world would cease to exist.
Alright, welcome back to another podcaston the Lost Art of the Skilled Trades.
I'm super excited 'cause I am down hereat the Welding Summit down in Woodlands,

(01:04):
Texas, and I met Shannon Aranmor Yeah.
Lemme get it.
Let me get it right.
Uh, from Weld like a girl.
Correct.
Uh, welcome Shannon to the show.
Thank you, Andrew.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Um, I'm gonna throw this statisticout to you and I just want to
hear your thoughts about this.

(01:26):
Um, the welding workforce data site fromthe American Welding Society says we have
about four to 5% of women who are welders.
Why do you think we don't have morewomen who are in the welding field?
And that only stays about four to 5%.
It is increasing, but usually when Italk about this, I say, do you know

(01:48):
that uh, only 95% of welders are men?
And they're like, wait, what?
Like, you know, put, put the spin on it.
Um, you know, right now.
The, the, the world is shifting.
We are definitely seeing more women andhigh school girls interested, more single
moms interested in going back to school.
The, it, it is turningthe, the tide is turning.

(02:10):
And in construction in general,I know, uh, NAWIC, the national
women, uh, in construction group,they've, I think they said 14% of the
construction trades now are women.
Um, but I think it just,it hasn't been encouraged.
It has not, it's not been somethingtraditionally that you are even
allowed to explore if you're female.
I know where I live.

(02:31):
I've had, I've had young ladies comeup to me and say, I really wanted to
get into welding, but my dad said Ican't 'cause I wanna go to the prom.
Interesting.
I'm like, what does that have to do?
Anything, anything?
And she's like, well, I can't bea girl if I want to be a welder.
And I was like, you don'thave to make that choice.
So sometimes what I'll do if I'm gonnabe interviewed or filmed or something

(02:51):
is um, if it, if it's like a. An eventthat's gonna be recorded, that's kind
of gonna be used for young women.
Um, I'll even like goa little over the top.
I'll get a little more girly than Inormally would, um, just to show them that
yes, you can be in a dress and you can goto work with steel toes on the next day,
but you have to, you know what I mean?
I think we just really need toencourage, we don't set, we don't

(03:14):
provide a lot of opportunities.
Now, there are some fantastic places.
There are schools and there are communitycolleges and there are businesses
that have maybe opportunities forgirls to test out welding, but we
just don't have enough of those yet.
And so how do you knowwhat you don't know?
Like how do you know you likewelding if you've never even seen it?
Yeah, and it's interesting too becauseit depends how you grew up, right?

(03:35):
Um, if you were, your parentssaid, Hey, go to college, right?
But maybe you had a technicalspark or mechanical ability.
And I always say this like,what is happening in schools?
Are kids sitting down with guidancecounselors and guidance counselors saying.
You know what, you'll bereally good as a welder.
I don't know if thatis actually happening.
And it's like, where are shopclasses in schools and kids

(03:59):
just don't have the information?
And then they go to college andthen sometimes they figure out
after, or they drop outta college.
Maybe they're in their midtwenties and then they find trades.
Well, so I, um, when I was completingmy welding degree, I was a substitute
at a high school and this young mancame into my classroom and he said,
I really wanna take your class.

(04:21):
But the, the principaltold me I was too smart.
I was heated.
I marched in her officewithout really knocking.
And I was like, what are you doing?
And she said, well, these kids can'tbe successful in English class, so
we're gonna put them in welding.
And I said, ma'am, do you wantyour bridges built by people
who cannot read directions?

(04:42):
Right.
She's like, well, what do you mean?
I was like, there's, there's wps,there's blueprints, there's all
kinds of things, and it's a reallytechnical area, but you are now
announcing to the entire school thatif you're dumb, you go into the trades.
I was like, that's exactly the oppositeapproach that we, we need to take.
If you're good with your hands, we needto encourage the crap outta that so that

(05:03):
you are gonna be a builder, whether you'regonna be an engineer or you're gonna be
a welder or an electrician, whatever.
But like, we need to encourage,and maybe even, I mean there's a
school in Illinois I am aware of.
They are required to take a quarterof home ec or take a quarter of
electrical, a quarter of welding.
You know what I mean?
Just, just open the world to the kids.

(05:23):
Let them know what there is out there.
'cause most kids don't know.
If your parent's not a welder,how do you know what welding is?
How I did not understand the depth ofmachining until I started contracting
with project MFG Project manufacturingthere, welding and machining competitions.
Especially at the national level.
I mean, this is reallyhigh end competitions.

(05:46):
The winning team gets ahundred thousand dollars.
That's a lot of money.
Oh yeah, that is a lot.
50,000 goes to the school and then 50,000goes to the team of usually three or four.
I'll be on the welding side of thecompetition and then I get to see
machining and I was like, whoa.
If I had seen this in highschool, I don't know what, what
direction I might have taken.
I mean, I love welding,don't get me wrong.
One of my favorite things, but I justdidn't even know what CNC machining

(06:08):
was 'cause I'd never seen it.
So how do you know what you don't know?
You gotta get kids out there to,to get their hands dirty on stuff.
Any of the, um, spark force or anyof like, it used to be called nuts,
bolts and thingamajigs, any of thosekinds of camps that you can have kids
participate in so they can see tokind of test drive stuff is definitely

(06:29):
the way to at least open the door.
But specifically to yourquestion for girls and women.
Remove the stigma.
It's not a man's job.
There are some fantastic people on socialmedia that talk about this all the time
and, um, uh, they're entertaining becausethey'll talk about, you know, um, one of
the approaches is this woman has reallysuper long nails, which I couldn't do, but

(06:52):
she's talking about like, you be prettyin the, in the workforce and you're not,
you're not trying to steal someone's man.
You're just trying to do your own job.
And, and I think the more also thatwe have women who are intelligent
and they do trade jobs that arewell-spoken and entertaining, the more
we're gonna have access to that too.

(07:13):
Kind of giving you permissionto be whatever you wanna be.
You don't have to be like, oh,I can't go to the prom because
I'm gonna wear steel toes.
Yeah, you gotta be who you wanna be.
But at the end of the day, you know,when you're talking about stigmas in,
in, in schools, and it was always thoughtas like an option B for a kid like you.

(07:34):
They're, they're one of the bad kids.
They're not, they're not excelling.
So yeah, you can be a welder, aplumber or, or an electrician.
And I think those adagesare starting to go away.
What you were saying, like on socialmedia, when you see somebody and I,
I always think of somebody who's, uh,doing great things on social media.
So someone like, um, let's say,uh, I'm just trying to think.

(07:57):
Um hmm.
Well, I look at Built Pretty.
Okay.
Yeah, she's in construction.
Um, I believe she graduated from Harvard,so that's totally not what you'd expect
for someone in the trades anyway.
Um, but, uh, she's well spoken.
She will go up to different tools andexplain what the Bridgeport is all

(08:17):
about and how exciting it is and howit, what it builds and what it does.
So she's educating at the same time.
As she's promoting the trades andbecause she's a dynamic personality
and a fun vivacious young lady, like,you wanna look at her, you wanna
listen to her, you wanna follow herand be like, yeah, I could do that.
Oh, it just popped in my mind.

(08:38):
Jamie McMillan.
Okay.
She's an iron worker up in Canada.
Yes.
I've got to meet, uh, her.
I spoke with her at a vocationalschool, uh, last year.
She's doing great things.
Like she's a dynamic woman.
She cares.
Um, she had an interesting background.
She's a DHD.
Like you can really relateto someone like that.
And I love those type of stories.

(08:59):
And I'm gonna be speaking tomorrowabout, I know I get to introduce you.
Oh, even better.
About inspiring sort of the nextgeneration attracting Gen Z. And
really it's about understandingwhat they want, what Gen Z wants.
You know, it's a lot of the themes, uh,we were talking about, um, during the,
the whole conference is mentorship.

(09:22):
Having a mentor.
Some of them, some people have nothad mentors, someone to look up to.
Um, but I believe it's abouthow do you connect with that
generation, especially someone youknow, who's a little bit older.
So how does Gen X connect with Gen Z?
Someone who's just sort ofcoming into the industry.

(09:43):
And I believe that Gen Z has differentmotivators because those are the
next generation of welders from13, age 13 to age 28, that's Gen Z.
That's our next workforce.
And how do you, how do you connectwith those individuals to, like
you said, get them interestedin working with their hands?

(10:04):
Well, I, um, I try todo it earlier than 13.
Um, I have 22 second graders that comeinto my school twice a year, and seven
and eight year olds are sponges and.
Um, what I typically do, Iwork with, uh, in the mornings.
I have a high schoolprogram that comes in.
They're a charter high school andthey don't have any trades programs.

(10:26):
So they come to my fab shop for threehours a day, Monday through Friday, and
they learn how to do real life projects.
We've done fabrication projectsfor the city, the state, and
different parks, um, the county.
And so they're in the, the processof learning how to build things.
And then I will have 22 second graderscome in once a semester and the high

(10:48):
school students become the mentors.
It's, it's fantastic.
Andrew.
I'm gonna tell you, the firsttime I did it, I was ready.
I had my helmet on, I was like geared up.
I was a little nervous about this and Istood back and I was like having one of
those moments where your eyes start tosting a little bit and I was like, this
is exactly why I quit my big girl job.
This is why I left corporatemanufacturing to, to spark a difference.

(11:13):
And to like ignite that firein the kids, but also to
empower those high school kids.
They didn't think they could.
I didn't even tell 'emthat this was gonna happen.
'cause some of them have,some of them are, are at risk
in, in different ways, right?
And so they, they showed up one day andI said, oh, uh, I got about 20 minutes.
I need the extra, extra, extrasmall gloves at that booth.

(11:33):
I need the extra smalls at that booth.
I need extra small jackets.
I was explaining where, wherein our facility, everything had
to go, miss what's going on.
I said, well, we got 22 secondgraders coming here in 20 minutes.
So you gotta, you gotta snap,you know, step it up, miss.
What do you mean?
I'm like, well, you're gonnateach them how to weld.
Well why didn't you tell us?

(11:54):
I said, would you havecome to school today?
No.
Well, there you go.
There's your answer.
That's why I didn't tell you.
So when you can, so there's so manygood things that happen with this.
Um, but one of the things is that thehigh school students are empowered.
They wanna come back.
And so they might actually stayin the trades or they'll just

(12:16):
explore them more as options.
But then those seven and eightyear olds, they didn't know
what welding was the day before.
And you'll hear them like,little bubbles bursting.
Yeah.
Like coming up from soda andthey're, I wanna be a welder.
And they're all excited.
And so, you know, starting, starting thatpassion that early, like I, I feel like
we're, we're focusing too much, too late.

(12:40):
We have to start earlier.
Kids don't know what they don't know.
If you don't have anyone in thetrades in your family, you don't
know what those trades look like.
How do you know you could be the bestelectrician or carpenter in the whole
world, but you didn't even know thatthat existed or so many other trades.
I mean, think of it,NCCR has 70 plus trades.
There's, I didn't even knowthere were 70 trades growing up.

(13:01):
Like we just gotta, wegotta start really early.
Yeah.
And I think reaching sortof the younger generation.
Um, especially, and I, I keepsaying Gen Z because that's really
our, our, our next workforce.
Uh, but having those type of programsand teaching them at an early age, and
it's really up to us, even organizationsand companies absolutely right.
They need to look, we can'tbe invisible in, we need to

(13:23):
show up where they are, right?
Whether it's social media, whetherit's at a middle school, whether it's
at an elementary school, um, but evenwhen you do show up at an elementary
school or you show up at a middleschool, you need to be impactful because
it's a different audience, right?
So if you're speaking in front ofadults, it's a little bit different

(13:44):
than speaking to a 10-year-old or12-year-old because they tend to tune
out, you know, sometimes quickly.
And it's funny, I was thinking about this,um, I was, uh, speaking at a vocational
school and I speak at some vocationalschools, uh, around the country, and
it was the first time I was doing this,and I was like, okay, I, I've spoken
to obviously a lot of audiences, but.

(14:06):
Not so much kids.
So I was like, how do I connect with them?
I was like, let me go to my ownkids and let me ask them, how do I
connect with a younger generation?
And my daughter, who's eight, Averyand my son, 11 Ethan, he's like,
dad, you have to talk about Fortnite.
You have to talk about Xbox.
You gotta talk about cell phones.
I'm like, really?

(14:27):
That's Roblox?
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Rob.
Oh, thank you Roblox.
That too.
So the next day I show up nineo'clock at the school, and
the first thing, I say, who?
Who plays Fortnite?
Who plays Xbox?
The thing is, I got their attentionright away, but I needed analogy.
If the power went out,your wifi would go out.
You wouldn't be able to connect to yourgames and linemen and electricians.

(14:49):
This is what they do.
It was, it got them connected.
If I stood up and I said, you knowwhat, we need 320,000 welders by 2029.
They look at me like eye roll.
Mm-hmm.
Like eye roll.
So I knew it can, I knew it worked becauseat least six of those kids came up to me
after just inquiring about the trades.
And that's how you connectto the younger generation.

(15:10):
So yes, we can be pur purposefulof getting to the the schools, but
we need to be impactful that weneed to make some sort of impact.
So my solution is to bring a welder.
I have a portable booth.
I bring a welder, I bring someinterns or some high school kids.
And, um, we bring tons ofPPE in different sizes.

(15:32):
And during career fairs we have a streamof children coming through and they will
pull the trigger and they get to see thesparks and the auto darkening helmet.
They've got one person, um, helpingwith PPE, getting on jackets and
gloves that are the appropriate size.
'cause now they make some woo woo.
Um, but, uh, and then explainingthe auto darkening helmet, now

(15:53):
you're going through a career fair.
It's a pretty quick turnover, so thekids don't get to learn a lot, but
they at least get their hands on itand then they can ask more questions.
And so once you've openedthat door, game changer.
I love that.
And if parents see that as wellwith their, if it's a career day and
they're with their kids, then theycan start asking questions as well.

(16:13):
I think, um, that type of work also.
Gamification, vr.
Um, I had a chance, we were talkingabout Fabtech, uh, before we started
recording, and I made my way onto theAmerican Welding Society's trailer.
So people who don't know, theyhave a trailer that goes around.
Um, and Stephanie Hoffman, I thinkat that time was running the,

(16:36):
uh, running the, uh, the trailer.
And I remember going on the trailer,so they have five or six Lincoln
Electric virtual welding machines.
And I remember seeing this kid, Jordan,Jordan never welded before young kid.
And he is with his parents.
He just happened to go onto the, uh, thetrailer and they set him up and all of
a sudden he simulated did some sort ofbead and he got an 80 out of a hundred.

(16:59):
All of a sudden he lit up, like, wow.
Even the parents like, wow,maybe Jordan has this mechanic.
Maybe Scott, you know, just has it,and he is also competitive, so now he's
gonna wanna get a better score than 80.
Exactly, exactly.
On top of then the conversation started.
So having not, yes, onsite, I thinkit's great if, if you can set that up,

(17:21):
but also the virtual side, like um,uh, AWS's trailer, but also there are
companies like Transfer and Interplaylearning that do these VR experiences
that kids can really start learning.
I remember just putting on the shieldand, uh, running the transfer system
and I was in a factory and all of asudden the belt went down and I had to

(17:42):
put the helmet on and I had to, well,it just got me in like, oh, okay, now
I get a sense for what it's about.
I like that real world application.
That transfer has, I also really,like Miller Electric has a
handheld, it's really inexpensive.
The Lincoln Electric Vertex arefantastic, but they're $46,000.
Um, a handheld one for $3,000 is muchmore likely for maybe, um, companies to

(18:06):
go to a career fair or even like, havethat in the guidance counseling office.
Right.
While you're waiting for your appointment.
Play welding.
You know, I don't know.
It's, I, I think you're right.
You know, the gamification ofthe trades is definitely gonna be
important in our upcoming years.
But there are some tools now that areout there that are not inaccessible.
Most people can't afford a $50,000machine, but a $3,000 machine you

(18:30):
can get a grant for, or maybe that'sjust part of your HR bus budget.
If you're a manufacturing companyand you're trying to recruit the
people that you need in the future.
While we were talking, I was thinkingabout another program that works really
well because we talked about that a nota lot of shop classes in schools, uh, and
some teachers are taking that initiativeand creating their own shop class.

(18:51):
So I'm thinking about, uh, there'sa, a teacher by the name of Edwin
Jarrett, AKA, the dope teacher.
That's what they call him, right?
I dunno if you know him, but he'sout in Pennsylvania and every
day he goes live on Instagram.
And these kids who were like 10, 12years old, they have blow torches.
You.
They have sawzalls, they'recutting under supervision.

(19:11):
We talked about obviously, you know,getting kids used to working with,
you know, torches or power tools andhe's doing this and all of a sudden,
you know, there's water coming outtapipes and they're trying to plug
the hole, like he's taking it onhimself to teach those students.
And that program is now well known.
But if more programs were like thatexactly, kids would be more interested

(19:34):
in potentially working with their hands.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, so I come from askills USA background.
I competed nationally in weldingfabrication and so, um, pretty heavily
involved with skills, but also, uh, withproject MFG, which I'd mentioned before.
Project MFG does welding competitions,machining competitions, and additive

(19:57):
manufacturing competitions to reallyelevate and promote the skilled trades.
Fantastic.
My second event with them, uh, one of myfavorite people that works there asked
me, he's this old grizzled army guy.
He's like, Hey kid, whatdo you think about this?
And I said, this is great, butwho's here at any competition?

(20:19):
What you've got are high school orcommunity college programs that are
already participating in welding.
What we need to do islook outside of that box.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Like keep encouraging that like crazy,but we need to go outside of that box.
And I said, look, if you'refishing in the wrong, so sorry.
If you are fishing in the same pond,you're never gonna find different fish.

(20:41):
Ooh, I like that.
And he was like, okay, what do you got?
And I said, there's 11,000 homeschooledchildren in the state of Arizona.
None of them have access to CTE programs.
Like, oh wait a minute.
So he's like, all right, um, we'regonna do a competition in your shop.
It has to be the end of the fiscalby the end of the fiscal year.
And I was like, bro,that's June in Arizona.

(21:02):
Like, do you have any idea where I live?
And so it was really warm that firstyear, and now we do it in, um, either
January, February, or this year.
We'll be doing it in November.
But, um, but what we do is ateam of three homeschooled kids
with no welding experience.
We match them up with peoplethat are not their own siblings.
So we don't have any of that,you know, me fighting and stuff.

(21:24):
Mm-hmm.
Um, and they have in the morning,they have an opportunity.
They get matched with a mentor.
Each team gets matched with a mentor.
And, um, how old are these kids?
Uh, 10 to 17.
10 to 17, okay.
And the ratio of, uh, boys to girls?
Um, is it, it's, I would, I haven'tlooked at the actual percentage,

(21:44):
but I would say probably about.
65% boys, 45% girls.
Like it's, it's almost equal.
Um, it might be equal some days.
It depends on which, you know, butthe homeschooled parents, I mean,
they have such freedom in their time.
They can, they can decide, you know,I'm gonna teach this unit in two hours
or I'm gonna teach it in 10 hours.
So, um, what happens is in themorning, the mentor connects with them.

(22:09):
They have approximately an hour forwelding, approximately an hour for
cutting, whether it's plasma cutting,oxy fuel cutting, or, um, chop saw.
Uh, we have done, um, angle grindersbefore with cutoff wheels, and
that was too stressful for me.
I had to like, we had to let that one go.
Um, but I do use variable speed.
Uh, all of my grinders are variablespeed, so I turn them way down

(22:31):
when we're working with kids.
That's smart.
Okay.
Um, and they don't have that kick.
Yeah, they're a little heavier,but they don't have a kick.
Yeah.
There's a lot of torque in those.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And so we'll use now likejust flap discs for that.
But, so then they have, um, another, thethird hour in the morning is to look at.
Blueprints.
Very basic, very basic welding blueprintsand like, how do you assemble things?
Then they have lunch and then theycome back and they are given a print.

(22:55):
Everyone's given the same print and theyhave three hours to compete to build this
particular thing, and then it gets judged.
Oh, okay.
And um, the first year we let the kidsdecide who got to take the project home.
The second year, I have a sign inmy shop that says all disputes will
be solved by rock, paper, scissors.
And I thought that was fantastic.

(23:16):
But we got a few complaints from momsthat were like, well, why couldn't
we get a third of the project?
I'm like, I. We made a doghouse outof metal, and if you cut it into
three, it's not a doghouse anymore.
So then we realized we don't, that'snot gonna be our approach anymore.
So we find a local nonprofit andI work with them ahead of time
to figure out what project we'regonna make 20 or 24 of or whatever.

(23:37):
And that way they can auctionthem off or do whatever they're
gonna do for a fundraiser.
So the kids are now con contributingto the community as well.
I love that.
How long?
It's fantastic.
How is this going?
On a couple years?
Yep.
I think we're in our, uh, we'll be,I think we're in our fourth year now.
Okay.
Is there, do you have sponsors that.
Help with this, or We have, um, wehaven't, and we had not in the past,

(24:00):
but this past year we had a localcompany that, um, does framing and
they donated all of the material.
They donated the money for the material.
Um, but yeah, we're, we're definitelylike gonna have to figure that out
'cause we wanna grow that program.
And Project MFG is the, theoverarching, it's their competition
hosted at Wild Like Girl.
And, um, I, there's prizes.

(24:23):
I mean, it's just, it's cool and it's fun.
And, uh, our local south southwestbusiness contractors, um, they came to
talk to the kids about a career fairthat they have where you can go and do
active things over a two day period.
So it's, um, it's growing.
But the, the cool thing isthe kids work as a team.
It's a fabrication team of three.
They have to work together.

(24:44):
And so what some of the teams willdo, the kids will decide, I'm better
at this, you're better at that.
And they'll actually delegate.
Other kids are like, let'sdo everything together.
And it doesn't really matter to us.
We just, you know, the mentor stepsback and is there primarily for safety
or if the kids can't lift something.
Um, but in the afternoon it'sthe kids working on the project

(25:06):
themselves and at the end of theday and local nonprofit benefits.
And so everybody wins.
It's a win-win around.
Is there one sort of story orsuccess story out of that program?
Is there one person that sticks out?
One participant, one boy, one girl.
There's one that I haveon my social media.
Um, his name is Jace and he talks aboutbeing a 10-year-old cowboy and welder.

(25:29):
He's so confident.
I just love it.
Like he's, he's adorable.
Um, but one of the things thatreally strikes me is, and we try
to make the, the projects smallenough that the kids aren't.
First of all, they'll fit onour welding tables, but also
the kids aren't struggling.
We don't wanna set themup for failure in any way.
Um, but there was this one littlegirl, I mean, she was just tiny.
I think she was 10 or 11 years old,and she goes and picks up this two

(25:54):
foot by two foot eighth inch plateand just picks it up like she is
Wonder Woman and brings it over tothe plasma table and slams it down.
And she's like, I got this.
And I'm like, yeah, you do.
Yeah.
So it's, it's just a really empoweringkind of day kind of experience for them.
Um, but a lot of them have gone onand taken a welding class at our
local community college or they've,you know, used, um, we have a program

(26:18):
called ESA in, in Arizona, and that'sbasically the educational equivalent.
Um, so whatever the child would'vecost to go to school, the family can
use that on educational materials.
Um, there are some prettystrict restrictions now, but
it used to be that they could.
Take a class with me andthen go buy a welder.
'cause that's now aneducational piece of equipment.

(26:39):
So yeah, I mean, we're, we'removing the needle a little bit.
I mean, we've, you know, not impactedthousands of kids yet, but That's right.
But you're, we're, we're working on it.
Right.
But it's, it's a slow progression.
Right.
And you're, you're making impact.
There are obviously programs out therethat are making impact, but the, just
to see the, and I, and I'm say it wasChase, Jace, the young Ja, Jace Jace.

(27:01):
Mm-hmm.
Um, at 10 years old,who was also a cowboy.
Yeah, no, he totallyidentifies as a welder.
Now, after one day, wow.
Uhhuh, um, I, I don't even knowwhat I was even doing at 10
years old, but I wasn't Exactly.
Wasn't like, uh, but at least they're,even if they don't go into, let's say,
the trade, they, they're still, youknow, getting familiar using their hands
and they can do stuff around the house.
I, and they don't necessarily haveto go down the path, of course,

(27:23):
if it's not right for them, butat least they're getting exposed.
That they want to take, youknow, an extra step or take a
course or go to a welding school.
And, and another important piece that Ithink we forget sometimes is that if kids
don't go down the path of the skilledtrades, they now have a respect for it.
They now understand like,oh, that's, that's hard work.

(27:44):
Or that's, that's morecomplicated than you might think.
Anytime someone takes a classwith me and it could be an, uh,
an adult, they walk out going, oh,that's where they make the money.
They make like, yeah,because you don't just.
Walk up to a TIG machine,grab the tools and within 20
minutes you're awesome at it.
I mean, there are very few exceptions,but like for the most part, I

(28:05):
tell them, I'm like, people go toschool for 16 weeks to four years.
Absolute.
To become proficient at this.
And it's practice and practiceplus patient sequels progress.
You gotta just keep, go,keep doing it, keep doing it.
Reps. And, and you know, I rememberthe first time that I put down a, a
decent stick weld, I was so excited.
I go up to the professorand I'm like, look at this.

(28:25):
And he looks at me andhe goes, okay, good.
Burn a thousand more rods.
I'm like, no, but I got it.
And he's like, no, goburn a thousand more rods.
And I was like, what?
This guy's hard.
And then I was like, ah.
'cause sometimes it'sbeginner's luck, you know?
And you've gotta have that muscle memory.
But even if people don't go into theskilled trades, just to have that
appreciation of the work and thecraftsman craftsmanship that goes into it.

(28:48):
It, I think it's really important.
It's a, it helps 'em develop respect.
It is, and it's a sense offulfillment as well, by getting,
you know, that work done.
Um, but you, you need tohave the technical skills.
You also need to have the soft skills.
And you, you talked about skills.
USA and I light up every time that I,I, I hear about skills, USA 'cause I
was down there last month, um, and Iwas down there with skills, USA who

(29:12):
did a partnership with TikTok, and Iwas one of three creators to go down
there and create videos and content.
And I spoke to a lot of kids, butI, I went over to, did you see
the welding sculpture competition?
Yeah, no, I, I saw the, the, theaftermath of all the sculptures.
Yeah.
I, I like to go through and Itake video of all these sculpture.
I'm like.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
We don't, we don't, uh, have live welding.

(29:34):
We, we have live welding there,but we don't have them construct
their, the sculpture there.
But that's, um, I'm the techchair for that and I love it.
It's, it's so crazy.
And I'm like, these kids are young.
How do they have that, youknow, just as such a young age.
And I, I think of like Barbie, thewelder, like, she was, like, she had said
that she was just, she learned herself.

(29:55):
Like she was not, like, shejust, no one really taught her.
She was kind of like,she did it on her own.
But these kids at a such a young age, someof the high school projects are better,
or at least as good as the communitycollege or, you know, post-secondary.
But anyway, you were saying Iinterrupted 'cause I was excited
about welding sculpture, but, um,you were at, you were at skills.
Yeah.
Skills.
And you know, when, when you thinkabout shortages and, and welding

(30:18):
and other trades, you go there,you're like, where is the shortages?
Because they're not anywhere.
And these are just high school kids.
But they're super excitedto want to learn a trade.
And we were talking about soft skills.
The kids that are come outtaSkills, USA, that are a part
of Skills, USA, they have both.
They have to, they have both.
It's part of thecompetition it's built in.

(30:39):
And some of those kids, theyget offers right off the floor.
Um, and I, I love when you walk into someof technical schools and they have the
skills, USA flag and you talk about it,and the sh you know, the shop manager,
whoever's there, they light up, theystart, oh yeah, you know, our students
went there and we got second place.
And I just, I love it down there.

(30:59):
I. Um, I've been on an airplane severaltimes and um, first time it happened
I was working for Miller Electricas a trainer and I had a helmet bag
and the guy looks over and he islike, is that a, a welding helmet?
He's the guy sitting in the middle seat.
And I said, yeah, it is.
And he asked me something and um,he said, where are you headed?
And I said, oh, I'm justcoming back from skills.
'cause we, um, as a team, we wouldalways go and help and set up

(31:22):
and judge and all that at Skills.
And he's like, oh, skills.
USAI competed in that.
And so he was all excited.
He had, um, he had done somekind of like, job display, um,
and he said it changed his life.
And I said, oh, I, I know it did for me.
I mean, I'm, I'm a welderbecause I competed in that.
And the funny thing is I did notexpect to, and I didn't want to.

(31:44):
My advisor asked me one year,I was doing part-time 'cause
I was going back to school.
He asked me, would you be a part ofSkills, USA, the fabrication team?
I said, Nope.
Why?
He said, because, 'cause Ididn't grow up with tools.
Oh, okay.
I didn't grow up with power tools.
I took a machine tool class.
There is a bandsaw that's stillin this school where I now teach
part-time that bandsaw, Andrew,it is big enough and powerful

(32:09):
enough to cut a frozen cow in half.
I heard those words and I'm like,whoa, stepping back, not happening.
So while I wasn't necessarilyafraid of tools, I learned how to
use those tools in that program.
I don't want you to rely on me.
What if I didn't learn enough?
What if I wasn't experienced enough?
What did you know?

(32:29):
Is that enough mentality?
Right?
And so the next year he askedme, would you be on the fab team?
I said, Nope.
And a couple of weeks later he came back.
He goes, okay, would you agree tobe the alternate to the alternate?
I was like, that soundsback up to back up.
That sounds pretty safe.
The next day I was the alternate.
Within two weeks I was on the teamand we were competing at regionals.

(32:49):
We won regionals, we wentto state, we won it state.
And I'm like.
This was so not whereI was going, you know?
And, um, when we got to nationals,we did not podium and that's okay.
I know exactly why.
It was our teamwork,it was our soft skills.
Um, but specifically ourteamwork score was low.
And I, I knew exactly what was happening.

(33:10):
Um, one of my teammates every day duringpractice prior to going to nationals,
would stand there and hand me a grinder.
And I'm like, I'm not your grinder girl.
We have to all do this.
We are a team of three.
And we, the rules said that eachteammate has to be able to do all welding
processes in all the positions required.
And so I've gotta be a part of this too.

(33:31):
And so that was like, um, weweren't, we weren't, we did not
have the best team dynamics.
I tried hard, but, you know, that's okaybecause, and that was the last class
that I had to do because within about ayear I was at Skills USA on the stage.
Hanging medals and I have gotten to hangmedals every single year since then.

(33:52):
So while I didn't earn a medal, Ihave the privilege of hanging medals.
I love that.
Mm-hmm.
I love that.
So it totally changed my life.
Yeah.
Imagine if you just neverwent, I, I was chicken.
I didn't do it for like two years.
I was like, no.
So what do you tell, I don'twant you to rely on me.
So what do you tell somebodywho's thinking in your situation?

(34:13):
I don't, I don't want to be there.
Do you, do you recommendthem to a hundred percent?
Take chance?
Well, I, I say, you know, practice.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, that's the thing.
We had, once we knew we were goingto nationals, we had about a month.
And so every single weekday wemet as a team and we built things
and we read blueprints and.

(34:34):
I got to be pretty goodat reading blueprints.
So anything that had to do withthat, like that was my job.
And then someone else, hewas really good at this.
And so, you know, we kind of identifiedour strengths knowing that we all
had to share in every aspect of it.
But, um, but you're gonna getbetter if you don't practice.
You're never gonna get better.
And, um, one of my, one of myteachers thinks that I said this

(34:56):
and I, I think he said it, but,um, we both give each other credit.
He's a, um, former Marine, soprobably it's probably, it was
him and he's just being nice.
But, uh, he said, practiceplus patience equals progress.
Perfection is not necessary,but you have to be in it.
You have to be there.

(35:17):
You have to show up.
And when you show up and youlearn how to use those tools,
you build your confidence.
You may not be the best, butit's not always at skills.
USA, it's not always the bestwelder or the best, in my case.
'cause I'm the tech chair forwelding sculpture for nationals.
It's not always the bestsculpture that wins.
It's the combination.
It's the complete package.

(35:38):
Because for, for weldingsculpture, they create a sculpture.
They have to put together aprofessional portfolio, a notebook.
They have a written knowledge examabout all basic, but all four processes
in both cutting, uh, four weldingprocesses and two cutting processes.
So even if your sculpture is allTIG welded, you still have to have
a basic knowledge of other ones.
Right.

(35:58):
Then you have an interview.
And now, two years ago we added thelive welding component so that we know
that you actually did some work thatyou actually can do because you're
showing up with a sculpture that'sbeautiful, but how do we know that
you're actually the one that did it?
Right?
Of course.
And so there's, we're, we're,we try to put like, hmm.
Evidence, I guess inthe notebook and stuff.
But this is a live welding componentis, is kind of one of the things that

(36:22):
we're using to help us with that.
So you could have the best sculpturepossible, but if you have nothing
in your notebook that's you're notgonna hundreds of points, that's
not gonna, you're not gonna win.
So what set the winner apart?
Oh my gosh, Andrew, this year.
It was one point betweeneach one, one point.
One point.
So what was out of a thousand points?

(36:42):
It is nerve wracking.
I can't stand it sometimes.
So how did that one point,what, what was the difference?
It could have been you got, you gottwo more points for your sculpture on
creativity, um, but you scored threepoints less on your welding knowledge.
I mean, it's because we have so manycomponents and the cool thing, because

(37:05):
it's such a challenging competitionto score, uh, you know, it's, it's
a subjective art is subjective.
So what I do is I have a minimumof three CWIs that look at the
weld and if they've ground down thewelds in their documentation, there
should be photographs of the welds.
So they're looking atthe welds and the cuts.

(37:27):
I have a minimum of two people that haveeither degrees or a lot of experience
in art, and that way they're lookingat design, creativity, negative space,
positive space, all that kind of stuff.
Different perspectives.
CWIs will have maybe nothing to do with.
Right.
And then, um, we have usually a minimum.
So sometimes it's more, but usuallyI have about three people that are

(37:50):
not in welding at all and not in art.
They are the people that comein and go, would I buy that?
You know, like it used to be when wewere in Kansas City, it used to be
the head of baking that would come in.
She was my Oh, that's funny.
And but as long as youjudge each sculpture Yeah.
And you, you use a consistent rubric.
It doesn't matter if yourbackground's different than mine.
Yeah, I like that.

(38:11):
You know, and so it's, it's tryingto be fair as, as, as fair as you
can be in a competition that is,I mean, there, there's no theme.
We don't restrictparticipants to have a theme.
So you might make somethingthat's really meaningful to you.
And that could be a, a largemouth bass, for example.

(38:31):
We always get fish every year.
And that could be reminiscent of thetime that you went, the times that
you went fishing with your grandpa,and that's really important to you.
And then someone else might create asculpture with roses and maybe that
has to do with something in importantin their life, a family member.
So how do you compare fish to roses?
That's true.
So you, so wait, wait.
Who, who, who won?

(38:52):
Um, do you remember what the, the,well there's two different levels.
There's the secondaryand the post-secondary.
Um, I, I mean, I could look upmy text, but I can't remember.
There's so many good onesand I don't judge them.
I am in the interview process,but I. I'm the tech chair.
I don't have time anymore, which is good.
It takes a lot of stress offof me because it's, it's hard.

(39:12):
Yeah.
It's all hard.
I usually tell my judges like,walk through and then, but also
keep the post-secondary and thesecondary in different buckets in
your head because you're, you'relooking, you can't compare them.
They're gonna be competing independently.
Um, but they were, they were all,I mean there were so many fantastic
sculptures and the competition.
Now has the, um, kind of the walkwaywhere you can meander through.

(39:34):
It used to be just around in theper perimeter and sometimes the
sculptures that weren't as maybe likedramatic didn't get the attention.
But now that you have to walkpast all of them, people see
sculptures in a different way.
They're like, oh, I wouldn'thave noticed that one.
But that's really cool.
Yeah, I remember going live on TikTokwith my audience and I was going
through that and Sarah Stork Yes.

(39:55):
Came on and she's like, yeah.
And 'cause you know, she's,yeah, she was one of our winners.
Uh, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I know Sarah becauseshe competed for, um, twice at
Skills and she podiums both times.
She is an incredible artist andshe's a really kind person and
she's got a fantastic attitude.
Did she tell you about the sandwich story?
She did not.
Okay.

(40:15):
Well, I'm gonna maybe botch thisstory a little bit, but hopefully not.
Um, basically someone found out a,a male person found out that she
was a welder and he was like, well,why don't you just go back in the
kitchen and make me a sandwich?
One of Sarah's really beautifulsculptures is a giant sandwich.
Oh, no way.
Yeah.
Oh, that's, and she did such a cool job.
That's funny.

(40:35):
Yeah.
So she made a sandwich.
That's funny.
Um, she's supposed, I'm gonna bringthat up because she's supposed
to be on a, a future episode.
So Yeah, ask her like,do you make sandwiches?
Yeah, just ask her.
That's the first question.
Okay.
So do you make sandwiches?
Do you go to the kitchen and makesandwiches or do you go to the
welding shop and make sandwiches?
Yeah.
Oh, that's gonna be a fiery episode then.
Yes, it will be.
Yeah.
She's cool.
Oh, that's awesome.

(40:55):
Yeah.
I love that.
Uh, you're a part of skills,USA and that's also, I'm gonna
bring that up tomorrow during mypresentation about programs that
are really working out there.
Um, did you have a, a, did anybodyin your family, did you grow
up, anybody in your family was awelder or nobody in your family?
No one.

(41:16):
Huh.
So, um, my background's a little weird.
Um, I was the first person in my familyto go to college because it was expected.
You're going to go to college.
So, um, what'd you study?
What'd you?
Biology.
Biology.
Oh, you really kind of really,I love, well, I love science.
Yeah.
And um, and I was really good at it.
I wasn't very good at math.

(41:37):
In fact, I was the kid that waslike in the gift and, and talented.
So they put you in thegift and talented math.
And I'm like, oh God.
So, um, I remember in eighth grade puttingmy hand on my hip, looking at my teacher
saying, I'm never gonna use algebra again.
And then in ninth grade, lookingat my geometry teacher, I was
struggling so hard in geometry.

(41:57):
I'm like, I'm never gonna use this again.
Super sarcastic, right?
But I love science, unfortunatelyfor a lot of families, and I've
seen this so many times and a lot offamilies where no one went to college,
they don't know how to guide you.
So I'm like, well, whatdo I do to go to college?
And they're like, I don'tknow, just figure it out.
So what do I study?
They're like, I don't know.
What do you like?
Well, I like biology.

(42:17):
I like science.
So you get out of school.
With a four year biology degree,and you are qualified to do nothing.
I mean, really, like, we didn'teven have Starbucks back then,
so I couldn't even be a barista.
So I mean, I just, Ididn't know what to do.
And they were like, you can go tomedical school, you could teach high
school, or you can go on to grad school.
Okay.
Or, so what I, I wound up, um, workingfor two years in big pharma and realized

(42:40):
that I was selling my soul to thedevil and that wasn't gonna happen.
So I went back to grad school.
So anyway, um, became a collegeprofessor in a completely different area.
I was in the field of wellness.
Oh, you really kind of zigzaggedit out, but, but I'll tell you, the
way it all connects, it all does.
It's magic.
It, I didn't expect that.
But, um, so I was a college professor inwellness and I taught stress management

(43:04):
as one of the classes, and I drankthe Kool-Aid and I thought that you
should become a college administrator.
And so when I moved to Arizona,I became a college administrator.
I learned a lot of things aboutmyself, and one of them is
that, that is not my passion.
Um, everyone's angry.
It's the opposite of wellness.
Students are angry at faculty.
Faculty are angry at administrators,and administrators are angry, okay?

(43:26):
So they wouldn't let me teachvery much, but I, I held onto
the stress management class.
I say this for a very specific reason,'cause that's how I got into welding.
Every time I would teach stressmanagement, I would try to find
something out, either at the collegeor something in the community that
that would be relatable to people thatcan't close their eyes and breathe
into a box or say, oh, or whatever.

(43:47):
Like some of the traditionalstress management things were.
So in Iowa I did boxing, beginning,beginning, intermediate, advanced boxing.
And then in Arizona I did blacksmithing.
You take a piece of hot metal,you stick it in a forge, everyone
has hearing protection on, soyou can say whatever you'd like.
Raa, raa, ra as you're smashing metal,and then you make something beautiful.

(44:08):
You can give it to your momfor Mother's Day and you can
say, mom, I made this for you.
I thought about you the whole time.
Right.
So, um, when I was, um, when I wastaking blacksmithing one semester,
the instructor came to us and said,I'm actually leaving in a few weeks.
We're moving to Colorado andthis class is going away.

(44:28):
And I went to the head of thewelding department and I was like,
look, taking this class, I thinklike eight times, I don't even know
how many semesters I've taken this.
So I'm a novice blacksmith 'cause I keeptaking the same class over and over again.
But I'm a a really good teacher, so ifyou'd like, I could be your placeholder
until you find the right person.
And he said, very wisely, I'lltake a chance on you, but you
gotta take a welding class so thatthe welding students don't have a

(44:51):
vocabulary that you don't understand.
So, okay.
So that next semester, the onlything that was open happened to be
welding sculpture, didn't matter.
I just, it was like a survey class.
It wasn't a very artsy class.
It was more of a, a littlebit, a couple weeks of this, a
couple weeks of this, you know.
A couple weeks of that and I found out Iwas really terrible at Oxy fuel welding.
And so the next semester I took OxyFuel welding 'cause it's not gonna win.

(45:14):
I'm the granddaughter of a stubbornIrish woman and Oxy Fuel is not gonna win
At the drop add week, I went to thatsame guy that gave me a chance to, to
teach the blacksmithing class and Isaid, look, it's drop bad and I don't
wanna fail so maybe I should justlike, I don't know, audit this class.
And he, he gave me a really wise pieceof advice and I will tell students

(45:36):
this probably every week of my life.
Just when you are re sorry.
Just when you are ready to give up, youare one week away from a breakthrough.
And I was like, oh, I dunno.
Okay.
So I went to every open lab available.
I practiced and practiced and practiced.
We'd now passed that Sunday, thatwas beyond the the drop add week.

(45:58):
And I'm getting nervous.
I went to all the open lab and onenight I get in there and there's a young
man who had taken some of the classesI had taught as, um, as an instructor
and he was in the welding program.
And I said, Steve, what is the secret?
'cause I'm not getting this.
I don't, I mean, you're now like thewhole mentor becomes the mentee thing.

(46:19):
You know, I, I was college professor,administrator, now I'm asking this
college student for advice 'causeI don't know what I'm doing wrong.
And he said, you gotta find your song.
I'm like, what?
This is where you're punking me, right?
Remember I still have to giveyou a grade this semester?
And he's like, no, I'm serious.
You gotta slow down.
You gotta find a way to relax'cause you're going too fast.

(46:40):
And so the next night I come in foropen lab and I hear the carpenters
playing through the lab and Igo, Steve, is that your song?
He is.
You kill, you tell anyone you die.
I'm like, okay, your secret, safe with me.
I'll never reveal his last name.
Um, but anyway, hispoint was to slow down.
And when I finally.
Just sat down and just tried to relax.
I'm like, okay, just chill out.

(47:02):
And I got it.
And I was so excited.
I was like a 5-year-old.
I was like, oh my God, look at this.
And from that moment forward, the,um, the instructor called me welder.
Ah.
And that's another piece.
Validation.
Yeah.
Because you become empowered now.
Now it's possible for me to do this.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And so, um, fast forward, he keptasking me if I was gonna get the degree.
I'm like, I don't need another degree.

(47:22):
Thanks.
And, um, skills, USA competedat nationals, came back, didn't
podium, but we did a very good job.
And a young man who had beenvery sexist and obnoxious to
me was struggling at a machine.
And he said, Hey Shannon,can you fix this?
And I listened to the noise that themachine was making and I go, I can, I can.

(47:48):
So I, I said, um, I, I'm gonna getthis degree and I wanna, I, I said, I'm
going to work for the best damn weldingmanufacturer in the co uh, in the country.
He's like, uh, the head of the departmentsaid, okay, well teach for me for a
little bit, work part-time at a fab shop,get some experience and then do that.
And so that's how I became atrainer at Miller Electric.

(48:09):
Oh, okay.
And so, um, at Miller, when I wastraining in all my territory was Denver
and West Edmondson, Canada, a and South.
I was all over traveled like a ton.
It was almost a hundred percent travel.
And when I would work with predominantlymen, largely the population was men
that were men with, like they were intheir fifties that had changed jobs.

(48:32):
Maybe they were working for Granger ormaybe they were working for somebody
else the weeks before, or maybeeven like Firestone or something.
They were somehow adjacent to welding,but they weren't really welders.
And then they were working fordistributors and, and my job was
to make them look like rock stars.
I would say it doesn't matterwhat color the wrapper is, the
theory is gonna be the same.
Yeah.
So you're gonna be really good at this.

(48:53):
Even if you can't weld really well,you're gonna understand what you're doing.
And honestly, if you're a salesperson,you only have to weld a short weld
because then you put the torchin their hand and because they
wanna show you what they can do.
Right.
So I did this and here'swhere it all ties together.
This guy looks at me and hegoes, you're like a little ninja.
You come in and you encourage us, andthen you like sneak outta the booth.

(49:16):
He's like, you're a welding, you're awellness coach with a welding helmet.
But you have that backgroundof being sort of a teacher.
Yep.
And it's, it's helped you throughoutyour career to teach others.
Exactly.
I could tell it.
I could tell.
Yeah.
And I'm super passionate about it.
Yeah.
My sister knew how to write completesentences when she got kindergarten.
'cause I'm four years older than her.
Uh, she knew who multiplicationtables in first grade.

(49:38):
'cause I learned 'em in fifth.
Interesting, right?
Like flashcards andall that kind of stuff.
'cause that's just always been in me.
Um, so, but I think the, the wellnesspiece really has helped me so much because
I can work with, at risk youth, I can workwith veterans, I can work with special
Olympians, I can work with people ofall different abilities and disabilities
because it's part of what you do.

(49:59):
You kind of translate you, you figureout where someone's at and, and
figure out how to explain it to them.
I grew up with a special needs aunt.
She wasn't down syndrome,but it was adjacent.
It was a chromosomal, uh, issue.
And I realized when I was about 11that she was always gonna be 10.
And that was, that was tough.

(50:20):
That's tough.
But it was also like,now we're not fighting.
'cause we used to like pincheach other as we were kids.
She was just eternally 10.
And then that, thatrealization made me step up.
And from that moment forward,I'm like, now I'm your protector.
And when she would feel dumb orsomeone would say something that was
confusing, my job was to translate.

(50:41):
Ah, okay.
Mm-hmm.
So that makes you Yeah.
A better teacher.
And I don't care what thetopic is, I just happen to be
super passionate about welding.
I love welding.
I love, like my phone weldingdogs, welding, donkeys, welding,
run, running marathons, welding.
Like, it's, it's just,there's, it's just everything.
And I love it.
I'm so passionate about it, but I, I loveto, to ignite that spark in someone else.

(51:06):
I love to see the light bulb go on overtheir head and they feel super empowered.
I'm like, yeah, that's it.
Yeah.
You have that natural abilityand thanks for sharing about
that story about, about her.
Um, but you found your passion andyou've found what you love to do.
Not many people get to do that.
And it's, it's interesting how the, justthe, um, you know, your path, it just, you

(51:29):
didn't come from a blue collar background.
It just, you know.
Just worked out that way.
Uh, but you're doing amazing stuff.
Um, is there anything else that wedidn't cover that you'd wanna share?
Um, just anything aboutyour program or, sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's, well like agirl, but we are co-ed.

(51:50):
I wanna make sure that I'm clear.
'cause a lot of times guys willbe like, what I wanna learn?
I'm like, great, butit's well like a girl.
I'm like, yeah, 'cause I'm a girl.
And honestly the name is because whenyou say you run like a girl or you fight
like a girl, it's usually an insult.
And you will get high school and collegeprofessors across this country that tell
you that girls can make better welders.

(52:12):
Now, I'm not gonna say thatgirls are better at welding.
I'm gonna say girls are easierto teach at younger ages.
If I have a high ski, if I have like ahigh school girl and a high school boy,
same age, 17 ish somewhere, 16 ish.
He's gonna hip check me, shovepast me, get in the booth and
burn the crap out of everything.

(52:33):
'cause he already knows what he's doing.
Now I'm making a gross generalization,but I, this has happened several times.
Yeah.
More than several times.
You have experience with that?
Yes.
The high school girl will say, okay,so when I do this, this happens.
And, you know, we go through the motionsand when I do this, this happens.
And then, and she'll ask 20 questions.
By the time she actually pullsthe trigger or strikes the

(52:54):
arc, she's about halfway there.
I have to go back in the boothwith the boy and say, okay, you
done burning my stuff up now?
'cause this is what we really wanna do.
And they're like, oh, okay.
So I think, you know, that balancesout after obviously a certain age.
Um, but initially it's easierto teach girls and I think it's
'cause they're, they're partlyafraid they don't wanna get hurt.
They don't know anything about it.

(53:15):
And so they're like, I just wannamake sure that I'm doing this right.
So the name well lick a girlis, um, to say, yeah, I, well
lick a girl, try to keep up.
Actually, I don't do that, but some of mygirls, some of my interns have said that.
Um, but yeah, so we're a, we're aworking fab shop and um, we work, we
have classes for the private sector.

(53:36):
You know, if you, you and your kidsare happening to come through Yuma,
Arizona, you can be like, okay, I'lllook at the website, or I'll give
her a call and see what's going on.
You could take a class thatwould be like a three hour class.
You would, it's all project based andso you guys would take home the thing
that you're supposed to make that day.
Then I also work in the mornings,as I mentioned, with um, uh, charter
high school and then I work with othercharter high schools and I work with, uh,

(53:59):
juvenile courts sometimes, um, a coupletimes a year I get to work with special
Olympians, do some things with veterans.
Um, wanna do more with that.
Uh, there are some resources thatI'm exploring, but I also have
the only power hammer in our town.
Okay.
Okay.
So, 'cause the blacksmithing, right?
Where, that was whereI started with welding.
And so, um.
When my sister decided to moveto Portugal, um, I was kind of a

(54:21):
little mad at her for, for leaving.
'cause you know, Portugal's notquick, not a quick trip from Arizona.
So she, um, I think she tried tobribe me by giving me a power hammer.
So, um, so we have a powerhammer that's named after her.
It's the Allison Asosa.
Interesting.
Mm-hmm.
Never heard that before.
Yep.
Uh, so it's, uh, that's our name for it.
But anyway, um, the veterans, there'sa, a program called vet art and there's

(54:43):
some other things that we're tryingto explore with veterans to, to really
help them, you know, take any of thestress or anxiety out and, and make
it something productive and healing.
I mean, a lot of, a lot of potteryclasses, a lot of blacksmithing classes
that I've heard of and that I've seen,um, for vet that are made specifically

(55:05):
for veterans are very therapeutic.
What is it like for you when someonemakes a breakthrough through your program?
Um, I try to keep myself together,but sometimes I'm like, I think
I have something in my eye.
Um, I think that that day that, um, thehigh school students were teaching the
young, the, the second graders that was,uh, that day my husband walked in and

(55:27):
he looked around and he is like, whoa.
I said, this is what, whatI quit my big girl job for.
This is why I don't have thebenefits that I used to have.
This is why I decided to breakoff and make my own company.
And yeah, I mean, it makes it worth it.
It's really hard.
I mean, having your own business,especially if you're not manufacturing
something, you know, I'm prim primarilya school, but, 'cause I'm a school,

(55:48):
I'm a fab shop, but I'm a school andso you have to give opportunities to
students and that's the main thing.
And so you're not gonna do anything quick.
So if someone asks you to makesomething, my first question
is, what's your timeline?
'cause if you need it now I'm aCWI, I qualify welders all the time.
I can give you people that can getthis done faster than we can, but
I'm not gonna probably do it myself.
I'm gonna have other peoplehelp me because that's the

(56:10):
only way they're gonna learn.
Maybe if it's really important, I'll do momost of it, you know, but still, I'm not
gonna have you just hand me the wrench.
Like, I don't want, I don't want thatkind of relationship where, you know, dad
has you hold the flashlight or something.
That's not how we do it.
You're gonna be in there.
So, um, I think that that's part of it is,you know, that we just, we we're, because
we're not a manufacturing facility, we'renot, uh, a high volume fab shop, that

(56:34):
does kind of hold us back a little bit.
But, um, I have two students whohave gone on to get full ride
scholarships to pipe welding schools.
Ah, super cool.
One of them, well, bothof 'em are employed.
One of them, um, well, uh, one ofthem employed full-time and the other
one, um, has to wait till he is 21.

(56:54):
He has a CDL, but he, he wantsto work on the pipeline, but he
has to be 21 in order to, to.
Operate with a CDL.
Um, but I've had several other studentsthat were the first people in their
families to get a full-time job.
I love that.
That's gotta be so fulfilling to you.
Amazing.
Amazing.
I I just, you know, when people findtheir own passion and what they're
supposed to be doing, and it soundslike it just, you know, you're

(57:18):
happy No Sunday night blues for you?
No.
I mean, it's just, uh, no.
You work a lot.
Yeah.
I mean, they're, they'renot a lot of days off.
Mm-hmm.
You know, coming to the weldingsummit, I'm like, God, I'm sitting
so much, I'm so uncomfortable.
My hip flexors are tight.
Like, I don't, I only sitwhen I'm eating lunch.
But, um, but I love it and I love thefact that, um, as a part of running
my own business, I can, I can, Ican explore things that I can teach

(57:44):
my interns and my students, um, youknow, workshops or Warriors is here.
Lyle Palm is here from workshops Warriors.
They're out in San Diego.
They're a fantastic facility.
They offer machining and welding forveterans and people transitioning out of.
Military?
Well, I've done workshops with them tryingto recruit women, trying to help them get

(58:04):
more female veterans into their program.
But this past year they askedme to join them at their gala,
which is on the USS midway.
Ooh, beautiful.
Okay.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
It's, it's a, it's an expensivefancy dress up dinner.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, when they asked me to dothat, I, I said, well, you know,
could I donate something becauseyou're comping my tickets and my
husband and I would love to join you.
And I'm thinking like,I'll just make something.

(58:26):
And then a couple weeks go byand they're like, oh, you're
gonna be our featured artist.
I'm like, you guys, I'ma welding fabricator.
I'm not really an artist, butapparently I can't get outta that.
So now it's just, I'mgonna have to own it.
But, um, come on.
So, um, so I made something thatI didn't have a lot of time to do,
but I put my heart and soul into it.
And so I didn't have the studentsweld a ton of it, just 'cause I,

(58:47):
I've like, this has to be a piecethat someone's gonna spend $8,000 on
to donate to workshops for warriorsor, you know, somewhere about there.
Um, but.
That is the kind of thing thatI try to teach the students too.
We're gonna make donations.
Some of the things that you do aregonna go to whatever this national

(59:07):
foundation is gonna be, and it's gonnabe a local chapter most of the time,
just because I wanna keep the moneylocally, um, to help our community,
but I want them to be a part of it.
So you're gonna build something that,that is going to help benefit other kids.
But most of the structures that webuild are permanent installations.
They're like, welcome signsor things that are very big.
So as you drive by, you'relike, I was inside of that.

(59:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, so it's, it's kind of an interestingway to do things, but I want, I want
them to be as involved as possible,but like this, um, flag that I did for
workshops for Warriors, um, I alreadyknew how to braise, but we, we were
brainstorming interns and I, and soI was like, what if we took shotgun?
Actually, my intern Graysonthought of the, um, shotgun

(59:52):
shells as the stars of the flag.
So, um, I experimented taughtthem, we braised everything from
the back to kind of hide it, butit, the heat input blew the metal.
So the blue background of thecanton of the American flag.
Oh, right.
So like, I get to experiment as thebusiness owner, I get to experiment, I get
to learn things, I get to make mistakes.

(01:00:14):
I, that way when I go back to thestudents, I'm like, I already made
this one, so this one's not yours.
You have to make your own mistakes, butI, I already learned this one for you.
Um, but everything I do, either as afabricator or as an artist, I can help
them, I can translate that to them and belike, Hey, what do you think about this?
Or what if you, have you evertaken stainless steel stick

(01:00:35):
stick electrode on steel, rusted?
The steel stainless isn't gonna rust.
They're like, whoa.
You know, like, like the things that Iget to screw up as a person who owns this
business, um, it, nothing is ever wasted.
That's the thing.
Mistakes are your best teacher.
No, no experience has ever wasted.
Yeah, that's a great, if you could sharethose, if you can share those pictures.

(01:00:57):
Sure.
I would like to share it alongwith this when this episode airs.
Yeah, absolutely.
As well.
Absolutely.
So we could definitely, I'dlike to take a look at that.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, that's an honor.
Um, I was pretty pleased.
Yeah, that's an honor.
It was.
I, um, well, and I mean, no pressure,like, it's only workshops for Warriors
and it's only on the USS midway, andI'm like, like all I could think of
is please someone at least buy it forlike, at least a thousand dollars.

(01:01:19):
Like, I just, you know, I put alot of time, as much as I could,
but I didn't have a lot of time.
Um, but I'm already working,I already have, um, ideas for
next year's project, and so I'llstart it significantly earlier.
Yeah, you'll have more, more time.
Yeah.
I'm sure it came out and, and came out.
It was cool.
Yeah, it was interesting.
I mean, there's alwaysthings that you look at.
If you're a fabricator or anartist, there's always things that

(01:01:40):
you're like, oh, I wish I, I, Iwould do this differently, but I'm
like, I just had to let that go.
That's the wellness piece too.
I have to practice that.
I'm like.
Take a deep breath in, let it go.
This is what came out.
Right.
This is what we have.
It's only only so much you can control.
Right.
And also I think too, if yourintentions are good, I really do.
A lot of times when you buildsomething, it may not be perfect,
but if you are putting your heart andsoul into it, it's the right thing.

(01:02:03):
I a hundred percent agree with that.
And you'll get betterevery time you do stuff.
Right.
It's uh, it's just reps practice.
Mm-hmm.
Exactly.
If people wanna find out moreabout you on social media or your
website, where, where do they go?
So, um, Instagram is weld like agirl, um, with, uh, underscores
in between weld like a girl.
And then our website is,uh, weld like a girl us.

(01:02:26):
Um, I'm also on, uh, LinkedIn, welllike a girl and then also Shannon Amore.
And um, Facebook is well like a girl.
I just, I think it's just us afterwards.
I don't think it's a.in there.
Um, so I used to do Twitter,but it was super time consuming.
I do TikTok kind of just gettinginto that just because of all, all

(01:02:47):
of the security issues that werequestionable for a while for TikTok.
So I'm kind of a newbie.
I think I've probably postedmaybe a hundred things to TikTok,
but I'm, I'm working on it.
I'm getting there.
I, I will learn.
Yeah.
That's great.
Um, I will post thatall in the show notes.
Perfect.
Thank you for everybodyto see, uh, amazing story.
Uh, I'm glad that, uh, weconnected here, uh, at the summit.

(01:03:09):
Uh, thank you for so muchfor being on the show today.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for inviting me, andI'm, I'm grateful that I get to be, um,
the person who to introduce you tomorrowat your speech at the welding summit.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
Alright.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to TheLost Art of the Skilled Trades.
Visit us@andrewbrown.netfor more resources and tips.

(01:03:33):
Join us next time for real stories andmeaningful initiatives as we celebrate
our men and women in the skilledtrades and shape the future together.

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