All Episodes

October 8, 2025 35 mins

How much knowledge is walking out your door every year?

In this Titans of the Trades episode, Ryan Englin sits down with Manja Horner, Founder and CEO of Boost, to tackle one of the most urgent problems in construction: capturing tribal knowledge before it disappears.

Manja explains how decades of tips, tricks, and hard‑earned craft insights often vanish when veteran workers retire. She shares a framework to capture, organize, and pass on that knowledge, so your company’s “secret sauce” lives on for the next generation.

If you’re a construction leader worried about losing key people or struggling to train new hires, this conversation is packed with actionable steps and inspiring ideas.

Key Takeaways

  • [02:03] Why 30–40% of the skilled trades workforce is retiring soon.
  • [03:26] A true story of a master craftsperson walking out the door and everything lost.
  • [05:50] The mindset shift leaders need to take ownership of training.
  • [08:50] What counts as tribal knowledge (and it’s more than you think).
  • [10:01] Why training is a skill and not everyone knows how to do it.
  • [17:24] How to capture insights from field crews who don’t sit at desks.
  • [22:33] Turning hours of interviews into a usable, searchable library.
  • [30:51] A sneak peek into Boost’s AI-powered internal knowledge search.

Connect With Manja:

Website: https://www.boostld.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manja-horner/

Support Titans of the Trades:

If you found this episode insightful, please subscribe, share, and leave a review for Titans of the Trades. Your support goes a long way in helping us bring more impactful discussions your way.

Mark as Played

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.