Blue-Collar BS

This week on the show we talk with Jared Millar, co-founder and head of operations at Big Blue Collar, a growth partner built specifically for blue collar businesses. Before getting into marketing and operations, Jared spent years running his own tile setting business, so he's coming at this from inside the trades, not just as an outside consultant.

A lot of the conversation centers on a mindset shift Jared sees constantly: business...

We're joined by Jim Vinoski, a Gen Xer who spent over three decades on factory floors before turning to writing about American manufacturing. He wrote for Forbes for seven years and is releasing a book profiling 22 of the best American manufacturers, built on stories he collected from a career spent inside the industry rather than looking at it from the outside.

We talk about how manufacturing has been unfairly written off for decad...

Daniel Walsh grew up with a father who was a plumber, but he couldn't have foreseen that his career would eventually lead him to serve people just like his dad.

He ended up creating a tech platform for the trades. Daniel is the founder of VeroSkills, an AI hiring platform built to solve one of the biggest headaches in the trades, finding good people fast, without the cost of a full staffing agency.

We talk about how small businesses...

This week we're joined by Toby Van Sistine, Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Builders Association (MBA), whose path into home building started with a detour into aerospace engineering before he landed in construction for good.

We dig into a theme this show returns to often: why Gen Z isn't seeing a clear path into the trades, and how Toby's own son found his way into an electrical apprenticeship almost by accident. Toby's take:...

This week on the show we're talking about something most business owners never think about until they can't find people to hire the pipeline. Tom Hermann is an educator who spent 24 years as a principal and now works on connecting schools with businesses through experiential learning. And he's got something important to tell you.

There's a massive gap between what schools teach and what the real world actually looks like. No amount ...

This week on the show we're exploring something most business owners don't talk about the mental game. Brad's been writing about his golf experiences and how they directly parallel running a business. Not in a cute, surface level way. In a real way that matters to how you lead and make decisions.

The thing about golf is it reveals exactly what's happening in your head. You can have all the physical tools, all the knowledge, all the ...

This week on the show we're talking about something that might be the most important thing you never thought about who you're spending time with. Jamar Jones wrote a book called "Change Your Circle, Change Your Life" because he realized that his ability to consistently change his circle of people was what got him where he is. Not his skills alone. Not his hustle. The people around him.

Most business owners go through life never real...

This week on the show we're discussing a real life example of how home service businesses operate when they don't have their systems dialed in. Without the proper CRM and real processes, you and your team are winging it. You're losing time and money while everyone's frustrated because they're not on the same page.

In this example a large landscaping project was what the homeonwere needed. They called 10 different companies and only ...

Brooke Laing is a steam fitter and welder apprentice in her third year with UA Local 46 in Toronto. She's also the Chief of Strategy for the Sisterhood of Trades and just started her own podcast. So she's got something to say about what it's really like for women coming into the trades right now.

The barriers are real. Women have to prove themselves in ways men don't. There's harassment that supervisors aren't taking seriously. And ...

A lot of younger workers are going through major organizational change for the first time. When leadership announces big shifts without spelling out what success looks like, they're left trying to figure it out on their own. They came in with their trust bucket full. But when the clarity doesn't show up, that bucket empties fast.

The real problem isn't the change itself. It's announcing change without defining what success looks lik...

David Hewitt is one of the first guests we've had who's led teams across the world - China, Europe, Asia, and North America. This gives David a completely different perspective than many of us would have. One of the starkest differences is how people view work.

In China, people didn't mind hustling because it got them to a goal. In Europe, work hours are strict and asking someone to stay late is basically a non-starter. Very differe...

When uncertainty hits whether it's weather, natural disasters, or the unexpected how you respond reveals your leadership. We talk about what separates leaders who have plans from leaders who are making it up as they go.

The difference between chaos and calm isn't luck. It's preparation. It's knowing what matters when everything else is falling apart. It's writing down who does what, what gets protected, and what the actual prioritie...

Let's welcome Pat Riley onto the show this week. As an entrepreneur for years, Pat made a big pivot into working for someone else. That shift gives him a unique view from both the owner's and employee's side.

This conversation challenged stereotypes we all hear Gen Z isn't lazy, Boomers aren't just selfish stock watchers, and bringing decades of experience into a new role doesn't mean you're stuck in old ways.

Pat spent years owning ...

We break away from our usual educational episodes to talk about what's actually going on in our lives. Steve's daughter is graduating, Brad's rebuilding a trailer, and the roasting begins immediately starting with Steve's 40 yards of concrete project that never happened.

Our conversation bounces from home improvement disasters to paint color debates (chartreuse with zebra stripes, anyone?) to what summer looks like when we're not re...

The trades can't find people. Employers know this. Yet most are still ghosting qualified applicants and ignoring an entire demographic that wants in. Zoey Bryant's story shows both problems at once young workers getting shut out and women never making it past the application stage.

Zoey dropped out of college after realizing she hated classrooms. Her mom suggested welding. She went to trade school, got her certifications, and then s...

Brad's Friday game night exists because he got uncomfortable during COVID and started networking. That group of strangers a travel agent, Microsoft expert, idea coach, and HR consultant became the friends now playing ridiculous word games together. More importantly, they became the network that solves real business problems.

That network paid off when a client texted Friday at 10:30 AM needing 2,000 square feet of outdoor storage sp...

Sam Goldberg swore he'd never work at the family business. A high school internship building packaging machines at Econocorp proved him wrong. What started as a summer job on the assembly floor turned into a passion that led him from intern to COO of the 60-year-old company his dad owns.

The intern-to-COO path wasn't handed to him despite being the owner's son. Sam's dad made it clear: "I can get you in the door, but I can't help yo...

Ann Ensenbach is back for her second appearance to share what's happened since moving Apex Group to the Carolinas.

The company now has multiple locations and three divisions - manufacturing machining, research and development, and military armor products.

What started as one smaller location turned into acquiring a company that was going out of business due to tariff impacts and dependency on outsourced products. Their loss became ...

We weren't aware of ESOPs before this conversation, and chances are you haven't heard of them either.

Employee Stock Ownership Plans can drastically change how you run your business and transform the lives of your employees.

Publix is one of the best examples of making their employees' lives better. Cashiers who may never make more than $20 an hour but stay there 20-30 years retire as multimillionaires because of employee ownership...