Empowered Entrepreneurs: Why Skilled Trades are Making a Comeback

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:13:12 Shaniqua Why are people ditching desk jobs and choosing trade work? Today we're diving into the resurgence of skilled trades where Gen Z and seasoned pros alike reshape the workforce. 00:00:14:00 - 00:00:34:12 Stephanie Could a career as a skilled laborer provide you the satisfaction and stability that you're seeking? Let's explore this concept with trade veteran and successful entrepreneur Rusty Brindle, who is all about quality, ethics and relationships. 00:00:34:12 - 00:00:37:07 00:00:38:03 - 00:00:38:20 Shaniqua Well. 00:00:38:22 - 00:01:00:02 Shaniqua Welcome back to another From Illumination To Innovation Vodcast episode. I'm your co-host, Shaniqua Brown, the president and founder of Elevated TA. We empower government agencies to hire the top talent. And with me today is my incredible co-host, Stephanie Crane. 00:01:00:04 - 00:01:18:20 Stephanie Thank you. Shaniqua. I am Stephanie Crain also known as Corporate Mystic and owner of Tapas Innovation, and I am really excited for us to be here exploring the world of trade work and the resurgence. But we think it's happening well. 00:01:18:20 - 00:01:42:07 Shaniqua So there's been a lot of talk about, Gen Z exiting like a mass exodus out of corporate. And I don't know about you, but like for me, during the pandemic, I felt a lot of burnout. So I'm curious if this resurgence into skilled labor is like from some of the corporate burnout. What do you think? 00:01:42:09 - 00:01:59:09 Stephanie I think I, I think it relates to several things, and I'll be really curious to hear what our guest has to say about this, but I think it's a combination of that corporate burnout. There's a lot of toxicity in corporate spaces right now, and it's really not offering people sort of the fulfillment and purpose that they want in life. 00:01:59:11 - 00:02:24:07 Stephanie I think that there's a real need for people to be stimulated with tactile. There's a call work. I think that there's something that like really adds to sort of your sense of purpose. You know, when you're creating something or building something that you're putting yourself into. So I think that there's something that about that, that that's missing in the corporate world and a lot of. 00:02:24:09 - 00:02:48:14 Shaniqua Fulfillment is very important. You know, sometimes we could, there's work for the sake of work. And I think there's companies that are creating. And we talked about this during our Brand Shadow, a series with Leah where creating a widget just for the sake of widget, you know, this, app could change the world, but really, you're just there to profit some invest investors, right? 00:02:48:16 - 00:03:08:09 Shaniqua Yeah. And so I agree with you. The fulfillment piece is possibly, the fulfillment in tactile of the work could be the reasons why we're seeing that resurgence. So yeah, I, I hear that we have you mentioned Rusty Brindle, our guest, and, I, I'm very excited to hear what he has to say. Stephanie. 00:03:08:11 - 00:03:12:21 Stephanie Well, I are we ready to to bring him on to our show? 00:03:12:22 - 00:03:15:12 Shaniqua I think we should bring rusty on out. 00:03:15:14 - 00:03:16:04 Rusty Haha. 00:03:16:06 - 00:03:19:00 Shaniqua Come on. Welcome to the show, rusty. Yeah, I. 00:03:19:00 - 00:03:30:11 Stephanie Thank you so much for joining us, rusty. You know, rusty is the owner and artist of Terrarium Homes, and he has had a remarkable journey. 00:03:30:11 - 00:04:07:15 Stephanie He is his career has taken the span of law enforcement, auto mechanics. And now he is a business owner, a contractor entrepreneur. And he has a lot, I think, to say about, resilience and business, kind of bringing ethics to the forefront of business. And, you know, we're really excited to hear about your experiences as you've made sort of a, I think a mid career transition and to skill, trade, labor and, and what that's been like for you. 00:04:07:17 - 00:04:26:09 Rusty So disclaimer I was cheap labor for a contractor growing up fast. So I didn't have a choice. But by 13 I could paint a whole house by myself. As he. 00:04:26:10 - 00:04:27:12 Stephanie Made me, made sure that. 00:04:27:12 - 00:04:30:23 Rusty You made sure that I knew how to do that. Three houses. 00:04:31:00 - 00:04:35:08 Shaniqua Three house. What was the timeframe like? How quickly could you do it? The turnaround. 00:04:35:18 - 00:04:38:12 Rusty Back then, I mean, we're talking 00:04:38:12 - 00:04:42:15 Rusty 40 years ago. It took me 00:04:42:15 - 00:04:44:14 Rusty a week, maybe. 00:04:44:16 - 00:04:45:11 Stephanie A week to paint a. 00:04:45:11 - 00:04:50:12 Rusty House, to paint the outside. They were brand new builds that he had gotten the contract on. 00:04:50:17 - 00:05:03:04 Stephanie So your dad was a contractor? Dad was a actually, generationally speaking, this was something that was sort of handed down to you in a particular way, like from a skills perspective, like you, you were bringing. 00:05:03:06 - 00:05:10:09 Rusty Plus his heart. He he really tried to be good at what he did, but he found out that I was better at it. 00:05:10:09 - 00:05:22:11 Rusty So I got to do all the work and he could sell that man could sell ice to an Eskimo. But he never could get the work done. And that's where he's like, oh, yeah, you're coming with you're going with me today. 00:05:22:11 - 00:05:26:13 Rusty I'm like, dad, would. But I got plans. We're going to the lake now. Today. 00:05:26:15 - 00:05:45:01 Stephanie Wow. So anyway, fast forward to today and you're, you know, Rusty Brindle business owner. Tell us a little bit about Trainium. Trainium homes. And what you what kind of where your what your point of view is or what y'all specialize in. 00:05:45:02 - 00:05:54:20 Rusty We my wife came up with the tagline that we make dreams come true. Our experience, their dreams. Yeah. And we get to make it happen. 00:05:54:20 - 00:06:03:15 Rusty It's a labor of love. When I got out of law enforcement, I went. I just gravitated back towards it. And I was doing simple repair work on homes and. 00:06:03:18 - 00:06:06:11 Rusty There's there's money in it, but there's no, 00:06:06:11 - 00:06:15:09 Rusty there's wages. Because you can't, you're not going to make any serious money or any serious headway in finances, 00:06:15:09 - 00:06:30:06 Rusty repairing people's gates or even doing a fence or it's just not there. You spend more time driving between all the small jobs than to just go to a job and work all day long for a week or 2 or 3 weeks. 00:06:30:22 - 00:06:42:02 Stephanie So you started off transitioning just back into the trade itself and then quickly kind of saw that the only way you could expand was to actually build a business around it. Yeah. 00:06:42:02 - 00:06:42:12 Rusty And 00:06:42:12 - 00:06:44:03 Rusty We met our neighbor, 00:06:44:03 - 00:06:47:06 Rusty we would walk by his house, and he had a car frame 00:06:47:06 - 00:06:48:14 Rusty in the driveway. And I'm like, 00:06:48:14 - 00:06:52:05 Rusty he's doing restoration on something. I'm like, oh, okay, now we're talking. 00:06:52:05 - 00:06:56:00 Rusty I get that, so we start talking. 00:06:56:01 - 00:07:04:21 Rusty I was like, man, if you ever need some help, let me know. I got to meet this guy. He's doing a full off, full frame off restoration on an international scout 00:07:04:21 - 00:07:08:08 Rusty and he's flipping the house, and he's an architect 00:07:08:08 - 00:07:10:03 Rusty that has a full time job 00:07:10:03 - 00:07:15:04 Rusty doing design work and flip the house and did the the car at the same time. 00:07:15:14 - 00:07:18:06 Shaniqua Okay, multi-talented. 00:07:18:07 - 00:07:21:17 Rusty Well, it blew my mind and really made me go 00:07:21:17 - 00:07:26:08 Rusty because we did a lot of stuff that I had never done. That either one of us had never done, 00:07:26:08 - 00:07:35:10 Rusty and we just learned how to do it. I was like, wow, what else can I do? So it grew from there and 00:07:35:10 - 00:07:38:23 Rusty so did the projects and and the desire to take on 00:07:38:23 - 00:07:40:23 Rusty what I call major surgery on a house. 00:07:41:04 - 00:07:45:16 Rusty Sure. You know, when you start taking walls out or windows or. 00:07:45:18 - 00:08:13:20 Stephanie I'm curious, you know, when we, I think a lot of times when we talked about it in the opening, finding the satisfaction and stability, and there are some real trade offs when you go into business for yourself, when you're an entrepreneur. And, and even, you know, in the space of skilled labor and offering your services and having to grow your own skills while you're doing an all of that expansion. 00:08:13:20 - 00:08:41:04 Stephanie Just I'm curious, when you made that decision that you were going to leave, what probably a lot of people around you saw as like a really stable, structured position, and go off on your own. What kind of feedback did you get from, like your community and the people around you who were. I mean, I imagine people were supportive, but did people question the decision to kind of go off on your own and do this thing or, you know, was it I mean, I'm just a little bit curious. 00:08:41:04 - 00:08:48:08 Rusty Some of my coworkers were like, ma'am, at least you've got something to fall back on. They were stuck. 00:08:48:10 - 00:08:49:03 Stephanie Interesting. 00:08:49:08 - 00:09:04:00 Rusty Which I don't agree with. Is it stuck? You're only stuck because you want to be. Yeah, yeah. You know, but there. But his perspective, he was he goes I don't I don't have any other thing to do as this is going to do. Till I retired, I was like, 00:09:04:02 - 00:09:05:21 Stephanie So, you had to go ahead. 00:09:06:00 - 00:09:21:00 Shaniqua I was going to ask like, what was the impetus, like that moment when were you in law enforcement when you made the transition over into so what was the the moment where you decided to unstuck or unstick yourself in that to become your own business? 00:09:21:00 - 00:09:40:19 Rusty I didn't realize how much the cumulative stress had taken its toll. Because you get used to carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, you get used to putting on body armor every day. You used all that stuff. And then I spent five years as a sergeant 00:09:40:19 - 00:09:42:02 Rusty and 00:09:42:02 - 00:09:43:04 Rusty chief and I got along 00:09:43:04 - 00:09:46:20 Rusty with me. And Lieutenant did not he did not think I needed to be a sergeant. 00:09:46:20 - 00:09:51:19 Rusty So he spent four of the five years doing everything he could 00:09:51:19 - 00:09:53:20 Rusty to get me demoted, fired? 00:09:53:20 - 00:09:56:18 Rusty Yeah. I mean, just he tried to ruin my career. 00:09:56:18 - 00:10:03:20 Rusty I didn't have a problem fighting with him. I've fought all my life. Right? So I fight, fight, fight, fight. And one day. 00:10:03:23 - 00:10:05:10 Rusty My wife said. 00:10:05:10 - 00:10:09:20 Rusty I said something about fighting whatever else he had put on paper 00:10:09:20 - 00:10:11:01 Rusty to get me in trouble. 00:10:11:01 - 00:10:24:15 Rusty She goes, so what are you going to do? I was like, go fight his ass. That's it. We're I'm I'm not backing down. And she goes, you know, maybe this maybe that's what's got you in so much trouble with him. 00:10:24:17 - 00:10:26:15 Rusty The jury site, 00:10:26:15 - 00:10:28:12 Rusty and I took a deep breath and I was like. 00:10:30:13 - 00:10:32:06 Rusty But the cumulative stress. 00:10:32:06 - 00:10:40:23 Rusty I wasn't sleeping four hours a night. Maybe I would get four hours. I wake up drenched in sweat. Just wake up night terrors, and I. 00:10:40:23 - 00:10:47:22 Rusty What didn't I do? What did you know? Just that constant state of hyper awareness and everything else 00:10:47:22 - 00:10:52:06 Rusty I started having headaches. To have you ever. 00:10:52:09 - 00:10:55:05 Rusty You probably thunderclap migraines. 00:10:55:05 - 00:11:05:01 Stephanie Yeah, I have it really sounds like it was almost like, life or death choice for you. Like, your health and your stress level. 00:11:05:03 - 00:11:19:22 Rusty The way my therapist described it was you spent five years in fighter flight, and that 100% takes a toll on your adrenal glands. It told me all that. 00:11:19:23 - 00:11:32:20 Stephanie What was the transition then like for you? So you make the decision, you're going to move on. How did that feel? How did it feel to make the choice to to do the next part? 00:11:32:22 - 00:11:33:19 Rusty It was hard. 00:11:34:00 - 00:11:34:18 Stephanie I'm sure it was. 00:11:34:18 - 00:11:37:04 Rusty I had child support and 00:11:37:04 - 00:11:39:02 Rusty I had all 00:11:39:02 - 00:11:47:15 Rusty bills, not all the bill. I mean, my wife is working, you know, actually, she wasn't working at the time. 00:11:47:15 - 00:11:48:12 Shaniqua Oh, so this was. 00:11:48:14 - 00:11:50:16 Rusty I was like, I'm done. 00:11:50:18 - 00:11:52:14 Shaniqua This is an act of faith. 00:11:52:16 - 00:12:04:00 Rusty Yeah. Okay. And I knew she, she was between jobs. I was like I'm done. And I can't, I just can't do it anymore. So 00:12:04:04 - 00:12:06:17 Rusty It was a huge weight off my shoulders. 00:12:06:17 - 00:12:09:05 Rusty then that have to unpack. It took. 00:12:09:05 - 00:12:20:18 Rusty You would think it would happen just quickly. But I think it took me about two years to really decompress from all of that 00:12:20:18 - 00:12:29:13 Rusty then try and figure out what kind of life I want. I believe and be happy, you know, or truly happy 00:12:29:13 - 00:12:31:11 Rusty with what kind of life I want. 00:12:31:13 - 00:13:07:23 Shaniqua Rusty, what you're saying is just landing on me, and I'm pretty sure many of our other viewers, because right now, in especially in a tech landscape, there's so many people going through like hard times, whether it's like layoffs from their employer after buying a home and having starting a family. And now now what? Like what would you say to, you know, that person out there that's like in a situation where they have to, like, bet on themselves in their next move? 00:13:09:05 - 00:13:13:16 Rusty Man that's that's a that's a good one. 00:13:13:16 - 00:13:15:12 Rusty I'd have to say stand tall. 00:13:15:12 - 00:13:23:05 Rusty This is America. You want to go do something. This is the place to do it. I mean. 00:13:23:05 - 00:13:50:10 Stephanie Yeah. It's interesting. When I was doing research for the sun and there was a study that was put out recently, and it was talking about the resurgence of trade work in America. And specifically, I think the I love how we're always like either blaming or completely like saddling generations with like either saving or ruining the world. But, and apparently Gen Z is going to save the entire trade industry for us. 00:13:50:12 - 00:14:24:13 Stephanie But one of the numbers that put out there was, I think it was there's like a deficit of like half a million people, half a million laborers. You know, whether you're talking about plumbers, electricians, you know, builders, like whatever, whatever that skilled grout woods woodworkers, whatever that skilled craft is. And, because so many boomers are retiring that have had those skills and they aren't they weren't able to transfer those skills because because we went through kind of a big period of, go to college, go to college, go to college, and don't do these things. 00:14:24:13 - 00:14:57:02 Stephanie And so, you know, that whole apprenticeship sort of. So I'm just sort of curious from your perspective as a contractor, like, what do you know? And especially kind of playing off of Schnabel's last question about believing in yourself is like one, do you see any of this, you know, shifting how many do you see younger people trying to come into trade work and also a little curious around the apprenticeship piece of it, like, do you mentor or work with people in any way? 00:14:57:07 - 00:14:58:17 Rusty I have worked with 00:14:58:17 - 00:15:01:00 Rusty younger people. 00:15:01:00 - 00:15:07:00 Rusty I don't think they like to work as hard as I do. I have a problem with finding someone that 00:15:07:02 - 00:15:10:10 Rusty That can do what I do. And on the daily. 00:15:10:10 - 00:15:16:13 Shaniqua So is it like you're looking for, like how your you and your dad were. 00:15:16:15 - 00:15:22:00 Rusty Were. Well, I have three kids, and I didn't teach any of them. 00:15:22:04 - 00:15:25:19 Rusty I did show them some stuff, but. 00:15:25:19 - 00:15:31:07 Rusty I don't know that I want them fall back on it. I want them to go get an education and. 00:15:31:07 - 00:15:35:06 Rusty get paid for what? You know, not what you can do. 00:15:35:11 - 00:16:06:12 Shaniqua That is interesting. Okay, so what you're saying there's a stat that I think there's 50% of Gen Zers are leaving corporate going to skilled labor. And I believe there's about I can't recall if it's like 42% or 32% of millennials leaving the traditional corporate world and going to skilled labor. And when I talked to some of my millennial friends who have left, they decide to like transition because they want to leave work at work. 00:16:06:14 - 00:16:18:00 Shaniqua Like what? You know, it's like, getting paid for what, you know, is like constantly being on the job where it's like one of my dear friends who's transitioned into skill, labor says when she clocks out, she gets a clock out. 00:16:18:02 - 00:16:22:23 Stephanie That's that's actually a really interesting I mean that's a that's true. Like you know. 00:16:23:02 - 00:16:40:19 Rusty How do you promote an in a company and you become a supervisor. Then maybe they run in different shifts and then you have you're still you still have. It's a conscious choice to, to just to unplug when you leave and, and 00:16:40:21 - 00:16:55:09 Stephanie Yeah. But I resonate with that deeply because when I was a marketing leader, I mean, it didn't matter what level of the organization I was VP, I, I never not worked. I worked 24 hours a day all the time. My brain never shut off, ever. 00:16:55:09 - 00:17:01:04 Shaniqua Now there's like all the collaborate, collaborative tools to communicate excessively. Yeah. So that's. 00:17:01:04 - 00:17:03:08 Stephanie True. It is very on. 00:17:03:10 - 00:17:33:23 Shaniqua One last question before we take a quick break. So you've been in this space for quite some time, and you did mention that you haven't found anyone that, like, worked as hard as you from like, the younger generation. So like, have you noticed any shifts in, the demand for the labor or like the type of people that are entering the, the skilled trade profession? 00:17:34:01 - 00:18:05:22 Rusty Well, like the licensed trades, plumbing, electrical, Hvac, stuff like that. It's a pretty, pretty I don't want to say scripted, but there's there's an apprentice period. There's a journeyman period. There's all of you have to meet time, time. And with the license that you have before you're even eligible to test for the next one. And there are some companies out there that I've seen that do amazing. 00:18:06:00 - 00:18:27:20 Rusty The plumber that I use, they had all three on site and were teaching the apprentices that were busting the concrete and doing all of the grunt work. They were just like constantly asking them the questions that are going to be on their test for the journeyman license. That's cool. Let's see, what is your what's off set for this? 00:18:27:20 - 00:18:34:02 Rusty What's drain clearance for the walls on the toilet? All of this stuff. And they're like, 00:18:34:04 - 00:18:35:02 Shaniqua That's incredible. 00:18:35:02 - 00:18:41:10 Rusty It was great. That's one of the reasons I use them, because they're not cheap, but they're good. 00:18:41:10 - 00:18:44:19 Shaniqua The quality is there because they're constantly thinking about it. 00:18:45:00 - 00:18:49:08 Rusty Right. Bringing up the next generation with them. So. Well, that. 00:18:49:08 - 00:18:50:14 Stephanie Sounds like hard work. 00:18:50:14 - 00:18:53:01 Stephanie And it sounds like those guys are doing it, right. 00:18:53:01 - 00:18:55:21 Rusty They are, they are. I just. 00:18:56:00 - 00:19:07:02 Stephanie What do you think? Because, you know, motivation is intrinsic. It comes from within. And a lot of us like when you describe to your dad, I really related to this kind of I had a character building dad for sure. 00:19:07:02 - 00:19:08:02 Rusty Oh my dad. 00:19:08:04 - 00:19:10:20 Stephanie Absolutely. All day long. I mean, we're all about character, okay. 00:19:10:20 - 00:19:11:17 Shaniqua Character sweat from your. 00:19:11:17 - 00:19:40:20 Stephanie Brow. And so, and I think the, you know, we didn't do we didn't do that for our kids. I mean, I really feel that way. Like, I don't I don't I don't see how adults are, how an older generation can blame a younger generation when we're the ones that shape them. And so I know 100% that I didn't make my daughter get up at 430 in the morning and feed cows and birth a horse. 00:19:40:20 - 00:19:44:12 Stephanie Okay? Like, I know that did not happen to her. 00:19:44:14 - 00:19:50:00 Shaniqua And I'm an aunt, so I have no skin in this game. I'm just here to, like, prop up the next be creatures. 00:19:50:02 - 00:20:09:02 Stephanie I mean, I'm not I'm not blaming us holistically. There were a lot of things I did for my daughter, and I certainly raised her to the best of my ability and taught her when I felt like she needed to know and all of these things until, like, I was building her character as well. But I look at she functions differently in her life than I function in mine, and I can't look at it and say, it's wrong. 00:20:09:04 - 00:20:10:02 Stephanie You know it's true. 00:20:10:02 - 00:20:14:16 Rusty And you, you, you taught her things that your parents didn't teach you. Absolutely. 00:20:14:16 - 00:20:16:20 Stephanie So that they didn't even know to teach me. Right. 00:20:16:20 - 00:20:28:16 Rusty That's what I we tried to do with the kids was teach them. But as much as they were capable of learning about investing money. 00:20:28:18 - 00:20:51:12 Stephanie Saving money, I'm just curious about this concept that the younger people don't want to work as hard and don't have work ethic, because I actually challenge it quite a bit, and I think that it is our responsibility to help them develop that work ethic, that you just aren't born that way. And then there's something there. It's like, how do we reach people to help them connect into purpose? 00:20:51:12 - 00:21:10:05 Stephanie Because what I see is a resistance to I'm not going to just I've watched my parents burnout and I don't want that. I don't want to be that way. And so I may not know how to be a different way, but I know that didn't work because my parents got a divorce and my dad's an alcoholic. And my mom, I mean, like, that's what they're looking at. 00:21:10:07 - 00:21:30:19 Stephanie And so we're, you know, we're blaming them because they don't have work ethic. But I'm like, I don't know, my workaholism, which is trauma informed. I'm not sure that that's work ethic either. So I just think it's something that we should, you know, be worth exploring because I do think that there is an there is a need for like connecting those generations and for us to teach the younger generations. 00:21:30:21 - 00:21:32:02 Rusty Well, I. 00:21:32:02 - 00:21:33:21 Rusty Having worked in the schools. 00:21:33:21 - 00:21:35:13 Rusty the schools. 00:21:35:13 - 00:21:50:19 Rusty The No Child Left Behind did amazing things for kids, but it ruined other things. Get some kid to show up on time to work. 00:21:50:19 - 00:21:52:16 Rusty that is a. 00:21:52:16 - 00:22:07:15 Rusty That's an easy one. That's an easy mark to get. You know that's an easy to just show up on time. People don't do that. It is it is insane or communicate I don't even care about the spelling. Text me 00:22:07:15 - 00:22:16:15 Rusty that it's going to be three weeks before my panels come in. Yeah. Oh, and then three weeks comes and goes, oh, I need to come confirm the measurements. 00:22:16:15 - 00:22:19:08 Rusty Why? I thought we had all that. 00:22:19:13 - 00:22:44:18 Rusty I just want to be sure before we do, you know, before we get all this. Know what happened? Oh, well. And forgot to order them. So I have $20,000 sitting on a job. Oh, my God, for six weeks. And I can't finish because they're all custom panels. And so it's going to take three weeks after they order them again. 00:22:44:18 - 00:22:53:07 Rusty Yeah. So six weeks. And he didn't tell me anything until I texted. I was like, hey, what's going on man? Where are we at with this? Oh, 00:22:53:12 - 00:23:05:23 Shaniqua It seems like there's, like, some, soft skills that are missing, and I, my mother, a a school teacher back in Florida. And when you said No Child Left Behind. 00:23:05:23 - 00:23:17:21 Shaniqua Consuela, I know you feel rusty right now. She she loves the next generation, but there are some, like, small gaps that need to be, some soft skills that need to be developed. 00:23:17:21 - 00:23:19:23 Shaniqua And I think we all have to pitch in. 00:23:20:00 - 00:23:42:01 Stephanie Yeah, I agree, and that's part of the questions like, how do we do that? Like we see the problem. We know it's an issue. But I don't think it's just something we can ignore. And I don't think it helps to just blame and be like, oh, well, it's you know, like, what can we do to be proactive and really actually, you know, solve the problem instead of just being constantly frustrated? 00:23:42:06 - 00:23:44:20 Shaniqua Well, we won't solve it today. 00:23:44:22 - 00:23:45:09 Rusty Or. 00:23:45:10 - 00:23:48:06 Stephanie In this segment. 00:23:48:08 - 00:23:54:08 Shaniqua But we will take a quick short commercial break. We'll be right back. 00:23:54:23 - 00:24:18:10 00:24:18:10 - 00:24:31:19 Shaniqua Welcome back y'all. We're here again with mister Rusty Brindle. Thank you so much for being here today. We have more questions for you about the work that you do. So thank you again for being here. 00:24:31:21 - 00:24:33:12 Rusty We. 00:24:33:14 - 00:24:43:15 Stephanie We we just came, off of our last segment where we agreed that we are probably not going to solve the Gen Z crisis today, but we do. 00:24:43:16 - 00:24:46:01 Shaniqua The Gen Z engine Alpha. 00:24:46:03 - 00:25:12:00 Stephanie That's true, that's true. Well, we don't know what channel that's going to bring us, like. Yeah, we have no idea. But we do want to dive into Rusty's actual experiences as a contractor and entrepreneur. And, if you could tell us just a little bit about, you know, your sort of work ethic and your relationship with clients, quality, these aspects that you bring to to the work that you do. 00:25:12:00 - 00:25:35:14 Rusty one of the things I resonate back to my dad and all of that, smartest man, if he would have ever taken any of his own advice. So he always told me that repeat business is what keeps you in business. A new business is what makes you money. All right. And that's that resonated with me still. 00:25:35:16 - 00:25:39:03 Stephanie And that sounds like strongly good advice. It's. 00:25:39:05 - 00:25:40:01 Rusty You know. 00:25:40:03 - 00:25:41:12 Shaniqua It's really insightful. 00:25:41:12 - 00:25:46:14 Rusty It's I would do small work for people and not charge them. 00:25:46:14 - 00:26:03:22 Rusty I there's been some times people have called me to do something and I'm like, I would feel I would be embarrassed if I charge, do anything for what? I just did. Call me back when you have something serious or, you know, whatever. And I just let it go. 00:26:03:22 - 00:26:22:08 Rusty No skin off my back didn't cost me any money. But I call back, you know, I had done one of my customers. I had done just some small remodel work, enhancements for the house and stuff like that. And then she called me in a panic. My house is flooded. 00:26:22:08 - 00:26:25:20 Rusty During the first ice storm. No snowpocalypse. 00:26:25:20 - 00:26:32:04 Rusty Whatever it was, when the power and the water went out, she packed up her daughter and left. 00:26:32:04 - 00:26:40:08 Rusty And one of the pipes burst in the attic. That fed the second floor bathroom. It came up through the attic. 00:26:40:08 - 00:26:53:09 Rusty And it hit. When it split, it hit a stud and just sprayed. When she came home, her ceiling and her bathroom was on the floor and there was four inches of water. 00:26:53:11 - 00:26:54:05 Shaniqua Oh, plus. 00:26:54:06 - 00:26:55:23 Rusty She said when she drove up, she's like, 00:26:55:23 - 00:27:09:19 Rusty there's water coming out of the garage. Something that she thought the water softener pipes had busted or something like that. Oh no. She opened the door and it flooded. The water came rushing out of the house, and that turned into a. 00:27:09:19 - 00:27:13:15 Rusty That was about $100,000 worth of work. The time it was all said and done. 00:27:13:17 - 00:27:17:22 Rusty And I also told her, if you want to upgrade anything. 00:27:18:05 - 00:27:19:16 Stephanie Now's now's the time to do it. 00:27:19:16 - 00:27:36:17 Rusty Yeah, insurance is paying for this countertop that you had, and for a little bit extra, we can go granite or something like that. And we did. Her house is beautiful. She's in love with it again. 00:27:36:19 - 00:27:37:16 Stephanie Wow. 00:27:37:18 - 00:27:46:00 Rusty So having that that repeat clientele, I always tell the customers that I'm in a long term relationships. That's it. If. 00:27:46:00 - 00:28:01:10 Rusty Well, I'll do whatever. And I have eye in the kitchen I'm working on right now that I'm going to go to when I leave here. I was about 75% done with their kitchen before they even knew how much it was going to cost. 00:28:01:12 - 00:28:23:18 Rusty Because it was a last minute pivot from doing two bathrooms. They got back from vacation and their kitchen flooded, which took out the floors, which. Yeah. So it was it was a mess. They went on another vacation and I got started on it, and I'm like, I don't even know how much it's going to cost yet. 00:28:23:20 - 00:28:25:03 Rusty I'm in. 00:28:26:06 - 00:28:48:18 Rusty Working with creatives can sometimes be challenging, really, because more about that, I so there was decisions. I was already putting the countertops in and I was still finding out that there was other things that were part of this. The scope of work I even told about yet, panels being one of them, 00:28:48:18 - 00:28:56:07 Rusty Yeah, there was there were several things that that and I guess it the decisions just hadn't been made as fast as the work was getting done. 00:28:56:09 - 00:28:58:10 Rusty I'm not sure. Well. 00:28:58:11 - 00:29:16:07 Shaniqua Like, speaking about the, like, difficult customers. Right. Like I'm curious his you mentioned long term relationship is like what you're looking to build. Like, could you tell us a little bit more, how do you know if the client is going to be a good fit versus like when you need to, like, let them go? 00:29:16:14 - 00:29:21:13 Rusty How well I get along with them and how long, how well we get along because 00:29:21:13 - 00:29:32:10 Rusty I'm a talker. My wife tells me all the time if I go to Home Depot to get a box of screws, I'm going to be gone an hour because I got to talk to everybody. I know most people by name, mostly employees by name. 00:29:32:10 - 00:29:40:21 Rusty I just I like to talk, and it's a good way to get to know the customer. And what's going on with their job and what. 00:29:40:21 - 00:29:53:22 Rusty it doesn't take long you get a sense of where they're at. If they want a quick cheap repair I can give them a phone number for somebody does quick cheap repairs. 00:29:54:00 - 00:29:57:17 Rusty And it's just not me. I'm not. When people say the word cheap. 00:29:57:17 - 00:30:02:04 Rusty I'm not your guy. That's just not me. That's that's just. 00:30:02:05 - 00:30:10:07 Stephanie I'm curious how that plays out with the different contractors that you work with, the different trades that you bring in, and how you form those relationships. 00:30:10:11 - 00:30:12:15 Rusty That is hard. 00:30:12:15 - 00:30:13:23 Rusty You have to 00:30:13:23 - 00:30:17:18 Rusty you have to go through some bad ones. 00:30:17:20 - 00:30:32:22 Stephanie Do you have a vetting process or is there a way that you approach those relationships, or is it by word of mouth, like what's the sort of within your industry, what's actually at the microphone within your industry? What is sort of normal or how does it work for you? 00:30:33:03 - 00:30:36:18 Rusty Having references? 00:30:36:18 - 00:30:41:08 Rusty to me is one of the biggest I took a kid on, 00:30:41:08 - 00:31:03:01 Rusty and I was I knew his sister in law really well. I worked with her for years, and she's like, he'll do good work. You might have a problem with attendance. Oh, did I, that he would work half a day? The job was in Lakeway, but it was just one of those. 00:31:03:03 - 00:31:05:10 Stephanie Did he do good work when he shut up? 00:31:05:12 - 00:31:12:15 Rusty When he. The work he did was fantastic. Interesting. But I finally had to fire him. 00:31:12:15 - 00:31:37:15 Stephanie I'll tell you what you say in this. And I'm going to come back to the junkie thing for just a moment, because when Gen Z is interviewed, there are two key things that they say really drives what their worth is. And that's alignment of values, and flexibility. And it seems like the flexibility element is what is really, really causing a lot of stress for say, Gen X and, and, and, and even millennials to some degree. 00:31:37:15 - 00:31:52:20 Stephanie But and I'm not saying it's a good or a bad. I'm not I'm not judging. It is like a, good that, you know, or bad that they need us, but it's just the fact of what they say. And that flexibility really shows up like, so it's like, oh, he shows up, he does great work, but I have no, there's no I can't depend on this. 00:31:52:20 - 00:31:54:23 Stephanie I can't like, you know, make. 00:31:55:00 - 00:32:21:16 Shaniqua This is going to take us back to like, before the industrial revolution though, because like like I'm pretty sure like, Michelangelo could, like, work in, like, the Sistine Chapel. Wasn't, like, painted in, like, a year. It took several years. So I'm, like, curious if, like, their slow approach would just, like, allow us to, like, take some time to actually live life but create like, live life. 00:32:21:19 - 00:32:45:09 Rusty And I'm all about that. I am all about working 3 or 4 hours a day. Yeah, if that's where we're at or six hours a day, that's usually where I work. Yeah. That's part of building that life that you love, right? I usually get up at 4:00 in the morning. I will sit and have my coffee, watch the news. 00:32:45:11 - 00:32:56:09 Rusty Not too much longer. The wife gets up, we have breakfast, we go on dog walk, we go on a separate walk because he's almost 16 years old. 00:32:56:11 - 00:32:57:10 Stephanie The dog. 00:32:57:12 - 00:32:58:01 Rusty Dog walking. 00:32:58:01 - 00:32:58:15 Stephanie Slowly. 00:32:58:17 - 00:33:07:05 Rusty He walks a mile a day and sometimes under protest. But he he gets through it. But. 00:33:07:05 - 00:33:11:19 Rusty Oh, I forgot what I was at. That's okay. 00:33:11:21 - 00:33:25:00 Stephanie Oh it's okay. You know we're and we were we were touching base kind of on this like need for flexibility and how do we balance that in. And you know the where you need dependability as well. How do you balance the right those two different needs. 00:33:25:06 - 00:33:53:02 Rusty I just I just want people to tell me it's going to take ten days and it take not ten days. Nine is a bonus. Yeah. Just tell me how long it's going to take. And then my deal with subs and customers, I pay for completed work. I will only bill for completed work. So I got subs. 00:33:53:02 - 00:34:05:02 Rusty They're like, hey, I need some more money. I'm like, you get some more work done. Yeah, well I'm going to lose daycare. I'm going to, you know I'm, I'm like I'm sorry that that's where you're at. 00:34:06:01 - 00:34:09:04 Rusty That that is not my fault. 00:34:09:05 - 00:34:12:10 Shaniqua Because you communicate with them that you pay for completed work. 00:34:12:10 - 00:34:12:19 Rusty From the. 00:34:12:19 - 00:34:13:20 Shaniqua Get and then they. 00:34:13:20 - 00:34:15:12 Rusty Do any work, even starts. 00:34:15:12 - 00:34:28:16 Shaniqua And they should communicate with you like, well, this is how I'm flexible. And you're like, it could take you however long you need, but it needs to be completed before your pay. So it seems like you really value that communication piece. And that will help with the. 00:34:28:16 - 00:34:49:02 Rusty Yeah, I mean, just keep your word. Yeah. If you tell me you're going to do something, you do it. That's. And when you when you don't when you don't come through on your word it happens I get it. But constantly, 00:34:49:02 - 00:34:55:02 Rusty Then and that's a red flag. That's the last job they're going to work for. 00:34:55:04 - 00:35:24:01 Stephanie So I am curious if you were going to, some advice to new people, whether they're youth or whether it's somebody who's actually looking at making a mid-life career change, if they're thinking about coming in to trade work. Well, what would you what would you director guide them with first? Like what? Where would where should their head be in that process? 00:35:24:02 - 00:35:25:04 Rusty I know where it shouldn't be. 00:35:25:09 - 00:35:26:00 Stephanie Where shouldn't. 00:35:26:00 - 00:35:57:16 Rusty Oh let's start not be starving for oxygen. Yeah. No, I think it to me it boils down to just basic human being treating people like humans. And be honest, if you say you're going to do something, do it. If you screw up, you. There's a lot of people that are like, oh, no, don't ever mention we don't ever tell you that you screwed up because then you're liable. 00:35:57:16 - 00:36:25:05 Rusty And it's like, you think that people don't know that you're the one that screwed this up. Yeah, come on then. You look bad for not owning it. It's like. And the customers, if I screw something up or something breaks. Hey, this is what happened. Fix it. No cost. Don't worry, you know? But I just want you to know this happened, and then it's a non-issue because it gets fixed. 00:36:25:07 - 00:36:32:20 Rusty Right? So I, I think the basic advice is just. 00:36:32:22 - 00:36:54:21 Rusty If you don't know something, ask them. Oh. So many. There is a lot of ego in the trades. There's a lot of ego, and false bravado. And oh, some of these people, especially on social media, it's like, oh, is the, you know, you need to talk to this person. You're the best person, the best in town at this. 00:36:54:21 - 00:36:59:14 Rusty And I'm like, well, that's a pretty bold statement. Right. 00:36:59:16 - 00:37:01:13 Shaniqua It's I don't know. 00:37:01:15 - 00:37:27:22 Rusty I tell people that on the, on social media they're looking for a contract or they're like I need to start next week. And I'm like well you know beware. Yeah. If I mean they may be ready to start next week. But if somebody if their schedule in this economy in Austin, Texas isn't busy, there's a problem. 00:37:27:23 - 00:37:31:02 Stephanie Interesting. That's a flag. 00:37:31:04 - 00:37:45:01 Rusty They could have had a job. Cancel. Fine. Most of the time they're not busy because there's nobody hiring them. Because there's no repeat business, because they go screw stuff up, they run out. 00:37:45:01 - 00:37:46:05 Stephanie They're welcome, so to speak. 00:37:46:05 - 00:38:04:05 Rusty Yes. With. And there's so many customers that they just go through. Oh that's terrible. It's you. There's some pages out there. Construction blacklist and full of contractors. There's no licensing for to be a general contractor in Texas or. 00:38:04:06 - 00:38:05:16 Stephanie Oh, really? I don't think I knew that. 00:38:05:16 - 00:38:06:18 Shaniqua I did not know that. 00:38:06:20 - 00:38:10:00 Rusty The Hvac, electrical. 00:38:10:01 - 00:38:10:11 Stephanie Yeah, I know. 00:38:10:16 - 00:38:12:20 Rusty There's all of those. But as a. 00:38:12:22 - 00:38:14:05 Stephanie I didn't realize you did not. 00:38:14:07 - 00:38:17:11 Shaniqua I didn't. Now I have to talk to you about my house. Oh. Like off of this. 00:38:17:11 - 00:38:20:05 Stephanie Oh, my God. This will be like, we're going to have to do a second. 00:38:20:06 - 00:38:24:23 Rusty I will just say what? 00:38:25:00 - 00:38:28:03 Stephanie Right? Burying the lead. I'm sorry, but. 00:38:28:17 - 00:38:34:05 Shaniqua But I, I hate to be the one police, but we do have to take a quick break. 00:38:34:14 - 00:38:51:04 Shaniqua Well, that was incredibly fascinating. Thank you so much, rusty. We have so much more to talk about. But before we do, we're going to start a FITI special. The Myth, Misconception, and Matter of Fact segment. 00:38:51:06 - 00:38:51:21 Rusty Yeah. 00:38:51:23 - 00:38:57:16 Stephanie You love these segments. What do you have for us? Shaniqua I'm super curious. 00:38:57:16 - 00:39:13:19 Shaniqua My gosh. Okay. So is working in the trades only a backup plan for those who don't want to or can't afford college? Is that a myth, misconception, or a matter of fact? 00:39:13:21 - 00:39:19:07 Rusty Rusty, I think it's a misconception. I did not want to go to college. 00:39:19:07 - 00:39:26:05 Rusty I had trouble going to high school. I went an extra year because I quit victory lap. 00:39:26:05 - 00:39:27:12 Shaniqua I like to call it, 00:39:27:14 - 00:39:31:08 Rusty I like that victory lap. I like that, 00:39:31:08 - 00:39:35:00 Shaniqua the misconception for you. Okay. One misconception. What about you, Stephanie? 00:39:35:04 - 00:39:55:21 Stephanie I actually want to call it a straight up myth. I think it's actual bullshit. That's what I will say. You know, one of my daughter's friends, when when she. When they graduated, and this was about, you know, ten years ago or whatever. And he his his father was a master plumber. His whole family, he came from a family of master plumbers. 00:39:55:21 - 00:40:24:11 Stephanie They ran their own business. And he went right into his journeyman, apprenticeship. You know, within a few years, he's making close to six figures. And, you know, I mean, it is I think it's a complete myth, you know, that you somehow can't earn this viable, successful living, working, trade and and creating and building things, you know, whatever, whatever that means. 00:40:24:11 - 00:40:25:16 Stephanie I just think it's a myth. 00:40:25:16 - 00:40:27:07 Rusty So, I think. 00:40:27:09 - 00:40:30:06 Shaniqua It's valid. So we are one myth. One misconception. 00:40:30:06 - 00:40:35:20 Stephanie And by the way, he doesn't have any, college loans that he's paying off forever. 00:40:35:22 - 00:40:36:12 Shaniqua I wish I would. 00:40:36:14 - 00:40:40:04 Stephanie Just throw that out there as well. 00:40:40:06 - 00:40:43:11 Shaniqua Let's see. Working in trees only a backup plan for those who don't want to. 00:40:43:11 - 00:40:45:18 Stephanie I'm curious. Did you have an opinion on your own question? 00:40:45:18 - 00:41:07:03 Shaniqua So I think it could be a misconception because I think there is some truth of people cannot afford college. And if they're like, I was one of those kids, I could not afford college. And I wish that my parents would have potentially positioned trade as an opportunity. My mother said there was only two ways out of her house college or the military. 00:41:07:08 - 00:41:13:03 Shaniqua There wasn't a third option. What the third option could have been skilled labor. That would have been something that would have helped me. 00:41:13:07 - 00:41:16:06 Rusty There is a lot of females in the trades nowadays. 00:41:16:11 - 00:41:37:20 Shaniqua And so yeah, I would have loved I would be really good at that. So I think there are some truth to like the affordability of college was it is so expensive now, my brother, my parents were looking at $100,000 to see my brother for one year. What? Not even the full tuition. And it was like out of state. 00:41:37:20 - 00:41:45:22 Shaniqua So I think there's some truth. But I do agree with you. It is not a backup plan, like some people genuinely want to move forward and a skilled labor. 00:41:46:00 - 00:42:10:08 Stephanie I just feel like we've been kind of marketed to and misled and not that I. I love education in college and I, you know, it's this isn't an issue of judging it that way. It's just there are more parts. Yeah. And we were sort of taught to judge parts. We were and I think that's the biggest issue is, you know, judging something that is really viable, purposeful, valuable and good as less than something else. 00:42:10:10 - 00:42:16:00 Stephanie Yeah, I, I just for me, I think that that creates challenges for us I agree. 00:42:16:04 - 00:42:28:18 Shaniqua Well let's actually in our segment, our show today with some closing thoughts, some takeaways. Stephanie, I'm curious if like what was one of your takeaways from conversely. 00:42:28:19 - 00:42:30:02 Stephanie Creative people are. 00:42:30:02 - 00:42:34:19 Rusty Difficult to work. 00:42:34:21 - 00:42:37:20 Shaniqua As they say, live candy. 00:42:37:20 - 00:42:42:05 Stephanie That was I that was on my takeaway. I'm totally I am like. 00:42:42:07 - 00:42:42:22 Shaniqua It's like, 00:42:42:23 - 00:42:59:16 Stephanie You know, honestly, for me, my biggest takeaway is, is sort of my, my, my point of argument, which is I really deeply believe that we have to find a way to embrace the younger generations and communicate and connect with them. And it can't be only our way. 00:43:00:06 - 00:43:13:15 Stephanie You know, we've got to understand their they have their own way of communicating and, and it and it's for a reason. So yeah, I don't know what the solution is. I know it causes great frustration. I do know that. But I believe that it's important that we figure it out. 00:43:14:15 - 00:43:23:22 Shaniqua Rusty, our guest of honor. What's, takeaway or something? You would love to leave our audience with? 00:43:23:23 - 00:43:44:23 Rusty The world's your oyster. I mean, you can go find anything you want to do out there and just go do it. I love you, I mean, you you earned a reputation, for yourself. So. 00:43:45:01 - 00:44:06:02 Shaniqua I will say your story. My takeaway here is, like, the inspiration. I felt like reading your, bio and, like, getting a chance to meet you and learn more about your your career path paths, and, my takeaways. Like what you said. Like, you can, like, we live in America. If there's something that you want to do, you can go after it. 00:44:06:04 - 00:44:27:18 Shaniqua And that was just like the reminder that I need it. And I know that there's like so many other of my like, peers and cohorts out there, the millennial class that like you can millennial generation. I'm sorry. You can like continue to like re like kind of like re make yourself like, reinvent yourself. Yeah. Reinvent yourself. That's that's it. 00:44:27:18 - 00:44:38:14 Shaniqua Reinvent yourself. Like, you know, you could I could be a recruiter today or business center tomorrow, etc.. So I found that to be very insightful. So thank you for your for your story and being here. 00:44:38:16 - 00:44:42:10 Stephanie Thank you so much for being here. It's been fantastic. 00:44:42:10 - 00:44:56:21 Stephanie If you are inspired by Rusty Story and you want to learn more about careers that offer you purpose and prosperity, then subscribe to us immediately so that you can get more of this great information. 00:44:56:21 - 00:45:04:13 Shaniqua And if you're considering a career in skilled labor, there's no better time than now to explore that opportunities. See you all next time. 00:45:04:16 - 00:45:07:08 Stephanie Bye, everybody. 00:45:07:08 - 00:45:35:11