The Huddle - Episode 159 - Blue collar cruise #10
Hop aboard for the 10th installment of the Blue Collar Cruise, where Daniel, Jose, and Paul bring their raw, real perspectives on everything shaking up the trades. From new industry headlines to behind-the-scenes conversations about labor shortages, training investments, and the next generation of the workforce—this episode dives into what’s driving change and what’s dragging us down.
Whether you’re in the field or leading a team, this one’s for you.
📢 Got thoughts or stories from the field? Drop them in the comments—we want to hear from you!
💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Why mental health in construction is a growing concern—and what really contributes to it
How job site safety, while critical, may not be the main stressor for tradespeople
What Gen Z’s buying habits and career expectations mean for the future of skilled trades
How TikTok and influencer branding are changing recruitment and perception in the industry
Why the UK’s $600M investment in construction training should inspire the U.S.
Why This Episode Matters:
It sheds light on industry challenges like mental health and labor shortages while emphasizing the importance of safety, outreach, and investing in the next generation of tradespeople.
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Got a question or opinion about certification and training? Drop it in the comments—we might feature your thoughts in a future episode.
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Woo. Love it when we start with Shag Tools. Gets me all excited when we hear
that music. I know. Well, that's a quick word from one of our sponsors, Shag Tools. Go give them
some love today, guys. Show support for the Huddle by doing so. And remember,
Huddle 10. That's your promo code to get 10% off your next purchase. So, give
them some love. shagtools.com. What's up, fellas?
Brothers, can you guys hear me? Okay, we can hear you fine. Want to welcome
everybody back and remind you we are your weekly playbook to keep forward
progress going in your career. Simply put, we're here to help you win. Today's
episode, number 10 of the Blue Collar Cruise. So these are the episodes where
we kind of scour the interwebs to find relevant and interesting topics in the world of construction. We share them
with you guys, kind of try to get some feedback and interaction going and uh
you know give our opinions where for whatever they're worth. So
just a couple cents. Yeah. Yeah. Just a couple cents. That's about all I got. Anyhow,
Jose's on the road. Daniel's in studio.
I missed you guys last week. Tell me how it went. Yeah. Would you tell me how you guys some awesome fishing and stuff like
that? Yeah. Yeah. I went to uh far northern
Saskatchewan and a buddy of mine has a lodge up there
that um is just one of a kind. If you ever get a chance to go, it's Ena Lake
Lodge. And um yeah, it's it's pretty special.
Very remote and uh nice to get away for a little bit. I uh thank you guys for
everything you do and covering everything and being so awesome. I heard that I could I can quit now,
so that's good news. No, it was nice having uh Sunny and Scott on last week.
Even though uh you know, you couldn't make it. Still had some good conversation. And
I mean, we covered a lot of ground last week just on kind of what's going on over there, the changes, and then what
Scott's going on with just the school that he has, which is sounds like it's
doing amazing, and we need to keep it keep it that way. You know, got to keep on training these people.
Yeah. Yeah. It sounded like from some previous conversations he was doing uh quite a
bit of quite a bit of training. Uh at the time I think it was more focused
on the uh inspector stuff, but I would imagine with the new stuff that he is
probably uh in his new role going to be doing maybe uh a little bit more.
Yeah. So yeah, that's pretty exciting. What up, Jorge?
All right, guys. So today, like I said, is the 10th episode. The 10th. So that's
10 months. We do one of these episodes a month. So this is our 10th month of doing the blue collar cruise.
What I really would like to ask of the audience is if if you like the stuff
we're finding, there's there's literally thousands and thousands of of episodes
or um sorry, articles on the internet about, you know, construction and so we try to find the ones that I don't know
are kind of uh cool to talk about. However, if you give us some suggestions, uh, we can get on finding
more episodes that, you know, focus on one aspect that you'd like to hear more of than another or or whatever. Today's
is going to be pretty wide variety. So, that's why I bring this up ahead of time
is if uh if one of these resonate more with you than another uh or the type of
content, please reach out, let us know.
That being said, let's jump into let's see which one do
we want to jump on. Pull them over here in a second so I can
open up that uh those articles too and go with it with
don't want to do it while I'm driving. I'll be honest, I'm a little scared to do that. Yeah, let's not do that because we're
going to start off with uh a safety article. So, you know, we can't have you,
you know, of course, doing something unsafe during a safety article.
So, what this this article is talking, it starts with a question. It says, can
can safer job sites improve mental health in the construction field? I
think that's um a little bit of a a um deep subject, but the summary of this is
essentially goes as follows. Uh we rank second in the US um
industries for suicide rates. So second construction is and it accounts for one
in five workplace fatalities. The article highlights how improve site
safety through sight specific plans, smart PPE, reliable communication,
financial projections or protections and projections probably and regular
inspections can reduce anxiety stress and long-term psychology uh
psychological strain on workers. Emphasizing safety is not only prevents
accidents but also positively impacts the mental health by building trust and
clarity for laborers. What do you guys got on this?
I'm calling BS. I'm sorry. I I I think that
you know there's a lot of things but workplace I you know I've been around a
lot of guys that are you know in my career that are having difficult times
or difficult uh situations in their lives and
I have yet to have one be like man that the work site is just so unsafe. I'm I'm
I'm just full of anxiety and full of like stress because they don't have
cones in the proper place, you know? I guess the it might be
what role are you playing in that in that project site, right? Then do you are you in a role where you know there's
some unsafe circumstances and you're having to adjust them and you're just waiting for something to go bad? Yes.
Maybe I'm just naive, dude. And and there's tons of people out there like, I know that you're going to be hanging off
the side of a sevenstory building putting up this tile without a without a uh you know, harness, but we need you to
do it. I don't see that. Yeah. I what I see affects people uh in our
trades mental health the most is uh financial and relationships. We drive
them hard. And people travel a lot because when at least in the commercial world, if you
get to a certain size and you're you're almost out start to outgrow your area or
um and that may not always be the case, but if you start to outgrow your area, you kind of travel around to continue
your growth. You grow geographically. Uh, another thing is sometimes you'll
just impress a an owner or a general contractor so much they want you to travel with them, but that means your
people have to travel. And I find that along with causes the the family strain
as well as you know the long work hours in general that a lot of times um the
construction trades have to do you know they have to put in and it's not only I
don't want to portray it as though you know they have to do it to make a living. That's not the case. Most of them make a pretty damn good living. Um
but it's just the demands of the workforce. Um, you know, we have so few
people uh for the amount of work that needs to be done that
the people that are there get, you know, put in a a fair amount of hours and
that's hours away from family and uh then financial stresses, which we've had financial episodes on
here before. Uh, but those are the two big things I see. I don't I I don't know. I want to get your guys' opinion,
but I don't see people well, you know, coming up to me like, man, I'm super stressed about the job
site conditions. Right. First, Rollins says, "Are they counting on how many times we want to kill the other trades?
I love it. Thank you for that comment, Ran." That Yeah. Well, I I think uh with with the flooring or
construction in general, right, it's that it's so much time because you always have to travel to the job site,
too. So, it doesn't matter if you only work 8 hours that day. Sometimes you're
8 hours, but it's traveling there for an hour, working 8 hours, traveling back for an hour, and then that doesn't
account for construction traffic and stuff like that, which is we live in Michigan. There's two seasons. It's
winter and construction. So that that's all you get. Yeah, that's a good point.
It's a good point. You may put in eight hours, but you got you still got 10 hours away from
the family. You're not going to a factory and going to the same place
every day where you can move closer to your job and it make a difference. We
got guys that work here that live 30 minutes away. And sometimes that's a
massive blessing if there's a job over in that side of the state.
And sometimes it's a massive headache because it's closer to us, the home
office or even, you know, out western Kansas or something. Yeah, it's a very
good point. What about um you know you said some you
live in Michigan Daniel what about you six months of winter the six months of summer kind of um where
wanting to be at work longer days is seasonal in the winter people kind of don't care uh work longer hours get more
hours in the summer everybody wants to be outside they have things they got to do so the longer hours in the summer are
hard to avoid almost impossible but And I think the stress levels might be a little bit higher because less free time
in the summer and then maybe elevated stress levels in
the winter because less work. Less work and you're trying to get as many hours in and then in the summertime
you don't want to work because you want to be out enjoying it but you can't because you have so much work on your hands. It's like
Yeah. It's like the the perfect storm every year. like work slows down and
it's winter, work speeds up and it's summer and uh
yeah, that's like the perfect storm every single year happening twice.
I wonder if those uh those statistics I wonder what geographically where where the
majority of that is. Well, is it in the warmer climate? Is it in the
this just this just puts construction ranking number two among all US industries for suicide
rates. Yeah. I mean, and and that could be
just speaking about the flooring industry in general, you know, that could be kind of loosely
put in there because um I've have seen a lot of addicts in
the flooring industry, right? And are they talking like is an overdose a suicide?
Well, probably not an accidental overdose, but I mean that a lot of times
um and I I speak as uh a family member to
uh to a um major addict and you know, a
lot of times it's um it drives you into a deep deep dark place where that seems
like uh you know, the best uh option, the only option.
Obviously, it never is. And um we've had mental health episodes on here before
where we encourage you to reach out to a friend. Hell, call us if nothing else.
Call a stranger. If you just watch this show, call call us and
you know, reach out. um message us on message me on Facebook
personally I will call you back like it was a few episodes ago when I was talking about Simon Synynic when he
was you know said that a friend reached out and they didn't say hey I need to talk it was you know hey what are you
doing and then you just nothing you just keep on going about it and it's like why didn't you reach out to me oh I did and
then sure enough they did and it's like that's why they came up with the the saying you know all it takes is eight minutes so hey you have eight
Yeah. Hey. Yeah. That's uh And when when it's someone you you care about, you love and
you talk with all the time, right? It might be a little bit easier to pick up on some of that, but
I think it's uh anyone who's in a situation like that where they just need someone to talk to, it's going to be hard to say exactly what the issue is.
Well, and it's it's hard to reach out to people, you know, because you you also
um I suspect and you know, uh reading
into some of the things that I've experienced, um
a lot of times they're ashamed and reaching out to the ones you loved when you feel so ashamed
um is like, you know, it's it's really hard to pick
up the phone. So call somebody though. That's that's for sure. I guess
industry we have huge egos. So you never want to show anyone that you're hurting,
but sometimes that's the only way you're going to get that help that you need.
Yeah, vulnerability is tough for and that might be part of it. I mean, most
of us in the construction industry, we get our hands dirty, we get down and dirty. were kind of rough and tumble
kind of folks and you know having that persona around you
and then picking up the phone and being vulnerable with someone you know is tough. Uh there's a lot of help out
there. Uh Better Help is one I know of. Now, we're not sponsored by Better
Health. So, uh you know, I'm not endorsing them or anything. I don't use
their product. I don't I just hear them talked about a lot on other podcasts
that I respect those uh podcasters. So, um but I can tell you talking to
somebody's better than talking to nobody. So, I guess at the end of the day with this article though, I just
What do you think of the perspective that it's an unsafe work environment
that's causing this? That's kind of how this is posed is that
you know empas just to read this one part one more time. It says emphas
emphasizing safety not only prevents accidents but also positively impacts
mental health by building trust and clarity for laborers.
And earlier on in the article, it it talks about how, you know, like PPE and
sight specific plans um reduce anxiety and stress. Now, if you're on a super
unsafe work site, people are dropping everywhere and you ain't you don't
have a your company doesn't you don't have a hard hat and like I I would
understand that, but I just most general contractors and maybe this is, you know, maybe I need to change my view here and
this is more in that builder because I look at like residential building as more of like the Wild W.
You know what I'm saying? Like it's way different, man. We've done one project
like that where it was a big housing unit like uh duplexes and dude it is
unsafe. Like but they're in a hurry. Well, it's just like
they're guys roofers are climbing up on roofs with no protection at all and
they're just jumping from one spot to the other and the there's no there's no hard hats or
safety glasses to be found. It's not even that. It's like some of these big retail places too where you
know we get some out ofate contractors that get the the contracts and then you know we're on site and that's what you
do. You're looking at someone. You're like, they're over there on a scaffold with a ladder on the scaffold, not tied
off. And it's like, that's like 10 different OSHA
violations. Yeah. That's that goes That's how you get those memes about why women live longer.
Yeah. Yeah. And it's even the women on the job sites, you never see them doing stuff like that.
They're always by the book. They're much smarter than we are. And there's always some there's always
someone who physically shouldn't be trying that too, right? Like me. Um, you know what? Uh, I I I want to
add to what what you're saying on there. I personally never felt unsafe on a job site because of safety.
Anytime I've ever felt unsafe, it might might have been uh time of working,
right? And that's about it. Maybe just unfamiliar with the area. not knowing uh
really where I'm at. That's about it. But never anything with safety. Well, I maybe that's I've seen unsafe work practices or stuff
that I'm like, whoa. But I've never gained anxiety that would lead to any
mental issues. But maybe they're talking about the the
younger generation too because, you know, they're they're riddled kind of with anxiety.
And it's like um again not maybe talk to someone because that's just seems to me
like you don't know how to handle your emotions and then it just all builds up and then
with nowhere to go you just kind of blow up. Yeah. If you're already predisposed to it.
Yeah. Dave Dave says only 10% of the commercial jobs I've ever done are ready
when we arrive. Yeah. That's why we have to wear hard hats now. Back in the day, by the time we get to
the job, there shouldn't be anything else going on. And why do we need hard hats and boots?
And we used to fight it when I first installed, literally fight it. And um
you know, I guess we probably lost that fight long term because now you know, all of our guys, hard hats, boots,
safety glasses, the whole works, cut resistant gloves. Um, which probably was
always a good idea. Yeah. And, uh, Jorge says, "They're
always behind and expect us to save the day." That is that's our mantra.
Yeah. And and when you get into flooring, you better expect it. I didn't expect it and so I was
ticked off quite a bit when that happens. Now I look at it like, how can we help our customer? Like the GC
doesn't want to be behind. He wants the electrician to have gotten done on time
so that the drywall so he could get his inspections so that then the drywaller
can drywall and the painter can paint and the flooring guy can floor. Yes.
But there's a GC that we're working with right now. They're using this different
kind of uh scheduling system where it's like and they went over it with me, right? And they're like, you know, this
person is blocked off here. So, they got an entire week here. And then it kind of goes and they were like, and then you
guys in this area will have it's going to be you're going to be all by yourselves in this area. And then I'm
like, man, that sounds great. And then we get to the job site and there's still electricians and there's still plumbers
and they still have to put wall protection on and it's like, your scheduling system ain't working. And
that's where that's where having a schedule a pull plan. Have you ever done pull plans on jobs?
No. So it's a kind of like a uh
how do they say it? Agile planning. So they have this overall planning. I think
Jorge, you love retail, residential, but uh overall planning um schedule and then
they get all the trades that are in that week and they literally say, "Okay, how
many can you get this done in a week?" And you're like, "No, I can't. I need I need nine days." And they're like,
"Okay, plus, you know, four or plus three, whatever." and they put that on
there and they start moving it around and they re they they have some flexibility in their schedule so it's
not just like this dead drop dead date is what and so there's a lot of poll
planning in fact um like on Chick-fil-A the corporate requires the GC to do poll
planning or highly recommends it let me say yeah and the GCs that we've been working
with have been doing something like that right they'll have you know weekly meetings and it's like where are you at
are you behind? Are you on schedule? How much more time you need? And then everyone's sitting there. So, you're
like, "Yeah, you guys can't get in there until, you know, I'm done. So, I'm going to need an additional two days."
Mhm. Yeah. Some flexibility in the schedule, I think, is what that brings. But Dave also said, I got to bring this
up. Night work in the inner city. I got a story of going to uh Jersey to do a
church about 15 years ago and it was on
9inth and Orange. So anybody who lives in Jersey comment but I remember it like
it was yesterday. Ninth and Orange. And it was like Dave
Chappelle uh comedy scene about a crack someone. He was in DC trying to sell you
cry. Yeah, it was just like that, dude. It was little baby on the corner.
Yeah, it was night time and there was little kids out and like just it was just insane. So, yeah, I got you, Dave.
I I would second that. I yelled out the window, but I locked the door.
What you doing out there, baby? Oh, if you haven't if you haven't
watched Dave Chappelle, you have to. Yeah, watch that bit. So yeah, I guess um there's probably
something that can be done. My point is that it's probably further than just
um site safety that's causing it. And I I wonder if they have an actual any
statistics that show that a safer workplace lowers
the suicide rate. Um I didn't see anything in the article.
So, you talked about Gen Z and so it leads right into our next
one more one more thing before we go to that because I get emails from uh OSHA
on a weekly basis just about employee deaths and it's it's not just the
construction industry but it's crazy how many construction related deaths there
are compared to everyone else and in that article it said you know um proper
PPE And uh it says smart sight clothing and I
talked to my um epoxy guys about this too because they use propane equipment and it's like he's
like yeah we just went and bought the stuff so that way we don't because the first death this year was inhalation
from a concrete polisher using propane equipment in an enclosed area
and you know no one found him until the next day because he was to stay
ahead. But yeah, it's it's a thing, man. Make sure you guys got some PPE going and and you're not putting yourself in
these situations. Yeah. And to build on that a little bit, I I'm not
I'm 100% for it and I I I understand we do a dangerous job,
so we need to be safe. So, yeah, I agree with you. I think PPE is important. I
was just uh one of the things I was contemplating is are unsafe work
environments driving suicide rates or that now construction deaths it's well
known I mean we have a dangerous job and this construction is everything from the guy on a highline you know putting new
cabling on a suspension bridge to you know the floor guys. So
interesting stuff. Uh so reaching Gen Z this is a uh article out of floor
covering weekly actually and this talks about how uh it kind of
gives some statistics about Gen Z's uh purchasing power and their
homeownership. Uh so to touch on some of that
there's um like 70 million jenzers in the US that have a combined uh expected
um purchasing power spending power of 12.6 trillion by 2030. That means the
Gen Zers are going to be reaching that age uh the full that full population of
uh having that amount of capital at their disposal. That's freaking crazy. That that one
stat kind of like whoa put you on notice, right? Jenna's ears
are coming up, baby.
Can't hear you. I would also point out, yeah, you're breaking up pretty bad.
I would also point out that uh over the the oldest Gen Zers, only 3% of them own
their home, which compared to 40% of their parents at the same age. So
there's this theory that uh and I think it's true that Gen Z is the first um
first generation to not be better off than their parents. That they'll
actually be worse off financially than their parents.
That's pretty crazy for the first time. Can you guess? Now we can.
Yep. So, um I guess for everybody and and maybe myself too, what what classifies Gen Z? What what uh
so between years 90 97 and 2012. If they're born between
19 1997 and 2012, they are Jenzers and it is the largest
generation in history. They say making up uh approximately 26% of the world's
population. Wow. So, so they're the they're the spin-off in the baby boomers.
Uh Gen X and Baby Boomers. So, the older the old the the
uh baby boomers who had children late and and uh Gen Xers, you know, I've got
a I've got both my children are born in that range. So,
they're the Gen Zers right there. Daniel's a tweener of this podcast.
I think Daniel's a tweener, isn't he? I'm a millennial. Is that what it is? Okay. No, I'm a millennial.
I'm a millennial, but my son is Gen Z. So, according to this, because he was born
in 2010, which I thought he was Gen Alpha. Gen Z.
What? Yeah, he's on that. Well, on the brink right there. So this goes
on to say that uh this talks about how Gen Z's that generation shop and it says
that they are the kind of the first true digitally native
you know generation. So, and I think that proved uh that it did
increase online, you know, sales and shopping, but this says that they're
increasingly wanting to get out and shop in stores and that two out of five uh
shopping mostly or entirely in store in 2025 compared to one in three in 2023.
So, you know, maybe it was COVID kind of aftermath, uh, but people want, you
know, they they want to get out and do some stuff, uh, in person as well. Like the influx of cheap Chinese goods
that people were ordering and stuff like that. People stopped wanting to get that and then be like, well, I'm going to,
you know, look at the re reviews and then I want to see this before I actually purchase it because, yeah, we've all got that burned before.
We've all gotten that that that little gadget off of uh Instagram that didn't
quite didn't quite, you know, fit the that flashlight or something that didn't
quite do as well as the the Instagram video uh short, you know, made it sound
like, right, man, that thing real quick. Jimmy says
Jimmy says, "Why are Gen Z going to be worse off financially than their parents?
Um there's a lot of theory at least this is not in the article or at least not
that I've seen but um home prices increasing inflation and things of that
nature. Um when only 3% it's more of a statistic
deriving that than it being data driven. So the stat I mean they're both data
driven but meaning it's a um kind of a lagging indicator meaning 3%
in that generation own a home at that age let's call it 30 where genzers
at 30 only 3% of them own a home. So home ownership is one of those um
metrics that are greatly influence people's happiness, security, things of
this nature. Um and so much lower homeownership. Um they don't have access
to the same uh capital that their parents did. um and and the ability to
for uh capital risk the risk is different. So they they can't you know
when you were if you think back to you know my dad's age getting a home loan was like not that big of a deal and in
today's world getting a home loans is a big deal. Everything is tracked and
monitored. uh where back in those days if you didn't pay your rent on time, it
wasn't put on your credit rating. Well, now it is. And so like all these little
things plus uh that a lot of people would call it um what do they call that?
Predatory lending. um where they get credit cards and things they really can't afford and they
drive up the cost and then they're so a lot of I think it's a whole ball of wax
like them vehicle loans where you know I've you see somebody post some stuff sometimes where they take a shot and
it's like you know 50% uh percentage on on on the actual loan and
it's like dude you're you're going to be paying this car off forever.
Yeah. Well, good point. Here here's an interesting thing. Uh, so I just got back from fishing. I was I
was in Canada, like very remote area, and I I went with a a buddy and he
brought his dad. This guy's uh works on old cars and he starts talking about the
prices like like really you know our our elders will do sometimes talking about
uh 39 cent gas and all these things talking about like
um car ownership. Now I'm I'm 49 years old and I can remember when gas was 79
cents. So, like, you know, gas cost, all the costs of living are are
significantly higher, but he talked about being able to buy a car for 3,500 bucks in the 70s.
Well, you fast forward, you know, 45 50 years and
it's you can't buy a car today, a new car for less than 50. Well, you can buy
some I'd say 30 30,000 30 30 is probably a good number
with the vast majority of the cars that you really want cuz his $2500
example or $2,800 example was a Camaro, you know.
Yeah. Thinking about a used car for a first carcau for, you know, a teenager. Even
when I was in high school, it'd be like, "All right, I'm gonna go buy this car for 500 bucks, do a couple things to it, and drive it for a couple years." Now,
it's like, if you're not spending five, 10 grand, you're not getting a car that even runs.
Yeah. You can't get a bicycle for 500 bucks. You know, I bought my first car for
$500. That's funny. But you can't I mean, that's what a good bicycle costs
today. So, it's like pretty nuts when you start thinking about it. And that's that's where I think to kind of bring
that full circle to Jimmy's question, I think that's where it's the the main uh
uh result of that study or the main like opinion that uh jinzers are not
I wonder as as financially successful as their parents. I wonder that dollar amount. I wonder
how much of that is debt that is owed, right? Like are they using is some of that debt that is owed that is getting
like put back into the system somehow and how much of that is because of the education system as far as them being in
trouble? Well, I think it just means like their buying power altogether that means their
creditworthiness and all that. It's it's everything. That's how much they're they're looking
at spending. And you know, Ashlin is on here too. She says that Jenz is the
first generation to not put societal timeline pressure on things like marriage, home ownership, and kids.
Likely because all the reasons you name, but you know, knocking things off pedestals because they aren't
accessible. And you know, so I think sometimes they aren't accessible. So, you know, going
back to the the first thing we talked about and
they don't stay at jobs when they don't feel safe or they don't like something.
So, jumping from job to job also has
kind of takes away from them being able to purchase a home because these lenders are going to be like, "Dude, you haven't
had a job that you've stayed at for more than six months. How am I going to trust
you with this? talked about getting on his soap box. I'm going to jump on one for a
second. I mean, the fact is is that these things are the things that as a human you feel are biologically built
into you for the the one of the greatest human needs, security. We all have have
this need for security in some level. Some of us have that as a higher need in our in our um in our lives and some it's
a little lower. But security well when you don't own your home when you sw
you know you don't keep a job for more than 3 years when those you don't that security is not there that is part of
what they say is driving the anxiety in that that uh that generation you don't
have a home you don't have the same job you don't have a stable secure system
and uh I think Ashton said essentially, I'm paraphrasing it, it
they've knocked those things like marriage and kids and homeownership off
the pedestal because it's not accessible. Um, well, that doesn't mean
they don't want it, and it also doesn't mean that that they wouldn't be mentally
better off with those things. So that's a deep rabbit hole of of thought, but at
the end of the day, I believe that, you know, that Gen Z is a a very smart group as
well. But I I want to bring up that college pushing to college that we've
talked about on this podcast before and all of that that major societal push to
go to college and you got to go to college. I almost forced my kids into college because I was like, "Yeah, you got to go to college." And neither one
of them liked it. Neither one of them really liked college. Uh but at the end
of that when you start to see when when kids are going into debt um and I'm not saying
this is the case for my children but when kids go into you know$100 $200,000
of debt for college then this other stuff that you know a $30,000 car this
you know f uh you know kind of loose spending frivolous is that the right
word um spending is uh doesn't seem as bad whereas their
parents, you know, pinched pennies. Now, that may not be the best way to live either. So that's always up for debate,
but and that's in today with the it everything being
based on subscriptions, subscription for this, subscription for that, and then you don't realize at the
end of the month you got X amount of dollars and just subscriptions.
Yeah, everything's a subscription anymore. Well, it goes on to say that they
prioritize uh authenticity, trust, and sustainability as an identity. uh brands
that align with their personal values um they're more likely to earn their
business and jenzers also will are more
brand loyal where uh I think the article doesn't say this but I think you know I
remember my dad he didn't care what brand of car he drove or what brand of
clothes he wore it was all cost driven whereas Jenzers are more brand driven if they
gra they they'll gravitate to the brands that stand uh for what they stand for.
Yeah. I think my mom's the same way. It's whatever's going to be cheapest is doing the same job. That's the one I'm getting.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's an older uh older person's way. You know, uh boomers and
gen Gen Xers. It goes on to say that these you know
driving the loyalty of these uh the lo
driving these loyal but fickle I like that word fickle customers to a store or
a brand is not easy but if it's authentic it will pay off. So, you know,
they they they purchase more essentially purchase more off of an emotional
attachment to the brand and what that brand stands for more so than they do
the cost. Oh, because of good marketing.
Well, yeah, because and that's where what it is. It's social media. They see it on social media. I see it with my
kids all the time. Hey, I seen this. I want this. I mean, that's what it's all about these
days. Yeah. Yeah. Dad, can I enter into this raffle? It only costs 10 bucks. They're only letting 50,000 people in, but I can
win $400. Can I buy Can I buy 10 tickets? Like,
well, and they also have something we never really had to deal with um as or
certainly not as much, which is, you know, online influencers. So, this goes
in into some stats here. So, Gen X or Gen Z, sorry, department store shoppers,
20% shop in store but buy online, while 31%
buy online and return in store. That's pretty interesting.
I do both. Is that okay? Well, you're you're a Gen Zer at heart, it looks like, because that's basically
what that's saying is they they shop in store, but then they go home and buy it online. Oh, I'll find it on Amazon kind
of thing. Yeah. Well, but then there's 31% that buy online
and return in store. So, they they go in store uh as
as well. They like the instore experience, which I talked about a little bit earlier. says 17% prefer to
shop at retailers that are innovative. Uh 26% use influencer recommendations.
That's over a one4th of all shopping
uh by Gen Z is uh influenced by influencer recommendations. So that
shows you why Kylie Jenner's a billionaire. Influence, man. It's it's crazy these
days. You know, if if you see somebody that
that you like and something and they're like, "Look at this right here." Like,
"What's those little dumb furry things, fuzzy things that everybody trying to get now?" Because
Yeah. Whatever. Oh my god, dude. Like my daughter grabbed one and she's My
daughter's my youngest got braces. She put diamonds on all their teeth. Said, "Dad, now it's got braces like me." I'm
like, "You ruined the laboo. Like they retail for $30 and people are
selling them for $95. So we get we get ours for cheap.
They're fake. They're not liabos. Yeah, that's my daughter had some and
someone at school told her those aren't that one's not real. It's a what do you call them? Labobbo. No,
I think it's a lufu or something like that.
Well, reaching on in and really kind of driving right down that same thing is
the next article that says Tik Tok influencers raise awareness for the skilled trades. So,
this is kind of using uh you know the skilled trades are starting I wouldn't say starting they're
doing really well. You guys are one of them. They use um Tik Tok and Instagram
and Facebook really well and bring awareness to the skilled trades. Uh Mike
Row talks about this all the time. Um but this says uh while Tik Tok may be
best associated with the latest dance craz uh the social platform has more than 1.5
billion monthly users and could boon in helping the construction industry find
its next generation of skilled labors. In fact, in many construction in many in
construction are using the platform to vi to provide younger generation with the informative perspective on careers
in the industry and using influencers to help with recruiting.
So even this even like labor is being
driven a bit by what influencers and in the construction world. No,
you got to make it attractive. Well, I think a lot of it with that is they're like, "Well, they can be an
influencer while doing this. I can be an influencer while doing this." And they don't understand how much work it takes
to actually put the videos together, edit them, and then release them.
And then by the time, you know, they realize that, they're like, "I I don't want to do this anymore." So it's
well it says it's inspiring many to consider the construction field as a viable and rewarding profession. I think
some of that does help by destigmatizing
being in construction as you got to be a like a you know it didn't used to be this way but then it got this way where
you were looked at like second class or something for being in the skilled
trades. But many women as well as the influencers are there's a lot I mean we
all know there's a lot more women on construction sites these day than there used to be. Yeah. It's very much appreciated for
sure. Amen. Detail and and just you know it it evens everything out. And
I want to touch base on what you said uh that back in the day it used to be
viewed differently, right? And I do remember early on in my career, people
would say, 'What do you do for a living? Oh, I'm, you know, I'm I'm doing floors. I'm in construction. Oh, you are? Yeah.
Like, what are you doing? You're a full-time student. Like, what are you doing, bro? Like, um, and it was it was
uh because I didn't I was always dirty, right? You're always dirty when you're in construction, depending on what
you're doing. And that's that's what they they they took it at they took it as face value, like that was your value.
knew that was your worth. Now you uh you show up a little bit dirty and there people respect it a little bit more.
Like that's someone who understands what it takes to earn a living and it's much
appreciated for the the change in the viewpoints. Yeah. Doy.
Yeah. one popular Tik Tocker who is uh a woman, Chelsea Fenton, is um
specifically uh states in the article that if you can make yourself relatable, you will attract people. She says, "A
lot of people really don't know that these are careers that you can do without being $100,000 in debt. My most
successful video was just me talking about how much I made, how I bought a house at 27, and showing them the
positives. Yeah. And Doyle hit hits it, you know, the nail on the head right here. He
says, "Tradmen today have to develop their own brand just like a business does, you know, becoming more personal." And
that's what it is about the the influencers. It's that's what you have. That's worth
another own brand. worth another show. That is maybe one of the better comments
I've ever seen on the huddle. That is a great piece of advice for
everybody. Doyle, thank you for that comment. Um, you are your brand. The
like a lot of uh personal development people have been teaching this for maybe close to a decade now, but it talks
about when you are providing a service, you are the brand. you are your brand
and I can't I can't stress that enough. That is a great comment.
It is too and you know that goes back to when I was working before we started
preferred flooring. The the owner of the company had said some whenever you're out on a project
you represent my company. I was like you're absolutely correct. I I do represent your company but I also
represent myself and you know I am you have to put trust in me because I'm
not willing to put myself at risk um to lose all of the respect in the
industry that I've already earned. Um and I'll do a good job for you, man. I promise. Promise I will. It's my my my
name is on the line as well. Yeah. Well, those who have that type of
thing, that type of uh integrity, you're going to help your company and you're
going to be close to indispensable if you want to be.
Sounds like Doyle has been through a CFI class. Well, I know the CFI pushes that
very uh very um frequent in their trainings that you know, branding
yourself and and learning how to leverage. It's one of the things we do over at Go Carrera
soon. It's just going to be TradeTap comes up end of this month. Uh but
we like you are your brand. The more you stand out and the more you get to uh be
paid, the better you're going to be compensated for your stuff. So, you got
to be I like this one, too. Oops. Sorry. I I clicked it off there.
You got to be real with yourself. Find out who you really are. Then develop your brand. Then become relatable to all
different aspects of people. Good stuff. All right, we are coming
close to the end already. I want to get one more uh topic that uh I'm going to skip this one and
go here to ice cream truck.
that. Yeah, that was um that was my alarm reminding me to do my push-ups.
You mean aka aka take your glycerin pills? Yeah. So, uh this article is talking
about in the UK they are uh they injected $600 million
into construction training. Um this comes from floorinsight.com
and uh they talk about in this whole thing that um the
you know the spring ahead of today's spring statement it says the chancellor has announced she is injecting $600
million into construction training. That is um incredible. And shout out to
our podcast, our fellow podcasters over in the UK, Cochran or Cochroll, sorry.
Uh Cochril and Co. I mean, they have a podcast. We've been on theirs and they've been on ours. But $600 million
getting injected into your um your specific economy of training in the
flooring world, that almost makes that should make like the trainers here in
America like completely jealous. How in the world is UA UA the UK able to do
that? And then we're over here uh struggling I think uh from a
any we can. Yeah. Like any we can to put together different trainings.
They were economy together. Well, they're going to have a housing boon or at least they expect it. And it
says um one one person says in here, "It's encouraging to see the government recognizing the importance of the
skilled trades in delivering the UK's housing ambitions. The construction
industry has been facing significant challenges due due to ongoing uh skill
shortages which have impacted the speed and scale at which projects can be delivered. An investment of this scale
into the construction training and recruitment is not just a step in the right direction, but also a long-term
commitment to the future of the industry. That's pretty freaking awesome. I thought I'd end the podcast
with something like that that like really shows you just make us totally jealous, right?
Like a little jealous, but also you guys said about not living in the UK.
Pretty freaking cool that somebody's doing something. Maybe we can uh go over and talk to our friends and see if they
uh want to come over to the US a little while, help us get some floors. They call it fitting over there. So, a carpet
fitter or tile fittermin of the year. Yeah.
Yeah. Way better terminology over there than we have here. It's just different. I like it.
and just we're just waiting until the US comes and approaches us and is like
here's all this money for training let's do it. Yeah, we've been horrible
guys. This we'll give it back to you. this this whole thing is uh that they the way they look
at it anyway from the posturing of this article is that it's equipping the next
generation with the right tools, training, and opportunity um to help address the critical gaps in
the workforce. See, we we all pushed almost in all of Western society for
college degrees and many many of them people are going to the trades without
the skill though. And so that that's one of the gaps they're trying to fill is
new workforce people going in. And I've heard you say it plenty of times, Daniel, we don't necessarily have just
a, you know, a labor shortage. It's a a
qualified labor shortage. Yes. The tail pool. Yeah.
All right. Well, I hope everybody enjoyed this episode of the huddle, you
know, featuring Shag Tools as our sponsor and, you know, going on the
cruise across the interwebs um with some interesting construction topics.
If you have any suggestions, please reach out to us and it's huddle.
Forwardprogress, right? Forwardprogress atthehuddle.t. I Yeah, I always screw that up. Sorry
guys. Forwardprogress atthehuddle.team. There it is. I was going to read it if it was just pop it up and be like just right
here. Just click on this article. Can you pop send us send us an email at
forprogressthehuddle.team team so that we uh you know we have
people that there's multiples of us that are looking at articles on articles on
articles and would love to bring the ones that interest you. Uh we thought these were pretty interesting, pretty
cool. Our Dave says would be cool. Our government would only do it if someone
in the government could profit from it. Well, I I venture to say there's something going on in the UK that we
could copy. So, I I would hope that that would uh uh maybe just just filter over here a
little bit. Jimmy, thanks for all you do for the industry, man. And yeah, back at you, Jimmy. Thank you,
sir. Doyo's comment right here. You know, he's been in there for 40 years doing everything that he does. His brand is
servicing people, but he backs it up with education. And, you know, you get to put a face to
the trade. And he just says confidence and faith in what you do. And that's what people need. You know, you need
that confidence and don't like he was saying, you know, before you'd tell
people, I'm a flooring installer, and they'd look at you a certain way. But if you have that confidence, it doesn't matter what you do. It's like I install
floors, man. That's that's what I do for a living. Yeah. Amen. Well, thanks everybody for joining
us today. Uh thanks, Jorge. Thanks everybody for your comments. Like and
subscribe to our YouTube channel, please, as well as follow us on Facebook and Instagram, all the social media
sites. You can catch this podcast later on um YouTube. You can also catch it at
many of the the podcast sites. Um
I know that uh we're on Spotify and Apple. Spotify and Apple are the the two
biggest ones. I mean, if you're not using those platforms, then uh
YouTube, maybe switch it. Maybe switch it. I don't know. I think I think Google uh also has
podcasting that uh I believe you could catch up there as well. So, and they just switched a bunch of stuff
with that within the last year where it used to be like its own platform and now it's mixed in with YouTube. So, like
when we release a podcast, it gets released in video form and then when we
put it on the other platforms, it gets audio only. It's weird. I don't know what they did.
Well, you guys uh keep joining us every Tuesday at 3:00. We certainly appreciate
it. And um we will catch you guys next week.
Thank you everyone. Joey wants to see the Gladen Boys on. Phil was on a few weeks ago.
Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it again. Get both of them on. All right, guys.
Take it easy. All right. See you guys. Have a good one.
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