Blue-Collar BS

Sam Goldberg swore he'd never work at the family business. A high school internship building packaging machines at Econocorp proved him wrong. What started as a summer job on the assembly floor turned into a passion that led him from intern to COO of the 60-year-old company his dad owns. The intern-to-COO path wasn't handed to him despite being the owner's son. Sam's dad made it clear: "I can get...

Ann Ensenbach is back for her second appearance to share what's happened since moving Apex Group to the Carolinas. The company now has multiple locations and three divisions - manufacturing machining, research and development, and military armor products. What started as one smaller location turned into acquiring a company that was going out of business due to tariff impacts and dependency on outs...

We weren't aware of ESOPs before this conversation, and chances are you haven't heard of them either. Employee Stock Ownership Plans can drastically change how you run your business and transform the lives of your employees. Publix is one of the best examples of making their employees' lives better. Cashiers who may never make more than $20 an hour but stay there 20-30 years retire as multimillion...

Daryl connects manufacturing, education, and workforce development helping companies across Ontario, Canada prepare for the future of skilled trades. Working for over 25 years as a tool and die maker showed him that most people have no idea this career exists or where it fits into the economy and trades overall. That invisibility is why nobody enters these fields. A third of Ontario's skilled trad...

Brian Hiatt started Dry Mountain unintentionally to disrupt the outdoor industry through additive manufacturing. He's solving real problems through small-batch production in an industry that hasn't truly innovated in decades. Growing up in a farming community in Utah and working as a handyman taught him to get creative and solve problems instead of waiting for someone else to do it. His mission go...

When we started this podcast back in 2021, we had no idea we'd reach 200 episodes with 133 amazing guests who shared their stories and expertise. The impact this show has had not just for us but for the guests who've connected with each other and the listeners we'll never hear from goes beyond anything we imagined. We talk about moments that stand out from previous episodes, the guests who made la...

Lauri Rollings worked as a lawyer for 20 years before ending up in trade associations completely by accident. A family member of a colleague was in need of emergency help with labor negotiations and she took the job not knowing anything about construction or apprenticeships. What she found surprised her people learning skilled trades while getting paid, graduating with zero debt, and making six fi...

What happens when the push for more revenue becomes the primary goal but there's no plan behind it and quality takes a backseat? We walk through scenarios that play out in businesses all the time. Sales brings in volume without considering fit or profitability. Operations tries to ship more while maintaining standards without addressing what's breaking down. Owners point to culture problems when t...

Zach did everything he was supposed to do went to college, got the tech job, bought the house. Then one day he looked around and realized he couldn't fix a single thing without calling someone. That bothered him enough to start learning skills on the side while keeping his white collar career going. What started as picking up welding and hunting turned into serious research about what happened to...

Brad's father recently passed away, inspiring us to take time to honor the everyday heroes who show up without seeking recognition the people who teach us the most important lessons without even realizing they're doing it. Brad shares memories of his father who worked as a Teamsters driver and never missed a day of work, taught discipline without lectures, and showed integrity by owning mistakes w...

Sam DeWitt got told like every millennial to go to college and get a degree. The path from there to becoming a master mechanic wasn't anything he could have planned, moving through different roles and companies before landing somewhere that changed his entire perspective on what leadership could be. His supervisor Bob showed him what servant leadership actually looks like creating space for people...

Nush knew by sophomore year that traditional college wasn't her path. Automotive classes in high school led to NASCAR Technical Institute, then CNC machining when motorsport jobs required connections she didn't have. Now she's built Sisterhood of Trades, a Discord community of 850 women worldwide supporting each other across different trades. We explore why women still face basic safety issues lik...

Fresh out of college with a construction management degree, Bryce walked onto job sites telling field crews how to build based on what the book said. Fast forward to 2022 when he became a general manager and led his company to their largest financial loss ever at $1.5 million, forcing him to lay off 66 people. Instead of quitting, Bryce stood in front of the 35 remaining employees, wrote "I'm sorr...

Too many trades and construction business owners ignore their accounting until tax season hits, then spend days manually entering receipts from shoeboxes instead of using technology that does it automatically. We tackle the business operations side that gets pushed aside when you're busy doing the work that actually gets you paid. Steve reveals his manual QuickBooks process while Brad walks throug...

Starting with a shop vac in a Ford Ranger, DT built a grease trap company that now runs 14 trucks across Washington State with his sights set on going national before turning 40. He's built a team that runs the business smoothly when he's not there, and employees talk up the company so much they're recruiting people from completely different industries. We explore how unconventional leadership cre...

Home service is now 4% of the US workforce and the fastest growing industry in the country, yet many successful businesses still struggle with basic invoicing and cash flow management. Joe Kaye, a tech veteran who worked construction through college, started exploring investments in blue collar businesses and discovered a massive gap between the amount of work available and the systems companies u...

Construction is the second leading industry for death by suicide, yet most leaders don't know how to recognize when someone's struggling or how to have those check-in conversations. Jessica Hallahan grew up in a household full of addiction and poverty, became a drug and alcohol counselor, then burned herself out at age 24 before founding Journey to Yourself to help individuals and teams build resi...

Most business owners are sitting here in early January without any real plan for 2026 because they're still trying to close out 2025. Steve makes the case for one single measurable outcome that determines a successful year while Brad pushes back with the reality of "we just want more" thinking. Using gross margin improvement as an example, we walk through how to get every department aligned on the...

Manufacturing has a storytelling problem and it's costing the industry talent to the skilled trades. Meaghan Ziemba, a technical writer with a master's degree who's been in the industry since 2008, got tired of watching male hosts ignore her suggestions to interview women in manufacturing. So she started Mavens of Manufacturing during the 2020 pandemic and has since interviewed over 200 women, cre...

Most business owners get so stuck in daily operations overwhelm that they forget everything they accomplished throughout the year. Brad shares his process for helping clients identify wins they didn't even realize they had, while Steve explains the psychology behind why your success list is actually programming you for future achievements. We tackle the recency effect in performance reviews, why m...

Most blue collar business owners see real estate as either something they have to deal with or a major expense eating into their profits. Brad sits down solo with millennial real estate investor Geoff Stuhr to explore how property ownership can become a wealth building tool instead of just another overhead cost. We discuss the generational differences in approaching property ownership, why selling...

With Christmas less than a week away, we tackle one of the most uncomfortable conversations happening in blue collar businesses right now: the holiday bonus. What happens when bonuses have become an expectation rather than a reward? We talk through why delaying bad news creates disengagement, how to communicate with empathy when bonuses aren't happening, and the critical mistake of buying yourself...

With Steve out on college tours, I sit down solo with Beth Carter, the self-proclaimed badass bookkeeper who talks to trades clients like actual human beings instead of reciting profit and loss statements like a robot. We discuss why your aunt Sue probably shouldn't be doing your books, the difference between quality bookkeeping and data entry, and how a negative $250,000 bank account on a balance...

We dive into what separates great customer service from terrible experiences using Steve's recent dealership visits as an example. On this episode we discuss how behavioral styles impact sales performance, why most customer service failures are actually leadership problems, and the critical difference between selling to someone versus letting them buy from you. We explore how sales managers can be...

Remember when Black Friday meant people fighting at store entrances and camping out for deals? We dive into how one of America's biggest shopping traditions became a ghost town in just five years and what it reveals about how businesses must constantly evolve. In this episode, we get nostalgic about our completely different Black Friday experiences. Brad loved the event getting up early, hitting H...