Blue-Collar BS

Brooke Laing is a steam fitter and welder apprentice in her third year with UA Local 46 in Toronto. She's also the Chief of Strategy for the Sisterhood of Trades and just started her own podcast. So she's got something to say about what it's really like for women coming into the trades right now. The barriers are real. Women have to prove themselves in ways men don't. There's harassment that super...

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

David Hewitt is one of the first guests we've had who's led teams across the world - China, Europe, Asia, and North America. This gives David a completely different perspective than many of us would have. One of the starkest differences is how people view work. In China, people didn't mind hustling because it got them to a goal. In Europe, work hours are strict and asking someone to stay late is b...

When uncertainty hits whether it's weather, natural disasters, or the unexpected how you respond reveals your leadership. We talk about what separates leaders who have plans from leaders who are making it up as they go. The difference between chaos and calm isn't luck. It's preparation. It's knowing what matters when everything else is falling apart. It's writing down who does what, what gets prot...

Let's welcome Pat Riley onto the show this week. As an entrepreneur for years, Pat made a big pivot into working for someone else. That shift gives him a unique view from both the owner's and employee's side. This conversation challenged stereotypes we all hear Gen Z isn't lazy, Boomers aren't just selfish stock watchers, and bringing decades of experience into a new role doesn't mean you're stuck...

We break away from our usual educational episodes to talk about what's actually going on in our lives. Steve's daughter is graduating, Brad's rebuilding a trailer, and the roasting begins immediately starting with Steve's 40 yards of concrete project that never happened. Our conversation bounces from home improvement disasters to paint color debates (chartreuse with zebra stripes, anyone?) to what...

The trades can't find people. Employers know this. Yet most are still ghosting qualified applicants and ignoring an entire demographic that wants in. Zoey Bryant's story shows both problems at once young workers getting shut out and women never making it past the application stage. Zoey dropped out of college after realizing she hated classrooms. Her mom suggested welding. She went to trade school...

Brad's Friday game night exists because he got uncomfortable during COVID and started networking. That group of strangers a travel agent, Microsoft expert, idea coach, and HR consultant became the friends now playing ridiculous word games together. More importantly, they became the network that solves real business problems. That network paid off when a client texted Friday at 10:30 AM needing 2,0...

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...