The Blue Collar Voices Show

This is part two with Melvin Baird, with A Better Crawl. The excellent conversation with Melvin continues, with discussion of Orca’s, business motivation, building his new home, and other things that just make a conversation great as you delve into the mind of someone who has built a successful business. Don’t forget to check out ... Read more Source

Melvin Baird owns and operates “A Better Crawl” across the sound from Seattle. This was an enjoyable discussion as Melvin explained about what he does as a company, how he got started, and as always – challenges and successes. In order to serve customers well, parameters of soil types, venting, grade, humidity (and more) are ... Read more Source

Part Three of this interview with Billy Cline was absolutely ending on a high note. Billy has struggled, and is now reaping the rewards of hard work, AND more importantly the changing mind set – along with mentorship. Already a successful company, Billy is in the process of expanding to new markets inside Texas, and ... Read more Source

We continue with Billy Cline in part two (of three). Billy talks about growing his business by listening to podcasts, and mentorships. He has formed strong relationships with movers and shakers in the construction world, and has found that listening to those that have succeeded before him has helped dramatically. Billy also cares greatly about ... Read more Source

Billy Cline runs a successful door installation and repair company located in the Dallas, Texas area. Billy has had serious struggles growing his business, and had to make hard decisions. Today, his business is growing, and some unique expansion is in process. Sharing experiences both good and challenging, tales from the very beginning, Billy provides ... Read more Source

The conversation with Brendan Vande Kamp continues in part two. Brendan runs a sawmill, builds log cabins, and does a few other things associated. Brendan is diligently marketing his company, growing his influence, exerting excellence upon his endeavors. Don’t forget, this is part two, so listen to part one first! Source

Log To Lumber is a business owned and operated by Brendan Vande Kamp. The two main services are milling lumber, and building log cabins. Brendan travels a very wide area to mill lumber, and is based out of Virginia. Likewise, the travel to assemble/build the cabins are also dependent on the project. I met Brendan ... Read more Source

Jay and I talk about his current business, Jays Doors, mindset, employees, future expansion, and some struggles as a businessman in part two. In the prior episode, part one, we talk about how he got started, training, impact his father had, narrowing down his business focus and more. Contact Jay Bergfeld via his website at: ... Read more Source

Jason (Jay) Bergfeld operates Jay’s Doors & Trim out of Castle Rock, Washington. We explore how Jay got started in woodcraft, training through the years, starting a handyman business and narrowing down his focus to Doors and Trim. Jay had a substantial impact by his father, as his father was taking Jay along on jobs ... Read more Source

This series “The State Of Blue Collar” within the Blue Collar Voices Show is to explore the state of the Blue Collar workforce and industry. In this first episode, I talk about the decline of Blue Collar, and the importance of Blue Collar to our survival. Source

This is part two of the great conversation with John Bruggen. We actually get to where he cut off fingers in this episode. He also shares some humorous times with his crew. Listen to part one, then come back and listen to this episode. The whole conversation with John was informative and entertaining. Source

John Bruggen builds Timber Frames. Located in Kansas, John has built frames in a number of states surrounding. John Bruggen is quite the story teller, and we went so long that I broke this up into two parts. We discuss the timber framing process, the business, work life balance and the importance of safety. Yes, ... Read more Source

Adam Drewes chats with John Chapman on this episode of the Blue Collar Voices Show about some of his experiences as a business owner, in the area of concrete work. Adam specializes in flat concrete, stamped concrete and dabbles in Nuclear Shelters. Source

After a very, very long hiatus, the show is rolling again. The initial interruption was a move, covid, time and Internet access challenges which lead to a lull for a while, which in turn lead to a lack of priority juxtaposed with other things going on in my life. Of course, it was all MY ... Read more Source

Chade Turner, who runs Turner Painting is the guest on this episode of the Blue Collar Voices show. After talking with Chade, it is quite apparent that Gratitude, Passion, Character and Community are more important to him than anything else. At least, that is MY take. Chade LOVES to paint, and he is very, very ... Read more Source

In today’s show we are talking with Patrick Holehan. Pat has been a practicing gunsmith for a LOOOOOONG time. His love affair with guns started as a young child. He completed 3 years of college education in gunsmithing – 2-year standard course, 3rd year more advanced. From there, he worked a few different jobs learning ... Read more Source

Lorraine Woodwark is passionate about immigration reform, the constitution, and the rights of Americans. Lorraine talks on the Blue Collar Voices Show to explain how Illegal “immigration” is detrimental to American workers, wages, and of course the impact on the Blue Collar workforce. We discuss her personal experiences (Lorraine immigrated to the USA herself – ... Read more Sour...

Zdenek Ulman is a diver. He runs a successful diving business up in New York City area. Before that, he started and ran a successful construction company. Before THAT, he didn’t even live here in the US. He came to visit only, and then spent 15 years as an illegal alien – while starting and ... Read more Source

Matt Radford is a roofer. He’s worked as a roofer, he’s owned his own business as a roofer, and now he is a roofing consultant. He like many of us, has had challenges and been beat around a bit by life. But he kept getting back up. Matt started out stacking the refuse in the ... Read more Source

Steve Pellegrino is a knifemaker. His skill set is way more diverse, but he is definitely a consummate, and passionate, knife maker. His specialty is Cutlery, which is being used by homemakers to Gourmet Chefs. I was searching online specifically for Knife Makers, and I came across Steve. I messaged Steve, and he was absolutely ... Read more Source

Peter Erdei builds high-quality custom pieces. And of those pieces, many of them are very high end, unique and stunning tables. As is most destinations in life, Peter arrived at this one after experiencing many different things in life. We talk about some of those experiences on the show. Matter of fact, we talk about ... Read more Source

Rich Bradbury started as a rancher as a kid, worked in the Oil Fields in technical roles, worked on a ranch in Russia, and is back where he started, ranching in Oregon. His overall strategy involves adding leased land, managing, raising cattle on his ranch and with a group to produce high-quality beef, AND he ... Read more Source

Marc LeConte is the owner and operator of High Quality Home Maintenance located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Clocking in over 25 years in business, not counting the years spent building up the client list before officially launching – Marc has built relationships with his customers and a reputation that keeps him as busy as he ... Read more Source

Trent Hendricks is owner/operator of Cabriejo Ranch which he runs with his wife and a whole passel of kids (you won’t believe how many!). They raise grassfed cattle and sheep in more than just a sustainable manner, but in a Holistically Managed Regenerative model. Trent has a huge focus on “Regeneration” which seems to be ... Read more Source

Nathan Brown is the Owner/CEO of Old World Timber, a reclaimed wood wholesale and distribution company, located in Lexington, KY. We talk about sourcing old wood from both old buildings, from overseas, from rivers. Nathan tells his story of how he started Old World Timber, how it grew from a small project to a significant ... Read more Source