The Build Zone Podcast - A Construction Podcast

Check out Episode 70 of the ABC & GCI Coffee Break Podcast with Allison Jackson, Keyla Rodriguez-Santiago, and Mike Maloney brought to you by Skilled Trades Partners; joined by author and trades advocate Ryan Kiscaden.  Ryan tells us about his incredible journey from being around the trades to writing a book for children about how important the trades really are.  He acknowledges the shortage for...

Check out Episode 69 of the ABC & GCI Coffee Break Podcast with Allison Jackson, Keyla Rodriguez-Santiago, and Mike Maloney brought to you by Skilled Trades Partners; we continue our theme of Workers Memorial Month by talking with Jennifer Landon, ABC NH/VT’s VP of Education and Workforce Development.  After learning that a close friend lost her son, she wanted to help people cope, so she became a...

Check out Episode 68 of the ABC & GCI Coffee Break Podcast with Allison Jackson, Keyla Rodriguez-Santiago, and Mike Maloney brought to you by Skilled Trades Partners; we are joined by the Michigan State Construction Management Team that competed in March at the ABC National Construction Management Competition.  They were gracious enough to talk to us about what they learned from last year’s compet...

Check out Episode 67 of the ABC & GCI Coffee Break Podcast with Allison Jackson, Keyla Rodriguez-Santiago, and Mike Maloney brought to you by Skilled Trades Partners; joined by podcast supports Mary Chisholm and Jenna Patterson of Skilled Trades Partners. Mary and Jenna talk about what Skilled Trades Partners does for ABC Members as well as how they support their employees on their skilled trades...

Check out Episode 66 of the ABC & GCI Coffee Break Podcast with Allison Jackson, Keyla Rodriguez-Santiago, and Mike Maloney brought to you by Skilled Trades Partners. We continue to celebrate Women in Construction Month and are joined by Mollie Elkman author of “The House That She Built”. We also talk to Addie Stifter and Justice Reardon from ABC Massachusetts member W.T. Rich.  Tune in as we disc...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-During our month long celebration of Women in Construction, we are excited to have Morgan Dawson, founder of Dawson Workwear. After not being able to find workwear that fit her frame she decided to go and create her own line of workwear for women. Morgan has been around the construction business her entire life, following in the foot steps of her Dad. The...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-We celebrate Women in Construction Month by talking to Paige Knowles, aka Plumber Paige.  Paige is an author, a trades advocate, a public speaker and most importantly a plumber!  She tells us why she got into the plumbing trade, her journey into construction management and how she came up with the idea for her books.  She is very talented a...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-On this episode we talk to David Richardson, founder of Trades over Grades and CTE teacher in North Carolina.  We learn from David how he got into teaching the trades, what classes he teaches to middle school students and how important teaching middle school students the importance of the trades.  He tells us about the projects he has them worki...

Presenting Partner-Skilled Trades Partners-We got to sit down and talk to Cam Garrant, Vice President of Marketing for Knowify.  Knowify empowers trade and subcontractors with the tools and insights to manage their finances, teams, and projects more effectively. It can handle your budgeting, bidding, job costing, invoicing, and much more – all in one place.   We learned that Cam gre...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-We finally get to sit down and talk with Windover Construction's Chris Pellegrini!  Chris is an assistant estimator and he was excited to sit with us and talk about his career, how he got started and how he got to be where he is today!  He tells some great stories and gives people looking to get into estimating some great advice.  The "Pod...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-We talk to Mark Winterer, from Recover Green Roofs, Building Sustainability Award Winner and Chris Keeley, Executive Vice President of Bowdoin Construction.  Mark talks to us about the process of installing a green roof, and how his company works from the ground up to provide a green roof that will last a lifetime!  We were also joined by Chris...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-This week we talk to Jay Connolly, President and Tom Dionne, Vice President of Pre-Construction Services for Connolly Brothers.  We learned that Jay is the 5th generation Connolly to be leading the company which was founded in 1880.  Jay told us that the company got its start in the residential world and was an early adopter of the design-build...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-This week we talk to two Excellence in Construction Award winners!  We were delighted to talk to Robin Shelton and Justin Provencal about their merit award winning project.  They talk to us about escalation costs related to man power and materials, the coordination efforts in design meetings, and how they handled changes in the design.  &nb...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-We talk to local business owner and host of the Modern Craftsman Podcast, Nick Schiffer.  Nick is a 3rd generation tradesman, having been involved in his families business since he was a child.  Nick talks about how he is an advocate for the apprentices to have their education, he supports technology in the skilled trades and how important it is...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-On this extended episode, we talk to Marc Mason of RCL Mechanical and John Annarelli, Jr from Medford Wellington Service Company .  Marc talks to us about how he has created a company culture, how RCL got started and how it uses technology to train his technicians in the field.  He tells us about his "Vision Board", how it was created and how RC...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-We are back in the swing of things here on the podcast and we are excited to have Ron Peik from Alpine Environmental on this week.  Ron is the president and owner of Alpine Environmental, which has been in business since 1991, he tells us how he got into the business, what his company can do for other members as well as what his dream project has bee...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-The Pod Squad looks back at some of their favorite episodes.  We listen to bits of our favorite podcasts.  We were also joined by Cory Canning, Vice President of DECOServ, and  Adam Lebel, CUSP (Clean Utilities Services Program) Manager, as they announced new services provided by DECCO.  Greg Beeman, ABC Massachusetts CEO/Chapter Presi...

Presenting Sponsor-Skilled Trades Partners-On this episode we talk to sheet metal teacher David Sprague who teaches at our Martha's Vineyard location.  We talk about how he got into the trade, how much he enjoys teaching his students, and what it is like teaching in a small community.  We also talk to the winner of the 2022 Local Craft Championship, Patrick Walsh.  We talk about thi...

Sponsored by Skilled Trades Partners-In this episode we talk to Aaron Swerchesky, the Northeast Training Manager, from DeWALT.  Aaron talks to us about the latest news from DeWALT, the changes to DeWALT's power tools and what we can expect in 2023 from DeWALT.  Keyla gives us her TOP 5 Christmas dinner items and we celebrate the 1 year birthday of the podcast.  Thanks for listening!...

Sponsored by Skilled Trades Partners-In this episode we hear from Georgio, Allison's boyfriend, about how Allison's Thanksgiving party and cooking were.  No surprise that everyone survived and the food was great!  Georgio also wrote and performed the guitar riff you hear at the end of our podcast.   We were joined this week by ABC NH/VT President and CEO Joshua Reap, and he talked a...

Can you believe we have hit this milestone?  We are now 50 episodes in, and this week we celebrate Thanksgiving by talking about what we are thankful for and Mike tells us about his Top 5 Holiday Movies!  We also talk to Todd Dardanelli, GCI alum and recently licensed journeyman electrician!  Todd just passed his test, and we were lucky to talk to him and his experience at GCI. &nbs...

Have you ever thought about your "Bucket List" of places you want to visit?  Keyla gives us her TOP 5 "Bucket List" places to visit and we talk to Joshua Page, who is a husband, father, entrepreneur and most importantly he is passionate about getting kids involved with the trades.  He has been featured on many podcasts, a TEDx speaker, and a motivational public speaker.  During the...

On this special Veteran's Day Edition of the podcast we are lucky to be joined by Colonel (ret.) Peter Eberhardt from MAS Building and Bridge and Brigadier General (ret.) Jack Hammond, Executive Director of the Home Base Program.  We wanted to thank them for their service and hear their stories.  We introduce a new segment of the podcast, THE TOP 5!  Allison shares her Top 5 Thanksg...

When do you celebrate the Holidays?  The Pod Squad learned they all start celebrating at different times and as we get ready to celebrate Apprenticeship Week we are joined by Bill Burg, the Senior Director - Partner Development, for DECCO.  We learn how Bill got into the business, how much he enjoys working with DECCO and helping the apprentices.  We also talk with two of Bill's app...

Did you know that we have a celebrity in our midst at ABC Massachusetts?  Not only is Anastasia Barnes an actor, having a part in the movie "Patriot's Day", but also the publisher of High Profile Magazine. We have a great conversation with her and talk about running the family business, how being an actor helps her in her role at the media outlet, and her passion for the construction industry...