Trade Legends | Construction Podcast

This week on the Trade Legends Podcast, landscaper and content creator Tom joins us for his long-awaited return, and he doesn't hold back. It's been nearly three years since Tom last sat in the studio, and in that time his life has changed beyond recognition. Tom opens up about the moment, two years ago to the day we recorded this, when he hit rock bottom. He talks honestly about the help he got,...

This week on the Trade Legends Podcast, Toni from ALO Electrical has spent over 15 years building a fire and security business from the ground up, and in this episode, he holds nothing back. Toni left school without grades, enrolled on a BTEC business course, bought a motorbike the same day and never went back. He ended up becoming a chef before retraining as an electrician in his 20s, inspired by...

On this week's episode, Al sits down with Jermaine from Stately Home Developments, a luxury renovation and construction brand built from the ground up over the last five years. Jermaine's path into the trades is one of the most unexpected we've come across. Starting out on weekends with his granddad doing kitchen and bathroom fits in East London, he quickly realised construction was where he belon...

On this Episode of Trade Legends, we talk about how Britain needs 25,000 new electricians a year. We're producing maybe 5,000. Mark Allison has spent 20 years in the electrical industry and is now on a mission to fix the training crisis from the inside, hands-on, accredited, no shortcuts. We get into the £12k course scams robbing people blind, why employers have stopped taking apprentices, what th...

Luke Freeman joins the Trade Legends podcast to talk about life as a self-employed electrician for two years. We cover the apprenticeship journey, going self-employed with no domestic experience, cash-flow realities, toxic trades on social media, pricing wars, and why building your reputation matters more than your follower count.

This week on Trade Legends, Sophie McGee is a third-year electrical apprentice, and she's had the full experience, good employers, bad ones, and everything in between. We talk about leaving nursing mid-COVID, getting into the trades with zero background, the apprenticeship system that's quietly falling apart, and why more women in trades is good for everyone. Honest, straight-talking, and worth yo...

Two Trade Legends return. Dom and Reiss are back on the podcast. Both businesses have grown, the jobs are bigger, the money's bigger, and so are the headaches. In this episode, we get into how having kids changes everything when you're running a business, why most tradesmen are leaving serious money on the table with their accountant, the real reason growing your team too fast will bury you in adm...

Chirag is back on Trade Legends, and this time he's revealing all, including how he went from recruitment and estate agency to qualifying as a gas engineer in just two weeks. We get into whether that's actually enough to be safe on the job, the real cowboys in the industry, growing a YouTube channel to 16K subscribers, why long-form content beats shorts every time, the customer comments that make...

Bespoke furniture maker Josh from Emerald & Grace returns to the Trade Legends podcast 3 years on, and a lot has changed. Josh opens up about growing his workshop, investing in machinery, taking on the biggest project of his career and the realities of running a one-man trade business. We also get into social media, brand deals, comparing yourself to others and why the long game is the only ga...

Anthony from Rothenberger joins us to talk about how a 75-year-old titan of the industry is staying ahead of the curve. From Lee’s start as an engineer in '97 to Rothenberger’s massive €2 Billion global presence, we dive deep into the tech that’s making tradespeople faster, more efficient, and more profitable.

Sam from Oval Renewables launched a solar business during Covid with just £3k and no guarantees, and lived to tell the tale. Mark from Power Sonic Ltd and Adam from Nerrad Tools hold nothing back on big energy companies undercutting independent electricians, the apprenticeship system failing the trades, and what building a business from nothing actually looks like.

Rich Cockerline cold-approached sparks on building sites for 18 months just to get his first break, and that relentless mindset never left him. From working inside the National Cyber Security Centre with zero electronics allowed, to why 13 electrical deaths in a single year is an industry scandal nobody's talking about, this episode goes places most podcasts won't. Fake business coaches, the 2-mil...

Russ nearly shut down Talking Tradesmen with just £80 left in his business account, and Kev had his entire van of tools stolen on Boxing Day. Two tradespeople who refused to quit join Trade Legends to get brutally honest about mental health in construction, building a product brand from scratch into Dulux and Johnsons stockists, and why resilience in the trades is more than just a buzzword..

Tom from Testo reveals how the same precision technology used by heating engineers is trusted by McDonald's, KFC and high-end pharmaceutical labs to keep their operations safe. From why relying on guesswork in the trades isn't just unprofessional but genuinely dangerous, to how Awaab's Law is forcing a reckoning in social housing, this conversation goes places most trade podcasts won't. AI fault d...

Ash, Jack and Joe from Super Trowel are back, and this time they're addressing the controversy from the 2025 event that sent the internet into a meltdown, why Super Trowel 2026 has moved location, and what really happened at Spec Mix in the US. This is the first time they've spoken about the 2025 drama together on any podcast.

Andreas Degiulio from Woodway Windows lost his mum at 24, and explains how that moment fundamentally changed everything about how he approaches work, life and resilience. From early site graft to carving out one of the most specialised niches in period window restoration, this is a conversation about what it really costs to do things properly in the trades. Old school work ethic, charging what you...

Carleton from Nooks Carpenter walked away from an eleven-year factory job during Covid, drove by loss, a mentor's dying encouragement, and one mindset shift: "comfort is the thief of joy." He built a six-figure carpentry portfolio from nothing, using job deposits to buy tools and social media to land million-pound projects. Now he breaks down exactly how he prices, bids and protects his margins on...

Mark and Alex pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to run one of the UK's leading trade podcasts, from last-minute cancellations and juggling real life to conversations that ended up in Parliament. They revisit the hardest-hitting guest stories of 2025 and get honest about why niche trades and real stories will always beat chasing big names. Plus, what's coming in 2026.

Luke from Blue Bulldog Plumbing has turned down brand deals, been threatened by companies for sharing real-world experiences, and built a following by showing jobs going wrong rather than polished highlight reels. Back on Trade Legends for the first time in two years, he gets brutally honest about the pressure, the imposter syndrome, and why credibility in the trades will always outlast a quick pa...

Sean from Monster Rigs started on the tools at 16, survived the post-2008 construction crash in Ireland, and has reinvested every penny building a physical product brand while still staying on the tools. He gets brutally honest about product failures, manufacturing costs, branding mistakes and why most people massively underestimate what launching a trades brand actually costs, in time, money and...

Frankie from Stolen Tools UK and Shoaib from Trade United expose the organised crime networks that hit 10-20 vans a day, the loopholes criminals use to sell stolen tools as legitimate, and the big influencers who refused to support the fight. This is the most unfiltered conversation yet about what's really happening on the front line of tool theft in the UK, and why the construction industry is re...

Mark Marshall went from cutting grass and quoting garden jobs to working alongside Gary Vee, Mike Posner and Colin Furze, and he breaks down exactly how those doors opened and what it really costs to stay authentic when fame hits hard. One of the most influential landscapers on the planet gets honest about viral content, building a global audience, and why most people massively underestimate what...

Theo lost a child, broke his back, watched his business collapse, and his marriage fall apart, and rebuilding himself meant confronting every one of those things head-on. He gets brutally honest about struggling in silence, the pressure of being the provider, and what finding purpose again actually looks like after losing everything. One of the most raw and important conversations Trade Legends ha...

George, founder of Hoskins Innovations, started with a £150 loan for a lawnmower and built a landscaping business with over 300,000 social media followers, and he breaks down exactly how social media became his most powerful sales tool for building customer trust. From pricing jobs without square-metre rates to structuring payments that keep cash flow steady, this is genuinely actionable advice fo...

Laura Jane Clark transformed underground toilets into stunning living spaces for the BBC and broke into one of the most male-dominated industries in construction. Jimmy built CT1 from a small idea into one of the UK's most trusted construction brands through sheer determination. Two completely different journeys, one conversation about starting from scratch, learning from failure and staying authe...