Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 349. How People Develop A "Refrigeration Mindset"

Transcript

Episode 349. How People Develop A "Refrigeration Mindset" · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker: What's up everyone? Welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast. So happy you're here. Joining me again. The last few weeks been a whirlwind. Again, this is the training season. It gets real busy. Contractors are really invested in their technicians on the slower times. It depends on where you're at in the world.
• 0:01
  Always love having those conversations. And then this week I was in Spokane at the National Rita Conference, which was amazing. I haven't been to that event before, but this is there are, it's a refriger refrigeration Industrial Refrigeration Association where they certify, they do training, they do education just like refrigeration, mentor.
• 0:02
  I've done many podcasts on it already. And, and it was great to see the, and talk with the people afterwards. There was like dozens of people who was like, man, that really hit home. Really into the continuing education 'cause that was one section of mentorship and wanted some advice on it. Which was really great.
• 0:03
  And really that's one of the, some of the things that I've seen in the technicians that come into the refrigeration mentor course. So right off the bat we get them to do a survey on the goals, what. Or their expectations of the course, what do they want to get out of the course? And that's really what I try to do for the technicians or the contractors that come into the course.
• 0:04
  But what was great about it was meeting some of the technicians that have taken refrigeration, mentor courses and get opportunities. Talk with them about how they're progressing and the things that they're learning, and just meeting new technicians who have been watching the, the videos or have been learning from our educational content that we put on social media, which is always a great feeling because this is why we really do it, is to uplift the industry.
• 0:05
  Technicians. It's just so amazing. It's just a, such a good feeling. 'Cause I've, I've had technicians where they were just not losing hope, but they were just getting tired of the same thing in and out. And the, the people that they were around or the, the management, whatever it was, and then. Then they come into a training and they see it from different sides, and they learn a little bit and they get excited about learning and they, they get a fire on them, a little passionate under them, and then they start, they start teaching other people and mentoring people and sharing their knowledge and, and becoming better at what they do.
• 0:06
  Getting that word out is not as, not as easy. Like one person that does it really well for the trades is Mike Rowe for an example. He gets that out to the masses, which is great. We need that for the refrigeration industry. How do we get it out to more people? 'cause we are this. Hidden industry. We're in this invisible trade that is that, like I said, it, it take, we take care of the global food supply chain in, in the keynote.
• 0:07
  Do you have kids or you don't have kids that there's so many variables there. Do you want to just work all the time and make money versus you just wanna work 40 hours a week? There's nothing wrong with either one of those. That's That's up to you. W within supermarket refrigeration, we know it's a bit more demanding, right?
• 0:08
  Maybe you have to stay till seven, maybe you have to go in and wash cases out in the evening. I've done it hundreds of times. So these are like the little mindset shifts and when we talk externally about how awesome the. This industry is, that's the game changer. And I want, I want to be around more people that talk about Awesome.
• 0:09
  When I was a, like when I was in a technician six, seven year level, and they're only doing it in a few years. It doesn't take five years to become a journeyman. It does not take that. Maybe that's what people say, that it takes five years. But if you put the work in and you study and you go out in the field and you do the work, and then you come home and you study more and you go out in the field and world, you learn it way faster.
• 0:10
  Do four or five years in one or two year time span. That's how you grow. That's how you get to the next level. That's how you become a journeyman faster than all lots of other people out there just, just putting their time in. And I see it consistently, especially the newer, one of the newer generation technicians.
• 0:11
  That it's super complicated. You know, I try to make it, not that it's super. Complicated. It's anything's only com complicated. If you keep telling yourself it's super complicated and that you're not gonna figure it out, but if you invest the time in learning it, you can learn it a lot faster. It's, it's inputs and outputs, it's controlled.
• 0:12
  Sure. Is it not complicated? Sure. It depends on who's training you and who's giving you the advice and how much you're willing to put in. Just like a video game. I used to play tons and tons of video games and I wasn't that good until I played it for 200, 300, 400 hours. That game, I was really good at it.
• 0:13
  Then you hold yourself accountable. Did you actually spend that 2, 3, 4 hours a week reading those manuals, diving into it deeper? And this is where I see some technicians just, just launching their careers. They're just stepping right up to the plate and doing it. This is what I love seeing. This is what I really love about.
• 0:14
  Her to try to help them to try to, cus not only only solve the problem, come up with a, come up with some ideas together as a group to learn. This is, this is what I wanna want to make. I really want to help build a confidence of technicians because I didn't have a lot of confidence when I. First started out I was breaking a lot of things.
• 0:15
  We spend a lot of time, and we were, we were at the pubs though, but we were talking about refrigeration. We were consistently talking about refrigeration, talking about the job, things that we were doing and, and learning from each other. And that that was one, one great thing that I, I remember doing that with the other techs.
• 0:16
  And then we just get into the mindset of continuing to learn. That's when that's when things start to happen, and that's really where we start to level up. And which excites me because I, I'm really excited about being in the industry right now. Like this is the greatest. Time to be. There's lots of people.
• 0:17
  Like this is why you want to help work at the, at the, that organization. You want to help build it. Because not everybody, you know, not everybody wants the stress of running their own business and bookkeeping an accountant and chasing people for money, and that's okay. There's, there's risk. And if you wanna do that, that is awesome.
• 0:18
  The mindset of the refrigeration mindset is like, really, how do I help build the people around me? How do I help build this organization with, with the, with the company, and really help grow it? And people see that stuff. I see it time and time again. And putting that work in. My, my good friend John Sharar, like he came into the, the, the trainings he wanted to learn about supermarket refrigeration to help these techs.
• 0:19
  And that's what I see in the community, the refrigeration mentor. C. I see it, like I said, with Andrew and Aiden and Noah and Eric and all the people in the community, which I, I love it. Love it. And this is what excites me. This is one of the things that excites me because there is changes that happen and there is late nights and there's early mornings, but it's, for me, it's 10 30 right now.
• 0:20
  And I tried it and it's, and it's working now and it makes it, and other things I'm trying now are, are starting to click. Light bulbs are starting to go up. I'm starting to use my meter better. I'm, I'm, I'm able to analyze the data a bit more to really understand what's going on with the system versus before when I was just winging it.
• 0:21
  I, I, I've seen some people from Canada down there going to the event, 'cause they do have some myths. Sessions there, some training sessions and some talks and some experts and they got an expo, which is, which is cool 'cause I love that stuff. But it's definitely focused more on the, the certification side for plan operators.
• 0:22
  More events, so NS arcs in a few weeks in Concord, if you're near that area. Concord, California go to this event like may figure out even take time off. I know Andrew, he is taking time off. To come to the event. Like that's, that's it. It's an hour from his place. You, you want to hit these events up, it's one or two days of work and yes, totally understand.
• 0:23
  But honestly, when you go to those events, invest in the event, invest in the people there. Those are the experts. There's like, I'll be there. Many experts from all the manufacturers are gonna be there, many expert trainers are gonna be there, really want to help the industry, help you as a technician. And this is what excite me and all these other training organizations that I talk to, the ones that I like they care about the industry.
• 0:24
  I work with the technician to see their pain, see what, what's going on in the field. So when I go into a course, I can bring it, I can show up 'cause I know how the tech technicians feel been there. I've been in your shoes. And so it's like, how can I help you at that point in that training at that moment to be successful.
• 0:25
  That is amazing and that's what you want to do, and then, then that's good. You're gonna be more proud of it. I see this, I see the guys and the techs and the, and even the girls that are coming in and buying the academy out of their own pocket and doing it. And you can see the, the, how I can tell how proud they are is when they get those certificates and they finish all the quizzes and all the assignments and that's amazing.
• 0:26
  I'm gonna be doing a couple on commercial refrigeration. I'm still trying to plug away, trying to get some more commercial refrigeration. I know Matt's doing a great job on off the KLOS team, and we're just trying to get more refrigeration in there as well, which I love. So we're, we're gonna bring it there and then a HR and all these other events.
• 0:27
  Well, I'm hooked. Can't get out of it. You know, you get into refrigerators, you just can't get out. Which is, which is great because you, it's a, sometimes with some people, it's a love hate relationship. ? They love it 'cause it's fun. They make lots of money. They travel all over the place, but it's demanding sometimes.
• 0:28
  We're, we're here, we're a community, a global community. We're not big, you know, they're, I don't know if anyone knows the number, please shoot me an email, shoot me a message on, on LinkedIn or. Or Facebook, if you know how many refrigeration technicians are on the planet, how many actually, you know, we won't be able to get an accident.
• 0:29
  It is awesome. This industry I'm dragging on right now, but I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this and as always, share something with someone else, especially refrigeration stuff, technical personal development. This is how we get better. This is how we grow the industry. Reach out to me on social media.