Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / Standing Ovation for Superman: An Elevator Mechanic's Journey | Lawrence Wolf

Transcript

Standing Ovation for Superman: An Elevator Mechanic's Journey | Lawrence Wolf · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I do like helping people.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's very gratifying.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like one time when I was with my first company, this was an elderly people's home.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I get a call to come out there.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And when I arrive, I get a standing ovation down there.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't fixed anything yet.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're you're kind of a rough sense, right?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you've got the logo on your truck or shirt or or whatever, and it's like, game on.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, it's like that.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's oh wow, you're Superman.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the Superman show then.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, and it's like, you know, that could be it could be really gratifying.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, wow, I wow, you know, thank you.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh now let me see if I can help you.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let me see if I can get this done.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry, to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: When talent is mission critical, call the Allred Group.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: With industry expertise, top talent, and exceptional customer service.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: You need the All-Red Group on your side.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Your priority is their priority.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Call now 404-890-0445.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Today our guest is Lawrence Holmes.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Lawrence talks about his journey from the merchant marine to the elevator industry, discussing the challenges and rewards of transitioning careers.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: He emphasizes the importance of technical skills, community, and the satisfaction derived from helping others.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: The discussion also touches on the future of the elevator industry and the need for more young people to enter the trade.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Lawrence, welcome to the show.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, thank you.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: I uh I appreciate your time.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's always been good.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I know I've harassed you many times over the years, you know, just seeing, hey, you want to, you know, do something different.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, things haven't worked out, but I've always enjoyed the conversations.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right on.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, likewise, likewise.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I always like um, you know, when you send me the emails about various different, you know, things.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I I I look at the roles that you're offering, you know, the what you're what you're looking for, what you're heading up for.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I'm like, well, could I see myself in that role?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, would that be something?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Business manager, probably not.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know if I have, you know, oh yeah, that's not me.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, service supervisor?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I could probably do that.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm where's this?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Greensboro, huh?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Greensboro.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I always like North Carolina.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, as things are right now, I'd I'd have to say, you know, I'm I'm happy in uh in the Bay Area.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as I was mentioning to you, I I've started with a new company and uh so far so good.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So awesome.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean and I think um, as I recall, you used to work in the merchant marine, correct?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Is that uh part of your journey?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: How I got into the elevator journal, I was a I was a licensed officer in the merchant marine, which okay, that's um that's the love boat, that's the Exxon Valdez, that's Captain Phillips.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's those guys.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the U.S.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Marines, just uh so we go back.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I was an engineering officer, and I, you know, was part of fixing the power plant and propulsion systems on a merchant vessel, and I would travel about, and I wouldn't see too much of the outside, but uh um I I didn't see a lot of the world.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I saw a lot of the harbors.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, yeah.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, for months at a time, right?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're like buried in this belly of a whale kind of thing.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, exactly.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're you're running a watch, so you're on you're on four hours, you're off eight hours, you're lucky if you get six hours of sleep.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Six hours is beauty sleep.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you're getting six hours on the work hustle, it's like no.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, unless it's an automated plant.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you have an automated plant, okay.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you don't have the duty night, then you you should be able to get a good night's sleep.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I'm just curious, uh, and this little maybe off the subject, are those diesel powered?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you weren't shoveling through the city.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, well, they're yeah, the main varieties are steam or diesel.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um I sailed on both.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was attached to a gas turbine vessel, but that vessel didn't go anywhere.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was in a what's called reduced operating status.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it was hanging out at the dock waiting for orders to, okay, we're gonna fire it up.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I I did a little bit of that work as well, where you would um essentially do maintenance on the ship.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: The ship was just hanging out at dock.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: You would just be doing maintenance on items on it, making sure that's ready to go, because those ships are supposed to be able to ready to go in about 30 days.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: They'd say, okay, get ready.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: You you should be able to pick up your cargo in 30 days.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:00
  unknown: Okay.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So and uh yeah, actually, my first vessel was a steam vessel that was brought out of ready reserve.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, no, it wasn't ready reserve, it was it was a mothball.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So this was the Gulf War.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: My first ship was because of the Gulf War.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh first Gulf.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't expect it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: We thought this was the Gulf War to end all Gulf Wars, but it wasn't.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so my first vessel I caught at Pier 70 in San Francisco, and it was cold iron.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we were actually able to get that up uh within 30 days and you know, do our sea trials and stuff like that.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we were able to pick up our car, get ready to go get our cargo in 30 days.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: But there are very few ships were able to do that.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, whenever we would like shut down, you know, sometimes you on a steam vessel that has two boilers.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Generally speaking, if you notice that it might be having a leak or something like that, you'll shut down one of the boilers.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or um, in some cases, if if you have the time, maybe you shut down both boilers, but then as soon as you start back up again, you get all these leaks.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we were always, it was just always play whack-able leaks.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: I can't even imagine.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, what what was it that led you to elevators from traveling the world and and you know working on power plants, as you say?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I got um well, I got married, uh let's say I got married in 2004, and uh and well, I I had known her for a number of years, but as a girlfriend and you're going out to see, it's one thing, and then I you know, as a wife, and you're going out to see, it's another.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was pretty cavalier, you know, when it's like, well, hey, there's no ring attached, that kind of thing.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, okay, well, then now we're serious, and it's like, yeah, this uh you know, this is tough, this is hard.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: She she liked she liked the fact that I liked it, and that I, you know, I had a lot of pride in doing it.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think she could tolerate that, but it, you know, I it was hard on her.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's hard on anybody who who does it.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's it it's anybody, okay.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, anybody who's like a uh you know, long haul trucker, you're gonna have family and you're a long-haul trucker, same difference.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Almost like the military, maybe, right?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: You're deployed for however many months.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 7:27
  unknown: Yeah.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Had you ever dreamed of of working on elevators or you know what what was it that kind of brought it to your attention?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I had no idea what it was.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I answered a Craigslist, and I was um I was on vacation, everything's great.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, right, I could maybe I could do something while I'm you know cool on my heels.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I was on a Craigslist and I was like, elevators.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: There was this local company um uh in San Francisco.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they were out of the severe cut, they still are.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they were looking for somebody.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking, you know, and at the time I was like, if nothing else, it's something I can do.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, while my union card with the maritime union gets nice and built up, and then I can go back and get a nice, really good, good paying job uh at the union hall.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then I can tell these guys, hey, look, you know, I'm just gonna go to the sea for a little while and I'll be back.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking, you know, that's what I would do.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'd but as it turned out, um, I ended up getting in with this company uh, you know, after they interviewed me and they saw that I I knew what the heck I was talking about, at least as far as maybe not elevators, but uh, you know, they handed me a print and I was able to go, well, that's this, that's you know, the relay, this is the coil, right, this is a transformer, blah, blah, blah.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was able to you know go through that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: They saw that I I had aptitude, and so they took me on, and uh they were in a situation where they were losing two guys at the same time.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one of them was a service guy for them, the other was uh he did mods, he didn't prepare and mod for them.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Were they retiring?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Where were they where were they going?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to move to Texas.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: This was uh this was uh 2006.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So uh they both you know uh sh they both lived in San Francisco and they they had had it.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: They were the kind of guys who were just like, you know what?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they had that.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting out of California to back together.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you know, there was they were part of the early exodus, right?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, so that was their thing.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: They were just like, yeah, we're moving to Texas and that's it.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, right on.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and they ended up getting into they they ended up getting jobs uh uh working.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've lost contact with both of them, but I think one of them uh was working with EMR, which yeah, so they're the and the other one I think works for Avimach.
• 9:59
  unknown: Okay.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So he's doing like uh crane, crane um um elevators.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean it sounds like you maybe stepped right into the to the fire.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah it took you, I assume, some time to like get your license right.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're got two guys walking out and one guy walking in, it's like you better ramp up pretty quick.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and it kind of for me, it they can't they kind of have this, they threw me around everywhere.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: At first, it was like, okay, well, we're gonna have you do repair.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: They had me working on the mod, they had me doing repair.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it it was chaos, it was true chaos.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, it was just um so they they hired me and they hired this other guy, and that guy was from I think he was aerospace, uh or uh you know airplanes, you know, so AMP.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was probably like an AMP kind of guy.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um he didn't turn out though.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: As it turned out, it's like I think he lasted maybe a month, and then he didn't he was just like, okay, now I agree.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so at that point they were like, uh, you know what?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um we we're gonna have you run this route.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: A month or two, and and yeah, every bunch.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so um yeah, they just kind of threw me wherever.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I just said, okay, great, yeah, I'm gonna do that.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: What was it?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just curious.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously for him it was a little too chaotic.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Did you like the chaos?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Was that part of what you thrived in?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was okay with that.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I you know, I mean, a merchant vessel can be kind of chaotic.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: I can't even imagine.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you and you don't have any outside resources, right?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, hey, why when we swing by Hawaii, we need to pick up parts.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you really didn't have the option, but you had to you had to make it work.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: You're not in the middle of the ocean.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, no, there's there's that.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's the the idea that you have to be resilient.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you're you're the fire department, or you're the doctor.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: If they can if it can have them on ship, yeah, they you need to have it flown to you or you need to call for a tow.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, there you there's a lot of thinking ahead if in in that line of work.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So so yeah, in that respect, I think you know the chaos was okay, you know, I'm sure I'm I'm I'm all right with that.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I I think it's the driving around is that was probably the biggest for me.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I I never see first of all, I never thought, oh gosh, I'll just get involved.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: What I loved about the end of the work train is that my commute was I'd you know wake up, furlone my boy looks to brush my teeth, and walk down to the the engine flat.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was a really easy commute.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't like commuting.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh driving, you know, having I thought, oh my god, that's just I could never imagine that.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then now I've been doing it for well over 20 years.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: How long is your commute now?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's a well, depending on San Francisco track, I have to cross the Bay Bridge.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the Bay Bridge, it's been less now since COVID, all that stuff.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Traffic hasn't come back to what it was, where it certainly took me a good hour just to get in.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you are working downtown because I've heard San Francisco has a lot of very historic, you know, drum machines and and all kinds of stuff that oh yeah, yeah.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked on drum machines.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh, you know, the company that I was working with, um, they well they had their shop in the tenderloin.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: In the what?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: The tenderloin.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: So the tenderloin of San Francisco, with another every every major city, I guess technically has a tenderloin.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: A tenderloin, okay.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I found out.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Tenderloin is well, first of all, it's a stake, right?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: But it's what I know it as, sure.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's the better steak.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: The idea is that a cop, you know, a cop who's on a cop salary probably can't afford the tenderloin.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: But he can if he's in an area where there's gonna fix a payout.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so they called that the tenderloin because it's kind of the seedy part of town.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: San Francisco tenderloin, it's a rough, it's a rough neighborhood.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: You definitely uh you've got to mind your P's and Q's.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's where it's okay.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I can't leave anything out.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's like Star Wars.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, JavaScript will take it.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, that yeah, that place was uh they they originally had their shop in the tenderloin.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's where you know, if you had to load up your vehicle, basically it was also in this parking garage, like on the third floor of this parking garage.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: You would take this old elevator up to, you know, this elevator was probably installed in 1926.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was a 20th elevator.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Overhead traction, uh, and I believe they had two elevators now that I think about it.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: But this if it this was this whole parking garage, and essentially we would do this service for free.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: This company would do a lot of in in-time trade.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was like, well, we'll do your because I'm sure they got a kickback as far as either reduced rent or they got free rent.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what it's like.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: That makes sense.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: So your office was actually in a parking garage?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I was trying to do.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah, that was where I mean, so like they had a desk, they had piles of uh of uh parts and and and various different things, you know, lubricants, whatever you needed, you know, pig pads, you name it.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you would like roll into that garage, and depending, you know, you there might be four or five, five other cars already there trying to load in and stuff like that.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's one of those circular kind of garages where you know there's it isn't that wide of a lane.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, you sometimes you have to move your trucks and let somebody pass and stuff like that.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, that was there in the tender line.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I already remember my first day, uh, you know, once it was like, okay, show up and take it uh, you know, we're gonna show you around.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I think they said, well, no, we our uniform is black, so just you know, just wear black.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Okay, great.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I had, you know, a t-shirt, black pants, and you know, uh, they said, Yeah, bring a um a uh uh a leatherman.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that's all they do.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, okay, right up.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a leatherman, and uh that's it, you know.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh then I I'm walking, I you know, took the bar in me and my girlfriend at the time, we lived in the city.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know, we didn't have uh we didn't have a garage or anything like that.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you know, I'm really parking in the where I was living, we were living at the time, it was like parking in the city.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so yeah, I took the bark down there and uh you know, I I'm walking up the street, and you know, you know, I meet with the owner, Eric, and uh he took me around.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, okay, well, we're I'm gonna, you know, get a ticket to this place, and he could drop me off at some place, and yeah, I'm gonna have you work with this guy.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, okay, great.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see what this guy is doing.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this was before you got the route?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Before I got the kind of like a seasoning of like uh the owner, he was pretty much their troubleshooter.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: So if he was busy, it was about like, okay, look, I'm gonna give you to these guys.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he had me working with uh you know the repair guy, he had me working with that service guy, you know, those two guys who were gonna take off detectives.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they were actually really good because they I think if I remember, I think they gave him like two months.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: They said, look, we're leaving.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we get they gave him a lot of time to, you know, you know, we're gonna make it nice and easy, but we're leaving.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so anyway, and I you know, I I really hit it off with those guys.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: We would, you know, we would do things after work and things like that.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: So meeting of the minds and stuff like that.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, he had me work with the repair guy, he had me working with the service guy a little bit.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then when it was like, okay, look, I'm gonna have you be a repair guy, okay.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was working with the repair guy, I was helping him do you know, baby, you know, rebabbitting things.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, of course, for me, the my understanding of babbitt was like, okay, bearings like for a line shaft bearing on a ship.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh, I never dreamed that I would be, okay, well, you're gonna be pouring the stuff.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're I mean you're gonna be heating the stuff up and actually pouring it into a mold and you know, yeah creating the bearing, creating the bearing surface yourself.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, wow.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So in that respect, it was great.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was um, you know, because I learned about Babbitt, you know, in in school uh when I was at the the Maritime Academy, but um you know I the the actual practical application of it, yeah, I never never worked with it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: For sure, for sure.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, have you ever looked back?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought, man, I I wish I was back on the ships?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it sounds like you're no, no.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I no, I swallowed an anchor.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a young man's game or young, you know, it's a young person's game, I would say.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Although if you look at the average age of our marine of our emerging marine, they're probably more like my age, and it's like I don't know how you gotta keep thinking going like that.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that's not my problem.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: How long before you you really, you know, I mean I guess clicked?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it sounds like you didn't you didn't really look back, you were just like, hey, this is what I'm doing.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Did was there a point at which you were like, hey, this is this is awesome.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm gonna be here.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you were I I I think once I looked at my pay, yeah.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Once I was looking at my pay and that I wasn't having to leave, it was like, yeah, okay, well, this is fine.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: No brainer.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is a no-brainer.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, uh, I mean, the merchant marine again, I was very proud doing it.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoyed it a lot.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: I had a lot of pride doing it.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great skill set.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's constant learning, just like the elevator trade.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and just like the elevator industry.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you don't have to leave your loved ones behind.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: For months at a time or however long it takes to yeah, yeah.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I gotta leave more work, you know.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: I they haven't made the elevator uh where you could just fix it for a computer and they're not gonna drop it off at your house and yeah, no.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, I do get parts sent to my house now.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: So But you gotta go install them somewhere.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I do have to bring I have to bring them to where I'm at.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everyone, thank you for listening.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: This is Matt with a brief message from our sponsor.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: The All Red Group has been recruiting elevator industry talent for over 14 years.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you were looking to grow your business and hire great people, contact the All Red Group at allredgroup.com.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's A-L-L-R-E-D, G-R-O-U-P dot com, and talk with Matt and his team about how they can assist you.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: And now, back to the show.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say was the maybe the hardest thing for you to kind of you mentioned the commute, right?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Where there are other things or other lessons that you were like, man, this is tough.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly when you're first when you're cutting your teeth, uh uh, you know, in troubleshooting.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that that that's tough.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's very frustrating.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, okay, yeah, first of all, you have to take the stairs just to get someplace.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um or you have to you have to crawl into that steamy, uh basement drum uh machine room that has rat theses all over it.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, sure.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know you gotta you gotta get seasoned to that.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: But once uh once you're over that, well, I'm now gonna troubleshoot this thing.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this why is this ancient machine, this the machine that was installed before I was born?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta you gotta understand how I mean how does it even work, right?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's such a different function going on if you've not worked on it.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and I would I I was pretty much in at the deep end.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they pretty much bring me in at the deep end.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, no, okay, that's where we go.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: You just use you just sort of pick up things from I would If I had trouble, I I'd call for help.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what do you think?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: There was always the phone.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes, you know, the guy would come in and go, well, you know, uh a lot of times I could, you know, rely, at least at first, I could rely on um the guy who was, you know, who hired me, um, who was the their their troubleshooter.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: He was the owner troubleshooter.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: So and I gleaned a lot from him because I mean he was he was very skilled.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think I wanted to say at that time, let's see, this is in 2006, so I want to say he might have had at that time, so he was like third generation, or actually fourth generation, it was fourth generation of an elevator family.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Who uh they got their start.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: They probably had they had a company called Independent Elevator that was back um probably as early as 1915.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: So their their great-granddad was, I believe, winding motors with Thomas Eddis.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: So he came, so he's you know, back east.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think he was on there, they're an Austrian name.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they he came out west probably sometime around 1915 or thereabouts.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I only I remember seeing a bell pages ad from from 1920 that had independent elevator and had their address and you know, Kwan Dyke 527, you know, as the as the phone number.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that was their lineage, and I mean he was a fourth generation elevator guy.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um sounds like you had had a huge impact on obviously you ramping up quickly and you know, not just that, hey, you're oh no, you're being thrown to the wolves, but hey, I'm here to support you, so you were able to learn fast.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I was able to learn fast, I was able to matriculate very quickly.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, having that support system was was very good.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: I I had my six-month time, and you know, once my six months was up, I was like, okay, and here's your pay bump.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, right on.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm really seeing the cash below in.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really great.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: What do you love the most?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've been doing it for 20 years.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Remind me.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've been 18 years in the industry.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, well, that's 25.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, hold on.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, 19 years in the industry.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: 19 years in the industry.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: What do you what do you love the most?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: I I do like helping people.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think um it's very gratifying.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like one time, uh, this is when I was with my first company, uh, and this was an old an old person's home.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's an elderly people's home.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I get a call to come out there.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And when I arrive, I get a standing ovation down there.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, I haven't fixed anything yet.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean I mean you're you're kind of a reason, right?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you've got the logo on your truck or shirt or or whatever, and it's like, game on.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh wow, you're Superman.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, super Superman show that that could be it could be really gratifying.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, wow, uh, wow, you know, thank you.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh now let me see if I can help you.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let me let me see if I can get this done.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: See if I can live up to this expectation, right?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like, okay, no pressure.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so that that is uh it's very gratifying.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I like the relationships that I've been able to make, um, the camaraderie, you know, my fellow mechanics.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um awesome.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what's uh what would you say, you know, to maybe somebody who's brand new, maybe somebody who's you know considering or or considering getting into the industry, what kind of advice would you give them?
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um well you you want to be technically you want to be technically savvy, first and foremost.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm a I'm a trade unionist now, I'm I'm a part of the IUEC, uh, local eight.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you want to get into the elevator train, then you know it's a competitive thing.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows about it, and there's a line around the block trying to get into that.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to set yourself apart from everybody else.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the first things that I recommend is get certified in your welding, because that will set you apart.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, not if you're not already union, if you're let's say you're a union carpenter, well, that's good.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you can almost get a certified welding certificate, oh dude, you just now give yourself two bumps up.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for somebody who maybe isn't but is trying to do that, well, then I would say, okay, a certified welding certificate.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or if you are uh um you can get AA and electronics, we're not putting in relay logic elevators anymore.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's gonna that's gonna really boost you.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna set you apart from any from the guy who's just going, well, hey, you know, I'm young, I'm strapping.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: But for the younger kids, if uh you're in high school, because we the the union is trying to get the younger folks.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: When I when I came across when I came across in 2015, you know, I I was in my um I was in my 40s, I was part of an old group, and I remember somebody saying something about that.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, a bunch of old people like, you know what, just because we're old doesn't make it to use once.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I had like CCCM when I came over, so I was able to hit the ground running as an apprentice.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but we there is a greater desire to be younger, the high school years.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh a number of my union brothers have uh set up uh like a trade uh trailer.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just with this one guy has uh it's uh I forget the name of this foundation, I think it's the Friendship Foundation or something like that.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: But uh his name's John Christopher Heck, I'm gonna throw it out there.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why he might be retired now, but anyway, he started this trailer that goes around high schools and it opens up and it it has various different things that the kids can get into, and these high school students can look at and and learn what it is to be a tradesman.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So for those, you know, unfortunately they're not teaching shop anymore or not not too many schools have.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Not as many places, yeah, as used to as I understand.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I know uh on a previous episode of your your podcast, you know, I I heard one of the guys talking about, well, you know, I was into cars and stuff like that.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, if you if you're mechanically inclined, okay, well, that's a bump-up.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know that if you were to go come into the trade or even into the industry, okay, you're gonna go non-uni, you're gonna work non-uni.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Fine.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've done it myself.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing, no shame.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you tell, well, I work on my car and I'll do the not already.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's set you apart from the other guy who's, well, I I show up to work on time every day.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I, well, you know what?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of expect that.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's good that you show up to work on that because I mean you got you to your point, you you gotta have some mechanical aptitude, some competencies.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I talked to a guy the other day that had somebody just starting and didn't know how to read a tape measure.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, wow, that's a that's a basic skill that a little bit of carpentry, a little bit of something would be.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, see, that's part of the proficiency for the union, you know, it's like there, so you have the there's like a three-part test.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's an English test, there's a, you know, so to make sure that you understand how to construct sentences.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's the you know, the mechanical, you know, okay, if this if this is if this wheel is rotating, this is secure and it's rotating this way, which way, you know, and this one's rotating this way, which way does this one rotate?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's so there's the mechanical aptitude portion of it.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's also what is this?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, there's an arrow that points to the gradient on the tape measure.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is this read?
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, if you can't read the tape measure, forget it, dude.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna score very well.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: You might be able to BS somebody else, but you're not gonna be able to get past the union uh sure.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I got a question for you.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: I one of the issues that I I've been to frequently, and I I hear you know a lot of people will call me, especially you know, uh residential elevators, right?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: There seems to be this growing, growing, growing need.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: Can't find anybody.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh, and on one hand, it's like I shouldn't say anybody, right?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: But they really struggle, a lot of them, to to find people to to do residential elevators, which I I would think that that's a great place maybe to you know to look for for elevator mechanics just because they they've got some some basics.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: But what what could be done to maybe get more of those folks, you know, more I guess more, and you've kind of talked to it, right?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Get young folks to even look at you know residential, for example.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've been to college.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's great.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I went to a maritime account.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's great.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um the the uh the elevator industry did not care about my maritime or I my college credentials, they cared about my high school diploma.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and and the same with the NAEC when I was you know going through that apprenticeship program.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't care about my my high school my my college transcripts, they cared about my high school.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like oh okay, which uh, you know, I was like, this is more technical, this is you know more germane um to what this is all about.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: But no, they were more interested in what my high school aptitude was.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, maybe that's because that's the microcosm for you know, hey, what you were in high school, maybe that's what you always are.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's kind of a microcosm of of what you eventually will be.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you know, yeah, yeah.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's a it's an interesting observation.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: If there's one thing you could wave your magic wand and improve or change or or make different, what would you do?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Training qualified people to uh at entry level.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I have a change in the educational system.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh um as much as my high school was a very good high school, I I especially our English department was topped, all right.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Mrs.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Benny, you were awesome, all right?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Plenty.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: But from what I understand, our job, I and I didn't take shop in in high school.
• 32:56
  unknown: Right.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: We had a motor shop, we had like a to work on cars, right?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember talking to my brother.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: My brother was telling me that um, no, this was a place with a retro gates.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: My brother tried taking that.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: He he took auto shop.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: The apparently what the teacher saw him in there, you know.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: My brother, we both played football, you know, so you know, we both letter football guys.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's my older brother, and he is one year ahead of me.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: This was a conversation we had recently, and he kind of brought this up, but apparently that was a place for the retrobate.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like that movie, Earth Club.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like you know, I take jobs.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, retro bait.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be that way, it shouldn't be that way.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: It should be you will have a skill.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: You you don't go to college.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm the biggest believer.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I would not go to the maritime academy today.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if if if if you were to put me back, I'm 18.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: It it costs a lot of money.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good education.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: You learn a lot.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: You you learned by doing it at school.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: But it was expensive.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when I went through, you know, I'm gonna date myself to hell.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh 86 through 1990, uh, I want to say all sudden done, it was like$28,000.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now this is that was a while ago, for sure.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a lot of money then.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was a lot of money back then.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: I and I remember when they changed to be in a CSU school, oh, everything went up.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, okay, but you and you didn't get as much time at C.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, anyway, I don't want to, you know, bad mouth anybody here.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: They were doing the best they could.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: But all said and done, no.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're keeping your tuition costs low.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody will take you on as an apprentice, do it, man.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: If they're paying you and you're young, do it.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay as a I want to get out and I want to party.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can party when you're making money, dude.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can go to these, you can be social when you're making money.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's a lot easier when you have money in your pocket to be social.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I I I know for my era, you know, getting out of high school in 1986.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it was like, uh, okay, I got accepted to the Maritime Academy.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: My parents were all so proud, blah, blah, blah.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, yeah, that, you know, if I could only go back in time, I would say, that's great.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's neat.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'm the first of my family to go to college.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I was planning on joining the army.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want to become an army ranger for crying out loud.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: One thing I see in the elevator industry is definitely like you're talking about just uh such a variety and diversity of skills that that you can you can really not only gain a lot of confidence across the board, but you can really open up all kinds of opportunities, right?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you like you say, when we talked at the beginning about, hey, if I want to go be a supervisor or a manager, if I want to go be a consultant or an inspector, or I mean, I can do a lot of different things because of this vast experience and knowledge I have.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: That to your point, I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily get that at in most of the the colleges these days.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, I absolutely, especially especially the elevator, uh, especially the elevator industry.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: The field is quite open.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I I truly don't have any fear in as far as um, well, let's say, let's say I something bad wants to happen to me.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't I can't go and work on elevators anymore.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, one of the things is there's sales, not only elevator sales, but there's elevator park sales.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's uh components.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you could if you knew how to source all this stuff, you could become a supplier.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's this guy who's just running his whenever you need a part of America called my elevator products, M AI, elevator products.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, this guy, he I he runs it out of his garage.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's been doing it for years.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I went my first company.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever we needed a part, you know, it's like you go through the usual places, can't seem to find it.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Call up my.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: He seemed to have it.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: The guy seemed to be a wizard.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we know when I was with Star, it's like the same thing.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, put my elevator.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I was going through um inventory today, and I'm like, oh, my elevator product.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, you know, I'm gonna have to turn the ETI guys on onto my in the event uh we're having trouble sourcing things.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: But so yeah, there's there's there's so many things.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um yes, supervising, elevator inspecting.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the national elevator industry education program, they offer uh a core.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, there's there's also NASA.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can always go through NASA, but um I I plan on availing myself to the MEEP um uh elevator inspection program.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh get your QEI and all that.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, get my QEI and um and yeah, and add that to my belt, add that to my sash as well.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it does make you yeah, more marketable, right?
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: You you can market yourself a lot of different directions and and to your point, it may there may be a point at which you're like, yeah, I'm kind of I don't want to keep climbing around and under.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: I really hope, you know, not well, I can get another 10 years.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that'll give me 20 years at the union.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um, okay.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd say by that time, I mean I will be pushing out getting close to the 70-year-old, 70-year age.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, hey, I don't mind dating myself.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Fine.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think after that, you know, it's it's you know, talking about what I'm talking about earlier, you know, there's this old timer, and I'm going, you know, well, what about retirement?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he's going, and do what?
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but yeah, I mean, with that company, there was a couple of old timers there that uh just I I get it, and do what?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and and I I do find that a lot of people in the industry that do what you do, they they love it, and and they they tell me why I would want to retire.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: I love what I do, I love the people I'm working with, and it it's it's fascinating to me because I think there's so many people unhappy in their work, unhappy with what they're doing, dying, you know, just trying to trying to retire.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I never know how my day is gonna go.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: I have a plan for my day, but like Mike Tyson said, you know, to get hit in the face, it's like this Monday, in fact.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I walk in, one of my freight units is down.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it's like, okay, there's only two in the building.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, well, that better see what's going on here.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's one of those situations where I knew pretty much what the heck the problem was because every light was illuminated in the panel, the fire butter was going off, and uh, and of course the doors were open.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, the power supply is taking a crop.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: Looks like I'm gonna be doing some uh sonoring and I'm gonna have to make sure I got a power supply and blah blah blah.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh the the company I'm with they doing a Monday Zoom meeting.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've got that on speakerphone while I'm doing changing out this power supply, and they're talking about governors, and okay, well, this is this is the expectation if you run into governor issues and blah blah blah.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like meanwhile, I'm just fixing this thing and swapping that out and getting their getting their stuff up and running.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I I never know how my day goes.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I'm an in-house mechanic, so it's like, okay, my my commute's pretty much set.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how that's gonna go either.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's some days I wake up and it's like, oh, geez, somebody, you know, there's there's a total pile up on the bay bridge, you know, and it's like I'm not going down and around to get to work.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there is that sense of adventure, and um, you know, as a service mechanic, yes, it's all it it's very much like that.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: You you you know, yeah, and I would say even for a mod mechanic, you don't know how that's gonna go because you know you I've done a couple of mods, and it's like, okay, you know, we were gonna do this today.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, but we don't have that.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wait a minute.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Who didn't plan that?
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: Depends on how old the business the building is, right?
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you may be dealing with something that's like, whoa, yeah, this is you you you always run into a challenge, it's great, the the pay is great, yeah.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: What more can I ask for?
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's like that standing ovation that I got.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you people, you know, people are glad to see you, generally speaking.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not always.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: There are times they're kind of like, you know, you know, you this is the fifth time.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: This you know, I used to love when I got called, you know, it's like I get the call and you go, the guy was just here five minutes ago.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, okay, wait a minute.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm here with my cape on and I'm gonna get this going, right?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna see what they can do for you.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, do you want to?
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is an overtime call, sir.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want me to come on down?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll come on down.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's um it's problem solving, and uh, and I I for me, it's it's very much uh I like doing that.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: I like helping, you know, I like helping people.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: If I can help people, it's like, all right, that's great.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I solved the problem.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: I elevator mystery solved, baby.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: And there aren't that many people that can do what you do, so so to a lot of people, you are the superhero.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, um, yeah.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of remain humble because there are some days where it's like, gee, I don't feel like a hero.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like a bum.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, I get it.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes sometimes these elevators can make you feel real stupid, but um uh, you know, for the most part, I I love the challenge.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's you know, that's one of the things I loved about the merch training, it's a great challenge.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, you're gonna you're fighting Mother O Chan, or you're gonna you have to deal with uh a very unforgiving mistress, and the elevator is an unforgiving mistress, too.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's an unforgiving robot.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if if if it can go, if it thinks it has the permission to go, it goes.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you can do what you had to do to make sure that it doesn't have permission, or you make sure that no, no, no, dude.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're not doing you're not going nowhere.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it it it will crush.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's and it it's it's not a personal.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just going somewhere.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's not killing destroy it, must get to a level, you know, and you if you're in the way, you're in the way.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: For sure, for sure.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Lawrence, this has been a lot of fun.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate the time.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate your your passion.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that again, that's kind of what draws me to these conversations is just the excitement, the the love you have for what you do.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's it's an honor.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I appreciate you being with me today.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the pleasure is all mine, sir.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh stay safe and uh we'll chat again down the road.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: I will.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_01: Please visit our YouTube channel at ElevatorCareers or check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: Please like and subscribe.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: And until next time, stay safe.