Latest / Learnings and Missteps by Depth Builder / From Drama to Drains: Allie Perez's Journey to Empower Women in Trades

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From Drama to Drains: Allie Perez's Journey to Empower Women in Trades · Learnings and Missteps by Depth Builder

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: spite is a hell of a motivator for me, and when people tell me that I can't do something or they patronize or talk down or mansplain, it just makes me want to shove it in their face really hard.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: So a lot of it was like no, I just knew it in my heart that the numbers weren't changing.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The numbers weren't going to change.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I knew this is exactly where I mean I lost a little bit there for a little bit.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: There were a couple of years where I pursued what I thought was my ideal corporate job.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I was a corporate marketer and didn't do Texas women in trades, I just did the corporate world.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Then I ran into a friend of mine at a poker tournament and he was like do you miss it?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: And I'm like every damn day.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: What is going on LNm family?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Welcome back for another super special conversation.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I am going to be interviewing, or having a conversation with, the fellow deuce dimer, miss ali perez from san San Antonio.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Texas.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: She is the CMO, that's Chief Marketing Officer of George Plumbing and just a little heads up y'all.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Plumbing is going to be probably a big part of this conversation.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: She's the founder of Texas Women in Trades and Texas Women Work I'm not sure if that's the same thing or two separate amazing things and recently nominated 40 under 40 by the San Antonio Business Journal.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know how I got lucky y'all, but I got ballers up here and Miss Allie's going to bring it today, where you get to see how real people just like you are sharing their gifts and talents to leave this world better than they found it.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: And Miss Allie, how are you?
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I've never heard Deuce Dimer.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I own a t-shirt that's awesome 210 in the house.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: I'm super excited.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I did a little research on the socials to learn more about you.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: I want to applaud you and say thank you for being an advocate for careers in the trades and for the things that you're doing to bring women into the trades and introduce women to tools.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Because you did recently something super cool and I'm wondering I know there's a lot NYU drama voiceover acting you're a dynamo.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: What are the super special nuggets that you covet and hide from everybody that they really should know about you?
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's a good question we're starting off.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I'm heavily flawed.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I'm a very flawed person.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I am very human.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I can sometimes be impatient and I work really hard as an extrovert to make sure I'm making space for other people.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I definitely struggled in my 20s.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: For sure I would not have looked 20 years ahead and said here's where you're going to be at all.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I was a completely different person.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I missed quite a bit professionally, personally and in my relationships.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: There are definitely things I did that I'm not super proud of and I had come to Jesus with myself and realigned and tried to put better energy into the world.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's my obligation and my penance to give back and do more good to make up for the not great times that I had.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: So trying to not be too specific but not too vague.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Hopefully that answers the question.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: You know I'm flawed, I'm human.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: It hasn't always been sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, for sure.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Well, girl, I'm just going to say thank you for, like, you ain't playing around, like for real, you're human, you're flawed.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I love the way you said it's kind of a penance right.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: There's some redemption going on, some of that.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: That's kind of driving you.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Now I said, like currently CMO of George Plummond, which that's no small thing, that's a huge thing for a lot of reasons and the founder of Texas Women in Trace.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: You just gave us a little bit of insight into the fact that maybe your life's path was a windy road.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Life's path was a windy road.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So I know from again doing the social media stalking, you were at NYU for drama.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Prior to that you were in Carnet Word.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: When Miss Allie was in Carnet Word, going back and forth downtown.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: What was your path?
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Did you know that you wanted to be a CMO for a plumbing?
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: company?
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: No way, Definitely not in high school, probably not even in college.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I didn't get into drama until, like my sophomore, freshman, sophomore, junior year of high school, and it really wasn't until my junior year that I thought this would be a career path for me.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I really thought I'd end up in journalism.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: My biological uncle, who I kind of consider my dad he paid for most of my school, so you know he was in the news and he was an anchor for the news here in San Antonio and in New York City.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I thought I'd follow along that path for sure.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And I discovered acting and I was like, oh no, this is the path For me.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I went to college and it was a pricey endeavor and it wasn't just me.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of I don't know, I like in canto surface pressure.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of surface pressure there and a lot of real pressure there to perform, not just for myself, but the people who had already invested and were investing lots of dollars into my education.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: I felt like I owed them a return on that investment in me, and so I double majored.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I also majored in English, minored in mathematics, because I did always sense that I'd get into business somehow.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Some kids play doctor or teacher.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I played business Like multi-extension phone.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I was, I was she, she was me and it was so I knew that somehow I'd either run a business or be in business for myself.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: So I thought let's get the most out of our dollar here and let's learn those things too.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: So when I got out of college with a lot of talent but not a whole lot of marketable skill, I had to get work and I had gotten married real young too.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I got married right out of college, at 21.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And so it was like okay, this is it, this is starting life, let's get going.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: So I got into marketing pretty quickly.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I liked marketing.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: It was a good use of left and right brain.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: For me it was storytelling, it was creative and there was brand and graphics and fun and people.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: But then there was also metrics and measurements and I felt like it really melded the two.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I had a hard time finding an industry that was right for me.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I tried different ones and then I landed in construction by happenstance and I totally fell in love as someone who went to an all girls high school.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: I totally fell in love as someone who went to an all-girls high school.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Shout out to my shamrocks.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Shout out in card word IWHS real life.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I thought I'd end up in a predominantly female field.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I loved my time in high school.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I loved my time being around the woman power but then I ended up being in a male-dominated field.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed that.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I looked around and realized there weren't a lot of other ladies in the field.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: There weren't a lot of other young people.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I was young at the time.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: I'm not anymore.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I was young Once upon a time, me too.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: I was usually the only you know brown person in the position of authority and all of that wasn't okay with me.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: So you know, I use the marketing skills to just put up a simple website and create some socials.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: When I went looking for sisterhood and mentorship, I didn't find a lot.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: They had great stuff in other states really great programs, really great opportunities but didn't find a lot in Texas.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: So I thought I don't want any other chickadee out there to go look and not find it.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Worst case, she just gets me on the other end.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: but at least she'll have me Right, but at least she gets somebody, exactly so that was kind of how I got into the industry.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I've been in plumbing gosh over 12 years now.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I love the science of plumbing.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: I had to learn the trade because I was doing operations.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I've always also done operations too, and they're not going to listen to you if you don't know what you're talking about, so I had to learn it.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: While I was studying, I got pregnant with my first and only child.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: It's been a long time she's 10 now, but she's a plumber kid.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I love the science of it.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I'm a nerd, so I like that part of it.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: That's how I got in, totally on accident, and I'm staying because I'm just addicted to it.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I love bringing opportunities to people.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: What's coming through is you have a heart of service.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: You want to create a better experience for people coming behind you, so you're clearing a path.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: I applaud you for that.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Totally appreciate that.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: The other thing that's really that's kind of interesting to me is you said thing that's really that's kind of interesting to me is you said you said right brain, left brain, right, like drama math, which usually they don't jive you found a way to make that work with business, specifically marketing.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Right, because there's a lot of we'll say that creative kind of performance type thinking, but it's connected to, to hard metrics, right, roi, what are the impressions?
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: What is the conversion?
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Where do you think that came from?
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: That right brain, left brain, reconciling that you have an appetite for data and gray space, to wonder and be curious in.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: When did that become apparent to you?
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I got into marketing kind of on happenstance.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I was really happy when I got into it, but it was other people telling me that I had those skills.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I have an aunt who raised me and she's awesome.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: She was like you should be in marketing.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: That's a perfect blend of your skills.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: If you watch Mad Men, you should watch Mad Men.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: And I applied very broadly after college to a bunch of different roles and opportunities.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: It was really the marketing ones that came back Once I started.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Putting two and two together, I'm sometimes a little behind the party.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Sure, I'm a little tardy to that party sometimes.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: But once I put it out there I'm like, oh yeah, that makes sense.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: It was really the people around me and the opportunities that helped guide that decision.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: And then, once I was there, I was like, oh okay, a lot of accidents in finding this journey, but happy little accident.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Oh girl.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: So the people behind you I mean you've already talked about your uncle, you talked about your aunt.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I imagine there's other people and key takeaway right, you've got family that had that x-ray vision.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: They could see a version of you that you could not see yet.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: So I'm wondering you've had that kind of familial kind of feed to that.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: What steps have you taken to continue bringing that type of person into your life?
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Is that part of your regular practice or where are you on Before that?
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Let's give the shout out to the LNM family member.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: This one's from Curtis.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Mr Curtis says it was a great event today and thank you for some great insights.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I'll be following along now, as I felt it was massively beneficial.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Also, thanks for getting into the coffee with me.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: It was a good pickup, mr Curtis.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you sending me that thought.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Folks, I got to meet him at the Breakthrough Builders networking event and DFW Amazing change makers that are doing things to leave the industry better than they found it.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: That also comes a lot from my family.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: You also mentioned an attitude of service.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Most of my family worked for nonprofits, you know, so it's very much.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: My uncle dad would volunteer and he would go and emcee any type of event, would never ask for anything, any charity.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Who needed him, he would be there.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: We would go volunteer our time and our services always.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: So that spirit of charity, of giving and giving back, is just always.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: It's a cultural thing for me, it's a family tradition for me and something my daughter and I do a lot.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I mean she'll come with me to my rallies and she's on the megaphone.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Women have rights.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Women have power.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, she's a bigger feminist, and so I think it was just kind of you know that kind of thing, and we all very much have that growth mindset which is always pushing and growing and challenging each other.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time in the self-help section of Barnes Noble.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I bought a lot of books.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I need to listen to more podcasts.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I'm a little out of it that way because I really you know, I think the way we receive information is important and I'm a more visual definitely than auditory, but I need to work that muscle.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: I need to be getting that muscle.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, that that auditory, the audio books and podcasts, the volume of stuff you can consume is exponential.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Because you can do it driving, you can do it washing clothes, washing dishes, like be careful.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: I'll just say that because you may be like me and over consume and have too many ideas.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: You know it's interesting because reading a book for me is like punishment, because I can't do anything else and I'm not good at sitting down for a long period of time and like audio books.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Same.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: If you look at my list of audio books that I listen to or podcasts I listen to I've had people look at they're like what the hell's wrong?
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Why are you listening to that?
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: That's heavy stuff and it's what I'm interested in.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: If I knew that back in the day, back when I was, I know you, I know you got love for.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Brecker.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Ridge right Brecker.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Ridge Eagles Back in the day when I was there.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: If audio instruction was a thing, I think I would have done better.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: But you live and you learn.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: You've walked a path.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: You've had people in your life.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: There's a windy road to get you to where you're at now, but maybe not so windy Depends on how close you look at it.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: What advice or pointers do you have for young women in high school or even at university that they're going down a path and they think one thing goes wrong and the world's going to end.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Everything's over for them.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: What do you have to say to them?
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: There's always a start over, there's always a do over button.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: You learn something from everything, even if it didn't work out and a lot of my life did not work out.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: The way.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I expected it had planned it like the type A personality it was going to go like that.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: No, it did not happen that way, but there was value and learning in every step of the way.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And I feel like, had I not have misstepped so much in my youth, I don't know that I'd have the ability to overcome adversity that I do now.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: They almost welcome those challenges because they make you stronger, they force you out of your comfort zone.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: I don't like being comfortable, I like being a little uncomfortable, but there's always something to learn.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Even if it didn't go and it won't go exactly the way you all the time, there's always still value in that misstep right, there's value.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: You had to have taken away something to learn and sometimes it directs you to where you are truly meant to go, not where you thought you should go or were meant to go.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: So relax a little bit into the ride.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: If you're on a roller coaster and you're like this, you're just not going to have any fun.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: But if you kind of just go with it, it's going to be a funky ride and it's going to be fun.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: So relax a little bit.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: When I graduated high school, I got a summer job and found out that construction is what I need to do, like it was home In the classroom.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: I always felt less than because I now don't get me wrong.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: School was easy but I would get in trouble because I talked too much, I moved too much, I'm like things are too slow and I want to do something else.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: So on the job side, nobody even knows Like it was good that I had that kind of energy.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: It was good that I wanted to try things and do it wrong and just figure it out.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: The point there is putting your hands on things to figure it out is awesome.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: It's not the end of the world I struggled with.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Oh my God, my world's going to end.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: The world I struggled with.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, my world's gonna end my future, my potential is totally wasted because I'm not going to be an engineer.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: There were all these expectations I thought I should fulfill, but they were the expectations of other people that really didn't have an understanding of what I had within me.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: For years.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: It was difficult going through apprenticeship and it wasn't until my third or fourth year of apprenticeship where I'm like well, this is exactly where I'm needing to be, but it's not the end of the world.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: But I'm just trying to summarize what she's like.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: It's not the end of the world.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Enjoy the ride.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: You're going to learn from the damn thing and just keep on moving.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Now, when you founded Texas Women in Trades, you kind of alluded as to why, right, you were the only almost you probably still are a rarity in the circles professional circles that you're in.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: What instigated that and how easy was it?
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: It was easy to start.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: It's been harder to maintain.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: It's been about 12 years.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I felt like when I started it was a lot of people patting me on the head and saying that's a great idea, good luck.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And believing that it was a good idea, but not really interested in putting in the work with me or supporting it in any major ways.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I will say the Department of Labor Women's Bureau has always been there for me.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: They've always seen the vision, but it wasn't really until recently, the last few years, when people were talking about infrastructure bill and federal infrastructure projects and dollars that shake, shake, shake it started being like, oh, wow, we have a skilled labor gap.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, yes, we've had this into the void for a decade, but you know what?
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to take it.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: You're on board, now let's go.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I really felt like over the last few years it's been energized to say, okay, we acknowledge that.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Now what do we do?
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: And because I spent so many years in the space, I also served on the National Tradeswomen Task Force, which is an organization of women's organizations from all over the country Oregon, chicago, california, new York, new Jersey, massachusetts.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: They've been doing this for a long time.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I didn't create this and I didn't want to recreate the wheel either.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: If someone's been doing it and something worked or didn't, I want to know about that too.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: I took time with them to get to know the right people and ask the right questions before I really started building out the organization in a way that I felt was going to serve the community and my goals.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I really did a lot of just like not a whole lot for a long time, other than responding to emails and doing things every now and again, but within the last few years I've supercharged my efforts as well.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: So now we do monthly information sessions where I go and do a hoorah and get people super excited about it and then pipeline them into essay, ready to work and other career opportunities unions.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: And then we also do tool trainings.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: I came from one today.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: We did one a couple of weeks ago with women.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I came from one.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Literally I hopped in.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I'm so a little sway, a little shiny, because I was working with fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh graders today about 25 of them and we were building birdhouses and talking about construction and there were girls in there saying I want to be a carpenter, I want to be a plumber, and I'm just like, yes, we need to do the work, we need to get in there, we need to plant these seeds.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: It's a long term and a short term, you know.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of what I wanted.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I get the feel good vibes, but we're also really creating positive change in the communities.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: We work with girls and women and an ideal person for us is a high school senior who it's the second semester.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: They're about to graduate.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: They don't have a college picked.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Their parents are on their back, the counselor's on their back.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: They don't know what they want to to do.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: That's a perfect person for me, because they've not been shown this opportunity and even if they want to do something else, like work for nasa or become a fashion designer, these skills will always be with them.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: They'll be able to pay for their own training in whatever other field they want to get into.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: More often than not, I have a feeling they're to like the industry and want to stick around, but that's kind of I don't know a very roundabout way of answering your question.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: No, it's perfect because you kind of served up all kinds of juicy things for me to pick apart.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: I want to come back to the ideal person that you want to play with.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: But first, what I want the L&M family member out there to get from this is you started down this path 10 or 12 years ago.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: You stayed the course.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: You weren't getting hoopla.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: You knew the data out there.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: When I graduated high school in 95, that's part of the reason why I chose plumbing, because at that time the average age of a journeyman plumber in Texas was like 52.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: I was in apprenticeship.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I was the only 18-year-old in the apprenticeship program.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: All my peers were 30, mid-30s and on.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: I could do math.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: I'm like in 15 years I'm going to be making money.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: Money because they're all leaving.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: There's only one of me like duh supply and demand.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: So it's not a new thing.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: But now there's this focus of oh my goodness, this is a big thing.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Through the quiet time where you were plugging away, I'm sure you had people in your circle saying why are you doing this?
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Three people showed up, all that effort for only three people.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: How did you keep going, or what's your advice for people to continue forward?
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I wish I have good advice, I have real advice.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, even better.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Spite is a hell of a motivator for me, and when people tell me that I can't do something, or they patronize or talk down or mansplain, it just makes me want to shove it in their face really hard.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: So a lot of it was like no, I just knew it in my heart.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: The numbers weren't changing, the numbers weren't going to change.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: I knew this is exactly where I mean.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I lost a little bit there for a little bit.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: There were a couple of years where I pursued what I thought was my ideal corporate job.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I was a corporate marketer and didn't do Texas women in trades, I just did the corporate world.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Then I ran into a friend of mine at a poker tournament and he was like, do you miss it?
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, every damn day I miss it all the time.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: And he says, well, come work with us.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: And that's how I ended up going back into it at George Plumbing.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: But even I lost the light for a little bit.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Even I was like God, I'm tired of having to fight my fight for myself and for others and like just constantly being talked down to and minimize and I just even I lost it.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: So I had to almost step away for a little bit and take a reprieve to realize how much.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: No, that was my mission, that is my purpose, that's what I'm called to do, and that universe brought us back together.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: The universe was like you have this voice and these skills at this time for this movement and you've got to be there and you've got to do it.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: So I feel a very higher calling to it.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: But even I, mean, jesus, had the same thing.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: We all have the same thing.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: I'm highly religious, but there's a lot of reality there.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Even he had doubts, and doubts are totally normal Honestly, they're rational.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I don't want people to say, okay, this isn't working, what do we do?
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: But sometimes it is a step away.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: If it's right, you'll know it's right, you'll be back.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: And that's really when I came back, is when it really started to.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: I was smarter, I was smarter about it, I was older, wiser and just really came at it in a different approach that was more successful.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we'll still have info sessions where one or two people show up, and it doesn't bother me any, because that one or two people their lives could be completely transformed.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: One person.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: If I can influence impact one person's day, one person's life, that's what the hell I'm here for.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Sure, a million would be great, but one is pretty damn awesome.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: So again, repeat so that people don't miss it Despite can be dual.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: If that's's what's gonna give you the ganas posale.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, if somebody I've done so many times people piss me off I said, okay, I'm gonna get you.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: It ain't gonna be today, but I'm gonna get you right, that's right.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: If you come for me, you better not miss.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, girl, that's what I'm talking about.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: So earlier you mentioned that senior that's kind of wondering, maybe not sure, like indecisive hasn't made a decision, doesn't know where to go.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: What I'm talking about, okay.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: So earlier you mentioned that senior that's kind of wondering, maybe not sure, like indecisive hasn't made a decision, doesn't know where to go.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Are there any characteristics within the individuals that come to you that indicate to you like, oh, yeah, yeah, like you're going to love this Anything?
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Stand out.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I do a lot of work with a nonprofit called Girl With Grit and they really focus on putting tools into younger girls' hands, like the girls you were talking to today.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: We both work with high school and then I work more with adults and pipeline them in.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: You really try to look at the demographic of who are we really serving here and who benefits the most from this and, believe it or not, it's the art kids.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: It's the kids who like to paint.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: It's the kids who like to paint.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: It's the kids who like to act.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: It's the kids who like to do all of that, and I was there today and we were building these little bird houses and one of the young gals said I want to do this kind of work, but I want to do it for theater, for sets, for movies.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh my God, that's awesome.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: You could do that in Big Bang.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, really, I was that kid, right, I was that theater kid.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: My friend Blythe was that art kid, you know that punk art kid.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I was the preppy theater kid.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: We couldn't be more different, but we have so much in common in how we're motivated to help others.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: So don't underestimate your art kids out there, because they got skills.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: I got to agree with that.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: When I think about my business I've been in business for two and a half years I don't have any credentials.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: I was in plumbing for over 20 years.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I've been in construction my whole life.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: But the skills that I learned as an apprentice, as a plumber, as an installer was I got a pile of material.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Installer was I got a pile of material, some tools, some information and me.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: And it's up to me to actualize that picture into something that is functional and operational.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: I did that iteratively, by responding to my conditions and figuring out how to accomplish the goal given the resources I had at hand.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: But it's exactly the same thing in building my business.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: It's like there's no clear path, there's no instruction manual.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Not that I would read it.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: You'd listen to it.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Let me figure it out and then you can figure it out In terms of the art kids.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Maybe they're more inclined to excel at a quicker rate because they have their creative mind and understand the nature of creativity, which is iteration.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: What do you think about that?
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: It's 100% right, and I think also they're kind of used to being on the fringes, you know, not always things were comfortable or, you know, normal in any sense of the word.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: They'd much rather be in the art room or on the stage than in the classroom.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: And doing as opposed to lectured at.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: So I think there's a lot of if it was a Venn diagram of sorts a lot of overlay there, but again this is for anybody.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I mean it really like that's who we see best serve for the most part.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: We don't have any studies on this, but we had a 40 plus year old apprentice at George Plumbing who came to us from the IT world.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: It can be for everyone.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: It really depends on the person, which I think is also really cool because it's super universal.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Again, thank you for the work that you're doing with the Texas Women in Trade.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: We work together.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: It's a similar conjunction there.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Got it Beautiful Because you know this.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: I know this.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: When I was in school, no one mentioned that a career in the trades was a viable option.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: It was go to college or flip burgers, and I'm not against college at all.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: I've got you in.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: I think you're a.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Blue Tigers, st Phillips.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I went there too.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: That's where I studied plumbing, yeah.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: So I went there too, cause my apprenticeship with ABC.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: I got like 32 hours of experiential credit towards a degree in construction business management at St Phillips.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: I never finished, of course as well.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: I'm like man, this is not fun.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Anyways, I'm not against college.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: It's necessary and helpful in a lot of situations, but not mandatory for every situation.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: I'm against forcing people into conditions that do not help them thrive and grow.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: For kids like me, university is not the environment for me to thrive and grow.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: The job site was For those kids out there wondering.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: When I was doing recruiting I used to work for TD Industries.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: I would go to the schools.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: They would always give me their honor roll kids.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: We tried.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: That didn't work.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: Here was my criteria If they're in any kind of extracurricular activity, I don't care.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: If it's banned, it doesn't matter.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: They got to.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: If they're showing up to school before everybody else and staying after school, but after everybody else leaves, they got to work in a team.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I don't, and actually I'd prefer if they were like C and D kids, kind of in trouble a lot or often because they won't conform to the rules and they ain't scared to figure things out on their own.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: I want to applaud you and also folks out there L&M family, their L&M family.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: If you know any youngsters that are in that situation, that have that kind of style and personality, there is an amazing place in the industry, in the trades, from which they can really experience a high quality of life.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Am I a liar?
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: No, I think our skilled labor gap is a marketing problem.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: I really don't feel like we do a great job sharing the benefits of our industry, but you know who does?
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Colleges and universities.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: We live in a capitalist nation and when I started doing this work over 10 years ago, they were spending a billion dollars a year to recruit.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Now they're spending over $10 billion a year to recruit.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: They're putting in the money and they're selling these kids a vision of life on the quad playing hacky sack.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: You know, like, whatever that modern equivalent is, you know they're selling that vision and then, oh yeah, you've got going to come out with a quarter million dollars in student loans.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Doesn't matter you went to second class you did this.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: It's a capitalist country and they are doing their part to get every seat filled and have every class filled, and they're not afraid to spend the dollars to do it, and they have a method to their madness.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: And the military too.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Military spends about 3 billion a year to recruit and they recently had to lower their standards because they weren't getting enough people.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: So it's like we have some competition in this and the competition is putting in the time, the money and the energy.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: We have to do the same as a group to really spread our message, because we're competing with some really heavy hitters.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: So here's what's interesting is there are universities billions, the military billions but the trades I don't know.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Maybe I'm ignorant, maybe you could school me on this, but it feels like the trades is relying on nonprofits amazing human beings like you and all the other people out there to do the damn marketing for them.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: You got it.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: It's two things.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: One, it's that Very true.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: The other is that it's a very self-fulfilling industry.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: For example, people have had to figure it out for themselves.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: They have their own internal methods of recruitment, their own internal methods of apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: We're a part of a contracting group, the PHEC Plumbing, heating and Cooling Contractors in San Antonio, and 10 years ago I was in the inaugural class for their DOL Registered Apprenticeship Program.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: They created for their contractors to get their people educated.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: So they've had to fend for themselves.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: They've had to figure it out for themselves.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: All these contractors have.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Because of that they're proprietary with that.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: They're not going to create this program for just anybody and everybody.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: We fought hard to have this.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: I really wish if I had a magic wand that all the contractors could.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Can't we all just get along?
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: I think there's still that competitive, capitalist component to it.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I want my people to be the best educated, the best on the job.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I want my people to be the most efficient, the most credentialed and licensed.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Now, not all contractors are like that.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, george Plumbing isn't like that.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: They've been a part of the of the organization forever.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: But it it is very dependent on nonprofits workforce development, which you know I serve on that ready to work board and and I they're probably tired of hearing me.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Oh well, they still got me for another year.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: That construction isn't like any other industry.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: It's not like getting a medical tech or an IT coordinator.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: It's not like any of that.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: We hire and we train them.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: They don't get trained and then get hired, so we break the systems of workforce development and that's really hard to adjust to.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: The good news is Ready to Work's listening.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: They're trying to adapt to that, but those kind of cogs don't move and change overnight.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: So I mean it's a lot of work, it's a lot of the right people in the right rooms, it's a lot of just listening and doing.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we need to work more cohesively as an industry because this isn't just an Allie problem or a George Plumbing problem or a you problem or your company problem.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: This is an everybody problem and there's plenty of people out there for all of us.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, a hundred percent.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: When I was responsible for recruiting, I was on advisory boards.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Have you connected with CCA Construction Careers Academy?
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, at Warren.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, ms Akels, she's amazing, she was one of my early guests on the podcast.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: There's a way, however the sharing of the methodology, of the pipeline right of the workforce development.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: We had put together an internship program when I was at TD and I kind of had to break through all the damn red tape, all the freaking head garbage that our decision makers had.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: I was responsible for getting labor for all our work and I found me getting the same people paying them more money.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: They weren't having more skills and would leave for another 50 cents or a dollar and then they would come back and that's just the way it was.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: I'm on the advisory boards for these schools and they are graduating students that I want to put to work.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Some of them are going to university.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: The rest is like what's going on?
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: I'm like, see, you know what?
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: I need to start bringing these kids and putting them to work, and we did, and so we had that turned into an internship program, putting kids to work over the summer of their junior and senior year, and I remember the company I was working for, there was a guy that was going to be their internship apprenticeship person.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: I'm like, bro, I already did that.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Like, here's my thing, just do more of it.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: The response I got from him was dude, you can't share this with anybody.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: You got to keep this top secret.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: And I'm like bro, too late I done gave it to everybody that's on the advisory board.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: Like, I did some of the legwork to figure out.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Like they don't have to be 18 to be on a job site.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: We need to get a waiver from our insurance carrier so that we can have 16 to 18 year olds on the job site.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: And there are three things that they can't do.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: Now two more things that I want to make sure you're connected to have you connected with Stacey Gunderson yet, gosh, she's San Antonio Marriott Brothers.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: Okay, marriott is awesome.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Marriott is a big sponsor of a lot of different efforts locally.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: They're doing the work.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: Oh man, they got it going on.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Stacey's there and then TCCI, Texas Construction Careers Initiative.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: Are you going to be there in November?
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: At the big yes, november 13th.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: And.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: I encourage Ready to Work to be there in the city of San Antonio.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: I think we're going to have a breakout panel, so I'll probably be speaking too.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: We'll also be with a career fair for adults afterwards.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: I heard We'll be there till 2.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: And then from two to five we'll have a career fair ready to work, career fair to get other people interested adult people interested.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Come resumes ready, come interview ready, Like there will be contractors there ready to have conversations with these people.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: Are you going to be there for the craft competition?
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's the best part, that's awesome, totally, totally.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: Those kids got skills.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: When I saw those kids compete, I'm like I can put them to work right now.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: They got real game and it started.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: This whole other thread was good work and fulfilling work.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: So, folks, if you're listening, this episode is going to be out before then.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: If you're in or anywhere near central Texas, you need to come down.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's at the Freeman Coliseum again.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: They bring equipment.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: They bring you know virtual, like simulators.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: You can see what it's like to operate.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: It is electric.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: It is an awesome event.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, girl, you and I are going to have to connect and get some selfies.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I'll be there.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: We get to meet in person.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: What are some of the things that you've learned as the CMO for George Plumbing?
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Really honing growth mindset, really understanding that, no matter what people you hire on personality and train on skill, has never been more apparent.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: Train on skill has never been more apparent.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: You can have people who think that they're rock stars and they just don't listen.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: You know they don't take constructive anything.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: And it works both ways right, I'm all about it.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Tell me I can do something better.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: I'm a Leo too.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: So sometimes I'm like oh really.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: But then I digest it and I learn something from it.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: But no, just.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: You know people are your most important asset in any business.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: The way you treat them, the way you pay them, the way they feel heard and appreciated is huge.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: And that growth mindset will make or break you as an individual and as a business.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: And you don't got it, you'll survive business.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: And you don't got it, you'll survive but not going to thrive.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: It's a cold, hard fact.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: You've just got to embrace that change is going to happen.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Just be ready for it.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Some people like it, some people don't, but it's a natural part of life.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Days change, everything changes.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: So just start building some resilience to that, because that's one thing you can do.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: You know you can stop change, but you can combat how you handle it and how you respond to it.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: It's been a trip.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Marketing's changed a lot.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: I definitely didn't learn about AI in college.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: It's been huge.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Digital marketing has become such a dominating force.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Marketing is a fast evolving industry and it's also like kind of like the trades also look down on.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people think, oh, anyone can do that.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's easy.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: I'll just YouTube it and figure it out you know, and it's like okay, I'm not saying it's rocket science, because it's not, but, like you know, when someone's put 10 plus years into it, you know, maybe they know a little bit of something about it you know, so it's been real interesting working in marketing in this industry too, because sometimes that role can be really minimized.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: But I'm fortunate.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: George Fleming's a great company, been around since 1947.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I always feel like I've had a voice there, which is important.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: I love our brand, really love our brand, really love our brand.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: No matter what I do or where I go, I'll always have my toe in the water with George Plumbing and the brand, because I just love it.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: I'm protective of it.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: I want to make sure that it's always handled with care.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: A lot's changed and you just got to flow with it.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I noticed the virtual or social end of the marketing for George Plumbing and I was surprised.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh wow, this isn't like my dad's plumbing company.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: This is how, should I say, at least up with the times.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: I'll say it that way For other marketing professionals because I got a lot of friends in marketing.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: You have some insight that I know they don't have, because you went to St Phillips to do the plumbing apprenticeship, did you get your license?
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: I have all my hours.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: I've been an epically long apprentice.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: I just have to test.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: I'm rare too, in that I went to college and have the skills.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: You understand the work and have the mindset and experience of marketing, but have friends or just people I know in general, that are in marketing but they don't understand the work.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: And so what are some nuggets you could give those marketers that are within the construction industry, that are struggling to connect with their internal client, right With their decision maker?
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: Like what you got for them.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Two tidbits I'm thinking of.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: One get to know the people.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Get to know the people who do the work.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: I'm friendly with them.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: I like to hear what's going on with Doug and Sean and how are your kids and what was today like and how was that tankless and stuff.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: You know you've got to have a relationship with the people because they do a lot of that marketing work in conjunction with you.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: If they understand you have good intention with their brand and with letting people know how hard it is they work, they'll go to bat, they'll do the work.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: So we have a review program that's fueled by our guys asking for reviews.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: They'll send me pictures from their job sites that they're proud of.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: Or one time they ran into this hundred-year-old turtle.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: They sent me a video.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: It was after a rainstorm and they were at a customer's house.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: It was a beautiful rainbow.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: I mean they'll send me random stuff, sometimes, not always, post-appointment.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Save those for our internal company slideshow for the holidays.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: But they're out there and so if you help them realize that they're a part of the team and make it fun and engaging and really just like humanize it, that's low-lying fruit.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: You should do that anyway.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Like any manager of anything should get to know their people, be with the people.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: If you're gonna leave, you gotta get in the mess.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Right, you gotta do it.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: That's my next one get in the mess.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: I'll go out from time to time and go on jobs.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: That was in a bunny suit a couple months ago under a house, crawling military style.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: They got a picture of me in a bunny suit, I mean you know, and with all my gear and stuff filthy, and and then I can say, you know, even sometimes when I answer the phone and help out, like well, why are you that?
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Why is that so much?
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Are you gonna crawl under your house in 110 degrees like?
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: I know exactly what you're looking at and how to fix it.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: There's value there.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: It helps them appreciate you too.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: They'd be like dang, I only got in there and if you would do it, it works both ways.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Know your people and let your people know that you see them and hear them.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they have way better ideas than I do?
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: we have these business cards and on the back we put our qr code and everyone's to leave reviews and and so everyone's telling me oh that's such a great idea.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: It wasn't mine, it was one of our plumbers ideas Sean's idea and he's a boomer, you know.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: So it's like don't expedite.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, sometimes you're all a team, so work as a team.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Many other people have way better ideas than me, but hopefully I fostered an environment where they feel they can bring those ideas and make magic out of them.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, I love it.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: Know your people, know the work.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: That's what I got, like bombs.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: You're dropping bombs, girl.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I love it.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: That's super, super exciting.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: So now, if they know the people and know the work, does it help them to be a Super Mario history buff?
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Like on the game Super Mario.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I do some Mario Posey too.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I do that.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: I use it a lot for the kids too.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Like I'll go into the schools and I'll say who's the most famous plumber in the world?
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: And the really smart kids say you miss.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: And I'm like oh, I like you, I like you, but no, it's not me and they're like no, it's Mario.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: So I really appreciate the Mario movie because that was a lot of great marketing for us right there.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Albeit not accurate at all.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: It made me nervous when they were destroying that super high-end bathroom.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: I was itchy, but yeah, no, I mean, whatever works, you know we've got a great brand.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't invent the brand, I didn't invent the logo, but I was able to scoop it up, you know, and internalize it, really kind of make it our own and modernize it, putting it on YouTube videos, having accessible things and doing funny meme worthy posts, having fun.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: Not everything has to be so.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: We are professional, but of course you're professional plumbers.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Right, have a little bit of a personality, let you every company has one, whether it is super professional.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: Have just a little bit of fun and creativity.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: People will respond to that and you'll have a better day and a better time at your job.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: Seems simple to me yeah, I'm with you a hundred percent.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: I get a lot of.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: If you see any of my stuff on the socials, I don't necessarily follow the rules and some people are like bro, like aren't you worried about losing credibility?
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Like shit, I didn't have anyone, I got here's fine, we have a good time.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: But no, my kid will be in.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Mario Kart.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not that good.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not very good at video games.
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: No, I saw one of your posts and you taught me something.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: It was the George Plumbing post that the Mario Brothers didn't start off as plumbers, they started off as carpenters.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: All right, and not only was it marketing for George Plumbing, it was also educational.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: So, folks, if you didn't know, y'all got to go find that post.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: Look up George Plumbing, give them a like and look at the Super Mario history there.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: But Super Mario started as a.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: They started as carpenters, but some decision makers said they spent so much time underground they need to be plumbers that the decision was made.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: I've been.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: If you haven't gathered this, in the last 55 minutes we've been talking a big old nerd OG original geek.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: I own it, I know the history.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: And then let's just make that fun somehow.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: Let's use that in service to others.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: That's the trick.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: So are you ready for the home run question?
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: You started out hot and heavy, so we can only go over here.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, here it is.
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: You've done a lot of amazing things, you've got a whole lot within you that you've been sharing with the world, and you got some runway ahead of you.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: So what is the promise you are intended to be?
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: I'm really called to this work.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: I'm called to the work of using a super unique skill set I've always felt like I don't quite belong anywhere and turning that into a superpower.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: I think I'm called to continue to do this work.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: I would love to see Texas women in trades be impactful from a logistical standpoint.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: We're at 3% females on the job in San Antonio and in Texas.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: I'd love to see us I mean I'd love to see us 20%.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: I'd love to see one in five trades.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: I mean it doesn't even seem like a lot, but to go from three to 20 in my lifetime, that would be just amazing.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep doing it.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: I read this book recently called Think and Grow Rich.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: There were some really good gems in there.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: If you haven't read it, it's a really good book to read and kind of workbook Like you read it once but you're not done with it.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: It makes you do work.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: I read something that said the age 40 to 50, that's your zone, that's when you're really going to do it.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I take that as a challenge, not out of spite, but just to really show up and show out in these next 10 years and leave it all on the dance floor.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: We're going hard, we're going strong.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: We're going to do this.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: I'm going to keep at it.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: I I'll keep at it.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: I think some of the things we're doing are working.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Some of them aren't.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: We're going to change those.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: We're going to come up with new ones.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: I commit to continuing the efforts and if I had to put a number on it, I'd love to see one in five plus, plus, plus.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: So the L&M family.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: We got a lot of people in the construction industry.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: How can they find you and what can they do to help support your vision to getting us to 20% women in the industry?
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: Awesome?
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: Easy to find womenintradesorg.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: You can find our website.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: You can fill out a form submission request to join our email list.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: We do events all the time.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: You can share our stuff on social media.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: Just the way we talk to our young people and people about our trade is an imperative task for all of us.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: Get out to your kid's career day.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: Bring some swag and talk to them about what you do.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: You know that's a really big help.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: You know getting out there and doing the mission.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: We're also always looking for mentors.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: We like to pair our interested apprentices or pre-apprentices with somebody in their field and area.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: If you're interested in mentorship, you can find out about that on the website.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: If you want to follow me, I'm on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and love sharing your stuff and I might have things you want to share too, so find me on there.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: I accept pretty much everybody unless they look like a bot.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: That's how you find us.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Get out in the community, share this mission.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: If you need help, I have PowerPoint presentations and templates.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: We'll train you on how to get out there and what to talk about.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: You're not alone.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: There are lots of people who want to do this work, and you don't have to recreate the wheel.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: We'll help you.
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, so amazing, so amazing.
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: Did you have fun?
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I had a blast.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: That was a lot of fun.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed it also.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, your energy is like, it's energy for me.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: I'm like man, I'm stoked.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: I feel like I want to go back and and do recruiting for the trades again, let's do it.
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: Oh, man, to be continued, cause we didn't talk about your voiceover work.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: So the and I I'm sure you're going to be continuing to impact the world.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: So at some point in the future we're going to reconnect.
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: We're going to have selfies because we're both going to be at the TCCI event.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you for your time, sister.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: It's mine.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being interested in the mission and sharing all these great stories and information for people.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Love seeing this Love, watching you thrive.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Keep at it.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.