The Skill Gap Problem

For thirty five years, Cindy Stumpo has been a female home builder with a passion for design, a mastery of detail, and a commitment to her crack. With daughter Samantha Stumpo by her side, I don't need my whole family on a date with me. That's a good note. It's goddemn weird. See. Stumpo Development is the only second generation female construction company in the country. You're crazy, You're a wacko, You're insane. I mean, it

just doesn't end together. Cindy and Samantha welcome guests to explore the world of construction, real estate, development, design and more. Unpredictable. Every time I think I know what you want, you'd switch it out. But that's what makes your houses all your day. Discuss anything that happens between the roof and the foundation. Nothing is off limits. You truly do care about everybody. She can yell at chi can scream, but when you get her alone,

she's the best person on the planet. Cindy Stumpo is tough as nails and welcome to Cindy Stumpo Tell the Nails on WBZ News Radio ten thirty and I'm here tonight with Sammy and who else here? What's turname? Dan? Demadia? Dan? What do you do so work in real estate? Really give us a whole bio on you. Okay, I'll give you the whole bios. So thank you both for having me toy today. Thank you for coming my pleasure. So I grew up in Dennis. We won't hold that

against you. Father was a law enforce and retired as police chief, and Dennis mom was in the restaurants. Grew up real blue collar. It's actually funny. I remember when I was twelve years old. I said to my dad, I wanted a PlayStation. He said sure. Two days later, I found myself on a plumbing truck doing commercial and residential plumbing all the way up to Boston Beacon Hill Chester. Oh. So I didn't buy you the PlayStation. No, I went and bought myself after I got some money.

Okay, I like that. I like you, Dad, go ahead. So long story short, eighth grade comes around. All my buddies were going to the regional high school. I made the really unpopular decision at the time, which was actually the best decision I ever made my life, was to go to Cape Cod Tech, which was the vocational High School to continue learning plumbing. And it was really cool because we got to go there on we had two weeks of shop, two weeks of academics, which was amazing.

But the two weeks once you get your drivers. But how old do you My mask is thirty years old. Okay, so that there's a different generational gap then now, so go ahead. That's great, absolutely, and that's definitely what we're seeing. But it was really cool going to the vocational high school. And it was funny when you know, when I decided to go there, everyone's like, oh, you'll never go to college, you'll never be successful, it's very un sexy, so on and so forth. I

heard that at fifty nine and when I was in school too. So for my generation, if you went to the vocational pile of the school, you were a grease monkey, they called you because you're a mechanic, or you're the dumb kid going to learn workshop or whatever. Right, Like I turned out really dumb, didn't I Yeah, really dumb? Okay, dumb move. But I didn't go to the vocational end of my school, right. I wish I did now, But you know, it was a label.

It's that that that stupid label that still exists on electricians, plumbers, h vacy guys like, we're just the dumb dumbs that option in front of you, that all note for you to make that choice. Well, when I started plumbing at twelve, I realized that I was going to fix water heaters. I was going to do service calls and you know, drinking water and some of these things that we have in our home are really important. And going to the regional high school I know that, but that was an option

to learn some of these trades. And when I learned about Cape Cod Tech was the two weeks that you're in shop as soon as you get your driver's license you get to instead of going to school, you go out and you work and you get so you're building your aprenticeship. So they're letting you do an internship at this point in high school paid internship, paid internship, which

also goes to our apprenticeship hours. So then you get out of trade school, you have well over your two thousand hours and you can begin taking your classes to get your journeyman's license, really, which is fantastic. I didn't know that, so I wonder if it's like that with mid and Man two. I don't think so. I'd have to check on that. Yeah. So it was a great experience. And you know, everyone says you can't go to college. You know, I ended up playing in three national championships

when I was in high school all over the country. We won state championships at Cape con Tech. I was the captain of all my sports teams and I just was really had it. Was on some great teams, which was fantastic. Eighteen years old, I found myself playing in the Cuban National Baseball League Series, which was an unbelievable experience. I ended up did going to college at Westfield State. Was the captain of my baseball team there. Oh, so you did go to college. You did go to college. Oh

okay, And everyone said that there's no way to go to college. It's kind of a sim You glad you didn't fall to that peer pressure of your stupid friends. And now they're all working for the plumbers and the electricians and the HVACY love to hear it. Yeah. So after that, went to college. Found out real quick after going to spring training with the Phillies that

I was not going to be making it to the big league. So I became an EMT and worked in emergency medicine, got my master's degree at Westfield. So it's then't terrible that we really forgot, you know. Like my fiance Ray, he went to Saint Leo's for baseball and realized once he got down to Florida, I was good for Reveal, but I'm not good for Florida. Right then it's a rude awakening like okay, like I'm a good baseball player, but not that good. But I'll take the you know,

the college and get my degree and you know, and so on. So okay, you realize that day like you weren't going to be a professional player. I realized very quickly that was the case, and then I needed to do something out So I became an EMT. By the way, that's holding youself accountable. That's a good thing at your at that age, by the way. Absolutely, And then came an EMT, worked a nine one and one in Springfield, got my master's degree, and one of my buddies that

I played in the Cape with lived on Nantucket. So I went and did emergency medicine out on Nantucket for about two and a half years. Unbelievable experience, you know, any shift could have been working a code, helping to deliver a baby, it could have been getting I lived on tom Nevers, which is at the end of the island, so there were times when I get a call from the State Police and say you need to be at the hospital in five minutes to hop on a chopper to bring a trauma patient to

MGH. They would close down Milestone Road. I'd be going one hundred and twenty down Milestone Road hopping on a chopper. And we would only fly if Boston MedFlight and Main MedFlight weren't flying, So we would fly during a tropical storm if it was really dangerous out. So you could imagine when you're working on patients, you know, with the coast Guard and working in those conditions

is very difficult. Yes, by it was very long. I just want you know, you've done a lot, and and you have thirty years. And for the first like eighteen, you were a kid, so you've hall only been in the real worl for like maybe ten because then you went to college till twenty one. Yeah, exactly, you've had nine years in the real world. Yeah, it sounds like he's been the real world since twelfth though. Yeah, I again, different upbringing, different philosophy, but I

got out of that. The father said, you want to what was the PlayStation? PlayStation? Go to work and get a job, and you will get you a PlayStation. Best lesson you could have learned. And I thank him to this day. And I think my pack call them every day, both my mom and my dad, and I thank them every day for them

helping me make these decisions. And it's so funny. A lot of my buddies that I look back that went to the regional school I didn't even go to college, look back and say, man, I really wish I went to Cape Contec, which is so even at thirty years old, that stigma was still there for you. Yes, do you think now in twenty twenty four that stigma's finally dying? Now? Okay, hold on, I have my opinion too. I'm going to go with her on this one. But

you answered because you're in that field, You're you're I really don't. I would have to agree with both of you. It's a very unsexy thing for people to talk about. Oh so it still is unsexy from an icee. Yeah, well, let me give you my opinion. I think it's sexy. You're pretty sexy over there, miss brunette over there. Now my blondie is brunette over there. And I've never found construction to be not sexy. By the way, okay, and by the way, I'm the type of

person that if you told me go left, I went right anyway. So I didn't listen to either right. So I didn't care what you had to say, and I didn't here my parents are very proud to say my daughter was a general contractor, and they got to a point where, oh, you mean your son in law. No, that's my daughter's company, not my son law's company. It's thirty six years later and people still say to my parents, your sun laws killing it out there like you that dumb does

it say? J period snumbo, We'll see period snumpo. I don't think we try to make a difference. I was on HGTV and we all got together and we tried to make a run on trying to tell people being like Christians, plumbers, HVAC guys and women are is a sexy trade. You'll make a lot of money stigma, but a lot of them schools are weightlessed. Now that is the time I know, but because they're weightlessed Sammy.

First of all, we had a good opportunity to help build a minute Man built on off our radio show, for sure, and we brought them to the Ellen Degenerate Show, not Ellen carry Connick, so Harry Connick. It's just just said Harry Connick. And then we end up on the Harry Connick Show with them and that was a big deal. So we help man build

there and then they were fully loaded. But again it's still there because I've talked to enough parents in the last ten years where they say to me, well, Cindy, I want my son to be a doctor, my daughter be a lawyer. And I always said, that's great, that's wonderful. Is your kid a an AB student or a CD student CD? So why do you want to put them through four more years of stress? Is your kid at doudler you know what I mean, like doodles around? It's good

at their hands. Yes, there goes to show you. But it's again I blame parents because parents always want to vicariously live with their children. You've already had your time. Your time is up. Whatever you decide to do, you're doing. Let your kids do something constructive. Let them feel good

what they do. But the big one is, and I will debate this, the guys that work at C Stumble Development, whether subcontractors or not, make more money than the average doctor, average lawyer, average accountant with no student debt period and a story. Hold my thought, we're going to break.

I'm Sitty Stumbling and listening Toughest Nails on w BZ News Radio Tempts sponsored by Floor and Decor, National Lumber and Village Back and welcome back to Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio ten third and I'm City Stumpo and I'm here with Sammy and Dan Mario. Okay, damn pick it up for what I just said. What I just said was that I feel parents stop their children because

they want them to be an accountant, doctor, lawyer. And I said to you, my guys make more than the average doctor, average lawyer, average accountant. I domean the brain surgeon that's going into your brain and removing a tumor. And I'm not talking about the cardiologists that's actually in their plane with your heart, talking about the interness whatever, the average real estate lawyer,

the ambulance chaser. I'm not talking about the big criminal attorney. I'm not talking about the accountant that you know works as partners at Price water House, the average accountant. Okay, can you debate me on that? Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. And those brain surgeons, as you very well know, they're not getting out and starting to make that money until

they're probably in their forty their forties exactly. Oh you know where where folks in the trades have already made millions of dollars by that point, you know,

when they get out of school, which good point. So no, I couldn't couldn't agree more with that, And I couldn't be prouder to say, I look at look back from guys that went to Cape Contech, didn't go to college, and now they're making you know, a quarter million more than that a year owning their companies on the Cape and the Islands and expanding

to the South Shore and into Boston. And again you know a lot of the that went to the regional school now working for these folks in the back office that are the admint work because they just never had the opportunity, they never took the initiative to go learn a trade. And as we all know, the trades and the backbone and the bedrock of our community here in Massachusetts and across the country. Well here it is. Kids are not coming into

the trades, okay. They want to be YouTube famous, TikTok famous, whatever they want to be, okay, And again one percent will turn out to be and make a lot of money. Who's the guy the Beast boys would have Beastie Man whatever his name is. Huh, I don't know the Beast guy, mister beast whatever he is. He's making millions and millions of moons alls. I don't ever you talking them out. You don't even follow no, oh you need to. But that's the one percent that will make

it on you know, TikTok YouTube. The real world is getting out there and making a living and getting our kids out there to get out there and make a living and stand on their own two feet. But again, I would have to say, you got to love your job. If you don't love your job, then it's a job. I've never looked at my work as it's a job I have fun doing, or I would have retired by now. I'm fifty nine, right, thirty six years. I think that's

a long enough time in construction and development. I think, I like have ran my course, but that's what gets me up every morning. What can people do? What can you do to make a difference in these parents' brains? I know your generation calls in the mindset. I don't. I don't even like that word. What's the other word? I don't like sammy manifest. Yeah, I want to manifest that I'm six two and I'm twenty three years old again and I'm a supermodel. I don't believe in any of that.

I believe in knowledge in action. You learn the knowledge you take the action. The more action, the more knowledge you learn. It goes to Ferris Wheel, knowledge and action. Got there, learn a little bit, take action. Action brings you knowledge. More knowledge brings you more action. Before you know it, your daughter, your son that's a plumber, owns a plumbing house that's employing fifty at one hundred people out there being plumbers right

the hardest trade right now to find the good plumbers right now? For me, some people say electricians say right now, it's plumbers because they extended the school time. So for me, plumbers are seemed to be the harder trade to find right now, but in less than five years. You're gonna call a plumber and you're gonna say my water heat I think blue, and they're gonna say, okay, give me a credit card. Then we'll come out. Then we'll diagnose the problem. And this is what's gonna cost you.

I'll take that all day long. Absolutely, I think you're crazy, like not to get into the trades. Absolutely, No, it's and I couldn't agree more into the sentiment you just mentioned. You learn something, you do something, then you teach something. That's how you really master action, knowledge, action and knowledge. What's the sense, Dan? I have this question. There are people your age, especially your age, your generation Sammy's thirty

six years. You all read read, read, read, read, Okay, you get all the knowledge, and then you read another book on how to be successful. Then you list all these idiots on these social devices that go you can do it. But you've never done nothing with your life. So stop talking to talk and say you've walked the walk. And then you're telling people this this, like do this, do that. So I have all these people that read books how to be successful. Dan, I've never

read a book on how to be successful. I've never read one book on how to be successful. I don't want to read a book on how to be successful. I don't need to write read a book. It's common sense. It's going out doing the right thing, building your business, being a good human being, and everything else will follow. Do what you say, say what you're going to do. I need to read somebody else's life to know how to be successful. But the point is, I know people have

read ten twelve books and have taken no action on it. So what do you do? You get all this knowledge, but then you do nothing with the knowledge. So that's why I say knowledge and action go together. As one read all the books, I think that they're trying to find a reason to be inspired, but they have to be inspired by themselves to actually do it. Agreed that percent Again, like I'm going to say, you can read, read, read, but if you don't take the action, then

what's the sense of the knowledge? I hate reading. I hate reading too, Okay, all three of us hate in school. Who are we getting? Okay? I always got slow reading comprehension It still exists at thirty six. Okay, I think we all got some comprehension problem. But when we found all three of us what we'd love to do. Yep, who's better than us at what we do? Nobody. It's just finding what your passion is. And once you find that passion is no stopping whether you're a good

student or a bad student. I'll put I always say at fifty nine, I will put ninety nine percent of guys in construction in my back pocket, and very proud to say that. Could I say that at twenty three and at thirty three, absolutely not. By thirty five thirty six, absolutely could start to say that I felt good, by the way, because they rag on me all the time. They're still ragging on me. It's thirty six years later, and I don't care. So if I could take the beatdowns

out here, you take the beatdowns out here. Good. No, couldn't agree more. It's funny. A lot of the folks that are reading these ten twelve books, you know, they'll what they'll do is they'll find the quote they'll post on Instagram. One of the things that I found people in our generations, your generations before us, not my generation, definitely not your generation, your generation, our generation, the ones and the ones younger than

us. And but you know, there's a real big difference between motivation and discipline people and get all motivated raw rah for a couple of days, and they find something doesn't work for a week and then they just move on to something else. I would call the attention span of a fleet. But go ahead. Yeah, And unfortunately that is our generation with the social media and being addicted to their screens instead of you know, I'm even getting like that

maybe longer than fifty nine seconds on bored Yes, understood. And I mean if you put ten people that work in accounting or surgeons or people in all these different issues, not in the trades, in a room and said there's a leaky faucet over there, and ask them to try to fix that faucet. They're not going to open the faucet and look for the little O ring that's probably messed up. Right, They're going to call and say we need a new foster. We're going to need new this, We're going to need

to do that. So, just to your point, they're being able to work with your hands. I'm being in college. I would do playing baseball on the weekends. I would do a couple of service calls, and I'd have a thousand bucks in my pocket when none of my buddies had any money. So I was always buying at dinners. I was buying this, I was buying whatever. Are you a virgo of cancer? Cancer? I always pick them done. I see amy pics. Who am I caking? I'm a piscey. That's even worse. Yeah, okay, you're a piscey.

So you just had a birthday, hadday. So pisces are very generous people. Cancers are very generous people. But we're also very empathetic people. Yes, we care about people. That's our biggest prom. Yeah, as Ray says, when Cinny says she's done with you, she's just getting started you too. By the way, when Samantha says she's done, she's done, got it, she's an ares. She's done. She had not few. We we just come back from more, more and more. We just like

that. So again, you come out of plumbing, electrical, any of the trades with no debt. Let's talk about that. You're spending four years going to college. You don't even know what you want when you come out. So you do four more years of high school, which is called liberal lots, and you have all this debt and you're making eighteen dollars an hour. Where's the philosophy? It's absolutely crazy. Again, kids belong in school. I never will ever put down school. It's just going to be for

the right kid. And you got to know who your kids are as parents. That's it. Absolutely And then most of these colleges, and obviously you had good parents because they sat down talk to you, and you talk to them and they were in line with what you want to do. I thank god, I'm very lucky to have the best parents in the world. Hey, parents said listening right now, he had good parents. You might want to take a page out of their book. Thank you, mom and dad.

You raised a good kid here. Good. No, I couldn't agree more. And it's just cool like going to school and actually getting the hands on like going to work and you're not just sitting behind the desk all day reading a book. To your point, going out there learning things, putting your hands into places and actually touching things, doing things. I mean, it's just such an important important skill to have. And the text schools in

the high school, and I know the ones post high school. I mean, you're making money when you're going out with these apprenticeship programs, which is just absolutely fantastic. Can you get into that so people understand People don't always understand a printce programs our business. What becomes a journey man? Can you break that down? Take it through how a plumber starts to where he becomes. Yeah, so summer starts off as apprentice. Okay, explain to people

what an apprentice means. So an apprentices That's what I did in high school. So apprentice means that you're working under a master plumber for around two thousand hours. After you do your two thousand hours under a master plumber, you can apply to go to Journeyman School, which they have in the Cape that's in Highness. Once you go to the journey Well that break. I'm sorry they're sticking the liddle in my face. Yeah, I'm sidy stumping you.

Listen Toughes Nails on w DZ News Regular ten Thirty'll be right back sponsored by Pillow Windows of Boston, Next Day Molding and Kennedy Carpet And welcome back to Toughest Nail WBZ. Who's ready at ten thirty And I'm here with who hear me stumping? Thank you and Dan Demadio and my boot and I'm city stump. But we have one thing in common. All three of us know what that is tenacity. No, we all have always at the end of our name. God, what's wrong with you people? You all really have a

comprehension problem. You didn't even notice that one. Okay, go ahead, No, I couldn't agree more so after the apprenticeship program, but the two thousand I was in two thousand apprenticeship hours. Then you go to Journeyman's school, which I think is you can spread it out, I mean sixteen months, two years, depending on how fast do you want to do it. Explain what Journeyman's school is so people really understand it's actually working out in the

field and in the classroom. Yeah, so it's a ton of classroom hours. I think it's around fifteen hundred class hours. It could have changed a little bit. Now you can do it online. You can do it online. There are options to do it online, which is great, which you can do it at your convenience. You work during the day and if you want to do some stuff at night or early morning. It allows you to kind of accelerate the program. So the difference in pay in Massachusetts, I'm

a journeyman. We don't know, let's not even talk union to apprentice is how much money? Pretty significant? Well, as you start as an apprentice, you're making about how much an hour? So that was thirty five okay, I pay that to labors an hour an hour. See how the world's changing. Yes, okay, So the plumber apprentice is making thirty five dollars an hour, and once he makes that journeyman position, he makes how much he's probably billing out the company at you know, eighty bucks an hour?

Okay? And then one day the journeyman owns his own plumbing company correct becomes the master plumber, and he has a massive boat out there that says sink the subs like that's the running joke. When she sees have boats like that, it's like, dude, that's the wrong name on a boat. Absolutely,

but do you see where I'm going that eighty dollars an hour? And then if your union the union rates are that's residential, by the way, so union rates are even more than that, right, And then I I and I think for me, and I was union for many years and open shop clothes shop unions are great for kids. I think that need the discipline, that need to be at work at five or seven, start up at seven, have your coffee at ten, have your lunch, check out a

three, go golf the rest of the day. Right, you have the whole day after three o'clock. So I sometimes think and I see the money the unions are spending to get kids into the workforce, which is great. They are spending millions, but then they get the first pick at all the good kids, right that are coming out. The girls are getting in the unions. You know. It's I see a positive the era, but the residential division, I don't see it as much. And the sad part about

my career is I've got to work with the best of the best. When men actually showed up at six thirty in the morning, our job sites were going at seven oh one, equipment was up and running. No one's walking in with their Stabucks coffee. So we have two types of crew guys. Right, we get the donkeys while I'm holding and then we got the what's the stop wars? Starbucks? Thank you Starbucks. So my pretty boys with the Starbucks and my real men creak donkeys. Right. I always say that,

But the old days they came with their thermosis. They came with their lunch, their wife packed them lunch, and I got to work with the best of the best. So when I go back in my brain at thirty six years ago to now, somewhere in the last ten to twelve years, I used to say I on a development and a construction company. Now I just say I own an adult day care center because all I do every morning for three four hours is chase men around. Guys, not the older guys,

the younger guys. Where are I'm on one twenty a dude? Was there a snow star in July that I don't know about? Because you've been on one twenty eight for two days late? Stop just stop right now, Okay. So I must be the only woman that's been chasing men around most of my career, right. And I don't even want to have sex with you, Budy, Okay. I just want you to come to work. Okay. Is that really a lot to ask? So that's what I've seen,

and that's you, my daughter. You guys have never seen that generation of men's when men were men and they came to work and they were actually proud of their work, and they were skilled labor, and they got on their backs, and they plastered ceilings on on scaffolding, doing designs on my ceiling, not applied molding. This is what I saw. Now, you're lucky if a guy knows the difference between two by four and two by six. And that's really the truth. So it's only going to get worse.

So what can we do because parents are listening right now, right, what can you teach these parents to say, listen, stop being so stubborn in the way you think, and stop being with your girlfriends having to say, oh, my kid's going north East, then my kid's going to be you. My kids going to University of Miami. Be proud of what choices your kid makes. Be proud because that kid's not coming back to your basement to live right or wrong? Right? Yeah, okay, No, couldn't agree

more. And I mean, I'm definitely proud of being in the trades. And I I think, as again mentioned, as folks get older, they realize how important they are again going back to they are the better rock of

the communities here and across the country. So without the trades, without people building, without development, you know, there could be no more businesses, there could be no innovation, there could be no of these beautiful things that are happening here in Massachusetts that you folks are working on all the time. So well, let's look at this way. We're seven million houses short right now in the country. We're in a housing crisis, right you know that?

Yes, Okay, how are you going to make up that housing crisis? Hear me out? First of all, products are way up, and they've been up since COVID and they're not leveling. The only thing that's come down in my business lumber, and it's still double than what was in twenty nineteen. Okay, concretes up. Pello just went up on windows. And by the way, we don't get like three months notice, we get like a week notice. So if you start taking the numbers we're spending on product,

you stop paying that skill gap right for skilled labor. We pay skilled labor out there, We pay laborers what we're paying laborers to just keep job sites clean. And then the interest rate, if you need to borrow money from the bank, that's a problem right there, So you cannot catch up on the housing supply. You're looking at thirty years, twenty five years. Interest rates need to come down. Place needs to come down. We get

to get to a new norm. But right now the subs are naming their prices and they're getting it and we're paying it as builders because we're paying for responsible, reliable, and dependable. Do you hear what I'm saying? You're responsible, you're reliable, and you're dependable. You're worth twenty percent more to me because you're going to show up, you're going to come to work, and you're gonna be there on time, and you like what you do.

I'm going to add twenty percent onto that for coming and then knowing what you know. Do you see the difference what we as builders the new builders. I don't know what they're thinking. The days are sitting with a subcontractor and try to negotiate their contract down. That ain't happening. H. Just don't hire the guy that's got five things on the truck that says we do windows, gutns, insulation, finish work, flooring, stayway flows. Dudes,

Okay, they're master of everything and mayment of nothing. Is that the same? M H. Find the guys. If you're going to hire guys in your home to do work that specialize in that, don't go for the cheapest bid. Go for the moderate bid. Do your references, get good references on these guys, Let them come in your home, hire them for your businesses. Do you agree? Couldn't agree more. And it's it's just absolutely insane to me that you have to pay somebody a premium just to show up

on time. I mean, that is just Yeah, that's called being responsible, liable, and dependable. Yes, I pay you for that. It's just unbelievable that that's even a thing. I mean, I feel like back in the day of showing up, that was just you were there early. If you're no, that was you were supposed to do that. Yeah, because you want to hold your job with that company. You want to prove yourself with that company. You want to show that person that you come with

value. In our world today, all you need to show somebody like me is you care and I'll love you for the rest of the time I have out here. Right. So, but Sammy, we're kind of very unusual. Our subs have been with us from ten years to thirty six years. Yeah, and the only way we've lost ever suba SI stampo is retirement of death. It's called loyalty. I give you loyalty. You get. If you're mister plumber, you get first shot everything. Second plumber that comes on,

he gets second shot, third, third, keep going. I'm loyal to you. I expect loyalty back. Some of these kids come in, they don't know what loyalty is. But let me tell you. When they do an internship with me. Every summer we take on ten twelve kids, they know what loyalty is real fast, and I teach them loyalty because that's a word most people don't know unless you're born a Pisces Virgo cancer. Well, the signs, what the water signs? Yeah, we're all loyal.

Out of the way Scorpio Pisces cancer our water signs, I don't know, just a certain signs that will oil Virgo's crazy. But they'll be very loyal too. But okay, what are you guys doing to make kids come in and understand? Yeah, So the biggest thing for us is we're trying to

educate and get the community to and get involved too. So meeting with you know, elected or appointed officials, talking about you know, how do we in these middle schools talk to you know, the importance of Hey, guys, when you're going to the cafeteria and you're you're getting a drink out of the water fountain. You're getting drink out of here. You know, it's fixing that. You know who's you know? You know why you have these

things. It's because of the folks working in the trades that maintain the buildings and to do all these things. So I think just educating at a younger age. I mean I knew very young that if the water heater wasn't working, we weren't having taking a shower. Correct, no hot water? Yeah, so no water, no water, no water at all because the tank dried out. So it's just emptied out on all of your floor, of your basement or wherever you And that's how that thought, we're coming, We're

going to break. We'll be right back. I'm city stumbling. You listen to Tough as Nails all well, Sammy WBZ News Radio ten their sponsored by new Brook Real Group, Boston Wood Smaller Insurance, World Auto Body and Tosca Drive Auto Body. I'm waiting and I'm sty stump on. You listen to Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio ten thirty. And I'm here with a bunch

of o's. What's your name, Sammy Stumpo and Dan Demadio. Okay, damn, before I hit the mic over to you for the fourth segment, I'm just gonna remind people, mister missus Jones out there, better listen. Listen. Good your water heater breaks in the next I don't know, maybe three years, four years, five years. Good luck finding Sammy to replace it. Good luck finding a guy to come out and not charge you an

almond leg to change your water heater. And by the way, you'll be living in a hotel for five days because what happens Dan, when a water heater blows you have no water? Was that that be just hot? Or in cold? Hot and cold? Thank you? And you can't but pressia te do how do you live in a house with no water? You have no water? Okay, take home there. I want my listeners to know everything that you do. Yeah, no, thank you very much. Yeah. I couldn't agree more about the trades. So, by the way,

can you supply me with subcontractors? I can absolutely supply you with subcontractors. So I'm down three guys, and I need three guys. I just call your company and say send me over. Blah blah blah, you can call my company cook and Sons and yeah. But by the way, my new

word is blah blah blah. That's called meta what pause, bray, thank you, go ahead, No, absolutely, So what we're doing at Cape Tech and with Cooking Sons my consulting firm is we're putting together a repository of plumbers that journeyman, master plumbers, electricians, HVAC, volts, really automotive. There's sixteen different trades and sixteen different types of industries that we work with.

And essentially, if we have somebody call us in a certain demographic area where we have an alumni graduate, we call, make the introduction and they kind of work things out, send the quote, go take a look at the job, so on and so forth. So it's really good. So, as I mentioned that, I'm the chairman of the Cape cod Tech Alumni Association, where essentially the board is made up of folks. Let me let me hold you the how do people reach you there? So they can reach

me at my email which is d Demadio at Capetech dot us. I'll ask you that again at the end of the show, but go ahead. Just want people know perfect thank you, and what we're really looking to do is promote because Cindy mentioned I had somebody, had somebody call last week and say, hey, something's up with my water heater. I live in Brewster and you know, they said they can't come up for two weeks. And it's just you know, that's we're starting to see a lot of that different stuff.

And you know, to Cindy's point, if if you do go out in a quicker fashion, I mean, the premium is going up thirty percent, which as we know, with inflation, a lot of folks can't pay these bills. Is are very expensive and plumbers do not come cheap and I do not ever see them coming any cheaper than they are currently are right now. No, so the new norm is going up, not down. Absolutely

So I saw statistic recently too. You know, the average master plumber in the countries in their forties exact, and ask you that, did you know that the average plumbers in their forties and the average electrician is the same. So what's going to happen if new people don't come in the business. We

can't build, We can'ts twenty years. You got no more plumbers. They're gonna go out, They're gonna go out absolutely, and you know, you look at these other jobs around the country where AI is starting to become a component to those companies, and kind of AI can't build houses. AI cannot come out and plumb your house. AI cannot do electrical AI is great, it's wonderful for architects, civil engineers. I'm using it for emails now. It's a great tool until it can build and come in and fix your house

or fix your leky roof you get here with a snowstorm. I don't even want to hear about it until we have robarts. Is that the word? Yes, I pronounce my ass you'r ai. Okay, we don't have it in our industry yet, so it's like a dumb conversation right for us to even have because we don't have any of that. It doesn't serve us a purpose in our world. Absolutely, And to that point to kind of run in alignment there, it's you know, do you want to talk about job

security? I mean, the trades is probably the most secure job to get into in the world because of that specific reason. So for a younger generation, I mean, I would be flocking to get into the trades because these folks that are in their forties are going to retire in the next ten fifteen years, and it's just going to be all the taking for the folks that are the experts and are hyper focused in their craft. Okay, do you

understand that we started taping Tough as Nails on HGTV what yes say? In two thousand and nine to ten, nine to ten we talked about this. It's twoenty and twenty four. I discussed this on Bloomberg Radio more than what was that twenty eleven they came into Boston. I was talking so over those reporters heads. They're like, what are you talking about? What skill gap? But nobody was listening. I could feel it, and I said, after the Oway crisis, guys are going in and getting full time jobs or

they're tiring out right, So we're going to have a problem here. If you, if you any common sense, you saw this coming. Nobody sawt coming. Mike Homes did, Mike ro did. They spent a lot of time. You know, both great guys, love them. But I thought we weren't making a difference. So I'm out, I'm stepping out right. So I push it on radio all the time, but me running to schools talking to students. No way, I'm done done doing that because the parents

are just they're blind. They were blinders on, so go ahead finishing. No, they absolutely do put blinders on. And again I feel so fortunate that growing up very young, at a young age, I understand the importance of trades. But I really think it's up to our communities. It's up to our state and local government to kind of, you know, educate folks, maybe provide some type of subsidies, because if we don't get people in the trades again, we cannot continue to innovate. Massachusetts known as one of

the most innovative places in the country, arguably the world. So if you know, we're definitely going to see a shortage in the labor and if we don't do something about it, whether it is a shortage, sorry the idea, yep, only to get worse, to get worse, but go ahead, No, only to get worse. And we're in time, We're in a huge housing crisis, that one of the bigger housing crisis I think that we'll probably see in our time. And so in order to do that,

we really do need to get folks in the trades. And that's what you're doing, and that's exactly what we're doing. So again, I need a plumbing company or is it that I just need one plumber to join in on my crew. I can call you, you can call me, So you supply one or two guys and they can jump on my plumbing crew, one or two electricians, they can jump on my life. Explain. Yeah, So we can kind of assess situation, learn a little bit more about the

project. Where the resources that you're kind of looking forward are the skill sets you're looking for. You're looking for an apprentice, you looking for a journeyan, and you're looking for somebody that can come do the rough finish, so on and so forth. So we'll really kind of assess the situation, teriologist situation, then identify the resources that we appropriate for the job. And these

kids are aging from what to what? So it spans, I mean, you know, from twenty five to forty really, so Cape Contech's been so the high school was nineteen seventy five, so we're actually coming up on our fifty year anniversary and sense nineteen seventy five, we've averaged putting forty students from Cape con Tech into the Cape and Islands and the south Shore and Boston workforce, which is significant. That's a big one because we get more calls to

go to the Islands, and I'm not coming to the Islands anymore. Those days are long gone for me, long gone, right, Sammy, I can't. I can't do the islands transport everything over the boat. Oh my god. That's like a disaster. And the truth is, the island they don't really want us. They don't the Islanders don't want Mainland guys coming over there and working. Right, even though you guys got a big alcohol problem

over there. Okay, we big huge over there, but huge. And my clients call me, they have homes there and there's nothing can do, can't help you. They're waiting months for a tracy. They're waiting months for everything over there. Yeah. I lived on Nantucka for a couple of years, and they're exactly right. They definitely keep trying to keep everything in house.

Yeah, try to keep everything for themselves out there and take care of the people out there, because I mean, it is very, very difficult to live out there and the off season folks that live over there full time. But I will say it is definitely a community. I mean, working in the hospital. I mean, someone would come into the er, for example, and if they didn't, the taxis weren't running in the middle of the winter. I mean, I would just drive them home. And that's

just kind of how people just drove the drove home. Yeah, it's just kind of people. Everyone takes care of each other over there. And to your point about kind of promoting doing the right things, I mean, I've told anyone that I work with it's worked for me in the past, so on and so forth. You know, if you always, always, always try to do the right thing in every single situation, there's two things that are going to happen. Number One, you're gonna sleep pretty damn good at

night. And number two, if you made a mistake, you can always explain the route as to why you made that decision. Are you sure that's not my kid? You wish? But I wish. Where's Chad when you need him to hear the conversation? And he's Chad's age. So you see how you have philosophy is you're a lot like me. I was like you at thirty. I don't change this is who I am. So just listening to you talk is just like a breath of fresh. Yeah, well it's

an honor for you to compare yourself to me. That means a lot. So thank you for You're very welcome. But that's the truth. So what I when I always meet people that your age that speak the way you do. I look at you guys as phenoms. Now you're not living in Disney World going yeah, I'm gonna be TikTok famous. Yeah, I would be

Instagram famous. You can do that, and maybe you will be. But get a job during the day and then do that as your side hustle, right, absolutely, and maybe a side hustle will become your main hustle. Absolutely, So I keep talking. Tell me what else? No, No, I could couldn't agree more. Yeah, just get to work. I mean at the end of the day, Like if you people that wake up and don't get tough, I just don't get it. You got to just

get to work. Do something, Go learn something, go do something, make a mistake, do it again, jump on the horse, and just keep grinding. So if there's any builders listening to you right now and they need guys to jump on their cruise, they can get in touch with you. They can absolutely get in touch with me. So you need people like

me to hire your people coming out of school. Am I correct? Absolutely, and place them absolutely with HVAC companies, plumbing companies, electrical companies, good companies that are going to pay them, absolutely right, because those guys like the worst because they great guys, but collecting money, and builders are always trying to hurt them, you know, they're always trying to sink the subs and then they can't. They don't have the money to pay the guys.

So you got to learn how to be a little bit of a businessman too, That's what. And I've taught all my guys that, like, don't tolerate anybody not paying you. All that thought, I'm stay stumbling. You listen to Top of Nails on WBZ News Radio ten thirty and welcome back to Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio ten thirty. Go ahead, buddy, take us out. Yeah, so thank thank you all very much for having me here today. So to kind of little give but my company Cooking Sons

with the old group by the way, Cooking Sons. So essentially what we do is we develop public private partnerships, so we go into different communities across the Commonwealth. We identify real estate development programs that can positively benefit all societal layers of the community, from youth all the way up to senior citizens.

So for example, we're looking to build sports complex with after school programs for kids to come to and then during the week when the kids are in school, where haven't senior citizens you know, use it for bingo and for dancing and for different programs like that to make sure the community remains engaged. Best contact for me would be danat Cookansuns dot com. Dan at Cookansuns dot com. Dan, I'm Cindy Stumpo. It was a pleasure meeting you. I

want to shake your hand. You're a phenom at thirty years old. Everybody, have a great, safe weekend and we'll see you next weekend. I'm Cindy Stumpo. Toughest Nails on WBZ News Radio ten thirty