| Todd Sanders: | 00:00 | Well, welcome to the podcast. Today we have Dan Puente, who is the founder and CEO of DP Electric. Dan, thanks for joining us today.
| Dan Puente: | 00:08 | Happy to be here. Thank you, Todd.
| Todd Sanders: | 00:12 | Well, obviously you have a lot of history in the Valley and now some history also with the Chamber and the Foundation, and we're going to take your bio and we'll put it up on the website, but I think it's a little more interesting if we hear from you a little bit about yourself and maybe something that we wouldn't find on your resume.
| Dan Puente: | 00:28 | Okay. So I am an Arizona native. I spent 10 years in South Phoenix and then my family moved to Tempe and went to Marcos De Niza High School there. And then, out of high school, I got into the trades through a friend. He said, "Hey, you want a job?" I said, sure. College wasn't in the cards for me, not because I don't think I was smart, I was an average student, but I didn't really apply myself in high school. And my parents, they had their own things going on, and so it wasn't really a priority. And so I graduated high school and got into the trades and started working in the field as an electrician. And so after about 10 years of doing that I said, I could do this. And fortunate for me, I met my lovely wife, Maggie, in 1986. We got married, and with her encouragement, I started DP Electric in 1990.
| Dan Puente: | 01:28 | And the reason that I did was, when I worked for other local electrical contractors, I found that I was very quiet. I morphed into the person I am today, but way back when I was very shy, very reserved, and so I didn't really put myself out there to get noticed. And so, I think obviously that's just something that you have to do today. And I had the ability, I had skill, but the company that I was working for wasn't grabbing me and peeling that onion away to see what my potential was. And so when I started DP, I wanted to create a company that had opportunity for everybody, not just the guy that's rubbing noses with the people that matter within the organization. So I wanted a company that would give everybody that opportunity, and so since then, that's been the core of our culture.
| Dan Puente: | 02:26 | And we started off in 1990 out of my garage, little S-10 pickup trucks, stick, no air. And I think now, I don't know even know how many trucks we own, but through the years we've just grown, just slowly getting involved in different sectors, creating relationships. And 32 years later, we employ over 500 people. We're one of the larger electrical contractors in the Valley.
| | | Every year we grow, we have plans to even go to multiple
| | | states, and so I've been incredibly fortunate and blessed
| | | through my career to have plenty of opportunity and have a lot
| | | of great people that have joined me along the way. That have
| | | allowed our company to flourish. And I would say, probably
| | | about seven years ago, my daughter joined the company. And
| | | that was a big shift for me. And at that time we also had some
| | | key people join the company.
| Dan Puente: | 03:28 | And so at that time, I've always been working on secession, but
| | | when she first came, she wasn't sure if she was going to stay
| | | because she's a millennial and she doesn't like to be put in a
| | | box. But it's like, I got to give it three years, see if I like it. And if I
| | | don't like it, I'm I'm going to move on. And so first year she
| | | wasn't sure, second year she was good, and third year you
| | | couldn't pull her away from it. And she absolutely loves it.Wants
| | | it. Wants to be my successor and has the ability ... I mean, she's
| | | way ... We're not allowed to cuss in here, are we?
| Todd Sanders: | 04:05 | Well, we'll see.
| Dan Puente: | 04:05 | I was going to say H-E-L-L, but I stopped myself. Anyway, she's a
| | | lot smarter than me and she's an old soul and where she
| | | gathered this knowledge that I've gained through 30 years, she
| | | says it's through osmosis being around me. But she's, in my
| | | opinion, a better version of me and I've got her wrapped around
| | | ... There's four other folks that are helping her; two on the
| | | operation side, one on the HR side, and one on the pre-
| | | construction side. So they are really pushing the mission
| | | forward and the culture. And since they've been engaged in
| | | that, before it was just me, and now there's five of them and
| | | we've really gotten some good traction and we've grown every
| | | year. And two years ago we started DP University. That's going
| | | fantastically. There's a lot of things that we're doing now that is just so, so strong.
| Dan Puente: | 05:08 | And so the reason that I'm in and Build Your Future is really just
| | | because I feel incredibly blessed and I want to give back. I've
| | | always been into workforce development and apprenticeship
| | | programs and training and education because it was not
| | | something that was available to me. And I wanted everybody to
| | | have the opportunities that I didn't have. And that I had to go
| | | out and create something so that I would have them for me.
| | | And I'm grateful that I did, otherwise I would be working
| | | somewhere and maybe not be able to make the impact that I've
| | | made.
| Todd Sanders: | 05:42 | Well, you definitely have been such a strong supporter of Build Your Future, I want to talk about that a little bit, but I think it's really critical to talk about ... I see this story from a lot of people that started in the trades and weren't sure where to go. And they got into a trade and started to learn it and worked somewhere for about 10 years. And then they started their own business. And you started out with S-10 and no air conditioning and now you're employing hundreds of people in Arizona. So what an incredible impact this trade has had on you and your family.
| Todd Sanders: | 06:16 | But then you think about the dynamic impact that's had on so many families in Arizona. I love that story. And when we talk about Build Your Future, I think it's something that people really need to understand. And we tend to be one-dimensional, either it's black or white, and it's like, oh, this is not true. And so I think that that story is so compelling. Obviously you've been in the industry a long time, what's the state of construction today? How do you see things? It seems like things are still booming. Where are they?
| Dan Puente: | 06:46 | It's insane right now, to be really honest. I mean, we've been talking about a labor shortage for at least 10 years. We really haven't been doing anything about it until probably about 3, 4, 5 years ago. It was just a lot of conversation, and now with Build Your Future and workforce development now being something that most companies have now at their company, as far as an extension, but things are crazy. I mean, you don't have the labor that you need to do the work here. And on top of that, we have a supply chain issue. So you would think that, in a market like this where everybody's busy and there's more work than anyone can handle, that you'd be making tons of money and it would be fantastic. And in our industry there's always obstacles, but it's challenging.
| Dan Puente: | 07:40 | It's challenging to get people, it's challenging when you have, in a bid, a certain dollar value and now those commodity prices have gone up by 30%. Labor's gone up by 15%. And we do a larger projects, so when we have a larger job that maybe we budgeted pre-pandemic and we're locked into those numbers, it gets difficult to finish something like that. I mean, we finish it, but it's not what we expected from a financial perspective. You know what I mean? So right now, we're ahead of the curve on a lot of those issues and things are stabling out. And as soon as we think we got it figured out, now we have our gear vendors, which is the distribution systems for electrical in a building, it's the heart of the building, and now they're saying force majeure.
| | | We don't know when you're going to get your parts and we don't know how much they're going to cost. And so, [inaudible 00:08:34] that's difficult. That's difficult.
| Dan Puente: | 08:36 | And so, fortunately, our industry's filled with a lot of great
| | | people and common sense hopefully will prevail. And we'll just
| | | work through this and get through this like we've gotten
| | | through everything else. But I would say that, with labor and
| | | commodity increasing, but the top line not increasing, because
| | | there's a lot of us in the Valley, it's not as robust or as wonderful
| | | as people may think. It's still better than 2021. 2020 was
| | | difficult, but we worked on our backlog for previous years. So
| | | financially it was okay. And then '21 was difficult because we
| | | took a lot of work just to keep our family members working,
| | | that was very low margin, and we had to burn all that off. And
| | | we're still burning that off. So it's great in the sense that there's
| | | lots of work. It's challenging just because of all the issues that
| | | we're having to deal with.
| Todd Sanders: | 09:39 | Well, and you talked about Build Your Future and the Greater
| | | Phoenix Chamber is so incredibly proud to work with industry
| | | on that initiative. Talk to us a little bit about it and why it's
| | | important.
| Dan Puente: | 09:49 | Oh, I think Build Your Future's incredibly important. One of the
| | | reasons that I'm involved, the colleges have done such a good
| | | job ... And I'm not saying that college isn't important, I think
| | | college is, it just depends on what you're going to do in your
| | | career. If it's specific, I mean, one of the things that my wife did
| | | well with our girls is that, you're going to college, but you're
| | | going to pick something specific. You're not going to go get a
| | | communication degree, nothing against that, but it's so broad
| | | that it doesn't put you into one place. And so my oldest got a
| | | degree in accounting and my youngest got a degree in nursing, so it was specific and they used it. But there's so many people
| | | that go to college with really no direction, just because they
| | | think they're supposed to go to college. And they go and they
| | | don't know what they want to do in life.
| Dan Puente: | 10:41 | And they're 19 years old, 18 years old, depending on what have
| | | you, and they just haven't matured or know what they want to
| | | do. And so they end up with this debt and then they go for four
| | | years and they come out and they get a job making $40,000 a
| | | year. And in our industry, we have apprenticeship programs.
| | | You go to school for four years, you come out with a
| | | journeyman card and you're making 50 and it goes up. I mean,
| | | it'll probably, in three months from now it'll be $60,000 a year.
| | | You know what I mean? Because the demand is so high. And so it's just basic economics. And so I think it's important for people to understand all the opportunities that are in our industry. I mean, you can go work for a company and you can move up and get into a management type position or senior leadership type position. And those folks are making six figures. And I don't think that people know the opportunities that are out there. And I think that construction was framed as something that you did if you couldn't go to college.
| Dan Puente: | 11:54 | Or something that you did if you weren't that smart. And that's so far from the case. I started something from nothing and created what I have today and I'm blessed beyond my means, but there's tons of people that have worked with companies and excelled. And our 401ks are strong or maybe their company was an ESOP. We're just recently an ESOP and I'm looking forward to that, where we're 100% at one point. But you can get into this industry and make really good money. And it's a great industry in the sense that people are just really helpful and just great salt of the earth type folks. So I think that message is really important to get out there. And I think, unfortunately, they've been working on this, academia has been working on this for 60, 70 years. We're three years into our campaign, I think we need another 10 or more to be able to change that narrative to say, okay ... For a parent to say, hey, it's okay if their son or daughter wants to go into construction.
| Todd Sanders: | 13:01 | Well, I agree. And to your point about thinking that people get into the trades aren't smart, I mean, that's such old school thinking. If you believe that, go ahead and try and rewire your house.
| Dan Puente: | 13:10 | Right, exactly.
| Todd Sanders: | 13:11 | Good luck. Good luck. I guess I do want to talk about the parents. And it seems like, a lot of times, kids will be interested but parents tend to push back on that. What's been your experience on that.
| Dan Puente: | 13:26 | We got to find a way to get to the parents. And I think in our launching event coming up, we're going to focus on that a bit. But the only way to get the parents is through some sort of exposure. Through an event, through a media campaign, through a friend of a friend that talks about it. But ultimately, it's finding that way to get in front of that parent. And we have had scenarios where we've had these young kids come out of high school, and through a CTE program or what have you, and
| | | they're interested in construction. And then they tell their parent, their parents says, "No, you're not going into construction." And so we got to change that mindset. And we're working on trying to find ways to do that. Initially, when the campaign started, we're very focused on 18 year olds to 35 year olds and getting those folks exposed to it. But I think now that we're into our fourth year, we're starting to maybe shift a little bit and get those parents educated a little bit. And we got to find ways to do that.
| Todd Sanders: | 14:34 | Absolutely. And I love that you talked about your daughter. I think people tend to be surprised to hear about women in construction. What about Build Your Future and women and girls in construction?
| Dan Puente: | 14:46 | Yeah. So Build Your Future in the month of March is Women In Construction month. And so we do a campaign during that month every year and we have a page on our website that's dedicated to women. That shows the accomplishments of women in construction. And at DP, we probably have a dozen women that work in the field. It's becoming a little bit more and more of a common thing where, say 10, 15 years ago, you wouldn't see women in construction. So we're starting to see women in construction. And just between me and you, I think women are smarter. They're more dependable, they're more detail oriented, and I'd love to see more and more women in our field.
| Todd Sanders: | 15:30 | Absolutely. 100%. What about that old thinking? Well, yeah, but it's really tough work and they might not be able to physically do this kind of work.
| Dan Puente: | 15:39 | It is tough work, but we're not lifting anything that is over 50 pounds or even 40 pounds. And for the most part, especially today, we have the correct tools to do the job. So we're using apparatuses to lift heavy things and we're very focused on safety. So you're not pushing yourself to a point where you're going to get hurt or anything like that.
| Todd Sanders: | 16:06 | Yeah, well, it's good to see that focus. One of our top videos is a young lady who actually went into welding. And she's amazing. And to your point, I think attention to detail, just doing it better than a lot of the guys is really great to see.
| Dan Puente: | 16:21 | Yes. Yeah.
| Todd Sanders: | 16:22 | So thinking about recruiting. So if I'm in the industry, and I'm struggling like you are to get people to come in, how can Build Your Future help my company bring people to the door to fill some of these empty jobs?
| Dan Puente: | 16:38 | Well, I think what Build Your Future does, I think we have to
| | | remember that it's a marketing campaign. And so really, it's just
| | | about hopefully changing the mind and opening a door. And so,
| | | before you have these misconceptions, and now maybe they
| | | see something on their phone or they see something through
| | | some sort of social media advertisement or what have you that
| | | perks their interest. That has them reach out to our website.
| | | And then the website is very robust, where you can go in there
| | | and pick your path, where you want to go. And it shows you the
| | | wages that individuals can make in those areas. And I think it's
| | | just information. And I think the big thing is that, for individuals,
| | | if they do the research, research companies, I think that most
| | | companies are very willing to talk to anybody.
| Dan Puente: | 17:32 | If you were to call my company and you're curious about a
| | | career in construction and being an electrician, I mean, our folks
| | | would talk to you and give you all the resources that you
| | | wanted and help you make those decisions. But I think that's
| | | where Build Your Future ... Our goal is to change the minds of
| | | people so that, when they're looking for career opportunities,
| | | it's one of the things they're thinking of. I'm going to be a
| | | doctor, a lawyer, a nurse, a firefighter, electrician, a framer. It
| | | comes into that conversation. Or a construction manager.
| | | Whereas today, I don't know about today, but five years ago, 10
| | | years ago, it definitely wasn't. And I think we're working on
| | | becoming a little bit more mainstream and I think that's where
| | | Build Your Future comes in, to create that exposure.
| Todd Sanders: | 18:29 | Well, and I think certainly the COVID times, and today I think gave people a lot, much more of an appreciation for the work
| | | that you do and the importance to the economy. And I think I
| | | alluded earlier to the idea that, who's going to just rewire their
| | | house? So it's tough to learn these skills. Talk to us about DP
| | | University, because you just can't walk in the door and then
| | | you're not going to send me out in a truck. You have to learn
| | | the skills. So what's that all about?
| Dan Puente: | 18:56 | So at DP, two years ago we started DP University, and so it's our
| | | apprenticeship program. It's a four year accredited NCCER
| | | program that is recognized by the state of Arizona. And so our
| | | folks go through this apprenticeship program, and then after
| | | four years they get a journeyman card, they get a certificate
| | | from the state of Arizona, and they have journeyman's ... Arizona doesn't do licensing, I wish we did, but they have a journeyman card. So in essence, they can go work anywhere in the United States and they have that training. And so that's the core of what we do at DP University is our apprenticeship program. But what we also do is that, in that fourth year, we'll add some managerial skill set. Because a lot of these guys and gals, when they graduate, now they're starting to run small crews and need to learn how to manage people. And organizational skills and things like that.
| Dan Puente: | 19:56 | So we've taken the university and we've expanded off of the core curriculum. And we have classes related to training, safety training, managerial training, leadership training. We have an Alpha program that really wraps around leadership and all kinds of ... Just you as a human being and core responsibilities and character and things like that. And it just really thinks to help them excel in what they're doing. And our DP University is tied to our work, what's the proper word? It's tied to our HR department and all our people are, we have a Spark program and other programs where we help them grow. So when they have the review and they say, "Well, I want to be a project manager in eight years," we give them that path. And that's tied to DP University, it's tied to the HR, it's tied to the reviews, and they get homework and all that kind of stuff.
| Dan Puente: | 21:04 | So we're very focused on career pathing, that's the word I was looking for, career pathing. And it's just part of our culture. And so we found that that really helps with retainage and recruitment. And when you're talking about getting young folks into the industry, one of the things that we just started was a boot camp. And so we partnered with Marcos De Niza High School, we're in the process of talking to South Mountain High, and we're also in the process of talking to South Mountain Community College. And so we partnered with Marcos De Niza, we went over there, exposed them to the industry through some conversation and short little demonstrations. And then we got six high school students that were interested in it. They came over to our shop, we took them through a one week course, exposed them ... two and a half days in classroom, OSHA training as well, exposing them to the industry and the opportunities.
| Dan Puente: | 22:04 | And then we took two and a half days and we built these eight by eight rooms of stud wall framing with light fixtures. And so they installed receptacles, switches, a light fixture, a little blueprint reading. They plug them in, they turn on the light to
| | | see if it works. And so they got exposed to, kind of a crash
| | | course, if you will. And then out of the six that we hired, I mean,
| | | out of the six that went through the program, we hired four.
| | | And so the four of them are employees. And at the same time,
| | | it's our first year. And one thing that we did not do correctly is
| | | that you can't take an 18 year old kid and throw them out into a
| | | job site without some sort of ... letting the foreman know where
| | | they came from, where they're going. And so there's a few of
| | | them that, it was like, whoa, this is not what I thought it was
| | | going to be.
| Dan Puente: | 23:04 | So we've learned from that. And I wasn't aware that they did
| | | this, I said, you almost need to have ambassadors for them.
| | | Because these kids, they need somebody to help them through.
| | | And you got to put them on a job that maybe has a little more
| | | climate control. Because you take an 18 year old kid and you
| | | throw them out when it's 114 degrees, it's like, whoa. And that's
| | | not construction. That's one area, [inaudible 00:23:32], it's a
| | | piece, but it's not something that you're doing 100% of the
| | | time. It's something you're doing 2% of the time. And don't
| | | expose them to the worst thing in construction on their first
| | | day. So it's a learning [inaudible 00:23:45].
| Todd Sanders: | 23:45 | What a great program, though. What an amazing tool for you to
| | | have and for people to be able to go through. You recently
| | | became Chair of Build Your Future. Obviously you have a lot
| | | going on. You're running a pretty significant company. You've
| | | already done a lot with Build Your Future. Why? Why did you
| | | become Chair? Why was that important to you?
| Dan Puente: | 24:03 | Well, it was my opportunity to maybe influence the direction of
| | | it, from my perspective. And so when the opportunity came
| | | around, I said yes. It was hard, because you're busy. And it's also
| | | hard when you volunteer for something because everybody there is a volunteer. And so we pop in and we have meetings for
| | | a few hours and then we all go about our ways. And maybe
| | | when I retire, I'll be a 100% workforce development, but it
| | | would be nice to make more of an impact quicker. But it's so
| | | hard to do that. But, yeah, I feel so blessed to have what I have
| | | today and all the opportunities that I've been given, and
| | | mentors in my life, and opportunity. And I want somebody else
| | | to be able to do the same thing I did.
| Todd Sanders: | 25:03 | Well, that's the true definition of leadership. And for people
| | | that are watching, they should know that, not only you're
| | | volunteering, but you also contributed a significant amount of
| | | dollars to this program. So, thank you. That's a big deal. And I
| | | think what you're doing is investing in our community and what the future looks like. So I want to thank you for that. Obviously a far cry, DP Electric, from that young man in his S-10 going to work for the first day [inaudible 00:25:32].
| Dan Puente: | 25:32 | Now I'm an old man.
| Todd Sanders: | 25:33 | Well and you have a university. Well, we're going to wrap this up with a quick lightning round. Easy, no problem, well we'll start with, what's your guilty pleasure? What is it like to do that makes you feel guilty because you're like, I should-
| Dan Puente: | 25:47 | Eat. Eat.
| Todd Sanders: | 25:48 | What's your favorite food?
| Dan Puente: | 25:50 | Oh, I love popcorn and butter. And I love Mexican food.
| Todd Sanders: | 25:55 | There you go. That was said earlier too. Okay, first job?
| Dan Puente: | 26:00 | My first job was working for the City of Phoenix as a post ... I was delivering mail in the City of Phoenix building downtown there.
| Todd Sanders: | 26:10 | What did you learn from that job?
| Dan Puente: | 26:12 | That I didn't want to deliver mail.
| Todd Sanders: | 26:15 | Sometimes that's the most important thing. All right, and you can't say this current job, but what's your dream job?
| Dan Puente: | 26:22 | Oh, wow. I don't know. I mean, that's tough because I felt like ... It's like DP has not always been my dream job. But I would say, in the last four or five years, that I've been given an opportunity to not be in the business so much, as far as,..... So I'm really into the philanthropic side of things. So I don't know, maybe my dream job is to expand on the university side and create something that empowers people to grow in this industry. Maybe that's something in my future. I don't know. I'm trying to figure myself out right now.
| Todd Sanders: | 27:09 | Well, I like the dream job and I have a feeling that we'll be talking to you again about the university. So Dan, thank you for not only being here, but thank you for your leadership. Thank you for all you're doing sure with Build Your Future and for agreeing to be our Chair this year. Appreciate it.
| Dan Puente: | 27:23 | Yeah, thank you, Todd.
| Todd Sanders: | 27:24 | Thank you.