¶ Elon Musk and Zuckerberg's TV Deathmatch
igare or Baker and , of course , as always , the fabulous Annie Mickelson . How you doing , guys ? Hello , doing well , doing well . How are you guys ? Andy just grows on us , just like that I did . No , no , we're good , it's probably me so that's Starlink Elon's after 100 .
Actually , speaking of Elon , you hear today , it was just announced Elon and Zuckerberg , they're going to fight .
It's like a .
TV deathmatch . It's official , official , so it's going to be streamed on Twitter X , whatever you call it now .
You know it used to be . I used to cheer for that guy and I'll be honest with you , I don't anymore . I think it's not politics but any means .
Yeah .
I think it's just the more you get to know someone . Yeah , I think for a while I was just enamored by the success , the guy like the craziness to think that just like , hey , you know , this guy started PayPal and then boom , he's got rockets . You know what I mean .
Exactly Shooting a Tesla into the outer space .
Yeah , exactly . So like I was just always enamored by the guy , but now I feel less that way , I guess .
I feel like Zuckerberg just looks like a kind of like a robot , though he looks like data from Star Trek to me for some reason , I don't know .
That guy's legit . Like he does Jiu Jitsu though he does , he'd probably kick my butt .
I would be out of breath immediately , for sure .
So it is going to be like a death match , like so they're doing a kid , they're doing a cage match , and it's it's going to be at these while they haven't picked it a place to house it yet , but the UFC said that they could do it at the apex there in Nevada , and so it's going to be live streamed on Twitter X , whatever you call it , and all the money
that they collect from it is supposed to go to some veteran charity , so it was just announced , like I don't know , a couple hours ago .
So I think it'll be like the all star game , you know , like the NHL all star game , where basically that's just like Disney on ice . Yeah you know what I mean .
It's like the Jake Paul fights that have been happening lately . The YouTuber guy fights the boxing stuff . Oh my gosh , it's terrible . It's so hard to watch .
It's so hard to watch I don't get into that stuff , but you work for it , oh man , well , so today that's . It's interesting you brought up Elon Musk because we're going to talk about . I'm just kidding , no , we're not . You know , you hear us talking Denver on the at the end of every episode . Hey , send us your ideas , that kind of thing .
And you want to hear us talk about some . You know , send us a message and we read all those messages and a lot of them come in and they're not like big , like hey , we want a whole episode on this , or what do you think ?
It's just a lot of ideas in in addition to some really great topic ideas , but a lot of conversation goes about a you know like and I've talked to Andy about it many times off the air , but you know , with you on and , andy , I'd like to get your take on just a handful of different things .
So one of them , and kind of first and foremost like day to day , just logistics , mm , hmm , you know , I know years ago , andy , or for , or for maybe a better way to put it four years , you did with your , your texts , you would meet at the supply house and fulfill like
¶ Transitioning From Manual Invoicing to Software
a material list when you know each day right and that was kind of how you structured and started your your day each week . Is that right ?
Yeah , I think at that time it made the most sense to me . Anyway , it may not have made sense to anybody else , but it made the most sense to me to be able to go meet with my , my crew , in the morning and say , hey , here's what I want you to do , here's what you're going to go . Do you know ?
We didn't have a great platform for saying here's some pictures that the customer sent . Yeah , here's here's all the customers information . I mean , when I hired my first employee , we started into a I didn't remember what it was called into this software program similar to to HCP .
That's called yeah right , not anywhere near what it's capable of , but it was basically a mobile invoicing app that was phone based and it was super crude . And I , we took off and we're like , yeah , this is going to be great . I started like 30 days before my first employees started .
I started on it and got all the back end stuff done , spent I mean nights and weekends , basically , yeah , cranking , cranking through it and the like . Three days after my the first guy I hired started with me , I get a call from him . Well , you know , like halfway through the days like , hey , I can't get into the invoice thing .
Like what are you talking about ? That's weird , you know . And I grabbed my phone and I'm looking and I was out in the , out in the field , doing working in the field at that time too . And I look and I can't get into it either . I'm like , what the heck ? I must have made a payment or something , I must have screwed something up .
And I'm like , all right , we'll just do it the old fashioned way , just write it down . We'll mail them a bill . And at that time we weren't collecting on site anyway , so I mean , it was all . We were invoicing everything . So I'd get all his information at the end of the day and then we'd mail a bill .
And so it made sense at that time to meet daily and say , okay , I'm going to take the paperwork and any checks that you and cash that you got yesterday , I'm going to take that . And then we're going to talk about what you're going to do today . And it just made sense . And as I added another guy , it also made sense at the time .
Yeah , you were in that groove . That was just how you were doing it .
This is how we do it . You know you go in and you had over a cup of coffee or whatever , and at the supply house counter and we order our parts and all three of us went about our merry way . And I think the advent of a new software technology .
So to go back one step , the software company that we were using , like three days later , so like three or four days after it , quit working . It still wasn't working and I'm like what the heck ? So I call this company . I finally find the 800 number . I call , I get nothing .
Oh , nothing there .
And I'm like , yeah , they went out of business and they fold it up . And it was just like that and I was just like what the heck ? And I start digging through my email and here my spam mail was a letter or a notice from them saying , hey , that's why we're on this date we're no longer going to be in business or databases will be shut down .
And luckily we only had three days worth of business on there .
But real quick . How long did you do that , like , just like . How long did you continue to meet at the supply house and then , ultimately , what was it that changed ? Why did you stop doing that ?
Well , I think what ultimately stopped doing it is we switched over to a new invoice software within a month , you know , because it doesn't you don't switch this stuff quickly .
And you certainly don't jump in .
I looked at a couple of them at the time and I mean we're talking . This has been I don't know 2015 , something like that time frame . So I mean it wasn't wasn't like . It is today where you could be like , hey , I'm going to throw rock , yeah , yeah .
And so , you know , trying to find something that that integrated with QuickBooks and , you know , did this and worked on an iPhone or worked on an Android . You know it was . Yeah , anyway , I think , I guess , to answer your question , we probably did that for two or three years , no , I would guess .
And at some point in there it became clear to us as the owners , cheryl and I , that it wasn't really necessary . You know , we did it and we could . We could do it at that point with the software we were using , just by updating the notes , and we were starting to use this group , group text .
You know where it was , you know , cheryl and I and one of the guys , each guy you know . So we all had our own group text and that way it was like hey , you know , we just forward a picture and everything was fine . And at some point it just dawned on us that we're this isn't beneficial . I mean it's got benefits .
I mean you can never say that having a face to face meeting and getting the hey , how , you know how's , how was you know your , your kid's birthday party over the weekend or whatever , I mean that kind of stuff is is important . That's the side of it that I that I wish I could do that daily to keep , keep that , that in person touch with the guys .
But the rest of it , I mean having having a conversation about what it is that we're going to do every day . I mean , largely , I'm going to say , right now I have a crew of
¶ Discussing Work Procedures and Challenges
guys that can look at you know a paragraph and go , yeah , I know what to do . I don't need to explain what the paragraph means . Right , they know they . I mean , they're good at what they do . Yeah , you know , get a couple of pictures and go , oh , I got to put a gas line in . Okay , it's going to go from there to there . All right , yeah , easy peasy .
I don't need to explain that .
Yeah right , yeah well , technology , like you said , is changing . I suppose with the new software we've been running now for a couple of years , isn't it ? Yeah , has it been ?
a year and a half now . Yeah , it was a year in March .
Yeah , I've been on I think two years now . Yeah , two years in February , I think it was something like that so nice .
Yeah , so like having the ability to do like better communication with that and have , yeah , there's so many more tools available . I look at it and I think , like , so , my old shop that I worked for years , a million years ago , they would we've talked about this many times too , so , but I'll keep it brief .
Like they would , most guys would drive the vehicle home I think everybody did actually , maybe unless someone had a driving issue and then most days they would drive to the shop and like load up for anybody listening , I'm doing air quotes yeah , the loading up , the rest it was .
I look at that and I think of the amount of times I did that where I absolutely needed to do that , like I was like I needed materials that they were not going to be able to get to me on time .
Right .
Or , and then I look at you know which was significant .
But then I think of the amount of time we stood around and we talked about fishing and this or that , and it was just like and you know , we started our time when we got to the shop , Like there's no doubt about the face , that face us guys had out in the out in the shop , like in the back , like , and we're talking over 30 people .
So you imagine the amount of money . Yeah , oh yeah , I mean that is insane .
Well , that's how , when I started in it this is , you know , when I started , when I was 13 , working for my dad , and so the way he had it set up was it was an assembly line every morning .
So my grandfather worked for for my dad and he ran the warehouse and we had a barcode system , and so you would , every day at the end of the day you'd write your inventory on a check sheet and then you'd come in and there'd be groups of two you know , just two guys to a truck .
Everybody would go in and hand their ticket to my grandfather and he would go through and he would pick everything and then they would . They would help as well , you know , we would go in and help them grab whatever , but then he would scan it and our barcode system was tied in directly to our supplier .
So every time we were scanning stuff off of the shelves it would put a pick ticket and then we would get deliveries every other day and they would just keep stocking our shelves .
So we had almost like our own distributor type thing at our shop and it was nice , but it was weird because you'd have to stagger it , because we had so many , or my dad had so many guys . You know there's , we had 52 guys there , so we're just staggering everything , the amount of time you only had one grandpa . Yeah , exactly , and he's not exactly fast .
So it was , I don't know , it was just it took forever doing it that way . But I've always been the type where it's always start at the shop . Everybody drives the truck home and then always start at the shop the next day kind of deal , and we still do it pretty much to this day . I have , obviously , my one technician .
He will drive his van home and we'll usually start the day here at the shop and then we'll go from there . But sometimes you know if , if it's a day I'm doing estimates or whatever , I'll have the whole day already set up for him . It's like you just go to your first call , don't . Don't worry about coming to the shop , unless unless you need something .
I think the only way you can get fully away from that , starting like that , that kind of model either it's a shop or the supply house or whatever is you have to get to a delivery . You know you have to have a shop staff with a truck we used to have that even if it's just one person , yep , you know that can distribute probably .
I guess if it's one person's pretty minimal , how much time they're going to be ?
we had it just here , back and forth , just for service , like so we would . We'd have our service guys and they would , you know , be out running calls while say they , they say , hey , I need a blower motor , it's a specific blower motor they didn't have on their truck . We would tell them , go to the next job , start that job .
We will send the parts kid , he will drop the blower motor at the house and then you can circle back and replace it same day , or we'll put it on for next day and go from there as far as that . But then you'd have a lot of doubling back .
So if you had a guy who had , say , five calls on for that day , well then you could potentially , if you didn't have that part , turn them into nine to ten calls if that was the random case that he didn't have that part .
Well it's , it's always going to be the case to where you don't have everything , like everything you need . That's that doesn't matter how big you are . You know you can be small , like me . Yep , you're smallish like you guys . Where you know , like you're just gonna , you can't stock everything . That's just the way it is .
Yeah , and you're gonna get to a point where you the job hat . You have to move on , like you said , like I know , andy , you guys are doing that all time , all the time . It's just regular . It's well , it's not , it's not significant to the how you're running your business . So it's just literally how it happens .
Because of that , yeah , yeah , be flexible , move on . At least you've got the beauty of it . Really , ultimately , if you can put a positive note on it , which doesn't help the bottom line , but the beauty of it right now , or the only positive thing , is that you've got so much work piled up that it's .
It's not like , oh , my god , we don't have that part , we can't . Even you guys got to go home because we don't have any more work for you know like that could right , yeah , that's that could really you know grinds . Ryan , you know , rub people the wrong way to yeah .
Yeah , not just your customer , obviously , but yeah well , and that was a Friday afternoon .
I was , you know , again and I think , eric , you and I had talked about this , I don't know , maybe it was the day before just kind of gotten a foul mood for late Friday afternoon . Yeah , was not just , you know , like dang it , I can't get , I mean , and my guy , I mean , and not anything that my text , my guys were doing .
Yeah , we for the last two weeks have gone absolutely balls to the walls and and grind , grinding hard and we've got a lot of stuff installed .
And you know I guess not I shouldn't say just the last two weeks for the last couple of years and in just here , in the last two solid weeks , we've got about a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars worth of work . That in three projects , that is not done yeah and it's like ninety eight percent complete all three projects . That's one of them .
As well , too , I've got to get back over to get an inspection done . This was the asbestos inspection that we talked about . So now the asbestos inspection has been done , I'm waiting for the city to approve my permit .
Now that the job's done , I can get my permit approved and pay for it which is just crazy and then we'll go get the inspector to go look at it , and then we'll be able to take the gas test off and fire the thing up yeah you know , and it's like I just got why I mean this is crazy , you know , and you start dwelling on that stuff and you know I wind
myself up more than anything else and I'll get , you know , frustrated . We were at a job where we were doing four of those Mitsubishi SVZ air handlers on a five ton smart , multi , nice job that's the one with the spit that had the space back that you took off .
Yeah exactly .
And I get there on Friday and we're like , heck , yeah , I'm electrical , we're gonna knock the electrical out , we're gonna have the thing under a pressure test . Because we were , we were waiting on the electrician on another job that we were installing , right , you know .
So we'd been there all week and the electrician didn't show up and now he's not coming till tomorrow , you know . So it's like I didn't get . Okay , well , we can't do startup on that systems , charge ductwork's done . I mean it's , it's ready to go . Yeah , we just got to do startup . And I get to the job and I'm like , yeah , yeah , cool , cool .
I got three guys there right like on a whim Friday afternoon . All of a sudden , you know , stuff's like falling apart and I'm like , nope , send everybody to this job . Yeah , we're just gonna go get everything done .
Yeah , so we got all the line voltage electrical done between the branch boxes and got the units all tied in and got all the communication wiring done and finished the last couple of refrigeration lines , got a nitrogen test on it and I'm like , sweet , we are getting stuff done . And I'm digging through this box of controls and we've got these , we're using these .
I do . I think it's like it's a I D O O and it's a third-party control interface that links up with Mitsubishi okay basically gives you like a web interface .
It's kind of like Kumo cloud , but yeah , allows you to use like a T 10 thermostat okay , yeah and this particular job is goofy because first stage of heat is radiant floor , right , and then we'll have cooling and then second stage of heat will be the heat pump . So it's kind of backwards of most scenarios .
Yeah , exactly the radiant , radiant floor to be primary , and so we're using these T 10s and I'm
¶ Mini Split Job Challenges and Delivery
like , looking in the box , I'm like wait a minute , I've got two different styles of this . I do controls interface and call the vendor and they're like oh well , yeah , those aren't the same . That one , this , this , these two here aren't gonna do what you want , yeah .
And I'm like okay , you got you set a couple out on the shelf , I'll just work a little late . No , come grab me . He's like no , we don't have any . And he's like we got some on order . And I'm like , oh , my gosh , get serious . That's like how long ? He's like well , they're out in Tacoma , so it's gonna be like three days .
And I'm like , you know , after the week it'll be here like Tuesday , wednesday . And I'm like , yeah , okay , god , dang it , you know . And so they've been sitting there on this on site for two weeks yeah , but you didn't know they were wrong . Yeah , somebody pulled them wrong , right , you know , just that's the worst .
I had . I had that happen just the other day . It was , it was a it was a scenario where it was more my fault , but kind of not situation . We were doing a mini split job and this just happened on Thursday and so I went into the house for the estimate I gave this lady she's on .
This was the last estimate , so it was her sixth estimate trying to figure everything out . So , yeah , it's like going back and forth , so I'm already got a bad taste in the mouth of that . Yeah , well then when I went in the house , looked everything over , we she's got a boiler , so she wants air conditioning .
I told her let's not just look at just air conditioning , let's quote something with you know another source of heat , just in case you know you're back at your ancient boiler fails and you know whatever . So we go through everything and we finally decide on sealing cassettes and so I'm like , all right , that's fine , you know , here's the quote for that .
Blah , blah she's . She got a reference from somebody else that I put sealing cassettes in for . She liked the look of them , she saw them in person . So I said , yeah , we can do that . Here's the price . Yada , yada , yada . Well , when I did the first initial estimate . I didn't go up in the attic most addicts are . You know it's a standard regular house .
I would have thought 24 on center . That was not the case and so it was 16 on center . And these cassettes , you know it's , they're 20 inches wide , they're monstrous , 20 by 20 . Yeah , so to boot . I get there and I was going to the supply house . They were supposed to have the order there for me to pick it up .
They accidentally marked it as a delivery , so they were delivering it all the way across town to my shop .
Yeah , so it's like well , I'm here .
I need it now and they don't have it . They had to transfer it in the day before . The transfer trucks run on Wednesdays , so I'm there on Thursday morning picking everything up . That's not there . So then I say , well , just have the driver come to the job site , we'll go from there . So I get to the job , homeowner's like , oh , where's all the equipment at ?
Well , it was a little issue with delivery , blah , blah , blah . So that started off kind of a little bit bad . Then I called the electrician and I texted him the photos and I said , hey , here's the panel . Blah , blah , blah . And he's like , oh , that's maxed out , she needs a 40 space .
And blah , blah , blah , blah , like okay , so I'm like , how much is this gonna be ? So he's like it's gonna be like at least 1600 bucks , so on top of the quote for running the electrical for the outboard unit . So I bring her down and say , hey , you know , here's where we're at for this .
She's like already freaking out because she's , you know , trying to save money . Well , then , get that done . She's in meetings the whole time , on her on the computer . She works from home . So I'm like standing there because I at that point then going up into the attic and saw that it was 16 on center and I'm like now sitting there in the living room .
I can't do anything so like just hanging out , I'm like alright . So I know I just told you the this happened , but now this happens . So now we can't do the cassettes . We got a switch to the what I was thinking before let's do a floor mount here and a high wall over here . So then ended up the whole job .
She said let's just pause , let's put it on on hold for now and then we'll go from there . So everything sitting over there in the shop right now to be returned what time of day was it when you got the the pause ? so I got there at nine in the morning and then we were done and packed up and left by I think it was 1130 , something like that .
So then we were like , well , we can't really do anything else now . We've kind of thrown the whole . I had planned the job for two days , like Thursday , friday , and then that was it . So it's like , well , let's go to lunch and then I'll just figure something else out .
We called it today after that and then we figured , you know , move stuff around to do things on Friday the whole , every thing , the , the .
Yeah , it does happen , and that sucks . At least you know .
You got to be able to move forward , though , like mm-hmm , and that's what I told her is that we could , you know , we can do this job .
I can get the the skinny ones that can fit in a 16 inch , the one way cassettes , like I can have them Wednesday of you know , this coming week , and I said so we can keep the job rolling and we'll put the condenser in , we'll run line sets , we'll get everything done . We'll just slip the single skinny cassettes in after .
No , we're gonna move this one wall and I don't like it being 50 inches long and blah , blah , blah and like okay , so yeah , I gave , I gave her her deposit back and we're on hold till at least September sometimes it's so much easier just to cut your loss and be like it is .
Yeah all right , we're done . Well , hold on . Hold on , if let me go ahead . Sorry , I was just saying it .
If you know , if they call back , great yeah . And if they don't six all back , so right one yeah , if they don't call back so long as they don't leave you a bad review about how you were disorganized and exactly whatever , then then find whatever life goes on yep , exactly yeah , that's what I was .
Eventually you got to either deal with it or live with it , one of the two . Yeah , delivery though . So like we're you guys are talking about , you know you're starting at the shop and , andy , that's kind of changed for you . Of course , I started the shop because the shops at my house , right , the , but the , the delivery thing .
So like I try to get everything that is larger than a box I can carry with two hands , you know , delivered to my job , but if I've got time to prefab or do you know that that's kind of a case by case , but you know what I found out . I bet you in the past year it's not really any different year after year .
I bet you I go into the wholesale house less than 10 times in a year , yeah , and it's probably more . It's realistically like five , six times . I bet . Yeah , but I'm not counting , so I'm just estimating that . And but you know what I ? I I hate going because it's just time lost . I can't . Nobody's ever paying me to run and get parts .
It's no care how you try this . You know I guess there's not a line item for me to get paid for that . It's built into my cost in certain instances , like I know how much it cost me to even get the water heater for that flat rate price for me , you know . So I can figure out that flat rate price .
But yeah , I don't that that shouldn't ever include me going to buy it myself or pick it up . You know what I mean . Yeah , but the amount of times I've had like couriered you know , parts couriered to me , which is like super common here . Um , a couple of my suppliers do it Just literally all day long , all the time .
And it's just , I'd be nice .
It's affordable . You should . You know . I don't know why you don't , though I don't know why you're you might . Maybe you need to talk to your supplier or anybody listening the way that they do it .
For us is in the way I typically do it as well , as I don't even talk to the distributors , like call them , I just do everything online , like I have two suppliers that are my main two carrier and I do , yeah , I do too yeah , and so I literally I place the order and then I , on , like for Johnstone , for example , I get all my service parts and most of
my duck work some duck work from Johnstone and they deliver Tuesdays and Fridays . They will not , unless you spend a certain amount of money with them . They won't even really do a job site delivery unless it's something like a rooftop or something like that .
They'll do that .
But like on carrier does it where they . I get all my equipment from them and they just do it . Tuesdays , thursdays , they come to my shop and it's the same scenario . They just say , no , we'll just unless they screw up like they did .
What I'm talking about is not equipment , it's not , you know . I mean it could be if I , if I wanted to , you know , if I truly had to have a boiler run out , for I guess one time I think I've done that , yeah , maybe it's parts and pieces .
It's a gas valve , for you know , for that standing pilot boiler that I had no idea or even thought I was going to be working on this year . You know what I mean . It's that kind of stuff , yep .
And but you'd be surprised that , like , our suppliers are just using , like was it like priority , which is a , you know , I think it's even a nationwide , like franchise kind of courier service . Maybe they don't have them in your area , but you have these services though .
You know , like there's there's no doubt that you have local courier services , because that's literally how , like every law office exists on couriers , like it's just the way it is . But these are my suppliers are just using them to move material around faster and at a price I pay for it , you know right . Yeah , but they go away like I don't pay .
I think a two , I think a two hour as far as I am from , let's say good , and supply , which is in Minneapolis as far out as I am , let's say I'm 20 miles north of me . That's a good hour drive for the drive , one way for that courier . I think it costs like 88 bucks or something like that . Okay , like you couldn't drive .
You couldn't drive to the suppliers for that amount of money , and I don't care who it is that's working for you to do that . You know what I mean .
Like yeah , exactly .
And so just the idea to be able to get that kind of stuff Wait , I bring it up because it's just another tool . Maybe it's not truly not available , but I bet you well , if you saw the value in it that I do , I could I could probably convince you to convince your sales guy to get it on board for you . You know what I mean .
Like , yeah , I need you to do this , and here's why you know so if you were going to order a bag of one inch Vega 90s press 90s , yeah Right .
Same cost as if I ordered out , you know , 100 bags , I guess .
Yeah , okay , so long as it fits in a boxer in their vehicle .
Yeah , I think there might be some some price dimensions depending on like dimensions . Yeah , like , yeah , like if I had to have , like a truck come with a piece of pipe , I think that's different than if I had the guy who usually shows up in like a Prius with the company logo on the side .
You know , or you know what they use a lot I see a lot more now are like the , the transit connect or the small you know the small Nissan or something heavy , whatever . Yeah , yeah , yeah , that's perfect . Though Like what , if you you're like well in , you know what it'll do is I'll take advantage of it .
I'll be like , well , I guess I know I'm going to call them in the next 20 minutes to order this stuff , right , right , you know , in the next 10 minutes I'm going to make this call . Why don't I walk through the back of my van , can't just start pulling my bins out ? What's in my one inch box of press fittings ?
What's in my do I have a ?
crap . I'm low on half inch mega press , you know Right , and then I'll just like , cause I just got to rattle off the stuff either into the app or to the person on the other line , so like I'm just taking advantage of it .
Yeah , and I think it's a lot of times it is to answer a problem that you know like came up and it wasn't like I'm not prepared , and sometimes it is , but it's some more and more so it's the you know like the no heat calls and stuff like that , where you're like well , I need this part and I don't have it and I but I can get it in the next two
hours . That can make a big difference for somebody on a Friday going into the weekend , you know yeah , Are your guys the suppliers ?
do they stay open on Saturdays ?
No , I was building on one , one that's open Saturdays till noon . Okay , yeah , I don't know .
Yeah , johnstone here used to do that . And then now they they don't , they all have a . You know the , the . You can open them up forever . You know a hundred bucks or 150 bucks , whatever it is .
But which is dirt cheap too , by the way .
Oh yeah .
Um yeah , no , I bring it up just for anybody listening and maybe just look into it . Ask your supplier . We're like hey , do you do this Because ? And if if they don't , then you should start a business doing
¶ Logistics and Vehicle Maintenance Resolved
. I'm just kidding . Well , I know people have tried that .
There's that app that they have now . Um , oh , what's it called ? Blue blue on , yeah , and they do on , yeah . Yeah , they supposedly do delivery now and stuff that like there's only one supply house that's on blue on here and it's Ferguson , just cause they're on it nationally and um , but , I , don't really get much from Ferguson . I get some stuff .
I'll get water heaters occasionally .
I'm just like did you know you can ? You can order on your phone and pull up and they'll have it sitting there for a pro . Yeah , like your video Video .
Yeah , okay , I'm not giving them any more Plus I comment on it because it uh , every time I go to place an order , um , oh yeah , it's in stock , it's inside , we got it , we got it . And then I show up and I ordered 20 and it's like , oh , we only had 10 . Awesome yeah .
Peter was wrong .
Thanks , I'm glad I drove across town yeah .
This is awesome . I drove an hour here , so thanks yeah .
Okay , another next question . Next question we're doing logistics here , q and a , q and a , not maintenance , but first washing and taking clean and out the vehicle and stuff like that . Does your tech get the ? Do they get paid to do that and when do you expect them to do it ? Sometimes quick answers . Yes , sometimes sometimes they get paid .
What does that mean ? I typically tell our tech , you know , like me , I'm the worst , because I'll say Like I'll clean it out this weekend , I'll do it this weekend . And then it gets to the weekend and it's like I don't want to clean it . I'm horrible about that .
And so then , monday , I always spend the morning , monday morning cleaning everything out , cleaning the trailer , switching things around , and I need to get better on that . But yes , as far as when our technicians are cleaning their trucks , yes , we pay them for it .
Yeah , yeah , and so I say that sometimes we don't schedule time for it , it's always a hey , they're done it . You know , I'm all wrapped up it's 345 . All right , you got 45 minutes . Go take care of the trash , put the , put those parts away from that you picked up earlier , put your stock order in . You know whatever hit the car wash .
You know I , the one of the best things that I have done I have bought , one of the easiest purchases I've bought in the last couple years is the Milwaukee M12 blower . Yeah , it's weak enough that you .
I mean for most , most applications , it's , it's not , it doesn't move enough air , but for blowing out the back of the van , yeah , it's absolutely amazing , perfect .
Oh the doors , get in there and just let her rip and you can blow rocks out , blow the dust out and you know sheetrock bits and Whatever is in there and it just , if you can do that once a week , mm-hmm or more huge , it's huge . It's huge .
Yeah , if you got 10 minutes , I mean you look , jump in the back of Rob's van right now and Rob's Rob's , you know always .
I know that he does it a lot more off the clock than he does on the clock , right , but he's also one of those guys it's very , very detailed oriented about All of his stuffs dialed in , you know , back in the band I'm helping in front of the van's always clean on and in his job has , yeah , his work risk reflects that too .
But uh , he , he's , he's all very you know real good about . You know , hey , I'm done at 330 or whatever and I'm gonna get gas
¶ Smoking Policy and Vehicle Maintenance
and I'm gonna get the car wash . And so I've always told the guys , you know , if they need to come out , there's pressure washer at the shop , there's soap foam gun , whatever . If you want to come out and and do it there , I don't care . If you want to go to the car with power wash and do it , you know , run on the company card .
I mean , we're paying for everything , but they are expected to figure out how to keep that up . Yeah , you know , and , and we try to afford them the time to do it , but sometimes it's , it's not always there , you know , especially when it's in the winter time . I'm it's like , yeah , you gotta be hit the car wash once a week .
Yeah , all right .
Yeah , salt off , yeah . So on the car topic , Smoking in vehicles ?
No , negative , nope , not a lot . 100% , no , nope , not allowed . I don't blame you for a bit . I don't think it's a good idea . I don't think it should be allowed at all . Like to be and that's not I Know . I don't think it's even an option .
No , we , we've never allowed it , never will . We , we don't allow smoking on the jobs . Like if I had a guy that started with us and we told you know Expectations and I know smoking because we knew he was a smoker you could smell it on .
And so I get to the job and we're I think we're changing the PRV or something on a boiler , and so he's out in the guy , the guy's driveway and he lights up a cigarette in the back of the van . Standing in the driveway , at the back of the van , I'm like what are you doing ? Oh yeah , sorry , sorry , sorry . And it's like dude , what ?
Like now you're gonna go into their house and it's gonna smell . You know , your , your reflection of Yourself is also us in front of these customers . So we don't allow it . We don't allow it even on new construction jobs yeah .
I don't , but it's yeah . I Think a lot of job sites have basically just banded all together .
I used to be a smoker , I would , and then I switched over to dipping and it's the best thing I've ever done to stop , and it stopped doing that . I quit years ago , like ten years ago , and it's yeah , it's good to not do it for sure .
Absolutely yeah on the vehicle side maintenance and repair . So like I bring this up because I Want to hear your take on it first Mm-hmm . Van needs brakes , yeah , and the and your guy says oh , I'll do that this weekend , do you let them do ?
absolutely not too much of a liability , right , yeah , we have a guy that does all of our work . He's done all of our trucks for years , unless it's one of our big box trucks , which we don't have any big box trucks anymore , but we did have a 20-foot box truck and yeah so he couldn't , he couldn't work on that , and so everything else he'll work on .
And then same thing with oil changes . We have a different company . That that's all they did . It's like a jiffy Well , it used to be a jiffy lube , but now it's his own company . He dropped your name , chas . So we have a fleet account and we just tell you , guys , if they pay , it's your responsibility .
If you're in TC , you know Traverse City , just stop by if you need it and get it done . And that's a fleet account . They don't have to pay anything , they'll just send us the bill .
But yeah , I would tell my guy to go to the dealership because they have the quick lane and that's what .
That's what he does . That's what he does .
Um , the , the . I bring it up because , believe it or not . So this guy , this gentleman was my journeyman years ago , a super awesome guy . He's still around , he's just retired within the last year or two and he would , and without fail . That van needed breaks , he'd do him on the weekend .
That brand van needed a wheel bearing , he'd do it and like , somehow the company just like would pay his time and like the parts and like I think , like why in the world ? What ? I think , the first time that you know you have a warranty claim , what are you gonna do ?
You're like hey , john , doc there you suck or something ?
Yeah , we are you even gonna handle ?
that I should make sense . I should say , though , we did have it . We had one guy that worked for us . He's my dad's like really good friend , best friend .
He lives Three and a half hours from our shop , and this is when we had the commercial crew that would go all over the state , yeah , and so he does have a full , he's got a full lift in his garage , all that . So he would do Breaks or like change a tire or something small like that .
We'd let him do that , but that was only because he lived so far away and we didn't have access to other known mechanics that we knew their work Downstate . So you know , with him we would let him do it just be . I mean , he's a master mechanic , he's you know all that stuff .
So I'd say no , but in a way we did allow it at one time , but that was only for a certain situation , a certain person . I would never allow anybody else to do it .
I don't even change my own oil , no , I don't know , I don't , I mean .
The last time I did my own breaks and I've I mean , I've worked on the things you know Probably , like you guys have you know , for my entire Life , since I was 12 , you know , tinkered with mechanics , fixing a lawn mower or whatever , and the last time I did breaks was on my 2016 GMC and it ended up in an entire weekend Endeavour , yeah , yeah , bolt and
the caliper .
Just do not .
Yeah , not worse , and I'm just like one bleed , yeah , all kinds of stuff and I spent all weekend and Then Sunday night gave like , finally , I was like I , this is where it's at , and ended up having to have the truck towed down to the truck shop .
And they and it was , it was just , it was a pain in the yeah from the very beginning and I , like I say , I spent the entire weekend saving a thousand bucks .
Yeah , I didn't say that .
Yeah .
Not even that , because .
I took it down there . I did get it . I get it down to my , my local mechanic , any any . As soon as our rigs are out of , out of warranty they go to . We had to go . All guy that I've done has done a lot of local Crawford's . Yeah , little mom and pop shop I think his dad may have started it . He's Chase is running it now .
Just , solid dude , busy , busy , busy , busy , yeah . So I hate calling him and being like , hey , I'm going to drop this off . But he's always been that too , where if I call him I'm like , hey , man , I've got you know , when we had the Nissan's , I'm like I got a whatever vent valve code going on , can I bring it by ?
And he's like , bring it by , we'll take care of it . Yeah , I'll put , I'll bump somebody out , we'll get you back on the road , you know , and he was always good about that . Yeah , and you know , now that I've got all the Ford's and they're all under warranty , it's like they're going to the , they're going to the dealership . Yeah , I'm not .
We're not a lot of these vehicles too . You can't even . They're so computerized . I mean , it's almost coming to a point where you have to be a dealer of that specific brand because you have the specific tool , just like a service checker for VRF stuff . Sure , you have to have that specific one , and if you don't have it , you're not doing anything .
You're not working on it . There's a whole .
There's a whole legislator , there's whole like lobbying and everything .
I know I'm staying in Minnesota I shouldn't even bring this up because I don't remember the name of it but it's basically like there there is legislation in the works all over the country to ban that kind of situation , to where tactic like yeah , I forget what it's called , forgive me Anybody listening , it's the terminology has just left my brain right now .
But it's like eliminate , oh yeah , it's a big deal , but yeah , so like you buy a John Deere tractor and you know , let's say you , let's , you go by a Kubota , you know loader or you know backhoe , and they're like well , you have to use us , no matter what . You're locked in , whatever you're . That's it . We set the price . It's yep , you're .
Your monthly service fee on this , you know , is going to be a thousand dollars .
You know what I mean .
That kind of thing .
We bought this extended warranty , service plan , extended warranty on this 2016 Chevy Colorado . We've got and bought it from Alithia and the guys like , oh , yeah , this is great . You know like eighteen hundred bucks , lifetime oil changes and we'll take care of the air filter and we'll check differentials and whatnot .
You just bring it in and whatever , and we'll get it taken care of , get your oil changed and you know when it's due , so long as it's within like three hundred miles of the due date , or the rate , the date , or the mileage , the mileage and I'm like , perfect , eighteen hundred bucks . You know what ?
We're planning on having this rig for a couple , you know , ten years or something like that . Well , that'll be great . We take it in the very first time and I'm like , yep , this is going to be awesome . You know , roll up to the quick line and they're like , oh , okay . They're like , oh , have we done this before ?
I'm like , nope , just bought it here , like four months ago . You know we're at the mileage and he's like , okay , blah , blah , blah . He's like , oh , you've got to make an appointment . I'm like , what do you mean ? I got to make it . I mean your quick lanes right here . Yeah , you know , and there's nobody even here .
You know , the two oil texts are sitting there on a barrel . Yeah . Put it in their thunk you know he's like no , you got to make an appointment for that in order to utilize the service . And I'm like all right , well , can I make an appointment , you know ? And he's like yeah , yep , you can bring it back this afternoon .
And uh , and we've got an opening this afternoon . And blah , blah , blah , and I'm like okay , and I'm like so it takes you like what ? Half hour , 45 minutes ? Nope , our appointment slots are for four hours . So you drop it off and then you come back in four hours to pick it up . And I'm like that's crazy . No way Are you ? Are you freaking , kidding me ?
And I'm like , well , how much is it just to get my old change right now ? Oh , $59 . I'm like , just change the oil , I don't . I don't have time to spend the entire day . Four hours , Crazy four .
You know multiple . Who's got time to make multiple trips Right ?
Yeah , right , get dropped off . I call them and I call them back and I'm like all right , here's the deal .
We've had this truck for like under six months . Um , I just can , I , can we cancel this , this service plan ?
And they're like oh no , no , there's no cancellation , it's a done deal , locked in . Yeah , yeah .
So and I'm like , all right well , lost $1,800 . So yeah .
All right , dudes , we're . We're at our time limit . I'm getting the operators chiming in my ear to put more quarters in , so we're going to call it quits . There it is Denver . Uh , you know , denver Baker was all that was said when I introduced everybody at the opening here . Of course , everybody should know that you are MD heat on the socials .
Uh , owner of , uh , mike Denner Heating MD heat .
Yeah , but it does stand for Mike and Denver even though , mike , that's what , that's what it's going for . Md heat Traverse city , michigan , the good old Northern Michigan , yep . Top , top of the net , tip of the net . Andy dude , good , good call .
As always , having the Denver Baker on the MD heat stir . That's all you know . Hats made up . I'm going to be . I'm trying to be on here as much as Chad .
Yeah Well , we can control that we have total control over that .
That's right .
He probably isn't , but he's . He's if I need to send you my address for bribes and whatever you know , hot honey or whatever . Yeah , it's hot honey stuff .
So he does honey , right , you guys , you know , he's , he's , he's , he's he's he's , he's , he's , he's he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's .
You know he does honey , right ? You guys know that , right , yeah , he , I was at his house , he had me consult on a plumbing thing real quick for him a couple of weeks ago and he , no , well , he sent me home . He's like you want some honey ? And I'm like , yeah , yeah , I want some honey .
Finally , he's been doing it for a while and I just , I didn't ever ask him for it
¶ ADHD Tips and Listener Feedback
and I offered a buy it one time but he wasn't ready to sell it . So , anyway , he's like well , I want you to send , I'm going to send this home with you . And I'm like I , I , I , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's , he's . Just at our house the weekend before and he , heather , sent a jar of pickles home with him .
So like , I'm like , yeah , I guess I'm getting a honey and trade for the pickles . I'm not even going to offer to pay you , yeah . And I got to tell you I , I called them , um , after texting a mutual friend of ours uh , josh , click , I'm tech , I'm texting click . And I'm like have you ever tried Chad's honey ?
And he's like yeah it's really good and I'm like , yeah , so I I actually called , uh , chad , end of the day , I knew it would be done , working at least , cause I was just rolling in to the Anishop and I'm like , chad , dude , your honey's friggin awesome , I got you know . I just want to make sure he got it for me . You know word of mouth .
And .
I was like impress as heck , it was so good , it is very good Does he sell it .
I'm like Etsy or something , or I don't know what he's doing yet .
He's so ADHD you can't get I've given . He asked me for tips and stuff on how to do that and I'm like , yeah , giving them all these tips and I don't know that he ever had a flat rate as honey . Yeah , Well , basically , yeah no , we're setting up all kinds of stuff . That's another episode .
But yeah , I know if Chad is still listening , he's still upset that Patrick was on and now Denver this is your third time , right ?
It is , it is . Yeah , it's my third time .
Yeah , yeah . Well , maybe we have to have him be on a couple more . We got to look back and see how many times Chad's with that . Yeah , exactly , all right everybody leave us a note in over on our DMs . You can get to us right in your podcast app . There's a link directly to Andy's Instagram DM and mine as well .
Send us a note , let us know what you think If you want to hear about specific topics or you have some ideas or feedback where you'd love to hear it . Denver , thanks for joining us . Andy , have a good night . Thanks , guys . You guys always take around Denver , don't go anywhere , see ya .