Lia: Welcome to the Sparky Life Podcast. I'm your host, Lia Lamela, and here we create the spark in our lives. Join me on this electrical journey where I highlight skilled trade tales and construction career opportunities with those I've met along the way. Thank you for joining, for trade tales continued. I have an amazing trade tale for you today. It's incredible news for the skilled trades. A real revolution. Today's guest, Jeff Bond, has created a unique platform exclusively for the skilled trades. Jeff shares with us his story, which led to the creation of “trade jobs”. What is “trade jobs”? Well, to recruit specifically for HVAC, electrical and plumbing, think of it as indeed designed for the skilled trades. Jeff’s story is a perfect example of, by not burning bridges, treating people with honor and integrity, incredible opportunities can develop for you. Welcome with me, Jeff Bond. Hi, Jeff. I can't hear.
Jeff: You can't hear me? All right. What am I doing here? Can you hear me now?
Lia: Yes. Yes.
Jeff: I got it.
Lia: Welcome. Welcome to the Sparky Life.
Jeff: I'm glad to be here. I'm excited.
Lia: Yeah, me too. Yeah. Now, Jeff, where does your background in skilled trade come from?
Jeff: Sure. So I, um. I own an HVAC company down here in Texas in the area. My degree, my actual education is in education. In agricultural education. Taught in the high school sector and technology side of high school. So getting kids ready for either going into maybe, not going into the college route, but going into the workforce. Right. The CTE programs. So that's kind of where some interest started, decided that teaching high school was not where needed to be, had the opportunity to go to work for an HVAC company, um, doing kind of management marketing for them, and then ended up just through blessings getting to purchase that company with a business partner back in 2008. We run a fairly small residential and commercial heating air conditioning company down here.
Lia: And you've created a unique service that has to do with skilled trades. And give me a little bit of background on the story of how that formulated.
Jeff: Oh, sure. So October 2020, I mean, you kind of always remember the, the dates when things go really, really well or really, really bad.
Lia: Yeah, that's for sure.
Jeff: Right?
Lia: Yeah.
Jeff: October 2020. My best employee lead man that had been with me for several years because I've been with the company for several years before I bought it. So he's going to go out on his own, right? Going out and going to do his own thing. And it wasn't a bad situation. You know, we were setting him up. We were working on helping him get his mechanical license and, and had an opportunity to go out with some family members and kind of start their own construction business with an HVAC side. And it was hard. You know, we lost him. He gave us plenty of notice. It was, it was a very amicable thing, you know, where you, you shake hands on the way out. But the challenge then became finding his replacement. Right? I didn't have anybody that was ready at the time to move up into that lead position.
Lia: Hey, I'm just popping in to let you know: if you like this podcast, be sure to subscribe and rate us five stars. The reviews on Apple and Spotify really help us reach listeners like you. Okay, back to the episode.
Jeff: So through a few months of running expensive ads on high dollar jobsite, hitting every supply house, you know, calling everybody, I could say, you know, a guy, you know, a friend, and spending thousands of dollars, we finally landed a candidate that we thought would fill that role. And as life usually happens, within 30 days, he totaled a truck and was no longer working for me. So, yes, very, very expensive. Expensive to try to find a replacement. Then with that, you know, you just kind of think, this, there's got to be a better way, right? This just isn't the way this is supposed to go. And that's kind of where the the thought of trade jobs started of, if we could a group of us could get together that are in the trades that are, you know, in the skilled trades, in the plumbing, electrical and HVAC trade specifically, you know, what would a platform look like on trying to find guys, trying to find guys and gals that are looking to work? Or because, so much of the frustration in all of this is dealing with the unqualified person who's applying for the positions. Right. So spending hours going through applicants that don't meet the requirements that you're looking for, especially when you're looking for someone very specific for, you know, for like a lead, a lead position or, you know, I'm need someone above that apprentice level in electrical, I need someone who's a licensed journeyman because need someone or a wireman, somebody that can take on more responsibility. So just really kind of trying to put all those ideas into it on what it looks like. So.
Lia: And why do you think we have so many unqualified, why do you think it's so difficult to find quality skilled trades?
Jeff: It's hard because there's so many opportunities right now. There's so many open opportunities. You know, I think everybody you know and don't hire. Everybody's for somebody.
Lia: Yes.
Jeff: So why is it difficult to find them? You know, there's, I can tell you from being on the education standpoint, most schools and I know particularly here in Texas but think it's, it's nationwide are really pushing that college route. Right. Like every kid's going to college. Every kid's going to do this. And, and we just know that's not true, Right? It's not. Now, do we all need to find something after school to educate ourselves on, to become productive members of society? Absolutely. It's a trade school or it's an apprenticeship on the job training. It's a certificate program, something that we can help get people into the right job market. So I think A, that's a lot of it is not educating the student who isn't interested in going to college on what their options are right now. Because you know, being able to say, well, what about trade school or what about these certificates programs? I think there's a lot of, you know, a lot of people that think that they have the knowledge that they, they don't have, you don't know what you don't know. Right. Until you get thrown into a situation and you're like, no idea what I'm doing. Why am I here? Yeah, like the electrical side, HVAC, like we're, we're okay, but like, you guys get shocked or something, and that's just, you know, you never know what you don't know until it bites. So I think you have some of that. And I'm telling you, a lot of it, too, is just working on the trades. It's hard. It's hard work. You know, it's good, clean, dirty fun. Right? It's, it's fun, but it's no joke. It's not sitting in a, you know, sitting in an office all day. It's getting your hands dirty. It's getting up early and going to work and putting in a lot of physical work that I think a lot of people know they just aren't interested in doing. You hate to say that, but really feel like that's a lot of.
Lia: I know being an electrician, speaking to hundreds of electricians, that when you say they, they think they're qualified and they're not, that's very accurate, because electricians in particular are known for peacocking, like we're known for, like, thinking our shit don't stink. Like we're the queens of the skilled trades for sure. For sure. So I've seen that. I've seen that. And I believe that that comes from a culture, construction culture, that a lot of the old school mentality or thinking was fake it till you make it or act like you can do it until you can do it, which I don't subscribe to and I think we've learned really doesn't work. Regarding not educating students on all the skilled trades options out there, you're damn right. I mean, you're 100% damn right. And so what happened is all of the people who spent 30, 40 years in skilled trades are retiring or they decided they're going to do something else now. And there's this gap of very experienced, to newbies walking in, trying to take on that opportunity and trying to grow. But nothing beats experience, nothing, no matter how you fast-track yourself. You know, I love talking about different paths and how to create a different journey. Now your platform is going to solve this problem, how?
Jeff: So, exactly? One of the things, though, that you touched on that wanted to talk about was the whole fake it til you make it thing right. And I think it just, it brought up this idea of like the guys back in the day, the guys and gals on these construction sites that could fake it till they make it right. But technology has come so far. Our trades have grown and expanded so far that you can't fake it anymore, right? Yeah. Okay. So the platform: so what we did is got together with other contractors, people within the trades, and it's like, what does this platform look like? What is it? Because we've all used the other hiring platforms, right? We all know what those are for. And yes, they help connect you with people close to you or help connect you.
Lia: Let me interrupt you for just a moment. Explain a little bit what that experience is, because when I spoke to you, you educated me on things that I didn't realize about those platforms.
Jeff: Oh, sure. So, you know, whenever you're using these larger hiring platforms, A, they're going to be very expensive, right? Because it's the, the name brand of, of the hiring world. You know, you're putting in all the information of what you're looking for, and there are some parameters that you can set to try to make sure you're getting what you're looking for. Right. Getting that quality candidate. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. So like, if I put out there that I'm looking for an HVAC technician that has these specific licenses that Texas requires, don't apply if you don't have them, there's nothing hindering from those people applying for that job. And I'm like, This person doesn't even know if they've never done it. You call them, you're like, Why did you apply? Oh, my house has air conditioning in it. Can I not work on it? No. No.
Lia: See, I never knew that. I never knew that. I thought that prevented them from applying.
Jeff: Well, no, but the second thing is, is we've got we've gone through, with Covid, we've gone through this whole thing of people now getting government assistance where they have to, they have to apply for X amount of jobs a week. So they're just pushing the button post, post Covid. Yes. That, that was a nightmare. That was a nightmare. So we're looking at getting rid of that because. So one of the ways that the platform works is that trade works is every state is different on what their requirements are. Some requirements California writes super heavy and requirements for and licenses and things of that nature. Texas is probably middle of the road. There are some that are a little bit more relaxed, right? So I can use the platform like the traditional hiring model, I could get on there, post jobs. See who's in my area, who matches within the trades I'm looking for, but say specifically in Texas, just because that's where we are. I can put in that the requirement that I have, active journeyman license, right? So whenever you go on and you build your profile, you're putting in your journeyman license and an expiration date. So if your license expires, you don't put that in. You don't even bolt. Yeah, the algorithm will not pull you because it's a waste of the employer's time. Right. So, do I want 25 candidates that I'm having to weed down to six that are qualified for me to find my next hire? Or do I just want the algorithm to, to do that for me and get six that are qualified?
Lia: Right.
Jeff: That's what we're looking to do. Save time, save money, get, get, get people hired and get back to work faster. Because for so many of us that are on the small to medium sized business, right, a lot of people in that that started maybe as an apprenticeship worked their way up through all the licensing, went out on their own to start this business. But maybe they're still turning a wrench, right? They're still having to make sure that things get done. Hiring does not need to take up an entire day. Right. This is because, as it does, they're losing, A, their time on the job, which is losing money. They're turning down jobs because they don't have enough people to work for them. So it's got to be a system that works fast, that's easy to use and just gets people back into the workforce and back on the job.
Lia: Yes. All right. So you explained to me the benefits of being an employer and having this platform. What are the benefits for the employee to have this platform?
Jeff: Absolutely. So the platform, we're calling it a revolution, right? Because right now, everybody, no matter what company you work for, what you're doing in anything, we're all using all these different things to look for people, right? Like I may put a, a post on on one job hiring board and you're my perfect fit, but you're on a different job hiring board and then, so this is kind of what we're doing. We're building this movement, this revolution. If all of us within the trades would use one spot, one hub to hire and to post our resumes, our candidate information, whatever that may be, that would be the easiest way for us all to find and connect, right? That's the easiest way to connect if we're all in the same spot. So it's getting everybody in the same spot. So how does it benefit the candidate? Well, I am an HVAC technician, super happy with my job, life’s great, but as anybody, I want to know what's going on around me. I want to know what my who's hiring around me, I want to know kind of what's out there. So if I go on to, to the job platform and build my, my candidate profile. Right. A little bit of information about me can go as far as building my resume. I can put pictures and videos of myself if I'd like a little introduction. Yep.
Lia: Love that.
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah. Super easy. I can add all my credentials, my licensing, everything is there. But one of the unique things I can do is I can put in a dollar amount on an hourly wage or a salary wage that I would like to make, right? So right now I'm making, you know, 25 an hour because I'm still fairly young in the profession. And I know as my education grows, I'm going to be worth a $35 or $40 an hour job, right? So I set that bar fairly high and I'm working away and life's going well. And all of a sudden one day I get an alert of an email and it says, Oh, company ABC, which I've heard of them, right? They're the big players in town. They're in the next town over. It's hiring and me, all their skills and the dollar amount that they're hiring, would I like to apply? Push the button, sends them my resume. I go back to work, right? Like I did this on a bathroom break or while I'm grabbing a sandwich. And then they are getting all my information sent to them so that they can review my credentials and see, is this someone want to talk? So it's a great way to help find, you know, those I think that thought of working in the same job for 42 years and retiring with the gold watch and a pension. It's not going to happen anymore. You know, that was our grandfathers. That's what they did. And unfortunately, a lot of times for advancement to happen, we've got to move up and I get that. Even as an employer. I get that. I know that sometimes with me running a smaller, medium sized HVAC company that if there is a guy, you know, that guy or gal that really is trying to get to a certain place in life, maybe my company just doesn't provide, doesn't provide that that they need. And so that gives them that option to always kind of keep an eye out for it.
Lia: Yes, I agree with you that the mentality of I'm going to stay with a company for 20, 30 years, it doesn't exist anymore. The culture has changed. Now, I will say this. There are very few that are still out there, Very, very small percentage. But the culture has changed. And 100%, you're going to move up in salary by moving companies. That being said, statistically speaking, according to the stats that we have on it, you do better. You save more money as an employer if you maintain someone long term.
Jeff: Oh, absolutely. I mean, what's that old saying? Like, if we don't educate them and they stay, versus if we do educate them and they leave, right. If you're providing training, you know, training and continuing ed and all these things for your guys, and well, what happens if they leave? And it's like, well, what's worse, what happens if we don't educate them and they stay? Right, I completely agree. You know, and for us on the employer side, right. I wish every top employee that I've ever had was still there right in a van, you know, doing their thing with a job market like we have today with so many openings. That's where you are going to get those possibilities to advance, maybe even advance a little quicker because of the opportunity that's out there. So you can't blame anybody for, for making a move to better their family or better their situation. That's just the way it is.
Lia: Yes. And you can always maintain those positive relationships. You never know where that bridge might take you in the future if your past will cross again. And the other thing is, everything's negotiable. If you can't meet their salary demand, maybe there's something else that they're looking into that you could provide that would make them want to stay. So, right. Those are great examples of employer, employee relationships, healthy relationships. It appears as though the platform is cultivating that by the examples that you're giving. How are we going to get everybody to join? We need a community. How can we pull us together?
Jeff: So, okay, there you go. So we are finishing the last two weeks on the website. So one of the things that they could do right now, anybody, all of your listeners, all of us in the trades, is if you go to gettradejobsright now, you can put your name on the list. You can click join the Revolution and be there when we, when we launch next month. So that way you're signed and you’re first to notice, we are doing some really cool partnerships, which we are trying to kind of go across the whole gamut of the trades. We've got some service and dispatch partners, we've got some partners that are manufacturers that are willing to kind of join. I'm telling you, it's joining the revolution. Where they're willing to come on is kind of a founding partner behind trade jobs. We're bringing everything to one hub so that we can all work together. And we're going to try to do that by reaching out and having all these partners come with us so that we've got different angles of all the different trades. That's how we're kind of looking at doing it. Obviously, we're gonna do a lot of social media. One of the exciting things we're going to do through our social media is start doing the next few weeks. Some really cool giveaways. Surveys, sign ups and that kind of stuff where we're going to do tool giveaways, you know, things that we would that, you would want to have, things you would want to use, right? Like, I'm not going to give away stuff that people are like, Hey, that's cool. That's not really what I wanted. But, you know, like. We're talking like we're looking at getting coolers. We're looking at, you know, Milwaukee tool packs. We're looking at all of these things that we can use to really help try to spread the word because the system is set to work in all 50 states and Canada. But I do feel like we're going to do a lot of focusing in different regions where those partnerships are taking place. If we've got a partnership with a manufacturer that is very heading into a certain region of the US, obviously to benefit that partner, we want to to help with that, get on and create the profile so that when we do come to your city, when we do move to your area, you're set up and ready to go.
Lia: Nice. And talk to me about the event in October. Is this going to be a live event? Is this going to be online?
Jeff: It'll be my first time there. It's called Service World Expo. It's a big event, Business Uncensored will also be there. It's kind of a hand in hand event with them in Phoenix. I'm excited. I will be at a golf tournament on Monday. Event starts Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, half day, Friday. And it's just a really cool opportunity for contractors to get together, learn how to grow your business, learn from a lot of really neat speakers. If we're not as business owners, as people in the trades, if we're not kind of learning and educating ourselves, whether it be on new equipment or how to better run our business, or what can I offer to an employee or a team member to help keep them and retain them? All these different aspects of our industry. If we're not learning, we're dying. So that's what a lot of this is about. We wanted to go there and kind of, kind of do our launch there, so that we're in front of a bunch of contractors. We want to get feedback. Let's, let's do this together. So that's the goal.
Lia: Love it. Absolutely love it. So you've got a successful business. You're approaching a new endeavor, a very exciting new endeavor that's going to bring great value to the skilled trades. With all your life experience, with everything that you've kind of learned along the way, what tool is in your tool belt? What's something you carry with you in the back of your mind every day that has helped you get to where you are now?
Jeff: You know, so much of it is just treating people the way you want to be treated like that's it. But I think you hit the biggest thing on the, on the, on the head earlier, which is don't burn bridges because within our our trades community, you never know when you're going to need help from somebody. You never are going to know when a job opens up, and, and it kind of honestly comes back to how trade jobs started, because that lead man left me is what promoted the thought to, this is a terrible situation. How do I fix it? How do we make this better? Because that's what we do is trades people, right? We want to fix it.
Lia: Yes, Yes.
Jeff: How do I make this better? The conversation then goes into let's launch a platform to do this and let's do it. And then the phone rang, and it was him.
Lia: Love it.
Jeff: Yes. So this didn't work out and, can I come back, and of course, open arms. The guy comes back. That was what, a little bit later into 2021. As of today, he's on a construction site. He's my head construction manager. I've been with me ever since. And, you know, he didn't burn a bridge. He left in a respectful way. We left friends. He sparked an idea to, to start all of this. He's back now and I think a lot of it is, that's a lot of, it's funny that you said that because that's a lot of what I think we have to do in life is, don't burn those bridges, because you never know what opportunity will come from them. Because I'm now sitting here talking to you about a whole new business, right.
Lia: Right, right. That's fantastic. I think you need to give yourself credit, though. I know many employers that might have let their pride get in the way, so they would have broken down that connection or burned that bridge, right?
Jeff: Sure.
Lia: Because they might have taken it personal when it wasn't personal. So the fact that you were honorable about this departure, you wanted him to achieve his goals and do more. He respected you for it. So you respected him. He respected you. And then bam, holy cannoli. The universe works in mysterious ways.
Jeff: Well, six and a half years in a high school setting kind of teaches you how to, you know, brush some stuff off and not let it hit you in the butt on the way out. So, you know, you kind of, you learn from your mistakes.
Lia: You've got some good training behind you.
Jeff: Yeah.
Lia: So throughout this process, was there any point where you were like, Holy shit, how am I going to do this?
Jeff: Oh, absolutely. Oh, my gosh, trying to run my business. You know, thank God I have an incredible business partner that we do a lot of different things together, a lot of ventures together. And he's been very helpful in this. It was having him help in that, because there were lots of times that I could not focus on our business, because I was focusing on this. My wife was behind me the whole time, so that was always a great help, and I think this can work out with a lot of different people and what they do. I've got a great mentor, right? I got a guy who has a program that's like a hybrid program between a university system and the small business in the SBA, and it's a free program. And I just went down and started talking to him. It was kind of one of those things where you bring all your papers and lay them out on the table and you're like, I've got all of this. What do, I do? Right? What do I do with it? Like, how do I put it together? And it just he was, he's an incredibly smart man. He's very patient. You know, that was kind of the point where I think we can, you know, we can do this right? Because you start pulling it all together and you're like, you know, I've got support at work. I've got support at home. And then I found someone who's, who believes in me, that's willing to help me, right? You know, it's kind of like having that really, that, that older guy on the jobsite, that's not a jerk, right?
Lia: Yes. Yes.
Jeff: Look, you can do it like that. All day long, and I'm gonna have to fix it. Or if you'll just come here, let me show you the right way, the way we do it. And let's move on together. Right. And then there comes the last piece that came together was earlier this year with a really great relationship with a, with a, another company that builds software for the trades. Right. It's a really cool relationship. My HVAC company ended up buying into one of their services and it kind of spurred conversations. And again, it was like, Hey man, you've got something here.
Lia: Yes.
Jeff: Let us help with ideas and let us kind of do that. Another just really good group of people. So it takes all of that to get to, to something like this. But then you then again sit down, say, here's what I have, right? This isn't a one man show or one man band. This is all of us saying, I'm not going to beg to supply house guys behind the counter to have.
Lia: Yes. Yeah.
Jeff: So pissed at their boss who's mad to poach them.
Lia: So many contractors tell me that's it. That's where they get their info.
Jeff: I've got a friend of mine that is an electrician and they're, they're always hiring like everybody. But they got such a bad pitch about a year ago. They had a newborn baby. And the joke was, he was going to make his wife go stand in the electrical aisle of Home Depot with a box of doughnuts and the baby and just say, does anybody want a donut and a job? Please come with me. Right. So it puts everybody in a bad position. But. Right. So.
Lia: Right, right.
Jeff: We're going to quit hounding my house, guys. We're going to quit posting on 19 different sites for thousands of dollars and then spending days and days. We're going to quit hounding our own team members. We're going to put everybody in a hub together. We're going to post the job. It's going to match with the people that are looking and we're going to get back to work.
Lia: Yes. Yes. I love it. I love it. I'm all about networking and building community. So where can the listeners find you? How can we get in touch and support?
Jeff: The easiest thing to do is to go to right now, thegettradejobs website. That's, you could put in your name. First name. Last name, email, address. That's all we're asking. You will then choose whether you're looking to hire or looking to get hired. It's that easy. And click Join the Revolution. You will be part of that initial bank of people that we're going to reach out to when we launch in October. Our social links are there. They're already going, to find us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, you know, start kind of following what we're doing, help us by sharing it. And then when the, whenever we start coming out with all the giveaways, the promotions, that kind of social stuff that we're really pushing, all we ask that people share it, you know, take time to like, share, you know, like share, repeat, rinse, repeat, like on the shampoo bottle. That's how we're going to get it out to our friends that are in the trades, the people that we used to work with, the companies that we work for and kind of say, Hey, let's do this together. Let's build this community of people so that we have something specific to us.
Lia: Amazing. All right, Jeff, I'm a part of the revolution. I'm on board.
Jeff: You've officially joined.
Lia: Thank you. Thank you so much for coming on the Sparky Life and sharing this amazing creation. I think it's fantastic. I'm on board with this and I'm very excited to see it develop. Very excited.
Jeff: Well, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.
Lia: All right, Jeff, we'll be in touch. Thank you for joining us. If you felt a spark in today's episode, I invite you to write a review. I'd love to hear what lit you up. Take what resonates with you. And if you'd like to hear more of the Sparky life, please subscribe, like, follow and share. Until next time, create the sparks in your life.