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 me for Trade Tales, continued. Today's guest, Bobby Buono, is all about having fun. Can you tell this, these are my kind of people. This union sprinkler fitter from Massachusetts breaks down what a sprinkler fitter is and does, what successful leadership looks like, and the importance of creating a positive work environment. I came across Bobby's reels, and if you haven't checked it out, pop on over to his Instagram. I'll have the info in the show notes. His reels will definitely inspire you to laugh and loosen up at work, but having fun is just part of the bigger picture. Bobby shares how to create a happy, healthy work environment, and, leading by example, Bobby takes great pride in training his apprentices. They are the building blocks to the industry and their performance ultimately reflects your leadership. Bobby gives sound advice for any apprentice walking into this industry. He says if you're dealing with disrespect from a journeyman, don't be afraid. Stand up for yourself. Let these ballbusting experiences be opportunities to show your crew what you really made of. After listening to Bobby passionately talk about being a sprinkler fitter, you just might want to become a sprinkler fitter yourself. Welcome with me, Bobby Buono. Hey!
Bobby: Yo! Sorry, I was getting water.
Lia: No worries. No worries.
Bobby: How are you?
Lia: Good. I literally just got home, so I've got my high viz gear on.
Bobby: Oh, nice. Awesome. How was it?
Lia: Just enough time to wash the face, you know? I totally love your reels. They're so much fun. You've got a great sense of humor. And we definitely need more men representing the skilled trades of your caliber. So I’m here for it.
Bobby: I appreciate that. Thank you so much. I'm trying.
Lia: You're doing awesome, man. Seriously, I appreciate it.
Bobby: Yeah. So this is pretty cool what you're doing. There's not a lot of pod. There's not a lot of, like, skilled trade podcasts.
Lia: No, there's not. But I didn't know. So Dope and Tape is a, it's a show live. Is that what you guys do? Because that's what I've seen.
Bobby: Yeah. It's a live show.
Lia: Okay. Okay.
Bobby: And then obviously, once it's, once it's not live, then it's kind of like a podcast form.
Lia: Bobby, where are you from?
Bobby: I'm born and raised in central Massachusetts. I've been working in Boston for about ten, as long as I've been in the union, so about ten years now.
Lia: Nice. I lived in Mass for three years. in Brookline, and I loved it.
Bobby: Oh, okay. So that's like, city.
Lia: Yeah. Ish.
Bobby: That's city ish. Like I'm in a I'm out near Leominster. Fitchburg, and Ashby.
Lia: Okay. Okay.
Bobby: So I'm an hour. Hour west.
Lia: An hour west.
Bobby: So nice. Yeah.
Lia: I mean, I'm sure you've got nice open spaces.
Bobby: Yeah, well, we're just. We have, like, a little bit of acreage and don't have, like, neighbors that I can see, so…
Lia: That's, that's nice. That's nice.
Bobby: Nice and quiet. And then go into the city where it's a complete opposite every day.
Lia: Yeah, pretty much.
Bobby: That's great.
Lia: So were you in the union based off of family? Like is it that Dad's in the Union or brothers or, how did you step into this?
Bobby: It's a little bit different. I don't know anybody in the union. So my father I learned under my father, my father passed away in 2014.
Lia: Sorry.
Bobby: So I started with my father in 2007. I worked directly under him until maybe midway through 2011, the company we worked for, that he worked for, for a long time went out of business. And so he was at the point where he's like, I'm just going to retire. I'm not going to start fresh somewhere else. And I went and I got a job like that same day like, and I love that so much, because I went right to the rival company and like, we got laid off at like six in the morning on Friday, and I was like hired by eight with the rival company, like in my in my rival gear, like, Hey, you guys take me on. So it's like, so I didn't miss a day, and like, and Pops was proud of that. And so I worked at this, another non-union company for about three years and they would do prevailing wage. So if you're on a state job, a school, a courthouse, something that like, the government owns the building, your wage will go up drastically.
Lia: Okay. Okay. Yeah. Because they got to match union, is that it?
Bobby: They got to match the union pay. So the company I worked for did all of these jobs. So I was always the non-union guy on the union jobs get, like, just getting tormented by these guys like they, you know, because they were mad that I wasn't union.
Lia: Because they have their panties in a twist.
Bobby: Exactly. I didn't have the opportunity yet, though. Like, I didn't know anybody. I didn't have any family. My father was non-union, my grandfather was non-union. So I'm third generation non-union sprinkler fitter. But I'm spending now 2 or 3 years on all these union jobs to where finally there, the representatives were like, at literally at the bottom of my ladder one day. And I was young, licensed, running work right out right on the jurisdiction line of the union like right on the cusp where it could have been their job. And they're like, he says, Who's your foreman? And remember, be on a ladder like, I'm the foreman. And so then I talked to my father about it, and he's like, You got to do it. Like, you can't you can't pass this opportunity up. So obviously, I joined I joined the local 550 out of Boston, 2013, 2014.
Lia: Nice, Nice.
Bobby: And so it's been, it's been great. The jobs went like ten times bigger right away. My first day in the union was a high rise and I'd never been on a high rise before. On the exterior hoist. You ever ride on one of them?
Lia: Yes.
Bobby: It's sketchy your first couple of times.
Lia: It's mad sketchy. Every time I say a little prayer like, okay, just.
Bobby: Just waddling your way up this building, there's like 30 guys in this thing. I'm like, Oh, my God.
Lia: Oh, yeah. And we, like, squish, like, concrete in there, like a whole bunch of shit that's way heavier than probably what it should be.
Bobby: Got some guy drive, driving a lift onto it. Like, just get me off. I'll walk. I'll take the stairs.
Lia: Yep, pretty much.
Bobby: So then we just. We're in the union for a bit. Kind of got with a company that wasn't too welcoming. Just struggled through. Well, I came in as like, you know, the, it's local 550, so they would call me like 549, and I was like Back Door Bobby.
Lia: Like, see, I hate shit like that. That's nonsense.
Bobby: It was tough for a couple of years like that. But then once I went through my probation period and met a couple people, we're allowed to solicit our own work. So I called another, I called and asked like, you know, if I could have a job because I couldn't work at this place anymore. And now I've been at this place since and they got me in a van. I'm doing like mainly hospital work, like day work by myself, sometimes with a guy or two. But like, in the, in the hospitals in Boston, it's pretty cool.
Lia: I love it. I love it. Is that a lot of the reels that I get to see?
Bobby: Yeah.
Lia: I love that.
Bobby: The other aspect is that in the hospitals I can't touch the valves. The valves are there's a guy in the building, a maintenance guy generally, or they call them engineers, and he spins the valves. But then there's got to be a local 103 electrician that does the alarms. So there's a lot of moving parts. So people are like, they just think I'm fucking off all day taking videos. The building guy, the engineer, is on his way from a different part of the campus. The fire alarm guy is calling the master box out and there's like, and I'm here, I'm ready, but like, I can't do anything till all these pieces go into play. And then same thing when I finish, I finish my day up and now I want to fill it back up. It's the same process, that guy, wherever everybody is, they got to kind of all, all the pieces got to come together. I'm usually like waiting. For an hour in the morning or for an hour in the afternoon. And I like to videotape myself.
Lia: That's typical in union. We call that “Hurry up and Wait.”
Bobby: Yeah. Oh, for sure.
Lia: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I like the ebb and flow because, like, sometimes you just pounding, drilling away, you know, you're under time pressure and then other times chillin, waiting for so-and-so to show up.
Bobby: Exactly. And the hospitals, it's even. It's even more. Hurry up and wait. If a patient comes by, you just got to stop. Let the patient go by. Like, stop everything you're doing. It's a little bit different work, but I enjoy it. I enjoy the hospitals.
Lia: I love that you get to do the reels. I wish the contractor I was with, I could do that. I'm on a government site right now. So.
Bobby: So the advice I have for people that want to. Oh, you can't use your phone?
Lia: No.
Bobby: Oh, not at all?
Lia: No. No phone on premise. And they have like little detectors that they walk around with. Yeah. No, yeah, it's wild. It's like, we know what this is going to be, guys. Okay.
Bobby: Never heard of that in my life. Yeah, I've never experienced a no phone job or, I don't know, that seems crazy, but I don't do any editing at all. My reels are scheduled, like my reels are scheduled to go off automatically. I got like probably 14 of them in the chamber ready to go.
Lia: Nice.
Bobby: I make them at night, but I take the videos at work. But I use an Apple watch with my apple phone and I start and stop the video so I can kind of just like prop my phone somewhere and then start the videos as I please and then edit them later that night or the next day or, I mean, sometimes I'm posting videos from years ago.
Lia: What do you use to edit?
Bobby: Just Instagram.
Lia: You're, you're so creative. Like I've fucked with it before. Okay. Like, and I, I don't know how you get the way you get it, man. Like,great sense of humor.
Bobby: A lot of screen recording.
Lia: Really.
Lia: That's it, screen record and like, crop, and like, you do that a bunch of times and, a lot of times it's like. I see something that I like and I'm like, Oh, I can make something like that with like, a sprinkler twist on it.
Lia: Yeah. I see a lot of skilled trades because I'm in the community like, you know, doing reels and stuff like that. But yours in particular make me laugh, if you haven't noticed, I like to laugh. So that's like my fuck yeah.
Bobby: I love it. I appreciate that. I try. I try hard on some of them. Some of them I fire off with not much thought and some of them I try really hard on.
Lia: Yeah. How did you come up with Dope and Tape? Where does that come from?
Bobby: I had like 200 followers on Instagram forever and I kind of just focused on sprinkler last fall. And so I met this guy, Brian from Atlanta, who's Atlanta Fire Protection on Instagram. And we got invited on a couple little podcasts that were, you know, trying to start up. And we said, Let's do our own man. Let's, let's do it. And I put Dope and Tape on every thread, and so does he. And that's like a big controversial thing in our industry is that some guys only use tape, some guys only use dope. A lot of guys will do tape and then dope. And so I use dope and tape and he does two and I'm like, well, let's call it Dope and Tape then like and so and that's it. And we, and we went with it.
Lia: Very clever. I love that. I love that. So break down, exactly, what Dope and Tape is, because some people aren't aren't going to know.
Bobby: Basically a thread sealant, you know we do a lot of threading black iron pipe that goes into a threaded fitting and you put pipe dope or we call it pipe sealant or thread sealant. And a lot of guys will just put that on the threads and then you make it in and you know that that will hold the leak. But I want the Teflon on there as well, because that helps it over the years to not anti-seize, it's almost like an anti-seize, so you can you can take it apart 40 years from now, it won't be all locked up.
Lia: Wow.
Bobby: But it's it's also another means to just seal those threads. And so yeah, every piece of pipe, every piece of sprinkler pipe that's threaded has probably dope and tape on it, or one or the other, depending on the fitter.
Lia: Yeah. It sounds like you're a true craftsman that you want to make it top notch, long lasting. I love that.
Bobby: That's it. You got to take pride in your stuff, right?
Lia: Fuck yeah. Too, too often do people get complacent.
Bobby: Mm.
Lia: Yeah. And it's a shame.
Bobby: I show up to a lot of places where it's like just shotty work and you're like, How could you sleep at night?
Lia: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's why I'm so excited to see your stuff. And a lot of the material that you talk about and what I've seen from your show is very positive energy. You've got a great mindset. You're talking about things in transformative leadership, which is ideal. So like typically in construction, we've got very transactional leadership, which is proven to be not very successful, but yet totally don't understand the value of elevating the environment. You know, they've got this like, old school mentality, like, Oh, I had it hard. So, you know.
Bobby: I hate that.
Lia: Yeah, yeah, that's not…Can you imagine what the construction industry could do if we embraced that mentality?
Bobby: We're going to have to soon, because like the old timers, there's not there's only so many old timers left and the young, I don't know, in Virginia, but there's not like 18 year old apprentices anymore. We don't have an 18 year old apprentice in a long time, like the apprentices coming in are mid 30s because they're, they've already established their life. They're like, Holy shit, this is a good career. I'm going to join this career. It's not too late, which it’s not, and like, power to you. Anybody should join, doesn't matter what age you are. But what happened to like, the kids in high school that were like, I'm going to be a plumber. And like, they turned 18 and they became a plumber or an electrician or a sprinkler fitter, they're just.
Lia: They wiped it out from school. They don't know it existed.
Bobby: It's crazy.
Lia: I didn't know being an electrician was an option for me in high school. I went to college. I didn't join until my 30s, so for me it was I. They don't have it part of school. I mean, what does Mike Rowe say? I mean, he, we erased skilled trades from high schools.
Bobby: We did.
Lia: Foolish, absolutely foolish.
Bobby: The high school I went to, we had a vocational section. It was, it was part vocational. So I was able to, and no vocational school in the country has fire protection, or sprinkler, like you'll have you could have the best vocational school anywhere and it'll be plumbing, carpentry, electrical, HVAC, automotive, auto body, culinary, electrical. But they're not going to have, ever. So I went through the plumbing trade just to learn about fitting allowances and to run the machine and pipe wrenches and stuff.
Lia: Clever.
Bobby: So I was ready when I was 18.
Lia: Wow, that's excellent. Excellent. You had a great mentor. You got lucky there.
Bobby: Pops.
Lia: Yeah. Yeah.
Bobby: So, yeah, And I realized that in the beginning, um, I had it really good, obviously working for my father, when I made a mistake, I definitely heard about it, but it was still. He was teaching me a lot. He taught me everything. And then once I went with these guys that I don't know for the first time, then it's like, like, why is everybody such an asshole?
Lia: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bobby: Like what? Like, my bad dude. I didn't know. I'm still learning. That's why they call me an apprentice.
Lia: Yeah, right.
Bobby: Like, fuck. Do you think I'm supposed to know? You're supposed to tell me now. I know, like. And so then I was like, I had this mindset, like, I'm, I'm like, I'm in my 20s. Like, no one's going to scream at me. There's nobody that's going to say, I don't care if I'm an apprentice and you're a journeyman. I don't care if you've been doing this for 50 years or whatever since I've been in diapers, like, you're not going to scream at me.
Lia: No. Who gives you the right.
Bobby: And that's, this is something that I tell, is like, apprentices should stand up for themselves. You got to be able to take a little banter and a little bit of I mean, I like to say breaking balls or whatever, but….
Lia: Right. No, there's some camaraderie.
Bobby: Yeah, but being just disrespectful is just, um, and screaming at people. I just. They're not going to work hard for you after that.
Lia: No, absolutely not. Why would you?
Bobby: Do you think they're going to be all pumped up to go bang it out after you just screamed at them?
Lia: No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. They've done studies on this. I've spoken on the podcast about this. If you tell somebody, wow, you're, you know, really organized and, you you pay attention to detail. And I really appreciate that about you. Even if they are not organized and don't pay attention to detail, they'll then start becoming more organized and detailed because they want to, they want to level up to that. They want to present it and….
Bobby: Their brain heard it and was just like, we're organized. Yeah, just tell, you tell yourself if you want to be something, just say it. And let your brain get it up there and start working it in, you know, speak your future, what do they say, speak your future.
Lia: Yeah. Yeah, 100%. We must talk about your amazing mustache. Okay.
Bobby: You like it? That's pretty fucking awesome. Yeah.
Bobby: I use this death grip wax. This, uh, this bone crusher death grip wax. They actually have a huge sale on Amazon right now. This is not sponsored. But it holds good.
Lia: But they should totally sponsor you, dude. Like, did you contact them? Were you like, Yo, check this out.
Bobby: Check out the stash. They did, they did share me. They shared the stash. So that's a, so the mustache. I'm kind of like breaking into, like, this little mustache community right now, which is a little bit funny, but, uh, I made it like, I got my face put on this mustache page, and then, like, all these guys, these killer mustaches started following me, and, like, I got all these sprinkler fitters, like, Oh, that's awesome. How much is that threader? And then someone be like, Dude, sick mustache.
Lia: Yeah.
Bobby: Like, yes. Oh, it's definitely a conversation piece for sure.
Lia: It's just, it's a great style. Great style.
Bobby: I appreciate it. Thank you.
Lia: Yeah. So you realized, well, you were going through the process when you moved on from working with your dad that the environment was not ideal and you decided you're not going to let some person speak to you in a disrespectful way. How did you handle that?
Bobby: Well, I was, uh, I was like the, I'll just be honest. I was like the mouthy, know-it-all apprentice and like. And if you screamed at me, I was going to step into you and I was going to scream back. And if you're going to throw me off, throw me off, like, I'll call the boss and let them know I'm not going to deal with disrespect. I'm trying to learn. This guy's not a good teacher. He's belittling me, you know? And that's just that's the vibe that I had. If you want to be an asshole, okay, I'm not going to, I'm not going to cower down. I'll be an asshole back here if you're. I don't care what your age is or what, like, you can, you know, you pick on me as an apprentice and do, like, the funny little tricks and everything. But if you're going to actually be, you know, demeaning to somebody, I'm not going to put up with it and nobody's going to scream at me. I hated that when people would raise their voice like, what the hell? I'm trying to learn.
Lia: Yeah, yeah. I hated it, too.
Bobby: And I knew that, like, I was. I was a much better worker, much more efficient worker when I was like, when, when, like people were chill.
Lia: Yeah, of course. Of course, Of course.
Bobby: When we're all just, like, buddies and everyone's here. We're all here. Like, I showed up for the same reason you did to put sprinklers in the ceiling. So, like, let's just do it. Show me how. Don't scream at me. And so it goes a long way when you run work and you just treat people nice, like start the day off. Ask them what they had for dinner last night. Don't be like fucking, You're doing this, this and that today and we're behind schedule. Be like, What's up? Like, what did your wife make for dinner last night?
Lia: Yeah.
Bobby: What did you have for dinner last night? You know, start it off with like, Hey, how are you? You got a few minutes before the day starts? Oh, yeah. To talk to these people. And if you have a grumpy old man that you're working for, I tell the apprentices, like, just try to just crack into him. What's he into? Is he into four wheelers. Is he into like, his RV? He's got like a big sick truck. Just find out what he likes and just try to bring that up and then, bam, you'll snap him right out of that. Like old, disgruntled construction worker. Guy had it hard, like you said.
Lia: Yeah. Yeah. And isn't it amazing how positive attitude is so contagious?
Bobby: It really is.
Lia: Once you hit on it with someone, then they just all of a sudden flip.
Bobby: Like I've gotten apprentices before that are really good and they show up on the job. You've never met him before. Maybe they're in their third year. They're really good. And you think to yourself like, Wow, who taught you? Who taught you, you did really good. And then you get like that shitbag apprentice that shows up. You're like, Dude, like, what have you been doing for three years? So now which reaction do you want other journeyman to have when you send them your apprentice? I want my apprentice to like, make us both look good.
Lia: Yes.
Bobby: So to speak. Like I'm teaching him. So he better, he better teach him what you know. So when he goes on to the next guy, you can impress people and not just look like a, you know, body with arms walking around and neck down.
Lia: Exactly. But this is the thing. When I'm on site and I hear journeymen bitch about apprentice. They're like, they're just not teachable. They're just not teachable. I'm like, actually, actually, actually. And when like my local is, you know, saying so many drop out and, you know, it's really, really hard to get through. I'm like, No, it's not really hard to get through. They're dropping out because the environment's toxic as fuck and the journeymen don't want to teach. So guess what? Nowadays people aren't going to put up with this shit. As wonderful as the skilled trades is, because it's absolutely nothing, no other career like it, no other, use your mind, use your body. It's, in my opinion, fucking magical. Okay.
Bobby: I agree.
Lia: But if you are surrounded by such toxic, negative, belittling, demeaning, and then on top of it, you're not being taught anything. You're just like, Go use a broom, Go stand in the corner, organize the materials. You're going to organize the materials for three years. Like, what the fuck is that?
Bobby: Yeah, like, let me do something. I would just. I would find something to do. I'd climb up the ladder and drill a shield, and I wanted to learn. I was just trying to, you know, I worked with all those people. The nice ones, the mean ones, all that. And it's like you always work better with nice people.
Lia: Of course. Of course, of course. I think that you gave excellent advice regarding finding what sparks that journeymen, get talking on that and get them to flip. Flip the switch. Whenever the guys are complaining or at work or at work, I'm like, nobody gets to do what we get to do. Yeah, but we fucking command electric. I mean, like we manipulate that shit. Like, do you understand the power? And then they just totally, like, start getting into it, you know.
Bobby: If you can make that grumpy old guy laugh.
Lia: Yes, yes, yes. And what about you? You basically are lifesaver.
Bobby: Life safety.
Lia: Yeah. Fuck yeah, man. You're the hidden hero.
Bobby: We're trying. We're trying to, like, let more people know about us. We need, just like your trade and your industry, we need, like, young able bodies to join and start. They say, I posted something, I think it said the average age 20 years ago was 30.
Lia: Yeah.
Bobby: 32 in the industry and now it's 42.
Lia: Yeah
Bobby: The average age, so like, and then another 20 years is going to be 52. The average construction worker is 52.
Lia: I recently heard that they were arguing the stats on the 40, that they were saying it's even…
Bobby: Higher?
Lia: Yeah, yeah.
Bobby: Yeah. I mean, when you look at the jobs and you just look around, there's no. I'm 34. I'm still, like, the youngest guy.
Lia: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I came into the trade late and I'm still younger than everyone on my site, so it's wild. It's wild. And I mean, I'm a firm believer that if we get back to our roots with skilled trades in America, our economy is just going to come back, banging. If we're not building things here, if we're not creating things here, the country is useless. You have to build from within.
Bobby: Made in America.
Lia: Right.
Bobby: We need some more Made in America stuff.
Lia: 100%. 100%.
Bobby: Factories, everything. I try to buy American everywhere I can. It's tough.
Lia: It is. It really is hard. It shouldn't be that difficult.
Bobby: They want you buying from not America. Crazy.
Lia: I know. We're going to lose craftsman and we're going to lose creativity by constantly outsourcing, when you're forced to make it yourself, you're always learning. You're becoming, you know, innovative. You're making something bigger and better. And why shouldn't our country be doing this?
Bobby: Right. I agree.
Lia: Okay. So if somebody wants to get into it, how do they start? Where do they go? What do they do?
Bobby: I would, I would take the name of your town in Google and then I would put fire protection after it and I would hit search and then I would go apply. So wherever you live in the continental United States, Canada, whatever type in your general county area, a popular city right around where you live, and then put fire protection or sprinkler after it, or electrical or plumbing. And then you'll see, wow, there's a sprinkler shop that's like five miles from my house. And then you just go, like, apply like, I want to be one of these trades.
Lia: Yeah.
Bobby: There's also we had on the Dope and Tape show is this company called Blue Recruit, and they have an app that's set up like a dating app and it's free to the user and you, you put like your name and your area and your skills and it will show you available jobs in your area.
Lia: No shit.
Bobby: I want to say bluerecruit.com this is another, not sponsored. No but they're those guys are great and I'm pretty sure you could, you could put any trade you want and find it and it's free. It's free. You just set up your profile blue recruit.
Lia: I love that. That's great. So what do you love most about what you do?
Bobby: Uh, just like building, like the thinking and then the planning and the, you know, being able to build it and you're like, putting something together that works and you test it, and then, like, you walk away. I love it all. I like the interactions and the relationships and then like the building part of it and just planning and how all the pieces come about. And on a commercial job, it's like whoever's the highest and everybody kind of you got to work with everybody. The damn carpenters always want to put their walls up and then everybody's screwed by the sheetrock.
Lia: And for us, it's drywallers. There's like a little, like, hidden enemies in a way. Like…
Bobby: For real?
Lia: Yeah. Yeah. Drywallers.
Bobby: They put up walls, and then you guys just, like, drill a bunch of holes in it, and, uh.
Lia: We make a box, right, for our whatever's going in there. And we'll go and we'll tell the drywallers, Don't go over the box, and then we'll come back. And it went over the box. Oh, yeah. And so you'll have guys just hammer. Yeah.
Bobby: Oh, yeah. The hammer saw. Yeah. Not my job. Yeah. I love, like, I love that part of it, too, you know, it's. It's all great.
Lia: Yeah, it really is. How can people reach you? Where can they go?
Bobby: So my, where I'm reaching the most people and active the most is Instagram at Blue Collar Bobby. I also have a blue collar Bobby TikTok, which I'm not as active. I'm not as good at TikTok as I am on Instagram.
Lia: Hey, all all the platforms, all the things.
Bobby: That's it. And then so, we have a live show, Dope and Tape. My partner, Brian and I, who's on Instagram at Atlanta Fire Protection. And that's just a live show for fire protection professionals. Biweekly it runs Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 p.m. Eastern, YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook. And you can comment, and you can comment live and watch live. Or if you can't watch live, you listen while you drive on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Lia: It's fucking awesome. I've listened to it. You don't have to be in the industry to watch and enjoy. I learned tons of shit that I had no fucking clue about.
Bobby: I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Lia: And I enjoy the banter between you guys. It's a good one.
Bobby: Oh yeah. Yeah, that's like. That's how it should be on the job is there's, like, it's fun banter. And you pick on each other like, as you would pick on your buddies. But we had electrician, on a couple electricians, a couple plumbers, because you guys are all on the job with us. And yeah, if you wanted to come on, you, come on, we'll set that up.
Lia: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Absolutely. I'd love to. Yeah.
Bobby: Yeah, that'd be cool.
Lia: I always ask, what tool is in your tool belt? What's something that you've learned in your life that you bring with you every day to help you achieve your goals?
Bobby: A flashlight.
Lia: Just got to bring that light when it's dark.
Bobby: I guess. Just discipline to get up, right? Because like, motivation runs out.
Lia: So how did you get your discipline?
Bobby: Like when I started in the industry, it was so easy. I lived in the basement. My dad would just bang on the floor. He would stomp his foot and that was like the time to go. And I was like, that was the best time. I didn't have to have an alarm. And like, whenever we're leaving, he like, sometimes I'd put my clothes in the truck the night before so I could kind of just roll in and like go back to sleep. He would drive. So then I guess when I had to start waking up on my own. I think, you know, I missed work like once or twice. And just that feeling of that, like, not like not waking up and not making it in like I had like that, that guilt feeling that just like, I'm going to get up, I'm just going to get up and get there. So I think like, the hardest part of everyone's day is going vertical, is what I say. And like you're laying down your comfy bed, but to get verticals like that's the hardest part of your day, once you're standing up, right? It's just all easy after that.
Lia: Yeah. Yeah. Hey, that sounds about right to me. I love it. I think that's great. Just get vertical.
Bobby: Just get vertical, right? And then, like it just after that, once you're, then you're up. Now I'm up. Yeah. But it is nice like laying there and not wanting to get up.
Lia: Did you get that from your dad? Did he help you with the discipline, do you think?
Bobby: He never used an alarm.
Lia: He just automatically…
Bobby: Like, would just get up, at every like, at that, he just knew. I don't know, internal alarm.
Lia: Yeah.
Bobby: I have it because it's there on the weekends when I'm trying when like, everyone's sleeping and I can sleep in like all of a sudden I'm up. So I know it's there, but I'm still, like, nervous to really put it to the test, you know?
Lia: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bobby: I got like, I got like, probably five alarms that go off on my iPhone, like, in five minute intervals, just in case.
Lia: Me too.
Bobby: You'll snooze the one, and then you're screwed, right?
Lia: Yes. Yes. I'll snooze one and then I'm screwed. And I'm also, like, paranoid. If I'm on time, I feel like I'm late. I like to be early. I like to be prepared.
Bobby: That's like the, that's like the grumpy old man in the industry. Like, if you're not, if you're on time, you're late, right?
Lia: Yes. They all say that. They all say that, I do it because I'm anxious.
Bobby: I never understood. Like, they want you there half an hour early. I'm like, but like, I'm not, I'm not getting paid to come in here and open your gang box. Like, if we were to, like, clocking in, they wouldn't even let me in.
Lia: Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. Right. 100%. But I'll go for my own personal stuff. Like, I'll go and, like, study code in my car, chill, you know, like that kind of thing.
Bobby: Well, it's usually like traffic to, like, traffic and parking.
Lia: Yeah.
Bobby: Do you have trouble parking?
Lia: Yes. And traffic. So when I'm, if I'm early, I don't deal with any traffic and so that helps. Right. And I can find parking more easily.
Bobby: Right. Exactly. As soon as you make it past that like threshold, there's no parking.
Lia: Yep. Yep. Yeah.
Bobby: Awful
Lia: It is.
Bobby: Do you have to pay for parking?
Lia: No, not where I'm at.
Bobby: Yeah. So, Boston, you're always paying, like I'm in the van now, but before that, like, you're paying 20 bucks a day to park.
Lia: Ouch.
Bobby: Yep. And that's like, that's like every union across the board is probably paying like average $20 a day just to park and go to work.
Lia: Man, that's hard for an apprentice.
Bobby: It really is. And so then they'll play the meter game, and if they screw that up, then they get a $40 ticket.
Lia: Oh, no. Oh, that's cruel.
Bobby: Well, if you just park at the meter like, they're not going to ticket you every day. So the trick is, like, park at the meter, don't pay it and then like, if you get a $40 ticket once, it's kind of cheaper than paying for it all week.
Lia: Oh, wow.
Bobby: If you were going to pay $20 a day or if you were going to put the $12 in the meter or whatever it works out to is like, well, maybe I've made it weeks without knocking a ticket.
Lia: Fucking clever, man. Fucking clever.
Bobby: Do you like scratch tickets? It's like a scratch ticket with parking.
Lia: Yeah.
Bobby: You might, you might waste 20 bucks. Yeah.
Lia: But this is what I love about skilled trades. I feel like there are so many just genius people in the trades because you have to come up with clever ways of figuring shit out. You never have what you need. Like, it's MacGyver.
Bobby: I always end up going right to the electricians stockpile. Like, if I'm missing something like, these guys, these. These guys got it. These guys got the bolt that I need. Guaranteed. They got, like, 12 sizes of them.
Lia: So you make, you make friends with the sparky's or are you just sneaking in?
Bobby: Yeah. No, I make friends with them, but it's still always like if someone's there like, Hey, can I get it? But if they're not there, you're like, Hm, well, I guess I'm going to go, I'm going digging in there on their cart. Hopefully they don't walk up.
Lia: Yeah.
Bobby: My bad, guys.
Lia: That's definitely a union thing.
Bobby: Yeah, we got it all. I'll borrow you. Give me a beam clap now and I'll pay you back later.
Lia: Yeah. Yeah. Scavenger hunt. It's called the scavenger hunt.
Bobby: So you got, did the scooters take over? Did, like, the little scooters take over for you guys?
Lia: Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Bobby: We got people parked far away for free. And then you got these construction guys. They're just all on scooters in the morning. It's awesome.
Lia: It is awesome. It is awesome. I want so badly to video it and just put like, one of those, like, circus themes on there.
Bobby: You should. Oh, that would be great. You got to get it.
Lia: Oh, man. Thank you so much for coming on and spending time with me. I love it. It's awesome.
Bobby: Yeah, appreciate you inviting me.
Lia: Thank you. Yeah, for sure.
Bobby: Had a good time. I love talking and chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, shop talk.
Lia: 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.