Understanding the Return on Investment

In this podcast episode, Lia Lamela speaks with Coach Ike, a successful general contractor and founder of Prime to Rise. They discuss Coach Ike's background in the construction industry and his passion for serving others.

Coach Ike shares his experience in the skilled trades, emphasizing the value of trade-specific education and the financial opportunities available. They debunk misconceptions about the construction industry, highlighting the potential for growth and advancement.

They also discuss leadership, mentorship, and the importance of work-life balance. Lia and Coach Ike address the evolving perception of women in the industry and encourage women to embrace their strengths and creativity.


Connect with our guest Ike IG: @the_construction_mentor
Connect with us: @sparkylifeoflia

Sparky Life Supports: Raya Kenney's Foundation Women Who Worked on the Home Front Memorial

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National Memorial to the Women Who Worked on the Home Front Foundation

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Congress approves Women Who Worked on the Home Front Memorial

Here's the link to donate.
https://marnie-kenney-sfg2.squarespace.com/checkout/donate?donatePageId=63d1d506217f9e44111ecfea

Apply for Skilled Trades the Mike Rowe Scholarship:
https://www.mikeroweworks.org/scholarship/

We support financial advancement for the skilled trades community.  You can reach out to Jennifer Markwell at Platinum Wealth email Jennifer@PlatinumWealth.net
website www.PlatinumWealth.net

Music by https://www.purple-planet.com

Transcript

Lia: Welcome to the Sparky Life Podcast. I'm your host, Lia Lamela, and here we create the sparks 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. Today's guest, Coach Ike, is a successful, driven general contractor who created Prime2Rise to spread opportunities in the construction industry. Ike is passionate about serving others and elated to share tools with those willing to accept them. I was blown away when Ike said, “I want to be a giant so that others can sit on my shoulders and reach even greater heights than me.” Ike shares his amazing experience with mentors who guided him and supported him without expecting or wanting anything in return. Ike wants to pay that forward. This mentorship is what grows a community. Welcome with me, Coach Ike. How are you?

Coach Ike: Fantastic.

Lia: I bumped into Coach Ike through the reels. I saw that reel that you did regarding an investment. Understanding what you're putting in and what you're getting out. And I was, like, blown away because I'm like, Oh, my God, this guy gets it.

Coach Ike: Wild concept.

Lia: Yeah, like, holy shit. So then, of course, I had to know more about you, so I had to go on your social media and check everything out. And I was so impressed with the information that you had regarding the skilled trades. Give me a background. Like how, how, where did this come from?

Coach Ike: It's been a long road, right? So I started out, my father was a 37, 38 year pipefitter up in the Boston area. Right? So I was think, my think his father was like the first pipefitter in the Quincy, Massachusetts local in like 1940 something. So pipe and HVAC was kind of like in my blood, right? That was always my path. And if I ever said that I had like a privilege, I was definitely privileged to be abundantly aware of the opportunities that construction would afford me when I was growing up, it was always that I was going to go into the trade, was going to go into trade school, join the union or, you know, whatever, and become a pipefitter, because that's what they did. But I also knew that the end goal would have been to get out of the field and get into the office, right? Because that's what my dad did. That's what other people did. You know, everybody's father was in some sort of construction around me when I was in high school. I was afforded an opportunity to work at a sheet metal shop. Right. And I did everything from scrubbing toilets to sweeping floors to CAD to like, did my first submittal in 2004. 

Lia: Wow. 

Coach Ike: Right. So I got a very unique experience of doing the crap low level labor work, but also when afforded like on a rainy day. Right. Would be able to go into the office and get exposure to those things. So then it came time that I signed up for my apprenticeship and my father was like, Listen, you know, I can get you into the union, which obviously it's always good to know somebody, but he's like, You know, you really should like, go to college. So I did and said, okay, well, I'm going to get a degree in mechanical engineering so I can design HVAC, because it would just make me, you know, like a triple threat, like I can sing, dance and act, right? 

Lia: Right, right. 

Coach Ike: So so then I did that. And as, as I was going through college and this is what I tell people who do go to college, you know, the classroom is one thing and the piece of paper is one thing. But the co-op program, the fact that I worked the entire time that I was at college full time as a mechanical engineer, by the time I graduated, I had 3 or 4 years of work experience and that really set me apart from everybody else, right? So, so I did that. And I would argue that the co-op was more valuable than the degree, right? But then from there, I moved across the country. It was like, you know what, I'm 22 years old. I want to, I want to spread my wings. So I moved to California. I work for a shop out there doing design build, which was interesting. And then I moved to New York City a short time later for maybe the wrong reason. It was for a woman, right?

Lia:  Been there, done that. We've all, we've all been there.

Coach Ike: And then I got onto the GC side of things, right? Which was like. Like I could have, like, stabbed my father in the heart to go to the GC side. Right. I'm sure as a person on the trades, like, you know, there's a little animosity between some of the guys in the field and the, the pretty guy with the clipboard, you know, standing there who doesn't know what he's talking about, right? Yeah, that's what a lot of the people say. So, so I've been doing that for about ten years now and it's just been one thing after another. Just step by step again, like you work your way up and it's such a windy road. I never would have thought that I would have been to where I am now. But, you know, you look back and it's as straight as an arrow. I wouldn't trade any of the experience that I've had to get to where I am now. I'm in an executive position now where I'm working nationally. I have 28 projects and. There's a map behind me. It's, it's something like 20 states or territories in Canada. So, I mean, it's, it's great. And but, it's funny because if I were to say one thing that could change, it's that I would have gotten more trade specific experience aside from like, I mean I’ll outwork anybody. I'll move a pile of rocks, you know, the size of my house faster than you will or anybody will. But when it comes to like, can I, can I pipe a chiller? Like, I can't. You know what I mean? And I wish that I had that experience because as you rise through the ranks, it's very clear who did have that experience. And it sets them apart. 

Lia: Yes. For sure. Absolutely. 

Coach Ike: Yeah, That's my, that's my two, three minute spiel about, you know, the brief history of my life.

Lia: Well, that makes a lot of sense of why you're so knowledgeable about skilled trades. But how did you start to break down the financial aspect of things? Because here's the thing, right? I'm a firm believer in many different voices because the way that I say something might resonate with somebody, the way you say something will resonate with somebody. But we could be saying the same thing and them not hear us. It's like, have you ever, you've been told something over and over and over again and it didn't click, but then somebody else said it just a different way or with a different flavor. And then all of a sudden it was like, whoa.

Coach Ike: 100%. I actually, and that's kind of what intrigued me about talking with you was because you're a woman in the trade, right? And when I was growing up, like I was very, I was hypersensitive to the fact that people kept telling me that I had privilege as a white guy. Right. But when I, when I came up, I wouldn't be where I am if I didn't have certain mentors in my life that stepped out and helped me for no benefit to them. It was purely just to help me, right? So I want to do that for other people. And for the last ten years I've been working in after school programs with kids. And I just noticed that, like, you know, I'm in, I'm in a t shirt right now, but usually I have a watch, I got the collared shirt on, sometimes a tie or suit, and I'd go speak in front of kids in the city and let's just be honest, I knew what they were looking at. They saw some, some rich white boy that doesn't know about their, their life. Right. So one of the episodes that I have coming up is I'm going to interview my friend who grew up in Haiti, and he came to America and he owns a very successful plumbing business. Right. But, but that's how he came up, was he came through the trade. Right. So when I brought him in to speak with them, all of a sudden it was like, boom, like it just it was a connection that could that was made that could have never been made. Right. So when, when we talk about like the return on investment, right. And think that the important thing that we got to do is we got to stop putting a piece of paper on a pedestal like they have some authoritarian credibility to them that they, they get to say and do whatever they want and we have to believe them. Money makes you pretty credible. Like if you were able to build your own wealth, like people have respect for you and it's usually a sign that you know what you're talking about. And there's a tremendous opportunity in that. So when I went to school, I ended up going to Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, and it was looked at like it was like, almost looked down on it. It was almost like, like people look down on the trades, right? And it was like, because it's not Northeastern, it's not MIT, it's not Boston College or BU or any of these other big schools in Boston. And they had an interesting thing in there that was like, we have this highest tuition and starting salary ratio. Wow. I was like, Why aren't we bragging about that? Right? Because I realized when I came out, I had friends that went to UMass Amherst and all these colleges for journalism and political science and criminology and all this crap, right. That most of them don't even work in anymore. And they ended up paying even at state schools, you know, student loans for 100 grand or whatever. And I work through it, I didn't take a loan out. And when I came out, you know, within a year of graduating, my, my salary was $77,000. And it was like everyone was like, oh, man, you're lucky. And I'm like, No, I'm not lucky. I made a wise decision. Right. Like and this information's there, but it's like nobody's telling kids what the return on all these investments are. And it's like, okay, so that's that's the ratio in the trades. That ratio is infinite because you're getting paid to get educated if you go into an apprenticeship.

Lia: Yes, yes.

Coach Ike: So it's, it's just like anything else, like when you go to start a business and like you don't know this when you're in college or high school, but when you become an adult, you got to, if you want to start a business, you got to get a loan. Or if you want to get a house, you got to get a loan or a car. You got to get a loan, right? You need a credit history. You need a return on investment. If it's a business or if it's a rental property, like you have to prove these things to the bank because the bank won't put skin in the game. If you can't prove to them that there's no risk that they're going to get their money back and then some. Right? So why aren't you doing the same thing for yourself when it comes to getting educated and setting up a career for yourself to feed yourself for the rest of your life? Like that's what you, that's what the mindset needs to be and it's just not being communicated at all.

Lia: No, not at all. Not at all. I mean, I remember in high school I didn't have a clue, not a fucking clue about skilled trades, finances and everything was like a popularity contest. Like what college are you going to go to? How big, NYU, Harvard, like that was what it was. It wasn't. What is my career going to look like? You know, what type of lifestyle do I want to live financially? How is this going to set me up? None of that was discussed or brought up at all. Right. I love seeing guys like you in the field. Okay. When, when I was watching your stuff, I was like, Oh, man, oh, man. I got so many coworkers that; here's the thing, right? You grow up in an environment and you're taught by who came before you. And if you don't know any better, you don't know, you know what you know, right? So when I see someone like you, I'm like, Oh, man, the guys, they're going to listen to you. They're going to listen to you. Like a lot of my bros, like a lot of the coworkers, they're stuck in their ways and they say things like, “It's always been this way. I can't complain.” Like very complacent. And I feel if they had an opportunity to see somebody with you, with your background, because I think your background is key for them, like the fact that you have family and skilled trade, you know what it's like to work in skilled trade. There's a connection there. And then where you are now, they can kind of relate to you on that level and feel like, Yeah, he gets it, he gets it. He's been there.

Coach Ike: I mean, respect, respect on the field is like, that's ultimately what you go for. And like, I think that the biggest mistake that young people make coming out of school is that they want to rise up, like to be a boss to people. Like I'm not there to do that. I'm there to facilitate, like the higher I go, the more I'm there to try and make everybody's life easier. Because if I'm doing my job, then that means you have every answer you need in the field. You're working efficiently, not wasting your time. I'm not stressing you out. I'm not pushing you to the point of not being safe. It's just a different mindset. And I will say like, nine times out of ten, when guys meet me in the field, they automatically, like, have like a thing for me that like, they don't like because they again, they see me, and it's like, you know.

Lia: But this is because they need, they need to see you like this with the t shirt on, with the, understanding your background. Like when I'm sure when you're walking on site, you're presenting as boss man, you know there's no understanding behind.

Coach Ike: I'll even say that like some of the guys have gone as far to question my sexuality, which I think it's funny because.

Lia: It’s like a go-to!

Coach Ike: Like just like, oh, like he dresses too well, like. 

Lia: Yes, yes. 

Coach Ike: Hey, listen, I don't care because that just means that look good. Like. Yes, yes, like it's fine with me. It doesn't bother me. But it's just funny because they do look at that and they just automatically think that, you know, there's that, that resistance in the field to anybody, especially when you're younger, right? I think that, I think that when you're younger and I also see it often with women, not because don't know what it's like to be a woman. But I talked to enough women that tell me that sometimes they struggle with just like, just like no 55 year old wants to hear it from me. You know, there's a lot of guys out there that just don't necessarily want to hear it from a woman. It's similar. It's not the same, but it's similar. But, but at the same time, like, I also think there's an opportunity, like no matter who you're dealing with, you have to have the soft skills. Right. So it's like, okay, so how do you play being a young guy to your advantage? How do you play being a woman to your advantage? Because what I've found is that, and women can do this better than men, but you can take the older guys if you show them a little respect, interest in what they're doing and you ask them questions and you make them feel like they're an expert, they put, they naturally, like flip into a mentorship role and have you under their wing and now you're like the baby bird that they have to protect and like, nobody goes near you. They are in it as though they are your father and they want to see you shine and I think that has been probably one of the most valuable things for me coming up with older guys in the field. Like, I mean, my dad is in his 60s, right? And I always heard him complain about that. Like this fucking kid, you know, this kid thinks he knows. He doesn't know. 

Lia: Yeah, of course.

Coach Ike: Yeah. I mean, the field dynamics are definitely interesting, but, you know, at the same time, I don't think that the industry is what it was 30, 40, 50 years ago.

Lia: No, it's not.

Coach Ike: You know, I know from talking to a lot of young women, like I had young women in my, in a course that wanted to be plumbers and was shocked. I was like, this is great. Like you be a plumber, man. Like I'm totally with you. But I didn't realize that, they how unwelcome they felt until they said it to me. Like how many people want to hire a female plumber? You know what I mean? And it's like whether I think that's valid or not, like, that's how they see it. So think that we got to do a better job at, at marketing the industry to those people and making them realize like, like, listen, beyond anything else, we don't have enough people. We don't have time to pick and choose. Like, as long as you could do the job, like you're good.

Lia: Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. That's the other thing that I was impressed that you were aware of, because I don't see enough people in the industry talk about the deficit that we have. In fact, I see a lot of heavy honchos fear mongering. They'll say things like, You know, jobs are getting tight, they're getting tight, and it's bullshit. There's tons of jobs out there. But I'll hear them say this so that the guys are afraid and that they'll fall in line. I see it on site now, they say. And then me, my big mouth, Ah! No, no, no. Yeah. There's tons of work. 

Coach Ike: And I think right now what you're seeing is different markets, like different sectors are kind of doing this like warehouses and industrial is huge and mean. Healthcare is always going to be there. People are always going to be sick and dying. Right? So like that the hospitals are going to get into, and corporate interiors is kind of taking like a different turn where it's kind of concentrating on like amenities, trying to attract people back into the office. But I think like some of those people are pulling back. But it's just like when one thing pulls back, another another comes up. You know what I mean? And I think housing everywhere is huge.

Lia: Well, this is the thing about skilled trades. It doesn't matter if you're residential, commercial, industrial. A plumber is going to be able to do plumbing no matter what that looks like in different scenarios. And let me clarify what I'm talking about here. I'm saying that the foundation of electrical work is the foundation, right? Whether or not you're doing building automation or fire alarm, there are some things that you would need to educate yourself on, but the foundation is the same. And if people are desperate for skilled labor, there are jobs out there that will take you on. If you don't have experience in fire alarm, that will train you for that specialty. So when you're saying that there's no work, that, that's ridiculous. There's tons of work. When I was an apprentice, I was tossing out my resume just to see, like, you know, throwing shit up against the wall. And I was shocked at how many job offers I got over pay. Like, ridiculous for somebody who had two years experience at the time. So, like, it was like, it's, now is the time to get in. Now is the time.

Coach Ike: 100%. Yeah, I mean, think you know the compensation right now, like keep seeing on my comments like don't know if you've breezed through my comment section on some of my posts but it's like a war zone, and you can very clearly tell like who's in the industry and who's not because there's so many people in there that are like, Oh, slave wages. I'm like, dude.

Lia: Yeah.

Coach Ike: If you're not making money right now. Like, call me because you have the wrong guidance. Like, it doesn't take that much to guide somebody in the right direction. And like, obviously, obviously. You can go dig a ditch. Right. And make money. My advice isn't to do that. My advice is to get a skill, particularly in a licensed trade. Like, like mechanical, electrical, plumbing. You know, because then you can take that license and you can do whatever you want with it. You can start your own business with it. You can, you know, it is a skilled trade. That's, a there's a reason that there's a license in there. The reason that the license is in there is because you can take responsibility for your own work. When you can take responsibility for your own work, what happens? You get to charge more, right? So like, those are the trades that you want to be in. Now, I will say, pandemic sucked for everybody, right? I moved from Boston to Florida in July 2020. Okay. So I am very aware of what a place like Florida is like as far as the trades go and what people make. So when people tell me that people don't care about their employees and it's slave wages and it's yada yada, quick ten second story. I had a guy on my jobsite, right, in July 2020, and he lost his job. He was a manager at a movie theater for like 19 years or something like that. It was something in the high teens, and he didn't want to take any money from the government. He was like, No, I'm going to go and I'll sweep floors, whatever I got to do. So that's literally what he did. He went to an employment agency in Florida, so he went to that and he's working for I think it was like I want to say honestly, I want to say it was like 13, $14 an hour. Right. So took a lot of people's point like, yeah, but what was he doing? He was literally cleaning up a job site. Like it wasn't high skilled work, but he worked really hard. And I noticed then my super noticed and we're out there every day and we're talking to him. He's competent. He speaks very well. And he's like, Hey, you know, like, what do you think about like, opportunities in the industry? Like, I'm just here to not kill time, but like, like actually work and do something. Like, I'd like to move up but I don't know what to do. And I brought the drywall contractor in and he's watching them for a couple of weeks. He offered him a job. I think he started him out at 60 grand after like he was only on site cleaning for like, maybe 2 or 3 months. And think after that, after his 90 day review, he got like a 15 or $20,000 bonus, health benefits, like 401K, and he was a super, a supervisor, so he was going around doing quality control and all the jobs and making sure that the guys weren't screwing around, wasting material, doing, yada, yada. Right. 

Lia: Wow. 

Coach Ike: Again, I started out digging ditches, scrubbing toilets, you know what I mean? Somebody just did that and look how high they rose in such a short period of time because again, competence, competence pool is so thin and so whatever the opposite of broad is, skinny, right? If you show up, you're going to rise so fast and it's not even like it was, I mean, I work, you know, 60, 70 hours a week and I always did, especially when I was younger. But like the notion of work life balance, you can totally have that in the construction industry. And if you show up, you put your phone away. You stay off social media during the day, and you, you care. People will invest that in you when they see that and you will get a raise, you will get a promotion, you will rise up the ranks. And then if you want to go above and beyond that and you want to put in a little extra hours and you want to put in the extra effort, I mean, the sky's the limit and the sky's the limit fast.

Lia: Absolutely. Absolutely agree. Now, talk to me about Prime2Rise. 

Coach Ike: Yes. 

Lia: I love this. I love this.

Coach Ike: I, as I said, I did a lot of school work with high school kids and I was trying to get it going in Florida when I moved down here.

Lia: Hey, I'm just quickly popping in to say if you would like to support the Sparky Life, we have many different ways you can go about doing this. If you visit our Instagram @SparkyLifeofLia, there's a linktree there that can show you different options. We also have a Patreon page. I'd like to thank all the Sparky Life supporters. With your support, we can continue to make Sparky Life content. Now let's get back to the episode.

Coach Ike: And Hurricane Ian kind of suck the life out of it, which, by the way, a lineman that I know made $24,000 in a month after Hurricane Ian here. So again, when shit hits the fan, all of a sudden everyone wants a tradesman, right? Like, it wasn't the salespeople and the doctors in the neighborhood that everyone needed for those two weeks. It was all the mechanically inclined people that people wanted to come over. So after that I just said, You know what? Like, I've done a lot of personal growth in the last couple of years and if you go on all my, all my old posts from working out and stuff like that, I've had a lot of self-reflection and trying to find, identify my purpose. Right. And whether it's after school programs or dealing with entry level people at whatever company I was at, I've always just or even coaching youth football, I've always felt like I was doing the right thing when I was teaching people, when I was trying to encourage people, promoting the industry, promoting them. Right. Trying to put other people in places to win. And when the win got taken out of the sales of the after school program last fall, just it just kind of clicked to me a couple of months later that like, you know what? Maybe that's not it. Maybe there's a bigger platform that is to be built here. And when we talk about the return on investment and like the definition of education and like in the mentorship, which I think the best education is real world experience and mentorship, it's like, why does education stop when you get a certification or a degree, right? So, identify the investment. What opportunities are out there, right? How does that serve your purpose? How do we prepare you to bring value to that opportunity? Day one, you walk in the door because everybody says their first six months out of college, they learn more than the whole time they were in college. Right. So how do you bring that value? Day one, right? How do you get that job? How do you knock that interview out of the park and get top dollar coming in? And then the last thing is where is the edge? The ongoing education, the mentorship, the monitoring, the advice, help giving direction, help giving tips, helping a soundboard for somebody to vent or maybe even just get a little bit of a reality check from somebody that only has that person's best interest in mind. Where is that? Right. So I always say at the beginning of my podcast, like, it's about redefining education. And that's what I mean when I say that. And that's how I came up with this. And then the name, I mean Prime. There's a ton of definitions to the name Prime, but you know, it's your greatest state of strength or growth. It's to prepare. It's a state of excellence, it's to inject with fuel and then rise. Obviously, you rise up the ranks. Also, there's a lot of more simple names, but the domains cost a lot more money. So this domain was really cheap. It was like nine dollars.

Lia: Well, it worked out beautifully.

Coach Ike: Like Dunkin Donuts just dropped the donuts. Right. So maybe drop it one time if we just went to Prime, Jeff Bezos, Probably coming at me. So maybe I'll drop the Prime and go to Rise. I don't know.

Lia: But you want to create an environment where education is set up in a almost mentor-apprenticeship manner, where you help them move through their careers and you're gearing this to, towards construction careers, am I correct?

Coach Ike: Yeah. At least to start, I mean think that there's a like a macro like bigger picture that could be applied to a lot of things like why do you need a hospitality degree to work at a hotel or a car mechanic? Right. Like if you learn seven tasks working on a car, can you start your own business? But I just know that my expertise, my experience from seeing all sides of the business that I've seen and the success that I see in the people that I work with, the young people that I've worked with, and just the passion that I have from it because I grew up in it. Like this is, this is just what I know. Everything is second nature to me, like the navigation of the industry. It's, it's a great starting point. It fits a need. And as far as the return, I mean, I guarantee it's the biggest return on the most consistent basis. Like you're not going to go into another industry and find, you might find big returns or bigger returns, but the abundance of those opportunities like I have people in my comment section like, Oh, my son does, you know, whatever kind of coding for 180 grand a year, well, then everybody would be doing that, right? Like, yeah, I know that every single person that starts in construction, if they show up, whether it's an apprenticeship or whatever, after 4 or 5 years, whether it's over time, whatever it is, you show up in construction, you care, and you're, you're present when you're there, you can make $100,000 within five years, 100% regardless of the market. Like I just, I know that. And I want more people to know it, especially in, we have 35% of Americans sitting at home not looking for a job. Right. So like, that's, that's a third that's 1 in 3 people. You stand in a crowd. Right? Look left, look right. If they both have jobs, you don't. Right. Like, so when you and when you see about all like the turmoil and everything that's happened in the last couple of years, there's just so much more opportunity. People could be living better lifestyles.

Lia: Well, the construction culture doesn't exactly have a positive background, right? So a lot of people, and this is one of the reasons why I started the podcast, because I want to change that look, that outlook. And I want, can you imagine if contractors took on? They imitated what Google did in a sense with the psychological background on how to build excellent teams. Have you ever read The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle?

Coach Ike: Yeah, The bigger companies do like the Cobains, the scans like $1 billion companies do, but not like the local, I mean, that's how many. How much of the industry is that right? Like the majority of them are smaller contractors and stuff.

Lia: I do commercial, industrial, electrical and some of the big shots suck like they're there. I mean, some of the electrical contractors, huge, big, huge guys, billion dollars. They're still working old school. They treat their guys like numbers. They don't know how to retain talent. So you're talking about self growth and how you did this like deep dive. I'm a huge fan of this. I want to know what type of leadership style do you have? How do you think the construction industry can change to embrace more of a transformative leadership? 

Coach Ike: Oh. How much time do you have? So my, my, my style is very dominant. Like I come in the room, you know? Right. Like, I have no time for people to kind of, like, beat around the bush and stuff like that. As a leader, though, because I think, you know, it's interesting when you go up, it's easy to manage up and give people what they need, you know, and knock tasks off. It's difficult to manage down and I don't think that most people are fit to be managers or have had the right training in managing. I always start with trying to empower people, like give people the autonomy to do, do it your way, don't care how you do it. I need this answer. I need it then, right? And then if you don't or you trip or you fall like, okay, like here's some advice. Okay? So like, maybe I'll hold your hand. Maybe I'll sit next to you. Okay, Now I'm going to hold your hand now, like, okay, if I'm going to stick my hand up your butt and like, move your mouth and then, like. 

Lia: Then like, we're done. 

Coach Ike: Yeah. And like, okay, now we have a problem, right? I think that especially with the bigger companies, everyone acknowledges the importance of mentorship. But they don't address it like, is the person the right fit to be a mentor, Right? Is the 55 year old Grumpy Super the right person to stick little Johnny with? Right. Like, does he want to do it right? Like, do they mix? Do they match? Or are you just doing that program to check a box, think and don't know that this translates to other industries. But I also think that there's like a, um, like knowledge is power thing, right? There are a lot of people that feel as though if they give up knowledge to somebody else, like that makes them less powerful. Like they want leverage on the subordinates.

Lia: Especially in construction. They have this like, false sense that if I teach you something, you'll be able to then take my job from me or you'll be able to surpass me. They’re so, it's so foolish. It. Yeah. Oh, man, I want to crack that so bad. They don't get it. They don’t get it.

Coach Ike: I have so many examples. And I just said this on one of my shows that like, you know, I have some younger people and it's, it's like, dude, Kobe Bryant said this, “To be great is to inspire everybody around you and make them better.” Like, I want to become a giant so other people can stand on my shoulders and so they can reach for something higher. Right? And I look at it as I flipped that, that management pyramid like upside down, right? So I'm at the bottom and everybody above me is at the, everybody below me is at the top, right? So the more that I can empower them, the more that I can enable them to run efficiently and be people that don't have to pay attention to, now I can concentrate on other thing. And your ability to do that as a leader. I mean, that's, that's what really creates value. That's what makes you the CEO or an effective owner or an effective executive. It's not holding information back. It's like, how many people can I make badass people aces. So I'm holding a card of a hand of aces at a poker table like that, that's, that's what you want to try to develop? Yeah, I'd say it's, it's mentorship. It's the mentality of empowering everybody around you, even if that means making them better than you. Because I think that's probably the most valuable thing.

Lia: I think you said something very important when you said, “make someone better than you.” I want to, I want to rephrase that a little bit, because here's the thing. You could give your knowledge to somebody else. Let's say a younger buck, give them all the empowerment and knowledge and all this jazz and help them excel. But at the end of the day, they still don't have the experiences you have. They're still a different person. They're not going to be able to imitate exactly how you do things. And the goal is to collaborate together, grow together, because if you're not continuing to challenge yourself, what is the phrase? If you're the smartest one in the room, then you're in the wrong room, right? Right. 

Coach Ike: Yeah. 

Lia: So you want to. Create an environment where everyone is moving up and growing. Constantly achieving goals. 

Coach Ike: Yeah. And I forget what psychiatrist said this. I don't know. Maybe it was Pavlov, maybe it was Sigmund Freud, whoever it was. But they said you you retain not 10% of what you write down, 20% of what you read. And it goes through like the progression of doing different things. But you retain and you learn. You retain 90% of what you teach somebody else, right? So like, the more I teach people, the more I hone my skills, the more I, sometimes I'm teaching something and I come to it like an epiphany, like a grand realization. I'm like, Oh, shit. Like, that's how that works. You know what I mean?

Lia: Yeah, I do.

Coach Ike: So, like, you grow in that way too. I just. I know that, like, the people that I've helped to like, you never know where that person's going to go. Right. You don't know what bridges you're, you're building there. And how that might come back around ten years later, you know? Yeah. So, yeah, it's a problem in the industry. And again, that's kind of why I wanted to start this, right? Like I see it's a problem and I see all the talent leaving and the experience like, like there's got like, I'm never going to know by the time I know as much as my father knows about chillers, my father's probably not going to be here anymore. Right? Like, so like, how do we leverage that experience on its way out the door? Right and I think there's a very important connection that can be made and I think that if there's a platform out there that attracts, there's a saying, and I've kind of like gotten a little bit religion a little bit over the last couple of years, but darkness can't be present where there is light, right? So you can open 100 boxes of darkness. They all dissipate in the presence of light, right? So what a light does. You shine your light and you will attract people that need that light, right? And you will also, you'll also be able to see opportunities. So like when you're shining that light, and what I'd like to see this platform do is attract some of the older generation that want to be there and want to teach and want to connect that with people who need it down low.

Lia: That's brilliant. That's brilliant. I would love to see that happen as well. 

Coach Ike: Yeah, I mean, just got a post in two weeks ago and kind of like took off. So like now I'm like, I'm like, on this, like, ride.

Lia: Yeah, yeah, that's, that's what happens. With everything that you've learned throughout your journey, what tool is in your tool belt? What's something that you carry with you always that you feel has helped you achieve your goals?

Coach Ike: Oh. Um. A lot of answers to that. I mean, the power of asking questions comes to the top of my mind, but, it's just it's that mindset of constantly bringing value to somebody, everybody outside of you is your client. Right? The people under you, your subcontractors, your vendors, your actual client, you know, your, your architects, your engineers, everybody around you who isn't you is a client. You have to treat that as such. And what do we try to do for clients, right? We try to take on responsibility to create value. So if you want to advance your career in any way, just constantly be vigilant about how you can rip responsibility from people, bring value to them, make their life easier, help keep them out of trouble. And then there's one other really important thing that I think is very important. The cool man wins, cool man wins, the cool, cooler heads always prevail in this industry or in any industry really, like people are going to press your buttons, people are going to challenge you, right? And they'll even intentionally try to see how much you can handle before you can break. A lot of the time, especially in construction, you can, you can do this.

Lia: Oh, big time.

Coach Ike: What I've always tried to do is no matter what happens when that happens, how unfair I feel like people are being to me, how unfair the situation is or how I may feel like I was put in a situation to fail. I kill people with kindness. I keep my head cool. I look at people like, Listen, you think you're going to break me? There's absolutely nothing that you can do to stop me from trying. I will outwork you. I will send you emails at one, two in the morning. If you are to doubt anything, the last thing that you're going to doubt is that I am the hardest working person in the room and that I will always kill you with kindness. And I will never stop trying to bring value to you, no matter how difficult you try to make that on me. And it hasn't always been easy. Like I've, trust me, I'm not telling people to, like, work to the bone and work into a grave. But if you just stay cool and you constantly try to bring people value and kill them with kindness, just be and you just become undeniable. To the point where that person, person questions their own work ethic and maybe even their own confidence and their own ability to handle situations. You'd be shocked at the return that you get on that even from people who seem to be like the worst people in the world. Right. So that mentality has just been so valuable for me. And I mean, you know, I had a client a year ago that they were really upset. I was the executive, like shirt and tie guy, and I was getting on a plane at nine in the morning and they were running my team through the wringer for months. It was a bank and it was opening the next day. I knew that the client was going to be there at 6 a.m. I got there at 4 a.m., I cleaned the entire job site to get ready for a certificate of occupancy walk. I made sure that when they came in they saw me scrubbing a toilet. And when my boss found that out, he was like, Dude, I pay you way too much money, right, to be scrubbing toilet's like, not what I pay you to do. Hire somebody to do that. And I said, You know what? It wasn't about that.

Lia: Right? Right.

Coach Ike: Yes, the point. Right. That person has now moved on to other companies that client, and has even tried to hire me. And like if she's ever in my region or ever needs anything anywhere, am at the top of her list for people to call. And that's where you want to be. That's what that mindset can do for you.

Lia: I love that. I absolutely love that. Especially because, in construction 100%, you are tested. You are tested in how much you can handle you are, what I want to say is like, poke the bear. If especially if they, for whatever reason, don't like you, they're going to make it difficult. The way in how you describe how to handle it is fantastic. Fucking fantastic, because they're looking for that snap, and especially with the guys, right? It's like they want to throw down and then who wins? They end up winning because you lost your shit. You get escorted off, like it's. It doesn't do anything. Yep. Yeah, I love that. That's a much better play. They'll never see it coming.

Coach Ike: I have a text message on my phone right now. I was just on the phone with a client and I'm telling my guy up in Canada like, Hey, stick to your guns. Stick to the facts, become, be kind, kill them with kindness, give him everything that he wants and more. And, and you're fine. Like if you, if you give a sour response or you get sour for even a minute. Even if you're right, you lost the battle. Yeah, I literally just sent that text message. I'm not even kidding. 

Lia: Awesome. Awesome. I love it. I absolutely love it. Where in Florida are you around?

Coach Ike: So I'm like in between Fort Myers and Naples. I'm like ten minutes from Fort Myers Airport.

Lia: Okay, okay, okay. The reason I ask is because I am shortly going to be in Key West. So I just found it was funny that you went from Boston to Florida and I'm like, I'm going to Florida. 

Coach Ike: Yes. So I can get on it, I can get to Key West. So it's funny because my wife misses, I where my scally cap anytime it's under 60 degrees. And, you know, I'm Boston like through and through, right? Like and now we're down here and it's like, I can take a boat, I'll take the ferry, and I could be in Key West in like two hours. Yes. Um, Key West is fun. Yeah. Can only handle it for, like, 36 hours and. No, can't do it.

Lia: Did you, did you meet your wife in Florida or in Boston?

Coach Ike: No. So, I mean, that's the beautiful thing about construction, right? Like I graduated from college and it was I toured California and went to every single place in every single major city in market in California, I had five job offers. I picked one in Huntington Beach, California. I met my wife playing beach flag football in California. And then, you know, we moved to, moved to Boston, I was working in Boston. And then we decided, hey, grandparents are in Florida, a great place to raise a family in this area.

Lia: Yes.

Coach Ike: So we, when she went remote because of the pandemic, I can take my education anywhere, can take my skill set anywhere. Right. Went on Google. I contacted 30 companies, had a job offer in two days. 

Lia: Yep. 

Coach Ike: I'm down in Florida, and it wasn't at the pay cut everyone thought that I was going to have to take.

Lia: Well, I love it. I absolutely love it. I love it. How long have you guys been married?

Coach Ike: Uh, we got married right before the world shut down. We're the world shut down The day that we were supposed to leave for Hawaii for our honeymoon was delayed. We got married in 2019. We have a 15 month old.

Lia: Oh, congratulations. 

Coach Ike: Yeah. Yeah.He's got his first pair of work boots that when we go up, when we travel later in the fall to see some foliage he'll be putting on. So he'll have his first set of work boots and flannel to put on.

Lia: See, I love, the reason I want to highlight this is because, as I'm sure you know, a lot of guys in construction, it's like they've got these running jokes. If you're not on your third divorce, by, blah, blah, blah. And that's not there. That's not the case. There's this very bad image that blue collar guys are going to be poor mates, and that's completely untrue. I have met tons of guys. There's Boston Bobby. He, I don't know if you know him. He's. Oh, my gosh. I got you guys, I got to put you guys in touch. He's fantastic. He's absolutely fantastic. He does sprinkler fitting. He's from Boston. You'll love him. And him and his wife are absolutely adorable. Adorable.

Coach Ike: Highest paid, highest paid union in Boston.

Lia: Yes, yes, yes, yes. But it's, there are tons of gentlemen in skilled trades that are family guys.

Coach Ike: 100% I mean it's some of the best.

Lia: Exactly.

Coach Ike: I want to be folks, I think we have higher counts some kind of account. Don't know. We have better stats than some of these other guys out there so.

Lia: That's correct.

Coach Ike: We make plans to start a family that's, that's what I'll say there.

Lia: Damn right.

Coach Ike: But no, I mean, you know I had, so I work currently for a company that's north of 10 billion a year. The CEO called me personally on a Saturday to talk about this initiative that we got going on internally. Whatever. He called me and he asked me what I was doing and said, Oh, just changed the diaper. And it's, just talking to me for five minutes about my son. And he was just like, Listen, don't even remember why I called you. Never mind. He's like, Go, go. Enjoy your family. Right. And he said, listen, my son just, just turned 18. He just went to college. Don't ever miss a game, a practice, anything for this company. He's like, don't do it. It's the most important thing. You'll regret it for the rest of your life. I'm not saying every company, right, because there's just always assholes everywhere you go. But the notion that like, the industry doesn't care and that it sucks the life out of you and that you're going to be put in situations where you're constantly, you know, you're going to lose your health. It's just not true, especially with the health aspect. But we have to do a better job at being healthier.

Lia: Yes. 

Coach Ike: There's a reason why a lot of these guys aren't in good shape. And and most of the time it's not actually because of the work that they've done.

Lia: It has nothing to do with the work they've done. Really. It doesn't.

Coach Ike: It's not what it was 40 years ago, like the tools and the machines and the and the rules and like there's just better ways to do it. I have an episode out later this week where this guy, he does, he runs a demo company in Florida, but he's like, Dude, when I was doing this in 1989 or 1992, like that was backbreaking work. His guys now, they're doing demo with the Xbox controller with a giant robot running through the building. It's like a gameboy, a Gameboy controller. He's running an Xbox controller on a, you know, million dollar piece of equipment, tearing down walls.

Lia: And I got to tell you, as a, as a woman, I don't know that I would be able to be in the industry like it was years ago. We didn't have the tools that we have today. We didn't have the advances that we have. But it's one of the things that I tell the women all the time now is, Are you kidding? With the shit that we have? It's, it’s, of course I can. Of course I can. And then on top of it, a lot of the time, you have to get clever and use physics and that works out beautifully as well. So.

Coach Ike: So you hit an interesting point. And like, because talk, there's a lot of, you know, we got to get men in the trades and men being men and masculinity and lifting heavy things. And just on the subject of women in general, like not all men are created equal. Not all women are created equal. And men and women are different. Right? They have different strengths. They have different abilities. And, you know, some women can do the same thing men's can do. Some men can do the same thing women can do. But when we talk about like, different team and leadership styles and plan people strengths, right, on some of those like personality tests. That a lot of the bigger companies do. My favorite teams have been where my other project managers are superintendents or whoever are women most of the time my female team members, and it's a team member, it's somebody lateral to me that that's how I consider it, right, is more organized than me. It, you know, has a better memory than me, has more patience than me. We balance each other out to make a better team. So it's not even just in the trade like I see value. And my mentor in the industry is a woman. And I'm telling you right now and she steps on a jobsite and her shiny high heels and pressed pants and nails and her hair perfectly done. She has an oily rag to brush herself off of construction dust whenever she leaves the job. She's my favorite person in the world and I couldn't be happier to call her my mentor. So like, the notion that there's no spot for women in the industry or like you can't be a woman in construction is just false.

Lia: Yes. 

Coach Ike: Like there's so much value to be had in so much money to be made, so many opportunities. More are taking advantage of it, but it's going to be exciting to see more take advantage in years to come.

Lia: Yes. Yes. Absolutely agree. Absolutely agree. I think that men and women are made to work together. Like you said, we both have strengths. We both have weaknesses.

Coach Ike: You know what's, you know what's really interesting thought about this the other day. So when it comes to ironworkers specifically, I feel like, I can't prove this, but I feel like women might be better welders because they have a steadier hand. So in World War two, Russia found that when they actually like, threw everybody at Hitler, it was everybody, women, children, just anybody that can all be and do it, they actually found that women were very useful as snipers because of the patience and steady hand that they had. And I feel like for the same reason, like a woman could be a badass welder.

Lia: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I know. A badass welder. Yeah. And I don't want females to have it in their head that they have to be masculine to be successful. You can be successful in your feminine energy.

Coach Ike: It's a good point, though. It's like, and it's like everyone's trying to shove each other and all these, you know, stereotypes and categories and, and structures and it's like, whoever you are, however you were born, there's a place for you. It's such a broad industry and so diverse and so many opportunities to be a part of so many teams that like literally whatever mold you came out of, there's an opportunity for you in construction. I can guarantee you that.

Lia: Oh, 100%, 100%. You know, I think that the changing perception is key. Now, where can my guys find you? Because I'm like revved up. I'm like, okay, this is it. Coach Ike, this is, I'm going to be like, this way, please, gentlemen.

Coach Ike: All right. So you can follow me at Don't Tread on Ike, on Instagram, on YouTube, on TikTok and Prime2Rise. It's prime, the number two, rise. I have a student loan and budget calculator on there, you can see a bunch of schools, tuitions, starting salaries for majors, starting salaries, average for schools.

Lia: All right. What about my guys in the field? How like can they, can they reach out to you directly? I know a lot of guys that would be interested in having mentorship and having guidance from someone like you.

Coach Ike: Yeah, sure. Think, think it's a big thing that a lot of guys in the field need to know how to get out of the field if they want to. A lot of people end up leaving the field and going right back in because the office they just find out isn't for them. But there is no glass ceiling in the field, right? Like we need people up in the office and the best candidates didn't go to college. It's the people that have the trade experience. Right. So you can email me, mentor@prime2rise, that's mentor at prime, the number two, dot com, happy to review a resume in the future, there's going to be like paid resume writing and interview prep that can give people if they want to, you know, hop on a zoom call, like, and mean, I'm a construction executive so if you ever want to go into the office at a subcontractor, you're thinking about going to work for a as a super, I want to be there to get you ready to take advantage of that opportunity.

Lia: So awesome. Absolutely fantastic. I love it. I love it. Love it. 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.