Will (00:00:00) - There's so much more that trades have to offer than merch and tools, and there is so much more out there. If you become a business owner, for example, tools and PPE, that comes as a side note, that's not shouldn't be the highlight. That shouldn't be your cat. That shouldn't be. Oh, I made it. I got this new pair of tools. We want to show the entire journey of the process.
Lia (00:00:30) - Welcome to the Sparkler podcast. I'm your host, Lia Lamela, and here we discuss the points of view from journeyman and women who build the things that make our life work. Get ready for some engaging banter with your favorite Sparky. Hello. Today on this Sparky life. My guest is a good friend of mine. He is on a mission to revolutionize the education within the skilled trades. Now, at my lowest point in life to date, I had the opportunity to go to trade school, a pre apprenticeship program. It set me up on a path to a successful career in electrical.
Lia (00:01:18) - Before I even graduated the pre apprenticeship program, I was working for an electrical company. I went from $18 an hour to six months in making $20 an hour, and then after being accepted into an apprenticeship program, 22 an hour, only to double my salary in a little over two years, my friend Will, a fellow Sparky master electrician for the state of Connecticut and owner of Energize Us, identified the skill gap within the skilled trades and created this non-for-profit, Energize Us, a pre apprenticeship program setting people up for success in the skilled trades. One of the big differences between the program I attended and what energize us brings to the table the pre apprenticeship program I completed gave valuable certifications in the skilled trades, but only were these certifications recognized in the state of West Virginia. This is a huge drawback however energize us as pre Apprenticeship program is a nationally recognized program adding greater value and freedom to shape your career path. Will is passionate about skilled trades and construction community. He has dedicated himself to elevating the education provided in the skilled trades.
Lia (00:02:46) - You know me, I'm all about elevating others. Welcome with me a pillar in our industry. Thank you so much for coming on the Sparky Live. I have my friend Wil here with me today. I'm so happy to have you.
Will (00:03:01) - It's a pleasure. Thank you.
Lia (00:03:03) - So well. As a master electrician and successful businessman, you have started a revolution in a way with energize us. So I want to hear what is energize us.
Will (00:03:20) - Well, it's a lot of moving parts and there's a lot of learning still going on. But the fifth of energize us is we want to become the Ivy League when it comes to education, when it comes to the skilled trades. Yet it's not just about the pre apprenticeship portion that you need to go for licensing. We basically want to grow with our audience. Basically, we want to draw attention in three different avenue when it comes to media. Generate general interest in the trade pre apprenticeship schooling, the schooling you need to become a master or a journey level person with education as well as continuous education.
Will (00:04:04) - And the final portion is business consultations. So let's say you are a kid in school, in high school primarily, and you're looking for a career choice. You know, when it comes to your sophomore year, junior year, the deans at the school are already pushing college, college, college. So we have our media channel where we will have fun facts, fun videos, tours, videos, podcasts with people just like you, people with other influencers in the trade just to highlight the trade, just to stir up general interest. It's not to win anybody over. It's just to highlight what the trades have to offer in different avenues and different aspects. Then let's say someone is 17, 18, 19 or throughout their years they say, hey, I want to jump into schooling, I want to become an electrician. I want to be a plumber. I want to be a welder. Then that's when they go to a level two or pre apprenticeship program. So now they decided they made the choice. I want to be a Sparky.
Will (00:05:10) - I want to be a plumber. Now they can take the school with us. So we were with them through phase one of their life. Phase two is now getting them to certifications. They need to reach their goal. Let's say now we fast forward 4 or 5 years. They're now licensed. But what on this primarily on the East Coast, I noticed a few states on the West Coast don't require it, but on the East Coast, primarily, we have to go through our renewals either every year or every three years to renew our license. Then we have our continuous Q classes. Then we have our deep dive knowledge, basically. So if you want to take a deeper dive into solar, if you want your OSHA tens, your OSHA 30, if you want your. Your cards. All safety related. That's the next level. So you get your license. We help you renew your license. Let's say you renewed your license 2 or 3 times. You now have ten years under your belt as a licensed electrician or license plumber.
Will (00:06:07) - And you're like, hey, I want to open up shop. Then you can go to our business consulting side of things. So basically we want to grow with you and whatever stage you are at in your life, we can plug you in and we can now write the rest of our life with you. So we want to grow with our audience. It's not just a one and done. It's not just a hit it and quit it. It's literally growing with the audience. So hopefully we can get someone green as can be and help them document that journey all the way into being a successful business owner.
Lia (00:06:40) - Well, that sounds pretty awesome. I know many nonprofits. There's Building Bridges Workmanship program bringing back the trades, and they either have a pre apprenticeship program or they have some kind of licensing. But I don't know of any nonprofit that will take somebody who's interested in starting a career and then work with them throughout to get them to whatever goal they see in the end. So that's pretty brand new.
Will (00:07:15) - Yeah, it's been exciting, and that's when we talk about it with a lot of our supporters.
Will (00:07:22) - We're trying to find ways to differentiate ourselves, especially with the media and the next generation. We have to really figure out how are we going to engage with them. And I'm not trying to say like, I'm this old wise guy, but there's still so much potential for us and organizations like us, for example, like other trade schools, we have to engage the next generation. The typical education platform as a whole has to be revamped. There's memes and photos everywhere where they said in the 1920s, education is completely the same till today, and it's you come to us. We want to change that around, and we feel like we're the only ones who are going to go to the new ones, the next generation. We recognize, especially with the last few years, the history of the trades has been declining. And we are showing awareness. Yes, there's a lot of pages 100% that is bringing awareness to the trades, but not the focus that needs to be highlighted. I don't want to sound like I'm going on a rant, but I tell many people there's so much more the trades have to offer than merch and tools, and there is so much more out there.
Will (00:08:39) - If you become a business owner, for example, tools and PPE, that comes as a side note, that's not shouldn't be the highlight. That shouldn't be your cat. That shouldn't be. Oh, I made it. I got this new pair of tools. We want to show the entire journey of the process. On top of that, with the last three years, a lot of the things that we learned is especially with Covid, especially with what was going on in the political sense, everybody's escape was their cell phones. We couldn't go nowhere. This is what everyone used the last three years. So, so many people became content creators, influencers because that was our only means of escape. But now we're back to a reality where, hey, there's so much more than living through your phone, so you get to highlight your work. But there's a whole world out there that's not touched, and we want to just, hey, bring the awareness back.
Lia (00:09:33) - Yeah. So you hit on a couple of good points.
Lia (00:09:36) - I know that the US Labor Department has stats saying that since we lost 1.4 million in skilled labor since 2020. So with Energize Us, it sounds like you want to have a solution to that problem. Is that something that energize us is taking on?
Will (00:10:04) - Exactly. So with the whole pandemic scenario, the ratio was what for every seven retiring, only one is coming into the trades. The same correlation goes back to 2020. As you mentioned. With Covid going on, everybody's on their phones now. So with everyone being on their phones also meaning the next generation is always on their phone. Yet the ones who are have a platform now have such a bigger responsibility because they should keep in mind that what they are portraying on their page is what's going to encourage the next generation. If they're just encouraging tools, boots and merch, what are they going to lead towards? So that's what we've been doing with Energize Us. We've been partnering up with a few selected influencers who aren't just influencers or content creators. They're business owners, and we're documenting that journey.
Will (00:10:59) - We have guys who have been in the trades for 20 plus years who have 20 to 30 employees under him. That is training the next generation. That is not only training them, that's supplying them with life skills. Then you got guys who have been in business for the last four months, so we know the next generation is using their phone as their escape. So we are partnering up with a lot of these influencers who have that platform to highlight what the trades truly have to offer, not just one aspect of.
Lia (00:11:32) - Okay, so we know that the skilled trades deficit happened for many reasons, right? There's more than one reason here of how that came about. one of the issues is the culture, the construction industry culture. So Energize Us is going to be a welcome platform for people who are interested in the skilled trades and help them discover what goals they want for themselves. How are you going to handle, you know, as you move through the skilled trades and speaking to everyone that I've come across in our community, a lot of them hit a company during their journey where it's fucking miserable.
Lia (00:12:25) - It's just toxic and horrible. So. What is Energis us going to do regarding the culture?
Will (00:12:34) - So when we decided on a mission statement for Energize Us, we wanted to become the Ivy League. We wanted to have that rapport, that culture. We cannot dictate the culture of other organizations, other companies. We can dictate how we are going to react, how we are going to teach the next generation. We can hear all the horror stories we want, but that doesn't dictate who we are going to be. You know, hurt people. Hurt people, right?
Lia (00:13:04) - Right.
Will (00:13:05) - Exactly. So that's that's a big example. So we take all that into consideration. And at the end of the day, it's how are we going to react to it? How are we going to treat the new guys coming in. Are we going to be self-aware and teach them things to look out for, hazards, to look out for people to look out for. And then we have to set the example on top of that.
Will (00:13:24) - It's not just about talking about it, it's about showing. So us moving forward, we want to build that community of communication. And that's what I feel like what we're trying to do, especially with our podcasts and our media channel. Is have these hard conversations. Yes, we're getting to know the influencer, but get to know how they learn, how did they become the person they are today, and what nuggets do they want to pass off to the next generation? And each one of them says something different and has a different highlight, a different quality that we all want to maintain a quality or that we need to develop to become like them. So when we get this pool of podcasts, we want to take each nugget out from each one of them. If you look at our YouTube videos, they're usually the title is two qualities that we learn from each person. Let me pull it up real quick. Like for example, this last podcast that we had, it was your intentions and longevity. So it's not about, hey, just make your money at the end of the week, just do your 40 hours.
Will (00:14:29) - Now it's look long term. What does this trade actually bring to the table? Longevity. And also your intentions. It's not just about being told what to do when you make action or you take action. Make sure you understand the intentions that come with your actions. So those are just two examples of points that we want to now cultivate in our culture when we're working with the next generation.
Lia (00:14:58) - Okay, so it sounds like you're doing exactly what you said in the sense of growing with your developing or continuing to form the community, the company, the nonprofit in in this desirable, new, innovative way, introducing a much more positive environment for the construction industry. Why did you want to do this? Why you have a successful business. You're a master electrician.
Will (00:15:32) - Why? So it broke down into two points. Primarily. One was the need during, especially with the Covid era, the need for workers and all other trades, but primarily in the skilled trades. Once again, people weren't allowed to leave, people weren't allowed to travel.
Will (00:15:51) - So that thing that's been bugging them their whole life at their house now, they had their little money left over to let me go fix that. That was the booming market for the construction industry. People were renovating their houses, making additions or building their own new houses because they were so tired of looking at that one thing for the last few years. But now that they couldn't leave, they had to use that money. Somehow they started fixing up their work, their homes, and making their homes a new project. So with that increase level of work that came in, once again, it was very difficult to find skilled labor employees who wanted to work. And it was almost to the point where the ones who were looking for work, there was a reason why they didn't have a job. And then I didn't find that out to trial and error. Going through so many candidates thing a week to three weeks, figuring out, there's no real meshing going on. So instead of investing into just hiring people who I have to train them to undo the habits that they built up up to this point, I decided, hey, why don't we create a school to train them from the ground up? And then at the same time, when I started doing that and I started seeing the positive reactions with our own employees, I'm like, look at that.
Will (00:17:07) - Maybe this is a need elsewhere. And then that's when we started doing trial and error, asking some companies if they wanted that service, and it just started growing. So I'm like, okay, this doesn't have to be a singular thing. We can grow this thing. And then that's when all the other gears started moving. That's when the business side of my mind started kicking in. You know, how do we grow this? How do we scale this? How do we systematically make this? So basically, it's self-sustaining at its own point. Okay.
Lia (00:17:32) - So you noticed that because of the skilled trades gap, right? You had a whole bunch of people retire. The boomers were like, okay, I'm done. And then the nature of an apprenticeship is you must have a mentor. So then you have all these remaining newbies that were there and they have no mentor. They have no ability to move forward because there's just this huge lack. And you decided that you were going to mentor your guys, help them develop, and then realized that you could expand.
Will (00:18:08) - Exactly, exactly. So it was through trial and error, through our own suffering, we were able to see the need.
Lia (00:18:16) - Through your own suffering. Yeah.
Will (00:18:20) - No, it was it was tough. It was tough, but it was fun. It was like one of those roller coasters you're learning as you go through the entire process.
Lia (00:18:27) - And that helped you develop the framework for Energize Us?
Will (00:18:32) - Yes, because then I started realizing, hey, if I say this, this guy reacted that. Maybe that wasn't the best way. So once again, hurt people. Hurt people. I was training in the beginning, the way I was taught, and I'm like.
Lia (00:18:44) - Whoa.
Will (00:18:44) - There's so much more into this.
Lia (00:18:46) - So I was like, oh.
Will (00:18:47) - Maybe I gotta, I gotta work on some soft skills now.
Lia (00:18:50) - Wow. So there you go. So. You are someone who is open minded and who likes to grow and learn and you didn't get stuck in. I was taught this way, so I'm going to teach this way, or I had to deal with this.
Lia (00:19:06) - So they're going to have to deal with this. You really assessed it and moved forward.
Will (00:19:12) - I didn't assess it. I tried it and it didn't work.
Lia (00:19:15) - So yeah. No. You assessed afterwards you're like, this is what happened.
Will (00:19:20) - Exactly after the fact. After the fact. When I'm like, why is everybody not staying?
Lia (00:19:26) - I love that, that's awesome. So you weren't born a leader. You weren't born, a great mentor. You took the time and effort and care to develop those skills.
Will (00:19:40) - I'm still working on them. That's I don't I feel like that's never a skill. Anyone can proudly say I am a leader. My particular story is I was just. I don't like authority. and I don't like bullies. But part of me is also petty. I will do things just because I know someone else can't do it. So in my head I'm like oh I wanted to do interviews with these guys and they're like oh we're too busy. So I'm like how do I get them to say yes? Then I'm I'm like, what can I do? And then it will be like, I'ma just fly out there and just camp out until they say it.
Will (00:20:25) - Like with Brandon, the soldier goes. Before I had any agreement with Brandon. I'm like, no, I'm a fly to Utah. I'm gonna make this guy.
Lia (00:20:35) - Say, yeah.
Will (00:20:36) - I'll go out there. And the same thing with the school. The school is like, all right, cool. If you want to sign up one of your employees for the curriculum, they have to start in March, like it's October. Why can't we do it now? Oh, well, classes are full. I don't like that. What can I do to make sure we can start this now? And it was so much easier to start my own school than wait for them and their curriculum. So I always in business. I like to look at it different angles of ways that we can expedite the process, but at the same time hold the value and maintain the quality.
Lia (00:21:07) - That's a great business mindset and obviously that's helped you with your success. But what I'm particularly interested in is your refreshing outlook on soft skills and how to lead.
Lia (00:21:20) - That is incredible. I do not come across that mindset often in our industry. Can you give an example of something that you used to do that you realized wasn't working and how you flipped it, how you changed it?
Will (00:21:35) - It's just like the first one. We talked about communication and I think accountability. Those were the two soft skills I didn't know even were soft skills. And it's so difficult when you go from employee to operator of your own business. As an employee, you need to maintain nine times out of ten, 90% of your job is hard skill. You need to know how to swing the hammer. You need to know how to bend some pipe. You need to know how to read a plan that's hard skills. When you go to owner operator and scaling your business, that's a whole set of soft skills that you have to learn communications, accounting, all these areas that you in the field do not get. The boss doesn't tell you how to make an estimate. The boss doesn't tell you how to communicate with a prospective customer.
Will (00:22:21) - The company doesn't train you on how to deal with time management and all that stuff. You're just paid from the neck down. Yet when you're owner operator, you have to get paid for neck up and your entire body because not only do you have to do the work, you have to handle all those soft skills. So the two primarily I needed to work on was communication, just like I mentioned. I was training the way I was taught.
Lia (00:22:44) - And how was that?
Will (00:22:45) - And that was the knuckle buster. You know, all you got to do it like this. You got to do it like that. You know, why are you too slow? You know? Just the general lingo everybody dealt with in the job sites. But when you're an owner operator, the way you communicate to your team is completely different. And that was something I had to learn alongside with accountability, because accountability for me is when everything took off in 2023, my word for the year was accountability, and I made sure I held myself accountable throughout my entire life.
Will (00:23:20) - Like when it came to religion, when it came to family, when it came to my health business, I got a business coach. I got a trainer at every angle of my life. I was like, you know what? Forget it. Let's hold myself accountable. And that's when I noticed everything. Just shut up. It was night and day. Within weeks it was night and day because now you have somebody to help you structure where I think we had that conversation where I'm a very fast go, go go getter, you know? But to my fault, I'll be punching in directions I don't know where to go. And then, like, my business mentor will be like, hey, this way.
Lia (00:23:58) - So okay.
Will (00:23:59) - So then I start punching straight, you know? Yeah, it's just scenarios like that. So I have the hard skills. The soft skills was like, okay, focus my and direct my blows. So I make the most out of them instead of just tiring myself out. So accountability and soft skills when it comes to communication was a big part of it.
Will (00:24:17) - And then I read books. 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I had to do a book report on leadership on Lincoln two months ago, where I talked about the qualities. Yeah, yeah.
Lia (00:24:30) - So who's making you do book reports?
Will (00:24:33) - So my personal business coaches Patrick bed David and every month he makes me read a new book and do a book report on it. And he has a full time employee dedicated just to reading my book reports.
Lia (00:24:46) - Holy cow. That's fabulous.
Will (00:24:50) - It is. And it ties back to the accountability because he goes, If I'm going to be accountable for you. I need to make sure what goes into your head, in and out your mouth is something new. Every day he goes, if you're stuck in your own ways, I'm not going to waste my time with you. So he's a very big on accountability.
Lia (00:25:10) - That's amazing. What a wonderful opportunity he and now you're giving back to others.
Will (00:25:15) - Are trying to. Yeah trying to find out different avenues you know okay.
Lia (00:25:19) - So what is on the horizon for energize us.
Lia (00:25:24) - Can you give us some little tidbits or sneak peeks on what's what's about to go down?
Will (00:25:31) - Well, I'm trying to figure out what have we done already? Already we've been traveling the US and we've been taking the micro approach on things. We are trying to highlight and document the contractors and influencers in the US right now and show them a different side of the trades. Basically, the day in the life of a business owner, because we know these business owners are the ones giving the opportunities out to everyone jobs, creating jobs, helping them pay for bill, their bills and their families. So we want to make sure that we maintain that core focus. Remember, the trades gives you so many opportunities. It doesn't just need to be a business owner. You can become an inspector. You can become educators. The trades have so much to offer, and yet you have to take that first step in becoming certified licensed or a master level at any craft you take. So that's what we want to highlight, and we want to highlight the ones who have been doing that and been doing effectively.
Will (00:26:31) - So we've been trying to have a link to us through our podcast, getting to know these individuals. We also been going to different tours and facilities throughout the US. Like, I know we went to the Thomas Edison Museum. We also went down to Vegas to do the Hoover Dam, which to me was very impressive because I didn't understand or didn't know, to be honest, how involved that project was and how similar it is to today's day. The Hoover Dam was built during the Great Depression. Job security was not something people had at that time. Yet. If you signed up for this project, this seven year project, you were guaranteed work. Yet the work ethic they had back in the day was a good hard day's worth of work, to the point where they finished the project two years earlier than expected. If you say that today, hey, we have a seven year project, people are going to milk that cow for seven years. Back in the day when job security wasn't guaranteed, they still finished the project early because they had that work ethic of giving it 100%, especially during not just the US global crisis.
Will (00:27:50) - US crisis. That's a global crisis. And they still showed up every day and finished a job two years earlier than expected. That, to me is an amazing work ethic to keep in mind.
Lia (00:28:01) - So you don't think that that work ethic exists today?
Will (00:28:06) - It does exist. You just have to find the people who have those skills and then bring awareness to those individuals. You know, it might be a diamond is rough, but that doesn't mean there's no diamonds. You still have to find them. You have to weed through everybody. I don't think it's as prevalent anymore. And just with anything like the telephone game, if you start the message off from person one by person ten, it's completely different. But there's still some structured truth to it, something that still ties back. It's but it's completely different. The same with us. We can be learning the good and the bad from the older generation, and we too could apply good and bad to it. So the same people from those times are completely different from now? Yes.
Will (00:28:51) - But are there still nuggets out there? Definitely.
Lia (00:28:54) - Okay, so that's everything you guys done. But I'm interested on what's on the horizon. Come on. We're buddies. We're buddies. Well give me give me a little something. Give me my feet.
Will (00:29:09) - Well, I could speak on this. We just signed a contract for July 1st, second and third. We are going to hold a three day convention style events. For the skilled trades, not just electrical, but we're looking for 1000 attendees. And the way that we're differentiating ourselves from the rest is we are going to have not just a networking station. We're going to have a ballroom just for education. For example, OSHA tends to OSHA 30 smaller continuous ed classes with two people who haven't signed contracts yet, but we are already in negotiations with them to teach that class totally for free networking sessions. And then our open floor room where we're going to have skills workstation, where you get to work alongside. So it's not just engaging through Instagram. You're personally working, for example, installing solar panels on a mock up route with the solar go, wow, we're going to do electrical work, learn how to rough in a wall or rough in a little example of a bathroom with Rudy of right wire.
Will (00:30:24) - Those are the two that we already have confirmation, but we're trying to now use their platform for something more than just videos on tools. We're using their platform and engagement with their fans to something that truly has value, not just a light or a click. It's go work with them. Wow. So that's what we're planning for July.
Lia (00:30:46) - That is super exciting. I hope my invitation is in the mail.
Lia (00:30:50) - Of course, of course. Wow, that's going to.
Lia (00:30:53) - Be an incredible event.
Will (00:30:55) - It's going to be fun.
Lia (00:30:56) - Yes, definitely. You're on another level. Well, okay. You're innovative and I always ask what tool is in your tool belt. What is one thing that you've kept with you that has sparked such innovation that you've held on to every day? If you could, if you could narrow it down?
Will (00:31:18) - I think it's just don't be complacent. Complacency kills all men.
Lia (00:31:23) - Yes.
Will (00:31:24) - You can enjoy the moment. You can enjoy a ride. But then I start getting like, itchy for something else.
Will (00:31:32) - So I totally. And then I'll just sometimes I'll stir the pot just for a change, just for something to pop up. I do the same thing with work. When the crews are getting calm, I'm like, let's switch the crews up. You know, I'm like, you work with him? Oh, but I don't like it. I'm like, good, let's see what happened, you know? So no, I hate complacency. So we got to keep moving when we can. And I think that helps out with life. Oh, of course you can enjoy moments, but you want to make sure you're always growing incredible.
Lia (00:32:00) - Thank you so much for coming on the Sparky life. It was a pleasure having you.
Will (00:32:04) - Thank you. It was a real honor. Appreciate you.
Lia (00:32:08) - I love chit chatting with Wil. I highly recommend you check out his podcast Work and Talk. I'll have all his socials in the show notes. You know, by now I'm an avid reader and for someone who's dyslexic, I still surprised myself every time I hear myself say this.
Lia (00:32:28) - I'm currently reading The End of Average by Todd Rose. I'll put the Amazon link in the show notes below for you. This is an incredible read. I resonate with Todd as his experience and journey is much like my own. His research only confirms my fears about our education system. I am determined to prevent other junior high and high school students from going through what I went through, trying to navigate a career path for myself. This is why I advocate for programs like Wills. Shouldn't we live in a society that nurtures and supports self-discovery in a chosen career path? Our schools shouldn't be pumping out cogs in a machine. Employees who live paycheck to paycheck in massive debt. How dare our culture allow this to continue? I know the tide is changing, but how many are willing to ride this wave? Ask yourself, what did your academic career do to prepare you for your chosen path in life? And how did it set you up for success? Thank you for joining us. If you felt a spark in today's episode, I.
Lia (00:33:45) - 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 Spark Life, please subscribe, like, follow and share. Until next time, create the sparks in your life.