More Leads Online Podcast Episode 011

Nathan Young, MLO (00:00):

Hey, this is Nathan with the Home Service Leaders Podcast by More Leads Online. I’m here today with Chad German. Chad, I’m going to mess this up because you’re involved in so many things, your career’s becoming prolific, uh, as far as I’m concerned, tell us about your career. How did you get started as an electrician? What are all the things you do now? You’re involved in a bunch of stuff?

Chad German (00:23):

Well, uh, I became an electrician at the age of 29. I was working at, uh, the church out here in Utah, uh, the LDS church, washing windows, and doing some security stuff. And we were, my son was born with a disability and I needed to get a career. So I ended up looking into the trade and, and, uh, got into it. And it was the best decision I I’ve made besides marrying my wife, I guess,

Nathan Young, MLO (00:50):
Top two, top two. And what are you doing now?

Chad German (00:52):

So now I’m a, I’m a master electrician here in Utah, which takes eight years and four years in school and then five different tests. And then I teach here at Mtech. It’s a technical college. I teach four nights a week and I have a consulting business where I travel and teach. And we just started a and launched a business called nationwide electrical training services. Uh, uh, the owner or the president of IEC, New York hit me up and we were, we’ve come up with that company together. So, um, my business partners in New York and I’m here in Utah. So yeah, that’s what I do. I run the service division also during the day for a gardener electric. So I have a gardener electric for 40 hours a week, and then, uh, four nights a week I teach at Mtech and then I do some seminars on Saturday and Sunday. Yeah. And then when I get a call to travel somewhere, I just drop it all and go out there and do some consulting.

Nathan Young, MLO (01:51):
And for one or two hours a week on Sunday night, you sleep that’s it.

Chad German (01:56):

Yeah, no, I try. No, you know, that’s one thing is when I’m home, I’m home, I try to be present in every that’s. That’s kind of the thing is no matter where I’m at, I’m trying to be present and in that. So if I’m teaching all, everything else just gets put aside and I teach. And, uh, when I’m, when I’m working for, you know, for Gardner electric, I try to focus on Gardner electric and get that done. And when I’m consulting and a hundred percent consulting, when I’m with my family, turn off my phone, put it in my drawer and board games and helping make dinner and doing laundry and dishes and stuff like that. So I try to try to just be present in everything I do.

Nathan Young, MLO (02:35):
Oh man, I that’s, I think you hit me right in the heart on that one. I feel that having so many things that

you’re doing and just right off the bat talking to you, I’m like, crap. I need to put my phone away. Chad German (02:49):

Well, I have social media and it can be hard. Right. So when I say that, I, you know, everybody has a little bit of time here and there to, to peek at their phone and see how many likes they’ve gotten, who made comments.

Nathan Young, MLO (03:03):

That’s right. Yeah, that’s right. You, I mean, you’ve mentioned this a couple of times being an electrical consultant. And so you have this business. What, tell me more about what that means or are you cause you’re teaching and you’re consulting. So I wouldn’t assume that you’re consulting exclusively for tradesmen, but maybe you are like, unpack that a little bit for me.

Chad German (03:25):

So my consulting is, uh, electrical. Um, uh, every, every state in the U S is a little bit different for requirements. Uh, when it comes to licensing and continuing education training, for an example, Arizona, there’s no real requirements to be an electrician. You just, you just say, you’re an electrician and you go, why or someone’s house to where here, you have to get an apprenticeship license for four years, go through four years of school, pass the journeymen tests. And if you want to own your business, you have to wait another four years and take another few tests and then you can own your own business to become a after a master electrician. So it’s the requirements here are way more dramatic than, you know, Arizona, New York. It really depends on from County to County, some counties in New York. Uh, I know that long Island has a lot of requirements similar to ours, to where Manhattan actually, it’s kind of just one of those things where there’s not a lot of requirements to be an electrician in Manhattan, which is kind of weird. So

Nathan Young, MLO (04:20):

The consultant who’s going place to place teaching about this stuff. And like you just said, I mean, I am a consumer myself, right? I mean, like I live in a house, I need electrical work. You just told me something that I didn’t know, which was, I have the potential of getting a much broader range of expertise than I guess I would have imagined as, because I, yeah, as a consumer, like, I don’t think about that. Like, I don’t know what all goes into it. And I, you know, when I flipped the switch, it works or it doesn’t that’s right. And so, but you’re saying there could be a big, broad range, I wonder. And obviously don’t don’t name any names here, but I wonder if you’ve seen a little bit of, there are certain places where you go in and you go, I see that the regulation for this has allowed the quality of the work to creep down a little bit.

Chad German (05:18):

No, I have traveled a lot with, like I said, as a consultant, but I also, when the economy fell back in 2008, I traveled, uh, doing, you know, being the head electrician on Walmarts and Kohl’s and home depots and hospitals. And so I’ve been all over the Western part of the United States. And I I’ll be honest. I haven’t noticed too much. Um, I’ve noticed maybe like when I was in Tucson, Arizona, the electricians were just kind of happy with more of a labor status. No one was really trying to climb that ladder to where here program the electrical program, because it is, it’s looked at as a big career and the wages are high. You know, the, that the guys come out of here with it, I’m in a lab right now where, you know, one of the tests in, in Utah, the hardest test is the practical test.

Chad German (06:05):

You’ve got to wire up motor control, starters, transformers, three way, four way switches, then conduit. Then you have to do that. And if you fail on one of those, you’re done. So, yeah. So it’s, it’s one of those, uh, things out here where, uh, the status, uh, of a master electrician, I bet it’s only not even 5% of guys ended up getting their, even their journeymen license. It’s, it’s just a really tough thing, but you get kind of hack electricians or, you know, just do it yourself, guys that don’t really understand. They understand that a white is a neutral and a, and a, the darker colors that is the, the hot conductor and the ground is the ground, but they don’t understand what that means. Right. And so it’s one thing to just land wires on terminals and then leave. And another reason, another way that I can walk up and, or I can, I can troubleshoot a lot of times when people tell me problems on the phone, you’re not going to find that from the handyman down the street or, or somebody that just installs electrical components, you find that from an electrician.

Chad German (07:03):

So I think the training is, is more found in the skillset of the electrician and not necessarily the work you can have work that looks immaculate with perfect staple jobs on your Romex. And you’re like you said, all you got all the consumer sees it, the light turns on, but an electrician that did the calculations to make sure everything was perfect is a lot different than, than just a handicap handyman. And I’m not ripping on handyman, but

Nathan Young, MLO (07:27):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I’ve, I’ve used a lot of, uh, I think I’ve worked with a lot of handyman in my life and they’ve liked my stuff works. And so, and so I just, for a second, because the very first thing you said was, no, I’m not necessary. I’ve done a lot of traveling and I’m not necessarily seeing a slipping of the quality or if things working and maybe that’s more on the consumer side. And so some of it though might just speak to the industry, right? Like in, there’s sort of a do your job or like the community is going to rib you pretty hard. And so we all want to do a good job. Do you think that it’s more on the community side that you’re seeing that, and then the consumer sort of would never know any way? Yeah.

Chad German (08:10):

Yeah. I mean, if you’re talking like social media, when you’re saying the community side, I don’t know if I’m following correctly. Um, so like the electrical community, um, there’s a lot of, uh, misunderstandings about the electrical code. And one of the things I talk about in my, a lot of my classes is I give an analogy of a guy that goes to his wife and says, why do you cook the Turkey in such a big pan? And she says, Oh, because it brings in the juices and it just cooks it perfectly. And then he’s like, that doesn’t make any sense. And she goes, go ask my mom. So he goes to his mom or his mother-in-law and says, what, why do you cook the turkey in such a big pan? And she comes up with the same thing and he goes, it’s still not making any sense.

Chad German (08:49):

And she goes, Hey, go ask my mom. I got, this is three generations. We’re not wrong. So he goes to his wife’s grandma and says, grandma, why do you cook the turkey in a big pan? She said, I had one pan. And so there’s a long analogy that basically said to say, like, you know, a lot of times it is a lot easier to ask the guy that’s 40 years into the trade than it is to crack the book and try to figure it out yourself. And there’s a lot of, well, it’s worked this way for 30 years, so it’s fine. But I’m telling you right now that the

industry is really changing with the fact that the LEDs and the different things that we’re coming up with, uh, back in the day, they would share neutrals with multiple circuits and not have a disconnect.

Chad German (09:26):

Simultaneously disconnecting means on the, on the breaker. Well, if you disconnect one of those circuits and you go to open up a neutral, you’re going to fry every single one of those drivers in the LEDs. And so you go find a guy that has got 20 years experience, and he hasn’t tried to continually educate himself. He’s going to learn that the hard way. And so that’s my job to come in and I teach the codes that give you allowance. Uh, you know, the table 300 dot five in the code book tells you to, you know, the deepest you have to go to put pipes is 24 inches. If you have to run pipes for electrical, that’s like if it’s truck traffic and it’s a, like an, a parking lot or a driveway or on a highway, that’s as deep as you have to go, I’m going, it depends on the wiring methods that you would use as well. And then if you’re under, under a slab of concrete, like in a home Depot or a Walmart or something of that nature, if you’re underneath the concrete and there’s no truck traffic, you can go six inches. But a lot of times the guys don’t crack that book and they go get a mini X and they’re digging for six months to get all their pipes, 24 inches deep. And if you do the math, you can lose hundreds of thousands of dollars on a big project.

Nathan Young, MLO (10:36): Yeah.

Chad German (10:38):
Those are the things I, I teach. A lot of

Nathan Young, MLO (10:41):

That makes sense to me. Well, you just said this, that a lot of things are changing. So one of the questions that I knew that I wanted to ask you was like, it seems like you do a lot of work with like electrical devices and maybe equipment manufacturers. Is that, am I, am I accurate there? What do you think is the most, so as the, as the industry is evolving a little bit, what do you think might surprise people that now the electrical industry is sort of connecting with this other industry, and that might be surprising for some people, like I would have assumed all my life, right? Like, it’s really typical for electricians to work with general contractors. Like that’s just a staple thing. And now are there new industries or new sort of like big people that you might be surprised that it’s really common for electricians to work with now?

Chad German (11:34):

I mean, uh, the, the electrical industry is, is humongous. And I tell that to my students when they’re, when I’m teaching them like a, about capacitive reactants or inductive, reactants are like, we’re wiring up a house. Why do I need to know this? There’s no capacitor in a home, you know? And I’m like, you’re getting a journeymen license that allows you to say, you’re, you’re qualified, be an electrician and wire up, anything that comes your way. Right? So, um, I’ve got friends that fly around the country and change out light heads on, on, uh, stadium, literally football, stadiums, and arenas. And that’s a whole process in itself because of the voltage drop to get up to that full, you have to know what you’re doing, just to change out a light head. You got streetlights, everything that you can think of the conveyor belt system that builds things.

Chad German (12:19):

That’s all part of electrical. And so as things get progress, we’re just always wiring up. And like I said to all the students, like, and I hope I’m answering your question. There’s just, it’s just so open. I got asked to, to, uh, to wire up a potato machine. And I was like, well, what’s a potato machine. And they’re literally, they put potatoes on this machine. And it goes up a conveyor system and their system rolls and cuts has a big cutters. And it cuts, stands up potatoes and shoots the potatoes into a big bucket. And then they go plant those potatoes. And it was just for the electrical jobs, like $70,000 to wire, this thing up with it controls and different stuff like that. So as long as people are being innovative and coming up with different ways to, uh, to make things better, we’re always going to be having to evolve in the things that we wire up. You know,

Nathan Young, MLO (13:08):

I think you, I think you answered the question in a stellar fashion. Like I think a lot about the home service industry. So I’m thinking pretty often about what it means to be an electrician as far as the home goes. So I’m thinking construction or renovation, or, you know, like new, cool stuff. And then you and I were chatting just before we started recording, and you mentioned a hot tub. And I like, I don’t know why, but it just like slipped right out of my brain that that of course would be a job for an electrician. Right. And so, um, the amount of other things are like, Oh, well, here’s this potato cutter, like to prep for planting. Like this is an electrician’s job. And so that idea, the industry is so broad. You basically just said, look, if something is moving or there’s light, we were there. Right. So that, I mean, the industry is gigantic. It’s the whole world over.

Chad German (14:04):

Yeah. It’s and it’s gonna continue to do that. So, you know, it can be frustrating when you get like a fourth year student that has just been wiring up houses for four years, who doesn’t, he’s in a class thinking he’s learning way more than he needs to know, but he doesn’t see the potential of where he could go with his career. You know, the thing is, is we’re all gonna change 15 years from now. I’m not going to be the same person I was 15 years ago, or I, that I am right now, uh, whether I try to try to make that happen or not, it’s not going to happen. And so we can evolve and grow with that, or we can just fall backwards. And I think some of these guys that I see on Instagram all the time, I’ve been doing this for 30 years, well, doing it for 30 years, you know, doing it the way you did 30 years ago is wrong now.

Chad German (14:46):

And there’s no, there’s no 2 cents about it. It’s wrong. You know, we don’t wire things up. You know, we got home automation systems. A lot of times for the lights, we’re pulling little teeny Lobola, uh, wires, and we’re, we’re taking the ethernet cable up to a box and, uh, they can control everything from their phone and office buildings and homes now. So it’s, you know, they got, I walked into a basement, I did a basement and I guy said to his son, Hey, play the Alexa app, play your favorite song. And all of a sudden, uh, one of the Disney songs came on and the lights in the room just all change and started going to the, you know, going to the beat of the music. And the little boy was dancing. And I was like, how did I wire that, that way, you know, I did was normal, but those cans and the internet and everything that we’ve got nowadays, uh, opens up so many different avenues for us.

Nathan Young, MLO (15:36):

I was going to ask you for someone first starting out and you, right. So you just started touching on this question anyway. So what is, what would you say is the most important thing for building a career as an

electrician? Not just to go wire up houses, and I want to ask you about that in a minute, because again, we focus a lot about the home service industries and doing that type of work, but for someone just starting out, what do you think the most important thing for them, for building a career as an electrician is going to be,

Chad German (16:07):

I get asked this question all the time, actually on my social media is from guys that are deciding if they want to be an electrician or they’re just getting in the trade and they want to know what they can be doing better. And there’s so much to learn. I mean, I am, I’m still learning. I learn every single day, like my son who’s 19 put a kick in a pipe somewhere where I wouldn’t have normally done it. And it looked way better than I’ve ever made my, I mean, my pipe broke is good, but I was like, son, I don’t, I wouldn’t have to do all the bends I did if I would’ve just did what you did, you know, like where did you come up with that? And he’s like, I don’t know, but he’s been helping me since he’s, he’s nine years old and, and, uh, it’s just kinda natural to him.

Chad German (16:41):

But I think the number one thing is you really have to find the love of the trade. I know, you know, as of today with, uh, the owner of our account, uh, my company, Brandon Gardner, he was my original form. And for another electrical firm, when I first started in a trade, he was a new journeymen. And I was, I was older than him, but he was, you know, he was a journeyman and I was this old, I was 29 and he was 25. But so the love of the trade that he had, he just loved being an electrician. And still to this day, he doesn’t want to go sit in the office. He wants to wire things up and, and being with him today and troubleshooting this. And we’re talking about the capacitor, I’m talking to the motor and we blew the technician from the hot tub place away.

Chad German (17:19):

He was just like, well, Oh, so this is a capacitor, how does this work? And we’re explaining to him because I do the other electricians, just take wires, land them. And then they leave. And I was like, well, we’re both master electricians. And we both love the stuff. So you’re going to have hard days. I remember literally this is going to be out there for everybody to hear, but I remember being in Tucson, Arizona away from my wife and kids and, uh, just out there forever. And I was just really struggling. And I, I couldn’t sleep at night cause it’s too hot and I just lost it. I had gotten an argument with one of the coworker and I walked out to the port-a-john close,d the port-a-john door. And I just sat there and I cried. I just cried so hard.

Chad German (17:59):

And I was like, I just wanna go home. I don’t want to be with my, I want to be with my family. This isn’t fair, you know, and just, you know, then I manned up and wipe the tears off. No one saw I walked out and, uh, pick myself up and went at it. And, uh, that just made me stronger and better. So I just think that, uh, if you have the love of the trade, you’ll get through those times. A lot of guys, I see just like, Oh, this isn’t meant for me. And literally it’s just, it is what it is. You know, we have to be in, we have to be, um, sometimes I have a friend that just did an install. I had to go in when the tide of the ocean was out, he could go in and do his electrical work. And then when the tide was coming, he was done. And so he could only go so much a day because it was underneath a big dock area. And, um, and then I had guys working, you know, in mines, coal mines, and, uh, on top of skyscrapers, you know, these guys were, were having to put electrical in places that you don’t really think of because like you said, you flip a light

on and it’s there. So, um, if you can love to trade, uh, you’re, you’re just going to, you’ll be able to just take off,

Nathan Young, MLO (18:59):

You literally teach this all the time. And you’ve mentioned this earlier, right? Like if someone was doing exactly the same thing, so you, you have a passion for the trade, you love the trade. That’s going to be the most important thing if you’ve been doing it for 30 years. And you’re someone, even if you’re someone who loves it, if you haven’t continued educating yourself on all the new, it sounds like what you’re saying is it’s more than just loving the thing that you’re doing right now. It’s more, it’s loving the concepts of it even as they grow. And so like, that would be my other question is it sounds like you’re saying the electrical industry is changing a lot. How will that affect like the day-to-day of what someone is doing right now? Like, yeah. They should be really in love with what they’re doing. How would you encourage someone to sort of go, Hey, look, this is changing a lot though. So one of the other things you’re going to have to love is this.

Chad German (19:51):

I think it goes back to the, my friends and I’ve teased these guys enough that if they listen to this podcast and know who I’m talking about, but the 30 year I’ve been doing it this way for 30 years, um, and I’m not going to change that guy. He has to understand, um, when I went through electrical school, I struggled for a little bit, uh, to understand things. In fact, that’s probably why I love teaching so much. And, and I probably relate with those students that don’t understand it because I can see when they’re like, Oh, they, I call it the Oh, face. They’re just like, Oh, Oh. You know, and everybody in the rooms look around and I can say, okay, I’m going to stop. And I go back and I say, okay, all this is going into your brain as, Oh.

Chad German (20:30):

So you’re not going to understand what I’m going to say. So everybody get up, get the OSHA, it’s out, sit back down. Now let’s talk about this. And then I go back step by step. I think that, that the big difference is these guys have other avenues. You know, if a lot of times in the electrical industry, we have teachers that are just electricians like myself. And I only know what I’ve been taught and what I’ve dealt with. And I do a lot. I, I told the president of the school here, uh, the president of the apprenticeship program here at Mtech. I studied harder than every student in the school. And he goes, I know, and I do, because I want so much information that I can, that these guys are getting the best experience in the school because I didn’t have that. And, uh, but what these guys have is here’s a cell phone.

Chad German (21:14):

And if I want to look up capacitive circuitry or combination circuits, or series of parallel circuits, there’s electrical engineers that are making videos that are way more in depth than, uh, the electrical teacher inside the school. And so I think the students now, if they’re, if they’re looking in their teacher doesn’t care, they could easily just go home, flip it open and watch video. I’ve had a first-year student that came in and knew everything in first year already. He was like, Oh, I watched a YouTube video on, is, are you talking about this? And I’m like, yeah, I’m talking about that. You know, he was saying stuff before I was even getting to it. So I was really impressed with the fact that he was educating himself. And so I, you know, that’s kind of, I think what we’re going to have to do as things happen, you know, we were trying to figure out the hot tub today. And we both pulled out our phones and started Googling stuff. And you couldn’t do that 15, 20 years ago.

Nathan Young, MLO (22:03):
It is a passion for the craft itself, but there’s just a reality to being like, Hey, you are, you’re a self

educator now, too.

Chad German (22:15):

Right? I mean, just look at the podcast in itself, 20 years ago, there was nothing out there where trades people could go to, to listen. You know, we just turn on, uh, what was that show? I used to always watch married with Cheryl. You know, you go home and watch children is hanging out, watch Al Bundy, and then you’d go back to work and you do the same thing. Now. It’s like, your entertainment can be what you love and can be enjoyable. You know, your work can be enjoyable. You know, you can be a workaholic and not be at work. You can just be on your phone, hanging out with your family, scrolling through the internet. So I’m glad I can be part of that, you know, do, that’s why I do these podcasts and then, you know, stuff like that so that I can help, help build the love of the trade for sure.

Nathan Young, MLO (22:57):

Um, I appreciate it. I am also all in on this. So, uh, thanks for helping plus you’re way smarter about all of this stuff than I am. So I’m just piggybacking off of how brilliant you are on. So that’s, that’s super convenient for me. I wanted to ask you this too. Then we’ve talked a lot about like, here’s, what’s going on. If you’re new, here’s what sort of the old school, um, that we want to almost kick out a little bit and go, Hey, we need to evolve. And so then my question is what about leadership in the industry? And so like both as someone coming in and as someone who’s been around for awhile, it’s clearly a place where there could be tension. Oh yes. And so what would you say about leadership in the industry right now?

Chad German (23:38):

Both sides. I think that this industry is lacking in leadership tremendously. I think that if anybody was, uh, and I hope I don’t sell and sell myself out on this, but I think that if there was anything that you wanted to make a lot of money and you had leadership material ready, you and you hit the construction industry, you would make a big splash because you think about it. When I became a journeyman, uh, I’ve been trained how to wire things up and read the code book. And all of a sudden they hand me a job. That’s a $900,000 project. What other industries are going to hand? They’re going to hand over an attorney, a case at 900,000 and not help them. It was like, here’s your, here’s your plans? Go to town, don’t lose us any money. We want 20% profit. Right. And my first thing was like, okay, well, I’m just going to stay late.

Chad German (24:24):

I’m going to work as harder than everybody else. And, you know, and, uh, I compare it to in baseball, when you get a guy that can hit an infield home run, that’s awesome. Right. And, but he’s working a lot harder to hit that infield home run than a guy that can hit the ball out of the park. So for years, I mean, I still have the reps reputation and get job offers from old companies to come back because they know Chad German. If he goes to work on Monday, we’ll stay on the job until Friday and go home and shower, come back Monday. Uh, but my family was hurting. I was hurting. And at the end of the day, they slap you on the back and say, good job. Let’s move you on to the next one. It becomes expected. And eventually I realized I’m really bad at organization.

Chad German (25:05):

Uh, I’m just yelling at people, making them slow because they’re, they hate me now. And the morale is down and so true. Leadership skills, uh, has taken time for me to, to, uh, overcome. And so I’ve been hired before to be the bad cop. And I thought everybody liked me. And I walked out and when I quit and looked back and you know, there was birdie fingers when I was like, Oh, I thought they were all my friends. And I was pretty mean, right. Uh, that’s how companies sometimes are really to, to be a real leader. You have to get people to buy into you. You have to get people to buy into you to be able to kind of chase, chase your dream or chase the goals. Right. So I guess my question to you is how would you get people to buy into you? Do you, what would you do to get people to buy into you? You got me on the podcast somehow.

Nathan Young, MLO (25:47):

Yeah. Well, right. How did I get Chad German on this podcast? Uh, the, I think the thing that I have that attracts people to me, well, let me say this two ways. It works both ways. The thing that I have that either attracts people to me, or that allows me to sort of face the fear of it, frankly, is just an insatiable curiosity. When it comes to this stuff, I’m like, look my ego over there. You know, I don’t know whatever it takes you tell me.

Chad German (26:22):

No, no. And I felt that from you. I think that that’s, that’s something that, you know, you have a strong point, but I’m gonna tell you what I, one of the reasons I was, I, I would probably say yes to a podcast, but I was super excited about this one. Uh, you and I talked on the phone about a week or two ago, and, uh, I’ve been just super amped up and wanted this to go really, really well. And I would say that’s because you bought into me, right? So you bought into me, which made me buy into you. And ultimately, hopefully the, the overall customer or person that’s listening to this buys into what we have to offer. I think that when we have a leadership, when you take an apprentice aside and you teach him things and you buy into him or her as a person, they’re going to buy into you because they know you care.

Chad German (27:05):

And I think I, when I was teaching that to one of our foreman, it hit me. I was like, I need to get my wife to buy into me. I’m complaining that she’s mad at me. I’m complaining that she’s never happy, but I’m never home. And so when I’m home, I’m buying into her, I call her every day now and check on her instead of just, you know, my wife’s independent, she’s tough. She doesn’t need to she’s that woman doesn’t care what I’m doing, you know? And ultimately she, she did. Um, but she was just learning to cope, right. So I would call my wife and check on her. And when I’m home, I’m doing the dishes and I’m listening and we’re not perfect. I’m not perfect at that. And not, not any leader is perfect, but if you can get people to buy into you, usually it’s because you’ve bought in, bought into them. And it gives you so much power in chasing deadlines and doing stuff like that.

Nathan Young, MLO (27:48):

Do you think that that plays a lot? I use the term discipleship and mentorship a lot. I think about those terms a lot. And I, I sort of hunt mentorship. I try to make myself a mentor of as many people as I can. Right. Like, it’s one of the reasons I love doing the podcast. I get to talk to people like you, who are like, you’ve honed your craft so much. And I’m like, whatever you’ve got to give, like, I’ll take it. I’ll do whatever it takes. Do you think that you would use those terms instead of just maybe the term

leadership that you would say yeah. That term discipleship or mentorship, like that’s something that you should be thinking about developing?

Chad German (28:25):

Oh, absolutely. I think that, uh, there’s I actually have an individual in, in the industry who, uh, he uses mentorship, uh, the phrase a lot, but it has a really hard time getting people to buy into him. I was super excited when he reached out to me and, and uh, you know, we were starting to work together and then it became frustrating because it was more about him than it was about anything else. And I think people can see beyond that. So with that being said, I think you have to be genuine. And you, I mean, you’re going to have, we’re all human. We’re going to have rough days, but I think that’s a perfect phrase, discipleship or being a mentor for somebody. And that’s why I love teaching so much. You know what I mean? I struggle. I really love the student that that may be not, might not be getting it, but he’s calling me with questions.

Chad German (29:09):

He’s texting me saying after early, and I tell you, those guys are the leaders. Those guys are the ones, because I’ll have a teacher like myself, they have bought into them that they’re going to want to buy into the guy that when they see that as well. But it’s the guys that, you know, sleep in class and wake up and get a hundred percent on the test, go to work. You know, they don’t last very long. And so I really think it’s important to focus on those individuals that will do whatever it takes to succeed. And I think it takes a whole bunch of people in line to make that happen.

Nathan Young, MLO (29:40):

That’s awesome. That’s a good word. If nobody tells, takes anything from that, I think we could probably just clip that chunk out and go, here you go. This is the most useful thing. Okay. We’ve talked about the best thing we can possibly talk about. Now let’s chat about business stuff a little bit. If you don’t mind, which is you’ve run or help run several businesses. And so people in business circles, and I spend a decent amount of time on LinkedIn and stuff, and I see these, these people equating business and leadership concepts all the time. And so then I want to, I want to take that, twist that on its head just a little bit and say, how much do you think business acumen and experience in the trades sort of naturally fit together?

Chad German (30:23):

I, I think they, uh, they fit together great because, uh, in the trade, whether you’re a subcontractor or a contractor, you’re having to deal with people from the minute, you know, my son right now at 19 years old, uh, he’s been helping me since he was young. You know? And, and so he’s, I remember Abby, she’s one of our apprentices here. She said, I love Quinn, but I hate him. And I said, well, what, what does that supposed to mean? She’s like, she’s like, Quinny will, will see me doing something wrong and he’ll walk by and just kind of keep working. And then, and then you come by and you start tuning me out that I’m doing it wrong. And she’s like, why didn’t you tell me? Quinn is like, well, you’re an adult. And I just didn’t want to overstep my bounds. And as much as I want my son to step out of his shell, he’s learned that by being in the trades and seeing, you know, seeing, seeing me get after the guys, I’m like, let’s go.

Chad German (31:11):

And then when the superintendent or the customer comes in, kind of flipping that over and being like, Hey, uh, we’re, we’re chasing this deadline as fast as we can. We apologize, you know, uh, you’re, you’re

your best self, or you show your true colors. I should say, you’re not always your best self and your back’s up against the wall. And, uh, you know, this hot tub situation, the text I got last night was not, you know, have the end of this text was, this is not acceptable. And his hot tub had been tripping so many times. We’ve changed breaker after breaker, everything there makes sense. We have two 40 volts, it’s pulling 40 amps on a 50 amp breaker. It’s not going to trip. Um, the hot tub people were saying, we gutted it out, put a new end. And am I frustrated that I have to go an hour away?

Chad German (31:49):

And that’s two hours a day just to get there for, you know, this is, this has cost us, you know, four times of what, we’ve, what we’ve charged the guy to get it in. And, uh, but at the end of the day, how you treat that customer, uh, is ultimately a business transaction, whether you’re at the lowest guy in the field, you know, in the, in the construction, I don’t mean to keep going, but in, in the construction world where we’re using our hands, and I tell this to our guys all the time, we are the product, right? So yesterday Abby was there working, uh, cute young lady and was somebody’s house working. The lady came in to owner, goes, Oh girl, electrician, you know, she’s the best. And she is like, she’s outworking all the guys and we’re trying to keep up, you know?

Chad German (32:28):

And we’re just like, you know, Abby’s sets a different product out there than what we do, uh, whether she’s female or not the product that, that customer sees as she stands out because she’s female and she focused, I’ve worked with other female electricians and not all of them. They were like, Abby, you know, Abby is Abby because she’s Abby, but we are our product. So how we talk to customers, how we deal with problems, how we bid that is a hundred percent what the customer gets. It’s like, if you buy a shirt and you go put it on the sleeve falls off, you’re not going to buy that brand again. You know, it’s the same thing. When you deal with Chad German out in the field,

Nathan Young, MLO (33:03):
What would you say are some of the most important unexpected lessons you’ve learned while starting

and running your businesses?

Chad German (33:11):

It’s funny because being a, being in a big companies, it comes across a lot of times like guys will leave for you. You’ll train them up and they’ll leave you for 50 cents more. Right. And I kind of believe that on certain things, but I I’m amazed with this company, um, with, we get a guy that’s just not willing to work hard and, and, and be having integrity and, and be friends and work with everybody. They generally just leave. We’ve never really had to, we’ve had like three or four guys that just, and I’m not saying anybody that if anybody that has left our company and everybody that’s left is a bad Apple. Right. We’ve had good guys leave for good, good jobs and stuff like that, but we don’t seem to keep bad people around because how we treat them, how we treat them and we buy into our guys a hundred percent. Um, so I think that that has been the surprising thing that it’s not always about money for people.

Nathan Young, MLO (34:06):

Oh, man, I have learned that lesson both painfully and not, but definitely the first time or two, you learn that lesson it’s painful, right? Like on either side boy and cause you know, this, whether it’s something that you’ve done in your life or something, you’ve just watched someone do. But if you’ll leave for 50 cents more, what you discover is the person who was willing to poach you for 50 cents more is willing to

replace you for 50 cents less. And you know, the next day there’s nothing permanent about that. Right. It’s very transactional and it stays that way. You’re not going to build anything relationally. And ultimately that’s, long-term, that’s a career. That’s a, like what you said, um, that’s what you’re actually showing to people and customers. And so if you’re making those sort of transactional decisions, you’re not building anything over time. And maybe I’m, maybe I’m sort of stepping out of the bounds of what you were saying, but is that okay? Again, like something I’ve learned to the unfortunate way.

Chad German (35:13):
I think it’s good that that’s that’s right on. Right.

Nathan Young, MLO (35:16):
And it’s also says something to business owners too, right? Like, Hey business owner, if your strategy is

to go pay a guy 50 cents more, a dollar more, you’re probably going to attract from the low end

Chad German (35:28):

There’s guys that, uh, I have a lot of friends that they chase the dollar, but they won’t come and get into school. So a guy will show up and go, I got eight years a school I’ve got in and out, but I get so busy in reality. They’re just, they’re not interested. They want that money. Right. But the problem with those guys is they get to the point where they’re not worth what they think they’re worth, you know? And then when those big jobs and, or like, like you said, they’re going to keep a qualified guy with the paper, with the license in his pocket over you. And so you’re doing yourself an injustice. If you don’t go through the program and, and, and do it the right way. And a skilled trades person is worth a lot more than somebody that’s not, you know, that’s just, it is what it is

Nathan Young, MLO (36:08):

As the business owner, you know, that person’s not going to weather the storm with you and vice versa, right. Not just as the electrician, who’s taking the dollar an hour more like when that, if that business owner has a rough time last year, uh, on both sides, again, it’s like transactional. And so if your tactic is to just go hire someone for a dollar more, first of all, that guy is going to leave for 50 cents more than what you bought him for. And so you’re going to lose him, but he’s also not going to weather the storm with you. So if you go through a rough patch or your light on jobs for a week or a month or whatever, like they’re already out looking like they’re onto their next thing. And so that guy’s not going to hang with you at a low pay for a few weeks and take some, relax on the couch and then be like, it’s cool. We’ll pick back up. You know, like I’m loyal to my crew. That’s not going to happen.

Chad German (37:00):

Right. I, uh, I had a conversation with the plumber and he said, you realize as a business owner, we’re training guys to basically take your cut. Like you’re training the next business owner. A lot of guys won’t stay. And I thought, well, that’s an interesting take. And I looked at his company and thought, I can see, I can see why I can do that. There are no opportunity. Right? And so people are going to work with, for you because you buy into them. And they know that there’s a future. And for opportunity, you know, no one wants to stay in the same spot 15 years and feel like they’re falling backwards. And if they are they’re the guys, you generally don’t want, you want those guys that are hungry. And you know, one of the biggest problems I have is I’m always trying to climb the ladder and it’s like, well, where’s the top of the ladder. I don’t know. It’s fun to climb a ladder. So you got other guys that will stay in the pit and look at the ladder and be like, look at that guy working hard. We’ll just stay down here. So I just, I think that

it’s a mentality thing. A lot of times in different, you know, different companies are gonna, like you said, they’re going to attract those type of people.

Well, when I asked you this to sort of cap off this, and then I do want to ask you a couple of questions about marketing, because I can’t help it. So like, obviously you’re steeped in manuals all the time and you’re studying all the time you’re growing, you’ve talked about this. So then do you have sort of like a top or top three books you’d recommend to someone running a business, maybe especially a home service company or someone in, in those type?

Chad German (38:21):

Uh, right now the books I’m reading are all very technical. It’s not much business. So I don’t, I had, I I’ve read a lot of leadership books. Um, there’s one, uh, about, uh, general Powell who used to be the, one of, one of our generals in the military, in the army. And that book was phenomenal. Uh, talked about, um, different types of leadership, things that I take on myself. Uh, and then business-wise, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m not the owner of the business I, I worked for during the day. So I read business books. Uh, Mike Holt has a business book, um, my called enterprises, uh, that’s specifically about electrical estimating and stuff like that. So, um, I’ve read those ones are pretty good. I’ve had some, I should probably do more, more of as read, read a business books

Nathan Young, MLO (39:06):

As you’re moving to like, to sort of grow your own. You’re like, ah, man, I can’t just be, I’m like, I’m a master electrician. I’ve got this part, um, on like on rails, right. I’ve got my education continuing and now you’re looking at a whole new branch of education and like, alright, time to go again. Yeah.

Chad German (39:29):

Yeah. And then ultimately my biggest fear is that I get, I lose it all right. Somehow I lose everything that I’ve worked hard in my mind for, but at the same time, I think that as long as you’re continually in, in books and bettering yourself that, you know, then you’re just gonna be above your competition. You know, that’s the hard part is, you know, being somebody right next to the owner of a decent size electrical company, I know that, uh, Brandon just wants to be out in the field and he got to where he was at by being an electrician. And now he’s got a bid, he’s got to go help me with a hot tub. He’s got, you know, he just got there by being a really good electrician. So, and with the skilled trades thing, I love that Brandon will just let things go sometimes like, you know, I want to control everything, but I’m bringing Dan in to run that office stuff because I’m, I can’t sit at a desk for eight hours a day.

Chad German (40:19):

Right. And so Dan loves that he’s Dan’s idea of success was to sit at a desk all day. And so he’s made it there. He’s made it out of the field and sitting at the desk and he’s, he’s doing his thing. And then, you know, we’re, we’re talking about bringing other project managers and things of that nature so that we can keep things flowing. And again, it just brings opportunity for everybody to, to progress. As long as everybody’s on that same channel, it’ll it’ll work. Um, you gotta kind of talk to your guys or not talk to you guys until you can show your guys and convince them that if they put in what they they’re supposed to put in, then, and you put in what you’re supposed to put in the future is going to be brighter. And, uh, that seems to, that seems to be working for us and for other companies, there’s other companies out there that guys that I associate with on Instagram that they’ve been doing it for 30 to 50 years or

whatever. And they have four guys and because they want to be out in the field as an electricians and, and they want to be kind of more in control of what happens and then they want to hit the books. And that’s fine. That’s, that’s the cool part about being a trades person. You can be self-employed or you can be an entrepreneur and own a large company. So I think that that’s another awesome thing about being in the trades.

Nathan Young, MLO (41:30):

Oh, for sure. Well, you just touched on this and I said, I wanted to go into marketing. It’s kind of my last question or two, but you have focused so much on leadership. It feels like you’ve got two thirds of business already sort of figured out. You also just talked about like you’re watching the guy that you’re working with everyday. The owner doing what most people who are studying business would say is the hardest thing, which is really letting go of the vine on this guy, loves doing this stuff. And I don’t, I’m going to let go of the vine. I’m not, you know, like I’m going to trust him. He’s gonna, he loves doing that anyway. So great that lets both people get to do the thing they’re happy about. Um, and it also makes sure the job gets done really well. So then the organization as a whole can grow.

Nathan Young, MLO (42:14):

And then I have this question for you because like you’re saying that this isn’t necessarily the thing you study, but like we connected on Instagram, like you have 20 something thousand followers. Like I’ve seen a lot of home service companies in my last several years, you know, decade in the marketing industry. And I’m like, that’s a lot of people like, tell me about how does the availability of social media. It seems like you’re not focused on business stuff, but on the flip side of that, like you’ve grown this incredible following. Like how does the availability of social media change the way you think about growing and marketing your business?

Chad German (42:57):

I mean, I wouldn’t be where I am as far as talking to you and uh, the consulting and uh, I mean teaching wise I’d probably be here, but I know that, uh, my classes fill up within a half hour of registration, which is unreal. And it’s because of this, you know, we were just in the part store today and it guy was looking over at me and my boss was like, uh, I got that guy follows your page, you know? And he’s like, Hey Chad, you remember we talked and I’m like, who are you? And he’s like, Oh, Germany. Oh, okay. Yeah. I remember you. So that stuff’s been happening. My boss lives an hour and a half North of me and he was in a Sam’s club and he could hear my voice. He said he was in line at Sam’s club and he looked over and the guy ahead of him had my, had my account out and was listening to my stories.

Chad German (43:38):

I can only attribute that to that, the fact that I love the trade and I’ve just been myself. I mean, when it comes to Instagram, anybody can buy followers. Right. And anybody can, you know, I see a counselor, a guys have 40,000 and you look at their stuff and it’s obvious that they don’t get any comments on their stuff. And, and there’s no interaction and they’re doing goofy things and, and it’s like, this isn’t even a real page then that doesn’t really matter. But, uh, mine is as organic and it’s, it’s taken a few years to get to that point. But I think that, um, it’s obviously helped for me to put myself out there and put me in the top of the industry, as far as, you know, people know who I am. Uh, you know, I’m at a different level with the code stuff.

Chad German (44:19):

There’s people that have been code leaders for a long time for the electrical code and knowledge. And, um, I’ve been teaching at the trade school for five years now and just kind of cracking away, not looking at myself that way, but then I’m putting myself out there and it’s, it’s really, I got so busy with teaching, continuing education classes in Utah that I, I don’t know what to do when it comes back this next year because it’s an every other year thing. So it’s, it’s been amazing. And I think you just have to be yourself and you have to, you know, pay attention to what everybody else is doing. And maybe make a few allies along your way. Like, you know, the, the connection here, obviously I’ll post this on my stuff and then it will bring some attention to your way. And that that’s kinda how it works.

Chad German (45:00):

Right. And, uh, so marketing for myself, my, my thing is just, sometimes you’re always going to get those people that are rude. You know, you got a skin, you got skinny nostrils or, you know, your bald people are going to make little, take little shots at you all the time. And you know, my big funny thing is when I run into electricians and I do it all the time, they always have a huge smile on their face. And I say, I’m taller than you think. Right. And then they just, how do you know what I was thinking? Cause I’m five, seven. And I think that they, I think that they think I’m going to be like six foot or something, but I always know what they’re going to, they’re going to say, I went to New York with my son and a few guys in New York or like, Hey, let’s meet up and go to lunch.

Chad German (45:35):

And you know, so I, one guy, I thought he was going to be short and he thought I was gonna be tall. And he was like six, four, and I was five seven. So it was, it was a really funny, funny moment, but just be yourself and collab with people. And I think that social media just takes off, you know, if you’re going out there arrogantly and especially in an industry, if you’re trying to be strong in an industry and you go out trying to act like something, you’re not most guys in the blue collar end of the field will eat you alive. I just think that that’s just how we are on job sites. That’s how we are and our personal life, you know, guys go to the bar and they get in fights and you know, then they go to work. The next day I run into those guys when I work up in Wyoming. That’s how trades guys generally are. So if you go at it just being a trades guy, like we talked about before the podcast, just be yourself. And, and, and I think people buy into that. You know, you won’t get everybody to love you. That’s just how it is. But, um, you definitely can make yourself go out there a lot farther than if you sit on your couch.

Nathan Young, MLO (46:30):
All right. You heard him, Ted German says, uh, be authentic and use social media to be social.

Chad German (46:38): Yeah, exactly.

Nathan Young, MLO (46:41):

Got it. Do you feel like being on social media? I have run the gamut, right? So we’re, uh, we’re more leads online. We’re a local SEO agency. And first of all, if you want to get into an industry where you could sign up to just like get shat on just for being in an industry, like be a roofer or be an SES, Um, what do you do? Oh, you’re a scumbag. I see. Uh, right.

Chad German (47:11):
I think that’s all all’s ball blue collar. Oh, construction worker. Right, right.

Nathan Young, MLO (47:19):

Ah, uh, so we, we get into these conversations all the time where we’re like in our, in our little micro communities, right. Where we’re being social on social media or on this conversation right now. Uh, we’re like, okay, you’re cool. Where were we enjoy this conversation? Oh, you’re authentic. Like, okay, it’s cool within our universes where we can be this this way, or we really do have this opportunity to be authentic. How have you seen the time you’ve spent on social media impact anything for your business or for your boss’s business? Because I mean, that’s the question I have to answer all the time. Right? It’s like, yeah, you Hawk SEO, you Hawk, local SEO. But like, what does that really do for me? I’ve already burned, been burned four times by this. What’s the point of investing in it and I’m like, it really does work. I can’t solve all the sins. How do I, how do I have this genuine conversation? And so my question to you would be like, have you actually seen this have some sort of business effect?

Chad German (48:24):

Oh, absolutely. Um, I mean, it’s, it’s created a lot of opportunities. Uh, I’ve got industry, you know, I’m friends with the higher high high-end guys at Southwire tools. Who’s, it’s a huge $16 billion company. They flew us out there. Uh, we’ve got some tools from them that put to put in our trucks that are, you know, nice tools that are, we tell our guys to take care of. And, and, you know, uh, I got my website done by a guy from Rocketeer tools. Uh, he’s just wanting to help me out. And he started Chad german.com for me. And Andy did a great job and I tried to pay him and he wouldn’t. So it’s just, uh, the industry, literally the thing I’ve, I’ve been amazed by is like, people really want to help other people out. Right? Like, and if there is that dog eat dog type of thing, cause everybody gets jealous of success.

Chad German (49:10):

But at the same time, there’s good, genuine people out there that are just amazing, willing to help you. One of the coolest things is, uh, a guy named Derek that works for us. He’d hit me up a few times with electrical questions on Instagram and we’ve built like a relationship where we were, he’d ask questions, I’d tell him. And one day Brandon goes, we just need a guy. That’s not quite been trained to the point where he’s not going to listen. Cause he’s got 50 years experience and we don’t want a second year apprentice that we have to he’s like, I just need that really good right in the middle guy. And I said, I wonder if Derek is really happy. And so I literally DMD Derek. And he said, uh, he was as funny, I just decided about an hour ago that I was going to look for another job.

Chad German (49:56):

So, uh, um, he has, he had came and I remember I gave him my company truck because we didn’t, it was just all on the whim. So I, my wife and I drove up and dropped off my company truck at his house so that you could have a truck. And then I use my personal, not use the, we had another car, uh, in the business. I used that for a little bit until we could get another truck. But when I went up there, it was, he was almost star struck because he’d been following me and different things, but we’re great friends. And I will tell you, I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings in the company. And anybody feel like I don’t like them cause I love everybody. But Derek has been an absolute pleasure to work with. And he is one of the most skilled electricians I have ever met when it comes down to skill is one of the most skilled individuals that I’ve ever met. And I’ve worked with a lot of electricians over the year. So, um, yeah, it, it has changed our company dramatically. We have, we have guys all the time hitting us up for work and guys that want to work with me and it’s kinda cool. It’d be hard to leave the company. Uh, when you pretty much handpicked all your coworkers, that’s what I told him about. So I’ve, I’ve been offered jobs

from other good companies before, but I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t leave the people behind that I work with. So

Nathan Young, MLO (51:07):

Yeah, you don’t need the one extra dollar. You’re like, I’ve got something way more valuable here. Like yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. All right. Well you heard it from Chad. You didn’t hear it from me. Social media. I don’t, I don’t like I have no skin in this game either. Like I have no, I have no dog in this race. Like I don’t even manage social media accounts. We’re a local SEO agency. I just, I know that it gets so much flack that I needed and you have obviously done so well with it that I was just like, I’ve got to hear what Chad has to say about this. And so anyway,

Chad German (51:39):

The way I look at social media, like I was, I was able to create something out of nothing, right. I was just an alert. And so, and I still am. I’m just an electrician, but I’m able to really enjoy the community. And it’s, it’s beyond going to my coworkers and be like, what’s up, you’re in the mood to work a hundred percent or 90% today. You know what I mean? It’s like, it just brought the social media has brought the love of the trade. And I think ultimately that’s going to change for our apprentices, the new guys coming in. We talked about the love of the trade a little bit ago. These guys start finding characters on social media that becomes their, their entertainment. You know, there’s an entertaining guys out there that do some crazy stuff. They’re, you know, they’re kind of comedy. Uh, I’m trying to think of another podcast.

Chad German (52:23):

I did a modern electrician, does a podcast. Uh, and he’s a funny guy. He was a comedian for awhile. And you know, those are the type of things that now the electrical industry, it’s kind of cool. Cause now you’re part of something, you know what I mean? And, and I think that whether you’re trying to get business, as far as more customers, more workers, um, I’ve been in group chats with guys and they’re talking about business strategy, uh, with a bunch of business owners that own their own businesses. And they’re like, Hey, do service calls on Fridays because then you live off that. And then you pay, you pay your guys off the account and then whatever you get done on Friday, service wise, that’s your cashflow for yourself. And so they’re talking about how to make money for themselves and how to manage. And so social media, isn’t just about marketing. I think you can, you can really line yourself up with, you know, if I ever got harder, I hit a hard up for work. I could call my buddy D up in Humboldt, California, and go up there and help him wire something. Or I could, I can fly over to Mississippi and help LA Valley, you know, or I can go up to New York and, and help my buddy Eric, uh, up there. So social media does really change the job opportunity for everybody.

Nathan Young, MLO (53:35):

Oh, that’s incredible. I think that’s incredible. Both for business owners to know. And also for again, like we’ve, we’ve been talking a lot about like, what does it look like to become an electrician right now and to continue on? And I don’t think this is special to electricians, right? Like if you’re becoming a roofer, if you’re becoming a plumber right now, if you’re entering home services or the skilled trades, like this stuff is true for you. And so it’s not true just for electrical companies. It’s true for, it’s true for these industries, right? The blue collar industries, like this is how this is shifting and we can, we can be part of the community part of the conversation, or we don’t have to be. But, um, clearly we miss out on

hanging out with people like Chad. So obviously we should be, but this it’s extra funny to me, this whole thing, because, uh, getting to talk to you has been so fun.

Nathan Young, MLO (54:29):

I totally ditched Facebook over a year ago. And I was just like, I’m so sick of this just me personally. Right? It wasn’t, it wasn’t even like raising a flag against the concept of social media or anything like that. I just was like, I’m tired of what this thing is. And I sort of migrated over to LinkedIn and I wanted to spend more time with people who were sort of pushing and growing in that, in that space, the we’re doing our own businesses. We’re talking business talk like I’m just interested. And I started to realize that I was missing anything from the like trades and stuff. And I had gotten used to that on Facebook where I was seeing guys posting about before and afters and bathroom remodels. And I told you this about me. Like I was, um, I was bricklayer for five years.

Nathan Young, MLO (55:17):

Like I, well, the bricklayers union, sorry, actual bricklayers I’ve I worked with concrete terrazzo, like I’ve I worked on floors. I saw a lot of that stuff. My assistant Caitlyn, who really should be my boss, not my assistant. She’s a thousand times smarter than I am. I just got lucky one day she had some free time and I was like, well, you work for me. And she said, yeah. And so that I just lucked out, but she was like, you’ve got to get back on Instagram. Like the stuff that you’re missing, the people that you’re missing are over here. Right. And I was like, Oh, all right, I’ll give it a shot. And then like, so obviously like, Oh, the community is right. Like almost biffed it, but it’s, I’m having so much more fun now connecting with people like you and being back on Instagram and seeing those kind of like the memes. And, um, I dunno, I, it’s fun to see people talk back and forth, especially when, you know, it’s like, it’s just a good time and whatever.

Chad German (56:14):

So media is all the platforms are a little bit different. You know, I w I was like yourself where I, I actually kind of got off of Facebook for a time. And it was just, all I was doing was, uh, was Instagram. But one of the guys at Southwire the mate, actually, I think he’s the director of marketing. He was like, Chad, you need a LinkedIn, you need a LinkedIn. And he’s like, this is how you do it. I still, I’m trying to figure out how do I see other people’s posts on LinkedIn? You know, other than scroll through the thing. I’m not that savvy at LinkedIn, but then I started a Facebook page and it’s completely different. You know, the trades guys on Facebook. Uh, they’re a little bit more, they’re different on Facebook than on Instagram. Instagram is a little bit more of a community.

Chad German (56:57):

Uh, there’s still, anyway, they’re both fine. Um, I do Facebook comments on my, uh, on my car, all my posts, which is fine. She has no idea about electrical. If I posted anything about that. And it just like good job, Chad. And I’m like, okay, thank you. That doesn’t happen as often, but it’s good to feel to have that support. So, um, I think, I think social media is a must. And I think that it’s, uh, you know, we’re learning about tools and about different. I, I showed my son a trick that I learned off of Instagram, uh, from a second year apprentice on knocking one of the knockouts out of a box. I was like, Hey, let me show you something. And it worked and his eyes got big and he’s the first, my son’s a technically a first year because of his apprenticeship card in school. So he’s going to be able to take that. I learned it after decades. He’s learning it right off the beginning. And it’s because of social media.

Nathan Young, MLO (57:47):
That’s awesome. We’re going to wrap up. This has been a fantastic conversation. I’ve definitely been

challenged a lot more than I want to admit. Uh, I have taken

Chad German (57:59):

Well, I got to give you more credit. I think that your, uh, your assistance there, because like-minded people kind of attract each other. I think you’re a good guy and you’re obviously very smart and, and, uh, hardworking guy. So give yourself a Pat on the back on it.

Nathan Young, MLO (58:11):

I will, I will take your Pat on the back and appreciate it. I’ll, I’ll take the compliment and say, thank you. If you guys want to know more about Chad, uh, anybody listening, then that’s Chad German electrical consulting is his business, and you can find him on Instagram at Utah electrician. I don’t know if it matters. I’m I’m showcasing my ignorance at Utah underscore electrician, Chad german.com as the co- founder also, and helped me with this one co-founder of nationwide electrical training. Is that right? Yep. Okay. At electrical edu.org, you got it. That was perfect. Sweet. Okay. Thanks so much for listening everybody. This has been Nathan Young and the home service leaders podcast. That’s it. It’s a wrap we’re out. We’ll catch you next time.