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Tales from the trenches, stories forged in the fires of experience.

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This episode brought to you by Cocoon Thermal Mass Furnaces.

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Learn more about Cocoon at CocoonRevolution.com.

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Alright everyone, thank you for joining us once again on Did You Know?

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The ESCO HVAC podcast. We're hanging out with our dear friend Alan Coggins.

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Alan, how are you today?

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I'm well. Thank you for having me on the show today.

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Now, for those of you who can't see us, since this is just an audio podcast,

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you know, Alan may be struggling to keep straight face today.

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I'm actually in full confidence down in the studio doing some recording

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for a new video covering Fractionation and Bubble and Doom.

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Going over Glide and just talking about things in the industry.

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And it kind of sets us up for this conversation.

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So for those of you who don't know Alan, Alan is like myself.

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Started out as a technician, understanding how to work on equipment,

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but never stopped pushing himself and along the way has really found

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new places within himself.

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And we have to remember that, that no matter what we do or a career,

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it's our passions that really drive us to becoming something new in our own self.

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And so, Alan, let's spend a little bit of time setting the stage of your evolution

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and help people understand that you never stop learning

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and you never stop pushing yourself to new levels and new limits.

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No, you know, it's so true.

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I mean, I got to say I was never in high school.

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I was never a modeled student, right?

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You know, I did not have my priorities in line to say the least.

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Sure.

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And looking back now, part of that was due just the way that I was learning,

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you know, the way the school was set up, you know,

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I just didn't do well in it, right?

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Wasn't your learning format.

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Exactly. You know, it's like, you know, they all I feel like a lot of public schools,

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they want to tailor the kid around the education instead of

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right, instead of tailoring the education around the kid.

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Exactly. And opening up their opportunities to explore themselves.

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Right, right. You know, and so looking back on it, yeah, I was kind of bored.

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I was, you know, dealing with other things, too, you know, of course,

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being a young adolescent man and whatnot and all those things.

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So I was always learning that I love to work with my hands.

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I just love to tinker in the basement and, you know, all those kinds of things.

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And, you know, kind of going back, how I got into all of this is, you know, early on,

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again, I was that tinkerer and me and a friend of mine, we would go

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dumpster diving of all things.

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For parts of stuff to tear apart.

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Exactly. Not so much, you know, you know, never go to the food ones.

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Those those are bad, you know, that's right.

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But we would find stuff, all kinds of things.

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Radio, TV, speakers. Oh, yeah.

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All that stuff. And then we were just, you know, tear it apart and build things.

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And, you know, just, you know, that's how we were learning.

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And everything is is what I realized at that point is like, no,

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I really enjoy working with my hands.

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I learn, you know, by doing more so and, you know, all of those kinds of things.

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I just learned better, I should say. Yeah.

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And so I went into tech school, you know, and first went into tech school

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and South County Tech in in Missouri here.

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And, you know, again, it was a really a lot of hands on education.

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And I love that.

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And that's what really started to kick everything off.

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And then, you know, later on, I seen a buddy of mine who was in

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one of the union programs and he said, man, you got to get into this.

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And then there I had more schooling. Right.

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You know, and it just I just kept eating the schooling building and building.

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Right. You know, just I mean, just going in, learning, you know,

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Duckworth, learning, you know, service.

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I mean, just the whole nine yards.

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And then, you know, really getting into like testing and balancing and,

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you know, really progressing through the trade, if you will,

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and just finding different facets of the industry that I enjoyed.

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And also the facets I did not enjoy, too.

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They come along with it.

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Yeah, it's not all peachy keen.

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There's addicts and girl spaces and nasty oil.

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And there's a there's a lot of things that aren't the funnest,

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but it's all part of the experience. Exactly.

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You know, and so really kind of looking back, you know,

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and just kind of how I was and how I came from school into the trades, if you will.

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It was a nonstop educational experience.

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And even today, after now, I mean, I'm still in the trade, of course, you know,

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but from a different facet, we're manufacturing at this point.

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And, you know, and there's things that at this site, had I not been in the trade

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and learning and continuing the education and just trying to make myself better,

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I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing today as well.

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I believe that. Let's talk about some of those sparks along the way.

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Yeah. Well, a lot of different life events.

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So I was a very young man and again, school wasn't my best.

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And I was busy chasing my wife, you know, right.

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Needless to say, we had children at a young age.

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Yeah. Well, I guess that's a big spark.

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Yeah, that changes things right there.

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You know, redirect your focus a little bit sometimes.

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Absolutely. You know, and it was it was that point of, OK,

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no, now we've got to work and earn and we've got to, you know,

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make the best life that I can for my family.

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And, you know, hence another reason why school, school, school.

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I knew that the more school that I took, the more employable I was.

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Yes. You know, the more opportunities.

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Exactly. You know, and not to mention, how about more opportunities

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to get into those those jobs that I did like?

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You know, it's like, you know, I'm at a level, if you will,

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that you get to a level at a certain point. Yeah.

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And it's like, you know what? No, I want to do this.

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I want to focus on this and not this because I am trained to do this

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or I do this better, whatever, you know.

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You know. And so, yeah, I mean, family was a big spark.

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Oh, gosh. Just just the drive to, you know, of myself, of wanting to better myself.

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I came from very humble beginnings.

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And, you know, I didn't want my children or myself to live in poverty

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and wanted to just, you know, do the best that I could, no matter what I did.

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Yeah. Amen.

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You know, so that's therein lies, you know, some of those sparks that are,

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I mean, really, you know, you think that, you know, oh, it's you know,

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this is what I want to do. This is my ambition.

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And this is, you know, I love to do this. Right.

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They say if you if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.

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But, you know, work is work, right?

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Work is still work. It doesn't go away. It's still there.

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Right. How many people want to go to work instead of go fishing?

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You know, are you know, whatever goes to the balances or something?

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Who knows? I don't know. Yeah.

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Well, at what point did you decide that, you know, maybe I can push myself

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and really put my brain to work and try inventing some things.

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So that was always there at a young age.

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Again, like I said, I was always that tinkerer.

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And I, you know, I had a whole book full of things, you know, and here's some,

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you know, if anybody's got an idea who's listening to this,

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the first thing you need to do is write it down.

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That's the first step in making it into a reality.

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And, you know, that's exactly what I did is I had these ideas

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and I got a book full of them and I just, you know, wrote them down and,

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you know, kind of went from there.

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And, you know, but what really, I think, you know, made me kind of take that step

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was even my 96 year old grandmother, who had a lot of wisdom behind her in 96.

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And luckily, the

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a supporting wife, let me tell you, I wouldn't be half.

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Yes, you know, wouldn't been able to do half of what we've done if it hadn't,

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you know, hasn't been for her.

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But, you know, my grandmother, she was reading an article in the paper

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in our local paper in Arnold, Missouri.

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They were having problems with street lighting.

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So lighting is the number one thing that, you know, deter crime.

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Sure. And so the problem is these subdivisions were built in the 50s

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or 60s and all the electricity is at the rear of the house instead of up front by the road.

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Right. And so they had no streetlights in the subdivision and they were wanting streetlights.

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And at the time I was messing with solar.

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This is going back in the early 90s at this point.

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Or, yeah, early mid 90s.

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And my grandmother read this paper and she was,

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Alan, you're doing something with that solar.

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Why don't you try to do something?

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She goes, you know what? Just try it.

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I said, light bulb went off.

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I said, OK, I'll give it a go. Right.

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I had this idea that I wrote down.

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Yeah. And I actually, you know, we brought to market the nation's first hybrid LED streetlight.

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I invented the nation's first hybrid LED streetlight.

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You know, in the process of going through HVAC school, you know, I feel that we are

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the most skilled trade, if not one of the most skilled trades out of all the trades.

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You've got to know so much electrical, chemical, you know,

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list goes on and on geometry, everything.

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And, you know, so I just I said, you know what? Yeah, I could do something with that.

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And I just started building it.

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And sure enough, we had the nation's first hybrid, which was 100 percent off grid,

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used wind and solar power LED lighting.

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Now, this comes into play a little bit later on.

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You know, it was all you know, that was the big push, I should say,

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you know, was my grandmother back then.

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And then, you know, hey, try this.

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And really, it wasn't so much in the HVAC realm.

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It was in the lighting realm. Sure.

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Electrical, but electrical, mechanical.

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I mean, exactly. What do we do?

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We work on electrical mechanical devices that have refrigerant inside of them.

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Right. And, you know, dealing with different light spectrums, too, you know,

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you can put in different color bulbs and, you know, all those kinds of things.

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You know, that's really it started started me towards, you know, really

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seeing how energy is, you know, is utilized and, you know, exactly.

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And so, you know, that kind of started me down the road.

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And then I always had this idea with this furnace.

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And it's funny how even that lighting industry is now it has intertwined.

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It's a piece. Exactly.

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I mean, there is there is a definite crossover, you know, in

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in some of the science behind it and, you know, in all of that as well.

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So, you know, but yeah, it was it was really the big push was that.

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And like I said, have you know, I not had a very supporting and understanding wife.

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I wouldn't have been able to do half of it.

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Yeah, that's super, super important.

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Well, I find it, you know, intriguing that, you know, you pushed yourself.

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You had support, yes, but you pushed yourself to do something

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from an idea that you had.

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And I think many of us get stuck at that little point.

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We have some great ideas.

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I have had some wonderful conversations with young technicians, old technicians.

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People have been in the field and go, you know, if we just did this,

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we could do this.

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And I go, why don't you try that and see where it goes?

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It may go nowhere.

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But what else are you going to do?

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Flip through your phone, flip through the TV.

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Why don't you go out and try it?

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You might let the magic smoke out of something, right?

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You know, I mean, yeah, you know, you don't want to burn your house down.

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I do the flammable stuff outside in which, you know, right now,

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if everybody could see this, you know, it's like, OK, I'm talking to the mad

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scientist right now.

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This is great, so love it.

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But yeah, it was, you know, yeah, really, the reason behind it, too,

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has changed throughout the years.

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You know, at first it became a, hey, you know, let's let's do something

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different and something better, you know, that that has meaning.

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You know, in the beginning, it was knows about let's let's put food on the table.

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Right. Like, you know, let's do something, you know, all of those kinds of things.

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And as as these projects came up, Streetlight, the furnace now,

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you know, my reasoning for doing it all has changed over the years, too.

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Yes. You know, I want to make big, ugly piles of money.

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Who doesn't write, you know, a dream, right?

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But also the things that I didn't expect, the things I didn't see,

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you know, that that were coming along that just blindsided me was,

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you know, a we had a family tragedy.

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I lost my son in 2019.

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And he has a he had a daughter who was 11 months old when he passed.

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You know, we now have her.

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Yeah. But again, that reasoning that, you know, even at that time when we didn't have her,

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it was about, OK, you know, I still wanted to leave this world a better place,

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you know, than when I found that's right.

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That's our thing.

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You know, at least try.

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That's all I can do is wake up and try every day.

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Yep. And then now that then I have grandkids, now it's time to do something.

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I have grandkids. Now it's like, no, I want to make this world not just a better place,

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you know, but a place that they are going to be able to enjoy and love.

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And, you know, if you just take all the politics right out of global climate change

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and all that other kind of stuff and just look at common sense thinking, right.

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Smart energy management.

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To me, that's some of the best things that we can do.

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How can you go wrong? Exactly.

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You know, take all the BS out of it. Forget about any initiatives in there.

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Right. Just the responsibility.

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How can I be more responsible with my time on this planet?

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You know, if and if we look at things, how HVAC, how our industry is done,

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really on a worldwide scale, which, by the way, I didn't get that crash course

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until a few years ago. Yeah.

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I was an HVAC guy, right?

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I fixed things. I didn't worry about what was coming.

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I just fixed what was here.

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Exactly. And, you know, what we have seen and what I've learned from now to then

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is that, you know, the whole world's in a crisis.

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Yes. You know, I mean, if you look at what's happening over, you know,

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in the Ukraine war, you know, you got Russia targeting, you know, infrastructure.

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Why? Because it creates chaos.

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You know, well, if we can put some of that power back into the people's hands,

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if you will, you know, we have less chaos to be spread.

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Right. And during during those kinds of times.

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And, you know, so again, even still, I find my reasonings, you know, changing

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for, you know, just just just different facets, you know.

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OK, well, maybe this will help alleviate this issue if, you know,

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it means all those kinds of things. Right. Yeah.

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Now, I get it.

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I think we're very much becoming a society more aware of that,

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especially with our younger generations.

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You know, they are very in tune to making a difference in the world.

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And I think it's flowing backwards towards us, who may not have grown up

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with that exact same perspective. And I love it.

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I absolutely love the fact that we have our young students,

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our young technicians now becoming educators, you know, here at our own conference,

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our National HVAC, our education conference.

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And we had like 500 new educators at the conference, all hungry

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for knowledge and hungry to be able to make a difference.

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And so at the backbone, I'm going, be like Alan,

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make a difference, do something, take something that you think

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could change the world and go give it a try.

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What's the worst case that you let the smoke out?

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That's right. That's the worst case scenario.

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Have a fire extinguisher, have a garden hose and go have fun.

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That's right. Yeah. You know, I mean, you know, I remember even in school,

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you know, when I was a cub and, you know, just, you know, go and OK,

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go over there and troubleshoot that furnace.

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I didn't know what I was looking at. Right.

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And he, you know, the instructor knew that, too. Sure.

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But he also recognized, you know, how I learned.

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And, you know, he was able to help me in regards to that.

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I'm like, no, just go get in there and hey, if you break something, let me know.

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You know, just don't blow the place up.

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You know, it's easy to do.

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You know, many of other people's mistakes as well as many, many, many of my own.

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Yes. Yes. So, you know, I mean, really, I love this industry,

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you know, just for the journey alone that it's really given me

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and the opportunities that's given me and my family, too.

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I never would have thought, you know, that a career in HVAC could take you around the world.

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And, you know, I have been I've been in all, you know, some some really cold places.

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Right. You know, for sure.

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But some really cool places, too.

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You know, you know, and I just never would have thought that in HVAC,

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you know, a guy running in a truck and everything else, you know, could could end up, you know,

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I thought like that was my life. Right.

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Oh, I was just in a truck and I was going to be a service guy.

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And that's it.

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And really, if everybody just takes a moment and kind of look at their industry

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and see where they're at and see how they can better themselves,

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I think who knows, they may end up finding themselves running around the world,

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doing startups or whatever.

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I believe faithfully in it.

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You know, I spent 20 years in the field thinking that I would retire from the field.

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And I was fortunate enough to have a recruiter reach out and say,

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I think you missed the bar.

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If you have breakfast with me, I'll tell you why.

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And that set into motion things that I hadn't even realized.

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I mean, I my first year, I went to college for TV, radio, film.

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So I had a DJ business when I was a teenager.

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Very cool.

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When I had kids, I set those ambitions to the side to go make some money.

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Right. And there was good money in HVAC and I'd married into a family business.

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I was like, OK, I'm an HVAC guy the rest of my life.

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And so we don't know until we explore and we don't explore until we do.

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Until we push ourselves just a little bit.

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And I'm just so grateful to hear these stories.

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And you know, that's that's even part of it, too.

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It's like, you know, I and I'm sure we all have the story.

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You know, you come across the, you know, let's say the the engineer

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that's closer towards his retirement, you know, that kind of thing.

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And boy, he doesn't want to rock the boat.

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You know, this is the way we've always done it.

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You know, and I think that is so horrible, not just as a business practice,

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but also as a personal practice.

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Yeah. And you know,

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everybody gets complacent.

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I don't care if you're the CEO of the company or if you're the janitor.

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Everybody will eventually get complacent.

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And really, that's when you got to, I think, dig down inside and go, OK,

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what's going to get me up in the morning?

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What is going to get me rolling here and what's going to get my drive back?

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You know, maybe it's a vacation.

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Maybe it's a new a new facet of the industry that you didn't know before.

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New class and opportunity.

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Exactly. It just and you know, really, I think just, you know, finding that

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and finding that drive again, you know, when you get to that point.

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And it's hard to recognize it.

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You know, you go through life and just, you know, oh, this is it.

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Here it is. And then boom, either a something that you do changes it

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or be something changes you, you know, an event changes you.

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So, you know, I think that's just a big thing in the industry.

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And a lot of, you know, a lot of technicians and a lot of the young ones

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I talked to today, you know, is to keep that ever wanting to learn.

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And you will not go wrong.

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You will always be employed or at least employed more than others,

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you know, kind of thing.

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And not to mention, you're going to be a, you know,

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have better working conditions and all of that.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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You improve your life by improving yourself and it does trickle down.

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Alan Coggins, thank you so much for joining us.

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Where can people learn more about Alan Coggins and.

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Yeah, come to our website, cocoonrevolution.com.

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Give us a call. 314-931-1004 actually.

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But yeah, Cocoon Revolution is the place to go.

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And we've got some some videos and all kinds of stuff on there.

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And there's a little bit of blurb in there about us and my career

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and everything as well. So love it.

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If I don't see you beforehand, I will see you as well as anyone else

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joining us wants to hang out with us at the 2024 National HVACR

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Education Conference in Vegas.

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I look forward to hanging out. I might have to bring this costume.

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We'll go have some fun.

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Yes, that'll be a blast. I'll try to find one, too.

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We can really have some fun then. We'll go get thrown out of somewhere.

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I think it.

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Alan, have a wonderful day, my friend. You too.