1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,480 Tales from the trenches, stories forged in the fires of experience. 2 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:13,720 ESCO's materials are utilized within hundreds of schools, wholesalers and other training 3 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:15,680 entities across the globe. 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:21,560 Learn more at escogroup.org. 5 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,840 All right everyone, thank you once again for joining Did You Know? 6 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:27,780 The ESCO HVAC Podcast. 7 00:00:27,780 --> 00:00:34,040 So we spent a lot of time here at ESCO talking about careers and opportunities in the trades, 8 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:36,080 particularly in the building sciences. 9 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,880 HVAC, refrigeration, electrical, there's so many things happening. 10 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:44,440 So we're hanging out with my incredibly close friend Daniel Mendoza. 11 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:46,120 Brother Mendoza, how are you buddy? 12 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:47,120 Doing all right. 13 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:48,400 Thank you for bringing me in. 14 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:54,360 Well, you know, you have such an interesting perspective on our industry and I want people 15 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:55,360 to know that. 16 00:00:55,360 --> 00:01:00,480 I want people to hear it and be able to talk about this experience because not only did 17 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:08,800 you find HVAC, like many of us did, you actually made an entire trip here and then found it. 18 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,320 So you started your life in Venezuela. 19 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:13,560 Yes. 20 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:15,360 And was very professional in what you do. 21 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:18,940 A lot of people don't know that, you know, they know Daniel Mendoza, this like really 22 00:01:18,940 --> 00:01:24,000 good HVAC contractor and like tech guru, video editor. 23 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,600 They don't know that you have like an amazing musical background. 24 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:34,240 And many of us that are very passionate, very organized people have music backgrounds. 25 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,880 I mean, that's just something about it. 26 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:38,320 Yeah, it's kind of interesting. 27 00:01:38,320 --> 00:01:42,120 It gives you a different flavor, a different perspective into all the things. 28 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:43,600 It kind of spills over. 29 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:47,440 They say that it makes your brain, you know, the left brain and the right brain work better 30 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:48,520 or something like that. 31 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:51,120 And it's kind of a form of art, just like painting. 32 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:52,120 It is. 33 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:54,920 So that form of art kind of moves into the career. 34 00:01:54,920 --> 00:02:01,440 So yeah, so let's talk about, you know, coming to the United States, starting a new life 35 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:06,200 here and then your reasons for moving into HVAC. 36 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:10,560 We just we got to know this story and we have to share it because it's it's very real and 37 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:13,080 it's very interesting at the same time. 38 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:19,840 Yeah, well, the way that it went down is I used to be a musician, Venezuela of all places 39 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,040 has one of the most successful music programs in the world. 40 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:26,360 And actually, these are conductor very famous. 41 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:29,720 So people have probably heard of him as Gustavo Dudamel. 42 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:34,200 He's actually one of the world's best conductors, like most famous. 43 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:35,480 You probably Google it. 44 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:40,280 But anyways, he actually was in orchestra there along with a bunch of other people that 45 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:42,400 are playing all around the world. 46 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:48,560 And I was part of the youth Venezuelan youth orchestra, the travel around the world when 47 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:50,960 I was little, I was like 15, 16. 48 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:51,960 Really? 49 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:52,960 Yeah. 50 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:54,480 And you're the cream of the crop. 51 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:55,480 Kind of. 52 00:02:55,480 --> 00:03:00,280 They basically they did a selection, the auditions all nationwide and they selected like six 53 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:05,600 clarinets, four oboes and, you know, 20 violins and all that kind of stuff. 54 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:06,600 And I made it. 55 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:10,840 I was one of the only six kids nationwide that was selected to play in the orchestra. 56 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:11,840 Yeah. 57 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:13,280 Yeah, you absolutely were the cream of the crop. 58 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:15,120 I used to play clarinet. 59 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:19,000 But the funny thing is like I wanted to play saxophone because of the same songs, you know, 60 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:20,000 how Lisa plays saxophone. 61 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:21,000 Yeah, that's what I wanted to do. 62 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:28,320 And that's how I got introduced to music. 63 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:33,600 So my brother, a bunch of friends, a bunch of people were involved in the orchestra. 64 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:38,560 So some of them ended up moving to the United States to a small school in Massachusetts 65 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:40,400 called Atlantic Union College. 66 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:46,760 It's like a 500 student school and they had scholarships and things. 67 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:51,240 And at some point, my brother talked to the director of the music program and he said, 68 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:53,960 hey, my brother plays really well. 69 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:57,880 What are the chances that he can come down here with a full scholarship? 70 00:03:57,880 --> 00:03:58,880 And that's what happened. 71 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:01,920 I ended up moving to Massachusetts in 2005. 72 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:03,920 Yes, 2005. 73 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:08,880 I was almost 21 back then. 74 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:10,640 And that's kind of like came to the US. 75 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:16,480 I had a full scholarship in small school playing in orchestras and clarinet and all that. 76 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:17,480 Right. 77 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,760 So at what point along the way, because I think same way, you know, I went to college 78 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:22,960 for TV, radio, film. 79 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:25,680 I was playing French horn in the ISU symphony. 80 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,680 That was my gig. 81 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:32,600 The French horn is so hard to play. 82 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:33,800 So I played French horn and trumpet. 83 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:36,040 I still got a flugelhorn and trumpet here at the house though. 84 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:39,160 And I went once in a while for nostalgia, I'll break out. 85 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:44,800 What I realized was that was my passion, but not necessarily a profession. 86 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:46,960 So how did that go for you? 87 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:52,560 Well, what happened is that to make a living as a musician in the United States is pretty 88 00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:53,920 hard. 89 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:58,680 You have to either be a teacher or be famous or something of that nature. 90 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:05,720 And you know that programs that get caught in schools usually involve like sports, extra 91 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:09,840 curricular activities and music sometimes goes out the window as well. 92 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:13,040 So the job security is not necessarily the best thing ever. 93 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:15,680 And not to mention that you don't get paid too much. 94 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:21,360 So at some point I have to decide what to do with my life and I have to switch gears 95 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:22,840 and I had to decide what to do. 96 00:05:22,840 --> 00:05:27,280 I ended up moving to Michigan because the school that I was at actually went down the 97 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:28,280 drain. 98 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:31,680 Something happened financially and they lost their accreditation. 99 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,960 So I've been bouncing around all the place just like most people probably. 100 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:35,960 What's happening in life? 101 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:36,960 I was at that age. 102 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:40,760 You're like, oh man, I'm good at what I'm doing, but can I make a career of this? 103 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:42,800 Can I make a living? 104 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:47,480 One of the things that was funny and a lot of people that can listen to my story, they 105 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:51,040 probably relate is that I used to be really good with my hands. 106 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:52,760 I just fixed anything. 107 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:57,200 So if you are one of those people that can go to somebody's house and there's a pipe 108 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:02,080 that's leaking and then you fix it and then you fix electrical things, you know how to 109 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:03,080 configure your stuff. 110 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:04,080 I don't know. 111 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:09,880 I'd realized that I was very good with my hands and I had a bunch of credits from a 112 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:10,880 school. 113 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:12,520 I went to a university in Venezuela. 114 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:19,800 I had the credits from Massachusetts for the school and I ended up going to Michigan to 115 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:21,520 Andrews University. 116 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:23,000 I also had a bunch of credits there. 117 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,320 So I had like 200 credits and I didn't have a diploma. 118 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:26,920 I didn't have a degree. 119 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:31,320 So in order for me to specialize in computer science or in chemistry or anything, I had 120 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:33,440 to take two more years of schooling. 121 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:39,560 And I wasn't about to get 40,000, $50,000 a student loan debt to get deeper in the hole, 122 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:41,120 so to speak. 123 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:45,840 So I just told my wife, we were dating back then. 124 00:06:45,840 --> 00:06:48,240 I told her I need to figure out what to do. 125 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:51,560 And I thought about the funny story is this. 126 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:55,080 My neighbor in Indiana, we lived in Indiana for a little while. 127 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:57,400 He used to do, he still does air conditioning. 128 00:06:57,400 --> 00:06:59,520 And one day he came to fix our system. 129 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:01,600 It was a furnace, split furnace. 130 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:03,120 And I thought it was very interesting. 131 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:04,880 I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. 132 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:05,880 Right. 133 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:09,080 Yeah, I was intrigued by all the wires and the motor and the whole thing. 134 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:10,080 I just kind of looked. 135 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:12,280 There's a lot going on in this little box. 136 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:13,280 Yeah. 137 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:16,840 So I told my wife, look, we want to get into real estate. 138 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:19,760 Where are the things that are really expensive to pay for? 139 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:23,000 One of them is roofing and one of them is air conditioning. 140 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:24,920 And I knew I didn't want to be a plumber. 141 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:25,920 I don't know. 142 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:27,360 I didn't look too interesting to me. 143 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:29,560 I didn't want to be an electrician. 144 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:31,400 Didn't look super interesting to me. 145 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:33,760 And then I was like, you know, air conditioning is kind of cool. 146 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:37,360 You know, you have electrical stuff, you have mechanical things, you're messing with refrigerants 147 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:38,360 and stuff. 148 00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:42,880 Plumbing, math, calculations, measurements, a little bit of everything. 149 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:43,880 A little bit of everything. 150 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,840 And the funny thing is that now that we've gone into real estate and we have some properties, 151 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:50,560 what's happened is that I can virtually do anything. 152 00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:51,560 Yeah. 153 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:52,560 I'm a contractor. 154 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:54,080 You diversified yourself. 155 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:55,080 Yes. 156 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:56,080 Yeah. 157 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:57,080 Based on the experience. 158 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:01,080 So that's kind of what made me decide to go into the trade was that I had to figure 159 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:03,600 out what to do with my life. 160 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,840 And I knew I kind of didn't want to be an administration. 161 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:08,960 And that's what I ended up doing. 162 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:09,960 Yeah. 163 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:10,960 Okay. 164 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:14,200 So you get to that point in life, you're spending time with your girlfriend going, all right, 165 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:15,560 we're going to make a life together. 166 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:21,000 I want to be a productive contributor to this family, this relationship. 167 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,960 I don't know that music's going to pay enough. 168 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:30,680 I don't know that we want to go deeper in debt just so that I can get a degree career 169 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:32,600 and let's look at these options. 170 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:36,320 I think, man, that was kind of interesting on HVAC. 171 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:37,320 What's the next step? 172 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:40,040 I mean, it's interesting, but like, where do you begin? 173 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:43,680 Well, what happened was we were bouncing around again. 174 00:08:43,680 --> 00:08:45,880 I came originally to Massachusetts. 175 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:48,320 Then we moved to Michigan. 176 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:49,320 Then I moved to Indiana. 177 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:50,320 It was like half hour distance. 178 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:52,480 You know, they're right next to each other. 179 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:58,000 And then my wife got a job here in Tennessee and I didn't have much going on down there. 180 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:03,000 I actually worked for a little while for a Consulmer there in Elkhart, Indiana. 181 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:04,880 And a lot of people know about Consulmer. 182 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:09,220 It's like one of the last manufacturers of musical instruments in the United States. 183 00:09:09,220 --> 00:09:13,560 So I worked there for a little while and I didn't have much going on. 184 00:09:13,560 --> 00:09:15,640 And my wife said, let's just move to Tennessee. 185 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:17,340 And that's what we did. 186 00:09:17,340 --> 00:09:19,080 And I came here and was, okay. 187 00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:21,080 Were you chasing a woman? 188 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:23,520 No, I've always been with my wife. 189 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,220 No, no, you're chasing her career. 190 00:09:26,220 --> 00:09:27,220 What she want to do? 191 00:09:27,220 --> 00:09:29,200 I'm going to go wherever you want to go, baby. 192 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:30,200 That's right. 193 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:31,200 I'll go anywhere you go. 194 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:32,320 That's right. 195 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:36,640 I went on Google and I was like, hey, where can I go study air conditioning? 196 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:39,180 And I found Chattanooga State. 197 00:09:39,180 --> 00:09:40,680 They have the TCAT program down there. 198 00:09:40,680 --> 00:09:41,680 Yeah, absolutely. 199 00:09:41,680 --> 00:09:42,680 So one year program. 200 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:43,680 They have the morning college of applied technology. 201 00:09:43,680 --> 00:09:46,120 It's one of RageFact excellence accredited programs. 202 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:47,120 That's right. 203 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:51,480 And that's funny because the first time I learned about ASCO is because of Chattanooga 204 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:52,480 State. 205 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:56,680 And you know, there were, you know, flyers and things around or things on the wall. 206 00:09:56,680 --> 00:10:01,800 And that's, you know, I ended up taking the EPA, the six OAS certification down there 207 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:02,800 through ASCO, of course. 208 00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:03,800 Through ASCO, yeah. 209 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:06,040 But yeah, so I went there. 210 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:08,960 I talked to Houston Graham. 211 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:10,920 He's a shout out to Houston. 212 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:13,800 He's a very well respected gentleman in the industry. 213 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:15,720 He is the man. 214 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:19,280 And I remember I met him and I was like, my name is Daniel. 215 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:24,060 I'm going to come to the air conditioning program and I want to become one of the best 216 00:10:24,060 --> 00:10:26,520 technicians these cities ever seen. 217 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:29,200 You know, I tend to be a little bit extra, so I don't know why I did that, but that's 218 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:30,200 what I did. 219 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:31,200 Right. 220 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:33,680 And yeah, I just went through the program was one year long. 221 00:10:33,680 --> 00:10:38,000 It was gruesome in the sense that I was working with a local air conditioning company. 222 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:40,640 I was getting paid like very little. 223 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:44,520 And so I was waking up like at 6.37 in the morning, putting a full day in and then going 224 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:45,520 to school full time. 225 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:46,520 Yes, sir. 226 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:49,240 So I was rolling 13, 14 hours a day. 227 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,760 That really tested my levels of energy and patience. 228 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:53,760 Sure. 229 00:10:53,760 --> 00:10:55,200 But yeah, that's what I did. 230 00:10:55,200 --> 00:11:00,280 I worked and went to Chandogya State for a T-CAT program for a year. 231 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:01,280 Yeah, absolutely. 232 00:11:01,280 --> 00:11:02,280 All right. 233 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:04,320 So go through T-CAT along the way. 234 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:05,320 What did you find? 235 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:09,040 Did you find that HVAC was absolutely the thing or was he, were you still questioning 236 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:10,800 what you're going to do when you grew up? 237 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:11,800 It was very interesting. 238 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:14,480 This is like a funny story. 239 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:18,720 And I want to encourage people like to look into it. 240 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:22,840 You don't have to start with any kind of knowledge, to be honest. 241 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,520 I didn't know anything about anything. 242 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:30,400 All that I knew is there's a hole in the wall that I plug for the TV and my laptop and I 243 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:31,600 charge my phone. 244 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:34,640 I didn't even know about 120 volts to 40. 245 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:35,880 I didn't know anything. 246 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:38,360 I just knew that I went into the air conditioning. 247 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:45,160 So the first day, Houston comes and says, hey, can somebody draw the refrigeration cycle 248 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:47,640 on the wet board? 249 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:51,000 And being me, I raised my hand and I was like, I'm going to do it. 250 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:59,120 So I remember I drew a house and I drew like a package unit with a rain shield and everything. 251 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:00,920 So that's a refrigeration cycle. 252 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:06,360 And I kind of laugh a little bit, but imagine that I didn't know anything that I drew a 253 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:07,360 house. 254 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:08,360 It was just a box. 255 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:12,880 I might as well just have drawn in the window unit. 256 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:14,680 So yeah, that's how it started. 257 00:12:14,680 --> 00:12:18,480 And as we went into the topics and started learning about the refrigeration cycle, the 258 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:21,120 electrical side of things, it was fascinating. 259 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:22,120 It was pretty interesting. 260 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:23,120 Yeah. 261 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:24,120 Right. 262 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:28,200 So I know personally, I know that it didn't take you very long before you decided, you 263 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:29,200 know what? 264 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:30,920 I've actually gotten pretty good at this in a short period of time. 265 00:12:30,920 --> 00:12:33,120 I think I'm even going to start my own business. 266 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:37,720 Well partly what happened was typically, I think most people, it goes this way. 267 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:39,040 You're in the program. 268 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:43,440 As soon as you get your feet wet and you understand more or less how it works, you can get to 269 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:48,120 a local company and say, hey, can you hire me as an apprentice? 270 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:52,080 And I like to get my, you know, because if you're reading the book and you're not doing 271 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:58,200 it, you're not going to, it's a, there's a weird gap between reading the book and actually 272 00:12:58,200 --> 00:12:59,200 doing this. 273 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:00,720 I got the fundamentals, but now I need the legwork. 274 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:05,720 I need to be able to get out, get my hands on it and see it out in the wild. 275 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:07,040 Yeah. 276 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:09,720 So I started working for a local company. 277 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:11,680 I worked there for about three months. 278 00:13:11,680 --> 00:13:16,320 I didn't feel that I was being appreciated. 279 00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:20,320 And again, there's another lesson to learn from this is that if you work at a place and 280 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:23,640 you don't like it, there'll be another place that will hire you and they will appreciate 281 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:24,640 you. 282 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:28,200 So don't get hung up that my first job experience was bad. 283 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:29,880 And I just, I don't like it. 284 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:30,880 Just find another place. 285 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:31,880 Give up on the career. 286 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:32,880 Don't give up on a career. 287 00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:34,920 On a hiccup like that. 288 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:35,920 Yes. 289 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:36,920 Exactly. 290 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:40,360 So after the three months, I actually went and talked to Houston again, a channel, we 291 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:43,520 stayed and it was like, Hey, do you know of another company that is respectable? 292 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:44,520 I want to be honest. 293 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:45,520 I want to take care of people. 294 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:49,320 I don't, I'm not all about pushing units on people and all that. 295 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:54,320 So he told me another old company has been around for like 40 years. 296 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:55,680 So I applied for the job. 297 00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:58,640 They gave me the job and I love them to tears. 298 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:00,180 They're still rolling to this day. 299 00:14:00,180 --> 00:14:07,520 But one of the problems that I noticed immediately is that they were stuck in the 1980s or something. 300 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:08,520 Yes. 301 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:09,520 Yeah. 302 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:12,600 So, I mean, some people, you know, you can skin a cat in five different ways. 303 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:13,600 It's fine. 304 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:14,600 I get it. 305 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:18,920 But I remember like, why don't you use a GPS back then the Garmin GPS and when you put 306 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:21,880 in windshield, it was all in the thing, you know? 307 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:24,040 So yeah, you have to know where things are. 308 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:25,040 I'm like, no, I don't. 309 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:26,040 I have a GPS. 310 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:27,040 Yeah. 311 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:30,280 And you know, using flip phones or sticky notes for stuff. 312 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:32,000 I was like, do we have iPads? 313 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:33,000 Can we use the internet? 314 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,040 I can do all this kind of stuff. 315 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:40,840 And then come digital gauges and all the technology into the industry. 316 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:44,560 I was the first one and the only one to buy the latest and the greatest. 317 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:45,560 I see that. 318 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:47,800 I've always been a tools nuts. 319 00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:48,800 Yes. 320 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:49,800 It's how you call it. 321 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:50,800 Yes. 322 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:55,720 And I love, I think that tools help you a lot. 323 00:14:55,720 --> 00:15:00,140 Anything that can help you cut a little bit of time here and there is essential because 324 00:15:00,140 --> 00:15:04,560 if you do the same thing a hundred times a day, if it takes you an extra minute, that's 325 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:05,560 a hundred minutes anyway. 326 00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:06,800 So anyway, how much you can cut down. 327 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:10,440 No, I mean, that's what it comes down to, you know, go ask an accountant when it was 328 00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:14,280 the last time they used a scratch pad and a pencil for doing their calculations and 329 00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:15,280 not a calculator. 330 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:16,280 Just don't do it anymore. 331 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:20,400 So at some point it started getting frustrated because, you know, you go to a customer's 332 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:23,960 house and you go like, like when was the last time we came here? 333 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:24,960 What did we do? 334 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:26,600 How much we charged? 335 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:31,080 And as you can probably imagine, familiarize with you go to a customer's house, like six 336 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:34,320 months later and they say, you were here last week. 337 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:35,320 You just changed that. 338 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:36,320 It just broke. 339 00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:38,160 And it's like, no, I was here six months ago. 340 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:39,160 Not last week. 341 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:40,160 You know, it's that kind of stuff. 342 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:42,660 You have to use technology for your advantage. 343 00:15:42,660 --> 00:15:45,840 And at some point I decided to split up and just do my own thing. 344 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:46,840 Yeah. 345 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:47,840 Yeah. 346 00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:50,960 Which turned into a very successful business in your area. 347 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:51,960 Yeah. 348 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:54,960 Man, it was, I just bought a van. 349 00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:57,000 I started with $27,000. 350 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,000 So we sold, we had a property, we sold it. 351 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:00,360 I grabbed that money. 352 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:03,480 I bought a van and it was empty in the inside. 353 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,320 It was a rental, I think it was a Nissan MV 2500. 354 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:09,000 So I had to put the shelves inside. 355 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:10,000 I had to put the mat. 356 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:11,000 You had to fit it all. 357 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:12,840 All this from scratch. 358 00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:13,940 Then I had to fill it up. 359 00:16:13,940 --> 00:16:18,520 So I dropped like $10,000 just buying all this stuff in the inside. 360 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,840 And now that I look back, I'm like, wow, that was, that was quite a bit of work. 361 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:22,840 Yeah. 362 00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:23,840 Yeah, exactly. 363 00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:26,680 And that's one of the things we want to talk about is there are so many different avenues 364 00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:31,240 and finding the resources and connecting with other people who have had the experiences 365 00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:33,840 that can feed your own curiosity. 366 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:34,840 That's what we're here for. 367 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:39,540 We're here to make sure that you learn from people who have had these experiences. 368 00:16:39,540 --> 00:16:44,200 So if you step back and you think about it, what things would you have done differently 369 00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:47,920 or what things are you very proud of that got you where you are right now? 370 00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:53,320 Well, one of the first things I regret is that I quit my job and I went to buy a van 371 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:55,140 like three weeks later. 372 00:16:55,140 --> 00:16:58,440 The first thing they said was like, where's your employee? 373 00:16:58,440 --> 00:16:59,440 Do you have a W-2? 374 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:00,440 Do you have an employment? 375 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:01,440 And I want to buy the van. 376 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:02,440 Well, if you have a job- 377 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:03,440 I'm the employer. 378 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:04,440 Yeah. 379 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:05,440 I'm the employee and the employer. 380 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:07,720 And you want to buy a van. 381 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:13,600 Well, the interest rate is like 2% if you are your own person, but if you buy it and 382 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:15,200 you don't have a job, it's like 10%. 383 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:17,120 That was the first mistake that I made. 384 00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:18,120 It was very expensive. 385 00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:21,200 I should have bought the van, parked in my house and then quit next day. 386 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:24,320 I didn't do that. 387 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:28,740 Things that I would have done, this is one of the biggest mistakes that I've made. 388 00:17:28,740 --> 00:17:34,320 You have to, nowadays you have to focus and even back then, quite a bit on your presence. 389 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:42,080 You have to realize you're going to have to compete against everyone in the industry. 390 00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:47,280 I built a website with a guy, a friend of a friend, and I thought that by building the 391 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:51,480 website it would work automatically and just show up on Google. 392 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:53,120 And I didn't know anything about SEO. 393 00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:54,120 Right. 394 00:17:54,120 --> 00:17:55,120 Here's my sign. 395 00:17:55,120 --> 00:17:56,120 Everybody come see it. 396 00:17:56,120 --> 00:17:57,120 Something like that. 397 00:17:57,120 --> 00:18:02,480 So a long time went by and I just kept asking the guy, I was like, hey, why am I not showing 398 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:04,080 up on Google? 399 00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:05,680 And he said, no, just don't worry about it. 400 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:06,680 It takes time. 401 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:08,220 It's just how it is. 402 00:18:08,220 --> 00:18:10,200 And like six months would go by and I'm like, hey, what happened? 403 00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:11,840 Dude, I'm not showing up on Google. 404 00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:14,440 Like I have 127 five-star reviews. 405 00:18:14,440 --> 00:18:16,560 No, it just takes a little bit of time. 406 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:17,960 Just don't worry about it. 407 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:21,520 Then like two, three years later, two years later, I found out that you were supposed 408 00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:22,740 to be doing a bunch of stuff. 409 00:18:22,740 --> 00:18:29,080 So I lost two years of SEO, internet presence and all that because I didn't do that. 410 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:33,800 You have to, from the get-go, you have to start pumping, messing with the Google, the 411 00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:35,400 internet and all that kind of stuff. 412 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,760 Otherwise you just don't exist. 413 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:42,360 But yeah, that was one of the challenges. 414 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:47,120 Something that probably makes me proud of from the company, from the get-go, I knew 415 00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:50,480 that I didn't want to take advantage of customers. 416 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,880 I didn't want to rip them off. 417 00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:55,320 I probably have thousands of service calls. 418 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:59,400 At the end, we had over 400 five-star reviews on Google. 419 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:05,680 So in three years, I didn't have one single person, one out of thousands to say, oh, you 420 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:06,680 charged me. 421 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:07,680 You didn't fix it. 422 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:09,000 Oh, you, you, you ripped me off. 423 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:15,240 You didn't know one time out of thousands, no one single disgruntled customer that went 424 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:20,120 to Google to write a scathing review about my note, not didn't happen once. 425 00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:26,160 So I think that if you have your mind right and you know what you want to do and you believe 426 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:27,680 in yourself, you can do it. 427 00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:28,680 Yeah. 428 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:29,680 All right. 429 00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:31,520 Well, Daniel, thank you so much for joining us. 430 00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:36,120 There are so many stories to tell and we want to hang out with you and talk about these. 431 00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:40,600 Are you a technician and you're thinking about, man, maybe I'm ready to make those next steps? 432 00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:45,080 Well come hang out with us at the National HVACR Education Conference and grab some time 433 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:50,280 and go, hey, Daniel, let's go over to the side here and let's grab a iced tea or cold 434 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:51,760 beer or whatever our choice is. 435 00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:54,720 And let's talk about things and let's make connections. 436 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:56,320 And that's really what we're here to do. 437 00:19:56,320 --> 00:20:01,120 We're here to encourage you to lift you up and to help get you the resources for whatever 438 00:20:01,120 --> 00:20:04,680 stage you are in your HVAC and refrigeration career. 439 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:10,160 We've been down different paths and we all come together for this, to share our stories, 440 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:14,800 to share the things that we've learned, to talk about the heartaches and the heartbreaks, 441 00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:18,080 but also to motivate and tell you how to do things right. 442 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:19,800 Completely, for sure. 443 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:25,760 Now we started the podcast talking about music and stuff in the background and it's very 444 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:26,760 interesting. 445 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:32,560 I think that music helped me when it came to troubleshooting and stuff because I could 446 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:37,640 listen to a, I could hear a unit from afar from like a hundred feet and I can tell if 447 00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:38,640 the compressors sound weird. 448 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:39,640 Listen to the frequencies. 449 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:40,640 Yeah. 450 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,640 And but it's not only music. 451 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:49,280 I met guys that work in air conditioning and sometimes they have a background, they were 452 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:52,680 mechanics or they worked as anything. 453 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:53,680 It doesn't matter. 454 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:59,400 You'll be amazed how you can transfer or translate some of the skills that you have into something 455 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:04,160 that you may not think that it matters or it's just, so I don't regret spending several 456 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:09,480 years of my life doing the music because I think that some way kind of helped me a little 457 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:10,480 bit along the way. 458 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:11,480 Yeah. 459 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:12,480 I agree. 460 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,660 Daniel Mendoza, newest member of the ESCO teams. 461 00:21:15,660 --> 00:21:20,760 So proud to be working with you, my friend, and look forward to all of the fantastic opportunities 462 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:24,400 that we get to do together and all of the knowledge we get to share. 463 00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:25,400 Awesome. 464 00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:26,400 All right. 465 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:27,400 See you later. 466 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:51,040 Thank you.