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Welcome back to Teaching the Unteachables, where we dive into teaching and learning

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methodologies for professionals like you. This episode recorded live at the 2024

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National HVACR Education Conference, where educators gather to learn about

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new tools and trends. Learn more about UEI at UEITest.com.

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All right everyone, thank you so much for joining Did You Know? the ESCO HVAC

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podcast. So we're hanging out at the National HVACR Education Conference.

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We've got 1,200 educators here and I'm hanging out with my my dear friend

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Luis Keller from UEI Test Instruments. Luis, how you doing? I am doing great. How

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about yourself? I am just almost overwhelmed with the amount of people

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that are here just to to learn to be better educators, right? To learn about

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what's changing in the industry, to find the resources that they need to have a

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successful program. We even have a lot of contractor trainers that are starting

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their own educational programs and they're here to look for resources.

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They're here to connect with people. And so you have a new role at UEI. Tell me a

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little bit about this new designation. Yeah, at the beginning of the year I

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actually became our full-time national training manager. It allows me to be able

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to go out and train in the field and do some of the classes that we have

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prepared. It allows me to connect with a lot of the contractors, a lot of the

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schools, and you know possibly some more content coming from us in the near future.

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Lucky there. I know you're at the very forefront of training. Even when you were

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really kind of in the sales side, you were still really much in the training

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side. Yeah, honestly I mean sales and training they they go hand in hand. They

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you know people need training to understand. It's amazing you know if you

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last year we did the what did symbols on our meter mean? You know just even

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getting down into some of the basics and knowing what what my meter does because

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we manufacturers we've all come out with some really cool features but how do we

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use those really cool features? So I think the the training aspect is becoming

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even more and more important in our industry right now. So let's talk about

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training and ways to connect with particularly our manufacturers like

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yourself because we do have we have a lot of technology. If we look at the

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world around us you know Howard talks about this all the time how in this next

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next hundred years we're not going to have a hundred years of growth we're

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going to have ten thousand years of growth. So technology is developing at an

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exponential rate and so we're seeing a lot of new technology in our

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instrumentation and I I know like as myself especially as a young technician

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when I went to my local parts store my parts counter and I was looking for a

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meter I was typically looking at the the coolest biggest fanciest thing had the

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most buttons and features and knew nothing about what I was actually

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getting into. Now we're we're looking at technology that's moving into those so

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that everything has advanced capabilities. So let's talk about some

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products let's talk about training in ways that UEI is working with the

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industry to help educate on these technological transitions. Well I mean

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there's been a lot of trainings as I mentioned we had some some videos that

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dropped as well but we've been doing a lot of hands-on training getting down

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like what are because the technology and the equipment that we're using has

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skyrocketed right so going back to that a thousand years hundred years like it's

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it's changed quite considerably so we've been trying to focus a lot more on that

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training and one of the neat things though about UEI test instruments is

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that we actually design and manufacture almost all of the products that you have

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right so when you see that UEI label you know it's made in a factory that we

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actually actually own have employees which has also allowed us the flexibility to be

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able to put in the features that contractors need and as you know as we

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start looking at those things it's kind of like big-screen TVs if you remember

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way back in the day the flat screens where they were it's amazing how much

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they can pack into into those meters now right for functionality purposes so

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we've been working really hard on that to make sure that we have the right

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features in our meters for the contractors and then again just going

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over though what can that really do for you you know I think tomorrow I know

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this all air later but tomorrow I'll I'm speaking about modern technologies and

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modern meters and where a lot of those symbols really come in and how to

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actually use them because I think once we start using our test instruments to

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its fullest functionality we're just going to make better contractors it's

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going to make their lives so much easier for them we're going to spend a lot of

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time with equipment manufacturers here we have a lot of classes on new

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technology that is coming to our industry you know when we look at this

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evolution of technology we I mean we're really going through two different

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transitions right now we've got a technological transition with equipment

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we have refrigerant transitions and in that technological transition we're

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going to be seeing a lot more inverters from our manufacturers I mean

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realistically we're just a few years away from only having inverter driven

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equipment in the HVAC and refrigeration industry and so it's important to

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understand the tools that we have and the capabilities of those tools and so

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I'm sure that's going to be one of your highlights is talking about you know

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what can you do with the tools that you have and what does the new tools do that

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the existing tools didn't do just because the technology wasn't there

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correct and there there is a whole section on that so we'll be reviewing

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that because I think we just we need to know what I love about this conference

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though and being part of HVACS skill and excellence and ESCO and some of the

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other industry events that I've gotten is that there is definitely a need for

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training and there's a craving for training I think it's crazy just

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hearing that you guys have 1200 people like to this conference I was at a

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another conference earlier this year and there was 300 people and they probably

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could have sold for another thousand the other thing though that I find really

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neat about this industry and I just I want to say it is we're all here with a

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common goal to elevate the industry and I like the sharing of knowledge you

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don't get that in every industry and I find this to be a very welcoming like

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let's build let's all get better I've had this conversation with a lot of us

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mature technicians that have been around for a little while because we're only I

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mean really if we talk about 20 years previous in this industry we had a an

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abundance of technicians and so the sharing of knowledge wasn't really very

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common you had to earn the opportunity to learn from your peers and your

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mentors and that's really not the way it's supposed to be but that's how it

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how it was because of competition so competition drives people to secure their

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positions and in doing that they don't give back to the industry so I do

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believe we're in a different place as a whole in our industry where people are

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willing to share absolutely and you know what again technology though has made

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that so much easier yes I can go to YouTube I can listen to a podcast and

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we all get the same information so I think the technology has changed and the

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perceptions have changed but again I love this because people want to share

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and they want to grow and at the end of the day they just want to make better

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technicians yeah yeah absolutely we see that from our manufacturers we see that

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from our schools we see that from our trades associations it's just a new

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place in our industry that is very exciting place to be and I'm so grateful

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to be here sharing the opportunity to learn sharing the opportunity to give

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back to the industry tell me a little bit about your plans going forward with

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education with UEI well you know as I said we just rolled out this job role

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full-time at the beginning of the year so I can't give all the secrets away of

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what we have but you know there will be some some different learning

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opportunities that we have I know that we're gonna be partnering with the ESCO

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to get some some more videos and some more training up coming in the in the

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next year you'll definitely see you'll see me around a lot more at different

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events going on doing doing some of the talks and those type of things sure but

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you know one of the my favorite things is I get to work directly with a lot of

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our local representatives and actually go on site with contractors to do hands

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on training oh really so we have a variety of things that are available for

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contractors and we're pretty actually easy to find so you know you can find us

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you can go to our UI test website and you'll be able to connect with somebody

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we have an 800 number that we actually have live people who answer the phone

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12 hours a day and quite frankly it's not too difficult to find me yeah yeah

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I see you everywhere I go every conference I go to I see Louise and out

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there putting a lot of effort into training for this year it's important

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it's an important aspect of our training and you know partnering with with the

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trade school so if you're out there at some of the trade schools reach out to

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us let's let's have a little chat about about what we can do and how we can help

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support you you know I know I'm based out of Indianapolis so I know there's

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several trade schools that I work with locally but if you're out there and

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you're listening let me know we can kind of talk about some of the options that

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are out there because I think you know training that next generation you know

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we've talked about the tools and how much they've changed and it how much it's

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changed since five years ago ten years ago yesterday yeah yeah absolutely all

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right well man we have so many things to dive into this year I know it's exciting

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it's exciting right because you can't know everything in this industry no you

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you can't there are so many different facets to this industry and everybody

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has their their special specialization but we got to focus on what we can do

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and how we can help that next generation and I'm just I'm super excited to be

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here yeah definitely our I think our classes are going to be packed the

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opportunities meet and greet are going to be packed and I'm very excited to see

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what this year brings absolutely well I appreciate you having us on today

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absolutely thanks for joining me once again all right thanks