Tales from the trenches, stories forged in the fires of experience.
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All right, everyone, thank you for joining us on Did You Know? The Esco HVAC Podcast.
We are hanging out with the Greg Crumpton, straight out of Crumpton.
How are you, my friend?
Man, I am doing so good.
I'm proud to be here.
This is a, I love this event.
I love coming to Vegas and I'm not a gambler, but because I've been a contractor for four
years.
You like to run out.
That's a good point too.
I love it. Glad to be here.
Appreciate you putting all this together.
Absolutely.
You know, we've got to meet over the last year or so, got to know each other fairly
well.
I absolutely adore you and what you do in this industry and you represent so many things
that people don't actually know about our industry.
And so I wanted to spend some time really talking to students, to technicians, even
our educators about the importance of recognizing what paths are in this industry.
Because unfortunately, so many people see H-Vac and so many parents when their students
come home and go, hey, I think I want to join the H-Vac program, they go, oh, okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you're going to work on furnaces and air conditioners your whole life.
And that's a noble job.
It's good work and there's some decent money in there.
Have you thought about these other options?
Yes.
Well, Clifton, that topic is near and dear to me because I've never, you know, and to
your point, every piece of our industry is important, but I've made a career and I've
never crawled under a house and I've never been in an attic for pay.
Now, I've done plenty of my own.
But when people hear H-Vac, they have this mental stigma.
They're driven to this thought process of what you just described.
Under the umbrella of H-Vac, there's commercial office building, there's retail, there's restaurants,
there's data centers, there's airflow, there's controls.
There's such a wide variety of disciplines that you can go into.
And you know, when I was going through the apprenticeship program, we weren't taught
that there were many different routes to go.
You just kind of meandered through and found your little niche, but there are a tremendous
amount of opportunities outside the residential world.
Yes, yes, absolutely.
I know even for myself, like when I got into the industry, you know, I had married into
a small family business and I was the little guy.
So I was the crawl space and attic guy, but not for very long because we did commercial
refrigeration.
So in a very short period of time, I was introduced into commercial refrigeration and I went,
oh, I didn't know that I didn't know you guys did this stuff too.
And it just went on and on and on.
You know, I think about my last, the last three weeks, I've been to three different
trade shows in two different countries and three different cities.
And I have seen my friends and I've got friends that do residential.
I've got friends that do commercial refrigeration, data center only, controls and integration,
airflow analysis, and all of these are under the umbrella, but we all do different things.
And I think that what that does is provides individuals who learn differently or think
differently or have different creative abilities to kind of figure out which one of those verticals
best suits them.
Yeah.
It's really rewarding.
Yeah, absolutely.
So let's talk a little bit about your experiences and the path that you have now went and all
the steps along the way, just so we get a clear idea of what can happen when you enter
into this industry and you have the drive and you're hungry.
This is my 42nd year of working full time in the industry.
And so I'm like 52 or so years old.
So I started out sweeping in the pipe shop.
I worked for a mechanical contractor and as a pre-apprentice, meaning I had not started
to school, I worked in the warehouse and swept the pipe shop a lot, loaded ductwork.
Then I started the four-year apprenticeship journey and I learned theory and I learned
operations.
But this is where you kind of talk about the different verticals.
As I was going through these educational steps, I started figuring out what I really enjoyed
doing.
So excuse me, I went through a lot of different steps and I learned that I really like working
for independent contractors because I worked for OEM.
I worked for York back when they were York.
I worked for a small mom and pop shop, worked for a controls company.
And I figured out I like to work for an independent mechanical contractor.
So eventually working through all these various positions at that contractor, I bought in
as an equity owner, a very, very small fraction, but it gave me the juice to keep really big.
So I went back to school and I learned accounting because you don't learn that in mechanical
school.
I worked on things that we now call EQ, like reading people and understanding how to communicate,
public speaking, and all the things that go into running a successful business and having
a successful career.
Then eventually started my own company with my wife in 1999.
We ran that company successfully for 15 years, sold it to ServiceLogic, where I currently
reside, and man, we've just had a ball.
But it's such a great industry because again, throughout the 42 years, I've done freaking
40 different things.
Yeah, yeah, all these different stages.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Yeah.
And we don't think about all those different stages.
You don't.
And especially the young folks and to your point, the parents who are helping their children
make adult decisions before our brains are developed because we keep growing.
Our brains keep growing until we're 28 or 30.
And yet at 18, we're trying to decide what we're going to do for a freaking career.
Yeah, for the rest of your life.
So I think having more awareness and just education brought around what does that mean?
What does HVAC mean other than being an acronym for the four words?
What are the opportunities?
No, for sure.
It wasn't until later.
It's so funny you mention that because I was in probably my late 20s before I started realizing
that you know what, I can push myself and I can actually do more.
Absolutely.
You know, we don't, I don't think it's kind of like you don't know what you don't know.
Yeah, I don't think it's completely.
When you start a new job, you know, you get this first day of orientation and they dump
all this data on you.
You remember a tenth of it.
Yeah.
And then after we came back in 90 days after you've had some power or time in the field
or time on the job to understand what questions to ask.
Same way with our early development of our careers.
We don't know yet what to ask.
So if we can help educate more people that are in the guiding and the decision helping
mode, we can maybe strengthen our, our, our pool of talent.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, and you know, show those showcase those avenues just a little bit.
I can remember I was, I was actually in my late 20s and I was looking at my field and
going, you know, there's some, there's a variety of different avenues out here.
Wonder where else I could go with that.
And so I started looking for some of those career paths within our industry and I realized,
okay, so I've got a, I've got a strong refrigeration service.
I have a strong residential light commercial air conditioning.
I have a okay installation, but I don't really have electrical, but I would like to move
into maybe some more commercial grocery store, but building automations.
And so when I started looking around, I had to investigate myself and then I realized,
oh, well, if I want to get into automations, I just, I need to be better in electrical.
Right.
So I went back to night school and up getting a master electrician license.
And then the first company that I contacted about getting into building automations that
combined.
So I was still working on refrigeration, still working on HVAC, but now I was introducing
computers and technology into it so that I can monitor buildings.
And so I was getting into energy efficiency structures.
The very, very first company and contractor that I contacted and told them that, you know,
I just acquired my electrical side to add onto my refrigeration and HVAC, immediately
it was like, come on, let's go.
This is the path.
And I'm like, I didn't know what this path was.
I had to find it.
Yeah.
And some of that's good because it kind of, it keeps you fresh and you use the word earlier,
hungry.
And I love that word because, you know, we think of hungry being like on the offensive,
you're looking for opportunities.
And that's what you do when you're young and fresh and you know, you've got more to offer.
You're out there with your eyes and ears open, like I could do this if I just figured out
how to.
How?
Yeah.
And you got in.
Generation Z, which is what we're appealing to most of these instructors here at the education
conference.
They want a career path.
They want to know.
They don't want to be told you show up at Monday and you work your butt off and you
shut up.
Yeah.
And that's not successful.
So we have to make sure that we, we have a literal map of how they go from day one to
however long you can entertain people.
But there are multiple, multiple steps that they can grow into as people and as technicians
and or as owners and or as whatever.
Yeah.
Wherever they end up.
Absolutely.
And you know, the interesting thing about that, the more I learn about Gen Z, I keep
saying this to people.
I kind of want to be a Gen Z because they have opportunities.
It's not like this is all new.
I mean, if we think about it, the structure that works well for Gen Z actually probably
works very well for all of us.
Absolutely.
And I think we finally got to the point to where we realize it's okay to be understanding
is okay to listen to somebody that's got a single mom who can't show up at eight.
She'll be there every day at eight.
Absolutely.
You know, those kind of human issues, we've kind of taken off our masculinity core or
our shell, whatever you want to call it.
And we've come to be in realistic people that are dealing with realistic people with real
world deals.
Yeah.
And you got to figure out how to accommodate.
You can't just say shut up anymore.
Yeah.
You got to say, okay, I hear you.
Let's figure out how to do it together.
Yeah.
Isn't that interesting?
I have an idea.
We should have thought about that.
That's crazy.
We're at this point finally.
You know, you mentioned you want to be a Gen Zer.
I want to be a young technician because I walk in this trade floor.
Oh my gosh, isn't it exciting?
I tell the story all the time.
I worked for my dad for a long time when you had to borrow a phone to call the office or
you had to go to a payphone.
Absolutely.
My dad was notorious.
He gave you a list of 10 questions.
And if you couldn't answer those 10 questions when you called him, he would hang up to you.
And so what that did, you know, we weren't smart enough to know, but we would get to
the answer before we got to it.
And not need a question.
And so thank goodness he taught us a little bit of critical thinking within that process.
But the tools that we used were so rudimentary compared to what is hanging out here at the
door behind us.
Absolutely.
And I'm jealous.
I am.
Well, talking about that phone, right?
I completely get it.
You know, I had Nextail.
A big part of my time is career, right?
And I had Conduit Tech on my show last week and talking about two young ladies that understand
technology and understand struggles in our industry and decided to look at tools that
we already have in our arsenal and see what they could do to improve our efficiency.
And so they were using the LiDAR detector inside of iPhone Pros and iPad Pros that built
a low calculation software that will analyze an entire home in less than 15 minutes using
a 3D animated controller and model built off from the LiDAR sensor inside of the phone.
Wow.
Are you kidding me?
I'm still struggling with the fact that I didn't invent the Ziploc cereal bag.
Oh my goodness.
Think about it.
I know.
That was a missing piece.
But no, I love the youth.
I love the fact that we have so many smart young people.
You know, every generation is like this young generation, you know, they're whatever.
We were that generation for us.
And I remember, you know, the old salty dogs I worked with, you know, giving me a rasha
crop because I had a mullet.
But hey, mullets are back.
They're back again.
So, yeah.
But I mean, it's just a cycle.
But if you cut it all away, our industry is chocked with such good people and people that
are more than willing to give back.
There are absolutely people in our industry that withhold information.
They're scared.
They live in that.
The old style job security.
They live in the scarcity mentality, but they're retiring.
So what we've got is an incoming group of just stellar kids.
And I say that affectionately, that want to do well.
They want to grow.
They want to learn.
Make a difference.
They want to.
They want to be able to ask questions.
And you know, all these folks here that are learning how to go teach, if you're going
to teach, you better know your stuff, especially with Google, because you will get.
Don't know.
Before you get out of the classroom.
So I love the fact that that we continue to sharpen skills of our instructors every year
by coming here, offering new stuff, refreshing older ideas.
And you know, I was in a class this morning with Ty teaching the invisible.
And you know, it's about it's about.
Non tactile things is that is that human connection, it's that creativity, it's that taking care
of each other.
And those are my words, not his.
But that was the theme.
And I just love the fact we're there, you know, finally.
I do too, I feel like we're at a new place in our industry.
Yes, we have technology transitions.
Yes, we have refrigerant transitions.
Yes, the digital technology is escalating at a pace that we can't really comprehend.
But at the same time, we have never had the presence of people with the open mindedness
and the willingness to reevaluate themselves and to do whatever it takes to advance forward.
And it's it's beautiful.
You know, I was talking with Jeff Blood, so this morning from Dyk and about training
and what people want and what people need.
And a lot of those things are in parallel.
We just don't know it yet because we don't take time to talk to our technicians and say,
what do you need?
We think we know what they need all the time because we're so smart.
But having that two way conversation, what are you interested in?
What do you excel at when you're on the job?
What feels good?
And let's get let's go that direction.
Because if you don't like to work on big package units, cool, man, no big deal.
We got plenty of people.
Lots of other stuff.
Absolutely.
So I think having those kind of conversations, understanding the breadth of opportunity.
You know, I preach on LinkedIn a lot about opportunities for kids.
I'm not talking to the kids because they're not on LinkedIn.
I'm talking to the parents.
I'm talking to the co-workers of parents.
I'm talking to that lady you go to church with that has a kid but doesn't know what
he wants to do or if he wants to do.
And that's who my target is.
I mean, I love a kid.
I walk up, put my arm around him.
In fact, Saturday, I've got lunch with a young man who is a senior in high school interested
in going to trade school in HVAC.
So I'm having lunch with him.
But I don't talk to him on LinkedIn.
I talk to his dad who I'm connected with on LinkedIn.
People who influence him.
Absolutely.
And you know, there's a plethora of people talking to the youth.
Yeah.
And I do what I can.
But I know what my target is.
And I've had success with that.
It's just a longer play.
I love that.
All right.
So much going on.
We could talk for four hours.
We should do this more.
We talk about your attire.
Yeah, absolutely.
Oh, those that can't see us.
So I like to make a statement when I go places.
I like to have fun.
I like to blend fun and education.
So yeah, where's Waldo today?
So I'm sitting here looking at Clifton in his getup and he is looking very sporty.
So good for you, my man.
Be proud.
Represent.
But I really do appreciate what you're doing with this podcast hub that you have here.
And if you look at the names who are coming, who have come before me and who will be after
me in the rotation, what a wide variety of people.
You know, there's students signed up, there's instructors signed up.
And you've actually.
I love it.
Absolutely.
And thanks for all the sponsors who are here representing and sponsoring what you guys are
pulling together.
You can't do it without good sponsorship.
When I look around the ballroom or the expo hall, it's just amazing that the support that
we see in business, I get it.
Klein Tools is here because they need to sell tools.
They need to sell tools to people who are working on equipment.
So it's a natural business thing.
But when you talk to the gentlemen behind the tables, they're passionate about what
they're doing.
Very passionate.
This is not just business.
Yeah, this is us.
I really appreciate that piece.
Bring the training, show what you do, then bring the training and share the experiences.
And you know, I'll I know we're getting close on time to what I would like to do for everybody
is that if you're in the skilled trades, pick, find somebody, one or two youngsters, put
your arm around them and help them over the over the hump.
And that'll be different for people.
Some mentoring requires daily love, some weekly, some a pat on the fanny every once in a while,
good or bad.
Yeah.
But figure out what that relationship can be with a with somebody who is up and coming
and help them because we've got to to increase our talent pool.
We've got to increase the awareness that there's great opportunities.
So encourage you to talk it up and just grab somebody and hug them.
That's right.
Absolutely.
Well, we wouldn't have said that 20 years ago, would we?
Well, you and I might have another problem.
My friend, Greg Crumpton.
My pleasure.
I enjoyed it.
All right.
Thanks.