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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 Multifamily Media Network and the Maintenance Mindset

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podcast with Paul Rhodes.

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Learn more at multifamilymedianetwork.com.

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All right, everyone, thank you for joining us on Did You Know?

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The Esco HVAC Podcast.

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So today we're joined by another fellow podcaster, Paul Rhodes from Maintenance Mindset.

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How are you, my friend?

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Fantastic.

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Great to see you.

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You as well.

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And for those who don't know, Paul is also considered the Billy Graham of the apartment

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maintenance industry.

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I had to go there, didn't I?

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Oh, gosh.

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Okay.

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I aspire to be the Billy Graham.

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If we're going to go with that as a label or a term, that's like an aspirational thing.

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I agree.

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I agree.

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Oh, I get it.

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I certainly called the Mr. Rogers of the HFAC industry because I just like to sit there

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and tell stories.

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So sometimes we get labels whether we want them or not.

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Oh, there you go.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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Won't you be my neighbor?

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That would be a good one.

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So I did.

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I had someone say that and I was like, I had to start creating a logo for it.

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So in other words, at the conference, we should see you with the cardigan sweater.

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I'm going to be one day.

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And oh, that's awesome.

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Well, every day I do a different get up.

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Yes.

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Yeah, I remember that.

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Yeah.

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I think I'm going to eventually have a business card made that just says weirdo loudmouth

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maintenance guy and hand that out because that's kind of it.

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I like thinking of weird thoughts specifically about being an apartment maintenance technician

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and just how much fun and great that is as an industry.

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So wait a second.

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I guess I'm now evangelizing and okay, I'm in the direction of Billy Graham.

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That's exactly right.

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That's why that's why it was mentioned about you because you have that directive and I

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completely get it.

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And that's really what we're here to do.

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We're here to talk about the fun and the interesting things that you find in property maintenance

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and our trades in general.

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And a lot of times for young technicians, especially if they get stuck in installation

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and that's all they get to see, they don't get to have the fun of the industry that you

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and I have obviously had because we're still here, still having fun.

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And even myself, I spent, I actually spent a fair amount of time in property maintenance.

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So I got into the industry and a family owned commercial refrigeration business.

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And in about four or five years and I'm like, I don't know about this whole working for

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family deal.

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And I was pretty active into the Masonic fraternity.

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So I went and worked at the Indiana Masonic home.

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And so then I was doing HVAC, refrigeration, plumbing, electrical.

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I was working on everything in the individual's homes.

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We had homes, we had apartments, and then we had our actual house.

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We had a full hospital, like a five story hospital.

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And then we had all of our indoor apartments, one bedroom, two bedrooms.

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So we had all sorts of stuff.

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And I have to say some of the funnest stories ever came out of that particular section of

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my life.

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And I think we need to share some of those stories.

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So people that understand that property maintenance has got so many things going forth that people

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don't think about, like you're working indoors most of the time.

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Oh yeah.

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Yes.

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And there is that reality.

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Yes, the property and multifamily properties all go and decisions are based off of curb

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appeal, which is often viewed as the outside, the exterior.

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And that's where customers see, but that goes back to that first impression.

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The workers, however, the majority of the day is spent inside or in environmentally controlled

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places to where if the weather is really, really bad outside, well, there's enough stuff

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to keep us busy on the inside of our buildings.

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So it's a much, I don't know, much more favorable environment a lot of times, especially in

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the Midwest where it's super hot in the summer and super cold in the winter.

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And if you're working residential like commercial, you're going to be out in those elements quite

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a bit, especially if you get into refrigeration.

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Oh yeah.

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Yes.

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And so that's a huge benefit.

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And ultimately for me though, the attraction is the people.

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The fact, just like what you said, you're dealing with a hospital.

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So then you've got both a professional clientele and you've got patients that you have to serve.

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And it's that aspect of service to me is the huge attraction.

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Work is work.

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It's productive, it's going to be found wherever it is.

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But there's just something really unique about, I had a resident that he retired from the

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Marine Corps as a Colonel and he still sticks in my head today.

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He was at the very first property that I was the maintenance supervisor for.

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To this day, don't ever remember him saying his last name, but it was Colonel Bob.

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And Colonel Bob granted this was back when we still had smoking as a norm, a cultural

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norm.

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It was absolutely.

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So I'd go to an apartment and even if it wasn't Colonel Bob's apartment, he would stop me

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because he was sitting outside on his porch and he always had the huge, big stogie that

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he would smoke.

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And then he'd call me in and say, Paul, when you get finished, stop over here.

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Although in order to get the feeling right, it was more like, oh, come on over.

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The smokers talk.

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So I go fix whatever needed fixing or do whatever the job was.

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And then on the way by invariably, I'd end up in Colonel Bob's apartment and he would

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tell me stories of Marine Corps and Vietnam and just the.

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Some of them, old Marine, some of them were off color and politically incorrect.

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But the life lessons that this guy had and what he shared of the battlefield and stressful

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stories.

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I will never ever have to deal with that.

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But eventually, Colonel Bob passed away while living there and his wife had to move out

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and I will never ever remember or forget having to get that apartment ready and the layers

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of tobacco smoke on the walls.

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Yes.

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From a work standpoint, it was very challenging.

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But I have to admit, when I was when we were scrubbing and working to remove some of that

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to get it down far enough to prime and paint, do what we had to do.

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I actually had a couple of moments of remembering the stories that he was saying and just how

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much as a friend.

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I mean, yes, we're doing apartment maintenance and you were where we're instructed to be

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friendly to our residents, but be careful of becoming friends because at the end of

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the day it is a business customer relationship.

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But it's about going into people's homes.

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Yeah.

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And and I'm sure as a as a contractor, you go into somebody's home.

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You never know what you're going to end up seeing or interacting with.

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In Colonel Bob, I know that there are some things that I do in some ways of thinking

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that I still think about things that Colonel Bob instill their stories that he told me.

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And mine was Jane.

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Really?

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Yeah.

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That's that's interesting.

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You said that one.

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We'll diverse down some some fun stories maybe here in a minute.

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But these life lessons, you're exactly right.

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So there's a sweetest little lady.

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She always said hi.

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I always stopped to talk to her.

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I was working in her apartment, working on her air conditioner.

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So these units were air conditioner and then we had steam heat.

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Right.

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And so I'm in working on the unit and we're just conversing and I'm looking around the

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room and I see all of these airplane photos and this pretty little young lady and she

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says, do you like electricity and wiring to us?

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And I said, oh, absolutely.

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Yeah, I work on a little bit of everything.

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She says, well, during the war, that's me right there.

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I wired the consoles of most of the B-52 bombers that went through production.

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I'm like, tell me more.

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She says, you know, during that time period, women really were never looked at as being

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a part of the trades.

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We didn't do the big heavy mechanical stuff, even though we wanted to.

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I grew up working on automobiles with my dad and his automotive shop.

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So I could have worked on just about anything that the country needed me to work on.

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But because I was a woman, I was a female, I wasn't allowed to do that.

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But because I had so much wiring experience, I got to wire instrumentation panels.

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So I spent the entire war hand wiring all of the consoles for B-52 bombers.

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She says, I could draw a schematic right now if I needed to.

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I could tell you how to operate a B-52 because not only did I do the wiring, I did all of

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the switches and all the instrumentation as well.

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So even though I couldn't fly, I wouldn't have been allowed to go through the same kind

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of training that a man was allowed to.

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I could probably fly one because I know how they operate.

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I'm like, that was an interesting life lesson.

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It's stuff like that that you begin to take the life lessons from Judy or from Colonel

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Bob and apply them to what we're doing on a daily basis.

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And that is the really, really cool thing about the varieties of work that you and I

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end up doing.

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It's really cool.

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I learned a lot of the home maintenance skills in that period of my life because I was able

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to learn from other professionals on a variety of different things.

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So when we start talking about the different careers in the industry, I think it's very

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important to understand all of the opportunities and the value that comes in looking at different

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careers that had a lot of value.

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Financially, it was valuable.

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Mentally, it was incredibly valuable.

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And being able to work indoors was another extremely important part of that period of

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my life.

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And there's also some really, really fun stories.

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I think we can put this episode in Tales from the Trenches.

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I've got some fun stories.

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I bet you got some fun stories.

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I've got to be careful though.

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I'm not sure what I should rate this one.

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This might be a PG, should be at least a PG-13 if not a T-17.

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Yeah, probably.

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Probably?

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Yeah, somewhere along the lines just because we do get to go into our residence homes

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in their most...

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I don't know if private is the right way.

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I would say unaware of other people's perceptions, areas to where you do go to the home and residents

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answer the door when they're just out of the shower or just in potentially compromising

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situations.

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Oh yes, absolutely.

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I'll never forget I had a friend of mine that was looking for a job and we ended up hiring

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him.

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It was a guy I knew at church.

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And we got a call to go to a residence apartment for the air conditioning was failing.

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But this particular resident was an entertainer of the adult variety who she liked to bring

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work home with her.

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We'll just say that.

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I can imagine.

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This work order comes in to go fix the air conditioner and it's hot enough during the

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day that it's an emergency.

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It has to be done.

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But it was one of those deals of as an employee of the community, you never knew what you

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were going to get when you go to her apartment.

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So me and I'll call to changing names to protect the innocent.

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Joe and I go up to the apartment and I said, now Joe, remember I had met Joe at church

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and I said Joe, to color the story, my wife and his wife are really good friends.

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The first thing I say is Joe, you got to come on this work order with me because it's not

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good for a...

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I can't go alone.

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Correct.

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So we get to the apartment and I knock on the door and I said, Joe, by the way, you

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see that caulking right up there in the corner, right?

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That corner right there, you know that caulking is really, really interesting.

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Knock, knock, knock, knock.

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And we need to evaluate what kind of caulking do you think that was?

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And about that time she opens the door and he's looking up at the caulking and I'm looking

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up at the caulking and I ask the resident, do you have air coming out of your vents?

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I'm here to look at your air conditioners, air coming out of your vents?

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And she says, yeah.

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And I said, okay, well then I need you to go to your thermostat, turn the temperature

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way down on the thermostat and we're going to go work on the outside system there.

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And she says, okay.

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And she closes the door and goes back inside.

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And I look at Joe and Joe's eyes are as big as plates.

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And all he said was, I didn't know they made shirts that went down that low.

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These are real.

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These are people.

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These are our residents.

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And you know, we go into their homes and I get it.

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It's their home.

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They should feel comfortable there, but you know, some situational awareness would be

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very good if you have something broken and somebody has to come over.

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It's fun.

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Another favorite story and actually, you know, Howard Weiss that works with you, good friend

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of ours.

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I told this to him a couple of years ago and he laughed so loud that it interrupted a class

243
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nearby that was going on at the conference.

244
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And it's a perfect illustration of just the variety of people that we end up dealing with.

245
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And I got a work order to go work on.

246
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If I remember right, it was a kitchen sink in a residence apartment.

247
00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:33,040
And so I go up to the door and I knock on the door and you know, there is, I'm sure

248
00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:39,880
it developed in you and for a lot of service workers, you get that sixth sense kind of

249
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ESP thing where you can't physically detect somebody is home, but you know somebody's

250
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home for whatever reason.

251
00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:53,440
Yeah.

252
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It's like a radar or something.

253
00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:00,040
So I knocked on the door, didn't hear anything.

254
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And normal practice is you wait a minute or so and then knock again loudly to go in.

255
00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:17,720
Well, the second time I knocked, I heard this scream behind the door.

256
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And the scream was not eek or, oh my gosh, it was, if you've ever seen a child in a store

257
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that the child is not ready to leave the store and mom grabs the child's ear to drag the

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kid out.

259
00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:41,560
Yeah.

260
00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:48,520
The time to go pull and the scream that occurs from the kid yelling, that was the kind of

261
00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:51,520
scream that I heard through the door.

262
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Oh, I'm going in.

263
00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:54,080
And yeah.

264
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And you know, personal value.

265
00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:56,640
Absolutely.

266
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You don't mess with kids.

267
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Absolutely.

268
00:17:58,640 --> 00:17:59,960
And what's happening here?

269
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Oh, had the key.

270
00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:05,200
I ran in and habit is you start yelling maintenance.

271
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We go in the door to try and do it.

272
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:14,040
Nothing going on in the living room, head down the hallway, heard it going in there.

273
00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:21,400
And lo and behold, the, uh, there was a young lady that was on her knees right next to the

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bathtub that had just slit the neck of a goat.

275
00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:31,160
Oh, so I did.

276
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I heard a kid scream.

277
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Oh, wow.

278
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Not the kid you were expecting.

279
00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:38,600
Correct.

280
00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:40,720
Not the kind of kid that we were expecting.

281
00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:47,280
And I, I, I don't know what I said, but I do know that I picked up my jaw from the floor.

282
00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:48,280
Oh man.

283
00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:49,480
I can imagine.

284
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:51,480
Because what?

285
00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:57,040
Uh, I, I'm not sure what or how to even.

286
00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:58,040
That's your response.

287
00:18:58,040 --> 00:18:59,040
Yeah.

288
00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:00,480
I'm here to take a look at your air conditioning.

289
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:05,000
How you doing today?

290
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:09,120
I did go back to the office and fill out, you know, there's paperwork and stuff that's

291
00:19:09,120 --> 00:19:10,160
involved.

292
00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:18,720
And when that resident did move out, we, uh, did an extra deep clean on the bathroom and

293
00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:21,600
bath tile and stuff that went on.

294
00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:26,560
So, uh, yeah, it, it, it's all people.

295
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,800
It's just people in their life.

296
00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:38,000
That is, you know, as frustrating as people are at times taking afterward, you think back

297
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:42,560
and just how interesting and amusing that, that they are.

298
00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:46,840
Uh, I mean, I, I hear a recent episode of, of my podcast.

299
00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:55,320
I shared a story of a resident that was having a rodent problems and, uh, it, it worked out

300
00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:59,160
really, really well, but in the end of that conversation, I ended up talking with her

301
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:05,120
about, uh, maybe she should attempt to teach the rats how to sit up and beg like she was

302
00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:10,640
working on her puppy dog with, and maybe that's how it gets around.

303
00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:16,680
And, and it ended up being a, uh, a laugh line for her, which was great because the

304
00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:19,320
story begins with her cussing me out.

305
00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:22,000
Yeah, I'm sure.

306
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:29,720
It's just, it's so cool being able to serve people and be exposed to really, really neat

307
00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:31,000
people.

308
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:35,040
Interesting things and different states of mind, things we may not think of encountering

309
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:36,040
all the time.

310
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:37,640
One of my favorite ones.

311
00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:40,840
Remember I'm, I'm at this, it is a nursing home.

312
00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:46,520
There are many people who are, are very, um, very sharp and there are people who could

313
00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:48,320
be potentially challenged a little bit.

314
00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:54,480
So you have a lot of interesting conversations, but my funnest experience, I think yet, uh,

315
00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:56,440
it wasn't directly involved.

316
00:20:56,440 --> 00:21:00,560
I was indirectly involved, but it just shows you some of the interesting scenarios that

317
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:06,200
we can encounter in multi-family is I'm going down the hallway and one of the guys that

318
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:11,500
I work with, he did more of the plumbing side of things and a lot of general maintenance

319
00:21:11,500 --> 00:21:13,840
and we'll just call him, we'll call him Bob.

320
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:16,400
And so I walked by Bob and Hey Bob, how's it going?

321
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:18,600
I'm doing great.

322
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:20,280
Just a, just a simple job here.

323
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:25,240
Just, just got a commode that needs a new wax ring and, um, you got a minute.

324
00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:26,440
You can help me pull this thing off.

325
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:27,440
Yeah, absolutely.

326
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:28,440
No problem.

327
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:30,560
So I walk up and I'm helping him, you know, so he's undoing the bolts.

328
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:34,640
It's a wall mount and so he's already drained all the water out and we're actually just

329
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:37,000
to pulling bolts off from helping carry it out.

330
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:40,160
We set it in the hallway and okay, Bob, I'll catch you later.

331
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,480
I've got a, I got some P-tacks I gotta go take a look at and I'll, I'll meet you down

332
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:44,480
the shop lunchtime.

333
00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:46,720
We just gathered at lunchtime to share stories, right?

334
00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:50,180
Some of the best storytelling I ever had was in that period of my time.

335
00:21:50,180 --> 00:21:54,160
So I get there and we're having lunch and we're just kind of chatting and it was nice

336
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:58,420
because we had like all the maintenance, all grounds, variety of people telling stories

337
00:21:58,420 --> 00:22:01,280
from different perspectives and encounters.

338
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:06,120
And Bob comes in and he's got this really, really bad look on his face.

339
00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:09,280
Like really, really bad.

340
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:10,280
What's going on, Bob?

341
00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:14,360
He said, people, he said, there's days I absolutely love my job and there's days that

342
00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:16,900
I just don't know what to think about my job.

343
00:22:16,900 --> 00:22:20,800
He says, there's things that happen in this kind of work that you just don't ever expect

344
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:22,720
to see and I just seen it.

345
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:24,800
I'm like, well, all right, tell us more.

346
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:26,240
Sounds like we've got a great story for today.

347
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,200
He says, all right, so you remember when you came by and you helped me pull that commode

348
00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:30,200
off in the wall?

349
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:31,200
I was like, yep.

350
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:36,040
And he said, well, so I went down to the shop to get a wax ring and I came back up and somebody

351
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:38,040
pooped in my commode.

352
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:42,320
Right on the hallway.

353
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:48,160
Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

354
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:58,240
That reminds me, I was fixing a garbage disposal one time and I'm laying underneath the kitchen

355
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:01,240
cabinet.

356
00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:10,640
And I happen to be a larger-ish individual and they don't exactly make cabinets in large

357
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:11,640
and tall sizes.

358
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:12,640
Oh, sure.

359
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:13,640
Yeah.

360
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:21,080
So me getting underneath the kitchen cabinet, kitchen sink to fix the escutcheon and the

361
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:25,240
seal that goes on the collar is what I was working on.

362
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:29,820
So I had the garbage disposal dropped and it was there and I'm underneath there working

363
00:23:29,820 --> 00:23:32,000
directly over my head.

364
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:39,480
So if looking at the camera, I was looking up through and all of a sudden the resident,

365
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:47,080
she comes and stands and straddles me laying on the floor and commences to turn on the

366
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:52,360
faucet and rinse out her cereal bowl.

367
00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:54,360
Hello?

368
00:23:54,360 --> 00:24:01,440
I can get out of here in a hurry.

369
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:02,440
Yeah.

370
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:05,360
I, you know, full face.

371
00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:06,560
It's there.

372
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:12,480
And unfortunately I wasn't wearing the safety eyewear that, you know, we're supposed to

373
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:16,200
be wearing, but still it's people.

374
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:17,480
It's that's all it is.

375
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:23,120
And it's a really, really, really cool things that you've got funny stories like pooing

376
00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:27,840
in a commode in the hallway.

377
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:31,960
And yet you've got Colonel Bob and Judy.

378
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:40,840
It's those paradigms or those, those ends of the spectrum that can happen at any moment

379
00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,560
is what makes it really, really cool.

380
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:44,680
I agree.

381
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:52,740
So for those of you in the HVAC industry that are looking for other fun, interesting opportunities,

382
00:24:52,740 --> 00:24:56,940
you want to think outside of the box for your career and think about additional things that

383
00:24:56,940 --> 00:25:02,560
you can do with your talents, learn new talents, gain some really fog guarantee.

384
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,440
You're going to gain some fun, interesting stories.

385
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:13,160
Look at multifamily, look at property maintenance, department maintenance, and start thinking

386
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:18,080
about other ways you can use your skills and ways that you can change other people's lives

387
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:19,600
and serve other people.

388
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:21,840
I mean, really, we talked about this all the time.

389
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:26,360
When you're in the trades, you must obviously have a servant heart or just an extreme dire

390
00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:33,200
to have some money because as most of us are in it to serve other people and it is very

391
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:34,200
rewarding.

392
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:36,640
And so Paul Rhodes, I appreciate you joining me today.

393
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:42,280
I don't know if anyone gained any education on this podcast at all, but by golly, it's

394
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:47,320
exactly what working in property maintenance of any form is like.

395
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:48,320
It is fun.

396
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:49,320
It is interesting.

397
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:54,640
It's new skill sets and it is a great career without a doubt.

398
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:56,720
And we appreciate you joining us today.

399
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,800
Oh, thanks for the invite again.

400
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,360
And I will see you at the National HVACR Education Conference in March.

401
00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:05,400
Yes, I'm so looking forward to it.

402
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:06,400
It's going to be great.

403
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:07,400
It is absolutely.

404
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:08,400
All right, everyone.

405
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:25,200
Thanks for joining us today.