We're putting out a stellar product that is high
efficiency, the highest technology out there
that you can put in an HVAC system. So we sort
of owe it to the market to make sure that we
have trained people that can work on it. Welcome
to Did You Know, the ESCO HVAC podcast, the show
where we explore the cool, the hot, and the everything
in between of the HVACR industry. Each week,
we dig into the innovations, the insights, and
the inspiring stories that power our trade from
the classroom to the job site and beyond. This
episode is brought to you by this week's amazing
sponsors. Daikin Comfort Technology, perfecting
the air since 1924. ServiceLogic, people first,
always. Hudson Technologies, one pound reclaimed
is one pound not made. iConnect Training. supporting
HVAC and refrigeration instructors, as well as
the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices
of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the
United States and Canada, built on excellence
since 1889. Whether you're just getting started
or you've been turning wrenches for decades like
myself, there's always something new for us to
learn. I'm Clifton Beck, and this is Did You
Know? The ESCO Age Fact Podcast. Let's dive in.
All right, everyone. Thank you so much for joining
us on Did You Know? The ESCO HVAC Podcast. So
I am spending some time with my dear friend,
Jeff Bledsoe. How are you? Doing great, man.
I'm loving this podcast trailer. Well, we're
sitting here in the Daikin Atmosphere Lounge
doing our podcast recording. And, you know, this
conversation, and by the way, for everyone that's
listening, like Jeff flew up here from Florida
just to be the first person to do a podcast in
this thing. So we can get this new studio launched.
So, Jeff, this is. You wear many hats in the
industry. For our sponsor, Daikin, you are the
contractor development manager for the entire
country. So you're hopping around doing that.
You're doing a lot on your own, though, a lot
of giving back to the industry. Tell us a little
bit about that. about that before we even get
started? Well, one of the cool things in the
last week, I was at the MSCA conference, and
we have now sponsored the Convoy of Hope with
the MSCA. Okay. It's a faith -based organization
that responds to natural disasters, whether they're
here or they're in 40 countries. Wow. And the
nice thing about that, when they told me that,
I looked at them and smiled. I said, well, we're
in like 176. But for even, I think some of the
stuff that we packed at the kitting process last
week is going to wind up in Jamaica. Really?
For that natural disaster. Oh, yeah, for the
hurricane. And it's just a hygiene kit with soap
and toothpaste and shampoo and stuff like that.
And we packed 5 ,400 kits in two hours. Wow.
Because the MSCA is really behind the charitable
giving. You know, they know that the industry
has been good to them and this is a way they
can give back to people. You know, that's kind
of the theme for this podcast is how did we get
here? No lie. No lie. Even just you and I, when
we first met, I wasn't in this role. Yeah. You
know, I was a national accounts guy for Daikin
covering Johnstone. And now I've moved into this
role with contract development and I'm heading
up the EPP program, which are all our educational
partners across the country. Yeah. Schools and
the UA and places like that. I didn't dream when
I started with Daikin. I just celebrated my 19th
anniversary. So I've been here for a while. Right.
And when I met you, you were at Johnstone. as
a trainer for training on Daikin. And it's amazing
how our careers take us and the people we get
to meet and the things we get to do. It's very
cool. I think that's the reason we wanted to
do this podcast was to encourage people that
wherever you are, that's just where you are right
now. It doesn't have to be where you're going
to be in the future. There's so many avenues
in this industry. I look back and eight years
ago or so, I was turning wrenches. You know,
I had no idea I would be doing anything other
than turning wrenches. But when I finally took
that step of faith and kind of stepped out of
my comfort zone and decided to do something different,
it changed. things for me very much so that's
one of the things and when i'm privileged enough
to get to speak to trade school students around
the country i always tell them always do more
than you get paid for yes i said somebody will
take notice absolutely you never know where you
may wind up and i was thinking about you and
i when i said that yeah i mean like would you
have ever imagined when you got into the street
like how did you get into hvac At all. Oh, well,
many years ago, I went to trade school in Pensacola,
Florida, Georgetown Votac. Awesome. And taking
major appliance and refrigeration repair because
I was going to start my own business in Pensacola.
Okay. And one day while I'm in class, my instructor
gets a call from a company called Tempaco, which
he happened to know the owner. They're a small
franchise group. There's still some of them in
Florida. Right. And they do oil, gas, and HVAC.
Okay. This guy needed somebody on the counter.
Not only did I find out I was good at sales,
I liked it. And I never looked back, didn't start
that business I was going to. And I've been in
the industry for almost 40 years now. Isn't that
crazy? You know, so many of our students, you
know, when we were teaching them in class, typically
we're teaching them to be a mechanic, but not
realizing that there are so many other opportunities
in this industry that could take you amazing
places. Yeah. And how I wound up at Dykin is
my best friend. Dave Lucas was my bell and gossip
pump rep when I was a wholesale distributor in
Pensacola, Florida. Okay. And now he was one
of the first six people hired at Dykin. And when
my position, this position came open, I was the
guy he wanted to hire. Right. So I was like,
Hey, where are you going? What are you doing?
Exactly. And that's how it happens. Exactly.
So November 1st, every year I call him and thank
him. Sure. I can imagine because, I mean, just
think about that kid going through. trade school
right would you have ever thought that you would
have came out of school and then ended up the
largest guy in the world exactly no never you
know but you never know where your where your
path goes yeah you know and as long as you're
working hard and doing treating people right
and being kind to people people take notice yeah
And your conscientious about your job and you
have that servant attitude as well. It is. Because
it's all about that. And I tell people all the
time, I said, support is not convenient. If you're
going to get in this industry and you're going
to promise people support, whether it's taking
care of their air conditioning or whatever it
is, it's not convenient. They may call you at
8 o 'clock on Christmas Eve with a house full
of company because they're starting up their
first system. Been there, done that. And the
good thing about that is because I took that
phone call, he put Dyken equipment in 250 locations
over the next two years because of that one night.
It's really about, and I've said this many times,
and I think you just hit it on the nail, because
I asked people in our industry, do you feel like
being successful in this industry is literally
just being a good servant? It is. I think so.
It truly is. Because I have a blast what I do.
As long as years ago when we were first getting
started, I called Dave one day and I was laughing.
He said, what is so funny? I said, man, as long
as I can find one person who doesn't know the
capabilities of our equipment. I said, Dave,
you're kidding me. Look in their face, never
gets old. Yeah. Well, that's that passion of
it. So do you think that you found that passion
of... sales and just education when you were
at the parts counter? I was, yeah. Because back
then, though, everybody had the same thing. But
I remember when the electronic ignitions first
came in and the furnaces. So you had to be able
to educate people. Yeah, yeah. Because the manufacturers
then didn't know. They just give you a new ball
of wires and you've got to figure it out. Right,
there you go. But it's all about that. And as
the technology has changed, and I think HVAC
in the last, 20 years, has grown faster in the
technology than most any other things out there.
I agree. We've now gone to heat pump, hot water
heaters. That's a big change. But prior to that?
It was going to a big box store, buying a blanket
and a timer, so you only heated the water when
you were needed early in the morning or late
in the evening because you didn't heat it all
day long. That was the energy -saving aspect
of it. But with this technology, again, it's
changing so much so rapidly. You have to be able
to have students and technicians that are keeping
up with it because you're giving them a laptop
computer with the air conditioner. Yeah, you
are, 100%. It's our diagnostics, even our educators.
I just came back from a conference where we were
learning about new technologies that was coming
through the industry, and that was something
that we were really spending a lot of time with
the instructors because the instructors were
wanting to get in front of educators, trying
to help them understand that things are changing
so fast that the educators have to be on top
of things so that the students are learning and
that the students are coming out of school going
to some of these contractors going, hey, I know
a little bit about this, and the contractors
don't. because they're very far behind on education.
You know, when I started doing these podcasts
and I started making it grow, I started making
a lot of phone calls, a lot of cold calls. Hey,
I'd love to have you on our podcast to talk about
the industry, maybe things people don't always
think about. And yesterday. I got a return phone
call from one that I had placed almost a year
ago, and it was from the director from the Bureau
of Labor Statistics. That's going to be on the
show, going to be on the podcast here in a few
weeks, because even the BLS is recognizing the
growth that is happening in the trades. and they're
needing feedback because they're seeing the growth
in our trades. Like just the HVAC side of it
has got a projected like 8 % growth, which is
three times IT fields. Wow. Isn't that crazy?
That is crazy. And I'll tell you, we did a beta
marketing campaign with a school a few years
ago, and they had two classes at that time, and
they were struggling to fill them with students.
beta test with them marketing campaign we put
on bus stops and on buses and stuff around oh
really and talked about it within three years
you could be making this number of dollars well
in the six week period prior to that in the prior
year their website got 1800 hits During the six
weeks that we did this campaign, they got 28
,000 hits. Now that's a big difference. Now,
two years later, they now have seven classes,
and they're all full months in advance. Isn't
that crazy? Somebody asked me about what I attributed
the new found interest. Yeah. And I said, I honestly
think it's COVID. And the so -called pandemic
that they had because people were sitting at
home losing money. Some of them got fired. And
they were watching those tradesmen go up and
down the street. They didn't miss a lick. They
were still busy as can be. They did not miss
a lick. Yeah. And they said, so why do I need
to do this? And it's really created an interest.
Even I was at Lincoln Tech here in Indy just
a couple hours ago. They started with six students
last year. Now they have 170 in the HVAC class.
Okay. Well, that has grown significantly. In
a year. So it's taking off. Goodness, that's
a huge jump. It is. Yeah, I know they just opened
that facility, but, I mean, that's a lot of students
coming through already. And it looks really good
because it's full of Dykin equipment. There you
go. And they're another co -sponsor of the studio.
Oh, yeah, that's right. Lincoln Tech. Yeah, so
we'll be spending time at their schools and a
variety of others. And, really, it's about preaching
this message that our industry has some amazing
opportunities in it. I've seen many articles
lately that the next millionaires are going to
be tradesmen. I believe it. I do as well because
when you look at taking the technology that we've
got now and the skill set and the mental acuity
it's going to take to maintain that and keep
up with it and paying attention to the detail
because of the fact there is a computer in this
thing, you'll be able to write your own ticket
pretty much going forward because it's going
to require. the skill set that our grandfathers
didn't have. Yeah, exactly. And the fact is my
favorite go -to line is like, we've got a 2025
Ferrari. We're not selling 72 VW bucks. That's
so true. And you're not working on it. No, not
the same. Absolutely. They are absolutely not
the same. So that's going to help elevate and
just extend their capabilities as far as monetary.
But the fact is, no matter where you get into
the industry, You still got to pay your dues.
You do. You got to put some time in. That's what
some of these youngsters and the students are
thinking. Oh, I can make a lot of money doing
this. Well, you can't go into it with that mindset.
You have to pay your dues. You got to have some
credibility to what you do. I agree. You know,
I seen an article yesterday and it was from a
consumer. I think they were struggling with the
entry -level pay of getting into HVAC because
they were looking at career paths for their child.
And they said, well, why would I want to send
my child to trade school? Because they're coming
out of school starting at $16 an hour, and they
can go to McDonald's and make $22. And the response
was, yeah, but in five years, they'll still be
making $22, maybe $23. they'll be setting their
own limits. They can work as much as they want.
They can go any direction they want. If they
don't progress, yeah, they may still be down
there in the lower pay, but in a few years, they're
going to be able to escalate their opportunities
and their pay. And then relook at all the different
opportunities that they can do. It just continues
to grow. You know, you've partnered with the
UA, which is a lot of our commercial HVAC and
refrigeration. They're another co -sponsor of
the studio. You could come out of a trade school,
work with a union like the UA, partnering with
Daikin. And you can be making six figures in
no time flat. Easy. And the fact is when somebody
invests in the money for the technology and the
energy savings and stuff with this type of equipment,
when you've got a 27 -story building and it's
a week before Christmas and you've got like 14
apartments that have no heat, you need a competent
guy to go fix that. Because those owners, they
have a lot of money invested in the equipment
and the building. And it's not the Johnny -come
-lately that can go in there and work on it.
No, not at all. There's no more flipping through
the yellow pages and starting in the A's in the
HVAC to call somebody to come work on this. That's
right. Because they'll go out there and look
at it and go, I have no idea what this is. I
don't know where to start. And then, sadly. Some
of them wind up doing more damage to the system
than we really want. So that's why it behooves
us. That's one of the reasons why Daikin has
gotten so heavily involved with the education
portion, with ESCO being the go -to guy at the
conference for the HVAC and investing so much
in the trade schools because we know that they
have to have that education. We're putting out
a stellar product that is high efficiency. the
highest technology out there that you can put
in an HVAC system. So we sort of owe it to the
market to make sure that we have trained people
that can work on it. You can't give them that
kind of equipment and talk them into buying it
and go, here you go, good luck. Here's your box.
It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that
way at all. Yeah, that trained technician is
the key to successful products of any type. Oh,
yeah, and it still comes down to the basics.
Make sure it's installed properly. That's it.
When it's installed properly, it's pretty much
bulletproof, unless you're in the state of Florida
and it gets hit by lightning and all beds are
off. I was actually just talking to a tool manufacturer.
I spent a little bit of time with our good friend
Tony Gonzalez from a field piece. He was asking
questions about installations. I'm like, he's
like, so why do so many ductless units get a
bad reputation? I was like, because they're installed
wrong. That's it. You take a unit that's installed
properly, you don't hear about them they work
flawlessly. It's the poor installations from
the improper training that causes the concerns.
Yeah. Field piece has been a good partner for
us as well. So much so that they're building
some new training systems, I think for HR or
something going on next year. We're helping sponsor
that. Very good. That's fantastic. I talked to
Tony the other day. Well, you're all over the
industry, helping out, bringing education and
bringing awareness to this high -tech field that
we have become. We've always had advanced technologies
in our industry. A lot of that was in the commercial
realm. Now those same technologies are in residential
and in almost every product, and you have to
become educated. Even those skilled technicians
that have been in the field for a long time and
got and good at what they're doing, many of these
new products are almost alien to them, and they
need the education just as much as that fresh
technician that has never even looked at a piece.
Well, let's say years ago the joke was if you
wanted to program your VCR, you'd go get your
grandkids. That's right. Well, you've got to
do the same thing now with your air conditioning
because if you're old school. then you don't
know how to do that. So you've got to get some
of these new fresh minds, and at least somebody's
willing to learn. You betcha. When we look at
all of the technology that is going into them,
you're right. You can work on these. You can
diagnose these from a PC, from a tablet, and
many times remotely. It blows my mind. When you
look at years ago, the first thing they would
do when they go to troubleshoot a piece of equipment,
they'd go hook their gauges to it. Yeah, let
me start here. Yeah. That's the last thing you
do. That's the last thing. You put your gauges
on ours and you pressurize it and you charge
it up and then take the gauges off. That's exactly
right. Put them back in the truck, you know,
and you use the diagnostic tools, you know, which
are computer -based products to do the diagnostics
on the thing. And if you don't know how to do
that, then you're pretty much not. that good
in the marketplace to anybody. I agree. Yeah,
because when you look at all of the pressure
transducers and temperature thermistors going
into these pieces of equipment, it's the same
type of controls that we're using in our digital
manifold gauges. The data is there. All we have
to do is to be able to look at that data and
be able to interpret it properly. But, dude,
the technology even in the tools, being able
to set your gauges out. Pulling a vacuum on something
that are digitally, you know, Bluetooth connected
to your phone so you can go back in and keep
working, pulling wires or whatever while you're
watching it from your phone instead of just sitting
outside babysitting the vacuum pump. I got one
right over there. I got one of the new smart
recovery and the smart vacuum pumps from NABAC,
one of our co -sponsors for the studio. You can
set that up and tell it, hey, I need for you
to go down to this level and I need you to hold.
And then you're going to go down here again and
you're going to hold and you're going to let
me know once you've done this decay test. Unbelievable.
I can be doing so many other things while my
tools are doing work for me. So now you take
the technology and make it work for you. Exactly.
So you're spending less time on a job so you
can do more jobs in a day. And guess what? You're
making more money. Making more money. Exactly.
Exactly. Yeah, it's this wonderful cycle. And
it all starts with proper education and having
the right educational partners in the industry.
Well, it's going to cut back on callbacks, for
one thing. The education, especially on this
type of equipment, make sure you're doing it
right the first time. So you cut down on your
callbacks. You cut down on your warranties. And
then you can, now that we've got, there's testing
and stuff out there, so technicians can get certifications
and give the consumer that peace of mind that
these guys know what they're doing. Yeah. How
did we get here? I don't know. I started in this
industry in 88. Yeah, so I've been around for
a long time. Fantastic. Yeah, I was about 98
when I got in, and it's been great for me. And
I encourage everyone that's listening to push
yourself, to make yourself more valuable. It
really comes down to education and certification.
Absolutely. That's where you need to challenge
yourself to be better. And don't hope the market
changes. Hope it gets better. You need to get
better. Exactly. And challenge yourself and become
more valuable in the marketplace. And that's
where it comes to is boiling down to you. Going
and getting the education and learning everything
you can about this because that's where, you
know, out -hustle everybody. I've never seen
a crackhead get up in the morning and say, I
can't get high today because I'm broke. He's
going to figure out a way to go get high. So
don't get out hustled by a crackhead. Man, is
that the name of this podcast? Don't get out
hustled by a crackhead. Absolutely. It works
for me. That's hilarious. You're going to be
all over the place. I encourage people, if you
want to meet Jeff, come on out to the National
HVACR Education Conference. He's going to be
there for the entire time. to get you connected
with any of the products that Daikin offers,
any of the educational opportunities that are
there. In the past, we've primarily had educators
from schools at the conference, but that has
grown to where we have distributor trainers,
we have contractor trainers, and just contractors
and technicians that are wanting to learn more
about the industry. It's a great place for you
to come hang out with us, get to meet everybody,
and learn more about. everything that Jeff is
contributing to our industry. Well, one of the
things, too, about when you mentioned contractors,
we're actually now allowing contractors to sign
up and be part of our educational partnership
program. Really? So contractors who are, you
know, have drank the Kool -Aid and know that
they have to have their technicians trained.
And this way it gives them more flexibility,
too. So if they have a large enough facility
where they have a trainer and they're dedicated
to that, we want to help them with that as well.
Because the fact is they can take one of my installed
commissioning classes that may be eight hours.
They can break it down over four weeks, two hours
a morning. Make it into chunks. Exactly. So they
take accountability for their own training, but
they have to go through the same process that
our trainers do and our distributors and our
reps do and the schools do to make sure that
they're a truly authorized trainer. Love that.
Yeah, that's what our industry needs. Absolutely.
Well, my friend Jeff Bledsoe, I'm sure grateful
that you hung out with us for today. Oh, absolutely,
man. This has been awesome. I love the trailer,
man. You have done a phenomenal job. Your imagination
and technical skills just continue to blow me
away, man. It's been a learning opportunity.
And your commitment to the industry. You know,
people may not realize, but what you do, you
know, you are truly a... Leading the light, man.
They say you've got to be salt and light. You
are damn sure a light in this industry, and that's
for sure. Thank you. Just trying to bring the
voices up front where they need to be. Absolutely.
It's always a never -changing market, so they
need people like me and you that are leading
the charge, sort of like Johnny Appleseed. I
agree. All right, well, thank you so much, and
I encourage you all to learn more about Daikin
at Daikin Comfort. All right, thank you, sir.
All right, thank you, man.