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All right everyone, thanks for joining us again.
Hanging out today with Greg Castro.
Greg, how are you buddy?
Doing great, how are you?
I am doing just unbelievably well.
And I so much appreciate you joining us for this podcast, because this is the whole reason
that we started doing the webcast and now the podcast, is resources, particularly for
new instructors.
So let's talk about investing in yourself and investing in becoming better in the career,
business man, you're exactly what this role is about.
So tell me a little bit about yourself and how long you've been in the industry.
Of course, yeah.
So I want to thank you first off for having me on the show.
Excited to be here.
So I started off in the HVAC industry as an install helper.
I actually went in not knowing anything about HVAC.
How old were you, Greg?
I was 21, about a turn 22.
That's about when I got in.
Yeah, I wish I started earlier, but that's the time the opportunity came around.
And so I went in and I came from the automotive industry and I had no idea what gauges were.
I had no idea anything about HVAC.
And I went into the interview and I told them, hey, I have zero to no knowledge on HVAC.
I never touched gauges.
I don't even know how refrigeration works.
But I believe to be a trainable person that will constantly be learning and constantly
looking to invest into myself.
And they said, awesome, come on in, join us and we'll teach you along the way what it
is to be an HVAC technician installer.
And that's how I started.
No perspective going in where you're going to end up.
None whatsoever, which was exciting.
Yeah, it is, man.
That's one of the great things about the industry.
You don't know what you're getting into.
Yeah.
And I was afraid at first because all I knew were automotives and vehicles.
That's your hands on.
Hands on, yeah.
And to go from something that you know to something that you don't know at all is scary.
You know, it's crazy how interconnected the automotive industry and the HVAC industry
is.
I bring this up all the time on how technology is changing and the comparisons that have
happened in that industry.
I worked 16 years part time at AutoZone.
Wow.
I get it, man.
And I couldn't get away.
I loved helping people and I loved the discounts on parts because I'm always tinkering with
my own crap.
Same.
Yeah.
So I stayed on up until five years ago, maybe four or five years ago.
So yeah, I was doing HVAC and I was doing automotive at the same time.
So I 100% get it.
You know, if you like working with your hands, you like troubleshooting, you like fixing
things, you like machinery, electrical, it's just part of it.
So you get into the field, right?
And you went a long way in a short period of time.
Tell me about how that happened.
Well, as an installer, you know, we started doing these installs and I started picking
it all up.
And I remember the day before that I went in for my first day, I was online looking
for anything that I could find because I had no idea what I was getting into.
And I was like investing in yourself.
Yeah, I was, hey, let me go on YouTube.
What does an install day look like?
What do they do?
And then all these, you know, new things started coming up.
How does the vacuum pump work?
How does refrigeration work?
And at that moment, I was like, this is deeper than I thought.
The hook was in.
Yeah.
And that was the day before my first day.
And so I went in and after my first day, I was like, hey, I have to learn this.
I can't just, you know, hang out and, you know, not really be the guy that's in it and
actually doing the work.
I really have to get in this and learn it to a T. And so a few years went by of me doing
installs and surprisingly doing as installs, I still wasn't too sure of what I was doing.
Right.
I was, I was just putting the stuff together.
And at one point I was like, hey, I have to learn this.
I can't just get by no more.
I got to go to the next level.
Yeah.
And at that point I went online again, looking how to become a technician, learning all the
resources that were out there.
And during the time, I don't feel like there was too much going on or if there was, I wasn't
aware of it of, you know, Instagram showing, you know, yeah, online and social education.
Yeah, sure.
But I did come across a few YouTube videos and I started learning that way.
And from then on, I just kept investing to myself and I kept trying to find new things
to learn.
And I got to the point where, you know, I became a technician and you come across all
these other issues that you have to learn now and you just spend the time to master
your craft.
Right.
So just a matter of investing yourself further in your education.
At what point along the way did you decide that you wanted to start giving back to the
industry?
So that was after doing the tech work and becoming, you know, a trainer at a company,
I saw what the new guys were coming in, all these students who had just left school, they
were going into the industry and they would come work at the company I was currently at.
And it was how green they were and how they had spent a large amount of money in school.
And at that point I said, hey, I would love to give my input and along that way, along
that way.
And eventually I became an instructor and I've been loving it because you get guys in
here who were just like me, who didn't know anything, but you can see their drive and
you can see how much they want it.
And it just, it fuels me as an instructor to, to kind of look at myself when I was younger
and wish that I had some of these resources and just help them out.
Yeah.
And that's exactly how we end up in this role is giving back and providing some assistance
to people who were in similar places that we were when we got into the industry.
So kudos man.
Yeah.
And one of the big eye openers too was this year was actually my first year going to the
HVAC excellence show.
Yeah.
Tell me a little bit about that.
What was the motivating factor for that?
Where do you even hear about it?
Cause you know, this is, this is my realm, but I always want to know what does it look
like from the outside?
So luckily the, the school that I'm working for now, they're very in touch with, with
Esco.
Excellent.
And so when I came in, you know, everyone was Esco this, Esco that you can find tons
of resources on Esco.
If you don't know how to teach this particular, you know, subject Esco has a book on it.
And I just kept hearing Esco, Esco over and over again.
And I was like, well, how do I get there?
What do I do?
And you know, they showed me the ropes.
They showed me the online courses and everything.
And then that's when, when they were like, Hey, we're, they're going to have HVAC excellence.
Had never heard of it.
I never been, we signed up.
We went, it was in Vegas.
Great time.
Got to meet a lot of great people who are out there doing it, who've been about educating
and investing themselves for a long, long time.
And so hearing from people like that, it just motivates you want to be better, to be able
to teach better.
And one of the only ways to do that is to have these resources that the Esco has.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I'm so glad you reached out to me to talk about this on the podcast.
You know, I went, I started teaching in 2018.
So I'm the same way.
I just spent a long time out in the field.
I probably spent too much time out in the field, but I had gotten to, you know, kind
of one of those plateaus, you know, I spent a couple of decades out there.
You know, I just, I got to a point where I was looking to, just like you're doing, giving
back and just doing something from a different perspective.
And I wasn't even a hundred percent sure.
That's what I wanted to do.
I had a recruiter reach out and was like, Hey, I think you missed the ball.
I think you're supposed to be teaching.
I'm like, what?
I'm, I like what I'm doing.
He's like, yeah, but you like people, don't you?
He said, let me ask you this question.
Why you been working at AutoZone for 16 years part time?
I'm like, dang man.
I hate when people ask me that because I can't get away from it.
He's like, yeah, it's cause of the people, isn't it?
I was like, Oh yeah, actually it is.
He said, yeah.
So you just haven't caught that bug yet.
And so I caught the bug in 2018, January of 18 and 2019.
I went to the conference for the first time for myself and it was like, Oh my gosh, these
are the resources that I need to be successful.
And so we had a record attendance this year, but we also had a record amount of young people
coming into the industry.
I hope you don't mind me calling you young because you're all right with that.
Because you know, we have this explosion.
You just mentioned when we first started talking before the podcast, we had this explosion
of education happening in our industry and people that are wanting to give back.
And that is something that is growing is that desire to give back to the industry, to make
a difference in the world that we live in.
Yeah, man.
I'm just, I'm so excited to be able to, to have you on here and to learn about your drive.
So tell me about things that you took away from the conference and maybe opportunities
that it opened for you.
Like I said, the online stuff, the classes that were being given by these individuals
that they've been doing this for long, long time.
I'm talking double, triple years that I've been in the industry.
So just even just listening to them talk and be able to show you how to explain what you're
talking about because as a technician and an installer and doing this for a little over
seven years, I know how it gets done, but being able to translate that to a student
can be a little difficult.
That's right.
Hey, I'm good at being a technician.
Am I good about teaching someone to be a good technician?
That is the barrier and getting past that is where it really comes in handy.
Having people who have walked the walk a little bit and can help guide along that path.
Yeah.
So that was one of the things that I really took away from it.
Even just for example, we had Tony there talking about the new industry of tools that are coming
out.
Oh, Gonzalez from Field Peace.
Yeah.
Tony Gonzalez from Field Peace.
Yeah.
You got the hook up with him.
Good, good dude.
Yeah.
Great guy.
And he was explaining everything, how we have all these resources too of teaching students
through smart tools.
And so the industry, it's always changing and it's always growing.
And so I'm glad that there's lots of stuff out there that's growing with it.
Yeah.
And it's been great.
Yeah.
All the resources that I got from there, I definitely want to go again next year.
I'm looking forward to it because I just know it's going to be even better this time around
too.
So being a relatively new to the program educator, do you see things in your own program that
need to be elevated to modern technologies?
Yeah.
So recently we just got some of the smart tools, which has really helped out some of
the students.
Things in that area, as well as we use our Cengage 9th edition for teaching, which has
been great.
You know, the students, they read it, they understand it, they like it.
And it just puts everything in a perspective where they can go in and study and learn from
a book that they actually understand.
Yeah, absolutely.
So going forward, what avenues do you see as opportunities to invest in yourself to
continue being a developing educator?
So I'll tell you a story that I tell all my students and anybody that I meet in the industry
that's freshly new.
It's the story of the lumberjack, and I'm not too sure if you ever heard it, but it's
about these two lumberjack who are, you know, they're cutting wood every single day.
One of them looks to the other and notices that he has a lot more wood than him.
And so he starts contemplating, he's like, man, we start at the same time, we finish
at the same time.
Let me see what he's doing.
So he looks over and he sees him, and every single day for about an hour, he leaves somewhere.
And he notices this and he keeps watching him.
So he starts thinking, well, I probably cut more wood than him if he's leaving for an
hour every day.
So he keeps monitoring him and watching, and he looks over again a few months go by and
he sees that he still has more wood than him.
And he goes and says, hey, we start at the same time, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
We start at the same time.
We finish at the same time.
Yep, we finished at the same time.
You're not putting any overtime?
No.
And so he goes, you go for an hour somewhere every day, and yet you still have more wood
than me.
Where do you go for that hour?
And he goes, oh, I go home and I sharpen my axe.
And that's something that I try to tell my students because you have to go home and sharpen
your axe.
Sharpen your skills.
Yeah.
And that's what I mean.
Sure enough, in the classroom we're learning, but there are certain things that you learn
during the day and it doesn't click till you get home.
That's right.
And sometimes you need to sit down and really sharpen your axe.
Think about how the day went.
Even as a technician, if something got you that day and you didn't understand what the
issue was, you had a hard time diagnosing it, hey, go home and think about it and see
what you did wrong or call somebody and start.
There's no excuses nowadays with podcasts, YouTube videos, Esco.
There's no excuses now for you not to learn something.
That's right.
Other than you don't want to learn it.
Then you don't invest the time.
Yeah.
And so something that I tell my students is you really have to take the time to invest
into yourself and go online and find all these resources.
And whether it's a book, whether it's a podcast like this, whether it's on YouTube, like the
Did You Know HVAC Esco show, right?
There's so much knowledge out there now that there really is no excuse.
No, there's not.
Man, what a great analogy, Greg.
That does put it into perspective that there are so many things that we have at our disposal,
resources that are here and technology is what's changed those resources.
We always get a lot of slack from our instructors, ones that have been around for a long time.
I don't need to add technology into my classrooms.
I don't need to add technology into my life.
And for us that didn't grow up with technology, yeah, it's a little bit of a change.
But when you find those resources and what they can do for you, technology is a beautiful
thing.
Absolutely.
Yes.
All right.
Well, cool, man.
So what's your plans?
What's the next stage?
I mean, you came into the field in a seven year period.
You have started in the industry.
You're now giving back as an educator.
What's the next game up?
To really just master this teaching stuff because it's difficult.
Yes.
It's got its own set of challenges.
And I've been really just learning about myself more as a person because when you really have
to teach somebody about what you're doing, it requires you not only just teach them about
whatever trade you're teaching them about, but to really care about the student.
That's right.
And to really spend the time to learn who they are as a person, how they learn, you
know what motivates them.
All these things that I feel like as an instructor, if all you're doing is teaching a certain
course, they may understand it.
But if you can relate to them and dig into who they are as a person, what makes them
motivated.
That's right.
I feel like that steps it up even further as an instructor or educator.
If we think about when we were technicians out in the field, to become better at our
jobs, we educated ourselves and we learned how to use new tools, tools for our trade.
Because as we move into the classroom, we sometimes forget that we have new tools to
learn.
Yeah.
And people skills, unfortunately, are some of the tools we have to learn.
A lot of times we're in the field, we work with a group of people and we have certain
expectations and that's about the extent of our emotional and personal development.
Once we get into the classroom, now we have a lot of people, different backgrounds, different
perspectives, and we have to learn to accept everyone and be able to communicate successfully
with all of them.
And that can be a challenge if you're not equipped with the proper tools.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And like I said, that's another thing that I took away from HVAC Excellence Show was,
you had people who were expressing themselves very clearly and talking about how really
engaging the students.
That's right.
Which can sometimes be difficult because we're going over refrigeration and in reality, some
of the stuff isn't exciting, but it's essential.
It is.
That is so true.
All right.
Greg Castro, thank you so much for joining us.
And man, I look forward to hanging out with you at the 2024 National HVACR Education Conference.
Absolutely.
Looking forward to it, excited for it.
We'll see you there.
All right, my friend.
Have a good day.
All right.
Thank you.
Bye.