The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world to share their passion and give you the right tips to stay on top of what’s happening in the welding industry.
Ready to venture into the world of metal art, racing, and trophy-making? Join us as we converse with our esteemed guest, Thomas Patsis, Owner of Cold Hard Art. Thomas, with his roots in Massachusetts and Maine, sheds light on how his unique mindset sets him apart in his field. We discuss the role of technology and social media in shaping the future and the impact of winning Season 1 of "Metal Shop Masters". We promise you plenty of laughs, insights, and a deep dive into his career!
Follow Cold Hart Art :
Website: https://coldhardart.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coldhardart/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/coldhardart
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
WeldReady: https://weld-ready.ca/
There is no better time to be a member! The CWB Association membership is new, improved and focused on you. We offer a FREE membership with a full suite of benefits to build your career, stay informed, and support the Canadian welding industry. https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/become-a-member
The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world to share their passion and give you the right tips to stay on top of what’s happening in the welding industry.
Ready to venture into the world of metal art, racing, and trophy-making? Join us as we converse with our esteemed guest, Thomas Patsis, Owner of Cold Hard Art. Thomas, with his roots in Massachusetts and Maine, sheds light on how his unique mindset sets him apart in his field. We discuss the role of technology and social media in shaping the future and the impact of winning Season 1 of "Metal Shop Masters". We promise you plenty of laughs, insights, and a deep dive into his career!
Follow Cold Hart Art :
Website: https://coldhardart.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coldhardart/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/coldhardart
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
WeldReady: https://weld-ready.ca/
There is no better time to be a member! The CWB Association membership is new, improved and focused on you. We offer a FREE membership with a full suite of benefits to build your career, stay informed, and support the Canadian welding industry. https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/become-a-member
Alright, I checked, checked, I'm good. So I'm Max Ron. Max Max Ron. Cwb Association welding podcast podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin.
Speaker 1:This episode is sponsored by our friends at Canada Welding Supply. They are a family owned Canadian business with an awesome customer support team that's there ready to answer any questions you may have. Canada Welding Supplyca offers quick Canada wide shipping, fair prices and a massive selection of welding supplies. They carry all the cool brands such as ESAB, lincoln Electric and Fronius, but also some of the very hard to find niche brands like Furecup, outlaw Leather and, of course, up and smoke welding apparel. Best of all, they offer exclusive discounts only for our CWB Association members. Check out Canada Welding Supplyca today to shop for all your welding needs. Remember that's Canada Welding Supplyca.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Ron and, as always, we're out there trying to find the coolest people in the industry that we can find, and you're going to know this guy. He's been around for a while and he seems to be on all the other cooler podcasts in mind, so hopefully I can keep up. But we got Thomas Patzis here coming to us online, otherwise known as cold hard art. How are you doing, tom?
Speaker 2:I'm doing pretty good today. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:It's. I think we're the same boat man. I got about 500 projects going on at the same time. I've been on the road for like almost 11 weeks and when I get home it's like you know, you still got a business to run. And when you're on the road you're doing business, but it's different business, so it just piles up on you and then you're running around at a thousand miles an hour. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm the same thing, about 998 miles an hour right now, and just I'm panicky and desperate all the time. So I'm always working and I'm looking at all these trophies I have to put together in the next week before. And then Christmas is in my way too. You know I don't do a lot of Christmas stuff anymore because that's just crazy. I have one project that.
Speaker 2:I can't talk about. That'll be super cool. But yeah, just a lot of stuff to do. And it's weird how you that's what you sign up for right, you want to do a thousand podcast interviews and talk about stuff like that. And you're like I don't got time to do all this stuff, but that's what you signed up for.
Speaker 1:So Now you're talking about Christmas. Christmas around the corner. It's like three weeks away. You know what's Christmas look like for the, for the past family.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm obviously my wife's a normal human being. She enjoys not being in the shop all the time. I have a you know, five year old little daughter who actually likes being in the shop and hanging out, and she'd be amazed She'd never hurt herself here, but she could fall on the grass out in the playground and get her.
Speaker 3:But here is the same place, I guess but it's normal for them.
Speaker 2:Me, I don't budget in reality, so Christmas is just kind of in my way. I don't do a lot of Christmas orders anymore. I mean, I do them for some special people If I choose. Not that anybody's better than anybody else, but there's some projects I can't say no to because they're really fun and who they're for.
Speaker 2:But most of it is just trophies. And even at Christmas time I'm having to get stuff that's January orders, you know, because racing and all these types of different motor sports and events, you know, like monster jam and stuff like that, that starts like January 6th, 7th or whatever. So it is like it is instant. So that means that stuff has to get done and shipped out like right after Christmas or whatever. So Christmas is just like a day off. That's about it.
Speaker 1:And so like do you look at your wife and your daughter and you're like I'm just going to make you guys a gift, or that's not cool to them anymore.
Speaker 2:Oh, so I make these things ever roses, or just, you know this, metal roses. And my wife says if you ever get me one of those because she has shipped out probably 5,000 of them, no joke. She's like, if you ever get me one of those and think it's going to work, I will stab you with it.
Speaker 2:You know she does like stuff when it's unique and I make it for her and it's something that she likes Like. She likes Star Trek, so I still need to build her like the enterprise and stuff like that. Which customers come first, which is terrible to say when you've bought your wife, but you know she'd rather have me fix something in the house that she's been asking me for four days a week or whatever more than if I make her something. She'd rather have me like do the stuff she tells me to do. You know, that's it. She's very capable at doing everything, but everyone's while there's something she needs and she'd rather have that than.
Speaker 1:She's into Star Trek, I I almost want to bring her onto the show because I'm a huge Star Trek nut. I've gotten me quite a few of the staff from different shows and I'm a huge Voyager fan. Next generation is my number two, but I love Star Trek, voyager, so let me ask you this Do you play that the game?
Speaker 2:I don't know what it's called. There's a game that she plays hours on end with all these people on the phone.
Speaker 1:And it's like you have all your commanders and whatever, yeah, and then you have to like get together. I think it's called Star Trek fleet or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, she got that when she got her new phone. She's been playing that like a crazy person and it's funny because she'll go into conversations about. You know the people that are on there and talking about the drama and all the stuff, and it sounds like she's talking about her place of work and I'm like, and she's on, well, yeah, I got promoted and she's I think she's pretty high up and she talks about all the whales and all the people that have.
Speaker 2:You know that have to spend all the money to play the game. And I'm like it sounds like if you cut out the Star Trek part, it sounds like she's talking about a factory she's working at or something and the chain of command that she's going up. It's funny, but she really likes it. So I can't, I can't hate, because I mean, my thing is sitting here building junk and watching TV all day. So we, I guess we got it good so you know what?
Speaker 1:What's missing is a welding app like that. Like why is no one on their phone playing welding? Like, I mean, I get we're on the phones looking at the like, instagrams and TikToks and the YouTubes and, okay, you're watching people do stuff, but where's the welding you know game where it's like you stack up against other people and you do virtual welds or something I don't know. You got to build a bridge and it doesn't collapse, or something.
Speaker 2:But I have seen a game that's that, where it is a, you know, using geometry and triangles and stuff, and then you have to put a load of weight on it to see how much kind of like what you did in trade school you built something on a balsa wood and you put wood on it. So I don't that's a great idea.
Speaker 2:I mean, we might be on a million dollar app idea right here here are your dollars to play this game and you have and it's like candy crush and you can't stop and you got people that have never welded in their life or playing this game and talking about welding at lunchtime. And I got to. I got to build this skyscraper, you know I don't know.
Speaker 1:That's a great idea. All I got left is Excalibur 70 18s. Now do I do like yeah?
Speaker 2:And maybe yeah, if you're like any of those racing games or you got to spend money to get higher performance welders or more filler on or something you know, who knows, so that's not a bad idea. I mean, it's sometimes it's the craziest ideas that become normal, and you know who knows.
Speaker 1:Now you said you're working on a pile of trophies coming up. Is there a standard seasons for racing? Like I'm in Canada, we got racing up here too, but we don't got as much right. We don't got as much, we just got less people in general. But, you know, is there seasons that, that, you see, are really the busy times for you.
Speaker 2:My two, my two speeds are busy and busier because when you do trophies, there's the race events through the whole course of the year and oh, thank you, thank you, oh, my goodness, I got here, let me come here. This is, this is my employee, right here she's, she's the fun interrupter, but I don't really know. We have we have the racing season and then you got to do the championship races and it's one of those things that's very difficult to separate because it's like as soon as you get done with the last race, you have to have the championship trophy ready. And then there's different seasons, for like like, nitro Cross starts off, like in the middle part of the year and it goes till like March of the next year, so then it overlaps, and then you got an HRA, which is a normal season like anything else, you know February to you know late October, november, and then you have USAC and they're getting their trophies now and it's so, basically, I have so many different sanctioning bodies and things that the whole year is full.
Speaker 2:There is no real. There may be some part in the middle of the summer where I've already done like enough trophies to carry somebody over, and then maybe over here I'm just starting them for whatever and I might be able to go take a day off or something, but it just seems like every day is accounted for for something you know and and some people order a lot of trophies and some people order one big trophy that takes three or four days.
Speaker 2:So it's it's. It's very difficult. I've started key. I actually have a calendar now and I actually put month by month because I'm very organized but not very organized and I've learned that putting stuff in front of you.
Speaker 1:You just got a calendar now, like you're just starting to get.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I've been doing this for I don't know. I quit my job as Schumacher, racing it October 15, 2015. And I was doing it way before that too, but now, it's 100% this. So if we just say it's the fifth, you know, October 15 was a start of it all, like 100% then yeah, I'm a little bit calendar. Yeah, I'm just getting a calendar, I mean I just, I mean I don't miss things, I get stuff done, but it's one of those I don't know.
Speaker 1:Just whatever's on your plate yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I don't even drink or do drugs, so I don't know what you know. Just pack a lot in them.
Speaker 1:Now, have you done any stuff for any Canadian racing series? Canadian stuff up here.
Speaker 2:I have some Canadian friends that came down here drag racing in the U S and they have some of my art. But no, I didn't really mess with too much you may believe people up there at all. You know I haven't. I know you're all super nice people and and Ian, you know is like, he's like he's like, he's like you're, you know, representative. A joke of the fab world, you know from. Canada down here Tells us how great Canada is with all your stuff.
Speaker 1:Every time I'm down at Fabtech, me and him go for supper and we always spend some time because we're like fellow Canadians and I love that he still pushes. You know, go Canada all the time.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, you know, and it's, and you guys, when you come down here, you're proud of Canada, Even when you're, even when you're in the United States. It's what state you from, and that's you know. I wear a red socks hat.
Speaker 2:Not that I care about sports at all, but my mom was a big you know, she's from Massachusetts and now she's not here anymore. I kind of represent her, just represent Massachusetts, you know and it's you know. So it's one of the things you're very proud of where you come from. So, absolutely like you know you guys are what territory you're from. That territory sucks. We're the greatest. You know in your internal battles that you guys have. You know I get it. You got to be proud where you came from.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, let's talk about that. Where did you come from? What, when you know? Where were you born? What's the what's the roots?
Speaker 2:I was born in Worcester, massachusetts, but then I think when I was four we moved up to Ellsworth, maine. So I joke, I'm from Maine, massachusetts, which are all small states in New England East Coast, so we were very close to Nova Scotia and stuff like that. So we had some Canadian friends being up there so close and used to be in the cool In Maine. If you didn't have three feet of snow, you're going to school that day. So I come to India and they get a dusting and they all freak out and skid off the road. I'm like I get it. You don't have to set up to plow the snow here, but I'm used to three feet of snow. I still don't like the cold. I don't know if very many people do.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I just wanted to have school there. I just heard someone the other day say they had a snow day and I was like, what's a snow day? It's like, oh, you don't go to school or nothing because there's snow, that's a thing. That would be like six months off for me, man.
Speaker 2:They hear an indie. If they have strong fog, obviously they cancel school, and if there is a potential of like two inches of snow the night before, they cancel school way before. Even if it doesn't even happen, They'll cancel school for the day. And it's funny. We did have a couple of times of snow here in Brownsburg and we had like two and a half feet of snow and it looks good when you piled it up on the side of the road because they only have like one plow for like each town. So you can imagine how panicky people get when the road doesn't have a snow and there's nobody to plow. It's actually worse than when you're in Canada.
Speaker 1:Well, we got all the systems right. We got the salt and the sand ready for the roads and we got dozens of plows in every town. Yeah, we're prepared. It's like normal life, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, here we got a guy named Chuck with a flimsy shovel from Rite Aid or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bolted under the front of a Jeep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got this and we're like OK, see you later. You can see how my employees work around here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you were living in Maine and did you stay there until how old, like, you went to high school there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I went to high school and I actually me and my friends I almost joined the army. I was this close to joining the army, had the guy in my kitchen talking to my mom and stuff, like, oh yeah, be great, you know, get them all corrected. And then the day later my buddies are like, oh, we're going to University, Northwestern Ohio and I'm like that sounds way more fun, you know, going to school for cars and molding and stuff. So I was like all right, never called this guy back, and then me and them packed all our junk up in 2000. And we drove to Lime, ohio, went to school there for three and a half years and then I got my job at Chewbacca. And so it's like, yeah, I mean, I joke, I'm slowly moving west. I don't really want to end up in California, but I do want to end up somewhere warmer, but I have to be around race cars. So it's either Morrisville, north Carolina, where it's warmer and people are friendly, or up here in Indiana, where we got.
Speaker 2:The only thing that makes Indianapolis amazing is a racetrack in my mind, because I don't like race cars and racing people, so I'm pretty much in the best spot it could be for someone that does stuff that I like to do.
Speaker 1:So Well, let's talk about this program at the University of Northwestern in Ohio, because I was reading about it I saw like you took a program for automotive high performance welding and all alternate fuels and that's a very niche, specific program. So, first of all, how does a program like that exist? Like, is there enough work for grads that attend this program? Is there a ton of these types of programs around the US, or is this like the college that you go to if you want to pursue this type of work?
Speaker 2:I mean obviously to me I think it's the school that ends all schools, because it's. You got trade schools when you're in high school. Hopefully you know. Obviously we make the jokes that that is a thing, but there's a lot of trade schools. There's a lot of trade schools here for automotive. Even if the car is electric or not, the car still needs body work and service done to it, no matter what. So if you're working on electric motor or a gas motor and there's going to be gas engines for a long time we're going to have those are going to be around. No matter what Electric cars were a 100% thing, there's still going to be people who hold on to these cars, so you still need to have people working on them.
Speaker 1:Well, I know that you're going to need service too, like I mean electric motors also fail.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not, and everything else goes with the car, you know, brakes and stuff like that. So there is a there's a big demand for that stuff and obviously to me that's a school I went to, so obviously I experienced it from 2000 to 2003, 20 years ago, and I've gone back there and seen the school and it's even bigger. When I went there they had, you know, like you know, 500 students and now they have 3000 students.
Speaker 2:So it's a you can be and the stuff that the kids have access to now I'm totally jealous of. But you know, I'm happy I went when I did because obviously having that on my resume got me my job at Schumacher and stuff. But it's just there's. There's a lot. I mean there's not a lot of schools like this, you know, and they're in the center of the United States, which is kind of good for people. Like you know, kids want to go home and see their families, so you're not like all the way up in Alaska or something. You are in the middle. So it's not terrible. Being in the center, center of the United States is a good thing and there's a lot of they got a lot. They have a lot more programs than I had.
Speaker 2:Obviously I went. I went for motor school, automotive and high performance, so working on race cars was part of the deal. When I went to go for a welding they had a six week class. You know it was a stick, mig and TIG and at that time I just thought, well, it's good to know this, but never thought it would be my consuming like your focus yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now it's. I don't think about working on cars. I mean I worked. I worked on some cars when we were at the racing, you know, and I worked on the pro stock bike team and then I ended up in the fab shop where we built the race cars, the the funny cars and dragsters and all the parts and pieces that go on a car and put bodies together. So I learned a lot, even, you know, after I thought well, I know how to weld. Well, you know how to weld, but then this is the way they want you to do. Well, because something that goes 330 miles an hour has to be well, the very specific way, because these cars are built lightweight but strong and it's a very a very perfect line, yeah.
Speaker 2:So but that was something I'm happy. I you know I learned because I go. I never thought welding was going to be this much of my life. Every single day I turn on this, this Miller welder and and I weld like right now I got well and I'll well till three o'clock at night and I never I'm a nighttime person. I knew that would be my life, but never thought welding and and you know talking to people like you, and and and you know being part of this culture of welding and creating stuff but it's definitely something, definitely something I never would have thought would have been part of my life 20 years ago.
Speaker 1:Well, it's really interesting how you break that out, because I think that's a piece that sometimes a lot of people that don't understand, especially coming into the industry like you look at. Okay, like, let's say, automotive or aerospace or airplanes or like, pick your thing, whatever, you don't have to know all of it, you just need to know your piece of it right, cause you're never going to know all of it. I've been pulled into automotive a bit. I've worked on cars, I worked on stuff. I did a little bit of stuff from some movies, but it was never cause I'm a movie guy or not, it's cause I was a welder, I'm a fabricator, I could build stuff, you know, and that they just need me to do my thing. Do the thing and get out of the way so the next guy can do his thing.
Speaker 2:You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean and and that's a, that's a piece of the trades that sometimes it gets lost in the shuffle. Kids, when they're young, I see them entering trade schools and they got this dream in their head. They're going to be like, hey, I'm going to do this, this thing, this super specific thing that I got in my head and it's I was like man, like let me explain this to you that all the people that I know that are super successful, whatever they thought they were going to do, they're not doing that. Now you know what I mean. Like they're doing something that went the different path and they just ran with it and you go with it and that's just what it ends up being right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Cause I, when I, when I first went to school, I wanted to get into racing because I wanted to drive something. I didn't matter what I wanted to drive. But when you get into reality, when you break out of the bubble of your parents and teachers and school, you know where they're. They're, don't say, they're not just trying to protect you and teach you stuff, but they're trying to teach you this perfect world in a vacuum. And then when you pierce out of that bubble and now you're in the rural world, you realize how many, how much people swear, how much people will climb over each other to get each other.
Speaker 1:You know all that reality, you know it's not a movie.
Speaker 2:Everything in a movie happens perfectly, because it's supposed to, to tell your story. Well, when you're, when you get out in the real world, things don't actually, you've always fallen in place and sometimes they do. Some people are highly obsessed about whatever and they will get their way. You'll take them 15, 20 years, but as long as they're dedicated, they'll get it. Like I wanted to drive race cars. Never did I go. Well, I want to build trophies. And he never thought I just turned into. I'm very creative and artistic and I like to build stuff and and I like racing.
Speaker 2:So somehow, like I've like like a funnel, like I swirled down into oh, this is where I'm going to go, because I'm going, this is where I'm following, I'm letting myself kind of go, I'm taking my hands off the wheel and I just auto-steered towards racing.
Speaker 2:But building trophies you still get to build stuff and be creative, but it's so. Yeah, like I said, now I, finally, I finally. I'm 42 years old and I have a shifter car. You know, like I'm at the bare bottom of the the, the germ that turns into racing, I am the hair. I own my own race car. Ooh, you know, and there's kids that do this. My daughter now has one. I thought about this.
Speaker 2:My daughter has a car that'll go 30. You know it's a real racing car and she's five years old and she's five and bringing me cups of water. She's five and already has her car. I'm 42 and just got mine. So it tells you like things don't always work, but as long as you kind of adapt, no matter what it is, I mean, obviously you need to make money in this world, so work on your skills, the skills up, they'll take you somewhere, yeah.
Speaker 2:And, as long as you, you know, dedicate yourself to something. I mean, I look at Michael Jordan. Only thing people know him for is basketball, because he's dedicated to being the best at basketball. He's not the greatest golfer, he's not the greatest baseball player, but he, he picked one thing and you know, maybe he wanted to play baseball, Maybe he wanted to drive NASCAR, whatever, but he's really good at one thing. And sometimes people, sometimes you just have to accept it going. Okay, I'm only going to be known for this or this is what I'm really good at.
Speaker 2:Naturally, you know, I'm not going to be a great skateboarder and a matter of fact, I tried right now but what I'm good at is creating. I'm not the greatest welder, I'm not the best welder, but I'm very good at taking your ideas, turning into reality and giving it to you as a trophy. You know, that's my thing, I guess.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a difference between talent and skill, right? People always put them in the same sentence and they're two different things. You can learn a skill, you can hone a skill, but a talent is something you just got in you and you can't force a talent into someone's throat, like it just doesn't work. Like I'm five foot six, I'm not lining up to do high jump, you know what I mean. I'm not joining the Olympic basketball team, right, like I mean it's. There's certain things that are just naturally going to be in my wheelhouse and the sooner you can accept that, the better it is for you. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's like saying you're accepted, You're going to get older and you're not going to be able to do everything.
Speaker 2:So as soon as you accept it, you adapt. And when you adapt, you get it. You know you're preparing yourself. When you prepare yourself, things go a little bit smoother and easier. So it's like it's like saying you know, if you accept getting older and prepare yourself, getting old isn't actually bad at all. So you know, I think certain things are bad by going to you, right, it's just it just got acceptance, you know that maybe I'm going to be a guy that builds trophies for a couple of years, so you never know. I mean, I don't see any.
Speaker 2:I don't see any rich car owners going to Tom. You've never raised anything. I want you to drive my stock car to him. I'm like probably not going to happen, but maybe I could sell him some trophies and then my daughter could drive. You know something, who knows?
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, Thank you, the trophy, the trophy gig. You know what was the first, what was? The first one. You know what was like. Where were you that someone was like hey, bro, we need a trophy. And you're like uh, call a trophy person. And they're like no, you do it.
Speaker 2:The way the way my life works is is is things happen like automatically, and just yesterday my buddy showed me a picture of a football. Oh, is it a fantasy football trophy I built and that was the first trophy I ever built and it's from my buddy, brad Lillfield. He has his uh, his family business and superchargers like they little field superchargers, so I made him a trophy. It was the first trophy I ever made and it's a. It has a, you know, it's a wire frame and has a circular base where they have tags on it for each year of whoever wins their fantasy team.
Speaker 2:And it has a frame that you take a real football, suck all the air out of it, put it up there and inflate it and it and it holds itself in place. And how was the first ever trophy? Technically, the first ever trophy I made was when I was 12, playing Super Mario Kart, and we were playing Mario Kart. So much we go. We gotta have a trophy man, we gotta have something to be able to talk to each other with. So I made a trophy no joke. Out of it was a plastic cup with, uh, an RC car tire and a wood base and all this stuff spray painted silver.
Speaker 2:So in theory, I always tell people listen to your childhood self, because he's telling you what you're going to do in life if you listen. And I made a trophy playing Mario Kart. And now what I do is I build trophies for for adults that pretty much do Mario Kart in their life with race cars. So that was technically the first ever trophy, but the first real trophy as as cold heart or whatever, as adult me was that trophy and that was like 2008 or something. So that was a while ago. Never again, never thought I'd do this many. I've done thousands and thousands of trophies now.
Speaker 1:So it's weird. Mario Kart, that's the real question.
Speaker 2:I just played. I played my wife last year. She goes, she likes video games, as we were talking about, and she bought a. Super Nintendo and it was in great shape. She goes look, I got you Mario Kart. And my wife is amazing at video games. She's every game she plays amazing. And I go yeah, I got some tricks for Mario Kart. Go out there and you know, you do the 50 CC and a smoker.
Speaker 2:She doesn't even finish second. I beat her every time. We play a hundred CC smoker, we do 150. She don't even finish second and I lap her in every race and she goes. Yeah, we're just never going to play that game again, cause she was getting a little upset. She's competitive like me, so to get to get slayed like that. Mario Kart is definitely not a game for the married couple.
Speaker 1:If you want to stay together with a loving, real life, I don't think she's ever played a lot of video games with my wife and we do a lot of video games and Mario Kart one is one that comes up and we actually have a few friends that we throw parties all the time and we'll do like Mario Mario parties and we'll do like Mario party with Mario Kart, but we get so competitive it's like we're not husband and wife right now. No, you are my competitor, yeah.
Speaker 2:I, my daughter, my daughter. We have a indie car tub and it's like a sim rig and it basically sitting in an old race car tub and I have it set up. We were playing, uh, one of those newer racing games and it's her and she's really good at something yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a not say grand tour is mobile. I don't know what is um, but we were playing it and my daughter gets. She's very competitive and when I have to die bomber to wreck her and she's five and she plays really good. There's times where the the the guy's side goes. I can't let this five year old girl beat me and I'll die bomber and try to knock her out and she gets so mad and I go, you need to chill, it's video game and she goes, but you've wrecked me and I'm like, yeah, I guess, I guess I probably should not be wrecking you but I'm also getting desperate.
Speaker 2:I'm getting desperate too to try to beat you because I can't. So we're both getting angry and I'm telling her to calm down, and you just never tell a woman to calm down. Just let them be. I've learned. Just they want to be mad. Just let them be mad. I'm like, okay, I've learned something. It took me 42 years, but yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know, when you left Maine to go to college, did you know? Was this something that was already on the table, Like when you talk to your parents or your family, where you are, like a 12 year old could be like. You know, once I'm done high school, I'm going to go try to follow this automotive racing dream, Cause you know you said you had the army guy sitting in your living room talking to your mom, so obviously there was a few choices there, but you know, you're like mom actually.
Speaker 1:For real, I'm going to Ohio to learn racing. What were your parents like? Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, we get it. You're ruining your life. What are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my, I think I chose racing. It sounds stupid, but you know, everybody picks something in their life that they think is cool and not one person on this planet could tell them otherwise. And I think when I was 10, I watched one race Daytona 500 or something and I just fell in love with it, and nobody in my family is in the cars. My dad is very, very, uh, mechanically smart. I joked that you could lock him in a box he will get out. I have that same mentality Like if you need something to fix, to work, to get your home broken down the highway, I got an idea. If you need something fixed the correct way, yeah, we can do that too if we have the money in the time.
Speaker 2:But, you know, um. So like I'm very determined, uh, we'll, we'll get home. That's the best way to say it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jb, welcome some pantyhose. We'll get you home, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whatever you need, it's like I know the. You know, whatever our parameters are, we're going, we're going to get home. But I think my mom just said, okay, she was very she's an artist, so she was kind of that whole just live it and just do what you want to do. Um, and my mom had no problem. You know, we I had, you know, I had some, uh, financial aid to be able to go to the school at the time and you know, obviously after that I got a job and paid for everything. So, um, but yeah, my mom never said anything about, she never thought racing uh was a dumb. Now my art teacher this is this is my always my funny thing to tell kids are going my art teacher in high school, every single art project we did, because he goes. You know, you're very good at art, you can draw very well, whatever, but yeah, every time I get a project it's got a race car somehow no matter what his criteria is.
Speaker 2:I squeezed a race car in there somehow If it was whatever right. You know, even making clay, we need to make some out of clay. I made a tire, a racing tire, and a cat because it had to have some inanimate object and an animal and I was like all right.
Speaker 2:So I made a cat with a tire track over it Like it was dead and a good year racing tire. You know super detail and he goes geez, I can't even get you to make an animal Right, it has a tire track. Oh, it looks great. Um, but he pulled me aside after one of my projects. And listen, if you want to be taken seriously in the art world, you're going to need to have to learn to do a little bit more than racing this race car stuff, cause it's never going to. As an artist, you're never going to make it Right and I'm like okay, cool, you know. And then the next project was like four race cars, you know. So I don't like to be told to do.
Speaker 2:That's why I'm probably my own boss, or whatever. My wife likes to nod her head. She's like I'm the boss, I know what's going on, yeah. I love it.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, that was, that was my art story. But yeah, my mom just said just let's do it If that's what you want. My mom only said if you're going to do something, just do it right. So even if she went to go buy a drill at the store, she's like what's the best drill, get it. Because then you only got to get it once. He wasn't like go buy the cheap one for right now, for this weekend's job. She's like go get a DeWalt, go get a whatever and get the best one. So she was the same way, like if you're going to do it, do it right, you know. So you know, I tend to do that a lot. Like mom, we need to buy the snap on toolbox. You're like okay, you know, I'm like, you know, I still have that snap on toolbox, so you know how it is. It's. It's that mentality, I guess.
Speaker 1:So you finished school, everything's good, you graduate and it sounds like you got a job right away. Was it like a co-op program where you kind of had the job before you were done school? Or you know how did how did that line up so well?
Speaker 2:My, my, one of my buddies, caleb O'Connor, that is also from from Cape Cod, massachusetts. Uh, he's, he worked at Schumacher and we're like, oh my God, you work at a big time racing thing and it was the next state over and he's like you know, like, but he's trying to do they try to draft buddies into get job. He goes hey, I hear someone's getting canned tomorrow. He's like you need to roll up here, roll up here at lunchtime when they fire him. And I think the dude rolled out with his box, his toolbox or whatever.
Speaker 2:As I came in I was like, oh, that's a guy and and you know, I got, I got the job. Because they go, oh, you're a Northwestern student. Oh, oh, we want us. Like they, they've had a ton of students, students, through there with Northwestern. Oh, we were like at one time the Napa funny car, one race team, had all Napa students because it was just like you, they produce, you know, I won't say products, but they produce good students and they and they are, you know, 80% the way we want. Because after that, you know, you know, race team you go into a certain you always find you, this is how we do it here.
Speaker 2:That race team, torx or things, is 85, you're going to torque them at 90. And this is how you do it here. So everything's like that. We do it a certain way. So most of the kids were like soldiers, man they were. They were already prepped for battle. You know and and, and. So that was a. You know, I was a lucky break, but I also I don't believe in luck, because if someone says, oh, they're beggin, money fell in the sky and littered it in your hands, I was like, listen, it didn't just fall in my hands, I had to make every single choice to put myself right here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I don't believe in luck either. It's all just the path. There's paths, right?
Speaker 2:Everything is made, if you want to say, from the morning. You made the choice to get up at 10 or 11. And you went to the gas station to do all these things. Line you up for something right. Yeah. And if I didn't make that, if I, if I made a different choice, then that's my fault that that bag of money fell in your hands are not mine. You know what I'm saying, which obviously I haven't seen a bag of money, but I have to.
Speaker 2:I sometimes I relate that to people when you have sponsor opportunities right, I have a lot of partners and some people go oh, you only get that free because of the sponsor You're going. Yeah, but listen to yourself. You said they sponsor me. That means they like what I do because of what I've done up to this point. Yeah, you know, that's all I tell kids. You mean you got to behave on on social media like an adult because, like everything else, people watch you do stuff. So if you do good work, if you speak good, if you look good, whatever, as long as you behave yourself, it's not hard to not act a fool and be stupid, because sometimes there's bigger, bigger rewards than having one fun day of doing something stupid and posting about it. You know you can keep some of that stupid stuff private and there are sometimes rewards for doing good work.
Speaker 2:You know there's always good you know always good rewards for work, but that's just. I'm always off tangent, but I can leave myself into anywhere I want when I'm talking, so I don't even know where the hell you're at. Oh yeah, school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it all makes sense Cause you know, you do, you do pick your path and you make your choices and and, and I and I always. I just saw somebody post today online something about you know, you know what was it? Burn rods, not weed. I thought that was an interesting comment cause I live in Canada. Man, there's a lot of weed that gets burned up here in Canada and I know some really good welders, so I'm not going to say anything.
Speaker 1:But yeah yeah, but it is. It is a thing to think about, right, like you don't want to go into work drunk. You don't want to go in because you're not going to do your best work. It's not necessarily even about like oh, you're going to piss off your boss, or it's just about your quality, like, like, how much do you value your quality, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean obviously the same thing when you're built, built in the race car, and if you're not a hundred percent, I mean you could kill somebody. And the same with building working on a building.
Speaker 2:I could be some kind of metal frame that someone's going to stand on, or, worse, put over their head, you know. So it's like you got to think about that. You got to think about I'm the the. I think the good and bad part about me is is I, I think, about three days ahead of everything? So I'm always like planning, ordering stickers, ordering tags, even before this trophy is being started going well, those things are out of my way. I might control, I'm big on ordering stuff like that, but I would just lost my track.
Speaker 2:Train of thought I was trying to talk about but but yeah, I'll prepare. Yeah, preparing yourself, but it's like when you're, when you're doing your job, it's like you want to do the best and compromising yourself from the day before or whatever. It's not hard to go. You know, always talking about preparing, I was like so I'm, I've always been one of those things.
Speaker 2:I don't drink very often. I probably last time I had a drink was 2016. And that was just a beer. I'm not saying it was an AA class or anything, but I'm just saying I remember the last time I drank because it was for buddy's wedding and I always bring it up and he's like oh, it was a long time ago and I've never even smoked a cigarette. I've eaten a cigarette on a dare, but I've never smoked a cigarette. I just took up time for it.
Speaker 2:I like, I like making money, I like working, I like what I do. That's you know. I'm going to say my hobby is now my responsibility. But you know, it's like you know I got. I got too much, too much responsibility to be a fool that I'm 42 years old. I'm not a child anymore. I understand when you're 20, you go have fun and stuff. But even even then you want to kind of like cultivate, like just maybe like keep that stuff private, you know, cause maybe your bosses is following you on social media. A lot of people do that. Oh man, I'm sick, I mean I can't come into work 10 minutes later posting a picture of you fishing, I was like that doesn't take very common sense. The common sense level is pretty easy If you say you're sick, pretend like you're sick and then you know. But whatever you know, I don't even know. If you're not going to, you're not going to probably get any smarter. Listening to me right now, but but yeah.
Speaker 1:I can get some good bits in there. Man, there's some good bits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope you can cut all this and trim it and edit it. I don't edit anything this is.
Speaker 1:This is rolling out how it is. Okay, perfect. The moral of the story, kids, is that you know social media is on 24 seven, whether you are or not, so you do something on there for five minutes that you forget about tomorrow that can come back and haunt you. So you got to watch, you got to watch.
Speaker 2:God, yeah, Look how many people get canceled because they like a post or they whatever. I mean those things seem, they seem exaggerated, like all that stupid.
Speaker 1:But I'm going.
Speaker 2:That's the you got to say, no matter if you will, you agree with it or not, that is the way the world works and the big flow of the water will carry you out to the ocean. So you can hate the ocean, but it's going to carry you out to the big fish and it will eat you so you kind of, there's only so much resistance you can put into it.
Speaker 2:You know, now that I'm getting older. I go if I'm in your house, if I'm working in your shop, and these are the things you want, like I don't smoke weed before you show up or don't be boozer, or don't bring friends in or don't be on your cell phone. That drives me crazy. I'm 32. All right, and I'll see people at a gas station with their cell phone right on the register and it's like I'm interrupting them to give them money, to pay for my drink or something. And I'm going, god, if I was a, if I was a boss, why I don't have employees is I'd say I'd probably be taking people out in the back and just you know cause. I just can't handle. I can't handle that. You need your cell phone at work, like.
Speaker 2:I'd be like that's not locked in your car, but it's because I'm a bitter old man, it's. I don't actually mean it, but I go on. I just can't. I would not be a good boss, cause I've been people you know I'd be getting fights on yelling. And then if I did have HR, it would be like Tom, we can't talk to him like well what do we got to do?
Speaker 1:Oh there, from what I've known of you, I don't think you're going to get down that path at any point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. That's why I joke. I can't, I would they'd be funny to have it. I'll probably do videos that have an HR because I'll probably, I'll probably be the boss.
Speaker 1:We'll probably be in.
Speaker 2:HR. Even if I have employees in HR and having them tell me and going, okay, you can't say that, yeah, you can't say that to anybody, you know. I'm like all right. Well, no one's here, so who the my saying it to you know, so it.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, let's take a break right now for our sponsors, cause this is a good. This is a good time, cause when we get back from the break, what we're going to talk about is, you know, the, the work you do now out in the industry, and not so much about the building, the trophies and and all that stuff, but like the other stuff that you're doing kind of on the side, the advocacy, the talking, the getting out there, the helping the kids. You know, all that stuff that you're doing that I think is very valuable. So stay tuned to everyone. We're not don't go anywhere for this fantastic, tangent field all over the way. Routing road of podcast here with Tom Hatt says on the CWB association podcast.
Speaker 1:Did you know that more than 80% of welders are unsatisfied with their current vendors? With exceptional customer service? Weld ready is here to help grow your business and expand your hobby with expert knowledge and the products you count on. Weld ready is here for you. Weld readyca is your premier source for in stock welding supplies delivered to your door fast, and I mean fast. Weld ready offers the products you need, such as helmets, tig torches, welders, plasmas, fixture tables and custom starter packages for educational programs. We stock all brands your metal working heart desires, such as ESAB, miller, ck, worldwide Edge welding cups, optrell, 3m speed glass and many, many more. Visit weld dash readyca now to get weld ready. And that's no bull.
Speaker 1:And we are back on the CWB association podcast. My name is Max Drone. We're having a ton of fun here with cold hard art here, tom we're, we're all over the place. But I think it's the same point that we're making and we've hit the same thing many times. And that's like skills, you know, doing the right things, working hard, getting that, even even the. You know I hate kids on cell phones on their day during work. This is, you know, that bitter old man attitude. This is something that's going to be a big thing 20 years from now, because the kids that are coming up now, that are used to being on phones, are going to have kids on phones when they're the bosses. And it's going to be really hard to draw that line in the sand when it's kind of been squished all over the place. Right, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you're not going to stop them because, think about it, you know your. Your dad tells you you're a piece of, because you're lazy, and all this stuff. Well, guess what? His grandpa, whatever his dad's telling, telling you, oh you're, you're dead, he's a lazy piece of some, some grave somewhere, is turning the thing on.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're great, great grandpa is way better than both, you know, and it's like it's just inevitable, you know, at some point. You know, I'm a hybrid. I didn't get my first cell phones on 21, you know, and Luna don't have a cell phone till she's 97. I'm not going to let that happen. But you know, these kids, like it's just it's natural to have a phone in the hand. They always want to be on it and they're just zoned out and I can get, then you're going to have, they're going to have kids and they're going to have, they're going to have a phone as they come out of the womb, you know, and and it's just going to be in their hands and I go, god, I don't know how that works because it, you know, it is it going to take from, is it? You know, it's amazing. Kids can operate phones at five and they know everything how it does. But I'm going, doesn't that kind of take away from, like being outside and playing and learning manually.
Speaker 1:I think it'll cycle out. Man, I think it'll cycle out because you know if you think of the 80s and 90s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you think of the 80s and 90s and it was all TV think about how huge TV was in the 80s and 90s. Like you ran home to watch Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Like you ran a home at lunch to watch the Flintstones, like it was important to watch TV. You talked about the shows every day at school. Everyone followed and it was a big deal and it looked like it would never end and all our parents told us we were going to be a bunch of empty blockheads because we watched too much TV, right, but now kids don't watch TV. Tv died. Network TV is over. It doesn't even exist anymore. Right, it went to streaming, yeah. So I think at the end things just saturate themselves. Cell phones are are huge, but I bet in 20 years it's going to be like you know what grandpa was on his phone all the time. That's lame.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're a loser. Yeah, we're a loser on his phone all the time it's probably going to be telepathy streaming where you're going to be like and you're going to have people staring at nothing, and it's because it's going to be injected into their brain and they're going to be watching it. You know in their mind and and you know, you know 4k or whatever.
Speaker 1:I'm actually down with that. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:And so you're just going to have a bunch of people like Cactus is just standing there. Oh sorry, what were you saying? I was watching Fresh Penceabella every once on my streaming telepathy app. Yeah, oh, my battery is going to die. I got to charge my brain in, you know, it's going to it'll be something, it, it, it, every.
Speaker 2:you know it's, it's to me it's like, yeah, I mean everything, everything and everything, like you said, can only be done so many ways, kind of like fashion or the work of a car. You know, cars used to be square, then they became round and now they're square again. And they'll be back to looking like 1998 Ford Torsas. They'll be round or like the Volkswagen.
Speaker 1:So that was the worst. Worst gen of all time for vehicles. For looks was the late nineties. Yeah yeah, the bubble air, the, the, the Dodge Neons and, oh my God I, everything was so ugly with the MX. Two to the Miata, oh.
Speaker 2:I personally think the now is the most boring, Even though the cars look crazy if you look at every single four door sedan, toyota, shetty, whatever, when you look at them off, when you're at the intersession, look at them all they all have triangle tail lights down the middle for the tail, the bump, the license plates recessed in and a trapezoid.
Speaker 2:They all have the same. Because of regulations, you know your lights can only be here and this and that and this and this, this size. So the I think the creativity has been is gone, because everything has to have aerodynamics and get the most amount of fuel mileage and every and every car has the big, big mouth with the fake grills and the triangular headlights that go halfway up the hood.
Speaker 2:So I mean to me like you said yeah, the nineties was just, the eighties was just like yeah, we can do it. Well, we got gas stuff, so we can't make the cars as big anymore, so they're just ugly.
Speaker 1:Seventies Well, the worst engines, the 80s the worst engines because you had a 5.7 liter. That's doing 80 horsepower, like yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you get a. Nineties were like oh cool, fuel injection on everything. So then you have a. Plymouth horizon. That's a two. Two that's making 200 horsepower and you're like what the hell am? I must thank in the eighties at 175 new drivill drive and what stuff.
Speaker 2:But it's just weird how, like that, like the car industry, like you said, human culture changes. You know, for the movies that you like and video games, if they're still around, oh that's nostalgia. Man, you're old school and you're like the Star Trek, like Star Wars, still around, you know, like not everybody's into it but it's. You know, racing, I hope it seems still cool If there's still, if there's tracks, they'll always be racing they'll always be racing in the sky because they keep selling all the race tracks, but more houses in here, because we have more people that I don't know.
Speaker 1:We can race on the moon man One. Seventh, the weight. Think about how fast you can go.
Speaker 2:Oh, you could. Yeah, that'd be a hundred horsepower. We'll make it do 300 miles an hour.
Speaker 1:It'd be awesome, yeah, but traction to be tough though. Traction to be tough with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but what are you going to run into? You know what are you going to question? Dirt you know, American flag. There's no Canadian flags on the moon, Is there oh?
Speaker 1:yeah, there he goes, my first kid. Yeah, we were too busy spending it on education and healthcare, sorry.
Speaker 2:Oh, dang, dang. That's what he answers. We got, we got great Medicare. I was like, well, how long does it take for you to get a checkup? Six months?
Speaker 1:He's like shut up man. No, it's funny, we're telling them down in the U? S. I always hear that it's like no man I can go to the doctor like in an hour right now. I don't know where that comes from. To Jay to Jay. So you know the stuff that you do with Instagram, the podcast, the fab texts. You know the getting out there and getting in front of people. Where does that fit in the in the scheme for Tom? You know what part of you wants to do that stuff and for what purpose.
Speaker 2:I mean honestly, I'm, I'm uh, I know, I know I don't really want to talk about metal shop masters too much anymore because that's just old news, but when we did that, they did a psych evaluation test. And so make sure not all seven contestants are identical, because I want different people for just the fun factor of it. Everybody's the same. You make the same art, you make the same. Oh, we're all so nice to each other, whatever, that's no fun. So what I'm saying is when we did a psych evaluation test, I learned that I had a 50 50 mindset and I knew that going from high school. I did tests and say well, are you sure you're an artist, tom? Because you know, usually artists are you know, uh right brain left handed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're all this way and they have certain stereotypes that are true. You can't see. You know, science is right on that one. Um, and he goes and the lady goes yeah, uh, all the busy people I've interviewed, you're the only one that's 50, 50. And I'm like, are you sure you're an artist? I'm like, well, I kind of feel like it. I do it every day and it's, you know, arts in the name of my company and it's all I do. Okay, well, good luck to you, you know whatever, and go off and win it.
Speaker 2:But it was like, so I ever since said I always picked that out going man, I think differently than some artists, and you know, and and look down the fence both ways and drive my wife nuts when I don't agree with her in an argument that has nothing to do with me. I just look down both sides. I have to hear both stories. Um, so, but with that saying, it's like I know for the, the work that I do, you know I use social media. It's free advertising. It's not location, location, location anymore you don't have to have the perfect shop, the storefront for your shop. I don't deal with a lot of people, um, walk in everything's email and a lot of it is inspired by what they see online. And you know when you perceive oh man, look at, look at, he's doing trophies for an HRA or nitro cross, or you know the S.
Speaker 1:So for them it's good enough. For me, yeah, yeah and I joke.
Speaker 2:I go. When you see a crowd of people you get curious so you go. What's going on over there? If someone just got mugged or they fell out of a car or whatever, you're curious, you walk over there. So you know social media. If you have a big following and you have a lot of you know business with big companies, it kind of it brings a crowd over, meaning it brings potential customers and obviously as a business you want. You know Walmart has two big front doors because they want a lot of people to come in. You know I kind of wish I had more employees but I go right now I have enough business where I can handle it. It gets close at some time but I always get it done. Um, so that's kind of you know.
Speaker 2:Going to the fab tech, you're meeting new partners. You know be be going on social media. You you attract. You know attract different sponsors and and people that can help you do the business and the end they get something because they get content. Um, like we do stuff for um SRI, which is a sheet metal and and tubing company, they supply, you know materials. Well, I don't know if you noticed it, but materials online isn't a very sexy, fun thing. Right, you don't go and let me go on SRI's. You know Facebook page and oh, look at the funny stuff they're selling tubing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, look at that HSS.
Speaker 2:That's sexy, yeah, so you know with that, me building my art out of their sheet metal and tubing. Now I have a reason to post on their page because it's this was made with our material. It's something to attract eyes and attention and you know, and even to them they may not need you know. You know, johnny, public to know they sell Cromoly steel tubing or whatever, but they go. Oh, but that place has metal and hence they get a customer or some type for the one or one time.
Speaker 2:But you know people racing go same, it's the same thing. You know you spend a lot of money to be on something to get you know advertising. So theoretically, you know I am the company because it's just a building with some equipment in it. So theoretically, I'm the one that has to go out there and you know and talk to people, answer emails and and if they want to work with us as a potential sponsor, you know like we have plenty of them and a lot. I don't say plenty, we have a lot of them and I enjoy everyone of them and they all are fun people to talk to. We get to see them at the PR. I show that coming up and we'll go to the PR. I show and I'll be in the booth with the strong hands people. They make the awesome welding tables and all the clamps and fixtures and stuff like that. So that's just one of it's just, it's just part of the job. You know what.
Speaker 1:I'm saying yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if someone's gonna, if someone's going to supply you with something, of course return on investment, they need either the content or you to maybe come out, hang out with them, talk, take some pictures, do whatever. I mean, I'm not, I'm not no Ryan Reynolds, but I go if they do want me there, absolutely Because they are. They are giving me something that I use every day to make money and to continue doing what I'm doing. So absolutely.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you picked the Canadian hot star there for me, Absolutely. Yeah. Who's looking at that man who don't want?
Speaker 2:to Ryan Reynolds is on everything he's. He's like shat you can't go anywhere. He's on something and you know it's funny about him, his personality. I think every movie, every commercial, anything he does, it's just straight, it's just him. Yeah, it's ad lib, it has to be, and meaning they're trusting him to do, just say something.
Speaker 2:I mean, try not to swear too much and not make it too sexual, but just do what you want and they go. And it always works out because people go. Oh, it's Ryan Reynolds. Whatever he says is gold right. So you know, told you we just go off dancing all over the place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and but it's all connected Like so you know you do the field work. Let's say to to get eyes on you and to to maintain the brand and the company, cause that's, that's part of being a business owner. Now the metal shop masters, you know, I said I didn't want before the show. I'm like I don't really want to get into that. I think you're, I think you're going to be the last person.
Speaker 1:I think I've interviewed everyone from the show at some point over the last whatever two or three years. But where do you think you would be without it? Because I don't feel like you lack the drive, I don't feel like you lack the, the ability to get out there. You know, I feel like because it definitely made a difference in some of those people's lives where they wouldn't have gotten that step without it. You know, because just backgrounds, life, location, whatever but you went to college, you got a trade, you went and you were working and then you got into the gig that and then you were on the show Do you feel like it would have made much of a difference to where you are today?
Speaker 2:I honestly I'm not, I'm not, I'm not disrespecting the show at all, but I don't think I got one order. I don't think I mean I got a lot of thank yous and congratulations on social media when it you know, but obviously that really doesn't pay your bills or anything.
Speaker 2:But it didn't make any new jobs, I didn't get any any new trophy orders, because that that world is a different world and I think the one thing, the one thing that that I acknowledged of it is they didn't let us have, like, our logos on anything, right, and when I go places that see the logo, say I wear it on my shirt and they'll be like you're the cold heart art guy, right, they don't know my name. So think about that If they don't know my name, but they know cold heart logo, if you take the logo away, I'm just another white dude with black glasses. Well, guess what? What appeared on the show was the guy named Tom with no logo. So they didn't even know. There's so many people that I got I didn't know that was you on the. So I go, you can see there's. The connection was not made for me as a business.
Speaker 2:It was like, hey, good, that little white dorky dude won the thing. Oh cool, yeah, you know, awesome, thank you. It was super fun and you know, and it worked out great. You know, I can't complain about anything, but in my mind when, when I was there halfway through the show, I, you know, I go. You know, who's going to be the big winner of this, no matter when I lose, is Ray. Ray had her name of her business. Her art is Ray, you know it's her name, so I got genius.
Speaker 2:But she is, she's a character, she has an amazing background story. She's definitely a very driven person. And she's memorable, she's memorable, she's just a cute little say whatever on her mind, texas, I mean, she'll punch in the face or hug you. You know, you don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just an amazing and arts awesome. So I mean everything about her. She is a TV series right off the bat. She could either be a model. I in my mind, I go you're going to be in a Transformers movie in the background, where you get to say one line, you're welding, and they go hey, just see where that robot went and she'd be like yeah that way and that being you know saying, that's what my mind as a marketing person was going to throw her and I think all this stuff.
Speaker 2:she's got the Northern tool. I'm watching NASCAR races and she's on a Northern tool commercial in between each race, you know.
Speaker 2:I'm like there we go. So I go, man, you know so. But I knew winner lose. She was going to be the big winner. You know Ivan got some good stuff out of us, so excited for him because you know he's up in Michigan. But he got some sponsorships from it and just, he just does good work, he does good work, so he deserves it, no matter if he was on the show or not, he deserves it and everybody got something probably from it. You know, for me I didn't get any business from it because you know it's not like racing.
Speaker 1:You're just going into it, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was already kind of doing this already and I already had jobs lined up. So I truly hope that everybody got something from it. Like I'm, I would absolutely would love to hear everybody today and I talked to him, you know, occasionally on stuff. We're all in different worlds, parts of all the place in the United States, and I try to communicate with them, you know, every once in a while. But I'm my line. My line just is still just kind of work, work, work, building trophies, weld and stuff. You know I didn't really spike up on me selling, you know post-pocalyptic vehicles. You know I didn't get that. You know the one thing that didn't happen to me something priestly.
Speaker 2:Which is weird is I made the freaking leg brace, alex Smith, the football player that at the time I had no clue, I don't know anything about sports. His wife found me on Facebook, instagram, and messaged me and said, hey, my husband broke his leg and we got this really expensive leg brace Halo thing. And you know, at this time it no clue was. And she, okay, we'll just send it to me and we'll, we'll come up with a plan to make some out of it. And then my wife gets all excited about oh, it's Alex Smith and stuff like this.
Speaker 2:I'm like, does he know what you mean? Johnson? Does he know a famous race car driver that would make him cool? And he goes there's a quarterback, he's a quarterback for the Washington football team. I'm like, yeah, okay, it seems like a very nice guy. Wife was a very nice person and so I made a. I made the Vince Lombardi trophy, the, the Super Bowl trophy, you know, as a, as a CAD frame, out of this, you know, leg brace. And you'd think, okay, no biggie, and I didn't even charge her for it.
Speaker 2:I just said they just sent my wife like a signed Jersey, cause she knows who your husband is, and so they sent me one, my my wife one, and they had one made for my daughter.
Speaker 2:That's like this big you know, signed it and says your dad's a bad whatever. And I was like that's cool. And then she his wife posted it the day after he won one of the big games leading up to the Super Bowl. You know, had a chance to go to Super Bowl and I'm not joking, you would have thought I cured cancer that day. I spent a whole day. I spent a whole day doing video, doing things like this. Yeah, the news came like all, all of every news channel came by. Oh my God, tell us about the story. Tell them. You know, tmz. Tmz interview, big people magazine like.
Speaker 2:I'm like what? And then they go. Well, can we ask how much it costs? And I was how much? I was like they're probably thinking thousands of dollars or some artist 2000. I was like I traded it for a Jersey for my life and they're like, and then they loved it. Then they had no clue who he was and they loved that. That was such a fun thing for them.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, and, and I every once in a while someone will go. No one, no one knows me from mental trauma winning that show on about mental art, but people will go. You're the guy that. That Vincent Bartley trophy for Alex Smith, that's the cool. And I'm like, I like that. They know that. But I'm going. My world is racing and I want to be known for racing. Not one football thing that I don't. You know that.
Speaker 1:You know that was like well, we did it before. Sometimes you don't get to pick what you get remembered before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's better than some crazy sex scandal, you know, with the secretary. So it's way better than that, you know I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't know how hot she would be, but but you know I made a joke one time to a friend that had his girlfriend come by. He's like, yeah, my girlfriend wanted to see your shop and I made the joke. I was like, yeah, I sleep with the secretary and the, the, the shipping girl and the janitor girl. And and then when he, when they left, the guy's like my girlfriend hates you. And I'm like why? And she goes, well, she says you're like sleeping with everybody at work and I'm like just tell, her.
Speaker 3:my wife is the only one at work, oh, and she got it.
Speaker 2:She laughed because she thought I was sleeping with all these other girls and I'm like, yeah, my wife is the only employee here, so so. But sometimes I have to realize, see, kids don't say stupid all the time, because sometimes not everybody understands, right.
Speaker 1:And then that joke my mouth at least twice a year. I got like a schedule. At least twice a year I say something real stupid. So I kind of wait for them and I let and I warn people. But I mean you, you know it's perfect, you just do the best you can. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know like I understand that now.
Speaker 1:So going forward, like what's what's future plans? You know, like you, you got your company, you got work coming out every orifice of your body at all times and and it's keeping you busy. Number one I'm 48. I'll tell you right now, and you're not going to like to hear it, you can't keep this pace forever, right, that's just. I know that Right. So you just can't. And it's great that you can do it for a while run it, do it, own it, love it, but it's not forever. So what are you thinking is going to be like the game plan? What's your thoughts?
Speaker 2:I asked people that ask them what's your 10 year goal? What are you going to be doing in 10 years? And sometimes it, like it, sees this people because most people don't. Unless you're some savvy, savvy business dude with investment portfolios and you know you can project how much money you're going to make and where, what boat and what size helicopter pad you can put on your yacht. That is a really good question, because I don't really know, because I mean, the only thing that I can do is technically choose the bigger, bigger jobs and kind of cut the little jobs off because you know I can't do.
Speaker 2:I can't spend a whole day building a hundred dollar trophy anymore. I have to do, you know, $1400 trophies if you order them, you know. So, working with the big corporations and working, I'm going to do working bigger jobs, I mean, you know work harder.
Speaker 2:You should get paid more or or offer a better quality thing, but I'm not. I'm not just going to charge you more because you're you're some famous person. You're going to get exactly what John Smith over here gets. Now, if you want yours out of titanium, then yes, we need to talk about more because that's more expensive material. But I feel like I don't charge artist prices, I charge fabricator prices. So, like aim. Aim like $100 an hour or whatever, because I have a shop to pay for.
Speaker 2:It's only logistical to make money to keep this going. I'm not here to give stuff away as much as I would if I was a billionaire and just was like well, I don't feel like owning that country anymore. I'm a sell, that you know. I'm going to start doing metal art and just giving it to people Then yes. I would give it away, but I am not that person, so I'd probably just nuke everything. You know, I'd push the button and blow everything up. There's just too many people in the world, you know, and just like I, like robots. They're way they do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, just robots are cool. I don't know, honestly. Just I mean my daughter's only five, so even in 10 years she's going to be 15, suitable for welding. I hope she would want to at least help daddy out. She don't have to take the business on. I mean, maybe, maybe I will get tired of it and go all right, I made my this is my last year for making trophies. Get your orders in and then I can't work in a factory. I can't be told what to do anymore.
Speaker 2:I'm sending my old man ways. I don't really want to be a boss of young people because I probably choke everybody out. You know there's always good ones, but there's also the ones you just want to.
Speaker 1:Just you know you don't hire those ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know well, you don't, you just yeah, but sometimes you do just so you can. You know you choke. Hey guys, I'm making an example of like Tom just killed somebody today, like you gotta get out of the work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Or it says how you know, are you afraid of death? And you're like I'm just asking for a desk job, Like are you afraid of death? Because that's potential with extreme. Sometimes I get it. I don't know, I don't know, I just, but I've gotten. I've gotten here by just kind of the ways, like the ocean take me this way. So I don't know I mean, I joked. I go, I'm not going to be able to retire because this is not a retirement job.
Speaker 1:This is not a well, no, that are business owners and you know, I've owned a couple and you're not putting money away real well when you're, when you're a independent business owner. Cause, generally what you do, even if you do get ahead, is you just reinvest, you buy that next new piece of machinery or that next piece of square footage or whatever. It is Right, yeah.
Speaker 2:I guess I joked that the only thing that's good at my only retirement is the value of the equipment. That's right.
Speaker 1:No one's going to like all the time I'm like you guys are getting not a penny out of me when I'm dead, but you're going to pile a stuff like so much stuff.
Speaker 2:I mean, look at the, look at the junk up here, and it is. It is junk. I mean it's. There's a lot of stuff on the walls that's just old race car parts. But I going, you know, at some point I joke. If you start seeing me sell equipment online like an auction, it's cause I'm dying. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:I need to put some money in the bank from a wife and my kids, cause you know what else am I going to be good for? You know, I mean that's about. So my wife is a, you know, full time mom, you know. So she's not actually bringing income, she's. She's doing a great job Take care of Luna and stuff like that. So that's all that's. The biggest goal is I wanted her to be able to have the resources to do what she needs to do to have make a great child. Because when you get into this, when you become a dad or mom or whatever, you still got to work, you still got to run this line, but now you have another train car in the back here that's being off you.
Speaker 2:So you've got to take care. You have to be responsible and I go. All right, I'm not the greatest on not working all the time, but I do take time in there. They're here all the time. I go home at seven o'clock I have dinner with them, you know. You know, obviously I work for myself, so she needs me to help. I can come home and do something, but they're usually here. We go to lunch together. So I mean I very much. I probably see my child more than people that have a nine to five and go home and sit on the bus watch a TV, you know and they're and they're with their kids or not.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm, I see my kids all the time. I do watch TV, but I'm looking this way, tv's that way and I'm building stuff. So my life is not very hard. I mean it's fun, but the hard part about it is I've taken my hobby, turned it into a responsibility, and now carding, I want it to be my hobby, but those two things sit over there and they just collect us.
Speaker 1:So you know, well, I know my place.
Speaker 1:I need to keep working when my kids were little, I actually built a playroom in my shop because, like I was like, why am I taking them a daycare? I'll just bring them to work, they'll just. I, I own the company. Why don't I just build a shop, a playroom here, and TV and a couch and a fridge and and toys and? And they would just run around the shop all the time and people would come visit me at work and be like, are those your kids? It's like yeah, like isn't that dangerous? No, they know. And if it's like spark time, they know when to go into the room or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. My daughter walks by and she knows I'm well and she knows the cover. She knows not to look at it, she knows when the plasma cutter is going, you know. And she has a whole room. Basically it's an office here, but it's all. It's got a couch and just 10,000 toys in it.
Speaker 2:And then, upfront is the main office which has 10,000 toys in it, and there's I mean I mean I mean seriously, like you know, like there's I did. I did tell my wife I was like if, if this stuff was all your stuff, you'd be out. But because it's rude, it's totally cool. If I trip on her.
Speaker 2:Her roller skates, totally cool, but if it was your roller skate, oh, you'd be divorced, you'd be gone a long time ago. You ain't having no women's stuff up in here, but I can have little little girl stuff, little bikes, and you've got 10,000, everything.
Speaker 1:Oh God, yeah. So, like you have you've said it a couple of times I just want to make sure you got no desire to to back off the the throttle and of control and perhaps say you know what, maybe I do do the $1,400 trophies, but I hire a kid to do those, while I take on the $14,000 trophy that I built over three days. You don't got no desire to kind of start branching that out.
Speaker 2:No, I don't know. I, I do limit, I do limit myself.
Speaker 2:It's. I mean, I know that every everybody that I know that has their own business. It's their boss. They're working every day. Amongst the employees that go, the hardest thing is hiring the first one right. And it's probably the same way in Canada, like during before COVID, whatever because those people work hard, go own their own business. So that to me is something I hear. Oh, you can't find good workers and what you can, but they own their own business two minutes into working for something because I can do this better.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you do, or get them old, that's what.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking I'm going to get some old work backs get some guy.
Speaker 2:they're going to steal all your, all your ideas and all your, all your connections, cause he goes, I just want to make a couple hundred bucks bomb of cigarettes and beer, whatever pay for a cable and I'm retired and I can't make a lot of money.
Speaker 2:That's actually the person I make going out because they're, you know, they, they worked, they, they've served their time, they've done whatever, and just give them a place to enjoy and, you know, be part of a mission again or something, so that'd be, that'd be something, but again they're all working, they all. They all get snagged up so that was that was my, that was my brand, my idea.
Speaker 1:Young employees through. The best young employees ever brought in are now business owners of their own companies and I'm actually super proud of them. Like good job, you know, like I got the I got. They got to work with me and see how I did it and they kind of ran with it on their own, awesome, awesome. But the problem with an old guy you hire an old guy, he's going to watch you. He's going to be like yo, you don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 2:I'll get one with, like a peg leg or something, you know, some kind of disability. You know I'll say I'm going to hold on to your inhaler man. You, you don't get that done. I'm not giving you your own hail or back. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I don't know I would be a little smarter than that, I wouldn't get some HR. And there we are back with HR.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't be getting some Chris Hemsworth looking dude, I'd be getting the guy with like a hook for a hand, you know or some. Where I go, geez, like I can outrun this guy, at least you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's not running away with my paycheck. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one with some limitations, you know.
Speaker 1:Awesome buddy. Well, our hour is up. I hope you've had fun here with with the podcast. Is there anything you want to let you know? The kids know that. You know they're listening to your story and you know I did want to keep it informal. I did want to kind of expose more of your personality, cause you know I hear I've heard a couple of your other podcasts and everyone gets right to the bones about, you know, racing and all these like things, and it's like no, no, no, I want to know Tom, like what. What's up with Tom? You know, and, and I think we did a good job, but what would you want to say to some kids that are coming out of high school or getting into the industry and they're thinking like you know, what's my future looking like?
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously there's plenty of jobs, clearly so, but still, just because there's plenty of them doesn't mean they're the right ones for you. So I tell kids actually get obsessed with something like be something good, obviously drugs or anything, but if you wanna get into racing, if you wanna get into I'm obsessed with digging holes yeah, yeah, if you wanna I mean whatever it is you almost gotta be obsessed and even think about this.
Speaker 2:This is something I was big on. When I was in each class I always found which kid is the smartest one, which is the kid that answers all the questions. I always wanted to get in between him and the teacher, like I always wanted to beat him. So in theory, I had a competitive spirit, so I always wanted to be the best. So nothing wrong with that, you know. Obviously don't let it eat you up where you can't have relationships and you throw all your money away, but like you, know, like gambling and other arms, is this the same?
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't gamble, kids gambling's bad.
Speaker 2:Don't always wanna be the best at what you do or being the smartest person in the room type thing, which I'm not but I'm just saying, you know, be obsessed with something and whatever you said as a kid that you wanted to do, there's most likely is a job for you, you know, I mean, I'd be really good. I used to play with Legos and obviously there's a lot of Lego shows now. There's people that get paid to go hey, this new race car that came out, we need to design that in a Lego format that we can sell for Legos. There's somebody getting paid to build Legos from scratch and then sell them to millions of people going. That's a job, you know. There's jobs playing video games. I made trophies for it. That kids get hundreds of thousands of dollars to play video games because they're the best at it.
Speaker 2:So, like my mom said, I don't care if you're a janitor at a high school, but if you're the best damn janitor in the world and people talk about you, that's what I'm proud about. You know what I'm saying Don't be at a company where it's the best company in the world but you're a loser there. Be the best one, maybe something. Be the best guy at the smallest company You're going. That guy's what makes this company good. So be an asset to a company, be proud of what you do and whatever you want to do. I'm most like you. There actually is a job, unless it's, you know, serial killer. That's not really a paying job at all.
Speaker 1:And then there's an end. Very well, yeah, I don't know if it's a job, necessarily is that's more of a hobby, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you can see, that's why my brain works is about 10%, 10% common sense and intelligence. And then you know the other bit is just stupid. Just say dumb. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:So are you going to be at Fabtech in? I think we've got Orlando coming up next year.
Speaker 2:You're going to be there Is it really yeah. Well, I mean I like, I do like Florida, I mean I like warm weather, I like the beach.
Speaker 1:Well, that's Becker's backyard. That's Becker's backyard, you know so.
Speaker 2:I might have to trick somebody to go hey, you need somebody in your booth to look like an idiot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, who knows, but Well, I've never been to Florida.
Speaker 1:I've never been to Florida, so I'll be there. I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 2:You've never been to Florida. It's just delightful. You know, the ocean doesn't have ice in it. Your penguins don't get to vote down here. I try to figure what else you got up there, but it's, yeah, it's, it's not bad. It's not bad you. I think you'd appreciate it.
Speaker 1:A lot of people from Canada go to Florida. A lot of a lot of old people go there. It's like a retirement place. That's what we always hear.
Speaker 2:But I'll tell you the old people, the ones with the best stories. You know what I'm saying. Have you ever talked to a 16 year old kid with a decent story? No, because he's only been around for 16 years, he's got brand new parts on him. You talked to someone who's 85 years old, from Bronx. You know, back in the 60s they got fun stories in town. So, I totally, I totally appreciate old it's. It is a gift to get old.
Speaker 1:That's the way I've learned it's a gift to get old. Someone told me what's getting old is a privilege, and I've always felt that, because people die you never know. You never know when your time's coming. So every day you're alive is a privilege. It's not giving to you, it's you just got it.
Speaker 2:So you got to take it, yeah, you got to take it and and you're for something smart, so, yeah, might as well have fun in the in the present time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you bet Awesome buddy. Well, thank you very much, and and any shout outs you want to send to anybody.
Speaker 2:Not really. I mean just, you know, just I don't, I'm not worried about it, I got enough stuff to do so if you find me on. Instagram, you'll figure out. Look for the dorky wide dude. That's all just a dorky wide dude. You probably find me instantly Other than thank you very much for having me. Hopefully you don't have to censor too much of this this poster or whatever.
Speaker 1:Very good.
Speaker 2:You're a delightful Canadian. I like you. You're a good person, you're fun to talk to and I like that blue shirt. I don't know, I got nothing else, I'm just smart to say.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll see you. I'll see you around. I've seen you a few times now. I'm sure we'll hang out in the future. I'm down in the U S a quite a few shows, so I'm sure we'll hang out and tell all the people that have been following along. Make sure you check out his stuff, go online. He's everything's on there and he does fun work and it's really creative and interesting how he puts stuff together. So it's always fun to follow and he's good with the content. He puts stuff up pretty, pretty regularly, which is which is something I'm terrible at, so you know. So it's good. And for the people following the podcast, thank you for following and making us as successful as we are. We're still right behind dark junkies. We're number two, but you know I'm okay with that. Me and Jason are good buddies, so you know we can hold on to number one and two for as long as we want. So keep downloading, sharing and commenting on the podcast and stay tuned for the next episode. We hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 3:We'll see you in the next episode. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.