The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 190 with Eric Pleil and Max Ceron
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.
Have you ever wondered how a passion for welding can transform into a thriving business? This episode promises an inspiring journey with Eric Pleil from Elite Welding Business in Connecticut, who takes us through his entrepreneurial adventures. From his humble beginnings in Torrington, CT, to establishing a successful enterprise, Eric shares how his family's trade background and technical school education ignited his love for welding. Learn about the challenges and rewards he faced while growing his company, and the fulfillment that comes from supporting employees and their families.
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All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast, pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin.
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Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Chiron and, as always, I am out there looking for the guests and bringing in the stories from the welding industry. Today we go a little bit south of the border here from our normal Canadian content and we're bringing in Eric Pleal, who's coming to us from Elite Welding Business in Connecticut, eric, how are you doing today? Uh, eric pleal, who's coming to us from elite welding business biz in connecticut? Eric, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:good, good. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm good. I'm just happy that summer is kind of holding on. You know, I'm up here in central canada where we're about the coldest place on the planet for most of the winter, um, but I got sunshine today, so hey, I'm not complaining. How about you?
Speaker 2:yeah, yep, same.
Speaker 1:We're still, uh, in blue sky and sunny weather, so same can't complain yeah, and connecticut how you guys do for weather normally like, because your guys's winter's pretty rough or not bad yeah, yeah they're, they're pretty, uh, I wouldn't say canada rough, but we get pretty, uh, cold and and some feet of snow when it hits.
Speaker 2:So yeah we're. You know we get whacked.
Speaker 1:Well, canada is a big country, so there's parts of Canada that have beautiful summers. It's not fair, right? So I guess it depends where you are, all right? So, eric, tell us a little bit about yourself. Let's start with where you were born, where your roots are.
Speaker 2:You know where did you come up? Yes, I was born in Torrington, Connecticut, in September of 1986. And I grew up in the area, went to school there, went to a tech technical school. There took auto body, which really was kind of the only shop that had welding per se. We didn actually have a welding um shop to take. So I did a lot of auto welding and and welding benches and chairs for the school um. So that was kind of, I guess, school-wise by introduction to welding yeah, did you.
Speaker 1:Did you have trades in the family? Did you have anybody around you that was in the trade, so that it was like not totally new, or was it something that you had nothing no idea about?
Speaker 2:So a lot of my uncles are in the machining trade so we had that kind of you know, blue collar ordeal in the family and then when they were working on stuff at home, you know I'd hear the welder crackling in my dad's garage or they'd be working on broncos and you know old trucks and stuff.
Speaker 1:So it was always something was always being worked on so you kind of knew in high school you wanted to go down a trades route like there wasn't that pressure that most kids get today you know uh to to go to university and pick up some type of uh, you know college training yeah, I knew probably uh, maybe 13 or 14 that, um, overall, someday I wanted to have my own business, um, ideally welding.
Speaker 2:I wasn't sure exactly where I was gonna kind of go. Well, entrepreneur wise, it was always kind of there. And then once I realized how much I actually enjoyed welding, that it kind of clicked and I realized, okay, this is the route we're going.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. You know, the entrepreneur bug, I feel, is almost something you're kind of either born with or you're not. I've talked about this with a bunch of people on this show and throughout my life, because I had the same kind of idea right Like I've had businesses and some failed miserably, but that didn't ever stop me from being like I'm done. You know what I mean. Like there's always kind of something nagging in the back of your head. That's like I want to have complete control of this process from start to back, you know, and like it's almost like empowering to take that full accountability where it's only on you. It's just you. You know what I mean. You can't blame anyone else, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then as you get further on, like if you can get to a point or if you know part of your plan is employees and whatnot, and then now these other guys and gals depend on you and that's a whole uh level of satisfaction and providing for these people and their families. It's awesome all the way around.
Speaker 1:It is. It is so, as a young entrepreneur 13, 14, you're obviously not opening up a welding shop. I'm curious to hear what are your first forays into the entrepreneurial forum. What was the first business you started?
Speaker 2:So I enjoy old trucks again. It was kind of in my family so I was hooked on international scouts. I don't know if you guys remember old scouts, they kind of the.
Speaker 2:The folk folklore was that they rotted off on the showroom floor because they were very prone to rusting and rotting out. So that was kind of one of my projects late mid to late teenage years and then I had the idea that, oh, I want to have like Northeast IH scout parts and rebuilding. So I kind of that was my first little venture into realizing what a business might entail and what's involved. Uh, but that was definitely the first with with trucks and how old are you when you did that?
Speaker 1:um, that was probably 17 ish 18 yeah, yeah and uh, did you have any? Or did you at that point take any training on actual business stuff?
Speaker 2:no, no, and I mean obviously youtube wasn't. I don't even know if, at what point, youtube came around, but even as far as the internet, like entrepreneurship, like it wasn't a fun cool thing that everybody seemed to be doing yeah yeah, it was totally like oh man, like who else even owns businesses that I know, and it wasn't very many, so it was kind of uh, shooting in the dark yeah, that's something I've definitely noticed how much.
Speaker 1:Well, obviously the internet changed everything. Now you have access to all the information you ever wanted. But that was the biggest shock I had, you know, in my young life, um, when I finally had a business, start to do well and I had to worry about, you know, square footage and staff and accounting and books and insurance and all these things. How much I didn't know any of it. And your skill. I mean, if you're listening to this podcast and you're thinking about opening a business because you're really skilled at what you do, that's not enough. The skill is different. Someone will pay you for your skill. You can live your whole life happily working for somebody else if you got lots of skill and make lots of money. But working for yourself is not so much about skill, is it?
Speaker 2:Oh no, it's only the work. You know, if it's a trade, the work is only a little part of it. It's everything else that you're like oh man, exactly like you said. I don't even know half of this stuff else that you're like oh man, exactly like you said, I don't even know half of this stuff.
Speaker 1:So how did you start learning? How'd you figure that stuff out?
Speaker 2:oh man, I just kind of uh, you know, scouring the internet and I got into I always liked reading as a kid um, and then when I realized hey, wow, there is a ton of business books, um, you know, behind the scenes, kind of uh stuff that people don't tell you about, or because I never went to school for business, so I was all basically self-taught. So, you know, I just devoured like every book I could find regarding like service type business and blue collar, and then realizing that some of it would eventually have to be outsourced and taxes and accounting so I was really self-educating was the biggest key for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, In your early days, before we get to the bigger businesses, you're building trucks. You're really niche market that you were kind of trying to chase. What were some of the biggest mistakes you made in those early days?
Speaker 2:I guess really just not kind of knowing more and having to learn from the mistakes you know and in the very beginning, as a kid, all you're like okay, I do the work, I get paid and that's it Woohoo. But there's so much more to it and until you're getting into it you don't know.
Speaker 1:So I would really just say just the unawareness was a mistake, just from not having done it really just walking in like a page, and age as I do, smile on your face, let's, let's get her done and and, uh, yeah, worry about all those other things later. Then you realize that, no, maybe I should worry about those other things first. Yeah, yep. So what happened to the, to the, to the scout building company? What happened to the?
Speaker 2:that first little oh, it just just kind of I built some stuff for myself, sold some parts and stuff online and then it kind of fizzled out like they all do, yeah yeah, they do, they do my, my first one.
Speaker 1:I remember I just rented uh, like, uh, you know, like when, those where they have all the truckers and they each have like their own little trucker parking.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:A buddy of mine's dad had one and so next door was vacant. So I just rented basically a garage to just sit at my shop. I bragged to all my friends about this garage that I was setting up and then, of course, it got broken into and robbed, because that's what happens when you have a big mountain year kid. And then, of course, it got broken into and robbed because that's what happens when you have a big mountain year kid. So, hey guys, this is a totally filled shop full of tools that has no alarm. Check it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now for yourself what was it that you were looking? Because you must have had a vision of like man somewhere down the road. I want to get into X or I want to be able to start doing Y. You know, and obviously vehicles is a part of your background. I got into the vehicles game too. It's a tough gig. It's a tough gig. There's a lot of competition, unless you can really set like you know, differentiate yourself out.
Speaker 2:You know, after the first business here fizzles out, what is it that you're thinking more long term now at this point? So, um, you know, obviously always sticking to vehicles because that's kind of what I grew up around it kind of transformed into motorcycles as I got a little bit older, like I always rode dirt bikes and mopeds with my buddies when you know we were younger. But, um, I built a custom bike for myself and kind of caught on and I posted some stuff on some of the chopper forums online. Some guys had asked for about parts and, uh, sheet metal work and that kind of made me realize, okay, so I'm still gonna be like I knew I wanted to have some type of business, regardless if now the scout and the truck stuff didn't work out, which it didn't.
Speaker 2:So then next, like again, like you said, you can't just try once and give up like what's next? So the motorcycles kind of took off and that was more of custom fab work, which kind of after school and really getting experience at another place that I worked kind of all tied it together and you know whether it was machining or sheet metal, fab or, you know, tube welding or framework. So that was really the next big focal point and then the first real area of any business for me. That really took off and I was like, oh man, I think this is actually going to work.
Speaker 1:Oh, awesome. So there's a couple of pieces in there that were interesting. First of all, you went back for some training. You know you said you went back and got some training. So what did you decide? To go back and study or learn better?
Speaker 2:So, training wise, I would say, basically I got a job at a local fabrication shop because, coming out of high school, I could, you know, weld on sheet metal, do some big welding. I really couldn't arc weld, I couldn't TIG. They had a TIG welder there but no one knew how to run it and I was always, hey, you know, mr Doosey and Mr Tebow, can you guys show us how to TIG? You know like there's a couple of us that want to TIG but they didn't know how. So we just sat collecting dust.
Speaker 2:I think it was just um different jobs that I worked at. I would just scoop up all the experience that I could and all the old timers that would just talk about techniques and tips and tricks like again the old phrase of being like a sponge and just everything they wanted to to show me. And let me know, I just soaked it all in because I knew down the road whatever business that I have that succeeds is going to have to do with welding and fabrication and custom work. So, training-wise, it was really from old-timers that came before me.
Speaker 1:Now, as a business owner and I'm interested in your take on this, especially in the early days did you always have to have another job? Did you always have to have work on top of work? Were you always still working, kind of a little bit in the private industry for somebody you know, to supplement? Because, like I mean, most people don't know, because most people don't become entrepreneurs, but if you do, you don't make money for a while. Like for a while people think like you just start making money. Yeah, you'll sell one thing and be like, wow, four grand, but that was like the first thing you sold in two months or something like.
Speaker 1:So you know, I found that I always had to have another job and I joke with kids. You know I got a cousin living in my house right now from chile and he's like oh man, I worked six days in a row, five hour shifts, and I was like I worked 22 days in a row, four jobs. Like what are you talking about? Like I don't, I don't think I slept for two decades, like, but you know for yourself.
Speaker 1:Did you know, were you able to handle that job life balance at all? Because I was terrible at it. I'd have my business during the day and then I'd have to go work a night shift somewhere because I still had to feed the family and I mean I had to bring money in. If my business, and if anything my work, was paying for my business to stay afloat sometimes, right, like. What was your experience with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, had uh needed another job and and from the jobs that I had, they were kind of almost in different areas. I would say, if I could maybe like group them like one was in um, like production, mig welding, and then another was more kind of um, doing like these big steel molds, so we'd have more fabrication, and kind of doing like these big steel molds, so we'd have more fabrication and kind of one-off stuff, which was good. And then another one I worked at a aerospace company for making parts or well, tooling for pratt whitney down our way. Yeah, that was very intricate and introduced, you know, more cnc machining and then like real precision, certified tig welding which, which again just in the back of my head.
Speaker 2:I was like, man, I'm just taking all this experience and like this is going to benefit me and just even long-term, like guys that I hire, I can show them different stuff that they don't possibly know at the time. So, in any case, yeah, I always had a full-time job during the day and then I would work at my shop my shop, which was in my garage at night, saturday, sunday.
Speaker 2:If I had parts that had to go out, I'd be out there. You know four o'clock in the morning you know welding parts on the bench to bang them out before I had to go to my real job. So yeah, and until I really had a good nest egg and a good feel that like this is really going to work, I always, always had another job, just to, you know, pay the bills and never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Well, it gives you some security, right yeah?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they talk about the hustle culture and there's kind of a movement now which I understand because there's two sides to the coin, right, like there's the why hustle? Why hustle? Like no one cares? No one, no, it's never gonna. You're taking time away from your personal life to do professional stuff, um. So there's this idea, like you know, why hustle? Why I have a side hustle and I grew up in the world of if you don't have a side hustle, you're not trying hard enough. Like you don't have, especially as a trades person with skills, um, you have the ability to kind of set up and make money anywhere, really like if you just want to. You kind of have that ability with the skills you have in your hands. I get both sides, you know. Like you know no one's going to be on their deathbed.
Speaker 1:Being like I wish I would have worked an extra overtime weekend no one thinks that. And as an ex-business owner and a workaholic, I would say I have missed kids' birthdays, I have missed the soccer games, I have missed the presentations, all those things that I do think about now. Being like ah, you know, that's kind of crap. I was kind of crap, dad, because I was working so much. Ah, you know that's kind of crap.
Speaker 1:I was kind of dad because I was working so much, but it also afforded my kids a life that set them up where they're doing very well now as adults. So there's very much a fine line between overworking yourself and putting in the extra time to set you apart from your competitor. Right, because that's what I got taught as a kid is if you're not making that dollar, someone else is. That dollar isn't waiting for you. It's a race to that dollar between you and every other schmuck in town that's trying to get it right. So what are you doing to get it right? What are your thoughts on that? Like on the hustle culture.
Speaker 2:Man, that's a great question. It's like a love hate relationship and again, I really do feel like it has to tie in with your kids and if you have children and what's your personal and family? You know life because it's always like that's the give or take kind of relationship, with overworking or working too much. So for me, you know, when I was first starting I didn't have my daughter yet, so I didn't care, I'd work all day Saturday, all day Sunday I'd work. After work I'd hop on my Harley, go for a ride, get some fresh air and then back to work. I guess it really depends what stage of life you're at.
Speaker 2:I think in my business now, which we'll get into working and helping other shop owners any of the ones that don't have kids yet I'm like man dude, put in the work now, Like trust me, once you you know if or when you do have kids, like everything changes and it's just completely different. Like I wouldn't be able to put in the work now that I did then. And I'm not that much older, it's not because I'm tired and lazy, it's just knowing that I'd rather hang out with my daughter and do fun stuff or go on vacation. So for me it really was tied into family, and there's nothing wrong with working hard. You're not going to get anything for free. You got to work for everything that you want and everything that you have coming to you is going to be through hard work. But maybe ask yourself, depending on what stage of life you're at, if grinding real hard, grinding real hard, is worth it, or maybe you're past that stage. So it all, you know, comes down to everybody's personal preference.
Speaker 1:I feel no, it's true, it's true. And there's like what do you want to get out? And I guess the this is the thing. I caution young people. I work with a mentorship program here in Canada where we help mentor young businesses and I always say to young business owners it's called the Futurepreneur Program, if anyone out there is in Canada, they actually have money and funding for young businesses and they match you with a mentor, which I thought was a really neat program.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So one of the people I was matched with they got kids and stuff and I said, well, you always have to remember that. You're putting all these dollar amounts, time amounts, you know space amounts in your mind. You're constantly rolling with your business. You know materials in, materials out, what I'm going to do, what I'm going to buy.
Speaker 1:It's really easy to think about work and to get caught up in the logistics of planning out. Even tomorrow's workday can eat your brain all night, Like you might be at home watching TV with your family but you're not there. Your brain is already planning out your next day of work or these things. It's like you got to remember that your family's also work. They're also work. You got to put time in to them to have a good relationship with your wife, with your kids. I mean, just sitting on the couch and with them is not the same as being with them because you're not thinking of, you're not there, right? So I'm not saying anyone has to do less or more, but if you're gonna put time in with the kids, put the time in with the kids. That's kids time. You turn your phone off, you don't answer the work call, like I mean. It's like because when you're with work and the kids call you like, you're like man, whatever. So it goes both ways right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great point.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. You're working on the motorcycles. You know, at this point I'm trying to follow the timeline here on my little paper. You know you're born in 86, so 17, 18 would have put you at. You know 2004. Does that sound about right? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the Scout stuff was kind of around like graduation time. And then later on I was doing a little bit of stuff and getting into the bikes. Yeah, we had a little work area in my father's cellar so we would start doing a little bit there. And it really got serious when I bought my house, which I was 26, and I had a very specific criteria for this house.
Speaker 2:I had to have a nice garage for me to work in um, and then from there I'm like all right, I can become legitimate, get an llc, get insurance, get all this going. And then the bikes really came into play there. Um, and that was really the the kind of foundation for what would become my welding business so that's around 2012 if I'm doing the math yeah, yeah, exactly, so in 2012, you're like, okay, I gotta go all in, which is a decision.
Speaker 1:lots of entrepreneurs get to where it's like, okay, this now becomes my full-time and you switch and the full-time becomes a part-time, and whatever else is going on in life, what was the niche that you were really serving at that point? What was the in and out that was on the daily?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it was mostly the motorcycles. And then, once it got a little bit past there or again thinking long-term, I knew I wanted to scale and hire guys. I started getting into manufacturing work so I kind of used some of my machining background for small production run parts um, some production welding, you know bench welding, and that's really. That was kind of the next step. So the motorcycles kind of set me up to make that eventual transition to quit working anywhere else yeah and then I was on that for a while and then when I was like okay, what's next?
Speaker 2:I didn't feel like it was going to come from motorcycles strictly. So then the manufacturing in connecticut were a good size uh manufacturing hub. So there's industrial parks and different you know companies and all sorts of um, you know facilities and plants and and all that. So it just made sense to start to branch off that way and realizing that manufacturing was going to be my next step for business really to get up to that next uh goal and you worked in manufacturing, which I think is very key.
Speaker 1:A lot of kids now are like I don't want to work in a manufacturing plant or I don't want to work in that place. They don't pay as well. I don't want to work in a manufacturing plant or I don't want to work in that place. They don't pay as well. Or I don't want to be a wire monkey or whatever bad words they say about welders that pull the mega over.
Speaker 1:But kids, dudes, adults, whoever's listening to this manufacturing has so many valuable lessons to teach you. Maybe it's not in the skills game, maybe it's not. Maybe it's not learning how to do a. You know titanium stainless in a vertical, open route, but you are learning about the importance of timing, the importance of parts, the importance of quality, cuts and forming the. You know the jigs and fixtures and and tying into people before and after you that if they need this and then you need that. There's a lot of valuable lessons to be learned in a manufacturing plant that, especially if you're getting into business for yourself, are extremely important things to learn right Like. What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And inventory and employees and dealing with other people and timelines and due dates and all that stuff, yeah, absolutely. And to go further, on the places that I worked and again going back to whether it was a small shop and seeing, okay, maybe this is how my shop's going to run in the beginning, when we only have two guys, four guys, five guys to you know, multi hundred, uh, personal facilities that oh, okay, this is how large scale you know, corporate manufacturing America works and and parts and shipping and receiving and all that. So, going back to, yeah, getting experience and if you're exactly, if you're going to be, in a manufacturing environment and we I mean manufacturing could be used lightly, whether it's production, welding parts or or machining stuff or fabricating anything, just seeing kind of how it operates and then taking that and putting that in your, in your storage bank and your brain to say, okay down the road, if or when, this is where I want to go.
Speaker 2:I've already had some experience through someone else's shop, through someone else's business. I was paid to be there. It's like take advantage of it. Why not? Yeah?
Speaker 1:yeah, learn and use it, yeah, everything one of the best things I ever got taught was I worked for a big manufacturing plant here in saskatchewan where I live, and we're very manufacturing heavy in this in my part of the country. Uh, I got sent off for the lean training so I got my like lean one and two and my kaizen and my 5s and learning all that stuff. I remember the guys on the floor were like you, big butt kisser, you're gonna go take the training brown noser yeah, safety, safety five yeah yeah, but I was like you know what.
Speaker 1:They're offering the training for free, so why would I say no to free training? It's another certificate on my on my resume. I'll take it. But it wasn't even that I learned so much, like I learned so much about organizing myself, organizing my workspace, organizing the people around me, like I swear that that two weeks of training changed my life like yeah yeah even like that stuff when they break it down to tool, organization or documents like anything.
Speaker 2:It's like take that little extra set to uh, set yourself up prior and then it's just so much easier, day after day after day.
Speaker 1:It's, it's awesome so you said that where you're in in connecticut has pretty heavy manufacturing presence. You know, I'm in the same boat here in Regina and I find that a lot of people, young people that are looking to get into business when you're in a manufacturing state or a manufacturing province like myself. They don't want to do manufacturing, they want to do the custom fab Like. The custom fab is like the dream for everybody. If only people knew that there's really no money in custom fab. Um, there's a little bit, it's, it's not. It's not flowing. The flowing is on, on on manufacturing stuff and being able to use tooling and equipment. That's where the money is.
Speaker 1:So a lot of people stay away from it because they feel they can't compete against the big boys in your local area. I find it to be the opposite that if you're in a manufacturing heavy area, being the small guy on the block is huge, because lots of these big places can't take jobs under a certain size because they're just too busy, they're too big and so a lot of like thousand to $10,000 jobs always like the one to 10 K jobs, get forgotten because the big companies they're not looking at anything under a hundred thousand dollars and nobody else knows how to do anything smaller. So there's usually a nice little niche in their little nest that someone can create in these areas. You know what's it like in your area in Connecticut, what's it like for someone getting into manufacturing and how do they, you know, kind of carve out their spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's so much opportunity.
Speaker 2:And even further at what you said, just as far as you know, overhead, like these big shops have a minimum they have to probably see when they're quoting work and they have to have a minimum that they're charging. So if you're a company or by yourself or have a couple of guys, you can come in at a lower rate in, you know, maybe these one to 10 or one to 15 K jobs and even that's another advantage for a smaller shop and building relationships with them and really kind of you know doing everything you can to be available and you know, however, you have to get in with them and try to become, you know, one of their smaller vendors that they'll keep feeding work to. So really with us and in my shop we ended up as far as manufacturing going towards um, the automation industry. So whether that was basic bases or stands or tables, frames, basically any kind of, yeah, all that for automation, and then they would bolt the robot arms, whether it was for um, you know, health care or whatever the industry was, but it was just nice, straightforward print work, um, they would basically give you hey, this is what we need, please give us a quote and quote it and then so we had multiple customers that were in this area, in this niche, and really that was the one that kind of propelled us to you know further than just doing, you know, by myself doing motorcycles. So that was really the next step, which was kind of an automation, and that was really what made sense for us here in Connecticut.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That sense for us, uh, here in connecticut, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:That's awesome and it was fun you know, there's always something different, like hey, we got this weird thing that's going to be like this. Or you know, these big massive, we did something for interstate batteries. This huge, massive, uh, automation, it's just wild.
Speaker 1:It's always something different well, for sure, and automation is changing every day. So there's, they're always looking for the new, next thing, right? So um? And lots of it's not invented yet. They're looking for somebody to to help make that solution right yeah, prototypes, all that stuff yeah, yeah, all right. So where are we on the timeline now? So is motorcycle slash manufacturing business. Is this, is this elite welding right now? Is it already, or was this something prior?
Speaker 2:all right, so we'll speed up here. Um, so, from the motorcycles, when I was in my garage at the house, okay, and I started getting into the smaller manufacturing stuff and then I saved up a nice nest egg to feel comfortable, um, I had, uh, quit my job so I was full-time for myself and my business was north side welding and machine here in connecticut. And at that point, um, I had hired a friend who was working here at the house with me and then we got to the point where we needed more space. So I got a commercial facility down at torrington, which is the next town over, and then from there I hired one of my cousins as kind of a supervisor and we started hiring some more guys right around that manufacturing customer kind of intake, because we were getting real busy. So from there that's really took off and we were doing all sorts of production work and again the automation stuff.
Speaker 2:So this was probably, probably, and then again going through COVID and that was a whole whole other uh disaster, I'm sure, like for everybody else, business-wise, everything kind of came to a halt and it was pretty scary and yeah, less than itself as far as having your nest egg and not spending when you don't have to spend, and that's a whole other avenue of of folklore yeah, so we're at like 2020 here 2021 yeah, yeah, so at that point no, pretty successful six figures and and beyond from there and then I started helping out some other um shop owners, small shop owners, whether they were kind of where I was in in, like garage working out of your garage or just kind of getting started, or you know a lot of them were still working elsewhere and like, hey, how do I kind of go on my own and get business started?
Speaker 2:And we started a YouTube channel so some guys would email through there or Instagram or just kind of reach out to me and I was always happy to kind of give information. And because in the beginning I was like man, I felt like there was such a point where it was such a struggle that if I'd always thought, if I made it, I'm going to give back to other guys behind me that are in the same position. Because, man, it felt like such a struggle and a stressful time of not always knowing what to do and the growing pains and not having anyone to really ask for business information, specifically in welding and fabrication.
Speaker 2:You know our industry. So in the back of my mind I was like man, I'm going to help people out in one way or another if and or when I you know, quote unquote make it. So by that time I kind of did make it you know, yeah, you're doing all right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, paying my guys good, and it really kind of morphed into. So I had my North side welding and then I'm like, all right, so what can we do with this other, which wasn't really a business. But I had thought and again, long-term entrepreneur, online space, you know ever-changing world Like how do I utilize this for maybe old me or down the road or what's next for me? So between giving out free content and youtube videos and all that I uh, we started getting into like a consulting type um business structure and that turned into the elite well, biz, which is now my primary focus and, again, helping guys go from where they are to where they want to be and really showing them strategies. And we ended up building a program which kind of went over customers, employees and systems as like a backbone of working together if they want to work one-on-one together and that really morphed into a whole you know business.
Speaker 2:On its own, it's been absolutely crazy and, uh, it's taken on a life of its own and that's where we are currently yeah, well, you know it's.
Speaker 1:It's so interesting because that lack of training for young entrepreneurs I feel like it kind of goes both ways. I think, first of all, there probably is training that is available that people overlook because of either ego or you know like. I know how to do this, I know what I'm doing, this is my business, I'm gonna do it my way, which I feel like you're setting yourself up for a failed business right away if you think like that, because that's not. That shouldn't be the heart of your business. Your ego and showing off your skill, that's not the heart of your business. The heart of your business should be your customers and their needs, and what do they want and how can you make them happy? Because they're the ones giving you the cash.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day you're nothing without them. So that's a tricky part to get over.
Speaker 1:And the other part that I find is really tricky with young entrepreneurs, or I shouldn't say young, new entrepreneurs, because you can be an entrepreneur at any point in your life, um yep, is that, even though the help is maybe out there and and you may or may not be getting it that it's often not thought about up front, like before you even start. Maybe I should take a six-week course on taxes, or maybe I should take a little quick course on how to do a spreadsheet. You don't think about those things till you're knee deep in it and you're like, oh my god, what am I doing? Right?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah it's. I don't know if it's just unawareness. I mean again, like me, I didn't, I wasn't even, I didn't have two cents to think, oh, maybe I should take some kind of business class or a community college, like yeah, at that point I was like I know how to weld and I know how to open my wallet what else do I need to do? And again you don't know until you know. And wow, there was a lot more to do yeah, the price of beer went up a dollar.
Speaker 1:What the hell? Those are the important, pressing matters. Right, like all right. So we're, we're at elite welding biz now. Do you still have, uh, north side, what I would?
Speaker 2:you said it was called north side welding yeah, north side, well, yeah, so I ended up, um, kind of scaling back and ended up because I got kind of to a fork in the road where, you know, elite started taking off and you know I didn't feel like it was right to start taking these guys on who, you know, after a while, ended up becoming paying customers saying, oh, I can't make our phone call today, I can't make our Zoom call today.
Speaker 2:I got to go work on this or we're, you know, offsite or we're working, got some crazy deadlines. So that was probably one of the hardest decisions I'd made, because I'd built, you know, my baby, basically this welding business since I was, you know, mid twenties and knew that I wanted it since I was a teenager, and knowing that this new direction kind of maybe made more sense for me long-term and kind of I just, I guess, keeping that entrepreneurial like hunger, you know, alive and striving to keep improving, and yeah, so I basically scaled back Northside welding and just put all focus on, you know, the elite weld biz.
Speaker 1:That's good, all right. Well, let's take the break now for our sponsors and when we get back we'll be here with Eric Pleal about, about. You know what is elite welding biz, what's the mandate, what's the focus, and you know some of the success. And I want to hear some of the obstacles, because I love hearing what people have struggles with, because then that's when we all learn about what's going on. So we'll be right back here on the cwb association podcast.
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Speaker 1:And we are back here on the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Duran and I'm here with Eric coming to us from Connecticut from Elite Welding Biz. All right, eric. So right before the break, you know we kind of recapped your history, you know. Know, as a welder, as a fabricator, as a as an entrepreneur, a couple different business models that you went through, um, kind of just, you know, I guess, fine-tuning your own pathway to to success, you know, and as you got to the level where you felt you were good, you basically stumbled into another door of, okay, I've done it, I've started a good business, it's doing well and maybe this is helpful to other people. Right, and that's a whole other thing.
Speaker 1:To swallow, business-wise, is when you go from being the producer of products to the enabler of products, right, and you really start looking at things differently, people differently. You know, um, the business, you kind of can take that 10 000 foot back up. You know that's which is something I think very important and very hard to do sometimes to back way up and take a look and be like, okay, yes or no, is this actually working or not? And, if not, what needs to get fixed. You know, is it me, is it them, is it what? What's going on, right? What's this journey like? You know how? You know you decide to start this new, this new.
Speaker 2:How.
Speaker 1:How do you start doing that?
Speaker 2:Ah man, it was a learning curve going from, you know, running a welding shop and helping guys in the shop and producing parts to basically all online.
Speaker 2:So I kind of struggled for a good probably six, eight, ten months of trying to kind of get the YouTube channel going and producing content and editing and posting and learning website stuff and kind of sales pages and all that and what I kind of harp on for anything is like okay, go back to basics, Like what do you need to do to learn what you need to learn to accomplish what you want to accomplish?
Speaker 2:And for me that was always finding someone ahead of me or finding someone that knew more than me and reaching out for help, paying them, giving them what they wanted for the instructions and the lesson, or done for you or whatever the case is. So I ended up hiring a guy off of freelance, which is my right hand man now, Nick who basically rebuilt this entire online business for me and restructured a lot and gives me my to do lists for the day and filming content and all that. And really you know back to that core lesson, like if you're struggling and don't know something, like you need to find someone who does know how and extract that information. And I mean, it's either that, or you're going to trade time and wondering, or wasting money and still not knowing. So um, it really kind of just took on a life of its own so how did you find nick?
Speaker 2:yeah, so that was through Upwork, which is a freelance website there's the two popular ones that I'm aware of are Upwork and Fiverr and basically posting Originally, I was just looking for someone to take sales calls, because we have an initial process where we hop on with prospects and kind of talk to them and see what they need and see if what we provide even makes sense for them. So yeah, between me kind of filming stuff and I was still welding and machining parts, so I kind of needed to divvy up some responsibility. So once he came on and then he was doing that and kind of let me know that he knew a lot more than just how to take a good sales call and as far as structuring everything from there.
Speaker 1:So I don't know sales call and as far as structuring everything from there so I don't know, I got lucky with him and, uh, just kind of elevating us to the next level that's a great, that's a good lesson for people because, you know, I honestly forget, forget about, you know, the freelance community, because I do use them for graphic design, or you know my team's behind on something, I throw it out there to get done by a freelancer usually great, great work, great people, because you know they're just out there hustling too.
Speaker 1:That's a great. That's right there, a great tip. Because I forget, you know, even though I use it, I forget that communities exist and it can be for way deeper stuff than just a quickie. You know, off one-time thing. I mean, you found a partner.
Speaker 2:Like thing. I mean you found a partner, like that's crazy, yeah, yeah. And then even in our program I have a specific lesson on there because of how valuable it is, and for one that a lot of guys ask me is for outsourcing for like blueprints or drawings. Or if a customer gives them this and they want a professional print or a 3d model or you know Fusion or Mastercam, solidworks, any of that stuff, and they're not proficient in it, okay, so put a little job posting up on Upwork. You can see the person's criteria and their experience and what they have you know experience in as far as their history and job history, and then you can hire them and then get your stuff drawn and and have you know professional drawings to produce to your customer or potential customer yeah and uh, you know I put a nice blueprint and 3d rendering goes a long way with making a customer happy.
Speaker 1:I learned that a long time ago because I learned how to do autocad and then it turned into, uh, inventor. So I use inventor now and uh, even on a 50 job. I'll do a quick drawing on inventor with a 3d model which, once you know how to do it, is literally just a click of a button at the end of it and uh, people are really always really impressed by a nice print. You know what I mean kind of seals the deal yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So again, like you know, if you're in the b2c space, obviously consumers most of them I mean I've had some will, but most of them are not going to produce a nice print more than a bar napkin sketch, right? So if you could produce. Hey, this is what you want and this is what your, your thought is and your height and your length, and all that agreed. It goes a long way.
Speaker 1:So you, you threw a term out there, which means that you took a little bit of schooling or read it in a book, because people talk about B2C and A2B and B2B in business all the time. Like I mean that's part of my world now, but for the people listening you know what do those terms mean. Like that was a quick little turn on, but I want to make sure people are following along.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, like B2C, business to consumer, so your everyday consumer, or B2B to consumer, so your everyday consumer, or b2b. Which is what I kind of harp on a lot. And again, going back to the manufacturing, is business to business and being able to get those bigger customers or contracts, or the reoccurring work which can make a big difference as a business owner, especially as a beginning business owner, looking to uh, you know, make your mark and expand and scale and really grow yeah, that recurring single contract that comes back on the regular is a godsend.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh yes, you love seeing that phone number pop up on your phone. You're like, here we go, here's another month of money.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much yeah, it's incredible, it really is yeah, so know you're.
Speaker 1:I'm curious about how you developed this program, because that's hard to do, developing curriculum is hard and you know, as as a whole, right now I'm also curious and we'll touch like we can go in and out of it. But the internet's becoming a big part of your world, right? Like you were talking about when you started, this is pre-You, pre Internet, but now it sounds like everything you're doing is on the Internet, right. So, as you're developing these plans and these, this structure that you have for elite, you know you got to bring in Well, it's all Internet. Now, right, it's all online. How did you learn how to do that? Like, what was that learning curve as a tradesperson getting into the digital space?
Speaker 2:Oh man, that's a great question. So again, a lot of tutorials on YouTube. And I was always pretty good on computers, like I can remember in probably eighth grade, like editing on this old big I couldn't even tell you what it was skateboard video that we made and going in there and chopping up the different cuts and adding music.
Speaker 2:I'm like man, I'm a computer wizard now, but just kind of. Um, yeah, I was never really like a gamer or anything like that, but I was always pretty good, you know, installing hardware or software on computers. Um, and I think again really just using youtube mostly for tutorials and so our program is on podia, which is, you know, some people call it a course, or I like to call it a program, because it's just a lot of um, yeah and and uh.
Speaker 2:It's pretty self-explanatory, but I know, yeah, just from just from uh again teaching myself and trial and error and and figuring out what was what and just making it happen.
Speaker 1:So what kind of courses would someone take from you? Like? What is the process you said you got you know? Someone picks up the phone and takes an initial interview. Walk us through a potential customer coming to you for help. What is it? How did they do it? What do they need and what do they get?
Speaker 2:Sure. So they'll basically maybe see an ad so we run Facebook ads or maybe come across an organic youtube video or a short or instagram and we have all these socials posting on them daily and then from there they would book a call again, um, through cal and lee, and then ties into zoom, like we're on right now, and then they, as of right now, we'll hop on a call with nick and they'll basically discuss kind of where they are in their business and where they're trying to go, maybe what they've tried, maybe who their ideal customer is. If you're kind of focused on their niche correctly and again, tying into the program itself as kind of the backbone which everybody that we work with gets, it really goes back to customers, employees and systems and we always kind of lean on those three and in the program those are the main three sections and breaking those down. Obviously I started with customers, because without customers we're kind of just a hobby artist at that point.
Speaker 2:So again, who's your niche? Who's your ideal customer? How do we get in front of them? How do we let them know that we exist? How do we reach out to them beyond just maybe stopping in or cold calling, and what are the new kind of updated outreach methods and once again going back B2B, which I always kind of push guys to because I've seen the power of that firsthand. Nothing against B2C, but B2B with the recurring work is just kind of a no brainer in a fabrication, welding manufacturing shop.
Speaker 1:And it can fund the rest of your stuff yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then really, if they do hop on board, it's working with them one on one, which is typically for eight weeks. On board, it's working with them one-on-one, which is typically for eight weeks. And then going over, they would go through the program and then the areas that they feel they need help with, just really honing in on that and figuring out maybe why what they're doing now isn't working and how we adjust that, giving them to-do lists and then following back up on those certain areas. And we're really going back over it with the magn you know the magnifying glass to say hey, maybe this wasn't the right way to do it, Maybe try this, and really just kind of going off the results and fine tuning and getting results for them, whether there's new customers or a monetary goal or employees or systemizing procedures in their shop. It's just it's all tied into each other.
Speaker 1:And what type of clients then, are you after? Who's your niche Like? Who is it that you? Are we talking like single entrepreneurs or proprietors? Are we talking, you know, 500 employee businesses? Is there a range that you're kind of chasing after or you're hoping comes to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, from what we've seen um the guys or gals, you know, the business owners that have the best results, they're usually in that one to two to maybe six or seven employee um kind of mark. So still small, you know, relative to being a small shop but really still having that power to kind of change stuff on a deep level where maybe, if they're, you know, 50 employees deep, it's not.
Speaker 2:You know, you can't change stuff just like that overnight anymore. So, um, yeah, kind of definitely that smaller. You know, two to five, two to seven employee range, or even the single guy.
Speaker 2:And again going back to really. It was like me helping me when I, when I help these guys out, I'm like man, you are me, I'm you like, I know exactly what you're going through and what we have to do to get you out of this slump of you know, stress and not knowing what to do. Um, and yeah, that in itself is is awesome, also because it's like full circle at this point yeah, and what about non-welding customers?
Speaker 1:or is it kind of like only weld shops are coming to you, to elite, for help? Or what if I'm a two person drywalling company? Could I learn something from you, or is?
Speaker 2:are you just?
Speaker 1:focusing on welding.
Speaker 2:No, that's a great, that's a great question also and really, you know, and I've thought in my head, maybe we break off into offering machining too, or you know other industries or contractors and really like the kind of outline in the program could definitely serve really any kind of blue collar or service-based business getting back to how to systemize and get customers and onboarding processes for ideal employees. So, yeah, yeah, that definitely could be very useful for a number of other industries.
Speaker 1:And what about the sourcing for your content, the program that you've built, the one that you now work with customers with? Is this something that you wrote top to bottom? Did you have other collaborators help you develop this program? And you know what's your vetting process. How often do you go back and go over your own program with a magnifying glass and be like this needs to change, this is this could be done better, or this goes here, or whatever?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was all from personal experience first and foremost, which was basically the core, the bare bones, and then also, after having helped people and discussed and emailed and just conversing with a slew of different business owners, when they would ask something that would turn into a lesson in the program, would turn into a lesson in the program, so it would get filled up by these questions with the ideal goal of, you know, on our first kind of blueprint call, which we call it after they've gone through it, there's not really like, hey, how do we do this or how do we do that.
Speaker 2:So just filling that up as much as I possibly could to keep it as simple and, um, you know, really core information that's needed without fluff, without extra you know stuff that's less desirable, but really answering their questions before they even have them, and then that program is basically updated continually, you know, kind of forever. It's something that I look at daily and add stuff and as I see stuff online or I come across stuff, or so one of the latest you know lessons that I added in there was adding how to utilize chat GPT as a welding business owner, you know, and tying in AI and whether it's writing a business plan or giving me a quick cut list on material for a stand or a base. So you know, continually improving and continually adding and updating is you know, you can't really ever stop that, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:No, and if you stop, you really run a risk with your business of it being left behind. Like I said, my dad always said that dollar is not waiting for you. So if you're not, you know advancing with the program, someone else is. So it's not a you, you, it's an everybody thing. Um, so, like I mean, I I'm learning chat, gbt now, or just I guess you know, uh, ai software I've integrated into a few of my systems here at work. It actually makes my job significantly easier on a number of things. I actually was about to try it with this podcast because there's a new ai function for for zoom, but I didn't try it because I'm like I'm, I don't want to try too many new things at once, because that is also something I learned as a business owner that I've brought into my white collar because I went from blue collar to white collar and it's something I see.
Speaker 1:White collar business make mistakes all the time that in blue collar we would not be allowed to, and one of the biggest mistakes in white collar world is taking on more work than you can handle. In blue collar that is death. You do not ever want to do that because you will start to create a chain reaction of stress and negativity that takes a long time to self-correct. And in the white collar world I see people do it constantly, just like, yeah, I'll take on all this work and no idea how it's going to get done right. So it's interesting to see how AI can support that right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's kind of I mean, that's going to take on a life of its own. I feel like we're only at the very tip of even being aware of it at this point. So it's kind of scary at one point At this point. So it's kind of scary at one point. You think about all these robots taking over the world.
Speaker 1:But as far as the apps and whatnot, man use them, utilize them, yeah Well, I feel like if the robots took over the world, they're not going to do worse than we did. Like, really Like, it's not like we did such a great job.
Speaker 2:That ain't a true statement.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is like. People are so worried about the robots. It's like man, have you looked at what we've done? Like I, like I don't know if we're really the selling point on this.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, good point, that's a good point so you know what.
Speaker 1:What's going forward. Now you know like are you full? Is this, like now, the full-time gig where you have enough work coming in from this to keep you and a few people busy? Are you looking to scale up? Are you looking to conquer the world in the education space? What's you know? What's coming?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, continually. You know growing and improving, just like any business, and you know hiring on the right team members and like we have editor again back through Upwork as far as editors and guys. You know messaging and setting up appointments. So you know scaling and improving and just you know, keep moving upwards is definitely the main goal as of right now. You know it's it's successful in its own right and it happened a lot quicker and again I think, through experience than my welding business did, which you know I was thinking about the other day, which was incredible. And again, just going from experience, like I didn't know what I didn't know back then and after having been in the welding business and business in general for you know, eight, ten, twelve years, then, starting this off to the side, like wow, I got there and like I can't even a couple years compare the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I was like wow, I got there and like I can't even compare the time, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was like I shaved off 10 years from you know X amount of revenue or you know hiring an employee. So yeah, the sky's the limit and we just plan to keep getting better and helping more people and getting better results for them quicker. I think that's really the best way to kind of grow this type of business and scale?
Speaker 1:And what about as a training? Like, are you a registered training center? Like, have you been able to get like kind of that certification mark?
Speaker 2:No, but that's actually something we were looking at on an official standpoint. So that's, that's a great point that you bring up, and I'm not exactly sure what's offered as far as that, but it is on our immediate to-do list yeah, because I know that's one of the things I get asked a lot.
Speaker 1:You know, like in terms of just general education, that's out there. There's stuff that you can go get that is like obviously, like from a university. It's going to have accreditation, you can put it on your resume. And then there's some places that are a little bit more ambiguous, like I. I'll use Lincoln, for example. Lincoln everyone knows who Lincoln is, lincoln electric, they're awesome. They have a massive school up in Cleveland. It's just, if you've never been there, go, it's wild. And you can take a Lincoln welding program and come out of Lincoln school with a Lincoln certificate. But what does that mean? Right, that's always certificate. But what does that mean? Right, that's always the question. What does that mean? Like okay. So I got a piece of paper that says congratulations, you graduated from Lincoln. And I'm not bad-mouthing Lincoln, but there's an example.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:What do you do with that right? Who would care or who would notice? And that's a tough part for educational institutions, because what you teach is so valuable. But sometimes people are like, oh, they're not a real school, or they're not. They're not a, I don't get a diploma or something at the end of it. So I'd imagine that's something you guys think about now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, getting results and having testimonials and people seeing that other people, maybe even behind them, are doing better than them, or um, realizing that there's different avenues, that maybe stuff they're trying that isn't working, to then try, um and again getting back to really the online space, like my biggest thing was to get away from the guru anything to do with like scammer or this guy's full of you know what he's not. You know he's too. He doesn't have burn the comments. You know he's not all burned up, he doesn't have.
Speaker 2:Uh, I was like dude. I'll show you the scars my legs, my arms, everywhere. Don't tell me I was never a welder for starters. So just getting away from that and really preaching what I've done and growing my own business, and then with a program saying, hey, this is how I did it and it's still relevant and it still works. And you know, here's five guys that we worked with within the last six months who were, you know, maybe added 20 or 30 K in the first 60 days. And I think once people see that, they realize that it's not BS and something to be taken seriously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you bet. What about getting out there? You know you said you have the Facebook. You know kind of the ads going. How important is your social media presence? How important is your LinkedIn presence, like where are you, what do you do on there? How do you make it work for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so definitely social media with this type of business I mean, even again, blue-collar businesses still, it's still very important because it's what's everyone do every day. It's rolling on the phone, so where should you and your business be On the other side of that phone? So, as far as us, we're really focusing on YouTube and Instagram. We just opened up a TikTok account just to have more social media out there. And again Facebook. So really being on there and not just hey, hey, hey, come, you know, come, look at us, but giving still more free stuff away, yeah, just kind of helping all the way around. And if they want that next step for the one-on-one, then you know they can choose that. That route it, you know, becomes available to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what about like trade shows and stuff like that? Do you have a place in that world you know mostly as shops, you try to get out there and either visit or show off at trade shows or conferences. Are you guys still in that space? Are you looking to promote, like at a Fabtech, your business, business like maybe through the educational series? Now, instead of, uh, with a booth? You know what I mean. Um, yeah what are you doing to get out there in that world?
Speaker 2:that's a great point. I was just I forget who I was speaking with about fab tech, uh, and where it was this year, but that, I think, is definitely going to be on um, our to-do list. And yeah, not having the booth and I've had booths at, you know, motorcycle shows and pairs and all of this stuff with my motorcycles and fabrication shop. But yeah, now transitioning and hey, what is really a education style welding business is, you know, growth kind of offer presentation really look like. So yeah, that's a great point and that's definitely on our near to do list.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would recommend it, like I mean, I've I've been in that space now for about 10 years of doing business talks and talks on education at conferences, and it was a good transition, especially for an old guy like me. You know to, because I have done, you know, as I was a young entrepreneur, I worked in the fields, I did the things and, like you said, you know, some of us stick our necks out there and learn the hard lessons and I'm not really interested in making other people learn the hard lessons. I'd rather them learn from me and uh, and just skip that part. Just, you don't need to do those stupid things. I did just learn from an idiot and move on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, everybody's already, you know, kind of done it. And, like one simple way I put it, I'm like hey, you know any problem you're facing right now. There's a 99.999% chance that in your specific industry and your specific shoes, someone's already solved it. So why are you trying to recreate the wheel, like let's just find you the information and then get on to your next problem, your next figure problem or more success?
Speaker 1:so, coming up on the end of the interview now, you know, like, how do people find you? You know, like, what's the best way. Do you, do you have an unlimited ability to take people on, or do you take x number of companies on per time? Are you wait listed? Let the people know how to find you and what, what that's like yeah, so mainly on youtube, we have our organic stuff on there.
Speaker 2:On facebook we have the elite weld biz page and that's tied into our ad. So if you look at it you'll probably see my face pop up. You know saying something about welding. You could always click on that um again, either either through TikTok or Instagram also, and then you would go in and, you know, schedule a call and then at this point we talk to Nick and see exactly where you're at in your business and if it makes sense to maybe move forward, then we kind of take that route once we get there and you said it's about an eight week program.
Speaker 1:That's what is. That's like the max length, or Nope.
Speaker 2:So we have eight or 16 weeks typically, and then that'll kind of depend on what the client needs and that can range from, you know, two or three calls per week, even down to one call per week, depending on how busy they are. And you know, as we take more guys on, you know prior guys are dropping off and finishing the program if they don't extend. So we usually have some area of availability, you know, to take on new businesses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is 24-7 all year round. Do you guys take summers off or anything like that? No.
Speaker 2:I still like to work all the time.
Speaker 1:Well, you're at school now. You got to take summers off, right, isn't that when?
Speaker 3:you go fishing and stuff, right man, that's, that's the way to go I'm doing this all wrong, right, awesome, well, you know.
Speaker 1:Uh, a couple more questions just to wrap up the interview, you know, for eric, because this is, I think, very educational for you, for people looking to get into business, for two reasons. Number one don't be afraid. Let's like I mean, that's always just rule. If you got the bug in, you let the bug come out, like don't you'll. You'll forever be questioning yourself while working for somebody else of what could have been. Just find out, go do it.
Speaker 1:Maybe you won't like it, maybe you've always wanted to start a business and you try and you're going to hate it, because let me tell you, it's not for everyone, and then at least you'll know. But on the other side of that, if you scratch that itch and you're good at it, well we need you, like. I mean, entrepreneurialism is what really drives economic growth more than Walmarts and Boeings and all the big, big companies. It's entrepreneurs, because we actually pay taxes at this level, those big wigs up there, they don't pay a cent. It's our blue-collar entrepreneurship that really drives all of North America, canada and the US. So it's good to find out one or the other. Now, from your point of view, you want to be able to be there to support people that are making that decision right. If you could go back and give yourself as what you know now of this program, at what age would you have stepped into your own life and been like hey, take this eight-week course, it'll make you so much better at what you're trying to do.
Speaker 1:You know young Ericic, old eric to young eric when would you have stepped in and made yourself take the course you know now?
Speaker 2:that's funny because I I think I did a youtube video a while back of what I would tell my younger self yeah, yeah and uh yeah, it basically would answer this perfectly.
Speaker 2:But, um, I think definitely around, I mean, I'd say businesswise, probably a little bit before the motorcycle kind of era of myself and my business just saying, hey, you're doing bikes because you love them, that's cool, but maybe try this manufacturing a few years earlier and I know it would take off that much better. No-transcript, because they've probably already solved it. So, hey, how do I get past X, how do I get past Y? I can't get this customer, I can't find the right employee, or someone's already solved the problem. Just know that at whatever stage you're at. So get in touch with that type of person and get on to the next problem.
Speaker 1:Well, and I was going to lead right to my last question is uh, you know the importance of mentorship, uh, skills, world skills. Just wrapped up this week, so there was, you know, thousands and thousands of kids competing for the trades in leon, france this week. I saw that the american welder got fourth place. Uh, which is fantastic in the world, which is? You know this? You know, you're 18, 19 years old and you're the fourth best welder in on the planet. That's pretty wild.
Speaker 1:Um, canada did get third one better, but we won't rub that in too hard right now but, canada, but china and korea got first and second, which they always do, because their welding students are unreal. But you know, in this competitive market, nothing, nothing can exist on its own. I think that you know, the massive capitalist, unfettered capitalism that happened over the last 40 years is kind of running its way out, it's kind of over, and we're getting back to, you know, ordering products and buying stuff from down the street from people you know from around you, trying to support local communities more, which I think is great, and mentorship is a huge part of that, because you need someone that you can bounce ideas off of right, like youtube. Internet's great, but you're not getting. You're not having a communication, you're only getting the direction of the information one way right yeah
Speaker 1:personalized. That's right. You need to have that. That back and forth. Which I've had mentors in my life? That would 100. I would not be here if it wasn't for them, and I think anyone who's been successful will say the same thing that there's a few people in their lives that really, really you know, open their eyes and help them move forward in a variety of different ways. Now I think your program is a big part of that. You like the mentorship that you're trying to give now through your learned experiences in the program, what you've learned in through business you know in explain, can you? So the question is two parts. Number one, who were some of the mentors in your life that you will forever be thankful for and you can throw him a shout out on here for you know, for helping you. And two, what's your thoughts on mentorship and that you know sort of either apprenticeship or mentorship of people in your community, your industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of kind of make or break after a certain, after a certain point. I mean, if you're struggling and don't, you know, don't know or just can't figure out what's next, you're just going to keep burning up either money or years, or you know, we only have so much time. You know how close do you want to get to success and how fast do you want to get there. You know, without it, I wish I learned the value of it much sooner. And from my case, I've had, you know, free mentors or I've probably spent between programs, online or one-on-one, like multi-five figures, and to some people that's a lot of money, to me that's a lot of money. But what it's given me in return, and then even to this next business, to just have it all come back and know that what I was doing was right was invaluable. It's always like you're either going to pay in time or money.
Speaker 2:You're going to pay in time and try and learn it yourself, and years go by, or decades, or you know, or you could find someone that's, you know, free, or you know nothing's ever free. But or if you invest with somebody and you know, cut that time down and use money as your tool instead of years or decades on your life and then just getting to where you want to go that much sooner. And for me, you know, between bosses that I had which were cool, or you know uncles and grandparents that were kind of in that blue collar hands-on make it work kind of thought. So that was kind of my first, I would say, mentor um relationship and then beyond that, you know I've, I've tried some through the chamber of commerce here in uh, connecticut and dennis uh I worked with a guy named dennis noel for quite a while and we went over cash flow and how your business is running and ins and outs and all that.
Speaker 2:So he was a great help and really from there a never-ending stream although it's only one way of mentors is books. So I became, like I said earlier, basically fanatical about reading books and people that were ahead of me and multi, multi, multi you know millionaires and successful business owners, so that was a never ending supply of new knowledge and new information. And then one better, some of those guys that had their own websites and then forums that you can get on and there you get that interaction or that one-on-one with that same mindset and that same community of. Oh okay, so this is how this works. So what about some other guys that actually did it beyond maybe just the author and what other routes do we go? So, really, books, family and one or two, you know, mentors really kind of pushed me to get where you know I am. The success I've had. I owe it to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome and you touched on a couple of really great points there, and the first one I'd like to touch on is books. Books versus internet. I've had that. I love my books. You can't see behind me, but I got books everything in my office I got a pile over there and uh, and I love to read.
Speaker 1:People like what's the difference between getting the information off the internet versus getting an information out of a book? And I always say that you need to understand the process of creating a book. The process of me producing a video for online is literally this right now, and I have a couple people vet my stuff, our stuff, that we're recording right now because we have a team at cwb, but I don't bleep anything out. I don't cut anything out of any interview ever. I bum against that. Um, but that's also dangerous because we have right now, two viewpoints rolling out and that's it and sit in the air and it's there forever.
Speaker 1:A book is vetted by dozens of professionals. Every book, even the shittiest book you find at the bookstore, was vetted by dozens of professionals for grammar, for making sense, for proper information, for making sure that everything is right, to make sure that it's done well. So when you read a book, you're seeing the efforts of dozens and dozens of people to make a good product, because otherwise that book's not going to sell online. It's not. No one cares about selling online, it's just the clicks on it. They don't care if you watch the whole video or not, it's just whether you clicked on it. So the quality that you get out of a book is not even close to the quality you get out of an online read or anything like that.
Speaker 1:Not to say that online is not important, because I live in the online space now, so I'm not trying to diss my own market, but a book does have a different perspective, right when you read a book on on pride. There's a management book that I read called manager. It's mgmt and it's a fantastic manager book and it's got like pictures and little exercises and stuff like that as you go through it. Man, for a guy who's just learning, it was fantastic, right, and I wouldn't have gotten that online because it was something that had to be in the print. So there's my old man view.
Speaker 1:Young people are gonna be like you're stupid, books are dumb but whatever. So I think books are very valuable too because of the way they're produced. The other piece that you said to that was, you know, being able to give back, and if you're always thinking about how you're going to give back, you really bring yourself up to another level because you have an inherent sense of responsibility to not give back. You know what I mean Like if you're going to give back, you want to give back something worthwhile, because and that really levels you up I learned that when I became a teacher, so I was welding for a long time I thought I was a pretty damn good welder.
Speaker 1:I was, you know, I consider myself to be pretty up and up and I was doing a great job and had a great career. And then I got asked to teach at the college and man, that spun my head around because that don't matter no more, like I mean, now I got to how do I take this and put it in someone else's hands? That's a way different game, that's. You know, you have to really reassess your skills and how you communicate to people Right. And that communication piece is a huge part of mentorship making sure that the message gets out there Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's a big uh. I mean, I could almost compare it to yes and no as far as my initial thought is like even comparing it to what I was running my shop and managing employees yeah, so but, they're under your umbrella, yeah, but where you're helping these other guys, they are holding their own umbrella, so, regardless of what you say, they don't have to listen to you nothing's gonna happen if you know, what am I gonna say, oh, you didn't listen to me, what the you know?
Speaker 2:but then they have to take it and run with it and actually use the information and and succeed with it. Um, yeah, I mean that that's. That's a whole other conversation awesome.
Speaker 1:So the ways to get a hold of you elite weld biz on facebook.
Speaker 2:You got a website um, it'll all be linked through um youtube. There's links on it here, elite. Well, that is community. That's the best way. Yeah, okay all right.
Speaker 1:And then, um, you know coming up in the future, just keep eyes on you. You're gonna grow, you're gonna be out there, any big conferences or trips you're gonna be going at, or anything you're gonna have planned on the way no, but now you really got me thinking about fabtech and starting to scour some other local shows and getting the crew together and just going out.
Speaker 1:Well, there's lots to learn right, Because then you're surrounded by like-minded individuals, which is always nice, right? Definitely All right, Eric. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I hope you had a good time and I hope we got the information out that you were trying to get out, because I think that what you're doing is incredibly valuable to our industry and and for all the people that are looking to get into business to know that there's supports. There's not just them flying blind. There's people out there like you, like elite weld, that will help them in in reaching their goals, and I think that's really valuable.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thanks, Max. Thanks for having me. It's been an absolute blast.
Speaker 1:Awesome and for all the people that have been following, we'll be posting up all his information and links with the podcast. If you have questions for Eric or for his company, please shoot them to him, send them out his way. If you're not sure how to get ahold of him, just message us. We'll connect you a% and make sure that we get the information down there, and we hope to see you. I hope you may all come down and visit in your area. I'm always traveling all around, but at some point I'm sure we'll hang out and meet each other face-to-face. That'd be wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, I look forward to it.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thanks, and remember to keep downloading, sharing and commenting on our podcast. We also started a new feature talking about AI. We have now with our Buzzsprout. It has a new AI tool for asking questions. So if you go to our actual Buzzsprout, where we host all our podcasts out of, there's a ask, a forum question, and the questions come directly to me and we are thinking about using those as part of maybe some shorts or something. If you have questions for me or about the podcast or any of our of our of our guests. So well, we just opened it up this week, so check it out. We're not sure how it's going to work, but you know we're playing with the toys, so we'll see how it is, but up until then, keep following along, stay tuned and I'll catch you at the next episode. We hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 3:You've been listening to the CWB Association Welding Podcast with Max Cerone. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at cwbassociationorg to learn more. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to learn about in the future. Produced by the CWB Group and presented by Max Holm, this podcast serves to educate and connect the welding community. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.