The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 231: Your Trusted Siegmund Importer with Travis Hardcastle
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. Subscribe, listen, and stay connected to the people who keep the world welded together.
Ready to cut your fabrication time in half and make your fixtures work as hard as you do? We sit down with Travis Hardcastle, Vice President of BTH Sales, to discuss the real costs and payoffs of modular fixture tables, height‑adjustable workstations, and the logistics behind getting quality gear from the factory floor to the shop bay. BTH Sales, is excited to partner in a grant program with the CWB Association, donating a Siegmund Workbench to two secondary or vocational schools in Canada. Applications close December 1st!! Apply today: https://www.cwbgroup.org/fabricating-the-future-program
Check out BTH Sales:
Website: https://bthsales.ca/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bthsales/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BTH_Sales
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
Josef Gases: https://josefgases.com/
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Welcome to the CWB Association Welding Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin O'Wat. Let's flip up the lid and spark some conversation. Attention welders in Canada. Looking for top quality welding supplies? Look no further than Canada Welding Supply. With a vast selection of premium equipment, safety gear, and consumables, CWS has got you covered. They offer fast and reliable shipping across the country. And here's the best part. Podcast listeners get 10% off any pair of welding gloves. Use code CWB10 at checkout when placing your next order. Visit Canada Welding Supply.ca now. Canada Welding Supply, your trusted welding supplier. Happy welding. Welcome to this episode of the CWB Association Welding Podcast. I have Travis Hardcastle from BTH Sales with me tonight. So hey Travis, how's it going?
SPEAKER_03:I'm doing well, Kevin. How about yourself?
SPEAKER_01:Not bad, not bad. Jumping into this uh first official episode as me as the host, so it should be fun, right? Absolutely. I'm trying to mess it up on you. Awesome. So so Travis, tell me a little bit about yourself. You are vice president of BTH Sales.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so uh I'll tell you a bit about the company and then myself and how I got to where I am. So we're a family business. My uh my father started it. Um he's still hanging on, hence why he won't give up that president title. Uh we've been uh he's been in the industry the in his entire life, and me basically born into it. Um, right. So I always joke around that you don't choose the welding industry, it chooses you.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, that's the case for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we're so definitely second generation. Um, actually got a funny story when I was uh probably about I think three years old. My dad was off work uh for traveling for work, and uh mom was taking me around to run some errands. She had to go to the bank, and I refused to take my dad's hood off. So I'm walking through the bank with a big old freaking glass hood pipeliner. Just mom just like, oh no. At the bank. At the bank.
SPEAKER_01:Good thing you were only three, or else you involved in the place.
SPEAKER_03:I know, right? So uh yeah, it kind of started that way. And uh, you know, dad had been in the industry, obviously, like I said, forever, and he had the business. And growing up, I always wanted to come work with him, but uh he wouldn't let me and wouldn't let me. And um finally, I think I was about 18 or 19, and um he said, Well, maybe in a year or two, if you get some experience, you can come come work for me. And uh so he got me a job at uh, you know, one of his customers. Shout out to Craig Manufacturing. And uh yeah, yeah, they just had a situation, one of their guys had broken their arm and needed somebody to basically tell what to do, and you know, the uh similar family business. So they gave me a chance and they taught me how to weld, taught me how to paint, work on hydraulics, and stayed there for about two and a half years, and finally dad said, Well, you've got some experience. If you want to come, come on board.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so how long has BTH been in business then? Your dad started the company.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he started the company. Oh, this is gonna be uh I think we're about 20 coming up on 15, 20 years somewhere in there. It's um, you know, it's kind of there's a the business has taken a lot of changes over the years. Um, we primarily started as a um a sales agency, so just working as a sales rep for other companies. Um but it's that's a hard, it's a hard go when you're doing that. You're paid commission and you know you're given a set territory, but um when you're rep, I mean if a company gets bought out or something like that, you lose the rep agency and all that money is just gone. Um, so it can be a little volatile. You work hard, you build a territory, and then that company sells or decide to get rid of reps and hire direct people, and boom, you're you know, on the streets, I guess.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So we transitioned about uh seven or eight years ago to try and find products that we could import ourselves and kind of become the wholesaler, if you will. And that led us to uh Germany and uh dealing with uh Sigmund, which you got a wee bit of experience with.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, I sure do. We'll we'll get into that a little bit later, but uh yeah, I yeah, I'm actually working off of it right now. Multi-purpose. Yeah, I like I like the little pull-out drawer underneath. I got my little secret paperwork here, you know. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Absolutely. So, yeah, so Germany and Sigmund tables.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so we we started you know looking into something like I said that we could bring in ourselves and kind of you know choose our own adventure, not be reliant on other people. Um, so we went to Germany, we got offered Sigmund, but at this point it's uh you know something we had never done before. We had never ran a warehouse, we never bought and sold, you know, and kind of managed a product line for a country. So lot of learning experiences.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I can imagine.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, going from you know, Lett and L, the manufacturers handle shipping and logistics to us having to figure out how to import 40 foot containers and what to order and lead times and yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, so going from a sales business to actually warehousing and dealing with all that yourself. Um so so you said about what, eight years ago you started kind of focusing on the case. About eight years ago. Yep, yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_03:So is that all you guys deal with is is tables or for a long time it we still we're sales reps and we still do a little bit of that. Um, but we you know, for a long time, it took a long time to build the market, build Sigmund, find out what to um, you know, what's the right thing to stock, what's not. And um, I'm sure you've seen it, everyone's seen it in the industry. Like we've been promoting these fixture tables for over a decade, and um, you know, people when we first started doing it saying, Oh, these are only for robotics, you know, they're not for us, yada yada yada. And we just really believed in the product. We saw how you know beneficial it could be for a customer, it could be really a game changer for a lot of companies. So we just were you know pretty adamant, we stuck to our guns and we just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. Um, and it kind of led us to where we are today. Um, and you know, with that in Europe, we kind of thought, well, let's not go the offshoring route. Well, I guess we're kind of offshoring, but you know, let's not let's not go to the you know the lower cost route, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we'll read between the signs on that one, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, exactly. And uh so we we've really focused on trying to find quality products out of Europe. Um, some stuff that people don't see every day here in North America. Yeah. Um, so being Sigmund's a really big brand over there. We've gotten um recommended to a lot of companies. So we then started working with a company called PTEC. They make uh height adjustable tables and equipment, not just for welding, also for machining, um, workbenches, work um stations, packing tables. Um, nice thing with those, yeah, like you're not reinventing the wheel, it's a height adjustable table. But the nice thing with them that we struggle with constantly in Canada is when you get with electricals, um, CSA becomes an issue, right? You gotta make sure they're safe for the Canadian market and they're sellable and there's gonna be no issues. So what these gentlemen did, also a German product, is they found a way to use a chain drive to lift these things up and down using a Milwaukee drill.
SPEAKER_01:Pretty cool, cool, very cool, right?
SPEAKER_03:And ultimately, like we're you know, welders, you're similar, Kevin. Like, I just like cool stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. It's gotta have some kind of cool factor to it, but like, yeah, you're absolutely right. These tables, and it even before I had one, I always wanted one just because I knew you could do so many things with it, but I didn't know how to use one until I had one in my hands. Yeah, and like it's so easy to figure out, it's so easy to jig stuff, it's so easy to like work by yourself safely. You've got a second set of hands basically. So, yeah, for for a height adjustment table, that's also really cool because no one's the same height. Maybe you're working on a big heavy job, you don't want to lift it all the way up while bring the table down to it, right?
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. And the nice thing too, they all have casters on them, so you just lower them down, you can wheel them around the shop, carry your stuff around, make it easier on you. Um, but yeah, it's you know, and it's becoming so much, you know, like you said it perfectly, like a lot, it's very common that you work on the same piece of equipment, three, four people, different shifts, people are sharing tools, you know, people are different height. Nobody likes you know a table set up at your chest if you know, if you're short or if you're a tall guy, you don't want to be bending over. So we we just saw it, we thought it would be cool, it was a neat thing, and uh, you know, there's some customers like the tables, they see them right away and they go, Oh, this is great. And then, you know, other people are like, uh But we just stick to our guns, like I said earlier, and you know, we look for cool stuff, stuff that's different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, awesome. Anyways, we're gonna circle back a little bit. Um, where are you from? Where'd you grow up?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I grew up in it's a bit of a two I had a bit of a two-stage childhood here. Um so when I was s three years old, so right before the welding mask incident, we moved from um Ontario. So I was born in Cambridge, Ontario, and we moved out to Stony Plain, Alberta.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So play, you know, spent a lot of my childhood out in Stony Plain, basically now a suburb of Edmonton. Not quite, but it's getting there. Yeah, getting rid of it. Um yeah, real cool. They got a Starbucks there now. It's wild.
SPEAKER_01:You know you've made it. You know you've made it to Starbucks.
SPEAKER_03:No kidding. I went back to visit some friends not that long ago, and I drove and there's a Starbucks. I'm like, you gotta be joking. We were lucky when we got an Arby's when I lived out there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like is there even a McDonald's? Do we got a Walmart happening here?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, exactly. So spent um we moved back out here when I was, I believe, eight years old, and we moved to a small town called Drayton, Ontario. Um, you know, population now maybe 2,000. You know, it's um actually funny enough, right down the road, it's right down the road from Listool, Ontario, or for some less listeners, Letter Kenny is what it's based off of. So my childhood was very similar to Letter Kenny.
SPEAKER_01:That's not that sounds entertaining.
SPEAKER_03:It was, it was for for some times, but uh, you know, I just you know, growing up there, you you learn a lot of things. You kind of gotta fix your own stuff, you gotta be handy, you gotta learn how to do a little bit of everything. Um so dad always taught me from an early age how to weld, how to work on things, fix stuff. I've always been, you know, intrigued. I was that kid that would take everything apart, wouldn't necessarily remember how I took it apart.
SPEAKER_01:Great, great at taking things apart, not so good at putting them back together.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, exactly. You always lose a part or you fit it back together and go, uh oh, one or two things left over.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say, well, why do I have two bolts left over? Yeah, exactly. Those are those are going in the bolt drawer.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, 100%. So spent a lot of time as you know, living out in the country, closest friends were a five-minute drive. So when you're little, if you don't have a drive, you're just figuring out how to have fun.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So did that. Um, and then as I kind of went through high school, I kind of couldn't wait to get away to the you know, city life, I guess if you will. So I went to university in uh Oshawa for nuclear engineering.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What what piqued your interest into that?
SPEAKER_03:Um, I always was kind of, you know, felt like I had an engineering brain, you know, I like to build stuff, I like to design stuff. Um I had a big misconception though about what an engineer was once I got to school. Um I thought I was gonna be the one designing, building, doing it from start to finish. And um, I thought the nuclear side of things would just be neat. I thought it'd be cool. Um turns out Homer Simpson is quite literally a nuclear engineer. So I, you know, got I learned learned pretty quick that I'm like, oh, this is not gonna be for me.
SPEAKER_01:So you did did you do a year of it?
SPEAKER_03:Or you kind of I did I did three years of it.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And then at that point, because it's so specialized, you kind of get away. So I kind of I took a year off and was deciding, do I want to go back to first year and go back into something like mechanical or something like that? And um, in that in that year off, I ended up uh working for a company doing landscaping and lawn irrigation, and thought, oh, this is kind of cool. Like I could maybe run my own business, do my own thing like this, and um, you know, did that for the summer, and then in the winter, that's when I ended up getting hired by Craig Manufacturing and kind of just fell in love with this uh this industry. This welding life.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. So you spent a few years, a couple years welding. Uh, did you ever think of going that route, or were you always kind of focused on the on the family business?
SPEAKER_03:Um, so I did, you know, I really liked the fitting aspect of it. I didn't so much like the production welding part of it. It was very monotonous to me. Um, I remember specifically a point one year we got Craig got this big contract doing these Volvo buckets, and I think for like two months straight, I welded the same excavator bucket over and over and over again. And it was just at the end of the day, you just get home and like in your sleep, you're just seeing how you're turning that thing like every single time.
SPEAKER_01:You just can't escape it. Yeah, no, and I mean it's yeah, people are more than happy to do that. Like, there's some welders that they go there, they put in their eight hours welding whatever widget, and that's that's awesome for them, you know. And others, you know, like myself, I I gotta be, I gotta be fitting, I gotta be, you know, using my brain.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, and that's exact exactly what it was like for me. So, like when I was given the opportunity to fit or do some stuff like that, I enjoyed it. Like, I I still enjoy doing little tinkering projects. Um, we'll get more into that, but it was just I I couldn't do the production stuff, so um, they were pretty good in there, they trained me in a lot of different things. So I ended up getting moved over from just the welding shift to being uh install tech. So I'd work on putting you know buckets on or bucket thumbs on excavators, snow plows, and that on graters, doing the hydraulics, um, bunch of you know different stuff, line boring. Um, I really enjoyed that. It was a lot of fun, something different every day. Like you said, using your brain. You gotta learn a little bit about electronics, hydraulics, your welding, um, learning where to weld stuff so you don't put stress on, you know, a boom and bend it, right? Yeah. So I I enjoyed that, but then got invited to the family business and I didn't enjoy it that much.
SPEAKER_01:Right on. So um, yeah, well, as VP, what kind of responsibilities do you have? And like, did your welding experience help you out with that at all?
SPEAKER_03:So um responsibilities now, you know, the more our business grows and the more I get involved in the day-to-day stuff, the the more I get taken away from the stuff I like to do. Um unfortunately. But like in my perfect world, I could just drive around from shop to shop to shop and shake hands and see customers and and talk and show them things. Um but I mean I got more important responsibilities to do than that, unfortunately. Um so on a day-to-day basis, I mean, I'm very involved with managing um relations with our vendors. Um, part of it's with them being in Europe, it's you get four to five hours a day to communicate during their work hour. Um and the five hours are because I'm usually getting up early to make sure I can communicate, otherwise, it's send a couple messages, find out tomorrow. So it can take a couple days if you're not um you know being staying on top of it. And uh so we do a lot of communications with that, ordering of containers, doing logistics, overseas logistics. Um, there's a lot that goes in scheduling between you know getting a container picked up in Europe, getting it on a boat, once it gets here, scheduling it to come in. Um, obviously managing employees. That's always a fun one.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm I'm shop foreman at my shop and I oversee about you know, depending on how busy we are, 15 to 20 guys. So I definitely feel your pain, you know. Yeah, mo most days I would rather just be in the corner putting something together instead of managing people. So yeah, yeah, yeah. The the struggle is real. So absolutely. How many, uh, how many employees do you have?
SPEAKER_03:So we've got four full-time employees and then a um on call part-timer that we use for shipping and receiving, primarily when we get containers and stuff in. Um, so he's family, he's my uncle. So we bring him in, but everybody loves him, so they enjoy when Wayne comes in.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's the he's the guy in the YouTube videos.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, oh yeah. He's a character. Yeah, Uncle Wayne's a character. He's uh you know, he's one of one. Um he uh you know, he works hard, he's fun to be around, he doesn't say no to things, just does what he's asked to do. It's uh and he's he's funny, man. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's awesome. Okay, so yeah, managing, you know, four or five people and and booking containers and shipping and all that stuff. You're kind of you're kind of the glue.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you know, I still also deal with accounting, making sure the business is making money. Um so dealing with that. Um, I still get involved in sales. Um, because I do have that engineering background, or a little bit of engineering background as well, I do um also do 3D CAD drawings and renderings for customers when we're doing working on Sigmund projects. Awesome. It's it's a little bit it's that's one that I never thought I would use as much as I do. Um, so you know, if I can tell anybody who's listening, you know, take that seriously because you never know when you're gonna need it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, I completely agree. Like, I don't have that skill. I wish I did. Um, but you know, like I'll go out and take measurements of a job, and then I have to come back to the shop, I have to draw it on the ground. So if I'm a couple degrees out on site, then I'm a couple degrees out on the floor, then I cut my pieces and I'm a couple degrees out with my pieces. And the end product is not gonna be nice, but if I can take my original site measurements, cad them up, yeah. I everything is answered for me, like in not I don't want to say seconds, but you know what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. But I do always joke because I also deal with both sides of it, right? Because a lot of times when I'm working with this, I'm dealing with engineering, and then I gotta take it to the shop floor and deal with the the fabricators. So I always have a joke that everything works in SolidWorks. Because I'm sure I'm sure you've experienced it in your career, Kevin, where you'll get a drawing and you'll see something, you're like, how am I supposed to weld that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, it happens more often than not. And yeah, you know, no hurt, no, no hurt feelings to the engineers, but some guys have some crazy ideas. Oh, yeah. It's just that's not that's not gonna work. Like, I don't understand. Why do you want a three-quarter weld on a pizza one-eighth plate? I don't understand.
SPEAKER_03:Sometimes it's hilarious. So it's fun to see both sides of it, too, right? It's uh it's a unique thing I gotta deal with where I'm not just dealing with engineers, I'm not just dealing with welders. Um, there's a lot of times in our business, and we're you know, we're a small family business, so we're all you know, I'm I like to say all the time to our employees, and as I'm you know, we got a young team, you know. I think all of our I think Adam take away my dad and Wayne. I think Adam's our oldest guy and he's 30, right? So we we got a young team, so you know, sometimes I try and give some knowledge to them, and I often say to Adam, like, I don't feel like I'm a good salesperson, but I feel like I'm good at building relationships. And you know, in building those relationships, people want to work with you, people, you know, they trust you. And through that, you know, we get to deal with a like the whole shop, you're right. We're shipping the tables, we're dealing with their, you know, their logistics people, then we're helping doing training, we're teaching the welders how to use it. We're often, you know, dealing in the initial sale with the owners or operations managers, and then we get brought into the engineers, so we really get to see a whole aspect of the company. It's uh it's a pretty cool thing, you know, and see then afterwards what these companies and these people do with our product, it's uh it's it's pretty rewarding at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, ever since I got hooked up with you guys and and got my Sigmon, I just started look like I followed them instantly, like, what's this about? They do some insane stuff, like these tables are gigantic. Like I I can't remember his name now, and I'm gonna hate myself for it, but like he'll jig up a whole 20-30 foot table, literally just off of his print, doing all these measurements, comes in with his pieces, like 10 minutes later, it feels like he's got this whole thing put together and it's just amazing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's probably I wonder if you're thinking about Ben, Ben Peters. He works for Stageco is in Belgium.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, they do some cool stuff, like they make stages for um, you know, they did Rammstein's World Tour, they did the stage for that. Yep, and uh he's telling me like it's a the amount of design and engineering in those stages are insane because you gotta think you they have to take them apart, put them back together over and over and over again with you know and hang thousands of pounds of speakers off of them, right? Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, it's just and the cool thing about Sigmund too is like they're a family-owned business as well. Um, they every year they do like this big well, most years they do this big dealer event, they bring all their dealers from around the world in. So we get to know the other dealers from literally all over the world. And it's kind of because they have that family and that network, it's very uncommon that somebody in their dealer network hasn't seen an application before. So if you if you're saying, Hey, I have this project coming up, do you have some advice? They'll go, Oh, we did something similar in you know, France, and then the dealer from France will be like, Oh, this is what we did, and we can share images and really collaborate with one another to make sure we're helping our customers here in Canada and vice versa.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Oh, that's really cool. It's like a it's like a network of friends. Yeah. Fabricator friends.
SPEAKER_03:Pretty much. That's exactly what it is.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, you said um, you know, your oldest employees, 30 years old. Can I ask you how old you are?
SPEAKER_03:So I'm 34, not exactly old either.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Just starting to get my grace. I think they've uh they've started to come more and more since we had our child.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Tell me a bit more uh about your child.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I got a a little two-year-old girl named Sloan. Um talk about uh change in your life. My goodness.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I've got uh I've got a 10 and a 12-year-old uh boys. Oh yeah. Yeah. I feel like it was just yesterday we had them, and like time just disappears as soon as you have a kid, I swear.
SPEAKER_03:No, you're bang on. Like, I swear we had her yesterday. Yeah, and I don't know where it goes. So you're uh boys starting to get into the welding and fabricating with you as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, I feel a little bit guilty because I wish I had started them sooner. Like I always my advice to people always is like just start or start sooner. I wish I had started sooner with my career. I wish I'd started sooner with you know, like what I'm focusing on now. But um, yeah, just this year, um, my little guy, so my youngest Logan, uh, just started getting into welding. He went to uh Skills Canada here in Regina and uh just tried out welding one day, and it's like, oh, this is the day he's gotta try it. So we went in, we went in there and and gave it a go. But like I have all this equipment in my garage, and I've literally never had them in here. Every time they're in here, like I'm spraying sparks, I'm you know, I'm working, I'm trying to get stuff done, and sometimes it's not the easiest to teach somebody when you're like in go mode. Yeah, for sure. But yeah, that's that's my guilt.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we um so because our shops we live on the property where our shop is, so when our daughter's sick, my wife doesn't work with the company, um, but because we work out of the the house essentially, I'm always the stay-at-home dad when she gets sick, right? So there's been a couple situations where um she's been had to stay home when we get a container in. When you get a container, it's all hands-on deck, right? Like it's you know, we don't have a huge building, so it's you gotta get it in, and then once it's all you only get two hours to unload these containers, and then they start charging you absorbing it fees. Wow. So you you hustle, you get it off, you just stack it everywhere, and then you worry about it later. And uh, so one day she was sick, and we had um we get these five-liter guns of any spatter, and it's just a skid of them. And I just go, Okay, I need to keep her busy for a second. So I'm like, Sloan, let's go grab these and carry them over there. She's like, Okay, and she just walked over for like the next 20 minutes, lifting it off the skid, moving it over here. Go to the next one, lift it off the skid, move it over there. Sweet. It was uh it was pretty funny. So mom and dad always joke that I'm uh getting her into the family business a little too early.
SPEAKER_01:I was just gonna say the same thing. No, she she doesn't need to go out and get her experience, right? Just she's right in there.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, and she loves like to she just loves sitting on the forklift and you know, just wants to be around everything. So, you know, that's that's the thing. My dad always had me around anytime he was doing anything, fixing anything, or they always just brought me around, so I kind of see it as the same way. I learnt a lot from watching and it's fun, right? I like being around my kids. So if I can be doing something in the shop and she can be there safely, why not?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. So we're gonna take a small break to hear from our podcast advertisers. See you in a minute. JosephGases.ca, your one-stop welder superstore. Whether you run a welding shop or are just starting your welding journey, JosephGas, the Welder's Superstore, is the best place for everything related to welding. Come to the site and browser topics of welders, helmets, and welding supplies specific to your industry. Even filter out the items eligible for manufacturers' cash rebates. Our intuitive search tool puts everything at your fingertips. And checkout is a breeze. Pay securely with your credit card. If you are ready to streamline your welding supply shopping experience, visit josephgasses.ca. That's Joseph with an F, as in family. Start filling your cart with welder confidence. And we are back with our guest, Travis Hardcastle from BTH Sales. So, Travis, we kind of touched on your family a little bit, uh, touched on the business a little bit. Um, now I'd like to talk about uh what we got coming up here: the Fabricating the Future program.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. We're excited about this one.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so being the cool CWB influencer that I am, I don't know very much about the program. All right. Yeah, so yeah, let our listeners know what that's about.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so one thing we see a lot is we we get a lot of um, you know, colleges, they obviously they got you know, they're training people, they've got tuition money coming in, but we get a lot of high schools and stuff who reach out to us and they're trying to get grants either from the CWB, the Canadian government, something to revitalize, you know, their shops. And so we've been to a lot of these high schools or vocational schools, and you know, they're trying to teach these, you know, 13 through 17, 18 year old kids that you know might not be destined for university. They want to weld, they want to get into a trade, but they they're you know. Some of these schools have literally a thousand dollars a year to spend on welding supplies for two semesters.
SPEAKER_01:It's absolutely ridiculous. Like schools here have that same problem. Like, God, I've got$5,000 for the year that doesn't even buy the materials.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's it. And so what ends up happening is these kids want to weld and they get a weld maybe one or two days a month if they're lucky. Um, so you know, they're going into these schools and they don't have the or colleges and they don't have the whether they like welding or what they want to do. And I don't know about you, but I'm nowhere near the nuclear engineer that I thought I was gonna be going out of high school.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I uh yeah, I was gonna be a mechanic, and it took me a year to figure out that I didn't want to do that.
SPEAKER_03:So right, so we kind of sit there and we get asked a lot, and you know, obviously we if we could help all the schools, we would, but we talked as a team and we thought, how can we, you know, help these younger kids get into welding? Because it's a great career, right? There's a lot of really good people, you can make a good living, you can do some real stuff, and it can literally take you around the world. Like, there is welding in so many things.
SPEAKER_01:There's pretty much welding in everything. Welding touches every single part of everyone's lives, and like welding is a career, you're not you it's not just you're a welder, it could open up so many doors to other things like sales, inspection, so many other things.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. So we thought, how can we, you know, how can we help the community? And I mean, if it wasn't for welding, we wouldn't have any of this, right? My entire my father's career, my career, it's all based around welding. So we figure how can we give back? Um, so we reached out to the CWB and we thought, let's put together, you know, we're gonna call it a grant program because we're hoping it's successful this year and we can do it year after year after year. And essentially what it is, it's high schools and vocational schools can apply for it, tell us a little bit about their school, challenges they have in either getting funding or equipment, what they could do with these tables to you know teach the next generation, and then you know, us and a board of directors at the CWB are gonna go through all these applicants around Christmas time, and we're gonna give uh we're gonna give two tables away to uh you know two different high schools and uh let their students get a nice little Christmas present, I guess, if you will.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's awesome. So, yeah, I really hope this episode drops before Christmas so a lot more people can can can hear about this program, but that's amazing. So, I mean, like why why do you think it's important for for companies to to give back like this?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think it's it's a couple things, right? Number one, I mean, yeah, it's good we are supporting the we're supporting the future, right? But if we can support you know these younger people, and it's for anybody, and get more people into welding, it only helps all of us, you know. Ultimately, every company needs to make money. If they don't make money, they're not gonna survive, they're not gonna be around for a while, right? Yeah, so if we can you know train the younger people to get more welders and do more stuff, then everybody in the industry is gonna make more money and people are gonna be around, and that trickles down, right? If the if the weld if the companies are making more money, then that means the people are busier and there's more welders and they're getting more money. So um, and it's also training the youth on tools they're gonna use, right?
SPEAKER_01:That's a big one, that is a huge one because like these tables are the future, laser welders are the future, computer, computer-controlled pretty much everything, right? You got AI and some stuff now, so you gotta train on current equipment.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and we also see it as like we've got we've done very well in colleges and universities of getting them in there um for training programs, and what we find too is these kids get excited about it, and it's incredible what some of these you know younger people can come up with using on these tables. Stuff I would never think to do. Yeah. Um, so you know, they train them and then they come into industry, and you know, they could walk into a shop that's maybe been doing it the same way, building everything on saw horses, and then they go to their boss and say, Hey, this could make us better, and then they promote it to their shop, and then that shop can grow and learn, and it just, you know, it trickles down, right? And uh, you know, these kids and these high school kids are they're our future, right? At some point, yeah, you know, you and I are gonna be too gray and you know, tired to be working, lugging stuff around, and we're gonna be relying on them.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, I I always joke, it's uh I just turned 40 this year, but my uh niece celebrated their 60th birthday. Yeah. No, I did a lot of stupid stuff myself as a young welder, and you know, you don't think about it then because you're invincible, but oh yeah, yeah, once you get older, it's things start hurting. Oh, yeah, the weather must be changing.
SPEAKER_03:My back is I literally woke up yesterday morning and said to my I hadn't got out of bed yet, and I said to my wife, it's raining out, isn't it? And she goes, No, I go, Well, it's gonna rain. Well, an hour later it's raining.
SPEAKER_01:That's so funny. Well, we're on the same page with that one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. But you're right. Um, I think for a lot of years the world forgot about uh the trades, forgot about like I look at schools in in Saskatchewan here, and I think there's only two out of 13 schools, high schools here in Regina that have a welding program. Yeah, and and it's hurting.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. And it's and like you said, welding touches on everything, right? It's you know, Saskatchewan, what does everyone think of? A lot of people think of farming, right? Yeah, you find me a farm that doesn't have a weld, a welder, or do you know, way above average welding for maintenance.
SPEAKER_01:I was just gonna say, you know, every farmer is a welder, but not every welder is a farmer. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, if you don't if you don't learn those skills or exposed to those trades when you're in high school, when do you think you you you know get a taste for them? When do you get a love for them?
SPEAKER_03:100%. And you know what, in um, you know, I was in that you know, generation or era where they were really pushing college, computing, you know, computer science, engineering, all of this stuff, and I look back and just say like wonder like what would have my life have been different? Would I have been instead of being with the company for 13 years now, would I be 20 years, or would I be, you know, would I have found the love in metalworking earlier if it would have been pushed on it? But you're you're bang on where the love for the trades disappeared for a long time. It feels like it's starting to come back.
SPEAKER_01:I agree, yeah. I think I think it's finally we're riding the ship a little bit. Yep. You know, but I think there's a lot of misconceptions too, because you have a lot of people, you know, pushing the trades just you know, like you can make a hundred grand just doing this, this, and this, and then yeah, there's a lot more involved than just oh go take this expensive program and oh now you're making all this money. It takes hard work.
SPEAKER_03:It's a lot of hard work, and I think that's and that's what's so fulfilling with it though. Like it's you know, it's hard work, but at the end of the day, you get to see what you did. Right? It's you know, it's not like there's days where I sit here and I, you know, I gotta do payroll, I gotta do inventory, I gotta do some accounting, and I get home at the end of the day, I'm like, did I do anything today? Like it feels like I didn't do anything, versus the days where I might have hated welding that same bucket for four months straight, but at the end of the day, I'm like, three buckets today. Like I've seen it from start to finish. Right? And you get that sense of accomplishment. It's uh you know, it's hard to it's hard to find.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I agree with you. It's you there's something tangible about it. I just I loved fixing broken equipment myself, like repair work was the most rewarding thing. Somebody comes in with a broken hoe, like the whole boom is just in two pieces. And yeah, at the end of the job, it's a working machine again. They're super happy that you say they saved some money, you made some money, everyone's just like ecstatic at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_03:I will tell you though, there was I'm the same way. I used to always love doing maintenance and repair because like you get this haggard piece of equipment and you get to bring it back, and it's like you can tell it's still used, but like it's better until one time. I have one time where I cursed this maintenance situation. When I worked at Craig Manufacturing, we primarily did excavator buckets, loader buckets, like heavy machinery stuff. But a local farmer had come in, called the boss, and said he had a bucket he needed repaired. And so Ben goes, Yeah, I know just the guy, bring it in, we'll get him to fix it. Well, wasn't it the manure bucket, Kevin? Yeah, yeah. So I had to fix that and I had to straighten some stuff up, and you know, putting a rosebud on you know, six years of caked on manure was not a pleasant day.
SPEAKER_01:So um, yeah, we deal with a few of those situations at my shop. Um a lot of stock trailers, you know, horses and cows. Uh uh, yeah, we also do soccer trucks, so yeah, it's you don't know what's been in that truck, but it's absolutely been everything's in that like everything dirt, poop, whatever contaminants. Oh, yeah, just crawl in there and fix it. Everyone really enjoys those days at the shop when somebody's cutting something out of that.
SPEAKER_03:Oh it's even better when it's the heat of the summer and it's hot and humid, and it's just it's great.
SPEAKER_01:Everybody loves life. So earlier on, you uh you touched on uh tinkering on some projects. Uh what are you what are you working on?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I've had a um so I also like to cook, so I um had this big this big plan to build this big smoker competition trailer so I could go out and smoke meat and do so I got the smoker done. So that's great. It hasn't made it through paint yet. It's been about five years and it's just rusting, but it looks great.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you you probably uh ran out of spare time, hey. Just things just life got busy and yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_03:It's it's you know, I have all this whole list of things I'd like to do, but just finding the time. So a funny one was my my wife, my uh my father-in-law's uh amputee, so he's got uh he lost his leg above right above the knee, right? So he's he's got a um prosthetic and he's good with walking with it, but their house, they redid their walkway up to the house, and there's like four or five stairs, and it's stamped concrete, so in the winter time it gets quite slippery. Well, they had no rail, they had no railing. So her my wife and her sisters were saying, Oh, let's get some quotes on a railing, and they're looking at some quotes and they're getting quotes like ten-15 thousand dollars. I'm like, this is insane. This is insane. I I can't do this. I'm like Christmas present. This is what the materials are gonna cost. I won't charge you labor. We'll do this. Yeah, oh we got a mistake, Kevin.
SPEAKER_02:Oh no.
SPEAKER_01:I was just gonna be like, Do you know who this guy is and fabricate, right? Like, nobody's built this.
SPEAKER_03:So we I put it together. We used the Sigma, obviously. We used some comp made some content out of it. Um, if you go on our Instagram, you could see a couple pictures of me putting this thing together. And me being me, I made it to withstand nuclear warfare. It is built, it is built quite well, over-engineered, but yeah, a little bit, yeah. So, anyways, they we get it installed, and all the neighbors keep come by, they're like, Oh my god, it looks so nice. We love it. Who did it? Can you give us their business card? So they're like, What do you want us to do? I said, I go, Dave, don't you dare, don't you dare one time, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Lose my number, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Just don't you say a thing, yeah. So we told them right before Christmas we were doing it. We had it, I didn't have it quite done because we were busy. So I'm out there on Christmas Eve welding this thing up, trying to get it done for Christmas based so they can see it.
SPEAKER_01:Amazing, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But we got it done, we got it installed in a snowstorm. It was uh fun time, but they love it, it looks great.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so do you still do a bit of welding? Like, is that kind of uh when you want to disconnect from the day-to-day life?
SPEAKER_03:Or um, I still do a little bit, not as much as I would like. Um, it's getting harder now with uh the little one, right? Because you keep her, you know, you're you're a little bit more free and clear with a 10 and 12 year old than I am with a toddler. Yeah, right. So it's you're pretty go go go until she goes to bed at about 8, 8:30, and then it's okay, I need a break.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like yeah. Oh, I know. Like I I probably work well, I used to go a little harder than I do now, but you know, like I could work a day on four hours of sleep. I did that for like so many years in a row, and then like all of a sudden I my body just shut down. It's like you gotta take a break, you're gonna die.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. So it's you know, I the the list hasn't shrunk on the welding projects I'd like to finish, and I keep telling myself I'll get to it one day. Yeah, um, but you know, a lot of times like if something breaks, like we broke a snow our snowblower last year, I'll weld that up and fix it up. Maintenance stuff around the house. You know, I live in a farm community, so I'll have some people drop in every once in a while and I'll weld a couple things up for them. But uh yeah, definitely not as much as I would like to, but still do from time to time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Very cool, man. It's like welding's a skill that you never forget. It's like riding a bike, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, my welds don't look as pretty as they used to, though, when I was doing it every day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. It's it doesn't have to look pretty, it's just gotta hold.
SPEAKER_03:That's it. Well, it's gotta be pretty enough because you know what it's like. I'm sure you've done it. You're on vacation, you see a weld somewhere and you're like, uh Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's uh it's the curse. It's the curse of being a proud trades person. It's like uh you just spot all the the nastiness. Yeah. But you know, a great a great saying is uh grinder and paint will make you the welder you ain't.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, this is true. I do the exact opposite thing when I'm trying to sell a Sigmund, is I always say I've never met a welder who likes a grinder.
SPEAKER_02:That's true, right?
SPEAKER_03:Because anytime you go to pull out the grinder, it's like, oh, this is a bad day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, definitely. And like there's a and I it's weird to say it, but I always joke like to my new employees or people that I meet is do you have your grinding ticket? And yeah, I always get that. They look at me funny, and like, sure, there isn't a certification for grinding, but there's grinding a bad weld out, and then there's finish grinding and polishing and making welds disappear. There is a skill to grinding.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_01:So I want to talk a little bit, and this may be just you know selfishness on my part, but um, so our collaboration uh online with this table with BTH sales, um, how did that all come about?
SPEAKER_03:Uh so we we've been um as I said, my dad, he's 71, so he's very old school, right? He's very you go, you meet people, you knock on doors, you shake hands, you build your brand that way. Um problem with that is is it's 2025 and you can't knock on doors all day, right? Yeah. So we've been constantly trying to build, you know, and Sigmund does a really good job of building their brand, but over the last couple of years, I've looked and said, like, we need to build BTH sales and make it synonymous with helping people with finding solutions, not just with Sigmund, make Sigmund and BTH synonymous. Um, so we kind of went after and we targeted some people like yourselves, you know. Um, but you know, we kind of wanted to get a couple different types of people, um, right? So we also have Diesel. Um I'm sure you know Diesel, he's you know great tag artist, he's a you know a gem of a human, but his content's so different than yours, right? I mean, you posted that Tokyo drift video, we were laughing.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know what happens, you know, after a long, stressful day and you have a couple whiskeys when you get home, you know, and why not why not drift the Sigma in the garage?
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_03:And we've just seen it. It's like you do a lot of really cool stuff, but you also like you're not afraid to have fun, right? And that's and that's kind of the way we are in this office, right? They joke all the time. It's like a frat house up here because it's you know, we work hard, you know, we do a good job, but we have a lot of fun, you know. We make uh a lot of jokes with each other, we're all you know, we're all friends. I wouldn't hesitate to hang out with any of our employees after work or whatever. Um, we know their families, you know. So it's uh that's so important. It makes it a nice place to work, right? It's I don't want them to come in here and just hate coming into work every day.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I want to make it an enjoyable, you know, you spend more time with your people at work than you do with your family. So let's uh let's have some fun while we do it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's very important because yeah, going to work every day and hating your life, then maybe that's not the place you should work, right?
SPEAKER_03:That's it.
SPEAKER_01:That's it. Yeah, yeah. No, that's really cool. I'm glad to hear that because I I like having fun with it. It's not always gonna be the most technical stuff. I do technical videos for the CWB, as you know. And you know, and like even then, like we were trying to find ways to make it more fun, more relatable. So I think the more authentic you are, the more it translates to people.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and that and that's it, right? If somebody wants an instructional video, they'll search it out, right? And that's the way I I look at things all the time, is and I try and you know, tell the guys here and tell my dad and you know, tell myself is not everything has to be a sales video. Sometimes you can just have fun, and people, you know, they'll see things and be like, I never thought of that. Right? And it gets people thinking, and then you know, it's memorable, right? You know, everybody can remember a line from Dumb and Dumber, but do you remember a line from you know some Oscar award-winning film from 10 years ago?
SPEAKER_01:No, I because I don't think anyone's seen it. Like I don't think the people who vote on those things are required to watch the video. Yeah, yeah, I yeah, I've uh I've skipped through a few uh safety and training videos and you know been able to answer the test at the end.
SPEAKER_03:So absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's really cool. I've I've definitely appreciated it. Um like this table is ridiculous, and I love fabbing off of it. Yeah, so yeah, and making videos is fun.
SPEAKER_03:Like that's it. It's essentially like I say to people all the time, it's a big Lego kit. Like it's Lego for for adults, really. Yeah, yeah. And you know, it's like you've seen it, like how much time does it save you?
SPEAKER_01:I'd say I'd cut everything in half at the very least.
SPEAKER_03:And and that's the thing, right? When we're talking because people see it and they see these big sticker prices and they go, Oh, this is crazy, right? But then I one thing we find a lot is people really forget the value of their time, right? And we're a time saver. That's what we're doing. We're making your life easier, we're making it easier and less necessary for that grinder ticket, and we're uh you know, and we're just trying to save you time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I can see it, like I said, it cuts my fab time in half at the very least. And it's uh I just like the fact that I can do stuff by myself. I don't need somebody to come hold something. I it's like if I want to keep something square, there it is. I don't have to tack something to the table.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and it's I often joke that it makes turns you into like Mr. What's the guy from Spider-Man? Dr. Octavia. Octavia.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, actually, I could I could definitely see that. Yeah. Like it's arms you don't have. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, very cool. So I guess with with all the experience that you've been having with your company and and your growth from you starting out welding, wanting wanting to be an engineer, going to the nuclear stuff, like what what kind of advice do you have for people coming up right now? It doesn't even have to be kids, like just anyone in general.
SPEAKER_03:Just don't stop learning. Right? And and and don't just, you know, I sit here and I'll watch it doesn't even have to be about well, it can be about anything. Right? It's just be curious, learn stuff, and just don't quit quit. Like don't be discouraged. You know, I failed many, many times. Right? You just gotta pull yourself back up and just keep going. Right? If you you know, the Kool-Aid man might not have got through the wall the first time, but he darn sure did the second.
SPEAKER_01:That's uh that's an awesome analogy. I just see him breaking apart into pieces. That's a very, very good uh piece of advice, I think. I've I've noticed it in my life. Um, the point where I got stagnant, the point where I didn't feel I was doing anything new, I lost kind of the the lust or for for the trade, so to speak. But then I put myself out there and I I went to you know different events and stuff and I saw different equipment. And holy, like there's a whole world out there that I have not seen. And then I just started just ingesting all of this. Yeah. And now and now I'm hosting a podcast. Like, what is what do we what do we do?
SPEAKER_03:And the other thing too is like don't stop asking questions. Like it's um, you know, just no matter what it is, like, how does this work? What does this do? Like, you'd be amazed at what you can learn just by asking simple questions. And I find a lot of people are afraid to just ask the simple questions these days, you know. Yeah, like how does it work? Something as simple as that, um you know, it can go a long way.
SPEAKER_01:I think people, I don't know if they're ashamed, but there's no such thing as a stupid question, right? Just because you you think maybe the whole room knows it, but you're having uh a tough time with it, you ask that question. Well, it turns out 90% of the room didn't know it, and they were just too scared to ask the question. Absolutely. Yeah, you know, it's uh it's been great for me at least to to get out there and ask those questions myself, and and it's really helped my career out that being teachable, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, 100%. And and meet people, I guess that's another one. Like where it's so easy for you know to just hop on a call or text somebody or you know, get out and meet people, get to events, like go to these CWB events, go to you know, when they're skills competitions, get involved in them, just meet other people. You never know who you're gonna meet or where it's gonna take you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, networking is huge. Absolutely, yeah, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_03:And you'll make friends everywhere.
SPEAKER_01:That's the cool thing, right? Yeah, just meeting people in your industry or even in the like neighboring industry, you're gonna find somebody that you get along with. Chances are you're gonna find somebody that's just like you. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's like I never thought, like, I I'm not even joking. Like, I've got good friends who are just like me in Finland, in Ireland, UK, Germany, right? That we communicate with on the regular, and you know, everywhere around the world, everyone's you'll find somebody just like you. Oh yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01:So I mean, I I'm glad I got to finally meet you face to face, and like I feel we I feel we get along. So next time I'm out in your neck of the woods, uh, I'm gonna come knocking on your door.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, you gotta come by. So the same thing to Daniela, you guys gotta come by the shop and check it out.
SPEAKER_01:Sweet. Well, I'm thinking yeah, I'm thinking we'll have to do that very soon.
SPEAKER_03:Like gotta do that, gotta do that. We can Tokyo drift one of the big tables.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I'm in. I'm in, I've already got experience. So I guess uh I guess before I leave you here, uh, when I was talking to your team, uh, they mentioned that beautiful mullet that you have there. It's too bad we're not sharing video, but I hear you get I hear you just get a ton of love for that mullet.
SPEAKER_03:Uh it's you know what it started as a joke. So when COVID started, one of my best friends was he was very much in the man, this is gonna change the world. Like it's gonna this, we're gonna be like locked down forever. And I go, no way. So I'm a very stubborn person, and when I commit to something, I commit. And so I said, I'm so convinced on this, it's not I'm not gonna cut my hair or my beard until the last COVID restriction is lifted. Oh, oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You have you still have a beard and a mullet.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so well, so for about two and a half, almost three years, I didn't get a haircut or a beard trim, and it was like long, it was ridiculo it got out of control. Out of control. So finally it was lifted. I go, okay, I will won this bet, I'm gonna go get my hair cut. And then I get thinking, I'm like, I could do something funny. I'm gonna see what happens if I show up at home with a mullet and see what the wife says. So I go to the barber, get my beer trimmed, get my hair cut into a mullet, and show back up at home, and I got a hat on, and she immediately is like, What did you do? So I showed her the mullet and she goes, That's gonna have to go. And I go, Okay. I'm like, I'm gonna wait a couple weeks and then it'll cut off. She's like, okay. Like a week later, she goes, I kind of like it. Oh wow Yeah. So that was about two yeah, that was about two years ago, and I've been rocking it for about two years, and everywhere I go.
SPEAKER_01:Two years ago. Yeah, got a two-year-old daughter. Yeah. The mullet, the mullet magic.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It's all coming together now.
SPEAKER_01:So you take this thing all around the world with you.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. So we've had some good ones. And my my dad, because like I said, he's old school, right? So he's you know, shave every day, maybe a little goatee, but nothing crazy, like prim proper, still wears like a dress shirt. He'll I've got him to wearing jeans, but you know, still a button up or something like that. And uh, so we're traveling around the world, he just hates it. And we'll be at events, we'll be at trade shows, and people just walk out. That's an awesome mullet. Getting all the love. Oh yeah, and he just he just rolls his eyes.
SPEAKER_01:That just pisses him off, you know. What does the world come to?
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, it's hilarious. It's great. It started as a joke, and now it's kind of just become my shtick, and you know, I love it. I keep joking that I'm gonna get a Joefa helmet and start drop skating around like I'm Yarmir Yager.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, you got the moves like Yager. Oh, well, that's awesome, Travis. Uh, you know, I've got to thank you so much for uh being on this episode. Um, it's been great chatting with you. And unless you got any parting uh words for these guys, we'll wrap her up.
SPEAKER_03:No, thank you. Uh thank you so much for uh having me here. It's been a lot of fun, and uh I look forward to meeting you in person, and uh, you know, we'll uh we'll definitely get into some shenanigans and have some fun and probably get some uh good content out of it as well.
SPEAKER_01:Perfect. I can't I can't wait. All right, well, thanks everyone. Uh I'm Kevin Hua. Please stay tuned for new episodes that we'll be dropping weekly. Um, so uh yeah, please subscribe, like, and share anything that we are doing because uh we love doing it. Thanks very much.
SPEAKER_00:You've been listening to the CWB Association Welding Podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at cwbassociation.org 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. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.