The CWB Association Welding Podcast

Episode 248: Beyond the Beam with Chris Rebelo

• Kevin Roy • Episode 248

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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.

Volunteering might seem like “extra time,” but in the trades, it provides fuel in your career. In today's episode, we sit down with Chris Rebelo of Ironworkers Local 721 to explore his journey from an unexpected start to apprenticeship training and leadership with the CWB Association’s Toronto Chapter. Chris shares what makes a strong welder, how understanding the “why” behind technique improves results, and how simple teaching methods bring concepts like puddle control and fusion to life. We also touch on automation, safety evolution, and why getting involved locally can open doors across the welding industry in Canada. 

Follow Chris:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebeliron/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherrebelo/ 
Website: www.iw721.org

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https://www.cwbgroup.org/advocacy/membership/chapters

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Chris’s Path Into Ironwork

SPEAKER_03

Welcome to the CWB Association Welding Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Hua. 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 Weldingsupply.ca now. Canada Welding Supply, your trusted welding supplier. Happy welding. Hello everyone. April is National Volunteer Month on the CWB Association Welding Podcast, and we're shining a light on getting involved with your local welding communities. So welcome to another episode of this CWB Welding Podcast. So I have with me Chris Robello. Welcome, Chris. How's it going, guys? Gals. Good man. So, Chris, give us a little background about yourself.

SPEAKER_02

I'm an iron worker with local 721 Toronto. So I started my career off in the welding industry not knowing much about it. I remember taking um a course in college on welding and cuttings just to get myself somewhat familiarized with it. Not planning to enter in that uh market, and then an opportunity arised. And around 03 to join the iron workers, I thought it was going to be a temporary thing, and lo and behold, over 20 something years later, I'm still there. Um, I learned all my education through the iron workers, so I came at it from a different perspective. But a couple of things I start to notice was the resources for people to get better, more improved in their skills, and it was kind of lacking. There wasn't that much. Like YouTube wasn't the world's biggest thing back then. It was just in its emphasis stage, right? Um, social media like Instagram and stuff like that wasn't there. So, other than actual physical textbooks and eventually getting into forums and starting to work backwards that way, that was the only connections you were making. And then I uh ended up getting more involved with the CWB by going to a Toronto chapter meeting, and I thought that was pretty interesting. It showed me a whole different aspect more about codes and standards, and I got to see some of the actual college programs like Conestoga and other programs. I wanted to use that as a balancing point in my career to better myself, to understand new and different processes, to make myself more marketable. That's how I eventually started. Um, but then I realized once I got to a certain point in my career, that it kind of sucked navigating those waters for the first time not knowing. You have a couple options in life: deal with the headaches you went through and let someone else figure out the hard way, or start being the change that starts something. So I figured I didn't want someone else to go through that headache. What could I do to give back on the things I took from it? So I started getting involved. Um, and I like to pick on Max Sharon for um Max for a second for the fact that he's my best and worst friend at the exact same time. Yes, yeah, because he needs someone to push you over the edge. So I might be dating myself with this reference, like Seifel, The Summer of George. So I would never uh put myself in these positions, especially since my character isn't that. I'm an introvert, forced to be an extrovert most of the time. And if ISIS said, sit at the back of the bus and never took any onus on my career, I don't think it'd be where it is today. So there was an opportunity to get more actively involved with the chapter, and it was a to my knowledge, a fairly high role of being a chair. I had no experience in that. So that was kind of how I got introduced with Max and the way things went from there. And then not only am I giving back, but I'm challenging myself to do better, learn from that experience, and then take that and use that as a building block for other people because my actual day-to-day job now is not as an iron worker on the field, but as a welding instructor for iron workers logo 721, and it helped me branch that way. So the CWB model is about building that community. Yes, it's an organization dealing with standards like the CSA and other things, but it's also welders getting together, kind of like this podcast, people just getting together, helping people out and just having a story, getting that connection, that culture, that solidarity to build forwards.

Trade School Versus College Debt

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, man, you're touching on so many cool points. Like I've got three pages of questions listed out here, and you're just hammering through them all. Like you're bringing up you're bringing up everything that I want to talk about. So let's rewind for a bit. Um, you said you went to college and you had a course in college with welding in it. What were you in college for?

SPEAKER_02

Actually, um I'll be dead honest with you. Um, so around 2003 or I guess oh uh oh two, right? Um, I wanted to get into computers in the 2000s. Um, luckily or unluckily, I didn't have the grades for it. I wasn't really so book smart and motivated that way. I was more with my hands. So sure enough, I had a scholarship, I had to use it, so I couldn't get into computers. I'm uh I ended up going to Sheridan for furniture design. I thought I was gonna go that route, and then there was yeah, completely opposite, completely opposite, and then what ended up happening was is they had a welding and cutting course. I liked adding metal to my projects. I started working with some TIG, stainless, uh milling and stuff like that, and I enjoyed it. But then sometimes even your uh scholarships or grants or whatever you want to call it to leave you with some debt. I need to pay off that debt. I at that time, I think I was working two part-time jobs, and I'm living the Canadian dream. I was working for this is gonna sound a little odd, but I was literally working for the two biggest staples. I was working for Canadian Tire and the LCPO. So you can pick two bigger franchises in Canada to work for. Um, and you know, just like everyone else trying to make ends meet, pay off student debt. It just happened to be I had an opportunity to go work for the iron workers. Um, those little aspects helped me.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, how did that come about? What when when did that shift happen? You know, like going from you're experiencing your ARC for the first time and flame cutting and stuff. What made you shift?

SPEAKER_02

Um, the original shift was thinking, okay, this is gonna be a temporary thing. Um, this might not be a career move. And I really liked it. It was in an industrial setting, which I've never been a part of. I was uh lucky enough to get hired on because we just had such a huge influx of work that we didn't have enough people manning it. I remember at that time we were bussing people out of province to man a Chrysler shutdown. Uh, the only thing that'd be equivalent would be actually it ended this year slash 2025, 2026, um, with Ford and Oakville retooling, where there's hundreds of thousands of tradespeople there. So in 03, they were introducing a new flex line at Chrysler um to run multiple different models of different cars, um, like the first um 300M, for example, right? And just being with all that gearing mechanics, um, cutting out platforms, welding in platforms, craning stuff in, forklifting, it was quite exciting. And for someone who liked to be with their hands and liked the constant change and sometimes the pressure of the work, I gravitate to it, not thinking this was gonna be a permanent thing. Like, I still remember being an apprentice, and I keep teaching classes now, wondering when they're gonna come and say, Listen, you're supposed to be in the class, not teaching the class.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So that's how you first broke out into the field of ironworking and welding. Um, were you erecting the steel? What was your position then, just like as an entry-level iron worker?

SPEAKER_02

So I was lucky enough to have an opportunity just through a uh a word of mouth or a friend. I went down there, wrote my aptitude test. They needed people. I went in as a probationary member, did my probationary time. Then, once the reports came in, like, okay, this person's somewhat decent. Um, I was able to start my apprenticeship, put my hours towards it. Back then it was more of a CFQ than a red seal. So it was a provincial exam and an international exam with the international iron workers. So I did my apprenticeship. So I'd work one year, come to school. I was actually getting paid unemployment to go to school, and the school was covered. I would do two months of schooling and then go back to work for say a year or so until I got X amount of hours to write the government exam. And it was fun changing from paying for school, being in school for two years, then going out in the industry trying to pay off student debt, and finding out at that time they actually want to pay me, I think it was one or two dollars less than minimum wage back then. So uh it was odd to me, right? Versus going to the iron workers where you're a 60% apprentice, 60% of whatever a journey person's wage would be, but 100% benefits and 100% pension contribution. And as a young person, we all don't care about that. After you're 20 plus years in the trade, you have an end goal, and all of a sudden, when you realize you can retire like before 55 with a full pension, now it starts getting exciting. So those were some of the uh pros that only start adding up that I didn't know at the time, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's a very good point, though, is going two different routes, you know, and they're everyone's always talking about this. Am I going to college? Am I going to trade school and stuff? But going the trade route, oftentimes you're not coming out of pocket for these things. You may come out of pocket for your first course or whatever, or your upgrading courses or your different levels, but you are getting paid at the time. You are working while you're doing this stuff. Where you know, university, you you're you could come out of there a hundred grand in debt, and then you can't find a job when you get out there because AI took it.

SPEAKER_02

That that's the thing, and I do get questions like, how does AI and all this affect you? Um I had a hard time struggling with this answer until I just look back on COVID. COVID, we had the biggest record-breaking hours. We increased our membership. I think currently we're at about 800 apprentices. So if COVID was the littman test of what jobs could be easily done with AI, we noticed that A, it's costing too much, and something different started to happen where a company would go that AI route, realize the return on investment was so much higher than sometimes they were projecting. Where now one person would be overseeing that. Now they're realizing, well, that one person could two units. Now, if I got four units, if I hire one more person, I'm quadrupling my outcome. Now, that was something that AI, I don't think people are seeing that, right? And it became an interesting aspect of it. Now, that's AI with robotics and stuff like that, and that's kind of the more leap forward versus a system that can't make those adjustments on the fly. But a lot of standards still require an actual operator for QC, making sure that everything's operational. There are some processes out there that even though they're semi-automatic, they cause a lot of issues, right? Due to misalignment of plate, this or that. And sometimes that AI and that sensing technology can make up that difference. But there's always that skill gap, the years of experience. Also, a lot of this AI stuff doesn't have the vast data sets necessary for it to continue onwards.

What Ironworkers Actually Do

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, getting getting back to ironworking and and what you were doing there on site on your first ironworking job. What what does an iron worker do? What does what does a day in the iron worker life look like?

SPEAKER_02

Um, the way I like to tell my students is think about it this way. We're game seveners, we're like hockey players, right? Sometimes you're going into unwinnable solutions. You have to grit and bear and get out and make sure you do the best job possible so that even though you're being financially rewarded, you're being physically and mentally rewarded with your progress and your pride of workmanship. We used to we have our our uh vice president and press coordinator. Um his uh comment was you got to bring the jam. If you have no jam in your step, you're not gonna get it done. And that cut really deep to me, right? Like you're doing things where you're leaving a mark on life. You might be gone, but that legacy goes on. You might not remember who built the C and Tower, but it still stands today, right? One of the funniest things, and I feel sorry for children of tradespeople, right? Because they must get super annoyed, especially if they're at the Labor Day Parade. That Labor Day Parade can be so much faster if we didn't stop and bug our kids every time. It's like I built that, I built that, I remember this was coming.

SPEAKER_03

I knew this was coming, I'm the same way.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, and everyone has that, and it's like craft mentality, right? And that's where even though iron workers are one aspect of the trade, you're dealing with all the different various aspects of the trade, right? And that's where something like an association like this, you get to see outside your wheelhouse and get to see how all the moving parts and even construction have a circle of life. We're lucky enough that our circle has two aspects to it. So in the ironworking, you have reinforcing uh rod and steel where they're putting in the rebar in the concrete to make the footings that we will erect the steel, yeah. Then we're gonna erect the steel, then start the miscellaneous ornamental, glass, all that type of stuff. So you're seeing the full cycle from beginning to end. But that cycle enlargens itself even bigger, and this industry is so large vertically and horizontally, it's not even measurable at a certain point. Where now we can look at the person who built the building, go backwards to the person who engineered it, the person who manufactured the steel, person who made the steel, the person who drawed it up, the person who engineered all of that. So you're seeing the person who had the dream and the person who drew the dream, person who built the dream, right? And it's all key aspects, and it's all important. If you don't nurture all of it, you nurture none of it, and that's the sad fact of it. And if we don't help each other, that is what will kill something off.

How Chris Teaches Apprentices

SPEAKER_03

Very true. So, you being an instructor, what is something that you uh try to instill in your in your students?

SPEAKER_02

Um when I first started, I made a lot of mistakes, and it's like everyone else. Um anybody in any career, when they're first starting off, they're not always 100% confident in it. Sometimes being that ledge, that helping shoulder, and you don't know where you're gonna find that shoulder from. Um Jody from Welding Tips and Tricks. People on YouTube, they might be doing a video, or might someone you're talking to. Some of these people are actually easily approachable, right? I've been I've had the pleasure to talk to him on social media, I've had the pleasure of being around him, I've had a pleasure of taking a workshop with him for a whole week or weekend or however. Um, and one of the things he said, and it might have been something as a throwaway comment, has still cut me to the core today. You're just a fourth grader trying to teach a third grader. And the minute you change that relationship and thinking it's different, you lose that connection and you lose your own hunger.

SPEAKER_03

That is an awesome quote. That is a really nice quote. Yeah, because you're, you know, we're always learning as tradespeople, we're always learning, right? You you may be, you know, better in skills than the next guy, but the person just above you is even better, and that person over there is even better. So, yeah, once you stop thinking large and start thinking just like, yeah, I know a little bit, I'm gonna pass a little bit on, and we're just gonna get better together.

SPEAKER_02

And the thing is, you start now realizing, and that's something I'm trying to do more of because of my background coming in it through an iron worker and learning how to weld and all that through the program. Where as much as I like to say I teach welding, I don't. I teach iron workers how to weld, but more on how to learn how to weld. Because at a certain point, you're not there. So the whole notion of setting a machine for them, it's not a really good idea because, at least in my aspect, I'm more narrow focused where I know the scope of work because I've done it for a while. Um, there's actually formulas, and the one thing everyone hates is math at a certain point, right? Um, there is an actual formula for gauge a cable, length, all the connections, and how much of a voltage drop you're gonna have. Well, how about you start dialing in that amperage by looking at what it sounds like, what it looks like, and start using all those other senses, right? So that this way you can compensate for that 20 amp drop per se, right? And learning how that happens. Stop learning from succession, but learn from failure. Learn why something happened and how to correct it and avoid it. Like the amount of people welding in the wrong polarity and not taking from it, I can now hear that from a distance. I can hear when someone has arc force in a positive or negative, just by the sound of that arc. Now there's lots of cues to it, but when you start understanding and feeling it, you'll understand. So, like sometimes our programs are tied more to that. So, one of the things we focus on, one third of their education in welding is in only fillet orientations, not even certified testing. And when you stick to something like that, I might have somebody for four weeks trying a flat, two weeks for horizontal, maybe three passes for vertical. Vertical is supposed to be the harder position, but we built the core mechanics, and the only reason vertical became easy is because you learned the fluid dynamics from that puddle and start paying attention to everything out. Another comment made by Jody and others is sometimes when you're looking at something, cover some of it up. Then so if you're seeing somebody weld or a video of it, put your hand up to the screen, cover that arc shot or whatever it is, and look at the rod angle. Look at the whole picture. So now you're looking at the micro and the macro, and it'll give you a better picture of everything.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's that's uh tons of good advice. So basically to what makes a good apprentice, what makes a good student nowadays that you can see their hunger drive, being on time, being prepared.

Learning From Other Crafts

SPEAKER_02

Um we've all worked with different personalities, right? We've all worked with a highly talented person who was just born with a skill. And I'm telling you, well being sometimes is not like that. You have good days and you have bad days. So if you are super talented but have a bad attitude, can't show up, and you're not an asset to the team, you'll be benched, right? In a hockey perspective, right? Um, in an actual work perspective, people don't want to be around you. I've had many people I've worked with that might not be at the highest skill level as somebody else, but they're there every day giving you their honest effort, being a team player, and being that joy to be around with where you're like, where's Bob today? Like you notice that versus like, oh, thank God uh Steve didn't show up. What a pain, right? So these are personal things, and always being hungry. Um I joke around saying I might not be the best journey person, but I'm one hell of an apprentice, right? Having that hunger, that wanting to learn. Another thing, too, is I like being the smaller person in the room, i.e., I don't Want to be the one with all the knowledge. I want to be there to get knowledge from things. So one of the tips that was given to me a little old school, but it still works to this day. Find the oldest person there, stick to them, pick up the load, be quiet and listen. The pearls of wisdom that that generation can give you is sometimes lost. And if we don't share these things, because it costs nothing, it goes away. And that is actually how you live on forever. People think that you know there needs to be credit for when credit's due. Maybe sometimes you just gotta be happy with passing it on and making sure that the other person actually does better than you. Like, where did success ever become a problem with seeing someone do better than you previously did? That's the purpose. It's like the saying of being a leader. You cannot be a leader unless you make leaders, right? That's the kind of mentality, and that's kind of you know the whole paying it forward, right? Helping it out, being able to go to bed at night and realizing, did today I make it better than I came in or did I make it worse? Right? That camaraderie, that solidarity, that's the things that are hard, right? But if you have that honest work ethic, that drive, that will be talent out every day. I can tell you that for a fact. I am not the best welder out there, but I will keep going at it and I will find different avenues to get an answer that is satisfactory and reproducible so that I can pass that information on. If someone came to me with a better way to do something, I don't automatically shut it down, even if I think it's right or wrong. I will actually investigate on it. How many times has great inventions or great breakthroughs through science happened? And just because we opened our mind and looked outside of it, like stainless steel was made that way, right? Yeah, there is amazing aspects to it. Displacement of water, right? Weight of materials, stuff like that. All that leads in. Um, not to keep going back to YouTube and stuff, because you know, you have to be careful on social media, right? Um, another person I give a lot of credit to came from the weirdest spot. I remember watching a video um from a gentleman named Jimmy Daresta. He's a furniture builder. I actually got to know him, and he's actually a wonderful dude, right? Um, maybe his persona might give a different aspect of him, but he is a very caring and loving craft person. But my first interaction was I absolutely hated this guy. He was doing he he he made a welding table out of wood. Absolutely ludicrous. You can see, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

Who doesn't ground tooth?

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. It makes zero sense. So I came at this as like the silliest thing in the world. Then I realized what he was doing. He was just making a one-off, he needed a quick fixture, he wasn't gonna build it out of steel, and it came out right. Who cares that if it burnt? He was just gonna weld the corners up, and he actually got a job done amazingly. Okay, maybe if I open up my mind space, it works out well. Oh, now he's making a jig off cardboard. Wait a second, it's easy to make, it's quick and fast. Now you're starting to open up your wheelhouse to somebody who is in a completely different medium than steel in realizing how those lessons work. And I'll be honest with you, I still listen and watch him and to this day, and I'm picking up new tricks and ideas. He'll tell you right off the hob, he's not the best at something, but he's always trying to learn from the first one get good, get better, and just keep on going forward, right? So you learn these things from sometimes looking outside.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, not being so, so you know tunnel focused, or what's the word I'm looking for here? Tunnel vision, right? Just staring at the one thing that you've always learned from that you're just gonna keep going back to. But you're absolutely right. New ideas are are they could be bad, they could be good, but you have to explore these things, or else you're just gonna stay exactly where you are now.

SPEAKER_02

And like, look at some of the breakthroughs in well, weld repairs or different procedures. Like, who would have thought that's what it was? Like, you know, there was a a st a joke once, or it was a live thing, or however you want to call it, where a bunch of people were trying to weld a very different metal to tungsten, they couldn't figure out how to do it. And then this whole time, mother goes, Oh, watch this, and he's just stuck his tungsten to the steel. See, I do it all the time. I'm a professional at it, and there's a room full of engineers and stuff going, Oh my god, that's all he had to do. We can figure out these metals working together. Yeah, I'm just heat it up, stick it, and it's a sticks automatically. It wasn't made by purpose, it was an accident, right? And it actually makes the weld harder, so why not? But then also your narrow focus look outside of it like I've been lucky enough to be within this association, being given opportunities and being in those rooms that maybe I wouldn't have been in before, like uh the weld industry day, talking to the people from the University of Alberta. Absolutely wonderful minds. So now you're starting to bridge that gap between construction worker to standards to engineering, and now you're seeing that coalescence and starting to see how that works in the middle, and we're all one, where the University of Alberta talking about engineering in higher levels was able to deal with some of the problems we were having within the industry, and vice versa. So we're not working against each other, we're working with each other.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. That's the center, the Canadian, the Canadian Center for Welding and Joining at the U of A. And uh, I know exactly what you're talking about. I knew I know a few of those uh very smart people over there. And when I went to that weld industry day, um, this was in New Brunswick, like a long time ago. Um, half of the titles, I was reading the titles of these talks that they were happening, and I couldn't even understand the words in the title, right? But then exactly like you're saying, is you get in a room together and then you start chatting, and you're like your life experiences matches what they're talking about, and we find a way to communicate. I remember there's one night in a bar when it's like, you know, we're talking about voltage, and here we are. We're pulling out a flashlight and showing, oh well, the light gets bigger as you pull away, and like so all these things, you're you're absolutely right. Very good point to make.

Volunteering Benefits And Networking

SPEAKER_02

So um, that was actually the first time we met in person, and the best part was is that light demo and some of these conversations, sometimes going into the smartest room, you might not grasp everything, but I unpacked some of the experiences that I learned there in over a year and increased my teaching and program to levels I don't think people knew was possible. So but it's about taking that concept, like that flashlight trick. That was a great example. What else could you do with it? And I'm thinking to myself, hmm. So I don't I take a look at my water bottle and I go, how do you weld without welding? Let me pour this water out. The higher the bottle is from the table is your arc length. You see all that spatter? Because the water is traveling a bigger distance. Now, what happens when I go closer? Now, if I go slower, if I go faster, and it leaves a liquid puddle, and that's why I like using the word fluid dynamics, because welding isn't like water. So if you have welds that have an overconvexity, it's not going to flow in there, and you're going to get that entrapment and lack of fusion. So all of a sudden, that conversation at a social event with a flashlight about voltage, not amperage, not stick welding, but a wire process led to this answer.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and actually, now that you're talking about your water bottle and you just gave me a little blurb, I can see it. I can see what you're talking about. I can see it in welding as well. You know, like if you have a terrible arc length, your your molten metal is going all over the place, you're splashing all over the place. Very cool, Chris. I like that.

SPEAKER_02

And it came from highly educated people in a room having social conversation and going from that. Like a lot of us in this industry, we're kind of lucky at times where our hobby is our job, and vice versa, right? Sometimes I laugh that my wife knows more about welding than I do after all the times I have to tell her things, right? Um you debrief. That's right. And then seeing other people that are talented um do different things that are outside of the wheelhouse. Like I know yourself, you do roses and stuff like that. Now, at a surface value, that's artsy. But now when you temper the steel, you're talking about different heat range and stuff like that. It's more tangible, right? Then you can even go down further aspects of metallurgy and stuff like that. Even though this is us an art rose, the amount of skill that's there, and this is where sometimes we do things without knowing the value. And sometimes when I get my students to weld, I'll make them weld on a continuous piece of plate so that it ends up starting off with one joint and just keeps building up words so that they can actually we call it a storybook where they can actually see where they started and end it because sometimes you don't see that progress. So I might train like, and sometimes it's difficult for instructors. So I think I did like 350 apprentices welding last year, but they don't see that. Well, each class you can see the growth, and sometimes we devalue those baby steps. Those baby steps is what makes us get to the point we get where we are. No one is putting it in your hand. You're learning those skills and experience. Where did that all come from? That came from interaction, talking to people not only within this industry, but within other industries, seeing common problems, um, getting more actively involved, not with only say the CWB, but getting more actively involved, saying in like a CSA standard, understanding um, well, there's health and safety, how it correlates, health risks, stuff like that, starting to get that education to pass it on, maybe to prevent incidents in the future, or better prepare people, or give them actual awarenesses on that, on why things are so giving people just fixed answers, do this. Why? There's always that curiosity, and yeah, everybody learns differently, right? So there's different styles of learning, all that is wonderful, but you have to accommodate all that, right? And if you do not get actively involved, you might be blinded by it, right?

SPEAKER_04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03

And then some people are gonna get left behind or get a different attitude towards either their instructor or the course or the trade itself, and it was just because of that one little disconnect that happened. Well, I don't I don't learn that way. Well, okay, let's figure that out, right?

SPEAKER_02

And some people might not get it, right? And I do understand it. Um, as instructors too, sometimes you have to realize you might actually see more potential than that person's willing to see them in themselves, right? Unfortunately, you know, I'm a pessimist in life. You never have to plan for if you know it's gonna rain, you always plan for it. You never have to plan for a sunny day, right? Yeah, so that's the kind of idea, right? Um, it kind of goes back to my own personal, like being an introvert. Would I rather be home sleeping or uh watching YouTube or something like that? Sure, playing with my kids, this and that. But if I don't push myself out of that comfort zone, right, I'm not fighting or showing a different way, a different way of doing things. I'm not educating myself, I'm not building my own personal skills, I'm not staying true to my personal beliefs or motto or however you want to look at it, and I'm not changing anything going forward, right? Yeah, help those. And you know what's actually really wonderful is when you get actively involved and you start seeing people progressively start making that career, that lifestyle change. Go into career fairs, Skills Canada, Ontario, your province skills. You're seeing young men and women entering the work, wanting to enter the workforce and being absolutely passionate. Like the amount of work that it takes to get into some of these things, at that point, the financial rewards don't seem valid or worth any of that effort, but that personal growth is unmeasurable. And then the contacts you get from it, the mingling, the self-worth you get in that, you just start seeing people radiate, you start seeing that like cocoon and that butterfly. And honestly, at the end of the day, I don't think any money or monetary value can ever put that place on that feeling because it rejuvenates you, right?

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. So, Chris, with this this vast knowledge that you have and this this experience, um, how how has the ironworking industry or the welding industry as you see it, how has it changed in your in your last 22 years?

SPEAKER_02

Um there is a higher demand for certain skill sets, but the problem is we're always trying to race the goal. There's some people who capitalize on that, some people who do it differently. There's no right or wrong answer, right? I would love to say, listen, we'll take everybody in the world. It doesn't work like that. Sometimes you have to take the shot you got, or sometimes you might start somewhere and end somewhere else. My father used to say we have multiple career paths in our life. We usually don't end with one, right? He always jokes, you know, I'm on my fourth career path, I probably have two more to go. Well, he's getting up to his 60s, right? It's pretty hilarious, especially since he's retired and he's still talking like that, right? Yeah. Um, but it is true, right? You don't know where you're gonna be, right? Sometimes the path, like I want to be a furniture maker, I ended up where I am now, and I really have a hard time seeing anything other than that, right? I enjoy what I do, I take those experiences and pass them onwards, but it's that sense of play, that sense of willing to keep improving, always looking for not always monetary gain all the time, but self-worth. So, for example, I remember once I was in a um flux core competition and I absolutely got nailed on it. I think I went through a three-quarter inch plate within three seconds because I thought it was easy, and it's self-shield, vertical up. Yeah, that was enough to teach me that listen, you're not as good as you think you are, and you can always do better. And I've improved myself a lot where I'm able and humble enough to say that, even in the position that I hold, for some redemption and for people to understand, hey, hashtag everyday well type scenario. So everyone doesn't think you're always perfect, but you can learn from it, and sometimes the failure was better than the reward. So I know exactly how I failed, the silliness I did, and overcompensating or overestimating just because it looked easy. So I can package that and teach people from it. Don't always teach people from your successes, teach them from your failures.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. So how how would you is the industry easier to get into? Is the is is I wouldn't I don't want to say easier, but is the pathway now more clear for people to become an iron worker? Is the technology better? Um, like how has it improved or not improved? Do you see anything like that going on?

SPEAKER_02

I think it's improved because now more people are talking about it, more people are understanding about it. Um there's different career paths within it. And construction in a hole, welding in a hole, now the trades, and there's many people you can actually thank to, right? Great example, dirty jobs. How many of us watch dirty jobs and thought that was pretty cool? Now all of a sudden, construction, especially when I grew up, there was a different connotation to it, right? Um some were bad connotations, some were good connotations, right? Um, now people are understanding if I have a trade, I always have something, right? Yep. So building off on that skill, you're building off on new, right? Even though I work for a company, um, as an iron worker, I might be doing miscellaneous steel or working in a car plant, doing glass, any of those aspects. I'm my own company because I'm building my personal reputation by using my skills, my personal worth, my QC. And all of a sudden, you'll notice companies saying, Hey, listen, you want to come work for me? X, Y, Z from that. Yeah, you start building your own context within that. Same thing if you were saying working in a shop, right? Those are the things that better yourself to move on. So many people start off at say an entry-level job and they think they're stuck there for the rest of their life. A lot of good companies want to see that vertical growth. And if you're in a company that doesn't have that vertical growth, well, screw it. Invest in you. Invest in you. Yeah, right? At the end of the day, people were killed by not knowing stuff. Yeah, people were not in any harm's way by not knowing things they should know. The more education you have, the more opportunities you have. The less education you have and skills, the less opportunities you have.

Safety Progress And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, very true. So, would you say now ironworking is safer?

SPEAKER_02

I would say so, due to a lot of the health and safety regulations, right? So you can see it just in the equipment, right? Um, when I started, I didn't even know a papper system was a thing, right? Now you're seeing it more often. I remember when tie-off was just one point. Now you have to have uh 100% tie-off at all times, right? A lot of time work is being done in lifts due to the fact that sometimes it's easier or faster, sometimes you just have to get out to the point. Um, I was just uh it's not a new technology, but there are now crane hooks that will actually automatically open up and release a load. So once it is in place, the old-fashioned way is you'd have to actually walk all the way out there, unclip it, and then let it go, or do maybe non-safe things, right? To get that job done. Now we're putting in those implements, right? Now the companies look at it slightly differently. It's not a whole thing where profits equal life expectancy. No, it's can we all go home safe? Can we all do this efficiently? And a lot of companies now, those safety records are why they're bidding on work. Some companies lose the ability to attain work due to safety violations. So at least in our industry, there is a creed where you know we all got to go home safe. All our brothers and sisters have to go home safe. We have to be our own brother and sister's keeper, right? That's quite true. But even though that is more of a union or ironworking type of mentality, and a lot of that has to do with the inherent dangers of it. There's always going to be dangers in anything you do, it's knowing the risks, eliminating or controlling. And by telling people and showing people these things, and unfortunately, um where we are, we use uh green book, occupational health and safety uh book. Even though it's green, it's actually made out of red because the people have died and bled for that, right? And a lot of that is sobering, especially coming up to um on the 28th day of morning, the amount of brothers and sisters we lost. There's still workplace accidents happening to this day. The number is going down, but still not at zero. Until that day happens, I don't think anyone can relax on their morals or laurels, right? Yeah. If you are in the trade, not in the trade, walking on the street, it makes no difference. Be safe, watch out for other ones, and make sure everyone is able to go home. That's the most important thing.

SPEAKER_03

Very good point, Chris. We're gonna take a short break here, and we're gonna listen to our podcast sponsors.

SPEAKER_00

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Joining The CWB Association

SPEAKER_03

And we are back with Chris Ribello, Ironworker, 721. Um, so April is National Volunteer Month at the CWB, like I mentioned when we opened the show. And I wanted to ask you, how long have you been a CWB association member? Oh man.

SPEAKER_02

That's a real tricky one. Um, I think I joined probably not too long after when they were changing their name from the CWA, right? Because I saw someone with that sticker. I'm like, what is this? Canadian Welding Society or Association or what is this, right? Um, I knew what the CWB was because I had a welding ticket back then. I think I had my welding ticket in like 05, maybe. Um, but I thought it was kind of a cool little logo, this and then. I want to get into it, and then you know, went on the website, found it there. Okay. Um, and then at one point it was free for students. Um, it used to be a play uh paid platform, but free for students. I was still an apprentice, so I'm like, okay, well, if it's free, why not? Right. Um, and then I didn't really do much about it, right? A lot of people sign up for memberships and don't follow through. Um, and then I started taking advantage of it. Um, and then I was just using it as a gateway to get more information, learn more about the industry because um I had no clue what was really out there, really. Um, and then once I started getting to that point, I asked uh the chair at that time on hey, how do I get more involved in this? And they taught, they told me about an executive committee um about joining that. What ended up happening was COVID happened, things went dormant. I ended up talking to Max through um through social media, other through to the podcast, because I thought that was a really cool thing. Because at that time, there wasn't really much Canadian content within that space. And even though you'd be able to find a lot of American content, and a lot of them were very helpful and easy to deal with, but our standards are slightly different, right? Um, so seeing Max's fresh take, saying, Oh my gosh, I identify with that point of view, and seeing the change that the CWB through the association and through education and the foundation, and realizing all the work they were doing with the outreach camps, mind over metal camps, like you know you're doing something right when you get angry. Like, where the heck was all this when Iowa needed it, right?

SPEAKER_03

And then you're absolutely right. Yeah, and like you mentioned COVID, and I like I became a member just you know, slightly before COVID, and same as you, is I didn't take full advantage of it. I would go to like you know, one event, or I remember going to an event when I was in school and not really realizing what what I could get out of all of this. And I'm glad that you mentioned uh that there was no Canadian content because that's that's a huge proponent for what I've been doing in the last four or five years and making those videos and and helping people because yeah, like the United States is a wild, wild west, and I've mentioned this before, so people don't get angry, but it's like the wild, wild west to welding. No matter where you go, like the the standard changes, the requirement changes. But when you're looking at this Canadian content and the people that are creating it, you know it's it's for you, you know it's for Canada because we have those standards and we have to do it a certain way, so you know you're getting good knowledge.

Training And Events Through CWB

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and with all that knowledge, right, now you're able to apply it, right? Certain things now become easier to grasp, especially if you're looking for employment or better enrichment of your skills or furthering your development, right? Like coming from an iron worker past, right? I didn't know about half these welding processes, right? Um, I didn't know about uh stir welding or friction welding or explosive welding and the pretty cool aspects of the industry, maybe not something I'm gonna do right now. I remember what does an X-ray actually look like? What are they actually doing on an X-ray here, right? And that's where I start seeing some of the old CWB content. Um, I ended up doing my level one inspector's course in just being the way that I am and eventually learning how I need to learn and how I have to continue learning, and the best way for me to do that, and sometimes that's difficult for people to understand. Um, I might read something, and then all of a sudden I would get hung up on what the heck is a steel shaper? How do they make a U groove or a G groove? And all of a sudden, click, click, click, oh my god, this is what this is. Right now, I'm able to take what I visually saw, and I can gravitate that to all the time. It's like the same thing when you go write a test and you get that one question wrong that you didn't know what the heck it was. When you heard the answer, you're like, remember that one test on micrometers? Did you know that the final measurement is when it makes that little click sound and you know you're ready? Yeah. I'm like, really? That was that like I still remember that to this day. And I'm like, where was that in the textbook? Right? Yeah, um, regardless of that, right? Those are the things where sometimes our failures are our biggest aspect. You can either learn from yours or learn from others, right? Um, and that's where I had that. So it actually helped me join the association to actually get those beginning levels. I'll give you a great example. Uh last week and actually tomorrow, um, I took advantage of some of that uh U tip training, right? So, like uh, you know, at a certain point, you want to give back, and then you actually get inundated with all your work and stuff. And one was on how do you structure your life, you know, dealing with concepts I never heard of, like the Eisenhower matrix and stuff like that, which are interesting things that can actually help you be more efficient and become more professional. One of the things I never knew, never knew or thought would be that important on taking the rules that I took on, where now I have to understand how to set up team meetings, I need to understand how to use Excel. Where do you learn some of that stuff? Well, at least the association offers those upgrading courses for free, right? Or your local library or tons of other resources, but now you're getting into that. Also, the social aspect of it, right? Uh coming from a union, we usually have like monthly gender membership meetings. One of the things we kind of try and instill in people is coming together, building that solidarity, that camaraderie. But hey, if you're not working, did you talk to your buddy? Maybe he's working, maybe he can get you a job, right? Learning and building your own connections within that network. Because at least where our local is, we usually call it what's called the 50-50 hall. You can find 50% of your work, or we can dispatch you 50% of the time, right? Um, those rules aren't always 100% followed, but it allows you to do that. Some places you can only be referred to the work, you can't find your own work within, you know, a union company of that scope, right? But it gives you that opportunity. Well, is that any different than the real world? Is that any different and any social gathering or networking event where you didn't make a contact and follow up on it? The only difference is now you're in a room with people that might not even be in your industry, right? So I had the pleasure of meeting some people from um different organizations, like the women in the metal industry. I didn't even know that was a thing. And if you ever had the chance to go check out any of their talks or any of the things this group does, these are highly impressive individuals with highly impressive credentials where you feel like where you want to be, because you're the smallest person, well, at least for myself and my stature of um education and uh stuff like that in the room, right? And you're just learning from industry experts, right? That's where you want to be, that's where you're gonna get the most. And if you're in that position where you're in that situation and you are the biggest person, the way they treated everyone in that room and the way they talked to people, that is the highest level of professionalism, kindness, and understanding to this date. That was at um the last Weld Industry Day that must have been two years ago in Toronto. This year it's gonna be in Toronto again at uh FabTech. And I still talk about that day today.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So, you know, like all these events you're mentioning, did you hear about them through being in the association?

SPEAKER_02

I did, but a lot of that was due to the fact of going into a meeting now, especially maybe COVID had some positive sides to it, right? Like, um, I was lucky enough to be at a lot of the weld industry days, a lot of the um educator conferences. Some of these things are online. A great one, and it's absolutely amazing, is um the National Trivia Day. Some of these events are online and they're free, and like some of the prizes are insane, right? Welding machines, cash prizes, stuff like that, right? And the funniest part is you're getting over a hundred people at an online event all over Canada and outside of Canada and the US, which is a little nuts if you think about it, because now you're looking at your little small world and you're seeing how big it is and how much it's connected.

SPEAKER_03

It's actually how many different types of people came to National Trivia. And I actually took a screenshot because at one point I passed you in the standings, and there your name popped up. It's like, ha, got them. Yeah, it's it's it's crazy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And one mistake, and you're back to the bottom. But the best part is, you know, next day you can just say, Oh, yeah, you know, XYZ, and people are like, What the heck are you talking about, right? It's like that crazy fact. But the only difference is a lot of them relate to what you're doing, right? Um, and then a lot of these things they're talking about, right? And that's why this industry is nice. You don't know where you're gonna be, right? So you could talk to somebody and say the welding industry, but they're not on the shop floor, they're in inspection, engineering, design, and you can start making those connections where you might want to be. So now you're living through someone else's career to see if you like it or not, or you might have an opportunity or internship or a job opportunity, right?

Leading The Toronto Chapter

SPEAKER_03

Um, yeah, I've I've made a ton of friends through through the association, through our meetings and stuff. And actually, what I wanted to ask you is you are now the chair of the Toronto chapter, and how long have you been the chair?

SPEAKER_02

Uh, it just feels like it's yesterday, but I honestly think it's been about three years now or so. Um, and how do you say this? I volunteer, but I feel guilty on how much I take in the sense that I do have to give up a lot of personal time. But here's the thing it forces me to do something I've never done before. And least with a community of like-minded people, you now have a safety net. So, great example. I don't do interviews really, right? Um, I've had to take on more social media roles due to being the social guy per se within our organization. Um, but I do it more for connection, right? To give back, and people like that connection, right? But within that, I've learned so much through the association. We're doing a golf tournament. I've never run a golf tournament in my life. I barely go to them for starters. I've ran a couple of them now, and that fear is no longer there. Why? Because you're not doing it by yourself. Could you do yourself? Yes, that might be a nightmare, but now you're learning the things you need to do, the things in time frame, right? And what's nice too, it's not like the association is leaving out to the wind. They give you resources, they're willing to help with you directly, put you together with teams, right? Um, and it builds on that. Um, you know, you might have aspirations on doing something bigger within your organization, right? Sometimes volunteering, you're kind of the same thing as an apprentice where you're getting paid to learn, i.e., I'm volunteering my free time with you, but I'm getting paid not only in the kindness of this organization or the kindness of giving back, but the education of it. Like, have I ever done an event where 30 plus people are there and having to do a presentation? I remember our first presentation was an absolute nightmare. I've never been scared in my life because COVID time, we're out of COVID. We had a great speaker lined up from 3M, and the person had COVID. They had to cancel literally last minute. Oh so what the heck do you do when you got 40-something people coming up? Right? I've already ordered the food, everything's set, right? Uh, luckily, one of our other executive board members um he ended up doing a wealth safe program, right? And he actually works for the CWB, uh, the Victor Antrasani. And it was absolutely wonderful where I was literally just taking notes on everything he was saying because there were things that were applicable for me or things I would want to investigate afterwards. And I followed up with a makeshift quick presentation. Um, and it was a little bit to do with um some of the safety standards, like the the welders' health and safety aspect of it, cutting and aligning processes. Well, I put together about uh fume dilution, right? I'm not trying to put your body positioning right in the plume. So most people want to weld looking right on top of it. Well, we're not good at depth perception, so our body mechanics aren't always made for that. So if I'm right-handed, if I use my right shoulder now as the center of my work, I have a better track motion versus coming and doing an arching motion. But now it puts my head on this side where I'm watching the puddle, especially in SMAW. Well, if the smoke is rising here, my face is over here on an angle looking. So now I'm no longer in the plume. Your smoke should not be coming in underneath your mask, right? And some of those uh safety concerns are addressed in that book, right? And there's been some changes recently about that, right? I was interested in CSA committees. What ended up having? Dan Tadek was there, he put me in contact with someone, and all of a sudden I got involved with the CSA technical committees. Now, being somebody who's not an engineer, sometimes that's a little difficult. I was lucky enough, due to my experience in the Senate, I was able to come in as a technical expert due to the industry. And then I get to meet wonderful people like Jim Galloway and all these other people that the amount of information took in helps not only change our industry and sometimes change is hard at the top, but easier at the bottom, i.e., educating apprentices that will be our next leaders in leadership at companies, and you can see it. I've been doing it for six years and I've already seen a shift in it, right? Um, I've seen companies start adopting new technology to just seeing people come with that industry and seeing that return on investment. Sometimes, once again, being stagnant, you don't get there, right? These are things that literally led from volunteering with the committee, and you can see how much I got paid in value for it. So, yeah, volunteering is free. You might even financially cost something by donating or this or that, but take from it. It's the same thing with other organizations, volunteering with your kids in sports, those memories will last you longer than you will be here.

Proud Wins And Student Outreach

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's very true. So, Chris, what is something that the Toronto has the Toronto chapter has done that you're you're super proud of?

SPEAKER_02

Um we ended up changing things slightly. Um there was a lot of more technical talks, and now at the level I am, I enjoy that way more than I ever did. Right. But there were only like two or three events a year. Now there's like dozen of them, uh half a dozen or so, right? Being more active, trying to move the chapter around because really the chapter is the people, not the place, right? Um, so working with different venues that would donate the space for us so that we can access different markets. Like right now, we're working on the downtown core, ideally trying to go after some more, say, college or young professionals to try and give them a helping hand, but also trying to be more active when the high schools. Like we had a request one time where um they had a teacher in a weld shop actually have an injury, so they were off, and they had to put a supply that wasn't qualified. So you have students sitting there for X amount of months who've never been able to be have access into a welding shop. So we were able to go there and actually bring real-world discussion and opportunities, and lucky enough, uh, one of the classes, a different class, had a skills on uh Skills Ontario competitor that we were able to help out that way. That was a nice little thing, and that's just like a blip in the radar. Sometimes we do these career fairs, and we've been to somewhere there's been like a thousand people, and the level of engagement, and I might talk a little bit more less candid than most people, um, because I'm at the point in my life where I'm comfortable where I am, and I don't like to have that level of facade where I find it easier for us to be normal people, having conversations just like we are, and more honest and meanful comments are happening. Most people don't like to, hey, you know, what am I looking like here, right? For money. Let's be honest. Uh, I know the iron workers, and I think it's quite proactive of them, they actually have their wage on their website. Most people don't want to talk about money, right? That's very true, yeah. Um, another thing, too, is like, you know, some parents are worried about their kids due to my grades aren't X or Y or this or that. Listen, my grades were the same. Then all of a sudden, when I was finally passionate of something, um, I'm starting to look at my grades now, and I'm like, maybe I just I couldn't make that connection, right? Um, I know for a fact I was in those transitional years from imperial to metric, right? So I had a hard time understanding fractions until I actually had to start building stuff, and then fractions made a sense.

SPEAKER_03

Same as me, man. Same as me. Until I had a tape measure in my hands, fractions were hard. And now I can see them. It's like you mentioned earlier. If you can see a picture in your head, you can you can kind of trace back the knowledge that you learned about it. And it's the same thing. I can look at a tape measure in my head, and then I can do the math, like add up three, four, five different fractions, and oh, that's what the measurement is, right?

SPEAKER_02

And and different people I just like people to do what makes them happy, right? So even within the trades, in the unionized trades, there's other trades like you uh pipe fitters, spoiler makers. If your career isn't with us that will make you happy, I'd rather you be happy within the career, right? So funny enough is even though you can call them different franchises, different unions, different way, at least in Ontario, we're all part of a provincial uh building trade, and we literally want everyone to succeed, right? For that purpose of it, hey, go what makes you happy, right? I like ironworking more than I say I would like welding pipe, right? I don't have that much experience in it, but the aspect of ironworking I love the most is it's always exciting, even if it's the same thing. For example, I might do I've done a lot of stairs and railings. Technically, they're the same thing in and out. The locations are different, the heights are different, the aspects are different. So even though it's the same, it's not the same. And then I might be doing something completely different. So it's challenging me in all these aspects. And unfortunately, the one thing I'm gonna warn anyone who's interested in the welding industry and any aspect of it, math is actually important, but it's not like it's in a setting where you know the joke has always been why they never teach you how to do your taxes in school. That's a real life skill you need. I understand that, but now when I tell you about Pythagorean theorem, Sakatoa, all these math things that made no sense to me when I was going through it, I can physically see it, physically touch it, and understand it. Everybody's a different learner. Understand what your learning needs are and work towards that. And once you identify yourself, what you need, you know what to go after, what assistance you might need to get to that goal. Right, and I thought that was great. And being in touch with different groups, different organizations through some of the volunteer work with association and other things, you start to learn that one of the things, too, we were proud of was starting to actually talk to students and doing our career days, our um student days we started doing where we were busting people in, paying for the expenses, and having somebody talk about red seal programs, somebody from other the nuclear industry, this or that, with a finite group of people who want to enter this industry where they were able to ask the tough questions that sometimes is a little bit difficult. Then the following year, we didn't get the students, we went after the career counselors. Ah, and the career counselors had amazing points of view that never had an aspect to it, right? At that time, there was all these government grants. Um, the Alberta was giving relocation grants for skilled trades, all these types of things, talking about different options, right? And what's nice too is you get to see it from all aspects union, non-union, um agencies like uh apprentice search, uh other things like that, dealing with even like the naval industry, right? You wouldn't believe it, but in Canada, there are a lot of ships being built, right? Yeah companies like C-SPAN on one coast, then all these other coasts.

SPEAKER_03

I'll be honest with you right now, Chris, is that I am in Regina, Saskatchewan, right smack in the middle, and my company is supplying shipyards on both coasts with product. Like I would have never thought that would have been a possibility, but here we are, ships are being built.

SPEAKER_02

And if you don't extend your educational background for whatever means, and you know, let's just say volunteering is a very relative low-risk, right? Easy entrance point, you know. The vice chair of this uh group of the trial chapter, he's in the nuclear industry, right? Funny enough, I've been working and dealing with um in Ontario. We have a large nuclear industry, not only dealing with sometimes the province council, but dealing with the SMRs, different plants, um, training people to those specs, dealing with projects, dealing with bridges. So, like, I don't get to physically get there, but I get to teach the people who do get there, right? Yeah, now I'm like that other old person now going, see, I trained that guy who built that bridge or built that building. So now I'll be extra annoying when my kids go through the city with me.

Career Regrets And Paying It Forward

SPEAKER_03

Right? Oh, you've hit the next level. So looking back, Chris, is there something that you would have done differently coming up in the trades like earlier on? You know, if you could talk to young Chris, what would you say?

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely nothing. Here's the the reason why is I would have loved to get in earlier, knowing that I would love it as much as I do now. But all my mistakes built my character. Um I came from a hardworking family. Um, I actually thought um my family was um business owners in a different aspect of the industry. They were actually in catering in food, but things changed, right? Those skills that I learned from my grandfather came to this country and he opened up a bakery completely different from that. That's what I thought my life was gonna be, and it didn't end up that way, and I'm happy with that. My father ended up in the food industry, um, in banquet halls. It didn't end up there, but those skills that I worked, helping them out, because it was family businesses, like working at the age of 10 kind of scenarios, things, right? Those built my character. Whatever your character is, whatever hardship you went through, that's just where you started. It's not where you ended. But do you think you would be the same person without those skills? Right? It's just like people say, Well, you know, I went to a welding school or college, and now I'm in a trade union. I I wish I just did this. What happens if that opportunity wasn't there? Do you ever think maybe you're where you are due to that opportunity? Right? Maybe those opportunities are the reason why you're at where you're at right now. So even though I don't do furniture making, the one course that I took, and normally when you're in an entry-level position like that, usually do what's called fire watch, right? You watch other people work. Well, because I knew how to use a torch through a course, like one of the selectives, not electives, right? I was able to cut checker plate non-stop, right? I was able to be a little bit more useful. Yes, I didn't end up in furniture, but the things I took from it, how to use a torch. I never learned how to use stick there, but I learned how to do uh jigs, uh, templates, all these other things that ended up building the skill set that I have now. Right? So as much as I'd like to get to the end result and bypass all the headache, all the baloney, all the other stuff, those those those things, those situations made you who you are today.

SPEAKER_03

It's a good thing you put it that way because a lot of people say, Well, you know, I should have done this, this, and that. You know, the shoulda, coulda, woulda, whatever, right? A lot of people look back and and hate their coming up, or you know, would it would have changed everything, but you're absolutely right. Everything that you struggled through has brought you to this point, and and you're loving this point in your life, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, like at the moment, you might be complaining like where I'm at right now, it's late. Oh, I could be watching TV putting my feet up right now. But I'm talking to a friend and a candid conversation, not knowing who's gonna hear it, maybe no one's gonna hear it, but if one person heard it, and even if it helped one person feel better today, I can go to bed peacefully. And if this cost me hours of my day, hours of my life that I'll never get back, if it brought anybody a moment of joy, that I think is the true aspect of paying it forward, volunteering, giving something for nothing, not expecting a thing in the world back, and reaping all the rewards of something you'll never see, I think there's something to that.

SPEAKER_03

That's beautiful, Chris. Thank you so much for being my guest tonight. I appreciate this conversation. Uh, so thanks, man.

Closing Advice And Listener CTA

SPEAKER_02

Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for having this opportunity to talk to me. Thank you for putting on this platform. I appreciate what you do. And one other thing, man, you know, tell somebody you love them. Tell somebody, you know what, you're doing a great job. Pass it forward. You don't know where they are in their mental state today. You don't know how they're doing as a person. You know, give them a mental pat on the back. You're doing great, Kevin. You're doing a great job. I'm proud of you, buddy. I love you, buddy, Matt. I couldn't ask for anything better than everything that you could have, and plus more for not only you and your family, all your loved ones, everyone around. Pass that positivity, be that change that you want to see in the world. If it didn't happen to you, give it to somebody else.

SPEAKER_03

Damn, Chris, man, you're gonna make me cry.

SPEAKER_02

It's okay. People are crying.

SPEAKER_01

I'm a big boy.

SPEAKER_03

Hey, love you, bro. Have a good day. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to the CWB Association Welding Podcast. We got episodes dropping all the time. And uh thanks, man. Really appreciate it. I'm gonna I'm gonna sleep good tonight, buddy.

SPEAKER_01

That's it, man. Sleep good, cash checks, get skilled, and give back.

SPEAKER_05

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.