SPEAKER_00 0:00

How do you go from building custom cars for famous rappers to getting a SWAT tank driven through your mom's front living room to running a multi-million dollar welding restoration business? Today, I sit down with Lonnie Smith of Cross Trades LLC. Lonnie has lived about five different lives. He's been an electronic specialist, a contractor in Iraq, a union pipe welder, a guy who's lost everything to severe addiction before hitting rock bottom, and now he's back on top. Running a 12,000 square foot shop, shipping custom welder parts around all 50 states, building a program to employ recovery addicts. Plus, he drops a truth bomb on why the legendary Lincoln SA200 actually kind of sucks. Buckle up, this one gets wild, so let's get into it. Alright, Lonnie, welcome to the podcast, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Thank you. Appreciate you inviting me on here.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Absolutely, man. You came on my radar uh right before, like in the nick of time, right before the Fabricator Olympics. Um, you know, you reached out uh about coming and displaying your stuff. And uh I kind of just like your stuff is amazing. So so um, you know, you're you're primarily doing welding repair welder repair, correct? Are you doing any fabrication and anything like that in your shop?

SPEAKER_02 1:20

I do a little bit. Actually, I'm out there because today was building a propane tank holder. But mostly what we do, our main focus is repairing welding machines. Okay, we repair them, rebuild them, and restore them.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Very cool. No, um some of your work, like uh when Melissa showed it to me, I was like, dang, dude. It's like it's like restoration of a card, but for a welder. Like every nut and bolt, like down to the inside of everything looks beautiful, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Thank you. Yep, and uh part of that is a little touch on my background. Uh, at one point in my life, I used to build custom cars for a living.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Well, that makes for yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

My level of OCD is just a little, you know, a little under.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah, it's a little higher than everybody else.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Yep, yep. And uh, so it's kind of funny. That's kind of how this all evolved was um uh, you know, as I tell people, it's kind of a long story, but the the truth is it's just it's God, you know. Um, I was put in really good places with good mentors. You know, I look back at my life and the things I did. I built custom cars. My father's a master electrician and plumber, so I grew up, and he was a generac dealer, you know. So I grew up working on electrical as a kid. And, you know, the next thing you know, I'm I I went to college, I wanted to build custom cars. That kind of flopped when the economy crashed. Uh I went to Iraq. I was over seven and uh uh Iraq in 0708. I was a military contractor over there, uh working for you know the army, building, I was an electronic specialist over there. So got back from that and uh I got in a pipeline. So, and out of necessity, me having the mechanical background that I did, I started building these welders and me just liking custom shiny stuff. I started building custom ones. There's other guys that do it too. And it's kind of weird. Like I said, you look back at your past and all the places and things I did. I could tell you right now, 20 years ago, I would have never coming out of high school said, I want to build welders when I grow up. That wasn't it. Who says that, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Well, I mean, on that background, let's let's go back and dive a little deeper into how you got started. Um, you said that your father was a generic dealer and that you learned how to do everything from like that, kind of sounds like it started it. So walk me through the transition of like how cross trades came to be about.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Okay. Um, well, like I said, uh after high school, I I went to college um at UTI, automotive tech, and I'm you know, I got my search and stuff, became a Ford mechanic, uh, realized very shortly that this is boring as hell. And so I went to building custom cars because that's that's I had the opportunity came up. I was big in car audio. Um, because actually, while I was in college, I worked doing custom car audio on the side. So, like my love for custom has been since the beginning, you know what I mean? Uh I'm the kid that was pimping out goat karts, you know, when he was 11, 12 years old. You know, it was like it goes all the way back. And um, so like I said, you know, I did my forge stuff and I didn't like it. So then I got into building custom stuff. I worked for Extraordinary Effects for a few years down in Texas. I built cars for Mike Jones, Scarface, Killa Kallions, pretty big names. 0708 happened, the crash. What's the first thing to go? Toys.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

So, and at this time I had ran my first business, uh, which I caught an escalate on fire and burnt to the ground, and we went out of business. Uh, I was like 20 at the time. It happens. You're 20, so yeah, yeah. Dumb kids stick welding something that should have been MIG welded, okay?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Hard lesson learned, okay. Oh, you know, plus no insurance, because what the hell do you need business insurance?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

20 years old. Who's gonna insure you? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Well, you know, when you burn a mafia guy's car down to the ground and you need to pay him back, you pay him back. Uh insurance or not, you're paying for it. Well, he got paid. He killed the business, but he got paid. I'm alive to tell a story.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

It didn't kill you, it just killed the business. It's a yeah, you didn't, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

It's good, it's good, yeah, yeah. Later on, those guys were on CNN, by the way, several years later for 20 accounts of murder. So good thing I paid him back.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

You're yeah, you're lucky. True story.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

The things that happened, you know. Oh man, but I had a lot of fun, you know. Like I said, so after that, with that whole deal, it happened. My roommate that I lived with, she was a head of security for KBR in Iraq. So she had an opportunity, she says, Hey, you know, they're looking for techs in Iraq. And with your electrical background, they have plenty of spots for you. So me being, I was 21 or 22 at the time, and uh, I'm like, man, $86,000 tax-free, and all I gotta do is try not to get blown up. Freaking sign me up. Uh yeah. Yeah, when they said you're going to a war zone, you're going to a war zone, buddy. It's real. It's real. Uh, but I did two years over there. Um, I learned a lot. I got it, I got through a lot of cool stuff. I got to see a lot of cool places. I went to like Iraq, Afghanistan, Dubai, Germany. Um, and you know, unfortunately, I got to see a lot of the real side of word and a lot of nasty stuff too. And um, one of those experiences, I'm glad I went and did it. I don't ever want to do it again. Um, you know, it's like I tell people you sit at home and you watch this stuff on TV and you see it with your eyes. When you're there and you see it through your eyes, it's a very different experience. Yeah. So uh it makes you realize how real it is. It makes you thankful uh for a lot of stuff, you know. Um, like there's days I catch myself complaining like we all do, you know. We griping and bitching, we got it so hard, right? And uh, you know, I I I bring myself back to an image that I remember when I was over there, and uh it's these kids, maybe seven or eight years old, and they're digging through burnt down buildings with live gunfire over their head, tucked in, and all these kids are doing is trying to find something to eat. And uh when you think about that, you're like, Lonnie, shut up. You don't have anything to complain about. Yeah, yeah, you know, it really puts into perspective how horrible life really could be. So something I think about every once in a while. Uh, you know, stuff like that. It uh it humbles you and grounds you, you know. Um, so I did that, I did the Iraq thing. So when I got out of Iraq, of course, my mother, thankfully, did not want me to go back to Iraq because I was going to. I had another contract for quite a bit more money. And my crazy butt was gonna go back again. And she's like, Well, I'd like you to check out the pipeline. It's going through, it was running through Swan Lake, New York, where we lived at the time. And for my mom, I promised her, so I said, Okay, mom, I'll go check it out. In my head, I'm going, Yeah, yeah, I'll set I'm gonna do it because I told her I would do it, and I'm going to Iraq, you know. So I get over there, I run into a buddy from high school, and he's over there with the laborers, and we got the chatting. And he's like, Dude, you don't want to be a laborer. He says, The welders, they're the guys that make all the money. So I'm like, Oh, I like money, sounds good. And I like welding, you know. So I went over and I talked to that uh steward over there, and uh his name was uh Travis Crabtree at a local union 798. And I asked him, you know, if they were hiring, he says, nah, no, we're not hiring. So uh I show up the next day. Nah, nah, nah, we're not hiring. Show up the next day, nah, nah, nah. I do this for two weeks straight. And uh so finally I didn't show up one day because I had to help my dad. And I was gonna show up again the next day. So I helped my dad and Travis calls me. He says, Hey, he says, How can we stop showing up? I said, I've got to help my dad. Don't worry, buddy, I'll be there tomorrow. You need a guy. He says, Well, he says, I'm just gonna shoot you straight. He says, We've hired a bunch of people out of this area, and frankly, they sucked. We fired them all. He says, So uh, you know, give me a good reason when I could hire you and you're gonna stick around. I said, Well, sir, I said, I just come back from Iraq working seven days a week, 14 to 16 hours a day, getting shot at and blown up. I said, now what are you gonna do to me that's worse than that? He says, You're hired.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Shortest job interview ever.

unknown 9:39

Ever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Yep. Yeah, so uh that that was really cool. I ended up actually being the last helper. I was a helper, of course. I hired in as a helper, and I was the last helper on that job. And I apprenticed for four years in the union as a as a welder's helper, and of course I learned the skills and the trades, and you know, people don't realize, and this is a big thing I really need to point out. Is like people get into the trades and they go to these colleges and they just think, oh, I can weld and I could pass a test. I'm a welder. No, you're not. You know, if you want to be a factory welder, you're a welder.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Uh, if you want to make it in the real world, you need to be able to fabricate, you know, you need to be able to design, you need to be able to over, you need to be able to look, think, and overcome problems, and you need to be a problem solver. Yeah, you know, to me, that's what a real true welder and fabricator is, is a guy he can look at he can look at a pile of junk and make something happen. Yeah, um, and that comes through years and years of experience, you know, and ability. Some people, you know, some people just are welders, you know. I do know guys like that, but uh a real good welder, and this is the thing these young guys need to learn, is you need to learn how to use this thing called a tape measure. They just invented it, new on the market. You know, you gotta learn how to take the tape, you gotta learn how to in metallurgy, they don't realize that that is actually an important class and knowing your metals and how things pull, uh, and why. Well, I welded these two pieces of metal together and it broke. Well, it's because it's the wrong steel, you know, or the wrong aluminum, you know, you're using 50-51. They just don't they don't learn that stuff. So back to where we was, I veered off there a little bit. Sidetrack, it's all good. Sidetracked, yep. So, like I said, uh, so I got into the pipeline thing, and then what had happened as soon as I got in the pipeline, of course, I'm a helper, I want to become a welder. Well, what do you do? You get a rig, so I got a rig. You get a welder, I got a welder. Well, my welder broke, so what do you do? You fix the welder. And then I started learning very quick that this is a specialized thing, and you know, at this point, we're pretty much in a YouTube generation where you could YouTube anything. There ain't hard at this time. There's nothing about working on welders.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

I mean picking up books if you can even find them.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Yeah, it's just no information. Uh, luckily, again, this is where God steps in as always. The very first job I was on, still very good friends with him. I just talked to him the other day, was a guy by the name of Daryl Roy. And Daryl taught me how to first start working on welding machines. And I started working on them with my basic mechanical and electrical, and obviously, he this time this guy has more years working on welders than I do alive at the current time. And uh, so he started teaching me how to work on these welders. And uh, you know, he taught me the basics and what I knew as I was going up. And then the next thing you know, you know, you got a buddy, hey, you know how to fix on welders? I'm like, ah, a little bit. You know how to fix welders? Eh, a little bit. Well, like I said, next thing you know, there's 35 of them in your driveway. Yeah, so my side gig became pretty active and full time. So I would pipeline and I would work on these after work. I'd work on these on the weekends, um, in between jobs, like because sometimes I was on the road, you know. So if I was on the road, I could only work on them when I was laid off or in between jobs, or I would even work on them like in the campgrounds. I would actually bring tools, equipment, and parts and have them in my camper. Yeah, that was the on-site mechanic. Yeah, you then that's really that's how it started, you know. Uh, because let me tell you, the welding foreman, hold up, you know how to weld and fix welders? Yeah, you're getting hired first, okay? Yeah. True fact, dude. I would too.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

I would absolutely hire somebody who could do both.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Yeah, you're a valuable asset to the company. You know, they know that a welder being down, I cannot tell you how many days I used to when I was working with Mikey McGovern. I love him. God bless his heart. He passed away. Amazing man. Uh, taught me a lot too. Well, he's another one, you know. He would he would hire me, and you know, a guy break down on the job and he'd say, Hey, Lie, he says, I need you to let Chris borrow your truck. I said, Okay, let me guess. Chris is broke down, right? You know, so I would take the other guy's truck, because at this time we're only working 10 miles from the house. I would take his truck, jump in it, drive to my house and work on his machine while he was welding with my truck.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yeah, you know, you know, good times.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Yeah, it was, it was so much fun, you know, and just to help guys out, you know. And uh, you know, I had a guy one time, he was out there on a test, you know, talk about the worst time for a machine to break down. And uh, so his his machine goes down, and I'm like, hey, no big deal, you know, you could you could use mine. And a lot of welders, you know, they're very specific about their machine and they want to weld with their machine. And I said, and I and I told the guy and kind of told him what I do and stuff, you know, and he he's like, okay. And uh his last name was Thibodeau, and I'm trying to think of his first name right now. Can't forget that last name. Thibodeau's a hard one to forget, but anyways, you know, he was he was kind of thankful and he's like, and I told him flat out, I said, bud, I build machines, I work on them. I said, if you can't make a machine with that, or you can't make a test with my machine, no offense, but you weren't gonna make it anyway. Yeah, you know, I said this thing's a hundred percent. So he takes the test, of course, he makes it, and I fixed his on on site while he was testing with mine, because I'd already made my test, you know, and uh, yep, for years me and him chatted back and forth, and he's another one he passed away now. Like I said, I can't even think of his first name. I called him Thibodeau, it's all I ever called him. But uh, you know, just good people. Yeah, you meet a lot of really good people. I do miss that part of it, like the traveling, the meeting the people. Um, you know, there's a part of the pipeline culture that's that is exciting, but then you get to a point where, you know, later on down the road, uh, you know, I was working stupid hours and pushing myself too hard. And uh, you know, it got to the point I'd come home, there'd be a pot of coffee in the refrigerator. Like, why the hell's a pot of coffee in the refrigerator? You know, like I was just so fried in the morning that uh, you know, I was working 18 hours a day plus, yeah, you know, uh stupid hours, and well, that led to uh me unfortunately getting into bad habits. You know, so uh, you know, you gotta stay up, a little cocaine, this will do the trick. So, you know, I got into typical pipeline lifestyle, bad habits, wild women and bad habits.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah, every welder.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Yeah, down with you, just like our kryptonite, you know. So yeah, yeah. I went on a several-year bender, and um it of course, you know, the cocaine ended up leading to meth. And uh, you know, of course, I was an alcoholic on top of that, which that started, you know, in kindergarten.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Okay, maybe not quite kindergarten, but first time you picked up a welding stinger.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. Here's your stinger, here's your beer, get to work. Exactly. Yeah, I mean that's part of the resume, you know. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

But it's part of the welding test.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

It is. How many times have you been divorced? No, you got a drug problem, no. Um child support, yeah. Nothing. Uh, you ain't gonna make it, son. Why are you here? Yeah, yeah. Uh oh, but anyways, like I said, after uh, you know, and I worked on the welders, did the pipeline welding stuff, and then after uh unfortunately several years of heavy uh drug abuse, obviously, I ended up losing everything, you know, lost my truck, lost the house, lost everything. Uh my rock bottom is when they drove a tank into my mother's house to come get me. Oh uh, true again, true story. Um, yeah, yeah, real shit. Uh, it ain't like I was a drug dealer or nothing like that. Just somebody had called, which I won't mention their name, had called and said I was making multiple explosive devices. Wow. Now, mind you, obviously, is prior to the story I told you I had military clearances at one time. They didn't play around.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

They sent the SWAT-in, choppers, snipers. Uh, they literally, this is no bull joke, they threw flash bombs into my mother's house and drove a tank, uh, like one of those skid steered tanks with a big old cannon right through the side of my mother's house in to come get me.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Dang.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Yeah, yeah, dude. I come up off that couch. Now, mind you, part of the reason they threw flash bombs had to go to the tank is they threw the flash bombs, I literally slept through them. Because I was on like day five.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

So it's just part of your dream.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Oh, yeah. So I slept through them. I'm not thinking that. No, let me tell you, when they drove that cannon through that glass window inside of my mother's house, I come up off that couch, dude, it looked something like a cartoon. I was in the air just a pedaling. And boy, when I hit that floor, I'm pretty sure I peeled the carpet up, you know. So I come running out the front door, I get tackled by MP, you know, the task force. And uh I hit that ground and I'm just like, oh, thank God, U.S. And the guy kind of laughs because he knew that I was whacked, you know, and he's like, You ain't got a clue what's happening, son, do you? So he tells me somebody called, said I was making multiple explosive devices. And I told him, I said, Well, I said, I know who it was. They're gonna rob my house, and that's why. And he said, Well, son, you're paranoid and you need help. And uh, he was right about the fact that I was paranoid, or the fact that I needed help, sorry. Um, and he was right, I did need help. They were wrong about the fact that I was paranoid. So they sent me to the PSU. About five days later, they call and they're like, Well, we got good news and bad news. Good news is we're not pressing any charges. Beautiful. Bad news is your story's stuck and they robbed your house. So they robbed about 50 grand worth of crap out of my house. Um, honestly, the best thing that probably ever happened to me because I after all that, I got uh I was in the BSU for about two weeks. It was just enough time to get my head clear to sit there and do the Lonnie, what in the F are you doing? Like, you know, you got talent, you got skills. What are you doing? Yeah, and um, so I got out of there and I admitted myself to rehab. Uh, I spent a month out in rehab at Code Forge, um, beautiful place. And uh, you know, it just was a place for me to go, get my head clear, and I did. And I sat there in rehab with all these other people, and then and I never really been to rehab or not like this before. I've been a couple little short stays in rehabs, but I never actually committed to where okay, I'm gonna stay in rehab for a period, you know, at least a month and get myself right and actually put some effort into it, you know. So I did, and you listen to all these other people's stories. And I mean, dude, I'm in here with people that are on like rehab number 39, okay? And you're just like, I don't think he's gonna get it. I'll pray, I'll pray for you. I'm gonna pray for you, you know. But then you listen to some of these people's just horrible, horrible stories. Uh, there was this girl in there, I'll never forget her story, and she was a crackhead, and she talks about how mommy needs her medicine, and her one daughter, of course, was a crack baby. And she talks about this her daughter dying at about a 10-11 years old in her arms. And you know, obviously, it you know, she's like, she's it was it was it was her fault and all this stuff, and and she's like, and even at this point, she says, and I know this is my fault, and the drugs is what did this, and yet I'm craving crack to numb the pain. And mommy needs her medicine. Every person in there was in tears, dude. Yeah, I mean, I'm talking guys tattooed faces and full blown tears. I mean, you know, it it was it was so deep, deep stuff, and uh who I'm gonna literally just think about it, you know. And uh yeah, it was one of those things that made me realize, dude, you ain't got problems. Quit your bitching, yeah, wipe off the dust, get up, let's get it. Yeah, and uh so I got out of rehab, and like I said, I lost my house and stuff. Well, by the grace of God, God's showing up again. Uh turns out there's a government plan where they'll give you five grand, you clean your house out so that you so basically they don't have to pay to clean it out. Man, I cleaned that thing so clean. I'm telling you, you could eat off the toilets in that when I was done with it, okay? Because I needed that five grand. You know, I come out of rehab, you know, I got I'm borrowing gas money from mom to get to the house type of thing. You know, I'm so broke. So I took and I took that five grand and I leased the shop that I'm sitting in right now that I now own. Uh so about four and a half, uh what am I saying? Five, so six years, about six years ago. So we rented this shop, and the guy wanted four. thousand bucks a month I didn't have four thousand bucks a month so I talked him down to twenty five hundred dollars a month again here comes God showing up but uh thankfully the guy that owned this place was another one he been through the ringer he was an amazing guy he passed away unfortunately too right before I bought the shop and was a really really good friend you know just a biker just I mean this was a rough dude and he just liked me you know and he knew me even before I had come to lease the shop you know he kept saying Lonnie I got the shop man you can lease the shop and I'm like got that kind of money Carl so we got to talk these he's like all right what can you do I said I could do $2500 a month truth was I probably couldn't even do $2,500 a month because that first winter was three months behind on rent he was probably really guessing whether he should have let me rent this or not and now I own the thing right you know how how the world goes around so like I said we leased the shop right so I got first and last month's rent I give them the five grand right now I'm back to donut Lonnie's got zero dollars okay literally had to borrow gas money from my mom to take my truck and my trailer I at this time you know I got my truck my trailer I got what is left what I hadn't lost you know I got some parts welders and what they didn't steal you know because it was too big to steal so I had some stuff left over parts trucks and all that stuff so I took them sold all the big stuff that was on the property like the parts trucks and the few little things and I came up with a couple bucks you know it kind of helped me move and then what I brought everything to the to the shop that I had left over and this is no ship I sold everything down to my silverware okay I'm talking I sold the pictures off the wall my pots my pants my washer my dryer uh my safe I mean if I could sell it I sold it all right uh use tools that I wasn't anything so I literally just had a yard sale here and this is how we started the business and a guy come in and he's seen that we did you know I still have some of my obvious my welding stuff that I kept because I'm gonna do some welding do whatever I can to make money you know at this point this ain't a welded repair shop it's a you need something done I'm gonna get it done I don't care you need your toilet plung to give me a call I got a plunger up here we're gonna get it done you know so a guy come in needed a bed fit the sides of his bed done he's like can you do this total crap rust dude I hate rust repair you almost couldn't pay me to do a rust repair job now unless I was back in that situation again of course but uh so we did that job and that was the that was the start the start of it so we did that job oh yeah I probably should wind back a little bit too for also forgot to mention that my roommate in rehab who is my apprentice and a partner and end of this business he he was my roommate rehab so he's with me at this point yes so you know I get out of rehab and I'm like hey Skippy uh I'm crazy I'm gonna start this business uh it's better than doing drugs you and yeah I'm in you know what else are you gonna do what else are we gonna do so I go pick him up and I mean dude you had to see the situation this cat was living in I'm talking single wide trailer just rough dude and I get there and it looked like like the clowns coming out of like a uh a VW bug like I'm like dude bro like how many people are living in this thing you know and it was it was rough and uh Skippy's been with me now six years like I said partnering him in uh he's one hell of a tech man he's real good tech real sharp kid and you know he came from a rough background I mean rough background dude but he's smart you know and I saw something in him and uh I said you know hey let's do this so so he's been with me for years and like I said I'm partner him in and eventually we do second location he's gonna run that but uh so anyways now back where was I now I lost my spot so you run at the shop yep so we run at the shop so like I said we had the yard sale that's where I was that's why I was like oh let me revive Skippy I'll put Skippy in the store here you know so like I said Skippy's been with me since the beginning he's about he's about as crazy as I am now you that's one thing about entrepreneurs you know being a being doing this in entrepreneurship you got to be about not right so we all know it you gotta be a little just a little bit crazy but uh so we've we rent the shop we have the yard sale and like I said we raised a few thousand bucks during the yard sale we got our very first job doing this welding repair on the side of this truck man you had to see that it's so you know I find uh a bed out of a junkyard for like 800 bucks and I swap this guy's bed and do all these and I mean I'm talking it was a job guys like I'm on this thing for like two and a half weeks maybe three weeks to make a couple thousand bucks yeah you know we're we're that but like I said when you're at the bottom you know beggars can't be choosers you're gonna take what you can get you know uh crumbs is better than nothing yep and uh you know as you grow your company crumbs get bigger you know it's so funny because like it's one of the things B Skippy's talking about not too long ago that like jobs that we used to do that we now turn away you know and that's that's it's a good feeling when you get to that point. I'm sure you've been there you know what I mean you know where you're like I ain't gotta do that no more anything I got a button automotive rust repair nope you can just call somebody I got a list of people who will do that I will not touch that now that's what I do I'll refer you to a friend yeah I know somebody that just got out of rehab he's reasonably priced yeah I'm telling you it's it's it's so true you know yeah so we we did the yard sale and then for a long time what we try we put a lot of time into it I'm still working on it uh this is gonna be a long-term goal of ours is we're trying to actually develop a program where we have a program for recovering addicts where we teach them trades like welding like mechanics like paint because thankfully my business has all of those things you know we have a paint booth we paint welders obviously we do metal fab obviously we do mechanical so we'll be able to train guys these skills and get them back up on their feet and so I put a lot of effort into this trying to get this uh this program off the ground to help recovering addicts and after putting about two years into it God only knows how many hours God only knows how many meetings and conferences and I mean I put some I'm talking stupid amount of effort into this I realize nobody freaking cares and uh the only way to really get it off the ground is I got to be the guy that funded. So that's what led to well I guess I better figure it out. Um so that is you know and the everybody that works here for me with the exclusion of my sweetheart is a recovering addict um she's smarter than the rest of us but they usually are in most ways yeah yeah yeah if anybody watching this is a recovering addict find you a good woman that does not do the crap or put up with the crap you'll be fine yeah yeah it's so true man it really is yeah yep yep I was very blessed with that I've been with her six years now she's my fiance she'll be my wife and uh just just an amazing woman she really is like I said she works with us she paints she powder coats um I've had several apprentices for paint I taught her in 30 days was taught me took me sometimes a year to teach somebody she just she just got it she got the gift you know yeah so that's pretty cool so like I said we put a lot of time into this trying to build this um training program for recovering addicts and just realized to get the funding and money behind you that it takes to do that kind of thing it's a lot and you know here's the thing I realized very early in this game is and it's a lot of it's not that people wouldn't per se invest in the I shouldn't say nobody cares they wouldn't invest in the idea I was too low on the totem pole for them to invest in me because part of it is when they're investing in something like that they're also investing in the person behind it. It's like any business. Yeah yep yeah if you're gonna bring an investor in they're not just an invest in the idea they're investing in you yeah um and my track record was well I've been out of rehab three months no yeah no track record at all like why wouldn't you guys dump millions into me? I just can't see what we're no track record like yeah no I get it there might there might have been a lot of brain cells up there that still weren't quite working yet but uh so that is something we are still actively working on as we build the company I we were working on a second um chance program. Awesome yep uh and and that idea kind of came along with my mentor CFO that I have now that I work with uh a guy by the name of uh Richard Miller he owns Ram Consulting uh great mentor you know um and that's another one that comes later in the business that you know I recommend to guys when you get to the point you could afford mentors do it do it way sooner than I did as a matter of fact you know if you can't afford mentors guess what go online there's at least some type of free mentorship somewhere that you probably will get some value out of because it's really hard to not get value out of free. Yeah right you know and it's true and I mean you will see as you get paid mentors you'll see why they're paid mentors as well you've experienced this I've experienced this uh pretty much I don't I haven't really met too many people that are successful in business that haven't had a good mentor you know so that's somebody like even just somebody from the outside looking in who's a couple years ahead of you well I mean that would be a mentor but like um a mentor doesn't have to be something even long term it can be just something short term you know what I mean like a like a business coach like like I've done but like I've I I've had a business coach before and it doesn't have to be a forever thing it has to be I have a specific problem that I need to get past and you take a couple weeks or a couple months and you work through that yeah you know I actually got a short even though I have Rick who's my regular mentor I got a short term rent uh mentor sorry they say rentor yeah mentor that I'm dealing with right now it is kind of a rentor is right it is it's rent mentors uh I've been with him you know like uh six it's a six to eight week program okay and uh it's helped me tremendously um you know because one of the issues let's call it a bottleneck or a problem that I ran into that used to never be a problem um is I've I'm like ADHD like way high on the spectrum type of thing and I've always just dealt with it my whole life you know what I mean it just it is what it is I just deal with it I don't care um and as far as welding and you know on a pipeline it didn't matter you go out you make welds you do some stuff it's not an issue now when you run a company it's an issue and uh so I hired a mentor that specifically deals with helping people with ADHD that own businesses him being one himself and he actually works for NASA so I figure he's kind of qualified um and yeah it's kind of it's a bit pricey um but I will tell you right now in the first month I worked with him I gained everything that I paid him back in one month. Heck yeah because he helped me organize he said because the way our brain is our brain works differently than a regular person these systems don't work with our our neuro our neurotype um so you know he we break things down we do use this three uh three lens system I write things down I take because the problem is with being ADHD when I look at building something or doing something or a business uh our brain clicks and works so damn fast that we see everything at like once and it overwhelms the shit out of you. Okay. So basically he said you can't do that. He says now a normal person they look at the picture and then they're gonna go I got to do this step this step this step and this step and then they're gonna take this step and break it down into these steps. Problem is with us is we just look at the hall picture at once and get totally overloaded and nothing gets done. And he's right uh just in the few weeks that I've worked with him I have launched my e commerce and got it off the ground I've got my Patreon page up and running stuff that I've been putting off for years I've got done in weeks.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Heck yeah just needed a better system you know yeah it really was that simple and it was it was the system was simplifying it the you know uh so it worked great so just using that as an example for guys uh I'm sure I'm not the only person out there there's tons of us yeah absolutely I I'm recovering in that aspect because now I've actually like so because I see how the systems will uh really help me like I almost obsess over the systems of like and like I'm you know so I I I like I a lot of times I my brain works faster than my speech does and I kind of sometimes when I talk it doesn't make sense to other people because and I kind of like I'm in the middle of a conversation and then I want to pivot and talk about something else and I lose people real quick.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

So you know being able to uh take my thoughts and my ideas of what I need to do and breaking them down into those systems and breaking them down into just a manageable chart of like okay what do we do next? What do we do this? No you don't need to work on this because that's seven steps ahead you need to be right here with this. And it's like it's not fun. It's a lot of those steps that are like you you know you need to take first are never the fun or the sexy steps. Like you want to jump to the fun and sexy ones over here and it's like no you need to get the fundamentals of what you're building first. And um no I I totally understand where you come from with that because I have I still work through that all the time but you know like you said those systems are what I really really thrive on now.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Yeah it's how just stupid stuff like setting things up on Google Calendar and you know again another prime example with an ADH brain type you know and it's probably just a lot of people that aren't even ADHD you know what he explained to me is here's the problem with you know and he's right about this I'll think about something I think about the solution I think about doing it but then it never gets done he says the reason is he says if you take and you put it on a calendar uh I'm gonna do it on the fifth it's probably not gonna get done he says you have to be extremely specific and set a date and a time to it I'm gonna do it on the 5th at two o'clock. And um since I've started doing that the amount of stuff that actually gets done is we're talking 10x it's incredible. And granted like you said they're little incremental tasks and a lot of them suck. But once you actually get to doing it you realize oh wow that I've been avoiding a 15 minute task because it's just something I don't like to do.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Well it's funny because um so a few years ago I got into and it was so good for me. Um I it's I've just been not disciplined enough to keep it with to keep with it. But um my wife she could she brings it up you know often enough that um I schedule out I fill my day with what I need to do. I don't leave any like time in the in between I need like you know I feel I tell myself what I have to do every day from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed and I give it a realistic and specific time frame and when that time frame is over especially with like computer work and like office work like I you know I I need to only spend two hours doing this. If I'm not done in two hours that's okay I can put it on another uh another day and spend another hour but um you know I need to block out my the entire day and schedule it out and a lot of the stuff really got done because you if if you've only got two hours to do it you will most likely try to get it and and that's semi realistic you will do your best to get it done in two in in two hours. Whereas if you just put it as a task look you can fart around for four hours doing other things and justifying it over here and this and that but like if you've only got two hours to do it you're gonna try your hardest in two hours to get that done. And man that really helped me a lot and I become so undisciplined with that right now.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

Yeah I fall in and I fall in and out of it too because that's something I'm new but I'm new to it and I'm just starting to work it. Yeah but uh yeah you know and that's a lot of it too you know is uh we'll touch base on kind of switching subjects a little bit but support man yeah you know having having good support good team good people in your life and getting the crappy people out of your life will change everything drastically whether you're an addict or not you know takers are takers get rid of them yeah you know leeches or leeches just like you know like you said bad employees read them yeah you know uh I actually just uh you know had a deal where I had to get a red of an employee not that he was a leech or bad employee unfortunately he could keep his nose clean um and it was a hard one you know and the longer you drag it out the bigger the problem becomes and I've learned this through other employees and stuff is is when you see the writing all over the walls yeah just get the job done have have the uncomfortable conversation uh kind of funny to learn about that out there at the summit of Josh you know have the uncomfortable comfortable conversation just get it the frick done it's not gonna be as bad as you think get it done move on yeah yeah because otherwise you're just dragging yourself down you're putting unnecessary weight on yourself yep you know so but like I said we're talking let's see so we did the uh we we got the business up and running off the ground and we did a lot of metal work we were doing some work for the gas companies uh stuff like that then the welding stuff started growing you know like the welding repair well we got online we started a Facebook page for it and you know it was a slow go you know uh you know you've gained a couple thousand followers two thousand followers well once the if man if I knew the power of the internet 10 years ago I would have quit welding 10 years ago um I never thought I would see people shipping me machines from all I just hit fit all 50 states last month so that was pretty cool that's awesome but um yeah guys ship me stuff from all over and I would have never guessed that but I'm very specialized in what I do and also a lot of people have respect for me because of the fact that I'm a welder so not only do I fix the welders when they leave here they weld and I don't mean they weld because the load bank said I mean they well I test them you know I know the difference if it don't if it ain't weld good I'm gonna know it don't weld good yeah uh you know so so that helped out a lot um you know so like I said we got uh I lost my train of thought there again damn adhc but uh so anyways guys like I said we we got things up and going we got the Facebook going and more and more work started coming from it and that actually it really how it kind of started off was it started off by me just putting stuff for sale on Facebook marketplace and I started realizing how much business I was getting from that so I was like because before this I was not a Facebook guy yeah you you know what I mean like I just wasn't um so I said you know what I'm gonna start a big Facebook business and of course at first I was like this is boring it takes a lot of time you're doing a lot of videos you're just not getting results um you got to keep at it you just got to keep at it you got to post post post post and you got to learn your customer base and what is the right time of day to post because it's not right it's not the same for everybody. You know mine's bright and early in the morning right before lunch and five six o'clock are my hot spots.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

I dropped this podcast at 4 a.m and by 6 a.m there's hundreds of people who have downloaded it like in a two-hour window Monday morning hundreds of people will listen to this I'm like that's the sweet spot right there you know what I mean that's awesome yeah I'm also gonna have to shout out the link to this on my on all of my platforms as well because there's a lot of people that are gonna probably want to hear my backstory you know which is awesome you know I love it you know I love when people are interested in what I do it's a really cool uh uh feeling you know that people are actually they're not just interested in the product they're interested in you as an individual and that's really cool yeah absolutely you know so we got the Facebook up and going and like I said we got a few thousand followers and then we got up we had about 7,000 followers so we're gaining some traction at this point right now work starting to roll in pretty regularly we're feeling pretty good about ourselves but just like anything else you're still trying to grow.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

So I build a welder called the tiny welder and it was a welder that I chopped six inches and I shortened eight inches. I had three stacks coming out of the roof I mean this thing is just gnarly looking and uh you know jet black with stainless just bean and uh it was so loud it'd wake up the dead in China. So oh man wasn't loud. Well the machine that I would love to say and love to credit to the huge jump in our uh Facebook um you know because we went from like 7,000 like 2000 followers in a few days because we had a video that went viral and it got 1.8 million views. That blew us up the phone started ringing and it changed our lives and as much as that machine was totally badass and cool it was my kid and his little gloves flopping around going let's weld with a tiny welder and it went viral. The cute kid did it that me that just went the cute kid did it I will send you that video later it is so awesome my little guy was probably like six or seven at the time you know he's got his helmet on he's got these big floppy gloves and I'm like what are we doing today buddy and he's like I'm welding with the tiny welder and it was just you couldn't stage it. It was just him being him yeah damn thing took off and went viral. Yeah and uh yeah so you know people love him he's on the channel quite a bit doing stuff uh I actually like I told you I was out there building that propane tank earlier or you know holder and um you know it's too funny one of my employees welded a couple of welds on the one side and then my little guy did a bunch of the others and my buddy Dustin was in here the other day and he's picking on my employee because this is his his cousin you Know, yeah, and he goes, he goes, Oh man, look at these welds, they're horrible. They look like the kid did them. You know, he's like, the kid did do them. And I'm like, those are your welds. The ones over here are my kids. And Dustin's like, those are pretty good. I said, I know. So we had some fun. We had some fun with that. You know, you gotta, you gotta have fun. And then as the business got growing, uh, like I said, um, business got going good. I built another welder for a guy named Rope King, and uh this thing was another one, you know, chopped it. We called it the Island Boy. I name all my builds too, by the way. And um, because my builds got, you know, they're works of art, they they're characters, you know, so I named them. And uh this one was called the Island Boy build. Okay, and it was like this beautiful white with this blue, and it just had an island boy feeling. So, and the one powder coat that we put on it was called Island Boy. So I called the build Island Boy. Now, mind you, at the time, I have no clue who the hell the island boys are, ain't never heard of them, didn't know it was a thing. So my customer calls me and he goes, damn it, Lonnie, really? You had to call it the Island Boy bill. These guys are busting my ball so bad. And I'm like, why? So he sends me a video of the island boys, dude. I was on the floor, I was in tears. You know, so now every time I call rope up, I'm like, Island boy. Well, it was great, and uh that one went viral, and uh, I went to go deliver that machine in person because it was such a special meeting, it was such a beautiful machine, and I was running very behind on this machine. And I called poor Ropup and you know, and I'm just like, dude, I'm gonna be behind a couple more weeks, couple more weeks, a month, because I kept getting bombarded with too much other work and just and I was working at this point. I'm working 80 to 100 hours a week, I'm running myself ragged. So thankfully he was very understanding. So, you know, and finally, I'm bringing this thing down to him. I have a heart attack on the way down. Oh, jeez. I shit you not. I have a heart attack on the way down.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

So I call Rob. You text him that be like, bro, you won't even believe what happened to me.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

He's like, man, Lonnie and his excuses, dude. Here we go. Just do it even real. It did happen sometimes. So I call him up and I'm like, Well, I'm gonna be a few more days. I said, You ain't gonna believe this shit, but I had a heart attack. He goes, You're shitting me, right? So, you know, I sent him some pictures and stuff, and I I dude, it was so bad. I got to the hospital, have the or I got to the hotel that was wasn't feeling good, and I just I called my missus and said, Man, I ain't feeling good, kind of feeling some pain down my arm and stuff. I said, you know, like kind of like when you sneeze when you're driving, your nerves are pinching. I said, I pinched a nerve or something. She says, It's like you're having a damn heart attack. I ain't had a freaking heart attack. Well, at about 11 o'clock at night, uh, I realized Sweetie was right and drove myself to the hospital, ran over the sidewalk and bushes on the way. Hooked up to my truck, mind you, with $80,000 worth of welders on the pack, right? Because I was delivering several machines on this trip. So I literally I pull in, I run over these damn bushes and crap. Oh, it's got it's a shit show. So I wobble myself in there, and then you know, the ladies handed me these um documents to sign and fill out. You know, I'm having a heart attack and I want to fill out freaking paperwork, you know. So I'm trying to fill out this paperwork and I'm looking at it. My handwriting is horrible, just absolutely horrible. And I'm like, and then I look down and I realize I'm filling the damn paperwork out left-handed. I'm right-handed. I literally I took the paperwork, I set it down in front of her, and I said, ma'am, I'm having a heart attack. This crap could wait. Well, you ain't never seen nobody move against the pal so damn quick, you know. But uh yeah, so you know, well, where was I? I lost my thought now.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Right and left handed.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

Yeah, right and left-handed. So I'm right and left-handed. Like I said, tell her I've been having a heart attack. So they get me in, and that I tell you, I had my heart attack down in uh Meridian, Mississippi. Okay, when I say ghetto, I'm talking ghetto. Uh, and I mean ghetto, like daily shootings, it's a bad area. Amazingly, though, their hospital was amazing. Uh, the doctors were amazing, best people. I mean, everybody, the whole southern hospital, sweetest damn people you can meet. I I was having a heart attack and was comfortable, you know. And uh, so they they had me in surgery put a stat in my heart in the main valve of my heart in five hours.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

Wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:35

I mean, boom, in and out, well-oiled machine. They kept me kind of laughing when I was in there going into surgery, they kept you comfortable, and that was a big thing because talk about a time to keep a guy comfortable, you know. And uh, you're going in for surgery on your heart, and uh, I was completely comfortable and not worried, you know. Uh, once I got there, really amazing people. I couldn't, I couldn't say enough good things about that hospital. So, you know, after that, uh, a day and a half later, they kicked me out. And, you know, I of course, me, you know, being me, back to work, baby. Yeah, so I, you know, I'm getting in the trouble. Yeah, I got machines to deliver. So, of course, my brother being the smart one. Uh, my brother also at this time now works with me. And my brother is the head of the division of the Miller part of the side of the business. He does the millers. Uh, you met my brother down there, and he does sales and all types of stuff. So he gets in a plane, of course, as soon as he finds out I have a heart attack and got down there. And uh, so basically I was the uh passenger princess the rest of the way the night. Probably probably a smarter yeah, because they all know that I'm dumb when I would have gone right back to work. Yeah, you know, so you know, sometimes it like I said, this comes back to have good people in your life. Uh, one of my other best friends for years, he was my helper, Billy. Uh, he was actually working a job right down there, come and saw me in the hospital. So, you know, it's really cool when you can you can travel across the country and run into people you know, yeah, absolutely. You know, yep. So that was really cool about the pipeline. And then, you know, we've been around long enough. We'll be on the road, like when we're hauling the trailers and stuff, and welders are driver, they're honking at us, you know, they know who we are. It's it's just a cool feeling, you know. Yeah, that's awesome. Yep, it really is. It is, you know, and it's just it's just fun. I've had people pull me over, you know, just to check out my stuff. I'm like, I'm like, we're famous, sweetie. We're not, but it's still cool, you know. Makes you feel good, you know. Yeah. So uh we brought that machine down to rope, and then when we get down there, um, they took and he barbecued for us. His hall family was very welcome, and uh we sat down there, we actually spent the night with him and just ate dinner and had fun. And I mean, you want to talk about dude just great people, you know. So you you know, he's definitely one of those. He went from a customer to being a really good friend. I'm actually building another machine for him right now. Nice, and uh, it's literally gonna be a showpiece, it's never even gonna be used. Wow. It's literally basically we're gonna put a bar top or something on it, and it's just gonna be a conversation piece. Yeah, yeah, we're doing kind of like a low rider paint job on it, it's gonna be nuts. Nice. So sweetie's gonna be doing most of that ancient baby. Oh, yeah. We all just work together as a team and have fun, and uh, that's one of the things I really, really enjoy about doing what I do now versus the pipeline. I'm home, I'm with my family, you know, yeah, and uh that has tremendous value. Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yup, that that traveling, and don't me wrong, I still get to travel a little bit and go pick up machines and go see people, so I get my I get my itch. You know, uh, but I I really do enjoy the the home life. Uh uh to be perfectly honest, a lot more than I thought I would. Nice. Yeah, you know, you travel for so many. I traveled since I was basically 20 years old.

SPEAKER_00 51:37

Having a home base is really is really nice.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

It it is, it is really, really nice, you know. And uh, like I said, there's so many guys that travel and stuff, and it it's a good living and it's good money, you know. And I tell the younger guys, they ask me all the time, guys getting into business, you know, they're thinking about going to pipeline. You know, everybody wants to be a pipeliner, you know. And I'm like, they're like, What do what's your real opinion about it? I know you were a pipeliner. I said, Well, I'm gonna ask you a question, it's pretty simple, and this will determine a yes or no answer. So, do you have a wife and kids? Well, yes. Do you like them? Well, yes, then don't go pipeline. Exactly. You know, that just straight up. That's what I tell people.

SPEAKER_00 52:15

No, absolutely it's a single man's life. There's um, I I um this e even before I had a wife and kids, I looked into doing underwater welding, just like every other welder out there. They're like, oh, I want to make all this money doing underwater welding. But then I've I I looked into it. I'm like, I don't want to live that lifestyle. You know, like like they basically own you. Like there's no like, oh, I'm to I have vacation next week. They're like, no, you don't. You're heading to Alberta, Canada. You know what I mean? Um so yeah, it's it's not something I really wanted to pursue because I didn't really love the lifestyle. Um, but no, even with pipelining, I'm like, no, I don't really like it's funny, I'd rather work six days a week, 12 hours a day here at my shop. Like that's that's that's really not that bad. Honestly, I I did that for I've done that for years. Like, I really have. Um, but to do it somewhere else on the road, away from everybody, like hard no, definitely not.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

Yeah, well, and and the other thing is a lot of things with the pipeline, and you know, because you gotta remember the average guy that's out pipelining, they don't run a business or their own business. You know, a lot of these guys, they're not financially educated, you know. And I was one of them. I mean, I was somewhat, but not really financially educated, kind of like now that you run a business, you have to learn how to be. And when you sit there and you start crunching numbers, you've realized you're like, dude, as a pipeliner, I was making 200,000, 250,000 a year. Yeah, like I could make 75 to 80,000 a year at home and basically be making the same money. Once you take out that $100,000 truck payment, that $100,000 camper payment, the living, you know, the camper spot and the living on the road expenses, once you tax all this stuff out, because I don't need that stuff anymore. I mean, granted, I have other business expenses now, but I don't have the on-the-road expenses, you're like, you don't realize how much that's taken out of your pocket. When you really sit down and slice and dice it, you're like, and the fact that you know, you most of the time you're not working year-round. Um, you know, don't get me wrong, if you were one of the fortunate few that work year-round in pipeline, it's a pretty damn good gig. Uh, but for the average guy that works six to eight months, you can make 75 grand a year and be home make say month.

SPEAKER_00 54:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:29

You know, you get rid of the cost. Yeah, you see it. You know, like I own my own business now, you know. My truck now is a 20 uh 16 uh Ford F350 gas. I I don't have any need for a $50,000, $60,000 truck anymore. I haul some few welders and stuff. There's no reason for me to have something like that. I got a $15,000 truck, does job.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

You know, uh, and now I drive my Mustangs. I like them better anyway. You know, but uh so it's each of their own. So everything has its ups and its downs. But back to like the business story, like I said. So the vibe the vibe video went viral, put us on the map. We did the Rope King build. You know, at this point we're building momentum. Now we're up over right now, we're like 33 or 34,000 followers on Facebook, 10,000 on TikTok. Uh, we got Instagram and then YouTube, which I I need to get more on the YouTube and hit on it because I have actually got a lot of business from that, believe it or not. Um, and it's different, you gotta have different platforms, guys. This is a good tip for guys watching. You need to have multiple platforms, and here's why there's different customers on those platforms. Yeah, you know, your younger guys are TikTok, your millennial, us mid-Age guys that are in our 40, 30, late 30s, early 40s, you know, maybe even into 50s, you know, we're on Facebook. Uh, Instagram is, you know, younger guys with a five-second attention span. Uh you know, you got to know your audiences. And then YouTube, I find is a lot of my older generation. Yeah, that's where I get a lot of uh, yeah, I get a lot of my older customers um from YouTube. Yeah, because they have they could sit down, they're patient, they could watch a video this longer than 45 seconds, you know.

SPEAKER_00 56:14

Yeah. They're like, oh, something that's 30 minutes and doesn't have commercials, this is amazing. That's the way I see it. And it's like it's so tailored to what you would that what you would want. You don't have to just choose what whatever's on TV. I can search up the most random thing, and there's a 20-minute video on it. Honestly, like my family hates it when I choose what we watch because it's boring to everybody else. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

Yep, it is it is so true, you know. So, like I said, we got so we got that going, we got the momentum going, and all those streams are helping. And then something I've been putting off forever that we finally actually launched it the week when we were down there at the uh Fabricator Olympics is our e-commerce. We finally got an online store for parts. So, and I wanted to do something a little different with our platform than have the usual parts welder parts platform like everybody. There's really not much out there for refurbished and used parts, you know, it's all new parts. So my e-commerce is run weldingparts.com. And run is an abbreviation for refurbished, used, and new parts. That's what run stands for. And obviously, I changed the company name for the e-commerce because of the simple fact that Crosstrace, my company name, doesn't have welding in it. So the algorithms and stuff aren't going to pick it up as much, and you're not gonna get as many hits. Yeah. So somebody I know that's affiliate marketer told me about all this. And uh, John, by the way, who does my marketing and all that stuff, frickin' he's amazing, dude. Love the guy. Uh, he's helped me out tremendously with getting our website and other stuff going up. But because he's an affiliate marketer, he's not just a designer, he knows the behind the scenes. You know what I mean? He knows how Google and how these search engines work to pick up things and get traffic to your store.

SPEAKER_03 58:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

So, you know, so we're like, okay, so we need to kind of put something with the word welding in it. So we came up with the name Run Welding, which again stands for refurbished, use the new parts, whatever it takes to get you up and running. I even got a little jingle. You like that?

SPEAKER_00 58:17

Tell me that's your first time doing it.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

I'm working on it, I'm working on it. Uh yeah, we have some, we have, like I said, we have fun around here, man. That's an important thing, guys. You know, we we all want to get to the finish line, but let's face it, that's years and years ago. You might as well have some fun on the way, man. Enjoy the damn journey.

SPEAKER_03 58:39

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

You know, you know, we're gonna have our ups and our downs and crap that happens that I've had it too. And you know, like late, I just had a work with uh issue with rework I had to go through and do, and you're gonna have these things happen. Yeah, it's just just part of it. But uh, so we got the run welding up and going. Um, I got my Patreon up and going. Uh, there's only a few videos on it right now, not a ton, but I'm working on it now. It's a subscription page. What that is, guys, is again this comes back to the there ain't crap for information online about working on these welding machines. So I am developing a subscription page where it will have how-to videos, tutorials, how to diagnose these machines, how to work on these machines. Um, you know, and a lot of guys ask me like the custom stuff, like the the custom builds and the chops. I sell lots of parts for those because of course we custom make all this stuff one off. I shouldn't say one-off, now we're reproducing them. Um started as a one-off. So, what I'm doing on the Patreon page is I'm gonna have full tutorials on like if somebody wants to build a chop a chopped, say SA200, it will have start to finish every step you need on the tutorial. It will also tell you which products you can buy from us if you'd like to make your job easier because I've already done the hard damn work. You know, I will show you the hard way to do it, and then I will also show you how to buy it from us. Uh, most guys will probably just click the buy it now button once they realize how much works in some of this stuff. And then you got the other guys, they're young bucks or whatever, and they don't have the money, you know, to show them how to wafer and cut everything apart and put it together and fit it all up and weld it all out for 500 bucks, they're probably gonna do that. Anybody who's a welder that's been in the field for a while is gonna go, I'm just gonna buy a face from Cross Trace. But yeah, you know, or well, run weldingparts.com. You know, so yeah, yeah. And the other thing is, like I said, I just want to be able to help guys and also with my subscription, because I get a lot of guys that call in for tech support. It got to the point as so much, I it's taking too many hours out of my day. So now I charge 50 bucks an hour for tech time, which is still dirt cheap. Yeah, but what I also offer is anybody who's a subscriber to my page, to my Patreon page, haul 10 bucks a month, um, they get free tech time. So if they want to call me in, if you're a subscriber to my page, and that's part of the reason I'm doing this whole subscription page, is if I get enough subscribers, you know, then it's not that big of a deal for me to pick up the phone and talk to a guy. You know, it got to the point it was financially burning on me. You know, when you're spending four hours a day on the phone for free, you can't you can't do that. You're you know, I'm stealing, I'm stealing from my employees, my family, my business, and everybody. You know, you're trying to help a guy out, but at the same time, you're robbing yourself. So I've tried to do a deal where I can help guys out. And also on the Patreon page, like if somebody wants to see something, you know, message me. Say, hey, I want to see a video uh how to change an AC housing, or I want to see a video on you know uh how to maintain a 300D, what oil does it need, what filters does it need? I'm gonna have all that stuff on there, you know, parts lists, numbers, references, like I said, links to my my parts page, and you know, if somebody wants to buy somewhere else, they can too. Uh, but you know, it'll have all that stuff on there. So yeah, and a lot of guys are like, well, why would you give that information away? And I'm like, well, it helps people. I said, and here's the other factor. You know, you got guys that are all the way across the country, the nearest welding supply is 10 hours away, and they're broke down. You know, uh, and it could be something stupid that would a with a video, with one of my videos, they're back up and running. And to me, that means a lot to me because I was a guy out in the field and I know what it's like. You know, that machine is your livelihood, man. You know, and we're in a cutthroat world. I've seen guys get ran off of jobs. Your machine's not reliable enough. Bye. You know, they don't look at the fact that you just got back to work, you've been laid off six months, and you're freaking broke. You know, they don't look at that. They don't care, ain't their problem.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:35

You know, so uh it's just it's just a way for me to really help out and give back to the community, and it helps, you know, that 10 bucks a month helps me put be able to afford to put the time into these videos and putting these videos together. Like some of these videos, like on the tutorials, like say like the chops and stuff. I'm gonna have it. It takes me about 200 hours to do a chop right, okay? So my video tutorials, there's probably gonna be something like 30 hours of video, I'm guessing, you know, 20 to 30 hours of video. So and you know, to put all that together and edit it, you're talking, okay, yeah, it may be a 20-hour video, but it just took me three months to make. 100%, man. So it's uh yeah, these are the things as you guys get you get going up, and it's any business today. It's you, it's I mean, I don't may know so much about you, but most of us, social media is is a whole nother stream of income. Uh honestly, for a guy like me, it's 80% of my income. Yeah, not from like per se the social media, like paying me because they don't pay me crap, I get like 34 bucks a month. Woohoo, I'm rich, you know. But um, but it's the the business, it's a legal the business generator, exactly. You know, if it weren't for Facebook and all this stuff, I had a guy come buy a welding machine from me from Alaska. Yeah, you ain't doing yeah, it's really cool. It was another cool one about it. Well, he calls and he he jokes, he says, Well, I'm coming from Alaska. Anything you want me to bring from out here? And sweetie's in the background. Of course, I'm always on speakerphone. She says, I want some penguins. So uh he laughs and he brought her some penguin earrings. He's like, I got you, it's the best I could do. Yep, yep. And she says, I know they're actually not in Alaska, but it was still funny, you know. Yep. Uh she's back there. She says, I know they actually come from Banner. I'm like, we know, sweetie. Like I told you, she's the smart one out of the rest of us. I didn't know that. I'm like, okay, cool. There's polar bears out there. Finger fangs.

unknown 1:04:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:36

Uh so that was cool. Um, and that was a neat one. Like, that was a it the Alaska was a big thing for me because that was the state I couldn't get. It was the state I didn't do business in yet. I've done business in Hawaii, all the other states. I could not huh? Including Puerto Rico. Yeah, I got Puerto Rico too. Yep. But Alaska was that last one that I just I didn't do, I haven't sold a part to a guy. I did no business. So for a guy to come buy a machine was really cool. And that put me on the where I've done business. Not that I've sold machines in all 50 states, but I've done business in all 50 states. So that was really cool.

unknown 1:05:14

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

You know, it's that's awesome. Check it off the list thing, you know. Yeah, yeah, it was a big that was a big goal, you know. So, you know, next goal is uh figure out how to actually make money. The hardest part the hardest part, I'm telling you. The higher you climb, the more people are there with their handout. Yeah, you know that one. That's that's part of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:37

I do, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

I I do know that's part of it, guys. Get used to it. It's only a couple of percent. Yeah, well, the last 20 guys wanted a couple of percent, too.

unknown 1:05:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

Uh you know, but like I said, for the most part, it's it's good. You know, it has its ups, it has its downs. Uh, like I said, the the buying the shop was huge. Um We bought the shop in February. And um actually we just finished all the construction and we're about to close out on the last part of the loan here. It's pretty crazy to think that we bought it. It's took an almost a year to close out on it. Uh, but you know, you got to do all the construction and stuff. So yeah, we closed out on the one. Now we're closing out on the SBA part, uh, you know, for doing the construction and stuff. And uh, you know, it was it was really cool though, because to get a build like my building is 12,000 square feet, so it's a pretty big building. The one side is 50 by 160. Uh, the little side where I'm sitting right now is 40 by 80, you know, and I save little 40 by 80 is like some guy's dream garage, you know. Yeah, that's still a big garage.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:39

Yeah, it's bigger than what what I started and ran my shop out of for 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:45

My starter shop was a 20 by 30, buddy. Yeah, yeah. I yeah, I know about it. Seven foot ceilings, you're trying to get stuff in under the door. Yeah, you're trying to load. Oh no, I built it with 16 foot ceilings, but yeah, that's the others. This side here's got nine foot ceilings, the other side's got eighteen's. Yeah, yeah, which is which is really nice. And uh it was just you know, to sit here, like when we just we just did all the paneling, you see, we got the nice paneling in here, and we did the lighting. The lighting was a really big thing for me for the like the five and a half years before we got the lights in here. This place was like working in a tomb. You would like turn the lights on and depression would just set in, you know. It was horrible. We had like no lighting, it was so bad. And uh, so I I joked with the electrician, and then when I said when they were wiring the stuff up, he's like, Well, what do you want for lighting? I said, When you flip that switch, I want people to think a UFO is landing. Okay, I want some damn lighting, you know, I want to be able to see what I am doing, you know. So uh, so that was really cool. But just to get it done, like when we first put the paneling up, you know, you turn on all the lights, and you you just you look at what you did, you know. And uh, like I said, especially when you look back and you know that six years ago you were sitting on a rock hard bed with towels shunned up shoved under it, trying to sleep and rehab, you know. Uh, you know, trying to put extra towels under there so you had some cushion, you know, and then you see where you are and you're like, huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:14

Yeah, that's awesome, man. So so so how many how many full-time guys do you have?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:18

Uh right now, I got my my brother Jay, I got Skippy, which is Jacob, I got Adam, I got my sweetie, which is Chrissy, and then me. So there's five of us right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:30

Okay. So question for what is like so you obviously have a lot of experience in with under the hood of loading machines. Um what is the most bulletproof loader ever made?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:56

Probably as far as reliability and simplicity, um, it is probably a Lincoln 200 day.

unknown 1:09:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:07

Uh as far like for engine drives, you know what I mean? For engine drives. Yeah, that's probably, I mean, as far as the most reliable welder ever built ever on the face of the planet, probably a damn Lincoln tombstone. You can't kill one of those things, I swear to God. They got like a 200-year lifespan.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:25

So, so, so like are those Lincoln SA 200s, like, are they worth all the hype that that that that that's I personally think they suck.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:35

Um I want to hear that.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:38

I want to hear why. I want to hear why.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:40

Now, as far as if you want to say what was the best welding machine ever, as far as art characteristics and stuff, yes, the SA200 is probably it. It is the Cadillac of welders when it comes to that, right? It welds beautiful. Here's the problem. One, they're as old as your grandmother. Okay, two, they have a flathead continental in, which people say this is the greatest motor ever. Uh, if you like working on stuff weekly, yeah, it is. And it's not that the motor per se is like an unreliable motor because they really were. They were, uh and let me put this in perspective for you guys. That motor was put into production in 1929 for the world war, and it stayed into production until 1996. It did not change, still had an old rope seal. It was like a Volkswagen and a Harley. They leaked oil off the assembly line. Okay, they leak a lot of oil, you're nonstop working on them. They're very finicky to adjust. Now, when you get everything perfect, which of course, a guy like me, this is what I do for a living, not a big deal. They weld phenomenal. I mean, you strike an arc, you're gonna hear the frickin' angels sing, okay? The problem is they're only gonna do that in short bits at a time. So, in today's world, you know, and here and here's another huge factor, and I'll tell you why. And this is literally this no BS, this is probably the number one reason that SA200 is still famed and named and known as the greatest welding machine of all time. It's a generational difference. Back in the day, everybody worked on stuff. The average guy fixed their cars, the average guy was relatively at least somewhat mechanically inclined because they lived in a generation where you had to work on crap all the time. It didn't hold up and last as long. You know what I mean? So, and and stuff was simpler. So, guys were very mechanical. Okay, now let's take the generation we're in now. The average guy can't read a tape measure and sure don't know his socket sizes. And SA200 is not the machine for them. So, like I said, in today's world, in the generation we're going in, they're phasing out. Actually, as a matter of fact, uh 798 the union is starting to where they will not let a guy test him with an SA200 anymore. Because the gas companies are banning them. Because one, they're going to this new downhill low hydrogen, okay? And this downhill low hydrogen, they're just not enough amperage for it. It just destroys them for two reasons. I mean, really, it's honestly, I don't think it's so much an amperage thing because the 200 deal well that all day, every day. Um, what it is is the older machines, you know, the motor's tired, the generators tired, and now you're working the piss out of it. So it's just, I had a job over here with 30 guys on a job, and at least two to three guys a week were in here would be fixing their SA200s. They were dropping like flies. Uh, it's just it's too much for them, you know. So uh, yes, they have their place. Me personally, you're always working on them, they're a headache. I tell people it's like having a trophy wife, you know, high maintenance.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:59

So would you uh like would you if you were to give me one machine that you would absolutely not ever buy as far as engine drives go, would that be it? Or would it be? Oh no, there's definitely worse ones out there. Oh yeah. What's the what's the worst, what's the one machine that you would never buy?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:19

Well, Miller's mainly, but that's just because I'm not a big Miller fan. See, my brother, he's the black sheep of the fam. He's a Miller guy. He he ain't never been quite right, which is kind of funny because I got two Miller things behind me. That's only because we make bling for them. But um, yeah, the uh I'm not a big fan of like the Miller 304s. They're literally you call when this is no joke, okay? When you call for diagnostic help and you say Miller 304, they're like, Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, you know, they're like throw it in the garbage, get another machine, you know. Like they're just they were a whore, and there's guys that love them, you know. And uh me personally, yeah, you couldn't pay me to put one on my truck. Never in a million years. Um, and I know guys that love them, you know. Uh, me personally, I've worked on them, so I know that I do not want one. And they are a nice actually, most shops won't even work on them anymore. Yeah, it's actually the same thing with the SA200s, too. Most welding repair shops will not work on SA200s, they will not work on anything chopped or customized, they will not work on the Miller 304s. Um, a lot of just older machines in general, they will not work on.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:26

Wow. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:28

Uh they pretty much they want to swap quick parts and send you on your way. And you know, hey, I I get it from the business aspect, they're right, and I am wrong, because there's definitely more money in it. Um, whereas I will I look at it like I said, at heart, I'm still a welder. You know what I mean? So I have a lot of empathy for the guys, and I will stay in here. I've been out here sometimes 10, 11 o'clock at night, getting a guy up and running just so that he don't lose his damn job. Because, like I said, I've been on that other end. I've been the guy holding the stinger, you know. Yeah, uh, so I do a lot of stuff that other shops won't. That probably, as a businessman, is not very financially smart. Uh, but it just comes down to I don't want to be a shitty person. I don't, you know what I mean? I just want to help people out, you know, as much as I can within reason. You know, I don't want to help people out to the point where I put myself out of business. But uh, you know, hence the phone time and the Patreon thing. I had to figure out a solution. I'm like, I want to help people, but I can't be on the phone for four hours a day.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:28

You know, so you gotta find, and again, with having my tutorials and my videos, most guys are never even gonna have to talk to me. They can go right to the Patreon page. Uh, you know, perfect example. You know, how how do I how do I set the um uh governor in my SA200? You know, how do I dial my how do I dial my SA200 in? Uh, because like I said, a lot of guys they they could maybe be able to find info on the motors, but there's no info on the generators. How about generator maintenance and tuning it and changing the brushes and setting racks and don't mess with the racks? Stuff like you know, stuff like that, you know, like like how to how to do it without screwing stuff up will be on there, you know. And I think every video will start off with it if you don't know what a voltmeter is and you don't know your socket sizes, take it to a trained professional. So this will be for the guys that at least know basic mechanical. You you don't have to be a master tech, but you could change a tire. Yeah, you know, this is just too funny. Maybe I'll have a class for for that too. You know, how to change a tire, uh, how to read a tape measure, uh volt meter. Hey, I've had to have these classes, is the sad part with you know, with employees and people you hire, you know. You don't think about it, and this is one that will tell you how blessed you are. And, you know, like I said, I grew up, my father's an amazing man. Um, you know, he taught me so many things. I learned so many skills, and I go out into the world, and I was more prepared, still not prepared, you're never really prepared, but more prepared than say the average person. And then you don't realize it until you're on a job, you know, you're 21 or 22 years old and you're working next to a 35-year-old guy that don't know how to read a tapewritter. And you're like, how does that even happen?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:17

You know, what a disservice their dad did.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:19

Yeah, and that's what it is, and then you realize how blessed you are because like I had a helper of mine, Bronco, love Bronco, good buddy of mine, and uh, you know, he like when he first got with me, he was in his 20s, you know, didn't know his socket sizes and basic stuff. And I'm like, dude, like, you know, like how don't you know this stuff? And he's like, Well, I didn't have a dad. And I'm like, Oh, and then you feel bad, you know? Like, I'm I'm busted as balls being a usual, like guys, like we do. We bust everybody's chops, you know, and then you get hit with something like that. You're like, oh shit, that's no shit. I I was trying to be a smart ass. I'm over here being shitty, didn't realize it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:52

Well, no, like so if if you think about it, you know, the statistic is 50% of uh marriages end in divorce. Um let's say that most of them had kids. And then so now you got your your time split between the mom and the dad. And it's just the like the fact is that the like the mom, like the ma like women or the moms get most of the time. And rightfully so in a lot of cases, because like every kid needs a mom, you know what I mean? Every kid needs a dad too, but like for growing for raising young children, they need that loving part. Um but then that leaves dads scrambling for time. You know, they're making up time on weekends and they're making up time, you know, like like what like one one time a week and every other weekend, like that's not enough time to raise your son to uh into the man that he needs to become detectively, like like like like like like like uh technician wise. So like you know, if you're busy trying to baby your your son's basketball games and this and that on the weekends and trying to make up for the lost quality time, you don't have the time in the shop to like show him how to properly use tools and things like that. So, you know, no shame on like uh I mean I don't want to say no shame, but like it it just it's something that has to be very intentional when you only see your kids half the time that you still need to get in everything that that that that son or daughter needs to learn from their dad in that time that you have for them. Because I like I've noticed that with with other people who we've hired, and it's like you know, okay, your your your dad wasn't around, but I don't blame you for not like so. I used to like laugh when they're like, Oh, I don't know how to do that. And I'm like, how do you not know how to how to do that? Well, same thing. It's like, well, your dad wasn't around, and I can see that your dad's doing the best he can with the time he's got, and you know, pouring into that investment part of your relationship, the loving part of what a father has to give to his kids, versus like you know, having him out there changing the oil in his car when he's only got a Friday, uh Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday morning to to to have a kid, like to have his kid with him. He's gonna he's not gonna prioritize that time to change his oil when but that's when the kids learn, you know what I mean? So, you know, it's um that I I I realized that probably a year or two ago, probably two years ago, that that's a big reason that contributes to why boys in the society are not growing up to be the men that they need to be, is because of you know, uh I if you just want to point it right back to something big, it's the divorce rate.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:04

It is really it is, yep. Yep, it really is. And like you said, it just makes me realize how blessed I was as I grew up with my father, you know, I was always with my father. And I also was blessed because my father was a very talented individual, you know, he was mechanical, he was electrical. We did everything from roofing to plumbing to if it was broke, we fixed it or it stayed broke, you know, and that's something he taught me at a young age. My father obviously owned his own business, he was an entrepreneur, so I learned that from a young age. You know, uh, pretty much I grew up with you know, ramen noodles or ribeyes, you know, that's business, small business. You know, one week you're doing good, the next week you're starving, boys. We're eating chicken tonight, we're eating ribeye tonight. You know, and uh you just hope that there's more ribeye nights than chicken nights, but you know, usually there's more chicken nights, you know. So I grew up with that, and uh that's a lot of where the entrepreneurial spliret comes from, is working with my dad and doing the business stuff. And you know, my father did the plumbing and stuff, and of course, after, like I said, high school, I went to college, and and from growing up with my dad, I learned at a very young age I wanted to be a business owner, you know, and I knew it. But I knew that playing in toilets was not it. You know, plumbing was not for me. I I hated it. I didn't, and not even like just construction in general. Um, I didn't like like lumber work and carpentry, and I mean I still do it when I have to, of course, but I don't have any passion for it, you know what I mean? I I don't have that love for it. Um a little bit of carpentry, okay. Maybe a little bit of carpentry. I do build some nice kitchens and stuff, I like that kind of stuff. But plumbing, the electrical, just it was not my thing. So I knew that, and at the time I liked cars, I was always very artistic, and I wanted to build custom cars. You know, that's what I wanted to do. So I went to do that and realized that that kind of didn't work out. And then, like I said, years later, it's weird. Yeah, I look at everything that happened. This is where I say, God, like I how in the world do you end up building custom welding machines by accident? I don't think you do. You know, I took all the skills that I learned. How many people take all the skills that they learn over the course of their life and literally have it under one roof? Like, how does that happen? You you you know what I mean? Like I said, I do the custom stuff, I do metal work, I do paint work, I do engine and mechanical, like literally everything. Okay, maybe with the exception of plumbing, I'm not fixing toilets in here, but you know, sometimes you're not gotta use some plumbing fittings on some of these machines for some air pipes. So it's just kind of funny how that all came together. It's like it's what's a chance. A lot of that, like I said, comes from growing up with my dad and the the entrepreneurial spirit, and he he definitely blessed me with that. And I just uh from a very young age, I I, you know, I knew I wanted to do something, and I was like, well, the only way to really find out what it is is go out in the world. You know, I thought it was custom cars. Uh 20 years later, I built custom welding machines. And like I said, if you would have told me that 20 years ago, I would have fell out of this stool and laughed at you going, What? People don't customize welding machines. Yeah, you know, you and it's just it's great because it mixed my passions. I love welding, you know. I enjoy welding, I do a little bit of metal art and stuff for a hobby. It's great to meet Jerry down there, by the way. Hey man, he is a character. Yeah, that is an awesome dude. That is quite the character.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:33

Yeah, yeah. Jerry's an awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:35

Yeah, but I'm trying out that beard oil, you know. I'm getting that beard oil in there. I said, man, I want to have a beard like that. Total beard emory, by the way. If Jerry's watching that, you and Josh, I'm like, man, I'm like, those guys, like I left there and I was like, I can grow my beard back in. I want a beard like that, you know?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:51

Well, still there's a lot of beards at the Fed. Yeah, yeah. Like, there's all these guys with these amazing beards.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:57

I'm like, I want an amazing beard again.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:01

Well, speaking of, so with you being at the summit, man, um, you know, what did you take away from the summit that you've been implementing uh so far? Because it's been what? It's been probably three three weeks, a little over three weeks, and and I find that that's like the time that things peter out with with best of intentions when life and business gets in the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:24

Yeah, no, we're still doing working on systems and procedures. Uh the big one that I've I've taken away, huge thanks to you, by the way. Um, is I finally stopped wondering about AI and actually started using it. Dude, I took the Claude AI the other day just out of curiosity. So I have this fabrication, this metal table that I built, the one with the feet. Actually, I brought it to the show. So I have welder frames and other parts that I build, like I told you. So just out of curiosity, I said, I wonder if this thing could draw me up a blueprint for this. So I took pictures of the table, gave it some measurements and stuff, you know what I mean? Basic measurements. Dude, this thing printed me up a haul blueprint, a cut list, a material list, a cut list, like what you would need to buy pictures of it in a description. And I'm sitting here, this thing did in eight minutes when I just I wouldn't even be able to do it. I'm not on that level, you know, and I'm like, wow, because it takes what I do now, especially like with the Patreon page and stuff, because I want to have these on there. I want to have blueprints that are something better than my little Crayola drawings, you know what I mean? That look a little more professional. Uh plus you can't read my handwriting. So, yeah, you know, so like I was like, what? And just to see it, it it's and I'm like, wow, because now when I build my frames in the other parts that I'm building, you know, prime example, like I just built this cage for these two propane tanks. Well, I'm old school, I gotta get the graph paper out and draw it up. That's the only freaking way I know how to do it. Okay. Um now I could take a picture of this thing, talk to the the AI, and it'll do it for me. I might have to go in and edit it a little bit. It'll do about 80% of the work I could I seem to find. And then it will I have to edit the rest. So that part's amazing. The note-taking, um, it's just helped me with a lot of things. So that was a huge thing that I have implemented since the show and took out of it. Uh, you know, Josh and them, I was already working on systems and procedures, they really pounded it into my head as well. And now I have like not only me working on it, but I have me and the crew working together to make this happen, you know, uh to have a better inventory system, to have a better um how we take intake, like how we take work in and how work goes out again. Back to the AI. Like normally when I take stuff in, we tag it, we write up an invoice on the spot because otherwise I know things are gonna get forgot. I take I save the phone number in my phone, I write it on the invoice, and I write it on the tag. Well, now I'm working on doing a thing with the AI where I'm gonna have an intake sheet that I just Take an I tech, I text or email to the customer and they fill it out with the the machine, the serial number, the problem, their phone number. That literally is going to save me probably 15 minutes to a half an hour on every machine that comes in here. Plus, probably more than that, because then I get in there bullshit with the customer. So probably two hours.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:25

Yeah. So it really will save me a lot of time. And it just looks so much nicer and more professional. Yeah. You know, but uh, it's it's really, but it's all those little things, and I'm that's one that I've started focusing on. I'm a big fish guy. Okay, always focusing on that big fish, the big build, the big thing. And about I'd say a year ago, this goes back a little bit. I started focusing more on the smalls, like like parts, and how do you save time, you know? Because that may only be 15 or 20 minutes, but now multiply that over the period of a month, and you're like, holy crap, dude, I just gained two days of work. Yeah, you know, I just gained 20 hours. You know, you're like, woo. So I really started focusing on the smalls and realizing how important and valuable the smalls are. And you know, it's a whole bunch of smalls actually keep you more fed than the big fish. And we're all chasing that big fish. When the truth is, there's at least in my experience for what I'm doing right now, there's more money in the smalls because of volume. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:32

Absolutely. What um what do you use for software to keep your jobs and everything together?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:39

Oh, that's uh a piece of paper right here. And a pet.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:45

No, okay. I'm kidding. Uh quick. Okay. So so so so I'm gonna give you some un unsolicited advice real quick. Um, so n because you're you're diving into the Claude thing right now, um, what I would do is I would go into Claude and so to back it up a little bit. You there's a way that you can connect Claude to your email. And when that when you send that out to the to the person, um Claude uh they'll respond respond back. Claude will realize that it's got into intake uh um a work order, and then you can literally build your own software to keep all the all that stuff in one spot. You can build your own app so that all the guys in their like on their phone can have access to all the work orders all the time, real-time update, clock in and out of things, and all you gotta do is go into Claude and say, I want to build this, give me a prompt for Claude Code to build this, so it'll you you you talk you have a conversation with it over here, and it'll give it'll spit you out a prompt, you bring it over that prompt, put it in Claude Code, and it'll build it for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:04

Okay, well that'll come in handy because I tried playing with that a little bit and I kind of fail and added it in the box.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:09

Yeah, yeah. So so ask it, uh, tell it what you want to do, take that, take that response, put it into Claude Code, Claude Code will build you the app, and then in Claude Code. Okay, I think it's called uh hold on, let me make sure it's called Claude Code. Anyway, it's like I think it's called clo code.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:30

Because I've played with it a little bit on like what you said, because I told you about the I want to build an app for the repair work. Yeah, but uh it's not going as good as I wanted at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:42

No, because you you're probably prompting it in cloud. I probably am so so it um it it you you can go into cloud cowork and that's where you hook up your email so that like you know it would have info or like help or support or help or whatever at cross trades.com or run welding supply.com and then it will monitor that that and then automatically it saves you from having to even put it into your your your the app that you build. It'll automatically put it'll automatically put it in as soon as they email you back. So just uh, you know, like as you were saying it, it came to me and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna give you some unsolicited advice. Yeah, play with that a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:30

There's another app I want to play with a little bit. I want to get with the other guy that was there at the uh Fabricator Olympics that plays with the AI, run the idea by them, and see another app I want to make because I did try playing with it a little bit. It's hilarious, though. Like I I made the app, and I'll just give you kind of the it's about making an app where you can pimp out welding trucks, but like in the app, dude, it has like these illustrations that look like something that a kindergarten kid drew. Dude, I was in tears. It is so funny. Me and my brother and the boys were playing with it the other day, and we're like, Yeah, check out my custom Miller, and it's a like a yellow box, you know. Yeah, it's it was uh it's a great idea, not very well developed at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:08

Yeah, yeah. Well, work on it, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:11

Development for guys to play with in the truck when they're bored, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:14

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:16

Well, you leave it to me. This is the weird stuff. Yeah, again, this comes back to being an entrepreneur. Your mind never stops. You are always thinking of just the most random things, you know, like uh my little lock lugs right here that I made. Oh these I'm actually working on. I got a guy right now we're working on because we make these by hand right now, which sucks, by the way. Uh, and I say we, when I say we, I actually mean my buddy Terry. Uh, so Terry makes these by hand, and he's the one that came up with the original idea. Then I took and edited, made it better, and made it work for what we need. So me and him are gonna go together and get a joint patent on this thing, you know. And granted, we all know it's nonsense for the patent. I just want a piece of paper that hangs on my wall to make me feel better. Because they're gonna copy it anyway, it doesn't matter, you know. But uh it's just something cool, and I'm gonna make these. What these do, guys, is these hold your leads on, okay? This one is the used one, so she's not all polished up. I wish I had a nice new one to show you because they're beautiful. And this is one of the first versions, they've been edited several times since this, because this one kind of sucked. But I kept it because it was my prototype, you know, it's like history, you know. So, you know, so I kept it. Well, anyways, what this does, guys, is this goes on, you put your lead on, and instead of having your three-quarter inch nut that your helper or somebody's gonna go over Titan and bust your uh holder, you know, bust the insulator, and then you're gonna come see somebody like me. And then between, you know, lost work, the $150 part, the labor, you're gonna be like $400, $500 plus a lost day's work, where these sell for a hundred bucks a set, and this will solve the problem. So, what you do with these is you put these on by hand so that they don't get broke. And all you do is spin this on the hand till it's tight. You and I call them lock lugs for a reason. You keep your lug at about a 45 degree angle, and then you hold this and this, you just give it that one last little twist. Of course, I do it with one hand like that. That's all it needs. Why guys think you need 300 foot pounds of torque on a copper three-quarter inch half nut is beyond me. I have no clue. I really don't. And then you have the other factor, let's say that don't happen. Let's say it's just been a while since you've changed your leads. You know, an end burns off, your leads are burned up, something gets ran over on a job, and you go to change it. Now it's been a while. Well, now that three-quarter inch nut rusted on there, and it's it's on a copper stud. So when you go to break it loose, pink, you snap it off. This this won't do that. So we're gonna have those. Uh actually, probably I'm hoping by the end of this month, I should have those for sale again. Yep. Awesome. So, you know, and again, guys, uh anybody interested in that, you can contact me at 570-665-8007. You can look us up, Crosstrades LLC. You can also check us out, like I said, guys, runweldingparts.com. And of course, don't forget to check out our Facebook, which is uh Crosstrades LLC, guys. Get on there, watch us. And uh, like I said, I got a Patreon if somebody be interested in that. You want some information on how to work on machines and uh the basics of them. Uh, like I said, that stuff will be on there. Plus, on the Patreon, there'll be behind the scenes, you know, the stupid crap that we do in the shop. Uh, right now I'm building a welding machine goat cart with my kid. Uh I sent you some pictures of it, and that cool as hell. Like I said, guys, it comes back to the have fun, have some fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:29

And stuff like that. You know, you're building something with a kid, you're having fun, but not only you're spending time with the kid, you're teaching him skills. Stuff like that is perfect because it's a win-win. You're spending time with the kid and you're teaching him skills, you're teaching him how to cut stuff, how to measure stuff, how to fabricate. You know, there's especially something like that. We're building a go-kar from scratch. So it's a lot of custom fabrication. It's going to teach him a lot of skills. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:58

I love it, man. Well, I'll be sure to link with everything in the description. And um, man, I appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:04

Hey, I appreciate you inviting me on. Uh, we we definitely had some fun with this, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:09

So I appreciate Lonnie. I'll talk to you. You too, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:12

You have a good one.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:13

Bye. All right. See you, man.