When was the moment, the event, when you knew you were destined for the trades?

Episode 110 of The Contracting Handbook: Builder & Trades Construction podcast: I’m going to streamline your listening experience for the time being and put the intro to the upcoming shows here and kind of update you. This here episode will provide my personal take on the intro to TCH for the foreseeable future or until I something changes. If it’s your first time listening to The Contracting Handbook podcast, I’m your host Mike Knoche, formerly known as the man who’s seen it all from season 1. I own and operate Straight Ahead Construction in Fairbanks, Alaska. Strictly ZONE 8 residential. I’m a fool construction sites. I can’t look away. I always want to know more about whats going on over there even if I come off like I don’t care. What can I say, I’m busy! This podcast is now the distillation of nearly 1000 years of collective construction industry knowledge and experiences through discussions with my guests in over 100 episodes. It’s a grass roots effort to share knowledge, empower contractors and tradespeople with knowledge and affirmation. Its also 100% independently recorded and produced. Like Jeff Pacheco at Sweet Buzz Woodworks out of Maine said in his review, it’s a podcast of the trades and for the trades. I’m a carpenter that became a businessman. It was hard and like Robin Clevett so deftly put it on our interview for his own experience, he was a tradesperson with a business problem. That’s where this podcast started out, as a mission to make the business side of running a contracting business easier. The running of the business is nuanced. There’s making time for family, long days on the jobsite, irrational clients, stress, mental health issues, cool ideas, setting standards, honesty, integrity, respect, professionalism, and an absolute need to pull together to recruit more people in the trades, women in particular. We need more builders. It started out mostly oriented towards that business but it has evolved as I’ve spoken to builders around the world. As builders we are connected by the universal experiences, food, problem solving, laughter, failure, skills, jobsite banter, tools and our favorite jobsite jams. We’re not that different no matter where we live. If you’re out there struggling, I’ve been there, we’ve been there. If you’re out there winning, I’ve been there too. The storms pass and the blue bird days return. Like Ryan Smtih, the roof slayer, pointed out in our talk, WERE ALL THE SAME Ok, ok, we’re all fiercely independent individuals but at the end of the day, we have the same experiences over and over and when you boil it down we want to do the very best we can with what we’ve got. We’re builders, we’re problem solvers, we create our communities, we maintain them and like The Tool Hacker, Brant Taylor said, it’s in our blood, it’s in our DNA. Speaking of jobsite banter, the language is staying family friendly on the podcast going forward. It’s not always like that in my real life but you know what? When I started this thing, I wanted all you small human taxi drivers to be able to listen with your kids present. Like Paul Urdell of Erdell Construction out of Edmonton does with his little girl. I want him to keep posting pics like the one he did with his kids superimposed on a pic of Tim and Bryan uhler when they were boys that I pilfered from Bryan to use as episode art. So that’s how its going to stay. I didn’t know I’d still be doing this podcast coming up on two years later. I didn’t know that you all were gonna listen. I cold called Sean Franis of Apex Home design and then Randy Jones of Fine Remodeling on a Friday afternoon in April 2021 to ask them to join me for a podcast. Those were actually pretty good episodes, mostly due to the guest talent. Though have radio broadcasting experience, my interviewing experience was limited to interviewing potential employees, clients, and my mom in sixth grade. They took a chance on the random dude from Alaska. Then a couple episodes later, Steve Dunne coined the hashtag worldwide construction tribe. And, so, it was. The show must go on. Let’s go back to my beginnings of self-employment. I never thought I’d be self-employed but it turns out it was a requirement. I was and am unfit for employment by others. With every task I saw what I thought was a better way. Right or wrong, the writing was always on the wall. I’ve created a life that I love through my trade and business development. It allows me to live how I want. I like other peoples rules about as much as the next guy does… I like to live by my own. And here I am, turning 50 in May, at another crossroads in my building career, excited to be building, and hosting a highly rated and ranked construction podcast. I’ve never craved the spotlight. Even when I was in a rock and roll band. I’ve never wanted it. Dramatic pause You know what the best part of being in a band it? It’s seeing people dance to music I wrote. Is this allegory? I think I see a parallel BTW- we’re putting the ban

The Contracting Handbook: Builder & Trades Construction Podcast