CWJJ Episode 113: Jamie McMillan

Thursday, May 5- Jamie McMillan joins Jim and James on the podcast. Jamie, founder of KickAss Careers, speaks about her journey into the trades – and her past two years (in the pandemic) and how it changed her path forward. This episode wraps up the our mental health series, Get Out of Your Head.

Quick Links:

Jamie McMillan on Linkedin

Episode Transcript

 [0:00] [music]

[0:23] Jim Schauer:  Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this week’s episode of “Coffee with Jim & James.”

[0:27] James, when I woke up this morning, to say that I was anticipating this would be an understatement, to have a friend from the industry that spoke at EWNCON 2019, a friend from Canada. I could keep going and going.

[0:44] James Cross:  Aren’t you from Canada…

Jim:  [0:46] Who?

James:  [0:46] Jimmy?

Jim:  [0:47] No, Minnesota.

James:  [0:48] It’s the same thing.

Jim:  [0:50] It’s close.

James:  [0:51] Pretty close.

Jim:  [0:51] The Canadians would argue with you.

Jamie McMillan:  [0:54] [laughs] How often do you…

James:  [0:55] They do.

Jim:  [0:56] Anyways, I was really looking forward to this one this morning. This is going to be fantastic. James, how are you doing? Would you please bring our guest in so we can get going?

James:  [1:08] I will. I’m really excited today to bring somebody to the show, Jamie McMillan. Jamie, Jimmy hinted on it, she actually was one of our keynotes back in 2019 at the Energy Worldnet Conference, and so we’re welcoming her back.

[1:27] Jamie, good morning. How are you?

Jim:  [1:29] Good morning.

[1:29] Jamie:  I’m great. It’s so nice to connect with you guys and be here.

Jim:  [1:34] She is full of energy, just like at the conference.

James:  [1:36] I tell you what, she looks just like her picture, too. When her picture went down, she literally just wasn’t holding a hammer. It’s the first time I know of.

[1:45] Jamie:  I can grab one. If you really want…

James:  [1:47] It’s fine.

James:  [1:48] It’s fine. That shows the coolest background on the show in a while. No offense to all of our other guests. Jamie, welcome back. We appreciate you coming back.

Jim:  [1:59] Yes.

James:  [2:02] We reached out to Jamie, connected again here recently, I think, on LinkedIn, and we started chatting. Jamie’s had quite a bit of change in her own life over this past couple years, and so reached back out.

[2:16] We had all intentions of bringing Jamie on the talk, just catch up and stuff. Then she started talking to us a little bit about her journey. We thought, “What a better way to bring her back than to wrap up our mental health series, ‘Get Out of Your Head’ and bring Jamie on the talk.”

[2:35] I’m not going to spoil it for you Jamie, but if you don’t mind, bring everybody along, give them your story and then let’s catch everybody up to what you’ve been doing over the last couple of years.

[2:48] Jamie: All right. I will try to you say this as quickly as possible, so don’t take up too much time. When I was young…

James:  [2:55] We have all day.

Jim:  [2:56] You got the floor. You have the floor.

[2:57] Jamie: OK, perfect.

James:  [2:58] Do your thing.

[2:59] Jamie: I’m going to just go back a little bit and say when I was young, I was in grade school and I struggled. I struggled with ADHD, learning disabilities. I was put into special education which back when we were young, it wasn’t regarded the same way. People didn’t understand that people in special education were actually really brilliant in just a different way.

[3:22] Because I got picked on and bullied throughout school and believed I was worthless and never smart enough to be anything, that really stuck in my mental health and it bothered me for years. Later on, when I ended up going to high school, I ended up changing my priorities a lot. I took a lot of shop classes, I really sucked at the academic stream.

[3:42] I really shifted and I wanted to be popular. I wanted to have friends. I didn’t want to get picked on and bullied, and so I dove into a different type of lifestyle. I went from a very Christian home to a rebellious girl, leaving home, dropping out of school, and it sent me on a really convoluted journey to find where I wanted to land.

[4:04] It took me years to find myself. I went through a lot of ups and downs. I hit the party scene for a while, a lot of older than most people do. Again, I hit a wall. I hit a wall in my 20s that was so detrimental that I at times, would think about ending everything, because I didn’t know how to cope.

[4:24] Thank God that I was raised in a home where we believed that it wasn’t right to think that way. I was actually scared to think that way, because in a lot of religions you’re scared of, if you take your life, you don’t know what the consequences will be. You have Heaven, Hell. I was scared of all of that. Thank God because I think that really saved me.

[4:47] I ended up discovering skilled trades in 2002 and it literally saved my life. I found a career that opened doors of opportunities to me to earn while I learn, and not to have to go back to school and build up all this debt, but to actually do the things I loved, working with my hands.

[5:08] This became the best medication for my ADHD. I was working in environments where, I will tell you, I’m not going to lie and sugarcoat it. Love my job, but you don’t always get to work with the most supportive people. There’s a lot of issues that you run into onto job sites.

[5:27] I do not want to say it’s specific to construction, because we have these situations at all areas and aspects of life. You have to work with different kinds of people, and you have to have that work ethic and ability to have the passion for your job to do it.

[5:45] But because I was a woman in a construction industry, I signed up to become an ironworker, regarded as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. It’s on the top‑10 list.

[5:57] There was very few women in the construction site. I literally one time was on a job site with 400 men and just me. Another time I was in a camp job in the oil sands in western Canada and a dorm with 52 rooms, and I was the only girl.

[6:13] I was put into different positions where I had to learn and grow. I struggled at times with the different attitudes and people that I worked with in the job site, but I recognized that there was a limited number of women on these job sites. I started to think how important it would be to promote skilled trades.

[6:33] I started volunteering for different efforts especially with Skills Canada, which you have a SkillsUSA. I went down to the provincial Skills Canada chapter for Ontario. I became a mentor, a volunteer, and that ended up unraveling.

[6:53] All of a sudden all these opportunities were presented to me, panel speaking, keynote speaking, and I became a professional speaker. [laughs]

James:  [7:02] Jamie, that’s where our story picked up. It’s about the same time because actually, I don’t know how we connected, what it was. Someone liked a post. You spoke somewhere, something happened.

[7:16] I know when I reached out to you about the conference in 2019, you had just started down this journey it felt like. You had maybe got an agent or got someone to work on your behalf to get you signed up. You were very honest about that. You were like, “I want to do it. I want to get out there.”

[7:39] Once I heard you speak, which, Jim, I don’t know how you felt, but hearing Jamie tell her story, again, feels like the same thing.

Jim:  [7:48] It’s like…

James:  [7:48] Once I felt that passion, I was like, “Book, booked.”

James:  [7:56] Jamie joined us in 2019. Tell us a little bit about that, Jamie.

[7:59] Jamie:  All right. I had been speaking to kids in schools for quite a few years by that time, but I was really nervous about speaking to adults.

[8:09] People started reaching out. They were like, “You’re an expert on this subject. We want to get you to these things and talk about how we can recruit and retain the next generation of construction workers into the industry.”

[8:22] When I got the opportunity, especially when they were like, “You could go down to Texas,” I’m like, “Oh my God.” I was so excited about going to Texas to go and share my story, but I will tell you, I was super nervous.

[8:34] It’s one thing to talk to kids. It’s a whole other thing to talk to an adult crowd.

Jim:  [8:38] Wait a minute, though. Let me jump in here.

James:  [8:41] Unless it’s Jim.

Jim:  [8:42] I was in the…Yeah, unless it’s me.

James:  [8:44] It’s kind of the same.

Jim:  [8:45] Well, yeah. [laughs] Being in the audience when you were presenting at our conference in 2019, I was captivated. The audience was captivated. I can’t tell you how many people afterwards said to me, “Wow, she does great. That message really came through.”

[9:03] We talked a little bit about it before, the pregame, as we call it, but when passion and purpose collide, it’s a wonderful thing. I just wanted to pass that on to you. I hope more and more people search you out to experience that because you do a wonderful job, Jamie.

[9:20] Jamie:  Thank you. I appreciate that.

Jim:  [9:24] You’re very welcome.

[9:24] Jamie:  That means a lot.

James:  [9:25] The story continues.

Jim:  [9:28] Wait, wasn’t that entity, your company called KickAss Careers? Can I say that on the Internet? Can I say that?

James:  [9:35] I don’t know. We’ll see.

Jim:  [9:38] That was the name, though, right? KickAss Careers.

[9:40] Jamie:  It is.

Jim:  [9:42] People were up there like, “Can we listen to that?” All of…

James:  [9:46] I can’t remember how we dealt with it. I think we just announced Jamie and let her say it, is what we determined.

[9:52] Jamie, I’m in charge of HR now, since…

James:  [9:56] we last met, so we take this serious. No, please go ahead.

[10:00] Jamie:  I’ll be honest. Kick‑Ass Careers was actually named by high school students on a Catholic school board. They found the name to be very engaging and fun, and they suggested it as the name, and I ran with it.

[10:17] There are a couple of school boards that aren’t big fans of it, and I don’t use it when I speak to elementary students. I’ll avoid that because it does have that word in it. The same word that’s in ambassador.

[10:29] We love the name. We think it’s bold and engaging. If you want to get kids attention and you want to get them down to the gym instead of skipping class and going out the back door, you tell them KickAss Careers is presenting in the gym, and they show up. [laughs]

James:  [10:44] I love that.

Jim:  [10:48] Makes sense.

James:  [10:48] Jamie, that’s a fly over the origin story, but like I said, we brought you back today because something a little bit different. That’s been the last couple of years and what’s transpired. You call it, I think you say on the tool or on the tool belt, on the tools. How’s that been the last couple of years? Tell us a little bit about that?

[11:14] Jamie: Interestingly, after I had gone to the conference down in Texas, I came back and I was doing a lot of speaking engagements with students across the province of Ontario where I live.

[11:27] I got some calls to go out west, west coast. I went to a nice big conference in Portland. Then all of a sudden boom, I come back to Canada March 11th of 2020. March 13th, the border shuts down and the whole world is just in this uproar.

[11:44] I’m like, “Oh my goodness, I’m this social person. I just came back from the USA. I have to isolate now for 14 days by myself in a condo in the middle of the city, and I don’t have toilet paper.”

James:  [12:03] Truth comes out.

Jim:  [12:04] too much information.

[12:05] Jamie:  It was so tough. It was so tough to be this social person, and all of a sudden I had all these career opportunities that were lined up. My agent was picking up all these things for me that were corporate gigs. I was doing my school gigs. It all got shut down, and I was like, “What am I going to do?”

[12:23] I had a plant job lined up. There’s a nuclear plant here in Canada. It’s one of the biggest nuclear plants in the world, the Bruce Power plant. They were working with me, and they were excited to have people work there for the summer.

[12:35] They were going to offer me the summer job every year so that I can maintain my credibility and authenticity as a…

James:  [12:41] So cool.

[12:42] Jamie:  …professional, and boom, nothing.

[12:46] I was lost. I didn’t know what to do. I spent 16 days at home. Then I took off and went up north, where there’s a lot of ice and snow, to go hang out with my family in Timmins. I couldn’t handle the idea of not doing something with my life, not having a job, not having a purpose, just stagnating, I felt like.

[13:06] I was on a stakeholders committee for the YWCA here in my city. I had been one of the only women in trades that was on this committee to equal the playing field in the skilled trades, to represent women in trades.

[13:22] They have a Transitional Living Program and a women’s shelter. Their CEO had put on LinkedIn that they were looking for volunteers, and I was like, “Bingo.”

[13:33] I sent Denise Christopherson, their CEO, an email. I said, “I know you don’t really know me all that well, but I’m on the stakeholders committee. I’ve met you a couple times. I have experience as a PSW, personal support worker, from my previous life, before construction. I would love to help out in any way I can.”

[13:54] She passed down my information. I don’t have a resume. I’m a contract construction worker. I’ve never had a resume. She passed down my information and they knew who I was, and they gave me this wonderful opportunity to go into the shelter.

[14:10] The government started giving funds because the homelessness crisis was like epidemic proportions because of this, everything shutting down. They ended up giving me this paid position. I was like, “Wow.”

[14:25] For some reason, I don’t know why, I clicked with these people. I was so interested in sitting with them and hearing their stories. I didn’t judge them. We’ve seen some of the most horrific and sad cases coming into there. I wanted to find out all about their lives and find out how they got into these places.

[14:49] Because of that, oh my God, I’ve met some of the most phenomenal human beings that I could have ever imagined meeting in my life. It’s been a wonderful journey.

Jim:  [15:00] It’s fascinating. I’ll share another story in a second. When you went into that, did it meet what you thought it was going to be like, or was it totally different? You went there eyes wide open. What was your initial thoughts when you were the first week, second week, third week?

[15:21] Jamie: Some of the cases were very difficult for me. I will tell you, we deal with a lot of overdose situations too. Thank goodness we have counselors and stuff there because…I remember two shifts that weren’t even 12 hours apart. There was an overdose at the end of one and an overdose at the beginning of the next shift.

[15:42] I remember sitting on my knees, holding this person by the wrist, waiting for a pulse to come back as everybody’s doing chest compressions and everything.

[15:51] I’m crying. It was such an experience and they brought this person back to life. I was like, “Oh.” Instead of detouring me from it and making me want to leave this, it made me want to help more because…

Jim:  [16:09] Love that.

[16:10] Jamie: It was awesome.

Jim:  [16:13] We shared before and I’m going on, will be 11 years sobriety this July. During COVID, I’ve been volunteering at a church recovery group every Tuesday when I’m in town.

[16:27] I tell you, I really understand and respect your thought process about getting to know somebody, because as we talked about nobody for the most part wakes up in the morning, says, “I’m going to become an addict,” or “I’m going to become an alcoholic.” Things happen.

[16:41] A lot of times there’s things behind the scenes that said, “I’m going to mask out these feelings with alcohol, or drugs,” or whatever the case may be. It is fun, and I’ll say fun in a good way when you can have a conversation with somebody and you get past the stuff on the surface, the addictions, or whatever it is.

[17:03] You get down to who they are, and what they have experienced and some of those trials and tribulations and things. To learn about that, I’ve met some great friends.

[17:14] If we have been over at the grocery store, we may never have even met. I absolutely respect that idea of connecting with folks and having some good understanding and sharing of knowledge too, because that’s what a lot of them want to do. They want to share, they want to get knowledge. They want to give and get.

[17:33] Jamie: Congratulations on your sobriety by the way. That’s very, very impressive.

Jim:  [17:40] Thank you. I appreciate that. I said to my wife and all those in my family, if I can go COVID for the two years of COVID with everything, without having any relapse and being very serious. 

[17:52] So many people have relapsed during this time. I am fortunate to not have, but so many people that I meet at the recovery church, they’re like, “I was going good. Then COVID happened, and I was isolated. I couldn’t get to the right people.” It’s a struggle.

[18:07] There’s a lot of good things that have come out of COVID. There are some challenges, as we all know, but I tell you this. For you and your path, doing what you do, what a blessing that has been. A lot of kudos to you, Jamie, absolutely.

[18:23] Jamie:  Thank you. It’s been life‑changing. I absolutely adore the people that I work with. Not only do I adore the people that come into our shelter for help, I enjoy these people, these people that I work with.

[18:39] I’ve got to mention this because I think this is so important. The social workers, the drug and alcohol counselors, all the people that I work with, these are people that literally spend their lives helping people. The craziest thing about it is when I first started working there, I realized that there’s all these older women that work there, between my age and maybe younger.

[19:05] These people have gone through university. They’ve paid so much money to help people because they are compassionate individuals. I found out they get paid so little. We get paid to build infrastructure. We get paid so much money in the skilled trades. These people who build people.

Jim:  [19:25] Yeah, humans.

[19:26] Jamie: They get so little. To me, that just blows my mind.

Jim:  [19:31] Yeah, absolutely. You really have to get, when the people that I have that passion for and that purpose, actually the money is secondary to them. It’s that connection of the people and the connection of what they’re doing and that’s how they get paid is by making a positive difference.

[19:56] Jamie: Yeah.

Jim:  [19:58] Definitely track with you. James, you kind of just moved on me, sir?

James:  [20:01] I was taking a break.

Jim:  [20:02] That’s fine.

James:  [20:05] I don’t know. I had asked for another bucket of Internet out here in the Texas ruled America.

Jim:  [20:12] That’s OK. You’re still good with us, brother. You barely missed a beat.

James:  [20:18] I appreciate y’all’s patience. Jamie, one thing you said in the pre‑show that I wanted to bring back around that, it really hit me was, it almost goes back to something we mentioned in the series of lot, which is these struggles. These mental health issues are not what defines people.

[20:40] You mentioned these awesome stories behind these folks that otherwise should, like Jim said, we never would have, maybe walk past them every day on the way to work. You get behind‑the‑scenes look into that life that they once had.

[20:58] Jamie: Yep. It’s interesting, some of the stories that I’ve heard. I think because I’m not a social worker, some of these people open up to me in a very, very different way. Through my experience there talking to these people, I start talking about being…I’m like, “I’m not a social worker. I’m a skilled trades worker.”

[21:18] We talk about things very differently, and they open up. I ended up meeting so many women at the shelter that have actually come from a skilled trades background. For one reason or another, they end up in the situation which reminds me, I am now quite cognizant of the fact that all of us are just a couple paychecks away from being in that situation.

[21:43] Whether it had to do with an injury in the workplace that they never recovered from and lost their job or they ended up with a sickness and they were put on medications and became addicted to those medications. Then when they were cut off and lost their jobs, they ended up turning to street drugs. There’s just so many stories.

[22:03] It blows my mind, the stories that you’ve seen and how successful these people are. Some of them are just trying so hard to get back to who they were, and they struggle with those mental health and addictions.

Jim:  [22:16] Let me just ask you a quick question though. You have the initial passion of KickAss Careers, or ongoing passion of that. Then you have this light that has been shining now with doing what you’re doing now.

[22:31] Have you had many success stories where you working in the shelter and finding somebody that not only wants to better themselves, but also wants to follow down a skilled trade? Have you been able to do the both of them?

[22:46] Jamie: I try to. For some of them, it’s difficult because they’re stuck in that situation, and the housing pricing up here. I’m sure it’s like this everywhere. The housing prices is not affordable, but we have families that come into the shelters that they just can’t afford housing.

[23:03] With the COVID crisis, people lost their jobs, they lost their homes. They got stuck homes with their spouses. Domestic abuse is at an all‑time high, mental health, all those things.

[23:15] There is one woman who was coming into the shelter. She has a little bit of a sad story, I can tell it really quickly. She was very successful in skill trade. She owned her own company. She was a millwright.

[23:28] She had all this extra training and she specialized in inspections and fixing mistakes. She traveled all around with her own company all over Ontario, our province and did these jobs.

[23:41] She was one of the very few females in the job site. She’s got a lot of picked on, bullied, whatever. She eventually ended up meeting a man in the industry who became very abusive towards her.

[23:53] Her mental health started to decline and eventually she got so low on herself that she literally took some drugs in attempt to commit suicide. It didn’t work and she became addicted to this.

[24:09] She ended up on the street. She ended up in a very bad space and her headspace wasn’t good. This woman, I have seen go from a really bad situation to going over and getting into our transitional program, where they provide them with a living circumstance to help them get back on their feet, get housing and start over.

[24:29] She is now in her own housing again and she is working on her own mental health. When she is ready, she knows that she has to contact me. I’ve already talked to some friends at the Boilermakers Union. I am going to bring her over there and try to get her signed up. That might be one success story, just holding on for.

James:  [24:50] That’s awesome.

Jim:  [24:51] I love that. I guess that’s another point I want to pick your brain on. I know we mentioned this at the group that I work with here, not necessarily substance abuse but substance concerns.

[25:09] The reason we say that is that, somebody could be using some things in a way where on the surface, they don’t look like they’re addicted or an alcoholic, but inside they’re hurting. They may have a concern with how much they’re using. Again, for the audience too, we have audience members from around the globe I’ll say.

[25:33] This has nothing to do with political boundaries. This is something that all over the world people are struggling with potentially.

[25:40] Do you have any advice for people that may have or feeling that they have some substance concerns, some mental issues, mental concerns for themselves? What would be the first step that they would do to maybe look for help?

[25:54] Jamie: I’m getting passionate about the subject and I’m learning a lot more about it. What I learned, I will share. I had no idea about a lot of these issues before I started working at the shelter and some of my own life experiences.

[26:11] What I started to do is, I started to look things up online. I started talking to the people that I worked with, because I worked with a lot of social workers behavioral therapists and all this type of thing. I found a lot of resources and information online. That’s really important.

[26:31] It’s the thing that people have to break the stigma. You have to talk about these concerns. The problem is, is that people hide them. They want people to think they’re OK and so they hide behind these masks for these substances. When if they could go get help and open up about it, it can change their life.

Jim:  [26:51] James says this so many times. He’s like, “Don’t suffer in silence.” Depending on what it is, it could be struggling at work or it could be a substance concern, or anything in between or there.

[27:05] I think that’s the one thing that I do love the time that we’re living in because right now if somebody says, “I have a concern over a substance.” So many times the HR department is here to say, “Hey, we have some resources to help you.”

[27:18] Or if they’re not working right now, “Hey, we know this center or we know this organization that could help you.” So many people want, need and desire to help folks. There’s lots of avenues. Great idea.

James:  [27:31] Jamie, I would say, that’s a big reason this show exists. This particular series is because of that very fact. We do have a platform, albeit maybe not a very big one. We do have a platform and we do have an audience.

[27:51] We have a message to be able to share. That’s why is so important to us why we’re so excited to have you on today to share your story because…I was just sitting here Jimmy, I don’t know about you.

[28:07] We started this a couple of years ago, Jamie, as we talked about in the pre‑show. Honestly, for Jim’s mental health and my own selfishly. We started it right as the pandemic began.

[28:24] The fact that we’re sitting here having this conversation with you on a totally different topic than what we would have thought we’d been having, is the proof of the fruits of our labor. Was one of those moments that I was like, “Man, I like what I’m doing.”

[28:41] Jamie: I’m going to get emotional. Wow.

James:  [28:43] I know, but you know what I mean. When we started it, was to sub in for conferences. Being able to touch base with our friends and vendors and things like that. As it’s grown and changed to be able deliver topics like this is…That’s why we’re doing it, right?

Jim:  [29:04] Being brave. James, I’m going to dare say, if somebody would have said that we’re going to be talking about mental health series in March of 2020, I would have been like, “No.”

James:  [29:15] Get out of town. It’s not normal in our industry. It’s not normal in a lot of industries. There is a stigma. Normalizing some of this conversation is a big part of it. Jamie, one thing…

[29:31] I just heard my daughter laugh in the background, I hope everybody got that. Well timed. Jamie, one thing. Before we get done, we usually give folks the floor. It can be anything. It would be personal, it could be whatever thought you could leave the world with. What would that be?

[29:53] Jamie: All right. This past COVID experience has opened up my life to things that I never ever thought that I would be exposed to that I would have to understand.

[30:09] I want to tell people that, so many people do suffer in silence for many different reasons. I know in the construction industry, there are people that suffer. In your job you suffer. If you’re not happy in your job, it is going to affect your mental health.

[30:25] If you are not happy in your marriage or your relationship situation, it is going to affect your mental health. A lot of people don’t want to admit that their mental health is suffering.

[30:38] They don’t want to admit they’re unhappy because of different circumstances. They don’t want to leave their job for financial reasons. They don’t want to leave their spouse or children or again, financial reasons.

[30:50] The thing is, is that we have one life to live. Here I am in my 40s, and I am learning for the first time about my own past and my own trauma, and the things that I’ve allowed into my life.

[31:05] I have been so open and honest in my whole life. I’m an empath. I always want to help people. I have a high tolerance for BS that people put me through. What I’ve realized since COVID happened is that, there are a lot of people that will take advantage of kind and nice people that are there to try and help.

[31:27] You know what? That put me into a really bad mental health state myself, and I started to research how I can change myself so that I can be a better person. For people who suffer with mental health, it is so important to admit that there is something that you need help with.

[31:48] There are so many resources online. There’s so many people in the community that are willing to help people, that it is important to reach out. I am finally starting to realize in my lifetime that I’ve never had boundaries. I’ve set myself up for failure over and over again because of that.

[32:09] Now that I’m working and I’m so passionate about mental health, and I actually, want to take concurrent disorders and addictions, so that I can speak better about this in the construction industry.

[32:24] Because I want to teach people how to have boundaries, how to draw lines and how to understand the different personalities that we’re going to work with. How to deal with them so we can succeed.

[32:37] I encourage everybody to look at yourself and see what needs to change and make yourself a better person by getting the help that you need to combat those situations in your life that caused that unhappiness.

Jim:  [32:50] Probably one of the most passionate, you have the stage, and of the shows, ever been involved with, James. Jamie unbelievable. Your passion just pours out into this subject matter.

James:  [33:05] Doing good work.

[33:06] Jamie: Thank you.

James:  [33:06] She put up out there. Doesn’t matter if you’re on the tools or not, you’re doing it. You’re on the tools. You may not call it that, but you got a new on the tools. Appreciate you.

[33:19] Jamie: Yes. I like to see myself as somewhat of an organizer and an educator for the construction industry.

James:  [33:27] You got our support for it.

Jim:  [33:28] 100 percent.

James:  [33:30] We’d love anything we can do to help push that along, you let us know. I’d be happy to sit next to you on a panel and talk about it, too.

[33:38] Jamie:  Oh, that would be amazing.

James:  [33:40] Let’s do it.

[33:40] Jamie:  Let’s do it.

Jim:  [33:42] I tell you what. If that happens, I’m going to somehow figure out how to record it myself so I…

Jim:  [33:48] can share that. Honestly, YouTube, absolutely. That’s wonderful.

[33:55] Jamie, thank you so much for joining us today. We know that you’re busy, and you’re doing a lot of great things. For you to take your time to join us today, we thank you greatly.

James:  [34:09] Reach back there and slap that welder’s helmet so people know that that’s not a fake background.

James:  [34:15] See? Look at it.

[34:16] Jamie:  It’s not a background. This is actually my welding helmet with all my stickers on it.

James:  [34:21] See?

[34:21] Jamie:  [laughs] I don’t know if you can see it, but I have a whole shelf of tools.

James:  [34:24] Look at that.

[34:26] Jamie:  Because when I talk to kids in schools, I oftentimes will get dressed up and…

[34:30] Jamie:  …do different presentations in different gear to show them some of the different stuff that we wear in the workplace.

Jim:  [34:37] James, you see that one side, prove them wrong? You see that up there?

James:  [34:40] I like it. Every day. Awesome.

[34:42] Jamie:  Absolutely.

Jim:  [34:43] Jamie, thank you so much.

[34:45] Jamie:  Prove them wrong. Success is the best revenge. See that? [laughs]

Jim:  [34:49] That is. I’m telling you, you and James could probably go on for an hour about…James’s background, it’s the story of his life and his mind right there. I love looking at it because that’s James inside…

James:  [35:02] Chaos.

[35:03] Jamie:  I love it.

Jim:  [35:04] Organized chaos.

James:  [35:05] If chaos was a brand…No.

James:  [35:09] Jamie, thank you so much for joining us. We’ll have to have you back later down the road. We wish you continued success.

[35:18] Jamie:  All right. It was a complete honor to get your…When I got the email about this, I was like, “Oh my God. They haven’t forgotten me. I love it.” [laughs]

Jim:  [35:27] We have not. Thank you, Jamie. Until next time of “Coffee with Jim & James,” everybody, please stay safe. We’ll see you soon.

[35:34] Jamie, this is where we dance out if you want to.

James:  [35:37] I do a robot, move…

Jim:  [35:40] Wait, the sprinkler.

[35:41] Jamie:  My old logo.

Jim:  [35:43] Oh yeah.

James:  [35:44] Look at that. We’re going to…

[35:45] Jamie:  [laughs]

James:  [35:44] upgrade that, upgrade in place. It’s in the air.

Jim:  [35:47] It’s on the way.

[35:48] Jamie:  [laughs] All righty.

Jim:  [35:49] Take care, everybody.

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Transcription by WatchingWords