Shaun Newman Podcast - #959 - Guardian Blue Collar Roundtable

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

In this episode of the Guardian Blue Collar Roundtable, I’m joined by Joey Stephan, co-owner of Guardian Plumbing & Heating, and Caleb Toews, owner of Renegade Acres. We talk building things with our hands, real creativity, AI’s role in the trades, and the brand-new studio.Tickets to Cornerstone Forum 26’: https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone26/Tickets to the Mashspiel:https://www.showpass.com/mashspiel/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Prophet River Links:Website: store.prophetriver.com/Email: [e-mail] the code “SNP” on all ordersGet your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

This is Viva Fry. I'm Dr. Peter McCullough. This is Tom Lomago. This is Chuck Prodnick. This is Alex Krenner. Hey, this is Brad Wall. This is J.P. Sears. Hi, this is Frank Paredi.

This is Tammy Peterson. This is Danielle Smith. This is James Lindsay. Hey, this is Brett Kessel, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Thursday. How's everybody doing today? Well, when we start this sucker, we're in the new studio now.

And pretty surreal feeling. to finally get to record the first one in there. Before we get to that, let's talk a little silver gold bowl, shall we? When it comes to questions you may have around buying, selling, storing, or using your retirement accounts to invest in precious metals, look no further than Silver Gold Bull.

Down in the show notes, you can get in contact with Graham via text or email, and if you reach out to him, he can walk you through all those details. You can also visit silvergoldbull.ca.org.com and just make sure on any purchases that you make, you reference the Sean Newman podcast. Guardian plumbing and heating. Yes, they are the sponsor of the blue-collar roundtable. We got one of the guys from Guardian on the podcast today.

But these guys have been keeping homes, farms, and businesses running smoothly since 2010. And they have the Guardian-efficient grain dryer and Guardian power stations. They aren't just available here in Lloyd Minster. They're available all across Canada. The power station is an absolute game changer, giving you two-for-one utilities, heat,

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You can get a hold of them at 780842-3433. That's Shane Stafford, and tell them I sent you. If you're looking for a new read or an audiobook to get into the new dystopian adventure series from author, podcaster, fellow Albertan, and podcast guest I might add, and Drew Weatherhead has it out now. Fractures in Love is the first installment in a four-book series that takes the reader on an action-packed ride in a mysterious world defined by a battle between chaos and order between passion versus control, ending in an all-out showdown with the existence of an entire population up for wager. Fractures in Love is available on paperback or hardcover on Amazon, as well as full-length production quality audiobook read by the author at Fracturesbook.com. The mash spiel is in Kalmar, Alberta, January 17th. And if you're looking to be, you can sign up as an individual or as a team of four.

The link is in the show notes. It's going to be an easy laid-back day with a little bit of curdling involved, if that's what I can call what I do on the ice. And I would love to have you there. If you're part of the mash-up crew, you're going to fit in like a dirty shirt. If you're part of the SMP career, you're going to fit in like a dirty shirt. The Cornerstone Forum returns March 28th at the West. Calgary Airport. Yes, we're returning to Calgary. We got some familiar faces coming back.

Tom Luongo, Alex Criner, Matt Erritt, Tom Bodrovics, Tews is going to be there. And we've got some new faces that we've announced so far, Vince Lanchi, Chad Prather, Karen Katowski, Sam Cooper, and more to come. You can get your tickets to showpass.com backslash Cornerstone 26. It's also down in the show notes as a link. And make sure when you're checking out that you grab a free complimentary ticket to the Friday night social, which is happening at the Weston, and there's a hotel booking link there as well. Substack, free to subscribe to. We've been releasing all the episodes on Substack. So that has been new, been getting great feedback, honestly, from that. And if you want to be a part of that conversation, sign up for Substack. It's free. You can also become a paid member.

It's the one place. You can support the SNP. If you're listening or watching on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Rumble, X, Facebook, substack, make sure to subscribe, make sure to leave a review, and if you're enjoying the show, share it with a friend. All right, let's get on to that tale of the tape. Our first guest is a co-owner of Guardian Plumbing and Heating,

our second owner of Renegate Acres. I'm talking about Joey Stephan and Caleb Taves. So buckle up, here we go. All right, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast and a Guardian plumbing heating blue-collar roundtable. I'm joined by Caleb Taves, Joey Stephan. Gentlemen, thanks for coming in. Yeah, thanks for having me. Good morning.

Oh, wait a second. I got to you there. Try that again, Caleb. Oh, you can hear me now? Yeah. I can hear you now. Okay. I had the, I forgot I switched you to a different spot.

So, I don't know, you were asking me if I had a plan for this. I'm like, I don't know, you're the first podcast in the new studio. I just thought we'd talk about building things. Without your guys' help, I don't know. Certainly this maybe happens, but it doesn't happen the way it did. And I look at the floor. I look at some things that are in here, and you two had a lot of input on that. So I don't know.

I wanted to just talk about a project and building things. you guys get to do it an awful lot more than me. And, you know, when we first started on this building, I'm sure everybody thought it was a touch but crazy. But I don't know. Thanks for hopping in and doing this. Before we get to anything, here. Well, thank you.

So that hasn't changed. The first, in the studio, we got to give out an ounce of silver. Shout out to Silver Gold Bowl. anybody who comes in studio now comes in the new studio getting a one ounce silver coin so you know the price of that keeps going up

yeah no kidding that's sweet thanks John thanks silver gold bowl now it being a guardian blue collar round table maybe a guardian should probably say something I don't know what you got Christmas deals going on right now Joey

yeah you know what we we try to help people out around Christmas and we people like to shut down over Christmas So our guys also like to take a little bit of a break. And that's when we're most forgived when we shut down for a weeker, maybe two. And yeah, we're Christmas time. There's a lot of people.

We're going to have a really cold winter or Christmas, it sounds like. December, there's some sort of story that, I don't know, that something on the polar ice caps is cooling down here for the month. Blaine was trying to explain it to me. And I, yeah, we'll see. it's it sounds pretty um pretty cool the colder it is the the more our business is driven so we're all right with cold and and making it warm does building things ever get old like uh you know like you guys both are part of countless projects uh i'm sure they aren't all quite similar to this

but does it ever get old like you know like putting your hands to something i don't think it does I guess I mean it gets old when you have when nothing goes your way but it's usually bad planning and and but no I find building is when you actually can make something with your hands and I think it's what we're meant to do everybody who likes they like to build things we've got video games now our kids are building things virtually and that's and those are kind of the most popular ones where they're yeah Minecraft. Minecraft, right? And everybody wants to build. And what if you can actually do it in the real world and you can look at it and run into customers years later that are still happy and things like that? It's pretty fun. Well, the part that they skip out on with the video games is when it gets hard, they can stop. Right. And when it comes to really building things, the hardest part is selling it. And then the second hardest part is completing it. Right. And it's that in between, state. where where it gets it gets hard and then getting it done that's the fulfillment that most trades people appreciate it's that it's done and you get to have a happy customer so yeah yeah actually on the topic of video games though I actually think it's good to limit how much they do play because oh it's screen time in general yeah well and those screen time is one thing but when you're using up all

those creative juices too right like yeah like you can sit and watch a movie you don't using or you know Mario Kart you're just racing your buddy but when you're actually building things you're you're actually taking that that desire to build that desire to create that desire to leave something behind and you're doing that virtually instead of in reality and uh unless you're building an app or something that's but when it's just purely for entertainment i think you're taking that away from from the kids i uh one of the things i never played Minecraft until like three weeks ago, and the kids were just like, you want to play Minecraft with us, right?

And I'm like, not really, but I tell you what, if it means a lot to you guys, sure, I'll come play Minecraft. And I was surprised at how, like, you know, to, I don't know, build an axe. You actually have to put together the components and you have to, you know, forge things and everything. I'm like, there's an educational component to Minecraft that surprised me a bit.

I was actually, you know, and Shay was walking me through. You got to put, you can't just, pull an axe out of thin air you got to actually put these things together now the time the actual like putting it into reality i'm sure a blacksmith or somebody who puts together these things is like yeah it's a little more than just snap your fingers and and you got an axe but at the same token it's walking through all the different elements of of um what's on earth and what's needed to build things which i which surprised me a little bit yeah that's kind of cool i actually haven't ever played it did you turn on the air exchanger you know the funny thing about a blue collar roundtable

my idea with with uh the first podcast in here was to have guys who help build this thing so i get them in here and folks for the first half an hour joey is up top like messing with things i'm like just leave it look it's been great the entire time it's been great the entire time do give me two minutes give me two minutes give me two minutes and now we have new sounds that have not been here joey the entire time am i like allowed to step away no no you're not allowed to step away we're in the middle of a podcast no like I want to leave what do you think of this place I mean you both walked in here when it was um not this yeah the first time I was in here I you couldn't actually walk around the building it was

mostly full of like old barrels and junk and and you could see through the walls most places this is this is quite a transformation it's pretty cool but yeah this is awesome. I also remember you asking, like, do you think, do you think this is a bad idea? And I'm like, no, this is this thing that you should, you should restore it. It's a good idea. I'm glad you, uh, I'm not sure if you're glad. I was waiting for somebody to be like, this is a terrible idea. Don't do this. This is going to be a waste of your time. This thing is going to keel over and fall. Instead, everyone's like, no, I got to see it. I had, shout out Stu Light. I had Stu Light who, uh, now farms, but he still has his carpentry, obviously. And he

walked in, he's like, I don't know why he just don't build something brand new. I'm like, man, and then I had him in about a week and a half ago, and he's like, man, this is so cool that you followed through on this, because I think if I'm, I can't speak for Stu, but in his mind, if he was going to do it, he would have done brand new probably. I mean, everything in here is brand new, but the outside to give the audience an idea is not brand new. It's, it's several years old, so. There's moss growing on the outside. It looks pretty, it's pretty good. It's classic. Yeah, you know what?

I think what made it easy for Caleb and I to fully be on board with this build was that you had lots of other ideas before this and they were big. And they were going to be a long-term plan, like a lot of work and a lot of, yeah, almost a couple of years worth of work. And this was a really cool idea. And it was something you could crush in a season, which was pretty exciting. Well, you're speaking of building things. you guys built a brand new shop, building?

I don't know, both. I mean, it's a giant building. It's a piece of work, that thing. When you talk about projects. Yeah, it was a lot of money. We should have maybe built it a few years ago when it was half price. But, yeah, no, we're pretty excited. And, you know, our new office, you know, most offices, everyone's fighting over the temperature.

And our office, each room has its own air conditioning, its own in-floor heating, so it'll, there'll be no wasted energy, it'll be super comfortable. It will be self-powered at this moment. The combined heat power system is not on our building. But, yeah, we're very thankful, and we all have spaces again. When you say self-powered, are you talking like you're going to generate your own power from boilers and stuff? Or am I just? Yeah, no, that's right. Yeah.

Yeah, so we generate the power and then all the heat goes into heating the building. making it efficient. Get away from a power bill to heat the thing. Exactly. Yep. Keep your gas bill the same and get rid of that electric bill. My electrician was out the other day and he came to the house and it was like, I'm going to turn the power off and Joey put one of these systems in our place. And so the electrician goes out and there's a little flicker on the lights and then I'm running out there in my socks because I realize that the backup power is now kicked on. and he might be working with live wires so it was a he you actually would have been working with live wires so it was good that I had it's awesome gone on and let him

know so yeah it's working good perfect yeah yeah Caleb system is pretty cool and his his combined heat power isn't on yet when I went out there to turn that on he was trying to use his garage as a cold storage at that moment and so I made sure everything else is working and I can come do a walk through and a touch-up at some point I finally make it out there to see again. You guys are in an interesting area because you can see when projects are being started when they're being built. And when you, like talking about Lloyd Minster here for a second, you drive around,

there's a lot of vacant buildings, right? Like I'm not like overstating that, am I? No, no, that's right. Like there's a lot of open buildings that could be transformed not relatively quickly. You know, like a mutual friend of ours, Robbie. and Culligan are taking the old OJs and are going to redo that building. I don't know the timeline. Sorry, Robbie, I should have asked.

That's been ongoing. But like, do you think people are building things anymore? Or is it going a different way? Like, we have so much changing in society right now. I'd never put together a project. So, like, you know, I kept saying on the podcast, I'm sure people were like, is he going to get in this thing, you know, because we started talking about it over a year ago. And every time I got close, I'm like, yeah, we're going to be close. And then, you know,

me not knowing projects. I'm like, oh, and I forgot about that. And I forgot about that. And I forgot about that. And I forgot about that. So it took well over a year from start to not even finish, because obviously the one feature wall in here is still probably about a month, I'm going to guess, away from being finished. But just curious, because like you guys build things all the time. You're always, you know, in the new projects and you get to renovate projects and put new things in old buildings, that type of thing. Do you think more of it is happening or is it, I don't know, stagnant? Well, for Lloyd Minster, like we lost the oil money in 2015 or 2016, whenever right around then. And we had a lot of empty buildings, a lot of big companies, Lumberjay and a lot of these big companies that were in Lloyd Minster disappeared.

So we're just starting to fill up all those shops again. I think we're running out of vacancy, which is good. Homes, like we lost a lot of people during that time as well. And so house prices are just starting to climb now after 10 years, which is pretty wild. So I think we're going to see a lot of building happening, not the 400 houses a year in our little community like we used to, but without the economy changing. But we're getting Costco. That was a big talk on our drive-in today. that's supposed to bring, what was it, 250,000?

Yeah, about 250,000 people with shoppers, yeah. Yeah, shoppers to Lloyd Minster. And the other people that are scared that their business are going to slow down, but this is 250,000 people coming to the city. Imagine what that's going to do for traffic and everything. Like, it feels busy right now. Imagine that many people coming to town next year. No, no PSD, like we're going to, it's going to be really good for Lloyd Minster.

And we've heard it, I think it was Grand Prix. Prairie when Grand Prairie got Costco it grew big time and it was really good for the economy there so I'm hoping the same yes for as new builds like Joey said like the oil and gas we you know we used to do piles and piles of work for guys that had a couple oil trucks and you know worked out of their yard and everybody need a little shop to park him in and we haven't I don't know it's been 10 years at least probably since we've done things like that It's cowboys now that have money.

So that's typically who you're working for. But I do hope to see the oil and gas come around. 10 years ago, you were doing concrete for new builds, new shops, that type of thing, not anymore? Well, we are still, but it's just not the same people. It's not the same kind of people. It's not oil and gas guys anymore. It was always oil and gas guys that had the money to spend. And it's just not that there's not money.

they still have money they're just I think they're pretty they're pretty conservative they don't want to get out in front of their skis right now with with a liberal government that we have putting the brakes on everything and legislation that they can pull the pin on the project with even if they've already invested a bunch of money it's hard to there's just not a lot of investing in that in that that that work right now I guess but when I you know of all the things like obviously in the studio here it's easy to talk about the woodworking so shout out to Josh who did all the custom cabinets and everything right because it's just like visual the other thing that it pops in pictures all the time is the floor and um I've been to tons of people have come in like what is

this and the harder thing to explain is what Guardian does because I'm like I don't even know like people come in last night we're in here book club came in and we were just testing out camera angles and audio and a whole bunch of different things and within like the first five minutes hardly sitting there and he's rubbed his foot he's like it's the floor wall my yeah yeah it is and but it's it's hard I don't know how to I mean obviously it's in floor heat but I'm like I don't know how to actually other than a picture of what you guys did it's hard to explain to somebody what Guardian did in here and yet it makes it like we're sitting here and it's like ridiculously comfortable is that a simple I don't know if there's

you probably can rattle off better than I can, how it feels in here and the floor and everything and what you guys did to it. Yeah, it's just simple in floor heat, but a lot of people don't put the right outdoor reset on it, so it overheats and the floor's too hot. A lot of mechanics you'll hear, oh, I don't like working on concrete, heated concrete because it's too hot. Well, it's just because they're used to systems that are running not properly. And, yeah, so proper air quality is air changes with outside, and you have that happening in here. And you have in-floor heat for the winter, which means you're not cooking your head. You're comfortable where you're supposed to be.

And then the air conditioning is mini-splits. So you shouldn't hear that running either when you're cooling in the summertime. So it should be just the right temperature. Well, I mean, sitting in here in the summer when, well, you would have been, you guys were putting concrete in the winter. time but then you were back out here in the summer this place was like insanely cool with nothing going on in it right because like i mean spray foam on this small of a building you know it's relatively shaded everything else right like uh i don't even know how much ac's ever going to need to be used in here maybe i'm wrong uh your electronics and the people that's what's gonna

gonna make it needed and it's yeah it's i forgot we insulated it too so it's yeah it's sealed up really good so you should use the least amount of energy needed to make it comfortable you know you brought up the liberal government we might as well talk about you know one of the things about having blue-collar guys on is i'm always curious your thoughts on the world that we're living in right now in canada is a strange odd duck uh and now we have uh mr carney as as later you know the last time caleb i think you were on joey for sure you know it was justin trudeau still now you got a new new liberal government what are your guys's thoughts? Oh, I think it's the government that we deserve, I guess. I guess I'm a Christian,

and so I look at things through a biblical worldview. And I just look at the laws that people are tolerating, the things that we just as a society go, we're fine with babies being murdered, we're fine with sodomites adopting children and then we're surprised that we get a government that wants to hurt us with their policies and i think i don't think we should be surprised i think we should i think i think our government is a is a it's voted in by people but it's uh it's appointed by god and so then we we end up with a with a government that brings judgment upon the upon our land, and I see that. That's how I look at it now, so I'm, I guess I'm not, I'm not afraid.

I mean, I'm certainly, I'm certainly worried for, for our nation. But it's, I think in time, as things get worse, people will realize that they need to return to, return to Christ and, and our governments as well. Like, our country was founded on Christian principles and Christian laws. and God's law is not there to bind us or restrict us. It's there to actually keep us from harming ourselves. And I think our nations can also repent and go back to the covenants that the founding documents, and I think our country can see prosperity again.

But until we actually do that, I kind of think we're going to stay on the same trajectory that we're on until we see repentance. But I don't know. I agree with that. Yeah. Couldn't have said that better. That's awesome. You know what?

It's, yeah, what we're doing to, as long as we're lying, and that's saying boys can be girls and girls can be boys, well, we're in, how do you expect our country to get better when that's what our government is allowing? Yeah, they were talking about, what was the latest thing? it was Buckeli out of El Salvador talking about incarceration can fix a country, right? Because they locked up an insane amount of people in a very short time. And Canadians are starting to talk about this.

Hi. You think Canadians are going to adopt what El Salvador did when we have like, you know, our judicial system is just so funny. Like, I mean, funny in a dark way. where you're a criminal and if you come from a certain background you're getting you're getting treated differently than somebody else not to mention like we have this like catch and release system and on top of like 14 other things and then you stare at El Salvador like we should do that it's like you know how bad El Salvador had to get before they did that this is the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere and then and then on top of that it's the size of you know it's like an

afterthought on the size of Alberta right it's it's a tiny little little country and Canadians are talking about I'm I'm not against it I'm just like you can't we can't vote out the liberal government right now you think we're going to get anything remotely similar to El Salvador like that that's laughable yeah I know I agree El Salvador and I mean they're in the Tucker interview with him like he talks about praying in their in their cabinet meetings and in there they've brought faith back into their government. Yeah, that's really what it, that's really what they've, what they've done. They've, they've repented as a nation. And, and, uh, Michael Wagner actually has a great

little book, um, I'm drawn a blank on the name now, but it's, uh, the broken covenant of the Anglosphere, I think it is, is what it's called. And it talks about the different, uh, countries in our founding documents and how that is what they are, like our founding documents was a covenant. And so, um, when you break a covenant, you, you can repent, you can go back to the covenant. I don't know if he uses this reference, but I look at it even like a marriage. It's not, if one spouse cheats,

you don't actually have to get a divorce. You can have reconciliation, you can stay married, you can have forgiveness and you can... Stop doing that stuff, stop doing that stuff, right? Like a covenant is there's things you must do in order to remain in that. covenant and yeah I just like our laws are just we have so many laws we have and that we

don't need most of them like if we would love our neighbors we wouldn't drive 180 when we're passing someone we would drive 180 but then we would slow down when we passed them to you know maybe 20 over yeah and then when there was nobody on the road again do you drive 180 you're just talking about the drive in I got you yeah just talking about Joey on the way in Yeah. I have grown 180. I waved. Yeah. I had a young guy. We were on the way to the airport, and this guy works for a farmer, and so he has to have this, because the guy wants to know how fast he's driving all the time. And his dad calls him, because he's, he's like, why? And his dad's on this app as well, I guess. He's like, why were you going 100 miles an hour? And he's like, well, I'm riding with Mr. Taves. So I do sometime speed, yeah. knocking this thing all of the place here i'm wondering is the headphones bug in here no it's really good i'm just trying to find the the most comfortable spot they're bugging me a bit i'm not i don't like the sound of my own voice well you can take them off if you want okay

that might i might oh yeah that's better like it better with us with the headphones on. Yeah, I do. Yeah. So one of the things I'm trying to figure out in here because, like, so the thought process

on a round table, the chairs, everything is I've watched, you know, I take in, I've taken, um, creative ideas from three guys'

shows that I've watched, um, probably more than most. And those three are Joe Rogan, Sean Ryan, and Tucker Carlson. And they all have interesting things they do. Like,

so, Joe Rogan always has the headphones on. Every single guest wears it. But I've worn them for so long, it doesn't bother me. And so it doesn't bother me to hear my... Actually, it feels weird not to hear my own voice being played in real time. And yet, if you've never been around it before, that's an odd thing to have kind of echoing in your head.

And yet now I feel odd if I don't have it. Yeah, so Joey's slowly taking it off as well. Okay, well, I mean, maybe that's just going to be one of the things. Yeah, you sound better now, too. Yeah. I don't feel like I'm myself when I have them on. Like, I think you guys that are wearing them all the time. I think it makes sense.

You and Joe Rogan, whoever, Sean Ryan, these guys are, you guys are in the studio all the time. Yeah, but Joe Rogan, or sorry, Sean Ryan and Tucker don't wear headsets. Joe Rogan does. Does he have the bass turned up in the mid on his voice? Because with those headphones on, he sounds like a lot tougher. Joe Rogan? You? Me.

Yeah. All right. Yeah, okay. I'm just saying you're changing the EQ to make your sense. so sound deeper. Possibly, possibly. Yeah, nice place you got here. I like the chairs, the table suite.

Yeah, it did a really nice job. Well, the obvious reason for having you guys in is I'm like, I don't know the best way to like promote what you both do, but then what you stand for and then on top of it, like how, how important it was to have your companies you two I mean Blaine should be sitting here as well I just don't know like how this project comes together

if you guys don't step up and do what you guys have done right like the feature wall when it's officially up is my best way to try and like you know tip of the cap if you would but like I'm like I gotta have these guys on right like I had a ton of people I was put it out on X a ton of people are like oh you gotta have somebody like just big for your first guess I'm like no, I want to have, I want to have the guys who built things with their hands

because I just, like, actually building a project and coming in here every week to month and seeing this place, like, completely transform. It's super cool, and you guys probably get to do it daily. And so, I don't know. I don't know if that, like, if I romanticizing it, but I would assume that maybe that gets old. Maybe you come into a place and you're like, yeah,

it's just another day on the job. but when you don't build things it's just super cool to me to like come into a place that you've like constructed because you know like we drew up to the studio on a napkin I'm like I think this is what I want

and this is where I want it to go and then partway through I'm like oh that doesn't work I forgot about this so we changed that we put this there but I mean like this this was straight out of my brain and maybe you guys get to do this all the time I don't know I to me

I just curious to have guys in and to talk about it because you guys build things all the time and for a guy who sits behind in a chair and talks people I don't build things all the time I have creative conversations but actually building something in the real world is something that I is foreign to me I guess and that experience has been super cool I can't put how cool it's been it's almost been surreal I guess I don't want to I don't want to try to to rail your question there but I think that that everybody is is creating still like even builders obviously in a very real way but but we're all like everything that we do is

bearing fruit and so I guess I don't ever find I don't know I'm I enjoy building things it never really gets old but I also enjoy having my kids around that never gets old I enjoy when they don't understand something and I can teach them um and and i think that's kind of everybody is like you're we're all creating if you're going to just neglect your kids you're you're still creating something there you're just creating something bad um and if you're going to go to work and not work hard you're going to you're creating a bad and work environment for other people so we're all creators um i think is that's that's how i look at the look at life i guess that we're we're all whatever we think

Well, maybe I just dabbled into your world then, you know, of like building something that you can touch and see and, like, sit in and like, you know, all the things coming together. Because I don't disagree with it. It's just this project in particular took way too much brain power, energy, trying to, in the best possible way. And normally this isn't what I do. Although in the studio I have in town that I sit and do the virtual ones, I sat and had rejigged that room. probably 50 times to get it to where I actually like really enjoy it but like something about having a round table be built the chairs being put in the lights going up all the walls the spray foam all of it every step of the way it was like

super cool to watch and see and feel and like sense and the smells and everything I mean I'm probably to once again romanticizing it but it's just something I don't do so like to actually see it I don't know No, my idea for today was to talk exactly about that because you guys do it on the daily and most people don't. Well, you know, in the trades, like, yeah, I do. I love seeing projects happen. And you know what? I think that you see people come and go in the trades and you see them say they, they don't like their job.

Well, that person that doesn't like their job, they just, they don't like anything. Like they're never happy with anything they do in the end. And eventually they stop that because they have to at some point. in life but you know what i i i no matter if i get to build it or if i get to design it and somebody else build it i love doing that i love to see it finished and and that's something yeah my dad taught us was you know what um it just love what you do right and you you we don't go to work because we'd rather go to work than hang out and and play with our kids but we have to feed them so if we're going to have to go and work let's have let's have fun doing it let's love it

it, right? I think, not me, I could, I, I, I, I don't mind cleaning a sewer. If I'm making really good money, I don't care if I'm cleaning a sewer or putting together a boiler system or a combined heat power. I don't care what it is. It's just I want my time to be used the most efficient way possible. But yeah, no, I love, that's the thing. It's people that love building, like that feeling you're getting right now, right? You know what, if you just got to choose to love it. It's just like loving your kids. Like people that say they hate their kids and they can't wait until they leave home. Well, it probably is the same way in most of their...

Do people say they hate their kids? Oh, you hear people. Okay, maybe you don't. Maybe I just thought there was people out there. No, no, no. I've heard people say they can't wait for their kids to leave. I've heard that. And you could...

I've heard that before. I think you're extrapolating the hate because they say they want them to leave. Have you actually heard people say they hate their kids? Yeah, no, I haven't heard them. Okay, I guess. Yeah, it would be more they, they want them to go to, they can't wait until they go to school because they can't handle being with them too much. And I, you know, I think it's, yeah, that's like being around one person too much. I got, I was telling you guys, uh, two nights ago when I was first starting on trying to figure, because like a brand new, um, like board for all the mics to go into and everything. And then camera angles and, and all the things. So I brought the kids out because I just needed somebody to sit there. This studio will never be that loud ever again. I was, like, I mean, I might always give him him to meet Chakoke and said to go Hogwild.

For 50 minutes, they were hovering on each chair and yelling into the mic. They let, they on the other hand, like the headphones. They put it on and they're just like, this is all. And they were singing it and they were just doing everything. Yeah, that was a good video. Although it is, it was a stressful moment because I'm like, just sit. I need to, I'm like, I couldn't stop laughing. because I'm like, I don't even know, like, they're just so excited.

Their excitement matched my excitement for building this thing, right? I mean, obviously, I wasn't singing that much, but being around kids, being around my kids, that has been, well, it's been the best thing that's happened in life, right? Probably, you know, right beside marrying my wife, right? Like, I mean, those have been really good things, and Jordan Peterson talks about it a lot, you know, never allow your kid to do anything that makes you hate them. I think that that is actually out of his book 12 rules for life. I'm pretty sure is something along that lines,

which every parent should probably stew on for a bit. Or even annoy you. Like if they're annoying you, like obviously kids will do. Oh, kids are going to find ways to try and pick at you. Right, but like I just mean if there's like something they're always doing that's annoying you, it's like how bad is that going to annoy their boss or their spouse?

or like help them overcome that when they're six instead of when they're, you know, 26 and their wife thinks they're a weirdo, but I don't know. I'm pretty sure some days my wife thinks I'm a weirdo. Oh yeah, my wife definitely thinks I'm a weirdo sometimes, but I have this weird tick that I do whenever I'm driving a cold vehicle and I'm imagining it all warming up and I make a really weird face and I'll look over and she's giving me the side eye like, who is this guy? When you have a really cold vehicle, you what? Well, I imagine, like, the thermostat, like, opening up and, like, you know, letting the coolant come through to the heater core and the fans, you know, blowing through the fins.

And I'm just imagining all of that. It's partly actually why I think I like building things is because I can, I visualize it all. And actually, Joey's a big, he's, when we talk about stuff, he's, he visualizes stuff like that all the time as well. Lots of builders do. They can see it all. But then I'll be doing that and I'm like absentmindedly making like a really weird thinking face. and yeah but yeah you know what and I didn't realize how much more I can visualize it until my wife and I bought a used house first one in this area they're a really good price

and we're doing a reno and and I couldn't convince her that it was going to be nice when it was done and my mother-in-law came to the rescue which I can give her a shout out for for that and um she got AI to do the reno and and showed her it done so AI got me a nice nice acreage to reno with my boys before we talk AI because that's that's interesting interesting that drew it out for your wife that story in itself you wonder where we're at in five years with AI but the visualization part when I walked in here and And especially after I cleared out all the junk, because when the drunk was in, you couldn't actually get an idea of the space.

But I've been praying a lot because what I wanted was a space that was essentially double. I remember thinking this. The current studio, or sorry, I guess the virtual studio now, I don't know, 12 by 12 room. And I remember thinking, man, if it was just double the length and the same width. And I was like, no, no, no. like 14 feet wide just an extra couple feet and when I measured this place out it was exactly 24 long so double the length and it was 16 feet wide and after we framed it in it's 14 feet wide it's perfect and just having clear floors even when it was dirt and everything and everything

looked a mess and you had the squirrel running through the walls and everything I just looked around and I'm like I can just see it and if nobody else can see it it, that's totally fine. I can see it. Now, I got to put the things together to make it come to what it is now. But I'm like, I can actually see it. And I hadn't really thought about the visualization part of it that you're mentioning. Well, and I think Caleb and I saw it done when you brought us out here. Like, we could see that when you were talking. So it wasn't a big deal for us to get on board, right? It was pretty clear what you were saying. And, yeah, now it looks exactly like you were saying. So it's perfect. Well, I didn't,

It doesn't look exactly what I was saying. Because you remember me, you remember those early conversations if you go back? I said, I thought there was going to be a couch and cigars in here. We're working on it. We're working on it. When we had those early conversations, I was actually like, what would you guys do? That's how we got in floor heat. That's how we got stamp concrete.

Because I was going to build a wood floor. I wasn't. I was like, and then you're like, no, no, you should do concrete. And I'm like, really? Yeah. And you two start again. having like two hens back and forth and I wasn't even part of the conversation I'm like sure yeah you guys if this is what you want yep nice well I think it turned out amazing in here

yeah it is it's nice and warm that's what we interpreted what you really wanted is what we're getting at that's what traits people do well you surround yourself with good people right and then and then let them go do what they're good at and this is what you get well that happened lots with not so much in commercial work but you start doing residential work and and uh and the husband will tell you what he wants and you know this is what i want to look like and we're like okay well we're gonna we'll paint some lines on the ground first you know where you want your sidewalk and then we'll get your wife to come out and we'll paint lines where she wants it as well and then we'll see which one you know you guys like better and sometimes we have ideas as well

and we'll kind of show them all right because we do it all the time and it's amazing how how often you end up with kind of a all three ideas you know that it's a they they take our ideas as well and and some of theirs and because it is uh yeah you can you can hear people uh you know what they want you know they're not going to want to weed whip around every corner and on the front lawn and so you you put some some smooth corners in there for them and things like that but it's just it is kind of neat um yeah working with people and trying to hear what they are going to be happy with but also by drawing the lines then you can you can see it yeah i was doing that yesterday with the tv i was like i was trying to figure out where i wanted to put

it and so i actually taped up lines and i'm like that i was like stupid and as soon as i taped up i'm like i can't go there and i have to move it move it around so that i could get it to the right because like visualizing where it should go okay but then actually taping it out gave me an actual I didn't have to imagine anymore I could actually see the outline of where it's going and when you're talking about like I think this is what I want

and then you actually pencil like oh yeah that may be it won't work I watched Jordan Scott do it with Dan Ray out front he had an idea and then as soon as he spray paint he's like I don't like that and he started redoing the lines right in front of me he's like that doesn't make any sense

we're going to do this instead which which there's one thing to visualize something then there's another thing to pencil it out. That stupid wall, we have rejigged several times. Actually, most of this place has been rejigged several times, if I'm being honest. Well, whatever Joey was doing up there before just came on again. And if he'd done a wood floor in here, you would have to do like forest air heat,

and you'd have a heater coming on all the time. And this is nice with your inflore heat. You got the heats going and you don't even hear it. Yeah, that's awesome. It's perfect for a studio. Now, AI, you mentioned that. I was curious. In your realms, do you see AI, will AI ever take away a plumber or a man to lay concrete or is there different applications where it can help or all the above? Well, you know what? It's, yeah, it's trying to take over. Some people are using it too much. It's making people dumber for sure already. I think we've seen that. but and because they don't have to think it through they let AI come up with the thinking for yeah and some people they're going to use it in a good way and some people are trusting it too much

like um one speaker i was listened to the other day he asked for some stats on i think it was uh football or baseball and and then he fact checked and it was wrong so he told AI it was wrong but a lot of people would just go with it and that's going to be the issue is people are going to trust it very quickly um for us our industry there's a lot of it already. The call centers, I listened to an AI from another company the other day and the customer called in and they told them their water heater was leaking. And then AI asked what type of water heater is it?

Is it tankless or a tank water heater? Tank. And then AI went, you're welcome. Because it heard tank. Thanks. And yeah, so we got to hear like super funny ones. So there's, where it's going to be nice is people aren't going to be sitting on hold and AI can be taking their information and then get it to a real person. So it can be beneficial, but it also is, it's going to, I think a lot of people are going to be very angry talking to AI.

Well, you think the growth, like, that's the early stages of it. And certainly, if you call anything to do with the Canadian government, that's exactly, it's voice prompts to get you in the next thing. You never talk to a real human being, right? Like, ever. And on that, though, this is just the early days. Imagine five years from now and how much better a call center AI will be to actually get the person where they need to go.

But I don't know about anybody else listening to this. I always want to talk to the person. The person is just, you can explain it. You're not looking for the right voice prompt to get a decent answer. And then you're still like, but is that the right answer? Like, I actually just want to talk to somebody.

Yeah, we're trying really hard to get it to the human touch still. And it's hard because people are, because of AI are getting less patient with being on hold. And we've got several people. It goes through that it, we're trying to get it to somebody very quickly. We don't want them to wait five rings and then, and then pick seven, seven options. So it's a huge challenge because people are very impatient right now. And, and we also don't want them to sit on hold. No one has time for that.

but AIs could help with it, but we won't, yeah, I agree, needs to get back to the human touch, the actual person. You think it'll do anything to the concrete business? No, I don't think so. Like, I mean, we're, you see it in, in machinery, I guess, and equipment, you see a little bit of stuff, but I mean, our work is just, yeah, kind of knuckle dragon, get out there and bust your guts, I guess. I mean, it's, yeah, it's not pretty. We just have to use Giver, I guess, yeah. But it's sledgehammers and shovels. We've actually never had tools get stolen.

I know lots of trades guys get stools. Nobody wants to steal sledgehammers and picks. It's kind of, yeah. It's amazing. It's one thing. It's nice about having. That's interesting because you'd think those would be the tools. I guess this is why I'm not a thief.

Because I would look at sledgehammers. and pickaxes and stuff like that as like, I need those to complete the job I actually want to do because if I'm going to be a thief, I'm going to be a, I'm going to steal something that I never have to steal again. Yeah. And this is probably why I'm not a thief. I put way too much thought into it. HVAC vans are stolen to go do to steal stuff. Yeah, my dad, he had his stolen, I don't know, it was probably probably like 2001. Our vehicle was stolen and then it hit, I don't know if it's just ATMs, but the ATM, the town we're in and it was just used to do crimes because the angle grinders are in at all the right equipment. And now with all the Milwaukee tools that

the service tax are carrying, I think that we'll see more of that. When people steal all these tools, do they like, do they approach different companies and be, hey, I got some tools, do you want to buy them? Or like, what do they do with all the tools they get? We rarely find them. Like, they must be I don't know there's some sort of network happening because you get right on Facebook you get searching Kijiji oh yeah and everyone knows their own tools right like they've got their marks on it and where they've bled on it and so they go and sell them to the public online no no you don't you don't find them online though they must be going to Edmonton or leaving our area and we net you just you rarely see it again some of the guys

have found it on Facebook but um it's um it's a really annoying thing you do you just you never find them I've had several tool bags stolen and like the tools you can identify them but you just never see them again. They're Gandhi. Your question about AI, do you use AI loss? I find over the course of the last six months

probably my uptake in using it has grown. And the reason, there's certain little things that I like using it for, finding out about a guess. So if I invite on, I just had on Mel Kay. If I type in to Grock, who is Mel Kay? It'll just list me off a whole bunch of things. Oh, that's interesting. Oh, that's interesting.

It's doing the research that used to take me watching four interviews and reading a couple blogs and it compiles it into almost like an essay format where I can, and bullet points, I can be like, oh, I had no idea if you did this and this and this. I can use it to summarize an episode now. So I can take my entire transcript,

put it into Grok, and it'll spit out a summary of it. Is Grok reading that to you, or is it all written form? Like, are you talking back and forth to Groh? No, no, no, like I take the transcript. So AI now, like so Spotify substack, they'll generate you.

an actual word-by-word transcript of this entire podcast. Wow. Which is really cool. And, like, to me, it's just a tool. I try to limit its thinking for me. But even on a virtual one, somebody was asking me, how did you pull that up so quick? I have GROC open all the time now on a virtual podcast.

So when a guest throws out some general or some event, I'm like, what the heck is that? I can literally type it in, and it'll spit out real, time basically you know what they're talking about so i can at least go oh it's this general over here and then they're like oh no and then they'll rattle it off that's what i like it for i use it for editing um quick dick when it was just in lashburn for a fundraiser for the lashburn elementary school and i wrote a speech and um well the long story is back in college i was when i was in high school I was like a C student, and then in college, in English, I had an A-plus, and that should shock

anyone who listens to me, maybe not, I don't have no idea. I was never a great English student, no matter if I put a ton of time and effort into it. I just, I had redundant thoughts in my essays. And so in college, one of our teammates, wives, girlfriends at the time, went through and edited all my papers. She's like, you're saying this point over and over again, so then I'd take it back, and I'd, you know, okay, and then I bring it back, and we go back and forth.

When she turned me into an A-plus student, AI does that for me. A-I has become that girl for me, where I can write a speech, put it in there, and it edits out all the redundancies, and then it gives it back to me. And there's, AI is not a human being. It'll say things, and I'll be like,

that sounds stupid, that is not what I want, and I have to take it, and I have to rejig it all again, but it does that, it goes back and forth, grammar, punctuation, a ton of that stuff that I have, I'm very poor at. So I guess in that sense, yeah, I'm using it more. There's editing software now for podcasts to, you know, like do a bunch of stuff that is really time consuming and it can do it really fast.

But if you don't watch it back, you can see where it screws up because it can't, it's just not a human being. So it has its uses. I look at it like it's a tool on a tool belt, but it isn't the end-all-be-all of like it can do exactly what I'm doing. doing, although and maybe in the future it will. I have no idea. Maybe I'll be sitting here interviewing Caleb and Joey and doing just fine. Who knows? Yeah, no, I think it's an amazing tool as well. It's, that's, that's, I hear people that

think it's going to take over. I hear people that, you know, think it's all kinds of conspiracies of what they think it is. But I think that it is an amazing tool. I think our phones are an amazing tool as well. But I think it goes back to, goes back to building you can use. use it to build for good or or it's like a hammer you can use a hammer to use a hammer to put all these things up on the wall put the nails in you know put things in place but you can also use a hammer to smash stuff and go break into the place where you want to steal the stuff from and that's what i would look at AI you can either use it to become dumber or you can use it to fine tune what you're doing and become uh because you also learn as well you're like oh yeah

Actually, I should have put a punctuation mark in there. Like, there's things that, when I use it for stuff, I'm like, yeah, no, I learned this in school, I think, but I forgot it. And it just kind of, yeah, it's a good tool. It's crazy some of the stuff coming out with the AI, though, right? Like, you can, X's, so GROC, when it first started, it was, you know, I don't know, it was fine. Now it's on, like, it's fourth iteration, I think. I don't know. Is it, it's fourth update?

even know what to call it but now it's doing like short form videos and stuff where you can just prompt it with what you want in a video and it'll spit out things like that to me is wild like you know like five years ago i wouldn't i would have i would have i would have thought like i wonder if you can ever create a video where you you type in a thought you're having i want batman to talk to uh jordan peterson this is a uh i just wanted this for an image because I thought it would be funny. And I remember trying to do it like four or five years ago. And now

what it gives me is completely different. I wonder where that is in five years and then another five years and then another five years. Like I mean an AI is improving so rapidly. It is eerie where I can see where the conspiracy theorists go like this is going to

take over society. Well, it's going to take over society if you give it all the power. Yeah. Yeah. Drop your phone in a bucket of water it'll probably turn off used to now they're waterproof yeah it's a mess

actually I was quite happy when they they made it waterproof I remember dropping in the lake iPhone 7 and it was still it's still playing music as it went to the bottom I'm like there it is went down grabbed it it was in like four feet of water put your head under it's still playing

music like they any final thoughts boys you're both like quiet on me today which is interesting to me yeah you know what it's just so relaxing out here this might be an issue it's pretty calm like in looking out that window nothing's changed the whole time we've been in here that's it's great well it's different than the the the studio you normally in you know like one of the reasons i didn't um knock down a wall and like expand there is when people walk down the hall you can hear it i don't think i'm going to have that problem here No.

And if it was a moose walking by and you could hear it, that'd be pretty awesome. Yeah, this is pretty nice vibe in here. Like it's, yeah, it's great. Well, you're the first two in it. The first two, I mean, I've had the kids, I've had the book club testing things out, but the first one to actually go on the podcast, maybe I should ask a few different questions, you know, when it comes to it being the brand new studio that people might have.

I don't know. Explain to them what you're seeing. well you know what we got a nice dark ceiling so it's not distracting the walls are yeah that walnut right yeah walnut is really nice yeah i had a 4570 once and it was this like exact color and it yeah it was awesome some stainless so you got to find that 4570 you can get it out here but yeah 45 it's a gun a gun oh sorry yeah yeah it's really nice yeah no you you'd showing me a couple of Google pictures and stuff with your ideas and yeah it it's it's better than what you were showing us that's it's awesome yeah and the and the chairs are sweet where the heck did

you find these way fair yes i was trying to find um i want to gold chairs and i was asked mel right this is where a woman comes in i'm like i don't know where to even go right i went to some of the stores locally in lloyd and i just couldn't find what i was looking for and i'm like i could go to emminton or something and like you know one of the things about shopping these days you know like black friday is is coming up cyber monday is coming up and um you know there's just there's just so many options online to like find exactly what you're looking for so i looked at probably no less than 150 goldish chairs online man that was a mind-numbing day like i just but in fairness when they get in here you know uh jamie sinclair had always been annoyed with the the the um chairs in the current

studio because they rotate right they're they're on rollers and everything but when i first started i just i just need chairs i don't need only chairs yeah you know well the first time i was in the you told me not to move my chair because you must know me fairly well because i probably would have been spinning that thing in circles because it's these are these are nice you can't uh you can't move you can't turn your back to the camera no no yeah no i was spinning all over in there and i was spinning all over in there I'm spinning all over in here. I just, that's just how I sit back and forth, switching.

Yeah, but it is nice. We haven't moved to the chairs. But the view out here from your studio is pretty phenomenal as well. Like you got the shire at the window here. I'm half expecting to see hobbits out there looking for some snow-covered mushrooms. Well, the audience won't be able to see that because with just the three of us, there's no camera pointed to the fourth chair that looks out the big window. but you're not wrong.

Like, I mean, it's a pretty peaceful spot. Yeah, it is. Yeah. We were out here last night, and it was, I mean, was there a quarter of a moon last night? Like, there was hardly any moon, and it was dark out here. And you look up and, like, you know, I was sitting here and I'm like, man, this is, you know, growing up in the country, I, I, there's a part of me that misses it, you know? And last night, I was sitting here and just looking up. and you know there there's a shooting star that's nice right there's not a sound i couldn't even

hear a coyote last night you know and i was thinking half my mind goes i'm going to hear a coyote or two or something it was just it was just peaceful it was just quiet and in today's world certainly myself living in town um i probably don't get out probably not not many of us unless you live in the rural countryside get out of the city out of the hustle and bustle the pace of today's world near enough. And one of the things about being out here is that's certainly what it's supposed to be. Yeah, I know. I think you've done a good job of that. It's, uh, there's no hustle and bustle. It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's great. Any, any final, any final thoughts before I lay you out of here, I've got my enthusiasm for today knows no bounds, but you two are pretty

engaged today. Yeah, no, it's, it's funny. Usually I got lots, lots more to say. I'm just so relaxed and it's a nice to be out here and yeah it's great to to be friends with you Sean and it's it's been yeah it's been a good run and and well many more days ahead not a good run you don't think we're done i don't think i don't think i don't think we're done no no it's it's yeah it's awesome no appreciate it and i can't wait to yeah be out here some more yeah seeing all your kids on these chairs and yeah i'll have to drag one of my boys out here to check it out some time and absolutely yeah we'll have to do one with well i mean heck your kids helped, Caleb, in putting the concrete it.

Yeah. Yeah, they did. They really enjoyed it, yeah. And we actually, I purposely kind of, I guess, pick them to help me. There's some of the other guys on the crew obviously did a lot of the work as well, but I wanted those guys out here to be part of something that's what we really like the work that you do and putting. getting the truth out to people, actually having real news and discussing things that need to be

discussed and hearing both sides of the argument. I think COVID really brought that forward that we need both sides. We need to actually have a conversation, not a monologue, and I think you do a really good job of bringing that out in people and getting the story out. so I wanted them to be, wanted them to be part of that. So, yeah. Sorry, boys, I didn't bring you out to the studio yet.

No, that's a good point. Well, there will hopefully be many years ahead where that can be done. And we can maybe even have a little bit of fun with them all in the studio. Because the kids, I was telling it, like, I got them in here, had them all sitting in the chairs.

And I knew if I didn't have, everything set up, they would be annoying because there's only one mic, and they'd be fighting over it. So they all had their own mic, their own headsets, everything. And one of the questions I asked him was, what do you think dad actually does? And, you know, the two oldest had a couple of thoughts

and my youngest looks at me. And he's like, work. And I'm like, well, that's right. The other two are just howl. And he's like, I don't get the question. What do you do? You work. I'm like, well, fair enough, right?

Like, it's cool to get the kids in here. I've recorded it because someday when they're older, I think they'll look back and want to hear their thoughts on a few different things we talked about in here. I think you're going to really like that video. Forever. Forever, yeah. Man.

Being a dad is cool. Yeah, it's pretty much our. the best job we have in life it's it's awesome yeah that's my favorite part of my job is having having kids yeah yeah they're a blessing yeah it's been a while since we've uh i think the rink in hill ones last time we uh we've seen all the kids together but we should do that again soon gentlemen thanks for hopping in and doing this being the first in the new studio and uh well hopefully there will be more to come i'm sure there will But either way, thanks again for hopping in here.

Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.