Welcome to the WorkReady Podcast. Today, we're doing something a little different. We're pulling together some of the most powerful moments from previous episodes, the moments that listeners have told us made the biggest impact on them. The conversations all touch on the same truth: the people who build, power, and maintain this country deserve the same performance support that we give elite athletes.

So whether you're a lineman, construction worker, or a foreman, or someone just starting your apprenticeship, this one's for you. Let's get into it.

Best career advice you've ever given? I had an older gentleman tell me, I'll never forget, and I kind of alluded to this earlier. He said, "Don't define success by money or position," 'cause there are always gonna be somebody that has more of that or higher up in the company. Basically, I would say I, I realize that if I can put water in people's bottles all day, especially in a world that is trying to do the opposite, that that's success.

What's the biggest mistake a first-time supervisor makes in their first 90 days? I'd, I'd say kinda acting like the new sheriff in town. Like, "I'm here. It's gonna get better. I'm awesome." And you might not say those words, but it kinda feels like I have to set the tone right now. And I was taking over facilities at Kennecott that were struggling mightily.

But I spent the first 90 days sometimes just working on the shop floor, getting to know people, getting to know our processes. So that's it. I think, uh, you gotta build trust before you think all people are gonna just love all your ideas.

What separates someone who gets promoted from someone equally skilled who doesn't? So this just came up the other day, and this is my answer, that I would be a person that everyone wants on their team. I don't care if it's a permanent team, like, you know, I'm gonna join your team, or it's a project team, or it's the team that's gonna plan the company Christmas party. It's as simple as that.

Because there's a lot of smart people, there's a lot of technical people, but I'd go, "You know what? Let's get Kevin on this team," 'cause you know why? He does have some technical re- expertise, yes. But you know what? He's open to new ideas. He is really collaborative, and people love working with him, and he's civil.

And I'm telling you, I think that's the main difference, is at some point, if you are difficult to be on, have on a team, it's gonna stop you. It's gonna hurt you somewhere.

What's one question every employee should ask their manager and almost nobody does? And this is so great, 'cause I just said that, that this made me think of this.

So with... I asked... I just told you Jen and I. Say, "As a husband, what can I do more of or less of?" I would say you will blow your supervisor's mind if as a staff or hourly employee you went, "Hey, I just wanna make sure I'm, I'm growing, that r- I'm doing the right things for our customers. What are some things I could do more of or less of that would help in that vein?"

I think if you did that the supervisor would fall over. Because, see, that's, that's back to self-awareness, that I wanna grow, I wanna get better. I like more of or less of instead of what do I suck at and what am I great at. Because kind people will go, "Oh, you don't, you don't suck at anything." But if Kevin s- you said, "What could I do less of?"

I'd s- I tell you what, in our s- huddle meetings in the morning, I understand you got a lot on your brain, but I think some of those things that you bring up at the huddle would be better one-on-one. That's all. Like that, you know what I'm saying? That more of or less of is a, will almost always lead to a better conversation.

If you are verbally aggressive to somebody, so you just yell at them, okay? If they're in a wor- you just yell at them, uh, and that's your normal management style, what happens to the brain of the person getting yelled at? The answer's amazing. The first thing that happens is their short-term memory collapses.

The brain collapses down to a single thing. It collapses down to the source of the threat. So for example, if there's a gun that's involved in this awful story I'm making, the, uh, where there's an assault, um, you might not remember the, the perpetrator's hair color. You might not remember their weight or their height or even what they were wearing.

But by God, if they've had a weapon, you'll remember the weapon. But if you yell at somebody and there's no weapon involved, your weapon is now your mouth. The brain collapses, Kevin. It's does, it's gonna do the same am- retrograde, anterograde amnesia. It's not gonna remember much, but by God, it will remember the mouth.

Yeah. And it will remember that it was a threat and that they felt either humiliated or they wanted to punch him. If you're an orchid, you wanna f- you wanna fire, you, you wanna leave. And if you're an, and if you're a dandelion, you're gonna wanna quit. It doesn't really matter. One of the things that's so important to understand about the brain, particularly in high-stress situations, is that it is the world's best survival organ, and it is constantly looking for feelings of safety in order to be able to accomplish the things that it can do.

If it doesn't feel safe, it actually collapses down to just a few priorities, which usually involve threat assessment followed by a, a rapid solution, which usually involves leaving, by the way.

And that's what people try to do when they get yelled at, when they're, they, they feel like there's a weapon involved. One of the first things they wanna do is get out of dodge. They don't want to improve themselves, which is what the boss may be trying to get at. What they wanna do is that they want to escape the feeling.

So there's, you know, you can say that bosses need to be softer. I would argue that that's probably the case, but that's actually missing the question or missing the point. Mm-hmm. The point is not to be softer or to be harder or to get people to be motivated or not motivated or whatever. The point is to instill as much psychological safety as you can on the people that you're leading in order that they may function at the highest level, and that's actually what bosses want.

It's, it's not weird nowadays to have a, a 65-year-old who's competing in, in, you know, sporting events and who can kick like a 35-year-old's butt, you know, uh, because they have taken care of themselves and gotten themselves to that point, and it's just their behavior. It's how they've lived their life. So, um, the big why is life, right?

Enjoy it. Get yourself healthy to enjoy everything you've worked hard for. Um, I think that resonates. I mean, uh, I don't work in the field, but I want that for myself. I want that for my family. So, um, I think that's important. Absolutely. I always tell people that pretty much everything in life is enhanced by the ability to move well and not be in pain.

I mean, I can't think of any activity that is better if I'm in pain. And so being able to, to take that preventative approach, it just enhances every aspect of life. And for people who like to hunt, fish, travel, you know, spend time with their family, all that is enhanced by those small... Like, I think of it like a 401.

These... Like, you're putting away little bits of, uh, you know, deposits, uh, over the course of your career so that when you get to the end of your career, you know, you have a retirement, which is movement health in my mind. Absolutely. I like that, the 401. Absolutely. If you were to speak to somebody who's in their first 18 months of their career, uh, in utilities construction, what's one piece of advice that you would give them, uh, that would han- enhance their career over the long haul?

What you do and the habits that you set in those first 18 months of work, um, they, they are gonna determine what the rest of your life looks like. Uh, your career, your post-career life, time with family and friends, right? It's, um, taking care of yourself, um, at every age. So I, I think that's important. If you can set those habits right from the beginning, I mean, again, to use your 401, um, kinda metaphor, you're investing in yourself down the line 20, 30 years.

Um, so it's worth it to do those things and, y- you know, implement doable small things. Don't try to maybe do it all at once. If I've got zero background on, you know, stretch and flex or proper nutrition or, you know, eating the right way, protein, macros, you know, start with one or two things. Make it easy.

Get very good at those one or two things, and let it grow kinda from there. Um, nothing too much, uh, n- not overwhelming, just one or two things. I would imagine that, you know, sometimes being strong could be a detriment because you, you just try to muscle through it rather than using the mechanical advantage and, uh, like what you just talked about. And I'm curious too, like, were there things that you recognized like, "Oh, hand strength is actually a big, a big thing that I need to develop," or lower body strength to, to climb up the poles, or core strength when I'm leaning out and have to reach?

What are some of those learnings that you had? Working stronger, uh, developing your hands, uh, doing exercises, you know, um, stretching. Stretching's a big thing. You know, stretching every day. Um, but, uh, actually in about 15 years when I would shake a older man's hand, he would be like, "Don't squeeze so hard.

You'll hurt me." You know, you just, you just didn't know you had that much hand strength, you know? Or things like that or, um, but developing your muscles, I will say that the job does help develop muscles, but once you start realizing, uh, my shoulder hurts. Why does my shoulder hurt, right? Uh, usually it's because you use it every day, but you don't stretch it or you don't exercise it and you don't build it.

So you think that what you're doing every day is building that muscle, but it's not really. It's deteriorating that muscle, you know? So, uh, learning to do different exercises that will help build the muscle, uh, recover it, right? Uh, yeah. So, uh, different things like that, you know? Well, it's like kind of you said, we're, we are kind of pr- like a professional athlete.

Uh, you don't wanna be a big muscled up dude to do line work. Your muscles get in the way . You know what I mean? You just wanna be good and toned and strong. You don't really necessarily wanna be all buffed and, and, uh, you know, the guys that are huge and they're, they don't have as much reach going up, right?

'Cause they got those muscles that stop them. So, uh, being a big, huge muscle guy is, is not really, uh, what I've seen that i- is great, you know? Uh, it's more just, uh, work strong. You know, we talked about that the other day, being, being work strong. Uh, work strong and gym strong are two different things to me.

Uh, you know, you, you could mi- could bench press 400 pounds, but you know, you get them in a spot where they've not had to use that kind of muscle, they're not as much stronger than you, you know? Even though they look like they're 10 times stronger than you, you know? Uh, so, uh, you know, uh, that goes back to what I was talking about earlier, right?

Uh, don't, don't be the guy that tries to muscle everything, you know? Ask for some help. Learn how to do it a little different

What about fabrics like cotton or synthetic, uh, fibers, and how can that be dangerous, especially when you're wearing like maybe a, a synthetic undershirt underneath something that even may be FR on the outside? Yeah, I, it's a, it's a good question. You know

When you say synthetic, let's just take polyester, for instance. Polyester, if that melts, it'll wrap around you like shrink wrap. So it's a concern if anybody's out there in a, in a safety environment and you're wearing, uh, arc or flash rated or FR clothing on the outside, but you're wearing polyester next to your skin.

You know, it doesn't mean because you're wearing arc rated clothing that you're not going to experience any heat next to your skin. So if you're in a 4,000 or 5,000-degree flash or arc rated and you're wearing polyester next to your skin, even if you're wearing arc rated clothing, that thing's going to melt.

That is a safety hazard. That is very dangerous. On the, on the... When you talked about cotton, you know, cotton's not going to react the same way as polyester or a synthetic fabric would. But what one has to be aware of is that cotton is a fab- a fabric that absorbs moisture. So one of the things that we care about in the world of performance is we want your next-to-skin garment to be moving moisture away from your skin as much as possible.

And there's been testing done in the laboratory where even if you're wearing arc rated clothing and you're wearing a cotton T-shirt underneath, and your cotton T-shirt is absorbing moisture because you're perspiring in the working environment, when you're in a flashover, an arc flash, with that kind of heat, all of the moisture next to your skin is going to boil.

And if water boils, it turns to steam. So steam burns are a safety hazard as well. So you wanna be conscious about what you're wearing next to your skin because we want our skin to be as dry as possible. Because regardless of the protection that you have, if there's moisture next to your skin, that's going to be a hazard.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got in my career was, "Josh, a closed mouth doesn't get fed." They don't know what you're struggling with unless you ask. Can you tell us some of those stories? Maybe rewind to where you were when you were 18, 19, 20 years old. What were some of the things that you did to, to glean information from, uh, that, uh, more experienced generation?

Yeah. So the, the, the hardest thing to do is to admit what you don't know, right? Uh, I think that that's true for a lot of people to say, "Hey, I have no clue. I don't know what to do. I've never seen this before," especially for younger people. There's a, there's a little bit of an ego there. There's a little bit of pride.

We always say young people, they think they know everything. But that, that could be true for, you know, the, uh, older men and women as well, right? I think that's kind of a universal truth. But, uh, so a, a big part of that for me was just putting it out there, right? Just kind of casting that line and see what would happen.

And, uh, New York, New York City is a very unique place. Uh, there's a lot. There's a cast of characters. That's the best way I could describe it, and, uh, add the element of the construction space. It's... It can be really, it can be really different, especially at 18. But when, when most people see that you have a hunger and a desire and a fire in your belly to learn, they're gonna teach you, right?

Uh, it's... Part of construction is there's a little bit of a banter happening. Guys'll say they'll, they'll pick on you a little bit. But I found that over the years noth- nothing was, uh, done with ill intention. It was just always about kind of like that big brother relationship and just being open to it.

You can't close yourself off to correction. You can't close yourself off to criticism. Embrace it, ask questions, and do your best every single day. You know, if, uh, you know, no matter what role you are in in the construction space from an apprentice down to a, a dig ditcher, uh, to superintendent to a business owner, you can take a mindset of servant leadership.

You can adopt that. Each one, teach one. If there is someone who is in front of you that you believe or maybe you don't believe needs support, give it to them anyway. Ask them, "How's your day going? How can I support you?" Doesn't matter what level you're at, adopt a servant leadership mindset and I truly believe the rest can take care of itself. It's always been a statement that men don't talk about what's going on, and they're not gonna tell you when they're bothered. They're not gonna tell you when something at home's going wrong or something at work's going wrong. They're, they're just not gonna tell you. But if you're paying enough attention, you can tell subtle shifts.

You can tell a difference in energy. You can tell something's going on. So you need to do your best to say, "Hey," you know, even if you don't feel comfortable asking them, "Hey, what's wrong?" Or maybe y'all aren't that close yet. You can say, "Hey, dude, I'll work the bucket today." It doesn't need to be, "Tell me your life story.

Tell me to the detail so I can help you." Maybe you're not good at that kind of stuff, but maybe you can say, "Hey, I'll work the bucket today. I'll climb. You take a little bit of a break. I'll take care of you that way." And then maybe they'll open up to you, maybe they won't. But you do your best to meet them where they're at, so it's not a big deal.

You don't have to make it a big scene. You don't have to try to make them break down and have a cry session and hug and kumbaya, but maybe you guys can talk without talking, kind of like how men have always done. Even if you don't want to break it and say, "Hey, listen, dude, I notice something's wrong.

What's going on?" If you're not comfortable with that, do it in your own way. But try to make some kind of effort, because then that guy, maybe he'll be like, "Okay, he knows something's going on. I don't have to tell him. I can relax a little bit. I'm not trying to hide it. I'm not trying to hide it on my face or my actions.

They know something's going on. They're taking care of me. I can put my mind there and just be at ease." Without naming names, Austin, do you have a, an actual story from your career where you have had to step up and do something like that? Oh yeah, it happens quite frequently. You know when guys are either just feeling off, maybe they're g- having something going on at home, and they'll just...

They'll either be reluctant to get their tools or reluctant to get up in the bucket, or they're up there and they're just thrashing around. You can tell they're being careless. And then that's when you just say, "Hey, listen, let me work the bucket today." You know, sometimes you'll get an argument, sometimes not, but you do your best to kinda step in.

And then if they're close buddies of mine, I'll be like, you know, "What's up, dude? What's going on?" And if they say, "Nothing," y- you let it go, and then you just try to help as little as you can. And a lot of the times, being close, they'll open up to you, and then you can talk about it. But many times, especially during the summertime when it's super hot, you know, you come home already kinda mad because you've been hot all day.

Everybody's aggravated, and then you get home and you... Somebody gets in a fight with their spouse at home, and then they bring it to work the next day, and you, you don't wanna make things worse. Because in our line of work, it's not like you're in the office and now you're just bugging Jim and making his day worse and it's funny.

You know, Jim might go up in the bucket and make a mistake because he's so angry now, or do something on purpose, and you don't want that on your conscience and you don't wanna have to go to their family and tell them, "Yeah, we knew something was wrong, but we just let him go anyways 'cause he's a grown man."

The more you pay attention to, to athletes, you see very strategically positioned tattoos or, or messages written, you know, on the, uh, brim of a ball cap where they can look, take it off, look at it, and- Yep ... and see that. And yeah, that's so powerful. And it seems like the cues have to be aligned with a belief statement about themselves or a bigger purpose.

How, how do belief statements or identity and purpose all kind of fit together with, um, having that resilient mindset? Yeah, and I think, Kevin, I think, I think sometimes it... I think it, it sometimes deals with a, with a misbelief or a misguided belief to begin with, and that's kinda where I start. You know, that, that when people get off track, for an example, eh, you know, it's, it's based upon maybe a, um, a disbelief or, or, or something that, that used to be.

You know, it's based upon something that's happened in the past or could happen in the future as opposed to happening right now. And when we get people thinking about right now, it's, it's less difficult to come up with a belief statement and a purpose statement that you might be able to align, you know, with one of these cues, you know, as well.

And I think what happens is that when people can create these belief statements, whether it's a, a pitcher, you know, in the ninth inning of the World Series with the Dodgers and, you know, the Blue Jays, you know, or you're a batter, you know, up to bat, you know, if, if you can literally begin to disengage from all the distractions and all the noise and really tap into this belief statement about who you are and what you can do, we see over and over again that that plays out that way.

Yeah, one of my good friends w- works in the area of performance, and he always says, "It takes no faith to believe a lie." Mm-hmm. "But it takes a lot of faith to believe the truth." And it's so easy for us to go down a path of, you know, believing these false statements about reality or our life or who we are or, you know, one person says, "You're ugly," and we believe that even though 20 people just say, "You're pretty."

You know? It's human nature to, to fall into that pattern. So, uh- Let me add one more thing too, Kevin, 'cause you mentioned faith, and I think faith is important, but I think what, what really grounds things for people is, I mean, certainly have faith, but also have situations where it's actually played out like that.

So it's not about faith, you know, or hoping it happens or believing it could happen. It's like, no, it has happened before. Yeah. And I know I can replicate that again. Yeah. That's, yeah. That is key.