All Within My Hands: Metallica’s Mission to Close the Skilled Labor Gap in the Trades

Hello, contractors, and welcome to Toolbox for the Trades. I'm Amanda Salvatore, and today's conversation lies at the intersection of 2 things you might not expect to hear in the same sentence: heavy metal and the skilled labor gap. Metallica's foundation, All Within My Hands, has partnered with ServiceTitan on the Metallica Scholars Initiative, putting real dollars and real support behind students building careers in the trades. Joining me is Renee Richardson, Director of Philanthropy at All Within My Hands, to talk about how the partnership works and what All Within My Hands is doing boots on the ground to encourage careers in the trades. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Renee Richardson, you are the Director of Philanthropy at All Within My Hands, and today we are exploring how Service Titans Partnership with All Within My Hands and the Metallica Scholars Initiative is helping close the skilled labor gap in the trades. Thank you so much for coming on Toolbox for the Trades.

Oh my gosh, Amanda, thank you for having me. It's, it's an honor to be here. I love what you guys are doing and I love being invited. So thanks.

I'm really excited to get into it with you today. I'm sure a lot of our listeners have this on in the truck and their ears perked up when they heard Metallica. At a moment where they were asking themselves, is this the right podcast? But in fact, you are tuned in. This is the correct podcast. And yes, we will be talking a little bit about Metallica. First and foremost, we always like to start off with a little icebreaker here on Toolbox for the Trades. And I feel like very often I don't get to talk about music, so I had to use this opportunity. What was your first concert experience? And what do you think makes live music so special?

Oh, man. All right, so my first concert experience was general public, and I was 12 years old. And my best friend's older sister dropped us off at the concert and picked us up afterwards. I don't think our parents knew that we were doing that.

That's incredible. At 12 years old?

Impressive.

I know.

But I feel like I should mention that my first Metallica show, because that's important too, was 1989, I believe. It was at Brendan Byrne Arena in New York. And I was actually there for The Cult, which was the opening act. And my cousin dragged me to the show because she was like, I love this band, Metallica. You got to check them out. And I was really uninterested, actually. And I was there for The Cult. I watched The Cult, and then I went off. to explore the arena. And all of a sudden I heard this sound that I had never heard, this amazing, fast, powerful, heavy music, but it was clean to the ears. It wasn't obnoxious. And I came running and I was like, what is this? And that was Metallica. So yeah, very different experience at the general public show because it's a little more ska. I think with what makes live music so awesome? It's 2 things. It's the shared experience with the people around you. You know, you are connecting with this music that means something to you, and all these people are around you, and the songs mean something to them, and the band means something to them. And then you have this experience together. So that's a big part of it. Just seeing the band do it live. You know, there's so many times that you can listen to an album and you're like, yeah, it's all right. But then you go see the band live and you're like, oh my gosh. And I will say this, like, there are some bands that should only play live and not bother with recorded albums and vice versa.

I would love to pick your brain after this to hear a list of those. I am a picky music person myself, and I very much appreciate when you go to a live concert and you see some real craftsmanship up there on stage. There is— it is Amazing to witness. And it's also a bummer to hear from a band that you really love this album and it's just not tight, you know? That's the worst.

So I hear you.

I will— we'll talk after this for sure. We'll talk some music after this, but let's get into it. I'd love to hear how you found yourself here. I know you started out in radio and now you are in the nonprofit world. How'd you get here?

Radio was my joy and my passion for many years, and I was on the airwaves in San Francisco, KFOG, which is no longer, and it was truly fun. But in the later years of my radio career, things were just not as creative. It was becoming very routine, and I was using my voice and my local celebrity— I use the quotes on that for sure— to kind of help other nonprofits. So like Maybe if somebody needed an auctioneer for an event or an MC for an event, things that come very easily to me, I would sign up for it. And I eventually joined the board of a music school in San Francisco called Blue Bear School of Music. They are the original school of rock and roll. So there's my love of music and coming from the radio world and joining Blue Bear on their board of trustees. And over time I was doing more and more for Blue Bear and the executive director said, you know, I think you'd make a really good development director. Do you have any interest in that? And I thought about it and I said, yeah, I really do. And I, so I took some classes and got a little smarter on it and learned from him and dove into this world of nonprofit fundraising and I loved it. And I was doing it for, a very niche thing, you know, this nonprofit music school where the idea is teach people the music they love to play and they love to listen to instead of the going the classical music route and then learning A, B, and C. It's like, you want to play your rock and roll songs, we're going to teach you to play your rock and roll songs. And we brought music into the schools as a lot of schools were cutting their music programs. So that was really the nonprofit arm of it. As I was learning all about the nonprofit world, Metallica was starting their foundation. And you have to understand, as a Metallica fan, as a radio person living in San Francisco— San Francisco is really a small town. It's like everybody kind of knows each other and you have encounters with people a lot. So I had become friends with members of the management team on Metallica's side. They were looking for somebody to help manage the day-to-day of the foundation that they were starting. So this would've been 2017 is when they formally started talking about a foundation, and 2018 was when it was really getting going. And I, with all my experience in nonprofit, you know, gave my friends some advice. You know, I said, here's what you need. Find a person like this, somebody who has a little experience with this, that, and the other thing. And, you know, a couple months went by and I asked if they ever, found anyone? And they were like, no, we still haven't found the right person yet. And I said, you know what? I'm going to throw my name in the hat for this. I have now 5 years experience. I'm living very close to HQ. I'd like to give it a shot and help you guys do what you want to do. And so I put my name, I sent my resume in, and it was between me and someone else. And I got the job because I think it was because I didn't care what the title was.

Nice. Nice.

I was like, I don't know, call me whatever you want. I'll be the assistant to the assistant's assistant. Just happy to be here.

Happy to help. Happy to be here. Right?

And it really came down to, I knew the guys were serious about it. I knew about their level of philanthropy previous to forming a foundation. So I knew this wasn't lip service, and I wasn't going to have a very boring job. I knew I was going to be expected to do a lot and just really looking forward to help bring their vision to life. So that's how all my worlds came together, my music world, my nonprofit world, my love of Metallica. Everything in one happy little place.

And this is everything that you've, you've worked towards. It feels like right here, all meeting up at the same point.

It's true.

That is incredible. It's very rare that that happens. I'm so glad that you've found this niche for yourself. Speaking of the mission and this philanthropy, what is All Within My Hands? What's their mission?

Yeah, so our mission is to create sustainable communities through workforce education, the fight against hunger, and other critical local services. Now, to us, workforce education means trade education, career and technical education, community college. We work primarily with community colleges. Feeding people, that's a thing that the band has been doing forever. In their early days in the '80s, They always gave back to food banks. So when they decided to formalize and create a 501 nonprofit organization, food was always going to be a part of things. And then critical local services, that encompasses a few things. Mostly we talk about disaster relief when we're pointing to that, but often on tour, we also give back to homeless shelters and women's shelters. So critical local services around local needs also fall into that bucket at times.

I would love to know, how did Metallica decide to lean into workforce education? Where did that come from? That one feels a little bit more out from left field.

Well, yeah. And, you know, and we get requests for funding for like music education. Look, I came from a music education background and it's just not what we do. And that was by design. You know, the band knew they wanted to get into education, but it was James who made a real case for the, the forgotten, the folks who want to learn a trade. They want to work with their hands. 4-year college isn't what suits them. They want more hands-on education. He made a case for that and said, you know, my kids are going through high school right now and they're being pushed into this 4-year academic world when nobody's reminding them that they can be a plumber, they can work on cars, they can start their own business as an electrician. Like, any of these things are options out there. And so he was the one that really kind of talked about that. And he, you know, he comes from a blue-collar family. Robert Trujillo also worked with his hands. He's built houses before and all of that. So it's in the DNA. Of what the guys are about primarily, it was a natural fit to say, okay, let's help those folks. Let's help the people who want to go that direction. And let's also remind people that these are great jobs. Like, this is not going to, you know, community college is not a booby prize. Learning a trade is not second to anything. It is as important as Becoming a doctor. How's your doctor going to get there to help you if they can't start their car? Yeah.

Or turn the lights on.

Or turn the lights on. All the things.

Right.

That's really where it came from. And then I'm sure in that moment, nobody had an idea of how big it would grow and how the Metallica Scholars Initiative would become kind of the crown jewel of what the foundation works on. But here we are, we're making big moves with it, and we're helping a lot of people find their way in the trades.

What does this work actually look like on the ground when it comes to the Workforce Education Scholarships?

The band and the management team and all of us knew what we don't know. Like, we're not going to step in and say, hey, this is how you should do X, Y, and Z in the education space. That's not us. But we and the band and the management team have known all along how to find the right partners and work with trusted, like-minded folks to get where they need to be and to help them do their best. Our executive director at the time, he's now executive director emeritus, and that is Dr. Ed Frank. He encountered a woman named Jennifer Worth, and she was with the American Association of Community Colleges. She just left this year. Good on her. Retirement coming early. Whoop, whoop. Go girl. I miss her like crazy, but she's a force. And she was heading up workforce development. She was a senior VP of workforce development through the AACC, and that's the American Association of Community Colleges. And she helped us see, she helped the foundation and the management see that there is a really clear path through the community college system and that she could help guide us there. And that it didn't just have to be about the trades that help a band do their things or help in the entertainment world. It's all the trades. She pointed out that, you know, most of the community colleges, academics get all the attention. You know, that's where the marketing dollars go. But rarely are the students or the incoming students reminded Hey, there's a killer aviation program. Hey, there's this plumbing program that could get you started on your own business in 2 years or whatever the timing is. So she helped us see all of that. And the day-to-day for us is really about empowering those community colleges to use our dollars to the best of their ability to get people into these programs, to remind the community that these programs exist and to kind of really hone in on where the jobs are. Like, each community is very different. You have manufacturing in the Midwest, you have aviation also in the Midwest, I think, but you have, you know, trucking along the coasts. You have all these disciplines, and the community colleges have their finger on the pulse of where the jobs are. So Day to day, we ask the schools to report to us on how the dollars are being spent, how many students are coming through the door, how many are graduating in their desired program, and how many are getting jobs at the other end of it. That's what's important to us is the pathway to careers. So yeah, day to day is just meeting with the schools and talking and reading a lot of reports and making sure we're doing the right thing for everybody.

When you started, how many schools were you associated with and where are you now?

Yeah, so we started in 2019. The foundation wanted to grant $100,000 to 10 community colleges and they each got $100,000 and that was year 1. And today we are in 93 community colleges. And we have one we just signed on in the UK, but I'll talk about the US for now. In the US, we're in 93 colleges, and our investment in trade education just exceeded $19 million. So this—

Wow.

This little old foundation is spending money on this piece of our, this pillar of our economy. of our foundation. So, uh, yeah.

That's incredible growth. That's incredible growth. Congratulations. That's huge in such a short amount of time. And obviously there are schools who are in need of these types of scholarships. They understand that there are students who need that. And I think that in 2020, a lot of people learned that the trades are truly necessities. They are mandatory. We need them to function. So I think that now the trades are gaining momentum in wake of that. But it is so incredible to see the support that these students are getting. I'd love to hear any student stories you might have that have really stuck with you.

Yeah, I have so many student stories. You know, that's one of the things when we first started, That's all we cared about. We really weren't thinking about the return on investment for the student getting in and getting a job. We were like, you know, whatever, we just wanna hear about their journey. Like, tell us all about that. And I'm gonna shamelessly plug our website right now, allwithinmyhands.org. If you go there, you can read many of these stories because we asked the students to talk about themselves and talk about their journey. But there were 2 like big moments for me. And One was a woman named Emmalyn, Emmalyn Pond from Valencia College in Florida. And Emma came from a home where her mother suffered domestic violence. They left the West Coast to come to the East Coast to start fresh. She recounted a cycle of poverty in her family. And she came to Valencia College and the Metallica Scholarship helped her complete her welding certificate. And she got a job, broke that cycle of poverty, and was so proud to be able to help her mother and help her kids and help people in her family see what it's like to go to school, to study for something, to achieve your goals, and to get out there and get a paycheck that is a career and not just like 20 different jobs trying to make ends meet. This is— Something that can lead you down a path to something more. So Emma's story was very impactful. And I think— I don't— you would have to go to the website and read her story to see if I'm lying about this or not. But I believe Emma's mom was pregnant with her at a Metallica concert.

Are you kidding me?

Her mom was a fan of the band and she was X number of months pregnant and went to the show. And so Emma was like, yeah, I can't believe in utero and then in my life Metallica was there.

Really? I love that. That's very full circle.

Totally. And another one was this young woman, Karina, from College of Lake County. What struck me about Karina was she came from a long line of guys who fixed cars. Her dad collected old cars and fixed them. She was never asked really, like, do you want to fix cars? And she was like, yeah, I want to fix cars. This is what I want to do. And when I met her, I mean, she's a bitty little thing. She had her nails perfect, makeup was perfect, the whole bit. And there she is under a car, like she's doing all the things the boys do.

Love that. I love that.

And the bonus of that that really struck me was that Carina was so inspired by her community of students at College of Lake County that she stayed on to be a, um, an advisor, like a teacher's assistant, if you will. So she was out working and also assisting the teachers to help other students get through the program. So that, that's the other thing that I see a lot of in this. A Metallica scholar really feels ownership and wants to be proud of what they've done and wants other people to come into the fold. So those are just 2 of many, many stories that bring me joy about this work.

I love that. And you mentioned community at the top of this podcast. And I think that once again, it's feeding into this idea of community and creating community within the trades. I love this initiative. How do partnerships like the one with ServiceTitan, how do they help amplify what the foundation is doing?

I mean, partnerships are everything for us. We often say we're very partner-friendly in that, you know, it's so different because we're a funder that is funding from a band, you know, this rock and roll band that's been around for a long time. And they have a lot of fans and a lot of, I mean, I guess it is clout. Like people just know them and like them, you know, they've done good things throughout. So We always say that we, we punch way above our weight as a foundation because it's really, we're a small but mighty team. I'm the only full-time dedicated employee of the foundation. And then we lean on Metallica's digital team, Metallica's everything. We have Amanda from their team who has come over to help us do a lot of the storytelling on social media. She's our, uh, communications director. And then the executive director of the foundation is a volunteer. He completely volunteers his time to, um, help this foundation. And specifically, he loves the Metallica Scholars Initiative. And I often joke that, and actually he will say this too, that he really does it just for the concert tickets. So.

It's a perk. It's a perk. Twist my arm, why don't you? You know?

Yeah. But we're that, you know, we're fans like that too. It's all good. But the partnerships are just everything to help move this thing along because, you know, we can only do so much. But we've had people come on like Wolverine Boots and Apparel, love them so much. They came on early. They heard about what we were doing. They had their own project Bootstrap, which they were funding students and scholarships to get into the trades. And when they saw what we were doing, they're like, Love it. Why reinvent the wheel? Let's work together on this. And that was huge for us. They made a financial commitment, and now they have done so many collaborations with us on really cool footwear that speaks to those in the trades. You know, we've had metal toe boots, we've had the Thousand Mile Wolverine boot, all these great footwear items. And they also, they will give pairs of boots to the students, which is incredible. Now that we're in 93 schools, it's a little harder because we're We're approaching 18,000 students helped, and they—

Wow.

You can't ask 'em to give away that many free shoes. But in the early days, there were full schools that were getting, you know, the footwear that we collaborated on. So brands like that coming on board and touching on different areas in this pathway has been incredible. Another one is Carhartt. They've been with us since the beginning. They donated 100% of sales from a Labor Day activation that we did together. I think that was in 2021. And 100% of sales on carhartt.com went to the foundation to further support the Metallica Scholars Initiative. I mean, that's like, you know, we were able to support 3 more schools with those dollars. And that's the other thing people may not know. About what we do, all of the money that comes into this foundation goes back out into these projects that we do. And you know, if Carhart wanted to donate to Metallica Scholars, all that money went straight to Metallica Scholars. The band pays all administrative costs; they cover all that extra stuff so that when people donate to us, you know that your dollars are going right back into the things that you care about, whether it is the Metallica Scholars, whether it's feeding people, or it's fighting or supporting around. Times of disaster. So yeah, the partners are everything, and that's why this is so exciting with you guys with Service Titan. I mean, you know, I think it was our friends at Carhartt that told us about you, and then it was Audrey at Service Titan who saw our piece on CBS Sunday Morning. I don't even know how we got in touch—if it was by email or she found me on LinkedIn. She's like, "Need to talk." Audrey. Audrey's a powerhouse.

Yes, absolutely.

And she was just like, we're gonna do a sales thing. We want the money to go to you. Let's go. And I was like, okay, here we go. And, uh, that's how it all began. So that's the other thing we love with partnerships is when it's organic like that. And, you know, you guys are fierce, man. You touch on so many different, everything from mom-and-pop, um, companies all the way up to the big ones who might use your platform to make their lives easier and do these jobs that they do and be able to do the things they want to do, which is work with their hands and do all the other things. And you guys are right there by their side. So we're stoked to get the word out through the Titans. Do you call them that?

Yeah, yeah. Truly, this is such an exciting partnership. I have so many conversations about this labor gap. about the trades and how it is so hard to find those people who are gonna keep it running.

Yeah.

So the fact that we're able to partner up with an organization like yours where 100% of the proceeds are going back to the students to fill in this labor gap and to address the issues that are plaguing the industry, I think it's incredible work and it aligns exactly with the conversations that we're having. every day on Toolbox for the Trade. So it's really wonderful to see people take initiative and to really hit the ground running like you guys are. For someone who is listening, who does want to get involved, what does that look like beyond donating?

So donations are great. That's always, you know, we take that money and we just amplify it. That's all we do. We are able to, you know, make it go a little farther. We do some volunteer activations. A lot of those are centered around where the band tours. So when the band visits, A certain city will have a— we'll partner with a food bank so that the fans can come out and, you know, volunteer at the food bank while they're in town for the shows. We also encourage people to give back to their local food bank, however that works for you, whether it's volunteering or whether it's donating food to your local food bank. And then around the Metallica Scholars Program, It's really about connecting with our community colleges. And if you're in the business that touches on trades and you can create an apprenticeship for students that are trying to get into this work or go to their schools and speak about these great jobs that are out there, mentoring is huge. So we don't facilitate that directly, but we like to talk about it and we like to encourage it and we like to support That kind of behavior.

I think mentorship in the trades is so huge. You hear all these old-timers talking about how they had a mentor as well who really took them under their wing and showed them around. And it's amazing to be able to pay that forward. So I think that's an excellent initiative for sure.

And sometimes, you know, I know when I got out of school, you don't know what's going to be the best thing for you until you're in it. And, you know, you may think, oh, well, like, I wanted to go into advertising, and then I got into advertising, and I was like, no, I actually like the radio part of this and that part of it. So you just don't know until you get there. So providing a platform for these— for people who are new to the trades to see what all the parts are is also very helpful.

Renee, Pantheon is right around the corner, and I want to know if All Within My Hands is going to be participating in that event.

Yes, I'm so excited. We were invited to join. It's going to be my first time. I've heard it's a really cool event, so I'm very excited for all the parts. One of us, either Pete, the executive director, or myself, will be joining a panel. I think it's going to be Pete because he was, he was really fighting hard to be on the panel. But we'll be on a panel out there. We're going to be all around in various places. We'll have a presence in the The Pantheon. I don't know if it's called that, what the store is called, but we'll be out there and we'll be, uh, you'll find us for sure. We'll have some guitar picks in hand to hand out to folks, um, at the event. But we're very excited to join everybody in Orlando this year to celebrate the trades and check out this Pantheon thing.

Oh, it's going to be so much fun. I will see you there. I'm very excited to see you in person. I will definitely be getting my, uh, my guitar pick as well. Before we go, Renee, I would love to know what gets you most excited about the future of All Within My Hands and the trades.

When I look at this band and they are still out there kicking ass on stage and just not looking back, they're always looking forward. So that excites me because I know That same vibe is carrying through in the foundation. Like Lars says this all the time, we're just getting started. And so that's how I feel. So everything excites me about this foundation because, you know, it's something new every day and we're doing good things for people and seeing the fans learn about us and jump on board. The fans are just, you can't even. speak highly enough about the fans of this band. They've been around, some of them since early days, and they still are as passionate as ever. And they love talking to the foundation and talking to me about what we could do together and coming up with ideas. So every day is exciting because you never know where it's going to go. And I know that the band and the management team backs the decision-making and wants to see this thing last a very long time. Now, about the trades, I'm just excited to see so many companies paying attention to not just the skilled trades gap, but how cool these jobs are and always have been, and that more people are seeing that. So that excites me a lot. It excites me to see parents not get taken aback when their child says, yeah, I want to be a plumber. And have them go, you know what, actually, great idea. Yeah. Because you're probably going to make more money than my doctor. Yeah. It excites me that people are standing up and looking at these jobs a little more seriously than maybe they have in the past. And for people who have been doing this a long time, it's no disrespect. It's just, you know, it's like James has said, it's the forgotten ones. We forget. We forget that people are out there doing this work every single day, and we need it to get through our day. So I think that's what excites me the most is that people are recognizing this.

Renee Richardson, it has been so much fun talking to you, not only as a Metallica fan myself, but as someone who thinks that the trades deserves all of the accolades and all of the help. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for coming on Toolbox for the Trades, but most importantly, thank you for the work that you're doing. Thank you.