Episode 6 Ty Branaman Video

We've all been influenced and inspired by our heroes in the trade. Some of them are well-known industry experts. Some are just local professionals who may only be known in their communities. All of them share a passion for shaping people into the tradesmen and women that they should be. This show celebrates those who have taken the time to help us be better at our jobs and sometimes for our families. This is the HVAC Mentors Podcast. It's a cold and gloomy day in the middle of Illinois, but we are bright and sunshiny in here on the HVAC Mentors Podcast. Guys, I am beyond excited to introduce you to a man who needs no introduction within the HVAC community. Most of us count him as one of our first HVAC mentors. Even though we may have never met him in person, we all love him and appreciate him for all he does to elevate this trade. Mr. Ty Branneman, welcome.

Hey everybody. That was a wow. What a welcome.

That was—

I have goosebumps. I'm blushing. Thank you. Well, that's good.

That might also be the influenza B that's going around. I don't know. Hopefully not.

I had that last week.

Well, we're, you know, So this is definitely a show to encourage and uplift those who've taught us and kind of mentored us along the way. But, you know, and also of course to inspire others to mentor and teach others who they encounter, whether it be, you know, globally on the internet or just locally in their company. You know, maybe they just work with a couple of guys and they want to do some training. I hope we inspire some people to do that. So Ty, you know, tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got started, you know, how you got started in the trade, how you got started teaching and doing what you do today.

Oh my gosh, that's a wild story. So I didn't do well in school. Like, I was always getting in trouble. We didn't have ADHD back then. It wasn't labeled or classified. It was just, you're an idiot, you can't pay attention, we're gonna whip it out of you. You know, it's like I was always in trouble. for something. And then, you know, like getting numbers mixed up wasn't a thing. Like it was just, you're stupid. So I spent, uh, you know, school in special ed and, uh, with spelling and grammar, which I still struggle with. And, um, so I knew that college wasn't for me. I barely made it through high school. Like I was just, you know, I was on the work program. I came in just enough to just enough to get through school. And then I went to work. And, um, before I even graduated school, my dad did sheet metal work. So I spent, you know, every after hours of school I spent summers working in a sheet metal shop, doing sheet metal work, building plenums, uh, building flashings, duct liner, all that stuff. And, um, I really want to do ranching work, but a rancher came to me and told me, he's like, look, it's drought after drought after drought. It's hard work. There's, uh, unless you own or inherit property, you're not— you're just gonna eventually be worn out. There's no future for you. So I'm like, I'm gonna get into diesel mechanics. And talk to a guy who's like, look, I, I love diesel mechanics. It's a great trade. He goes, but I come home every night smelling like diesel. And I used to love working in cars. And now I just, I don't like it at all, you know, find something else. And I wanted to be like heavy equipment operator. Like I went through this whole list of things that I wanted to go do. And then, you know, ultimately I just, I needed a job and I didn't want to work with my dad, who's a great man. I just did not want to work with him. And so I started working for an AC company and it wasn't a very good AC company, but I liked what we were doing. Like I didn't like the people I worked with, but I liked what we were all— I knew what we were doing wasn't right.

I didn't know what the right way was.

I had some experience, you know, with metal and ductwork, but I was like, man, I, I don't— I, I want to do this, but I know this isn't the right way. And then this guy would drive up, and we're doing new installs, right? I mean, it's like, we know that very few people do new installs correctly, and we were doing new installs, and this guy would drive up in this van and he wouldn't even get out. Everybody go out and talk to him, and I had to stay in the attic. And I asked, I was like, is that one of the owners? They're like, oh no. No, that's, that's just a service tech. What do you mean just a service tech? How do I get to be just a service tech? Because I want that job. It's like, oh, you gotta like read stuff and you gotta learn stuff. I'm like, sold. And I started reading installation manuals, which are super hard for me. I had to use like highlighters and marks and underlining and rewrite stuff out. And I started asking questions and I got into another company that led the door to get another company. that did things right and had people that then started mentoring me and teaching me. And I started just learning everything I could until eventually service manager, had my own company. And then eventually I got into teaching and traveling and now videos and online stuff. And here I am. It all come from, you know, learning.

Yeah. And you know that, that those 2 things that you did at the beginning, reading and asking questions, It's kind of like, you know, if you want to be a great service tech, that's where you start. The— I can't remember which podcast I was listening to recently, but the guest was talking about— it might have been the Appetite for Construction podcast, but it might not have been. But anyway, the guest, one of the last things he said was, you know, the day that you decide you've got it all figured out, figured out is the day you stop learning. And the one thing I've always appreciated about this trade is, is you must always have a passion for learning. Um, it's not always going to be easy, and sometimes you definitely don't feel like it, but, you know, read and ask questions. So, um, you know, it sounds like you had a lot of really great mentors, and, and I definitely feel you on the dad thing. I love mine. With all my heart, I could not work with the man.

I still can't work with the man. I love him. Yeah, I'm so glad he's still in my life, but I cannot— even a small project, I cannot work with him. We think differently.

Yeah, I mean, I was helping mine hang a TV in his bedroom one time, right? And he was getting all frustrated and flustered and snappy. And, and, you know, at one point I'm just like, Look, one of us is gonna throw a hammer through a wall in about a minute. So I think we need to go take a step outside and get a breath of fresh air. So he, you know, so that, that we did. And, you know, we got, got the project done. But yeah, definitely resonate with that idea. Love our dads. But there's something about— yeah. So I mean, you know, I grew up. in, you know, the '80s and in the '90s. Um, and yeah, it— when I was in school, you know, you mentioned there was no ADHD. I think there was. I think there always has been. But, uh, you know, definitely was also at that era where it was starting to emerge. Uh, people were starting to talk about it. Um, looking back now, I'm like, you know, if I look at a Picture of myself in grade school. I'm just like ADHD right there, the definition.

Um, and I'm, I'm not promoting medication on it. I'm thinking there's a lot of people like this and they're great for the— ADHD is perfect for tradespeople. And I just think it's like how we think and how we process information differently. And if we, you know, can teach people to that method and show them how you can be successful For, for me, sitting in an office is, is a detriment. Like, I'm a failure. ADHD is an issue if you put me in that environment. You put me in the field solving problems every day, HVAC is like, ADHD and HVAC go together for me, and I'm, I embrace that.

What's funny is, and just 2 things. One is sometimes I'll be talking and I'll, I'll have to pause a minute and think about like, I said ADHD, I meant to say HVAC. Did I accidentally say ADHD?

Same, same.

Because I think I might have.

I think it might be the same thing.

But yeah, there's just, there is something about, and I definitely also at one point thought about going into auto or diesel mechanics, but there's something about, you know, working on machinery, right, that resonates with us and the idea that, you know, this machine works by a process. And that process does not change. In fact, one of the best questions I was ever asked by a trainer was, well, it was working before, right? Like, yeah.

Yeah.

So what changed?

Exactly.

Like, that's the key to diagnosis. What's changed? So it really, you know, having those mentors around me that would challenge me to not just try to find the parts based on, or the part that's broken based on, uh, symptoms, but to actually go through and, and find out what's different. Um, you know, growing up, I, I know that it— with, with, you know, however you want to label it, neurodivergent, uh, high-functioning autistic, or, or ADHD, or, or just a weird kid. Um, you know, it definitely, you know, it definitely, uh, it definitely led me, just like you, to this kind of work. Do you, you know, do you think that the fact that we're a little more open about those kind of labels and a little less judgmental, do you think that's kind of helpful in attracting new people to the trade?

I think it is. It's hard, though, to— like with ADHD, we spend so much time masking and trying to hide our what, you know, people consider the negative side or our shortcomings or all that. So we've spent a lot of time masking it. So to take that mask off and just be honest that, hey, look, I, I talk over people, or I talk too fast, or I, I change a thousand projects, or I don't finish a project, or I need dopamine, I'm a people pleaser because when they say, hey, you did a great job, that gives me the energy to do the next call, you know.

Yeah.

And so to unmask and just be honest about that, it's difficult because we've spent so much of our lives being like, you, something's wrong with you because you can't sit and read read this book. You know, something's wrong with you because, um, you can't just sit in this class all day. Something's wrong with you. Like, no, nothing's wrong with me at all. I just process information differently. And guess what? A lot of people do. They're like, well, ADHD is growing. It's not growing. More people are now admitting it. It's not something that's wrong with us. It's how we— and I teach to that. I— people are like, well, how'd you learn how to do this? I just teach to people like me. Because the traditional learners are still going to learn, but the people like me that need some excitement, that don't want to just listen to a PowerPoint being read for hours on end with the lights dimmed, those people are more likely to learn stuff. So everybody wins with an ADHD-style teacher, you know, in my opinion. Um, so I, I like it. I think it's good.

Well, you know, and so when I was, when I was teaching at, uh, Midwest Technical Institute, uh, which is the trade school near me. We, we were challenged to always be kind of tailoring our teaching to the students' needs, you know, thinking about the individual learner. You know, I personally feel that being more aware of and talking about these different ways of thinking and processing information, I think it actually empowers the instructor also. to be more aware of how to reach certain students. I know I can think of a couple of students who, you know, obviously there's bookwork, there's lecture that has to happen, you know, in the trade school environment. But we can't be 100% hands-on. But there were some students that I particularly remember that I'm just like, man, I'm losing them. They are everywhere else but here. And, you know, it's not— those were the ones that I remember being like, okay, let's spend a little more time in the lab. Let's give you some, you know, extra hands-on projects. 'Cause truthfully, they're not gonna, you know, if we're going over, especially the safety chapter, I'm sorry, I'm probably a bad instructor for saying, you know, I find safety boring. But, you know, going over all those facts and procedures and stuff, it's just, it's not, it's very dry. Yeah.

Well, and see, that's the problem that we have with education because it was invented by traditional people. So they've built this safety class and you do all of this and then we'll go, no, safety shouldn't be a class. Safety should be before we do this project, we're going to put our safety glasses on, uh, and we're going to start. Before we go up this ladder to the roof, now we're going to put our harness on. We're going to talk about 3 points of contact. So if you apply it as you need it, it's more effective for all learners.

Mm-hmm.

But you get these traditional people that write curriculum They have no clue about the trades or ADHD. They're just like, their job is to write curriculum and then they make instructors follow it. And you get a good instructor and they struggle teaching a PowerPoint on safety. I was, I remember going through that and thinking, there's such a better way of doing this. I've been written up before multiple times for not following a PowerPoint. Like, so—

Right.

Talk about like, we want to teach to the, the learner, but then we don't give the instructor the freedom to actually do that. I've taught classes before literally on the roof, like lecture stuff on the roof. I've taught classes where we were walking around the school with the books and our notes in our hand and to get the blood flowing, to get people doing something different. So there's, there's lots and lots of ways. And you know, somebody always complains, right? This isn't the traditional way of doing it. I don't, I don't care what the traditional way is. My goal is, hey, you want to learn this trade? You want to learn something new? I'm gonna do everything that I can to get you to learn it. And I think if we focus on that, man, everybody wins.

Yeah, absolutely. So one thing that I've heard and noticed is that students who are coming out of high school and thinking about a career, they're just— some people say they're different now. They're not as mechanically inclined. They're not as motivated. Others Others I've talked to have said they really actually haven't changed. There are just some contextual differences, but really they're the same as always. So one example I do remember from MTI was that one student needed— I was going to show him— I was going to show him— I don't remember what we were going to show him, but I was going— but I needed to remove the panel from one of our lab furnaces in order to show him this. Whatever it was. And so I asked him, can you go get me a quarter-inch nut driver out of your, out of your bag? And he brings me back this little thermostat flathead screwdriver with, you know, the puppy dog face. I hope this is the right thing. And I just tried to be as sensitive as I could because my heart was breaking for him. So I knew he was going to be embarrassed no matter how I responded. I was like, no, buddy, that, that's for thermostats. That's the little tiny screw on your thermostat. I need a nut driver that's going to fit over that, that, that nut head on that screw. And I went over with him to his— but, you know, certainly it seems like there are a lot less, you know, my, my watch, my dad working on cars and stuff. I mean, I had a rudimentary knowledge of tools by the time I was done with high school and, and, you know, how to install a bathroom sink and random, you know, like home improvement type stuff. But it just doesn't seem like kids know that stuff now. How are you dealing with that kind of knowledge gap? I guess that's 2 questions.

But it is several different questions there. So first off, there's a saying that's like, well, people don't want to work anymore. I have quotes that go all the way back to the 1800s where people have been saying that. So that's out the window. People used to say it about me and my generation when we were coming up. And so it's just that same thing that gets repeated because we forget what it was like back then.

Yeah.

The second thing is about mechanical aptitude is there's just been a change of the environment. Like you and me, when we grew up, we worked on lawnmowers, we worked on the cars with our dad. We, we did all these things. And today the cars are so complicated that it's very difficult for anybody to work on them anymore. And then the space to do it. And then the environment, like, does people, can people afford a house with a garage anymore? So many people have apartments or such small houses, they can't even afford that. And they can't, uh, with HOAs now taking over, you can't even work on your car in your garage. So there's been a change in environment where people have grown up without these mechanical skills. They've grown up, uh, in a digital environment with phones, with computers, with internet, with video games, and they haven't had that, uh, connection with— and, you know, people work all the time during the day. They come home, they don't want to work on the car. They'd rather go buy another one if they can afford it.

Sure.

So a lot of people just hadn't been exposed to that. So a lot of the stuff is new. I've had students before that, uh, had an adjustable wrench, and the round part of it where you hang it in the wall, they were trying to use that to loosen a set screw. And to me, it was just like, that's, you know, ridiculous. Like, what the heck? You have no mechanical aptitude. But a lot of these people just— they've never been exposed to it. So, I find that it takes a little longer to teach now, because we have to teach things that used to be considered common sense, but they've never been exposed to it. They don't know. So I do have to, a lot of times, really think and be careful of my words, uh, when I'm teaching people. And this isn't just for instructors. This is people in the field. When you're teaching somebody, it's easy to say, well, you're an idiot. You should know what that is. That's super, super detrimental.

Mm-hmm.

And that brings me to a big point that I want to bring up, is that an instructor— we think about mentors, we talk about like an instructor or somebody that's on video or somebody on a podcast. Most people are mentors and you don't even know it. Somebody somewhere is looking up to you or watching you. You're in a company, there's an apprentice somewhere thinking, man, I wish I could be like that guy. And you may never know that you're a mentor to that person. I have mentors today that I— they mentor me and they don't even know it because I'm just watching what they're doing and learning from them. So how we react to somebody bringing us the wrong tool, um, we have to be careful. They've not grown up in that environment. And to us it was common sense. To us it was normal. But I found that I've had students that had no mechanical aptitude and now are great, amazing tradespeople, like some of your, your top tradespeople out there. They just needed to have the right environments so they can grow and somebody that can show them and teach them and help them learn. And now the cool thing is, if you, instead of yelling at people for being on the phone, teach them, hey, Take a picture of that and then do a Google, uh, reverse Google search. Then you can find out what that tool is instead of asking me 2,000 questions. Because honestly, we don't have time to answer every single question.

Yeah.

But you can teach them how to use the phone to be successful or tell them, hey, I want you to find this. You don't know what it is. Your first step is to Google what I said, see what the pictures are, and make an effort to bring me the right tool. So instead of saying, oh, this phone's bad. My day, we had radios. Okay, cool. Uh, let's use that as a tool to help everybody out. So being a mentor isn't just simply somebody on a big level or a lead of the company or an instructor. Just simply, you could even be a helper and somebody new at the company comes in and they're looking at you because they're the person they relate to you the most. You can make a huge impact on somebody's life.

Yes.

My, one of my first mentors in HVAC He was a mean, horrible person, but I still looked up to him because he was the guy, like, he knew what he was talking about. And I didn't ever want to treat anybody like he treated people, but like, he was confident. He knew what he did and how he would— he could be so mean to me, but he would talk to customers just like this gentle touch and just caring about the customers.

Yeah.

And then when nobody was around, he was actually pretty cool. Like, he would be like, hey, I'm going to teach you a couple little tricks. You know, like, that stuff is so powerful, but we also have to watch ourselves. We can't control other people. We control ourselves.

Yes.

What we talk about, what we say. There's 3 things I stay away from: sports, religion, and politics. Because no matter— like, people just get emotion involved with that. So I just keep those out. Not saying that those aren't important things, but I've seen really bad things happen in those conversations. So just keeping that away And you're in the truck and that comes on the radio, change the station. Don't even let that conversation start up. Keep it about HVAC, the customers, specifically what can help you in your career. Um, I try to keep away from all other politics stuff that happens because a mentor, and they're looking up to you, and now this mentor has this great disagreement with you, they have this emotion behind it, you could really crush somebody pretty easily accidentally. Yeah.

And the thing that sticks with me from what you just said, most people are mentors and may not even know it. And I think there's a dark side to that same coin, and that is that you may have actually crushed someone's spirit and didn't ever know it.

Yep.

And that's not to discourage people, but that's just to make us, again, aware of how we're approaching and how we're thinking. About things. And, you know, being, again, growing up with ADHD and all that stuff, I think I heard somebody telling me to think before I speak about 1,000 times every day. And, but it's true. I mean, if we want to mentor the young technicians and even the older learning technicians, I know people, I've heard of people starting in this trade in their 40s and even 50s. Heck, I had a student who was 67 in trade school. He was just retired and, you know, he had the money, so he went to trade school. But, you know, if somebody's there wanting to learn, you know, there may be negative things that we've said or reactions or even a facial expression that we've given them that's going to stick with them for a very long time. So I would want to be— I would want to always try to be in someone's mind and memory as a positive mentor rather than somebody who's torn them down.

And don't let that stop you from being a mentor. Like, so, right, just be mindful of it. I've let people down a lot, and there's a difference between trying to hurt somebody and letting people down. And we will let people down. I let a mentor down of the HVAC Chicks Coalition. I was mentoring a guy, everything was going along great. Then he'd ask for some information and I tend to overload people cuz I'm a, I'm a detailed person. And then the guy didn't respond back and then I felt bad and hadn't responded back. And that's a, a thing that I think about. It's like, man, how do I fix that? So we will make mistakes.

Yeah.

But it's better to try and do something and learn from it than to never try at all. What's that Michael Jordan said? You'll miss 100% of the shots you never take. So yeah, trying, learning, trying to help somebody. And there's enough people— there's too many people that are gatekeeping right now in our trade.

Yes.

They're trying to keep people from learning information or even telling people the wrong information. So we need people to go out there and help. It's 2 parts of that. When you're helping somebody else, it's going to help you more. So no matter how much you try to help other people, it's going to end up helping you more. It's this weird thing. But you also have to keep learning.

Yeah.

You're gonna find that what you were told wasn't the right way, or things have changed since then, and you have to relearn. People spend 90% of their lives— or 10% of their lives learning and 90% defending what they think that they know. So when you're gonna tell somebody something, look, look stuff up and see if it's changed. Look up the manual and you'll be surprised. Between one manufacturer and another, it'll change. Between the same manufacturer and a different model, It could change. So being sure that we're staying on that learning end and then teaching that to other people and how that they can best learn, trying that, giving that effort to help somebody will, will always be a good thing.

Exactly. And I think, you know, Brian Orr did a good job of talking about metacognition like 2 weeks ago on his podcast. And, and just that's the idea that Being aware, thinking about how we are thinking, being aware. And earlier, before we got started, we were talking about that, and I could not think of that word. And again, crazy ADHD brain just let the word pop in suddenly out of nowhere. But metacognition and being— thinking about the way that we are thinking, I think that that is really the key, is just kind of being— building that self-awareness in how we are approaching things. And you are absolutely correct. We are going to screw up in spite of our best efforts. Heck, I mean, we see that enough on jobs. We go to a customer's house and, no, I followed the steps. I did everything right and I still screwed it up. You know, we're allowed to be human. But, you know, again, it's let's not fall into that trap, like you said, of just ardently defending what we think is the right answer. Just because we think it's the right answer. You know, sports, politics, and religion, again, are perfect examples of the types of things that people will hold on to. Not that sports, politics, and religion are inherently bad, but, you know, again, be willing to listen. Yeah, be willing to listen to others and, you know, be willing to realize that sometimes your point of view might change. New information can come in. And, um, gosh, you know, if I could have all like '80s and '90s era HVAC systems to work on where, you know, it's, it's a gas valve and an igniter and/or standing pilot and a thermocouple and a fan. It's, it's like if it's cracked heat exchanger, I can see the crack. I don't even have to take the COVID off. I mean, maybe, okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but you know.

And also when I'm talking about being mindful of other people's, you know, how they learn and, and their feelings, there's gotta be a better word for that. But also it's okay to have tough love. Specific example is I was working on a furnace and I was struggling and I called the guy that I knew had the answer. And he would not give me the answer. He led me to the answer. He made me look at the schematic and made me find the answer. He led me to it. I was so mad at him. Like, I literally went outside and then shut the door in the van and I was just like, had a fit. Like, I was cussing. I was just so mad. And then I went back in, calmed down, went back inside, and then finished it up. But looking back on that, it was like the best lesson ever because it made me learn how to look for the answers myself. It made me learn how to look at wiring schematics. And that tough love that he did was the best thing he could have ever done. So, yeah, when I'm talking about, you know, don't— you don't have to just give people answers, lead them to the answers, help them solve problems. And sometimes they're not gonna like it, and that's okay. We're— our job isn't to make friends everywhere, but we gotta think of how can we help that other person be successful in that long term.

My, uh, my first supervisor was really good about that. And, um, You know, like, no, you gotta figure it out. Like, like, what have you done? What are your diagnostic steps? What have you, you know, what have you tested? What— why'd you test that? What does that have to do with symptoms? Like, what, what's, you know, did you buy— did you bypass the thermostat and, and call for heat, call for, you know, cooling, whatever the case was? Um, well, call me when you think you have it figured out. And, you know, All the time knowing he probably knows exactly what the problem is. He could probably come here, you know, in two seconds have this furnace up and or have this AC up and running. I remember one where somebody before us, this was a new new homeowner had just bought their house. Their AC system was was an iceberg down in the basement. And so what it turned out the problem was, was you had an R-22 coil with an R-410A condensing unit, and we're not even exactly sure that the TXV was sized right. So, you know, it's like I could not get— I tried, basically tried weighing in charge because it seemed like it was low at first, and then it was like The charge was way high, and I'm like, what the heck's going on? And, you know, did you even clean the condenser coil first? Uh, let me call you back. And, you know, did that, and, you know, readings are all over the place, and it's like, this thing's possessed. It has a demon. There's obviously something wrong. And, uh, you know, it has got— it needs an exorcism. It needs a priest more than it needs a, uh, an HVAC tech. So, um, What you know later on, finally, like but he kept like before I go there, he kept forcing me like no keep digging. And I finally I wanted to like you know I wanted to just put on my white shirt and just say sorry, man, you need a new AC system. But um no, he made me. So finally he comes down and you know being the inexperienced tech I was, he saw that okay this is over your head. So So that's where he offered me the, the, you know, like, let's look. And I just brought, like, probably not the right TXV even. We got, you know, the, the original coil, which was an R-22 coil from like the '80s, and then we've got a newer 410 condensing unit. I don't know that they're necessarily sized together right.

Um, complementarily.

Uh, so I think it was just a random condenser that somebody had used and, and threw on there. It was just like, yeah, you need a condenser, so I'll give you a condenser, whatever. Um, charged it with 410 and let her rip. So, you know, at the end of the day, what we ended up doing was he put in a piston Because there's no way to actually give an accurate— like, there's no correct part in that situation. So he basically put in a piston. He took out the TXV, put in a piston. We vacuumed the system down and converted it to MO99, and it worked good enough to where it'll probably get this homeowner through a few seasons. Um, and she's gonna eventually just need to replace it because it's, it's, um, but yeah, so, you know, I hated my, my boss that day because he just kept making me go back. But boy, had he just said, yeah, yeah, okay, I'll figure it out for you, no problem, buddy, it's okay.

Right.

Um, I mean, there would be a lot of stuff that, you know, I wouldn't have been able to learn So, you know, he— one thing I can say for him and is that that particular contractor is very good at figuring out ways to get a system to get by for now. We dealt with a lot of trailers and a lot of manufactured homes. And so people who didn't have a lot of money. So it's like, you know, maybe they could save up in 2 or 3 years for a new system, but they sure as heck ain't gonna be buying one today. Um, so how can we get them by? And that's, that's, that's kind of his specialty. Um, so it's, it's really weird. He's like Dr. Frankenstein when it comes to air conditioning. But—

And, but we need all different types of people. People that can just change parts, people that can do maintenance, people that can figure out how to just get something running. We need people that can be able to do building science and the high-end fixing the whole home. We need all those different Layers, right?

And, you know, that high-end, you know, HVAC stuff I think intimidates people sometimes. God knows it intimidates me sometimes hearing John Ellis's, you know, uh, IAQ stuff. Sometimes I'm just like, you know, I don't have a PhD in, in neurosurgery. I, I'm—

I don't—

is this out of my league? And, but, you know, I've also learned that, yeah, you know, maybe it is right now, but if— but you never grow if you don't Venture into those areas that are a bit out of your league. So, um, so with that, I'm just wondering what, what challenges are you doing? Like, what are— how are you challenging yourself? How are you growing? Are you reading anything good? Are you, you know, how is Ty learning right now?

That's a loaded question. I spend every day learning something new. I, for the last, oh gosh, 13 years have been learning about building science.

Yeah.

So, I've just been reading articles and going in detail. And, at first, it was just super overwhelming and just like there's so much to it. But now, the more that I do it, the more I understand it. Now, I do not consider myself a building science scientist or building science specialist, but I do watch it and learn it and I take a lot of that information. It's like, how can I bring this down so that other people can learn it? And then, I support links. So, hey, look, You go learn this specifically, or here's resources to learn that. I'm also at the same time fascinated by rack refrigeration. I've done very little rack refrigeration myself, but I've been learning about it. I'm watching everything I can. I'm also learning a ton about CO2. I've been on a CO2 track for probably, um, 9 years now. I've been learning about CO2 back when it was super new. I'm just learning everything I can about CO2. It's unlikely I'll ever work on a CO2 system, but I'm just— fascinated by it. I'm learning everything I can about it. Uh, those are like my 2 big things that I'm just really learning on. But there's also like other hobby stuff that I'm— I learn about and I do. Um, you know, space, uh, geography, travel. Like, there's so much stuff.

Yes.

Books that I recommend for anybody, uh, anybody doing mentoring, because we're all mentors, is this one that Brian Orr wrote. It's called Unconformed. An Unbound and Unbridled Path to Unstuck Growth. Super long name, but this book is one of my favorite books. It is written so well. It's spaced out. It's— I have highlights in here, there's underlines, I have note cards in here because that's how I retain information. Even if I don't ever look at something again, writing it down helps me learn it. But I got all different color highlights in here, and it's just written in a way that's easy for me to understand. There's so many key points in this book. I recommend anybody getting it. It's easy to follow along.

Yeah.

Excellent book, especially if you're an instructor, like how people learn, talking about their trade. It's a good book. Now, for people that are into teaching, there's some books that I don't agree with, like everything these things have, but Highly— uh, Hints for Highly Effective Instructors. It's a nice small little book. It's got a lot of resources in it. I reference that often. Uh, this one, um, Dan Holohan, everybody pretty much knows him. It says How to Teach Technicians Without Putting Them to Sleep. It's a really good book, a lot of information in it. And this one, the title's misleading, and somebody recommended this book to me, and I haven't read it the whole way through. I reference it a lot, but it's called Teaching College. And I'm like, I don't teach college, I— that book is not going to apply. And they're like, please, Sy, just, just read the book. I got it and I've been reading it and there is so much stuff in this book that applies to all of us. Like a big one of talking about not using PowerPoints, uh, or not putting everything in PowerPoints and keeping words off. I— PowerPoints can be good, but I despise PowerPoints because people lean on them so hard. And I know what it's like sitting in a classroom.

Yeah.

Like I've literally stabbed myself with a pen before to help keep me awake Uh, because I respect the instructor, I respect the class, but it's PowerPoints and somebody's reading PowerPoints.

They can get very tedious.

Gosh, I just hate that so much. As far as other books, man, installation manuals. People ask me questions, I look up the installation manual, service manual, look up the PDF. I do Ctrl+F, find out what I need. Uh, I make highlights, I make notes, screenshots. There's so much information that's changing constantly. But I have a library full of stuff. Somebody that's mentoring new people, get Craig Michelaccio's new book. It's Procedures, and you will learn a lot by how he talks. But it's Procedures for HVAC. I can't remember the name of the book.

I've read through it, and I've just one day I'm going to figure out how to get a hold of Craig and get him on this show because he's yeah, he's he's really not active on social media very much, but he's very caring.

He's just a True good person. And then he even makes sure that his books are printed locally at a local print shop. He could have them done cheaper elsewhere, but the quality, the local people— local people package it, his people put it in a box and ship it off. Even on Amazon, they do all the books and then they send it to Amazon to be shipped out. So like, that's just— I mean, just such a good guy. But he also has a workbook. So it— like, let's be honest, a lot of the books that we learn from were so in detail. There was like 8 chapters on motors, but not one of those told you how to change a motor. Well, Craig's book—

Yeah.

It doesn't cover motors, but procedures, like how to do this. And he talks about with digital gauges, with probes, with analog gauges. I mean, it's just a great book for people to start out, and it has theory, but theory how it applies when you need it. I can't think of a better book to help people starting out. So those are the ones I recommend. But, you know, I listen to podcasts when I'm driving. I don't do a lot of— I like short videos because it just gets me thinking and then I go down my own little rabbit holes.

Mm-hmm.

Allison Bales, pretty much anything Allison Bales, Energy Vanguard, writes, I read. He writes in a way that I can understand it. He takes complicated building science and just writes it the way I can understand it. I have some friends in building science that mean well, but they sometimes just like crush me.

It can get a little heavy.

They can get like this big. And, and there's a lot of pride involved with the building science. And so I'm just like, okay, you know, and I respect them and I respect the information, but I learned I need somebody else to deliver that to me. Like what they're saying could be completely right. And also building science will argue over a Pascal. And I'm like, look, I, I'm a bigger picture kind of guy. Like, you know, so, um, there's so much to learning this trade though. There's so much. Most people use a ductulator and they're thinking that's how you design ductwork, and it's not. Like, it's probably one of the worst things for industry. It's a great tool, but it's been abused so badly.

Right. And that, you know, it seems like a lot of people religiously, uh, stand by The tools that are good for giving you a good base understanding of what's going on, but they don't, you know, it's, it's rare that you find somebody who wants to dig deeper and get, you know, the real nitty-gritty, you know, whether it be duct design, system design, system capacity, all the manuals and everything. It's, you know, yeah, there's a lot, and there's a lot of different directions that we can go. In this trade. You know, one perfect example, I just— Louise Keller is coming out this coming week. She is, of course, with UEI, one of our favorite instrument manufacturers. And she, you know, her background is she sold men's suits. And, you know, that has nothing to do with HVAC. But now she's selling HVAC instruments and now she's training people on HVAC instruments. And it's just amazing. Your background, your walk of life, you know, what area of the trade you're in, it doesn't stop you from, you know, stepping up and helping others. It's a bit hyperbole, but I like to say if you have one day out in the field, you have something that you can share with somebody. And, you know, so it's just about that attitude that I wanna share what I have. In fact, I would love to hear people's first day on the job stories. That, that would be a cool episode.

That's the best.

That would be the best. But, Ty, where can people find you?

Oh, you know, I just, I just want people to learn. There's all different styles. I don't, I don't, I'm not in it for followers or people finding me like Craig Michelaccio, AC Service Tech's great, HVAC Schools Sound Material. HVACR videos. Manufacturers have good training. Look, if you know, if you maybe do, maybe don't like my style, it's okay. It's just love, L-O-V-E, the number 2, HVAC. And I'm on most of the social media stuff. Um, I don't get to all the messages. I'm just overloaded with— I mean, it's, it's— I don't, I don't sell merchandise. I don't. So it's, you know, I have stuff to work. So, uh, a lot of the— I don't get back to everybody's messages. And that's, you know, I don't get to everybody, so don't get mad if I don't respond right away. I'm— I try to just, yeah, hop in different groups, and I like the groups because I like seeing what's happening in the industry. I still work in the field to make sure that I don't lose that disconnect of what it's like being in the attic, but I also want to see what's happening in other parts of the country, what's happening like in, in Maine and California and Alaska and Florida, all these different places, because it gives me that bigger picture of not just what's happening here in front of me But everywhere. So you'll see me pop in places here and there, and I get so many tags that I just— I don't respond to everybody. So just—

Right.

You know, please don't get mad at me for not responding to a message. I, I try and have ADHD, so I lose emails. I don't— I start responding to text messages and I forget. But I'm not in it for the followers. If you like it, cool. If not, man, there's so many other great people out there to learn from. Just make sure you're learning. That's what I want.

Amen. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, Ty Brandeman, thank you so much for joining us here on the HVAC Mentors Podcast. It's been a real joy, and it feels like there's just so much more we could talk about. We could, we could have a 3, 4, you know, day-long hour episode. And, you know, I'd love to have you back on again. Hopefully we can, we can chat again another time. Folks, I really hope that you enjoyed today's episode. As always, like, subscribe, all that fun stuff. If you have additional questions or questions that you'd like to ask Ty, feel free to send them to me. Or again, you can find him on Love 2 HVAC, being 2 dudes with ADHD. You know, don't hesitate to send the same question on every platform because that might actually be the most effective way to get a hold of somebody. But, you know, until, until Excellence is over in March, I don't think that anyone is going to be expecting too many people to be responding because everyone is like full throttle all day, every day till then. So with that said, thank you once again, everybody, for watching or listening. Have a fantastic day and keep learning out there. Bye-bye for now. This was the HVAC Mentors Podcast. The HVAC Mentors Podcast is sponsored by the HVA Chicks Coalition, offering free resources for HVACR students and technicians along with a free 24/7 tech support line. Check out the HVA Chicks Coalition Facebook page. Facebook page for more information. Please like, subscribe, and share, and thank you as always for listening.