Will We Have Enough Employees? The Future of Labor and Education.

Th[00:00:00.380] - Rich Veltre

You guys are really hitting exactly what's been going through my mind, especially with my son, the ROI on the whole thing and where are you going to head? Because I want him to have a clear understanding of what it is, too, because he's going to be the one who winds up straddled with the debt. But, yeah, I think what you've done is fabulous, though. What you're putting together is really smart for all the things that I'm seeing as all the problems out there. I mean, it's only going to continue. So having that platform available, it seems like it's a home run to me.

[00:00:35.820] - Jay Goninen

There's days where I think that, and then there's other days that I think, what in the hell were we thinking? I think we all have those.

[00:00:44.730] - Dan Paulson

Why am I doing this again?

[00:00:46.480] - Jay Goninen

Yeah, yeah.

[00:00:47.520] - Rich Veltre

That was supposed to be pre-med.

[00:00:52.720] - Jay Goninen

It is, I think, and I'm curious to get the two of your perspectives on our industry. I always like to hear from people that aren't in the industry. Am I off base thinking about that? I see every day how professional these technicians are, and how professional a lot of these shops are. But I'm always curious to understand, what's the outside perception? What is it that people that aren't in this industry every day see?

[00:01:23.150] - Dan Paulson

Go ahead, Rich.

[00:01:24.810] - Rich Veltre

Well, I did a fair amount of work in logistics, but mostly from the warehousing side. From the trucking side, I have done some, especially with specialty chemical transfer, specialty chemical shipping. And although it was a while ago, I can see that there is a constant need for that. Unless you can tell me that there's going to suddenly be the ability for airline travel with big tankers on it that can get that cost down below ground travel. Ground travel is here to stay. It's going to be here for a long time. So the concern becomes what we saw in the last few months when there were hiccups in the logistics portion, especially in trucking, and then add on top of it, logistics issues in shipping. I mean, this industry is huge and so vital that I hate hearing that there's people shortages because I can just predict. My job, even though I've been doing accounting for years and I've gotten involved in that, my job as a CFO is look more forward. And there's some panic setting in across multiple industries. And one for me was shipping and trucking and looking at it and saying, if we don't have drivers, and if we don't have mechanics, and we don't have the ability to service the vehicles, We go through what we went through during the pandemic that we're not able to get toilet paper or whatever it becomes, right?

[00:03:06.570] - Rich Veltre

So the products can't get across country. So for me, that's another reason why I keep looking at what you said you're doing with the platform. And I'm really interested in it because I could see that that's going to feed efficiency into whatever fragile market of people there already are. You're going to give that solid pipeline where there probably is all this fracture that's going to go on in the near future if nobody does that thing. And like you said, hiring a bunch of people just because we're just going to hire you because you can breathe, that gets nobody anywhere. So that's where I'm talking about the efficiency. So for me, my takeaway right here is this is the non-government sector coming up with solutions for the problem that's really evident right in front of everybody's face. So So kudos to you.

[00:04:02.290] - Jay Goninen

Thank you.

[00:04:03.700] - Dan Paulson

Yeah, I think to add to it, as you pointed out, the automotive industry has changed significantly over the past several decades. I mean, I think back to the first car I ever purchased in the technology that was in that, that was still far away ahead of the cars that I drove growing up in high school. And now what you're driving, you're basically on a rolling computer. And it is very expensive.

[00:04:29.080] - Jay Goninen

You drive that C8. That's a spaceship.

[00:04:31.370] - Dan Paulson

I do. That is a spaceship, and that is a costly spaceship, by the way. I miss the days of $20 oil changes, because now we're talking about four-figure oil change and routine maintenance. But I mean, that's just a point. And I look at the other cars that we have that aren't as sporty or as techy as that is. There's still a lot of tech in there. You pointed out the adaptive cruise control systems and all your cameras and sensors and everything that keep you in your lane and keep you in the flow of traffic. That's now becoming standard, where even five years ago, that was a pretty expensive option to add onto your vehicle. And then there's what the government requires, too. So you now not only have to have a kid with good mechanical aptitude, they're going to have to have some technical aptitude, too. They're going to have to be able to read a computer. They're going to have to be able to understand, not necessarily doing code, but some level of coding that's going on to understand what the computer is doing versus what the engine is doing and all this other stuff.

[00:05:37.420] - Dan Paulson

And then back to the soapbox that I constantly hop on, I think about every podcast that I do, we're always talking about the shortage of labor, and that the labor problem is not going away, not in the next year, not in the next 10 years, probably not in the next 30 or 40 years, if anything is going to get worse. So then you've got two options. You can automate. And then the question is, how much What automating can you do in this industry? I know they're trying to make self-driving vehicles, but right now, I think we're a good 10 to 20 years from actually having something that is viable to be put on the road. And then there's a whole dichotomy of, Okay, now you have self-driving vehicles with people who are still driving their cars and that overlap, and how is that going to work together? Because that gets even more complicated. But back to the shops. I mean, there's only so many bodies, and every The industry is going to be fighting for people. And I think it's going to get more competitive on, are you going to pay to go to school?

[00:06:37.650] - Dan Paulson

Maybe even going to college, for example, if you need that heart surgeon, is it going to be where there's going to be a hospital or something that is going to pick you up after a certain number of years, maybe pay for your doctor's degree or your specialty degree and cover that so you aren't saddled with this much debt. With that, it's also probably going to come a guarantee that you're going to work for them for so many years. So that helps with the longevity and turnover problems. I could see that happening in the automotive industry as well. So as you pointed out, if you're paying for me to go to college or go to the tech school, maybe there's an expectation that you're going to sign an agreement that you're going to work for us for five years. And if you leave early, then you're going to maybe owe back part of your education. So there's an incentive to keep people in the company longer than just getting their degree and working for a year and then going work somewhere else to make more money. There's just a lot There's a lot of different things I can see going on here that our industries are going to be changing dramatically.

[00:07:36.390] - Dan Paulson

And unfortunately, I don't see a lot of companies prepared for it. As you pointed out, the mom and pop tech shops, they really have to start thinking bigger and doing things that are going to protect them in the long term. Otherwise, they're going to get run over by companies that do get it right. And that's always the fight that I have with what I do is you see what what companies need to do and what they should be taking advantage of. But money hides a lot of problems. If you're making money now, you're not worried about money tomorrow. And that's unfortunate. So I think... Go ahead.

[00:08:11.150] - Jay Goninen

You hit on a lot of great points there. And one of the things that I could see a world where, we just talked about two year versus four year education, essentially. And I can see a world where it flip flops, where to be an automotive technician, you're going to need four years of education to be able to work on a car, because of everything that you talked about, where it's so complex, and there's so much liability behind if you screw up a repair, that you have to be properly trained. And I'm on a lot of advisory committee meetings, or a lot of Advisory Committees for Schools, and there's so much pressure on them to fill those credits with really, really good classes. And what you're starting to see is, even some that are really impactful classes or really good classes, are starting to cut, because they have to prioritize the most important stuff within that two years. And so it's almost like this reverse shift of we're almost going to need more time to educate these people while the industry is screaming for people, screaming for these schools to spit them out even faster. And so I think we're in for a really, really rude awakening here over the next 5 to 10 years on that skill level that's going to be needed to work on these things.

[00:09:29.450] - Jay Goninen

But then also, you're still faced with the fact that we're already behind tens of thousands of technicians. How do you catch up when you are essentially asking them to go to school longer? It's going to be weird.

[00:09:43.570] - Dan Paulson

Exactly. Well, and on the other part of it is we need to get a public education system, where they're actually providing enough education to make these kids able to do math, read. We won't get into that. We have to almost go back to square and really look at how our future is going to be as far as education, what we're going to do to make sure we have people who are productive in society.

[00:10:10.850] - Jay Goninen

I've got a whole- Is that another podcast? It is, yeah. Because what I see in areas across the country is very different than what I see here in Wisconsin. And I think there's a lot of things that we could learn, and especially in small rural communities, that would make it far more impactful than the way our current schools operate.

[00:10:31.510] - Dan Paulson

Agreed. So what's the future look like for Wrenchway? What's the next big project you're working on there?

[00:10:39.350] - Jay Goninen

We've got some really cool things in store. We're actually working on a part of our app, where it'll make it very easy for a high school student to be able to reach out to local businesses and ask for a job shadow. So essentially, they'll be able to go on and say, hey, looking for a job shadow. It'll fire off to all the shops in our network, and they can set something there. So again, I'm very focused on trying to get more exposure to what our industry is to those young people that are out there. So very excited about that. And then ultimately, it's just growth in general, right? We're growing a two sided platform, which is not an easy thing to do. You need a lot of shops, and you need a lot of technicians on the same platform. So it's a continued effort to get visibility to what we're doing. I know our marketing team does a fantastic job. We have a tremendous TikTok presence now, which I don't even have TikTok. So it's one of those things where we're able to get in front of a lot of people by creating content. So I think creating more content, and doing podcasts, and doing more of that type of thing is the way to get more of that visibility.

[00:11:45.310] - Jay Goninen

So just growth in general.

[00:11:48.390] - Dan Paulson

The challenge we all face, isn't it?

[00:11:51.770] - Jay Goninen

It really is. It is, at the end of the day, an absolute roller coaster. I tell a lot of young business owners or people that want to start a business that... I read a lot of business books prior to starting this business, and they all talk about the roller coaster that is entrepreneurship, that is small business ownership. But until you're in it, you just don't know. And it is really, really hard to understand that until you do it. And the true blood, sweat, and tears type of theory, it's true. It's hard. This stuff is really, really hard. And if you don't have a good support system around you, if you don't have the right mentality going into it, and you're not truly passionate about what you're doing, I don't think you're probably going to be all that successful. And it just takes having that stuff in mind. And that's where the reading and research can help you out, is to understand you do need a good support system. You do need money, right? I don't think, whatever you think you're going to spend on your new business, take it times 10, and you might be in the ballpark, right?

[00:13:01.790] - Jay Goninen

So that's something I've had to learn the hard way, and growth. That's another thing I read a lot about, and how there's unhealthy growth. And I'm like, how in the world can there be unhealthy growth? You're bringing in new sales Life is good. And then when you experience it firsthand, you're like, that's unhealthy.

[00:13:19.580] - Dan Paulson

That's very hard. So Jay, how can people get a hold of you? What's the best way to learn more about Wrenchway?

[00:13:31.090] - Jay Goninen

They can either go to Wrenchway.com. We've got everything laid out there in hopefully a clear, concise way. But they can add me on LinkedIn. I am very active on LinkedIn on there every single day. Shoot me a message. I'd be happy to talk to you about any of my experience or really about anything. Dan, you know me. I'll talk for days. So if you reach out, I'm sure I'll talk to you about whatever it is that you want to talk to me about.

[00:13:57.930] - Dan Paulson

Sounds good. Tiktok What's your TikTok channel? I don't know how many of us are... I don't have a TikTok either, but what's your TikTok channel since that is the new big thing?

[00:14:07.440] - Jay Goninen

It's a great question. I think if you just look up Wrenchway, the only time I go on is I look at our views and see the comments and try to get an idea of what's going on out there. But I do get why it's addictive. That's why I have it set on my browser. So it goes directly to our Wrenchway page, and I don't look at anything else out there.

[00:14:24.800] - Dan Paulson

There you go. I don't even have it on any of my phone or iPad or anything for that very reason. I don't need to get sucked into something else. There's enough things that occupy my day. Well, thank you again for participating. Rich, how do they get a hold of you?

[00:14:38.910] - Rich Veltre

Send me an email at rveltre@veltregroup.com.

[00:14:42.230] - Dan Paulson

All right. And you can get a hold of me at danpaulsonletsgo.com. Feel free to reach out. And we are looking for more interviews. So if you think you have a good subject to talk about, we'd love to hear about it, see if you might be a good fit. Jay, thanks again for coming along. We really appreciate your time on here. We'll have to have you back again. As you pointed out, there's a lot of other topics we can talk about, so you might become a fairly regular guest. We can talk about school next time, and the challenges we're facing there, and what we need to change about that. But again, really appreciate your time. Thanks again for coming, and we will see you next time around. Thanks, everybody.

[00:15:20.410] - Jay Goninen

Thank you, guys.