Episode 195
When the Apprentice Becomes the Mechanic with Sam DeWitt
Sam DeWitt got told like every millennial to go to college and get a degree.
The path from there to becoming a master mechanic wasn't anything he could have planned, moving through different roles and companies before landing somewhere that changed his entire perspective on what leadership could be.
His supervisor Bob showed him what servant leadership actually looks like creating space for people to grow by recognizing where they need help and empowering them to learn instead of expecting them to already know everything.
We explore how admitting what you don't know opens the door to real learning, why seeking knowledge directly from people doing the work beats any manual, and how hands-on practice with real failure scenarios builds the next generation of skilled technicians.
Highlights
- Why companies banking on operators training replacements fails when the operator is protecting their own job instead of teaching.
- How servant leadership that recognizes strengths and weaknesses across teams while empowering people to struggle and learn changes careers.
- Why maintenance requires some innate ability beyond what's teachable and finding people who want to work on broke stuff every day is hard.
- Why creating the right training tools can work better than prescribed ones.
Get in touch with Sam:
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Transcript
Welcome back everyone to this episode of BlueCaller BS. How you doing today, Brad?
Brad Herda (:I am fantastic, Mr. Stephen Doyle. How are you today?
Steve Doyle (:You know, today it's sunny out, it's a fantastic day because it's not too hot, not too cold. It's just right.
Brad Herda (:So we were talking a little bit pre show here. What's going on for your weekend this weekend and why don't you just share briefly the good work that you are doing for your community and what's happening. Just give us a give us a 22nd 32nd blurb because we don't get to share all the goodness that sometimes happens around us.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:No.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, so tonight we have a charity dinner where it's a nonprofit charity that works with orphanages. It's more of a religious-based orphanage that works all the way from babies all the way up to high schoolers that we help support. And then we, on the weekend on this Saturday, we're actually doing a barbecue for the homeless.
Brad Herda (:Thanks
Steve Doyle (:and for an underprivileged community. So I do that. And then Sunday's another barbecue where for our church that we go to, we are having a barbecue as we welcome everybody back from the summer and do, we bless all the students that are going into school for this school year. So that's, that's what I got going on this weekend.
Brad Herda (:Awesome. we... Perfect. See we got our good deed out of the way, our public service opportunity, and now we can get into the shit, right?
Steve Doyle (:That's right. That's right. So Brad, who do we got on the show today?
Brad Herda (:Today we have on the show Sam Dwhitt. He is a self-proclaimed millennial zillennial. I got connected with him on LinkedIn. He's a master mechanic that specializes in C &Cs, his career into a leadership role and a trainer and developer has his own show called Living the Dream, as you can see on the bottom there. His experience is nothing short of interesting.
Right. Starting out in the laser world and getting into sales and doing some more laser and tube central bar tube master mechanic now in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am looking forward to hearing his stories as he's gone through the trades world in the manufacturing front. So Sam, thank you for being here, sir.
Livin The Dream (:It's a pleasure to be on the show guys. I love what you're doing.
Brad Herda (:You know what? They always say that until they get to the end.
Steve Doyle (:They doing exactly just wait, just wait.
Livin The Dream (:Hey, I've listened. I have listened to the show, so I'm aware of what I'm stepping off into. So let's go.
Steve Doyle (:so I know Brad kind of already ruined my question, but we still are going to ask it anyways. The generation that you identify with, are you hanging out in the millennials crowd?
Brad Herda (:Well, thank you very much. You're the Oklahoma guy.
Livin The Dream (:So I am, as the category goes, am classified as a millennial. But as I said in the bio there, I identify as a millennial because I have the Gen X personality in a lot of how I go through. Pretty much, yeah. Most people that would introduce me, they'd be like, oh, Sam, yeah, he's a dick.
Steve Doyle (:Mmm.
Brad Herda (:So you're a dick is what you're trying to say.
Steve Doyle (:Hahaha!
I appreciate this. Yeah, can appreciate the tough luck. I can appreciate the tough
Livin The Dream (:It's tough love. Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Herda (:Right, exactly. Exactly. So walk us through a little bit of how a guy starts out as a five axis laser programmer to a master mechanic. Walk us through that journey. How you got there.
Livin The Dream (:So I started off as you know, everyone in my generation has been told to, you know, go to college and get a degree. I am a bachelor holding. It's a Bachelor of Technology with manufacturing emphasis, which is basically like the applied science of manufacturing engineering. I worked all through school because I decided that getting married
And going to school at the same time was a great idea. And yeah. So, you know, support a family. You work 40 plus hours a week in a blue collar trade. And then, you know, 18 hours a semester for eight years. So I started that off. I had a couple of jobs that were using my degree and what field I thought I wanted to go into.
Steve Doyle (:Hmm. Sounds great.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:My first one was right around 9 11 and I was in the aircraft industry. And as you all know, 9 11 happened. The aircraft industry took a dive. So I was riding a desk and I'm like, Hey, I'm just overhead. I should find something that is more valuable. Plus I'm not really digging this position. And there was a five axis laser. was a Nip I to Yama corporation, TLM six 10.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Big time.
Livin The Dream (:And I that was my first experience in CNC went across with absolutely no experience whatsoever. But the company was willing to train me. So well, let me rephrase that. The company was willing to put me in the position they were banking on the operator training me. And well.
Steve Doyle (:Okay.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh-huh.
Brad Herda (:I was gonna ask that question. I was gonna ask you what training really meant.
Livin The Dream (:No, I got thrown into a position. got thrown into that position. Not really thrown into it. Let me rephrase that. I accepted the position, started working with the current operator as I'm sure you've had some other guests on the episode that have talked about, the guy was more worried about me taking his job than he was actually training me. So it's, I think I spent six months with him. He got fired and then I had to learn everything on the
Brad Herda (:So you did take his job.
Livin The Dream (:Yeah, I did. I was there to take his job. Apparently, I wasn't aware of this. But there was a bigger picture that I wasn't included in on.
Steve Doyle (:Steve Doyle (06:04.834)
Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:But if we break it down to his level, you did take his job.
Livin The Dream (:But,
Well, yeah, I did. And well, and so so as my my degree works, taught me is was efficiency. That was one of the reasons why I went into the manufacturing aspect of manufacturing, engineering aspect of it was is, I always enjoyed trying to find a way to do something better, faster, more efficient. And so I took what was a three month backlog on that machine, while training myself and
got it to where they were three months ahead.
Steve Doyle (:Wow.
Livin The Dream (:So yeah.
Brad Herda (:How did I know that that was going to happen? How did I know all of a sudden you're going to work yourself out of it? Hey, we need more work. Go sell more. What do mean to go sell more?
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, right.
Livin The Dream (:Right. So, so, so that job came on came as it was. And, you know, I'm married working full time, still going to college at the time. And, well, you know, they had a very strict attendance policy. So I worked my attendance to myself out of a job. The good news is, is two weeks later, I was
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:back in another shop running the exact same machine and they were more than happy about it. That's where the programming aspect of it came into play. And it was a small shop. So there wasn't a real big maintenance department.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:So can I just, so when you attendance yourself out of the other position, did you put all the other things in place for the next guy that took your role to be successful or did you keep it all to yourself?
Livin The Dream (:No, there was proceed. There was work procedures. There was like all of that stuff. That was another. That was another thing too, is there was work instructions, there was processes in order for someone else to come along. Something that that we had talked about in the pre pre show interview was, you know, I always believe that you train yourself out of a job, or at least make it to where so yeah, well, you know, mistakes were made. But
Steve Doyle (:Nice.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:Or attendance yourself out, one of the two.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Livin The Dream (:You know, you train yourself out of a job so that way you have the opportunity to go somewhere else. And, you know, I mean, looking back on it, that was a good portion of my life to, you know, let me fall flat on my face when I had, had a gravy job. It was, it was great. Anybody in their twenties would have loved to have had that job. but you know, I had priorities wrong and made mistakes. So.
It is what it is. So moved into the other company, running the same machine. That's well, I actually kind of started the maintenance aspect of it because my stepfather worked at the same company. He was maintenance at that company. So when the machine broke, or when I screwed up and crashed the machine, he would come in there and sit down on my chair and tell me how to fix it.
Brad Herda (:I can understand completely. We've all been there.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Brad Herda (09:14.142)
The unofficial, have two jobs inside one company role. Kid, you're going to kid, you're going to learn this whether you like it or not. And I don't care what the, what my boss has to say about it. I'm going to teach you.
Livin The Dream (:Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:huh. huh.
Steve Doyle (:huh.
Livin The Dream (:Well, and the best part of this is this is also the same man that told me whatever you do, don't grow up and become a maintenance guy. Hi.
Steve Doyle (:I'm going to.
Brad Herda (:Hi, I'm the maintenance guy.
Livin The Dream (:Right, right. Not only have I done it, but I've tried to do it very well. So it's one of those things. What is it I do today what others won't so I can do tomorrow what others can't was is
Steve Doyle (:nice.
Livin The Dream (:So that I've got a little, it was a little hobby lobby sign that I got and I was like, I like that. That's going on the wall of the shop. So let's see where we are. So I got to the second part of it, got to, you know, running the same machine, moved into a maintenance role there. started kind of doing some processes and procedures for forklift maintenance cause they didn't have anything along that lines. Most of them.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:Forklifts had been there for five, 10 years. No one knew if the oil had ever been changed.
Brad Herda (:Did the seat belts work?
Steve Doyle (:Seat belts. They were there, Where they probably never used.
Livin The Dream (:They were there. They were there. There was one time it was used and somebody picked up a sheet that was a little heavier than it should have been, and they had it a little higher than it should have been. And yeah, so they got to meet the steering wheel. So moved into the role there and maintenance did some of the stuff.
Brad Herda (:They were there, nobody knew that they were.
Steve Doyle (:Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:I had long story short, ended up getting laid off there. Did some contract work for a calibration company. And that was kind of side work, cash under the table stuff.
Trying to remember where all this, all this, don't really think back through all of this very often.
Brad Herda (:That's alright, but anyhow you end up being the master mechanic now, right? So was that going through an apprenticeship to get to the master mechanic designation or is it just time and seats or how did you get the designation?
Livin The Dream (:Right, so I-
Livin The Dream (:So the designation was time and seat. I had worked through the calibration company as a contractor for my current employer. And they recognized talent and said, hey, you should apply. I applied.
Brad Herda (:and you're humble too.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:They recognize the talent.
Livin The Dream (:I guess, I mean, I don't know why they wanted me in there. But it had to be something. It's definitely not the Ruggish Goodlucks.
Steve Doyle (:you
Must be the talent.
Livin The Dream (:So, I had applied, I applied because I was like, I'm, I was pretty happy with the gig that I had. So I had applied there before and didn't even get an email saying that I didn't even get in or get an interview. So I was like, yeah, whatever. I'll apply. And, well, a couple of months later, I got a job offer. So, and then I've, I've been there eight years now and, it's been one of those deals that,
Steve Doyle (:Okay.
Livin The Dream (:It's probably one of the best companies I have worked for just mainly because of the leadership that has been there. They definitely preach a servant leadership environment. And that helped me to grow a lot in the company.
Brad Herda (:good because I was going to ask you how that as you've gone through those various different organizations in your current organization, what made what made leadership good or bad at those organizations along the way? I mean, you talked about that first stint where it was like, hey, come on in and have the operator teach you and then you took over his job and then probably not the best leadership and training opportunities along the way.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:and
Livin The Dream (:And no, there's, it's been a variety of, of leaders I've had good and bad over the years. Um, the, the majority of the leaders that I have had that, that are memorable are the ones that I really felt like were doing what they could to help me grow. Not, not hold my hand, but just to put me in the, in the place and try to give me the tools that I needed to succeed. So it wasn't, it was, uh,
I've got, so I got, Bob was, he was the, the supervisor whenever I first started. And I, so I got put in as the, the CNC guy because I had all of the CNC experience over the years. I'm like, yeah, okay. I ran them. That doesn't mean I know how to fix them, but
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:Well, you're the millennial guy. You're the tech guy. You should know this. What's the problem? You're the youngest one. You should know better.
Livin The Dream (:Yeah. Right. Yeah, exactly. So I get thrown into probably the most sophisticated equipment that we have. And I was three months into it, I went in and sat down in his office and told him I said I have oversold myself. I said I'm this is way over my head. I have no idea what I'm doing. And I'm sorry. And he goes good.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:I'm like, what do you mean good? He goes, well, that means that, you know, you're willing to to recognize your shortcomings. Now let's work on fixing that. And he was like, do you have manufacturer phone numbers? Yeah, call them. They've got technicians. Bring them in here. If you can't fix it, bring them in here and then stay glued to them and learn everything you can from them. And that's that's pretty much how it's been. And it was it was
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:the empowerment and allowing me to struggle any and he did this differently with everyone too, because he was he was able to recognize strengths and weaknesses throughout the team, find out where they needed to grow, find out what they needed to grow. And it just he was it was a tremendous blessing to be under him. And I've I've talked about that on my show. And
Steve Doyle (:Mmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:then you need to introduce us to Bob so Bob can come on our show.
Livin The Dream (:I will do the best that I can to see if we can get him on here. He's not a tech guy. So.
Brad Herda (:That's OK. That's OK. Somebody else can set up the tech forum. He just needs to talk and answer a few questions.
Steve Doyle (:That's okay.
Livin The Dream (:They are. All right, we'll see. I'll see what I can do.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep.
Brad Herda (:Because that adaptation and that ability to go forward and see what everybody's needs are is vitally important, particularly as the generations are getting younger in the workforce.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:Right. Well, and he's, he is humble and he'll be like, I didn't do anything. I just showed up to work. That's, that was the way Bob was. And, and I've had, and honestly, what's funny is, is we have multiple facilities throughout the area. So I've been stationary in the same facility the entire time I've been there. So I've had leadership rotate through and there's been different leaders over me throughout the eight years.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:All of them are very similar, but just like little traits here and there different. And, but it's all still about empowering the technicians and giving them the ability to make decisions. Sometimes it's a wrong decision. Sometimes you drop $80,000 on parts and it doesn't have a damn thing to do with what's actually wrong.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:Hey, let's replace the board. Let's see what happens. shit. It's that switch that was downstream. Damn it.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:where the damn cable was unplugged.
Steve Doyle (:Hahaha!
Brad Herda (:No, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's a reason why the cable companies go through their script, right?
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, yeah. Did you plug? Is it plugged in? Number one? Is it plugged in?
Livin The Dream (:That's yeah. Hey, that's that is one of the things that I have learned because you get into the maintenance field and immediately it's, you know, worst case scenario. You're like, oh my God, the motor is bad. What am I going to do? How am I going to get this motor here? Whenever you've sometimes you just got to stop, just chill, take a deep breath. Does the damn thing have power? Is it plugged in?
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:You know, sometimes it's a quick fix. And then other times you spend two weeks trying to find something that's failed internally in a piece of equipment. And there's no way that you could have done it, that you could have troubleshooted it. So.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:So I'm going to assume you have others on your maintenance team potentially. So how are you paying it forward to these other individuals on the team today?
Livin The Dream (:yes.
Livin The Dream (:So I try to do everything I can. I've gotten to where, cause I went to management and I was like, I'm getting bored. I need something different. And don't ever say that.
Brad Herda (:And when Sam gets bored, bad things happen.
Livin The Dream (:So, it was, it was one of those things that I said, said, what do you think about, you training? And I'm like, if it gets me doing something different, fine, let's go for it. And I've had good and bad experiences in, in training. And it's, you have some people that are
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:really receptive and then there's other people that just, just put the tools down and this is not the trade for you. And, but I try to do, I've tried to, again, do the processes and procedures and make it to where like, I've got spirals at the equipment that if there's common problems, this is a step-by-step with pictures and words to walk you through how to solve that problem. So.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm. Have you?
Brad Herda (:Cause I was gonna ask, how are you taking di, cause diagnostics is the hardest thing to teach, right? It is the most, because when you walk up to a piece of equipment that you've been seeing for four years, you've already jumped through 40,000 questions in your mind based on, I smell something? Did I hear something that I see a drip over there that wasn't there yesterday, whatever that might be. How are you working on the diagnostics piece? Cause to me, that is one of the hardest pieces of training.
Livin The Dream (:Right.
Brad Herda (:to get through an organization to be successful.
Livin The Dream (:So we've actually taken a piece of plywood with some common breakers, switches, LEDs, little 120 volt fans, and then set it up to where you can literally use jumper wires to create circuits. And then on the backside of that is the instructor side, and we have toggle switches to create failures.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:and have them go through and troubleshoot, know, do you not have power here? Are you getting power there? Why is this fan not working? You know, just give them that, that basic. Now granted, this is all basic stuff. It's a very controlled environment, but it's still, it still helps to give them that confidence to dive into something and be like, I've seen something similar to this. Let's start checking for voltage.
Steve Doyle (:Mmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm. And with doing that training method, how have you seen the different generations, I would say, adapt to that?
Livin The Dream (:So I've seen, because I have, have the vast spectrum right now. I have a 19 year old that is under that is coming in as an apprentice right now that is picking it up very quickly. And then I have a baby boomer that is trying to get to a master mechanic level that seems to be struggling with that. And, and, it's
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mmm.
Interesting.
Livin The Dream (:And it's one of those deals that it's as, as a maintenance technician, I struggle with why, but then on the other hand, I get it because what I struggled with coming into it was the mechanical stuff came second nature to me. That wasn't the problem. The electrical side of it is it's it's voodoo magic. You know, it's
Brad Herda (:It is, because once the smoke is out of the tube, you can't put it back in. Once you lose electrons, you cannot recover your electrons.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:Okay, right.
Steve Doyle (:That's right.
Steve Doyle (:you
Livin The Dream (:Right. And once you actually see the electricity, you're already done. it's already too far at that point. So it's it's been really interesting to to see that that aspect of it because
you've got one person that you can show them, and they can sit back and watch you and then you step away and they can walk right in there and do it. And then the other one, you've almost got to question them through the whole process to do it. And then I've had another one that just it didn't matter what I tried, whether it was walking him through by questioning kind of give them the opportunity to discover the answer on their own. Or if
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:It was just flat out telling them multiple times, these are the steps and procedures that you have to do in order to change oil.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:And they still failed. So it was, it's, is one of those things that, and I don't want to say this for everybody, but it, I do feel like that in the maintenance aspect of it, you've got to have some innate ability. Like some of it is teachable, but you've got to have some of those skills. And that's a hard, that's, that's a hard thing right now because
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:There's not a lot of people that are really interested in, hey, you know, I want to work on broke stuff every day.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:Well, yes and no, right? Because there is the opportunity to do it differently. And it's not so much the I want to work on broke stuff. It's how do I how do I add? How do I keep the value right? So when you talk to youngers, they're they're going to have the I'm going to bring value by keeping the machines working, not that they're broke, right? It's the. It's the let's let's go create the win, not let's figure out why we lost mentality and.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:Right.
Livin The Dream (:Right.
Brad Herda (:You know, so some of that is just marketing it differently and talking about it slightly differently potentially along the way. But they're different. It's not nobody's working on their 2008 Pontiac, whatever it is anymore to learn some of this stuff as much from a high school perspective. And you're in a tough spot to try to capture new people to come in because those skill sets aren't there. And you got to figure out how to adapt.
Livin The Dream (:Well.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Herda (:adapt what they're what they've grown up with into your language and you've got to be a language whisperer and analogy maker and you know pick something to make it work for them.
Livin The Dream (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:Well, a lot of, a lot of what, and this is one of the things that I try and portray on the, on the podcast that I do is that it's, I say that I try to, it's what I've, I've started to focus the podcast on. Let's put it that way is that the, know, the, maintenance and the blue collar trade is not just the grit and grime that it used to be. There's more technology and stuff involved in it now than ever before.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:the simplest things anymore, like a freaking squeegee mop at a convenience store, like is now a robot that cleans the floor. You know, so it's not, you know, you're fixing a mop sink because it's leaking. You're figuring out why the little robots not dumping off the dirty water or, know, you're right. Right. So, you know, I mean, there's there's there's that aspect of it because the technology is what the the
Brad Herda (:Cause the dog hair got stuck in the thing.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:the coming up generation is familiar and comfortable with. And a lot of that is what the older generation is afraid of is they don't, you know, they're like, I don't understand it. So I don't want to mess with it. Well, okay. But you kind of have to, because it's part of your job. So you've got to adapt and change and grow or else you'll just be a widget maker.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:Yeah, hey, hey, Mr. Boomer. Did your VCR always flash 12 or were you able to figure out how to set the clock? Right, mean that my mysterious though. That's a that's one question you could add. Hey, no, my wife took care of that all the time. Well, well then you're much you might not have right if that didn't drive you crazy flashing 12 o'clock on your VCR. And you couldn't fix it. We're probably going to struggle to figure this out.
Livin The Dream (:Alright.
Steve Doyle (:You
Livin The Dream (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:Right?
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:yeah. Yeah. And you can I mean, you can have you can have the one and the desire. But if if you're not really willing to put forth the effort to to learn it and try and understand it, then you're going to you're going to struggle with it.
Steve Doyle (:Right?
Brad Herda (:Yep, you gotta create the analogies to make it fit into their era of things right and. Right, it might be find out what their favorite car was, or maybe they like cooking or there. Maybe their hobby is smoking meat right similar right? There's a there's an art and a science to that. Unless you got a pellet smoker, then you just turn the button then you're good.
Livin The Dream (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Okay.
Livin The Dream (:Hey hey hey, there's still an art to the pellet smoker. Watch out there, stick burner.
Steve Doyle (:You know.
Brad Herda (:I have a pellet smoker too, it's super simple, right? The art is, it's been three hours, I should wrap it now.
Livin The Dream (:Well, I also like the, you know, the deal of the alcohol consumption is a lot easier there. If I have a stick burner, there's a good chance it's going to go out and I'm going to forget.
Steve Doyle (:Wow.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:Awesome. All right, Steve, you want me go back through the rapid fire? All right, we're going to change. So we used to have a segment. It was kind of bite your tongue. We're going to get away from that. We're going to try something different. These are rapid fire questions. First response. They're not difficult. They're not overly complex.
Steve Doyle (:Yes, I do.
Livin The Dream (:boy. Okay.
Steve Doyle (:Nope. No, they're not complex at all.
Livin The Dream (:Okay.
Brad Herda (:Favorite candy.
Livin The Dream (:Worthers.
Brad Herda (:Werther's. Really? Wow, OK. Did you spend a lot of time? No, did you spend a lot of time at your grandparents house or something or what? OK. See there's there's a reason for those favorite music.
Steve Doyle (:Oh, were there is okay. Wow. All right.
Livin The Dream (:Yeah. Yeah.
I you for a loop on that one, you weren't ready for that.
Steve Doyle (:We were not ready for that. huh. Wow. All right.
Livin The Dream (:I did. I did.
Livin The Dream (:EDM.
Steve Doyle (:Wow. No, not at all. All right, two for two so far, two for two.
Brad Herda (:would not have guessed that. Would not have guessed that one. All right. Favorite sport.
Livin The Dream (:Hahaha
Brad Herda (:Don't say Quidditch.
Livin The Dream (:racing. No, no, no.
Steve Doyle (:you
Brad Herda (:Racing, what kind of racing?
Livin The Dream (:Anything that goes fast with a motor, doesn't matter if it's dirt track, asphalt, whatever. If it goes fast and it's loud, I love it.
Brad Herda (:Yeah, no, no. OK, now you OK, now we got to break it down. Favorite racing of what are we talking NASCAR F1 Indy motocross trucks? What are we talking?
Steve Doyle (:Okay.
Livin The Dream (:Okay.
Livin The Dream (:Ooh.
Steve Doyle (:Uh-huh.
Livin The Dream (:So trophy trucks, definitely. Actually, arena trucks is probably my favorite because there's nothing like seeing 700 horsepower on three wheels going around a turn. Sprint car is a favorite dirt option for tens, because if it's not big, why and it doesn't have a wing? Why watch it? And then.
Steve Doyle (:Mmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:I like this.
Livin The Dream (:Let's see. It's just good old fashioned street car racing, man. Just just the the drag and drive events are killer. There's nothing better than seeing a 1600 plus horsepower vehicle traveling a thousand miles towing all of its parts and supplies from track to track for five days and laying down insane passes.
Brad Herda (:Perfect.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:Awesome.
Steve Doyle (:All right.
Livin The Dream (:You
Brad Herda (:Bucket list vacation destination.
Livin The Dream (:Australia.
Steve Doyle (:Nice.
Brad Herda (:cool. It's a very, cool place. It's very cool place. Living or dead, who would you want to have a conversation with?
Livin The Dream (:Summernauts.
Steve Doyle (:Nice.
Livin The Dream (:Henry Ford.
Steve Doyle (:Hmm.
Brad Herda (:by Henry Ford.
Livin The Dream (:He has a statement that I loved whenever I was going through college that was whether you think you're right or you're wrong, you are. Yeah.
Brad Herda (:You're correct. Yep. Ginger or Mary Ann.
Livin The Dream (:Ginger. Can you, don't, ginger, fine. We'll give you that one. I have no idea.
Brad Herda (:I'm
Steve Doyle (:I mean, you gotta know the context, Brad. Like, you look inside and like, mean, eats. I, right?
Brad Herda (:know, I don't know. It's Gilligan's Island. He's not a Gilligan's Island guy. That's okay. I can't go back to Warner Brothers. I can't go back to any right the old. Yeah, so it's okay. We just had that we had to ask that's
Livin The Dream (:I feel like that was a...
No, no.
Steve Doyle (:I mean, he did he did go with Werther's like Werther's like, mean, mean, yeah, no.
Brad Herda (:Right! Exactly. So there should have been reruns in there, right? At some point in the grammar talk?
Livin The Dream (:the
There there there was but not much. It was more of green acres and the other ones escaping me currently Beverly Hillbillies. Yeah. Well, I'm originally from Kentucky, so, you know, the Hillbilly thing kind of plays into it. It's relatable.
Brad Herda (:Beverly Hillbillies.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Brad Herda (:Those two go together usually.
Brad Herda (:So if people want to listen to your show, get involved, be engaged, or if we've got some other maintenance folks that are listening that want to understand how you are creating successful programs, etc. How do people find you, get a hold of you, where do they connect with you?
Livin The Dream (:So I'm on LinkedIn as both as both Sam DeWitt and Living the Dream podcast. We're on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Patreon. You I mean, and we're on Apple Music and Spotify. If you guys want to listen, YouTube uploads are kind of spotty at the moment because we're just kind of I say we're this is a one man show.
Brad Herda (:I was gonna say we, who's the we? You got a mouse in your pocket or what?
Livin The Dream (:Well, it started off as a, as a, as three guys sitting around a table drinking beer and just talking shit about work. if you go listen to episode one, the beginning, that's pretty much what it is. It just kind of tells who we are and what we did. So it was three of us together started the podcast and, it just kind of morphed. I moved and we got to be an hour apart and I just kind of.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Livin The Dream (:I just couldn't let it die. I don't know why I just felt like there was some need to continue on.
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:Steve keeps hanging on here, too. I don't know
Steve Doyle (:I just hang out long for the ride, ride or die.
Brad Herda (:Exactly.
Livin The Dream (:Hey, it's a lot of fun, man. And you get to meet some pretty interesting people. And I know I will say like, you know, this is not sponsored or anything, but LinkedIn is a tremendous place to connect on. And it's I mean, it's how we met. And there's some there's some great opportunities to meet people in different trades and stuff like that. So it's I'm I've got some people that are going to be on our show that I'm really looking forward to sharing with everybody. And, you know, hope we
Steve Doyle (:Mm-hmm.
Brad Herda (:Correct.
Livin The Dream (:Hope to see y'all there.
Steve Doyle (:Excellent.
Brad Herda (:Absolutely. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here, sharing your stories, sharing your journey. It helps our audience understand the goods, the bads, and the uglies as well. So thank you so much.
All right, man, have a great rest of your day, and we'll talk to you soon.
Livin The Dream (:Yes, sir.
Steve Doyle (:All right, later.
