The Art of Manliness - #642： Finding Money and Meaning in the Blue Collar Trades

00:00:00.000 Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast. When it comes

00:00:11.600 to living their best life and building substantial wealth, many young men's first thoughts turn

00:00:15.420 to developing a new app or starting a popular YouTube channel. They don't think about digging

00:00:19.420 ditches. That's how my guest today became a millionaire. He thinks more folks should

00:00:22.880 consider seeking not only financial success, but true comfort, peace and freedom by rejecting

00:00:27.240 today's standardized white collar career path and looking into alternative routes through

00:00:30.580 the skilled trades. His name is Ken Rusk. He's a construction business entrepreneur who's

00:00:34.520 also been a life coach and mentored to hundreds of his employees. And he's the author of Blue

00:00:37.980 Collar Cash, Love Your Work, Secure Your Future and Find Happiness for Life. Ken and I began

00:00:42.680 our conversation with how a guy who got a job digging ditches in high school and skipped

00:00:45.920 college went on to create a multi-million dollar construction business. We then talk about how

00:00:49.560 there aren't enough people pursuing blue collar work and how this skills gap regarding the

00:00:53.040 trade is driving up demand and in turn, the potential income to be made in this field.

00:00:56.920 Ken talks about the cost benefit analysis of going to college versus learning a skilled

00:01:00.280 trade and the advantages to the latter. He then explains the often underappreciated reward

00:01:04.000 of blue collar work, which he calls the step back moment. From there, Ken shares some stories

00:01:07.920 of folks who found fulfillment pursuing blue collar work, even made the switch later in life.

00:01:11.880 Along the way, Ken shares the life advice he gives employees and job seekers about how to manage

00:01:15.500 their money, set goals and pursue their own version of happiness and success. After the show's

00:01:19.760 over, check out our show notes at aom.is slash blue collar cash.

00:01:26.920 All right, Ken Rusk, welcome to the show.

00:01:34.000 Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

00:01:35.680 So you are the author of the book, Blue Collar Cash, Love Your Work, Secure Your Future and

00:01:40.140 Find Happiness for Life. And you yourself are also a blue collar construction entrepreneur.

00:01:45.780 In fact, you've been called the million dollar ditch digger. Well, tell us, let's talk about

00:01:49.660 your story, how you got to where you are. How did you become the million dollar ditch digger?

00:01:53.840 Well, you know, it's kind of interesting because when I was 15 in high school,

00:01:58.760 in order to, you know, after school, we would go to the local carryout and hang out there for a

00:02:03.320 little while, like a lot of kids did. And in order to get there, I had to cross through a fence that

00:02:08.060 connected my high school with a small industrial park. And I used to walk by this building every day.

00:02:14.340 And this building had a lot of energy coming in and out of it all the time. And one day I decided

00:02:19.140 I knew some people that worked there and I walked in and said, what do you guys do? And I got hired

00:02:24.340 in. And this was a company that actually dug ditches around houses to correct wet basements

00:02:30.980 and crawl spaces. And so that's what I did. I dug ditches in the summertime and in the wintertime,

00:02:36.860 I worked inside in the office.

00:02:38.560 And from there, so you were doing this in high school. When you graduated high school,

00:02:43.020 did you go to college or did you think, I'm just going to stick doing what I'm doing right now,

00:02:46.300 digging ditches? You know, it's funny because when I was in 10th grade, I remember the teacher

00:02:51.860 saying, you know, raise your hand if you're going to college. And I remember only about a third or

00:02:56.600 a half of the guys did that in the school, in the classroom. And I thought, well, that seems pretty

00:03:01.760 balanced, you know, because some kids are going on to a trade or a skill or working in a family

00:03:06.300 business or what have you. I was one of those people who I had some brothers who went to college

00:03:10.680 and I thought, well, that's just what I'm supposed to do. So I tried doing it for just a couple

00:03:16.200 of months. And it just was, as I was approaching going to school, I knew it wasn't for me. And as

00:03:21.120 I went into the classroom, I thought, you know, this just isn't for me. I liked making money. I

00:03:25.620 liked working with my hands. I liked being outside. And so, yeah, I stuck with ditch digging.

00:03:31.820 Well, yeah, you had a conversation with your dad where you had this opportunity where your boss,

00:03:35.740 I think he wanted you to hit the road to help build some franchises for the business. And you were

00:03:41.840 saying that I can do this or I can stay in school. And your dad was like, sounds like you know what

00:03:46.580 you want to do. So go do what you want to do. Well, you know, if you think about it, you know,

00:03:52.200 I had some skills from working in the office and I was just dangerous enough to send to a new place

00:03:57.680 to help them open. And here I am, a young kid, and I'm going out and I'm building out office buildings

00:04:05.880 where we were going to put these franchises and hiring people and, you know, pulling permits and

00:04:12.140 doing all those kinds of things. And I just thought to myself, you know, what a better education than

00:04:18.660 to go learn how to open a company or something on someone else's dime, if you will. So, yeah,

00:04:25.320 I took all the skills that I learned from, you know, doing the actual work, the jackhammers and

00:04:30.140 the dump trucks and the shovels, and I kind of put it to good use.

00:04:33.200 So you're doing this, you're working for someone else, you're traveling the country,

00:04:37.040 helping opening these franchises, these offices. At what point did you springboard on your own?

00:04:42.840 Well, I, you know, since I was younger, I always kind of wanted to be in control of my own destiny.

00:04:48.540 And I think that was the important thing for me. At some point, you know, if you're living out of a

00:04:53.480 suitcase for three or four years, that gets pretty old pretty quickly. And so I remember I came home and

00:05:01.660 talked to my wife and we had an opportunity to move out to Toledo, Ohio, which is a couple hours

00:05:06.460 away from where we had grew up. And yeah, we took it. We just, we jumped on it. We, we got a small

00:05:13.240 loan and we came out here and we opened the company up in 1986 and we've been doing it ever since.

00:05:18.520 And is your company, you're, you're still digging ditches that you're coming. Is it a contracting

00:05:21.580 company? What do you guys do?

00:05:22.500 Yeah. It's, it's, um, you know, we started with like six employees and now there's,

00:05:27.100 and there's nearly 200 of us. And, um, we, that's what we do. We, uh, we, we, we waterproof

00:05:32.900 foundations and basements and we jackhammer up floors and we dig a lot of ditches. And, uh, you know,

00:05:38.180 that, that opportunity has helped to kind of springboard some other construction things that

00:05:42.440 I'm involved in and some investments and things. And, and so it's, it's been a pretty good ride so far.

00:05:47.120 Yeah. So the book's about, you're making the case for blue collar work and you start off the book

00:05:52.220 talking about how in America we're having this crisis with the workforce, particularly there's

00:05:56.880 a skills gap. What is the skills gap and kind of walk us through like what, what's, what effect is

00:06:02.380 it having on the economy? Well, you know, back in the seventies and eighties, when I was in high school,

00:06:07.300 there was shop class and you could learn welding and plumbing and carpentry and electrical,

00:06:12.440 and you could learn car mechanics and home economics and all those kinds of things.

00:06:16.120 At some point somebody decided, well, let's, let's take, let's get rid of all the lathes and all

00:06:21.820 the equipment and all the tools and let's put computers in those rooms. Now, obviously we had

00:06:28.160 to learn how to use computers. That's, that's a given, but I never really thought it was a binary

00:06:32.900 choice, one or the other. I mean, why couldn't we have both? Right? So it, that started a process

00:06:39.600 where millions of kids just didn't discover by accident what, you know, how cool it is to build

00:06:47.040 something or to create something or to weld something or to bake something or to fix something.

00:06:52.200 And if, if you put that scenario on top of the fact that, you know, now these kids are growing up,

00:06:59.880 unfortunately with just cell phones and games in their hand and, you know, iPads and that kind of

00:07:04.580 thing, we don't have a lot of discovery of, of blue collar work where you're working with your

00:07:10.240 hands. And, you know, the, the perfect storm of those two confluences along with we're funneling

00:07:18.200 everybody into college. We're really creating this giant gap of people willing to work with their hands

00:07:25.240 and it's creating a huge supply and demand issue. And as you know, anywhere supply is low and demand

00:07:32.140 is high, that's right where the money goes. Do we have any idea, like the numbers of like how many

00:07:36.660 jobs are going unfulfilled because people can't find qualified candidates?

00:07:41.820 Well, I'll just put it to you this way for every five electricians whose average age right now is in

00:07:47.120 the mid fifties for every five electricians who are retiring, there's only one coming online.

00:07:53.300 So you can figure out real quick what's going to happen there. If that continues, there are millions of

00:07:59.620 jobs that could be filled that are going unfilled. And now people are waiting, you know, weeks and

00:08:07.220 months just to get a plumber out to their house or to get a finished carpenter out or a stone mason,

00:08:12.520 like in my case. Well, that's an interesting point. So another factor contributing to the crisis is that

00:08:17.100 you have a lot of people who are in the trades right now, they're about to retire and there's no one

00:08:23.080 there to replace them. So there's going to be even more of a, of a skills gap.

00:08:26.740 Yeah. A quick, quick example. I had a stone kitchen built in my, on my back deck a few years

00:08:33.180 ago. And here's a guy who he's, he's a great, a great businessman. He rolls up in my driveway in

00:08:41.620 his brand new pickup truck. He jumps out with his coffee in his hand, his t-shirt and his jeans and

00:08:46.360 his boots and his guys follow him in the dump truck. And they get out and they open the doors and

00:08:51.580 they crank up the Led Zeppelin and they spend the day building these, these beautiful outdoor

00:08:56.500 kitchens. I mean, that's what they do. It's, it's artwork. And do you know that guy wants to retire

00:09:02.820 now and he has nobody to leave his company to, and here's the guy who is making well over six figures,

00:09:10.020 um, doing what he loves to do. Uh, just imagine if you could find a young person who could shadow him

00:09:16.340 for a few years and then take that over, he would have an instant success. All right. So as you said,

00:09:21.660 there's this gap here, but there's a, there's a high demand, but little supply. So that means

00:09:26.640 there's an opportunity for people if they want it. Well, I've always said, you know, you should be a

00:09:32.220 contrarian thinker. If, if everybody's going in this direction, perhaps you should go in the opposite

00:09:38.860 direction because there's going to be a supply problem there. And, you know, as most, as most

00:09:44.380 contrarian thinkers do, they're looking for lucrative opportunities to appear on that side,

00:09:49.220 which in the blue collar world, they definitely do. Do you have any idea? So you mentioned the

00:09:54.020 stonemason guys, he's high in demand that has no one to, you know, sell his business to so he can

00:09:59.080 retire any other industries or trades where you've seen there's a high demand for because there's just

00:10:05.180 simply not enough workers or skilled workers for it. Absolutely. I mean, you know, welding is one

00:10:10.560 finished carpentry is one. You can talk about energy, whether it's alternative energy or it's

00:10:17.020 new or traditional forms of energy. There, there's all kinds of, of, you know, you're talking about

00:10:22.780 transportation, you're talking about medical, you know, there, there's a lot of places that are

00:10:27.340 looking for a lot of people and can't find them right now. And, you know, this goes into my next

00:10:31.820 question or this next point you make in the book is that, you know, in America, we've been,

00:10:35.220 you know, for the, I'd say for the past 50 years, been told if you want a stable career,

00:10:40.140 that's lucrative, that will provide you a good living, you have to go to college,

00:10:43.540 but you're making this point. Okay. Actually in the trades, there's a high demand, but low supply.

00:10:49.120 So you can actually make decent money. And so I think a lot of people don't go into the trades

00:10:52.980 or they, or they sort of snub their nose at blue collar work thing. Well, you really don't make

00:10:56.800 that much money. What are, I mean, give us the kind of ideas, numbers that people could make in

00:11:00.900 different trades or blue collar work that they could make right after finishing trade

00:11:04.980 school? Well, yeah. I mean, if you're a good finished carpenter, you can make $50 an hour

00:11:09.680 in, in welding, you can make $48 an hour. If you're a plumber, you can make in the forties

00:11:15.360 as well. And, you know, God forbid that you do that for yourself. And then perhaps if you're any

00:11:23.580 good at what you do, which again, in, in this day and age, as long as you show up, shake someone's

00:11:29.960 hand, look them straight in the eye, be on time and do reasonably good work, you're going to be

00:11:34.320 popular, right? So God forbid your business grows. And now you have other people that you have to

00:11:39.260 hire on to help with you. And now you're, they're working with, with, and for you. And you're charging

00:11:44.800 those rates. You could see how a contractor can easily make six figures. There are some areas in

00:11:51.660 the country where they're hiring plumbers right out of their tech school at, at 90,000 a year in,

00:11:59.140 in places like Atlanta. So, you know, if this continues, you're going to have blue collar

00:12:05.580 workers making as much or more than family doctors, because that's what we're seeing now.

00:12:11.040 That's amazing. Okay. So you're this contrarian guy, you're telling people to go, you know, zig

00:12:15.740 instead of zag. And you make these points, go, go back to college. You know, we've been told this

00:12:20.020 idea. You got to go to college. That's what I was told. I went to college, but you make this point

00:12:24.380 that yes, if you get a college degree, you can earn good money, but getting that college degree,

00:12:31.200 I mean, the amount of debt you have to take on to get that, that piece of paper can set you back.

00:12:36.680 And you don't really have that issue as much with a skilled laborer or a blue collar job.

00:12:41.580 Well, first off, you know, just so you know, I've never seen a finished carpenter not have any work

00:12:49.780 to do in a good economy or a bad economy. I mean, they're just that much in demand because,

00:12:56.960 like I said, there's so little people getting into that field. But, you know, if you look at it this

00:13:02.420 way, let's assume that you pay a typical room and board 40 to $50,000 a year to go to school and you

00:13:10.440 do that for four years. I mean, that's about $160,000. Okay. Up to 200 in some cases. Now,

00:13:17.680 now let's say that you're someone who says, I'm going to forgo that and I'm going to get a job

00:13:22.880 working with my hands and I'm going to get one of these jobs that pays me 25, 30, $40 an hour.

00:13:29.340 Now I'm making 50,000 a year while I'm learning this skill. That's 200,000 over four years. Now you

00:13:37.040 have a net asset change of negative 200,000 to positive 200,000 or a $400,000 swing. People really

00:13:45.300 need to consider that when they think about, you know, putting assets together and starting

00:13:49.660 their life down the road to what they want to build for themselves.

00:13:53.320 It's okay. That's something to think about. And so that you do this really great sort of cost

00:13:57.220 benefit analysis between college and going into a skilled trade where you take into account, okay,

00:14:04.100 how much debt you're going to have to get. And then also, are you able to even be able to get a job

00:14:08.240 in your degree after you graduate from college that will pay you enough where you can,

00:14:11.880 you know, not only pay off your college debt, but put a little aside for a home and the car and

00:14:16.820 those nice things that we all work for. Well, you know, if you look at the current situation,

00:14:22.300 the way it is right now, let's take the opposite effect. If there is a huge demand for blue collar

00:14:28.840 workers and low supply, then that might be because everyone is being funneled through college.

00:14:35.040 So it only stands to reason that on the opposite side of that scale, there's an oversupply of college

00:14:43.360 graduates with lessening demand. So now these college kids are coming out of school and they're

00:14:50.420 hoping to find these jobs that pay them 70, 80, 90,000 a year. And yet the average last year was

00:14:55.880 just under 50,000 with a four-year degree. And now you're saddled with all that debt.

00:15:01.300 You might be in your mid thirties before you start building wealth. If you have to pay all that

00:15:06.920 off. Right. But then if you add a, if you can be, you know, young man, 22, right out of trade school

00:15:12.380 and saving up for a down payment on a house. Yeah. I mean, you know, a lot of times when,

00:15:18.320 when, you know, some of the people that I coach, one of the things that I'll tell them is,

00:15:22.980 okay, you know, you just were offered a job at, let's say 45,000. I want you to say,

00:15:30.300 thank you for paying me 42,000. And they say, well, what do you mean by that? And my point is,

00:15:36.160 let's take the first 3000 that you're offered. And let's just put that right out right away into a

00:15:41.460 401k or some type of an investment account. Because in 15 minutes, you can build yourself

00:15:47.200 into millionaire status by the time you retire. It goes like this. If I put $60 a week, which is

00:15:53.320 3000 a year, if I put that into a 401k and I put it in a, in like a growth mode type of basket,

00:16:00.000 if you will, I can save that money for 10 years and then stop saving the money on the, on the 11th

00:16:06.340 year. And by the time I retire, I'm going to have over a million dollars in my retirement account.

00:16:10.560 So imagine being 21 years of age and saying, wow, my retirement is handled now. And then,

00:16:18.680 and then starting to do the other things you want, like you said, save for a house,

00:16:22.540 save for a car, whatever that might be. My theory is you don't miss the money that you never had.

00:16:27.380 So you can't spend what you never had. So if you live your life on 42,000 instead of the 45,

00:16:33.220 that first three goes away and your retirement's covered.

00:16:35.960 So not only college is expensive, you got to take out an enormous amount of student loans,

00:16:39.620 but also you got to, you got to take out four years of your life. Let's compare that to like

00:16:43.540 trade school. How much on average would someone pay to go to trade school? And how long does it

00:16:48.220 take to get certified and, you know, becoming a plumber or electrician or whatever?

00:16:51.700 Trade schools are typically a year to three years maximum with most of them 18 months to two years.

00:16:57.460 And they cost about 10 to 12, $13,000 a year, depending on where you're at.

00:17:02.520 Gotcha.

00:17:03.060 So you can see the cost benefit right there, right out of the bat. And again,

00:17:07.300 you can work right away and start earning money, which is, which is really kind of cool.

00:17:13.060 Let's talk about some of the, you talk about some of the social pressures that keep people

00:17:15.900 away from blue collar work. And, you know, one thing that people are told is, well, you know,

00:17:19.200 don't go into the trades because it's just not as meaningful. Um, office work is where I don't,

00:17:24.060 I don't know, office white collar work, you know, becoming an accountant or a doctor or a lawyer,

00:17:27.980 there's more meaning to that. What's your response when people say that there's no,

00:17:32.620 there's no meaning in ditch digging?

00:17:34.800 Well, there's a, first off there, there's two things. When you, when you talk about ditch

00:17:39.220 digging, you're talking about drying up a wet, damp, smelly basement. Okay. That causes mold

00:17:45.440 and mildew and all types of airborne allergens to float throughout the house. So I can show you

00:17:51.180 letter upon letter upon letter where our customers over the years have written us and said,

00:17:55.800 my son suffered from asthma. He had to take all these pills. He had to be on a, on a inhaler at

00:18:02.820 night. And now he no longer has to do that. You know, my, my grandmother had all kinds of arthritis.

00:18:08.480 Now that the dampness is gone, she can move around the house and doesn't have any breathing problems.

00:18:13.200 So there, there is, there is a silver lining in every type of work that you do. What I like to

00:18:19.860 call it is that step back moment. If you're someone who is, let's say building that outdoor

00:18:25.740 kitchen, for example, you know, you're putting the stones up, you're doing your thing, you're

00:18:29.380 making this thing beautiful. You're creating this work of art and you get to step back at the end

00:18:33.640 of the day and lean on your shovel and maybe sip on your pop or whatever and say, I did that. I

00:18:39.120 built that. That will stand the test of time. It's a beautiful thing to see. And, and again, it's,

00:18:44.400 it's, it's my creation. So there is, there's a heck of a lot of meaning inside of blue collar work

00:18:50.280 because you get to see the beginning to the end where if you're, if you're in an office job

00:18:54.980 and I'm not saying they're not important or rewarding, but a lot of times you never get

00:18:59.280 to see the beginning. It's all the way to the end of what you're, what you're involved in.

00:19:02.500 We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.

00:19:07.140 And now back to the show. And it sounds like with blue collar work, like every job is going to be

00:19:11.640 different. You have to be creative and be flexible. And because every situation, if you're, say you're

00:19:16.900 being a carpenter or you got to work with what you got and you have, you have to work with a

00:19:21.420 budget. And then that gives you chances to, to be creative and do, do fun stuff and like use your

00:19:27.720 brain in a way that's really satisfying. Well, you know, in the book, I talk a lot about comfort,

00:19:33.480 peace, and freedom. And those are three words that I think everyone should aspire to when it comes to

00:19:39.900 what they want their life to look like. And that's, that's really a lot of what the book is focused

00:19:44.380 on is how can you think better? How can you plan your life in a really concrete, mechanical,

00:19:50.620 absolute guaranteed way? Not just, you know, some theory or some, you know, maybe or someday,

00:19:57.260 but an actual today plan. Because the more you're able to plan your life, the more you're able to say

00:20:03.300 to yourself, you know, maybe it doesn't matter so much how fancy what I do for a living is.

00:20:09.080 What's more important is what I do with what I do for a living. How do I create my own base? How do

00:20:15.680 I create my own future, my own wealth going forward? And I think that's a really important

00:20:19.760 thing that people need to think about. Yeah. That's a big thing throughout your book is that

00:20:23.420 you want people to actually figure out what they want and enjoy in life or what they want to,

00:20:28.160 because you spend most of your life working. So if you're going to do that, you want to might as well

00:20:32.100 spend most of your time doing something you actually enjoy and not doing something you think you

00:20:36.240 should be doing because your parents or friends or what society kind of pressures you saying that

00:20:42.420 you should do that. You know, it's really easy for everyone to look at the television or watch a

00:20:48.340 music video and think, wow, you know, my life would be perfect if I had a mega yacht and six cars and a

00:20:53.380 mansion and all those other kinds of things. But I got to tell you, I do know some successful people

00:20:57.760 who are miserable, okay, because they don't have control over their lives. And that's why I think it's

00:21:02.740 very important. I talk about it in the book specifically to get what you think would make

00:21:08.920 your best life down in front of you on a piece of paper, draw it out, be very crystal clear,

00:21:16.240 you know, work on it for a couple of weeks, just like you'd work on a puzzle at your kitchen table

00:21:20.700 and really put that thing together and then keep it in front of you because only 1% of the people

00:21:27.520 that when we talk about goals are willing to write it down and keep it in front of them.

00:21:33.200 The interesting thing is that same 1% earns eight times more money to nine times more money than the

00:21:39.760 people that don't have goals. So it's such an easy thing to do. I'm shocked that they don't teach this

00:21:46.240 in high school. And, you know, it's in just a few short days, you could be well on your way

00:21:52.640 to the path that you think would go, wow, that would be one of my best lived lives.

00:21:58.120 So you obviously are a great example of how a blue collar job can lead to a meaningful,

00:22:04.460 well-paying work. And what's interesting too, a lot of people think that if they go in a blue

00:22:07.700 collar work, that they're just going to be working with their hands and there's no,

00:22:11.400 you don't have any higher level thinking, but okay, as we said, skilled labor requires higher level

00:22:16.560 thinking, requires to be creative and think outside of the box. But then also in the process,

00:22:20.800 you've got to learn about developing a business like on the fly, instead of having to go to,

00:22:24.880 you know, get your MBA, you just, you learned how to do this stuff on your own because you had to

00:22:29.700 learn it to grow and keep your business going. Well, you know, I've always said, if you do great

00:22:35.420 work and, and like I said, you're on time and, and, and you have a great reputation, the money will

00:22:40.160 take care of itself. But what's great about living in, in these days, these economic times, the way we

00:22:47.320 have them and with the technology, you can run a whole business from your cell phone and your pickup

00:22:52.760 truck. I mean, it's, it's insane how easy it is. You can do payroll, you can do accounts receivable,

00:22:58.440 accounts payable, you can order your inventory, you can do all of these things sitting behind your

00:23:03.060 steering wheel. And that's, that was a barrier to entry for a lot of people in, in, in, you know,

00:23:08.280 recent days, because I got to have an accountant, I got to have a, you know, a payroll clerk. And

00:23:14.400 I mean, I have to have all these people to do all this stuff. Well, you know, that stuff is kind of

00:23:19.800 gone now. So it has never been easier to open your own company. I encourage anyone who, who has a

00:23:27.740 passion for doing something with their hands to go out there and try it, you know, shadow somebody,

00:23:32.620 learn from somebody, you know, get that 4,000 hour thing down where you master it. Like they,

00:23:37.860 they talk about in the book, the outliers, and then go out and try your own thing. I mean,

00:23:42.840 it's never been a better time to do so. Well, in the book, you, you highlight people you've worked

00:23:47.340 with throughout your career who have started blue collar careers, a lot of great stories. Is there

00:23:53.580 one in particular you could share with us that you thought was really impactful? Yeah, I have a

00:23:59.080 gentleman, his name is Mark, and he went through some really traumatic times with his, his parents

00:24:06.060 passed away in, in a horrific crime early on when he was only 17. And he kind of drifted around

00:24:13.100 wondering what to do. And he went to work for a box company where they would pack things up and ship

00:24:20.320 them out. And he knew he had to go to school, but he really didn't know how to do that. And he

00:24:26.200 decided he wanted to be a lawyer because he had dealt with the lawyers from his parents' wills and

00:24:31.100 whatnot. And so he just went to a law school in town and said, you know, I want to sign up.

00:24:37.820 And they said, well, okay, where did you do your undergrad? And he goes, undergrad, he goes, I went

00:24:43.540 to high school out in, in, in Oak Harbor. And he says, uh, well, no, where did you go to college? He

00:24:48.620 goes, well, this is college. I'm here to sign up for law school. So he didn't even realize that he

00:24:53.120 needed to have a degree before he went to law school. Since then he, uh, he went back to the box

00:24:59.060 company and he just kept looking at around and figuring out ways to do things better, quicker,

00:25:03.540 faster, and what have you. And he kept rising up within the company. Well, at some point he was

00:25:10.320 controlling with his own company, more than 300 trucks a day, ships, airplanes, trains, shipping

00:25:17.540 things all over the world. He had a very successful career and, um, it was all because, you know, he

00:25:24.480 decided to figure out how to build a better box. And didn't he, he sold the business and kind of

00:25:29.660 enjoyed retirement for a bit. And then he got back into the game again. Well, first off, thank you for

00:25:35.160 reading the book. Cause that's exactly right. He's the, he's the epitome of the American dream

00:25:39.840 because not only did he sell the business, you know, he went out and wrote his Harley for a while.

00:25:44.160 And then he drove his boat around and he went fishing and snow skiing and did all of those things.

00:25:48.260 And then he said, you know what? I'm still in the game. So he went out and started another

00:25:52.960 company and that company is as big or bigger than his original one. So he's, um, he's quite

00:25:58.560 the guy, but there, there again, this is the point that I want to make to everybody. You

00:26:03.440 know, the difference between an entrepreneur and, and anyone who might be listening out

00:26:08.300 there right now is just your ability to see what you want your future to look like. It's

00:26:12.960 real simple. It's not complicated. And, and, and once you get that vision clear in your

00:26:19.080 mind, all the characteristics that entrepreneurs have persistence, resilience, you know, integrity,

00:26:25.960 all those characteristics that we talk about in the book, they show up in almost every

00:26:31.240 human being. I mean, it's like they're in your closet behind your shoes that you haven't

00:26:35.460 worn in a while and you just got to get them out. This is a very important point because

00:26:40.480 once you see what you want your life to look like, it's pretty much get out of my way. I'm

00:26:44.980 going after it. So you mentioned earlier, some ideas for people, if they want to get

00:26:48.980 into blue collar work, you know, shadow somebody, if you see something you're interested in, do

00:26:52.300 it, uh, go to a trade school. And this seems like if you're like a young man, just starting

00:26:56.500 out pretty easy. Cause you don't have any, you don't have a lot of responsibility. A lot

00:27:00.720 of people not depending on, you might not have a lot of bills, but let's say you're an

00:27:03.560 older guy. You're been in a career 10, 15, 20 years. You're not happy with it. You're

00:27:09.100 just miserable. And you've, you're, you often find yourself wistfully thinking, man, if

00:27:13.080 I can just go dig ditches, that would be it. Like, have you worked with people who've made

00:27:18.880 a career change from say like a white collar profession to a blue collar profession? And

00:27:23.700 if so, like, what, what do they do to make that transition successful?

00:27:27.760 You know, here's another case where technology makes that easier than it's ever been. There

00:27:32.660 are a group of woodworkers in the United States. They call themselves part of a woodpreneur

00:27:37.300 group, like entrepreneurs with wood. And in most cases, in a lot of cases, you'll see,

00:27:42.460 that they had jobs and the wood part was like their hobby on the weekends. So they kept at

00:27:49.700 it and they did their craft and they enjoyed doing what they were doing. And in a lot of

00:27:55.000 cases, they would build this beautiful furniture. And then they simply went on the internet and

00:27:59.120 they got an Instagram page or whatever, Facebook page or whatever they do. And they started putting

00:28:04.200 their products on that on the net. And it became what is now popularly called a side hustle.

00:28:12.440 And so they slowly converted themselves from their day job, their office job to this business. And

00:28:20.300 just about anybody can do that in any kind of product. You know, I knew a gal who was a full time 1.00

00:28:25.800 waitress and she's in the book as well. And she always would wait on this gentleman who wanted to

00:28:33.240 bake bread and she would sell his bread on the weekends at golf courses and home improvement shows

00:28:41.200 and anywhere people would gather. And pretty soon she sold enough bread to where she got a little

00:28:47.240 space and started baking her own bread. And then he retired. And then now she has this huge bakery,

00:28:53.620 which is just down the street from my house. And she's delivering two to three thousand loaves of

00:28:59.820 bread a week. I mean, it's crazy how, you know, something that you can start on the side can really

00:29:06.040 turn into something. And the reason I say it happens is because if it's driving you that, if you see it,

00:29:13.040 the laws of attraction will take you there. That's what your brain does. And it's just awesome to see

00:29:17.960 how that works. Yeah. I love about all the stories that you highlight in the book is how it just,

00:29:21.920 it didn't happen. It wasn't like, it didn't happen overnight. It just sort of happened.

00:29:25.640 They just took one step. They did the next best thing basically. And it eventually got them to

00:29:30.540 where they were. Like you talk about the guy who started off, like now he designs golf courses around

00:29:36.040 the world. But that way that started was like, he just answered a, like a landscaping job thing.

00:29:42.640 And it sort of snowballed into him becoming a golf course designer.

00:29:46.840 Art Hills is one of the most famous golf course designers in the world. I know him very well.

00:29:52.780 I've played golf with him. He actually belongs to the same club that we do. He's a legend in golf

00:29:57.800 course design. And the funny thing about his story is he, he, he was a landscaper and he was hanging

00:30:04.020 around doing landscaping and, and, and making a good living. He was doing really well again, good work,

00:30:10.260 quality work on time, you know, honest and ethical and all that. And at, at one point he decided,

00:30:17.640 you know what? I don't want to snow plow in the winter time. I don't want to go invest the money

00:30:21.820 in plows. They always break down. You have to work at night. I just don't want to do that. So he, he,

00:30:28.520 he talked to his, his workers and he said, what should we do in the winter time? And they got the idea

00:30:35.820 that they wanted to design golf courses. So he literally put a $17 ad in the newspaper that said

00:30:42.980 golf course designer for hire. And he got his very first job. And now I think he's up to nearly 300

00:30:50.080 golf courses, you know, a large portion of the, well, I shouldn't say a large, but probably 40 or

00:30:55.020 50 of them I've played on. And it's just the most amazing story. And it was so much fun to write this

00:31:01.780 book because the more I interviewed people, the more I got these just awesome stories.

00:31:06.140 And, you know, I could have put 50 people in this book and, you know, I had to will it down to where

00:31:10.160 it is, but, uh, it's been a, it's been a great experience to hear some of these, uh, some of

00:31:14.340 these really good stories. That's funny. Like that, the golf course thing, that started off as a side

00:31:18.440 hustle basically. And then it, and then it turned, it morphed into what he does for a living.

00:31:24.380 Yep. That's exactly right. Um, and have you seen that sort of same thing in your career? So you

00:31:28.300 start off digging ditches, trying to, you know, fix people with these swampy basements.

00:31:31.780 But you said since then you've added on to what you do in your business. Like, how did you figure

00:31:37.160 out like where there was opportunity that was sort of like, cause you couldn't do go, like you

00:31:41.520 couldn't go off the wall. Like you had to be like the things you did had to be adjacent to what you

00:31:45.600 currently do. So how did you figure that out? Just talking to clients and seeing what they needed?

00:31:50.880 Yeah. You know, I, I had an opportunity to help two other guys start a very small housing

00:31:57.100 development out in Branson, Missouri. And, uh, you know, I, I was looking to invest in some other

00:32:02.060 things. I like building things. I've, I've built two of my own houses. Now I've built three or four

00:32:07.620 office buildings that my company's been in and we're about ready to build another one.

00:32:11.200 And I always like to be around the construction part of that. So when this opportunity came up,

00:32:16.560 I said, well, I'll, I'll help you invest in this. It's only 27 lots. It wasn't a very big

00:32:21.380 development, but it was more of a resort kind of thing on a lake. And I really got into, you know,

00:32:27.880 building these houses and designing the houses and, and, and making them look really cool and

00:32:32.240 landscaping them. Cause I did a lot, a lot of landscaping as a kid as well. So it was fun to do

00:32:37.000 all those things. And, you know, now I'm, I'm blessed. I'm, I'm very fortunate to have been able

00:32:43.200 to be successful. And so now I invest in other type of construction things. We do fire retardant 1.00

00:32:48.980 chemicals now and some other things. And it's just been a really good, like you said, a natural

00:32:54.460 progression to go to that next step and to, uh, to, to open up some of these other companies.

00:32:59.840 So we've talked a lot about the pros of blue collar work. You can make good money. It's cheaper

00:33:04.180 than college. You know, there's a high demand for it. You can, there's a lot of flexibility. You can

00:33:07.940 be your own boss. What's been the hardest part that you found like sort of the trouble spots

00:33:12.060 with your career in, in, in the trades and the blue collar work?

00:33:15.500 Well, I, I think in this, this is what out of necessity, what brought on some of the,

00:33:22.860 the coaching that I do, I think to, to get other people to believe that this is a really

00:33:31.240 honorable path and you know, there, there isn't a stigma to it. You know, I remember being at a party

00:33:37.920 and you know, the moms were all talking about how proud they were of their kids and where they

00:33:42.380 were going to school and their degrees they were going to get. And I remember one of them saying,

00:33:46.740 oh yeah, well, I don't know whether it was her son or somebody else, but he's just going to be a

00:33:51.200 plumber. Okay. Just going to be a plumber. Well, just going to be a plumber means that that guy now

00:33:57.060 has 10 employees, four vans, and he's making an absolute killing. So it's, it's a stigma that is

00:34:03.620 undeserved. And sometimes it's almost a default stigma that is put on this work, which is totally

00:34:10.420 undeserved. Okay. So for me, I had to build a, a culture in my company that was so cool that people

00:34:18.940 wanted to work there. And that's where the coaching came in. I don't have any absolute professional

00:34:24.740 training and coaching. I became almost an unwilling, or I should say involuntary life coach.

00:34:30.580 I love doing it, but talking to these people about the paths that they can take and how much

00:34:37.260 control they can have over their own lives and their own financial futures is, is really something

00:34:41.780 I enjoy doing. But it, you know, it's, it's hard to convince people to come that way sometimes.

00:34:45.740 Right. There's another example of your natural, just sort of the iteration of your career.

00:34:49.560 You went from digging ditches to now you're, you're coaching people to help them dig ditches.

00:34:55.460 That's true. Well, Ken, this has been a great conversation. Where can people go to learn more

00:34:59.520 about the book and your work? You know, it's, it's great that you asked that question. I,

00:35:04.640 I have a Facebook page called Ken Rusk official, where we talk a lot about the content of what

00:35:09.080 we're doing with, with celebrating the blue collar worker, but the most and best feedback I've gotten

00:35:14.620 for the book so far, which is amazing is if you're a business owner and you want to build a team of

00:35:19.960 really awesome entrepreneurial employees who are loyal and stick around, that's a good place.

00:35:26.000 Buy the book and then give it to them. If you're a parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle,

00:35:31.120 and you have somebody that you want to kind of mentor, you should give them this book and read

00:35:36.940 it yourself and give it to them and then share. I've had a lot of that going on, which has been

00:35:40.700 great feedback. Or if you just feel like you're in your mid, like you said, in your midlife and

00:35:45.160 you're kind of stuck and you're not hitting your goals, this should be a great book for you to have.

00:35:48.820 And you can get it at bluecollarcash.com, but you can also get it at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles,

00:35:55.140 Indie Books, and Apple Books, anywhere that books are sold.

00:35:58.620 Fantastic. Well, Ken Rusk, thanks for your time. It's been a pleasure.

00:36:00.680 I appreciate it. Thanks to you.

00:36:02.320 My guest name is Ken Rusk. He's the author of the book, Blue Collar Cash. It's available on

00:36:05.700 amazon.com and bookstores everywhere. You can find out more information about his work at his website,

00:36:09.780 kenrusk.com. Also check out our show notes at aom.is slash bluecollarcash,

00:36:13.960 where you can find links to resources, where you can delve deeper into this topic.

00:36:18.820 Well, that wraps up another edition of the AOM Podcast. Check out our website at

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00:36:57.920 listen to the AOM Podcast, but put what you've heard into action.

The Art of Manliness - September 09, 2020

#642： Finding Money and Meaning in the Blue Collar Trades

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