Ask Caleffi
Welcome to the Ask Caleffi podcast series, now featuring our powerhouse tech team! Join Cody, Ryan, Matt, and Dan as they dive into the tricky heating and plumbing challenges they tackle every day.
These field experts share real-world insights to help contractors navigate even the toughest jobs with ease. Count on the team to keep things lively, mixing professional wisdom with the entertaining, relatable stories you’ve come to love.
Ask Caleffi
#1.10 A Job vs. A Career: Which Approach Are You Taking to the Trades?
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Ever feel like you’re just punching a clock while the industry evolves without you? In this episode, we ditch the product specs to discuss the mindset required to build a meaningful, lifelong career in the plumbing and hydronics trades.
Success in the field is about more than just turning a wrench; it’s about humility, constant curiosity, and knowing when to ask for help. We explore how to balance technical mastery with mental well-being to ensure you stay as sharp as your tools.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Craft vs. Job: How shifting your perspective from "clocking in" to "mastering a craft" changes your career trajectory.
- The Eternal Student: Leveraging webinars, certifications, and manufacturer resources to stay ahead of the curve.
- Checking the Ego: Why asking questions early and staying teachable is the fastest way to gain respect.
- Full-Circle Techs: Why understanding the "rough-in" makes you a powerhouse at service and troubleshooting.
- Code & Compliance: Navigating the standards and approvals that keep your installs professional and legal.
- Beyond the Tool Belt: The importance of protecting your mental health and building a support system for when life gets heavy.
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Welcome From The Lab
Speaker 2Welcome to the Ask Caleffi podcast coming at you live from the lab.
Speaker 3Guys, what do we got going on? Plumbing, hydronics, expert insights, and a few stories from the trenches. Whether you're on the job or just along for the ride, we've got you covered.
Speaker 2Hey there. Welcome back to the final episode of the season of the Ask Caleffi podcast. I'm here with these guys in the lab. Uh, gonna talk professional and personal growth. Something different, right? Right. Way different. Yeah. Not PRVs. Not PRVs, hydro separators. Products. No, I think zone boards.
Speaker 4We're not gonna talk about an air vent. We're not gonna talk about an air vent.
Speaker 2Well, you just mentioned it. So we'll have to talk about it. Yeah, I guess we will. But uh yeah, final episode of the season, everybody. Okay,
Growth Mindset In The Trades
Speaker 2enough of that. Um we all had to go through some sort of growth to get here, right? I mean, right, we all started in the field digging, digging holes, pounding sheet metal, sweating pipes, any any of the worst possible part of the job, we've we've done it. Um but what got us here? Continuing education, right? We usually attended every kind of training possible. We've maybe not every kind of training possible, right?
Speaker 1A lot of them.
Speaker 2A lot of them. But I think it's it's good to approach the trades with a really open mind and uh really the ability to um stay focused on growing there. Yeah.
Speaker 4I think there I think there's a couple ways you can approach it, and I think we've all seen the different approaches from friends and coworkers and people other people we know in the trades. I mean, you can you can approach the trade as just a job where you're gonna come in and do the same thing and um not really look to grow, but you know, you you're working in the trade, um, or you can take it and approach it from the standpoint of I want to learn as much as I can and I want to learn everything about this trade and and and own it and and grow as far as I can in that.
Speaker 3Right. And I think a big thing too is don't be afraid to ask questions, don't be embarrassed if you don't know what it is. Right. Um I mean, that's the what the whole podcast, ask Khalafi. I mean, we're here to answer questions. Yeah. And um, if you need advice on piping, don't be afraid to ask. Yeah, humble yourself and ask a question. Right. It's it's not a bad thing.
Speaker 2No, no, and I think all of us grew up, you know, our parents were boomers, right? So you don't ask, you just figure it out. You're gonna sit there and you're gonna figure it out. All right.
Speaker 1I think we probably all worked with that grumpy old. We certainly did. We worked with the boomer man. Oh, yeah. Boomer journeyman that's got his ways, and that's how it is. And but the these fields are constantly evolving, literally, every day. Something, some new technology is coming in, something's out, something's not approved anymore, something is newly approved, you know. And and the more the more classes, the more education you get on on your field, the more on top of it you are.
Speaker 4And there's different aspects of it. There's new construction, there's the retrofit replacement market, there's the service division. Um try to learn engineering if you want to go all the way up through it. Um learn everything about your trade so that and grow within it, I guess.
Speaker 2Yeah, I you hit the nail on the head. I mean, service is a very big important part, but I think if you're gonna be a service technician, you should learn how to install. Right. Yeah, you should be out there and know how things should properly be installed. So therefore, you know what the problems could be when you're up against them in the service side of the trade.
Speaker 3Right, because the install just could have been bad from the beginning, and that's why it's not working.
Speaker 1Yeah, exactly. Yeah, to that end. I uh I'm of the opinion, uh, and certain bigger shops that don't operate like this, but I've always been of the opinion you rough it, you finish it. Yeah, that's that's how you're gonna learn if something got screwed up along the way, how and where and why, and how not to do that next time.
Speaker 2Right. I agree with that. Um a job start to finish, and then you know, then you can put your stamp of approval on it or disapproval on it. Hey, I'm not gonna do that next time. Um, I won't bury that in the wall like uh you know, like I don't care because two years from now I might have to come back and be the service tech on this job.
Speaker 1Exactly.
Speaker 2So it it's it's important. So when you're installing, think of think of the install as hey, I might have to come back to service this way.
Speaker 1Look at the next guy, or or if you install under the assumption that you are the one coming back to service it and you make it that much easier on yourself, you're a friend of mine. I love that. I like you. You're all right.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Training That Actually Levels You Up
Speaker 2Um, but what are some of the classes that you guys have taken um that have been pretty memorable that you can recall recently?
Speaker 1Um, I just recently, um, in the last year got my cross-connection control tester certification. Whoa. So I've yeah, approved for testing backflow preventers and and stuff like that. Um, other than that, I mean, there's always you know PHC C seminars, ASPI, ASSC. Um, I was at the ASSE mid-year meeting uh a couple of months ago. That was pretty dry.
SpeakerThat's that's the You gotta take the good with the bad.
Speaker 1That was the the real like litigious side of it, which is absolutely necessary to get you know codes and and products um you know standardized and and those standards written. But um yeah, I I just about any class that that comes up that I have an opportunity to attend, I'm I'm looking at attending. That's that's good.
Speaker 2I mean, and it's gonna only help you learn more as you go forward what certain products apply and what don't, and what we as a company, a manufacturer, have to do to bring that product into compliance.
Speaker 1Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2Or you know, now you know what the job, how the job has to be laid out and set up to meet those compliances.
Speaker 1You know, starting working out in the field, you kind of take for granted hey, this is approved. This is an approved material, this is an approved product. Being on this side of it now and seeing what it actually takes and what kind of hoops have to be jumped through in order to get a product approved and over that finish line, it's it's uh it's really kind of mind-blowing when it all goes into that. But uh it's it's definitely interesting.
Speaker 2Yeah. Yeah, I would say it it can be monotonous at times, but you kinda endure a little bit of that uh to gain the knowledge that you need to give you know 100% honest and full um disclosure answers, right? When someone calls here and says, hey, does it meet this standard? We can wholeheartedly say, Yeah, we know what that standard is, we know what it's asking for, and yes, this will apply. Yep, exactly. Fair enough. How about you over there? Quiet, quiet Ryan over here. He's going mad. I haven't gone to school since I've been out of school.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's been like 25 years. No, uh, it would be uh like Matt said, uh Aspie has classes coming up, and you know, uh even when I was more in the field, it was just uh, you know, wholesale houses. A lot of the guys, they got a lot of information, a lot of good classes, stuff like that, and yeah, one-day seminars or something like that, and um piping, proper piping, uh boiler maintenance, uh I mean, really anything under the sun. Um and it it's always good to go, it's always good to get the information. And like I said before, uh there's times where I had questions, and afterwards go up and the ask, and they have more information for you, or they'll you know, hey, take a look at this or come to the next one. Um, so uh it's there's information's out there, and if you want to learn, you can. You can.
Speaker 2Yeah, just put forth the good attitude for doing so. Right. Yeah.
Free Manufacturer Education Resources
Speaker 2What about you, Dan?
Speaker 4Yeah. Well, but to explain to expand on what we're talking about, I think also considering the manufacturers as well. So you talk about you know being an apprentice or even at the journeyman level, working in the trades and working on the job site every day, and maybe you don't have time to go to a class at the distributor or down to one of the local organizations. You know, a lot of the manufacturers, like you know, Caleffiy, I mean, uh two dar horn, but we pride ourselves on excellence in education. You know, we have our hydronics and our coffee with Caleffii available. So I mean, you can you can sit at night and watch an hour coffee with Caleffiy on our YouTube, and you can do that. I mean, I think we have like 200 hours recorded on our YouTube channel. I mean, that's all free educational that are available to you.
Speaker 3And that's like our hydronics too. I mean, those are awesome to look at, and just the diagrams and how everything is laid out, and there's a bunch of information on one of those.
Speaker 2But you like the colors and the drawings most.
Speaker 3Well, I do like pictures.
Speaker 2Yeah. Yeah, pictures are good. We're visual learners, right? Oh, definitely, definitely. Um, I've had the honor and privilege to be an education trainer here. So I've been able to, you know, we've all been down this road where we we did the classes at the supply houses. We're we're attending the the Aspie meetings and and finding webinars, and there's a lot of good text out there, and um obviously we make some of the best uh when it comes to hydronics and plumbing. Uh those those hydronics will beat on that that horse a little bit too until it's dead. And at any any given topic, hydronic or plumbing related, we can find some sort of a piping diagram in those to be able to bring to somebody and go, I can tell you about it all I want on the phone. Pictures are worth a thousand words, words aren't worth a whole lot unless you can see what's going on. Right. So drawing it out, that's really, really helpful.
Speaker 1Yeah, there's some really complex issues that have been tackled in our hydronics in series.
Speaker 3And you can access all our hydronics online under education. We have all, I think we're what 37, 36, 37 of hydronics. 35, I believe. Right. I'm a little a little ahead.
Speaker 2Uh well, you know about the top secret ones that are up and down. Yeah. You're not supposed to talk about those. So we don't talk about Bruno.
Ego Mental Health And Asking For Help
Speaker 2Um yeah.
Speaker 4So I I think I think the biggest thing for personal growth is to keep your mind open. Right. You know, always look, you know, every day to learn something, and what an opportunity you have to learn something and grow in your field. Um, I think where you hit a roadblock is, and I I won't name names, but I had a had had a juryman I was working with one time when I was young, and he he kept telling me how he knew everything, and he's already learned everything, and I'm thinking, okay, all right. You've never learned that. The one thing I've learned is I've never learned everything.
Speaker 2And honestly, that's the cool part about the trade is right, there's always some kind of new technology coming out. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, you'll never know at all. No, you won't. No, you won't at all. He swore he did. I'm not kidding. In his mind, he did. He did.
Speaker 4Yeah, he's the smartest guy he knew.
Speaker 3Ouch.
Speaker 2Yeah. Ego. Um, that's all right. That that's that's a big thing too, you know. And here I I can get a little philosophical on you, but uh ego is kind of the killer of a lot of lot of things good in us as humans, right? If you have an ego that you know everything, you're already done learning. You're you're checked out, you know, I'm gonna do it this way. This is all I've always done it. There's there's some good books to read on that too, if you want. Ryan Holiday does a really good series of books on it. You want to pick them up sometime. But Ego is the Anime is a great book. Yes, it is. Um, but you know, if you're struggling with something, there's always either someone to talk to, or there's whether it's something personal in life, we all go through it, and it'll affect your job big time. Yeah. Um as of recently, we know it's affected my job some. And uh I'm working through some things, but it it's it's hopefully on the men and getting better. Um but don't hesitate to uh reach out for help, you know, whether it's on the tech line or you gotta you gotta hire someone to spill your thoughts to. Yeah, it's it's important. Mental health is important, and it also helps you uh continue to to learn. So you need that brain to work.
Speaker 3I mean, even sometimes when I get tech calls and I'm not the plumber, but Matt's the plumber. Uh-huh. And I'll be like, hey Matt, what what's going on here with this plumbing stuff? You know, but we figure it out. You gotta always ask questions. Yeah, always do. Yep.
Speaker 4Yep, you're never done learning, and it's always opportunity to grow.
Speaker 2Right, exactly. Yeah, so if nothing else, uh this final episode hopefully is uh inspirational to you folks out there that might be struggling. Um, if you are struggling with anything, Caleffii, we're here to help. Uh if you didn't know, Ryan loves to talk. I do, I do. You know, and uh, you know, we we try to be uh a pretty firm shoulder to cry on, but yeah, you know, Ryan's shoulders are pretty big. I can take it. Yeah. Uh Matt's Matt's not doing too bad himself either, and dance here.
Speaker 4Um here. Yeah, Dan's here. Dan's here.
Farewell Thanks And How To Reach Us
Speaker 4I'm just dance here.
Speaker 2Dan's here. Hanging out. Uh, but this is gonna be my final episode with the Ask Caleffii podcast. Big uh big announcement, I guess. Uh, but uh thanks everybody for tuning in over the the years that we've put this out. Um, thank you guys for being awesome co-workers and and friends. And uh everybody that I've talked to over the years, uh appreciate you a ton. So on that note, thank you.
Speaker 3Thank you. That will say well, that's a wrap for this episode. Got questions or stories to share? We'd love to hear from you. Reach out and let's keep this conversation going. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen.
Speaker 2Until next time, stay curious and keep your systems running smooth over.