As a business owner, you know your path to success is never linear. You’ve had to (and will have to) overcome struggles with recruiting, hiring, and likely every other area of business. But don’t let that stop you from taking on new challenges, like pivoting your recruitment strategy.

In this episode of The Blue Collar Podcast, Joshua and Warren share real client success stories that highlight the trials and tribulations they’ve helped business owners overcome during recruitment and the triumphs they’ve seen as a result.

These stories will not only motivate you to keep pushing through the challenging aspects of recruitment and hiring, but they’ll drive you to pivot, adapt, and achieve success when the path to success isn’t straightforward.

In this episode, we discuss:

- The biggest recruitment challenges they’ve overcome with their clients

- Why you need strong self-awareness and communication as a recruiter

- How to simplify your recruitment process when you have too many candidates and not enough hires

- Personal growth insights Joshua and Warren have learned from their clients’ wins

Don’t leave any stone unturned and don’t leave any opportunity on the table.

Special thanks to our sponsor Yellowstone Local for making this show possible!

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Blue Collar in your favorite podcast player.

This episode was produced and brought to you by Reignite Media.

Many business owners don’t realize how much goes into building a high-performing team. We get it… the amount of work recruitment takes can be frustrating and sometimes all-consuming… but it doesn’t always have to be that way!

In this episode of The Blue Collar Podcast, Joshua and Warren share their biggest frustrations with recruitment, plus practical advice that will help you approach recruitment and hiring with a new perspective.

These takeaways will enable you to shift your mindset around recruitment, convert more candidates into employees, and see how great your company culture really is (or isn’t).

In this episode, we discuss:

- Warren & Joshua’s biggest frustrations with recruitment as business owners

- Why you’re not converting job candidates into employees

- How recruiting is like marketing

- Why recruitment is a full-time, full-team commitment

- Tips and advice on recruiting and hiring for your company

- A new way to approach recruitment

- How to know you have a great company culture

Remember, recruitment is an ongoing endeavor and every endeavor needs a team behind it. Don’t go it alone and always focus on the bigger picture!

Special thanks to our sponsor Yellowstone Local for making this show possible!

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Blue Collar in your favorite podcast player.

This episode was produced and brought to you by Reignite Media.

Your recruitment is only as good as your employer brand.

That means that if you want to attract and retain the long-lasting talent it takes to build top-performing teams, you need to put in the sweat equity it takes to cultivate brand equity.

Do you know how your employees feel about your company? Are you living your values as an employer or are they platitudes used to decorate your walls? 

Culture can make or break your business — and culture begins and ends with brand. 

In this episode, Josh and Warren discuss the keys to building the kind of employer brand it takes to consistently build top-performing teams and never worry about talent again.

They cover:

- Why employer brand is the foundation of culture.

- How to craft a brand that resonates with employees and potential hires alike.

- The questions you need to ask yourself about your brand equity.

- Understanding the drastic changes necessary to perfect your employer brand. 

- How to measure employee engagement.

- The importance of storytelling in building a brand. 

Special thanks to our sponsor Yellowstone Local for making this show possible!

This episode was produced and brought to you by Reignite Media

“Nobody wants to work.” 

That’s BS.

Recruiting may be one of the biggest challenges in the home service business, but more often than not, it’s mindset, not lack of talent, standing between a business and their next great hire. 

Recruitment never stops. If you understand that, you'll cultivate the right practices, leverage the right technologies and build the right dataset to craft a culture founded on sourcing, retaining and developing the best talent available. 

In this episode, Josh and Warren teach you how to shift your mindset to make your recruitment a key marketing asset in your service business.

They discuss:

- The biggest challenges in recruitment. 

- Why your marketing and recruitment are one and the same.

- The importance of branding and how it impacts your recruitment.

- The effects of the pandemic on recruitment.

- How to leverage technology to make hiring a breeze.

- How to properly allocate resources for recruitment.

Special thanks to our sponsor Yellowstone Local for making this show possible!
This episode was produced and brought to you by Reignite Media.

Are you ready to learn from a business that describes its brand as the “Andy Griffiths” of plumbing? 

In the second episode of The Blue Collar Podcast, our hosts Joshua Lewis and Warren Lentz sit down with James Wisler, President of Wisler Plumbing and Air to discuss all things branding and how to keep true to your company roots, heritage, and soul as you scale your business.

There’s no better guest to delve into the topic than James, a second-generation business owner who took over his family business from his dad, and is now running the thriving HVAC plumbing business together with his brother in Virginia. The company has grown to over 90 employees and 20x in size in the past decade. Along that ride, keeping your brand intact both internally and externally is no simple feat. 

If you ask James, you have to look into the core of your company's DNA to find what matters and resonates with people. And sometimes, it’s the simplest things. For example, James wanted to cultivate that distinct family business feel amongst his team, so he decided to serve breakfast to everyone at the office to honor how his mom would cook breakfast for him and his friends back in the day. While it may sound trivial, gestures like these become an essential part of the company mythology.

Being authentic and relatable are the core tenets of an approachable, family-owned brand. If we learned one thing in this episode, it’s that we should never be afraid of getting real with your marketing messaging. What’s more, you need internal champions to protect and propel your brand out in the market, and internally, too. Hint: usually, they’re your tried and trusted senior team members.

If you’re ready to learn the ropes of branding a small business (both internally and externally), tune in to this episode of The Blue Collar Podcast.

In this episode, we discuss:

The role of branding in the success of a company and the concept of being mentally available.

Reflecting your brand ethos internally and externally.

How to protect your brand by harnessing internal champions and reinforcing the right messaging.

The importance of employer branding and how to tie it into community and purpose.

How to keep refining your employer brand with input from your team and actually follow up and take action.

Notes on hiring and why you shouldn’t sell out to skill over culture and character.

In future episodes, we’ll be discussing:

Recruiting & Retaining Talent: What goes into effective talent acquisition and retention for skilled trades businesses?

Company Culture: How to create a business that everyone wants to work for.

Marketing to Job Candidates: What does it mean to market yourself as an employer?

Candidates Interviewing Employers: Is this a good trend or should we mitigate it?

...And much more, so stay tuned!

Special thanks to our sponsor Yellowstone Local for making this show possible!

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Blue Collar in your favorite podcast player.

This episode was produced and brought to you by Reignite Media (Follow them @reignite.media).

Great recruiting doesn’t start with a nice-sounding job posting. Recruiting starts with understanding and building on your mission, values, company culture, and branding.

In this debut episode of The Blue Collar Podcast, producer Rita Richa interviews your hosts, Joshua Lewis and Warren Lentz, about their philosophy and best practices for recruiting and retaining employees in the trades.

Successfully hiring and retaining employees in HVAC and other technical trades has never been as challenging as it is today. Do you agree? Plus, with more candidates empowered to interview their potential employers, it’s crucial that you’re prepared to confidently market your company as a company they want to work for.

That’s why Josh and Warren are inspired to teach business owners like you the ins and outs of recruiting. Their innovative mindsets will solve your recruitment and retention problems and help you build a dream team!

If you’re ready to learn how to turn employees into loyal brand ambassadors, The Blue Collar Podcast is for you. Tune in!

In this episode, we discuss:

- What most business leaders get wrong about recruiting.

- Why company culture is the #1 factor in successful recruiting.

- How to ensure you’re attracting high-quality job candidates that align with your company culture and values.

- Setting Expectations: How do you prioritize candidate skills/qualities in the hiring process?

- Tips for finding your ideal employees (even if they’re already employed somewhere else).

- How to make the hiring process more inclusive, diverse, and equitable.

- Should I have an employee referral program?

In future episodes, we’ll be discussing:

- Recruiting & Retaining Talent: What goes into effective talent acquisition and retention for skilled trades businesses?

- Company Culture: How to create a business that everyone wants to work for.

- Marketing to Job Candidates: What does it mean to market yourself as an employer?

- Candidates Interviewing Employers: Is this a good trend or should we mitigate it?

- & much more, so stay tuned!

Special thanks to our sponsor Yellowstone Local for making this show possible!

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for The Blue Collar in your favorite podcast player.

This episode was produced and brought to you by Reignite Media (Follow them @reignite.media).

Launching soon: The Blue Collar podcast, your premier resource for impactful business growth in the trades.

Prepare to enhance your organization through vivid narratives of tenacity, invaluable insights, and actionable advice.

Explore interviews with successful individuals in the trades, learning from their journeys, victories, and challenges. We emphasize learning rapidly from failures, embracing complete ownership, and pioneering problem-solving strategies.

Particularly, our focus on recruitment tactics could redefine your team-building approach. Additionally, we tackle subjects like strategic planning, team management, revenue augmentation, and more, all tied to trades.

Tune in for a blend of inspiring stories, relatable lessons, and practical tips to help you ascend to the top- and stay there!

This show is sponsored by Yellowstone Local and produced by Reignite Media.